Indiana Pacers Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Central Notes: Sanders, Korver, Mirotic, Miles

March 19th, 2017 at 1:30pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Cavaliers‘ plans for Larry Sanders remain uncertain after the recently signed big man played his first D-League game Saturday night, writes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. Sanders had two points, a rebound and three blocks to go with five fouls for the Canton Charge. Afterward, Canton coach Nate Reinking refused to comment on Sanders’ future, calling the plans “classified.” The Cavaliers sent Sanders to the D-League to get used to playing again while they are on a four-game Western swing. The two minutes he played on Tuesday represented his first NBA action since the 2014/15 season. “Get my legs under me. Hopefully help this team win games and get back into basketball shape,” Sanders said of his goals with Canton. “Just defensive timing off a bit and trying to get into position, but it will come.”

There’s more from the Central Division:

The expected return of Cavaliers guard Kyle Korver during the road trip may be delayed, according to Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. Korver has missed the past six games with inflammation in his left foot, and he has already been ruled out for tonight’s contest with the Lakers. “There’s still something in there,” Korver said. “It’s getting better but it hasn’t come along like I’d hoped. I should’ve stopped playing on it a week and a half earlier. Now that I’m out, we might as well let it come all the way back, but it just hasn’t yet.”
Bulls forward Nikola Mirotic is focused on a playoff push rather than his impending free agency, relays K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune. Mirotic, who has gone from inactive to the starting lineup in less than a week, knows that Chicago tried to trade him before last month’s deadline and that his time in the city may be over once the season ends. “There have been a lot of ups and downs, a lot of things I never lived in my life,” he said. “Who could see that? It’s crazy. But I know that I’ve been playing much better the last couple games.”
Veteran swingman C.J. Miles could parlay his newfound starting role with the Pacers into a healthy raise this summer, writes Jordan J. Wilson of The Indianapolis Star. Miles has started every game since the All-Star break and is the team’s best 3-point shooter. After the season, he will have to decide whether to opt out of a nearly $4.8MM salary for next year.

Jeff Teague Likes New York, But Not The Triangle

March 15th, 2017 at 7:01pm CST by Arthur Hill

The triangle may discourage Pacers point guard Jeff Teague from considering the Knicks when he becomes a free agent this summer, writes Marc Berman of The New York Post.

Teague is considered among the possible replacements for Derrick Rose, who may not be re-signed when his contract expires at the end of the season. Teague said he hoped to be traded to New York in 2014, but that was before Phil Jackson arrived as team president with his triangle offense.

Teague, who will be 29 in June, believes the approach isn’t a good one for a penetrating point guard like himself or Rose, saying, “I think a player like Rose, it gives you a better chance of containing him.”

An Indiana native, Teague may decide to stay with the Pacers, who own his Bird rights and can offer more money and more years than other other team. However, this will be his first experience as an unrestricted free agent, and the Knicks should be among the interested organizations if he decides to listen to offers. New York could have nearly $25MM in cap space if Rose is not re-signed.

Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek is defending the triangle and claims it could be a selling point for free agents.

“There might be players out there who think that way,” he said in response to Teague’s comments, “but there are also probably players out there who say, ‘Oh, man, I’d like to run something like that.’ Guys might not necessarily want to run around in the staggers. It’s still an offense guys who are knowledgeable in the game should like. It’s a strategy almost every time down the court as a player. In a way, looking at it that way, it’s fun to run.’’

This is Teague’s first season with the Pacers after seven years in Atlanta. He is making $8.8MM and averages 15.1 points and 7.9 assists per game.

World Peace Still Regrets Pacers Incident

March 12th, 2017 at 1:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

At age 37, Metta World Peace has assumed the role of a mentor with the young Lakers. But the former Ron Artest still has strong regrets about the effect he had on the Pacers almost 13 years ago, writes Mark Montieth of NBA.com. Artest was suspended for the season after charging into the crowd in Detroit on November 19, 2004, to confront a fan. That effectively killed Indiana’s title chances and led to the breakup of a promising young team. “We were supposed to win a ring together,” World Peace recalls. “Everything revolved around me, because I was unstable. That’s what I feel bad about to this day. That’s something I can never, ever forgive myself for. It’s something I have to recognize. We were on our way. [GM] Donnie [Walsh] put a helluva team together. I wanted to win a championship here. That was a big thing to me. And to Reggie [Miller]. At my most unstable point, it was the end of Reggie’s career.”

Early Decision Dates For 2017/18 Player Options

March 10th, 2017 at 9:47am CST by Luke Adams

By default, NBA players who hold player options for the following season generally don’t have to make an official decision on those options until June 29, just two days before the new league year gets underway. However, that date can be altered on a contract-by-contract basis, which is why many of the 25 players who have player options or early termination options for 2017/18 will be making their decisions prior to June 29 this year.

Several of those player option decisions are due either on a specific date or a certain number of days following a team’s final regular season game. For instance, Rudy Gay‘s player option calls for him to make a decision either on June 10, or five days after the Kings’ last game — whichever comes later. Kyle Lowry, meanwhile, has to make a decision on his player option by June 19, or within seven days of the Raptors’ last game — whichever comes earlier.

Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders has done an excellent job keeping tabs on these early player option decision dates, so we’ll use his data to break down the schedule of upcoming decision dates. If a player who holds a 2017/18 player option isn’t listed here, that means his decision is due on June 29, or his decision date hasn’t been reported.

Here’s the list of early decision dates for 2017/18 player options:

Potentially dependent on when team’s season ends:

June 10 (or five days after team’s last game): Rudy Gay (Kings)
June 19 (or seven days after team’s last game): Kyle Lowry (Raptors)
June 20 (or two days after team’s last game): Aron Baynes (Pistons), C.J. Miles (Pacers)

The rest:

June 21: Dante Cunningham (Pelicans), Nick Young (Lakers)
June 22: Greg Monroe (Bucks)
June 23: Paul Millsap (Hawks)
June 24: Langston Galloway (Kings)
June 26: Spencer Hawes (Bucks)
June 28: Blake Griffin (Clippers) (early termination option)

For details on how much these player options are worth, check out our list of 2017 free agents by position or by team.

Pacers Experiment With Small Ball

March 7th, 2017 at 7:04pm CST by Austin Kent

The Pacers have put an emphasis on putting smaller lineups on the floor of late with mixed results, Nate Taylor of the Indianapolis Star writes. Since the implementation of the changes the team has shot better from the field but struggled on defense.

Larry Bird Talks Magic Johnson, Paul George, Trades

March 6th, 2017 at 11:01am CST by Luke Adams

Larry Bird, the Pacers’ president of basketball operations, had planned to call longtime rival and friend Magic Johnson after the trade deadline to congratulate him on being named to the same role with the Lakers, according to Tania Ganguli of The Los Angeles Times. However, as Ganguli details, Johnson beat Bird to the punch by a couple days, placing a call to the Pacers executive prior to the deadline.

That phone call sparked a series of rumors about Paul George, who reportedly has interest in signing with the Lakers as a free agent in 2018 if he doesn’t re-up with the Pacers. According to Bird though, the discussion lasted less than five minutes, and he downplayed the idea that George was the subject of the conversation.

In addition to weighing in on that phone call with his old friend, Bird also offered some advice to the new Lakers president of basketball operations and provided some perspective on how often he expects to do business with Johnson. Here are those highlights from his conversation with Ganguli:

On the pre-deadline phone call with Johnson, and the idea that they discussed George:

“I wasn’t motivated to move Paul George at the deadline. I can’t remember if it was even brought up or not. I don’t think it was. It’s all fake news anyway. You know that. Somebody’s gonna start it and [it] just was a snowball effect. [The phone call] was not about Paul George.”

On his advice for Johnson on running an NBA franchise:

“You can put a team together, what you think is gonna be a pretty solid team on paper, and then when they get out there they don’t mesh well. I’m sort of going through that this year. We thought we had a decent team that we thought could compete for the fourth or fifth seed. We haven’t played as well as I thought we would all year. That’s the growing pains. That’s the frustration about it.”

On the odds that he and Magic will make trades with any frequency:

“I’ve been here for, I don’t know how many years, 12, 13, and I haven’t made a deal with [Celtics GM] Danny Ainge yet. That should tell you something. I’ve always been closer with Danny, because I played with him for all them years, than Earvin. … Talked to Danny about a lot of trades, but never did one. I just feel it’s gotta be a fair deal for both sides and we never got there. Maybe he thought it was fair, but I didn’t think so.”

Jeanie Buss, Magic Johnson Talk Lakers, CBA, Walton

February 28th, 2017 at 11:36am CST by Luke Adams

New Lakers president of basketball operations Magic Johnson addressed fans at the Staples Center on Monday night at the 13th annual Lakers All-Access event, along with co-owner and president Jeanie Buss. As Baxter Holmes and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com detail, Johnson and Buss addressed a handful of topics, including the team’s recent front office changes, the impact of the Collective Bargaining Agreement on the team, and the Lakers’ pre-trade-deadline discussions with Larry Bird and the Pacers.

ESPN’s round-up includes a number of comments that we won’t pass along here, so be sure to check out Holmes’ and Shelburne’s transcript for more from Johnson and Buss. Here are a few of the highlights from the event:

Buss on why she didn’t shake up the Lakers’ front office sooner:

“It was probably the most difficult decision I’ve ever had to make. Certainly, I am a person who wants continuity, and change is difficult for anybody, but I agonized over it, thought about it and I think that’s what took so long to make the decision, is that it was so difficult. And I apologize to Lakers fans for taking that time. But it was something that had to be made in a very thoughtful way. ‘Well’, some people would say — ‘the timing is unusual because it was a couple days before the trade deadline.’ My thought was that, there really is no offseason in the NBA anymore, that you are constantly trying to plan for what’s coming up. So you have the trade deadline then you have the draft lottery, then you have the draft, then you have summer league — it’s always something. So there really is never a right time to make a change like that. But once I knew in my heart that it was the right decision, then there was really no time like the present.”

Buss on the league’s new CBA:

“There’s 30 teams in the NBA, and I really truly believe that the current CBA and the way the league is set up is that any team at any time can win a championship, and that’s what you really want as a commissioner. You want everybody to have that opportunity. But I think even with an even playing field, there’s something about playing for Lakers fans, Laker nation — no CBA can make that equal. We have the greatest fans and they can’t take those away from us with the CBA. As long as they continue to do that, I think the Lakers will have an edge and pulling from all our strengths and all our assets, which includes former players, like Magic Johnson, like Kobe Bryant — those are our strengths.”

Johnson on engaging in trade talks with longtime rival – and Pacers GM – Larry Bird:

“We only talked for about two or three minutes about the possibility of a trade, but it was more geared toward later on, not at that moment. It was just saying ‘Hi, I’m here and we’re looking forward to talking to you later on this summer.'”

Johnson on working with Lakers head coach Luke Walton:

“It’s been easy. It’s been really easy. This man is the coach of the Lakers. I’m not the coach. He’s the coach. I sit back. I just watch the game, I watch practice. His job is to coach. I may come to him and say, ‘So and so may need to work on this.’ Like I’ve done a couple times. But that’s up to him after that … But I would never interfere with him and the players that he’s coaching.”

NBA Teams Below Salary Cap For 2016/17

February 25th, 2017 at 2:39pm CST by Luke Adams

At this point in the season, most teams aren’t going to do much with any leftover cap room. Teams are no longer able to make trades, and most free agents still on the market won’t demand more than the minimum.

Still, there’s reason to consider which teams remain below the cap after this week’s trade activity. With useful veteran players potentially hitting the free agent market as a result of contract buyouts, a team with some extra cap room might have a leg up on teams without any spending flexibility.

For instance, if the Rockets and Warriors were to pursue the same free agent – perhaps Andrew Bogut, if he’s bought out by the Sixers – Houston could offer a deal worth up to about $3.5MM with cap room, while Golden State would be limited to offering a prorated minimum salary worth closer to $400K. That’s a significant difference.

It’s also worth keeping an eye on teams that remain below the minimum salary floor, since those clubs could enter the bidding for a bought-out player or could claim a player off waivers. The Jazz, for instance, probably don’t need a big man like Bogut, but if they wanted him and he became available, Utah has enough cap room to claim his entire $11MM+ contract. That would keep him off the open market and allow the Jazz to surpass the salary floor.

Using our Salary Cap Snapshots, let’s take a closer look at the teams below the cap, starting with teams still below the salary floor:

Teams below the salary floor:

Utah Jazz: $13.64MM below cap ($4.23MM below floor)
Minnesota Timberwolves: $12.66MM below cap ($3.24MM below floor)
Denver Nuggets: $11.56MM below cap ($2.15MM below floor)
Brooklyn Nets: $10.21MM below cap ($793K below floor)

Less than a month ago, there were six teams below the salary floor. Since then, the Nets and Nuggets have taken major steps toward the floor, while the Suns and Sixers have gotten above it entirely. That leaves the Jazz and Timberwolves as the clubs furthest below the salary floor.

As we’ve noted in the past, there’s no real penalty if a team remains below the floor — the team simply has to make up the difference by paying their current players a little more money. However, the Jazz and Wolves figure to be mulling other opportunities to reach the floor. That could mean placing a waiver claim or – in Utah’s case – renegotiating a contract.

We haven’t heard any rumors lately about the Jazz discussing a new deal with an extension-eligible veteran like George Hill or Derrick Favors, so that seems like a long shot. But the team does have until the end of February to renegotiate and extend either player’s contract, so it’s worth keeping an eye on.

Teams below the cap, but above the floor:

Phoenix Suns: $9.226MM below cap
Philadelphia 76ers: $8.62MM below cap
Indiana Pacers: $4.14MM below cap
Boston Celtics: $1.11MM below cap

Although the Suns and Sixers have inched above the salary floor, they’re not necessarily out of the woods quite yet. Phoenix needs the contracts of Jared Sullinger and Mike Scott to pass through waivers unclaimed, while the Sixers will require the same for Bogut if they eventually cut him. If any of those deals are claimed, they’ll move to another team’s cap, pushing Phoenix or Philadelphia back below the floor.

Teams that could clear cap room by renouncing exceptions:

Houston Rockets: $3.54MM below cap if TPEs are renounced (largest TPE: $3.33MM)
Oklahoma City Thunder: $3.05MM below cap if lone TPE ($4.94MM) is renounced
Milwaukee Bucks: $1.75MM below cap if TPEs are renounced (largest TPE: $5MM)
Chicago Bulls: $1.59MM below cap if lone TPE ($5.46MM) is renounced

These teams are technically over the cap, but could go under if they chose to renounce their trade exceptions. In some cases, that might not make much sense. For instance, the Bucks and Bulls would have less than $2MM in cap room if they renounced their exceptions. Both teams have trade exceptions worth at least $5MM, so it probably makes sense to stay over the cap for now and see if those exceptions come in handy around the draft.

On the other hand, the amount of cap room the Rockets would have if they renounced their trade exceptions would be greater than the amount of their largest TPE, so it makes sense for Houston to dip below the cap, expunging those TPEs from their books. That would also allow the Rockets to use cap room to sign a free agent, something they couldn’t do using a trade exception.

The rest of the NBA’s 18 teams don’t currently have cap room. That includes the Lakers, whose moves this week took them over the cap by just $316K.

Pacers Notes: George, Bird, Young, Gibson, Turner

February 24th, 2017 at 6:32pm CST by Milo Taibi

Paul George wasn’t happy with Indiana’s trade deadline strategy. In a video interview with IndyStar.com, George said he “thought he’d be in the loop a little more” with the team’s approach. “I kind of was on the ropes just like you guys were, on what was about to happen.” George said to the press. “It’s kind of a dark moment of uncertainty. That was the frustrating part.”

George was featured prominently in rumors right up until the deadline, being connected to the Nuggets, Celtics, and Hawks. Ultimately, Larry Bird was content to “swat away all pitches,” though it appears they didn’t communicate this to George. Paul’s comments to IndyStar.com provide the latest indication that he may decline his 2018/19 player option in favor of testing the open market.

Hawks Made ‘Aggressive’ Offers For George, Butler

February 23rd, 2017 at 8:40pm CST by Luke Adams

8:40pm: Although the Hawks’ offers for George and Butler didn’t feature core players, one source tells Stein (Twitter link) that they included “more” than three first-round picks.

With extra picks on hand for 2018 and 2019, Atlanta theoretically could have offered a 2017 first-round pick, a 2018 first-rounder, and two 2019 first-rounders, and still would’ve adhered to the Ted Stepien rule.

4:43pm: The Hawks weren’t necessarily considered likely to make a big splash today and ultimately didn’t do so, but according to ESPN’s Marc Stein (via Twitter), it wasn’t for lack of trying. Stein reports that the Hawks made “aggressive” draft-pick-centric trade offers for both Paul George and Jimmy Butler.

Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal Constitution (Twitter link) reported shortly after the trade deadline passed that the Hawks had been working on multiple “big deals” that didn’t come together, and these wouldn’t certainly qualify. GM Wes Wilcox had mentioned in the days leading up to the deadline that Atlanta wouldn’t hesitate to use its collection of draft picks to seek out roster upgrades — the Hawks have extra first-round picks in 2018 (from Minnesota) and 2019 (from Cleveland).

Reports on the talks between the Celtics and Bulls suggested that Chicago had wanted to acquire rotation-ready players in any deal for Butler, so a package heavy on draft picks may not have appealed to the club. As for the Pacers, even though team ownership was receptive to trade offers, president Larry Bird was determined to “swat away all pitches,” per Stein.

The Pacers were also said to have turned down a “monster” offer from the Nuggets, though ESPN’s Zach Lowe notes that Denver was reluctant to include Jamal Murray in that package. The Nuggets would have brought in trade assets from a third team in that scenario, per Lowe.

Meanwhile, though Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical suggested this afternoon that the Celtics had been willing to include both Nets’ first-round picks in talks for George and Butler, Nick Friedell of ESPN.com (Twitter link) hears that Boston never formally made the 2017 pick available in Butler discussions. Even if the C’s had been willing to include one or both picks for either player, it’s not clear whether the team would have sought to add protection those selections.