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Grant Hill Likely To Retire At Season’s End

April 4th, 2013 at 8:50am CST by Luke Adams

Given his injury problems earlier in his career, the fact that Grant Hill is still playing at age 40 is remarkable. But while he has a second year on his contract for 2013/14, it appears likely that this season will be his last. Hill tells Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic that there's a "strong chance" he'll retire this summer.

"I’m leaning toward it," Hill said. "I want to get to the end of the year and offseason and think about it, but I’m pretty confident that’s where my mind is right now. I’ve enjoyed it."

Hill, who signed with the Clippers last July, didn't appear in a regular-season game until January due to a bone bruise to his right knee. He has played in 27 games since then, but is averaging career-lows in most key categories, including minutes per game (15.5), PPG (3.2), FG% (.380), and PER (4.2).

According to Mark Deeks of ShamSports, Hill's contract, which would pay him about $2.05MM next season if he remained with the Clips, includes a $500K guarantee. The veteran forward's second year becomes fully guaranteed if he's not waived by July 1st, so I would guess that if he decides to retire, the Clips will release him before that date, saving themselves a little money. As for Hill, he'd still be making out pretty well — according to Basketball-Reference, he has earned over $140MM since making his NBA debut in 1994.

Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel first reported back in February that Hill was "strongly" hinting he expected to retire at season's end.

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Odds & Ends: Meeks, Kings, Clippers, Wolves

March 31st, 2013 at 10:46pm CST by Zachary Links

Jodie Meeks has been a critical role player for the Lakers this season under coach Mike D'Antoni after sitting on the pine for much of Mike Brown's tenure.  The Lakers hold a team option on Meeks and he believes that it will be exericsed.  “Yeah, I think so,” Meeks told Shams Charania of RealGM when asked if he believes he will be part of the Lakers next year. “You can’t really worry about that right now, just finish out this year. I’ll do that and see whatever happens.”  Here's more from around the Association..

  • If Timberwolves coach Rick Adelman winds up walking away this summer due to family issues, J.B. Bickerstaff won't be considered a candidate for the job, according to Ric Bucher of 95.7 The Game (Sulia link).  There are still hard feelings in the Minnesota office when Bickerstaff followed Kevin McHale to the Rockets that would keep him from being considered.
  • Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times rounds up the week's news on the future of the Kings, noting that Sacramento City Council's approval of an arena plan is non-binding, just like their endorsement of an ill-fated arena proposal last year (link via the Sacramento Bee).
  • The Clippers retooled bench worked hard in the offseason to become arguably the league's best bench, writes Derek Page of HoopsWorld.  In order for everything to come together for L.A., it was essential for Jamal Crawford to check his ego at the door and accept being the club's sixth man.
  • While we have heard that the Wolves are set to exercise GM David Kahn's option for next season, owner Glen Taylor says that he hasn't made a decision yet, writes Kent Youngblood of the Star Tribune.
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Amnesty Obligation Set To Expire For 3 Teams

March 31st, 2013 at 11:13am CST by Chuck Myron

The amnesty provision provides salary cap relief, but any team that uses the provision still must pay the player it waives. That extra money could be burdensome to owners who have to field rosters on top of their obligation to a player who is no longer around. As our amnesty tracker shows, precisely half of the league's 30 teams have used the one-time chance to erase a contract from the salary cap, if not the payroll. Some of those contracts were up after last season anyway, so those teams — the Knicks, Pacers and Warriors — are free of any amnesty-related burden. Three more teams will see their amnestied contracts expire at the end of the season. They're listed here, along with the player and the team's obligation in parentheses.

The Clippers might have received a small portion of relief via set-off rights when Gomes signed last November to play in Germany. The value of Gomes' deal overseas is unclear, but it would have to be for more than $762,195 to let the Clippers off the hook for any of the money they owe him. I doubt Gomes earned that much from his German club, particularly since he and the team parted ways in January.

Getting released from the $4MM Gomes burden probably won't have much effect on the Clippers' offseason plans this year, but it will be interesting to see what the other two teams on that list do when they aren't paying eight-figure salaries to guys who aren't on the roster. Since Andrew Bynum is missing the entire season because of his troublesome knees, the Sixers actually have two high-dollar obligations that aren't paying dividends this year, totaling $32,948,855. Freed of that dead money, perhaps the Sixers will be willing to spend freely on Bynum or another sought-after free agent this summer. The same could be the case for the Cavs, who largely eschewed free agents last summer and, at little more than $54MM, have one of the smallest team salary totals this season. That number doesn't include Davis' amnestied salary, which, if it were applied to the cap, would bring Cleveland within a few million of the $70.307MM tax line.

Nine teams have to wait at least one more season for their amnesty burdens to disappear. Those squads are listed here with the amnestied player, plus the remaining salary obligation and the year the contract expires in parentheses.

ShamSports was used in the creation of this post.

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Clippers Sign Maalik Wayns For Season

March 28th, 2013 at 3:04pm CST by Luke Adams

3:04pm: The Clippers have officially signed Wayns for the remainder of the season, the team announced today in a press release.

8:25am: With one day remaining on his second 10-day contract with the Clippers, Maalik Wayns is expected to receive a rest-of-season deal from the team. Clippers play-by-play man Ralph Lawler tweets that Wayns was informed last night that the club will keep him for the remainder of the season.

After appearing in 21 games for the 76ers earlier this season, Wayns has been used more sparingly by the Clippers, playing just 28 minutes in three games for the team so far. The 21-year-old's most recent action came last Wednesday against his old team, when he recorded nine points and two assists against the Sixers.

Re-signing Wayns for the season will give the Clippers 14 players on guaranteed contracts, with DaJuan Summers' 10-day deal set to expire next Wednesday night. At that point, the team will have to decide whether to use its final guaranteed roster spot on Summers or let him go.

As for Wayns, I wouldn't be surprised if his new contract also included a non-guaranteed team option for 2013/14, allowing the Clips to get an extended look at him this summer.

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Western Notes: Tony Allen, Clips, Lakers, Harris

March 28th, 2013 at 1:02pm CST by Luke Adams

The race for the final playoff spot(s) in the Western Conference will continue tonight, when the Lakers play the Bucks in Milwaukee and the Mavericks host the Pacers in Dallas. As we look forward to those games, let's round up a few Thursday items out of the conference….

  • Tony Allen is headed for unrestricted free agency this summer, and at least one Eastern Conference general manager thinks Allen will receive a modest raise. "Three years at $4MM per year sounds right," the GM tells Chris Mannix of SI.com. "He adds instant toughness and a defensive mentality to your team. He's a leader on the floor and he isn't going to back down from anyone. I think everyone in the league would love to have him." The Grizzlies have no interest in approaching luxury-tax territory, so it's unclear if they'll be able to bring back Allen.
  • Chris Sheridan of SheridanHoops.com believes that both Los Angeles head coaches, Mike D'Antoni and Vinny Del Negro, could be on the outs with the Lakers and Clippers respectively if they don't finish the season strong.
  • With Metta World Peace expected to miss six weeks after undergoing surgery on his left knee, Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News wonders if the veteran forward has played his last game with the Lakers.
  • Terrel Harris' new deal with the Hornets includes an second year that will become guaranteed if Harris makes the team's 2013/14 roster, reports Sam Amick of USA Today.
  • Nuggets coach George Karl tells Benjamin Hochman of the Denver Post that he thinks Gregg Popovich would be interested in the Team USA head coaching position, and that Popovich would be a great choice for the job.
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Pacific Notes: Del Negro, World Peace, Kings

March 27th, 2013 at 1:14pm CST by Luke Adams

The latest round of Pacific Division notes features a handful of updates out of California:

  • Vinny Del Negro's contract expires at season's end, but the Clippers coach says he enjoys that pressure. Asked about his future in Los Angeles, Del Negro told reporters, including Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times, that he doesn't believe his job depends on how far the Clips advance in the playoffs. "No, my future is great," Del Negro said. "I've got a great future, no matter what. I've been pretty fortunate, so I don't really worry about that stuff so much. Like I said, all those things take care of themselves when we finish."
  • Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni isn't optimistic about Metta World Peace's chances of returning from his torn meniscus before the end of the season, tweets Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times. World Peace indicated this week that he hasn't ruled out declining his 2013/14 option in order to sign a longer-term deal with the Lakers — I wouldn't expect this injury to affect that decision at all, but you never know.
  • Speaking of World Peace's player option, agent Marc Cornstein reiterates to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News that "all options are possible" for his client this offseason, and that no decisions have been made yet.
  • As we heard earlier today, Sacramento's City Council voted in favor of moving forward with a proposed arena deal that could help the Kings stay in Sacramento. Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee has a few more details from last night's meeting, including some thoughts from council members on their respective votes.
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Clippers Re-Sign DaJuan Summers

March 25th, 2013 at 12:23pm CST by Luke Adams

The Clippers have re-signed DaJuan Summers to a second 10-day contract, the team announced today in a press release. Summers' initial 10-day deal with the Clips expired last night.

Summers, 25, has only briefly appeared in two games for Los Angeles so far, scoring a single basket in seven total minutes of action. In his three previous NBA seasons, the former second-round pick played in a total of 81 games for the Pistons and Hornets.

With Summers locked up for another 10 days, the Clippers will soon be facing decisions on him and Maalik Wayns, who is also on his second 10-day deal. Both players will have to either be re-signed for the season or released when their current contracts expire.

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Pacific Notes: Clippers, Paul, Suns, Dragic

March 24th, 2013 at 11:53am CST by Zachary Links

Last night in Los Angeles, the Nets had the upper hand over the Clippers through three quarters but Chris Paul led them to victory with 17 points in the final frame.  Paul had a total of 29 points and eleven dimes on the night while DeAndre Jordan chipped in with 12 boards.  Here’s a look at today’s news out of the Pacific..

  • While people debated whether Paul was a better point guard than Deron Williams for a long time, CP3 has blown by D-Will in recent years, writes Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News.  However, Bondy notes that the new, slimmer Williams has been pouring it on since the All-Star break and Brooklyn coach P.J. Carlesimo says that his one-guard has re-entered the debate in a big way.
  • Paul will be among the top free agents in this summer’s class but Moke Hamilton of Sheridan Hoops still has him as No. 2 next to Dwight Howard in his latest rankings.  Hamilton notes that Paul’s stock slipped slightly after last Wednesday’s loss to the Grizzlies, but one has to imagine that his Herculean effort against the Nets will help his case for being ranked over Howard.
  • Goran Dragic wasn’t terribly inconsistent in the early goings of his reunion with the Suns but he has found a groove since the All-Star break, writes Zach Buchanan of The Arizona Republic.
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Injury Notes: Gasol, Noah, Garnett, Lee

March 23rd, 2013 at 8:41pm CST by Ryan Raroque

There aren't very many games left in the regular season, and the playoff picture in both conferences could look drastically different by mid-April with plenty of teams close together in the standings as of today. While it's not usual for us to focus on injuries, we have a few significant notes worth mentioning tonight:

  • Pistons rookie big man Andre Drummond could be close to returning after a 21-game absence, says David Mayo of MLive. Although the Pistons aren't in the playoff race in the Eastern Conference, a few more regular season games couldn't hurt the former UConn product's development if healthy. 
  • Clippers guard Chauncey Billups is still day-to-day with a groin strain but could return on Tuesday against the Mavericks, writes Arash Markazi of ESPN Los Angeles. 
  • Mike Bresnahan of the LA Times tweets that Lakers forward Antawn Jamison has ligament damage in his right wrist. Although he'll try to play through it, Jamison probably faces surgery in the offseason. 
  • According to Ken Berger of CBS Sports (via Twitter), the Grizzlies have announced that center Marc Gasol will be out indefinitely after re-aggravating an abdominal tear last night against the Hornets. Though they are ahead of the sixth place Warriors by a comfortable margin in the standings, Memphis is separated from the third place Nuggets by one game and the fourth place Clippers by just half a game. 
  • Joakim Noah will sit both of the Bulls' games this weekend as he continues to deal with plantar fasciitis in his right foot, says Nick Friedell of ESPN Chicago. The team is currently one game behind the fifth-place Hawks and a half game ahead of the Celtics.   
  • Greg Payne of ESPN Boston says that both Courtney Lee and Kevin Garnett are individually recovering from sprained left ankles. There doesn't appear to be a sense that those injuries are expected to keep either out for an extended period of time, but with just 14 games left and Boston currently on a three-game slide, missing two key rotation players can't necessarily help. 
  • Knicks center Tyson Chandler has already missed six straight games due to a neck strain, and is still considered day-to-day (Jared Zwerling of ESPN New York reports). New York still remains atop the Atlantic Division, and while they are only one game behind the Pacers for second place in the East, the fourth place Nets aren't too far behind in their rear view mirror (1.5 games). 
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Western Notes: Lakers, Dirk, Clippers

March 21st, 2013 at 9:41pm CST by Ryan Raroque

Mike Trudell of Lakers.com writes that with the exception of Jordan Hill, the Lakers appear on the verge of being the healthiest they've been all season when Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol are expected return to the lineup on Friday. Though Mike Bresnahan of the LA Times noted that Kobe left practice early after his ankle stiffined during scrimmages, coach Mike D'Antoni told reporters after practice that the Lakers star will be ready tomorrow. We've got a few more links to share out of the Western Conference below:

  • Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki briefly discussed his NBA future with Jeff Caplan of NBA.com. When asked about playing for three more seasons: "I’m not sure about all that. We’ll just have to wait and see…Hopefully I can finish this season strong and have a good summer like I basically did last year with a lot of lifting and running and hopefully not have a setback with a surgery. We’ll see how consistent I can be again next season."
  • Arash Markazi of ESPN Los Angeles says that the Clippers are still searching for an identity at this point in the season, mostly because of how their defense has regressed since their 17-game winning streak earlier in the year. 
  • John Reid of NOLA.com talks with Eric Gordon about being the Hornets' go-to-scorer, becoming familiar with his teammates this year after returning from his injury, and where he is in terms of his knee rehab. 
  • Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com takes a look at what has motivated Warriors All-Star David Lee throughout his career, including a fear of failure. 

 

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