Western Notes: Injuries, Jerrett, Johnson
The Pelicans have sustained their share of injuries this season and head coach Monty Williams is adjusting to how players are managing themselves, writes Jimmy Smith of the Times-Picayune. “Times have changed,” Williams says. “The way that people view the game now is totally different than the way the game was viewed back in the day. Most injuries, when I came into the league, you didn’t talk about them. It was a sign of weakness to be in the training room.” With players taking a more cautious approach with regards to their injuries, teams could shift their strategies and start valuing depth as a more precious commodity, although that is just my speculation.
Here’s more from the Western Conference:
- Grant Jerrett has finally made his debut for the Thunder and his teammates are ecstatic to see the second-year player getting a chance to take the court, writes Anthony Slater of the Oklahoman. “I told him yesterday after the game: ‘Man, you can’t even stop smiling, boy you so happy you hit your first NBA bucket,’” Kendrick Perkins said. “But I’m happy for Grant. He’s been working hard. You always like to see a guy like Grant get a feel for the game and play a bit.” The Thunder drafted Jerrett in the second round of the 2013 draft and signed him last April for the rest of the 2013/14 season. Oklahoma City re-signed Jerrett to a four-year, minimum salary contract this offseason.
- Injuries have forced rookie Nick Johnson onto the court for the Rockets and the team expects him to be a contributor, writes Jenny Dial Creech of the Houston Chronicle. Starting point guard Patrick Beverley is healing from a strained hamstring and reserve point guard Isaiah Canaan left Friday’s game with a sprained ankle. “You just have to go out and play your game,” coach Kevin McHale said. “Nick Johnson cannot become someone he is not overnight because an opportunity is there. He has to be a good Nick Johnson. He has to be able to attack the basket, make plays for others and try to get to the line.”
- With new additions and several key players returning from injuries, it was wise not to panic when the Nuggets struggled early in the season, writes Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post. “Early on in the season, I thought we were a little bit too cool, a little too laid-back coming out,” said head coach Brian Shaw. “We started out 1-6. To have an 8-8 record in November, going into December after the way we started, it just goes to show if we defend and we play this way, now our slate is clean. We have something to build on.”
Wolves Sign Jeff Adrien
3:33pm: The signing is official, the team announced.
2:36pm: The Timberwolves have signed free agent forward Jeff Adrien, Shams Charania of RealGM reports. Minnesota is inking Adrien using a hardship exception, notes Charania. It had previously been reported that Minnesota president Flip Saunders was considering filing for the hardship exception, and if Adrien is being brought on board, then it’s likely the team has received approval from the league to temporarily add a 16th player to its roster. Terms of the deal were not released, but it is most likely a minimum-salary arrangement.
Minnesota has lost the services of Ricky Rubio, Kevin Martin, Nikola Pekovic, and Ronny Turiaf to injuries. Martin is out six to eight weeks after having wrist surgery, and Rubio isn’t likely to return until January at the earliest after injuring his ankle. Both Pekovic and Turiaf will both be reevaluated next week.
The 28-year-old Adrien has appeared in 136 career games, averaging 4.8 points and 4.3 rebounds per contest. He was in training camp with the Rockets this year prior to being waived, after appearing in 25 games for the Hornets last season.
Lakers To Sign Earl Clark
SATURDAY, 9:42am: Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak has filed for a disabled player exception for Henry, Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News tweets. Los Angeles has also filed for a hardship exception that would allow the team to temporarily add a 16th player until Kelly returns from his hamstring injury, Medina adds. This could indicate that the Lakers are holding off on signing Clark until they are granted that hardship exception, and Henry might not necessarily be waived to accommodate the addition of Clark, though that is just my speculation.
WEDNESDAY, 3:08pm: The Lakers will sign forward Earl Clark, Mike Bresnahan of The Los Angeles Times reports. The deal will be a one-year, fully guaranteed pact, notes Bresnahan, and Los Angeles is likely to waive the injured Xavier Henry in order to open up the required roster spot for Clark. Shams Charania of RealGM had first reported the likelihood of the Lakers adding Clark earlier today, and Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports had then relayed that Clark’s deal would be for a pro-rated portion of the veteran’s minimum and would be fully guaranteed. These moves will still leave the Lakers with the league-maximum 15 players on their roster.
Clark’s arrival cannot come soon enough for a Lakers team that has been besieged by a rash of maladies. Steve Nash and Julius Randle were already lost with season-ending injuries when Henry went down in practice Monday with a ruptured left Achilles tendon. Coupled with Ryan Kelly being out for at least another 4 weeks with a torn right hamstring, the Lakers were in dire need of frontcourt help, which Clark will be able to provide.
The 26-year-old Clark was averaging 28.8 points and 7.3 rebounds in 35.8 minutes per game in four appearances so far for the Rockets D-League affiliate this season. Houston briefly had him on its NBA roster after claiming his training camp deal off waivers from the Grizzlies, but the Rockets waived him before opening night. In 251 career NBA contests Clark has averaged 4.4 PPG and 3.0 RPG. His career slash line is .404/.331/.167.
If Henry is indeed waived, he’ll still receive the remainder of his $1.082MM fully guaranteed contract for 2014/15, Bresnahan adds. Henry is expected to recover in time for the start of 2015/16, and he was already set to become an unrestricted agent at the end of this season. It’s unclear how the injury will affect the market for his services next summer, but more than likely it will force Henry to accept a shorter deal than he would have desired in order to prove that he’s fully recovered from such a serious injury, though that is just my speculation.
Western Notes: Wolves, Carter, Harrington
Wolves president Flip Saunders said the team is still considering filing for a hardship exception which would allow Minnesota to temporarily add a 16th player to their roster, Andy Greder of The St. Paul Pioneer Press tweets. The franchise has lost the services of Ricky Rubio, Kevin Martin, Nikola Pekovic, and Ronny Turiaf to injuries. Martin is out six to eight weeks after having wrist surgery, and Rubio isn’t likely to return until January at the earliest after injuring his ankle. Both Pekovic and Turiaf will both be reevaluated next week, Greder adds in a separate tweet.
Here’s more from out west:
- After meeting with head coach Dave Joerger and his staff during the free agent signing period this summer, Vince Carter knew playing with the Grizzlies was the right choice, Jabari Young of CSNNW.com writes. “I like playing with guys who want to win,” Carter said. “At this point in my career, that’s what it’s about. I met with the coaching staff and ownership and you can just see the direction they were trying to go in – just winning – and I felt like I can bring a presence on and off the court and that’s what I’m looking for. I know this was a great opportunity for both sides and it worked out.”
- Carter was also asked if the Blazers reached out to him during the summer, and he replied, “I never really heard from them. They’re established, man. They are going to be fine. I don’t think they needed my services.”
- Despite reports that the Rockets are interested in signing Al Harrington, Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle tweets that Harrington isn’t likely to end up in Houston. Harrington had recently left his Chinese team because of apparent interest from NBA clubs
And-Ones: Labor, Mudiay, Prospects, Cobbs
The sharp exchange between Adam Silver and Michele Roberts of late has seemingly served as indication that a work stoppage is on the way in 2017, but Roberts is optimistic that the sides will be able to settle their differences, as she explains to Chris Mannix of SI.com.
“But of course I think it’s avoidable,” Roberts said of a work stoppage. “Does anyone really expect Adam and I will sing kumbaya every day? We’re grown ups. He has a constituency, and I do. We disagree. But that’s the world. You know what we do agree on? We don’t want a work stoppage. Neither one of us wants to see that happen. We have said it to each other. We have said it out loud. Our teams are all smart, we all have the same goals and we should be able to sit down and avoid it. I’d be surprised, frankly, if we had one, but I’m ready if we do.”
While NBA fans hope that Roberts is right about that, here’s the latest from around the league:
- About half of the league’s teams plan to send either scouts, executives or both to China to check out highly touted draft prospect Emmanuel Mudiay, and teams are calling almost daily for information about the point guard, a source tells Bleacher Report’s Jared Zwerling (Twitter link). Mudiay, who signed with China’s Guangdong Southern Tigers rather than attend SMU for what would have been his freshman season this year, is No. 2 in the rankings of both Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress and Chad Ford of ESPN.com.
- Errick McCollum, who worked out for the Cavs, Kings and Rockets this summer, is one of several overseas prospects who are making a mark after having gone undrafted, as David Pick examines for Basketball Insiders.
- German club VEF Riga has let go of Hornets camp invitee Justin Cobbs after what amounted to a one-month tryout, the team announced (Twitter link; translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). Cobbs signed with Riga earlier this month shortly after the Hornets released him in advance of opening night. The 23-year-old point guard averaged just 2.0 points in 13.7 minutes per game across seven overseas appearances.
‘Melo On Knicks, Bulls, Rockets, Mavs, Lakers
Carmelo Anthony met with the Bulls, Rockets, Mavs and Lakers in addition to the Knicks this summer, but in a forthcoming documentary, he makes it clear that his final decision was between the Knicks and the Bulls, reports Marc Berman of the New York Post. Berman obtained a preliminary cut of the film, called “Carmelo Anthony: Made In NY,’’ that’s set to air next week on MSG Network, and Anthony’s statements in the movie demonstrate just how close the high-scoring forward came to wearing red-and-black.
“Chicago was the one from Day 1 [and] was something I was very impressed with,” Anthony said in the film. “They were looking for someone like me to come in and take them to the next level. So it was perfect. It was a perfect setup and perfect fit for me in Chicago. But also I had to think about just living in Chicago. Do I want to live in Chicago? Do I want to take everything I created in New York and move all of that? It came down to that. But there was one point in time I was like — oh, I’m going.’’
Berman shared several other revelations from the documentary in his full-length story, and we’ll summarize them here:
- ‘Melo’s camp concluded that they’d need to have the Knicks sign-and-trade him to Chicago for him to end up on the Bulls with a max deal, Berman writes. Anthony’s manager, Bay Frazier, said in the documentary that the Bulls could offer a total of only $74MM, according to Berman. There were various hypothetical scenarios in which the Bulls could have opened more flexibility, but it sounds like $74MM was the realistic amount on the table.
- Anthony spoke of affection for the winning attitude of the Bulls and said that Derrick Rose reached out to recruit him, as Berman details. Rose’s supposed unwillingness to go along with Chicago’s pitch to Anthony was reportedly at the root of tension between the team and its star point guard. “D-Rose is tough. He even hit me [up],” Anthony said. “I’ve been talking to him. Him and [Joakim] Noah. Noah’s more outgoing. But I’m glad we did them first.’’
- Anthony said he didn’t want to endure the “culture change” that would come with living in Texas and playing for either the Mavs or the Rockets, Berman notes.
- Kobe Bryant and Anthony have spoken about one day playing together, but the specter of changing teams just to find himself in another rebuilding situation made jumping to the Lakers an unappealing choice, Anthony said in the documentary, as Berman relays.
Pacific Notes: Suns, Lakers, Butler
Isaiah Thomas called the Suns backcourt timeshare “a tough situation” that’s “not what I expected” when he spoke this week to James Herbert of CBSSports.com, but Goran Dragic isn’t upset about the logjam and told Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic that he accepts his minutes reduction. Eric Bledsoe said the team is growing more comfortable with the situation, Coro adds. Bledsoe and Thomas signed long-term deals with Phoenix this past summer, but Dragic can opt out of his deal at season’s end and is reportedly planning to entertain pitches from other teams.
Here’s the latest from the Western Conference:
- The Lakers have a few players still young enough to hold promise for the future, like Jeremy Lin and Ed Davis, but with Julius Randle and Xavier Henry shelved for the season, there’s little in the way of developing talent on the club, as Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding examines.
- Caron Butler signed a two-year, $9MM deal this summer with the Pistons, his third team since the Clippers traded him in 2013, but he still has a soft spot for his former teammates in L.A., writes Rowan Kavner of Clippers.com. “Chris Paul, that’s my brother,” Butler said. “DeAndre [Jordan], Blake [Griffin], all those guys. I pull for those guys secretly. I hope that they all do well. They’re my brothers.”
- In the spirit of Thanksgiving, Jessica Camerato of Basketball Insiders looks at seven recent trades that some NBA franchises should be thankful for, including the Kings landing Rudy Gay, the Rockets snagging James Harden, and the Grizzlies acquiring Courtney Lee.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Offseason In Review: Houston Rockets
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
- Joey Dorsey: Two years, $1.964MM. Signed via minimum-salary exception.
- Troy Daniels: Two years, $1.764MM. Re-signed via minimum-salary exception.
- Tarik Black: Two years, $1.352MM. Signed via minimum-salary exception. First year is partially guaranteed for $50K. Second year is non-guaranteed.
- Francisco Garcia: One year, $1.317MM. Re-signed via minimum-salary exception.
- Jeff Adrien: One year, $981K. Signed via minimum-salary exception. Subsequently waived.
- Ish Smith: One year $981K. Signed via minimum-salary exception. Subsequently waived.
Extensions
- None
Trades
- Acquired 2014 pick No. 53 from the Timberwolves in exchange for cash.
- Acquired the rights to Sergei Lishchuk from the Lakers in exchange for Jeremy Lin, Houston’s 2015 first-round pick (lottery protected), and the Clippers’ 2015 second-round pick if it falls anywhere from 51st through 55th.
- Acquired Trevor Ariza, Alonzo Gee, Scotty Hopson and New Orleans’ 2015 first-round pick if it falls anywhere from fourth through 19th in a three-way trade with the Pelicans and Wizards in exchange for Omer Asik, Omri Casspi, and $1.5MM cash. Ariza was signed-and-traded for four years, $32MM.
- Acquired Jason Terry, Sacramento’s 2015 second-round pick if it falls anywhere from 31st through 49th, and New York’s unprotected 2016 second-round pick from the Kings in exchange for Alonzo Gee and Scotty Hopson.
Waiver Claims
- Earl Clark: Claimed from the Grizzlies. One year, $1.063MM remaining. Contract was non-guaranteed. Subsequently waived.
Draft Picks
- Clint Capela (Round 1, 25th overall). Signed via rookie scale exception to rookie scale contract.
- Nick Johnson (Round 2, 42nd overall). Signed via mid-level exception for three years, $2.333MM.
- Alessandro Gentile (Round 2, 53rd overall). Playing overseas.
- Kostas Papanikolaou (2012, Round 2, 48th overall). Signed via mid-level exception for two years, $9.389MM. Second year is team option and also non-guaranteed. Contains $207K signing bonus.
Camp Invitees
- Akil Mitchell
- Geron Johnson
- Akeem Richmond
Departing Players
Rookie Contract Option Decisions
- Terrence Jones (fourth year, $2,489,530) — Exercised
- Donatas Motiejunas (fourth year, $2,288,205) — Exercised
It wasn’t too long ago that GM Daryl Morey took just nine months to turn a roster that seemed poised to challenge for last place in the Western Conference into a rising title contender with two superstars. Houston entered this past summer in position to make a third superstar acquisition in less than two years, but the franchise’s positive momentum vanished just as suddenly as it had gathered. Morey and the Rockets once more aimed high, pursuing LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh, the top three free agents in the 2014 Hoops Rumors Free Agent Power Rankings, but he swung and missed on all three pitches. Houston didn’t just come up short on attracting outside talent. The Rockets flubbed the handling of their team option on Chandler Parsons, who bolted for the Mavs, and they traded Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin to clear cap space for the stars that never came, stripping the team of valuable role players. Murphy’s Law had so befallen Houston that Morey felt compelled to defend himself against a storm of criticism, even though the Rockets were appreciably better than they had been two years prior and remain on the verge of contention.
Still, the summer was a tough blow to a franchise that almost became a true power. Morey failed to land a face-to-face meeting with LeBron’s agent and though he did meet with ‘Melo, that encounter is more remembered for the giant image of Anthony wearing Lin’s No. 7 Rockets jersey that the Rockets hung than for any sway that Morey held with the high-scoring Knicks forward. Yet the team was agonizingly close to landing Bosh on a four-year deal for the maximum salary before Miami swooped in with a five-year max offer. A Bosh-Howard tandem would have given the Rockets the league’s best big-man pairing to go along with Harden’s slithery scoring prowess, and if Houston had opted in with Parsons, the Rockets could have paid him a mere $960K to play with those three. Still, such a fantasy never became more than just that.
Morey didn’t envision having Parsons at such a cheap rate this season, anyway. The GM instead expected that turning down the option would allow the Rockets to tie him up on a long-term deal in restricted free agency this past summer without exposing him to unrestricted free agency in 2015, which he was poised to hit if Houston had opted in. Leave it to frequent Morey critic and Mavs owner Mark Cuban to throw a curveball, signing Parsons to an above-market offer sheet for nearly the maximum salary. Dan Fegan, the agent for Parsons, reportedly designed the structure of the deal that won plaudits from other league executives for features like a 15% trade kicker, a player option and the contract’s three-year length, all of which made it tricky for the Rockets to match. Fegan’s involvement was a further twist of the knife for Houston, since he represents Howard, who can hit free agency in 2016.
Houston’s offseason was thoroughly disappointing, but it was far from a complete disaster. The Rockets wound up with a top-notch perimeter defender in Trevor Ariza, whose become significantly more valuable since he added accurate three-point marksmanship to his repertoire. Ariza shot 40.7% from long range in 2013/14, setting a career high for a second straight season. That makes him a fit with Houston’s floor-spreading philosophy, but it’s his defense that truly makes him a seamless complement to Harden, whose defensive shortcomings have been well-documented. It’s no coincidence that the Rockets are giving up the fewest points per possession of any NBA team this season after finishing 12th in that category last season, according to NBA.com.
The Ariza acquisition came as part of a sign-and-trade that sent Asik to the Pelicans in exchange for a first-round pick that’s protected in such a way that Houston is likely to end up with a lottery selection. It’s reminiscent of the protection on the pick that the Raptors gave up for Kyle Lowry, and the Rockets swapped that Toronto pick in the package that netted Harden. It’s a stretch to say that the Rockets are in position to once more strike gold with such a pick, but at the very least they wound up with a first-rounder that will probably be more valuable than the one they attached to Lin to entice the Lakers to take him on. Houston also netted a trade exception worth the equivalent of Lin’s nearly $8.375MM cap hit in that deal. The exception is the largest in the league as it stands, and while it doesn’t allow the team to grab a star, Morey seems eager to use it to trade for an intriguing rotation-level player whom he could package with another asset or two at the deadline to acquire a marquee name. Morey’s proven creative and ever willing to trade, so the exception in his hands is a weapon indeed.
He pulled off a trade this summer that serves as some degree of payback for the sting of losing Parsons to the rival Mavericks, bringing on one-time Mavs sixth man Jason Terry. Houston also netted a pair of second-round picks as Morey took advantage of tax-conscious Sacramento’s desire to clear his guaranteed salary of more than $5.85MM and Terry’s wish to play for a team closer to the title picture. Terry’s 37 now, his days as one of the league’s premiere reserves long since behind him, but he’s off to a hot start behind the arc, and he’ll help strengthen a bench that took a hit this summer.
Houston spent much of the summer filling out that bench with familiar faces who were willing to accept the minimum salary, re-signing Francisco Garcia and playoff revelation Troy Daniels, and bringing back former Rockets Joey Dorsey, Jeff Adrien and Ish Smith. Adrien and Smith fell victim to the team’s decision to bring 15 fully guaranteed contracts plus Patrick Beverley on a non-guaranteed contract to camp, which created a crunch for opening-night roster spots. Rookie Tarik Black, on a contract only guaranteed for $50K, furthered that logjam when he played his way into the rotation and earned his way onto the club for the regular season.
Black is one of four rookies on the team, and the size of that group is further indication that Houston’s offseason didn’t go as planned. There was speculation that the Rockets would trade their first-round pick or stash him overseas to avoid the guaranteed money on their cap. Morey instead signed No. 25 overall pick Clint Capela, a center from Switzerland, and for 42nd overall selection Nick Johnson, the Rockets doled out a three-year contract that, in a rarity, is fully guaranteed for each season. Still, the most surprising Rockets rookie deal is the one with Kostas Papanikolaou, who changed his mind after deciding in mid-July to remain overseas. He’ll make more than $4.591MM this season, a hefty sum that took up most of Houston’s mid-level exception, though his nearly $4.798MM salary for next season is both non-guaranteed and a team option. The deal gives Houston protection in case he fails to prove worth that money, but if he does wind up having merited that sum and perhaps more, the Rockets could have trouble retaining him thanks to the very same Gilbert Arenas Provision that helped them sign Lin and Asik two years ago.
Morey has never been afraid to experiment with unconventional moves to build a championship roster, but with experimentation comes the risk of failure. Houston experienced the downside of the GM’s approach this summer, but not every test tube shattered, and the Rockets remain an attractive destination for top-flight free agents as well as a serious player on the trade market. They took a step back, but they remain at least a step or two ahead of most.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
And-Ones: Realignment, Jones, D-League, Draft
Mavs owner Mark Cuban has come up with a proposal to level the playing field between the NBA’s two conferences that involves realignment, Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com reports. In Cuban’s plan, the Spurs, Rockets, Pelicans and Mavs would shift to the Eastern Conference, and the Bulls, Pacers, Pistons, and Bucks would relocate to the west. Cuban acknowledged that Dallas could benefit from the shift, but added, “It’s not like it’d be the first time we’ve ever realigned. It’s happened many times before, so there’s precedent and I just think it shakes things up and makes things interesting. It’s not like you’re reducing competition. You keep Cleveland, Washington and other good teams in the East. It kind of shakes things up in terms of not just interest but also in terms of how people rebuild.”
Here’s more from around the league:
- The Fort Wayne Mad Ants have acquired the rights to Dahntay Jones through the D-League’s waiver process, the team announced today. Jones last appeared in the NBA during the 2012/13 season when he appeared in 50 games for the Mavericks, and he spent the preseason last month with the Jazz. His career NBA averages are 5.6 points and 1.8 rebounds per game.
- With the Lakers receiving a disabled player exception for the season-ending injury to Steve Nash, Eric Pincus of The Los Angeles Times ran down the long list of players who are mathematically attainable via a trade using the $4.851MM exception the league granted the franchise.
- With an increase in higher-profile players entering the D-League’s player pool, it is lowering the incentive for fringe players to remain in the league, writes Gino Pilato of D-League Digest. A D-League team source told Pilato, “If you’re in there right now [player pool] and were either undrafted or cut in camp and not picked up yet, there’s no reason to stay. And with an abundance of guys either coming back early from Europe or deciding that the D-League is the best option, there are just too many new faces coming in to really consider the guys that other teams have already decided don’t have what it takes to play in this league.”
- ESPN.com draft guru Chad Ford (Insider subscription required) runs down eight college prospects who have raised their draft stock with excellent early-season play, including Kevon Looney (UCLA); Justise Winslow (Duke); Buddy Hield (Oklahoma); and Kennedy Meeks (North Carolina).
Rockets Show Interest In Al Harrington
The Rockets are thinking about signing power forward Al Harrington, who just left his Chinese team because of apparent interest from NBA clubs, reports Yannis Koutroupis of Basketball Insiders. Houston has a full 15-man roster, so the team would have to make a corresponding move if it were to add Harrington.
The 34-year-old veteran of 16 seasons is a sharpshooting power forward who would seemingly fit well within Houston’s perimeter-oriented offense. He’s a 35.2% shooter from three-point range for his career, and he knocked down the long ball with 34.0% accuracy in 34 games last season with the Wizards. He expressed hope that he would re-sign with Washington once he returned from China, where he had been averaging 32.8 points per game for the Fujian Sturgeons, but it’s unclear if the Wizards are willing to consider him at this point.
Terrence Jones, Houston’s starting power forward, is out indefinitely with a peroneal nerve contusion, which is an injury to his left leg. The team has 13 fully guaranteed contracts, and starting point guard Patrick Beverley is on a non-guaranteed deal, as our roster counts show. Tarik Black, who has already earned more than the $50K partial guarantee on his deal for this season, appears to be the most vulnerable Rocket, though that’s just my speculation. The Rockets have reportedly been anxious to make a trade to upgrade their rotation, but perhaps they envision being able to do so with the addition of a rejuvenated Harrington instead.