D'Antoni Feared Career Was Over When He Left L.A.
- New Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni thought his career might be over when he left the Lakers in 2014, writes Bill Oram of The Orange Country Register. Not only did that team underachieve, but D’Antoni spent much of the season fighting with Kobe Bryant. D’Antoni revived his career as an assistant with the Sixers last season before being hired by Houston over the summer. “It’s a privilege to be able to coach in this league,” D’Antoni said. “It’s very rare you can dictate where you want to go, and usually where you’re going they have problems or you wouldn’t be going there. You just try to find the right situation, and if it’s not the right situation, try to make it work. If it doesn’t work out, try to live to fight a battle someplace else. It was a privilege to coach the Lakers. It was a privilege to coach Kobe and those guys. I’m better for it.”
Lakers Exercise Options For Russell, Randle, Nance
The Lakers are the latest team to exercise 2017/18 options for players on rookie scale contracts, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders, who tweets that D’Angelo Russell, Julius Randle, and Larry Nance Jr. have had their options picked up by Los Angeles. The Lakers have formally confirmed the moves in a press release.
[RELATED: Decisions for 2017/18 rookie scale team options]
By exercising the three options, the Lakers will guarantee Russell a $5.562MM salary in 2017/18, with Randle set to earn $4.149MM, and Nance to get $1.26MM. It’s a fourth-year option for Randle, who will subsequently be on track to reach restricted free agency in 2018. Russell and Nance, on the other hand, are one season behind Randle, so they had their third-year options picked up today.
Russell and Randle each averaged 28.2 minutes per game for the 2015/16 Lakers, and are poised to assume even larger roles for this year’s club. Russell was the second overall pick in the 2015 draft, while Randle was selected seventh overall in 2014, and both players are viewed as core pieces for this young L.A. team, along with 2016 No. 2 overall pick Brandon Ingram. Expectations aren’t quite so high for Nance, but the Wyoming product did have a solid rookie season, averaging 5.5 PPG and 5.0 RPG.
Lakers Cut Anthony Brown; Roster Down To 15
The Lakers have made a somewhat surprising move to reduce their roster to 15 players, announcing in a press release that they’ve waived forward Anthony Brown. The cut opens up room on the roster for Los Angeles to keep both Thomas Robinson and Metta World Peace, who were previously believed to be battling for the final spot.
[RELATED: Lakers waive Yi Jianlian at his request]
Brown, 24, was selected 34th overall in the 2015 draft by the Lakers, and appeared in 29 games for the team during his rookie season, starting 11 of them. In 20.7 MPG, he averaged 4.0 PPG and 2.4 RPG, shooting just 31.0% from the field. The Stanford product had a guaranteed $874,636 salary for 2016/17, but the Lakers decided to move on from him anyway, eating that guaranteed money.
Neither Robinson nor World Peace had a guaranteed salary, but it appears both veterans have earned spots on the Lakers’ roster, now that the team has parted with Brown and Yi Jianlian. Robinson, a former fifth overall pick, had a solid camp with the team and will compete for frontcourt minutes in the hopes of sticking in L.A. long enough for his salary to become fully guaranteed.
As for World Peace, the Lakers value his veteran leadership and reportedly had interest in keeping him around as an assistant coach if he didn’t make the team. Perhaps sensing that the veteran forward would be reluctant to call it a career if the Lakers asked him to join their coaching staff, it seems the club found room on its 15-man roster for him instead.
Lakers Waive Yi Jianlian At His Request
12:28pm: The Lakers have officially waived Yi, the team announced in a press release.
8:18am: The Lakers are currently carrying 17 players, meaning they need to make two more cuts before Monday’s regular-season roster deadline, and Yi Jianlian made one of those decisions easy. According to Marc Stein of ESPN.com, the Chinese forward has asked the Lakers to waive him, and the team will formally grant that request, waiving him in advance of today’s deadline.
As Stein details, Yi and his representatives would like the chance to pursue other opportunities after the role he envisioned in Los Angeles didn’t pan out. That could mean seeking an NBA job, but there’s a good chance the former sixth overall pick heads back overseas — he’d have better odds of earning a significant role back in China than he would with another NBA club. At this point it’s not clear which way he’s leaning, per Stein.
The contract Yi signed with the Lakers this offseason could have been worth as much as $8MM if he’d stuck with the team all season and appeared in at least 59 games. However, at this point it was only guaranteed for $250K. The rolling guarantees and incentives made it a very trade-friendly deal, which was why L.A. was believed to be leaning toward keeping Yi.
Instead, the Lakers figure to turn to Metta World Peace or Thomas Robinson for their 15th and final roster spot, with the other player joining Yi on the waiver wire. The team reportedly wouldn’t mind keeping World Peace as an assistant rather than as a player, but if he’s not willing to retire quite yet, perhaps L.A. will be using to use that final roster opening on him.
Still, as Tania Ganguli of The Los Angeles Times tweets, Robinson has “really impressed” the Lakers over the last few weeks, meaning he has a decent shot to win the roster battle. Robinson is nearly 12 years younger than World Peace, and – like Yi – was a high draft pick, having been selected fifth overall in 2012.
And-Ones: Roster Moves, Bulls, Rudez, Onuaku
Monday afternoon is the deadline to reach the roster limit of 15, and nine teams still have cuts to make, tweets salary cap expert Albert Nahmad. The Celtics, Cavaliers, Rockets, Lakers, Pelicans, Thunder, Sixers, Suns and Kings all remain over the limit leading into what should be an eventful day, says Nahmad. By our count, the Grizzlies still have a move to make as well. The Pacers were the latest team to trim their roster, waiving Jeremy Evans and Julyan Stone tonight.
There’s more news from around the NBA:
- J.J. Avila, who was waived Friday by the Bulls, has agreed to play for Chicago’s D-League affiliate, tweets Dennis Silva II of Monitor News. The 6’8″ power forward from Colorado State signed a training camp contract with Chicago in September. Guard Thomas Walkup of Stephen F. Austin, another Friday cut, will also be joining the Windy City Bulls (Twitter link).
- Damjan Rudez and Arinze Onuaku both traveled a lot of miles to realize their dream of returning to the NBA, writes John Denton of NBA.com. After playing overseas and in the D-League, both veterans were told Saturday that they had earned a place on the Magic’s final roster. “It was a big blessing,” Onuaka said. “When you are out here fighting for a spot every day it’s stressful and to get that news, it was great. You’ve always got to wait to hear if you’re in or you’re out, so it wasn’t easy sleeping at night.’’
- Fred VanVleet won the Raptors‘ final roster spot, but coach Dwane Casey said all the training camp invitees were impressive, tweets Ryan Wolstat of The Toronto Sun. Casey said Drew Crawford and Brady Heslip have the talent to be NBA players, adding that he was disappointed he didn’t have room to keep all of them.
2016/17 NBA Over/Unders: Pacific Division
The 2016/17 NBA regular season gets underway just a couple days from now, which means it’s time to start getting serious about predictions for the upcoming campaign. With the help of the lines from offshore betting site Bovada.lv, we’re running through the predicted win totals for each of the NBA’s 30 teams, by division, and having you weigh in on whether you think those forecasts are too optimistic or too pessimistic. Having looked at the Atlantic, Northwest, Central, Southwest, and Southeast divisions so far, we’re moving on to the Pacific today…
Golden State Warriors
- 2015/16 record: 73-9
- Over/under for 2016/17: 66.5 wins
- Offseason in review: Added Kevin Durant, Zaza Pachulia, David West, Damian Jones, Patrick McCaw, JaVale McGee. Lost Harrison Barnes, Andrew Bogut, Festus Ezeli, Marreese Speights, Leandro Barbosa, Brandon Rush.
How many games will the Warriors win?
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Over 66.5 67% (311)
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Under 66.5 33% (151)
Total votes: 462
(App users, click here for Warriors poll)
Los Angeles Clippers
- 2015/16 record: 53-29
- Over/under for 2016/17: 53.5 wins
- Offseason in review: Added Marreese Speights, Alan Anderson, Raymond Felton, Brandon Bass, Brice Johnson. Lost Jeff Green, Cole Aldrich, C.J. Wilcox, Pablo Prigioni.
How many games will the Clippers win?
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Over 53.5 62% (228)
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Under 53.5 38% (140)
Total votes: 368
(App users, click here for Clippers poll)
Sacramento Kings
- 2015/16 record: 33-49
- Over/under for 2016/17: 34 wins
- Offseason in review: Added Arron Afflalo, Anthony Tolliver, Garrett Temple, Matt Barnes, Ty Lawson, Georgios Papagiannis, Malachi Richardson, Skal Labissiere. Lost Rajon Rondo, Marco Belinelli, Seth Curry, James Anderson, Quincy Acy.
How many games will the Kings win?
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Under 34 58% (226)
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Over 34 42% (163)
Total votes: 389
(App users, click here for Kings poll)
Phoenix Suns
- 2015/16 record: 23-59
- Over/under for 2016/17: 30 wins
- Offseason in review: Added Jared Dudley, Dragan Bender, Marquese Chriss, Leandro Barbosa. Lost Mirza Teletovic, Jon Leuer, Ronnie Price, Chase Budinger.
How many games will the Suns win?
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Over 30 53% (192)
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Under 30 47% (173)
Total votes: 365
(App users, click here for Suns poll)
Los Angeles Lakers
- 2015/16 record: 17-65
- Over/under for 2016/17: 24.5 wins
- Offseason in review: Added Luol Deng, Timofey Mozgov, Brandon Ingram, Jose Calderon. Lost Kobe Bryant, Roy Hibbert, Brandon Bass, Ryan Kelly.
How many games will the Lakers win?
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Over 24.5 66% (325)
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Under 24.5 34% (168)
Total votes: 493
(App users, click here for Lakers poll)
Previous voting results:
- Boston Celtics (52.5 wins): Under (54.59%)
- Toronto Raptors (50.5 wins): Over (54.63%)
- New York Knicks (38.5 wins): Over (71.41%)
- Philadelphia 76ers (23.5 wins): Under (54.62%)
- Brooklyn Nets (20.5 wins): Under (60.74%)
- Utah Jazz (49 wins): Under (68.72%)
- Portland Trail Blazers (45.5 wins): Over (69.92%)
- Oklahoma City Thunder (43.5 wins): Over (65.71%)
- Minnesota Timberwolves (40.5 wins): Over (50.11%)
- Denver Nuggets (37 wins): Under (68.81%)
- Cleveland Cavaliers (56.5 wins): Over (66.5%)
- Detroit Pistons (44.5 wins): Over (55.03%)
- Indiana Pacers (44.5 wins): Over (73.06%)
- Chicago Bulls (38.5 wins): Over (61.9%)
- Milwaukee Bucks (34.5 wins): Over (67.48%)
- San Antonio Spurs (58.5 wins): Under (57.4%)
- Houston Rockets (44 wins): Over (52.76%)
- Memphis Grizzlies (42.5 wins): Over (59.69%)
- Dallas Mavericks (38.5 wins): Over (69.71%)
- New Orleans Pelicans (37 wins): Under (70.9%)
- Atlanta Hawks (43.5 wins): Over (59.84%)
- Charlotte Hornets (42.5 wins): Under (62.22%)
- Washington Wizards (42.5 wins): Over (51.6%)
- Orlando Magic (37.5 wins): Over (54.42%)
- Miami Heat (34.5 wins): Under (61.45%)
Lakers Worked Out Hasheem Thabeet
- Former second overall pick Hasheem Thabeet hasn’t played in an NBA game in more than two years, but he’s still working hard to salvage his career, as Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders details. Kennedy takes a closer look at Thabeet’s training regimen, adding that the Knicks, Lakers, and Wizards have all recently worked out the 29-year-old.
- Former Lakers guard Smush Parker hasn’t given up on the NBA either, according to Brian Rzeppa of D-League Digest, who says that the 35-year-old plans to play in the D-League this season.
Lakers Interested In Retaining Metta World Peace As Assistant
Metta World Peace is one of three players in the running for the Lakers’ 15th and final regular season roster spot, battling Yi Jianlian and Thomas Robinson for that opening. None of the three players have fully guaranteed salaries, but Robinson has youth on his side and Yi has an incentive-heavy, trade-friendly contract, giving them the leg up on World Peace.
Still, even if the veteran forward doesn’t earn the Lakers’ final roster spot, the Lakers might like to keep World Peace around. According to Marc Stein and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com, the Lakers have interest in the 36-year-old as an assistant coach. Sources tell the ESPN duo that World Peace’s impact as a veteran mentor to the team’s young players last season was a major reason why the team re-signed him this year.
World Peace indicated earlier this month that he’d like to continue his playing career for three more seasons, so it’s no surprise that Stein and Shelburne suggest he’d prefer not to retire, even if the Lakers decide to cut him.
Still, if World Peace doesn’t make the Lakers and can’t land an NBA roster spot elsewhere, his willingness to transition into a coaching role is worth monitoring. He and Lakers head coach Luke Walton were teammates for multiple years with the Lakers, so it would be a good match for World Peace to join Walton’s staff in Los Angeles.
Clarkson Needs To Continue Defensive Improvement
It’s unclear if Jordan Clarkson will be in the starting lineup or coming off the bench for the Lakers this season, but regardless of his role, the guard needs to continue to improve his defense, Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report writes. “We watch tape at our coach’s retreat and they gave us the analytics on him defensively, and he was not good last year at defense. He was not good,” coach Luke Walton said. “He’s been maybe our most consistent perimeter defender since the start of camp. A big part of defense. if you’re going to play it on every possession, is enjoying the idea of trying to get stops and trying to make it hard on your guy,” Walton said. “He’s a year older, who knows what it is, but he’s done a great job for us.”
Walton Unsure Of Final Roster Cuts
- The Lakers still have two roster cuts to make in order to reach the regular season maximum of 15 players. Coach Luke Walton is still undecided on who will stay and who will go, telling Tania Ganguli of The Los Angeles Times (Twitter link) that he has “no idea” who he’s going to waive just yet. The three players who are likely on the bubble are Metta World Peace, Yi Jianlian and Thomas Robinson.