Houston Rockets Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Rockets Make Jason Terry Available

January 27th, 2015 at 4:58pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Rockets are dangling veteran Jason Terry in trade talks, Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders reports. League sources have informed Kennedy that Houston is open to dealing Terry’s expiring contract worth $5,850,313, and that the team is willing to package him along with prospects or draft picks in order to facilitate a trade.

While Kennedy doesn’t name any specific teams that the Rockets have spoken with, he does speculate that the Knicks are a potential trade partner, seeing how they are looking to free up cap space for next season. If Houston is unable to complete a larger trade that lands it a big name player such as Goran Dragic, then the Rockets could look to flip Terry for Jose Calderon, a player whom the Knicks are reportedly willing to move, Kennedy speculates. I recently examined the trade candidacy of Calderon.

Terry, 37, has appeared in 42 games for the Rockets this season, including four as a starter. He is averaging 7.8 points, 1.4 rebounds, and 2.0 assists in 22.1 minutes per game. In 1178 career games, Terry’s numbers are 15.1 PPG, 2.5 RPG, and 4.3 APG. His career slash line is .446/.380/.845.

D-League Notes: Jerrett, Canaan, Adams

January 26th, 2015 at 7:34pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The NBA D-League has given players a chance to shine and few have benefited more this season than Langston Galloway and Larry Drew II. Galloway’s strong play in the D-League led to the Knicks making their first ever call-up in team history on January 7th. The point guard has impressed to the extent that the team may have to guarantee his contract for next season to keep him on the roster when his 10-day contract expires on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Drew has also performed admirably in the D-League, where during his time, he led all players in assists. Drew earned his second 10-day contract with the Sixers earlier today and will get the start tonight against the Pelicans, in place of Michael Carter-Williams, who is out because of an illness.

Here’s some more news from the D-League:

The Thunder have recalled Grant Jerrett from their D-League affiliate, the Oklahoma City Blue, according to the team’s website. The Thunder will be without the services of Kevin Durant against the Wolves tonight, which could lead to some unexpected minutes for the inexperienced power forward.
The Rockets have recalled Isaiah Canaan from their D-League affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, according to the team’s twitter feed. Canaan averaged 21 points and 8.5 assist while on his D-League assignment.
The Grizzlies have recalled Jordan Adams from the Iowa Energy, their D-League affiliate, according to the team’s website. Adams averaged 23 points, 6.7 rebounds and 3.0 steals in three games during his latest stint.

D-League Notes: Harris, Green, Capela

January 25th, 2015 at 3:50pm CST by Charlie Adams

A report earlier today indicated that the Pistons are mulling the prospect of signing D-League standout Lorenzo Brown. While we wait to see if Detroit makes a move to supplement its ailing backcourt, let’s round up the latest news pertaining to the D-League..

The Cavs recalled Joe Harris from the D-League this morning, the team announced. This was the rookie guard’s second stint with the Canton Charge this season, though he’s still yet actually log any minutes with Cleveland’s minor league club.
Erick Green‘s trip to the D-League has come to an end, as the Nuggets announced that the rookie guard has been recalled to the NBA. Green performed well with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, averaging 21 points per game across a pair of contests.
The Rockets recalled Clint Capela from the Rio Grande Valley Vipers of the D-League, the team announced via Twitter. Capela, the 25th overall pick in last June’s draft, averaged 14.9 points and 8.7 boards across 18 games for Houston’s minor league affiliate.

Rockets Notes: Motiejunas, Beverley, Smith

January 25th, 2015 at 8:56am CST by ChrisCrouse

The Rockets scored 64 points in the paint in the win over the Suns on Friday night but their strategy isn’t new, writes Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. “We push the ball into the paint off the dribble, off of offensive rebounding and off of passing. That’s what we try to do. We try to get the ball into the paint. If you’re pretty committed to getting the ball into the paint, you can get some fouls on your way there or once you get there,” coach Kevin McHale said. Houston, with a record of 30-14, is seventh on the season in scoring, averaging 103.1 points per game.

Here’s more from Houston:

Donatas Motiejunas is one of the league’s more valuable trade assets, writes Bill Simmons of Grantland.com in part 1 of his nearly annual trade value column. Simmons believes that Motiejunas is one of a few young big men who could play heavy minutes in the playoffs. The Lithuanian power forward is scoring 10.9 points in 27.7 minutes per game this season, both career highs.
Patrick Beverley has taken it upon himself to carry more of the team’s offensive burden, writes Feigen in a separate piece. “James gets so much attention so just kind of trying to take some pressure off him to make every play. He’s a human being, gets tired sometimes. I take it upon myself to be aggressive and it worked out,” Beverley said. The point guard is averaging 11.5 points per game and sporting a player efficiency rating of 13.4 this season, which is below league average.
Inconsistent play has plagued Houston in recent weeks but fans should expect better play to come internally rather than from new additions to the team, writes Feigen in a separate piece. “We’ve been up and down the last four or five weeks,” McHale said. “We’ve got to settle in and start playing better basketball. One thing we’ve been the last four or five weeks is wildly inconsistent. We have to shore that up.” The team is 7-6 in January and only 10-7 since acquiring Josh Smith in late December. It seems as if the team needs time to gel with all of its new parts and with a seven and a half game lead over the Pelicans and Thunder, who remain out of the playoff picture, the Rockets’ playoff chances do not yet seem to be in jeopardy.

Southwest Notes: Rockets, Terry, Mavericks

January 24th, 2015 at 8:33pm CST by Charlie Adams

What are the Rockets‘ chances of luring free-agent-to-be Goran Dragic? As good as anyone’s, the Suns’ guard tells Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. “Every team in the NBA is an option to me, because it is a privilege to play for any team in the NBA,” Dragic said. “When the time comes I’m going to sit down with my family and my agent and try to make the best decision for myself.” Dragic, who is expected to opt out of a $7.5MM player option and become an unrestricted free agent this summer, insists he has no resentment toward the Rockets for letting him go in 2012.

There’s much more from the Southwest Division:

At age 37, Rockets guard Jason Terry has no thoughts of retirement, Feigen reports. “I think I can play until the age 40,” Terry said. “That’s my goal, something that I set out to do when I first came into the league. My idol is Gary Payton. He played 20 years. Hopefully I can do the same.” Terry is making nearly $6MM this season and will become a free agent in July.
The uncertainty currently surrounding the Pelicans‘ ownership is just the latest example of the instability that has plagued the franchise, Jimmy Smith of The Times-Picayune writes. The intra-family dispute regarding who will be in charge of the team could potentially scare off prospective free agents from signing long-term deals, Smith opines. With the franchise bereft of draft choices for the immediate future, New Orleans’ growth as a team could be severely hampered as a result, Smith adds.
Forbes valued the Mavericks franchise at $1.15 billion, good for 10th highest of any NBA team, but Mark Cuban thinks the figure is off by “about 150%,” as Corbett Smith of the Dallas Morning News details. Still, Cuban adds that any valuation is irrelevant since the team isn’t for sale.
Cuban said former Maverick Shawn Marion can have a job with the team when his playing days are over, Smith reports in a separate story. Marion, now with the Cavaliers, said Wednesday he will retire when this season is over.

Charlie Adams contributed to this report.

Poll: Best Western Conference Move?

January 23rd, 2015 at 11:00am CST by ChrisCrouse

Four Western Conference playoff contenders have made major acquisitions over the past several weeks, and 50 wins might be mandatory for entry into postseason in the West this year with the way some of the contenders playing. The West was already stacked, and it’s only becoming more so.

The Mavericks made perhaps the season’s first major move by trading Jae Crowder, Brandan Wright, Jameer Nelson and a pair of draft picks for Rajon Rondo and Dwight Powell. Almost two-thirds of Hoops Rumors readers believed Dallas would make it to at least the conference finals when they voted in my late December poll, and the team is 11-5 since making the trade. Dallas still lacks depth but the team boasts one of the best starting lineups in the league and is capable of making a deep postseason run.

The Rockets responded by making a couple of moves of their own. Houston acquired Corey Brewer and Alexey Shved in a three way trade with the Wolves and the Sixers. The Rockets then signed with Josh Smith after the Pistons released him via the stretch provision. The team is 9-7 since acquiring the trio, and six of those seven losses are against teams that made the postseason last year. However, any team with superstars on it, like James Harden and Dwight Howard, shouldn’t be counted out once postseason play begins.

The Thunder sustained injuries to their biggest stars to begin the season and as a result, they ended up falling behind in the playoff race. They hope Dion Waiters, acquired from the Cavs in a three way trade, will help put the team in position to make a late-season push and make the playoffs for the sixth consecutive season. By many accounts, Waiters has fit in nicely with the Thunder. They’re 5-2 and Waiters is averaging 11.9 points in 28.3 minutes per game since his arrival in Oklahoma City.

In another three-team trade, the Grizzlies acquired Jeff Green from the Celtics and Russ Smith from the Pelicans in exchange for Tayshaun Prince, a first-round pick and cash. They also sent Quincy Pondexter and a second-round pick to New Orleans in the trade. Green was averaging a career-high 17.6 points per game as the No. 1 scoring option in Boston, but he has only scored 13.0 PPG so far in five games for the Grizzlies. Memphis is 4-1 since Green came to town, but the Grizzlies won’t consider the move a success until the postseason arrives and they win a few playoff rounds. They were 26-11 before the trade and as Grantland’s Zach Lowe points out, when you’re already that good, marginal upgrades become that much harder to accomplish. While giving up that first-round pick hurts, especially since the team already didn’t control its 2015 first-rounder, Memphis has the talent and the right opportunity to go all in on this season.

The Western Conference race is wide open. Which team put itself in the best position to contend after its recent acquisition(s)? Let us know with a vote, and elaborate on your choice in the comments.

Which Contender Made The Best Move?

Mavericks 49.89% (467 votes)

Grizzlies 22.01% (206 votes)

Rockets 17.74% (166 votes)

Thunder 10.36% (97 votes)

Total Votes: 936

Latest On Goran Dragic

January 23rd, 2015 at 7:43am CST by Chuck Myron

FRIDAY, 7:43am: Dragic feels better about his situation in Phoenix this year than he did last, a source tells Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype. He’s happy where he isn’t thinking much about free agency, but he’s confident that he’ll attract strong offers this summer, the source also said.

MONDAY, 1:09pm: The Rockets have tried to trade for Goran Dragic this season, according to USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt and Sam Amick. It’s unclear how recently GM Daryl Morey has sought the Suns guard, and whether it came before or after Houston’s trade for Corey Brewer and signing of Josh Smith, but the Rockets’ interest in Dragic appears to be longstanding. Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported in September that Houston was considering a free agent run at Dragic next summer, when the seventh-year veteran has said he plans to turn down his $7.5MM player option for 2015/16. Dragic reiterated recently to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News that he intends to opt out, and he wouldn’t rule out playing with any team, including the Lakers, who are known to be interested in pairing Dragic with Kobe Bryant, as Zillgitt and Amick write.

“Any player that is one of the best players in the league would be cool to play with. Kobe is a legend,” Dragic said to Medina. “I know how awesome it is to be around those superstars. If you’re patient enough and you listen, you learn a lot.”

Dragic has had similar praise for the Knicks, as it seems the point guard doesn’t want to close off any potential avenues in free agency, which jibes with what Sean Deveney of The Sporting News heard in November. GMs from around the league told Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher earlier this season that the Suns were open to trading the 28-year-old native of Slovenia. However, rival executives have had the impression that Phoenix would be more willing to part with Eric Bledsoe or Isaiah Thomas amid multiple inquiries on all three, according to Ken Berger of CBSSports.com, who wrote last month.

Dragic’s numbers have tailed off this season after a career year in 2013/14, though that’s no surprise given the crowded situation in the backcourt for the Suns, who signed Bledsoe and Thomas to long-term deals this past summer. Suns GM Ryan McDonough said after the Bledsoe signing that he and the Suns “fully anticipate taking care of” Dragic, who’s in his second stint with the Suns after leaving the Rockets to sign with Phoenix in 2012.

Western Notes: Young, Clippers, Lin, Waiters

January 21st, 2015 at 12:14pm CST by Chuck Myron

Nick Young wants to help the Lakers recruit marquee free agents this summer, but he was worried that there wouldn’t have been room for the club to re-sign him this past offseason if the Lakers had landed a star then, as he tells Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News.

“I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Young said. “I was nervous and scared. I wanted to be here, but I kept hearing all the Carmelo [Anthony] rumors and Kobe [Bryant] having dinner with Carmelo. I knew once they paid him all that money, there would be none for me.”

Young, who inked a four-year, $21.326MM deal with the Lakers in July, told Medina that the Pelicans, Mavs and Bulls also had interest in him, and agent Mark Bartelstein told Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com this summer that there had been contact with the Hawks. There’s more from L.A. amid the latest from the Western Conference:

Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers expects to use his pair of open roster spots on veterans next month, writes Arash Markazi of ESPN.com, suggesting that the team will again target the post-buyout market as it did last year.
Dion Waiters, who’s up for a rookie scale extension this summer, says he “couldn’t ask for a better situation” than the one he finds himself in since the trade that sent him to the Thunder, as he tells The Oklahoman’s Darnell Mayberry. “They brought me in since Day One with love,” Waiters said of his new teammates. “It seems like I’ve been here forever. It seems like I’ve been playing with them forever, too. When I came here, we clicked right away.”
Jeremy Lin has his moments for the Lakers, but he continues to struggle to live up to the backloaded three-year, $25.124MM deal he signed with the Rockets in 2012, much less his dazzling “Lin-sanity” run with the Knicks, as Bill Oram of the Orange County Register examines. Lin is set for free agency this summer.

Lowe’s Latest: Aldridge, Spurs, Sanders

January 21st, 2015 at 9:28am CST by Chuck Myron

Grantland’s Zach Lowe spoke with a half-dozen executives from four different teams who brought up the possibility that LaMarcus Aldridge would sign with the Spurs this summer. It’s still unlikely that the All-Star power forward winds up with San Antonio, Lowe asserts, noting that Aldridge pledged this past summer to re-sign with the Blazers when he hits free agency after this season. The Spurs declined to give Kawhi Leonard a max extension this past fall, reportedly in part to preserve flexibility to sign a max-level free agent this summer in case Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili retire. The Blazers have nonetheless always been leery of teams from Aldridge’s native Texas above all other potential suitors for the 29-year-old who hits free agency this coming summer, according to Lowe. A November report indicated that the Mavs planned a run at him, though that was before Dallas acquired Rajon Rondo, and the Mavs would have to renounce their rights to some desirable free agents to chase Aldridge, as Lowe points out.

The Grantland scribe has more tidbits picked up from this past weekend’s D-League showcase in his must-read column, and we’ll focus on the news related to player movement here:

Larry Sanders will likely miss many more than 10 games on his latest drug-related suspension, according to Lowe, who hears from league sources who expect the Bucks and Sanders to eventually strike up buyout talks. Sanders is in the first year of a four-year, $44MM extension.
The Celtics have been calling teams in the past week and letting them know that they’re willing to take on cap-eating contracts, Lowe writes. Boston is over the cap but about $11.8MM shy of the luxury tax line this season, and the Celtics have only about $33.5MM in commitments for next season.
There’s “major skepticism” that the Suns will be able to acquire a first-round draft pick in exchange for Miles Plumlee, Lowe hears. That’s certainly no surprise, though Phoenix is looking for a first-rounder as they shop the big man, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported Sunday.
Executives from teams around the NBA have tried to sell league brass on an earlier trade deadline, Lowe reports, suggesting that the teams are aiming to move the deadline up by at least a week or two. This year’s deadline is February 19th.

Southwest Notes: Jones, Green, Pelicans

January 19th, 2015 at 10:58pm CST by Arthur Hill

Two months after fearing his NBA career would end prematurely, the Rockets‘ Terrence Jones is preparing to return, reports Jenny Dial Creech of The Houston Chronicle. Still recovering from a nerve issue in his left leg, Jones has been going through intense workouts and plans to start playing again soon, though no firm date is set. “I am more active than I’ve been in so long,” Jones said. “Being on the court feels real good and it’s a blessing to be able to get up and down and finally move my leg a little and jump and do things with the basketball that I couldn’t do two months ago at all.”

There’s more from the Southwest Division:

Jeff Green has fit in smoothly since the January 12th trade that brought him from the Celtics to the Grizzlies, according to Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal. Green’s versatility and feel for the game have made an impression in Memphis. “He’s extremely smart and he’s picked up our stuff very quickly,” coach Dave Joerger said. “Now we’ve just got to keep building the chemistry amongst the players.”
Mike Conley said Green could be the missing ingredient the Grizzlies need to win the Western Conference, reports Tim Bontemps of The New York Post. “I think with us adding a guy like [Jeff] … but even before him, I thought we had a chance,” Conley said. “But now with him, I feel it gives us that much more of a boost, that extra confidence that we belong, we can really do it now for sure.”
Pelicans coach Monty Williams tells John Reid of The Times-Picayune he has been doing a lot of self-evaluation as he tries to bring a winner to New Orleans. The Pelicans are 20-21, but haven’t managed three straight wins during the first half of the season. “I’ve always felt you should always look at yourself first as it applies to helping your team,” Williams said. ”Obviously our guys know if you play a certain way, it equals great success for us. At the same time, I have to make evaluations on what I’m doing and that’s not giving us a chance to be consistent. As frustrating as it is as a coach, I have to stay the course and make sure I get the right guys in the game.”