Warriors Sign Leandro Barbosa
4:24pm: The deal is official, the team announced.
SEPTEMBER 10TH, 2:43pm: Barbosa has put pen to paper, according to USA Today’s Sam Amick (Twitter link), though there has yet to be an official announcement from the team.
AUGUST 28TH: The Warriors and Leandro Barbosa have reached agreement on a one-year deal for the minimum salary, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. It’s not immediately clear whether the salary for the 11-year veteran will be guaranteed.
Golden State had been on the lookout for backup guards, Stein notes, and the 6’3″ Barbosa fits that bill. The 31-year-old and the Heat held a mutual interest, though it didn’t seem as though Miami was going too hard after the client of Excel Sports Management. Barbosa reportedly had talks with a few teams, but he seemed prepared to wait until after the FIBA World Cup to find a deal, until the Warriors swooped in.
It’s a contrast from last year, when Barbosa went without an NBA deal until January, starting the season with a Brazilian team in an effort to prove his health after suffering a torn ACL in February 2013. Barbosa is once more coming off an injury that ended his season early, having broken his left hand in March while playing for the Suns. Still, the concern surrounding that injury isn’t as profound, as the Golden State deal demonstrates.
The Warriors had been carrying 13 guaranteed deals plus a non-guaranteed pact for undrafted rookie Aaron Craft. Barbosa gives the team yet another option at point guard behind starter Stephen Curry, joining Craft, Shaun Livingston and the injured Nemanja Nedovic.
Warriors, Jerry West Agree To Extension
The Warriors have agreed to an extension with Jerry West that will keep the Hall-of-Famer on the team’s executive board through the 2016/17 season, reports Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group. West’s existing deal had been due to run out at the end of this coming season, and the 76-year-old recently told people close to him that he was thinking of retirement, even as he made it clear he was passionate about lifting the team to title contention, Kawakami hears.
West, who holds the title of director of scouting and administration for the club, has played a key role in Golden State’s decision-making since joining the Warriors in May of 2011, and he owns a partial stake in the franchise. He was vociferous in his opposition to trading Klay Thompson for Kevin Love this summer and helped influence the team’s decision not to do so, but West didn’t make the call to dismiss former coach Mark Jackson despite their poor relationship, Kawakami writes.
The Warriors recently signed GM Bob Myers to an extension that takes his contract through 2017/18. West’s commitment seals co-owner Joe Lacob’s desire to have his front office staff intact for years to come, as Kawakami points out. West is a two-time Executive of the Year award-winner, having taken home the honor in 1995 with the Lakers and in 2004 with the Grizzlies.
Warriors Sign Justin Holiday
The Warriors have added Las Vegas standout Justin Holiday to their training camp roster, the team announced. He’ll join 17 others, including 16 who are known to have at least a partial guarantee on their deals, as our roster counts show.
The Warriors D-League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors, traded Scott Machado to the Blazers’ affiliate in exchange for the rights to Holiday back in February. Golden State then got a closer look at Holiday in summer league action where he averaged 14.8 PPG and 5.0 RPG across five games. That performance was enough to make the team want to see even more of the Tony Dutt client this offseason.
Holiday’s lone NBA experience came on a 10-day deal with the 76ers back in 2012/13 where he averaged 4.7 PPG, 1.7 APG, 1.6 RPG, and 15.8 minutes per contest across nine games. After spending time in the D-League, the Adriatic League, and playing for multiple summer league teams in recent years, Holiday will now look to carve out an NBA home for 2014/15.
Poll: Which Coach Will Be On The Hot Seat?
The summer is the season of optimism for NBA fans, with draft picks and signings set to fit perfectly and improve teams all over the league–hypothetically. Once the season begins, however, the goodwill can dry up fast. Last year, blockbuster acquisitions in Detroit and Brooklyn had set expectations high for newly hired coaches Maurice Cheeks and Jason Kidd, but both teams struggled out of the gate, placing both coaches on the hot seat. Kidd survived the season and guided the Nets to the playoffs, but the root of conflict survived as well, and Kidd bolted for Milwaukee in a bizarre power struggle. Cheeks was fired in-season, and remains without a coaching job.
Mike Woodson faced constant speculation about his own job, and lasted through the season only to be let go by incoming team president Phil Jackson. Larry Drew bore the brunt of the Kidd move, and Tyrone Corbin was let go by the Jazz, despite his baby-faced roster performing about as well as expected. Mark Jackson led the Warriors to improvement for a second consecutive season, but pushing the Clippers to a Game 7 in the opening round of the playoffs wasn’t enough to salvage his position in Golden State after some turbulence between Jackson, the rest of the coaching staff, and the front office.
In the NBA, very few jobs are ever truly “safe,” unless your last name is Popovich. Let’s look at some of the coaches who could encounter early traces of job insecurity.
1. Winning Enough? Scott Brooks, Kevin McHale, and Frank Vogel. In parts of 13 seasons combined with their current teams, these coaches have only two losing seasons between them. Brooks receives plenty of flack for his in-game strategy and roster management, despite having coached a young Thunder team to a surprise appearance in the 2012 Finals, and regularly orchestrating dominant regular season performances that have been undercut by postseason injuries to Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka. After Oklahoma City’s disappointing series loss to the eventual champions in 2013/14, GM Sam Presti voiced his support for the coach moving forward.
Vogel built a defensive juggernaut that gave the Heat one of its stiffest annual challenges in the playoffs, but Indiana struggled mightily for much of the second half of last season, and the team will suffer this year from the losses of Lance Stephenson and Paul George. The Pacers squelched rumors that the coach could be let go after the team lost in the Eastern Conference Finals for the second consecutive year, but Vogel will be coaching on an expiring contract unless the team grants him an extension in the coming months.
McHale has failed to take the Rockets beyond the first round in his tenure, and expectations are that the team is due to build on its success around James Harden and Dwight Howard. The front office in Houston didn’t do McHale any favors this offseason, allowing mainstays Chandler Parsons, Jeremy Lin, and Omer Asik to depart while striking out on free agent Chris Bosh.
2. First-Year Coaches: David Blatt, Steve Kerr, Derek Fisher, and Quin Snyder. Blatt was signed to coach a team that failed to reach the playoffs last season, but Cleveland has since become a championship contender with the additions of LeBron James and Kevin Love. It’s rare for a first-time head coach to cut his teeth with such enormous expectations. Kerr takes over for a team that envisions a higher ceiling than they had attained with Jackson. Kerr’s involvement in the decision to withhold Klay Thompson from a potential Love trade could come back to haunt him, especially if the star power forward thrives in Cleveland while the shooting guard’s game doesn’t take off under Kerr’s tutelage.
Fisher and Snyder figure to operate with more patient front offices and fan bases, as both were hired to develop players within their systems with an eye toward the future. Of course, “low-pressure” isn’t typical of any coaching job in the New York market, and Fisher has insisted that his team should make the playoffs this season.
3. The Clock Is Ticking: Jacque Vaughn and Brian Shaw. Vaughn has been at the helm for a rebuilding Magic team the last two years, racking up an understandably poor .262 winning percentage. While Orlando is still far from contending, the team has shored up the rotation with veteran additions and has a number of young players on schedule to provide a bigger impact. A season spent at the very bottom of league standings might be unacceptable to Magic brass, especially if the young pieces fail to pop. Shaw took the reigns for one of the Western Conference’s best teams in 2012/13, but injuries and the departure of Andre Iguodala prevented them from reaching the postseason altogether this spring. The West should be no less fierce this season, but the Nuggets have high hopes that Shaw will be working to meet in just his second year on the sidelines.
4. Anything Can Happen: Jason Kidd and Dave Joerger. Both coaches are entering their sophomore seasons as NBA head coaches after having reached the playoffs on the first try. Aside from their teams’ performances, there are strange off-the-court similarities between the two. Kidd exited Brooklyn in the aforementioned stunner, and Joerger appeared destined to leave Memphis amid a series of puzzling revelations about his relationship with Grizzlies owner Robert Pera, before the two eventually hashed out their differences and agreed on a contract extension. Both would appear to have a long leash for the coming season, but the combustible personalities in play have undermined peaceful coaching situations before.
Who do you think will find himself on rocky footing soonest in 2014/15? As we have routinely seen, ongoing success is no guarantee that a coach is in the clear. If you think I’ve failed to mention the most likely name, vote “Other” and leave your choice in the comments.
Which Coach Will Be On The Hot Seat Soonest?
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Scott Brooks 19% (204)
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Kevin McHale 18% (191)
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Frank Vogel 15% (160)
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David Blatt 12% (125)
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Jason Kidd 9% (100)
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Derek Fisher 7% (77)
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Jacque Vaughn 7% (71)
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Brian Shaw 5% (54)
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Steve Kerr 4% (43)
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Other (leave in comments) 1% (14)
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Quin Snyder 1% (13)
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Dave Joerger 1% (12)
Total votes: 1,064
Western Notes: Rivers, Cousins, Ayon
Austin Rivers believes this coming season will be his breakout year, John Reid of the Times Picayune writes. The Pelicans guard said, “I was constantly working the entire summer. I gained 10 pounds and I’ve got stronger in my upper body. This is my year. But I think at the end of the day, I think we all now understand we can only control what we can control. At the end of the day, we let all of the guys in the front office do their jobs. We just stick to what we do. We play.” Rivers has career averages of 7.0 PPG, 1.8 RPG, and 2.2 APG. His career slash line is .390/.346/.601.
Here’s more from the west:
- DeMarcus Cousins tells Chris Kudialis of The Sacramento Bee that he hopes Team USA experience for him and Rudy Gay will pay dividends for the Kings this coming season. “My thing is just taking in as much as I can from this experience and taking it back home,” Cousins said. “I’m being led by some of the best players in the league here, and I want to use everything I learn to make myself better.”
- With the Warriors signing GM Bob Myers to an extension recently, Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders looks back at Myers’ biggest moves since arriving in Golden State.
- Gustavo Ayon prefers to play in the NBA next season, but the offers he has received from European teams have been more lucrative to this point, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports (Twitter links). Stein believes that Ayon, whom the Spurs recently expressed interest in, will head overseas unless the offers improve. Ayon played in 26 games for the Hawks last season, averaging 4.3 PPG, 4.8 RPG, and 1.1 APG.
Cray Allred contributed to this post.
Pacific Notes: Bledsoe, Warriors, Lakers, Brown
The lack of communication between Eric Bledsoe and the Suns persists, as Chris Haynes of the Plain Dealer hears it’s stretched for nearly six months (Twitter link). Suns owner Robert Sarver said in August that he hadn’t heard from Bledsoe in four months, but whatever the precise length of the silence, it doesn’t appear as though the sides are any closer to settling their differences and agreeing upon a long-term deal. The impasse leaves Bledsoe poised to sign the qualifying offer before it expires October 1st, according to Haynes, though he and the Suns have reportedly both been pursuing sign-and-trade possibilities. Just what happens with Bledsoe will help shape the Western Conference playoff race, and there’s more news from other Pacific Division clubs, as we detail:
- The Warriors are believed to be engaged in talks about an extension with Jerry West, as Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group writes amid his report on GM Bob Myers, who already agreed to an extension. The Hall-of-Famer serves as director of scouting and administration for the team, and he’s played a key role in front office decision-making. West’s existing deal is set to expire next summer, as Kawakami notes.
- Lakers executives Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak gauged whether Byron Scott‘s was willing to endure a long-term rebuilding process before hiring him as coach, as Scott tells Bill Oram of the Orange County Register, and it appears Scott will have a long leash. “I said, ‘Yeah as long as I know we’re going in the right direction and as long as I know that I’ve got the support of you guys and that we’re all in this together,’” Scott said.
- Lorenzo Brown is back on the free agent market after Italy’s Reyer Venezia voided the contract he signed with the club in July because he failed his physical, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). Brown appeared in 26 games for the Sixers last season and spent summer league this year with the Clippers.
Warriors, GM Bob Myers Agree To Extension
The Warriors and GM Bob Myers have agreed to terms on a three-year contract extension, a source tells Tim Kawakami of the Mercury News (Twitter link). The new deal will keep the 39-year-old Myers at the helm of Golden State’s basketball operations through at least the 2017/18 campaign, since his current pact with the club spans through the completion of the upcoming season.
Myers took control of the Warriors’ basketball activities in late of April of 2012, as Kawakami details in his full piece. Along with co-owner Joe Lacob, Myers was an 
instrumental part of the decision to dismiss Mark Jackson in favor of bringing in neophyte coach Steve Kerr. The second-year GM’s reluctance to include Klay Thompson in a deal for Kevin Love kept the W’s from obtaining the All-Star forward, a decision illustrating on the how highly Myers values Thompson.
No mention has been made regarding the financial terms of the deal, but it’s reasonable to speculate a price tag somewhere closer to the $3MM average annual value Raptors GM Masai Ujiri earns rather than the $12MM annual salary Knicks boss Phil Jackson gets. The latter is a record number for an executive, so I would be surprised to see Myers approach such a figure.
In Myers’ first two full years heading the Warriors, the team complied a record of 98-66. He was responsible for drafting Harrison Barnes in 2012 and signing Stephen Curry to a very team friendly extension worth $44MM over four seasons later that year. Kawakami downplays any reports suggesting there was tension in the front office during the heavily drawn out Love-saga and insists Myers was on good terms with ownership throughout the process. Whether or not there were ever any hard feelings, the new deal will have the two sides working together going forward.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
California Notes: Warriors, Crawford, Nash
The NBA landscape in California has undergone quite the transformation in recent years. In the past, there have been long stretches with the Kings near the top of the division, while the Warriors and Clippers have often scraped the bottom. Currently, Golden State and the formerly hapless Los Angeles franchise have established themselves as perennial playoff teams, while Sacramento underwhelms at the bottom of the division. The Lakers’ decline might turn out to be the most startling development, especially if the purple and gold don’t emerge from their downturn in the next couple seasons. Here’s a rundown of California rumblings this evening:
- Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle confirms that the contracts of Warriors camp invites James McAdoo and Mitchell Watt are partially guaranteed.
- Agent Andy Miller has already signaled Jamal Crawford‘s interest in signing an extension when he becomes eligible next summer, and it sounds like the reigning Sixth Man of the Year will have a friendly face on the other side of the negotiating table. Crawford has a longstanding relationship with Clippers owner Steve Ballmer based on their Seattle connections, as Crawford details to Jeff Caplan of NBA.com. “We’ve done a lot of [charity] events together in Seattle, so I’ve known him before he was actually the owner,” Crawford said. “We were texting throughout the year and emailing each other and staying in contact and continuing to work together with charities around Seattle. It’s exciting. I don’t know how many people have actually known their owner before they actually played for the team they were on. So it’s pretty cool.”
- Despite some thought given by the Lakers to use the stretch provision on Steve Nash, the deadline to execute the maneuver came and went without Los Angeles doing so. Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times reports that the team was still considering stretching Nash’s deal before its top free agent targets of LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Bosh decided to sign elsewhere, eliminating the team’s need to gain cap flexibility from such a move.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Warriors Sign James Michael McAdoo
4:49pm: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.
3:29pm: The Warriors and undrafted power forward James Michael McAdoo have reached agreement on a one-year deal, agent Jim Tanner tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). The terms are unclear, but it’ll almost certainly be a non-guaranteed summer contract, and since the Warriors already have deals with at least 14 players, it might fit the criteria for an Exhibit 9 contract that would reduce the team’s liability in case of injury. It looks like it’ll be for the minimum salary either way, since the Warriors can give out no more than that.
McAdoo was a highly touted prospect coming out of high school, coming in sixth in the Recruiting Services Consensus Index for 2011. He was a lottery prospect after his freshman season at North Carolina, but his stock slipped over his final two years at the school, when he saw more playing time and scouts had greater opportunities to pick apart his game. His numbers were solid even if they weren’t overwhelming, as he put up 14.2 points and 6.8 rebounds in 30.1 minutes per game for the Tar Heels this past season.
The 21-year-old told Zach Links of Hoops Rumors this spring that he’s begun to feel more comfortable on the low block, so he could give the Warriors another option inside. Golden State is only known to be carrying 13 fully guaranteed deals, so McAdoo, a second cousin of Hall-of-Famer Bob McAdoo, has a decent shot at making the opening night roster as the team stands now.
Warriors Sign Mitchell Watt
The Warriors have signed former University of Buffalo power forward and Israeli league veteran Mitchell Watt, the team announced via press release. The terms are unclear, but it’s most likely a non-guaranteed training camp invitation for the minimum salary.
The 6’9″ Watt spent summer league with Golden State’s team, averaging 6.0 points and 5.6 rebounds in 20.2 minutes per game. He put up 13.4 PPG and 6.7 RPG in 30.3 MPG for Ironi Nes Ziona in Israel this past season, numbers similar to his production in his senior season at Buffalo.
The inking of Watt, which came at the same time Golden State formally announced its signings of Aaron Craft and James Michael McAdoo, gives the club 17 players. That’s three shy of the 20-man preseason roster limit, so more moves are probably in the offing.