Southwest Rumors: Covington, Mavs, Anderson
Robert Covington is in the Rockets plans for next season, but a lot could change before then, tweets Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. Only $150,000 of Covington’s $816,482 salary is guaranteed, and it could be on the chopping block if Houston needs the space to sign one of their free agent targets. Here’s more from around the Southwest Division:
- Mavs owner Mark Cuban told 103.3 FM ESPN Dallas that his team will be aggressive in free agency, but won’t be offering max contracts to anyone (transcription via Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com).
- Cuban added that Mavs coach Rick Carlisle is one of the biggest draws to Dallas for prospective players. “Rick has got the skill set and we’ve got veteran guys who know how to implement offensive and defensive strategies that really give us a unique opportunity. That’s something that very few teams can say,” said Cuban. “If you look at other teams with cap room and then you just look at their coach and if they’ve made the playoffs, you look at how their playoff runs went, you’re not looking at them and saying, ‘Wow, that team really …’ I don’t want to throw anybody under the bus, but their coaches are not as good as Rick Carlisle.”
- The Spurs selection of Kyle Anderson does not indicate that San Antonio is planning for life without free-agent-to-be Boris Diaw, according to Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News (Twitter links). McDonald projects Anderson as likely to go on frequent assignments to the Spurs D-League affiliate this coming season.
Lawrence’s Latest: Boozer, ‘Melo, Grizzlies
There’s genuine fear within the Bulls’ front office that owner Jerry Reinsdorf will refuse to use the amnesty provision on Carlos Boozer this summer, passes along Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News. Chicago will have a hard time creating the cap room necessary to pursue marquee names if they don’t find a way to get Boozer off the books. Here’s more from Lawrence:
- Carmelo Anthony would be interested in teaming up with LeBron James and Kobe Bryant, says Lawrence, but the Lakers are unlikely to have the cap space to bring in both superstars.
- It sounds as if the Rockets‘ pursuit of ‘Melo is unlikely to result in a success. “The only reason Carmelo will go to Houston to listen (to the Rockets) is because of Kevin McHale,” a source told Lawrence. “If the coach wasn’t a top-50, all-time player or was a lesser-name coach, then ‘Melo wouldn’t even visit there. But he’ll listen because it’s Kevin McHale.“
- The Grizzlies are interested in bringing aboard former Knicks president Glen Grunwald to come in and serve under Chris Wallace for two years before taking over the reins as GM, Lawrence writes. That echoes an earlier report from Ken Berger of CBSSports.com but appears to add an expiration date for Wallace’s time in charge of the front office.
- One league source told Lawrence that he wasn’t sure if Bruno Caboclo was even worth a second-round selection. The Raptors selected Caboclo with the 20th pick in the draft, and Lawrence writes that it’s virtually impossible to find a GM who agrees with their decision.
- Utah’s decision to draft Dante Exum isn’t surprising since the the Jazz aren’t sold on Trey Burke as a franchise point guard, reveals Lawrence.
- Dirk Nowitzki won’t even consider signing with a team other than the Mavs this summer, Lawrence confirms.
Knicks Notes: Calderon, Anthony, Thanasis
We learned earlier today that the Knicks are feeling increasingly optimistic at their chances of re-signing Carmelo Anthony, and are planning to make a run at Pau Gasol in free agency. Here’s more from New York:
- Jose Calderon wants to play with Anthony, telling reporters including Marc Berman of The New York Post that he will soon tell the forward that he can make his life easier from the point. “I’m hoping to talk to him for sure,” Calderon said. “I’d love to make everything easier for him and make the team successful and try to get as far as we can.’’
- Calderon added that he would help recruit other players to New York as well. “This is my team,” said Calderon, who has ties to potential Knicks target Marc Gasol. “I’m going to help to improve it as much as I can. Anybody that we can get here or would be interested, I’d be willing to talk to, to try to make them come to the Knicks.”
- Thanasis Antetokounmpo may play in Greece next season, where teams are interested in signing him, reports Berman in a separate piece. Antetokounmpo was drafted with the 51st pick the Knicks received in the Dallas trade.
- Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders runs the numbers on the recent Knicks/Mavs trade. Since Dallas is a non-tax paying team, they were allowed to unevenly match the salaries of Samuel Dalembert, Calderon, and Wayne Ellington for Tyson Chandler, and count Shane Larkin‘s full salary toward the exception. Dallas receives a $1,536,960 trade exception for Larkin’s departure, and New York receives a $3,637,073 exception for Raymond Felton.
- Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPNNewYork.com runs down how the draft moves of the teams planning to pursue Anthony may affect the race to sign the prized free agent.
Knicks Confident About Re-Signing ‘Melo
Sources tell Marc Stein and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com that the Knicks are “quietly confident” they will be able to re-sign Carmelo Anthony, in part due to the star forward’s growing bond with president Phil Jackson. ‘Melo will be chased by teams that appear closer to a championship than New York in free agency, but the Knicks are hoping that their recent trade with the Mavericks, which provided an upgrade at point guard with Jose Calderon, will make their roster more appealing to Anthony.
With head coach Derek Fisher and the newly acquired point guard Calderon, Jackson has put in place some of the pieces for his cherished triangle offense. If Anthony re-signs in New York, one of the biggest remaining gaps for the system would be a skilled big man. The ESPN scribes’ source says that Jackson is planning on pursuing Pau Gasol at a discounted rate to fill that need this summer, and the team has its eye on his brother Marc Gasol for the 2015/16 season, when the Grizzlies center will be a free agent. Currently, the most the Knicks could offer Pau would be the taxpayer’s mid-level exception of $3.278MM, a steep pay decrease from his $19.3MM salary in 2013/14.
This summer will be a highly intriguing one for the Knicks. The hiring of Jackson brought hope to a franchise that has bumbled away opportunities and flexibility for years. Knicks fans have been hoping the Zen Master could work his magic and turn the Knicks’ straw to gold. While a typical turnaround for a franchise as limited as New York requires some losing and patience to regain cap space and assets, Jackson would certainly increase his legend if he could jump start the turnaround in his first year as a front office executive.
Eastern Notes: Bulls, Bucks, Magic
The Bulls trade that sent the No. 16 and 19 picks to the Nuggets for the chance to draft Doug McDermott actually hurt the teams chances of landing Carmelo Anthony, writes Joel Brigham of Basketball Insiders.The article notes that by adding Anthony Randolph‘s $1.825MM salary to McDermott’s $1.898MM cap hold as the 11th pick and the roster charge of over $500,000, Chicago actually now has about $1 million less to offer Carmelo in free agency than they would have had if they kept both picks.
More from the east:
- Despite picking second, the Bucks got their number one draft target in Jabari Parker, writes Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Coach Larry Drew said, “When the announcement came that Andrew Wiggins was the first pick by Cleveland, I looked around the room and Iooked at the faces, and I could see guys were really trying to hold their composure. When it came to our pick, faces just changed because we knew we got the man we really wanted.”
- Despite having had a successful draft, the Magic are looking at the Summer of 2015 as when they will take the next step forward, writes Brian Schmitz of The Orlando Sentinel. With an abundance of cap space and a number of promising young pieces in place, the team should be an attractive landing spot for big name free agents, opines Schmitz.
- Chris Herring of The Wall Street Journal looks at what the Knicks have lost and gained in the wake of the draft and the trade of Tyson Chandler to the Mavericks.
- The Heat are making Norris Cole “very available” in trades, reports Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link).
‘Melo To Meet With Lakers, Rockets, Mavs, Bulls
FRIDAY, 12:43pm: Anthony will also sit down with the Lakers to hear their free agent pitch as he envisions making a decision in the second week of July, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. The Knicks would be willing to offer a max deal to Anthony if necessary to retain him in spite of Jackson’s repeated requests that he take a discount, Spears also hears.
WEDNESDAY, 4:33pm: Anthony hasn’t identified a favorite yet, Broussard writes in a full piece. The meetings haven’t been formally arranged, since teams can’t yet reach out to Anthony, but those are the clubs Anthony has decided to visit, Broussard clarifies. The Knicks remain “very much alive” in the ‘Melo sweepstakes, Broussard adds, reiterating his earlier report that Kobe Bryant intends to reach out to Anthony, too.
4:18pm: Carmelo Anthony will sit down with representatives from the Rockets, Mavs and Bulls when free agency begins on July 1st, reports Chris Broussard of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The Leon Rose client has already met on multiple occasions with Knicks president Phil Jackson and his staff.
That list of teams doesn’t include the Lakers, who appeared this week to be in a group with Houston, Dallas and Chicago at the forefront of the race for the high-scoring forward. Still, there’s nearly a week to go before the start of free agency, so the Lakers may still wind up meeting with him.
The Mavs would appear to have the easiest shot at Anthony given their cap flexibility, and it appears that would be true even with the acquisition of Tyson Chandler, as rumored. The Rockets and Bulls would have to perform some salary cap gymnastics, but Houston appears confident it can dump the salaries of Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin, and the Bulls have the option of amnestying Carlos Boozer. Such maneuvers might not be enough to clear money to make a competitive bid for Anthony on their own, but they’d erase the most significant salary hurdles for those teams.
Western Rumors: Love, Rockets, Nuggets
Here’s the latest from the Western Conference as the draft gets underway:
- The Wolves spent the afternoon in meetings, according to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN (on Twitter), and he wouldn’t be surprised to see some major news come out tonight regarding Kevin Love and the Warriors.
- Meanwhile, Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link) believes that the odds are still against a Love trade materializing tonight. However, sources tell him that the two sides continue to talk despite the hangup over whether Klay Thompson is in play.
- Echoing an earlier report from USA Today’s Sam Amick, Howard Beck of Bleacher Report (on Twitter) hears from a rival executive that the Rockets already have a Jeremy Lin deal lined up and ready to execute if they need the cap space to sign Carmelo Anthony or LeBron James. It’s likely that the Rockets flip the first-rounder they’re acquiring from the Pelicans in the Omer Asik trade, writes Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle.
- David Pick of Eurobasket.com has consistently heard that the Nuggets will take Jusuf Nurkic at No. 11 (Twitter link).
- The Thunder will either draft a wing player or trade the 29th overall pick for one, a source tells Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link).
- The Mavs almost certainly won’t trade for a first-round pick in tonight’s draft, Donnie Nelson says, as Jeff Caplan of NBA.com notes (Twitter link).
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Atlantic Notes: Embiid, Felton, Knicks, Celtics
There’s a “tremendous” chance that the Sixers take Joel Embiid at No. 3, though they’re still deciding, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Still, a source who spoke to Dei Lynam of CSNPhilly.com threw cold water on the idea that Philly was zeroing in on the Kansas big man (Twitter link). Regardless, it won’t be long until we find out. Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- Phil Jackson didn’t want to trade Raymond Felton until he had a sense of what might happen with Felton’s legal situation, notes Chris Herring of The Wall Street Journal (Twitter link). Felton this week struck a plea agreement to avoid jail time on felony gun charges.
- The Knicks have done their homework on Baylor’s Cory Jefferson, leaving rival execs with the impression that they’re targeting him with the No. 34 pick they acquired from the Mavs, tweets Ken Berger of CBSSports.com.
- Any movement the Celtics make from No. 6 will be down, not up, as both A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com and USA Today’s Sam Amick hear (Twitter link).
- The Sixers asked Julius Randle and Noah Vonleh to work out this morning, but it’s unclear whether they accepted the invitation, according to Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link).
- The Nets are making a strong push to buy a pick later in the first round, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com.
Zach Links contributed to this post.
Atlantic Notes: Celtics, Knicks, Dalembert
Baxter Holmes of the Boston Globe spoke to rival execs who offered up anonymous advice for Celtics GM Danny Ainge heading into tonight’s draft. “You’ve got to get Love,” said one Western Conference scout. “You could argue or suggest that you roll the dice on Andrew Wiggins being an All-Pro or Joel Embiid being the next dominant center, but you can’t argue that anybody at 6 and 17 will be better than what Kevin Love, barring injury, will be for a minimum of the next 10 years. You’re basically dealing for one of the conservatively 10 best players in basketball. You can’t turn that down.” Meanwhile, another exec says Boston should hold on to their two first-round choices. Here’s more from around the league..
- Marc Berman of the New York Post (on Twitter) hears that the Knicks have no intention of waiving Samuel Dalembert to turn their taxpayer mini midlevel exception to a full mid-level exception of $5MM. The Knicks like the shot blocker and want him on the roster this season.
- It’s hard to get read on how far Dario Saric will fall, tweets Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated. Several lottery teams liked him before he signed his deal in Turkey and one exec thinks that the Celtics at No. 17 is his floor.
- Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com wonders if the Tyson Chandler deal can help the Knicks hold on to Carmelo Anthony.
- A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com (on Twitter) opines that the Celtics won’t land Love today as they have a better shot of getting a deal done in-season.
- The Knicks acquired a $3,637,073 trade exception equal to the salary of Raymond Felton in Wednesday’s trade with the Mavericks. Meanwhile, the Mavs get a trade exception worth $1,536,960 from Shane Larkin’s salary.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Mavs Notes: Dirk, LeBron, Melo, Chandler
Dirk Nowitzki is thrilled to have Tyson Chandler back in Dallas, writes Sean Deveney of the Sporting News. “He helped me get a championship, so we had great chemistry together,” Nowitzki said when asked about the trade when it was heavily rumored last night. “So if it is true, I will be thrilled.” Dirk went on to say that he’d “love” to welcome Carmelo Anthony to Dallas and will help to recruit him if he’s interested in coming aboard. Here’s more out of Dallas..
- The Mavs are real players for LeBron James and Melo after the trade, a team source told Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com.
- Dirk also told reporters, including Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter) that he expects a short and quick meeting with owner Mark Cuban before coming to terms on a new deal.
- The Mavs initiated the Chandler talks weeks ago and were very motivated to get a deal done, Howard Beck of Bleacher Report tweets.
- Chandler and his camp feel “great” about the trade, a source tells David Aldridge of NBA.com (Twitter link).
- Mark Cuban isn’t admitting a mistake by re-acquiring Chandler, writes MacMahon. “It’s apples and oranges,” Cuban said via an email. “You couldn’t get from there to here.”
- There won’t be any drama from Dirk in free agency, as Jeff Caplan of NBA.com writes.