Several NBA Teams Eyeing Dahntay Jones
AUGUST 1ST: The Wizards were indeed present at the workout, but they don’t have interest in signing Jones, reports Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post (Twitter link).
JULY 30TH: The Kings, Cavs, Spurs, Thunder and Wizards were all in attendance at a workout that Jones held today in Las Vegas, tweets Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. Between 15 and 20 NBA clubs were set to take a look at him this week, as Kennedy reported earlier this month.
JULY 21ST: Ten-year NBA veteran Dahntay Jones is set to work out for the Knicks and Sixers this week, and in addition to a reported meeting with the Clippers earlier this month, he also worked out for that team, too, as Frank Isola of the New York Daily News reports. The shooting guard and Mark Bartelstein client is close with former Nuggets teammate Carmelo Anthony, though New York’s addition of Jones would only add to a logjam at the two-guard that Knicks GM Steve Mills has already publicly acknowledged.
The Knicks are apparently discussing trades involving J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert to clear up that position, as we noted Sunday. New York also worked out Jones this past February, seemingly the closest brush that the now 33-year-old had with the NBA last season after the Bulls waived him early in the preseason. Still, that was before the arrival of Knicks team president Phil Jackson, and what attracts the team to Jones now is his competitiveness and leadership, according to Isola.
The Knicks, now as they were in February, are limited to the minimum salary, and the Clippers are similarly hamstrung. The Sixers have ample cap room to use on Jones, but it’s nonetheless unlikely that he’ll warrant any better than a guaranteed minimum-salary contract. He’s averaged 5.6 points in 16.3 minutes per game over his career, and put up 3.4 PPG in 13.0 MPG in 2012/13, his last NBA season.
Eastern Notes: LeBron, Wade, Monroe, Bucks
Dwyane Wade said today that he didn’t try to recruit LeBron James back to the Heat when the two spent time together shortly before the four-time MVP announced his decision to sign with Cleveland, as Wade told reporters, including Jason Lieser of the Palm Beach Post. James didn’t tell Wade about his decision until after their time traveling back to Miami from Las Vegas, according to Wade, but James dropped enough hints to make his choice apparent.
“We had a long flight back from Vegas,” Wade said. “I probably knew then, without him telling me at that moment. You could tell where someone’s heart is and what they’re thinking. I kind of knew at that moment. As his friend, I’m just supportive. As crazy as that might sound, I’m supportive of my friend doing what makes them happy. Obviously same thing with him in this situation. You’ve gotta do what makes you happy — selfishly do what makes you happy. The decision to go back home was that.”
There’s more from Wade amid the latest from the Eastern Conference:
- Wade also said that he wanted to be with a winning team more than he wanted the money he sacrificed when he opted out of his contract and re-signed with the Heat on a discount deal, as Lieser notes. Wade is convinced that the total of $10.694MM over the next two seasons that the transactions cost him gives Miami a better chance at success. (Twitter links).
- Greg Monroe‘s interest in returning to the Pistons isn’t too strong, but while Detroit talked with the Hawks and perhaps the Suns about sign-and-trades involving him, those teams have moved on, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports told podcaster Aime Mukendi Jr. Buddy Grizzard of Hawks/Hoop provides the transcription.
- The Bucks gave second-round pick Johnny O’Bryant $600K in the first year of an otherwise minimum-salary contract, notes Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). Milwaukee used part of its cap space to complete the deal with this year’s 36th overall pick.
Eastern Notes: Irving, Lottery, Moore, Bayless
Kyrie Irving is still upset with rumors that he wanted out of Cleveland that persisted until he signed a five-year extension nearly a month ago, and he has no issue with ceding his position as the preeminent star of the Cavs to LeBron James, as Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding details. Of course, Irving might wind up as the third most important player on the team should Cleveland swing a deal for Kevin Love. There was news on that front earlier, and we’ll pass along a few more items from around the Eastern Conference here:
- The league’s proposal for evening out the odds in the draft lottery isn’t generating a ton of enthusiasm from the Sixers or anyone else, Grantland’s Zach Lowe writes. Critics most commonly suggest that it wouldn’t effectively deter tanking for the top pick and that it would encourage tanking among teams with a chance to make the playoffs, according to Lowe. Many agree with the Sixers that immediate implementation of the proposal for next year’s draft would be an issue.
- The league projects the Sixers to have turned a net profit of about $10.4MM from last season, Lowe also reveals in his piece. Still, the Sixers didn’t make any contributions to revenue sharing last season, Lowe writes, a matter that had reportedly been a bone of contention for other clubs.
- Former Magic guard E’Twaun Moore is drawing interest from Olimpia Milano of Italy, Sportando’s Enea Trapani reports. Orlando withdrew its qualifying offer to Moore last month, making him an unrestricted free agent.
- The contract that Jerryd Bayless signed today with the Bucks is for two years and a total of $6MM, a source tells Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
- Hawks swingman Kyle Korver has been re-elected to a three-year term as vice president of players union, Lowe reports (Twitter link).
Eddie Scarito contributed to this post.
Wolves, Cavs Ramp Up Kevin Love Talks?
THURSDAY, 8:22am: A source tells Ken Berger of CBSSports.com that the Cavs and Wolves haven’t spoken for about two weeks. That’s in part because of the 30-day no-trade period for Wiggins, but Berger also hears that Wolves owner Glen Taylor is still reluctant to trade Love.
WEDNESDAY, 9:55pm: The question is no longer “if” Kevin Love will be traded to the Cavs, but “when” the deal will actually go down, as the Wolves are no longer in serious talks about Love with any team other than Cleveland, sources tell Marc Stein and Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com. Reports indicated earlier this week that the Bulls had re-emerged as a serious suitor for the All-Star forward, but Stein and Windhorst now hear that Chicago is feeling pessimistic about their chances of putting together a package strong enough to trump a potential Cavs offer. The Warriors, who have also been making a strong push for Love, remain unwilling to include Klay Thompson in any of their proposals, according to Stein and Windhorst.
League sources expect the Wolves to walk away from the Love saga with no less than Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett, and a future first-round selection, write the ESPN.com scribes. The Wolves have long prioritized the acquisition of Wiggins over any of their options. NBA rules prohibit a player from being traded within 30 days of signing a rookie-scale contract, which Wiggins did last week, so the two clubs will have to wait until at least August 23rd before completing what appears to now be the seemingly inevitable deal. Still, sources insisted that the neither side will acknowledge a deal until the 30-day window passes.
The Wolves are determined to unload J.J. Barea‘s contract as part of a Love trade, reveal Stein and Windhorst, who add that Minnesota is open to adding a third team to a deal in order to absorb the guard’s expiring contract. The Wolves reached an agreement to bring aboard Mo Williams yesterday afternoon, and the team is exploring options that would help in a pursuit to acquire Thaddeus Young from the Sixers.
LeBron James is “looking forward” to playing alongside Love, his Olympic teammate, according to the pair of ESPN reporters. Love is poised to opt out of his deal next summer no matter where he ends up for this season, Stein and Windhorst write, but such a move will only be an effort to secure a more lucrative, long-term arrangement, and not necessarily to leave the Cavs should he be traded there. Although Golden State could shake the situation up by putting Thompson on the table in an offer, the Wolves’ fondness of Wiggins, the first pick in this summer’s draft, will likely be too much to overcome, according to Stein and Windhorst. There have been contradictory reports on whether or not the Cavs would be willing to include the Kansas prospect in a trade, but the latest intel seems to suggest they’re open to doing so if they can bring in Love.
Pat Riley On Heat Offseason
Heat President Pat Riley spoke to reporters today via a teleconference in regards to Miami’s offseason, losing LeBron James to the Cavaliers, and the franchise’s prospects for the upcoming season and beyond. Ira WInderman of the Sun Sentinel recapped the interview, and here are some of the highlights:
Discussing his re-tooled roster:
“I feel very good about where we are right now, at this moment, with the 12 guys under contract. Unlike a lot of the prognosticators . . . I feel with all the conversations I’ve had with these players, that we’re going to be up to the challenge.”
On the departure of James:
“You recover. I don’t want to go back in history, but after 45 years of being in the league, I think I’ve been around 15 transcendent players that walked out the door . . . and you move on. We were shocked, but we recovered. It was a tough blow to take, but we’ve recovered very well, and I think we will continue to recover.”
Discussing his plan entering this year’s free agency period:
“I went in with the notion that he [LeBron] was coming back. So I was selling it to players. I let him know that prior to free agency, that was the direction I was going. He never said to me, ‘Don’t do that‘.”
Discussing re-signing Dwyane Wade despite his recent injury history:
“When it comes to Dwyane, we’re just going to see where we are with him. And we think with what he’s done this summer, there’s the possibility of Dwyane can return to where he was before he ceded a good part of his game to LeBron, and the same thing with Chris.”
On re-signing Chris Bosh:
“He’s the most versatile big man in the NBA. And that’s what the market was for him, and Micky [Arison] stepped up to the plate. . . . I’ll be [expletive] if I was going to let him walk out the door.”
On signing Luol Deng late in the free agency rush:
“I think the first day that I met with him, I truly believe if we could have signed him, he would have signed. At that time, we were an exception team. We were sort of dealing with the thought we were an exception team. . . . So that discussion had to take a number of meandering roads. But he knew that we wanted him, that we would do whatever we could to get him.”
Wolves Targeting Thaddeus Young
3:08pm: The Sixers want at least a first-round pick in return for Young, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities. That echoes Philadelphia’s stance regarding Young at the trade deadline this past February.
2:29pm: The Wolves are interested in acquiring Thaddeus Young as part of a Kevin Love trade, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Minnesota has been working on ways to deal for Young, either as part of a Love deal or through a separate transaction, Stein writes, though those efforts have been going on for quite some time, tweets Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press.
The Sixers have reportedly held interest in trying to fold Young into a deal that would send Love to another team and allow Philadelphia to recoup other assets. Sixers GM Sam Hinkie nonetheless said after the draft that he expected Young would be back with the team, as Stein notes, though the general belief is that the Sixers are open to trading their 26-year-old combo forward, according to the ESPN scribe. Young is set to make more than $9.4MM this coming season and has an early termination option he can exercise to hit free agency next summer.
The ideal scenario for the Wolves involves a three-team arrangement involving Cleveland in which Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett and Young end up in Minnesota, Love goes to the Cavs, and expiring contracts and draft picks head to Philadelphia, according to Krawczynski. Still, that idea is just one of many in play, Krawczynski cautions (Twitter links). The Cavs can’t deal Wiggins until August 23rd, since league rules stipulate that a draft pick can’t be traded for 30 days after he signs, as Wiggins did this past Thursday.
Poll: Should Cavs Deal Wiggins For Love?
Heading into this offseason, the chances of Kevin Love heading to the Cavaliers were slim. But that was before LeBron James decided to return his talents to Cleveland. When LeBron announced his decision to sign with the Cavs, he preached patience, and in a move to lower expectations, implied that the team wouldn’t expect to contend for a championship this coming season.
But acquiring a player of Love’s caliber could certainly accelerate that timetable, which is one reason that Cleveland has seemingly been burning up the phone lines trying to work out a deal to acquire the stat-sheet-filling power forward. The feeling is apparently shared by Love, who, as recently reported, may have formally requested a trade to Cleveland via his agent.
Numerous other teams have been attempting to work out a deal, including the Warriors, Celtics, Lakers, Bulls and Knicks. Golden State still appears to be Cleveland’s main competitors for Love, but the Warriors have expressed an unwillingness to include Klay Thompson as part of the deal, which has stalled talks between the two franchises.
The potential blockbuster deal between the Wolves and the Cavs is being complicated by the insistence of Minnesota coach and president of basketball operation Flip Saunders that Cleveland include No. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins as part of any package for Love. Wiggins recently signed with the Cavs, so they will have to wait 30 days before they can officially deal him away. But that is only a minor issue if both franchises are serious about making a trade.
Should the Cavs relent and include Wiggins if it nets them Love? Wiggins has a wealth of potential and could turn out to be a superstar, and the type of player you can build a champion around, but he has yet to play a minute of regular season action. Whereas Love has career averages of 19.2 PPG, 12.2 RPG, and 2.5 APG. He’s also only 25 years old and just entering his prime. The knock on Love of course is that in six seasons he has yet to lead his team to the playoffs, and that he is a subpar defender.
As for Wiggins, his value is more theoretical at this point. There have been numerous players, including first overall draft picks, who enter the league being touted as franchise changing talents, only to disappoint and underperform. The ceiling on the rookie appears to be incredibly high, but is holding onto him and gambling he’ll turn out to be a better player than Love worth the risk?
The other aspect to factor in is the leverage that Cleveland may have gained in the trade talks if Love indeed told the Timberwolves that he would opt out after the 2014/15 season and would not re-sign with the team. And if Love also specifically requested a trade to Cleveland, that could complicate matters further.
Cleveland could also decide to hold off on depleting its young assets and simply play out this season with its current roster, then try to clear enough cap room to sign Love next summer outright. This might allow them to keep Wiggins, Anthony Bennett, and whichever other pieces, including draft picks, that they would have had to ship to Minnesota to get this deal done, but it would still be a challenge. The Cavs already have more than $48MM in commitments for 2015/16, assuming James opts in and the team picks up its option on Dion Waiters.
So now it’s time for you to step into Cavs GM David Griffin‘s shoes and make the call. Do you relent and include Wiggins if it will bring Love’s talents to Cleveland? Or do you draw a line in the sand and refuse to offer Wiggins, even if it potentially costs you a LeBron-Love pairing?
Should The Cavs Deal Andrew Wiggins For Kevin Love?
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No way. Wiggins is too valuable a piece. 40% (2,113)
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Absolutely. Why is this even a discussion? 40% (2,112)
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Yes, but I might live to regret it. 20% (1,081)
Total votes: 5,306
And-Ones: Beasley, D-League, Dellavedova
Had Steve Mills not taken a front office job with the Knicks, he’d still be a leading candidate to take over the head of the NBA Player’s Association, writes Keith Schlosser of the Knicks Blog. The strong working relationship Mills has built with Phil Jackson seemingly makes it unlikely he’d consider bowing out from his job in New York to pursue an opportunity with the NBAPA, says Schlosser. Here’s a roundup from around the league:
- Several teams have expressed interest in unrestricted free agent Michael Beasley, reports Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (on Twitter). Front offices are intrigued by the efficiency and maturity that the former second-overall pick put on display with the Heat last season, hears Kennedy.
- One potential fit for Beasley might be the Lakers, opines Kennedy, who notes that the forward is currently working out with Kevin Durant in Los Angeles (Twitter link).
- Two rule changes are being discussed that would further push the D-League toward a future where one-to-one affiliate relationships exist for every NBA team, sources tell Gino Pilato of DLeagueDigest.com. One of the potential changes would expand the amount of players cut from training camp a team could protect with assignment rights, and the other would eliminate the ability for D-League clubs to add players by tryout, tipping the scales further toward one-to-one roster building that more closely resembles a minor league system.
- Pilato adds that the outcome of the Thunder‘s handling of Josh Huestis is a significant factor in whether the D-League, currently without a president, will be further pressed into a one-to-one structure.
- Matthew Dellavedova’s minimum salary went from non-guaranteed to fully guaranteed for this season when the Cavs elected to keep him through Friday, according to the data that Mark Deeks of ShamSports compiled.
- Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders looks at the few teams with the mid-level exception still at their disposal, and a handful of free agents that are hoping to be signed in that value range.
Charlie Adams and Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Western Notes: Love, Miller, Lakers, Clippers
Kevin Love and the Wolves were likely on the same page regarding his decision to sit out this summer’s Team USA activity, tweets Chris Mannix of SI.com. Mannix gets the sense that both sides were in favor of a cautious approach so that an injury won’t throw a wrench in the trade market for Love. Here’s more from out West:
- The Wolves’ chance to convince Love to remain in Minnesota beyond this season has passed, writes Charley Walters of St. Paul Pioneer Press. Walters says the power forward will not be persuaded at this point, and that his preference is to play with LeBron James in Cleveland, which aligns with the rumored trade request we passed along this morning.
- Darius Miller‘s deal with the Pelicans is a two-year, partially guaranteed contract for the minimum salary, according to the New Orleans salary sheet updated by Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.
- Pincus grades the Lakers offseason, giving the team poor marks for striking out on their free agent targets, in a piece for the Los Angeles Times.
- Fellow Los Angeles Times scribe Broderick Turner judges the Clippers‘ offseason a modest success. Turner thinks it’s possible the addition of Spencer Hawes could help nudge the team closer to the very top of the Western Conference.
Pluto’s Latest: Love, Cavs, Wolves
Terry Pluto of The Plain Dealer hears that, unless something changes, the Wolves will not relent on their demand for Andrew Wiggins as part of any trade package with the Cavs for Kevin Love. It will be interesting to see if the rumored trade request from Love would be the kind of change needed to soften that stance. Pluto’s full piece is worth the read, but we’ll run down some of the highlights here:
- Minnesota and Cleveland haven’t had serious discussions about a Love trade for a week, writes Pluto. We heard recently that the trade market for Love was quiet in general, although speculation has continued to proliferate.
- Pluto also hears that the expectation for any would-be Love trade to Cleveland would be that the forward would still decline his player option next season, giving him the ability to re-sign to a longer, more lucrative deal.
- Minnesota is considering the unlikely possibility of keeping Love through the season and then working out a sign-and-trade with another team next summer, per The Plain Dealer scribe.