NBA GMs Consider Warriors Overwhelming Title Favorites
NBA.com has completed its annual survey of NBA general managers, with John Schuhmann of NBA.com asking each of the league’s 30 GMs an array of questions about the league’s top teams, players, and coaches. To no one’s surprise, the Warriors are viewed by the NBA’s general managers as the overwhelming favorite to win the 2017/18 championship, with 28 of 30 GMs (93%) picking Golden State to repeat.
Thompson Says He's Willing To Give Team A Discount
- Klay Thompson said he’s willing to give the Warriors a discount when his contract expires after the 2018/19 season, he told Marcus Thompson and Tim Kawakami of The Athletic in a podcast that was relayed by NBCSports.com’s Kurt Helin. Thompson hedged when asked if he’d take a $9MM cut, as Kevin Durant did this summer, but asserted that he’s willing to make a sacrifice to keep the core group together. “I would definitely consider it cause I don’t want to lose anybody,” Thompson said of a potential team discount.
Warriors Notes: Young, Bell, Jones, Green
The Warriors became the first team to make a roster move after a preseason game, waiving guards Antonius Cleveland and Alex Hamilton. Anthony Slater of The Athletic shares a few more observations about Saturday’s loss to the Nuggets:
- Free agent addition Nick Young has a lot of rust to shake off after not playing since March 17. Golden State is counting on Young to provide scoring off the bench, but he has a new offense to learn and didn’t report to camp in top condition. Slater called Young’s performance “sluggish” in the preseason opener as he sometimes seemed lost in transition and was short of breath as play went on for several possessions without a stoppage. “He’s not shot the ball well in camp,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr. “He came in a little bit heavy. As he rounds into shape, he’s going to shoot it better.” Young said earlier this week that he “feels like I’m in everyone’s way,” and that was evident Saturday as Kerr, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala all took time to explain principles of the offense to him during the game.
- Kerr gave Jordan Bell some unexpected minutes in the third quarter, letting him play alongside the Warriors’ All-Stars. Bell looked like a rookie at times, but also showed promise on the defensive end. Bell gave himself a C grade for his first NBA experience, saying, “Couple people scored on me that shouldn’t have.”
- Damian Jones missed last year’s training camp and preseason while recovering from a torn pectoral muscle. The second-year center was never able to catch up, playing just 10 games with the Warriors, so he says this feels like his rookie season. Slater notes that Jones might be the team’s best athlete but tends to be overly aggressive on defense, which showed Saturday with three fouls in 11 minutes. “His ability to play vertically defensively without fouling should be a real strength,” Kerr said. “But he came down and swiped down. Little things like that, he has to work on.”
- Green received a surprise Saturday when former Pistons star Ben Wallace showed up to present his Defensive Player of the Year Award. “That was a good one,” said Green, who grew up in Michigan and was a big fan of Wallace as a child. “That was a great feeling. A guy I looked up to growing up.”
Warriors Waive Cleveland, Hamilton
The Warriors made a pair of roster moves after Saturday’s preseason opener, waiving Antonius Cleveland and Alex Hamilton, the team announced via Twitter.
Both will be eligible to join the Warriors’ G League team if they are not claimed on waivers. Golden State had the maximum 20 players in camp, so two open spots are now available.
Cleveland is a 6’6″ guard out of Southeast Missouri State. He played for Portland’s entry in the Las Vegas Summer League, then signed with the Warriors in mid-August. He played five minutes Saturday night and scored eight points.
Hamilton is a 6’4″ guard who completed his senior season at Louisiana Tech in 2016. He played for Golden State’s G League affiliate last season after a brief stay in Poland. He scored two points in two minutes in the season opener.
Healthy Kevon Looney Awaits Option Decision
- The Warriors could wait until the deadline to accept Kevon Looney‘s fourth-year option, Anthony Slater of the Athletic writes. The forward has been hard-struck by injuries over the course of the past few years but could finally be ready to show potential.
Warriors Reached Out To Dwyane Wade
Dwyane Wade appears likely to strike a deal with the Cavaliers at some point this week, but several teams reached out to express interest in him after he reached a buyout agreement with the Bulls, and one of those clubs was the Warriors, reports Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype.
According to Kennedy, while Golden State displayed interest in Wade, the discussions between the two sides didn’t last long. The former Finals MVP has conveyed to potential suitors that he wants to have a substantial role on a contending team, and the Warriors didn’t make it clear what sort of role would be available for him in Golden State.
With or without Wade, the Warriors will head into the 2017/18 season as massive title favorites, so adding another future Hall-of-Famer to their roster seems unnecessary. Still, it makes sense that the team would do its due diligence. The Dubs don’t have any cap room or exceptions, but Wade’s primary suitors – the Cavaliers and Thunder – are expected to make minimum salary offers, which Golden State could match. If they’d been able to land Wade, the Warriors also would have kept him away from a Cavs club that they’ve faced in the NBA Finals for three consecutive years.
Despite league-wide interest, Wade looks like a very good bet to join the Cavaliers sometime after he clears waivers on Wednesday, as we detailed earlier today.
Warriors Favorites To Repeat After Maintaining Core
- The Warriors are heavily favored to repeat as NBA champions after maintaining the bulk of their historically successful core, Shaun Powell of NBA.com writes. Many other teams, however, made dramatic moves to try to catch them.
Latest On The Carmelo Anthony Trade
Carmelo Anthony recently added the Thunder to the list of teams he would waive his no-trade clause to join, but Oklahoma City GM Sam Presti and New York GM Scott Perry had been discussing a deal for weeks, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Talks intensified over the last 24 hours before the agreement was reached earlier today. Anthony had reportedly insisted for most of the summer that he would only go to Houston, but he expanded that list this week to include the Thunder and Cavaliers.
The deal will be formally completed Monday, and Oklahoma City expects to have Anthony on hand when training camp begins Tuesday.
More has emerged since the trade was announced:
- Sources tell ESPN’s Ian Begley that Anthony believed yesterday there was a good chance he was headed to Cleveland (Twitter link). Anthony has a tight relationship with LeBron James, and the Cavaliers could use another scorer while Isaiah Thomas is sidelined with a hip injury.
- The addition of Anthony could put the Thunder in the running to sign Dwyane Wade once he reaches a buyout with the Bulls, tweets Chris Mannix of the Vertical. Wade probably wouldn’t start in Oklahoma City and the team can’t offer much money, but he may be willing to accept a sixth man role to take another shot at a ring beside Anthony, Russell Westbrook and Paul George.
- Presti should be lauded for rebuilding the Thunder without surrendering a first-round pick, tweets Michael Lee of The Vertical. OKC send Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis to Indiana in exchange for George, then shipped Enes Kanter, Doug McDermott and a 2018 second-rounder to the Knicks to get Anthony. The Thunder already owe their 2018 first-round pick to Minnesota (lottery protected) and another first-rounder to Orlando two years later.
- Oklahoma City had a secret weapon, Lee adds, in vice president and assistant GM Troy Weaver, who helped recruit Anthony when he was an assistant coach at Syracuse (Twitter link).
- The trade establishes the Thunder as the greatest threat to the Warriors’ dominance in the West, writes Dieter Kurtenbach of The San Jose Mercury News. He sees Anthony stepping into a much better role as a complementary stretch four in Oklahoma City, rather than a primary scorer in New York. OKC added free agent Patrick Patterson this summer and re-signed defensive ace Andre Roberson and may now have the pieces to challenge Golden State in a seven-game series.
- ESPN’s Kevin Pelton graded the deal, giving the Thunder an A and the Knicks a D. Kanter and McDermott were both defensive liabilities, Pelton states, and the new alignment gives Oklahoma City a small-ball lineup that matches up much better with the Warriors. The Knicks didn’t take on any long-term contracts, but they also didn’t fill any pressing needs unless McDermott develops into a reliable wing scorer. Pelton expects New York to explore the trade market for Kanter before the February deadline.
- Oklahoma City used two key pieces from the Bulls to pull off today’s deal, and Chicago doesn’t have much in return, writes Scott Krinch of CSNChicago. McDermott and the 2018 second-rounder that was shipped to the Knicks both came to OKC in a February trade that sent Cameron Payne, Joffrey Lauvergne and Anthony Morrow to the Bulls. Lauvergne and Morrow left as free agents over the offseason, and Payne will miss three to four months after foot surgery.
- Kanter posted a message on Twitter, thanking the fans and management in Oklahoma City and saying, “Please beat the Warriors for me.”
Rockets Notes: Capela, Tax, Anderson, Gupta
While Rockets president of basketball operations Daryl Morey doesn’t want to be making roster decisions with one specific rival in mind, he acknowledges in a Q&A with Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle that it’s impossible not to consider the Warriors at this point when making signings and trades.
“We know we’re going to face them,” Morey said of the Dubs. “We obviously have to get through some extremely tough teams, the Spurs, Oklahoma City, Memphis, you name it. To get there. But if you know you are going to be facing a team if you’re having the season you want, and we want to be all the way to the championship, I think it does make sense to focus on that team.”
Morey pointed to the signings of Luc Mbah a Moute and P.J. Tucker as moves that were made with the Warriors in mind. Both veteran forwards are strong defenders who would probably match up with the likes of Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson in a playoff series against Golden State.
Here’s more on the Rockets:
- Asked by Feigen about the possibility of an extension for Clint Capela, Morey pointed out that contract extensions are getting trickier to pull off around the NBA, since the salary cap isn’t increasingly quite as quickly as initially anticipated, and long-term commitments are starting to add up for many teams across the league.
- In Houston’s case, new deals for Capela, Chris Paul, and Trevor Ariza next summer would create luxury-tax issues for the club. While Morey didn’t comment specifically about new owner Tilman Fertitta‘s willingness to pay the tax, he told Feigen that Fertitta is “all about winning” and will do what it takes to win. Morey also noted that he has met with the Rockets’ incoming owner a couple times already.
- Morey tells Feigen that he spoke to Ryan Anderson this week about the Knicks-related trade rumors that have been swirling around Anderson all offseason. “Players get frustrated,” Morey said. “It’s rare for a GM to get frustrated because we have to deal with it all the time, but this one has been frustrating because it’s lingering and not much is accurate out there.”
- The Rockets announced today that Sachin Gupta has rejoined the team as a special advisor (link via Mark Berman of FOX 26 Houston). Gupta was Morey’s first hire back in 2006, but left Houston to become a consultant for the Sixers during Sam Hinkie’s stint in Philadelphia.
Jordan Bell Will Look To Emulate Draymond Green
- Look no further than Draymond Green for an archetype that Jordan Bell can aspire to match. Green has been mentoring the Warriors‘ second-round pick to fill a similar niche, Mark Medina of The Mercury News writes. “I could see myself playing similar to him and helping my team out if he gets into foul trouble or gets a technical,” Bell said. “I can come in. Hopefully with me watching him in practice, I can start to emulate what he does.“