Western Notes: Clippers, Green, Grizzlies
Chris Paul said the Clippers had a “healthy conversation” at halftime after the reserves let a big lead slip away Saturday, writes Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com. It’s a familiar pattern, although the Clippers rebounded to win by 20 points. “Early in the year, we probably would have splintered and fallen apart, but there’s going to be games like that,” Paul said. “… When that happens, you can’t try to figure out whose fault it is. You have to figure out a solution.”
There’s more from the West:
- The improvement of Draymond Green has pushed the Warriors to a league-best 17-2 start, examines Michael Wilbon of ESPNChicago.com. “He’s given us a new dimension … when your [power forward] can play pick-and-pop like that,” coach Steve Kerr said. “… He’s not the kind of guy you establish a game plan for … that you draw plays for.”
- Many rolled their eyes when the Grizzlies shipped Pau Gasol to the Lakers and received younger brother Marc Gasol in return. At the time, GM Chris Wallace took a lot of flack for the deal,Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald writes. “It was tough trying to explain the long term value of a center who not only is playing in Spain at that time — which, despite the international nature of the game, the local fans and media don’t really follow the ACB as they do the ACC or the SEC — but the player also played high school basketball in Memphis,” said Wallace. “He came over [from Spain] with Pau, and let’s just say a lot of people who saw him play weren’t impressed. People would come up to me and say, ‘He couldn’t play at White Station High School. He had to transfer to Lausanne. I saw him there and all he does is shoot 30-footers and he’s out of shape. No way he’s an NBA player.’ ” Years later, the deal makes much more sense from Memphis’ side.
- A string of injuries has turned rookie Nick Johnson from an afterthought into a member of the Rockets‘ rotation, according to Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. “I’m more confident,” said Johnson, who hit a game-winning layup against the Timberwolves on Friday, then helped close out a victory over the Suns on Saturday. “It’s a process, every game, every minute I’m out there I start to understand a little more.”
Zach Links contributed to this post.
Pacific Notes: Clarkson, Thompson, Warriors
Sam Amick and Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today Sports learned that Kings star DeMarcus Cousins has been out for the last five games with a case of viral meningitis. Cousins continues to recover but he’ll be out for at least another seven to 10 days. More from the Pacific Division..
- The L.A. D-Fenders announced (via Twitter) that Jordan Clarkson has been recalled by the Lakers in time for tonight’s tilt against the Pelicans. Clarkson’s weekend stint with the D-Fenders was his third of the season.
- Over the summer, Mychal Thompson said he’d have to talk his son Klay Thompson “down off the ledge” if a rumored deal sending him to the Timberwolves came to fruition. Earlier today, the younger Thompson said that his dad was kind of overstating things. “He exaggerates things. I’m sure you guys know that,” the Warriors star said, according to Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group (via Twitter).
- Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob made some interesting comments about ex-coach Mark Jackson last week but he took the time to publicly apologize for them today, as Leung writes. Lacob believes that Jackson will “succeed again in this business.”
And-Ones: Knicks, Mekel, Mirotic, Kerr
The Knicks have started the season with a record of 4-17, but there is upside to the team’s horrendous start, writes Frank Isola of the New York Daily News. Ending up in the early part of the lottery could lead to the addition of a franchise changing player to the team either by the draft itself or by a trade that sends the pick out in a package that lands the Knicks an elite talent, like the Cavs did with Kevin Love this past offseason. Isola points out that the Knicks haven’t been the most patient franchise when it comes to developing talent and notes that the last two Knicks’ draft picks to make the All-Star team were David Lee, who was drafted in 2005, and Mark Jackson, who was selected in the 1987 draft.
Here’s more from around the Association:
- Gal Mekel‘s two-year, non-guaranteed deal he signed with the Pelicans will pay him $639K this season, and he’ll earn $947,276 during the 2015/16 season, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter link). That means the deal is a minimum-salary arrangement.
- The Bulls‘ three-year wait for Nikola Mirotic brought back memories of a similar saga with Toni Kukoc two decades ago, writes Steve Aschburner of NBA.com. But while Kukoc was publicly dissed by Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, Mirotic has gotten a friendly reception from Chicago’s current stars. “He can put it on the floor, he can make plays for people, he can get to the basket,” Mike Dunleavy said of Mirotic, who is in the first season of a three-year, $16.6MM deal. “Defensively he’s pretty good — blocks shots, gets his hands on a lot of balls. As he gets used to everything a little more, he’ll foul less and be a pretty effective defender.”
- Steve Kerr, who has the Warriors off to the NBA’s best start in his first season behind the team’s bench, tells Sam Smith of Bulls.com that his coaching style borrows from every coach he ever played under. Kerr played for two of the league’s most successful coaches ever in Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich, but said he learned something everywhere he went. “Cotton Fitzsimmons and Lenny Wilkens and Lute Olson; you sort of take a little from each person,” Kerr said. “But what they all told me was to be yourself. They said you have to be yourself, that players will know if you are trying to do something that is not you.”
Arthur Hill and Eddie Scarito contributed to this post.
Western Notes: Kerr, Nuggets, Spurs, Clarkson
Sacrifice is a key component to the Warriors‘ success, according to head coach Steve Kerr, writes Sam Smith of Bulls.com. Andre Iguodala has arguably sacrificed the most for the team by taking a reduced role as the team’s sixth man off the bench. “It’s a good fit, but not something Andre is thrilled about. The fact he has accepted it and sacrificed has kind of set the tone for our team. They look at him and see an All-Star and Olympian and guy who’s been around the league and willing to step back; that’s pretty powerful,” said Kerr. Smith notes that Kerr set the example for sacrificing by signing for less money than the team offered because as a rookie coach he believed he didn’t warrant the same level of pay as accomplished veteran coaches.
Here’s more from the Western Conference:
- The Nuggets have one of the deepest rosters in the league but their depth can be viewed as a blessing and a curse, writes Adi Joseph of USA Today. Point guard Ty Lawson is the only player on the team averaging more than 31 minutes per game. While a decrease in playing time may not sit well with some players, USA gold medalist Kenneth Faried understands the team’s situation. “There’s a whole bunch of competition for minutes,” Faried said. “Everybody on this team either has been a starter or has played on a team where they were the man. It’s kind of like coming from college to the NBA. That’s what this team feels like. Everybody wants to play. Everybody wants to get minutes. But it’s tough right now.”
- The Spurs are both new age because of their rich blend of international cultures and old school because they have retained their core players in a way that predates free agency, writes Harvey Araton of The New York Times. Head coach Gregg Popovich credits the team’s environment as reason for the unprecedented continuity. “All these guys, the core guys, they’ve made less money in San Antonio than counterparts all across the league–people who will say they gave up this,” Popovich said. “But these guys have given up real money with every new contract to stay together. These guys care about quality of life, and it falls into the way they play.”
- Jordan Clarkson has been re-assigned to the Los Angeles D-Fenders, the D-League affiliate of the Lakers, the team announced (Twitter link). This will be the third appearance in the D-League for Clarkson this season.
Warriors Owner On Mark Jackson, Kerr, Arena
Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob had nothing but praise for his new head coach Steve Kerr while also relaying the reasons why he chose to fire Kerr’s predecessor, Mark Jackson, during a speaking appearance before venture capitalists in Menlo Park this week, Diamond Leung of The Bay Area News Group reports. While Lacob did credit Jackson for changing the Warriors’ culture, the owner said he didn’t think the team “could be great” without removing a coach he characterized as unwilling to hire better assistants and disliked by many in the organization, Leung notes.
“Right now, [Kerr] looks great,” Lacob said. “I think he will be great. And he did the one big thing that I wanted more than anything else from Mark Jackson he just wouldn’t do, in all honesty, which is hire the very best. Carte blanche. Take my wallet. Do whatever it is to get the best assistants there are in the world. Period. End of story. Don’t want to hear it. And [Jackson’s] answer . . . was, ‘Well, I have the best staff.’ No you don’t. And so with Steve, very, very different.“
Lacob continued, saying he thought at the time when he hired Jackson that the key for an inexperienced coach who he said “didn’t know X’s and O’s, really” was to hire the right staff around him, Leung relays. “You can’t have a staff underneath you that isn’t that good,” Lacob said. “And if you’re going to get better, you’ve got to have really good assistants. You’ve got to have people that can be there to replace you. We all know this from all of our companies. It’s . . . Management 101. A lot of people on the outside couldn’t understand it when we [fired Jackson].“
Lacob also discussed the status of the franchise’s new arena in San Francisco, which could be open in time for the start of the 2017/18 campaign, though the official target date for the ribbon-cutting is the 2018/19 season, Leung notes. Lacob said the arena project costs $800MM, and including office and retail space the price tag in privately financed dollars is “well over a billion.”
“We’re going to put a shovel in the ground, assuming the bureaucrats don’t slow us down any more next summer,” Lacob said. “And it’ll be built in 24 months. We’ve hired the contractors already, and we’ll open hopefully in fall of ’17. We told the world fall of ’18. We’re trying to move it up to fall of ’17, and it’s a real possibility we could do that.”
The Warriors recently moved the site of their proposed arena to the Mission Bay area of San Francisco after failing to muster civic support for a plan to build on Piers 30 and 32. The team has been seeking approval as it makes presentations about the design and traffic impact of the building to a local citizens advisory committee.
Western Notes: Love, Stokes, Abrines
Kevin Love has denied all the rumors that suggest he is considering leaving Cleveland after this season to join the Lakers. In an interview with ESPN Radio’s “Mike and Mike in the Morning” (hat tip to Scott Sargent of WaitingForNextYear.com), Love continued to deny he intends to depart for Los Angeles, saying, “Whether we lose two or three games in a row, or there’s a game where my statistical output isn’t necessarily what it should be, people are always going to talk. Since I was traded to Cleveland this summer, I’ve said since Day one that I’m a Cleveland Cavalier long term and I plan for it to be that way. I want to grow with this team. There’s a lot of guys with a lot of unique talent, one-through-fifteen, on our roster who are going to be here for a long time. If I could end all the speculation now, I would. But people are going to continue to talk no matter what. I just want to continue getting better with this team long term. I’m a Cleveland Cavalier.”
Here’s more from the west:
- The Grizzlies have recalled Jarnell Stokes from the Iowa Energy, the team announced. This was Stokes’ second trip to the D-League this season. The 20-year-old forward has notched a total of eight points and seven rebounds in 21 minutes of action in his six NBA appearances for Memphis this season.
- With Nick Calathes having recently returned to the Grizzlies from his drug-related suspension, members of his camp have told David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link) that the talk of Calathes wanting out of his contract with Memphis so he can play overseas with Fenerbahce of the Turkish league are just rumors.
- Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com (Twitter links) has been hearing favorable reviews of Alex Abrines, a second round pick of the Thunder back in 2013 who is playing in Spain. Abrines was selected with the No. 32 overall pick, but if he entered the 2015 draft he would likely be a top-15 selection, notes Howard-Cooper. In 16 contests for FC Barcelona this season, Abrines is averaging 9.8 points on 57% shooting, including a stellar 53.3% from three-point range.
- Though no trades appear to be imminent, the Warriors, despite their 15-2 record, do not necessarily believe that their roster is set, Tim Kawakami of The Bay Area News Group tweets. Golden State is surveying the trade market to see who is available, Kawakami adds.
Western Notes: Curry, Meeks, D-League
Stephen Curry is now in the second season of the four-year, $44MM deal that he inked with the Warriors, and he has become one of the most blatantly underpaid players in the game, DeAntae Price of The Sporting News writes. Part of the reason that Curry signed that deal was because he missed 40 games the prior season with an ankle injury, prompting him to become concerned about his ability to bounce back, notes Price. But Curry has no regrets about signing the contract, saying, “Yeah, you expect to continue to get better. Obviously, I was in a unique situation, one that I was very comfortable with the decision I made coming off the ankle surgeries. I was confident I’d be able to get back, but I didn’t know how long the road was going to be to get back to 100% and take my game to the next level. But four years is a long time and you hope you can prove that you’re that max type of player and talent.”
Here’s more from out west:
- The Jazz have recalled Toure’ Murry from the D-League, the team announced. The offseason signee was on assignment with the Idaho Stampede for nearly three weeks, putting up 14.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 2.3 steals in 31.5 minutes per game across six appearances.
- The Thunder have recalled both Mitch McGary and Grant Jerrett from the Oklahoma City Blue, their D-League affiliate, the team announced. This was Jerrett’s third D-League assignment of the season and McGary’s first.
- The Lakers didn’t make an offer to Jodie Meeks when he became a free agent last summer because they wanted to maintain flexibility in case LeBron James or Carmelo Anthony decided to come to Los Angeles, Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News writes. So Meeks took the sure thing and inked a deal with the Pistons instead, though he still has nothing but warm feelings for the Lakers, Medina adds. “I was getting some interest with the Lakers, but obviously they were waiting on Carmelo and LeBron,” Meeks said. “Who knows what would’ve happened had I waited, but I feel like this [Detroit] is the best place for me.”
Offseason In Review: Golden State Warriors
Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team’s offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees, and more will be covered, as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.
Signings
- Shaun Livingston: Three years, $16.631MM. Signed via mid-level exception. Third year is partially guaranteed for $3MM.
- Brandon Rush: Two years, $2.417MM. Signed via minimum-salary exception. Second year is player option.
- Leandro Barbosa: One year, $1.448MM. Signed via minimum-salary exception. Partially guaranteed for $150K.
- Justin Holiday: One year, $816K. Signed via minimum-salary exception. Partially guaranteed for $35K.
Extensions
- Klay Thompson: Four years, $68.979MM. If maximum salary for 2015/16 is less than $15.501MM, contract value will be amended downward accordingly.
Trades
- None
Waiver Claims
- None
Draft Picks
- None
Camp Invitees
- Aaron Craft
- Jason Kapono
- Sean Kilpatrick
- James Michael McAdoo
- Mitchell Watt
Departing Players
Rookie Contract Option Decisions
- Harrison Barnes (fourth year, $3,873,398) — Exercised
- Festus Ezeli (fourth year, $2,008,748) — Exercised
- Nemanja Nedovic (third year, $1,151,760) — Declined
For a team without draft picks, cap space, or any members of its starting five entering free agency, the Warriors sure made some critical and potentially franchise-altering decisions this past offseason. A controversial coaching change, a steadfast commitment to Klay Thompson in failed trade talks with the Timberwolves about Kevin Love, and a near-maximum extension for Thompson only seemed to dial up the pressure to challenge for the title.
The Warriors entered the playoffs in 2013 not having been to the postseason in six years and as an underdog in the first round against the 57-win Nuggets. They won that series and put a scare into the Spurs before succumbing in the next round, and since then, co-owner Joe Lacob’s expectations for the team have ratcheted up. Golden State won four more games in the regular season last year than it did the year before, but it didn’t improve its playoff seeding, and though the Warriors took the Clippers to seven games this past spring before falling in the first round without an injured Andrew Bogut, it didn’t save Mark Jackson‘s job. Jackson had presided over a rapid turnaround in his three seasons as Warriors coach, and he had forged a profound trust with his players, but he failed to get along with some of his assistant coaches and other key figures within the Warriors organization. He also reportedly made a play for other NBA head coaching jobs while still with Golden State. His ultimate shortcoming was in failing to convince Lacob that the team’s on-court performance and locker-room morale were strong enough to justify his continued employment, and the Warriors axed him.
That touched off a wide-ranging search for a replacement that at one point seemed to zero in on Stan Van Gundy, but by the time Golden State met with him, the Pistons had already spoken to him about the dual executive/coaching role he ultimately took on in Detroit. The Warriors were instead seeking a coach who would be just that and leave front office decision-making others. Somewhat curiously, they hired former Suns GM Steve Kerr, whose only experience is as an executive and not as a coach, though Kerr made it clear that he wanted to transition into coaching long before he hooked up with the Warriors, and he reiterated that after his hiring this year. Kerr agonized over choosing the Warriors instead of the Knicks, with whom he could have served under mentor Phil Jackson, but Kerr’s West Coast ties, and doubtlessly the vast gulf in talent between the Warriors and Knicks, proved too strong.
Kerr made it a point to win over Jackson supporters like Stephen Curry and others on the Warriors roster, and the team is off to a roaring start this season. Golden State’s 14-2 record also helps validate the team’s decision to keep Klay Thompson for this season and for the foreseeable future. There’s no guarantee that the Warriors would have wound up trading Thompson to the Wolves if they had been more willing to include him in proposals, particularly given how pleased Minnesota was with the package it received from the Cavs. The deal never would have been Love-for-Thompson straight up, since the salaries wouldn’t have matched, and a variety of other factors involving David Lee, Kevin Martin and Harrison Barnes complicated the discussions, as Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group chronicled.
The inertia didn’t itself guarantee a long-term future together for Thompson and the Warriors, since the fast-rising former No. 11 overall pick was extension-eligible and agent Bill Duffy was going after the max. Lacob vowed this past spring to strike a deal with Thompson, though it wasn’t clear whether he was talking about an extension or a new pact in restricted free agency during the summer of 2015. The owner apparently resisted giving Thompson $15MM salaries, amounts that the max will almost certainly entail. Thompson held firm, and other teams reportedly sniffed around as the extension deadline drew near to see if the Warriors were willing to change course and trade the 24-year-old, but the sides ultimately struck agreement on a pact with an unusual structure.
Thompson will get the max for a player of his experience in the first year of his extension next season, as long as that max doesn’t exceed the $15.5MM that it’s projected to hit, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe reported. It’s a compromise of sorts for both sides, though there’s a strong chance it won’t have wound up costing Thompson a penny if the max doesn’t come in higher than thought. The Warriors appear to have made the more significant concession, especially since the Thompson extension gives them nearly $78.8MM in commitments for next season, including Brandon Rush‘s minimum-salary player option. Former second-round pick Draymond Green wasn’t eligible for an extension even though he was entering the final season of his rookie contract, so he’ll hit restricted free agency in the summer. He’s poised to merit a sizable raise that would make it difficult for the Warriors to avoid the luxury tax should they keep him.
The Warriors figure to have little capacity to spend on upgrades next summer, but they took advantage of the full mid-level exception this year, inking Shaun Livingston months after he finished his strongest campaign since his catastrophic knee injury in 2007. He’s not the player he was before he got hurt, when the Clippers made him the fourth overall pick in 2004, but he was a vital part of a revival for the Nets after they started slowly last season, as his unusual combination of 6’7″ height and ball-handling proved troublesome for opponents. The Warriors struggled all of 2013/14 to fill the role that combo guard Jarrett Jack played in 2012/13 before he departed in free agency, so they outmaneuvered the Nets as well as the Heat, Hornets, Spurs, Wolves and Kings in hopes that Livingston would fill that gap. A toe injury slowed him at the start, and he has barely played half as many minutes per game as Jack did in his season by the Bay, but there’s plenty of time left this year, and the Warriors have no need to press him for more, as well as they’ve played as a team.
In any case, the answer at point guard won’t be Nemanja Nedovic, even though Golden State is just a year and change removed from investing the last pick of the first round in him. The Warriors declined his third-year rookie scale option before the season and waived him shortly thereafter, eating only about half of his guaranteed salary for this season thanks to a buyout arrangement. The parting of ways was a somewhat troubling sign for the team, since it gave up $600K in cash and a second-round pick in an odd sequence of trades to acquire Nedovic on draft night in 2013, but, Jimmy Butler aside, late first-rounders often fail to become contributors, much less stars. The Warriors gave a vote of confidence to 2012 30th overall pick Festus Ezeli when they picked up his fourth-year option in October after an injury wiped out his sophomore season, so there’s still a chance that he’ll help the Warriors.
Regardless, this past offseason wasn’t about moves on the margins for Golden State. The Warriors made potentially franchise-altering decisions even though their core remains intact, and the onus is on that core to produce like never before. Lacob has every financial reason to affect significant change and avoid the tax next season, so the Warriors must show they’re close enough to winning a title to ensure that the team as constituted will continue to have chances to do so.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
And Ones: Green, Hornets, Lakers, Grizzlies
Warriors coach Steve Kerr knows he has something special in Draymond Green, writes Rusty Simmons of The San Francisco Chronicle. “He’s fantastic. He’s a winner,” Kerr said about Green, who worked this summer to transform himself into a stretch-4. “We love what he does for our team. In a lot of ways, he’s our heart and soul. He plays with such passion at both ends, and I think it’s contagious.” Still on his rookie contract, Green is under the Warriors’ control through the 2015/16 season, though with their limited financial flexibility, GM Bob Myers and company could have trouble matching an offer for him in restricted free agency.
There was more Saturday night from the NBA:
- Hornets coach Steve Clifford blasted his team as unprofessional after Saturday’s 30-point loss to the Hawks, as Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer details. Charlotte trailed 64-28 at halftime and never made a serious run,. “Effort night in and night out is always going to be the responsibility of the head coach and the best players,” Clifford said. “The basic nightly intensity of your team comes down to that, and I’m the person most responsible. That is obviously unacceptable – for the franchise to the fans to ever play a game with that little intensity.”
- The Lakers could be headed for years of suffering, but Jim Buss shouldn’t stick around to join in, opines Ben Bolch of The Los Angeles Times. Calling the team “last in the NBA in defense, last in the Western Conference standings, last in watchability,” Bolch called on Buss, the team’s executive VP of basketball operations, to step down before the three- to four-year timetable Buss gave himself to rebuild the team. Bolch said the Lakers have little chance to land any of next summer’s top free agents like LaMarcus Aldridge, Kevin Love and Marc Gasol.
- One explanation for the Grizzlies‘ early success is the sophisticated two-man game executed by Gasol and Mike Conley, as Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal writes in a subscription-only piece. The pair overwhelmed Portland in the fourth quarter of Friday’s clash of Western Conference powers. “We’ve pretty much seen any kind of defense you can throw at us, so we pretty much have counters for everything,” Gasol said. “Once we make a couple of jumpers, you have to totally change your scheme and play us a different way.”
Western Notes: Curry, Davis, Chandler, Suns
Hornets fans may be suffering through a miserable start to the season, but they can at least dream about adding an all-star, writes Diamond Leung of the Oakland Tribune. The Warriors‘ Stephen Curry, who grew up in North Carolina, said he sometimes entertains thoughts about returning to play for Charlotte. However, he cautioned, it’s probably only a fantasy. “It’s just a fun thought to have,” Curry said. “The Hornets name does mean a lot to my family, and obviously I’m starting a new thing with the Warriors. I definitely feel right at home here (with Golden State).” Curry is in the middle of a four-year, $44MM contract that runs through 2016/17.
There’s more from around the Western Conference:
- One player who iisn’t thinking about going anywhere is the Pelicans’ Anthony Davis, who tells Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports that he’s very happy where he is. “I love it here in New Orleans,” Davis said. “Great city. Great atmosphere. …We’re getting the fans back and New Orleans back buzzing for the Pelicans, a great organization. I love my team here.” That has to be comforting news for the Pelicans, as Davis, who has become one of the NBA’s top young players, is in the final year of his rookie contract, currently making $7MM. He will be eligible for a maximum extension next summer that could pay him about $90MM over five years.
- The Mavericks‘ Raymond Felton is trying to quell rumors from the New York media that Tyson Chandler was a distraction during his final season with the Knicks, writes Eddie Sefko of The Dallas News. “All that was said about him was just nonsense,” said Felton. “Tyson, by all means, I’ve never seen him be a problem in the locker room. He holds guys accountable and if you can’t accept that, then you’re not in it for the right reasons.” Felton and Chandler were traded from New York to Dallas in the offseason.
- Numbers are down for the Suns‘ Eric Bledsoe, Goran Dragic and Isaiah Thomas, but Joel Brigham of Basketball Insiders writes that they are accepting that as part of the three-guard rotation. “In the end,” Dragic said, “you have to sacrifice some minutes and some shots so the team can get better.”