And-Ones: Knicks, Wolves, Draft
The Knicks won tonight but their playoff chances took a hit when the Hawks also were victorious, reducing their magic number to clinch a playoff spot to one. New York has had its share of issues this season, but the one that sunk the team the most was the trade for Andrea Bargnani, writes Marc Berman of The New York Post. Besides acquiring his large and difficult to trade contract, the team could have potentially used the 2016 first rounder they gave up for Bargnani in a deal for the Raptors Kyle Lowry, writes Berman.
More from around the league:
- The Timberwolves plan to trade for help this offseason, but according to owner Glen Taylor, it won’t be a “big trade”, tweets Charley Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
- The crew at Basketball Insiders take at look at what steps are needed to fix the Wolves.
- The NBA Players Association has formed a brand new search committee to ensure they have a new executive director in place by the start of the 2014/15 season, writes Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com.
- Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports believes that the 2014 freshman class might be better than this year’s highly touted group.
- The next international draft sensation from Switzerland could be Clint Capela, writes Spears. DraftExpress.com has Capela ranked as the 14th-best prospect in this year’s draft. He’s projected as a first-round prospect in the 20-30 range, but he could improve his standing at the Hoop Summit, opines Spears.
- Chad Ford of ESPN.com (Video) breaks down draft prospect Dante Exum.
- Xavier Henry‘s surgeries on his left wrist and right knee were successful the Lakers announced. Henry is a free agent after the season ends.
Western Rumors: Bazemore, Camby, Rockets
The loss the Warriors suffered to the Nuggets on Thursday puts them just two games up on the ninth-place Grizzlies, and the Jazz, who own Golden State’s first-round pick, will surely be rooting for the Warriors to lose in the season’s final days. Here’s more from the Western Conference:
- Kent Bazemore is set to become a restricted free agent at season’s end, and while his value appears to have surged since he joined the Lakers at the trade deadline, he’s not simply looking to cash in, as Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News observes. “I’m all about the basketball aspect of things. I don’t want much. I’m not a guy who’s going to chase money on a bad team. I want to win,” Bazemore said. “This is the Los Angeles Lakers. I don’t see many people turning down an opportunity to be here.”
- The Rockets gauged Marcus Camby‘s interest in rejoining the team several weeks ago, only to learn that he would be unavailable to return to the NBA this year as he tries to come back from a left foot injury, reports Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle.
- Rockets GM Daryl Morey confirmed that the conclusion that Greg Smith will miss the rest of the season led the team to waive him and sign Dexter Pittman, as Feigen passes along in the same piece.
- The Rudy Gay trade muted the effect of Sacramento’s acquisition of Derrick Williams, who’s seen his playing time continue to decline of late, notes Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee. Kings coach Michael Malone wants to give Williams more minutes, but his lack of consistency dissuades him from doing so, Jones writes.
And-Ones: Blake, Pacers, Bargnani
Shortly after Steve Blake was dealt to the Warriors in February, we noted that the veteran point guard wouldn’t rule out a return to the Lakers this summer. Though Blake declined to follow up on those comments earlier today, there’s no denying that he still misses Los Angeles: “It’s one of the best places to live in the country,” he said. “Of course you miss that. Mostly I miss just being with my wife and kids. I’m a family man who wants to be home with them (Mike Bresnahan and Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times).
Here are a few more noteworthy links to pass along tonight:
- The Pacers have reached an agreement worth $160MM to extend their stay at the Banker’s Life Fieldhouse in Indiana for another 10 years, writes Tony Cook of USA Today (first reported by the Associated Press). The city’s Capital Improvement Board is expected to vote on the deal this upcoming Monday.
- Andrea Bargnani‘s lackluster and injury-filled year has been a big reason for the Knicks’ struggles in 2013/14, says Marc Berman of the New York Post. Berman says that it’ll now be up to team president Phil Jackson to either arrange a buyout for the former number one pick or trade his $10MM expiring contract for next season.
- Dexter Pittman, who played high school and college basketball in Texas, tells Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston about how delighted he is to be part of the Rockets: “I always dreamed about playing back home. I’m in shock right now…”I played with LeBron James…I played with Kevin Durant. I (won) an an NBA Championship, but there’s nothing better than coming to Houston and playing with the best center in the game and playing with one of the best all-time great big men to ever play the game, Kevin McHale. and being in the shadow of Hakeem Olajuwon…Everybody’s dream that played basketball in Houston was to be a Rocket.”
- Kevin Pelton, Amin Elhassan, and Chad Ford of ESPN take an in-depth look at NBA prospect Nik Stauskas (Insiders only). Though ESPN initially reported that Stauskas had already decided to declare for the draft, the Michigan guard recently took to Twitter to deny the report himself.
Western Notes: Warriors, Young, Lakers
Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob told reporters that he, coach Mark Jackson and GM Bob Myers all get along, refuting reported dysfunction within the team, as Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group transcribes. Lacob referred to the re-assignment of assistant coach Brian Scalabrine and the firing of fellow assistant Darren Erman as “minor setbacks.” A little over a week ago, Myers gave Jackson a public vote of support, saying that he’s done a tremendous job; however, we’ve also relayed the belief from some writers who think that Jackson’s future in Golden State could be tied to how the team fares in this year’s postseason.
Here are a few other notes to pass along out of the Western Conference this evening:
- Lakers swingman Nick Young is “very confident” that he’ll reach an agreement to remain with the team beyond this summer, reports Mark Medina of the L.A. Daily News. This isn’t the first time that the Los Angeles native has gone on record saying he’d like to stay, but he also hinted that it could be difficult to pass up a hefty pay raise somewhere else if the opportunity presented itself.
- Some members of Lakers brass are high on the idea of bringing in a young, up-and-coming head coach who wouldn’t command too much money, making him cheap to get rid of if he doesn’t pan out, according to Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding.
- In addition to making the argument that Dirk Nowitzki ranks among one of the NBA’s 12 greatest players, Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle thinks that Dirk – currently the 10th highest scorer in NBA history – has plenty left in the tank to surpass a few more names on that list: “He’s got a lot more good basketball left in him…A lot more great basketball. So I think he’s going to pick off a few more guys going up the ladder” (ESPN’s Marc Stein reports).
- The Kings have assigned Willie Reed to their D-League affiliate in Reno, according to GM Pete D’Alessandro.
- Former Spurs training camp invitee Courtney Fells has signed a deal with Bucaneiros de la Guaira in Venezuela, reports Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. Fells played in 47 games for the Spurs’ D-League affiliate in 2013/14, averaging 20.5 PPG, 6.1 RPG, and 40.4 MPG.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Lakers Rumors: D’Antoni, Kupchak, Jeanie Buss
Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak has as much job security as anyone with a fresh extension in hand, but the same can’t be said for coach Mike D’Antoni. We have more on both members of the Lakers braintrust, as we detail:
- Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com hears the Lakers aren’t leaning toward keeping D’Antoni for next season (video link), which conflicts with last week’s dispatch from Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report. If anything, the Lakers are leaning toward firing him, McMenamin says, but Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News seconds Ding’s original report, tweeting that the Lakers are indeed leaning toward keeping their coach.
- D’Antoni “probably” won’t be around next season, writes Sam Amick of USA Today, adding that the coach nonetheless has Kupchak’s respect.
- Late Lakers owner Jerry Buss had Byron Scott on a shortlist of coaching candidates, Amick notes in the same piece, though it’s unclear if the Buss family would want to pursue him.
- D’Antoni is weary from a losing season and heaps of criticism, but he still wants to coach the Lakers, as Amick observes. “Hey look, this is a great place,” D’Antoni said. “Any player who has a destination of L.A. — it’s pretty good. I’ve been lucky to be here. I don’t want to say, ‘Oh yeah [I’ll be back],’ but I don’t know. And I’m sure that everybody is going to have to sit down and figure it out. I think the franchise will have a way that they want to get to the best, to the top, and you go with it. And if I’m included in that, great. That’s how it goes.”
- Part of the reason the Lakers extended Kupchak is so he wouldn’t enter next season on an expiring contract, Medina tweets.
- This season “isn’t how we roll,” Lakers owner Jeanie Buss tells Patt Morrison of the Los Angeles Times, but Buss nonetheless sees bright spots and is optimistic the team is on the right path for the future. Buss also touches on fiancee and Knicks president Phil Jackson and her working relationship with brother and co-owner Jim Buss.
Kupchak On Kobe, D’Antoni, Jackson, Future
A GM usually isn’t on solid footing near the end of his team’s third straight season with a record worse than the year before. Mitch Kupchak breaks the mold, having just signed an extension that will keep him under contract with the Lakers for at least three more seasons. Kupchak isn’t the only one who makes basketball decisions for the team, with co-owner and executive vice president Jim Buss having final authority in that realm. Kobe Bryant, who signed his own extension through 2015/16 this past autumn, has seemed to have plenty of influence, and while the superstar reportedly wants to see the team make a coaching change, it doesn’t appear as though Kupchak is listening. The GM spoke to Sam Amick of USA Today shortly after the team announced the extension, and we’ll share a few highlights of Amick’s must-read piece for Lakers fans here:
On Bryant and his frustration with the team’s approach:
He had that one outburst, but I think he got caught up in all the sensation of the moment — is Phil [Jackson] going to stay or is he going to go? He wants the same thing we want, which is to win as much as possible as soon as possible. I meet with him. [It’s] not on a regular basis, but in the last two or three months we have met several times, and he gets it.
On whether Bryant will have input on the decision whether to retain Mike D’Antoni:
We won’t consult with him. Our decisions going forward — we’re not going to do knee-jerk stuff. We’ll let the season end, and take some time. We’ve got a lot of injuries and surgeries to sort through. That’s a lot to accomplish.
On whether the team has made its decision on D’Antoni, and the summer ahead:
No. No. In fact, I told Jimmy [Buss] let’s get to the end season, take some time off … then review the season. Look at our roster. I mean we have a plan. We’ve aligned our contracts in such a way where we’re at a position where we’re not financially stuck. But there’s a lot we don’t know. We don’t know where we’re going to get our pick. Are we going to be sixth, are we going to be eighth, are we going to be two or three? We don’t know. We know who may be a free agent, but we don’t know for sure until June 30.
On internal discussions about bringing Phil Jackson back to the Lakers:
Well I don’t know when the most recent one was. We discussed a year or two ago about how could we — and this was Jimmy and I and I know he may have discussed it with his family — and it was open for discussion. And it was kind of a standing understanding, but I think Jeanie [Buss] said it best two weeks ago. At the end of the day, there was no position for a person of his stature.
On rebuilding the Lakers:
Our goal is not to go 41-41. That’s not our goal. Our goal is to be considerably better than that. And maybe we can do it in a year, or maybe it takes two or three years, OK? Any of those scenarios would be wonderful scenarios. I mean there have been teams — seven or eight teams in the NBA who have never even been to the Finals of the NBA and they’ve been around 30 or 40 years.
Lakers Sign GM Mitch Kupchak To Extension
The Lakers have extended their contract with GM Mitch Kupchak, tweets Mike Trudell of Lakers.com, confirming a report from Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com. Kupchak’s contract was set to expire after 2014/15, but it’s a multiyear extension, according to Shelburne, which indicates that it will run through at least 2016/17. The terms and the precise length of the extension are unclear, though Shelburne notes that Kupchak has long been one of the highest-paid executives in the NBA (Twitter link).
The timing of the deal is odd, considering the Lakers have clinched their worst record since moving to Los Angeles, and they come off a summer in which Dwight Howard left the Lakers to sign with the Rockets in a rare case of a superstar spurning the purple-and-gold. That the Lakers made the move now shows the regard the Buss family, which owns the Lakers, has for Kupchak, and it’s essentially a vote of confidence in him, Shelburne writes. Kupchak first joined the Lakers front office in 1986 after spending the last five years of his playing career with the team.
Kupchak, one of the NBA’s longest-tenured GMs, has held his current job since the summer of 2000. That was the same offseason that Joe Dumars took over the Pistons front office, and a report Tuesday indicated that Dumars plans to resign soon. The Lakers have won four championships on Kupchak’s watch. Kupchak works in tandem with co-owner and executive vice president of player personnel Jim Buss, who has authority over the team’s basketball decisions.
Western Notes: Deng, Lee, Gordon
Ryan Anderson underwent successful surgery today to repair his herniated disc per a Pelicans team announcement. Anderson sustained the injury in a scary collision in early January, and it cost him the remainder of his season. The hoops world is hoping for a full recovery for one of the game’s best stretch forwards. Here’s more from the Western Conference:
- Pelicans coach Monty Williams doubts that Eric Gordon will play again this season, he tells Jim Eichenhofer of Pelicans.com. Gordon’s ongoing health issues have made his contract one of the least movable deals in the league, with over $30MM left in salary over two years beyond this season, assuming the shooting guard picks up his player option in the final year.
- John Zitzler of Basketball Insiders takes a look at what it will take to fix the Pelicans next year, including questions surrounding Gordon and teammate Tyreke Evans.
- Concerns are growing around the Warriors that power forward David Lee will miss the remainder of the season, or even some or all of the playoffs, per Carl Stewart of The San Jose Mercury News. Draymond Green, Lee’s replacement in Golden State’s rotation, tells Stewart he’s embracing filling the void, however long it lasts. “I am trying to bring more of what I do at a higher rate and for a longer period of time,” says Green.
- The Lakers have Luol Deng on their radar as a potential free agent target this summer, Sam Amick of USA Today says in a video. Deng, who reportedly doesn’t have much interest in returning to the Cavs, has been linked to the Lakers before.
- Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News thinks the Mavs also have their eye on Deng.
Coaching Rumors: Knicks, Calipari, Ollie
The Knicks reached out in January through a third party to canvass John Calipari‘s interest in coaching the team next season, a source tells Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com. The Kentucky coach was intrigued with the idea of working with fellow Creative Artists Agency client Carmelo Anthony, Begley adds, but the talks never proceeded from there. It’s “highly unlikely” a well-known coach like Calipari would take the job since, with Phil Jackson around, the team’s next coach won’t have any control over player personnel, Begley writes. There’s more insight on Calipari and another college coach perhaps more likely to come to the NBA, and we’ll round it up here:
- Most NBA front office types see Calipari as a fine college coach, but they have their doubts about whether he’d perform well in the NBA, tweets Chris Mannix of SI.com. Calipari went 72-112 in parts of three seasons with the Nets in the late 1990s.
- Multiple NBA executives tell Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com, who writes in an Insider-only piece, that they expect Connecticut’s Kevin Ollie to become an NBA head coaching candidate. One exec suggests that the coach’s ties to former teammate Kevin Durant could prompt an NBA team to make a lucrative offer to bring Ollie to the pro sidelines.
- Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni downplayed the notion that he and Marshall University, his alma mater, have mutual interest in him coaching the school’s team next season, as he tells Sam Amick of USA Today. “I love Marshall, and I’ve been so close to them for a long time – especially with the new [athletic director] and the new president, and people there,” D’Antoni said. “It’s a great thing. But my heart is here, and my head is here [with the Lakers]. This is what I know, so I don’t want to get distracted with that. I never have been. It always comes up when they’re looking, but they’re looking and I’m fine.”
Kent Bazemore Out For Season
The Lakers announced that guard Kent Bazemore will be out for the remainder of the season after injuring his right foot against the Clippers yesterday. Bazemore’s MRI showed a torn peroneus longus tendon and he’ll undergo surgery to remedy the issue.
The injury doesn’t mean much right now for the Lakers, who are lottery bound and have just five games remaining in the season. However, depending on the severity of the injury, it could have an impact on Bazemore. The guard will be a free agent this offseason and after earning a modest $762K in 2013/14, he’ll be looking for a pay bump on his next contract.
Bazemore saw just over six minutes per game with the Warriors in the first half of the season but he’s gotten more burn with the Lakers since coming over in the Steve Blake deal. In 28 minutes per contest for the banged-up Lakers, the 24-year-old has averaged 13.1 PPG and 3.1 APG.