Eastern Notes: Turkoglu, Heat, Pistons, Bulls
A few Friday notes from out of the Eastern Conference….
- Turkey's Fenerbahce Ulker is hoping to add Hedo Turkoglu for the 2013/14 season, according to Can Pelister of TrendBasket.com (via Twitter). Of course, Turkoglu is still technically under contract with the Magic for next year, with half of his $12MM salary guaranteed. But while Turkoglu says he hopes to remain in Orlando, I'd expect the team to part ways with him.
- In his latest mailbag for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Ira Winderman explores whether the Heat will still be able to convince unrestricted free agents to sign in Miami at a discounted rate going forward.
- With the Pistons officially out of the playoff hunt for 2012/13, Patrick Hayes of PistonPowered (via the Detroit Free Press) tries to determine which prospects might be good fits for Detroit in the upcoming draft.
- As Amare Stoudemire works to get healthy for the postseason, Frank Isola of the New York Daily News looks back at the Knicks' decision to give Stoudemire a fully-guaranteed, uninsured $100MM contract.
- Signing Kenyon Martin is the latest in a series of successful moves for Knicks GM Glen Grunwald, writes Moke Hamilton of SheridanHoops.com.
- Sam Smith of Bulls.com addresses a number of Bulls-related topics in today's mailbag, including whether the Bulls will trade Luol Deng this summer, or sign Ben Gordon on the cheap, should the Bobcats buy him out — neither possibility is likely, says Smith.
Latest On Jose Calderon
Jose Calderon and the Pistons will play the point guard's old team tonight for the first time since he was traded by the Raptors to Detroit two months ago. Calderon is headed for free agency, and the Pistons haven't made their desire to re-sign him a secret, but could the Spaniard also consider returning to the club with whom he spent the first seven and a half years of his career? Here's the latest on Calderon….
- A player like Calderon is exactly the sort of piece the Raptors could use right now, opines Frank Zicarelli of the Toronto Sun.
- Toronto's cap situation makes a summer reunion with Calderon unlikely, but as the longtime Raptor tells Doug Smith of the Toronto Star, it's not entirely out of the question. "Why am I going to close that door? I was there a great seven and a half years," Calderon said. "I was perfectly happy and that’s why the door is wide open for Toronto; if not, I would say right now, 'no way, I am not going back to Toronto.'"
- Smith interprets Calderon's comments as heartfelt rather than as mere lip service, but notes in a separate piece that the Raptors' offseason approach will largely depend on who's running the team, since there's no guarantee it will be current GM Bryan Colangelo. Colangelo was responsible for the acquisition of Kyle Lowry, as well as the decision to move Calderon and hand Lowry the point guard reins.
- More Calderon on his upcoming free agency, via Smith: "Money never was the most important thing for me. I think at this point in my career, it’s not going to be 'if you give me more, I’ll go there.' No way. That’s not going to be it at all. It’s going to be everything, the team, the city, family-wise, it’s going to be everything under consideration for sure."
- In his latest Pistons mailbag, David Mayo of MLive.com predicts that Calderon will land a contract this summer worth about $7-8MM annually, adding that if he were a GM, he wouldn't give the veteran guard more than three years.
Eastern Notes: Nets, Raps, Maggette, Heat, C’s
With the Bucks currently holding a seven-game lead on the ninth-seeded Sixers for the Eastern Conference's final postseason spot, there won't be a race for the playoffs over the season's final few weeks. But if we flip the standings upside-down, there is a race developing for the best chance at June's first overall pick. A pair of Bobcats wins last week pulled them within two games of the Magic, and the two teams are set to square off in Charlotte this Wednesday. As we, uh, look forward to that contest, let's round up a few Monday items from around the conference:
- Following up on the latest report linking John Calipari to the Nets, Ric Bucher of 95.7 The Game suggests (via Sulia) that owner Mikhail Prokhorov is too discerning to simply be interested in Calipari because the Kentucky coach is a "big name." According to Bucher, Prokhorov had genuine interest in Phil Jackson, but Bucher thinks the idea of Calipari being a worthwhile fallback option is "absurd," despite the improvements he has made since his last NBA stint.
- Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun looks ahead to the summer and predicts which Raptors will be back with the team next season.
- Corey Maggette isn't entirely sure why he hasn't played in over three months, but he isn't going to complain about his situation, as David Mayo of MLive.com writes. Earlier this month, a report suggested that Maggette and the Pistons were both open to the veteran returning to the team next year via free agency. I have to think he'll at least explore the market in search of an opportunity for more minutes though.
- Responding to a reader's question in his latest mailbag, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel agrees that Shane Battier has been the Heat's best non-Big-Three signing of this era.
- Last summer, the Celtics participated in both the Orlando and Las Vegas summer leagues. However, since the C's aren't expecting to add as many young prospects to the roster this summer, they'll only participate in the Orlando league, according to Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald.
Central Notes: Cavaliers, Pistons, Frank
The Bulls are nipping at the heels of the Hawks for the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference and they're hoping to get one win closer with a W over the T'Wolves today. So far, so good for Chicago as they lead 56-43 at halftime behind 14 points from Luol Deng. Here's more out of the Central..
- Lawrence Frank may be out the door if the Pistons’ new owners decide to make major changes, writes Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe. Washburn writes that the club is running in quicksand, playing a combination of prospects, and players who won’t be there at the end of their contracts. The team's struggles could also mean the end of Joe Dumars' tenure as president of basketball operations.
- The Cavaliers are a team on the rise, writes Richard Hardy of HoopsWorld. This offseason, the Cavaliers could potentially have as many as four first-round picks in the 2013 draft and they only have seven players with guaranteed contracts in 2013-14. On top of that, the Cavaliers will have more than $20MM in salary cap space.
- Earlier today, we learned that Dumars intends to re-sign Jose Calderon this summer.
Pistons Plan To Re-Sign Jose Calderon
Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars made it clear after the late-January trade that brought Jose Calderon over from Toronto that he would make every effort to retain him for the long term. In the 23 games since then, Dumars tells Keith Langlois of NBA.com that nothing has caused him to waver from that stance.
“It’s been very good to have a guy like Jose, who’s a veteran, true point guard, leader, on your team,” he said. “A lot of the stuff he brings is exactly an area that we needed to get better in, so that’s why I really enjoying watching him. The results are not where we want them to be, but in the middle of the season for where your team is right now, it was never the expectation that Jose would come in and just turn everything around for us.”
Some speculated that Detroit would lean towards letting Calderon walk to free up more cap space this summer. The deal that brought Calderon to the Pistons cost the club Tayshaun Prince and Austin Daye, so it stands to reason that they would lean towards keeping him. Their cap space could theoretically allow them to pursue someone like Brandon Jennings, but Calderon would obviously be a much more affordable alternative.
In 23 games for the Pistons, Calderon is averaging 11.7 PPG with 6.9 APG in 31.3 minutes per contest.
Injury Notes: Gasol, Noah, Garnett, Lee
There aren't very many games left in the regular season, and the playoff picture in both conferences could look drastically different by mid-April with plenty of teams close together in the standings as of today. While it's not usual for us to focus on injuries, we have a few significant notes worth mentioning tonight:
- Pistons rookie big man Andre Drummond could be close to returning after a 21-game absence, says David Mayo of MLive. Although the Pistons aren't in the playoff race in the Eastern Conference, a few more regular season games couldn't hurt the former UConn product's development if healthy.
- Clippers guard Chauncey Billups is still day-to-day with a groin strain but could return on Tuesday against the Mavericks, writes Arash Markazi of ESPN Los Angeles.
- Mike Bresnahan of the LA Times tweets that Lakers forward Antawn Jamison has ligament damage in his right wrist. Although he'll try to play through it, Jamison probably faces surgery in the offseason.
- According to Ken Berger of CBS Sports (via Twitter), the Grizzlies have announced that center Marc Gasol will be out indefinitely after re-aggravating an abdominal tear last night against the Hornets. Though they are ahead of the sixth place Warriors by a comfortable margin in the standings, Memphis is separated from the third place Nuggets by one game and the fourth place Clippers by just half a game.
- Joakim Noah will sit both of the Bulls' games this weekend as he continues to deal with plantar fasciitis in his right foot, says Nick Friedell of ESPN Chicago. The team is currently one game behind the fifth-place Hawks and a half game ahead of the Celtics.
- Greg Payne of ESPN Boston says that both Courtney Lee and Kevin Garnett are individually recovering from sprained left ankles. There doesn't appear to be a sense that those injuries are expected to keep either out for an extended period of time, but with just 14 games left and Boston currently on a three-game slide, missing two key rotation players can't necessarily help.
- Knicks center Tyson Chandler has already missed six straight games due to a neck strain, and is still considered day-to-day (Jared Zwerling of ESPN New York reports). New York still remains atop the Atlantic Division, and while they are only one game behind the Pacers for second place in the East, the fourth place Nets aren't too far behind in their rear view mirror (1.5 games).
Odds & Ends: LeBron/Cavs, Wafer, Harrington
Without leading scorers Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters yesterday, the Cavaliers had the surging Heat against the ropes in Cleveland through three quarters, leading by nine before ultimately losing in a heartbreaker. The last few years have represented some trying times for Cavs fans, although with the rise of Irving as a young potential superstar, Dion Waiters showing flashes as a promising scorer, and Tristan Thompson continuing to improve, the horizon is beginning to look bright in Cleveland. A promising young core on a team with cap space could only be a selling point toward a possible homecoming for LeBron James in 2014, although ESPN's Marc Stein (Twitter link) believes that the Akron native and Dwyane Wade are too close for LeBron to just "bolt Miami." Here are more of tonight's miscellaneous notes from around the NBA:
- Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld highlights that several clubs have considered signing Von Wafer, particularly teams looking to bolster their rosters before the playoffs start. The former second-round pick had recently returned from a stint in China and last played in the NBA during the 2011/12 season. In the same piece, Kennedy identifies players who have helped their free agency stock with their strong play this year.
- Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel writes that Al Harrington could decide to sit out the rest of the season for the Magic for the sake of their young players benefiting from major playing time. The 33-year-old forward, who overcame a staph infection after arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, insists that his knees are fine now and that he will focus on preparing them for next year. Robbins adds that although Harrington is due about $14.7MM over the next two seasons, those years are partially guaranteed and could be bought out for nearly half that number this summer.
- Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro discusses his job status with Bill Dwyre of the Los Angeles Times. Now in his third season in LA and nearing the end of his contract, Dwyre writes that Chris Paul's contract status, the level of preference for Del Negro, and the team's performance in the playoffs are all substantial factors that are in play with regard to the coach's future with the team.
- Pistons coach Lawrence Frank tells David Mayo of MLive.com that, considering their record this year, none of the players – as well as the coaches – should feel safe about retaining their role for next season.
Odds & Ends: Lakers, Jazz, Marbury, Draft, Frank
SBNation's Tom Ziller looks at Basketball-Reference statistics to examine players who've significantly outperformed their contracts this season. Not surprisingly, Chandler Parsons, in the middle of a four-year, $3.63MM contract that runs through 2015, rates highly. Many of the other players Ziller mentions are either minimum-salary signees or former first-round picks still on their rookie-scale deals. There's more on a few players who could be the next to sign rookie contracts and other news from around the Association, as we share here:
- Jordan Hill was expected to be out for the season with a hip injury, but doctors have told him there's a slim chance he could return in late April or early May, reports Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. Either way, the Lakers will get to keep the $1.78MM disabled player exception the league granted them, even though they don't intend to use it.
- The Jazz haven't decided whether to re-sign Travis Leslie, whose 10-day contract expires Wednesday night, but coach Tyrone Corbin likes what he's seen so far from the swingman, notes Steve Luhm of The Salt Lake Tribune.
- Stephon Marbury, who played for the Chinese league's Beijing Ducks this season, will serve as an assistant coach for Beijing's entry in the China National Games this year, reports Jon Pastuszek of NiuBBall.com.
- HoopsWorld and Chris Mannix of SI.com examine key NBA draft prospects in the NCAA tournament. Joel Brigham of HoopsWorld checks in with a list of prospects on teams likely to make early tournament exits.
- Coach Lawrence Frank is back with the Pistons after missing the past six games to be with his wife, who's recovering from "major surgery," as MLive's David Mayo details.
- John Mitchell of the Philadelphia Inquirer believes the Sixers should go after Al Jefferson rather than Andrew Bynum in free agency this summer, though it might take an inflated contract to make it happen. Yesterday, I argued a max deal could be in play for Jefferson.
Odds & Ends: Stuckey, Monroe, Macvan
The last time the Pistons earned a trip to the postseason was in 2008-09, when they drew the first-seeded Cavaliers led by LeBron James and were subsequently swept. Of the 12 active players on Detroit's playoff roster that year, only three remain today – Will Bynum, Jason Maxiell, and Rodney Stuckey. While Stuckey has a partially guaranteed contract in 2013-14, Vincent Goodwill of the Detroit News says that "nobody would be surprised" if the 6'5 guard is traded before next season, particularly before the draft in June. Here's more of this evening's miscellaneous links:
- Lakers big man Pau Gasol encountered some soreness in his foot after participating in a game of two-on-two at the team's practice facility today, writes Mike Bresnahan of the LA Times. The cause and extent of the of the soreness weren't clear, and he plans to visit a foot specialist on Sunday.
- In the above piece, Goodwill adds that Greg Monroe, who is set to become a restricted free agent after next year, remains confident that GM Joe Dumars is capable of turning the struggling team around.
- The Cavaliers have no plans of bringing Milan Macvan – their 2011 second round draft choice – on board anytime soon, writes Mary Schmitt Boyer of the Plain Dealer. The 23-year-old Serbian big man is currently playing for Galatasaray in Turkey.
- HoopsWorld's Alex Kennedy provides a list of D-Leaguers at every position who could be in line for a callup, with eight D-League players having already inked with NBA teams in March (Sulia link).
- One scout tells Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio that this year's NCAA tourney will have a major impact on determining the order of the players selected in June. Citing how weak he believes the upcoming draft class is, the scout also tells Amico that a star from a small school could wind up being selected in the lottery again, the same way Damian Lillard emerged out of Weber State last year.
- John Rohde of The Oklahoman takes a look at some of the players the Thunder could get with the lottery pick they're expected to receive from the Raptors this year.
- The team that wins the Las Vegas Summer League, which is reportedly switching to a tournament style format this year, will have the cost of its additional tournament games reimbursed by the league, sources tell Ric Bucher of CSNBayArea.com.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Odds & Ends: Pistons, Stern, Clippers, Summers
Last night in Indiana, Kobe Bryant was only in action for a total of 12 minutes, but it was enough to give the Lakers a 99-93 road win. The star guard tried to tough it out on his swollen ankle but ultimately wasn't able to stay in the game. Bryant wouldn't just go into the locker room and call it a night, however, as he shouted instructions to his teammates and even busted out the clipboard at one point for Dwight Howard. Here's more from around the Association..
- In pieces for CBSSports.com and HoopsWorld, respectively, Ken Berger and Lang Greene highlight a number of lottery teams, examining the direction those clubs may take this summer. Berger likes the Pistons' core of Andre Drummond, Greg Monroe, and Brandon Knight. The last time Detroit had cap room, they wasted it on Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva, but Berger expects them to be much smarter about it this time around.
- David Stern's nearly 30-year reign as commissioner has benefited from the proliferation of dynasties and superteams, opines former NBA center Danny Schayes, writing for SheridanHoops.com.
- The Clippers' DaJuan Summers is looking to make the most of his third stop in the NBA, writes Eric Patten of NBA.com. The 25-year-old former Georgetown standout is the second youngster the Clippers have brought aboard in the last week. Guard Maalik Wayns was signed to a ten-day contract on March 9, and Summers was brought in Friday after second-year forward Trey Thompkins was waived.