Finney-Smith Gets Partial Guarantee; Cuban Still Not Eager To Talk Trades
Dorian Finney-Smith‘s contract with the Mavericks called for the partial guarantee on his minimum salary to increase to $200K if he remained with the team beyond December 5, as our schedule of guarantee dates shows. There has been no word about that deadline changing, and Dallas’ decision-makers are “pretty high” on Finney-Smith, as Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News writes, so it’s probably safe to assume he received that increased guarantee. The young forward will have his full $543K salary guaranteed if he remains under contract through January 10.
- Asked again about the possibility of trading veterans and looking ahead to next season, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said the team would probably know its direction within a month or so, but he isn’t ready to discuss it yet, per Sefko. “What’s the point of addressing this now?” Cuban said. “We’ll know when we know and it won’t be a surprise. If we’re not winning games, it’ll be one thing. If we’re winning a bunch of games … we’ll have a different attitude. It just depends on the circumstance.”
Andrew Bogut Undergoing MRI On Knee
As head coach Rick Carlisle said, the Mavericks believe they “dodged a bullet” on Bogut’s injury, which could have been much more serious, but the veteran center will still likely be sidelined for multiple weeks, per MacMahon. Bogut should return to the court well in advance of February’s trade deadline, and by the time he gets back in the lineup, the Mavs’ hopes of making a run at a playoff spot may have further dwindled, increasing the likelihood that the former No. 1 pick gets dealt. MacMahon reported on Monday that Dallas isn’t shopping Bogut at the moment, but could consider a move in the new year if the chance to make the postseason slips away.
After leaving Monday night’s game against the Hornets with an apparent leg injury, Mavericks center Andrew Bogut has initially been diagnosed with a hyperextended knee, according to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon. MacMahon reports that Bogut will undergo an MRI on Tuesday, which the team is hoping will confirm that initial diagnosis.
As head coach Rick Carlisle said, the Mavericks believe they “dodged a bullet” on Bogut’s injury, which could have been much more serious, but the veteran center will still likely be sidelined for multiple weeks, per MacMahon. Bogut should return to the court well in advance of February’s trade deadline, and by the time he gets back in the lineup, the Mavs’ hopes of making a run at a playoff spot may have further dwindled, increasing the likelihood that the former No. 1 pick gets dealt. MacMahon reported on Monday that Dallas isn’t shopping Bogut at the moment, but could consider a move in the new year if the chance to make the postseason slips away.
Celtics May Target Andrew Bogut
Between now and the February trade deadline, the Celtics are expected to strongly consider adding a defensive-minded, rebounding big man, according to A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com, who suggests that Mavericks center Andrew Bogut will likely emerge as a trade target for Boston.
While Bogut is considered a logical trade candidate based on his talent, his expiring contract, and the Mavericks’ 4-15 record, sources tell Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com that Dallas has “no immediate intention” to shop Bogut, since the team still wants to try to salvage its season. That lines up with owner Mark Cuban‘s comments last week about how the Mavs have no intention to tank this season.
Still, the Mavs don’t look like a playoff contender, particularly with Dirk Nowitzki out indefinitely, and if the February trade deadline draws closer and a postseason berth isn’t realistically within reach for the franchise, Dallas could become motivated to move Bogut, writes MacMahon. As the ESPN scribe notes, Mavs management recognizes that the veteran center has plenty of value on the trade market, with league sources suggesting to MacMahon that Bogut should be worth a first-round pick.
A former first overall pick, Bogut has seen his scoring average dip over the years, and is currently averaging just 4.1 PPG for Dallas. However, the 32-year-old is contributing 10.6 RPG in 25.9 minutes per night, and is the sort of reliable rim protector that a handful of contending teams may covet at the deadline. He’ll earn just over $11MM this season before becoming eligible for unrestricted free agency in 2017.
Mavericks Notes: Nowitzki, Bogut, Rondo, Barnes
Shortly after being ruled out indefinitely with a lingering Achilles problem, Dirk Nowitzki told reporters he is “all in” for the rest of the Mavericks’ season, relays Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com. Soreness in his right Achilles tendon has limited Nowitzki to five games this season. The problem began after he played 38 minutes on opening night. The veteran forward, who re-signed this summer for $50MM over two years, said he remains committed to this season despite the pain and Dallas’ 4-15 start. “This is obviously not a career-ending injury that I’ve got,” he said. “It’s something that just keeps lingering unfortunately. I can hopefully get over it. There’s still a lot of season left. December just started. We know that there’s a lot of games coming, so hopefully sometime soon I’ll be out there and then stay out there. I don’t want to jump in and out of the lineup with soreness or fight this whole year. I’d love to be healthy and stay out there once I go.”
There’s more from Dallas:
- Center Andrew Bogut says the Mavericks have to turn things around quickly to have any hope for the playoffs, tweets Dwain Price of The Fort Worth Star Telegram. “We probably honestly genuinely got about a month left to try and salvage this season,” Bogut said before Saturday’s win over the Bulls. The Mavericks’ performance over the next few weeks may determine if Bogut remains with the team all season. He will be a free agent next summer and could be traded before the February 23rd deadline if Dallas isn’t in contention.
- Coach Rick Carlisle remains a supporter of Rajon Rondo even though they had a rocky relationship during the point guard’s time in Dallas, according to Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News. Carlisle gave a glowing report about Rondo to the Bulls’ coaching staff when the team was considering making an offer to him in free agency. “I’ve recommended Rondo to a couple teams who have called me about him the last couple years,” Carlisle said. “As a competitor, you’re not going to find a guy better or more resourceful. It didn’t work out here for various reasons. It just was not a good fit. We did everything we could to make it work.”
- Harrison Barnes is still adjusting to being a primary scorer after starting his career as a complementary piece in Golden State, writes Pat James of The Charlotte Observer. The Mavericks gave Barnes a four-year, $94MM contract this summer and promised him a larger role in the offense. “You just have to go and be aggressive,” he said. “That’s just the mentality coach has been trying to get me to be in this entire season. When he [Carlisle] draws up that play, it can’t be that I’m indecisive or thinking, ‘What play should I do?’ It’s just got be, ‘Make a read, and make or miss you live with the result.’ ”
Dirk Nowitzki Out Indefinitely
Dirk Nowitzki has missed 11 of the last 13 games, including three straight, with a right Achilles strain and the Mavericks want to give him the best chance at returning to the floor and playing as much as possible without any lingering problems, Eddie Sefko The Dallas Morning News reports. When asked how long the big man will be out, coach Rick Carlisle said “indefinitely.”
“I talked to Casey [Smith, athletic trainer] about it [on Friday] and I think he’s going to be out for a while,” Carlisle said. “I think indefinitely is an accurate word until we tell you something. We’re not trying to hide anything here. But taking daily questions about it gets exhausting for him. If it’s not going to happen real soon, then what’s the point. Progress has been made, it’s just not there yet.”
Nowitzki, who re-signed with the team on a two-year, $25MM deal, has only played in five games this season. In those contests, he averaged 12.2 points and 6.4 rebounds per game while shooting only 35.8% from the field.
Mavs Notes: D. Williams, Nowitzki, Carlisle
Despite his team’s NBA-worst record, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban stated earlier this week that he has no interest in tanking this season. In Cuban’s view, the benefits of tanking don’t necessarily outweigh the risks, since even the league’s worst team only has a 25% chance at the first overall pick, and clubs risk creating a losing culture by deliberately angling for a top draft pick.
Still, as Kevin Herrington of The Dallas Morning News explains, it wouldn’t be hard for the Mavs to engaged in a “natural tank.” With a handful of veteran players banged up and dealing with various injuries, there’s no need to push those players, says Herrington. It makes more sense to let them get healthy, perhaps trading a veteran or two, and to let the club’s younger players take on larger roles. No team this year looks as bad as last season’s 10-win Sixers, so the Mavs could very well end up with one of the NBA’s worst records even if they stay competitive, as Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post writes.
Let’s round up a few more notes out of Dallas…
- Mavs point guard Deron Williams has partnered with local MMA coach Sayif Saud to open a new MMA gym in Dallas, according to Mark Francescutti of The Dallas Morning News. Williams says his MMA training has helped lessen the effect of physical impact on his body, and hasn’t ruled out the idea of competing in the sport after his NBA career ends.
- With the Mavs struggling and his troublesome Achilles keeping him out of action, Dirk Nowitzki is “mired in basketball misery” at the moment, says Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com. While Nowitzki likely won’t be afforded the luxury of finishing his career on a title contender like Tim Duncan did, he’ll still be remembered as one of the NBA’s great players when he calls it a career, as Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich asserts. “What they’ve done is iconic, unique,” Popovich said of Nowitzki and Duncan. “They deserve whatever accolades they get from whatever source. If each of them played seven more years and couldn’t do anything, they still deserve it.”
- Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News takes a closer look at the impact that Mavs head coach Rick Carlisle is having on younger players like Justin Anderson and Dwight Powell in Dallas this season.
Mavericks Notes: Nowitzki, Bogut, Curry, Gibson
Mavericks veteran Dirk Nowitzki should be back for another season no matter how this one turns out, according to Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News. A strained Achilles has limited Nowitzki to just five games as the Mavs have stumbled to a 3-13 start. In a question-and-answer column, Sefko says the 38-year-old still has a strong desire to play and won’t want to walk away from the $25MM he is owed next season.
There’s more tonight out of Dallas:
- Center Andrew Bogut understands that he will only be in Dallas for one season, and maybe less, Sefko adds in the same piece. The veteran center was acquired in an offseason deal with the Warriors when Golden State was shedding salary to sign Kevin Durant. Bogut has started all 13 games that he has played and is grabbing 10.5 rebounds per night, but his expiring contract may make him attractive to a contender before the February deadline.
- Seth Curry will take time to develop as a point guard, Sefko cautions in a separate story. After signing a two-year, $6MM deal in July, Curry has been pressed into service because of injuries to Deron Williams, J.J. Barea and Devin Harris. Sefko says Curry works on ballhandling as much as his brother Stephen does, and just needs repetition and confidence to improve as a point guard.
- Guard Jonathan Gibson and center A.J. Hammons are the players most likely to be let go if Dallas needs to open a roster spot, Sefko says later in the same story. Gibson re-signed with the Mavericks earlier this month after being waived during the preseason, and Hammons is a rookie second-round pick out of Purdue. Sefko adds that everyone except Nowitzki should be considered as trade candidates between now and the deadline.
- We rounded up a few more Mavs notes earlier in the day.
Mavs Notes: Acy, Nowitzki, Rondo, Carlisle
Earlier today, we passed along comments from Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who said on Sunday night that his team doesn’t have any interest in tanking this season, despite a league-worst 3-13 record so far. Cuban’s thoughts on tanking, the 2017 draft, and not wanting his team to grow accustomed to losing created the most interesting Mavs-related headline of the day, but there are plenty of other notes out of Dallas to round up. Let’s check them out…
- The D-League’s Los Angeles D-Fenders have claimed Quincy Acy off waivers, but will trade him to the Texas Legends in a deal that involves a 2017 first-round pick, reports Chris Reichert of The Step Back (via Twitter). Acy was waived by the Mavs earlier this month, and is now on track to join Dallas’ D-League affiliate, once the claim and trade are made official.
- Dirk Nowitzki returned to action last week, but his Achilles issues are expected to linger into December and won’t go away overnight, as Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News writes. Nowitzki sat out Sunday’s game against the Pelicans, and will likely continue to sit out the occasional game going forward to avoid any setbacks, per head coach Rick Carlisle.
- Although his time in Dallas didn’t work out like he hoped it would, Bulls point guard Rajon Rondo praised Carlisle, telling K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune that he has “a lot of respect” for his former head coach. “Just because things don’t go well doesn’t mean you hate a person or that the media perception is right,” Rondo said. “Rick and I had a good relationship in the beginning. We tried to work it out. I worked with him every day on my shot. We watched film together. Not every marriage works. It was a learning process.”
Mark Cuban: Mavs Not Interested In Tanking
The Mavericks are off to a slow start this season, with a league-worst 3-13 record so far, as our 2016/17 Reverse Standings show. However, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said on Sunday night that his club has no interest in engaging in an all-out tank this season, as Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com details.
“Haters gonna hate. We think that you always compete,” Cuban said. “If you’re competing when the league is better, like it is this year, if you don’t do well, you’ll be in a position to get a good pick. Which, remember, even if you have the worst record in the NBA, there’s a 75% chance you’re not going to get the top pick.”
Despite the Mavs’ struggles in the first month of the 2016/17 campaign, Cuban wouldn’t necessarily acknowledge that it’s a rebuilding season in Dallas. He’s also averse to building the roster or having Rick Carlisle coach in a way that would encourage any sort of losing culture, per MacMahon.
“There are so many teams that became four years away from four years away because guys just learned how to lose,” Cuban said. “They stopped caring about any individual game and just got used to it, and you don’t want guys developing those bad habits. We have so many young guys on this team, we want the games to mean something. Not to be, ‘OK, who are we going to pull in the fourth quarter so we can lose this game?’ That’s not how teams develop good habits.”
While Cuban doesn’t view 2016/17 as a “race-to-the-bottom year,” he did acknowledge that he won’t rule out making trades with the future in mind prior to February’s deadline. He also pointed out that the Mavs could end up with a top pick even if they play hard and try to win. The franchise has been hit hard by injuries in the early going, with Dirk Nowitzki, J.J. Barea, Deron Williams, and Devin Harris among the players who have missed significant time.
Still, in Cuban’s view, there aren’t any “Shaqs or LeBrons or Tim Duncans” in the 2017 draft class, and even if there were a player of that caliber out there, finishing with the NBA’s worst record doesn’t guarantee anything.
“The team that has the worst record has a 75% chance that they won’t get the No. 1 pick. That’s not good odds,” Cuban said. “You’ll get a top-three pick … but there’s no good reason to tank unless you think that there’s three difference-makers. Not just All-Stars, but difference-makers.”
And-Ones: Acy, No-Trade Clauses, Trade Exceptions
Quincy Acy, who was waived by the Mavericks last week, has entered the D-League player pool, tweets ESPN’s Marc Stein. With the top choice on the wavier wire, the L.A. D-Fenders will have the first chance to claim Acy, but Stein reports that Dallas’ affiliate, the Texas Legends, are trying to make a deal with L.A. to get his rights (Twitter link). The well-traveled forward has played with four NBA teams in four seasons.
There’s more basketball news tonight:
- LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dirk Nowitzki are the only players with no-trade clauses in their contracts, notes Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders, who adds that players who re-signed with their teams on one-year contracts also have the right to block deals. Pincus offers a preview of trade season, which unofficially begins December 15th when the first group of offseason signees is eligible to be moved. The player who currently has the longest wait before he can be traded is Pelicans guard Anthony Brown, who can’t be dealt until February 21st.
- Five teams have active trade exceptions, Pincus notes in the same piece. The Cavaliers have three: $845,059 through January 12th, $9.6MM through February 18th and $1.3MM through August 15th. The others belong to the Hornets at $1.7MM expiring July 12th, the Clippers at $1.2MM expiring August 15th, the Bucks at $1.7MM expiring September 22nd and the Thunder at $7.4MM expiring November 1st.
- As the owners and players put the finishing touches on a new collective bargaining agreement, there are three issues that both sides are trying to improve, writes salary cap expert Larry Coon of ESPN.com. The issues are making it harder for players to form superteams, creating more opportunities for restricted free agents and turning the D-League into more of a minor league feeder system.