Atlantic Rumors: Knicks, Evans, Celtics
Knicks GM Steve Mills tells Grantland’s Zach Lowe that one of the reasons the team hired him was because he believed the team should preserve its cap room for the summer of 2015 and focus on developing young players rather than pursue Glen Grunwald‘s strategy of inking aging veterans. Lowe cautions that waiting around for free agents to come calling in two years is a risky strategy, and advocates for the Knicks to gauge the trade market for Carmelo Anthony. Mills has nonetheless made it clear that keeping Anthony is a priority, so it’s unlikely he’ll heed the Grantland scribe’s advice. Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- One of the deciding factors that led Kevin Garnett to waive his no-trade clause and OK his move to the Nets was Reggie Evans‘ continued presence in Brooklyn, tweets Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. Evans initially appeared headed for Boston, but the final version of the deal included MarShon Brooks instead.
- The Celtics expressed interest in bringing swingman Omar Reed to camp, as he recently told Bob Redd of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, but the team got in touch with Reed two days after he’d signed to play in Japan. The Celtics will nonetheless keep tabs on the 26-year-old who spent last season with Boston’s D-League affiliate, as Ridiculous Upside’s Keith Schlosser details.
- Sixers coach Brett Brown says shooting guards Vander Blue and Khalif Wyatt could be in a head-to-head battle for a roster spot, tweets Tom Moore of Calkins Media.
- Julyan Stone might be the favorite to win the final spot on the Raptors roster, but the competition between him, Chris Wright and Carlos Morais will be a tight one, observes Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun (All Twitter links).
Odds & Ends: Wolves, Teague, Sims, O’Quinn
The Timberwolves, like the Jazz, have shown interest at one point or another in Bulls point guard Marquis Teague, a league source tells K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. Johnson doesn’t make it sound as though the Wolves are currently pursuing Teague, but if the Bulls aren’t sold on him, that bodes well for the chances that 38-year-old point guard Mike James makes Chicago’s opening night roster on his non-guaranteed deal. The Tribune scribe checks in with James, who would be the league’s fourth oldest player if he makes the squad, and we’ve got more from around the NBA:
- Injuries have created an opportunity for Henry Sims, who’s more or less functioning as the Cavs backup center for now, writes Jodie Valade of The Plain Dealer, who examines the 23-year-old’s thrust to make the opening night roster on a non-guaranteed contract.
- Kyle O’Quinn‘s contract is non-guaranteed, but he’s been starting preseason games for the Magic. Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel examines Jacque Vaughn‘s curious decision to start O’Quinn over Tobias Harris.
- Knicks coach Mike Woodson says no decision is imminent regarding which of the team’s big men in camp will stick around for the regular season, hinting that it will take most or all of the preseason for the club to make its call, Newsday’s Al Iannazzone notes.
- Spencer Hawes is entering the final year of his contract with the Sixers, just as he was in the autumns of 2010 and 2011, but he says he’s learned from experience and isn’t “psyching” himself out the way he feels he did before, notes Tom Moore of The Intelligencer.
- Renaldo Balkman believes some coaches and GMs hold his troubled past against him, but Mavs coach Rick Carlisle isn’t among them, and Balkman is determined to use his non-guaranteed deal with Dallas to prove that he belongs in the NBA. Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has the details.
Eastern Notes: Biyombo, Diogu, Beasley
A few notes from around the Eastern Conference.
- Bobcats center Bismack Biyombo is not worried about the team picking up his team option by October 31, reports RealGm.com’s Shams Charania.
- Knicksjournal.com’s Keith Schlosser asks what it will take for Ike Diogu to make the Knicks final roster.
- Sun-Sentinel.com’s Ira Winderman examines the possibility of Michael Beasley infiltrating Miami’s rotation.
Eastern Notes: Aldrich, Anderson, Crawford
Five of the seven teams that are at the offseason roster limit of 20 players reside in the Eastern Conference, so the Sixers, Cavaliers, Hawks, Heat and Knicks will be making plenty of moves between now and October 26th, the deadline for teams to place their camp cuts on waivers. Here’s the latest from the East as cut-down day approaches:
- Cole Aldrich chose to sign with the Knicks over the Bulls, Kings and Pistons, and though coach Mike Woodson has criticized his play and the team appears to be looking for other backup centers, Aldrich is still favored to make the club, according to Marc Berman of the New York Post.
- Former first-round pick James Anderson is resurrecting his career and taking full advantage of the opportunity his non-guaranteed contract with the Sixers presents, as Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer details.
- Celtics teammates and coach Brad Stevens insist Jordan Crawford‘s reputation as a brash ball-hog is off-base, and they’re confident he has the passing ability to thrive as a combo guard as he enters the final year of his rookie scale contract, observes Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com. Grantland’s Zach Lowe notes the high level of optimism surrounding the ex-Wizard (Twitter link).
- Bucks owner Herb Kohl is walking a fine line as he tries to secure public funding for a new arena in Milwaukee, and he and GM John Hammond are being careful to keep the team competitive while still overhauling the roster, as Michael Hunt of the Journal Sentinel examines.
- Quincy Acy is about to start the last guaranteed season of his contract with the Raptors, and Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun chronicles the 2012 second-round pick’s efforts to crack the rotation before time runs out.
Odds & Ends: Burke, Jefferson, NBPA
Jazz rookie Trey Burke fractured his right index finger and will be evaluated on Monday tweets Jody Genessy of the Deseret News. Genessy notes, via Twitter, that Scott Machado has been given the most time behind Burke and John Lucas III at point guard this preseason.
Genessy also wonders, in a tweet, whether the Jazz will bring someone else in depending on the severity of Burke’s injury, and mentions Jamaal Tinsley as a possibility. Marc Stein of ESPN tweets that he’s heard of interest from the Jazz about the Bulls’ Marquis Teague, and postulates they may revisit that with Burke going down. The Jazz will find out Monday whether Burke’s fractured finger will require surgery, Stein adds (Twitter).
Here are a smattering of other links from around the league tonight:
- After the Bobcats‘ big free agent, Al Jefferson, severely sprained his ankle, he told the AP in Milwaukee that he’s trying to be back for opening night, tweets the Charlotte Observer’s Rick Bonnell.
- That’s 18 days away, Bonnell adds on Twitter, and he wonders in his next tweet whether the Bobcats might look to add a center in the interim.
- The Mavericks pickup of DeJuan Blair this summer might be huge for them, as we noted earlier tonight. Blair is looking forward to playing his former team, the Mavs intra-state rival Spurs, writes the Star-Telegram’s Dwain Price.
- Blair’s bitterness about his time in San Antonio is evident when he tells Price, “[the Spurs] didn’t give me nothing when I was there. I mean, the fans gave me everything, but everything else, it is what it is. I don’t look at that. I look for us to get a win.”
- Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News reports that the NBPA will not pay their new union head the $3MM annually that former executive director Billy Hunter made before he was ousted. Union sources say the annual pay will be around $1.5MM for the new executive director.
- The Knicks lost to the Celtics by 30 tonight in preseason action, but Touré Murry and Ike Diogu both made a case for a roster spot, writes ESPN New York’s Ian Begley.
Atlantic Links: Sixers, ‘Melo, Green, Lopez
Through his first three preseason games, Sixers rookie Michael Carter Williams has 16 assists and just 1 turnover. In Orlando, during summer league action, MCW averaged 4.8 turnovers a game, which was the highest in Orlando.
But Sixers coach Brett Brown wants Carter-Williams to play faster and even more uptempo, he tells the Intelligencer’s Tom Moore: “I actually think we can play faster and he can play faster,” Brown said. “I think we can get it out of the net on makes better. I really feel that’s where we want to place a lot of our focus.”
The risk is MCW’s turnover issues from the summer return if he plays out of control trying to match the uptempo pace Brown is favoring with his young team.
Here are some more links from around the Atlantic division on this Saturday night:
- Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony told Marc Berman of the New York Post that he took a “huge risk” this season by not having surgery on his left shoulder.
- Anthony actually had a torn rotator cuff to go along with a partially torn labrum, but elected not to have the surgery because doctors told him it would be a 4-5 month recovery because of the severity of the tear and he would have missed the beginning of the season.
- But now, ‘Melo says he “feels nothing,” as the twin tears healed themselves.
- Knicks coach Mike Woodson says he needs to see more toughness from Cole Aldrich, and that he needs to do the “dirty work,” tweets Al Iannazzone of Newsday.
- Jeff Green has shot just 28.6% from the field (8-for-28) through the Celtics‘ first three preseason games, but coach Brad Stevens says it’s too small a sample size to accurately judge, reports the Boston Herald’s Mark Murphy.
- Stevens thinks Green needs more paint points for the C’s, and tells Murphy, “Getting an and-one, an offensive rebound – something that’s a more difficult thing to do but with an easier finish. That can open the floodgates.”
- Brook Lopez came to camp this year at 290 pounds, tweets Pistons.com’s Keith Langlois. That’s 15 pounds heavier than last year’s playing weight for the Nets center, and Langlois says Lopez “looks massive now.”
Winderman On Stoudemire, Bosh, D-League
The Knicks aren’t drawing much attention as a potential landing spot for LeBron James next summer, unlike in 2010, when New York cleared cap space for LeBron and wound up signing Amar’e Stoudemire instead. But Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel believes that if Stoudemire musters a bounce-back season, the Knicks have at least a slight chance of trading his hefty contract and again opening up room for LeBron. It would be a shock if the Knicks found a taker for Stoudemire, whom they owe more money than anyone else on their roster, but considering the Hawks unloaded Joe Johnson last year with nearly $90MM left on his deal, you never know. Here’s more from Winderman:
- Many NBA players in Chris Bosh‘s circumstances would see next summer’s potential free agency as a chance to bolt and become a team’s No. 1 option, but Bosh is comfortable as the third man in the Heat‘s hierarchy. “The thing I like about this, is, of course I’m not the guy, I’m not the number-one option,” Bosh said. “That gives me creativity to be able to take my position and mold it into what I want to do.”
- If the Magic establish a D-League team in Jacksonville or another location close to Orlando, it could make it easier for the Heat to move their affiliate from Sioux Falls to Estero, Fla., where a D-League-caliber arena already exists.
- Michael Beasley‘s casual approach turned off many around the NBA, but he insists he’s taking his current opportunity with the Heat more seriously than when he joined the team as the No. 2 overall pick in 2008, as Winderman notes in a separate piece.
Atlantic Notes: Bargnani, Novak, Knicks, Turner
The Knicks and Raptors hooked up on a significant trade this past summer, with Andrea Bargnani heading to New York. Bargnani and the Knicks visited Toronto this evening for a preseason game, allowing fans and media to revisit the swap. Bargnani called himself “lucky” to have played for the Raptors, as the Toronto Sun’s Ryan Wolstat tweets, though I’m not sure whether the team or the Toronto faithful consider themselves so fortunate, considering their return on the investment in the former No. 1 overall pick. Here’s more fallout from that deal and other news from the Atlantic Division:
- While Bargnani’s departure from the Raptors was long-rumored, Steve Novak didn’t think he’d be leaving the Knicks, Newsday’s Al Iannazzone notes. “I didn’t expect it,” the sharpshooter said. “You understand this is the business we’re in. New York felt like home. It was a place I love to play and I miss. I miss those guys. It’s not easy being traded. But there’s no doubt Toronto is a great city and good place to be.”
- New Knicks GM Steve Mills is concerned about the team’s backup centers, but in talking with reporters today, he gave the thumbs-up to Bargnani and fellow offseason addition Beno Udrih, and declared his firm belief in coach Mike Woodson. Iannazzone and Marc Berman of the New York Post and provide details.
- If the Sixers don’t extend Evan Turner‘s contract before the October 31st deadline, a strong performance from him this season would boost his trade value and his worth on the free agent market, benefiting both team and player, writes Michael Kaskey-Blomain of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Eastern Rumors: Udoh, Clark, Bargnani
Royce White this evening made his first appearance in any sort of NBA game since last preseason, and though the former first-round pick completed a nifty coast-to-coast layup, he committed four fouls in the span of a minute and 26 seconds. It’s questionable, at best, whether the Sixers will pick up his 2014/15 option by the deadline to do so at the end of this month, as Mark Deeks noted yesterday in a piece for SB Nation. Among the latest chatter out of the East, there’s word on another player who’s unlikely to get good news as a contract-related deadline approaches:
- Ekpe Udoh‘s name emerged in trade talks this past summer, which would seem to counter any slim chance he has of receiving an extension to his rookie scale contract before the October 31st deadline. His odds of an extension grew worse today as the Bucks announced that he’ll be sidelined as long as six weeks after undergoing right knee surgery.
- Earl Clark and coach Mike Brown only briefly worked together on the Lakers, but Clark says Brown’s presence in Cleveland was a major reason why the forward decided to sign with the Cavaliers, according to HoopsWorld’s Steve Kyler (Twitter link).
- Keith Schlosser of Knicks Journal believes Andrea Bargnani won’t have any problems fitting in with Carmelo Anthony on the court, and posits that the three draft picks the Knicks gave up in the trade to acquire the former No. 1 overall pick can easily be recouped through future deals. I’d argue that it’s not so easy to acquire draft picks these days, given that the 2013 trade deadline passed without a single first-rounder changing hands.
- We rounded up a few items from the Central Division this afternoon.
Knicks Looking For Backup Center
New Knicks president and GM Steve Mills identified backup center as his team’s most significant area of need, and it’s “something we clearly need to worry about,” he told reporters today, including Newsday’s Al Iannazzone (Twitter links). Mills isn’t sure if Amare Stoudemire will be ready for the start of the regular season, Iannazzone notes via Twitter, and Jeremy Tyler is out with a broken foot. That leaves Cole Aldrich as the only true center behind Tyson Chandler, and though Mills likes what he’s seen out of Aldrich so far, it appears he’d like to upgrade the position before opening night.
The Knicks have a few other internal candidates who could conceivably play out of position, like Kenyon Martin, Andrea Bargnani and Josh Powell. Still, the team appears unwilling to put a heavy load on Martin, and Bargnani and Powell are much more suited to power forward. The Knicks have a full complement of 20 players, so if they were to add someone to their preseason roster, they’d have to part with someone else.
Jason Collins would be the most high-profile signing the team could make, and the Knicks reportedly showed interest in him before deciding to go with Aldrich and Tyler instead. Both Aldrich and Tyler are on non-guaranteed deals, so New York could revisit their decisions to add them over Collins if they wish. The free agent market for experienced centers is otherwise thin, though Daniel Orton, whom the Thunder waived yesterday, is among those available. The Knicks could also attempt to swing a trade, though we haven’t heard anything indicating that they’re working toward that.