Minnesota Timberwolves Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Extension Rumors: Butler, Rubio, Thompson

October 31st, 2014 at 11:54am CST by Chuck Myron

The 11:00pm Central deadline for rookie-scale extensions is only about half a day away, and there’s sure to be action in the hours ahead as decisions loom for the remaining eligible players. Here’s the latest as of this morning:

The Bulls and Butler were apart by $2.5MM in average annual value as they talked Thursday, Johnson reports. Butler’s camp doesn’t see a deal happening before the deadline, according to USA Today’s Sam Amick (on Twitter), which isn’t surprising considering the gap.
The Wolves are willing to sign Rubio to a four-year extension worth $52MM, and the team would perhaps be on board with going up to $54MM, according to Wolfson (Twitter link). Agent Dan Fegan has reportedly been seeking the maximum salary for his client, which would likely entail at least $66MM over four years, but Rubio would take $58MM, Wolfson says.
There’s “plenty of pessimism” surrounding the talks between Tristan Thompson and the Cavs as a gap remains in their proposals, reports Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com (via Twitter).

Earlier updates:

Ricky Rubio is more likely than not to sign an extension with the Wolves as advanced negotiations have taken place between the sides over the past few weeks, sources tell Marc Stein of ESPN.com. That echoes an earlier report from Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities, who heard from people outside the organization who believed Rubio and the team would ultimately settle on a four-year, $52MM deal.
Agent Brian Elfus has been in San Antonio negotiating with the Spurs this week, as Stein writes in the same piece, but Kawhi Leonard is nonetheless unlikely to sign an extension, Stein says, seconding a report from ESPN colleague Chris Broussard. Stein hears the Spurs prefer to take Leonard to restricted free agency next summer to maintain maximum financial flexibility. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports wrote earlier this week that the Spurs were reluctant to give Leonard the maximum salary he’s seeking.
Talks are continuing between the Warriors and Klay Thompson and the Cavs and Tristan Thompson, Stein reports.
Brandon Knight and Norris Cole appear unlikely to receive extensions, according to Stein, though talks are still going on between the Bucks and Knight’s agent, Arn Tellem, a source tells Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Stein seconds earlier reports indicating that Jimmy Butler, Reggie Jackson and Iman Shumpert also seem unlikely to sign extensions.
The Bulls are going to have to increase their offer to Butler to entice him to sign, tweets K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. It’s unclear what the Bulls have on the table, but as of a week ago the sides were “millions apart,” as Johnson wrote then.

And-Ones: Nets, Kidd, Gray, Gomes

October 28th, 2014 at 10:55pm CST by Zachary Links

A year after the blockbuster trade that sent Kevin Garnett, Jason Terry, and Paul Pierce to the Nets, the deal doesn’t look so good for Brooklyn, writes Tim Bontemps of the New York Post. Bontemps points out many of the key players in that deal are no longer on the team. Pierce left the team this offseason to sign with Wizards, while Terry was traded during the middle of last season for Marcus Thornton. More from around basketball..

If he’ll sign one, Wolves guard Ricky Rubio will top the four-year, $48MM extension that Kemba Walker agreed to earlier today, Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN tweets.
Jason Kidd admits it’s a completely different situation coaching the young, inexperienced Bucks this season compared to the veteran driven Nets, writes Andrew Wagner of the Star Tribune. “Here, we can show them but we also have to teach them and show them again exactly the different options because it’s all new to them,” Kidd said. “It takes time, but it’s been fun to see their growth.”
The decision to waive Aaron Gray was both clear-cut and wrenching for the Pistons, writes Keith Langlois of NBA.com. Gray’s medical situation coupled with the presence of Joel Anthony made him an obvious choice to go, but he was in the best shape of his career this offseason and Stan Van Gundy was excited to see what he could do.
Ryan Gomes has decided to leave Spanish club Baskonia, also known as Laboral Kuxta, over a lack of playing time, according to David Pick of Basketball Insiders. Gomes, 32, made the Thunder’s opening night roster last season. Former Pacers guard Orlando Johnson could be the next to bolt and DJ White‘s one-month contract with the club will expire next week.

Chris Crouse contributed to this post.

Western Notes: Thompson, Rubio, Mekel, Taylor

October 28th, 2014 at 1:05pm CST by Chuck Myron

Cory Joseph is the quintessential player from outside the U.S., at least according to the NBA’s annual survey of international players on opening-night rosters. He is a member of the Spurs, who lead the league with nine non-U.S. players, and he’s from Canada, the non-U.S. nation that has produced the most NBA players currently in the league. It’s the third straight year that San Antonio has led the NBA in this regard, and it seems to be working, since the Spurs went to the Finals the first two times. Here’s more from around the Western Conference:

Kings big man Jason Thompson is drawing trade interest from around the league thanks to the league’s rising salary cap, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe writes amid his season preview. More available spending money around the league makes Thompson’s contract, which will pay him nearly $15.119MM in guaranteed salary through 2016/17, less burdensome for teams.
Sources from outside the Timberwolves believe Ricky Rubio and the team will ultimately settle on an extension worth four years and $52MM by Friday’s deadline, as they tell Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link). The team has apparently offered four years and $48MM, while agent Dan Fegan has reportedly asked for the max.
Gal Mekel says that the Mavs haven’t told him whether or not they’re going to waive him, though he’s cognizant of the reports have the Mavericks set to release him so they can sign J.J. Barea instead, observes Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News. “It’s weird,” Mekel said. “I hear everything. But I want to concentrate on this game. I had a great preseason and showed everybody that I can help this team. I got very good feedback from the coaching staff. I know it’s weird right now and there is a chance I will find myself in another place in two days. But as long as I am here, I’m going to help the team.”
Wolves owner and chairman of the Board of Governors Glen Taylor has publicly talked about selling the team in the past, and he said Monday that he eventually plans to do so, notes Nate Gotlieb of the Mankato Free Press.

Wolves Waive J.J. Barea, Mavs Plan To Sign Him

October 27th, 2014 at 1:59pm CST by Zachary Links

MONDAY, 1:59pm: The Wolves have waived Barea, the team announced (Twitter link). It’s unclear if he agreed to give up any salary in a buyout arrangement or if it was a straight release.

SUNDAY, 3:55pm: The Wolves are finalizing a buyout with J.J. Barea, sources tell Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The buyout will be completed before Monday’s 4pm CT roster cutdown deadline, putting Minnesota at the 15-man maximum.

With a logjam of guards in Minnesota, there has been speculation this offseason that the Wolves would buy Barea out of the final year of his contract or trade him. Coach/president Flip Saunders insisted in late September that there was a role for Barea in Minnesota, noting that his camp performance last summer was the best of anyone on the team. Still, with a glut of backcourt options, including free agent pickup Mo Williams, it was clear that Barea could get more burn elsewhere.

The Mavericks are planning on signing Barea once he clears waivers, according to Stein, and the guard wants to return to Dallas. The Mavs’ roster is currently full with the regular season maximum 15 players, so bringing Barea aboard would require another roster move. The guard should clear as he carries a $4.5MM cap number for 2014/15. Stein suggests that Dallas could clear a spot by trading or releasing guard Gal Mekel or big man Greg Smith.

If the Barea-Dallas reunion falls through, there should be plenty of other clubs with interest. The Lakers immediately come to mind as a club that could go for Barea in the wake of Steve Nash‘s season-ending injury.

Earlier today, Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link) heard that the feeling around the league was that Barea would wind up with the Mavs. Barea could be the second member of the Mavs’ 2011 championship team to return to Dallas this offseason, following big man Tyson Chandler.

Central Rumors: Thompson, Love, Pistons

October 25th, 2014 at 9:04pm CST by Cray Allred

Fearing a potential fine from the league, Bulls coach Tim Thibodeau decided to withhold his opinion when asked by Doug Padilla of ESPNChicago.com about proposed changes to the NBA’s draft lottery system. “The thing that I don’t like about it is it just seems like…I think it’s bad when…I guess it’s fine,” Thibodeau said, before adding, “I’ll try to save my money.” NBA owners voted down a proposal last week that would have shaken up the lottery, giving the league’s worst teams a smaller chance at the highest picks. Here’s more from around the Central Division:

There has been “zero discussion” on a contract extension for the Cavaliers‘ Tristan Thompson, a source tells Chris Haynes of Northeast Ohio Media Group. Thompson, who like teammate LeBron James is represented by Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, would become a restricted free agent next summer if no deal is reached by Friday. Haynes says Thompson is invaluable to the team’s ongoing championship makeup, an opinion shared by teammate Kyrie Irving. “He’s very important to us,” Irving said. “That motor he has, it’s something that never stops. He’s always on the boards. We’re going to need that. He’s a big part of our team.”
It was a desire to win that brought Kevin Love to Cleveland, the star forward writes in a piece for The Players’ Tribune (H/T Dan Labbe of the Plain Dealer). In the first-person essay, Love explains why he agreed to the summer trade that brought him to the Cavaliers from the Timberwolves. “I’ve never played in a playoff game,” Love writes. “I came to Cleveland because I want to win. I’ll grab a broom and sweep the floors if it gets me an NBA title.” Love also thanked Timberwolves fans and referenced the “crazy summer” of overall No. 1 draft choice Andrew Wiggins, who went to Minnesota in the blockbuster trade.
Pistons coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy told David Mayo of MLive.com that he will make his final roster decisions this weekend, well before Monday’s deadline. Mayo cites Aaron Gray, Tony Mitchell, and Luigi Datome as possibile cuts, all of whom are on guaranteed contracts. Unless Detroit can send out a player in a trade, it will have to take the hit on one of its 16 guaranteed deals to get under the roster limit before the season starts.

Arthur Hill contributed to this post.

Wolves Cut Brady Heslip

October 25th, 2014 at 2:41pm CST by Arthur Hill

Guard Brady Heslip has been officially waived by the Timberwolves, the team has announced. The move trims Minnesota’s roster to 16 players, one over the league maximum. It’s unclear if the team intends to send Heslip to the D-league, as teams can retain the rights for up to four players.

Heslip’s minimum-salary contract was non-guaranteed, so the Wolves won’t be on the hook for any salary as a result of this move. Heslip wasn’t a lock to make the regular season roster, so his departure doesn’t come as a shocker.

The 6’2″ Canadian was a sharpshooter at Baylor, ranking first in school history in three-point percentage and second in made three-pointers. The 24-year-old guard played in five games for the Minnesota’s summer league team in Las Vegas, averaging 6.2 points per game.

Wolves Notes: Cunningham, Taylor, Chairman

October 23rd, 2014 at 2:18pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The domestic assault charges against Dante Cunningham were dropped more than two months ago, but he tells Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press that his client hasn’t received so much as a minimum-salary offer from an NBA team. Agent Joel Bell estimates that Cunningham would have otherwise received a deal with annual salaries of more than $4MM, and said he heard as recently as Monday from a team that said the public relations hit it would take from signing him would be too much to bear, as Krawczynski writes. A report from two months ago indicated Cunningham and the Timberwolves were in talks, but he remains unsigned.

Here’s more from Minnesota:

Execs from a pair of teams tell Krawczynski for the same piece that the stigma that remains from those charges wouldn’t by itself prevent their clubs from signing him, but they acknowledged it would be a factor.
“At this point it’s about justice and it’s about clearing my name,” the 27-year-old forward told Krawczynski. “Clearly this adds a terrible stigma to my name. … Now when anyone looks up Dante Cunningham, oh, wasn’t he the one that was in trouble? There’s nothing out there saying there was a false charge.”
The NBA Board of Governors elected Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor as the chairman of the board, Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press reports (Twitter link). Taylor previously served in this position from 2008 to 2012, and also held the position on an interim basis since April of this year.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

And-Ones: Roberts, Spurs, Vucevic, Rubio

October 21st, 2014 at 9:45pm CST by Alex Lee

After his sit down with Michele Roberts, Tim Bontemps of the New York Post doesn’t get the feeling that the new NBPA head is on board with the idea of a gradual increase in the salary cap starting in 2016 (Twitter links). The alternative is to allow the cap to jump up after the 2015/16 season — Bontemps estimates a spike to over $90MM — due to the injection of the money from the league’s new TV deal. That increase, of course, could coincide with the free agency of superstar Kevin Durant.

Let’s take a look at what else is going on around the league on Tuesday:

It would be shocking if any of Bryce Cotton, Josh Davis or JaMychal Green were to end up on the Spurs’ final roster, writes Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News. Cotton, Davis and Green all have partially guaranteed deals, but as our Expanded Roster Counts show, the Spurs already have 15 fully guaranteed contracts on the books.
A strong showing in 2014/15 would have likely netted Nikola Vucevic a more lucrative deal next summer than the one he agreed to earlier tonight, according to Grantland’s Zach Lowe. However, Lowe believes Vucevic’s shortcomings on the defensive end add risk for the Magic while also conceding the deal should be a fair one considering the rising cap (Twitter links).
Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated, also pointing to the increasing salary cap, writes that Vucevic’s extension compares favorably to the four-year, $48MM deal Utah’s Derrick Favors inked last October. Golliver adds that the pact eliminates any chance of a bidding war over Vucevic for the Magic next summer which could have resulted in an overpay.
Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities expects Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor to soon become more involved in extension talks for point guard Ricky Rubio (via Twitter). The Wolves reportedly upped their offer to four years, $48MM shortly after we heard that Rubio and Taylor had spoken several times on the phone. Wolfson, who speculates that a total offer of $52-54MM might do it, adds that Taylor’s loyalty to Rubio could “change the dynamic” of the talks (Twitter links here).

Western Notes: Wolves, Budinger, Nelson

October 21st, 2014 at 2:56pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Spurs have been a hallmark of stability over the years, but perhaps never more than they are now, with 14 of the 15 players who were on the team during the Finals last year still on the team, as Bleacher Report’s Ethan Skolnick examines. While we wait to see if familiarity breeds success or stagnation, here’s more from around the Western Conference.

It seems at this point that Glenn Robinson III will remain with the Wolves for opening night, and J.J. Barea continues to impress the team with his preseason performance, as Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities hears (Twitter link). The Pistons are probably the “team to watch” regarding Minnesota’s apparent efforts to trade Chase Budinger, Wolfson adds.
Robbie Hummel is expected to make it to opening night with the Wolves, but with a guaranteed salary of just $880K, that’s not a certainty, and Hummel knows it. Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune has the details. “We have a lot of good players and camp has been real competitive, so every opportunity to get on the court is important,” Hummel said. “You try to stay ready, but it’s hard when you don’t play for a couple games, but it’s part of the job … even if there’s 15 guaranteed contracts, you want to go out and play well. Every night is an audition for another team.”
Jameer Nelson has a player option for the final season of the two-year deal he signed with the Mavs this summer, but he says he plans to stick with the team for the long term, as Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News observes.
Former Clippers owner Donald Sterling is streamlining his legal efforts, having withdrawn a suit in Los Angeles Superior Court against his wife, the NBA and Adam Silver to concentrate on his federal antitrust suit against the league, reports Nathan Fenno of the Los Angeles Times. Sterling also faces the NBA’s counterclaim against him, Fenno notes.
A desire to have Sean Kilpatrick play for their D-League affiliate fueled the Warriors‘ decision to sign the undrafted shooting guard Monday, tweets Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle.

And-Ones: Wolves, Sixers, Pistons

October 20th, 2014 at 7:15pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Timberwolves still have some decisions to make in order to get their preseason roster down from 17 players to the regular season maximum of 15. Minnesota began the process earlier today by waiving Kyrylo Fesenko. Out of the remaining players, Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune believes the two most likely candidates to go are Brady Heslip, who is in camp on a non-guaranteed deal, and Chase Budinger. The Wolves have been rumored to be shopping Budinger, but thus far haven’t been able to work out any deal.

Here’s more from around the league:

While the Sixers’ rebuilding efforts have been called “tanking” by some, Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders argues that GM Sam Hinkie‘s plan is sound, and it could make the franchise a contender in a few years. Kennedy also notes that many of Philly’s fans are also on board with Hinkie’s efforts, and support the long-term outlook the franchise has adopted. “It’s really important not to take your eyes off what matters,” Hinkie said. “And what matters is not feeling great about yourself the 3rd of March, but to give yourself a chance to feel great about yourself the 3rd of June.”
Pistons president and head coach Stan Van Gundy believes that bringing in outside coaches to watch his team practice can be a valuable tool, David Mayo of MLive writes. Van Gundy finds that going outside for a fresh viewpoint can be enlightening, notes Mayo. Van Gundy added, “They don’t have the knowledge that we have on the inside. Sometimes that’s bad, sometimes that’s good. There’s good things with that, too, because sometimes you see what you expect to see, unfortunately. You try hard not to but we’re all guilty of it. And somebody new, who didn’t see practice and doesn’t have certain things they expect out of each guy, sees it with clear eyes. So I think that kind of stuff’s important.”
Joel Anthony is excited to be a part of the Pistons because he believes Detroit acquired him for his abilities, not for his expiring contract, Keith Langlois of NBA.com writes. “It makes things easier,” Anthony said. “That first trade [from the Heat to the Celtics] was obviously more difficult because of the history and all the time I spent in Miami. I’ve been fortunate to have those years over there and right now I’m just looking forward to this new chapter in my life as a professional basketball player.”