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Central Notes: Bulls, Pistons, Cavs

January 22nd, 2015 at 7:18pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Bulls are dealing with an identity crisis, writes Michael Lee of The Washington Post. Lee cites the arrival of Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic as well as Jimmy Butler‘s transition from role player to All-Star caliber performer as reason the team has become less blue-collar and slightly more finesse in its on court approach. This is different from the style of play that fans are used to seeing from a team coached by Tom Thibodeau and the Bulls’ recent poor play has led some to wonder if the coach should be fired. Talk of replacing Thibodeau seems drastic as Chicago remains in good position to make the postseason with a record of 27-16; however, the Bulls sit eight games behind Atlanta for the No. 1 seed that many expected the team to earn this season.

Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:

Getting Joakim Noah and Mike Dunleavy back from injury will be key for the Bulls to resume contender status in the Eastern Conference, writes Nick Friedell of ESPN Chicago. Chicago has gone just 2-6 in its last eight games. “Here’s the thing,” Thibodeau said after Wednesday’s practice. “We’ve had our starters for 15 games. That’s not a lot of games. It’s missing a lot of games. So when the starters have been intact, [the record] has been very good. Our issue has been when they’ve been out, can we hold the fort?” Chicago is 12-3 in games that Noah, Dunleavy, Pau Gasol, Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler all start.
A mutual trust between Stan Van Gundy and Pistons owner Tom Gores has been key to the team’s turnaround, writes Keith Langlois of NBA.com. The Pistons are 17-26 on the season and 12-3 since they released Josh Smith. Earlier in the month, I asked if the Pistons could make the playoffs and over half of Hoops Rumors readers believed the team will make the postseason.
The Cavs are starting to figure out how to play as a team and win games, as Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today points out in a short video. Cleveland has won four straight games, which includes wins over playoff-caliber teams like the Clippers and Bulls. The team currently resides in fifth place in the Eastern Conference with a record of 23-20.

Wizards Most Aggressive Suitor For Ray Allen

January 22nd, 2015 at 2:17pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Wizards are making numerous calls on Ray Allen and they’ve been pushing the hardest to sign the 39-year-old free agent, reports Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter links). Allen is still unsure of what he’ll do this season, in spite of his hints earlier this week that he intends to return to the NBA, and while he’s working out at his home in Miami, he’s also enjoying time with his family, Kennedy cautions (on Twitter).

Washington has planned to keep up its pursuit until the Jim Tanner client gives the team a definite no, as J. Michael of CSNWashington.com wrote earlier this month. Michael described the team’s contact with Allen as “routine” and said that it was nonetheless a long shot that the sharpshooter would end up with the Wizards. Washington only has the prorated minimum salary to offer, and Allen has signaled a strong desire for more than that, but the Wizards do have an open roster spot.

LeBron James reportedly paid a recent visit to try to recruit Allen to the Cavs, who’ve seemingly been the front-runners to land him. Others from the Cavs organization have kept in contact with the league’s all-time leader in three-pointers made, too, as Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com wrote.

The Warriors appear to have ceased consideration of Allen, as Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group indicated overnight, but several other teams have been connected to Allen over the past several months. The Warriors were among the most recent teams to have been linked to him, a group that includes the Clippers and Grizzlies, and the Bulls and Spurs have reportedly been eyeing him, too.

Western Notes: Young, Clippers, Lin, Waiters

January 21st, 2015 at 12:14pm CST by Chuck Myron

Nick Young wants to help the Lakers recruit marquee free agents this summer, but he was worried that there wouldn’t have been room for the club to re-sign him this past offseason if the Lakers had landed a star then, as he tells Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News.

“I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Young said. “I was nervous and scared. I wanted to be here, but I kept hearing all the Carmelo [Anthony] rumors and Kobe [Bryant] having dinner with Carmelo. I knew once they paid him all that money, there would be none for me.”

Young, who inked a four-year, $21.326MM deal with the Lakers in July, told Medina that the Pelicans, Mavs and Bulls also had interest in him, and agent Mark Bartelstein told Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com this summer that there had been contact with the Hawks. There’s more from L.A. amid the latest from the Western Conference:

Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers expects to use his pair of open roster spots on veterans next month, writes Arash Markazi of ESPN.com, suggesting that the team will again target the post-buyout market as it did last year.
Dion Waiters, who’s up for a rookie scale extension this summer, says he “couldn’t ask for a better situation” than the one he finds himself in since the trade that sent him to the Thunder, as he tells The Oklahoman’s Darnell Mayberry. “They brought me in since Day One with love,” Waiters said of his new teammates. “It seems like I’ve been here forever. It seems like I’ve been playing with them forever, too. When I came here, we clicked right away.”
Jeremy Lin has his moments for the Lakers, but he continues to struggle to live up to the backloaded three-year, $25.124MM deal he signed with the Rockets in 2012, much less his dazzling “Lin-sanity” run with the Knicks, as Bill Oram of the Orange County Register examines. Lin is set for free agency this summer.

Multiple Teams Eyeing Damion James

January 18th, 2015 at 1:50pm CST by Charlie Adams

At least four teams are considering bringing aboard former Nets and Spurs forward Damion James, according to Shams Charania of RealGM, who identifies the Bulls, Pistons, Wizards, and Clippers among the teams with interest (Twitter link). The former 24th overall pick has put up impressive numbers for the Texas Legends of the D-League this season after failing to make Washington’s roster out of training camp.

James, 27, appeared in five contests for the Spurs last season. He signed a 10-day deal with San Antonio in April and inked a pact that covered the remainder of the season once his first contract was up. The 6’7″ Texas alum hasn’t been able to make much of an impact in the NBA after four strong years playing for the Longhorns.

An earlier report indicated that the Wizards have been keeping an eye on James. Washington’s roster stands at 14 players, one short of the league maximum, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see the team ink James to a 10-day contract. He was reportedly a better bet to make the team than Rasual Butler out of training camp before the veteran guard impressed Washington brass.

Spurs Waive Daye, Sign Green To 10-Day Deal

January 18th, 2015 at 10:10am CST by Eddie Scarito

SUNDAY, 10:10am: The Spurs have officially signed Green to a 10-day contract, the team announced in a press release.

SATURDAY, 1:07pm: The Spurs have officially waived Daye, the team has announced.

11:10am: The Spurs will waive Austin Daye in order to clear a roster spot for JaMychal Green, who they will ink to a 10-day contract, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link). Green had also reportedly garnered interest from the Bulls, Knicks, and Grizzlies. San Antonio currently has the league maximum 15 players on its roster.

Green, 24, is averaging 23.0 points, 10.7 rebounds and 2.5 assists this season for the Austin Spurs, San Antonio’s D-League affiliate. The 6’9″ forward was in training camp with the Spurs, but was waived on October 25th as the team pared down its training camp roster.

The 26-year-old Daye has appeared in 26 games for the Spurs this season, including four as a starter. He has averaged 4.0 points, 2.3 rebounds and has a slash line of .351/.339/1.000. Daye is in the final year of his contract, and San Antonio will be on the hook for the remainder of his $1,063,384 salary that he is owed for the season, barring the unlikely event that another team claims him off waivers.

Central Notes: Datome, Blatt, Noah

January 17th, 2015 at 5:17pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Pistons sent Gigi Datome to their D-League affiliate on Wednesday, an assignment the player wasn’t happy about, David Mayo of MLive writes. “You know what? Not really,” Detroit’s president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy said when asked if Datome was excited about the move. “There’s sort of a … he’s leaving the NBA, he’s a little older, he’s not a 21-year-old guy. So no, not really. But hopefully, when he gets down there to California, and gets practicing, and gets ready to play, and is getting ready for a game that he knows he’s going to get a chance to play in, hopefully he will get enthused about it.” Datome is reportedly on the trading block.

Here’s the latest from the Central Division:

Van Gundy was honest when he said that he had a few second thoughts about his decision to accept the job in Detroit when the Pistons began the season with a 5-23 record, Ethan Skolnick of Bleacher Report writes. “What I started doubting, quite honestly, at 5-23, was myself,” Van Gundy said. “After being out two years and being 5-23, I’d be lying if I tell you I wasn’t doubting myself as a coach. There’s no question, as a coach. I’ve never doubted our organization and what we’re doing and the ability we have down the road. Even at 5-23, I had confidence in everybody else in the organization but myself. Yes. That’s where it suffered.”
Bulls center Joakim Noah is still trying to regain his form after undergoing offseason knee surgery, a process that hasn’t gone as quickly or smoothly as the player had hoped, Doug Padilla of ESPNChicago.com writes.
David Blatt was hired by the Cavs with the reputation and track record of being a great coach, but he hasn’t quite lived up to that pedigree since taking over in Cleveland, Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today writes. The large amount of roster turnover and the injuries the team has dealt with explain some of the team’s difficulties, notes Zillgitt. But other contributing factors to the Cavs’ struggles this season are that Blatt is an unknown around the league, his players haven’t quite bought into his system, and they may not trust enough in him yet, Zillgitt adds.

Atlantic Notes: Green, Ainge, Knicks

January 15th, 2015 at 8:42pm CST by Eddie Scarito

JaMychal Green, who plays for the Austin Toros, San Antonio’s D-League affiliate, is garnering interest from the Knicks, Spurs, and Bulls for a possible 10-day contract, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link). Green was in training camp with San Antonio this year. Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:

The Celtics could end up with as many as four first-rounders in the 2015 NBA draft, depending on how the protections attached to some of the picks shake out. In an interview on 98.5 The Sports Hub (hat tip to Ben Rohrbach of WEEI 93.7 FM), Boston’s president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said of the upcoming draft, “It’s a decent draft, not spectacular.“
Ainge, who has been stockpiling future picks in the deals he has made for Rajon Rondo, Jeff Green, and Austin Rivers, added, “In a perfect world, I would like to trade picks for proven, quality players. That’s a perfect world,” Rohrbach tweets.
Explaining why he has acquired so many future draft picks in his various deals this season if his preference was for proven players, Ainge said that it is difficult to obtain superstar talent outside of the draft in today’s NBA, Rohrbach relays (Twitter link).
The Knicks need to break the franchise’s pattern of sacrificing the future for the present, Christopher Reina of RealGM opines. One change that Reina posits could help is for Phil Jackson to hire a workaholic GM who would continue to tear down the roster and concentrate on accumulating assets, not salary cap space.
The Pelicans’ rebuilding plan is one that Sixers GM Sam Hinkie hopes to emulate, Mike Sielski of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes. The Pelicans accumulated assets, similar to what Hinkie is doing, and used them to acquire players like Jrue Holiday and Tyreke Evans through trades. While it can be argued that mimicking New Orleans, with its 19-19 record, isn’t necessarily shooting for the moon, if the Pelicans were in the East, they would currently occupy the sixth playoff seed.

Central Notes: Haywood, Martin, Bulls

January 10th, 2015 at 4:57pm CST by Eddie Scarito

There are a number of executives around the league who believe that the Cavaliers aren’t finished reworking their roster, Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter link). Cleveland is most likely going to try and trade center Brendan Haywood, whose $10.5MM contract for the 2015/16 season is non-guaranteed, Kennedy notes.

Here’s more out of the Central Division:

Cleveland’s salary cap outlook has changed markedly with all of its recent additions, and Nate Duncan of Basketball Insiders took an in-depth look at how the Cavs‘ finances and cap space were altered by these deals. Duncan also notes that Haywood’s contract could be used as a trade piece, but adds that Cleveland would likely have to add another asset as a sweetener in any deal, something its previous deals have left in short supply.
Bucks coach Jason Kidd doesn’t think it will take long for Kenyon Martin, who was recently inked to a 10-day contract, to acclimate to his new team, Charles F. Gardner of The Journal Sentinel writes. “Just in shootaround, you could see the difference in his voice, helping guys out,” Kidd said. “We want to put him in a good position so if the game presents itself where he can get a couple minutes, yes. He’s not shy, so that helps for these young guys understanding what it takes to win.”
The Bucks would like to keep Martin for the remainder of the season, Gery Woelfel of The Racine Journal Times reports (Twitter link). Teams can ink players to a maximum of two 10-day contracts per season before they either have to release them or sign them to a guaranteed contract that covers the rest of the season.
One issue that the Bulls still need to address is finding a reliable backup for swingman Jimmy Butler, Steve Aschburner of NBA.com writes.
The Pistons‘ sudden winning ways have altered the team’s immediate plans to give rookie Spencer Dinwiddie more NBA playing time, Keith Langlois of NBA.com writes. “They’re playing really well,” coach Stan Van Gundy said. “We’ve had to change our approach from early in the year. That was a change in approach at 5 and 23. So right now, that whole thing with Spencer has to be on hold right because of how well we’re playing. You’re always adjusting within a game and within a season. This has been sort of a crazy first half of the season, in terms of you lose 13 in a row, then you win seven in a row. It’s sort of hard to wrap your head around, quite honestly.“

Eastern Notes: Wroten, Taylor, Butler

January 10th, 2015 at 10:58am CST by Eddie Scarito

CSNPhilly.com’s John Gonzalez took an in-depth look at the potential trade value of Tony Wroten, who was rumored to be the subject of trade discussions between the Clippers and the Sixers earlier this week. A pair of league executives told Gonzalez that Wroten could possibly net GM Sam Hinkie two second-rounders, and another said that it would be difficult to get fair value for Wroten, so it would be wiser to hang on to the guard. Philadelphia currently owns a whopping 15 second round draft picks between now and 2020.

Here’s more from the East:

The Hornets have recalled Jeffery Taylor from the Austin Spurs of the NBA D-League, the team has announced. In four games with the Spurs he averaged 11.8 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 26.2 minutes per contest. This was Taylor’s initial jaunt of the season to the D-League.
Rasual Butler had the remainder of his contract guaranteed for the season when he remained on the Wizards’ roster past Wednesday’s deadline. The veteran swingman’s play has made him an integral part of Washington’s rotation, and Butler also has a fan in Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau, Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post writes. Thibodeau, who briefly coached Butler in Chicago, said of his former player, “I think it’s the perfect fit for him and he’s a great pro. He’s a guy who plays year-round and stays in great shape. And I think when you look at what John Wall does and you look at what Andre Miller does, he’s the perfect fit because he creates space and his career says how well he can shoot the three. But to be doing it at this stage of his career is a real credit to him. But we always felt strongly about his professionalism, his attitude, how much he loved he game. And the shooting part, that’s never going to go away.”
Despite all of the Knicks‘ struggles this season, first year coach Derek Fisher‘s confidence hasn’t wavered, and he believes this turbulent campaign will help him become a better coach, Al Iannazzone of Newsday writes.

Bulls Plan Max Offer For Jimmy Butler

January 9th, 2015 at 11:52am CST by Chuck Myron

The Bulls fully expect to re-sign Jimmy Butler to a new maximum-salary deal in the summer, and they accept that the contract would put the club in position to pay the luxury tax, reports David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune. Bulls officials are planning a “proactive approach” to have Butler put pen to paper with them before he entertains offers from other clubs in restricted free agency, according to Haugh. Butler will be eligible for a starting salary worth about 25% of next season’s salary cap, unless he wins the MVP and triggers the Derrick Rose Rule, which would allow him about 30% of the cap. The latest league projection indicates that the 25% max will come in at $15.5MM, though that figure won’t be set in stone until July.

Some described the negotiations between Butler and the Bulls this past fall as contentious, according to Haugh, but Butler made it clear in his remarks after passing on an extension offer that reportedly would have entailed $11MM salaries that he’s intent on a long-term future in Chicago. The 25-year-old swingman has since embarked on a career year, but fellow Tribune scribe K.C. Johnson wrote in December that it would be surprising if the Bulls didn’t match any offer that Butler was to receive this summer, seemingly indicating the team’s willingness to pay the max one way or another.

Several executives from around the NBA told Sean Deveney of The Sporting News last month that they believed that Butler would command the max if he kept up his strong start to the season. Butler continues to showcase remarkable gains on the offensive end, averaging 21.7 points per game and 47.8% shooting after putting up 13.1 PPG and 39.7% shooting last season. Butler and agent Happy Walters asked for $14MM a year in extension talks but would have been willing to settle for between $12.5 and $13MM, according to Deveney, so it’s becoming clear that Chicago cost itself when the sides didn’t close a deal.

The former 30th overall pick went from unranked in the first edition of the Hoops Rumors Free Agent Power Rankings, published shortly after the season began, to No. 5 on the latest list, which came out about a month ago. He’s maintained the strong defense that’s long been his hallmark and put up a 22.3 PER that’s the 14th-best mark in the league, according to Basketball-Reference.

Chicago already has nearly $60.2MM in commitments for seven players next season, not counting a player option of almost $2.855MM for Kirk Hinrich. The luxury tax line is projected to come in around $81MM, as Deveney also wrote, so while it seems conceivable that the Bulls could avoid becoming a taxpayer, it would be difficult. The Bulls have been eyeing a lucrative commitment to Butler since the Luol Deng trade a year ago, Haugh writes, noting that the swap helped the team avoid the tax last season and this season, which would have set up Chicago for repeat-offender tax penalties.