New Orleans Pelicans Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Eric Gordon To Miss Remainder Of Season

March 8th, 2016 at 6:19pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Eric Gordon will miss the remainder of the 2015/16 season as a result of successful surgery today to repair damage to his fractured right ring finger, the Pelicans announced via press release. This was the same finger Gordon broke in January, an injury that forced him to miss approximately five weeks. Scott Agness of VigilantSports first reported Gordon was to undergo surgery.

New Orleans has been slammed with injuries this season, with Tyreke Evans, Quincy Pondexter and Bryce Dejean-Jones having also suffered season–ending maladies. The NBA granted a hardship exception allowing the Pelicans to add a 16th player to their roster, and New Orleans is poised to take advantage, having reached agreement with Orlando Johnson on a 10-day pact.

Gordon, who will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, averaged 15.4 points, 2.7 assists and 2.3 rebounds through 45 games. His career numbers are 16.6 points, 2.5 rebounds and 3.3 assists to accompany a shooting line of .435/.383/.814.

Pelicans Get 16th Roster Spot, Eye Guards

March 8th, 2016 at 1:42pm CST by Chuck Myron

1:42pm: The Pelicans are expected to use the roster spot on a guard, just as they did in December, the last time they had a hardship exception, Kushner writes. They signed Jimmer Fredette then, as Kushner points out. Fredette is once more a free agent following the expiration of his 10-day contract with the Knicks.

1:16pm: The NBA has given the Pelicans a 16th roster spot via hardship to offset their injuries, sources tell Scott Kushner of The New Orleans Advocate (Twitter link). The team has two days from the time the league formally grants the provision to use it. The roster spot lasts 10 days, though the team can apply to renew it.

It appears the latest injury to Eric Gordon triggered the hardship. Gordon is reportedly having surgery today after breaking his right ring finger for the second time in less than two months, and the Pelicans fear the soon-to-be free agent will miss the rest of the season. Tyreke Evans, Quincy Pondexter and Bryce Dejean-Jones have already suffered season–ending injuries. The hardship comes into play when at least four players are likely to miss two or more weeks, and with Gordon under the knife, that appears to be the case for New Orleans.

Injuries have ravaged the Pelicans throughout the season, capsizing what appeared to be a team on the rise, and Coach Alvin Gentry this past weekend acknowledged the need to shift the focus to the long-term future rather than an 11th-hour bid for a playoff spot. Thus, with six and a half games separating them from a playoff spot, the Pelicans seem more likely to go after players with upside than older veterans. Shams Charania of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports linked the team to Orlando Johnson and Elijah Millsap in a January report that also mentioned Dejean-Jones, who eventually joined the team. Millsap just reached a buyout agreement with Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv, sources told Sportando’s Orazio Cauchi (Twitter link),

Western Notes: Augustin, Gordon, Barton, Varejao

March 8th, 2016 at 11:15am CST by Chuck Myron

Nuggets deadline trade acquisition D.J. Augustin has quickly taken to his new surroundings and says he’d love to re-sign with Denver when he hits free agency this summer, as Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post relays. Coach Michael Malone is a fan of the point guard, particularly his offense, as Dempsey relays.

“I would love to be here,” Augustin said. “It’s a great city, great fans. I love the coaching staff and organization. Everything is great. So, I would love to find a home here.”

Augustin hoped for a chance to join a team that would give him more playing time as he faded from the Oklahoma City rotation this season, and while he expressed his appreciation to the Thunder for facilitating such a deal, he said he didn’t ask for a trade, Dempsey notes. See more on the Nuggets amid news from the Western Conference:

Eric Gordon is having surgery today on his broken right ring finger, a source told Scott Agness of VigilantSports (Twitter link). No timetable exists for the soon-to-be free agent who suffered the injury Saturday, though the Pelicans reportedly fear it’s a season-ender. It’s the same finger Gordon broke in January, an injury that forced him to miss about five weeks. The final day of the regular season is five weeks from Wednesday.
Malone knew little about Will Barton when the coach took over the Nuggets in the offseason, but the 25-year-old shooting guard is team’s second leading scorer this year, the first on a new three-year, $10.6MM deal, as Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee examines. “I’d be lying to you if I said I expected him to play as well as he has this year,” Malone said. “He’s a hard worker. He committed himself to getting better, coming back as an improved player and, like all players, I feel he’s taken full advantage of the opportunity given him. We play him 25, 30 minutes a night, put the ball in his hands and allow him to make plays and he’s done a great job of doing that, especially in the open court.”
Warriors assistant GM Travis Schlenk acknowledged that recent signee Anderson Varejao isn’t what he used to be, but Schlenk said in a radio appearance with Matt Steinmetz on 95.7 The Game’s “NBA This Week” show that Varejao and Joakim Noah were the best centers in the NBA three years ago. The 33-year-old Varejao only twice averaged double-figures in either points or rebounds, peaking in 2012/13 at 14.1 points and 14.4 rebounds per game, though he played only 25 games that season because of injury.

Southwest Notes: Dekker, Parsons, Anderson

March 7th, 2016 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

It’s mostly been a lost season for Sam Dekker, the 18th overall pick in last year’s draft who spent months on the shelf because of back surgery, notes Joel Brigham of Basketball Insiders. The Rockets clearly could have used a greater contribution than the six minutes in three games he’s seen so far, and the inability to deliver more has left Dekker with regrets, as Brigham details.

“There are times where, I’m not going to lie about it, you can get really down on yourself when there’s long stretches where you’re not seeing the court. That’s been new to me. I’ve always played,” Dekker said. “But I’ve found myself really leaning on my vets, and that’s helped a lot. Trevor [Ariza], for one, has been great to me. He talks me through things, knows when I’m down, knows what I need to hear, and seeing a guy who works that hard makes me want to get back in the gym. It keeps me motivated. I know I’m going to have a long career in this league. I just have to stay positive.”

See more on the Rockets amid news from the Southwest Division:

Chandler Parsons wouldn’t rule out going back to the Rockets in free agency this summer, as he said on the “Channel 33” podcast (audio link; transcription via HoopsHype). The Mavericks small forward is almost certain to turn down his player option, and Houston is expected to pursue him, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com. “Houston was home for me for three years,” Parsons said. “I definitely would never count that option out. I have great memories there. They have a great crowd, a great city to live in … I have nothing but respect and love for them. I would never count that out.”
Ryan Anderson said he hasn’t talked to Pelicans management about his free agency and has yet to develop a feel for how it will go, notes Justin Verrier of ESPN.com. Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry has left him on the bench for key stretches of late, but Anderson indicated that he doesn’t lament that as much as the lack of opportunity to play with a fully healthy Pelicans team during his time in New Orleans, as Verrier chronicles.
Gentry regretted a Wednesday comment that the Pelicans are out of the playoffs, but after two more losses Thursday and Saturday, he acknowledges it’s time to shift focus, as Verrier notes in a separate piece. “At this stage, like I said, it would be a miracle almost for us to make the playoffs,” Gentry said. “We really have to start looking at developing a culture and how we’re gonna play in the future and figuring out guys on this team, how they fit into the system and if they’re going to be able to fit in a system.”

Southwest Notes: Gordon, Holiday, Wallace, Rockets

March 6th, 2016 at 5:02pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Pelicans fear that shooting guard Eric Gordon‘s season may be finished, according to John Reid of the Times Picayune. Gordon had to leave Saturday’s game when he fractured his right ring finger on a steal attempt. He missed 16 games after having surgery on the same finger in January. ”I don’t know for sure what happened, but it looked like he might have done the same thing again,” said Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry, who speculated Gordon could be out six to eight weeks. ”That would be really unfortunate because he worked so hard to get back and I really thought he was playing really good basketball.” Gordon, who will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, is averaging 15.4 points, 2.7 assists and 2.3 rebounds through 45 games.

There’s more from the Southwest Division:

Gordon’s injury will likely mean more playing time for Jrue Holiday, writes Justin Verrier of ESPN.com. Holiday started the second half Saturday after Gordon was hurt, and Gentry indicated that he wants to see more of the former All-Star point guard who’s mostly come off the bench this season. “I’m happy to be playing, if you want me to be honest,” he said. “I appreciate it. I don’t take it for granted. Obviously with previous two years and what’s happening now — and I think Eric just went out with his finger — I’m happy to be on the court.”
Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace gives the team an A-plus for how it has responded to Marc Gasol‘s season-ending injury, according to Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal. Memphis has gone 7-2 since Gasol went down with a broken right foot last month. “The fans are enjoying this recent incarnation of the Grizzlies,” Wallace said. “It’s come together rather well and rather quickly. You have to give the players and coaching staff credit. They’ve embraced the challenge.”
No team has fallen harder this season than the Rockets, writes Chris O’Leary of The Toronto Star. After winning the Southwest Division and reaching the Western Conference finals last year, Houston enters tonight’s game 30-32 and in danger of missing the playoffs. “Success in this league is fragile,” said Raptors coach Dwane Casey. “You should work every day to be better, work every day on every possession, because it is fragile and fleeting.”

Western Notes: Collison, Martin, Davis, Beasley

March 5th, 2016 at 11:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

His partnership with Rajon Rondo may be temporary, but Kings point guard Darren Collison is trying to make it work, writes Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee. Sacramento brought in Rondo on a one-year contract and anointed him the starting point guard. Collison has adapted his game and is getting increased minutes in the shooting guard role. “If I couldn’t start for teams, it probably wouldn’t matter as much,” he said. “Winning is still the No. 1 goal, if I had a list, and I’ll go from there. The way I’ve been playing the last couple of years, obviously starting is very fun to me.” While the Kings aren’t sure if Rondo will be back next season, they don’t have to worry about Collison. He is signed for 2016/17 at $5,229,454.

There’s more from the Western Conference:

Kevin Martin was one of the last remaining links to the competitive Wolves teams of two seasons ago, writes Michael Rand of The Star Tribune. Martin, who was waived this week in a buyout agreement and is waiting to sign with the Spurs, was a key component on the 2013/14 squad that still had Kevin Love and a mix of veterans such as Ronny Turiaf, Chase Budinger, Corey Brewer, J.J. Barea and Dante Cunningham.
After watching the Pelicans suffer through a disastrous, injury-filled season, Anthony Davis is determined to prevent it from carrying over into next year, tweets Brett Dawson of The New Orleans Advocate. “You try to establish a culture that you want to have around the locker room, around this organization,” Davis said. “You set it now, to finish out the rest of the games.”
The Rockets believe Michael Beasley matured while playing in China and is better able to handle the NBA lifestyle, tweets Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. “Our intel – and our intel in China we feel is as good or better as any team’s – is he is someone focused on his career,” said Rockets GM Daryl Morey. “I can’t speak to the past. I can say that based on our intel he is someone just focused on career and family at this point.” (Twitter link). Beasley received a two-year deal at the minimum, but next season is non-guaranteed, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. Houston will be $200K under the hard cap after signing Andrew Goudelock, tweets Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com.
The Rockets recalled Sam Dekker, Montrezl Harrell and K.J. McDaniels from their D-League affiliate in Rio Grande Valley, the team announced today.

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.