Latest On Knicks’ Front Office Shakeup
As the Knicks restructure their front office, Allan Houston appears to be in line for a promotion, according to Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News.
Houston, 48, was New York’s former assistant general manager and currently serves as GM for the organization’s G League affiliate in Westchester. He was a strong proponent of hiring that team’s former head coach, Mike Miller, as the Knicks’ interim coach after David Fizdale was fired. Houston has been with the organization since 2008 and has survived multiple management shakeups.
Bondy shares information on a few other prominent figures:
- The Knicks have given up on an attempt to lure Rich Cho from the Grizzlies‘ front office. A source tells Bondy that Cho is happy in Memphis, where the team is a surprise playoff contender with a bright future built around Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. Cho has more than two decades of experience as an NBA executive and is a former GM with both Charlotte and Portland.
- Vice president of player development Craig Robinson, best known as the brother of former First Lady Michelle Obama, is seeing a reduction in responsibilities. Robinson was hired three years ago by ousted team president Steve Mills to run the Knicks’ player development initiative. However, the organization has experienced a mixed draft record during that time and is using a lineup mostly consisting of players who were developed by other teams.
- No decision has been made on GM Scott Perry, but he has a strong relationship with William Wesley (“Worldwide Wes”), who will have an unofficial role with the team through his close ties to incoming president of basketball operations Leon Rose. Perry was an executive in Detroit when Wesley was managing former Pistons star Richard Hamilton.
- Bondy confirms that Tom Thibodeau, a former client of Rose’s Creative Artists Agency, is expected to be considered for the head coaching job.
John Beilein Resigns As Cavaliers Coach
After days of rumors that he was on the way out, John Beilein has officially resigned as coach of the Cavaliers, the team announced in a press release. Beilein will remain with the team and will be assigned to a different role.
“Over these last nine months, I have given my all to this organization, but after much reflection, I have decided that it is best that I step back and resign from my position as head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers and assist the organization in a different capacity,” Beilein said. “I am very grateful to (owner) Dan Gilbert, (general manager) Koby Altman and the entire Cavaliers organization for the opportunity they have provided me.”
Beilein, 67, had a rocky road throughout his first NBA season after four decades of success in the college ranks. He posted a 14-40 record, but the losing was expected with a rebuilding team. It was Beilein’s coaching style that reportedly alienated many of his players, and he often seemed out of touch with the NBA game.
Beilein was second-guessing his decision to leave Michigan as far back as the preseason, according to a report from The Athletic this morning. He found that his players didn’t respond well to lengthy practices and film sessions, and he wasn’t used to the idea of load management to help veterans get through an 82-game season.
“This was a very difficult decision for me,” Beilein added in the press release, “but I want to be clear – this was my decision to step down and I truly appreciate the understanding and support of the front office during this time. I find losing very challenging and this year has taken a much bigger toll on me than I expected. I grew concerned for the consequences this toll could potentially take on my own health and my family’s well-being down the road. I was not certain I could be at my best for the remainder of the season and in the future. That would not be fair to the players, coaches and support staff.”
Beilein’s new role and how long he will remain there haven’t been determined, tweets Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. Sources expect Beilein to be heavily involved with the draft because of his connections to the college game.
Beilein spent 12 years at Michigan, leading the team to nine NCAA Tournament appearances and two Final Fours. He compiled 829 total college wins with 20 postseason appearances. Those credentials convinced the Cavaliers to gamble on him despite a lack of NBA experience, giving him a five-year contract in May.
“John Beilein is one of the more accomplished basketball coaches in the history of our game and while it’s unexpected, we understand and respect his decision to step down as head coach of the Cavaliers,” Altman said. “I was excited about the development of our young players, who have all shown growth and maturity under Coach Beilein. We are thankful for the time he spent as head coach with the Cavaliers and are looking forward to his continued contribution. The NBA is a unique business that sometimes requires aggressive risk-taking on important long-term decisions to move a franchise forward and ultimately compete for championships. I would like to thank the incredible fans of the Cavaliers for their support in both good and challenging times. Building a strong culture will continue to be the top priority here at the Cavaliers.”
As expected, assistant coach J.B. Bickerstaff will be promoted to replace Beilein. He has previous experience as a head coach with the Rockets and Grizzlies, compiling an 85-131 record. Every assistant coach is likely to be promoted, according to Fedor, which means Lindsay Gottlieb figures to move to the front of the bench (Twitter link).
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Hawks’ Capela, Labissiere Out At Least Two More Weeks
3:59pm: The Hawks have announced in a press release that both Capela and Labissiere will be re-evaluated in two weeks.
1:53pm: A pair of centers acquired by the Hawks at the trade deadline won’t be making their debuts for the team anytime soon, according to head coach Lloyd Pierce, who said today that Clint Capela and Skal Labissiere are still “weeks” away from playing, per Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Twitter links).
Capela missed the last seven games before the All-Star break – three with Houston and four with Atlanta – due to plantar fasciitis in his right heel. After being acquired by the Hawks in a four-team trade at the deadline, the 25-year-old said he was aiming to get back on the court later this month, but based on Pierce’s update today, it sounds like that won’t happen.
As for Labissiere, he has been on the shelf since December 28 due to a left knee injury. The Trail Blazers’ last update, issued on January 8, suggested he’d be re-evaluated in four weeks. Instead, he was traded to Atlanta around that four-week mark and we haven’t gotten a concrete update on his timeline since then.
The 15-41 Hawks are much closer to the top spot in the draft lottery than they are to the No. 8 seed in the East, so the club won’t rush its injured players back onto the court. Still, Atlanta would presumably like to see how Capela and Labissiere look alongside the team’s young core before the end of the season.
Labissiere will be eligible for restricted free agency this summer. Capela is on a long-term contract, but the Hawks will want to see if he meshes with big man John Collins, who will be eligible for a rookie scale extension during the 2020 offseason.
Pacers Lift Victor Oladipo’s Minutes Restriction
Pacers star Victor Oladipo will no longer face a minutes restriction, head coach Nate McMillan said today (Twitter link via Bob Kravitz of The Athletic).
Oladipo, who returned to action on January 29 after a year-long recovery from a ruptured quad tendon, initially was limited to 24 minutes per contest. The Pacers bumped that restriction up to 28 minutes about two weeks ago. Going forward, Oladipo has the green light to play more than that, though the team figures to continue being cautious with its star guard, who has appeared in just seven games so far.
McMillan said today that Oladipo will still only play the first half of Indiana’s back-to-back sets, per Kravitz. However, as Scott Agness of The Athletic points out (via Twitter), that shouldn’t be too big a deal, since the Pacers’ schedule only features three more back-to-backs. And obviously, once the postseason begins, that won’t be a concern.
A two-time All-Star, Oladipo has struggled to score efficiently since returning, averaging just 11.1 PPG on .329/.244/.800 shooting. Still, his defense has been solid and the expectation is that the shot will start to fall once he gets a little more comfortable and rediscovers his rhythm.
The Pacers, who currently rank sixth in the Eastern Conference with a 32-23 record, will resume their battle for playoff positioning on Friday when they visit the Knicks in New York.
Bulls’ Kris Dunn May Not Return This Season
FEBRUARY 19: The Bulls have issued a formal update on Dunn, announcing that he’ll continue his current rehab program for four-to-six weeks before “progressing to functional training.”
There are only eight weeks left in the regular season, so this update from the club certainly doesn’t contradict Johnson’s report (detailed below) that Dunn may not return this season.
FEBRUARY 17: The Bulls announced on February 4 that Kris Dunn‘s right MCL sprain would be re-evaluated in two weeks, which means an update from the team should be right around the corner. According to K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago, there’s concern that the next update on Dunn won’t be a positive one.
Sources tell Johnson there’s a “growing belief” that Dunn is at risk of missing the rest of the 2019/20 season. As Johnson notes, a similar injury sidelined the fourth-year guard for 23 games last season. Dunn has missed four games so far and Chicago has just 27 contests remaining on its regular season schedule.
If Dunn can’t make it back to the court this spring, it would be a disappointing end to the season for the former fifth overall pick, who will be eligible for restricted free agency this summer. Dunn’s scoring and passing numbers (7.3 PPG, 3.4 APG) have dipped in 2019/20, but he has emerged as the Bulls’ go-to perimeter defender. His rate of 2.9 steals per 36 minutes leads the NBA.
Dunn is also just six starts away from meeting the starter criteria, which we explained in detail earlier today. If he doesn’t make six more starts, the 25-year-old will be eligible for a qualifying offer worth $4,642,800 instead of $7,091,457.
We’ll have to wait for official word from the Bulls on Dunn’s status, but at the very least, it doesn’t sound like his return is at all imminent.
More Details On Cavaliers/John Beilein Split
John Beilein‘s stint as Cavaliers head coach has come to an abrupt end halfway through his first season in Cleveland, and there were warning signs even before the regular season began that things could be headed in this direction, according to a new report from Shams Charania, Jason Lloyd, and Joe Vardon of The Athletic.
The Athletic’s trio suggests that players began to tune out Beilein during training camp, and there were already signals at that point that the new head coach was unhappy in Cleveland. After a pair of preseason blowout losses to the Celtics, league sources were saying that Beilein was second-guessing his decision to leave college for the pros, per The Athletic.
Beilein’s tone toward players was said to be an issue throughout the season, as he allegedly nitpicked fundamentals and displayed an inability to adapt to the NBA’s offensive and defensive structures, according to Charania, Lloyd, and Vardon.
“He was a dictator — not a coach suited for today’s NBA,” one source told The Athletic.
While players were immediately turned off by Beilein’s style, the longtime college coach was “stunned” by the culture in the NBA, according to The Athletic. He was surprised by players’ “revulsion” to long film sessions and practices, and wasn’t accustomed to things like load management – such as Kevin Love sitting out half of back-to-back sets – or trades, which he didn’t have to deal with in college. The Athletic’s report indicates Beilein had a hard time adjusting on offense after the Cavs sent Jordan Clarkson to Utah in December.
The Athletic’s report paints a picture of a marriage between team and coach that was doomed from the start. Here are a few more of the most notable details from the story:
- Recently-acquired center Andre Drummond didn’t take to Beilein at all upon joining the Cavs earlier this month. One source told The Athletic that Drummond said the situation in Cleveland was worse than the one he’d come from in Detroit. The veteran center reportedly indicated he’d walk in free agency if Beilein was still the Cavs’ coach, Lloyd said in a radio appearance (Twitter link via Keith Britton of 92.3 The Fan).
- After Beilein said in a January film session that his team had been playing like “thugs,” he apologized, claiming that he had meant to say “slugs.” But several players never really bought that explanation, per The Athletic. “There was no coming back from that,” said one player, who suggested the excuse was an insult to the players’ intelligence. After that incident, a handful of players began blasting songs that prominently featured the word “thug” when Beilein was within earshot, sources told Charania, Lloyd, and Vardon.
- The Athletic trio suggests that team owner Dan Gilbert may have had a hand in steering the head coaching search toward Beilein, despite his denials that it was his decision. One source told The Athletic that GM Koby Altman and his front office were at least more on board with Beilein than the previous group – led by David Griffin – was with the David Blatt hire in 2014.
Cavaliers Part Ways With John Beilein, Promote J.B. Bickerstaff
The Cleveland Cavaliers and coach John Beilein are officially parting ways, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com reports. J.B. Bickerstaff will be promoted to the head coaching role and won’t receive an “interim” tag.
Beilein began talking to general manager Koby Altman about the possibility of stepping down from his position before the All-Star break began, sources tell Wojnarowski. He’ll have an opportunity to say goodbye to players and staff on Wednesday once the team returns from its All-Star break. He’ll end his brief tenure in Cleveland with a record of 14-40.
We heard earlier today that Beilein was expected to walk away from the remainder of his four-year contract, which he signed this past summer. The pact, which featured a fifth-year team option, would have paid him approximately $4-5M per season. Wojnarowski suggests the two sides reached a settlement that will pay Beilein some of the money remaining on his 2019/20 salary.
A longtime college coach, Beilein joined the Cavaliers after a successful run at the University of Michigan, but never fully adjusted to or got comfortable in the NBA, according to a report earlier this week. His son Patrick Beilein’s resignation from his head coaching job at Niagara in October reportedly took a toll on the Cavs’ coach. The younger Beilein stepped down for personal reasons before coaching his first game at Niagara.
On- and off-court issues for the Cavaliers piled up during Beilein’s first year. A report in December suggested that his coaching style was alienating some players. About a month later, the 67-year-old was at the center of a mini-controversy when he reportedly told his players they were no longer playing “like a bunch of thugs.” Beilein, who said he had intended to say “slugs,” apologized to the team.
On top of all that, the Cavaliers have struggled this season to balance developing their young prospects with keeping their veteran players happy. Kevin Love has publicly expressed his frustration with the situation in Cleveland multiple times this season, and both Love and Tristan Thompson reportedly wanted to be moved before the trade deadline.
Although management and ownership was committed to seeing things through with Beilein, the veteran coach was described as being unhappy in Cleveland, according to Wojnarowski. There had been rumblings for several days suggesting that his time as Cavs head coach would end sooner rather than later.
As for Bickerstaff, he’s in his first season as an associate head coach in Cleveland. He led the Grizzlies for two seasons previously, taking over for David Fizdale as an interim head coach during the 2017/18 season before becoming the club’s official leader in 2018/19.
In addition to his head coaching experience in Memphis, Bickerstaff spent five seasons on Houston’s bench and served as an interim head coach briefly for the Rockets after Kevin McHale was let go. He began his coaching career at the age of 24 as an assistant under his father, Bernie Bickerstaff, on the expansion Bobcats.
Wojnarowski writes that Bickerstaff was hired as part of an eventual succession plan for Beilein, so barring another unexpected turn of events, it sounds like he’ll hold the head coaching job beyond this season.
Luke Adams contributed to this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Jeff Green Signs 10-Day Deal With Rockets
FEBRUARY 18, 7:19pm: The Rockets have signed Green to a 10-day contract, the team announced in a press release.
FEBRUARY 17, 6:31pm: Green will initially sign a 10-day contract, Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle tweets. That will give him a chance to see how he fits in before making a rest-of-the-season commitment, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets.
FEBRUARY 17, 5:56pm: Free agent forward Jeff Green has agreed to sign with the Rockets, Tim MacMahon of ESPN tweets. Green was waived by the Jazz earlier this season.
Green, 33, has bounced around the NBA in recent years, spending time with seven franchises in the past six seasons. While he has been a regular rotation player and occasional starter for every team he has played for, he was off to a slow start in Utah, averaging career lows in PPG (7.8), RPG (2.7), MPG (18.4), FG% (.385), and a handful of other categories. The Jazz let him go in order to sign a younger player, Rayjon Tucker.
With Green joining the fold and DeMarre Carroll expected to sign with the club once he clears waivers, the Rockets will have a full roster as well as fortifying their frontcourt. By adding two forwards rather than a center, Houston is clearly embracing small ball. The club has utilized P.J. Tucker in the middle in recent games since trading traditional center Clint Capela.
Green signed a one year, $2.56MM contract with Jazz last summer. If he signs a minimum-salary, rest-of-season deal with the Rockets, it would fall below $1.4MM, eliminating set-off and allowing Green to double-dip from Utah and Houston, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link). That would push his total salary for the season to $3.1MM, Marks adds.
Kyrie Irving To See Specialist, Out Indefinitely
Kyrie Irving, who is nursing knee and shoulder injuries, isn’t expected to return to the court anytime soon, as Malika Andrews of ESPN.com relays. The Nets‘ point guard is scheduled to see another specialist for this shoulder this week.
“That’s about all I can tell you,” coach Kenny Atkinson said. “His shoulder continues to bother him. That’s about the extent of it now.”
Irving missed 26 games earlier this season because of shoulder woes. He should have a clearer timetable for a return after seeing the specialist.
Atkinson said that Irving didn’t re-aggravate the injury on a specific play or during a specific practice. It’s something that has been lingering.
“A cortisone shot lasts as long as it can,” Irving said back in December. “You either continue to get cortisone shots, which is obviously detrimental to your health and your muscles, or you go get arthroscopic surgery. For me, it’s just about being able to go back out there after the right amount of rehab, the right amount of rest and recovery and see what we can do for the rest of the season and then re- evaluate after a few months.”
The Nets inked Irving to a four-year deal during the offseason. He has missed a total of 33 games for the club because of his various ailments.
Reggie Jackson Bought Out By Pistons, Plans To Join Clippers
5:07pm: The Pistons have issued a press release formally announcing they’ve reached a buyout agreement with Jackson and have waived him.
3:24pm: Veteran point guard Reggie Jackson has reached a buyout agreement with the Pistons, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who reports (via Twitter) that Jackson intends to sign with the Clippers once he clears waivers and reaches free agency.
Jackson, 29, has spent the last five years in Detroit, having been acquired from the Thunder in a three-team trade in February 2015. He signed a five-year, $80MM deal with the Pistons a few months later and is now in the final season of that contract. His buyout agreement with the club figures to slightly reduce his $18,086,956 cap hit for 2019/20.
The Pistons had hoped that giving Jackson the reins as the team’s starting point guard – after he began his career as Russell Westbrook‘s backup – would clear a path for him to develop into a star. Although the former Boston College standout had some productive seasons in Detroit, his overall numbers as a Piston (16.2 PPG, 5.6 APG, .425/.354/.851 shooting) fell short of that star level.
Jackson’s name surfaced frequently in trade rumors over the last couple years, but his rising cap hit made it difficult for the Pistons to find a deal that upgraded their roster. Even at this year’s deadline, as the team pivoted toward a rebuild and accepted a very modest package for Andre Drummond, Detroit apparently didn’t find a trade offer it liked for Jackson.
With the Pistons headed for a lottery finish, there was little incentive to keep Jackson around for the rest of the season. He’ll now finish the year with the Clippers, who have until this Saturday to sign a player and get back to the 14-player roster minimum.
As Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN notes (via Twitter), L.A. could still use a defensive wing or a rim protector, but Jackson will give the team another ball-handler and a veteran scorer off the bench.
The Lakers and Clippers, who were poised to compete for Darren Collison if he had opted to come out of retirement, were each said to be in the market for a point guard. Wojnarowski confirms (via Twitter) that the Lakers also had interest in Jackson — they’ll have to look elsewhere if they still hope to address the position.
[RELATED: 2020 NBA Buyout Market Watch]
Jackson had still been owed $5.7MM of his ’19/20 salary, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks. While we don’t know the exact terms of the buyout agreement, the veteran guard likely agreed to give back a prorated portion of the minimum salary. If he’s officially released by the Pistons today and joins the Clippers on Thursday, he’d make $734,025 on his new contract, with a $512,721 cap charge.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.