New Orleans Pelicans Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Western Notes: Williams, Asik, Rondo

August 9th, 2015 at 11:18am CST by Arthur Hill

Devin Harris hopes to have a “rejuvenated” Deron Williams with the Mavericks next season, according to Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com. Williams signed a two-year deal with Dallas last month after being waived by the Nets.

“I know what kind of player he is,” Harris said of Williams, whom he was once traded for. “I know he’s excited to be rejuvenated here, especially coming back home. And you know, hopefully he can kind of rejuvenate what he’s been doing, play at a high level and get us to where we need to be.”

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

The Pelicans signed Omer Asik to a five-year, $58MM contract this offseason and Ben Dowsett of Basketball Insiders believes it is one of the worst contracts handed out this offseason. The writer cites Asik’s age as well as the declining value of the traditional center as reason for the pessimism. Only $44MM of the center’s deal is fully guaranteed, so the team could get out from the contract if needed after only four years.
Dowsett also lists Rajon Rondo‘s new pact with Sacramento as a deal that the team will ultimately regret. Rondo’s deal is for $9.5MM over one season, but Dowsett believes the Kings could have signed the point guard for less due to the lack of suitors, which would have allowed the team to spend elsewhere.

Chris Crouse contributed to this post.

Northwest Notes: Exum, Hanlan, Donovan

August 8th, 2015 at 9:52pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Jazz have several options to replace the injured Dante Exum, according to Zach Lowe of Grantland. Exum tore the ACL in his left knee Tuesday while playing for the Australian National Team and is expected to miss the entire 2015/16 season. Utah currently has about $6.7MM in unused cap room, Lowe notes, along with four nonguaranteed contracts. By opening up some more room, the Jazz could fit Jose Calderon if the Knicks decide to dump his salary or they could make a play for Pelicans free agent Norris Cole. Another option is to target guards on teams seeking luxury tax relief, such as Miami’s Mario Chalmers or Oklahoma City’s D.J. Augustin. Lowe reported in April that Utah was hoping to trade its first-round pick for a point guard, but couldn’t find any takers.

There’s more from the Northwest Division:

The Jazz would have preferred to keep Olivier Hanlan in Idaho for this season, tweets Andy Larsen of KSL.com, but the small D-League salaries made that impractical. Hanlan, the 42nd pick in this year’s draft, signed with Zalgiris Kaunas of Lithuania.
Thunder coach Billy Donovan’s journey to the NBA began in earnest when Rick Pitino became his coach at Providence, writes Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman. Frustrated over a lack of playing time, Donovan was thinking of leaving Providence before prior to his junior year when Pitino took over as coach. As a senior, Donovan averaged more than 20 points per game and played in the Final Four, launching his career, briefly as an NBA player, and ultimately as a coach.

Knicks Among Teams Interested In Norris Cole

August 4th, 2015 at 11:28am CST by Chuck Myron

The Knicks have joined the Sixers and incumbent Pelicans as teams interested in restricted free agent Norris Cole, but New Orleans seems likely to either re-sign him or match another team’s offer sheet, according to Hoops Rumors contributor Sam Amico of AmicoHoops.net (Twitter link). However, New York has reportedly agreed to a deal with fellow Rich Paul client Kevin Seraphin for the apparent cost of the $2.814MM room exception, limiting the Knicks to the minimum salary if they can’t engineer a sign-and-trade.

Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops identified the Sixers as a suitor in mid-July, around the same time that John Reid of The Times Picayune heard that the Pelicans remained interested. New Orleans has only been willing to go so far, as Reid reported about a month ago, and the most recent dispatch from Scotto indicated that Cole saw the prospect of signing his $3.037MM qualifying offer as a viable option.

New York is relatively thin in the backcourt, with Langston Galloway and Jerian Grant poised to become the primary backups for Jose Calderon and Arron Afflalo. Galloway and Grant have just a half-season of NBA experience between them, while Cole was in the rotation for back-to-back champs as a member of the Heat. The Wizards, Thunder, Bucks and Cavs all reportedly had interest in trading for Cole while he was still with the Heat as the February trade deadline approached, but as a restricted free agent months after Miami sent him to the Pelicans in the three-team Goran Dragic trade, the market for him has seemed cooler.

Do you think Cole will sign an offer sheet with the Knicks, Sixers or another team, or do you think he and the Pelicans will work something out? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.

Western Notes: McDaniels, Barton, Babbitt

August 2nd, 2015 at 9:15pm CST by Chuck Myron

Here’s a look at the latest contract news from the Western Conference:

The three-year contract that K.J. McDaniels signed with the Rockets is worth exactly $10MM, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders shows (Twitter link).
Will Barton will make $3,533,333 in each season with no options in his new three-year deal with the Nuggets, according to Pincus.
Luke Babbitt‘s two year deal with the Pelicans is for the minimum salary, reports Pincus (Twitter link).
Salah Mejri is receiving a guaranteed rookie minimum of $525,093 this season, the first on his three-year deal with the Mavs, tweets Pincus.

Will Joseph contributed to this post.

Pelicans Waive Toney Douglas

July 31st, 2015 at 5:16pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Pelicans have waived guard Toney Douglas, the team announced. The release of Douglas reduces the Pelicans’ current roster count to 12 players.

The player’s 2015/16 salary of $1,185,784 would have become fully guaranteed if he remained on New Orleans’ roster through Saturday, as is shown by our schedule of guarantee dates. Douglas was originally signed by the Pelicans on February 4th, then was released on February 19th before subsequently re-signing with the team for the remainder of the season back on March 24th.

Douglas, 29, appeared in 12 games for New Orleans during the 2014/15 season, averaging 4.3 points and 2.0 assists in 14.8 minutes per game. His career numbers through six NBA seasons are 7.6 PPG, 2.2 RPG, and 2.2 APG.

Western Notes: Davis, Blazers, Warriors, Warren

July 28th, 2015 at 10:34pm CST by Charlie Adams

Anthony Davis seems to be completely on board with the Pelicans’ decision to bring aboard Alvin Gentry as head coach next season, John Reid of the Times Picayune suggests. After winning the championship as an assistant with the Warriors last season, Gentry looked into the national TV’s cameras while holding the Larry O’Brien Trophy and exclaimed to Davis that a title was in the duo’s future in New Orleans. Davis said he was impressed with the conviction shown by Gentry, according to Reid, and Davis also added that he’s excited about the mix of old and new assistant coaches that Gentry will be working with next season.

Given the brutal nature of the Western Conference, it might be a stretch to suggest the Pelicans will be in the same spot next year that the Warriors are in now, but with Davis locked in as the franchise’s cornerstone for at least five more seasons, New Orleans will have a shot to be great if they can continue to build around the 22-year-old phenom. We’ll look at more from out West below..

The Blazers didn’t have to trade any players over to the Cavs in the deal that netted them Brendan Haywood’s $10.5MM, non-guaranteed deal since they sent the minimum $75K in cash Cleveland’s way, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders points out in a tweet.
Portland renounced Joel Freeland‘s Bird Rights, Pincus also tweets. Freeland spent the last three seasons with the Blazers before deciding to sign overseas in Russia on a two-year deal with CSKA Moscow.
The Warriors should have a trade exception worth $5.4MM as a result of the trade that sent David Lee to the Celtics, Pincus observes in another tweet.
Jonathan Tjarks of RealGM concludes that given the Suns’ roster situation, they’ll need to see improvement from players they already have on the team, like second-year wing T.J. Warren, rather than bringing in new faces. It’s still not totally clear how Warren’s unorthodox game will translate to the NBA however, as Tjarks surmises.

Latest On Norris Cole

July 28th, 2015 at 11:57am CST by Chuck Myron

Norris Cole sees the prospect of signing his qualifying offer of more than $3.037MM from the Pelicans as a viable option, a league source tells Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops, who writes amid a roundup on the top remaining free agents. The Sixers have interest, as Scotto reported two weeks ago, but it’s unclear how far that interest extends, as Scotto writes in his latest piece.

The Pelicans are apparently only willing to go so far themselves, so it’s not a shock that Cole would consider the chance to take the one-year qualifying offer and hit unrestricted free agency next summer, when the cap is set to surge to a projected $89MM. The market for the Rich Paul client has seemed cool this summer compared to the weeks leading up to the February trade deadline, when Wizards, Thunder, Bucks and Cavs all reportedly had interest before the Pelicans acquired him from the Heat in the three-team Goran Dragic trade.

Anthony Davis said Monday that he hopes Cole is back with the Pelicans, as John Reid of The Times Picayune notes (Twitter link). New Orleans let the deadline for teams to unilaterally withdraw qualifying offers pass last week, a signal that the Pelicans maintain at least some level of interest, and indeed, Reid has consistently heard that’s the case. The Pelicans have been carrying 13 deals and are well below the $84.74MM tax threshold, so they have flexibility. Another key date looms Saturday, when the minimum salary for Toney Douglas would go from non-guaranteed to fully guaranteed if he remains under contract through that day.

Do you think Cole would be wise to take the qualifying offer? Leave a comment to let us know.

Pelicans Sign Kendrick Perkins

July 28th, 2015 at 11:13am CST by Eddie Scarito

JULY 28TH, 11:13pm: The deal is official, the Pelicans announced.

JULY 21ST, 6:49pm: The Pelicans and unrestricted free agent Kendrick Perkins are in the process of finalizing a contract agreement, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports (Twitter links). It will be a one-year pact for the veteran’s minimum, Stein adds.

The Clippers, Rockets, and Knicks had all expressed interest in the 30-year-old center. Instead, Perkins will add depth and grit behind starter Omer Asik, who re-signed with New Orleans this offseason for five years and approximately $60MM.

Perkins appeared in a combined 68 games for the Thunder and the Cavaliers, 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.

Latest On Carlos Boozer

July 28th, 2015 at 9:12am CST by Chuck Myron

The Knicks, Rockets and Mavericks continue to have interest in signing Carlos Boozer, league sources tell Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops (Twitter link). Scotto first identified the Knicks as among the teams eyeing the Rob Pelinka client earlier this month, though Marc Berman of the New York Post reported soon thereafter that the Knicks had engaged in internal conversations about him but hadn’t made a formal pursuit. Chris Broussard of ESPN.com pegged the Mavs and Rockets as among the teams in on Boozer just before free agency began, while Broussard later heard that the Mavs were one of four teams in talks with the former All-Star.

The Knicks and Mavericks have access to the $2.814MM room exception. The Rockets are in a tough spot, since they only have roughly $2.3MM left on their mid-level exception to spend but would trigger a hard cap if they gave any of it to Boozer. Houston also has No. 32 pick Montrezl Harrell who remains unsigned.

Several other teams, including the Clippers, Spurs, Raptors, Pelicans, Nuggets, Nets, Lakers and Heat, have reportedly been interested in Boozer over the last month, but it’s unclear if any of them remain in the mix. Boozer and the Clippers reportedly had mutual interest.

Larry Drew II To Play In France

July 26th, 2015 at 9:43am CST by ChrisCrouse

Larry Drew II has signed a deal with AS Monaco Basket in France, according to David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). The point guard played for the Pelicans in this year’s summer league.

Drew II signed two 10-day contracts with the Sixers in January of last season, but was not re-signed for the remainder of the year. Philadelphia was pleased with the production it received from the University of California product, but the team didn’t want to tie up an additional roster spot before the trade deadline.

“Flexibility,” coach Brett Brown said last season when asked why the team didn’t sign Drew for the rest of the 2014/15 campaign. “The trade deadline is coming up, and we need flexibility. We may see [Larry] again. Who knows? What I do know is he was an ‘A’. He did everything and some, and it doesn’t prohibit us from revisiting him [in the future] at all.”

The 25-year-old has shown play-making ability, but his inconsistent jumper needs improvement if he is going to have a career in the NBA. He averaged 3.8 points and 3.8 assists while shooting 15.4% from behind the arc during his 12 games as a Sixer last year.