Western Rumors: Lakers, Russell, Warriors
League sources tell Jake Fischer of SI (on Twitter) that the Lakers were always going to select whoever was available between Karl Towns and Jahlil Okafor at No. 2. The guards they worked out, like D’Angelo Russell, were only brought in as a smokescreen, according to those sources. However, with so much talk about Russell being the pick at No. 2 today, it’s hard to say what their intentions are. Here’s more from the West on one of the NBA calendar’s craziest days..
- Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group (on Twitter) heard that one team’s asking price to take David Lee‘s contract off the Warriors‘ hands was Harrison Barnes and the No. 30 pick. As Thompson writes, Warriors management probably laughed that offer off.
- At this stage, the Warriors are not working to move Lee’s contract, Jake Fischer of SI tweets. At this point, their looking to move up in the first round, though it’s not clear who their target is. The Warriors own the No. 30 pick in the draft.
- Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak will have the final say on what the team does with the pick, assuming they keep it, according to Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times, who spoke with a person familiar with the situation. The GM will receive input from team executive Jim Buss, Lakers scouting director Jesse Buss, and other scouts, but the last call will be his.
- The Timberwolves are looking to acquire an additional first-round pick, according to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (on Twitter).
- The Rockets have had trade discussions with the Timberwolves, Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN tweets. Houston likes Ricky Rubio, but Wolfson says that it’s hard to see a match there. However, if the Wolves do move to No. 18, Tyus Jones is probably atop their target list (link). Meanwhile, there have been no talks yet between the Wolves and Mavs, who own the No. 21 pick (link).
- The Blazers have internally discussed options to grab Kristaps Porzingis since his ASM pro day, Jake Fischer of SI tweets.
Draft Rumors: Hornets, Lakers, Russell
The Hornets have been extremely active this week and sources have indicated to Sean Deveney of the Sporting News that they’re probably not done. The Celtics and Suns, according to a source, have been the most ardent suitors of Charlotte’s No. 9 pick. The Suns have the No. 13 pick but want to move up to draft Frank Kaminsky, who they fear could be a target of the Heat at No. 10 or the Pacers at No. 11. The Celtics, meanwhile, have interest in Willie Cauley-Stein. If the Hornets stay at No. 9, Deveney believes they will want to add shooting, which could lead them to Kentucky guard Devin Booker.
- Jahlil Okafor did not perform well in his second pre-draft workout with the Lakers, according to Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report. While Okafor had a drop-off from his first showing in Los Angeles, D’Angelo Russell flourished and knocked down his shots. Ding expects the Lakers to target Russell at No. 2 in Thursday night’s draft.
- Oregon guard Joseph Young does not have a first round promise from the Lakers or anyone else, Sean Deveney of the Sporting News tweets. Young’s foot injury remains a concern and he’ll be reevaluated to see if he needs surgery.
- The Lakers, Sixers, Knicks, Magic, Kings, Hornets, Pacers are all talking trades and could shake up the draft order, Chad Ford of ESPN.com tweets.
- Richaun Holmes is drawing consideration from several teams picking in the 20s, league sources tell Jake Fischer of Sports Illustrated (on Twitter). Holmes spoke with Hoops Rumors recently as a part of our Draft Prospect Q&A series.
Ed Davis Opts Out With Lakers
Lakers forward Ed Davis has declined his player option for the 2015/16 campaign and will become an unrestricted free agent, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter link). The move comes as no surprise since it had previously been reported that Davis intended to decline his option worth $1,100,602 and test free agency. Davis has said that he would prefer to return to Los Angeles next season.
The Lakers have also expressed a willingness to bring back Davis, and would be open inking him to a multiyear arrangement as long as the cap hit was a reasonable amount. With Los Angeles likely to turn down its 2015/16 team option for Jordan Hill worth $9MM, the Lakers will need depth in its frontcourt, and Davis could certainly fit the bill. The Lakers have approximately $35MM in guaranteed salary already on the books for next season, so they wouldn’t have much trouble re-signing Davis or Hill under the projected $67.1MM cap. Though the team is certainly hoping to use its available cap space on a big ticket free agent this summer.
Davis was solid for the Lakers this past season, appearing in 79 games, 24 as a starter. He averaged 8.3 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks in 23.3 minutes per contest. His career stats are 7.2 PPG, 6.3 RPG, and 1.0 BPG, and owning a shooting line of .556/.000/.566.
Latest On Heat’s Offer To Goran Dragic
WEDNESDAY, 8:48am: Miami’s five-year offer to Dragic is expected to be for between $90MM and $100MM, Jackson reports. That would still likely be less than the max. The max won’t be known until the end of the July Moratorium, but based on an estimated starting salary of $18.96MM, the most Miami could give him over five years would be $109.02MM.
SATURDAY, 11:57pm: The Heat plan to make a five-year offer of more than $80MM to retain Goran Dragic, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com, though an amount in the vicinity of $80MM would be less than the max. The expectation in the immediate wake of Miami’s trade deadline acquisition of the former All-NBA Third Team guard was that the team would offer him the max to stay, as Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com wrote at the time, but Stein points to concerns over Dwyane Wade‘s potential free agency as one reason they’d offer somewhat less. The chances of Dragic leaving the Heat increase if Wade does, as Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reported last month.
Dragic has a $7.5MM player option for next season that he’s said he’ll turn down to instead hit free agency. Miami is the only team capable of offering Dragic a five-year deal, since it has his Bird rights. Dragic can make as much as $85MM on a four-year offer from another team while a max offer from the Heat would top $100MM, Stein estimates. The precise figures won’t be known until the league sets its maximum salaries after the July Moratorium. It nonetheless appears as though the Heat are banking on Dragic’s affection for the Heat and the city of Miami as they seek to take advantage of the ability to spread a similar amount of money over an extra year.
Wade reportedly would welcome $20MM salaries if he is to turn down his $16.125MM player option, and he’s apparently open to leaving the Heat if necessary. The Heat would prefer that Wade opt in, according to Jackson, but a less lucrative offer to Dragic would offset all or part of the extra money the Heat would spend should Wade opt out and re-sign on a deal that pays $20MM next season. That savings would be particularly important with the Heat poised not only to pay the tax next season if they retain their existing players at market value, but also incur repeat-offender tax penalties for having been a tax team three out of four years.
The Lakers, whom Dragic reportedly saw as a “perfect fit” earlier this season, loom as likely suitors, as do the Knicks, Pelicans, Kings and Bucks, as Jackson reported. The Lakers, Knicks and Bucks all have the flexibility necessary under a projected $67.1MM cap to offer a four-year max contract to the client of Bill Duffy and Rade Filipovich.
And-Ones: Russell, Looney, Porzingis
Ohio State playmaker D’Angelo Russell has made a strong case for the Lakers to select him with the No. 2 overall pick, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports writes. The young guard isn’t intimidated by playing alongside Kobe Bryant, and would embrace the chance if Los Angeles defies projections and selects Russell instead of Duke’s Jahlil Okafor, Wojnarowski adds. “If I went to the Lakers, I wouldn’t want anyone to hand me anything,” Russell told the Yahoo! scribe. “I wouldn’t expect Kobe to take me under his wing. I think he will want to see a resemblance of that hunger and fire that he came into the league with as a young kid. No one needs to be the nicest guy in the world, or pretend to be that. He will see through that, pick all that apart. I’ve got to be me.”
Here’s more from around the league:
- UCLA forward Kevon Looney has a workout scheduled with the Spurs prior to the NBA Draft, Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post tweets.
- Indian big man Satnam Singh has worked out for a total of seven teams, including the Spurs, Jabari Young of CSNNW.com relays (on Twitter).
- Kristps Porzingis‘ workout scheduled for Tuesday with the Knicks had to be cancelled because the young Latvian was suffering from a muscle cramp, Chris Herring of The Wall Street Journal tweets.
- The league’s share of each team’s playoff gate receipts will shrink from 50% to 25% under action the Board of Governors recently approved, Grantland’s Zach Lowe reports. That means less money will go into revenue-sharing, a negative for small-market teams that miss the playoffs, as Lowe examines.
- The Knicks worked out Frank Kaminsky last week, and the former Wisconsin big man wouldn’t have scheduled the meeting if he didn’t believe that New York was seriously considering selecting him with the No. 4 overall pick, Sean Deveney of The Sporting News writes. Of course, the Knicks, who are considering trading down in the draft, could be looking at Kaminsky as a target later in the lottery as well, Deveney adds.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Western Notes: Barton, Buycks, Blazers
The Nuggets have tendered Will Barton a qualifying offer worth $1,181,348, making the guard a restricted free agent this offseason, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter link). The move was expected since both sides have previously expressed a desire for the player to return to Denver next season. The 24-year-old saw sparse playing time with the Blazers over his first two and a half seasons in the league, but the deadline trade that sent him to Denver this February provided him with more opportunities to get on the court. He averaged 11.0 points in 24.4 minutes per game over 28 appearances for the Nuggets.
Here’s more from the Western Conference:
- The Warriors are exploring options regarding trading up from the No. 30 overall pick in the draft, Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com tweets. Which player the team could be targeting with such a move is unknown, Howard-Cooper adds.
- The chances that the Lakers will select Duke big man Jahlil Okafor with the No. 2 overall pick have increased since last week, Chad Ford of ESPN.com relays (on Twitter). Ford pegged the odds at 70% last Friday, and now has them at 80% that Los Angeles nabs Okafor on Thursday night.
- The Lakers have informed free agent guard Dwight Buycks that they are interested in re-signing him for next season, David Pick of Eurobasket.com tweets. Buycks, who inked a single 10-day deal with the team this past season, was reportedly set to be signed for the remainder of the 2014/15 campaign before a hand injury knocked him out for the remainder of the team’s contests.
- The Blazers will work out UNLV shooting guard Rashad Vaughn on Wednesday, reports Gery Woelfel of the Journal Times.
- Woelfel adds the Warriors to the list of teams that have worked out UNLV big man Christian Wood.
- Working out for Portland today were Darion Atkins (Virginia), Javonte Green (Radford), Charles Jackson (Tennessee Tech), Jordan Railey (Washington State), Satnam Singh (India), and Gary Bell Jr. (Gonzaga), the Blazers announced.
- Virginia swingman Justin Anderson is scheduled to work out for the Grizzlies on Wednesday, Chris Vernon of ESPN 92.9 FM relays (Twitter links). Vernon also dispels the notion that Memphis made a draft promise to LSU big man Jarell Martin, and says that Martin shut down scheduling any further workouts for other reasons.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Q&A With NBA Draft Prospect Norman Powell
In advance of Thursday’s draft, Hoops Rumors has been talking with some of the most intriguing prospects in this year’s class. Today, the Hoops Rumors Draft Prospect Q&A series continues with UCLA guard Norman Powell, who is ranked No. 41 in this year’s class by Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress and No. 53 by Chad Ford of ESPN.com.
After four years at UCLA, guard Norman Powell is battle tested and ready to take the next step. While he doesn’t have the prototypical size for a shooting guard, Powell more than makes up for that with his tenacity and athleticism. In his final year on campus, Powell showed that he can score with his jump shot, and he also put up points by slashing to the basket. In total, Powell averaged 16.4 PPG, 4.7 RPG, and 2.1 APG in 34.6 minutes per contest as he impressed NBA scouts and helped lead his team to the Sweet Sixteen. Last week, Powell took some time out of his schedule to talk to Hoops Rumors about his skill set and how it’ll translate at the next level.
Zach Links: You really seemed to come into your own in your junior year. What factors led to you breaking out?
Norman Powell: It was just the opportunity that was presented to me. Coach [Steve] Alford, when he got hired, he came to me and told me I was going to be his guy. He told me my junior year was going to be my breakout year and he was right. I was finally able to show what I was capable of.
ZL: How close were you to going pro last year?
NP: A lot of people thought I wouldn’t return for my senior year given that I had a strong year. But, I was really focused on graduating and getting my degree.
ZL: You made a lot of strides with your jump shot this season. Do you feel like that addition to your arsenal is going to make you an even more dangerous offensive threat?
NP: Yeah, definitely, I always felt like I had a strong mid-range pull-up game. I’ve also shown that I can get to the basket and score. Increasing my range is something that I’m definitely working on and that needs improvement. I need to stay focused on that to get it to the level that it needs to be.
ZL: With a 6’11” wingspan, do you feel like you have a greater defensive potential than people realize?
NP: Yeah, definitely. I think a lot of people are questioning me because of my size. People always told me I was undersized, but with my length and athleticism, it gives me an added edge out there. That’s something that people are counting out. My length makes up for a lot of that. I think I have the potential to be a lockdown defender at the next level. The sky is the limit for me, honestly, especially because I have that tough mentality and that wingspan.
ZL: Do you have any last minute workouts scheduled?
NP: I’ll actually be working out for the Lakers on Wednesday, June 24th, the day before the draft. That’ll be my second workout with them.
ZL: What led you to choose Todd Ramasar as your agent?
NP: Todd is a UCLA guy, so he has a similar background to me. He also understands my mindset. I was being slept on by a lot of people when it comes to what I can do at the next level. I feel like I have a lot to prove, I have a chip on my shoulder, and I want to show that I’m one of the top talents in the draft. We want to put people on notice that have been counting me out. We both have the mentality of an underdog that wants to succeed.
Sixers, Blazers, Pacers, Hawks Talk Pick Swaps
The Sixers and Trail Blazers have spoken about a trade that would send the No. 23 pick to Philadelphia in exchange for the 35th and 37th picks and perhaps more, sources tell Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter links). The Pacers and Hawks have had exploratory talks about a swap of the 11th and 15th picks, presumably with other assets involved, Kennedy also hears, citing league sources. Philadelphia is willing to trade up from the No. 3 spot to acquire D’Angelo Russell, league sources tell Ken Berger of CBSSports.com, who writes within his Draft Buzz column.
Jahlil Okafor earlier this month became the focus of the Lakers at the No. 2 pick, as Chris Mannix of SI.com reported, so a willingness from Philly to trade up for Russell would indicate some doubt from the Sixers that the Lakers indeed prefer the Duke center. Karl-Anthony Towns appears to be headed to the Timberwolves with the No. 1 pick, though he’s denied a report that Minnesota has already told him he’ll be their choice.
Philadelphia leads the NBA with six picks in this year’s draft, five of which are in the second round. The Blazers appear focused on free agency, with LaMarcus Aldridge, Wesley Matthews, Robin Lopez and Arron Afflalo among the soon-to-be free agents on the roster, so moving off the nearly $1.004MM cap hold for a first-round pick would presumably have some value to them.
Willie Cauley-Stein has said that Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird called him a $100MM player, so it would appear Indiana has strong interest in him. Concerns about Cauley-Stein’s health threaten to push him out of the top 10, as Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress wrote in his mock draft this week, though it would seem a stretch if he were still available at No. 15. The Hawks are worried that they won’t be able to bring back the duo of Paul Millsap and DeMarre Carroll in free agency, but trading up for a higher pick wouldn’t help them create more cap space unless they gave up salary in such a deal.
Knicks Among Preferred Destinations For Cousins
The Knicks are on the list of teams that DeMarcus Cousins would like to play for, writes Ken Berger of CBSSports.com, who nonetheless suggests New York lacks the assets to make that happen. Agent Dan Fegan would like to see him on the Lakers, Berger adds. An earlier report from Sam Amick of USA Today indicated much the same about the desire of Cousins’ camp to see him in purple-and-gold, but Cousins likes Sacramento and has asked not to be traded, according to Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee.
Knicks team president Phil Jackson suggested to reporters today that the Knicks don’t have the assets necessary to make a credible offer for Cousins, according to Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com (Twitter link). The primary chip the Knicks would appear to have, aside from Carmelo Anthony, is the No. 4 pick in this year’s draft, though Jackson today downplayed the idea that they’ll trade it. He told reporters that he’s listening to offers but “not soliciting so much” and pegged the chances of the Knicks moving down in the draft at only 5%, as Chris Herring of The Wall Street Journal relays (Twitter links). Still, Sacramento would rather take back veterans, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported overnight.
The Kings appear to be a house divided, with Karl pushing for a trade and owner Vivek Ranadive insisting time and again, just as front office chief Vlade Divac has, that Cousins is not available for any swap, as Wojnarowski detailed. The Lakers are making a push, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported Monday, also identifying the Nuggets as a likely suitor. The Celtics, another team reportedly likely to go after the All-Star center, appear to have the most to offer, as Berger notes.
New York can’t trade its No. 4 pick until after the draft, and absorbing Cousins’ salary would be easier after the July Moratorium. The same is true of the Lakers and their pick, so a Cousins trade to either destination would appear unlikely to become official for at least another couple of weeks, even if the clubs might reach an agreement in the interim.
Draft Notes: Lakers, Johnson, Berzins, Payne
The Lakers would prefer Karl-Anthony Towns to Jahlil Okafor, but Towns appears to be the player that the Timberwolves are targeting with the top pick, as Chris Mannix of SI.com hears (Twitter link). L.A. has swung and missed on attempts to have Towns in for a workout, while Mark Heisler of Forbes.com heard recently that Wolves coach/executive Flip Saunders has become enamored with the Kentucky big man. The Lakers have zeroed in on Okafor if Towns is off the board, as Mannix reported earlier. Here’s more on the rapidly approaching draft:
- Stanley Johnson is refusing to work out with the Hornets, who pick ninth, in hopes that either the Pistons, at No. 8, or the Heat, with the 10th pick, will draft him, tweets Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.
- Latvian small forward Janis Berzins is working out for the Spurs and Celtics in addition to his audition with the Jazz this past Friday, as VEF Riga, his Latvian team, revealed via Twitter (translation via HoopsHype).
- Cameron Payne has worked out for the Lakers, Kings, Nuggets, Pacers and Thunder, writes Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports. In addition, Payne held a meeting with the Celtics.
- Rondae Hollis-Jefferson said earlier this week that he has workouts left with the Jazz, Kings and Hawks, tweets Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post.
- Justin Anderson recently completed his eighth workout, Castillo tweets. He has the Cavaliers and Thunder remaining.
- Larry Nance Jr. tells the Associated Press he has worked out for “about a dozen” teams, including the Spurs, Sixers, Celtics, Suns, Heat, Pacers and Knicks. The last workout on his schedule will be Wednesday with the Cavaliers.
- Pat Connaughton has managed to fit more than a dozen teams into his workout schedule, according to Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. The Notre Dame product has received positive reviews at most of the workouts and has a chance to be a second round pick, Himmelsbach writes.
- Kevon Looney has worked out for “nine or 10 teams,” tweets A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com. One of those sessions was with the Celtics on June 17th, writes Josh Slavin of WEEI.com.
Arthur Hill contributed to this post.