And-Ones: Richardson, Mekel, Jenkins
Sixers guard Jason Richardson said that he expects to return to the court in late January after being sidelined for nearly two years, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports reports. Richardson last played in an NBA game on January 18th, 2013 before knee and ankle maladies sidelined him. “It will mean a lot to come back,” Richardson said. “I thought I was done playing. I really did. But seeing my son play AAU over the summertime, seeing his love for the game, it made me get the love back for the game. My thing is to always walk away on my own terms. I understand that things happen. Me having this knee injury, fading away like that is not the way I wanted to go out. Retirement is three or four years away from now.”
Here’s more from around the league and abroad:
- Michael Jenkins has signed a deal with the Turkish club Istanbul BSB, David Pick of Eurobasket.com reports (Twitter link). Jenkins was in training camp this season with the Thunder prior to being waived.
- NBA scouts and executives are essentially in agreement that Tyler Ulis and Devin Booker are better pro prospects than fellow Kentucky backcourt studs Andrew Harrison and brother Aaron Harrison, according to Chad Ford of ESPN.com, who writes in his weekly chat. Booker is No. 35, Ulis is No. 48, Andrew is No. 65 and Aaron is No. 67 in Ford’s prospect rankings.
- Gal Mekel is still hoping to land with an NBA team after being released by the Pelicans earlier this month, Allon Sinai of The Jerusalem Post writes. “After I was released by New Orleans I received several offers from Europe and Israel,” Mekel said. “I wanted to give them the respect they deserve and listen to them all. It is no secret that I really want to remain in the NBA and I believe with all my heart that I can succeed in this league. But I also really want to play, lead and realize my potential.”
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Cavs Granted Disabled Player Exception
The NBA has granted the Cavaliers a disabled player exception in response to the season-ending injury suffered by Anderson Varejao, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link). The exception will be valued at approximately $4.85MM, or half of Varejao’s $9,704,545 salary for the 2014/15 season. Cleveland has until March 10th to use this exception on a player whose price tag fits into that allotment, whether it be through free agency or trade.
The Cavs were reportedly seeking a rim protecting big man prior to Varejao suffering a torn Achilles. Cleveland currently has the league maximum 15 players on their roster, including 12 players with fully guaranteed deals. This means that the Cavs would need to deal or release a player prior to signing or acquiring another body via trade. Cleveland has been in talks with the Celtics in recent days about Boston’s willingness to participate in a trade as a third team, though no deal appears to be imminent.
Varejao had started 26 games this season, averaging 9.8 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 1.3 assists while playing 24.5 minutes per contest. His slash line was .555/.000/.733.
Bucks Work Out Kenyon Martin; Cavs Eye Him
WEDNESDAY, 10:34am: Kidd acknowledged today that Martin worked out in front of him and Bucks assistant coaches Tuesday, Gardner notes (Twitter links). “He looked good,” Kidd said. “There’s nothing, just a workout. Just to talk to him. We’ll see what happens.” Kidd acknowledged that it’s questionable whether Martin can still perform, but the coach praised Martin’s intelligence and says he believes that a team will sign him at some point, as Gardner shares in a full story.
TUESDAY, 10:11am: Martin will work out in front of Kidd today, Spears writes in a full story, so evidently the Bucks are indeed interested in him for a playing role. The Cavs also have some interest in Martin, Spears adds, so it appears that feeling is mutual, though Cleveland isn’t rushing to replace the injured Anderson Varejao, according to Spears.
9:20am: The discussions are “preliminary,” a source tells Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
9:05am: Milwaukee has yet to make any offer to Martin, Spears clarifies (on Twitter).
8:57am: Bucks coach Jason Kidd will meet with free agent big man Kenyon Martin today, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Martin, who turns 37 today, is traveling to Cleveland, where Milwaukee is preparing for Wednesday’s game against the Cavs. Martin recently expressed interest in joining the Cavs, but it’s unclear if he’ll be speaking with anyone in the Cleveland organization while he’s in town. Kidd and Martin have a relationship that dates back to their time as teammates on the Nets in the early 2000s, when they made back-to-back Finals appearances together, Spears notes (on Twitter).
Martin met with the Grizzlies last month and with the Rockets in October, though in each case there were conflicting reports about whether the visits were about coaching positions or playing roles. Spears doesn’t specify what Martin and Kidd will discuss. The Bucks have a full 15-man roster, and every player is fully guaranteed, as our roster counts show. Still, No. 2 overall pick Jabari Parker is expected to miss the season with a torn ACL, Ersan Ilyasova is recovering from a concussion, and center Larry Sanders has been out with flu-like symptoms, leaving the team thin up front.
The Knicks put Martin in the starting lineup 15 times last season, and he averaged 4.3 points and 4.2 rebounds in 19.8 minutes per game across 32 appearances. Still, the former No. 1 overall pick has only played in 50 NBA games since the end of the 2011/12 season.
Coaching Rumors: Jackson, Corbin, Van Gundy
There’s been only one coaching change in the NBA so far this season, but stability has never been a hallmark of the coaching profession. The Cavaliers are reportedly concerned about David Blatt, and while there’s no sign that his job is truly in jeopardy, the rumors have already begun. Here’s more from around coaching circles:
- Several GMs around the league believe that the Cavs coaching job is the one that Mark Jackson would like to have, as those execs have told Chris Mannix of SI.com, who passes along the tidbit in a video report. People around the league reportedly believe that LeBron James wouldn’t want Jackson to coach the team, though they are both clients of agent Rich Paul. Jackson over the summer denied reports that the Cavs had spoken to him about the job before they hired Blatt, and more recently Jackson said that a meeting he had with Kings brass didn’t have to do with coaching that team, either.
- Tyrone Corbin has signed a new contract that calls for him to be the head coach of the Kings through the end of the season, a source tells James Ham of Cowbell Kingdom. Corbin had been on a two-year deal as an assistant coach for the team. He took over head coaching duties earlier this month when the Kings fired Michael Malone.
- Stan Van Gundy says the Pistons job will be his last coaching position and that he promised his wife he’ll retire at age 60, tweets John Denton of Magic.com. Still, the 55-year-old Van Gundy said he’s leaving the door open to coaching beyond his current contract, according to Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link). His deal with the Pistons runs through the 2018/19 season, and Van Gundy, who runs basketball operations for the team in addition to his coaching duties, will turn 60 in August 2019. Van Gundy also promised his wife that he won’t relocate again, Robbins adds (on Twitter). Still, he thought his job with the Magic would be his last, Denton notes (Twitter link).
LeBron James Won’t Rule Out Leaving Cavs?
LeBron James is intent on making the “appropriate business decision” as he approaches his next chance at free agency, even if that means leaving the Cavs, as Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group hears. There would no doubt be harsh public criticism were he to leave Cleveland a second time, but he’s willing to act if his hand is forced, Haynes writes. James, who celebrates his 30th birthday today, has a player option worth more than $21.573MM for next season, though he’s said on multiple occasions that he inked a short-term contract simply to maximize his earnings and without the intention of signing with any other team.
James gave conflicting statements Monday about his feelings regarding coach David Blatt, but the four-time MVP hasn’t gone to Cavs management to request that Blatt be fired, nor will he at any point this season, a league source tells Haynes. James said that his relationship with Blatt improves by the day and that Blatt has the attention of his players, in response to rumors that Cavs management is concerned about the way the roster has taken to Blatt, notes fellow Northeast Ohio Media Group scribe Joe Vardon. Still, when Vardon asked James whether he felt Blatt was the right coach for the team, James simply said, “Yeah, he’s our coach, I mean, what other coach do we have?” as Vardon passes along via Twitter.
The Cavs have reportedly been a “little uncomfortable” with the ability James has to hit free agency again so soon, and he has no desire to play for a “sputtering organization,” Haynes writes. The Cavs, at 18-12, have struggled to establish themselves as the elite team they were roundly expected to be this season. Still, it’s similar to what played out for years ago in Miami, when James was also with a team having difficulty blending the talents on a revamped, superstar-laden roster. The Heat nonetheless made the Finals all four years that James was with the club.
And-Ones: Pistons, Heslip, Clippers, Bulls, Cavs
Pistons coach president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy made it a priority to dedicate an unusual amount of manpower to pro scouting, as Keith Langlois of Pistons.com details. The ability to prepare has Van Gundy more comfortable about the team’s prospects in free agency this coming summer as opposed to this past offseason, when he was new on the job, Langlois notes.
“You don’t want to make a mistake in the draft, but the way it’s set up now, if you make a mistake in the draft at least it’s low cost,” Van Gundy said. If you’re going to go out and spend $14MM a year, $15MM a year on a guy and you make a mistake, now you’re really hurting. So I just want to weight [pro scouting] a little bit more.”
It’ll be interesting to see how that emphasis plays out with the Pistons poised for a high draft pick in 2015. Here’s more from around the league.
- Timberwolves camp cut and D-League leading scorer Brady Heslip will sign with Banvit of Turkey, a source tells David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). Heslip, who’s been playing for Sacramento’s affiliate, had drawn interest from the Clippers, according to Gino Pilato of D-League Digest (on Twitter). The Kings were reportedly giving him strong consideration for a spot on their NBA roster before they fired coach Michael Malone.
- Clippers players aren’t getting along, a source close to the team tells TNT’s David Aldridge, who writes in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com. The Clips, who have title aspirations, are 20-11 and in sixth place in the Western Conference.
- Tom Thibodeau pushed the Bulls to sign Aaron Brooks this past summer as he worried that Derrick Rose would struggle at the start of the season, Aldridge writes in the same piece. Rose hasn’t quite looked his former MVP self, averaging 18.1 points and 4.8 assists and missing 10 of the team’s 30 games, while Brooks has performed capably as a backup, putting up 11.3 PPG and 3.3 APG in 20.3 minutes per night.
- There’s little doubt around the league that David Blatt can coach, but the question was always about whether the Cavs would accept his coaching, and it appears they haven’t been doing so, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com believes (All Twitter links). Stein wonders whether the players, and LeBron James in particular, have given Blatt a fair chance.
David Blatt’s Performance Worries Cavs Brass
12:48pm: Blatt called the notion that he doesn’t have the attention of his players “unfair” as he insisted that it’s not the case, as he spoke to reporters, including Joe Vardon of Northeast Ohio Media Group and Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com (Twitter links)
10:46am: There’s a growing concern in the Cavaliers organization about the way the team’s players are responding to coach David Blatt, report Brian Windhorst and Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The Cavs are off to a 18-12 start and in fifth place in the Eastern Conference, disappointing for a team many picked to win the title after the return of LeBron James and the trade that brought in Kevin Love. There have been “whispers” that some of the Cavs players have issues with Blatt, Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio reported late Sunday, as we passed along. That chatter has been about the lack of attention the players pay to Blatt in huddles as well as the deference they instead give to lead assistant coach Tyronn Lue.
In particular, the perception that the team isn’t expending full effort, especially on defense, is a worry, and the lack of energy and competitiveness is one that Blatt has acknowledged, as Windhorst and Stein observe. Blatt is in his first year as an NBA coach after extensive experience, and success, as a coach overseas, and while he dislikes to be referred to as a “rookie” coach, he’s never faced a challenge quite like the one before him in Cleveland. The Cavs, after four straight years of having missed the playoffs, returned just five players from last year’s team, a league low. The addition of championship-tested veterans like Shawn Marion, Mike Miller and James Jones only heightened the expectations surrounding the club.
The team’s defensive shortcomings likely owe at least in part to the lack of a player who can effectively protect the rim, a need that GM David Griffin has sought to remedy for months. The team’s issues at center are even more profound since the loss of Anderson Varejao to a torn Achilles that’s expected to end his season, and the Cavs are just 1-2 since he went down, having lost to the Heat and the Pistons, both sub-.500 teams. Kyrie Irving also missed the team’s last two games, encompassing a win over the Magic and that Pistons loss, with a hyperextended left knee.
The team hired Blatt in June, with owner Dan Gilbert the driving force behind the move, according to the ESPN scribes. That took place weeks before James committed to signing, and it seemed at the time Blatt joined the team that bringing aboard a coach who had never before held a job in the NBA in any capacity would put the kibosh on the hope that James would return to Cleveland this year. That fear proved to be unfounded. Still, James has said that he didn’t make a formal request of Blatt to alter his role in the team’s offense before doing so, as Windhorst and Stein note, and the four-time MVP refused to answer a question Sunday about whether the team’s recent struggles were a learning experience for Blatt.
Central Notes: Blatt, Jerebko, Hansbrough
The Bulls and Cavaliers, who many assumed were on their way to a clash in the Eastern Conference Finals, would meet in the first round as the respective No. 4 and No. 5 seeds if the playoffs began today. No. 4 signifies a much different fate for the Pistons, who are in line for the fourth-best chance at the No. 1 overall pick, as our Reverse Standings show. Detroit’s win over Cleveland on Sunday was just one more oddity among a season filled with them for Central Division teams. There’s more on the fallout from that amid the latest from around the division:
- LeBron James refused to answer a reporter’s question about whether the team’s losses were a learning experience for coach David Blatt, and there are “whispers” that some Cavs players have issues with the coach, according to Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio. It’s not entirely surprising for some players on any roster to have tensions with a coach, Amico cautions. Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group plants the blame for the Cavs’ slip-ups of late on the team as whole, specifically naming James, Blatt and Kevin Love. Fellow Northeast Ohio Media Group scribe Joe Vardon zeroes in on James for the team’s trouble, citing his apparent lack of full effort and failure to embrace Blatt’s coaching.
- Jonas Jerebko, a free agent at season’s end, is so far the most direct beneficiary of the Pistons‘ decision to waive Josh Smith, seizing the opportunity for more playing time with strong performances, MLive’s David Mayo observes.
- Bulls training camp invitee Ben Hansbrough has signed with Spain’s Laboral Kuxta Vitoria (aka Saski Baskonia), the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). David Sardinero of Kia En Zona reported the move before it happened (translation via Carchia). The point guard had been playing with the D-League affiliate of the Pistons before that team rescinded his rights to accommodate his move overseas.
Eastern Notes: Cavaliers, Celtics, Pierce
Brendan Haywood may be the Cavaliers‘ best trading chip for replacing Anderson Varejao, reports Terry Pluto of The Plain Dealer, which is ironic because Varejao’s contract is structured similar to Haywood’s. Because Haywood makes $2MM this season and a non-guaranteed $10MM next year, he is considered attractive to teams wanting to shed salary. Varejao, who is out for the season with a torn Achilles, has the same type of contract, with $10MM non-guaranteed for 2017/18, the final year of his deal.
There’s more from the Eastern Conference:
- The trade that brought Brandan Wright from the Mavericks has created a logjam for the Celtics, reports A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com. The addition of Wright, who came to Boston along with Jameer Nelson and Jae Crowder, has left coach Brad Stevens with five big men who deserve playing time. The situation will undoubtedly result in Boston getting phone calls about their availability before February’s trade deadline. “Sometimes I think it’s better not to play somebody and communicate that than to play guys four minute spurts,” Stevens said. “I think that’s tough. I don’t think it’ll be anything we settle on anytime soon.”
- The Wizards‘ Paul Pierce lamented the Rajon Rondo trade, telling Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post that “the last of the Mohicans is gone.” Pierce was the star of the Celtics team that won the NBA title in 2008, but that squad has been dismantled, with Rondo leaving as the last piece. “When you have a star player, an all-star-caliber player and if you aren’t able to put the other star players around him or you have other young guys, you’re either going to build with him or you build without him,” Pierce said. “… since they probably couldn’t find the necessary pieces to put around him, they decided to move forward and build around the young pieces that they have.”
- Rodney Stuckey spent the first seven years of his career as a member of the Pistons, and he points to the trade that sent Chauncey Billups to the Nuggets as a critical misstep for the franchise, observes Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press. “I wish they wouldn’t have traded away Chauncey, to be honest with you,” Stuckey said. “I wish they would’ve took the San Antonio Spurs philosophy of keeping all their vets and get younger guys around their vets and doing it that way. You see how successful they are.”
Charlie Adams contributed to this post.
And-Ones: Allen, Pistons, Pierce, Mensah-Bonsu
Joel Brigham of Basketball Insiders compiled a list on his take of who the best available free agents are. At the the very top is Ray Allen, who we learned earlier today is mulling retirement. We’ll look at the latest on Allen and round up more from around the league below:
- The news that Allen is considering retirement is hardly surprising to Kurt Helin of Pro Basketball Talk, who heard as early as last summer that the veteran guard would be unlikely to move on to Cleveland with LeBron James since it would require relocating his family and living in a cold climate.
- Pistons coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy isn’t shy about praising team owner Tom Gores, as Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press reveals. “I’ve said this for a few months, I absolutely mean it: I’ve got confidence that over time here we’re going to get this turned around, but if we don’t it ain’t gonna be on Tom Gores,” Van Gundy said. “He’s doing absolutely everything anyone can do. I can’t imagine an owner doing more or even close to what he’s been willing to do.“
- Long-time Celtics player Paul Pierce understands Boston’s decision to trade Rajon Rondo, writes Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post. “It was either ‘We’re going to build around him’ or ‘We’re going to build for the future,’” Pierce said. “That’s what most teams do. When you have a star player, an all-star-caliber player and if you aren’t able to put the other star players around him or you have other young guys, you’re either going to build with him or you build without him.. They decided to move forward and build around the young pieces that they have.“
- The Greek club AEK Athens is finalizing a deal with Pops Mensah-Bonsu, David Pick of Eurobasket.com reports (Twitter link). The only hurdle at this point is his physical exam, Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia tweets. Mensah-Bonsu, who was briefly in training camp with the Nuggets this fall, has been free since Hapoel Jerusalem released him earlier this month.
Eddie Scarito contributed to this post.