Pelicans Rumors

Southwest Notes: Nowitzki, Smith, Lawson

November 14th, 2015 at 2:00pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Mavericks power forward Dirk Nowitzki hasn’t made up his mind about when he’ll retire from the game, but he isn’t shutting the door on the possibility that he may play beyond 2016/17, which is the final year on his current deal, Sam Amick of USA Today writes. “I always said that when the body is hurting every day, and when you’ve got to do all this extra stuff to just play, I think that’s when it’s time to go,” said Nowitzki. “But I feel good. I feel good right now and I felt good this summer. I mean, we had a five-games-in-six-days for the [Eurobasket], and I got through that just fine. … I felt good. I don’t need to pop a thousand pills to play or practice. So as long as that’s still good, and it’s still fun to go. I’m going to definitely ride this contract out [this season and next]. I don’t know. We’ll see what happens after that.”

Here’s more from out of the Southwest Division:

Ish Smith, who was claimed off waivers from the Wizards back in October, has been forced to play major minutes because of injuries to Norris Cole and Tyreke Evans, and he has impressed the Pelicans‘ coaching staff with how quickly he has acclimated to the team’s system, writes John Reid of The Times Picayune. ”It’s really tough, especially just coming in,” coach Alvin Gentry said. ”It would have been different if he had been in training camp and had gone through the whole situation. But you just pick a guy up and then throw him out there, I thought he responded great. I just think it’s a situation and [GM] Dell [Demps] and I talked about it and we just got to keep our head above water. We just got to keep playing hard and competing.”
Ty Lawson made his return to Denver Friday night, which was his first game back in the city after being dealt to the Rockets during the offseason. While his tenure with the Nuggets didn’t necessarily end well, the point guard had nothing negative to say about his former team, Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post writes. “It was pretty great,” said Lawson of his time with the Nuggets. “I had a good couple of years here. This team gave me my first opportunity and chance. So I have nothing bad to say.” When asked if he wished things had turned out differently for him in Denver, Lawson responded, “Things happen for a reason. God has a plan, so I’m going to follow it.”
Mavericks point guard Raymond Felton has signed with agent Jim Tanner of Tandem Sports and Entertainment, reports Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports (Twitter link). Felton was previously represented by Wasserman Media Group.

Offseason In Review: New Orleans Pelicans

November 13th, 2015 at 12:44pm CST by Chuck Myron

Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team’s offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees and more will be covered as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.

Signings

Alexis Ajinca: Four years, $19.5MM. Signed via Early Bird rights.
Omer Asik: Five years, $52.978MM. Signed via Bird rights.
Luke Babbitt: Two years, $2.328MM. Signed via minimum salary exception. Second year is partially guaranteed for $200K.
Norris Cole: One year, $3.037MM. Signed qualifying offer.
Dante Cunningham: Three years, $8.935MM. Signed via mid-level exception. Third year is a player option.
Bryce Dejean-Jones: Three years, $2.414MM. Signed via mid-level exception. First year is partially guaranteed for $50K. Subsequently waived.
Chris Douglas-Roberts: Two years, $2.501MM. Signed via minimum salary exception. Subsequently waived.
Alonzo Gee: Two years, $2.699MM. Signed via mid-level exception. Second year is a player option.
Kendrick Perkins: One year, $1.499MM. Signed via minimum salary exception.
Nate Robinson: One year, $1.499MM. Signed via minimum salary exception. Non-guaranteed. Subsequently waived.

Extensions

Anthony Davis: Five years, approximately $145MM.

Trades

Acquired $630K from the Clippers in exchange for the rights to Branden Dawson, the No. 56 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft.

Waiver Claims

Ish Smith: Claimed from the Wizards. One year, $1.101MM remaining. Contract is non-guaranteed.

Draft Picks

Branden Dawson (Round 2, 56th overall). Draft rights traded to the Clippers.

Camp Invitees

Jeff Adrien — Waived.
Mirza Begić — Waived.
Sean Kilpatrick — Waived.
Jerome Jordan — Waived.
Bo McCalebb — Waived.
Corey Webster — Waived.

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

None

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

The Pelicans roster was a jumble to start the season, though it’s difficult to pin blame on executive VP of basketball operations Mickey Loomis or GM Dell Demps. Injuries either knocked out or limited six Pelicans during the preseason, not including offseason signee Kendrick Perkins, who recently went down with a right pectoral injury that’s expected to cost him three months. The other injured Pelicans should be back by then, if they’re not already, but the spate of injuries nonetheless altered the composition of the team and has seemingly had much to do with a disappointing 1-7 start.

This was to be the season that New Orleans solidified itself as a postseason certainty for the present and years into the future. No longer were the Pelicans to sneak into the playoffs on the final night of the regular season, as they did this past spring. The continued improvement of Anthony Davis and the offensive bona fides of new coach Alvin Gentry were supposed to lift the team into the Western Conference elite, and though it’s early, it takes only a few losses to exceed the thin margin for error in the West. Still, the team is in a better spot than it was at the end of last season thanks largely to a move that eases the consequences of any shortcomings this year.

Davis is firmly entrenched as a Pelican in the wake of his new five-year extension, and the swiftness with which he agreed to sign it, in the first hour of his extension-eligibility window, speaks to his satisfaction with the direction of the franchise. Of course, the extension was the sensible financial play for the Wasserman Media Group client, since it’s a five-year max deal. Still, if Davis yearned to play elsewhere, the second jump in the salary cap, from a projected $89MM in 2016/17 to a $108MM projection for 2017/18, would have given Davis a chance to offset a significant portion of the financial sacrifice he’d undertake if he signed his qualifying offer next summer. Davis could also have pursued that strategy to stay in New Orleans but only on a series of two-year contracts with player options, a la LeBron James with the Cavs, a leverage play that Davis’ vast talent would probably have granted him if he wanted it.

Instead, he’s tied up for the long haul, and so too is Gentry, though the coach is just on a four-year deal with a team option on the final season. Gentry nonetheless seems well-positioned, given his role in Golden State’s 67-win championship team last season and the possibilities that abound with Davis and the team’s other offensive talents. The Pelicans reportedly interviewed Jeff Van Gundy, and Tom Thibodeau was frequently mentioned in connection to the job, though Demps was apparently in no mood to knock heads with such a hard-charging personality as the ex-Bulls coach. The Pelicans were instead reportedly looking for an exciting, up-tempo approach, and even before his tenure with the Warriors was over, Gentry got the New Orleans job.

The Pelicans clearly felt as though the switch from ousted former coach Monty Williams to Gentry, along with continued improvement from Davis, was the jolt the team needed to take the next step, since New Orleans made retaining the bulk of its roster a priority over the summer. The team’s only trade involved the divestment of second-round pick Branden Dawson in exchange for cash, and the Pelicans re-signed five out of their seven free agents. Chief among them was Omer Asik, whose presence allows Davis to play power forward. Asik has sharp limitations offensively, and while he has a strong reputation as a stout defender, he ranked only 38th among centers in ESPN’s Defensive Real Plus Minus metric. He’s nonetheless on a deal that’s fairly cheap for a starting-caliber center, with an average of little more than $10MM per season, only about $2MM more per year than top-flight backup Kosta Koufos will make on his deal with the Kings.

New Orleans also invested in Asik’s backup, Alexis Ajinca, further underscoring their commitment to using Davis at the four. A salary of about $5MM a year to a player who saw just 14.1 minutes per game last season, and only 10 minutes total in the playoffs, is a steep price. His playing time has declined in both of his full seasons in New Orleans since the Pelicans signed him in the middle of the 2012/13 season and gave him his first NBA action in nearly three years.

The Pelicans wound up with a relative bargain to back up at another position, as point guard Norris Cole signed his qualifying offer after lingering in restricted free agency until September. It wasn’t entirely surprising to see the Rich Paul client stay on the market so long, nor was it a shock that he took the qualifying offer, a tool that will allow him to reach to unrestricted free agency in 2016 and the rising salary cap that comes with it. The Sixers, Knicks and Lakers were reportedly interested suitors, but it appears no long-term proposals came about either from them or from the Pelicans that Cole deemed strong enough to dissuade him from going the short-term route. Comments from Gentry and Davis and the team’s lengthy deals with Asik, Ajinca and Dante Cunningham suggest the Pelicans would have preferred to sign him to a longer contract, though, as John Reid of The Times Picayune wrote, the team was only willing to go so far to re-sign him.

Cole’s decision to take the one-year qualifying offer may turn out to help the Pelicans more than they would have figured, as waiver claim Ish Smith has stepped in more than admirably while Cole is out with a high left ankle sprain. Smith is fourth in the league in assists per game so far, with 8.4, a continuance of his strong late-season performance with the Sixers last year. It’s early, and Smith is also on a one-year deal, but the Pelicans may well have picked a gem out of the dust they kicked up amid their many preseason moves.

Their fellow Western Conference heavies in Memphis have already swung a trade this season and appear to have quickly grown concerned about their poor start, but the Pelicans can afford to be patient. They have a 22-year-old superstar and a new coach with championship credentials. It probably won’t all come together for the Pelicans this year, but that’s OK after an offseason in which they bought some time.

Eddie Scarito contributed to this post. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of it.

What do you think of the offseason the Pelicans had? Leave a comment to tell us.

2015/16 Salary Cap: New Orleans Pelicans

November 12th, 2015 at 7:30pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The NBA’s salary cap for 2015/16 has been set at $70MM, which is an 11% increase from this past season, and the luxury tax line will be $84.74MM. The last cap projection from the league had been $67.1MM, and the projection for the tax line had been $81.6MM.

With the October 26th cutoff date to set regular season rosters now past, we at Hoops Rumors are in the process of running down the current salary cap commitments for each NBA franchise for the 2015/16 campaign. Here’s the cap breakdown for the New Orleans Pelicans, whose regular season roster can be viewed here:

2015/16 Salary Cap= $70,000,000
2015/16 Luxury Tax Line= $84,740,000
Fully Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $78,698,866*
Partially Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $50,000
Non-Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $2,062,134
Total Salary Cap Commitments= $80,811,000
Remaining Cap Room= -$10,811,000
Amount Below Luxury Tax Line= $3,377,089

*Note: This amount includes the $44,094 in salary paid to Nate Robinson, who was waived by the team.

Cap Exceptions Available:

Non-Taxpayer’s Mid-Level Exception= $768,907

Cash Available to Send Out In Trades= $3,400,000

Cash Available to Receive Via Trade= $3,400,000

Last Updated: 12/24/15 @7:30pm

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

Western Notes: Dragic, Rondo, Suns, Fredette

November 12th, 2015 at 2:59pm CST by Chuck Myron

Goran Dragic remarked around the time of his trade to Miami that he saw the Lakers as a “perfect fit,” but while the Lakers were initially likely to pursue him in free agency, they abandoned the idea when they became enamored with D’Angelo Russell and were optimistic about signing a big man, according to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. Dragic, despite his comment about the Lakers, seemed likely to re-sign with Miami in the months prior to his free agency, and he re-upped with the Heat in July. See more from around the Western Conference:

An executive who spoke with Chris Mannix of SI.com raised a hypothetical scenario in which the Timberwolves trade Ricky Rubio in the offseason and sign Rajon Rondo, who’s on a one-year contract with the Kings. Kevin Garnett has a strong relationship with Rondo, his former Celtics teammate, and Garnett has a ton of pull with Minnesota, Mannix points out.
Trade acquisition Jon Leuer was supposed to be behind offseason signee Mirza Teletovic on the Suns depth chart, but instead Leuer is averaging more than twice as many minutes thanks in part to his strong shooting so far, observes Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic in a piece that examines the Phoenix bench. Leuer and Teletovic are both poised to hit free agency next summer.
Jimmer Fredette‘s non-guaranteed deal with the Pelicans is for one year at the prorated minimum salary, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reveals (Twitter link).

Pelicans Sign Jimmer Fredette

November 10th, 2015 at 12:20pm CST by Chuck Myron

12:20pm: It’s a non-guaranteed contract, according to Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com (Twitter link).

TUESDAY, 11:39am: The signing is official, the Pelicans announced via press release, adding that they indeed received league approval for a 16th roster spot.

2:39pm: The team has submitted its application for a hardship provision, Reid writes in a full story. Coach Alvin Gentry said uncertainty remains until the league grants approval for the 16th roster spot, adding that the Pelicans hold Fredette in high regard, but Reid hears from sources who confirm that the Pelicans will indeed sign Fredette, pending NBA approval, which could come as early as Tuesday.

11:43am: The team is in the process of applying for the hardship provision, as John Reid of The Times Picayune hears (Twitter link), so it would appear the signing has still yet to occur.

MONDAY, 10:23am: The Pelicans are signing Jimmer Fredette using the hardship provision for a 16th roster spot, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). The team hasn’t made an announcement, but Charania indicates the move has already taken place. The former college star and 10th overall pick had started the season in the D-League with the Knicks affiliate shortly after the Spurs released him from their training camp roster last month. New Orleans, the team for which Fredette played last year, has been dealing with a rash of injuries for several weeks, and Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reported Friday that Kendrick Perkins is expected to miss the next three months.

Fredette, who made his reputation at BYU as a dead-eye shooter from behind the arc, made just 18.8% of his 3-point attempts for the Pelicans last season, and he didn’t impress during the small sample size of San Antonio’s preseason, going 2 for 10 from the floor and 0 for 3 from 3-point range. Still, New Orleans is in need of healthy players, with Perkins joining Norris Cole, Tyreke Evans and Quincy Pondexter among those currently shelved with long-term injuries. Omer Asik is questionable for Tuesday’s game. Teams need four players who are expected to miss at least two weeks to qualify for the extra roster spot via hardship, so New Orleans fits the bill.

The Pelicans are set to become the second team to use a hardship provision this season. The Sixers last week signed Phil Pressey to become their 16th man. It’s temporary relief, as both the Pelicans and Sixers would have to apply for another hardship provision after 10 days. If the league denies them, the teams would have to cut back to 15 men, though they could elect to keep Fredette and Pressey and offload other players instead. It’s unclear if Fredette is receiving any guaranteed money on his deal.

Fredette is also joining Pressey as the second D-League call-up of the season. New York’s D-League team picked Fredette second overall in the D-League draft on November 1st, after the Jazz affiliate took Jeff Ayres. Fredette, the once-heralded prospect, said recently that he hadn’t heard from Knicks team president Phil Jackson or coach Derek Fisher about joining New York’s NBA roster, which includes an open spot.

Do you think Fredette will stick with the Pelicans for this season, or will he be gone as soon as the team returns to health? Leave a comment to tell us.

Southwest Notes: Thornton, Pelicans, Spurs

November 9th, 2015 at 9:40pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Marcus Thornton has emerged as a surprise starter with the Rockets by showing he can do more than just shoot, Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reports. Thornton is enjoying a career revival as the team’s small forward, averaging 16.6 points and making a team-best 40.5% of his 3-point attempts, but his overall contributions have kept him on the floor, Feigen continues. “He’s a very good passer,” Houston coach Kevin McHale told Feigen. “He’s a good on-ball defender.” Thornton believes that McHale’s confidence in him has led to his strong start. “I always had a lot more to show,” Thornton said to Feigen. “Just now, I’ve been in the right position to show it.”

In other news around the Southwest Division:

The only viable trade bait that the struggling Pelicans have to offer are their draft picks, according to Tom Ziller of SBNation.com. It would be difficult to move any of their rotation pieces because of injuries and/or contract status but the Pelicans do not owe any future first-rounders, Ziller continues in his analysis of the team’s slow start. Based upon GM Dell Demps’ history and the Pelicans’ mandate to make the playoffs, New Orleans is likely to dangle those picks on the trade market in an effort to turn its season around, Ziller believes.
Ray McCallum has gotten buried on the Spurs’ bench but is trying to make the best of the situation and remain patient, Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News reports. McCallum is currently the team’s third option at point guard behind Tony Parker and Patty Mills and has been learning from the players ahead of him in the rotation, Orsborn continues. Coach Gregg Popovich told Orsborn that McCallum is still settling in after getting traded by the Kings. “He’s probably a little bit confounded right now, trying to figure out what’s going on,” Popovich said. “Some of that has to happen in his own mind, and get some sort of comfort level before they can help him too much.”
David West has been in the league a long time but he’s still opening eyes with his playmaking, Orsborn writes in a separate piece. The 13-year Spurs power forward had a six-assist outing off the bench against the Hornets last week. “Even from open gym, I realized he was better than I thought,” shooting guard Manu Ginobili told Orsborn. “He’s a willing passer, too. He’s looking for passes, looking for cutters. He can hit a jumper, but he’s also willing to pass.”

Southwest Notes: Thornton, Matthews, Grizzlies

November 9th, 2015 at 1:59pm CST by Chuck Myron

Marcus Thornton signed with the Rockets this summer knowing that he wasn’t assured a spot in the rotation, much less a starting job, but he felt as though the team was a strong match for his skills and was willing to bet he could boost his value on a one-year deal, as Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle examines. Coach Kevin McHale elected to go small and promote Thornton to the starting five after the team’s first two games, Feigen notes, a move that’s paid dividends, since Thornton has been the team’s second leading scorer so far.

“It’s been great,” Thornton said. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been in an offense with coaches that have the ultimate confidence in you. When a coach has the ultimate confidence in you, it’s easy to go out there and play, let the chips fall where they may. If you mess up, get back, get it again. It’s great when you have guys that share the ball, too. It’s fun.”

See more from the Southwest Division:

Agent Jeff Austin thought six teams would aggressively court Wesley Matthews in free agency this past summer if he were healthy, but only two went hard after him, according to TNT’s David Aldridge, who writes in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com. One was the Mavericks, who reportedly wound up lifting the value of their deal with Matthews from $57MM to the max of about $70MM after DeAndre Jordan reneged on his decision to sign with Dallas. Both the Raptors and Kings were apparently talking to Matthews before he agreed to join the Mavs, so it’s unclear which of them went farther than the other.
The Grizzlies have no shortage of issues, but poor performances and a lack of cohesion from Marc Gasol, Mike Conley and coach Dave Joerger are far and away the most troublesome, opines Chris Herrington of The Commercial Appeal.
The Pelicans don’t have a lot of assets to trade, aside from their future draft picks, but even amid a bleak outlook for this season thanks to their injury-hit 0-6 start, their future remains bright, SB Nation’s Tom Ziller believes. That said, New Orleans is the only NBA team without a rookie, as we pointed out.
We rounded up news on the Spurs earlier today.

Kendrick Perkins Expected To Miss Three Months

November 6th, 2015 at 9:15pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Pelicans center Kendrick Perkins is expected to miss three months of action while rehabilitating a right pectoral injury, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reports. This unwelcome news comes while New Orleans is dealing with an 0-4 start to the young season, as well as adding to the team’s growing list of players dealing with injuries that includes Omer Asik, Tyreke Evans, Quincy Pondexter, and Norris Cole.

The veteran big man wasn’t expected to play a major role for the team this season, but with Asik being limited to just 10 minutes of action this season courtesy of a calf injury, this forced coach Alvin Gentry to utilize Perkins in a larger role than intended. His presence has also been considered important to the Pelicans’ coaching staff, which considered him a needed veteran voice in the locker room, Wojnarowski adds. Perkins had been a starter in three Pelicans games, averaging 5.3 points and 2.7 rebounds, before going suffering the injury last Saturday against Golden State.

Perkins appeared in a combined 68 games for the Thunder and the Cavaliers during the 2014/15 campaign, averaging 4.0 points and 5.5 rebounds for OKC and 2.6 PPG and 2.4 RPG for Cleveland. His career numbers through 12 NBA seasons are 5.5 PPG, 5.9 RPG, and 1.2 BPG to go along with a slash line of .530/.000/.597. Perkins signed a one-year, minimum salary deal with the Pelicans back in July.

Southwest Notes: Carlisle, McGee, Douglas, Hayes

November 6th, 2015 at 9:59am CST by Chuck Myron

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban usually doesn’t do extensions, but he made an exception with coach Rick Carlisle, whom he signed to a five-year, $35MM extension Thursday, notes Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News details.

“I don’t say, ‘Here, this is the way it’s always going to be.’ The worst policy in the world is to be dogmatic about your policies,” Cuban said. “It was clear he wanted to stay. He didn’t put pressure on us at all. We reached out. What it confirms is we’ll never put money over winning. Winning always comes first.”

It was the right idea for both the team and the coach to extend the contract now, given the questions about whether the Mavericks can do much winning this season, since it removes any doubts about Carlisle’s future, opines fellow Morning News scribe Kevin Sherrington. See more on the Mavs amid the latest from around the Southwest Division:

It’s unlikely that JaVale McGee plays anytime in November, and his timetable for a return from his lingering leg injury is weeks, not days, tweets Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com. McGee’s with the Mavs on a $750K partial guarantee he locked in when he made the opening night roster.
The Pelicans gave Toney Douglas a $50K partial guarantee as part of his deal with them, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). It’s a prorated two-year, minimum-salary contract, according to Pincus.
The deal that the Rockets signed with Chuck Hayes this past weekend covers one year at the prorated minimum salary and is non-guaranteed, Pincus also shows. Since it’s only a one-year deal, it counts toward Houston’s tax and hard cap at only the two-year veteran’s minimum rate instead of the full 10-year minimum that the 32-year-old Hayes is actually making. The league will pay the difference.

Southwest Notes: Hayes, West, Davis

November 4th, 2015 at 10:27pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Veteran power forward David West sacrificed both money and playing time to join the Spurs as a free agent this past offseason, a move that was necessary to keep his competitive fire burning after 12 NBA seasons, Harvey Araton of The New York Times writes. “For me, in terms of basketball, I needed every night to mean something, in order to keep going,” West said. The player also acknowledged that the Pacers’ treatment of center Roy Hibbert played a part in his decision to leave Indiana, Araton adds. “It was a great environment, but I got to the point where I felt it was time to move in a different direction,” West said of his former team.

Here’s more from out of the Southwest Division:

Chuck Hayes, who was signed by the Rockets on Sunday, is thrilled to be back out on the court as a player after flirting with becoming an assistant coach, Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle writes. “It was a good feeling to go out there in the second quarter,” said Hayes after his first game back. “I don’t know all the timing, the offensive rhythm yet. I consider myself a good defensive player. I figure that’s the best way I can dictate and put an imprint on the game is on the defensive end. The thing I did is talk to the guys, tell them where the screens are coming, be active, let my voice do the work for me.”
Anthony Davis isn’t thrilled with his play in new coach Alvin Gentry‘s up-tempo system, and the Pelicans‘ slow start to the season isn’t helping matters either, John Reid of The Times Picayune writes. ”I’m always frustrated; I just want to be the best I can be to help the team win,” Davis said. ”I feel I’m not doing it right now. All the frustration is on me. They’re giving me great opportunities and I can’t find a way to put the ball in the basket.”
As his career winds down, Spurs big man Tim Duncan has re-invented himself as a “glue guy,” and instead of looking to score, he must look to do “the little stuff” that impacts the game, Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News writes. “I’m just trying to figure that out,” Duncan said when asked to describe his role. “I’m not sure what it is yet. It’s a little different now, because we added some different players. We’re all just trying to figure it out.”

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