Denver Nuggets Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Odds & Ends: Collins, Augustin, Mavs, Cavs

December 11th, 2013 at 5:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

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).

Lowe On Nuggets, Faried, Miller, Hamilton

December 10th, 2013 at 9:57am CST by Chuck Myron

The Nuggets have won nine of their last 11 and are in line to receive a high 2014 draft pick from the Knicks, as we explained earlier this morning. Still, their 13-8 record would only be enough for the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference, and as the changes after last season’s 57-win campaign demonstrated, playoff success is the only barometer that matters. New GM Tim Connelly tells Grantland’s Zach Lowe he’s prepared for whatever happens this year. “We have the chance to make some noise,” Connelly said. “And if we’re not good enough, we’ve got some alternate plans.”

Lowe has more from Connelly and details what some of those “alternate plans” might be:

Trade talk involving Kenneth Faried has died down, but executives from other teams expect Denver to trade Andre Miller before the deadline. Still, the Nuggets “adore” him, Lowe writes.
Rival front offices think the Nuggets are prepared to trade Jordan Hamilton, and they don’t believe Denver will expect much in return.
Lowe also hears from execs around the league who view the Nuggets roster as one that might benefit from a strip-down, in spite of all the team’s good-but-not-great talent. Denver nonetheless prefers remaining competitive. “I think our owner would have let us do whatever we wanted,” Connelly said. “But a full-scale rebuild is not the be-all, end-all. It’s a four- to five-year process. And coming off a 57-win season, that’s just not something I would have pushed. There are too many good players here. It would be a disservice not to try, and not to try to win big.”
Connelly isn’t sold on the idea that freeing cap space is a panacea. “We have to be realistic about where we stand in the free agency pecking order,” he said.

Northwest Rumors: Aldridge, Lillard, Hayward

December 7th, 2013 at 3:26pm CST by Chuck Myron

LaMarcus Aldridge spoke to Jim Rome of CBS Sports Radio this week about the trade rumors that surrounded him this summer, chalking it up to passing frustration, as Ben Golliver of Blazer’s Edge notes in his transcript of the most notable passages.

“It was just me being overly emotional at the time,” Aldridge said. “Nobody wants to lose. I’m in my prime right now. At the time, I was a little emotional about not winning or what not. After I had time to talk to (Blazers GM) Neil (Olshey) and the team, I knew they were going to make some moves, bring some guys in.”

Aldridge is eligible to sign an extension, and when Rome asked whether he’d sign one, Aldridge said he’ll deal with the matter in the offseason. His decision will be a key story next summer, and as we await that, there’s more out of the Northwest Division:

Damian Lillard, the Blazers‘ other linchpin, doesn’t seem at all reticent about his willingness to commit to the team long-term, judging by his comments to Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune. “I love it here,” Lillard said. “Hopefully this is where I’ll always be. I’m not saying that just to be politically correct. I really hope so. My family likes it here. Hopefully it will be a career-long thing for me.”
Gordon Hayward discusses this year’s steep increase in his on-court responsibilities with USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt. Hayward professes his love for the team and calls himself a “Jazz guy” in response to a question about his upcoming restricted free agency.
Brian Shaw had been passed over multiple times for head coaching jobs, but before landing his Denver gig this summer he was confident he’d wind up with the Nuggets, Nets or Clippers, tweets Sean Deveney of The Sporting News.

Odds & Ends: Mozgov, Hawks, Garnett, Draft

December 4th, 2013 at 9:25pm CST by Zachary Links

Timofey Mozgov might be the hottest player in the NBA right now and that can be largely attributed to assistant coach Melvin Hunt, writes Benjamin Hochman of the Denver Post. “All the Russian I know can’t be repeated,” Hunt explained, “because when he gets frustrated and says them, I know they’re bad words.” More from around the Association..

Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer doesn’t expect Dennis Schröder to stay in the D-League for long. “My guess is he’ll be back sooner but we’ll see how it’s going down there and how it’s going up there,” Budenholzer said, according to Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (on Twitter). Atlanta assigned the rookie guard earlier today.
Sean Deveney of the Sporting News attempts to fix the Eastern Conference for all the teams not named the Heat or Pacers. The list, unsurprisingly, starts with the Nets and the struggles of offseason addition Kevin Garnett.
A few league executives and scouts indicated to Adam Zagoria of SNY (on Twitter) that Glenn Robinson III‘s stock is falling. The Michigan standout is currently slotted to go No. 17 on DraftExpress’ mock draft.
The Nets and Knicks better hope that they can turn things around this season because they can’t hope to build through the draft, notes Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld. Both NYC teams have mortgaged their futures in an effort to contend in the present.

Odds & Ends: Nets, Shaw, Odom, Hansbrough

December 3rd, 2013 at 10:30pm CST by Chuck Myron

Divergent coaching styles and philosophies ultimately prompted Jason Kidd to demote Nets assistant coach Lawrence Frank, tweets Chris Mannix of SI.com, but that doesn’t appear to be the only reason for the move. Frank has been badmouthing Kidd around the league, according to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News, and Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports has additional details on the troubled relationship between the two coaches. Here’s more on the Nets soap opera and the rest of the NBA:

The Nets maintain their strong support of Kidd, and they still believe he’ll develop into an effective head coach, Mannix writes. Brian Shaw, whom the Nets passed on when they hired Kidd, has “thrilled” Nuggets brass so far, Mannix notes via Twitter.
Lamar Odom isn’t yet performing basketball drills in workouts, a source tells Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. The earliest he could be ready to play is mid-January, Berger hears. The Clippers appear in no rush to sign him, even with other teams in the mix.
Tyler Hansbrough wasn’t pleased with his limited role on the Pacers last season, and while he signed with the Raptors hoping to be a more integral part of his team, he never expected to become the starter he is now, as Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun details.
A short-term injury to Mike James will force the Bulls to cut Marquis Teague‘s D-League assignment short, reports K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. The Bulls are down to 10 healthy players, but they don’t plan on signing anyone, Johnson says.
Amid a rough week for the top four college prospects, Kansas center Joel Embiid‘s performance made him a legitimate candidate to become the No. 1 overall pick in June, as Chad Ford of ESPN.com writes in his latest Insider piece on the draft landscape.

Western Rumors: Lakers, Claver, Casspi

November 30th, 2013 at 4:03pm CST by Chuck Myron

The majority of Hoops Rumors readers who voted today think at least one New York team will make the playoffs this season, in spite of a combined 7-24 record for the Knicks and Nets. That might not be the case if those clubs were in the much tougher Western Conference. The Hawks are in third place in the East with a 9-8 record, while the Lakers have the same mark and sit in 10th place in the West. The imbalance figures to soften to some degree as the season wears on, but it’s still troubling for Western teams competing for a postseason berth. Here’s more from the West:

Wesley Johnson could have signed for more money and years to play with that Atlanta team and its much easier road to the playoffs, and the Bucks also offered a better deal than the Lakers, tweets Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com. Coach Mike D’Antoni‘s system prompted Johnson to instead choose the L.A. and a one-year contract for the minimum salary.
César Nanclares of TuBasket.com hears that Victor Claver is strongly considering a return to Europe amid disappointment over a reduced role this season with the Blazers (translation via HoopsHype). Nanclares points out the Spanish native’s contract runs through this season and next and that Portland isn’t likely to let him engineer a buyout this season, though the scribe wonders if the Blazers might be willing to cut ties this summer.
Rockets forward Omri Casspi is leaving agent Steven Heumann of the Creative Artists Agency and will sign with Dan Fegan of Relativity Sports, as Fegan tells Sportando contributor David Pick.
Former second-round draft pick Chukwudiebere Maduabum has signed with Tin Kalev Tallin of Estonia, Sportando’s Enea Trapani reports. The Nuggets hold the rights to Maduabum, the 56th overall pick in 2011.

Northwest Notes: Nuggets, Aldridge, Rush

November 29th, 2013 at 10:24am CST by Luke Adams

Three Northwest teams will host games tonight, including the Thunder welcoming the Warriors to Oklahoma City for a rematch of perhaps the best game of the season’s first month. As we look forward to the evening’s schedule, let’s check in on a few items out of the Northwest….

The Knicks are in Denver tonight, which will result in the inevitable look back on the 2011 trade that sent Carmelo Anthony to New York. As Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post writes, that deal should continue paying dividends for the Nuggets this season, since Denver could end up with both a playoff berth and a lottery pick, thanks to the Knicks.
Wilson Chandler, one of the players acquired by the Nuggets in that Carmelo blockbuster, has long since moved on, as he indicates to Dempsey. “It’s just another game,” said Chandler of the Knicks’ visit. “It’s been a long time since that trade.”
After the Trail Blazers bolstered their roster over the summer, LaMarcus Aldridge decided it was time for him to step up and take a larger leadership role with the club, writes Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports.
Brandon Rush, who was acquired from the Warriors by the Jazz in July, appears ready to return to action, as Steve Luhm of the Salt Lake Tribune observes. Making $4MM in the final year of his contract, Rush could turn into an intriguing deadline trade chip if he stays healthy and plays well for Utah over the next couple months.

Odds & Ends: Gallinari, Rockets, Gortat

November 23rd, 2013 at 11:16pm CST by Chuck Myron

Significant injuries dominated Saturday’s NBA headlines, and the Nuggets got a mix of good news and bad about a key player who suffered an ACL injury last spring. Danilo Gallinari won’t be back by the end of this month, as he said he would be in September, and he remains “very far away” from returning to the Nuggets, according to Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post. Gallinari nonetheless tells Dempsey that he isn’t likely to be out all season. Here’s more from around the Association:

Continued strong play from Terrence Jones could make the Rockets feel more comfortable with targeting the best player regardless of position in an Omer Asik trade, as Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle observes (on Twitter).
Marcin Gortat chats with SB Nation’s James Herbert about his adjustment to playing with the Wizards and looks back on his time with coach Stan Van Gundy, whom the center calls the “godfather” of his career. Gortat says he’d like to play for Van Gundy again.
Even though the Sixers will probably head into next summer armed with a pair of lottery picks and plenty of cap space, fans shouldn’t expect a contending team, according to Tom Moore of the Bucks County Courier Times, who warns that the rebuild will likely take longer than one year.
Ray Allen criticized David West for prioritizing money over title contention when West spurned the Celtics to sign with the Pacers in 2011. Still, the power forward believed then that the Pacers had the greater long-term championship hopes, as West tells Ben Rohrbach of WEEI.com.

Luke Adams contributed to this post.

Northwest Notes: Jazz, Nuggets, Faried

November 21st, 2013 at 3:26pm CST by Zachary Links

The Jazz are struggling quite a bit to start the season, but George Karl seems to think the Bucks will finish in the cellar and have the best odds at the top pick, writes Bob Wolfey of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “Milwaukee keeps coming to me. They just don’t have enough talent right now. Injuries have taken their best players off the court. They could get into a position that they dig the hole so deep that, philosophically, it might be in their best interests for a poor season,” said the one-time Milwaukee coach. Here’s more out of the Northwest Division..

In today’s mailbag, a reader asks Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post why the Nuggets would consider trading Kenneth Faried given the production that he has given Denver. Dempsey says that Faried isn’t going anywhere, though it won’t stop other teams from calling.
Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari, who has been sidelined for quite some time, gets homesick occasionally, but he told Italian outlet Il Corriere della Sera that he wants to play in the NBA for as long as possible, according to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando.
Justin Holiday signed to play with Hungary’s Szolnoki Olajbanyasz, according to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. Holiday, who was in training camp with the Jazz this summer, spent last season with Idaho Stampede and averaged 17.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.4 steals per game.

Knicks Rumors: Shumpert, Thompson, Faried

November 18th, 2013 at 9:04am CST by Luke Adams

Since word broke last week that the Nuggets and Knicks discussed a potential deal centered around Kenneth Faried and Iman Shumpert, several subsequent reports have added more details related to Shumpert’s availability. There’s reportedly leaguewide interest in Shumpert, who appears more and more likely to be moved at some point, since he represents the Knicks’ best trade asset.

Yesterday, we learned that the Knicks made a run at Rajon Rondo, but were rebuffed by the Celtics, who would be open to taking on Amar’e Stoudemire‘s contract if it meant moving Gerald Wallace and Courtney Lee. Meanwhile, reports also indicated Shumpert underwent a previously unreported surgical procedure, which could have negatively affected his trade value.

After an eventful weekend of rumors and rumblings surrounding Shumpert and the Knicks, let’s round up a few Monday morning leftovers….

Frank Isola of the New York Daily News noted in yesterday’s piece that reports have linked the Knicks to the Kings, adding that Jason Thompson is represented by the same agency as many Knicks players. According to Marc Berman of the New York Post, the Knicks have indeed inquired with the Kings on Thompson.
The Knicks’ proposal to the Celtics for Rondo would have included both Shumpert and Stoudemire, reports Ian Begley of ESPN New York. However, such a deal probably wouldn’t work for either side — Boston isn’t eager to move Rondo, while New York would prefer not to take back contracts like Wallace’s and Lee’s, since that would affect the Knicks’ ability to create significant cap room in the summer of 2015.
According to Begley, the Knicks believed they had a trade completed with the Nuggets for Faried last Tuesday morning, but the deal fell through when Denver requested at least one draft pick from New York.
Isola’s latest column for the Daily News focuses on Mike Woodson, whose “hands are tied” when it comes to some basketball decisions, according to one Knicks player. Minutes restrictions for Stoudemire and Kenyon Martin are being dictated by James Dolan and Knicks medical director Lisa Callahan rather than Woodson, says Isola, who adds that the coach isn’t in “imminent danger” of losing his job.
While the Knicks are highly motivated to make a trade in the short term, most NBA teams aren’t interested in dealing until at least December 15th, when offseason signees become trade-eligible, writes Steve Kyler of HoopsWorld.