Draft Combine Updates: Thursday Morning
11:56am: More A.M. updates out of Chicago:
- Nerlens Noel told reporters that he hasn't completed any interviews so far, but that he's "pretty sure" he has one scheduled with the Magic. He's not quite so sure about the Cavaliers (Twitter links).
- Steven Adams and Kelly Olynyk are among the prospects that have met with the Wizards so far and think they'd fit in well in Washington (Twitter links). Mason Plumlee is also on the Wizards' list, tweets J. Michael of CSNWashington.com.
- Olynyk has met with the Bobcats as well, says Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer (Twitter link).
- Gorgui Dieng will work out for the Bucks, who will also interview Rudy Gobert and Plumlee, according to Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times (Twitter links).
- A couple notes from SI.com's Chriss Mannix (via Twitter): Cody Zeller has spoken to the Raptors, Trail Blazers, Rockets, and Celtics, while Mike Muscala only has interviews lined up with the Spurs and Hawks, but will do "nine or 10" workouts later. One of those workouts will be with the Blazers, tweets Jason Quick of the Oregonian.
- Shabazz Muhammad and Deshaun Thomas interviewed with the Timberwolves last night, writes Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune.
11:09am: With a number of reporters in attendance at the NBA's predraft camp in Chicago, we're expecting plenty of noteworthy tidbits to trickle in throughout the day. Here's a round-up of the first batch of updates on 2013's draft combine participants:
- According to Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal (Twitter link), the Cavaliers aren't on Otto Porter's list of teams he's meeting with this week. That's a bit of a surprise, given the rumblings that he's high on the team's big board, though as Mary Schmitt Boyer of the Plain Dealer tweets, the Cavs drafted a pair of players they didn't interview last year.
- Porter is scheduled to meet with the Wizards, who spoke to Victor Oladipo earlier this week, tweets Michael Lee of the Washington Post. Porter will meet with the Pistons as well, tweets Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press. The Bobcats, Thunder, and Suns have already met with Porter, according to Lee (via Twitter).
- The Pistons are also prepared to meet with Shabazz Muhammad today, according to Keith Langlois of Pistons.com (Twitter link). Muhammad interviewed with the Trail Blazers yesterday and felt it went very well, tweets Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com.
- Nate Wolters and Adonis Thomas were among the prospects who have met with the Lakers so far, says Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld (via Twitter).
- Glen Rice Jr., who played in the D-League this past season, has been interviewed by the Bucks, Celtics, Warriors, Sixers, and Spurs, he confirmed to reporters (all Twitter links).
Atlantic Rumors: Sixers, Sampson, Howard, Kidd
Let's round up the latest out of the Atlantic, where the division's lone remaining team (the Knicks) will attempt to stave off elimination at Madison Square Garden tonight….
- The Sixers have received permission to interview Rockets assistant Kelvin Sampson, according to John N. Mitchell of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Sampson had already been on Philadelphia's list of candidates before former Rockets assistant GM Sam Hinkie was hired by the Sixers, but it will be interesting to see whether or not the Houston connection makes Sampson a stronger candidate for the opening.
- Mitchell adds in the same piece that Hinkie is believed to be eyeing Jazz assistant Jeff Hornacek as well.
- Hinkie says he'll look at all options in building his team back up to contention, writes PhillyBurbs.com's Tom Moore.
- In identifying Dwight Howard's five likeliest free agent destinations, Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld writes that there's still mutual interest between Howard and the Nets. While Kennedy notes that, due to their cap situation, the Nets are a "long shot," I'd classify Brooklyn's odds of landing Howard as even more miniscule than that.
- Mark Hale of the New York Post notes that Jason Kidd has said there's no guarantee he'll finish his current three-year contract, and wonders if Kidd's struggles during this postseason could influence a retirement decision.
Michael Pina contributed to this post.
Sixers Hire Sam Hinkie As GM
MONDAY, 3:21: Owner Josh Harris has made it official at a press conference this afternoon, announcing Hinkie's hiring as president of basketball operations and general manager.
FRIDAY, 11:06pm: Hinkie's hiring doesn't change Thorn's situation with the team, Thorn tells Tom Moore of PhillyBurbs.com (Twitter link). The veteran executive is transitioning into the role of a consultant for the Sixers. Moore also clarifies that Hinkie will choose the team's next head coach.
3:04pm: DiLeo will not return to the Sixers in any capacity, according to John Mitchell of the Philadelphia Inquirer (via Twitter). DiLeo had been part of the Sixers' basketball operations department since the 1990/91 season.
2:53pm: According to Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News, Hinkie will also be the Sixers' new president of basketball operations, and DiLeo is "out" (Twitter links). Cooney adds that Hinkie's contract is expected to be for three or four years (Twitter link).
An official announcement from the Sixers could come as soon as next week, tweets Tom Moore of PhillyBurbs.com.
2:35pm: The 76ers have reached an agreement with Rockets assistant GM Sam Hinkie on a deal that will make Hinkie the Sixers' new general manager, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter).
Tony DiLeo had previously been serving as the GM in Philadelphia, but his contract was set to expire next month, making his status going forward uncertain. DiLeo has been a longtime member of the Sixers' front office and had been working with ownership on the team's coaching search, so it's unclear whether he'll be parting ways with the club or simply transitioning into a new role. I wouldn't be surprised if he moved into the team president position previously held by Rod Thorn, but it appears as if Hinkie will be the final decision-maker in basketball operations.
Before the Sixers promoted DiLeo to GM last summer, the team conducted a search that included Hinkie. According to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle, the two sides re-opened discussions "very recently" (Twitter link).
Eastern Rumors: Sampson, Clifford, Cavs, Celtics
We could have a fairly clear idea of the two teams that will play for the Eastern Conference title by the end of tonight. The Heat appear on their way to the conference finals with a 3-1 lead against the Bulls, and the Pacers can take a 3-1 lead of their own with a win at home against the Knicks tonight. Of course, we won't know for sure until later this week at the earliest, but if Indiana wins this evening, most of the on-court intrigue will shift to the Spurs–Warriors series in the West. All five open head coaching jobs are in the East, however, and there's news on that along with other notes from around the conference today:
- The Bobcats are interviewing Rockets assistant Kelvin Sampson for their head coaching vacancy today, and they'll meet with Lakers assistant Steve Clifford next week, according to Ken Berger of CBSSports.com (Twitter links). The team has reportedly had interest in both.
- A few days after receiving permission from the Lakers to do so, the Cavs are interviewing L.A. player development coach Phil Handy for a spot on head coach Mike Brown's staff, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link).
- Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com doesn't expect to see resolution on the future of the Celtics soon, suggesting that trade talk involving Paul Pierce could drag on past June 30th, the deadline for Boston to waive Pierce and reduce his cap hit by more than $10MM.
- The Raptors appear headed for tax territory next season, but the arrival of new executive Tim Leiweke indicates that the team is comfortable paying the tax, writes Stephen Brotherston of HoopsWorld.
- Eddie Jordan spent parts of nine seasons as an NBA head coach, six of them with the Wizards, but he tells Michael Lee of The Washington Post he doesn't want another NBA head coaching job, no matter how it goes in his new gig as the coach at Rutgers University.
Odds & Ends: Paul, Cole, Heat, Celtics
All eyes will be on Clippers guard Chris Paul this summer and while the All-Star has been treated like royalty in L.A. and arguably has been given more pull than any other player in the league when it comes to personnel decisions, it's possible that CP3 will head elsewhere as he looks to win his first NBA title. Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld ran down the Clippers' biggest competition and identified the Mavericks, Hawks, Rockets, and Nuggets as the top threats to pull him away from La La Land. Here's tonight's look around the Association as the Clippers gear up for a very interesting summer..
- In today's mailbag, a reader asked Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sentinel if Norris Cole is essentially playing his way out of Miami. The Heat guard is under contract for next season with a club option for 2014/15, but his play could convince Miami that they can safely let Mario Chalmers go rather than exercise his $4MM option for next year. Alternatively, they could also exercise the option on the KU product and flip him elsewhere.
- Chris Wilcox is a free agent for a second consecutive season, but he says that he would like to return to the Celtics, writes Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald. “I would love to come back and be a part of this, because I just feel like I didn’t. . . . I wasn’t me, you know what I mean? So I want to come back healthy. I want to come back and be healthy right from the start of training camp," Wilcox said.
- The Nuggets' Quincy Miller recently had his contract for next season partially guaranteed at $150K, according to Sham Sports. Miller, who could earn up to $789K next year, had a clause in his deal that gave him a partial guarantee if he was not waived in the week following Denver's elimination from the playoffs.
Rockets To Decline Option On Francisco Garcia
The Rockets will not exercise their team option on Francisco Garcia for 2013/14, tweets Mark Berman of FOX 26 Houston. Given the price on the option ($6.4MM), the decision comes as no surprise for a Houston team that will have the opportunity to clear more than $15MM in cap space this summer.
With Garcia heading for unrestricted free agency, Houston will have about $39.33MM in guaranteed salaries and $9.18MM in non-guaranteed salaries remaining on its books for next season. Some of those non-guaranteed contracts, such as Chandler Parsons' and Patrick Beverley's, seem to be locks to become guaranteed, while others aren't so certain, as I outlined when I previewed the Rockets' offseason.
As for Garcia, the longtime Sacramento King was sent to Houston for salary purposes as part of the six-player deadline deal that also sent Thomas Robinson to the Rockets. In 58 total games this season, the 31-year-old Garcia averaged 5.5 PPG and shot 37.4% from three-point range. While the Louisville product has never been an exceptional scorer in the NBA, he can still contribute as an outside threat, leading Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com to speculate that he could be a fit for the Lakers. Garcia, for his part, has said he'd like to return to Houston.
Western Notes: Garcia, Madsen, Conroy, Hornacek
In a twist, the Western Conference playoff game preceded the Eastern Conference tilt on today's schedule. The Grizzlies beat the Thunder to claim a 2-1 series lead, while the Knicks and Pacers are under way in Indiana. The Eastern matchup prompted rare non-Sunday coverage from ABC, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of intriguing storylines out west, where the latest Kings developments are threatening to steal the show. Here's more from the conference that won this year's All-Star Game:
- Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com suggests (via Twitter) that Francisco Garcia could be an offseason target for the Lakers. The Rockets currently hold a $6.4MM option on Garcia, but Houston is extremely unlikely to exercise it, so the 31-year-old appears ticketed for unrestricted free agency.
- The next head coach of the Lakers' D-League affiliate could be a familiar face for Lakers fans. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports that Mark Madsen is finalizing an agreement to become the D-Fenders' new coach.
- Will Conroy, a close friend of Brandon Roy, began the season on Minnesota's playing roster, but he finished the season as a Timberwolves scout. Flip Saunders fired Conroy and another scout with ties to Roy this week, notes Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune. The Wolves waived Roy on Friday.
- The only way the Jazz can hold on to assistant coach Jeff Hornacek, a candidate for head coaching jobs elsewhere, would be to replace Tyrone Corbin with him, and that's not going to happen, writes Gordon Monson of The Salt Lake Tribune.
Luke Adams contributed to this post.
Metta World Peace Won’t Opt Out
Metta World Peace hasn't offered any public hints about whether he plans to exercise his early-termination option for next season, but Salary Cap FAQ author Larry Coon hears he intends to play out his contract with the Lakers. World Peace is due $7,727,280 in the final season of his five-year deal, and Coon would be "shocked" if he turned that down.
The news isn't unexpected, since World Peace might have trouble making half as much next season if he were to hit the open market. He could probably wrangle more guaranteed money as part of a long-term deal, but at 33 years old, few teams would be willing to give him a contract that stretched out for too long.
World Peace has shown durability and, this year, a remarkable capacity to recover from a late-season knee injury, but his on-court efficiency hasn't been the same since he signed with the Lakers four years ago. His career PER had been 16.5 during his first 10 seasons in the league, but his PER with L.A. is just 11.8. His number this year was slightly higher, at 12.5, as World Peace was tasked with more minutes and shots amid an injury-hit season for his Lakers teammates.
In his blog post, Coon counts World Peace among the Lakers' commitments for next season and ponders whether the team could sign both Dwight Howard and Chris Paul, as Grantland's Bill Simmons suggested. Such a move would require the team to amnesty Kobe Bryant and trade Pau Gasol to the Rockets, and there's no reasonable scenario that would allow the Lakers to offer max contracts to both Howard and Paul, as Coon deduces.
Atlantic Notes: Sixers, Bynum, Prigioni, Celtics
After taking a look at the offseason challenges that the Nets will face earlier today, here's more out of the Atlantic..
- If the Sixers and new GM Sam Hinkie don't retain Andrew Bynum, look for the Rockets rumors to heat up quickly, writes Tom Ziller of SBNation.com. If healthy and teamed up with James Harden and Chandler Parsons, Houston would have a formidable offensive lineup.
- Steve Serby of the New York Post sat down with Knicks guard Pablo Prigioni for a Q&A. When asked if he wants to return to New York next year, the Argentinean said that he is focusing on winning at the moment and will tackle that after the season.
- Celtics GM Danny Ainge says the Raptors have asked for permission to speak with assistant coach Tyronn Lue for a position on Dwane Casey's staff, tweets Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe.
- Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com is turning in his report card on the Celtics' 2012/13 roster. Today, he evaluates the play of mid-season pickup Shavlik Randolph.
Offseason Outlook: Houston Rockets
Guaranteed Contracts
- James Harden ($13,668,750)1
- Omer Asik ($8,374,646)
- Jeremy Lin ($8,374,646)
- Thomas Robinson ($3,526,440)
- Royce White ($1,719,480)
- Terrence Jones ($1,551,840)
- Donatas Motiejunas ($1,422,720)
- (Tyler Honeycutt – $100,000)2
Options
- Francisco Garcia ($6,400,000, Team)
Non-Guaranteed Contracts
- Carlos Delfino ($3,000,000)
- Aaron Brooks ($2,508,000)
- Chandler Parsons ($926,500; guaranteed for $600,000)
- James Anderson ($916,099)
- Greg Smith ($884,293)
- Patrick Beverley ($788,872)
- Tim Ohlbrecht ($788,872)
Free Agents (Cap Holds)
- (Earl Boykins – $884,293)
Draft Picks
- 2nd Round (34th overall)
Cap Outlook
- Guaranteed Salary: $39,338,5221
- Options: $6,400,000
- Non-Guaranteed Salary: $9,180,830
- Cap Holds: $884,293
- Total: $55,803,6451
Before the Rockets pulled off the most shocking move of the 2012 offseason, acquiring James Harden from the Thunder just a few nights before the regular season got underway, many pundits were picking them to be among the league's worst teams, down there with the Bobcats and Magic. Even after the trade, it was expected to be a transition year in Houston, with another big move still needed to make the team a real contender.
The Rockets came together much quicker than expected, however, and that was in large part due to the moves made by GM Daryl Morey last summer. In addition to landing Harden, who blossomed into one of the league's elite scorers, Morey signed Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik to big-money offer sheets. Both signings were at least questioned, if not outright panned, at the time, but Lin and Asik didn't disappoint. And at about $8.37MM each per year, both players are affordable core pieces or trade chips, as Morey enters this offseason in search of that second star to pair with Harden.
Looking at the Rockets' current cap situation, a couple items of note immediately jump off the page. First, the team somehow heads into this summer with technically no expiring contracts on its books. Sure, Francisco Garcia's contract is essentially expiring, since his $6.4MM option won't be exercised, and not all of the team's non-guaranteed players will be retained. But with no player options or unrestricted free agents to be found, Morey has given the club the opportunity to bring back any and/or all of its players next season, which is extraordinary in today's NBA. Houston's tendency to sign contracts that included a season or two of non-guaranteed control is what allows the team to retain hidden gems like Chandler Parsons and Patrick Beverley at bargain-basement prices.
The second item of note relating to the Rockets' cap? They should be able to afford a maximum-salary player this summer. Depending on where next year's salary cap settles, the team may need to make an extra move or two to clear the necessary space to make a max offer to, for instance, Dwight Howard. But Houston has virtually no toxic assets, meaning small moves like that should be simple. If the club needed to move, say, Donatas Motiejunas' modest salary to clear space for a max offer for Howard, teams would be lining up to acquire a young player like Motiejunas, who is on an inexpensive contract for the next three seasons.
In the past, we've seen the Rockets take advantage of their room under the cap to facilitate trades. Their cap flexibility allowed them to bail the Thunder out of long-term tax issues in the Harden deal, and Houston's ability to take on salary made the team an ideal trading partner for Sacramento when the Kings moved Thomas Robinson this past season. Robinson was the prize in the deal for the Rockets, but they wouldn't have been able to land him had they not been willing to take on Garcia's contract as well.
So based on their history, we shouldn't rule out the possibility that the Rockets elect to use their 2013 cap space to make another trade or two. But if the team is going to land a star, free agency looks like its best bet. Although the Rockets still have plenty of young talent on the roster that could be expendable in the right deal, most of the draft assets the team had acculumated have been used in other deals. For example, Houston essentially sent Oklahoma City four draft picks in the Harden deal — 2012's 12th overall pick (Jeremy Lamb), Toronto's 2013 first-rounder, a future Mavericks' first-rounder, and Charlotte's 2013 second-rounder. Now that they're no longer holding all those picks, the Rockets only have a couple extra second-rounders in hand, and don't have their first-rounder in 2013, making it more difficult to pull off a blockbuster.
Still, having fewer trade chips shouldn't be a problem if Houston can land the right player in free agency. Howard obviously represents the top priority, but I wonder if the Rockets would be happy to land someone in the second tier — perhaps a player like Josh Smith, Paul Millsap, or Al Jefferson. Those players will be expensive and they don't exactly qualify as superstars, so maybe Morey would be reluctant to settle for one of them rather than landing a bigger fish.
After turning what initially looked like a lottery team into a playoff club that nearly took the Thunder to seven games, Morey is facing the next step of the rebuilding process this offseason. By essentially giving himself 2013/14 options on half the roster, he could go in any number of directions, whether or not the Rockets are able to land a second star. At this point, the GM has earned the benefit of the doubt in Houston, and it will be fascinating to see what he has up his sleeve to keep improving his team this summer.
Additional notes:
- Before next season begins, the Rockets will have to decide whether or not to exercise Royce White's third-year option, worth $1,793,520. That's a small price to pay if they feel like White can still reach his potential, but after a lost rookie season, it certainly isn't a given.
- Many of the Rockets' non-guaranteed players' futures will likely depend on whether or not the team needs that space to pursue a max contract. Carlos Delfino is a nice value at $3MM, but if he gets in the way of that max space, he could be cut loose.
- A decision on Delfino is due by June 30th, but the team won't have to decide on many of its other non-guaranteed players until a little later.
Cap footnotes:
- The exact figure of Harden's maximum salary has yet to be determined, so these amounts will likely be a little higher than listed.
- Honeycutt was waived this past season, but his contract included a $100K guarantee for 2013/14.
Storytellers Contracts and Sham Sports were used in the creation of this post.