Central Notes: Hoiberg, Parker, Jefferson, Boatright
Fred Hoiberg chose the Bulls in part because of their ability not just to win now but to have sustained success for the future, Iowa State athletics director Jamie Pollard tells K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. Indeed, long-term thinking is a key for Hoiberg’s Bulls, as the coach has taken a decidedly less-aggressive approach than Tom Thibodeau, his predecessor, leading Jimmy Butler to remark that Hoiberg “really cares about how our body feels,” as Johnson relays. In all, Hoiberg has brought more calm and collaboration to the Bulls, Johnson writes.
“There are days where he just talks and relates to us. That’s big,” Taj Gibson said. “Sometimes, guys come in a little down. It’s good to have a coach that comes to you and says, ‘It’s all right. Things are going to happen. I’ve been there.'”
Another change for the Bulls this season is an opening night roster with 15 players, breaking a longstanding tradition of starting with less than the maximum number of players allowed. See more from around the Central Division:
- The Bucks privately say that they won’t rule out the notion that Jabari Parker‘s absence will extend until late November, according to Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times. Last year’s No. 2 overall pick is still recovering from the torn left ACL he suffered in December.
- The Cavaliers finished with a 1-6 preseason record, but Richard Jefferson was perhaps the team’s most consistent player throughout, an encouraging sign considering the free agent signee’s key role as the backup to LeBron James, as Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer details. The 35-year-old Jefferson asked out of a guaranteed one-year deal for the minimum with the Mavs to sign a contract for the same terms with Cleveland.
- The deal that Ryan Boatright signed with the Pistons last week was non-guaranteed, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders, so since Detroit waived him by the close of business on Saturday, he doesn’t count against the team’s cap. He’s reportedly expected to join Detroit’s D-League team as an affiliate player.
Eastern Notes: Sefolosha, George, Pistons
Hawks shooting guard Thabo Sefolosha will file a civil lawsuit against New York City, its police department and the officers involved for injuries suffered during his arrest outside a Manhattan night club in April, Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Hannah Storm of ESPN.com report. In an interview with Storm — who broke the story — Sefolosha expressed concern about long-term effects from the fractured right tibia and ankle ligament damage he suffered during the arrest. “There is a lot of unknown about how this will affect me two years from now, five years from now, 10 years from now,” Sefolosha said in the television interview. “Also because I think it’s the right approach to put lights on a situation like this and be able to fight back in a legal way and in a way that can empower, hopefully.”
In other news around the Eastern Conference:
- Paul George is getting comfortable with the idea of moving to power forward after initial resistance, according to Steve Aschburner of NBA.com. Pacers coach Frank Vogel told Aschburner that George won’t be a prototypical power forward; he’ll just have more space to utilize his skills. George has gained a greater understanding of his new role after talks with Vogel and team president Larry Bird. “At one point, it was hard to wrap [my head around] everything,” he told Aschburner. “Here I am coming back from a big-time injury and wanting to get back to what I used to be, playing the three. Then I come back playing a stretch four — it took a toll on me mentally. But the more we’ve had practice time and I’ve had sit-down moments with coach and with Larry, the more at ease I’ve felt about the situation.”
- Reggie Bullock wowed Pistons coach/executive Stan Van Gundy during the preseason, which secured not only his place on the roster but also his 2016/17 team option, which Detroit exercised Sunday. Vinc
e Ellis of the Detroit Free Press has the details. “If you really look at the whole thing and you look at consistency game in and game out he was our best player in preseason,” Van Gundy said of the small forward. “I mean, certainly our most consistent guy in the preseason. Really, I mean it would be hard to really find any fault with what he did in the preseason. He’s certainly gained our confidence and by ours, I mean coaching staff and teammates. I think he’s got everybody’s confidence heading into the season.” - Point guard Marcus Smart, rookie shooting guard R.J. Hunter and power forward Kelly Olynyk are among the players who excelled during the Celtics’ training camp, Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe reports. Smart is emerging as a team leader, Hunter has opened eyes with his playmaking skills and Olynyk is shooting with more confidence, Washburn continues. But power forward Jared Sullinger reported to camp overweight and small forward James Young is still another season away from cracking the rotation, Washburn adds.
Pistons Waive Danny Granger
The Pistons have waived Danny Granger, the team announced. The move has been widely expected for weeks as Granger didn’t join the Pistons during the preseason, instead rehabbing on his own in Arizona. Granger has a fully guaranteed salary of $2,170,465 for this season that Detroit will be responsible for, barring a highly unlikely waiver claim from another team. The move takes the Pistons to 15 players, the regular season roster limit. Granger has experienced knee trouble in recent years, but it’s plantar fasciitis that has been the issue of late, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports details. He’ll need about a month more to return to health, Wojnarowski hears.
Pistons coach/executive Stan Van Gundy conceded over the past few days that the team was “probably sort of at the end of the road with” the 32-year-old Granger and that it’s all but inevitable the team would waive him. Detroit acquired the former high scorer via trade with Phoenix this summer in a move that also brought in Marcus Morris, who was the centerpiece of the deal for the Pistons, and Reggie Bullock. Indications surfaced even at the time of the trade that the Pistons would waive Granger, as Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press recently explained to Hoops Rumors. Granger signed a two-year deal with the Heat in 2014 that included a player option, but his health never allowed him to live up to the contract. He picked up his player option in June a few months after Miami traded him to Phoenix in the Goran Dragic deal.
The Pistons spent much of the offseason with 17 fully guaranteed contracts on their books, but they essentially removed any remaining question over who would go when they waived Cartier Martin’s fully guaranteed pact on Friday. That confirmed a regular season roster spot for Bullock, whose strong preseason prompted the team to pick up his option for 2016/17, too.
Do you think we’ll see Granger play in the NBA again? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Eastern Notes: Sixers, Knicks, Pistons
The Sixers‘ reputation among several agents around the league likely won’t do the franchise any favors when the team expects to be a player in free agency in the future, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes in an interesting story after speaking with several sources and agents. One agent told Pompey that he doesn’t want his max-level players in Philadelphia, but he is open to his midlevel players signing with the Sixers only if they overpay. Agents also told Pompey that Sixers GM Sam Hinkie is hard to deal with, saying he doesn’t make it a priority to return calls.
- It’s doubtful the Pistons trade Danny Granger, reports David Mayo of MLive.com after asking coach/executive Stan Van Gundy about the possibility. Instead, it seems very likely the Pistons will waive Granger. Granger has a fully guaranteed salary of $2,170,465, one of 16 full guarantees on the Pistons. “We’re probably sort of at the end of the road with him,” Van Gundy said. “We took it as far as we could, hoping to get a look at him, but he hasn’t been ready to come back. So we’ll go with the 15 guys that are here.”
- The Knicks‘ D-League affiliate expects to have Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Darion Atkins, Travis Trice and Wesley Saunders to start season, Marc Berman of the New York Post reports (on Twitter). All four players were cut Friday by the Knicks.
- The Celtics‘ expected starting five on opening night – Marcus Smart, Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, David Lee and Tyler Zeller – has been the most successful of the four different starting lineups used in the preseason, A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com writes. That lineup, of course, notably does not include Isaiah Thomas.
Pistons Notes: Morris, Ilyasova, Baynes, Drummond
Newly acquired forwards Marcus Morris and Ersan Ilyasova will be opening-night starters for the Pistons, tweets Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. He adds that coach/executive Stan Van Gundy has confirmed that Steve Blake will be the backup point guard. Morris came to Detroit from the Suns in a July 9th trade, while Ilyasova was part of a June 11th deal with the Bucks. Blake was acquired in a July 13th trade with the Nets.
There’s more from the Motor City:
- Van Gundy expects restrictions on Aron Baynes to be lifted Monday after a consultation with his doctor, Langlois tweets. Baynes, who signed with the Pistons in July, is currently limited to 15 minutes of playing time per game and is not permitted to play in back-to-backs.
- Andre Drummond showed he can be a team leader by agreeing not to hold the Pistons to a Nov. 2 deadline for an extension to his rookie contract, according to David Mayo of MLive. Drummond is expected to get a new deal next summer in the neighborhood of $120MM over five years. The money and terms will be the same for Drummond regardless, but by waiting he gives the Pistons about $12.7MM in additional cap room to chase free agents. His cap hold will be $8.2MM, while his estimated salary would have been nearly $21MM.
- Stanley Johnson is getting early mention as a Rookie of the Year candidate, writes Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press. But the 19-year-old, who was the No. 8 pick in the draft, isn’t impressed by the hype. “I just think the whole thing is stupid, honestly,” Johnson said. “The best player will get it, period. All this discussion, whoever, voters — there’s no rhyme or reason. It doesn’t make any sense on what’s actually gonna be. It’s actually funny to read some of this stuff. I kind of laugh at it. With some people you can tell they don’t know what they are talking about.”
Pistons Waive Ryan Boatright
12:35pm: Boatright was waived at 5:00pm Saturday, the deadline for teams to cut players with non-guaranteed salaries without any of their salary hitting the cap, tweets former NBA executive Bobby Marks. He is expected to clear waivers Monday and be designated for the D-League Grand Rapids Drive, Detroit’s affiliate.
11:36am: The Pistons have waived guard Ryan Boatright, the team announced today. He will go to Detroit’s D-League team in Grand Rapids as an “affiliate player,” a designation for someone who was under contract with an NBA team, was waived, and who agreed to sign with the team’s D-League affiliate. An NBA team can claim the D-League rights to up to four players it waives, with the rest subject to the D-League draft if they sign there. The Nets couldn’t make Boatright an affiliate player because they don’t have a D-League affiliate.
Detroit signed Boatright on Friday after he was waived by the Nets earlier in the week. He saw little preseason playing time with Brooklyn, averaging 4.2 points, 3.8 assists and 1.0 turnover in 13.9 minutes per game. Boatright, a 6’0″ guard, was a star at Connecticut, was wasn’t selected in June’s draft.
The move brings the Pistons’ roster down to 16 players, all of whom have fully guaranteed contracts. Veteran Danny Granger is expected to waived to reach to maximum of 15.
Pistons Exercise Options on Caldwell-Pope, Bullock
The Pistons have exercised team options on Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Reggie Bullock, the team announced today. The moves will affect both players’ contracts for the 2016/17 season.
Caldwell-Pope, a 6’5″ guard, was the eighth overall pick in the 2013 draft. He has played in 162 games in Detroit, starting 123, and has averaged 9.3 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.0 assists. He was part of the Rising Stars Challenge during the 2015 All-Star Weekend.
The Pistons acquired Bullock, a 6’7″ forward, in a July 9th trade with the Suns. He had a productive preseason, averaging 10.7 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 19.3 minutes of playing time. He was taken by the Clippers with the 25th pick in 2013.
Bullock’s place on the roster for this season wasn’t assured at the start of camp, but a strong preseason sold the Pistons on him and brought the idea of picking up his 2016/17 option into play, as Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press wrote last week. His option is worth $2,255,644, while Caldwell-Pope’s calls for him to make $3,678,319. That adds about $5.9MM to the Pistons’ salary commitments for 2016/17, bringing the total to nearly $48.3MM against a projected $89MM cap.
And-Ones: Hornets D-League, Final Cuts, Johnson
Greensboro, North Carolina, will be the site of the Hornets‘ new D-League team, reports Jeff Mills of the Greensboro News & Record. The new franchise, which will expand the league to 20 teams, will begin play next fall. Charlotte currently has no D-League affiliate. Players on D-League assignment will go to the one-to-one affiliate of another NBA team. “Greensboro’s approach to the process was innovative,” said Fred Whitfield, the Hornets’ president and chief operating officer. “Taking the Pavilion and renovating it into a basketball-style fieldhouse for us was very attractive. Especially when you could have offices for us right across the street.” The move is expected to be officially announced Tuesday. Asheville and Fayetteville were the other finalists.
There’s more news from around the basketball world:
- After a flurry of moves Saturday, seven NBA teams still have final cuts to make before Monday’s roster deadline, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The Mavericks, Pistons, Pacers, Lakers and Grizzlies each have to unload one player to reach the roster limit of 15. The Nets still have 17 players and the Sixers have 20, which is the training camp maximum (Twitter link). The five teams with roster openings are the Rockets, Pelicans, Knicks, Magic and Suns, who each have 14 spots filled. (Twitter link).
- Several teams have expressed interest in Nick Johnson, who was waived Saturday by the Nuggets, according to Sam Amico of Amicohoops.net. Citing an unidentified source, Amico says there’s a chance someone could pick up Johnson by Monday. Johnson was one of four players sent from Houston to Denver in the Ty Lawson trade.
- The league is looking into the reported confrontation between Knicks coach Derek Fisher and the Grizzlies‘ Matt Barnes, writes Frank Isola of the New York Daily News. Commissioner Adam Silver confirmed the investigation, but did not offer specifics regarding possible punishment for either Fisher or Barnes. They were allegedly involved in a physical altercation at the house of Barnes’ estranged wife.
Eastern Notes: Jones, Pistons, Lin
The Celtics knew there wasn’t a market for Perry Jones III, but they liked him and probed other trades with the thought of keeping him on the roster, Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe tweets. No deal materialized and Boston waived the 24-year-old earlier today.
Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:
- Detroit hopes that Adonis Thomas, who was waived by the team on Friday, will play for Grand Rapids Drive, the team’s D-League affiliate, Keith Langlois of Pistons.com writes. “I hope it’s an option he’ll look at,” President of Basketball Operations/coach Stan Van Gundy said. “Selfishly, we hope so. But I don’t know what he’s thinking about.” The Pistons own Thomas’ D-League rights, but the 22-year-old could look to secure a roster spot on another NBA team or look to sign overseas, where the money is often significantly more.
- The entire reason the Pistons were so judicious in their handling of Greg Monroe on the business side was that they wanted to be careful not to overspend on a center who isn’t a rim protector at the core, David Mayo of Mlive.com opines in his latest mailbag. Mayo believes Monroe could have played center in Van Gundy’s system, but Andre Drummond‘s defensive ability and athleticism gives him a better chance to succeed at that spot.
- New addition Jeremy Lin has helped the Hornets go undefeated in the preseason and he has proven to be a good fit next to Kemba Walker in the backcourt, Scott Fowler of the Charlotte Observer writes. “It takes a lot of pressure off me.” Walker said of playing with Lin. “I don’t always have to go back for the basketball every time. When he’s out there, he’s helping me with the pace, with the tempo. He’s very unselfish and he can score the basketball very well. So that’s fun.” The Hornets and Lin agreed to a two-year, $4.3MM deal with a player option in year two.
Central Notes: Granger, Noah, Thompson
It’s all but inevitable that the Pistons will waive Danny Granger, coach/executive Stan Van Gundy admits, according to Keith Langlois of Pistons.com (Twitter link). They’re exploring trade options in the interim, according to Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press, who cautions that it doesn’t mean a deal will happen (Twitter links). Granger has a fully guaranteed salary of $2,170,465, one of 16 full guarantees on the Pistons.
Here’s the latest from the Central Division:
- The Pacers‘ new D-League affiliate, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, officially hired Harrison Greenberg as Director of Basketball Operations, the team announced.
- LeBron James is pleased that Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert is willing to venture deep into luxury tax territory in an effort to put together a contending team, Joe Vardon of The Northeast Ohio Media Group writes. “It’s a sign that he’ll do anything to help us go out there and perform,” James said of Gilbert’s spending. “I’m not comparing us to the New York Yankees, because we’re not, we’re so nowhere near compared to the New York Yankees, but they have one of the highest payrolls every year,” James continued. “They don’t win it every year but that’s what they believe in. They believe in going out there and getting the best talent that can play. When you have an ownership group or a collection round that believes what it’s going to take, then money is not an object.“
- While Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg has yet to make it official, center Joakim Noah is likely to begin the season coming off the bench, writes Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com. “We’ll start the same way,” Hoiberg said. “If it looks good, [that’s] a pretty good chance that’s the way we’ll go on opening night.” When asked about Noah’s response to the potential move, Hoiberg said, “We’ve talked. We talk about everything that he’s done. He was great, he was excited about playing with Taj Gibson last game. I think those two have a very good chemistry out there together. And [Noah] was the one that talked to me about that, about how well he feels he and Taj play together out there on the floor.”
- Tristan Thompson is glad to be back with the Cavaliers, but does maintain that he was prepared to miss regular season time if a contract agreement had not been reached, Chris Fedor of The Northeast Ohio Media Group relays. “I love playing basketball,” Thompson said. “That’s my love, that’s my passion. But with this business it comes with a business side of it. For me, that’s how I approach it. Business is business and my approach is if a deal gets done before the season that’s great, but if not then so be it. I’m not a rookie no more. I’m a veteran. It’s not something to take lightly. It’s a serious matter.“
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.