Miami Heat Rumors | Hoops Rumors

D-League Notes: Dukan, Stokes, Motiejunas

February 4th, 2016 at 10:28pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The NBA’s relationship with the D-League continues to grow, and this season a total of 19 NBA teams possess one-to-one affiliations with D-League clubs. Those 11 NBA teams without their own D-League squads this season have to assign players to D-League clubs affiliated with other NBA franchises. We at Hoops Rumors track all the NBA D-League assignments made during the course of the season and you can view the complete tracker, which is updated regularly, here.

Here are the D-League happenings for today:

The Kings have assigned power forward Duje Dukan to their D-League affiliate, the team announced. This will be Dukan’s fifth trip to Reno on the season. The rookie is recovering from a bone contusion in his leg and will continue his rehab with the Bighorns.
Power forward Jarnell Stokes has been assigned to the Sioux Falls Skyforce, Miami’s D-League affiliate, the Heat announced. Stokes has averaged 20.4 points, 9.6 rebounds, 1.1 steals and 1.0 assist in 30.0 minutes of action per night over his previous four D-League stints.
The Jazz assigned center Tibor Pleiss to their D-League affiliate, the team announced via press release. This will be Pleiss’ third trek to Idaho on the campaign.
The Rockets have recalled Donatas Motiejunas from the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, their D-League affiliate, the team announced.

Southeast Notes: Stoudemire, Magic, Hardaway Jr.

February 4th, 2016 at 8:32pm CST by Eddie Scarito

After appearing in just four of the Hawks‘ first 35 contests this season, Tim Hardaway Jr. is now a regular in Mike Budenholzer‘s rotation, a development that coincides with the swingman’s improvement defensively, Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes. “I keep saying how happy we are with his defense,” Budenholzer said of Hardaway. “I think he’s really improved and really committed to that end of the court, whether it be fighting through screens in pick-and-roll situations, fighting through screens in off-the-ball situations, sprinting back in transition. There is a focus, an effort, on the defensive end.”

“I think people don’t appreciate his athleticism,” the coach continued. “And so you are seeing it on the defensive end of the court and now you are seeing it on the offensive end of the court. That is the thing that we’ve learned and grown the most together, I think he can really attack the basket, do things off the dribble, get to the paint and I think he’s passing it pretty well too. Obviously he can make shots, but he’s got a lot more to offer. He’s just doing all of those things in positive ways.”

Here’s more from the Southeast Division:

Offseason signee Amar’e Stoudemire delivered strong performances during Hassan Whiteside‘s recent absence, and Heat coach Erik Spoelstra admits he has to stop himself from turning to the 33-year-old more often so that his oft-injured body stays intact, as Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press examines. Stoudemire, who is again poised to hit free agency this summer, played in only three games through Christmas Day but has seen much more extensive action since.
The Magic lack outside shooting, though the team’s brass believes it’s a problem that will improve over time as the young players on the roster improve, writes Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel in a piece that examines the Magic’s assets and needs as the trade deadline approaches.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Tyler Johnson To Miss At Least Two Months

February 3rd, 2016 at 4:03pm CST by Chuck Myron

WEDNESDAY, 4:03pm: Johnson underwent successful surgery today, the team announced. No timetable was relayed regarding the point guard’s return to action.

MONDAY, 12:41pm: Heat combo guard Tyler Johnson will miss upward of two months after having left shoulder surgery later this week, league sources told Shams Charania of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). The operation on Johnson’s rotator cuff will take place Wednesday, the team announced. A formal recovery timetable will be determined after the procedure, Charania adds (on Twitter), though Johnson said he’s been told it will take him 60 days to heal, according to Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel (Twitter link). That would bring him back with roughly two weeks to go in the regular season.

The 23-year-old said recently that he wasn’t planning surgery on the bothersome shoulder, which has been an issue for years and has restricted his movement, nonetheless adding that he expected to converse with doctors about the prospect of going under the knife, notes Aric Dilalla of the Miami Herald. Johnson has been out for the past two games, but the ailment dates to his time in college at Fresno State, writes Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post.

Johnson’s role in the rotation has increased this year, and he took on backup point guard duties after the Heat traded Mario Chalmers to the Grizzlies in early November. Miami signed Johnson to a multiyear deal last season after he ran through a pair of 10-day contracts, and that minimum-salary contract runs out at the end of June, when he’ll be set for restricted free agency.

Beno Udrih, whom the Heat acquired in the Chalmers trade, figures to see the bulk of the action backing up Goran Dragic in Johnson’s stead, making it more difficult for the Heat to unload Udrih and his salary of more than $2.17MM in a tax-dodging maneuver. Miami faces repeat-offender tax penalties if it doesn’t trim roughly $5.5MM from its payroll to slip beneath the $84.74MM tax threshold by the last day of the regular season. The Heat aren’t eligible to apply for either a disabled player cap exception or the hardship provision of a 16th roster spot.

And-Ones: Gallinari, Barnes, Johnson

February 2nd, 2016 at 10:27pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Warriors small forward Harrison Barnes has heard the rumors regarding Golden State being the favorites to land Kevin Durant if he were to depart the Thunder as a free agent this summer, but he isn’t fazed by the rumblings, Rusty Simmons of The San Francisco Chronicle writes. “Oh man, that’s part of the business,” Barnes said. “He’s a great player. If that’s the move they want to make, you know, hopefully, it works out. It’s always something, right?” The first summer, it was Dwight Howard. The next summer, it was Kevin Love. Every single year, there’s always been somebody who the Warriors wanted or somebody who wanted to come here. That’s part of the business. That stuff happens. If it happens, great. If it doesn’t, great. At the end of the day, I’ll still get the chance to be in the NBA and still get to play.”

Here’s the latest from around the league:

Danilo Gallinari became eligible for a trade today, six months after he signed his renegotiation-and-extension with the Nuggets, as Bobby Marks of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports notes (Twitter link). Players who sign extensions that exceed the limits placed on extend-and-trade transactions can’t be traded for six months, and Gallinari fell into that category.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra praised injured point guard Tyler Johnson for his toughness, and indicated that the team had explored numerous alternatives to surgery for the young player, Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel writes. “He took it as far as a human being could possibly take it,” Spoelstra said. “And he’s been dealing with his shoulder for a long time, even since college. But last year, this summer, we’ve tried every solution other than surgery. We pushed everything as far as you possibly could. His level of toughness and commitment was to do everything done to this point, but the human body can only go so far. So it was just no other course of action once it got to this point.” Johnson, set for restricted free agency at season’s end, is expected to miss at least two months of action after undergoing surgery this week.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Heat Eye Joe Johnson For Post-Buyout Market

February 2nd, 2016 at 2:04pm CST by Chuck Myron

Joe Johnson would stir the interest of the Heat if he buys his way off the Nets, Ethan Skolnick of the Miami Herald hears (Twitter link). Johnson said today that he doesn’t know whether he’ll negotiate a buyout but didn’t rule out the idea and added that he’ll have a talk with agent Jeff Schwartz in the next week, as the swingman told reporters, including Andy Vasquez of The Record. The 34-year-old Johnson is making close to $24.895MM, a difficult salary to fit in a trade, and it doesn’t appear as though the Heat see him as a trade target.

The Heat are without combo guard Tyler Johnson, who’s scheduled to undergo rotator cuff surgery this week, for at least two months, and they don’t have an open roster spot to make an addition. Miami could always waive a player and risk eating his salary, but that would be a risky proposition financially. The Heat are faced with either clearing about $5.5MM in salary, likely via trade, or paying repeat-offender luxury tax penalties at season’s end.

Midseason signees usually end up with the prorated minimum salary, though particularly attractive buyout candidates sometimes command more. The Heat have about $2.85MM on their taxpayer’s mid-level exception to spend, but doing so would impose a further financial burden. Johnson is averaging 11.3 points per game, his fewest since the 2002/03 season, and shooting a career-worst 39% from the field, but he put up 13.5 points a night and shot 48.5% in January. Johnson has said multiple times this season that he’ll prioritize finding a winning team when he next hits free agency, and the Heat, at No. 3 in the Eastern Conference, would seemingly fit that bill.

Would Johnson help the Heat? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.

Kevin Durant Fond Of Warriors; Clippers Loom

February 2nd, 2016 at 12:49pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Warriors would be “significant” front-runners for Kevin Durant should he leave the Thunder this summer, league sources told Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports, who places emphasis on the word “significant.” Still, the former MVP isn’t leaning one way or another toward staying or leaving Oklahoma City, Wojnarowski adds. The Wizards, Rockets and Heat still loom as likely suitors, but the Clippers are determined to make a push for him and wouldn’t hesitate to trade Blake Griffin to facilitate the acquisition of Durant, as Wojnarowski details.

Durant wants to win titles and create a legacy, Wojnarowski writes, and the Warriors, the defending champions who sit at 44-4 this season, would give him a strong chance to do so. Draymond Green is on board with the move and is expected to recruit Durant this summer, though Stephen Curry, given his talent and personality, would be the most persuasive voice, Wojnarowski adds, nonetheless leaving it unclear whether Curry is expected to go as hard after Durant as Green is.

Golden State has long eyed Durant’s upcoming free agency, Wojnarowski notes, and so has much of the rest of the NBA, of course. The Warriors nonetheless have a reputation for aiming high, and Harrison Barnes, set for restricted free agency at season’s end, looms as a sign-and-trade chip, as Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group has pointed out.

The Warriors have close to $75MM committed for next season against a salary cap that’s projected to come in at $89MM, and with Durant’s maximum salary projected at $24.9MM, that creates a financial road block. However, Wojnarowski’s Vertical colleague Bobby Marks lays out a hypothetical scenario in which the Warriors trade Andre Iguodala, waive and stretch Andrew Bogut, waive and stretch Jason Thompson, renounce their rights to and elect against a qualifying offer for Barnes and renounce other cap holds to create enough cap room to sign Durant outright.

The Clippers, with close to $78MM in guaranteed salary for next season, would need to perform similar cap gymnastics to open the space necessary to sign Durant, making the sign-and-trade a more viable option. The Thunder wouldn’t go for a sign-and-trade unless they knew Durant was leaving, according to Wojnarowski, who nonetheless points out that Griffin, who starred for the University of Oklahoma, is an Oklahoma native. Teams are already calling the Clippers to inquire about trading for the injured Griffin, but coach/executive Doc Rivers appears set on keeping him and seeing how the team performs in the postseason, Wojnarowski writes.

Heat Spoke With Agent For John Lucas III

February 1st, 2016 at 1:41pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Heat spoke with the agent for point guard John Lucas III during a recent stretch when two of their existing point guards were injured, reports Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel. It’s nonetheless unclear if Miami still has interest in the client of Bernie Lee after today’s news that Tyler Johnson is likely to miss at least two months. Johnson and fellow Heat point guards Goran Dragic and Beno Udrih all missed games in January for the Heat, who came close to having enough players who were expected to miss enough time to qualify for a 16th roster spot via hardship. The team doesn’t currently meet the hardship criteria, so signing Lucas or any other player would require the Heat, who have a full 15-man roster, to unload someone else.

That would be a difficult proposition, since all salaries are guaranteed at this point in the season and the Heat face repeat-offender tax penalties if they can’t decrease their payroll by about $5.5MM by the final day of the regular season. Rookie shooting guard Josh Richardson has the cheapest salary on the Heat, at the rookie minimum of $525,093, but he’s liable to see more playing time with Johnson out.

Lucas, 33, was with the Heat for the preseason, and coach Erik Spoelstra said it was a tough decision to release him before opening night, even though his contract was non-guaranteed. Sixers coach Brett Brown said in December that he spoke with the eight-year veteran, and last month Lucas joined the D-League affiliate of the Pacers. He’s averaged 20.0 points, 5.0 assists and 2.2 turnovers in 37.4 minutes per game across five D-League appearances so far.

The Heat recently made a due diligence check-in with free agent combo guard Tony Wroten, as Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reported. They did the same with combo forward Dorell Wright, Jackson added.

Southeast Notes: Frye, Skiles, Pargo, Whiteside

February 1st, 2016 at 10:29am CST by Chuck Myron

The Magic have fielded multiple inquiries on Channing Frye, league sources tell Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. Interest in the 32-year-old big man is high, an executive from a rival team told Deveney, adding that it looks like Orlando is moving on from him. The 11th-year veteran, who’s making $8.193MM this season, is averaging 17.5 minutes per game, his fewest since the 2008/09 season, save for 2012/13, which he missed entirely due to a heart condition. Coach Scott Skiles recently removed him from the starting lineup, and Frye didn’t appear in Sunday’s win over the Celtics. Sources told Zach Lowe of ESPN.com before the season that Frye, whose contract runs through 2017/18, was available for little in return, but Magic officials denied that. See more on the Magic and other teams from the Southeast Division:

Skiles admitted that he wasn’t effectively conveying his messages to Magic players as they struggled through 12 losses in 13 games before Sunday’s win, observes Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. “This is my responsibility,” Skiles said before the game Sunday. “I’ve got to get these guys to understand what it takes to consistently win in the NBA, and I haven’t gotten that done in the last five weeks. For whatever reason, it hasn’t happened. So I’ve got to find a way to get that done.”
Former Hornets point guard Jannero Pargo has signed to play in the D-League, reports Chris Reichert of Upside & Motor (Twitter link). Pargo has been out of the NBA since Charlotte released him nearly a year ago, midway through his 12th season in the league, while he dealt with a back injury. The 36-year-old has never played in the D-League before, so he’ll go through D-League waivers before landing with a team.
The success of the Heat and backup big man Amar’e Stoudemire during the recent absence of Hassan Whiteside raises further questions about whether the soon-to-be free agent Whiteside is a truly a fit for Miami, argues Dave Hyde of the Sun Sentinel.

Southeast Notes: Porzingis, Wade, Wizards, Magic

January 29th, 2016 at 11:12am CST by Chuck Myron

The Magic were determined to land Kristaps Porzingis in the 2014 draft and GM Rob Hennigan promised to take him with the No. 10 pick if he stayed in the draft that year, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. Instead, he withdrew, and as he prepared for the 2015 draft, the Magic realized he wouldn’t slip past fourth, even though the Knicks had talks about swapping the No. 4 pick for a wing player and another first-rounder up until the day of the draft, Wojnarowski adds.

“Rob had a thorough, comprehensive plan,” Miller said to Wojnarowski. “He had invested as much, or more time, into Kristaps as anyone in the league. He really studied him. They had a plan for supplemental training, development. It wasn’t just, ‘Let’s just draft him and see what happens.’ This was a plan. Kristaps knew the plan and just wasn’t ready.”

Porzingis would have had the Magic’s blessing to remain overseas for a year had they drafted him in 2014, but as the 2015 draft approached, Porzingis’ camp wanted him to end up with the Knicks, as the Yahoo scribe details. Agent Andy Miller withheld him from working out or taking a physical for the Sixers, who had pick No. 3, Wojnarowski notes. The Magic wound up drafting Mario Hezonja with the fifth pick. See more from the Southeast Division.

Pat Riley said LeBron James never asked him to fire Erik Spoelstra, as previously rumored, as Ethan Skolnick of the Miami Herald relays, rounding up comments the Heat team president made Thursday. Riley also said he’s proud of Dwyane Wade for “how he has come back and changed the narrative about himself and worked on his body,” Skolnick notes. Wade hits free agency again this summer.
A third straight loss that dropped the Wizards to 20-24 prompted a players-only meeting Thursday, as J. Michael of CSNMidAtlantic details. Jared Dudley, referring to himself as the spokesperson for the team, implicated the coaching staff in his comments following the meeting, as well as a return to a lineup featuring both Marcin Gortat and soon-to-be free agent Nene, who’s been marginalized most of this season. “The flow has been terrible for us these last couple games. That’s something that players and coaches have to do a better job,” Dudley said. “At times it’s good to play Nene and Gortat together. … What team are we trying to be here? We can’t keep coming into this locker room talking about inconsistency because April 15 [when the regular season ends] we’ll all be back at the crib.”
Hennigan last week cited the youthfulness of the Magic roster for the team’s struggles of late, but the team’s players said before the season that wouldn’t be an excuse, observes Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel. The Magic, tied with the Wizards at 20-24, have evoked memories of last season’s 25-57 disappointment as they’ve lost 11 of their last 12 games, and it indicates little progress under new coach Scott Skiles, who faces a challenge to turn the season around, Schmitz writes.

Eastern Notes: Stoudemire, Horford, James

January 28th, 2016 at 9:30pm CST by Eddie Scarito

New Cavs coach Tyronn Lue has publicly criticized Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving for “worrying too much about their brand,” something that LeBron James says isn’t an issue for himself, Chris Haynes of The Northeast Ohio Media Group writes. “All I wanted to do is win,” James told Haynes. “I do whatever it takes to win. I sacrifice whatever to win. When you’re younger, you don’t quite know how to do it at this level, but I did experience [winning] at the high school level. It don’t matter what level you are, if you’re able to win and win a championship, or win a national championship or a state championship, you have to make sacrifices. I knew I was a winner at heart and I knew I would put the work in to be a winner. I’m always the guy that understood that there’s no better recipe for your brand or your stature than winning. There’s nothing else better than that. There’s no other way to propel that to the highest level, than winning. So, that’s always been my mindset.”

Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:

Heat power forward Amar’e Stoudemire believes he still has some basketball left in the tank and isn’t currently contemplating retiring at the end of this season, Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post relays. He wants to play two or three more seasons, Lieser adds (on Twitter). “I’ve still got it,” Stoudemire said. “I’m not too far removed from doing that. It’s just a matter of finding a nice balance where I can stay consistent. My body’s been feeling great and strong. I feel healthy, my passion is there. If that continues, I’m just gonna feel better and better and I’m gonna play better and better. There’s a lot more left in me. No question.” The 33-year-old is averaging 4.4 points and 3.2 rebounds in 12.5 minutes over his 18 appearances this season.
The Hawks shouldn’t trade either Al Horford or Jeff Teague this season, Mark Bradley of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution opines. Dennis Schröder isn’t ready to take the reigns as a full-time starter yet, and Horford fits the team’s system extremely well as a big man, Bradley writes. The scribe also adds that if the Cavaliers falter, Atlanta could be the beneficiary come playoff time, which would make dealing away one or both of the pair a riskier move than normal.