Atlantic Rumors: Moultrie, Humphries, Sixers
Arnett Moultrie hasn’t played for the Sixers all season after left ankle surgery, but he says he’s been ready to go for the past month and is frustrated that the team hasn’t activated him yet, observes Christopher A. Vito of the Delaware County Daily Times.
“It’s not my ankle. It’s not my conditioning,” Moultrie said. “But at this point, I really don’t care. I’m just sick of all the excuses. If it ain’t one thing, it’s another thing.”
Moultrie, the 27th pick in 2012, doesn’t have much leverage to force the Sixers’ hand, but his comments reflect the problems on a team in flux. Here’s more on Philly and the rest of the Atlantic Division:
- The Celtics are open to moving Kris Humphries before the trade deadline if the right offer comes along, according to Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe, who examines a number of Celtics players at a crossroads.
Earlier updates:
- The Sixers, reportedly amping up efforts to trade Evan Turner, would prefer to swap him or Spencer Hawes instead of Thaddeus Young, though Young has drawn significant interest, as Chad Ford of ESPN.com writes in his Insider-only “Tank Rank” piece. Ford doubts the Sixers would be able to trade either Turner or Hawes for a pick between Nos. 10 and 15 in this year’s draft, which he reports they’re trying to obtain.
- Sixers coach Brett Brown was candid with reporters before last night’s loss to the Nets, saying that he recognizes the “monster that’s ahead of us,” in reference to the team’s still-nascent rebuilding project, notes Tom Moore of Calkins Media. Brown also understands trade rumors are par for the course. “It’s been an incredible surprise to have our team intact this late in the year,” he said (Twitter links).
- Andrew Bynum was reluctant to sign with the Knicks last month for more than just financial reasons, according to Marc Berman of the New York Post.
- Shaun Livingston is enjoying a renaissance on a minimum-salary contract with the Nets this season, and he’ll likely command more than that this summer, which will make it difficult for Brooklyn to retain him, writes Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News.
Nets Eyeing Kevin Durant For 2016
The Nets are planning to pursue Kevin Durant when his contract expires after the 2015/16 season, according to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. Brooklyn is set to have plenty of cap room in the summer of 2016, in spite of the team’s record payroll for this season, so it’s no surprise that GM Billy King and company have set their sights on the player most likely to be the top prize on the market that year.
Durant became the first major NBA client of Jay Z and the Roc Nation Sports agency earlier this year. Jay Z is a former minority owner of the Nets, though Durant has maintained that the hip hop icon will have no influence on his choice of teams, Bondy notes.
The three-time NBA scoring leader has dropped “odd hints,” as Marc Stein of ESPN.com put it in October, that he’s anxious to win a championship as the Thunder have shed key pieces in cost-cutting moves. The three-time NBA scoring leader said this past fall that he’s “not thinking that far down the line” with regard to 2016, and that he’s content in Oklahoma City, though he’s not sure what his future holds.
An Eastern Conference executive told Bondy that he believes Durant will leave the Thunder, though the exec acknowledged that it would be difficult for the five-time All-Star to find a better sidekick than Russell Westbrook, whose contract doesn’t expire until the summer of 2017. The Nets could have room enough to sign another marquee free agent to pair with Durant in 2016, since their only commitment for the following season is the final year of Deron Williams‘ deal, worth $22.3MM. Williams has an early termination option he can exercise in the summer of 2016, so there’s a chance his money won’t be on the Nets’ books. Brooklyn also has a team option it can decline on Mason Plumlee‘s rookie scale contract.
Durant appears headed for his first MVP award as he averages a career-high 31.3 points per game, which puts him far out in front in the race for what would be his fourth scoring title. There’s little doubt that teams around the league are considering the chances they could bring him aboard two summers from now, just as Oklahoma City will surely do all it can to retain him.
Atlantic Notes: Rondo, Johnson, Nets
The Raptors have handed the Nets their only two losses in their last 12 games, with last night’s victory coming in exciting fashion off of a Patrick Patterson steal and basket in the final seconds. The Nets and Raptors are neck and neck atop the Atlantic Division, as the Knicks hope to continue inching back towards contention with a win against the Celtics tonight. Here’s some more from around the Atlantic:
- Several general managers would be “surprised” if Rajon Rondo were traded prior to the upcoming trade deadline, according to Ric Bucher of The Bleacher Report. Until he fully returns to form following his ACL surgery, they doubt the Celtics would be able to receive enough value in return.
- After the Celtics signed Chris Johnson to a second 10-day contract today, coach Brad Stevens tells Mark Murphy of The Boston Herald he first noticed Johnson in the preseason, when the small forward scored against the Celtics as a member of the Nets. Stevens says he values Johnson’s efficiency, as he’s scored 10 points per game in four games with the Celtics since signing his first 10-day contract earlier this month.
- Both Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce are feeling and performing better of late, helping the Nets during a recent 10-2 stretch after a miserable start to the season, they tell Tim Bontemps of the New York Post. The pair credit their increased roles on a depleted roster as the reason for the improvement. “The difference in the way we’re playing is we were thinking secondary as we come in,” Garnett said. “Then Brook [Lopez gets hurt], Deron [Williams] has been beat up, and we’ve had to be primaries now. When you’re secondary, which [we were for] the first time in our careers, you take a step back. You’re not as forceful … you don’t want to step on everybody’s toes.
Eastern Notes: Pierce, Lowry, Pistons
It was an emotional Sunday evening in Boston for Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, who returned for the first time as Nets players, but it might have been especially awkward for Pierce, who had spent his entire career in green before this summer’s trade. The move devastated Pierce, writes Jackie MacMullan of ESPNBoston.com, who says the C’s second all-time leading scorer was near tears almost the entire time she interviewed him this past summer. Pierce told MacMullan that he wondered why the Celtics didn’t allow him to finish his career in Boston.
“I loved it here,” Pierce said Sunday. “Never wanted to leave.”
Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:
- The sense around the league is that the Raptors are more likely to keep Kyle Lowry than to trade him, but that could simply be a matter of Toronto’s high price tag for the point guard, which no other team has accepted yet, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links). Lowry will be a free agent at season’s end, and Stein suggests that’s motivation for Raptors GM Masai Ujiri to continue trade talks
- Jose Calderon says the Pistons never made him an offer to re-sign with the team this summer, observes Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free-Press. “They were in contact with me, but I think they were waiting for Josh Smith, so I was just waiting and waiting, and Dallas came with a great offer … I couldn’t say no to that,” Calderon said.
- The Wizards spent their bi-annual exception this summer on Eric Maynor, who’s fallen so far out of the rotation that he isn’t even playing in blowouts, notes J. Michael of CSNWashington. Still, there’s plenty of reason why Maynor and the Wizards won’t soon be parting ways. His guaranteed contract includes a $2.1MM player option for next season, and he probably wouldn’t command as much if he were to become a free agent, Michael points out.
- The Sixers have assigned Lorenzo Brown to the D-League, the team announced. It’ll be the third time the point guard has gone to the Delaware 87ers this season, but his last pair of D-League stints lasted only a single day.
Celtics GM On Trading Garnett, Pierce To Nets
Prior to Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce‘s return today to their joint home of six years in Boston, Baxter Holmes of The Boston Globe sat down with Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge to discuss the NBA’s biggest offseason trade. You can read the entire interview here but below are some of the major takeaways from their discussion.
On how the deal transpired:
“[The trade came] together fairly quickly. What I was excited about was that it appeared at the time to be a great situation for everybody — I think that for Paul and KG and Jason Terry and for us. It looked like it was going to be a good situation for them to be a major contender again and be vying for a championship. Their year hasn’t gone that way, but before the season started, it sure looked like it. I think it was a happy way to make a very difficult decision.”
On his personal thoughts about the deal:
“[Trading away Pierce, Garnett, and Jason Terry is] nothing that anybody wants to do, and is looking forward to doing. But I think that when the opportunity presented itself, it was a deal that I had to do for the franchise.”
On who got the better end of the deal:
Well, what I felt at the time was, I thought it was a really gutsy move by Brooklyn. I admired it. I thought the way KG finished last year, and Paul — both of them looked like they had a lot of basketball left in them, as the season finished last year. And so, I felt that it was a good deal for both teams. Like, I wasn’t able to put Joe Johnson and Deron Williams and Brook Lopez around Paul and KG. I wish I could have. They still would’ve been Celtics. But we weren’t in that position, to become a contender, I don’t think. I didn’t think that Paul and KG could carry us like they had for the five or six years previous. We were a team, I felt, that was destined to mediocrity as opposed to excellence with those guys. And especially with [Rajon] Rondo being out and so forth, it was going to be a long year for us with those two guys at the stage of their careers. It wouldn’t have done them justice. So, I was happy for Brooklyn. They were taking a chance. I thought it was a really good trade. I thought it was good for us and where we were as a franchise. And I thought it was really good for Jet, Paul, and KG and for [new Nets coach] Jason Kidd. I didn’t know if they’d win a championship or not, because I knew Indiana and Miami were going to be very good, and I thought Chicago was going to be very good. But I really thought it was going to be a four-horse race in the East, with those four teams. That’s what it looked like to me when the season started.
On how he judges trades around the league:
Really, all you can go on is the information that you have and the reasons you do it at the time. Sometimes you’re making a trade to get a final piece to put you over the top. And sometimes you’re making trades that are trades along the way that you do that are going to lead to things down the road. We live in the economic climate of the NBA and the new CBA where luxury taxes are more penalizing, salary-cap management is very important. So, I think the trades, you can look at immediately, when they happen, as to why every team did them — and as I look at trades, they almost always make sense for all the teams involved. Every now and then, years down the road, a player becomes a way better player than he was when he was traded and a team looks better in a trade. But you can’t be worried about that. You’ve got to do what you think is best for your franchise at the time, whether it’s making a trade for the advantage of salary, or making a trade to project a younger player into a bigger role that would’ve been difficult had you not made a trade. There’s just a lot of factors that go into trades. But to me, most of the trades I’ve seen, in the NBA, because I respect the people in our business — they make sense. But there’s always some risk, when you’re dealing with people and players. People are capable of being injured. There’s always some risk.
NYC Notes: Carmelo, Bulls, Nets, Teletovic
As the Knicks and Lakers prepare to meet this afternoon much anticipation surrounds Carmelo Anthony‘s response to his 62-point performance Friday night. Having broken Kobe Bryant‘s Madison Square Garden point record, this matchup would have brought much more hype had Bryant been able to defend his recently broken record. Instead, Kobe sits at the end of the bench recovering from a knee injury. Bryant’s visit will not be all for naught as Marc Berman of the New York Post suspects he will spend this trip recruiting Anthony to sign with Los Angeles next summer. Berman can’t imagine Anthony having much interest in the Lakers while head coach Mike D’Antoni is still at the helm considering their differences lost D’Antoni his job in New York but “the Lakers have cap space and the Clippers and the Bulls — at the moment — don’t.”
Time will tell how effective a sales pitch Kobe makes today. In the meantime, some other notes around the Big Apple.
- As we pointed out yesterday, the Bulls are gaining traction as a destination spot for Carmelo this summer and are “much more in play than L.A.”. However, Chicago Tribune reporter K.C. Johnson cautions against those rumors as he believes Anthony in a Bulls jersey is an “extreme long shot”. Johnson points to the fact the Bulls could amnesty Carlos Boozer and still not be anywhere near the cap space needed to give Anthony the maximum contract he will be seeking. According to Johnson, the Bulls would have to also trade away either Taj Gibson or Mike Dunleavy and still hope Anthony will take a discount in order to join a coach and point guard he admires. Johnson does point out that a sign-and-trade involving Boozer and the Knicks could be more likely.
- Speaking of those Anthony-to-Bulls rumors, Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times claims the Bulls aren’t letting those rumors distract them. Head coach Tom Thibodeau told Cowley “[the Bulls have] gotten used to [the media’s rumors].” Cowley adds that he doesn’t believe Anthony heading to the Bulls is impossible but “the Bulls would have to be willing to go back over the luxury-tax threshold they just escaped.” They would also have to amnesty Boozer, as Cowley reiterates.
- Turning our attention five miles south, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban relayed to Dwain Price of the Star-Telgram that he “had no doubts Jason Kidd would eventually get the Brooklyn Nets turned around.” Cuban has maintained his “great relationship” with his former point guard and believes Kidd’s close relationship with Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle “is paying dividends for the Nets right now.” Cuban believes Carlisle to be “one of the two or three best (coaches) in the game at in-game adjustments and play-calling, and I’m sure (Kidd) picked up more than a few pointers when he played for Rick.”
- Observing the Nets after beating Cuban’s Mavericks on Friday to improve to 9-1 of late, Beckley Mason of The New York Times believes the Nets have transformed since the beginning of this season, allowing them to exceed previous limitations. Mason attributes the Nets unique lineups, increase in defensive intensity, and ability for any player on the roster to take over each night as reasons for the sudden change in Brooklyn.
- Evidence of the ability of any Net to take over on a given night, Mirza Teletovic is “making the most of his chance,” as Lenn Robbins of BrooklynNets.com reports, after Teletovic scored a career-high 34 points against the Mavericks. Teletovic credits the Nets’ abundance of shooters as the reason “the guy from Europe [was left] open,” but Deron Williams believes Teletovic is “a competitor… making the most of [the opportunity].”
Odds & Ends: Bledsoe, Cuban, Gortat
Yannis Koutroupis of Basketball Insiders runs down six things you need to know about the Suns, including their enviable cap position. While some might think that Phoenix would have a hard time landing big free agents, Eric Bledsoe is the kind of guy who other elite players will want to play with because he’s a fierce competitor and unselfish. It also helps that Jeff Hornacek is a player’s coach, being a former player himself.
- Can an NBA owner do a sufficient job while living on the other side of the world? No, says Mavs owner Mark Cuban, according to Tim Bontemps of the New York Post. “Absolutely not,” Cuban said. “Hypothetically speaking — and this only applies to individuals 6-foot-5 and under — you can’t,” Cuban said as an obvious shot at 6-foot-7 Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov. “That’s why I sit so close. It’s like trying to run a company and not being able to go to the sales meetings, not being able to go to the customer service meetings or the support meeting.”
- The Hawks announced that they have recalled guard Jared Cunningham from the Bakersfield Jam of the NBA Development League. Cunningham, who was re-assigned to Bakersfield on January 1st, has averaged 15.2 points, 4.2 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 29.8 minutes in 17 games (14 starts) over three stints with the Jam this season. He has appeared in three games with the Hawks this year and will be available tonight at Milwaukee. To keep up with all of this year’s D-League assignments and recalls, check out our running list.
- Wizards big man Marcin Gortat says he looks back on his time with the Suns fondly, writes Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. Gortat has also found a nice home for himself in Washington and the Wizards are very interested in locking him up long-term.
- Scott Rafferty of Ridiculous Upside has a breakdown of P.J. Hairston’s 40 point performance for the D-League’s Texas Legends. The former UNC standout figures to be a first-rounder in the 2014 draft and could vault himself up the board with more performances like that one.
Atlantic Notes: Knicks, Melo, Nets
Carmelo Anthony‘s 62-point performance against the Bobcats last night sure was something to behold, right? Well, not if you’re former Knicks center turned Charlotte assistant coach Patrick Ewing. “I’m upset right now because we just lost,” Ewing told reporters, including Marc Berman of the New York Post. “I’m not talking. I have no comment on what happened.’’ He did offer some praise for ‘Melo, but when questions persisted about Anthony, Ewing got impatient, saying, “Man, I’m done.’,’ Man, it’s the morning, so we’re just getting started. Here’s a look at the Atlantic Division..
- With free agency looming, Anthony reminded everyone, and maybe even himself, why he came to New York, writes Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. Despite what could be a lost season for the Knicks, the star has been surprisingly reserved about lodging public complaints about the team.
- “Chicago is much more in play for [Anthony] than L.A.,” a source told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports in reference to the Knicks‘ star. The Bulls traded Luol Deng for draft picks and are leaning strongly toward using the amnesty provision on Carlos Boozer. They have the ability to create a maximum contract slot for Anthony, pairing him with Derrick Rose.
- Nets veterans Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce are ready to return to Boston for the first time since the blockbuster deal, writes Baxter Holmes of the Boston Globe.
Odds & Ends: Young, Draft, Spurs, Celtics
Thaddeus Young‘s name figures to be in plenty of rumors between now and the February 20th trade deadline. “There is not a GM in the league who wouldn’t want Thaddeus Young on their team,” an NBA executive tells Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Still, Young’s contract, with average salaries of more than $9MM through 2015/16, remains a turn-off for would-be trade partners, Pompey writes. The Inquirer scribe takes a stab at sketching the Sixers roster for 2014/15, concluding that a turnaround is still a ways off. Here’s more on a couple of prospects who could be in Philly next year, as well as more from around the NBA:
- Several NBA scouts are leaning toward regarding Indiana’s Noah Vonleh as a better power forward prospect than Kentucky’s Julius Randle, according to Chad Ford of ESPN.com, who debates the matter with colleague Kevin Pelton in an Insider-only piece.
- The Spurs wanted someone who could guard small forwards after learning Kawhi Leonard would miss the next three or four weeks, and Gregg Popovich says that led them to sign Othyus Jeffers, observes Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News.
- A splintered Clippers front office kept the team from trading for Kevin Garnett at the deadline last year, and that prompted the Celtics to draw back from discussions with the Nets about Paul Pierce, sources tell Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. The C’s would have been better off had those deals gone down than they are with the package they obtained from the Nets this summer, Deveney surmises.
- Doc Rivers stuck up for Tom Thibodeau, his former assistant coach, saying that he didn’t think “any right-minded organization” would allow him to leave, as Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times notes. Rumors have suggested the Bulls might let their coach out of his contract so he can take over the Knicks.
- Keith Schlosser of Ridiculous Upside wonders what more Pierre Jackson must do to convince New Orleans to sign him. The Pelicans hold the NBA rights to the D-League’s leading scorer, but they’ve given Jackson permission to seek a trade.
Odds & Ends: Stuckey, Teague, D-League
Considering his expiring contract and recent stellar play, Pistons guard Rodney Stuckey could be a hot commodity on the trade market soon, especially for teams looking to add bench scoring or create some cap flexibility this summer, writes Brendan Savage of MLive.com. Despite the likelihood of being included in discussions as we inch closer to the February trade deadline, Stuckey insists that he’s strictly focused on playing basketball:
“Nah, I don’t think about that,..Whatever happens, happens. I’m here to play basketball. I’m a Detroit Piston right now…I have no control over that. My agent will take care of that. It’s up to the organization, what they want to do and what they’re looking at. I don’t think about it at all. I just try to come out every night and compete and try to win.”
Here’s more from around the league this evening:
- Newly acquired Nets guard Marquis Teague said he wasn’t shocked about being dealt from the Bulls and admitted that he didn’t fit well with the style of former coach Tom Thibodeau: “It just wasn’t clicking with Thibs the right way… trying to figure out the system was kind of tough for me. The way they play isn’t really my style, so it’s kind of difficult for me. But I’ve got a new start now, so I’m just looking forward to the future” (Mike Mazzeo of ESPN New York).
- As per the team’s official website, the Suns have assigned Archie Goodwin to the Bakersfield Jam.
- The Cavaliers recalled Carrick Felix and Sergey Karasev from the Canton Charge earlier today (Twitter link).
- According to Gino Pilato of DLeagueDigest.com, former University of Miami forward Kenny Kadji has entered the NBDL player pool and will likely receive a claim from a D-League team.
- Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun believes that if the Raptors sign Vince Carter as a free agent this summer, it could help the team’s perception with other free agents who may question why the franchise hasn’t honored its most decorated star.
- ESPN’s Marc Stein forecasts the makeup of the 12-man Team USA roster which will compete in this year’s FIBA World Cup. Of the 28 names listed in the USAB’s national team player pool, Stein believes that 10 of them appear to be realistic locks (barring injury), leaving an interesting race for the final two spots.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.