Houston Rockets Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Southwest Rumors: Gordon, Smith, Ginobili

January 25th, 2016 at 9:40pm CST by Dana Gauruder

There’s still a chance shooting guard Eric Gordon will be dealt by the Pelicans despite his latest injury, John Reid of the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. The Pelicans were exploring trade offers for Gordon before he underwent surgery to repair a fractured right ring finger, which will require a four-to-six week recovery period, Reid continues. Gordon, who is making $15.5MM, becomes an unrestricted free agent after this season. He started 40 of the team’s first 41 games, averaging 15.0 points per game, but he missed over 100 games due to injury in his first three seasons with the Pelicans, Reid adds. The Kings reportedly refused an offer from the Pelicans earlier this month to deal Rudy Gay for Gordon and Alonzo Gee.

In other news around the Southwest Division:

Veteran combo forward Josh Smith has already transformed the Rockets’ rotation since they re-acquired him last week from the Clippers, according to Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com. Smith’s passing out of the post and ability to guard multiple positions allows interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff to stick with a small lineup, Watkins observes. Bickerstaff also likes the way Smith doesn’t shy away from taking big shots, Watkins adds. “He’s a guy, again, because of his ability to pass the ball, he’s a guy that brings everybody together,” Bickerstaff told Watkins. “He can do that because he can make all the passes, he can make all the plays. Then his courage to shoot the ball late when he’s missed a few, most guys would turn those down and since we’ve seen him and he’s been with us, he’s thrived in those situations.”
The free agent signings of power forwards LaMarcus Aldridge and David West during the offseason gave 38-year-old Manu Ginobili the final push to keep playing, Nick Moyle of the San Antonio Express-News writes. “I wanted to take this challenge,” Ginobili told Moyle. “Sometimes you need a little change, a little shake. But when you see that LaMarcus Aldridge is part of the team, it’s not a little shake any more. So it is very exciting and we have high expectations.” The Spurs’ shooting guard has justified his decision by averaging 10.3 points, nearly the same as last season’s 10.5, despite playing a career-low 20.2 minutes per game, Moyle adds.

Nets Consider Karnisovas, Rosas For GM Job

January 25th, 2016 at 7:58am CST by Chuck Myron

Nuggets assistant GM Arturas Karnisovas and Rockets executive VP of basketball operations Gersson Rosas have become serious candidates for the Nets GM vacancy, league sources told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. They join Bryan Colangelo and Danny Ferry, whom earlier reports identified as candidates. Karnisovas and Rosas have separated themselves from other candidates, Wojnarowski writes, but the Yahoo scribe also indicates that Colangelo and Ferry remain in “prominent consideration.” Owner Mikhail Prokhorov has so far not shown a willingness to lay out the 10-year, $120MM contract that John Calipari is seeking, according to Wojnarowski.

The Nets want to hire a GM before the February 18th trade deadline, which is three weeks from Thursday, and they plan to begin formal interviews early next month, Wojnarowski hears. Nets officials want a greater emphasis on international scouting, feeling as though the team lacked that under former GM Billy King, as Wojnarowski also reports, detailing the history that Karnisovas and Rosas have with players from overseas.

Karnisovas just signed an extension with Denver, though teams generally don’t stand in the way if someone in the organization seeks a higher-level job elsewhere. Rosas thought that’s what he was doing when he left the Rockets to become Mavericks GM in 2013, but Dallas envisioned him as a clear subordinate to president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson, and Rosas resigned just three months into the job. He returned to the Rockets two months after that. Karnisovas has strong relationships with Prokhorov associates, while Rosas is tight with coaches Tom Thibodeau, who’s already reportedly a candidate to become Brooklyn’s next head coach, and Jeff Van Gundy, according to Wojnarowski.

Western Notes: Smith, Booker, Jazz

January 24th, 2016 at 9:12pm CST by Will Joseph

Rockets interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff expects Josh Smith to be the same key player he was off the bench last season and added Smith thrives with the team because there is a level of trust and comfort, Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle details. Smith scored 16 points Sunday in the Rockets’ win against the Mavs.

“I feel comfortable. It might have been a little different story if this were my first time here, but being able to get the opportunity to play for the same team, around the same group of guys is awesome,” Smith said, per Feigen. “It’s definitely a comfortable feeling being able to get back. Seeing the appreciation from the fans and my teammates definitely instills confidence that this is where I belong.”

Here’s more from around the Western Conference:

In a largely disappointing season for the Suns, Devin Booker has been the lone bright spot, Jake Fischer of Sports Illustrated writes. Booker became one of Phoenix’s regular starters after Eric Bledsoe suffered a torn meniscus on Christmas. Booker scored 15.4 points in 30.4 minutes per contest in his first 11 games as a starter, drawing comparisons to Klay Thompson, Fischer adds.
Trey Burke has developed into the most reliable player off the bench for the Jazz bench, especially considering Alec Burks has been out with an injury, Jody Genessy of the Deseret News writes.
The Warriors recalled Kevon Looney from the Santa Cruz Warriors, Golden State’s D-League affiliate, the team announced.

Southwest Notes: Asik, Rockets, Mavs

January 24th, 2016 at 2:00pm CST by Will Joseph

Omer Asik has not played up to expectations after he inked a five-year, $58MM last summer with the Pelicans and the center attributed his lack of performance to an injury and confidence issues, John Reid of The Times Picayune details. Asik said he feels healthier now after dealing with a nagging calf injury the past few weeks, per Reid. Asik is averaging only 3.4 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. As Reid points out, Asik has scored in double figures only twice this season despite playing in 36 games. Yet last season, Asik scored at least 10 points in 20 games.

Here’s more from the Southwest Division:

By acquiring Josh Smith from the Clippers Friday, the Rockets have signaled that despite hovering around .500 for most of the season, Houston will still seek upgrades, Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle relays. “There’s three teams that you can say are right, so to speak, obviously; San Antonio, Golden State, Cleveland,” Rockets shooting guard Jason Terry told Feigen. “They understand where they’re headed, what their mission is, what each guy’s role is to get it done. And you can see it. Every time they play, every night, it’s very consistent in how they play and what they do out there. Everybody else is trying to find their way, trying to get hot, trying to figure it out. Us, with the move we just made, is one of those teams. Will we get there? Yes. We’re very optimistic.”
The Mavs have several strong players, but without a legitimate star, Dallas cannot be considered a title contender, Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News opines in response to a reader’s question. The first name that would come to mind for many when thinking about how the Mavs can remedy that is issue is soon-to-be free agent Kevin Durant, but Sefko doesn’t see the superstar coming to Dallas.
Chandler Parsons has shown signs of improvement with an uptick in scoring the last few games for the Mavs after undergoing knee surgery last May, Sefko writes in a separate piece.

Texas Notes: Smith, Lawson, Mejri, Ayres

January 23rd, 2016 at 10:52pm CST by Arthur Hill

Josh Smith made an immediate impact for the Rockets after Friday’s trade, and Dwight Howard tells Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle that he’s happy to have his childhood friend back on the team. Smith flew to Houston immediately after the deal was announced, then had six assists, five rebounds and three blocks in a win over the Bucks. “I thought that me and him together in the playoffs was key,” Howard said. “I thought we really had great chemistry on both ends of the floor. All of us have a crazy type of relationship, especially me and Josh. He’s happy. We’re happy he’s back. We’ll see how it works. I think it’s going to be great.”

There’s more NBA news out of Texas:

Ty Lawson has been playing better, but Rockets interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff isn’t ready to make him a starter, writes Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com. Patrick Beverley has been out of action with a sprained ankle, and Bickerstaff said he will remain in the starting lineup when he returns. “People will earn their minutes,” Bickerstaff said. “So both of them want to play obviously, there’s minutes there for both of them. Whoever is playing the best is going to get those minutes and I think that’s the right thing for the team.” It’s a decision that could affect the long-term future for Lawson, whose $13.2MM salary is non-guaranteed for next season.
Salah Mejri may be earning more court time with the Mavericks, according to Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News. The Tunisian center went through a 31-game stretch without playing earlier this season, but he’s impressed the team lately with his defensive presence. “I don’t hesitate to call anybody’s number on our roster,” said coach Rick Carlisle. “Everybody’s played when it counts. He’s one guy that’s been kind of an odd man out because of our depth at center. … He’s making a case that he deserves some minutes.”
Jeff Ayres, who signed a 10-day deal with the Clippers today, said he understood the Spurs‘ decision not to keep him, tweets Ben Bolch of The Los Angeles Times. Ayres said San Antonio explained that there was no room for him after signing free agent David West. “There’s no animosity or anything like that,” Ayres said of coach/president Gregg Popovich. “I understand the business and appreciate how honest he was.” (Twitter link)

Clippers Rumors: Ayres, Smith, Aldrich, Prigioni

January 23rd, 2016 at 7:35pm CST by Arthur Hill

Jeff Ayres‘ trip back to the NBA took him to China and then Idaho in the D-League before he signed a 10-day deal with the Clippers, writes Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic. After being let go by the Spurs in the offseason, the center/forward signed with a Chinese team, but said it “ended up not working out.” He was taken with the first overall pick in the D-League draft and became a star with the Idaho Stampede, averaging 16.3 points and 9.5 rebounds per game. “It’s not what people think, that everybody here isn’t very good,” Ayres said. “A lot of D-League guys are very good. D-League is full of talent. Everything you hear as a rookie in the NBA about, ‘You were the man when you were in college but not no more here.’ It’s the same thing here.”

There’s more Clippers new from Los Angeles:

Ayres is ready to accept whatever role the team has for him, tweets Ben Bolch of The Los Angeles Times. Ayres said his agent woke him up with the news of the signing (Twitter link). “I was halfway asleep,” Ayres said. “It was awesome. It was great news to wake up to.”
Coach Doc Rivers had nothing bad to say about Josh Smith, who was dealt to the Rockets Friday after a frustrating half-season with the Clippers, writes Rowan Kavner of NBA.com. Rivers said that after Blake Griffin‘s injury, the Clippers started winning when they made Cole Aldrich and Pablo Prigioni regular members of the bench rotation. That left little playing time for Smith, who has struggled to get minutes since mid-December. “He was very good, a good teammate and all that, but it just didn’t work,” Rivers said of Smith. “So we wanted to go in another direction.”
Several former Knicks have helped make the Clippers contenders in the West, according to Marc Berman of The New York Post. Aldrich, Prigioni and Jamal Crawford have all become important parts of L.A.’s rotation after spending time in New York, and former Knicks coach Mike Woodson serves as an assistant to Rivers.

And-Ones: Del Negro, Lue, D-League

January 23rd, 2016 at 4:20pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The rash of injuries the Heat have suffered this season are taking a toll on the players, who have been asked to log significantly more minutes than normal as a result, Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders writes. “The toughest part about it is that you always worry about the health of your teammate, first and foremost,” Chris Bosh said. “You always want guys to be as healthy as possible, but when it’s another guy going down, it’s just tough. Two weeks ago, we were going into a West Coast road trip, really trying to prove ourselves with a whole roster and now we’ve got six guys out. It’s just a tough pill to swallow.”

While the situation is far from ideal, Bosh did note that the team’s younger players were benefiting from the increased playing time, Kennedy adds. “We’re constantly just trying to digest what’s going on, take the hit on the chin and then regroup,” Bosh continued. “Our young guys are trying [to fill in], but they’re inexperienced and they’re really learning on the fly. I think the best part about it is it’s going to help us in the long run because these guys are getting minutes under stressful situations, and that’s how it’s going to be later on.”

Here’s more from around the league:

Celtics big man Jared Sullinger is a big fan of new Cavs coach Tyronn Lue, and he raves about the former Boston assistant’s demeanor and knowledge, A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com writes. “I like Ty Lue,” Sullinger told Blakely. “He knows a lot about the game. He helped me out big-time when he was here, as far as helping me stay calm, staying confident and just staying ready at all times.”
Vinny Del Negro expects to coach in the NBA again, as he told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports in an appearance on the “The Vertical” podcast. Del Negro confirmed that he has had interviews with the Pelicans, Timberwolves, Nuggets and Cavaliers since the Clippers let him go in 2013, adding that he had extensive player personnel duties in his final year with L.A. “From Jamal Crawford to Matt Barnes to Chauncey [Billups] to Grant [Hill] to everyone, doing the sign-and-trade for Willie Green, everything that was involved. All the front office did was the paperwork,” Del Negro said (audio link, scroll to 28-minute mark).
The Rockets have assigned Montrezl Harrell and K.J. McDaniels to their D-League affiliate, the team announced. This will be Harrell’s third trek to Rio Grande Valley and McDaniels’ fifth on the season.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Western Notes: Smith, Lauvergne, Booker

January 23rd, 2016 at 2:00pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The rash of frontcourt injuries suffered by the Rockets led to the team’s acquisition of Josh Smith from the Clippers on Friday, notes Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. The team hopes it will get back the services of Donatas Motiejunas in the near future, but with the big man being at least a week away from resuming basketball activities, GM Daryl Morey decided to add Smith as insurance, Feigen adds. “Long term, we expect D-Mo to be back and be able to help us,” interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “Where we are now, we felt we needed to do something to light a fire and keep us afloat. There are so many guys injured, we felt we could use the help at that position and it was an easy one for us because we’ve seen what he can do.”

Here’s more from out West:

Nuggets center Joffrey Lauvergne has seen his playing time drop with the return of Jusuf Nurkic from injury, but the 24-year-old remains a part of Denver’s future, writes Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post. “With Joffrey, what I told him was whether you play … or you don’t play, I just want to reinforce to you how much we value you,” coach Michael Malone said. “Not just me but also [GM] Tim [Connelly]. He’s a big part of what we’re doing, but long term he’s a big part of what we want to do. We believe in Joffrey Lauvergne. It’s tough for him to hear that and not get the minutes that he’s not getting at the moment, but you feel bad for guys like that because Joffrey is one of our hardest workers.“
Despite being the NBA’s youngest player, Suns shooting guard Devin Booker has shown constant improvement this season and is one of the top performing rookies, something the player credits to coach Jeff Hornacek‘s faith in him, Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic writes.
With the Timberwolves squarely out of the playoff picture the team should focus on seeing which lineups work the best for their young players, including finding additional playing time for Shabazz Muhammad, who has been underutilized this season, according to Danny Leroux of RealGM. It should be a priority for Minnesota to find out which players and lineup combinations work best heading into the summer, plus, it would also allow the front office to better gauge interim coach Sam Mitchell‘s ability to develop players, Leroux adds.

And-Ones: Blatt, Davis, Clippers

January 22nd, 2016 at 10:25pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Cavaliers majority owner Dan Gilbert said that it was a difficult choice to fire David Blatt, but also noted that it was ultimately GM David Griffin‘s decision to do so, according to his official statement (h/t NBA.com). “Over the course of my business career I have learned that sometimes the hardest thing to do is also the right thing to do,” said Gilbert “Our ownership group supports David Griffin’s decision. We would like to thank David Blatt for his work over these past two seasons where the Cavaliers transformed into a playoff team after a rebuilding phase. We believe Tyronn Lue is the right coach at the right time to put us in the best position to take the last but most challenging step to complete our mission to deliver Cleveland an NBA Championship.”

“On behalf of the organization, I would like to thank David Blatt for his efforts and commitment to this franchise,” Griffin said. “He spent the last year and a half battling intense scrutiny, working to mold a very willful group and we all recognize that is not at all an easy task.”

Here’s more from around the NBA:

The Clippers made two moves today, sending Josh Smith to the Rockets via trade and agreeing to sign Jeff Ayres to a 10-day deal, and coach/executive Doc Rivers indicated that the team may stand pat the rest of the season as far as roster moves are concerned, Ben Bolch of The Los Angeles Times tweets.
Multiple NBA D-League teams have invited free agent Baron Davis to practice with them in advance of a possible signing, but the veteran has declined all such offers to date, Chris Reichert of Upside & Motor relays (on Twitter). Davis cleared D-League waivers last week after going unclaimed by the league’s 19 teams.
The Rockets were sent precisely $456,921 by Los Angeles as part of the Smith trade, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (via Twitter).

Reaction To Josh Smith Trade

January 22nd, 2016 at 2:33pm CST by Chuck Myron

Josh Smith is the NBA’s version of an acquired taste, observes Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com in a piece that explains why the 12th-year veteran didn’t mesh with the Clippers, even under a reputed player’s coach like Doc Rivers, nearly as well as he did in his first stint with the Rockets. Smith was frank in his interaction with James Harden, pushing the shooting guard to become a better player and locker room leader, and Harden accepted that guidance, Watkins writes. Smith also mentored Terrence Jones and Clint Capela, and Corey Brewer and Jason Terry were enamored with him, according to Watkins. That sort of chemistry simply didn’t exist in L.A., as we examine amid more reaction to today’s trade that sent Smith from the Clippers to the Rockets.

Smith, who today cited a desire to play a leadership role on the Rockets, also wanted to do the same with the Clippers when he signed with them, but the Clippers already had their leadership structure in place, making him a poor fit in the L.A. locker room, writes Dan Woike of the Orange County Register.
Smith’s shot selection was one reason he fell out of favor with Rivers, writes Barry Stavro of the Los Angeles Times, and his defense was another, according to fellow Times scribe Ben Bolch.
Rockets interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff gushed about what Smith can bring to the Rockets, as Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston relays (on Twitter). “It’s huge,” Bickerstaff said. “It gives us a leg up. We don’t have to start all the way over with him. We don’t have to teach him everything that we do. He knows what we do. He’s familiar with how his teammates like the ball. He’s familiar with how to play pick-and-roll with Dwight [Howard]. He knows how to play pick-and-roll with James. So that gives us a huge advantage.”
Bickerstaff isn’t the only Rocket who’s glad to have Smith back, as Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle details. “It’s great news,” Terry said. “It’s more than his skill, which is what he brought to the table last year, but it’s the intangible of his personality. It’s infectious. The chemistry he and Dwight had together was something you can’t make up. It’s natural. He was a huge part of our success last year.”