Southwest Notes: Thomas, Evans, Harrell
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
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
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.
Southwest Notes: Aldridge, Robinson, McCalebb
Free agent addition LaMarcus Aldridge cautions not to expect too much right away from the new-look Spurs, according to Mike Monroe of the Express-News. After a busy offseason, the Spurs have at least five new players to integrate into their lineup. Aldridge was San Antonio’s free agency prize, signing a four-year deal worth approximately $80MM. The team also signed David West, traded for Ray McCallum, signed Euroleague star Boban Marjanovic and signed Jimmer Fredette. “We are all going into this for the first time together,” Aldridge said. “The ups and downs of the season are going to be new to us as a group, just learning how to play together in certain environments, certain games.”
There’s more from the Southwest Division:
- Nate Robinson and Bo McCalebb had just one practice before playing in their first game with the Pelicans, writes John Reid of The Times-Picayune. Both were signed this week due to a rash of injuries, including backup point guard Norris Cole, who is expected to be out of action for six weeks with a high ankle sprain. ”I told them in the locker room after the game that it was really unfair what we asked them to do,” coach Alvin Gentry said. ”I think the thing that everyone has to realize is that these guys have been working but to be in basketball shape, you know you have to actually play basketball. So they struggled a little bit in that area.”
- Robinson received a one-year, non-guaranteed minimum $1.5MM contract, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders, and McCalebb was given a two-year, non-guaranteed minimum deal worth $1.4MM.
- Injuries in the frontcourt are getting in the way of Rockets coach Kevin McHale as he tries to set a rotation for the season, writes Jenny Dial Creech of The Houston Chronicle. Dwight Howard sat out his fifth straight game with a sore back Saturday, and backup center Clint Capela missed the game with a sore shoulder. A back injury has prevented Donatas Motiejunas from playing this preseason, and Terrence Jones was pulled in the fourth quarter for concussion evaluation. “I would like to see what we have and work on those lineups,” McHale said, “but I have to go with what I have, with who is healthy out there.”
Pelicans Waive Jerome Jordan
The Pelicans continue to shuffle their preseason roster, announcing today that they have waived center Jerome Jordan. Jordan’s minimum salary arrangement was non-guaranteed, so New Orleans won’t be responsible for any money as a result of parting ways with the player. The Pelicans’ roster count now sits at 19 players, which includes the recently signed Nate Robinson and Bo McCalebb.
Jordan was signed in an attempt to add depth at the center position after the Pelicans revealed that starting center Omer Asik is set to miss three weeks with a right calf strain, and the team is also without backup center Alexis Ajinca for about four to six weeks as he recovers from a strained right hamstring. New Orleans had reached an agreement with four-year NBA veteran Greg Smith, but he reportedly failed his physical, so his deal was called off. The team also released center Mirza Begić earlier today just two days after signing him.
The 29-year-old Jordan appeared in 44 contests for the Nets last season, averaging 3.1 points and 2.4 rebounds in 8.7 minutes per game. His slash line was .532/.000/.864.
Southwest Notes: Jenkins, Splitter, Pelicans
John Jenkins is the leading scorer for the Mavericks in the preseason so far, and while that’s in large measure because of the absence of some of the team’s key figures, he’s making a strong impression, as Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News details. Jenkins, who left the Hawks in free agency this summer three years after Atlanta picked him 23rd overall, just wishes he could have shown off his game sooner, Sefko relays.
“I put in the work for three years and felt I earned a chance in Atlanta,” Jenkins said. “But I didn’t get it. A lot of guys just need an opportunity. I wasn’t a first-round pick for nothing.”
Jenkins is one of 15 Mavs with a fully guaranteed salary for this season, so his place on the roster seems relatively secure, Sefko posits, even though four Dallas players have partial guarantees. See more from around the Southwest Division:
- The Spurs were tense in between the time they agreed to trade Tiago Splitter to the Hawks for virtually nothing aside from the cap space necessary to sign LaMarcus Aldridge and the moment Aldridge agreed to sign with San Antonio, writes Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express News. “We didn’t know what the outcome would be,” coach/president Gregg Popovich said. “But we knew if we wanted to change the team and add talent, it’s something we had to do.”
- The partial guarantee on Bo McCalebb‘s contract with the Pelicans is worth $50K, but it won’t kick in unless he sticks through October 27th, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). McCalebb is on a two-year, minimum-salary deal, Pincus also notes.
- Jerome Jordan‘s deal with the Pelicans is a non-guaranteed arrangement for one year at the minimum, and the same is true of the pact between Mirza Begić and the team, which New Orleans abruptly waived earlier today, as Pincus also shows on his Basketball Insiders salary page.
Pelicans Sign Nate Robinson
10:36am: It’s a non-guaranteed contract, according to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link).
FRIDAY, 10:31am: The deal is official, the team announced.
THURSDAY, 4:15pm: The Pelicans are set to sign unrestricted free agent combo guard Nate Robinson, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports (Twitter links). The deal will be for one year, and is for the veteran’s minimum, Stein adds, though the level of guarantee on his salary is unclear. The Pelicans already have 20 players on their roster, which is the preseason maximum, so a corresponding move will need to be made prior to inking Robinson.
Robinson had reportedly been considering an offer from the Sichuan Blue Whales in the Chinese league, according to international journalist David Pick. The 31-year-old began last season with the Nuggets and appeared in 33 games before he was traded to the Celtics in January for Jameer Nelson. Robinson then reached a buyout agreement and was waived by Boston in mid-January. The veteran also played for the Clippers last season on a pair of 10-day contracts but they opted not to sign him for the rest of the campaign because of a left knee injury. The Clippers wound up re-signing Lester Hudson heading into the playoffs because of lingering concerns over Robinson’s sore knee. Robinson appeared in a total of nine games for the Clippers, averaging 5.1 points and 2.2 assists in 14.0 minutes.
New Orleans is in need of backcourt depth in the wake of injuries to Jrue Holiday, who is playing on a minutes restriction until January according to coach Alvin Gentry, and Norris Cole, who is expected to miss up to six weeks with a high ankle sprain. The team also added Bo McCalebb on a partially guaranteed deal to bolster its backcourt ranks.
Pelicans Waive Mirza Begić
The Pelicans have released center Mirza Begić just two days after signing him, the team announced. The 30-year-old practiced with the team, but New Orleans didn’t play any preseason games during his brief tenure. The move reduces the Pelicans roster to 19 players, 13 of whom have full guarantees, and it opens a spot beneath the 20-man preseason roster limit for New Orleans to formalize a deal with Nate Robinson, with whom the team reportedly has an agreement.
Begić, a native of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has been with some of Europe’s most prominent teams, including Laboral Kuxta and Real Madrid of Spain and Olympiakos of Greece, but he’d never played with an NBA team before. He went undrafted when he was eligible in 2007.
New Orleans has made more roster moves than any other team in the past week as they deal with injuries to Omer Asik, Alexis Ajinca, Norris Cole and now Luke Babbitt, who’s out indefinitely with a left hamstring strain, as the team announced Thursday. The Pelicans signed Greg Smith and voided the contract after he failed a physical, signed Jerome Jordan, waived Corey Webster and signed Bo McCalebb in addition to their moves with Begić and Robinson.
Pelicans Sign Bo McCalebb
The Pelicans have signed Bo McCalebb, the team announced. Andrew Lopez of The Times Picayune reported Wednesday that the sides were having serious discussions. The New Orleans native and former University of New Orleans point guard goes into the roster spot vacated when the team waived Corey Webster just minutes ago, so the Pelicans are again at the 20-man preseason roster limit. The deal includes a partial guarantee, according to John Reid of The Times Picayune (Twitter link).
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. That will be key for a Pelicans team without Norris Cole for six weeks, especially with Jrue Holiday still on a minutes limit. Tyreke Evans is the team’s only other logical option at the point.
Injuries to Cole, Omer Asik and Alexis Ajinca have thrown the Pelicans into flux. The team has 13 full guarantees plus partial guarantees to McCalebb and Bryce Dejean-Jones, but if they keep all of them for opening night on October 27th, the Pelicans will have only Kendrick Perkins and Anthony Davis to play center unless Asik and Ajinca are healthy again by that time. Centers Jerome Jordan and Mirza Begić are in camp with the Pelicans, as is power forward Jeff Adrien.
Where do the Pelicans go from here? Who do you think they’ll keep for the regular season? Let us know with a comment.
Pelicans Waive Corey Webster
The Pelicans have waived Corey Webster, the team announced. The shooting guard from New Zealand was in camp on a non-guaranteed deal. The team is reportedly close to a deal with former University of New Orleans point guard Bo McCalebb, and the release of Webster drops the Pelicans roster to 19 players, giving them an open spot beneath the 20-man preseason roster maximum.
Webster, who turns 27 next month, scored four points in close to 22 total minutes of action across three preseason games for the Pelicans. He dished out six assists and committed just two turnovers, but it appears the Pelicans are focused on other options to handle their ball-distribution duties. Starting point guard Jrue Holiday remains on a minutes limit until January and backup Norris Cole is out six weeks with a high ankle sprain, as Andrew Lopez of The Times Picayune noted in his report about the team’s interest in McCalebb.
New Orleans has had a tough go of it with injuries so far, and already the team has made a series of moves to offset the loss of its top two centers, Omer Asik and Alexis Ajinca. The Pelicans have 13 full guarantees and a partial guarantee for rookie Bryce Dejean-Jones, as our roster count shows.