Poll: Which Summer Moves Will Flop?
There’s no more optimistic period for NBA fans than the summer, when draft picks, free agency additions, trades, coaching hires, and other maneuvers boost expectations around the league. Of course, there are no shortage of teams that have deflated those expectations as previous seasons have unfolded. Just last season, the return of Derrick Rose to the Bulls was cut short just 10 games in, the Knicks and Cavs disappointed at the bottom of the standings, the Bucks fell from a postseason appearance to owning the league’s very worst record, and the Nets’ ballooning blockbuster roster started the season 10-21, although Brooklyn managed to mostly salvage the year with a second-round playoff run.
This poll isn’t so much about individual performance as it is team expectations that might go unmet. While teams like the Rockets, Pacers, and Heat appear vulnerable to severe dropoffs this year, their summers have been marked by offseason setbacks. I’ve rounded up some of the teams that are setting their sights higher for 2014/15 than they did last season thanks to offseason successes, with some factors that could potentially cause trouble for each.
- Cleveland Cavaliers. LeBron James‘ arrival was the NBA’s biggest move since he jumped to Miami four years ago, but the arrival of Kevin Love via trade set expectations in Cleveland even higher. While James, Love, and Kyrie Irving should form a deadly offensive foundation, whether first-year NBA coach David Blatt can manage a newly stirred cocktail of superstar personalities and coax strong defense out of the bunch remains to be seen. Missing the Finals would be a disappointment, and anything short of an Eastern Conference Finals appearance would be considered a massive flop for the star-laden team in the weaker conference.
- Chicago Bulls. They made a slew of additions in place of the amnestied Carlos Boozer, bringing in Pau Gasol, Nikola Mirotic, and Doug McDermott, while a hopeful full season from Rose is a virtual star addition. Mirotic and McDermott are unproven, and some are concerned that Gasol’s production has begun tapering off for good. The team still lacks much offensive pop on the wing or backcourt rotation, continuing the team’s annual need to lean on coach Tom Thibodeau‘s elite defensive guidance to overcome its struggles on the other end of the court. If the team remains a middle-of-the-pack team in the East, fans will be let down to say the least.
- Dallas Mavericks. The team won a lot of headlines this summer, acquiring Chandler Parsons and Tyson Chandler by outbidding the Rockets and trading with the Knicks, respectively. The team has also lost substantial talent, however, with Jose Calderon, Vince Carter, and Shawn Marion all signing elsewhere. Some think the Mavs could ascend to the upper echelon of the Western Conference, but if either Chandler fails to bring his full projected impact, the team could spend another season fighting for one of the final playoff spots.
- Golden State Warriors. The team’s brass wasn’t satisfied with the job former coach Mark Jackson had done through 2013/14, which concluded with a 51-31 record and a first-round exit from the playoffs. The team pursued Stan Van Gundy before signing Steve Kerr to coach the team to reach the next level. The most notable move from the offseason is the one that Golden State didn’t make: declining to deal for Love so they could hang on to Klay Thompson. While Kerr is expected to bring a more sophisticated offense to the team, the team’s defense might dwindle without Jackson on the sideline. Whether Harrison Barnes makes a developmental leap, Andrew Bogut stays healthy, and new addition Shaun Livingston can fit in will be paramount to the team moving up in the standings, rather than slipping under loftier expectations.
What do you think? Which team’s bubble is most likely to burst as the season unfolds?
Which Summer Moves Will Flop?
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Golden State Warriors 31% (229)
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Dallas Mavericks 30% (223)
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Chicago Bulls 23% (168)
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Cleveland Cavaliers 16% (120)
Total votes: 740
Warriors Sign Jason Kapono
1:00pm: The Warriors have received FIBA clearance and have signed Kapono, the team has announced via press release. Contract details haven’t been announced yet, so it’s unclear if any guaranteed money is involved.
OCTOBER 4TH, 10:40am: The signing has not taken place yet because Kapono and the Warriors are still awaiting FIBA clearance since Kapono last played overseas, Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group notes.
SEPTEMBER 26TH, 4:34pm: The Warriors have reached an agreement with free agent Jason Kapono, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports is reporting (Twitter link). Length and terms of the deal were not disclosed but Wojnarowski termed it a training camp deal, which means that it’s likely for the minimum with little or no guaranteed money included.
Golden State now has 18 players on the roster, with 17 of them carrying some level of guarantee. Regardless of if any partial guarantee is included in Kapono’s arrangement, he’s going to have to battle to stick on the roster until opening night. His outside shooting acumen certainly fits the Warriors style of play, which can’t hurt Kapono’s chances at the very least.
The 6’8″, 33 year-old swingman last played in the NBA during the 2011/12 season when he appeared in 27 games for the Lakers. Kapono’s career numbers over nine seasons are 6.7 PPG, 1.7 RPG, and 0.8 APG. His career slash line is .442/.434/.835. He had officially announced his retirement back in May of this year, but Kapono obviously believes he has something left in the tank.
Western Notes: Gee, Mills, Nedovic, Ballmer
The players union encourages agents to negotiate contract guarantee dates into non-guaranteed deals for their clients in part to help ward off what happened to Alonzo Gee this summer, writes Grantland’s Zach Lowe. Teams played hot potato with Gee’s contract, which was to remain non-guaranteed until the leaguewide guarantee date in January, and the Kings waived him late last month, in time for him to receive no more than another non-guaranteed pact for the minimum salary with the Nuggets. Gee’s agent Happy Walters didn’t represent the small forward when he signed the contract that teams passed around via trade this summer, and vows to Lowe that he’ll never let a player agree to a non-guaranteed deal without a guarantee date, though it’s unclear what guarantee dates, if any, are involved in Gee’s arrangement with Denver. While we wait to see how that dynamic plays out around the league, and whether Gee can crack the Nuggets opening-night roster, here’s more from around the Western Conference:
- The Hornets planned to pursue Patrick Mills last summer but backed off when he was diagnosed with a torn rotator cuff just as free agency was beginning, according to Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News. Mills re-signed with the Spurs for three years and $11MM.
- Agent Misko Raznatovic is skeptical that the Warriors are giving a fair shot to Nemanja Nedovic, the 30th overall pick in 2013, as Raznatovic tells Saša Ozmo of the Serbian website B92 (Ozmo provides an English translation on TwitLonger). “I don’t know if he’s going to get a proper chance,” Raznatovic said. “They’re promising he will, but we’ll see, he’s had a lot of injuries. I hope everything is going to be all right.” A decision on Nedovic’s third-year team option is due by October 31st.
- New Clippers owner Steve Ballmer insists he won’t micromanage coach/executive Doc Rivers as he runs the basketball operations for the team and doesn’t agree with the notion that $2 billion was too much to pay for the team, as Ballmer tells USA Today’s Sam Amick. Ballmer also says to Amick that he intends to own the team “until essentially I die.”
Pacific Rumors: Morrises, Liggins, Gay, Kobe
Marcus Morris says he thinks Markieff Morris should have received a greater share of the four-year, $52MM combined total of the extensions that agent Leon Rose negotiated for the twins, as he told reporters, including Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. Markieff said it would be OK if he and his brother ended up on different teams, but he added that there was no reason for them to walk away from what the Suns had to offer.
“It’s a dream come true,” Markieff said. “We feel like we’re home together. When they offer us great money to stay together, why not take it instead of going through free agency? We’re both going to have great seasons. … The game is more fun together. It means more. We’re definitely past that point of not being able to play apart, but another four years definitely won’t hurt anything.”
Here’s more from around the Pacific:
- DeAndre Liggins doesn’t appear on the training camp roster the Clippers released today, so it looks like he won’t be joining the team after all. There were conflicting reports about whether he had a deal to do so.
- Rudy Gay said he briefly began extension talks with the Kings over the summer, but he put them on hold when he joined Team USA, notes Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee. Still, Gay’s not opposed to having his agents at Octagon Sports resume talks, Jones adds.
- Kobe Bryant isn’t ruling out the idea of playing beyond his contract, which ends in the summer of 2016, shortly before his 38th birthday, observes Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. “Whether I do or not, we’ll have to see that two years from now,” Bryant said. “I don’t know, but I could [play longer]. Physically, I don’t see an end to the tunnel.”
- Confidence in the continued development of the team’s young players made the Warriors hesitate to trade for Kevin Love, as GM Bob Myers told NBA TV, while Klay Thompson, in his NBA TV appearance, expressed appreciation for Steve Kerr‘s role in forestalling a swap. Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group provides a transcription. “If it is the truth, it’s awesome,” Thompson said of Kerr’s opposition to a move. “I appreciate Steve for that. It just makes me want to play even harder for him if he really did believe that, so it gives me a new sense of confidence, really.”
Pacific Rumors: Clippers, Lee, Thompson
Forbes revealed its list of the 400 wealthiest Americans today, and new Clippers owner Steve Ballmer ranks as the richest NBA owner at number 18 overall. Here’s more from around the Pacific Division:
- The Clippers announced the additions of Sam Cassell, Lawrence Frank, and Mike Woodson to their assistant coaching staff in a team release.
- David Lee told reporters including Diamond Leung of Bay Area News Group that he’s not upset with Warriors brass, who floated his name for much of the summer in trade talks for Kevin Love that never came to fruition. “There was no hard feelings,” Lee said. “There can’t be. Our front office is trying to improve the team, and Kevin Love is a great player. It happened, and I’m not mad at anybody. I don’t feel bad. It’s just this is a business.”
- Warriors point guard Steph Curry backed up Klay Thompson‘s insistence that the Love trade talks, which also heavily involved Thompson’s name, did not anger him as reported. “[Thompson] showed me the little link on his phone and then started laughing,” Curry said, as quoted by Leung on Twitter.
Western Notes: Rockets, Kerr, Nuggets
The Rockets had quite a difficult offseason. From being spurned by Chris Bosh, losing Chandler Parsons to the Mavs in free agency, and dealing away Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik for essentially nothing in return, as far as the current roster is concerned, it’s been a rough few months in Houston. In his training camp preview, Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle looks at the main questions facing the franchise.
Here’s more from out west:
- Steve Kerr spent time over the summer building relationships with his Warriors players, and he says he isn’t concerned that the widespread support for Mark Jackson within the locker room last year will be a factor, as he tells Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group.
- Kenneth Faried, J.J. Hickson, and Darrell Arthur will all play major roles in any success the Nuggets have this season. Demetrius Jacobs of NBA.com breaks down the power forwards on Denver’s roster and what each brings to the court. Jacobs also looks at the Nuggets’ centers in a separate article.
- In a subscriber’s only piece, Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal breaks down the Grizzlies‘ power forwards, and believes Jon Leuer‘s production as Zach Randolph‘s backup will be a key factor this season.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Pacific Notes: Randle, Kerr, Kings
At a news conference on Friday, Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak tried to temper the expectations for Los Angeles’ first round draftee Julius Randle, Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times reports. “Julius is still 19 years old,” Kupchak said. “You wouldn’t know that by looking at him, because he’s really a well-developed, big, strong, athletic kid. Over the years, I’ve never looked at a rookie and said, ‘Hey, this guy’s gonna bring us to the top.’ It doesn’t do any good to have high expectations.” Kupchak also said Randle would have to earn the starting job from Carlos Boozer, Pincus relays.
Here’s more from the Pacific Division:
- When asked if Randle could see time at small forward, Kupchak said, “He can defend small forwards. Do I see him right now as the prototypical small forward? Probably not. But I could see him bringing the ball up the court. I could see him seeing a gap, getting a step on a guy and making a play — whether it’s finishing or finding somebody that’s open. Those are ball-handling skills that you wouldn’t see power forwards have very often.”
- Kings GM Pete D’Alessandro said the team specifically targeted Ramon Sessions early in free agency, and that their summer dealings were designed to free up money to sign him, Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee reports (Twitter link).
- D’Alessandro also spoke about new addition Ryan Hollins, and how his presence could allow Sacramento to play DeMarcus Cousins at power forward at times, tweets Jones. This possibility might keep a few stretch-fours up at night wondering how they will defend Cousins in the post.
- Rookie Warriors head coach Steve Kerr doesn’t have time on his side, Marcus Thompson II of the San Jose Mercury News writes. Thompson doesn’t believe that Kerr is in danger of being fired if Golden State has an off year, but notes that another shakeup is coming unless he takes the Warriors to a height his employers have never been to: the conference finals and beyond.
Pacific Notes: O’Neal, Clippers, Warriors
According to Warriors GM Bob Myers, it doesn’t appear that Jermaine O’Neal will be returning to Golden State, Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle notes (Twitter link). When discussing the bigs on his roster, Myers said the team would be sticking with Andrew Bogut, Festus Ezeli, Ognjen Kuzmic for training camp. O’Neal had been giving some thought to retirement but there was talk that the Warriors had interest in bringing back the 35 year-old center.
Here’s the latest out of the Pacific Division:
- Longtime Clippers executive Andy Roser, who’d been on an indefinite leave of absence since May, will not return to the team, a source tells Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times. Roeser was briefly in charge of the franchise after commissioner Adam Silver banned former owner Donald Sterling for life.
- The team president that Clippers owner Steve Ballmer is seeking to run the team’s day-to-day operations would oversee the business side, as Bolch clarifies. So, that ostensibly means the hire wouldn’t dabble in the basketball operations department that’s the domain of coach/executive Doc Rivers. Roeser, who had previously occupied the team presidency, was part of a triumvirate of executives in charge of player personnel before Rivers came aboard last year.
- Having David Lee back on the court might not be the best thing for the Warriors, Jonathan Tjarks of RealGM opines. Former coach Mark Jackson was forced to get creative when Lee was injured during the playoffs in 2013, and the changes he made maximized the team’s strengths, Tjarks notes.
- One thing that Ballmer should do is to find a way to welcome Elgin Baylor back to the organization in some capacity, Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com opines. Baylor lost his wrongful termination suit against the franchise, but recent events certainly seem to add credence to his claims that racism played a part in his firing by the team.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
And-Ones: Union, Ariza, Wizards, O’Neal, Nets
Players union executive director Michele Roberts is making $1.2MM this year, the first of a four-year contract, reports Scott Soshnick of Bloomberg.com. Roberts, who officially began the job this week, tells Soshnick that she can earn an additional $600K each year of the pact via bonuses. Either way, it’s significantly less than the $3MM that predecessor Billy Hunter was making per year. Still, Roberts’ salary is on par with what first-year executive directors for the NFL and Major League Baseball players unions have made of late, as Soshnick points out. There’s more on Roberts amid the latest from around the league, as we pass along:
- Roberts didn’t mince words with Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News in declaring her intention to establish credibility with players and not follow the path of Hunter, whose tenure ended amid allegations of corruption. “I’m sure there are people thinking, ‘Ahh, another politician-like person coming in trying to sell us a bunch of bull,’” Roberts said. “And that’s my job to win them over, to tell them, ‘No, this time it will be different or fire me. I want you to if I even dare replicate my predecessor.’”
- Trevor Ariza was asking for $10MM salaries from the Wizards, but GM Ernie Grunfeld wouldn’t go that high in part because he was pursuing Paul Pierce, writes J. Michael of CSNWashington.com.
- Rasual Butler‘s similarities to Pierce helped him earn a spot on the Wizards preseason roster, but Xavier Silas and Damion James each has a better shot at making it to opening night, as Michael adds in the same piece.
- Warriors GM Bob Myers spoke with veteran center Jermaine O’Neal on Monday, but Myers tells Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle that he still doesn’t have much clarity about whether O’Neal will retire or re-sign with Golden State.
- Jerome Jordan‘s deal with the Nets becomes partially guaranteed for $100K should he remain on the roster through October 25th, not $150K as previously reported, a source tells Robert Windrem of Nets Daily (Twitter link).
- Spurs assistant coach Sean Marks is moving off the bench and returning to the front office in a new role as assistant GM, the team announced. Marks spent two years as an executive before San Antonio made him an assistant coach last season.
Cray Allred contributed to this post.
Warriors Want To Extend Klay Thompson
Warriors general manager Bob Myers indicated on Tuesday that the team wants to sign Klay Thompson to a long-term extension, reports Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group. Thompson, of course, was famously dangled in trade offers for Kevin Love during the offseason before the Warriors opted against moving him. Myers had the following to say about Thompson and his backcourt mate Stephen Curry:
“We value [Thompson] in the highest way, and we want to keep him on this team for a long time. I think most people believe it to be the best, one of the best backcourts in the NBA, and I don’t think that that’s a minority opinion. I think it’s a majority opinion. That’s part of the team you don’t worry about too much, right? I mean, that part is good, which is hard to find… The two guard in the NBA is a depleted position, so we feel like if we can move forward with those two guys we’re in pretty good shape.”
Thompson is reportedly seeking a max contract and the Warriors have until October 31 to agree on an extension of his rookie-scale contract that would prevent him from hitting restricted free agency next summer. There was an August report that suggested the 24-year-old shooting guard was disgruntled after all the trade rumors, but last week Sam Amick of USA Today spoke to Thompson who pledged his loyalty to his current team.
Unfortunately for the Warriors, Amick also reported that Thompson’s agent Bill Duffy values his client as the best two-guard in the NBA, though the USA Today scribe added that the team believes they have budgeted appropriately enough to keep Thompson. More details surrounding negotiations between the Warriors and their star shooting guard are sure to unfold as we near the start of the 2014/15 regular season.