Central Notes: Granger, Cavs, Leuer, Rose
Josh Smith enjoyed his best game as a member of the Pistons last night but it was all for naught as Detroit fell to the Trail Blazers in overtime. Smith had 31 points and seven rebounds, but he was a non-factor in the fourth quarter and OT as the Pistons collapsed in a 111-109 loss. Here’s today’s look at the Central Division..
- The Pacers are targeting next Friday as a return date for Danny Granger, tweets Candace D. Buckner of the Indianapolis Star. Granger, a pending free agent, could become a trade chip for Indiana if he proves to be both healthy and redundant for the Pacers over the next few months.
- As of today, the Cavs-Grizzlies trade involving Jon Leuer, Mo Speights, Wayne Ellington, and a draft pick favors the Grizzlies based on the way Leuer is playing, tweets Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio. The big man is averaging 9.4 PPG and 4.9 RPG in 14 games for Memphis this season.
- Sam Smith of NBA.com argues that coming into the NBA as a teenager, for the most part, stunts your development because you have not had as much chance to develop as a player and have your body develop to play against men. In his view, it’s one possible reason why recent No. 1 overall picks, like Bulls star Derrick Rose, have had injury troubles.
- Earlier today, I rounded up the latest on the Cavs.
Cavs Notes: Waiters, Varejao, Dellavedova
The Cavs aren’t looking to deal but they’re always willing to listen, writes Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio. Cleveland isn’t working hard to make any sort of trade, especially any involving big man Anderson Varejao or guard Dion Waiters. The Cavs have won five of seven since their 4-12 start and both players have had a significant role in that. Here’s more out of Cleveland..
- In this week’s Twitter mailbag, a reader asks Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal if Waiters is on his way out of Cleveland. While Cavs officials continue to say that they want to hang on to the guard, Lloyd gets the feeling that they will move him based on the conversations that he has had lately. The Cavs will stand pat if they don’t get an offer that they like, but it would seem that plenty of teams from around the league are fans.
- If the Cavs are set on dealing Varejao now is the time to do it, writes Bob Finnan of The Morning Journal. The big man is healthy and playing well and some think it’s only a matter of time before he is injured. Varejao played a total of 81 games in the previous three seasons.
- Rookie Matthew Dellavedova is a mini-Varejao who has had a major impact on the Cavs, writes Mary Schmitt Boyer of The Plain Dealer.
Latest On Omer Asik
While there are strong rumbles that the Sixers, led by former Houston exec Sam Hinkie, will be the team to land Omer Asik, Marc Stein of ESPN.com hears that the Celtics are worth keeping an eye on as well. The Celtics have two players in Jeff Green and Brandon Bass that at different salary ranges could fit next to Dwight Howard.
Boston also has a spare first-round draft pick or two to plug into any trade equation to sweeten the deal for the Rockets, a big deal considering that GM Daryl Morey wants to come away with at least one future first. It also helps that the Morey and coach Kevin McHale have longstanding relationships with Celts president Danny Ainge.
Stein wonders openly if the Rockets can afford to take on someone like Green ($18.4MM over two seasons after this one) or Philly’s Thaddeus Young ($19.4MM over same span) when they know they’ll have to give an extension bump to Chandler Parsons when he becomes eligible. That means it’s likely that a third team will get involved in an Asik swap.
Meanwhile, it’s believed that the Cavs like the thought of keeping Anderson Varejao better than the prospect of trading him for Asik. Word is the Cavs would prefer to join in as a third-team facilitator that helps Asik land in a different city. The Hawks also have an attractive frontcourt piece in Paul Millsap, but it’s believed that GM Danny Ferry is holding on to him for a better prize than the disgruntled Houston center.
Eastern Notes: Irving, Rondo, Augustin, Nets
WIll Kyrie Irving stay or go? It’s probably too early to say considering he’s still on his rookie deal with the Cavs, but this is a fanbase that has been burned before. If the yahoo who ran on to the court with a shirt imploring Kyrie not to leave is any indication, Cleveland fans will continue biting their nails until 2016. Scott Cacciola of the New York Times looked at the road ahead for the star guard and the attention that will be around his decision (with a lower case “d”) over the next few years. More from the Eastern Conference..
- Celtics coach Brad Stevens says Rajon Rondo was cleared for contact practice today but he won’t play until the New Year, tweets Jeff Goodman of ESPNBoston.com. Rondo was all over Hoops Rumors earlier this month when it was reported that Carmelo Anthony was working to woo him to New York for the summer of 2015. Both players have denied that ever happening, however.
- D.J. Augustin passed on NBA interest from elsewhere to sign on with the Bulls, writes Shams Charania of RealGM. “My agent and I both felt this would be the best opportunity,” Augustin said. “I just couldn’t pass it up.”
- The win-now approach of the Nets and Knicks is more about seeing who can spend the most money than actually vying for a title, writes Tomas Rios of Sports On Earth.
Rockets Still Plan To Trade Asik Next Week
7:50pm: The Cavs could get involved in an Asik deal if the Rockets need a third team to facilitate a trade, Lloyd writes, adding that it’s not clear what the Cavs would ask for in that scenario. Executives around the league believe the Rockets already have an Asik trade in place, and that GM Daryl Morey and company are seeing if they can find a better offer before they commit to a deal, tweets USA Today’s Sam Amick.
5:27pm: The Cavs don’t have interest in Asik, tweets Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal. Lloyd doesn’t say for certain whether Houston’s demands of more than just Anderson Varejao have put Cleveland off, or if Asik never intrigued the Cavs that much in the first place.
9:53am: Following up on Aldridge’s report, ESPN.com’s Marc Stein says that while the Rockets have had interest in Varejao in previous years, they wouldn’t be inclined to move Asik straight-up for him. As for the Cavs, it’s not clear whether they’d be willing to include additional assets in a swap, particularly since Cleveland would still rather acquire a small forward than a center.
Stein adds that league insiders continue to believe Paul Millsap is Houston’s top target, but as we heard already today, the Hawks don’t seem overly enthusiastic about moving him.
8:36am: A report last week suggested that the Rockets intended to move Omer Asik by December 19th, and the team still appears to be aiming for that self-imposed deadline. TNT’s David Aldridge reports (via Twitter) that the Rockets will trade Asik by Wednesday or Thursday of next week, adding that the Cavaliers should not be discounted, since Anderson Varejao would be a fit in Houston.
December 19th is significant because it gives the team a two-month cushion before this season’s February 20th deadline. Over-the-cap clubs like the Rockets are prohibited from including a recently-acquired player in a trade package within two months of acquiring him, so completing a deal by next Thursday would give Houston the flexibility to flip pieces acquired for Asik at the deadline.
As for Aldridge’s assertion that the Cavs are worth keeping an eye on, Varejao would probably mesh nicely with Dwight Howard in Houston, but I’m not sure it would make sense for Cleveland to pair Asik with Andrew Bynum. Additionally, while Varejao’s cap hit for next season is slightly larger than Asik’s, only $4MM of Varejao’s 2014/15 salary is guaranteed, whereas Asik will be owed a balloon payment of about $15MM. Up until this point, the Cavs have maintained enough 2014 cap space to make a run at a maximum-salary player like LeBron James, so it’s not clear if the team is willing to give up that flexibility.
Whether or not the Cavs are a serious suitor for Asik, it seems as if the Rockets should have plenty of options. The Pelicans, Hawks, Bucks, Celtics, Mavericks, and Sixers are among the other clubs who have been mentioned as potential fits at some point, though some of those destinations look more viable than others. Houston is said to be seeking a quality forward and/or first-round picks in any deal.
Central Notes: Neal, Teague, Cavs
This past offseason, the Spurs extended then-restricted free agent Gary Neal a qualifying offer worth about $1.1MM, which was significantly below the two-year, $7.5MM agreement he eventually reached with the Bucks. According to Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio-Express News, Neal believes he got a fair shake from Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford and understood that he wouldn’t be retained if he wanted more than what San Antonio was initially offering:
“I figured after three years, the Spurs benefitted me, and I benefitted the Spurs…But it’s a business. I kind of knew after Game 7 in the Finals, unless I signed a qualifying offer, I wouldn’t be back…I have no complaints…If (they didn’t give me the opportunity), they could have found another guy one of those summers to shoot 40 percent from three,..I thank Coach Pop a thousand times for that.”
Here’s more out of the Central Division:
- The rest of the league is confused why the Bulls aren’t willing to give Marquis Teague more playing time, tweets Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun. Chicago reportedly dangled Teague in trade talks during the preseason.
- The Cavaliers have recalled Carrick Felix, Sergey Karasev, and Henry Sims from the D-League, as per the team’s official website.
- Pistons forward Gigi Datome is determined to play for the Italian national team next summer, whether it’d be during the FIBA World Cup or the Eurobasket Qualifying Round, reports Emiliano Carchia of Sportando (hat tip to Tuttosport).
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Zwerling On Randolph, Anderson, Gordon
The latest dispatch from Bleacher Report’s Jared Zwerling is chock full of rumors. Let’s dive in:
- The Grizzlies are shopping Zach Randolph, with Ryan Anderson of the Pelicans as the primary target, Zwerling reports. Memphis wants to see Ed Davis continue to develop, and that may help push Randolph out the door. The Pelicans would have to add salary to such a deal to make it work, and Zwerling mentions Austin Rivers as a possibility, noting that he’s dissatisfied with his lack of playing time and is open to a trade.
- A source tells Zwerling that he believes the Pelicans will trade Eric Gordon at some point this season.
- Zwerling hears conflicting reports on whether a rumored Kenneth Faried/Iman Shumpert swap is a possibility for the Nuggets and Knicks, but he says the Knicks are currently reluctant to move Shumpert.
- It’s unlikely the Suns trade either Marcus Morris or twin brother Markieff Morris, according to Zwerling.
- The Sixers would trade Evan Turner for Dion Waiters “in a heartbeat,” a source tells Zwerling, though Cavs owner Dan Gilbert reportedly doesn’t want to trade his shooting guard. The Sixers are worried about what Turner may command in restricted free agency this summer. The Suns could be another landing spot for Waiters, Zwerling writes.
- Courtney Lee, Gerald Wallace and Kris Humphries are on the market in Boston. The Celtics offered Avery Bradley a four-year, $24MM extension this fall, but the guard turned it down, looking for a deal with annual salaries of $8MM.
- The Rockets “adore” D-Leaguer Troy Daniels, Zwerling writes. Daniels is displaying a three-point stroke to go with his 25.1 points per game.
Odds & Ends: Collins, Augustin, Mavs, Cavs
Jannero Pargo‘s contract with the Bobcats became fully guaranteed when the team didn’t waive him yesterday, and A.J. Price passed his contract guarantee threshold with the Timberwolves this weekend. That means the rest of the players with non-guaranteed contracts won’t have their deals fully guaranteed unless they remain on their teams until the leaguewide guarantee date of January 10th. We’ll continue to track non-guaranteed contracts here until that date. Here’s more from around the league:
- Free agent center Jason Collins told Michael K. Lavers of the Washington Blade that he doesn’t pin the reluctance of NBA teams to sign him on his sexual orientation. Collins, who hasn’t appeared in an NBA game since publicly revealing last spring that he is homosexual, says he hopes a team will sign him by March 1st.
- The Bulls are zeroing in on D.J. Augustin, and the move would give them four point guards, not including the injured Derrick Rose. They probably won’t be carrying all four by the end of the season, according to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune.
- With Devin Harris suffering a setback in his rehab, Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning News wonders if the Mavericks will go after Augustin.
- The Cavs have assigned Carrick Felix, Sergey Karasev and Henry Sims to their D-League affiliate, the team announced. It’s the first assignment for Karasev, while Felix and Sims are making return trips to the Canton Charge.
- Other teams reportedly expect the Nuggets will soon trade Jordan Hamilton for little in return, but the third-year small forward has earned the trust of coach Brian Shaw, according to Aaron J. Lopez of Nuggets.com.
- Shelvin Mack is making the most of his non-guaranteed contract with the Hawks, as Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution examines (subscription required).
D-League Updates: Cavaliers, Roberson, James
Here is a look at some of the D-League moves around the NBA:
- The Cavaliers have recalled both guard/forward Carrick Felix and center Henry Sims from their D-League affiliate, the Canton Charge. The rookie Felix has appeared in 3 games for the Cavaliers this season, averaging 5.0MPG and 1.3PPG. Sims has appeared in 6 games so far for Cleveland, averaging 1.7PPG in 5.8 minutes played per contest.
- The Thunder have recalled rookie forward Andre Roberson from the Tulsa 66ers. While Roberson has only appeared in six games for the Thunder this season, he averaged 17.3PPG in his three starts with the 66ers.
- Small forward Damion James has signed with the D-League Bakersfield Jam. James signed with the Nuggets in September but was waived prior to the start of the season. James has played two games so far with the Jam and has filled the stat sheet with 11PPG, 3.5RPG, and 1.5BPG in his short return tenure.
Kings/Raptors Trade Reaction
News of the pending trade between the Raptors and Kings overshadowed Kobe Bryant‘s return to the Lakers, which was supposed to be the story of Sunday night around the NBA. There are plenty of reverberations in the wake of the deal that featured Rudy Gay, and we’ll round them up here:
- The Raptors were at the 15-man roster limit before the trade, and since they’re acquiring four players and giving up three, they’ll have to cut someone. Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun initially figured D.J. Augustin was ripe for the chopping block before hearing Dwight Buycks was most likely to go (Twitter links). HoopsWorld’s Steve Kyler pegs Julyan Stone as the probable cut, but Wolstat (on Twitter) thinks Stone is most likely to stick.
- There was increasing mutual dissatisfaction between the Raptors and Gay, note Adrian Wojnarowski and Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. It’s almost certain that Gay will exercise his $19.3MM option for next season, Wojnarowski and Spears write, and the Kings didn’t ask Gay about his plans regarding the option before agreeing to the trade, USA Today’s Sam Amick tweets.
- The Raptors might not be weakening their team this season, Kyler writes in his NBA AM piece, figuring the players they’re acquiring might be much better than the ones they’re sending out. Kyler also suggests the Kings may use the next couple of months to evaluate Gay to decide whether to flip him at the trade deadline.
- Raptors coach Dwane Casey remains on shaky ground, sources tell Grantland’s Zach Lowe. The Raptors spoke to nearly every team in the league about Gay, Lowe writes, specifically mentioning the Pistons, Bucks and Cavs.
- Toronto brass had already decided to rebuild before they found a taker for Gay, but sources told SportsNet’s Michael Grange just two days prior to the deal that GM Masai Ujiri had essentially given up on what seemed like a futile search for a trade partner.
- In the same piece, Grange writes that league sources were stunned that the Kings were willing to take on Gay, with one executive asking rhetorically, “Doesn’t Sacramento watch the games?”
- Kings GM Pete D’Alessandro has been struggling to accept the idea of another losing season for Sacramento, which helps explain why he’s been so active on the trade market, according to Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee.