Cleveland Cavaliers Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Central Notes: Dunleavy, Morris, Bulls

September 25th, 2015 at 9:28pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Bulls small forward Mike Dunleavy underwent a successful low back microdiscectomy procedure earlier today at Rush University Medical Center and he is expected to be out of action for 8-10 weeks, the team announced. Dunleavy had experienced some occasional back discomfort over the summer which had recently worsened, according to the release. If his recovery goes as planned, Dunleavy will likely miss between 12-15 contests.

Here’s more from the Central Division:

Marcus Morris views his new start with the Pistons as a means to finally carve out a niche for himself in the league, Keith Langlois of NBA.com writes. “In Phoenix, I thought I should have started at the three,” Morris told Langlois. “The guy that’s there now [P.J. Tucker] might have been a better defender, but as an all-around three, I thought I was the best we had. And I thought a lot of players thought that, too. But there’s a lot of opportunity here. I have a chance to come in and start right away. I’ve been in the league for five years. It’s nothing new to me. I have started my share of games. It’s not like I’m new to it. The only thing that’s new is that it’s the East Coast now.”
The Bulls return virtually the same core as last season, and if the change in coaches from Tom Thibodeau to Fred Hoiberg doesn’t nudge the team to the next level, it may be time for Chicago to attempt to pry Carmelo Anthony away from the Knicks, Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com writes. Friedell does note that the size of Anthony’s contract would be a gamble for Bulls, and the team would likely have to part with a number of talented players to make the deal work financially, which would make such a trade a risky proposition for Chicago.
If the Cavaliers can remain healthy as a unit and are able to secure home court advantage in the playoffs, the team is likely to secure the NBA title in 2015/16, the crew at Basketball Insiders opine in their season preview.

Cavs To Sign Chris Johnson

September 25th, 2015 at 4:08pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Cavaliers and unrestricted free agent center Chris Johnson have agreed to a deal, Chris Haynes of The Northeast Ohio Media Group reports. The arrangement is for one year at the league minimum and does not include any guaranteed salary, Haynes adds.

Johnson, 30, went undrafted out of LSU back in 2009, and is not to be confused with swingman Chris Johnson out of Dayton. The Johnson who’s headed to Cleveland last appeared in the NBA back in 2012/13, when he made 30 appearances for Minnesota. His career NBA averages are 2.9 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 0.6 blocks to accompany a slash line of .562/.000/.699. He spent the 2014/15 campaign playing in China.

The addition of Johnson gives Cleveland a roster count of 18 players, though that number does not include restricted free agent Tristan Thompson, who is still unsigned, nor Quinn Cook, who’s reportedly expected to reach a deal amid conflicting reports on whether he already has.

Latest On Steve Nash

September 25th, 2015 at 3:53pm CST by Chuck Myron

SEPTEMBER 25TH, 3:53pm: The Warriors have officially hired Nash, confirming that he’ll serve as a player development consultant, the team announced via press release.

“Steve Nash was one of the best guards to ever play in this league and we are so happy to add him to our staff and have him working with our players,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said in the team’s statement. “Even though he possessed incredible individual skills and abilities, Steve always played the game with a team-first mentality, which is something that we emphasize greatly within our group. Steve and I have a great relationship from our time together in Phoenix while I was general manager, and we share a lot of beliefs about how the game should be played and about the work ethic that goes in to being great. I can’t wait to work with him again and have him around our team.”

The two-time MVP also expressed his enthusiasm for the partnership.

“I look forward to joining Coach Kerr and his great staff and helping out in any way that I can,” Nash said. “The Warriors played such a beautiful style of team basketball last season and it’s a style that I am very familiar with and enjoyed playing throughout my career. This team is extremely talented, as they proved in winning the championship last season, but they also have a number of core players who are relatively young in their careers. That is a very unique blend and I’m excited about the opportunity to work with these guys and hopefully pass along some of the lessons that I learned during my career.”

SEPTEMBER 24TH, 1:00pm: Nash seemed to confirm in a video with Sportsnet Central’s Caroline Cameron that he’ll be working on the Warriors staff this season, as Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group transcribes. Nash answered a question about how he can help Stephen Curry and said that “hopefully I’ll learn as much from him as he will from me.”

SEPTEMBER 15TH, 1:58pm: The Mavericks held out hope as recently as late June that they could convince Steve Nash to come out of retirement to play for them this coming season, sources told Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The 41-year-old is nearing a deal to join the Warriors as a part-time player development consultant, as Stein also reports. The point guard announced his retirement in March, months after a nerve ailment had sidelined him for the season and made it seem doubtful, at best, that he would ever return to action. The Lakers held on to his contract until waiving him in April.

Nash spent six seasons in Dallas between 1998 and 2004, blossoming along with Dirk Nowitzki, who remains a close friend and whose charity softball game Nash took part in this summer, as Stein notes. Mavs owner Mark Cuban told Kenneth Arthur of Rolling Stone last year that his worst move as an owner was letting Nash sign with Phoenix in 2004. Nash’s level of play reached even higher levels when he was with the Suns, the team with which he won both his MVP awards.

Dallas had only spot duty in mind for Nash this time around, but Nash made it clear last year that if he were to play again, he would only do so as a Laker, as Stein points out. The Cavs tried and failed to convince Nash to push for a buyout from the Lakers last season that would have allowed him to finish up 2014/15 in Cleveland, as Stein reported in March. Nash said then that he wanted to live in Southern California forever, but while he’s poised to join a Northern California team, he’d only spend a few days each month with the Warriors, Stein writes.

The Mavs, as they stand, have no shortage of point guards, with four on the roster. That includes offseason addition Deron Williams and J.J. Barea, who re-signed with the team this summer, as well as holdovers Devin Harris and Raymond Felton.

What do you think Nash’s greatest legacy as a player will be? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.

Cavs To Re-Sign Tristan Thompson?

September 24th, 2015 at 5:48pm CST by Eddie Scarito

5:48pm: Broussard tweeted an update to his initial report, noting that Thompson is willing to sign a the previously reported three-year deal, but the Cavaliers have not yet agreed to that proposal.

5:25pm: Jason Lloyd of The Akron Beacon Journal refutes the report that the two sides have agreed to a deal (Twitter link). Lloyd indicates that no deal has been struck, and that the Cavs are not interested in signing Thompson to the reported terms.

5:11pm: Power forward Tristan Thompson has agreed to re-sign with the Cavaliers, Chris Broussard of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link). It will be a three-year, $53MM deal, Broussard adds. The return of Thompson, who is a restricted free agent, will increase Cleveland’s roster count to 18 players.

The two sides apparently reached a compromise, with Cleveland having reportedly offered Thompson a five-year, $80MM deal previously, while the forward’s camp was reportedly holding out for a max deal worth $94MM over the same span, according to a report by Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com. The Cavs were operating under the threat that Thompson would sign the team’s one-year qualifying offer of nearly $6.8MM in order to become an unrestricted free agent next year.

His agent, Rich Paul, recently claimed that if Thompson would not re-sign with the Cavs for the long-term in 2016 if he signed that qualifying offer. Paul also has reportedly heard from three NBA teams that are willing to offer his client a max salary next summer if he hits unrestricted free agency. The agent reportedly believed that he could land a max deal from the Raptors for Thompson, a Toronto native, but it’s unclear if they were one of the three teams.

Thompson, 24, appeared in 82 games for the Cavs in 2014/15, averaging 8.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 0.5 assists in 26.8 minutes per contest. His career numbers through four NBA seasons are 10.1 PPG, 8.4 RPG, and 0.8 APG to go along with a slash line of .488/.000/.633.

Cavaliers To Sign Austin Daye

September 23rd, 2015 at 5:38pm CST by Eddie Scarito

5:38pm: Daye’s contract will be non-guaranteed, international journalist David Pick tweets.

5:34pm: The Cavaliers have reached an agreement on a contract with unrestricted free agent small forward Austin Daye, Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports reports (Twitter link). It will be a one-year deal, though it is unclear if the arrangement includes any guaranteed salary, Charania adds. It’ll have to be for the minimum salary, since that’s all the Cavs can give. Cleveland’s roster count will increase to 17 players with the addition of Daye, including 13 with fully guaranteed pacts. This number does not include restricted free agent Tristan Thompson, who remains unsigned.

Daye, 27, had been waived by the Hawks back in July in an effort to clear cap space. His salary was non-guaranteed, but the move cleared his $1,185,784 cap hold from Atlanta’s books, which it required to re-sign of Paul Millsap and trade for Tiago Splitter. Atlanta originally signed Daye to a pair of 10-day contracts during the 2014/15 campaign before inking him to a deal that covered the rest of the season as well as added an additional non-guaranteed year. Daye recently hired agent Obrad Fimic of the AltiSport agency to negotiate deals in Europe.

The former 15th overall pick didn’t see much action while with the Hawks, appearing in only eight regular season games for an average of 9.5 minutes per contest. He didn’t make it in to any of Atlanta’s playoff games. Daye’s career numbers through 293 NBA contests are 5.2 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 0.7 assists to accompany a slash line of .402/.351/.778.

Eastern Notes: LeBron, Parker, Nets

September 22nd, 2015 at 7:45pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Despite Tristan Thompson sharing the same agent as LeBron James, James hasn’t tried to use his leverage with the Cavaliers organization to push the team into upping their offer to the restricted free agent, Joe Vardon of The Northeast Ohio Media Group writes. A source close to James, who can opt out of his contract and become an unrestricted free agent next summer, says that Thompson’s contract impasse is a “non-discussion right now” for LeBron as it relates to his own future in Cleveland, Vardon notes. A source within the Cavs organization also indicated to Vardon that the team isn’t concerned about James leaving if Thompson is not re-signed to a long-term deal, saying, “LeBron’s goals don’t change relative to Tristan Thompson or anyone. [Our primary goal is to] Be as good as we can be for as long as we can be.”

Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:

Jabari Parker, who is recovering from a torn ACL, is expected to participate when the Bucks begin training camp, though the team hasn’t said how much the second-year forward will be allowed to do, Charles F. Gardner of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel relays in a series of tweets. Coach Jason Kidd is pleased with Parker’s progress, Gardner adds, with Kidd saying, “He looks extremely good. His body has changed and his spirits are extremely high right now, being on the court.” The team will certainly be cautious with Parker, Gardner also notes, with GM John Hammond saying, “He’s making progress. Wherever he’s at, if we think he [Parker] can play 30 minutes, we’ll probably have him play 15.“
The Nets are hoping that their team chemistry will be better this season after the departure of point guard Deron Williams, Tim Bontemps of The New York Post writes. When asked what he liked about what he has seen from the team over the summer, GM Billy King told Bontemps and other reporters, “I like the guys’ attitudes towards each other. I think they have a genuine liking and care for each other. If you’re willing to do that, then you’re willing to sacrifice on both ends of the floor for each other.“
The Raptors are still a work in progress, and despite the offseason additions of DeMarre Carroll and Cory Joseph, the team doesn’t appear to be a serious threat to unseat the Heat and the Bulls atop the Eastern Conference just yet, the crew at Basketball Insiders opine in their season preview of the team.

Cavs Notes: Irving, Love, Bennett

September 22nd, 2015 at 9:59am CST by Chuck Myron

The Cavaliers are poised to enter the season ahead as favorites to return to the Finals, though that status comes at a cost. They already have about $95MM in guaranteed salary for the season ahead, and a new deal for Tristan Thompson would send that figure, and the tax bill that comes with it, even higher. Thompson on the qualifying offer would give the Cavs a tax bill of roughly $34MM. A max offer, one that Thompson is reportedly insisting upon, would push Cleveland’s tax bill to about $70MM. That would be on top of about $111MM in payroll, bringing the team within hailing distance of Brooklyn’s record outlay of some $190MM in 2013/14. While the Cavs ponder those figures, see the latest from Cleveland:

Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, Timofey Mozgov and Anderson Varejao will all be ready for Cavs training camp when it begins a week from today, reports Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. It had previously appeared that Irving, on his way back from the left kneecap fracture he suffered in the Finals, was likely to miss the start of the regular season, with a distinct possibility he’d be out until January. Love said 11 days ago that he was about a month to a month and a half away from returning from shoulder surgery. Mozgov and Varejao are also recovering from surgery.
The Cavs will likely carry the maximum 20 players for camp, Haynes writes in the same piece. That would mean four more deals are on the way, since the Cavs are carrying 16 players, as our roster count shows. Presumably, one of them will be Thompson, whether it’s on the qualifying offer or a new deal, and the Cavs are also reportedly expected to sign former Duke point guard Quinn Cook, though they’ve yet to reach a deal with him as of last check.
No one beyond the Cavaliers considered Anthony Bennett a top-10 pick before the 2013 draft, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. Bennett was the No. 6 prospect in that draft a few days before the event took place, as Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress had them ranked, while Chad Ford of ESPN.com listed Bennett fourth in his predraft rankings, so the notion that most teams didn’t have him in the top 10 on their boards is surprising.

And-Ones: CBA, Revenue Sharing, Thompson

September 21st, 2015 at 9:37pm CST by ChrisCrouse

There’s reason to believe that neither the owners or the players will opt out of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement after the 2016/17 season, David Aldridge of NBA.com writes in a piece that’s worth a read. Aldridge cites the new television deal, the rising salaries of players, and the success of the current revenue sharing system among the reasons to be optimistic. There’s also hope among the parties involved.

“Can’t imagine either [side] opting out”, one extremely high-ranking team official texted Aldridge last week. “Never know what the player’s union will do but the dollars are getting so big.”

Many players are beyond angry about the billions in salaries they have conceded and they want to recoup some of those losses, but there are some on the players’ side who think the current CBA is providing enough incentive to prevent a lockout.

“Way too much economic prosperity right now for the Owners and the Players with continual Global growth,” a prominent player agent texted Aldridge. “There is NO basis whatsoever for a work stoppage.”

Here’s more from Aldridge’s latest piece:

Sources told the scribe that even though the Lakers are consistently major contributors to the plan, the franchise is in support of the current revenue sharing system. The team understands the need for some level of revenue sharing and it isn’t seeking substantial changes to the current system “because it’s working.”
Aldridge switched gears to talk about the NBA on the court. He doesn’t believe Tristan Thompson will come to terms with Cleveland on a long-term deal, citing the $14MM schism between the two sides.
Aldridge is surprised that Jamal Crawford remains a Clipper and predicts that the guard will be dealt by the trade deadline. Earlier this month, coach/executive Doc Rivers said that it’s unlikely the team will trade the 35-year-old.

Injury Notes: Jennings, Melo, Durant, Love

September 21st, 2015 at 8:17pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Brandon Jennings is “not close” to being cleared, sources tell David Aldridge of NBA.com. He is currently shooting and running on a treadmill at 60% of his body weight, but the Pistons need to see more before he’s cleared to begin non-contact drill on the court, Aldridge adds. Jennings ruptured his left Achilles tendon last January and the Pistons have made a few additions at the point guard position since. Detroit traded for Reggie Jackson at last season’s deadline and handed him a five year, $80MM deal this offseason. The team also added Steve Blake to reinforce the position. Jennings will make slightly over $8.34MM during the 2015/16 season, which is the last year of his current deal.

Here are some more injury notes that Aldridge passed along in his column:

Carmelo Anthony looks like he’ll be ready for the start of training camp. He has been playing full-court, 5-on-5 with his Knicks teammates for the last few weeks.
Kevin Durant has been cleared to participate in training camp. The expectation is that he will be ready to handle a full workload of minutes once the regular season starts.
Kevin Love has not yet been officially cleared to return from a dislocated left shoulder injury that he sustained in the first round of the playoffs last season, but he has made significant progress.
New addition Wesley Matthews has not done any full-court work yet, but the expectation is that he will be cleared to start doing some work on the floor when Dallas opens camp next week.

Cavs, Tristan Thompson Still $14MM Apart

September 21st, 2015 at 10:09am CST by Zachary Links

There’s still a $14MM gap between the Cavs and Tristan Thompson as the start of training camp nears, sources tell ESPN.com’s Brian Windhorst. The Cavs have held firm with their offer of $80MM over five years while Thompson’s camp wants a max deal worth $94MM over the same span, according to Windhorst’s sources. Talks have been stagnant since early July, he adds, and there isn’t much optimism on either side.

If no deal is reached by the end of the week, Thompson may sign the Cavs’ one-year qualifying offer of nearly $6.8MM to become an unrestricted free agent next year. His agent, Rich Paul, recently claimed that if Thompson will not re-sign with the Cavs long-term in 2016 if he signs that offer. Paul also has reportedly heard from three NBA teams that are willing to offer his client a max salary next summer if he hits unrestricted free agency. The agent reportedly believes he can get a max deal from the Raptors for Thompson, a Toronto native, but it’s unclear if they are one of the three.

Windhorst writes that Thompson’s camp is very aware that Cavs big men Kevin Love (shoulder), Anderson Varejao (Achilles) and Timofey Mozgov (knee) are all coming into training camp after surgeries. That additional leverage has only strengthened Thompson’s resolve to stand by his desire for a max deal.

The value of Thompson’s qualifying offer is nearly $10MM less than what he would make on the starting salary of a max deal, but the power forward could nonetheless benefit financially from taking the qualifying offer if max offers from other teams are indeed waiting for him next year. Max salaries go up in accordance with the salary cap, and with the cap set to spike for 2016/17, next summer’s projected maximum for a player with Thompson’s experience is $20.4MM. With 4.5% raises over a four-year contract, the best terms he could get if he doesn’t re-sign with Cleveland, a max deal with a new team next summer would be worth a total of $87.108MM, based on that $20.4MM starting salary projection. Combined with the qualifying offer, Thompson would make almost as much going that route as he would signing a five-year max with Cleveland this year.

Recently, Hoops Rumors’ Chuck Myron looked at different contract scenarios for the former No. 4 overall pick. Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer told Hoops Rumors earlier this month that there was little communication between the two sides and he also cited a ~$14MM schism in proposals.