New Orleans Pelicans Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Heat Rumors: Whiteside, Ennis, Stokes, Dragic

March 5th, 2016 at 7:30pm CST by Arthur Hill

Hassan Whiteside may face a choice this summer between money and winning, writes Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel. The Heat center figures to get a maximum offer from someone, especially with the rising salary cap, but it may not be Miami. Winderman notes the Heat are accustomed to getting hometown discounts from players who want to be part of the franchise tradition and like the idea of being in South Florida. Whiteside said it may be tempting to be the star of another team, but that won’t affect his decision when free agency arrives. “I feel like a lot of people want to be that,” he said. “But I want to win more than anything. I don’t really want to be the face of a losing franchise. You want to be a face of a winning program. And it’s always easier to get people to come to Miami.”

There’s more news out of Miami:

James Ennis and Jarnell Stokes are on the open market, but league rules keep them off-limits to Miami, Winderman writes in the same piece. Teams are prohibited from reacquiring players that they’ve traded away for a full calendar year or the time their contracts would have expired. The Heat traded Ennis to Memphis on November 10th and dealt Stokes to New Orleans on February 18th. Both are now free agents. Ennis and Stokes can play with the Heat’s summer league team, but neither can sign with Miami until the anniversaries of their respective trades. Stokes is currently with Miami’s D-League affiliate in Sioux Falls.
A year after being traded to Miami, point guard Goran Dragic is playing at a more comfortable pace, Winderman writes in a separate story. Coach Erik Spoelstra changed the team’s philosophy after the All-Star break, telling players to run up court and start the offense more quickly. That benefits Dragic, who has always preferred an up-tempo approach. “He’s feeling more comfortable with organization, with the team, with his teammates, the style of play, when to attack,” Spoelstra said. “He’s gaining confidence because he knows his teammates want him to be aggressive.”
Joe Johnson was immediately impressed with the way his new teammates play defense, according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. “It’s great they’re defensive minded,” said Johnson, who signed with Miami a week ago. “You don’t see that in young ages. They know and understand to be on the court, they’ve got to make an impact somewhere.”

And-Ones: Perkins, Butler, Labissiere, Vesely

March 3rd, 2016 at 2:02pm CST by Chuck Myron

Players on the Cavaliers were furious when the team let Kendrick Perkins leave in free agency this summer and instead signed Sasha Kaun, as Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer said in an appearance on “The Dan Patrick Show” (video link; transcription via Kurt Helin of ProBasketballTalk). They valued Perkins for his emotional leadership and the role of enforcer that he played, even though he doesn’t offer much else on the court at this point in his career, as Haynes detailed. Perkins is averaging 11.3 minutes per game in 15 appearances for the Pelicans on a one-year deal this season. See more from around the NBA:

The offer the Celtics reportedly made to the Bulls for Jimmy Butler left much to be desired from Chicago’s end, and the talks didn’t advance from there, as K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune hears (Twitter links).
Former No. 1 draft prospect Skal Labissiere has continued to plummet in rankings, coming in only 19th in the latest mock draft from Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress, notes Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv. However, the University of Kentucky big man returned to the starting lineup Tuesday after a late-December benching and tallied 11 points and eight rebounds, numbers well above his averages of 6.4 points and 3.0 boards per game.
Jan Vesely recently drew an offer from an NBA team for the equivalent of between $7.7MM and $8.8MM, according to an official from his Turkish team, Fenerbahce Ulker, notes Eurohoops.net. The official indicated that Fenerbahce wants to keep the former NBA sixth overall pick, and Vesely has no intention of leaving for an NBA team in the near future, tweets international journalist David Pick. Few NBA teams have the capacity to hand out contracts of that amount this late in the season, so I’d speculate that it was meant as an offer for the summer, when teams have much more to spend.

Southwest Notes: Wright, Stephenson, Dejean-Jones

March 1st, 2016 at 4:03pm CST by Chuck Myron

Brandan Wright is liable to miss anywhere from a week to eight weeks with a sprained MCL in his right knee that the team revealed in a statement Monday. The Grizzlies didn’t say whether the sprain is a Grade I, which is the milder form, or a Grade II, which would keep him out longer, notes Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal. USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt hears it’s merely a Grade I (Twitter link), but coach Dave Joerger hinted at a much more pessimistic outlook, saying it will be difficult for the Grizzlies the rest of the year without him, Tillery relays (Twitter links). See more on the Grizzlies and other news from the Southwest Division:

Talk of the Grizzlies picking up Lance Stephenson‘s $9.405MM team option for next season that Chris Herrington of The Commercial Appeal referred to last week appears to have been speculative, as Herrington portrays it within his Pick-and-Pop column. It would take either an unexpected late-season flourish or an offseason gone awry for Stephenson’s option to look appealing to Grizzlies, Herrington believes.
James Ennis seems like the Grizzlies player most likely to be cut if the team wants to add someone else, Herrington posits in the same piece.
Bryce Dejean-Jones doesn’t have any guaranteed money beyond this season in his deal with the Pelicans, which is a three-year pact for the minimum salary, but he can trigger a partial guarantee of $80K for next season if he participates in summer league and a skill and conditioning program, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter links). It’s unclear how his broken right wrist will affect his ability to fulfill those requirements. The partial guarantee would go to $100K if he sticks on the roster through July 25th, Pincus adds.
Marcus Thornton‘s release from the Rockets was just that, rather than a buyout deal, as Pincus shows Thornton didn’t give up any salary when he hit waivers last week (Twitter link).

And-Ones: Durant, Harden, Most Improved, Hawks

February 28th, 2016 at 10:50pm CST by Arthur Hill

Kevin Durant has a shot at the largest contract in league history when his free agency officially arrives this summer, according to Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Durant will have plenty of options to choose from, starting with the Thunder, who would love to keep him and Russell Westbrook together through the prime of their careers. The Warriors are believed to be the front-runners if Durant decides to leave Oklahoma City, and his hometown Wizards will surely be calling, along with the Lakers, who will need a star to replace Kobe Bryant. Or Durant could sign a one-year deal with OKC, maximize his earning power as a 10-year veteran and put off the larger decision until 2017. “Everybody’s going to ask me, so of course I’m going to have to think about it now,” Durant said. “To tell you one thing, it’s great to feel wanted, I guess.”

There’s more news from around the world of basketball:

James Harden says he feels unfairly targeted for the bad situation in Houston, Washburn writes in the same piece, particularly the rumored rifts with Rockets center Dwight Howard and former coach Kevin McHale. “All the time,” Harden said when asked if he feels he’s being singled out over team disunity, “but I don’t really pay attention to it. I can’t focus on negativity because that drains you. I focus on what I can do, what I can control, and go out there and just compete at a high level.”
The Blazers‘ C.J. McCollum is almost certain to win this season’s Most Improved Player award, according to Eric Saar of Basketball Insiders. McCollum, who’ll be up for a rookie scale extension this summer, has become a full-time starter and has raised his scoring average from 6.8 points a game last year to 21.1 points this season. Saar’s other candidates for the award are the Warriors‘ Draymond Green, the Celtics‘ Isaiah Thomas and Jae Crowder and the Raptors‘ Kyle Lowry.
The Hawks have recalled center Edy Tavares and guard/forward Lamar Patterson from the Austin Spurs of the D-League, the team announced today. Tavares has averaged 10.1 points and 9.6 rebounds in 14 D-League games, while Patterson’s averages are 15.6 points, 5.7 assists and 5.0 rebounds in seven games with Austin.
Chris Douglas-Roberts, whom the Pelicans cut in training camp, will be rejoining the D-League’s Texas Legends, who are the affiliate of the Mavericks, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com.

Heat Rumors: Stokes, Johnson, Whiteside

February 27th, 2016 at 3:53pm CST by Arthur Hill

Jarnell Stokes, who was traded from Miami to New Orleans at the deadline and then waived by the Pelicans, has rejoined the Heat’s D-League affiliate, tweets Chris Reichert of Upside & Motor. Despite the trade, Sioux Falls retained the rights to Stokes under a D-League provision because he appeared in more than 10 games for the Skyforce this season. (Twitter link). The 6’9″ center/power forward has played five games for Miami, scoring 7 points in 14 minutes. Stokes is not eligible to rejoin the Heat this season, notes Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel, as traded players cannot go back to the team that dealt them away.

There’s more news out of Miami:

Tyler Johnson, who hasn’t played since undergoing surgery on his left shoulder February 3rd, hopes to be back on the court by the end of the season, Winderman writes in the same story. The Heat haven’t set a timetable for the backup guard’s return, which was initially estimated at three months. However, Johnson is encouraged by how much he has recovered so far. “I feel like I’m progressing really well,” Johnson said. “I’m going to shoot to get back. Even if it was possible, it would probably be in April.”
Former Net Joe Johnson, who is rumored to be signing with Miami this weekend, is the best talent available in this year’s buyout market, according to Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post. Johnson, who was waived by Brooklyn on Thursday after agreeing to a buyout, has been a durable player who was the focus of the offense with both the Nets and Hawks, Bontemps writes.
One way for free-agent-to-be Hassan Whiteside to increase his value is to improve his free-throw shooting, and Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post suggests he is doing that. The 7’0″ center recently changed his approach at the line and is hitting 67.9 percent over his last six games. He averages 53 percent for his career and 56.4 percent for the season. “You know that feeling when you get under the covers in the bed and you snuggle up? You know that comfortable feeling?” Whiteside said in explaining his improved performance. “I feel that. I feel comfortable.”

Southwest Notes: Howard, Motiejunas, Joseph

February 27th, 2016 at 2:35pm CST by Arthur Hill

Rockets center Dwight Howard offered little explanation about his motive for firing agent Dan Fegan in comments to Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. Howard, who seems virtually certain to opt out of the final year of his contract this summer, announced Friday that he was severing ties with Fegan and Relativity Sports. “It was nothing against my agent,” Howard said. “It wasn’t anything bad that he did to me. Sometimes, change is good. I just made a decision based on what I feel I needed to change. I always respect him and love him. We still talk now. But as far as him being my representation, I decided to go other ways.” Howard said he hasn’t thought about choosing a new agent or his possible free agency, but said he has been considering how to improve his “situation” since the All-Star break.

There’s more from the Southwest Division:

The Rockets‘ Donatas Motiejunas, whose trade to the Pistons was voided Monday due to health reasons, has received medical clearance to start playing again, Feigen writes in a separate story. The Lithuanian big man was able to participate in the Rockets’ shootaround this morning. Back troubles have limited Motiejunas to 14 games this season, and he hasn’t played for Houston since December. “All the doctors that I consult are one of the best in the United States for back injuries and none of them saw any change or anything,” he said. “I’m ready to go. I played four games in the D-League. I practiced already with the team. I practiced by myself. I feel great lately.”
Cory Joseph, who signed with the Raptors in free agency last summer, credits the four years he spent with the Spurs with making his a better player, according to Chris O’Leary of The Toronto Star. “I went to two finals, I went to the Western Conference finals, and was knocked out in the first round of the playoffs last year,” Joseph said. “You play a lot of big games and you get the full experience.” Joseph, who received about $30MM over four years, is averaging 9.1 points per game as a reserve in his first season in Toronto.
The loss of Bryce Dejean-Jones less than a week after signing a three-year contract continues a three-year string of injuries for the Pelicans, writes Justin Verrier of ESPN.com. Dejean-Jones is expected to miss six to eight weeks after breaking his right wrist.

Bryce Dejean-Jones Out For Season

February 26th, 2016 at 2:39pm CST by Chuck Myron

Bryce Dejean-Jones will miss the rest of the season for the Pelicans after surgery this morning on his broken right wrist, the team announced. Scott Kushner of The New Orleans Advocate reported Thursday that the former 10-day signee who’d ascended to the starting lineup would likely miss six to eight weeks, a timetable that put his return in serious jeopardy. The team re-signed him just last week to a three-year deal that includes a partial guarantee for next season.

Dejean-Jones started in 11 of the 14 appearances he made with the Pelicans after signing the first of two-day contracts January 21st. The 23-year-old shooting guard who went undrafted this past spring out of Iowa State averaged 5.6 points in 19.9 minutes per game and shot 12 for 32 from 3-point range.

Tyreke Evans and Quincy Pondexter have also suffered season-ending injuries, while Omer Asik is out for up to two weeks, as John Reid of The Times Picayune tweeted on Tuesday. The Pelicans already have a disabled player exception worth $1,691,012 for Pondexter, and while an another such exception isn’t a possibility, the Pelicans would qualify for a 16th roster spot via hardship if doctors determine Asik is likely to be out any longer, or if another long-term injury surfaces. Coach Alvin Gentry said Eric Gordon will return from his injury Saturday, as The Associated Press notes.

Southwest Notes: Dwight, Harden, Conley, Gasol

February 26th, 2016 at 11:09am CST by Chuck Myron

Dwight Howard said he’s OK with his role as a secondary offensive option behind James Harden, and while Howard described his relationship with his fellow Rockets star as a work in progress, the center said he has no issues with the shooting guard, relays Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. Howard made his comments before the latest rumors of discord between him and Harden surfaced.

“People will say what they want to say. There’s no need for me and him to worry about that,” Howard said. “Our job is to grow and get better as a team and get better as individuals. I think me and James had a really good talk before the [All-Star] break. We’re more on the same page than we’ve ever been. I’m always going to have his back; pretty sure he’s always going to have my back. The biggest thing, which is always true in any situation, you always have to put your ego to the side and focus on what’s best for the team. When things don’t go well, it’s easy to point to the two guys that are leaders of the team. That’s understandable. We have to take the good with the bad. We have to come together to lead this team.”

See more from the Southwest Division:

Grizzlies executive VP of player personnel Ed Stefanski expressed confidence about the team’s ability to re-sign Mike Conley, said the team thinks Marc Gasol will have recovered from his broken foot in time for training camp and explained that the team’s belief that Courtney Lee would leave via free agency led the Grizzlies to trade him. Stefanski made his comments in an appearance on SiriusXM NBA Radio’s “The Starting Lineup” show (transcription in three Twitter links).
The question of whether the Grizzlies should pick up their $9.405MM team option on Lance Stephenson for next season doesn’t have an obvious answer, since he offers promise but doesn’t have a lengthy track record suggesting he’s worth that money, as Geoff Calkins, Ronald Tillery, Chris Herrington and David Williams of The Commercial Appeal debate.
Pelicans GM Dell Demps erred when he invested in ball-dominant guards and traditional centers instead of players equipped for the modern ball-movement game while shifting focus too far away from the draft and using the back end of the roster on journeymen instead of prospects, argues Christopher Reina of RealGM.

Western Notes: Dejean-Jones, D-League, Walton

February 25th, 2016 at 7:16pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Bryce Dejean-Jones, whom the Pelicans recently inked to a three-year pact, has been diagnosed with a fractured right wrist after having an MRI today and he will undergo surgery on Friday morning to repair the damage, the team announced. No official timetable has been announced for Dejean-Jones’ recovery, but Scott Kushner of The New Orleans Advocate relays that the guard will likely miss six to eight weeks of action as a result of the injury (Twitter link). Dejean-Jones has appeared in 14 games for the Pelicans this season and is averaging 5.6 points and 3.4 rebounds in 19.9 minutes per contest.

Here’s more from out West:

While Warriors assistant coach Luke Walton will certainly be a hot name this offseason for any potential coaching vacancies, a number of GMs around the league have expressed trepidation at the prospect of giving Walton a head coaching position, Sean Deveney of The Sporting News writes. “I think Luke has a chance to be a good coach; he knows the game, but I would be worried that he’s not ready for that job yet,” a league executive told Deveney. “You’d have to worried about that. The thing is, if your owner has been hearing Warriors, Warriors, Warriors for the last two years, and he sees Luke Walton setting records, you’re probably going to hear something like, ‘Why can’t we get a coach like that?’ And so you wind up taking a chance even if he does not have the experience level you’re looking for.”
The Grizzlies assigned power forward Jarell Martin to their D-League affiliate, the team announced. This will be Martin’s sixth trek to Iowa this season. He is averaging 13.6 points and 6.3 rebounds in 30.6 minutes over seven D-League contests.
Power forward Duje Dukan has been assigned by the Kings to their D-League affiliate, the team announced. This marks Dukan’s sixth sojourn of the season to Reno.

Financial Impact Of Deadline, Buyouts: Southwest

February 24th, 2016 at 12:17pm CST by Chuck Myron

The effects of the trade deadline are still being felt around the NBA as teams work buyout deals, negotiate with new free agents and fill open roster spots. Hoops Rumors will be taking a team-by-team look at the financial ramifications not just of the deadline itself but of the post-deadline moves. We’ll start this series of posts today with the Southwest Division:

Grizzlies

Memphis gave up Courtney Lee, Jeff Green and $542,714 cash in two separate trades to bring back Lance Stephenson, P.J. Hairston, Chris Andersen and five future draft picks. None of the players they relinquished nor any they acquired have guaranteed salary for next season, so the deals don’t affect the ledger for 2016/17 at all, beyond the opportunity to pick up a $9.405MM team option on Stephenson. The net effect on this season’s payroll was the addition of a miniscule $76,440, which still leaves the Grizzlies about $2MM shy of the tax line, enough breathing room to make minimum-salary signings if they want. Memphis also gained a $450K trade exception from the difference between Green’s $9.45MM salary and Stephenson’s $9MM pay. The cash they sent to the Hornets in the Lee trade compromises their flexibility to a slight degree come draft time, when many teams swap cash for second-rounders. They’ll have $2,857,286 instead of $3.4MM to send out in those sorts of trades, though the picks they acquired last week give the team plenty of draft assets.

Mavericks

The Mavs didn’t make a trade, but they dabbled in the buyout market, signing David Lee the day after he came off waivers from the Celtics. Dallas reportedly used the prorated room exception on Lee, so assuming he gets the full amount left on the exception, Lee is making $2,085,671. The exception, originally worth $2.814MM, prorates by 1/170th each day starting January 10th. Dallas waived John Jenkins to make room for Lee on the roster, but the Suns claimed him and his guaranteed minimum salary of $981,349 off waivers. Jenkins has non-guaranteed salaries on his contract for next season and 2017/18, so even if Jenkins had cleared waivers, it wouldn’t have affected the Mavs’ long-term accounting. Instead, they merely hike this season’s payroll by the amount of Lee’s salary, minus Jenkins’ $981,349 pay, but since they were only at about $72MM anyway, well shy of the $84.74MM tax threshold, the team is in no financial danger.

Pelicans

New Orleans essentially converted a trade exception into cash that they used to fund a partial guarantee for next season in their new contract with Bryce Dejean-Jones. As Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders pointed out, the Pelicans used the $947,276 trade exception they created when they traded Ish Smith to the Sixers in December to accommodate Jarnell Stokes, whom the Heat dealt Thursday to New Orleans. The Pelicans also received $721,300 cash from Miami in the Stokes trade, Pincus notes, and the only asset New Orleans relinquished was a top-55 protected second-round pick that will likely never change hands, making it the virtual equivalent of a phony asset. New Orleans waived Stokes shortly after the trade to reopen the roster spot that Dejean-Jones had been in while he was on his pair of 10-day contracts. Dejean-Jones apparently had talks with at least five other NBA teams before the Pelicans lured him back with the partial guarantee he was reportedly seeking. It’s unclear just how much that guarantee is worth, but it goes on next season’s ledger, while Jones’ salary for the rest of this season and Stokes’ full-season pay of $845,059 is on the cap for New Orleans this year, even though the Pelicans will actually pay only a prorated percentage of what Stokes is making. The Pelicans are still about $4MM shy of the tax line, which leaves plenty of room.

Rockets

The Rockets would have escaped the luxury tax, added about $3.2MM of room beneath their hard cap and created a pair of trade exceptions if their three-team trade with the Pistons and Grizzlies had gone through. The voiding of the deal leaves Houston with none of that. The team’s net cost of the trade falling through is about $8MM in payroll and projected tax obligations combined.

Spurs

San Antonio stood pat, not surprising given their record, which is now 47-9.

The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.