Kevin Durant: “I Want To Own And Run An NBA Team”
Count Nets forward Kevin Durant among the NBA superstars who is interested in transitioning to team ownership once his career as a player is over. According to Steven Bertoni of Forbes, Durant expressed interest in overseeing an NBA franchise in a role similar to the one Michael Jordan has in Charlotte.
“I want to own and run an NBA team,” Durant said. “Run day-to-day operations and impact young players coming through the league.”
Bertoni’s profile of Durant focuses more on his business interests than his on-court NBA career, detailing how the two-time Finals MVP took advantage of his time with the Warriors to pursue investment opportunities in Silicon Valley. Bertoni suggests that KD will ultimately make well over $500MM from his basketball contracts and sponsorships by the time his playing career ends and wants to increase that number further through his “expanding collection of startups and media plays.”
“I started down here,” Durant said, gesturing to the floor. “I know there’ll be kids popping up in my family, and I want them to start above this roof. The only way to get there for your family is to create money, and I want to do it in a cooler way, not just being greedy and accumulating as much as I can.”
Durant isn’t the only NBA star that has talked about following in the footsteps of Jordan, who is the controlling owner of the Hornets and oversees the basketball operations department as well. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade are among those who have also shown interest in owning NBA teams.
Several Teams Monitoring Derrick Favors
With the Pelicans off to a 6-18 start to the 2019/20 season, veteran center Derrick Favors is one player being monitored by several teams around the NBA, writes Sean Deveney of Heavy.com.
Favors, 28, has been limited to just nine games so far this season due to knee and back injuries and the death of his mother. He rejoined the team this week, but won’t be active on Wednesday night as he continues to work on his conditioning after a lengthy absence, tweets Will Guillory of The Athletic.
Although there’s no indication yet that the Pelicans are prepared to become sellers in advance of February’s trade deadline, Favors would be a logical trade candidate if the team goes in that direction. The big man has been a reliable contributor for years and will be an unrestricted free agent next summer, with a $17.65MM expiring contract.
“He was in Utah for just about all his career and it looks like he struggled to adjust in New Orleans and that is something you worry about,” one league executive told Deveney. “But look, he is a dependable big guy. He can play better defense than he’s played this season. He is a good rebounder. He can give you 12, 15 points. Defenses can’t afford to lose him, he can make you pay. There’s going to be teams looking for a guy like that. But if you’re New Orleans, you’ve got a young guy you want to have those minutes.”
As that exec notes, the Pelicans have a young center in Jaxson Hayes who may see even more significant minutes if the team falls further out of playoff contention. Additionally, Zion Williamson might spend time at the five once he’s healthy and ready to make his NBA regular-season debut. With Jahlil Okafor also in the mix at center, Favors could make more sense as a trade chip — especially if the Pels don’t expect to retain him beyond this season.
Given his struggles so far this season and his sizeable cap charge, the Pelicans shouldn’t expect a major return for Favors, Deveney writes. Still, it was just five months ago that New Orleans surrendered a pair of future second-round picks for the right to take on the center’s contract. If the Pels take back some money in a deal, they could reasonably ask for one or two second-rounders.
Raptors’ Chairman: Masai Ujiri “Here To Stay”
As one report after another links Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri to the Knicks, Raptors chairman Larry Tanenbaum tells Michael Traikos of The Toronto Sun that there’s no reason to believe Ujiri won’t remain in Toronto beyond the expiration of his current contract in 2021. Given Ujiri’s track record, interest from the Knicks – and other teams – comes as no surprise, but the Raptors don’t plan to just let him walk away.
“He is the best,” Tanenbaum said. “But no team can come to talk to him. That’s tampering. And every owner knows that. Masai is here to stay.”
A recent Howard Beck report suggested that Ujiri has turned down a lucrative contract extension offer from the Raptors, but that was disputed this week by Michael Grange of Sportsnet. Tanenbaum confirmed to Traikos that Ujiri hasn’t rejected a contract offer.
“We haven’t talked (about an extension) at this point in time, but if you ask him, his intentions are pretty clear,” Tanenbaum said. Asked why the Raptors haven’t yet offered Ujiri an extension, Tanenbaum explained: “Masai has a contract that goes for another two years — this season and next season — so there’s really no need at this point (to re-sign him).”
ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and Adrian Wojnarowski reiterated in a report this morning that there have been no extension talks yet between Ujiri and the Raptors, but said Toronto ownership might make an offer in 2020 that expands Ujiri’s responsibilities and increases his compensation.
As Shelburne and Woj note, Knicks owner James Dolan has long been interested in Ujiri, who has consistently won trades with the Knicks, dating back to when he extracted a significant package for Carmelo Anthony as the Nuggets’ head of basketball operations. Dolan has privately expressed a fascination with Ujiri and shared those feelings with common friends, sources tell the ESPN duo.
Knicks Rumors: Fizdale, Durant, Porzingis, Griffin
Before being hired by the Knicks in the spring of 2018, David Fizdale was a highly sought-after head coaching candidate, according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne and Adrian Wojnarowski, who suggest that Fizdale had offers from the Hawks and Suns and was the leading candidate for the Hornets‘ opening as well. However, Fizdale was focused on New York and turned down other offers even before he received any assurances from the Knicks.
A year and a half later, Fizdale is back on the market after a miserable start to the 2019/20 season. Leading up to his ouster, Fizdale knew that team president Steve Mills and GM Scott Perry were meeting with players to get their input on why the Knicks weren’t showing progress, sources tell Shelburne and Wojnarowski. Eventually, Fizdale told Mills and Perry that he understood if they felt he’d become part of the problem.
Mike Miller has taken over as the Knicks’ interim head coach and should keep the job at least through the end of the season, assuming players respond to him, per the ESPN duo. But there have already been talks at the ownership level about potentially hiring a new coach during the season if the club’s struggles continue. That would present a new series of complications, since Mills and Perry are now on the hot seat themselves, and it’s not clear whether they’d get the go-ahead to pick a new coach.
Shelburne and Wojnarowski touch on many more topics in their latest article, exploring many other factors that have contributed to the Knicks’ ongoing struggles in recent years. The piece is absolutely worth checking out in full, but here are a few highlights:
- Kevin Durant did “strongly” consider the Knicks as a free agent destination earlier this year, but when he and Kyrie Irving talked about teaming up, Durant never pushed the Knicks the way Irving pushed the Nets, sources tell ESPN. Shelburne and Wojnarowski also suggest that team owner James Dolan was wary about bringing aboard Durant and his torn Achilles after the Knicks’ experience with Amar’e Stoudemire.
- The Knicks began gauging Kristaps Porzingis‘ trade value early in 2019, offering him to the Pelicans in an Anthony Davis package, per ESPN. When New Orleans showed little interest in that proposal, the Knicks began to wonder if league-wide interest in Porzingis may not be as high as they believed.
- When Porzingis and his brother (and agent) Janis found out the Knicks were discussing a possible trade with the Mavericks, they hurried a meeting with the team, providing a wish list of four destinations (Nets, Clippers, Raptors, and Heat), according to Shelburne and Wojnarowski. The Knicks turned around and quickly finalized a deal with Dallas, perhaps not wanting to lose leverage when Porzingis’ request leaked. The series of events left more than a dozen teams around the NBA wondering why they didn’t have a chance to bid on Porzingis, and suggested one of two things to rivals, per Shelburne and Woj: Either the Knicks knew Durant and Irving were coming, or they didn’t know how to properly execute a franchise-altering trade.
- After parting ways with Phil Jackson in 2017, the Knicks initially zeroed in on David Griffin, who told the organization he was interested only if he could become president of basketball operations and report directly to ownership. Dolan suggested he was “excited” about that idea, sources tell Shelburne and Woj. However, Griffin soon realized – particularly when word broke that the Knicks had signed Tim Hardaway Jr. to a four-year, $71MM deal – that he likely wouldn’t have full autonomy and would have to report to Mills. He met with the club but withdrew his name from consideration shortly after that meeting.
- The Knicks subsequently pivoted to Perry, a candidate “without the gravitas or leverage to demand a direct line to ownership.” Perry’s contract includes fourth- and fifth-year options that must be exercised this season, according to ESPN. It seems unlikely at this point that New York will pick up those options for 2020/21 and ’21/22.
Miles Plumlee Expected To Sign With Chinese Team
After parting ways with Kenneth Faried, the Zhejiang Guangsha Lions have reportedly agreed to sign another veteran NBA big man. A source tells Emiliano Carchia of Sportando that the Chinese club is adding free agent center Miles Plumlee.
The 26th overall pick in the 2012 draft, Plumlee has appeared in 346 total regular season NBA games for the Pacers, Suns, Bucks, Hornets, and Hawks, averaging 4.9 PPG and 4.5 RPG in 16.4 minutes per contest over the course of his career.
Plumlee, who was entering the final season of the four-year, $50MM deal he signed in 2016, was traded from Atlanta to Memphis over the summer, but didn’t make the Grizzlies’ regular season roster. The 31-year-old was waived along with Ivan Rabb at the end of the preseason, as the Grizzlies ate the remaining $12.4MM on his contract. He has been a free agent since then.
Mason is one of three Plumlee brothers with NBA experience, but he and Marshall Plumlee are out of the league for now, leaving Nuggets backup center Mason Plumlee as the only one of the brothers currently on an NBA roster.
Rockets Interested In Robert Covington
A day after Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that the Rockets were willing to surrender future assets for help on the wing, Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer identifies one specific target Houston is eyeing. League sources tell O’Connor that the Rockets have “serious interest” in Timberwolves forward Robert Covington.
Houston isn’t the only team with interest in Covington — O’Connor hears from multiple sources that playoff teams are monitoring the availability of the veteran, who will turn 29 on Saturday. As a very effective three-and-D player with a favorable contract, Covington could net a strong package for the Wolves if they decide to move him before this year’s deadline, O’Connor writes.
In 22 games (all starts) this season, Covington is averaging 12.5 PPG, 5.3 RPG, and 1.3 SPG with a .455/.369/.902 shooting line for Minnesota. He has an $11.3MM cap hit, with guaranteed salaries of $12.1MM (2020/21) and $13MM (’21/22) to follow.
For the Rockets, putting together a trade package for Covington might be tricky. While Houston could offer its first-round pick in 2020 and/or 2022, matching salaries would be an issue. The team signed Nene to a contract loaded with incentives in the hopes of using him as a salary-matching piece in a deal for a player like Covington, but the NBA ruled that Nene’s outgoing salary in a trade can only be $2.56MM (his guaranteed base) rather than $10MM (his actual cap hit), limiting the club’s options.
The Rockets are also right at the tax line, meaning they could face stricter salary-matching rules, depending on how a deal is structured. If Houston is unwilling to trade one of its five highest-paid players (James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Clint Capela, Eric Gordon, and P.J. Tucker), the club would have to package at least three smaller contracts for someone like Covington, which would be difficult for Minnesota to accommodate.
For what it’s worth, new Wolves president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas was Daryl Morey‘s top lieutenant for years in Houston, so Rosas will be very familiar with the Rockets’ roster.
Wizards Expected To Guarantee Jordan McRae’s Contract
The Wizards intend to fully guarantee Jordan McRae‘s contract this season even though he’s currently sidelined by a finger injury, Candace Buckner of the Washington Post reports.
McRae underwent surgery on his right ring finger last week to remove a pin from a previous surgery. The procedure was a precautionary measure to prevent infection. He’s expected to miss at least two weeks.
McRae suffered a fracture to that finger during the season opener against Dallas on October 23. He returned to action on November 6. The pin became dislodged on a dunk attempt against Charlotte on November 22.
McRae’s $1.6MM contract, which was already partially guaranteed at $600K, becomes fully guaranteed on December 20, per Basketball Insiders.
He is averaging 8.9 PPG, 2.4 RPG and 2.8 APG in 18.1 MPG in 13 games this season while backing up the team’s star, Bradley Beal.
NBA Denies Rockets’ Protest, Upholds Spurs’ Win
The Rockets‘ protest of their 135-133 loss to the Spurs on December 3 has been denied, commissioner Adam Silver and the NBA announced today in a press release.
Houston argued in its protest that a “missed” dunk by James Harden with 7:50 left should have counted and that the referees’ decision not to award the Rockets those two points had a clear impact on the outcome of the game, which the Spurs won in double overtime. Houston head coach Mike D’Antoni wanted to challenge the call, but wasn’t allowed to do so.
The NBA conceded that the referees missed the call and misapplied the coach’s challenge rules. However, Silver determined that the Rockets had sufficient time in regulation and in the subsequent overtime periods to overcome the error — at the time of Harden’s dunk, the Rockets had a 13-point lead.
The league therefore ruled that the “extraordinary remedy” of replaying the game’s final eight minutes – or awarding Houston a victory – wasn’t warranted.
The three referees who worked last Tuesday’s game have been disciplined by the NBA for misapplying the coach’s challenge rule, according to the league’s press release.
Kevin Love Reportedly Prefers Move To Contender
Trade rumors continue to swirl around Cavaliers forward Kevin Love, with Shams Charania of The Athletic and ESPN’s Brian Windhorst becoming the latest to weigh in on Love’s situation.
According to Charania, league sources have said Love would prefer a move to a contending team. Charania also reiterated what ESPN reported on Friday, indicating that the Cavs have been open to engaging in discussions with teams about a potential trade involving Love.
Windhorst, meanwhile, stated on his podcast that he thinks Cleveland’s phone lines “were always open” on Love, adding that the five-time All-Star seems “clearly unhappy” with the Cavs (hat tip to RealGM). Love expressed frustration over the weekend with the team’s struggles, and Windhorst suggests that the big man’s relationship with first-year head coach John Beilein may have accelerated the Cavs’ timeline for a trade.
[RELATED: Report: John Beilein’s Coaching Style Is Alienating Players]
The Cavs got off to a solid start this season under Beilein, winning four of their first nine games. Since then, they’ve dropped 12 of 13, and many of those losses have been blowouts. The team was hammered by 47 points in Philadelphia on Saturday.
After recording 18.3 PPG and 13.4 RPG on 48.1% shooting in Cleveland’s first nine games, Love has averages of 13.9 PPG and 7.6 RPG on 39.6% since then, and has battled a back injury.
While Love still has star-level upside, potential trade partners will be wary of his recent injury history (he hasn’t played more than 60 games in a season since 2015/16) and of his contract, which still has three years and $91MM+ left on it after this season.
Multiple Teams Monitoring Marvin Williams’ Availability
Several teams are monitoring the potential trade availability of Hornets forward Marvin Williams, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Charlotte is carrying a handful of high-priced veterans on expiring contracts, but Williams appears to be the most appealing trade chip in that group. Williams’ cap hit ($15MM) isn’t quite as pricey as Bismack Biyombo‘s ($17MM), and he has been a more reliable contributor in recent years than Michael Kidd-Gilchrist ($13MM).
After starting 347 of 388 games during his previous five years in Charlotte, Williams is coming off the bench this season. Although his counting stats (7.6 PPG, 2.8 RPG) are modest, he has shot well in 24 games (20.3 MPG), with a career-best .496 FG%, plus a .400 3PT%.
No team is in position to absorb a $15MM salary outright using cap room or a trade exception, so Charlotte would have to take back some money in any trade involving Williams. The 33-year-old doesn’t have significant trade value, but the Hornets could probably acquire an asset for him if they’re willing to take on an unwanted contract or two.