New Orleans Pelicans Rumors | Hoops Rumors

And-Ones: Kings, Pelicans, Mavs

October 25th, 2015 at 10:30pm CST by Will Joseph

Point guard Marshall Henderson, who was waived by the Kings two weeks ago, plans to accept an offer to play for Sacramento’s D-League affiliate, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports reports (on Twitter). Henderson, 24, went undrafted out of Mississippi in 2014. During his final season at Mississippi, Henderson averaged 19.0 points per game.

Here’s more from around the league:

Cory Jefferson‘s versatility was key factor in him making the Suns‘ regular season roster, Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic writes. “Guys like Cory and Jon Leuer are primarily power forwards but, the way the NBA is going, teams are placing premiums, as we are, on mobility, the ability to move your feet, guard multiple positions on the perimeter and switch, the ability to make an open shot and help with your spacing, the ability to run the floor and get out in transition,” Suns GM Ryan McDonough said. “The game is going more and more position-less. We try to balance the roster as much as we can but we look for guys who can potentially play multiple positions.”
If Chuck Hayes, who was waived by the Clippers on Saturday, doesn’t get picked up by another NBA team, he is expected to turn to coaching, his agent Calvin Andrews tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Hayes has received assistant coaching interest from several teams, including the Rockets, according to Spears (Twitter link).
While veteran Nate Robinson has moved into the top backup spot behind starting point guard Jrue Holiday, the Pelicans might still be looking to acquire another guard, John Reid of The Times-Picayune reports. Tyreke Evans and Norris Cole are out with injuries.
While many seem ready to write off Deron Williams, Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News opines the point guard’s talent — and desire — has not disappeared since a few years ago, when Williams was considered one of the league’s best. While Sefko seems to think Williams is ready for a rebound season in his home state, the scribe also concludes that Williams is likely the most important part of the Mavs this season.
Backup center Jeff Withey, whom the Jazz signed in August, has turned out to be a solid player and there is a good chance he sees a lot of minutes this season, Mike Sorensen of the Deseret News writes.

Pelicans Eye Ish Smith; Sixers Mull Waiver Claim

October 25th, 2015 at 12:25pm CST by Arthur Hill

12:25pm: The Sixers are considering claiming Smith off waivers, tweets Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today.

12:07pm: The Pelicans are nearing a deal with guard Ish Smith, tweets Scott Kushner of The New Orleans Advocate. Kushner reports that Smith is in New Orleans and is waiting to clear waivers.

Smith was waived Saturday by the Wizards, along with four other players. He had a non-guaranteed deal in Washington after performing well for the Sixers late last season. Smith played 25 games in Philadelphia, averaging 12.1 points, 6.1 assists and 2.8 turnovers in 27.1 minutes per contest. In five preseason games with the Wizards, his averages were 2.2 points, 4.0 assists and 1.0 turnover in 11.5 minutes.

If Smith is signed, he will bring the Pelicans up to the roster limit of 15, with 13 fully guaranteed contracts plus Nate Robinson, who has a non-guaranteed deal. New Orleans would be Smith’s ninth NBA franchise.

And-Ones: Hornets D-League, Final Cuts, Johnson

October 25th, 2015 at 10:03am CST by Arthur Hill

Greensboro, North Carolina, will be the site of the Hornets‘ new D-League team, reports Jeff Mills of the Greensboro News & Record. The new franchise, which will expand the league to 20 teams, will begin play next fall. Charlotte currently has no D-League affiliate. Players on D-League assignment will go to the one-to-one affiliate of another NBA team. “Greensboro’s approach to the process was innovative,” said Fred Whitfield, the Hornets’ president and chief operating officer. “Taking the Pavilion and renovating it into a basketball-style fieldhouse for us was very attractive. Especially when you could have offices for us right across the street.” The move is expected to be officially announced Tuesday. Asheville and Fayetteville were the other finalists.

There’s more news from around the basketball world:

After a flurry of moves Saturday, seven NBA teams still have final cuts to make before Monday’s roster deadline, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The Mavericks, Pistons, Pacers, Lakers and Grizzlies each have to unload one player to reach the roster limit of 15. The Nets still have 17 players and the Sixers have 20, which is the training camp maximum (Twitter link). The five teams with roster openings are the Rockets, Pelicans, Knicks, Magic and Suns, who each have 14 spots filled. (Twitter link).
Several teams have expressed interest in Nick Johnson, who was waived Saturday by the Nuggets, according to Sam Amico of Amicohoops.net. Citing an unidentified source, Amico says there’s a chance someone could pick up Johnson by Monday. Johnson was one of four players sent from Houston to Denver in the Ty Lawson trade.
The league is looking into the reported confrontation between Knicks coach Derek Fisher and the Grizzlies‘ Matt Barnes, writes Frank Isola of the New York Daily News. Commissioner Adam Silver confirmed the investigation, but did not offer specifics regarding possible punishment for either Fisher or Barnes. They were allegedly involved in a physical altercation at the house of Barnes’ estranged wife.

Pelicans Waive Adrien, Dejean-Jones, McCalebb

October 24th, 2015 at 12:21pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Pelicans have waived power forward Jeff Adrien, as well as guards Bryce Dejean-Jones and Bo McCalebb, the team announced via a press release. Adrien and McCalebb were both in camp on non-guaranteed deals, so New Orleans won’t be on the hook for any salary for them, but Dejean-Jones’ deal includes a partial guarantee of $50K, which the team will be responsible for unless he is claimed off waivers. The Pelicans’ roster count is now at 14 players, one below the regular season maximum.

Adrien appeared in 17 games with the Timberwolves last season, averaging 3.5 points and 4.5 rebounds in 12.6 minutes. The 6’7” forward, who played in China after Minnesota waived him in January, has played for five teams in his five-year career. He appeared in three preseason games this year, averaging 6.3 points and 6.0 rebounds.

Dejean-Jones averaged 12.8 points in 21.6 minutes per game for the Pelicans’ summer league entry, nailing 61.9% of his shots from the floor and nine of his 18 three-point attempts. Those were better numbers than he posted in his lone season with the Cyclones after having previously played at USC and UNLV. The 6’5″ Dejean-Jones put up 10.6 PPG in 23.0 MPG with 32.9% three-point shooting as a senior at Iowa State.

McCalebb, 30, has played overseas since going undrafted in 2008, save for a summer league stint with the Kings in July of that year. He was the top scorer in the Euroleague in 2011/12, notching 16.9 points per game for Siena of Italy. His assists were up last season with FC Bayern Muenchen of Germany, when he averaged 4.8 per game to go along with 12.4 PPG in 25.7 MPG.

Pelicans Cut Chris Douglas-Roberts, Sean Kilpatrick

October 23rd, 2015 at 10:56am CST by Chuck Myron

The Pelicans have waived Chris Douglas-Roberts and Sean Kilpatrick, the team announced via press release. The moves give New Orleans 17 players, 13 of whom have full guarantees. Neither Douglas-Roberts nor Kilpatrick has any guaranteed salary.

Most of the original camp invitees for the Pelicans were wing players like Douglas-Roberts and Kilpatrick, but injuries at point guard and center threw the preseason into flux for New Orleans. Centers Omer Asik and Alexis Ajinca, point guard Norris Cole, and swingman and occasional point guard Tyreke Evans are all missing time, plus starting point guard Jrue Holiday is on a minutes restriction. Point guards Nate Robinson and Bo McCalebb and power forward Jeff Adrien are the remaining non-guaranteed players for the team, while rookie shooting guard Bryce Dejean-Jones has a $50K partial guarantee.

The 28-year-old Douglas-Roberts was attempting to revive his NBA career after he saw action in only 12 games last season. He averaged 7.0 points in 19.7 minutes per game across seven preseason contests for New Orleans, including one start, but it wasn’t enough to save his spot on the roster. Kilpatrick, 25, looked strong, too, averaging 10.4 PPG in 14.2 MPG. He was the beneficiary of an injury problem last year with the Timberwolves, when he earned a roster spot in large measure because of his proximity to New York, where the Wolves were set to play the Knicks but didn’t have enough healthy players.

Who should the Pelicans keep for opening night? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.

And-Ones: Amerileague, Fredette, Draft, Coaches

October 22nd, 2015 at 12:28pm CST by Chuck Myron

The viability of the Amerileague plunged further into question Wednesday as a former spokesperson for the league revealed to freelance journalist Erin Ashley Simon that the league’s CEO was using a fictitious name and is actually Glendon Alexander, a former McDonald’s All-American with multiple fraud convictions. Amerileague operations manager Marcus Bass confirmed the news to Jeff Goodman and Paula Lavigne of ESPN’s Outside the Lines. Alexander has resigned as CEO, reports Adam Johnson of D-League Digest (Twitter link), ending a trail of suspicion about his involvement that Kami Mattioli of The Sporting News first detailed in May. Henry Walker recently became the first player who appeared in the NBA during the 2014/15 season to sign with the Amerileague, but Walker’s agent, Mike Naiditch, tells Hoops Rumors that, “If there was never a league, then [there] was never a deal.”

The Amerileague draft was to take place today, but Bass tells Johnson that the event is on hold (Twitter link). See more from around basketball:

An unwillingness to adjust his freewheeling college game to the NBA style of play led to Jimmer Fredette‘s lack of success in the league, one of his former NBA assistant asserts to Michael Lee of Yahoo Sports. The Spurs waived Fredette on Wednesday, though four other NBA teams still reportedly have some level of interest in him.
Vanderbilt junior center/forward Damian Jones says he plans to enter the 2016 draft, as Adam Sparks of The Tennessean relays. Chad Ford of ESPN.com ranks the 6’10” Jones as the 14th-best draft prospect, while Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress has him at No. 16.
Hawks assistant Kenny Atkinson, Magic assistant Adrian Griffin and Pelicans assistant Darren Erman are future head coaching candidates to watch, according to Chris Mannix of SI.com. Heat assistant David Fizdale draws an honorable mention on Mannix’s list.

Southwest Notes: Chandler, Mavs, Anderson, Sykes

October 22nd, 2015 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

It caught Tyson Chandler off guard when the Mavs pursued DeAndre Jordan instead of him, and Chandler felt as though he needn’t take a backseat to anyone, as Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News details. An extension was on the table before the start of last season, as Chandler and Mavs owner Mark Cuban both confirmed to Sefko, but Chandler elected to become a free agent, since doing so would have allowed him to re-sign with Dallas for five years instead of three, Sefko notes. Instead, the Mavs looked elsewhere, and Chandler signed with the Suns, a turn of events that left Chandler with a right to be bitter about what happened in Dallas, as Cuban said, according to Sefko.

“I would be, too,” Cuban said. “We had extension discussions for a reason. And then we went for it on a player that wasn’t ready to be gone for.”

Still, Cuban added he felt justified in going after Jordan, saying he’d “rather swing and miss than not step up to the plate,” as Sefko relays. See more on Chandler amid the latest from around the NBA:

Chandler made it clear Wednesday that he doesn’t feel animosity toward Cuban, observes Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com, though comments the center made on Tuesday that Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic conveyed showed that his feelings are still raw. “I definitely felt like, after winning a championship and [helping] bring it there, that I was going to be there for the long run,” Chandler said Tuesday. “I never heard of a championship team being broken up like that. When they traded for me to come back, I sat at the podium with everybody else and heard them say this was going to be a long-term deal and they weren’t going to make the same mistake as last time and blah-blah-blah. Seven months later, the same thing happens again. But I learned in this business that you can’t trust everybody. That’s why it is what it is.”
Ryan Anderson endured personal and physical hardships the last two years, but this summer, he finally had a chance to concentrate on his game, and new Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry is impressed so far, as Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel details. Anderson is entering the final season of his contract.
Spurs camp cut Keifer Sykes plans to join the team’s D-League affiliate once he clears waivers, a league source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link).

Southwest Notes: Thomas, Evans, Harrell

October 21st, 2015 at 7:15pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Pelicans swingman Tyreke Evans underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee on Tuesday, and he is expected to be out of action for six to eight weeks, John Reid of The Times Picayune reports. ”If you know Tyreke, if there is any way of getting back earlier, he’ll do that,” coach Alvin Gentry told reporters. ”But I know he will back as soon as he possibly can. He loves to play. He can play in pain. I just want him to get well and get completely healthy.” This was the second procedure on Evans’ knee since May.

Here’s more from the Southwest Division:

A few teams are interested in Deshaun Thomas, but chances are still good that he ends up with the Spurs‘ D-League affiliate in Austin, Jabari Young of The San Antonio Express-News relays (Twitter link). Thomas was waived by San Antonio earlier today.
With injuries to Donatas Motiejunas and Terrence Jones, Rockets rookie power forward Montrezl Harrell is getting a crash course in what it takes to be in an NBA rotation, writes Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. “He’s getting a lot of valuable lessons,” coach Kevin McHale said. “Sometimes, they’re painful lessons. He’s got a lot to learn like all rookies do. From a coaching standpoint, I’m happy for him. He gets much more opportunities. I’d much rather see D-Mo and Terrence out there every single day, playing and him playing backup and learning that way. Right now, he’s learning by baptism by fire.”
Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle was effusive in expressing his appreciation for what Tyson Chandler brought to the organization, and Carlisle understands that the veteran big man may harbor some ill feelings toward the franchise after being allowed to leave as a free agent a second time, Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News writes. “Tyson is one of the most special people I’ve met in my 33 years in this profession,” Carlisle said. “He knows how I feel about him and he has every right to feel the way he feels. He truly is one of the all-time great Mavericks, there’s just no doubt about it. And this past summer was the byproduct of the high-stakes things you go through in this league, the risks you take. We attempted to get the team significantly younger. It didn’t work out and he decided to leave, so that was certainly his prerogative.“

Southwest Notes: Ginobili, Dekker, Pelicans

October 20th, 2015 at 10:17pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Spurs veteran Manu Ginobili has been among the team’s most accurate shooters, making 12 of his 16 shots from the field overall and going 5 for 7 on 3-pointers in four preseason appearances, and entering tonight’s game he was the team’s No. 2 scorer, at 11.7 points per game, a level of play that is even surprising the 39-year-old shooting guard, Mike Monroe of The San Antonio Express-News writes. “I am shocked,” Ginobili said about his level of performance thus far. “To tell you the truth I wasn’t expecting this but I am feeling great; healthy; making shots. I’m playing relaxed. I am really enjoying the experience. That is what I wanted to achieve, this mental state. It’s way easier to do it in preseason when everything is more relaxed but we’ll see how it goes. So far, so good.”

Here’s the latest out of the Southwest:

Rockets first-rounder Sam Dekker has struggled with his shooting during the preseason, but the rookie feels that he is beginning to acclimate himself to the speed of the pro game, writes Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. “As a rookie there is that little growth process,” Dekker said. “I don’t think I’m anywhere near as comfortable as I’m going to be. I’m learning every day and trying to learn from the best and ask as many questions as I can. I’m trying to pick up as much as I can so I can help this team and learn every day and keep growing and get more comfortable.”
The Pelicans need to find an effective power forward who can defend and score if the team wants to shift Anthony Davis to the center position, which is being considered under new coach Alvin Gentry, Jonathan Tjarks of RealGM writes. One target for next offseason who Tjarks suggests would be a good fit in New Orleans is current Rockets combo forward Terrence Jones, who will be eligible to become a restricted free agent at the end of the 2015/16 campaign. While Houston will most likely prefer to re-sign Jones, a substantial offer sheet proffered by the Pelicans could dissuade GM Daryl Morey from matching and bring Jones to New Orleans, Tjarks opines.
Team owner Mark Cuban believes that if the Mavericks‘ top players can remain healthy, Dallas will deploy a potent lineup and have an excellent shot to make the playoffs this season, Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com relays. “We’re going to be fun,” Cuban said. “Our defense is going to be better, and we’re shooting the ball from three a lot more. And that’s with our young guys. Once the vets get in there, it will open things up more for them. … But we’ve got a lot of new, young guys that will be fun to watch. And then watching Dirk Nowitzki and Chandler Parsons and Wesley Matthews and Deron Williams, that’s going to be money right there. You know, that’s a [heck] of a top four.”

And-Ones: Cavs, Davis, Aldridge, Kobe, Teodosic

October 20th, 2015 at 9:59am CST by Chuck Myron

The Cavaliers are the pick to win it all and LeBron James is the favorite for MVP in the league’s annual GM survey, as John Schuhmann of NBA.com presents. More than half the executives who responded favor the Cavs, while the Warriors garnered only 17.9% of the vote, the third-lowest percentage for a defending champ in the 13-year history of the GM survey. Still, neither of last year’s Finals teams has Anthony Davis, whom a whopping 86.2% of respondents selected as the player they’d most want to build their teams around.

LaMarcus Aldridge drew 79.3% of the vote for the offseason acquisition who’ll make the greatest impact, and the Spurs garnered the same percentage for the team that had the best offseason, unsurprisingly. See more on Aldridge’s decision amid the latest from around the NBA:

Aldridge thought he would re-sign with the Trail Blazers when he put off thumb surgery last season, and he thinks the Blazers did all they could to keep him, but the lure of playing closer to his home in Texas proved too great when the time came for a decision, as he told Chris Mannix of SI.com. Aldridge said to Mannix that the idea that he left Portland because he couldn’t get along with Damian Lillard was overblown, and that while he and Lillard mutually acknowledged that they could have communicated better with each other, they don’t have a poor relationship. “But I never had an issue playing with him or anything like that or with him being the face or them promoting him or anything like that,” Aldridge said in part. “If I had an issue like that then why go to the Spurs? They don’t promote anybody.”
Kobe Bryant‘s presence was one of the best parts of meeting with the Lakers this summer, Aldridge insisted to Mannix for the same piece, striking back at the notion that he didn’t want to play with the Lakers star.
The GM poll also shows 28-year-old shooting guard Milos Teodosic, who plays for CSKA Moscow but whose NBA rights aren’t tied to any team, as the second-best international player outside the NBA aside from Sixers draft-and-stash prospect Dario Saric. Plus, more GMs want to see revamped lottery odds than any other rules change.