Latest On LaMarcus Aldridge
LaMarcus Aldridge is indeed thinking of signing with the Spurs or Mavericks, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com hears, advancing his report from last week that those two teams believe they have a shot to lure him back to his native Texas. San Antonio is “near or at” the top of the Arn Tellem client‘s list, Stein writes, though he suggests the Cavaliers would come into the picture if Kevin Love were to somehow depart and the Cavs found a way to sign-and-trade for Aldridge. Stein reiterates that the Knicks and Lakers plan to go after Aldridge as well. A. Sherrod Blakely of CSSNE.com named the Blazers power forward as one of many marquee free agents the Celtics are expected to pursue this summer.
Aldridge spoke of an “amazing” nine years in Portland and said he’s “not trying to have that end” in a season-ending media session Thursday. It nonetheless seems as if more executives around the league believe that the former No. 2 overall pick will leave Portland in free agency this summer than think he’ll re-sign as he pledged to do last summer, according to Stein. Aldridge, who turns 30 this summer, said “we’ll see” when ESPN’s Chris Broussard asked him recently if the Blazers remained the front-runners for him, Stein notes. Aldridge first seemed to hint at dissatisfaction when he reflected to Michael Lee of The Washington Post on a time when he felt the Blazers didn’t support him, and he told Lee that he wondered how easily the team could move on without him.
Some Blazers observers think Damian Lillard‘s growing stature on the team bothers Aldridge, according to Stein. Still, Lillard, who’s reportedly insisting on a max extension this summer, has said he believes Aldridge will be back. Some Blazers are worried that Aldridge will leave, as The Oregonian’s Jason Quick reported, and one of them told Quick a few weeks ago that he thought it was a 50-50 proposition whether the All-Star power forward would re-sign.
Draft Notes: Okafor, Harrison, Tokoto
Duke freshman center Jahlil Okafor has signed with agent Bill Duffy of BDA Sports Management, Darren Heitner of the Sports Agent Blog reports (Twitter link). Okafor, 19, is a projected top three pick in June’s draft. Both Chad Ford of ESPN.com (Insider subscription required) and Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress rank the big man as the No. 2 overall prospect behind Kentucky freshman Karl-Anthony Towns.
Here’s more news regarding June’s NBA Draft:
- Duffy has also signed on to represent Kansas freshman Kelly Oubre, Cameron Chung of the Sports Agent Blog reports. Oubre is the No. 12 overall prospect according to both Ford and Givony. You can check out our full prospect profile for Oubre here.
- Senior shooting guard D’Angelo Harrison has signed with agent Bernie Lee of Lee Basketball Services, Lee announced via Twitter. The 21-year-old out of St. John’s University isn’t projected to be taken in June, with ESPN.com (Insider subscription required) ranking him as the No. 104 overall prospect.
- Projected second-rounder J.P. Tokoto has signed with agent Steve McCaskill of Relativity Sports, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link). DraftExpress ranks the junior out of North Carolina as the No. 42 overall prospect, while ESPN.com slots him at No. 47.
- In a chat with readers, Ford shares his thoughts on whom the Wolves, Knicks, Lakers and Magic rank as their top five draft prospects.
Western Notes: Suns, Rondo, Asik
The Lakers are reportedly the favorites to land unrestricted free agent Rajon Rondo this summer, but the franchise isn’t as enamored with the mercurial point guard as it once was, Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report writes. According to team sources, co-owner Jim Buss is not the believer he was earlier in the season when it comes to Rondo, and GM Mitch Kupchak now sees the player as a worthwhile value only at a lower salary, Ding adds. Despite Kobe Bryant‘s apparent desire to play alongside Rondo, the team has no intention to sign the guard just because the Mamba wants the team to, Ding notes.
Here’s more out of the Western Conference:
- The Suns haven’t been successful drafting near the middle of the first round the last few seasons, Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic notes. Only two players out of the six taken by the team in the first round since 2008 are still with the franchise, which is not a great track record, Coro adds. Phoenix is projected to have the No. 13 pick in June’s draft according to our reverse standings.
- Pelicans coach Monty Williams values center Omer Asik, and considers him a player that the franchise intends to make a strong push to re-sign this summer despite his inconsistent play, John Reid of The Times Picayune relays. ”As far as Omer, he’s a huge part of what we do,” Williams said. ”If you look at our defensive numbers from last year to this year, we improved in a number of categories and Omer was a huge part of that. So he’s highly valued by this organization and that he’s an asset to this city.” Asik, 28, is set to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason. In addition to Asik, Williams indicated that he wanted all of his core players to return next season, Reid tweets.
- If the Trail Blazers were to lose unrestricted free agent LaMarcus Aldridge to another team this summer, the franchise would be just fine from a leadership standpoint thanks to the continued presence of Damian Lillard, Jason Quick of The Oregonian opines.
Western Notes: Brooks, Love, Parsons
Scott Brooks would still be the Thunder coach if Kevin Durant or Russell Westbrook had strongly objected to the decision to fire him, David Aldridge of NBA.com opines. While Durant and Westbrook were protective of Brooks, they accepted the decision by Oklahoma City’s management, Aldridge continues. The Thunder could not afford the risk of waiting to bring in a new coach after next season when Durant hits the free agent market, Aldridge concludes.
In other news around the Western Conference:
- Kevin Love‘s shoulder injury, which will keep him out of the Eastern Conference playoff semifinals, could have a major impact on his potential free agency and the Lakers’ offseason blueprint, Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report tweets. Love, who holds an approximate $16.7MM player option on his contract for next season, is at the forefront of the Lakers’ rebuilding plans, Ding adds.
- Chandler Parsons might need microfracture surgery on his right knee, which could keep him out of action at the start of next season, sources told Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com. That could play a role in the Mavericks’ offseason strategy, considering they signed Parsons last summer to be their starting small forward. Parsons will make approximately $15.36MM next season and holds an option of just over $16MM on the final year of his deal in 2016/17. It’s still possible Parsons would only require arthroscopic surgery on the knee, which has a shorter recovery period, MacMahon adds.
- The Warriors added more depth to their postseason roster by recalling center Ognjen Kuzmic and forward James Michael McAdoo from their D-League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors, according to the team’s website. Kuzmic and McAdoo helped Santa Cruz win the D-League championship over the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, as the duo combined for 31 points and 17 rebounds in the clinching 109-96 victory on Sunday night.
Latest On Kevin Love, Free Agency
5:05pm: Love will miss Cleveland’s second-round series because of his shoulder injury, the team says, according to Tom Withers of The Associated Press (Twitter link). It’s a left shoulder dislocation, as the team details.
8:58am: People around the Cavaliers and the rest of the league have been of the belief that Kevin Love wouldn’t hesitate to leave Cleveland, but the shoulder injury he suffered in Sunday’s game throws Love’s future into flux, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The Celtics had made up ground on the Lakers on Love’s list of preferred destinations, and while Boston was no certainty for Love, they had a better shot than many thought, Wojnarowski writes. However, the tangle with Kelly Olynyk in which Love was injured, a “bush-league play” as Love described it, left the All-Star with a “legitimate loathing” of the Celtics, as Wojnarowski put it. The Cavs expect Love to miss at least the next two weeks, as Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com reported earlier.
Love said in January that he planned to pick up his player option of more than $16.744MM for next season, even though there’s a strong chance he could earn more next year on a new maximum-salary deal. However, teams who’ve investigated the possibility of chasing Love are convinced he’ll “minimally explore” the free agent market this summer, according to Wojnarowski. Love was intrigued with the possibility of playing for the Celtics after visiting Boston last spring, and people who know Love and Celtics coach Brad Stevens believe the Celtics would have become the front-runners once Love took a meeting with the C’s, as Wojnarowski details.
The Yahoo! scribe suggests that the confrontation Kendrick Perkins had with Jae Crowder and the flagrant foul J.R. Smith delivered later on Crowder demonstrated that the Cavs were in Love’s corner and sought a measure of revenge for his injury. Still, none of the Cavs went quite as far as Love did in comments about the play in which Love was hurt, with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving probably going the farthest to support Love in saying that it wasn’t a basketball play, as Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal writes in his Final Thoughts column.
“I’ve seen a lot of tie-ups in my day and that tie-in was a little different,” James said. “We were very upset that it happened.”
The Celtics would probably need to convince Love that Olynyk’s move, in which he hooked Love’s arm as they chased a loose ball, wasn’t intended to hurt him, Wojnarowski surmises, having heard private suggestions from the Celtics that it happened in part because of Olynyk’s “uncoordinated,” “awkward” nature. Several Celtics went on the record with similar statements to Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald. Gerald Wallace said it’s simply how Olynyk has to play, and Evan Turner looked at Tyler Zeller and asked, “Tyler? Doesn’t he foul that way every day in practice?” Olynyk denies trying to injure Love, as Murphy also relays.
Pacific Notes: Clippers, Lakers, Lee
If the Clippers fail to advance in the playoffs, the team’s lack of depth will be the culprit, Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles opines. Markazi blames president of basketball operations Doc Rivers for signing Spencer Hawes with the full mid-level exception. Markazi believes signing Paul Pierce to give the team more depth on the wing would have been a better use of the franchise’s resources.
There’s more from the Pacific Division on a playoff Sunday:
- Rivers said he used the Spurs as his model when he came to the Clippers, Markazi writes in a separate story. He said he has tried to build a relationship with GM Dave Wohl similar to the one between San Antonio head coach and president of basketball operations Gregg Popovich and GM R.C. Buford. “Clearly you would love to build what they have,” Rivers said. “It means that you’re going to do it for a time. We have a long way to go, but that would be nice.”
- The presence of Julius Randle and Jordan Clarkson on the roster shouldn’t preclude the Lakers from selecting a point guard or power forward in this year’s draft, opines Chad Ford of ESPN.com (Insider subscription required). Ford recalls the Blazers passing on the chance to take Chris Paul and Deron Williams because the team thought it had a long-term piece in Sebastian Telfair. Ford believes the Lakers’ best option is to take the top player available rather than drafting for need, due to the lack of talent on the roster.
- The Warriors are hoping David Lee will be ready for the second round of the playoffs, writes Diamond Leung of The Bay Area News Group. Lee, who missed the entire first-round series against the Pelicans with a strained back, knows the Warriors will need all the front-line help they can get if they’re matched up with the rugged Grizzlies. “It’s a team that plays big and that we’re going to need every big on the roster ready to go, myself included,” he said.
Arthur Hill contributed to this post.
Pacific Notes: Rondo, Bledsoe, Warriors
The Warriors beat the Pelicans by a score of 109-98 on Saturday to sweep their first round series. Golden State is hitting on all cylinders and I chronicled the moves that GM Bob Myers made to put a championship contender on the floor in his Executive of the Year Candidate piece.
Here’s more from the Pacific Division:
- The Lakers might be the only team to offer Rajon Rondo a sizable contract, Tim Bontemps of the New York Post opines. Bomtemps speculates that the point guard will struggle to get a contract that exceeds $10MM to $12MM per year.
- The Suns are optimistic that Eric Bledsoe can be a cornerstone for the team, Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic writes. “The exciting thing for us about Eric is he’s still just starting to scratch the surface of his potential,” GM Ryan McDonough said. “Last year [2013/14], he started for half a season and you saw glimpses of it. I think there some questions externally, certainly not from us, but could he do it as a starter, could he do it over the course of an 82-game season? I think he certainly proved he could with the numbers he averaged.” The point guard averaged 17.0 points, 6.1 assists and 5.2 rebounds per game.
- Golden State has assigned James Michael McAdoo to its D-League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors, according to the team’s twitter feed. This will be the forward’s fourth stint in the D-League this season.
Spurs, Mavs Believe They Can Lure Aldridge
FRIDAY, 8:28am: Two executives told Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com last month that there was a belief among some around the league that Aldridge would consider the Knicks as well as the Spurs this summer.
2:03pm: All options are on the table for Aldridge this summer, including a departure from the Blazers, a source familiar with his free agency strategy told Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. The source also said to Berger that he wouldn’t be surprised if the All-Star signed with a Texas team.
THURSDAY, 8:59am: The Spurs and Mavs believe they can convince LaMarcus Aldridge to sign with them in free agency this summer, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links). Both teams are planning aggressive pursuits of the Blazers power forward, and the Knicks and Lakers will go after him, too, Stein also says. It’s the latest ominous news for Portland’s hopes of keeping the No. 4 player in our Free Agent Power Rankings, in spite of his insistence last summer and before the season that he intends to re-sign, and the Blazers have their “work cut out” for them if they’re to retain their star, as Stein puts it.
A Blazers teammate who spoke with The Oregonian’s Jason Quick earlier this month cast it as a 50-50 proposition that the Arn Tellem client would be back with the Blazers. Quick noted that Aldridge feels as though the franchise is behind him, but the veteran of nine NBA seasons, all of them in Portland, recently expounded to Michael Lee of The Washington Post on times when he didn’t sense that sort of support from the Blazers. The Blazers have been “very, very scared” that Aldridge will leave, as one rival executive said to Sean Deveney of The Sporting News in February, though that executive chalked the team’s feeling up to paranoia.
Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News first reported in November that Dallas planned to target the native of nearby Seagoville, Texas, while Grantland’s Zach Lowe has consistently heard chatter vaguely linking Aldridge to San Antonio. The big man praised Knicks president Phil Jackson and the city of New York and said that he thought he’d be a fit for the triangle upon prompting from New York media at the All-Star Game. There hasn’t been much connecting Aldridge to the Lakers, besides a report from Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders indicating that the prospect of the former No. 2 overall pick winding up in purple-and-gold was a long shot. Still, Aldridge makes sense for a Lakers team with plenty of cap flexibility and an ever-present desire to chase star free agents.
The same can be said for the Knicks, and the Mavs have max-level flexibility, too, though the team’s apparent willingness to move on from Rajon Rondo will help Dallas clear the cap space necessary to put a max offer in front of Aldridge. The Spurs have a more complicated path as long as Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili decide they want to return, but having decided against a lucrative extension for Kawhi Leonard this past fall gives the Spurs a chance to clear max cap room. His cap hold remains just slightly more than $7.235MM until San Antonio signs him to a new deal or matches an offer sheet for him.
Pacific Notes: Knight, Blue, Hudson
The Suns could face a situation with Brandon Knight that is similar to the one the team endured with Eric Bledsoe last summer in regards to re-signing the player, Sean Deveney of The Sporting News writes. The Suns and Bledsoe remained at an impasse for the bulk of last summer while the two sides haggled over the amount of the contract, and Bledsoe didn’t put pen to paper on his deal until the end of September. When Knight was in discussions with the Bucks regarding an extension last offseason, the player was requesting a deal in the range of $12MM per season, while Milwaukee held fast at $9MM per year, Deveney notes.
Knight only made 11 appearances for the Suns after being acquired at the trade deadline from Milwaukee thanks to a foot injury he suffered. The guard is set to become a restricted free agent this summer, provided Phoenix tenders him a qualifying offer of $4,790,680. If the two sides are unable to reach an agreement on a new deal this summer, Knight could simply ink the qualifying offer and play out the 2015/16 season. He would then hit free agency in the summer of 2016 when the salary cap is expected to increase significantly, Deveney adds.
Here’s more out of the Pacific Division:
- Lester Hudson‘s $1,015,421 salary for 2015/16 with the Clippers is non-guaranteed, but if the guard is still on the roster on July 15th his salary becomes fully guaranteed, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders relays (Twitter link).
- The Lakers paid Vander Blue a total of $14,408 for the three days he spent with the team after being inked to a pact that covered the remainder of the 2014/15 campaign, Pincus tweets. Blue can become a restricted free agent this summer if Los Angeles tenders him a qualifying offer worth $1,147,276.
- Jerel McNeal‘s minimum salary arrangement with the Suns for 2015/16 will become fully guaranteed if he is still on Phoenix’s roster past July 21st, Pincus adds (Twitter link).
Western Notes: Hill, Kanter, Warriors
During his exit interview with Jordan Hill, Lakers coach Byron Scott told the big man that he wasn’t happy with the consistency of his efforts this season, Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News relays. “He was disappointed he didn’t see that energy,” Hill said. “That’s something else I need to work on.” It’s unclear if the franchise will exercise its $9MM team option on Hill, Medina adds. The team is focusing on the draft and free agency before making decisions on its current roster, something that Hill understands, Medina notes. “It’s going to be a big offseason for the Lakers,” Hill said. “It’s up in the air right now. They don’t know what’s going to happen. I have to stay positive and hope everything will fall into place.”
Here’s more from the Western Conference:
- Enes Kanter has undergone arthroscopic surgery on his left knee, knocking him out of action for four-to-six weeks, Anthony Slater of The Oklahoman relays. The big man can become a restricted free agent this summer if the Thunder tender him a qualifying offer worth $7,471,412.
- The Warriors as a team are influenced by both former coach Mark Jackson and current coach Steve Kerr emotionally, but it is the emergence as Stephen Curry as a leader that has put the team over the top this season, Tim Kawakami of The Bay Area News Group writes.
- Clint Capela has unexpectedly stepped into the Rockets‘ playoff rotation and has risen to the challenge after being used sparingly all season, Jenny Dial Creech of The Houston Chronicle writes. “He’s a good kid,” coach Kevin McHale said. “He plays hard all the time. Nothing bothers him. Whether he had a really good last play or a really bad last play, he plays hard on the next play. That’s key. You do that, and you don’t drag all your baggage with you down the floor because you missed a shot or if you don’t defend.“