Oklahoma City Thunder Rumors | Hoops Rumors

And-Ones: Durant, Conley, Sterling

August 10th, 2015 at 9:53pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Kevin Durant plans to to participate in USA Basketball’s workouts on Tuesday and Wednesday during its minicamp in Las Vegas, Durant’s agent Rich Kleiman of Roc Nation Sports, and manager Charlie Bell informed Sam Amick of USA Today. Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony could also participate in Tuesday’s workout, Marc Stein of ESPN.com tweets. Durant will not participate in the team’s showcase game on Thursday, Amick adds. Thunder GM Sam Presti released a statement on Monday night saying that Durant had reached the stage where he could participate in non-contact drills, according to ESPN.com’s Royce Young (Twitter link). Durant played just 27 games last season because of a fracture in his right foot which required three surgical procedures. Anthony was limited to 40 games because of a knee injury.

In other news around the Western Conference:

Not many people think Mike Conley will leave next summer, when he’s set to hit free agency, according to TNT’s David Aldridge, who writes in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com. Marc Gasol hinted last month that Conley assured him he’ll be just as committed to the Grizzlies as Gasol was during his free agency process this year.
Former Clippers owner Donald Sterling has filed a lawsuit against V. Stiviano and the website TMZ over the infamous recording made by Stiviano that led to the sale of the team, Dan Woike of the Orange County Register reports. Sterling and his attorneys maintain the recording in which Sterling made racist remarks was obtained illegally and without his knowledge, Woike adds. Sterling has also filed a $1 billion federal suit against the league.
The league has pushed back its schedule release from Tuesday to Wednesday, according to Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer (Twitter link).

Northwest Notes: Brooks, Jones, Burke, Exum

August 9th, 2015 at 3:01pm CST by Arthur Hill

Billy Donovan was a smart coaching hire for the Thunder, but Scott Brooks never should have been let go, former NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy tells Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman. Van Gundy, who served as a graduate assistant at Providence during Donovan’s senior season, said Brooks did an “awesome” job, taking Oklahoma City to three Western Conference Finals appearances and one trip to the NBA Finals during his eight seasons. He was fired after OKC missed the playoffs last year in a season marked by injuries to Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka. “I just can’t say enough great things about Scott,” Van Gundy said. “I thought with his body of work, I was shocked that he wasn’t given a contract extension.”

There’s more news out of the Northwest Division:

The Wolves seem to be growing impatient with Ricky Rubio as their point guard and may be grooming rookie Tyus Jones to take his place, writes Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Jones, who was acquired in a draft-night trade with the Cavaliers, would fit into Minnesota’s young core that includes Andrew Wiggins, Karl-Anthony Towns, Zach LaVine, Gorgui Dieng, and Shabazz Muhammad. “We’ve got a lot of young guys who are talented,” Jones said. “We’ve got a good group of veterans who are going to help us learn. The good thing about us is the young guys are willing to learn and ready to learn and don’t think they know it all, so it’s a good mixture.”
The Jazz are reluctant to give their starting point guard job to Trey Burke after the ACL injury suffered by Dante Exum, Washburn relates in the same story. The belief in Utah is that Burke shoots too much and often doesn’t run coach Quin Snyder’s offense, according to Washburn, but the team may have no choice but to turn to Burke if it can’t trade for a replacement. The Jazz acquired Burke in a 2013 draft-day trade with the Blazers.
Exum is still getting other opinions on his torn ACL before scheduling surgery, tweets Jody Genessy of The Deseret News. The Jazz aren’t expected to release any sort of timeline on his return until after the surgery takes place.

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.

Pistons Rumors: Baynes, Blake, Jackson

August 8th, 2015 at 6:30pm CST by Arthur Hill

Aron Baynes was Detroit’s top offseason target for its frontcourt, according to Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. The Australian center signed with the Pistons in July after San Antonio chose not to extend a qualifying offer, and coach/executive Stan Van Gundy is confident that Baynes has talents he was never able to show with the Spurs because he was surrounded by so many good players. “What we saw was a real physical guy at both ends of the floor – a good, solid rebounder and an offensively skilled guy who can shoot the ball, who can post, who’s comfortable putting the ball on the floor and going to dribble handoffs and playing that way,” Van Gundy said. He added that team scouts were especially impressed with what they saw from Baynes in international play.

There’s more tonight out of Detroit:

Newly acquired Steve Blake won’t have a defined role if Brandon Jennings is fully recovered from an Achilles injury, Langlois writes in a separate story. Blake, who ended last season with Blazers, has been traded to Brooklyn and then to Detroit during the summer. Even if Jennings returns, Blake may be able to earn playing time, based on the assessment of Van Gundy’s brother, former NBA coach and current broadcaster Jeff Van Gundy. “That’s one of the things my brother said when we talked about the trade,” Stan Van Gundy said. “He said, ‘If I had to bet, I’d say he finds a way to get on the floor no matter what.’ That’s sort of what he’s always done. He’s found a way to play.” Blake is entering the final season of the two-year contract he signed with Portland.
Even if Jennings hadn’t gotten hurt last season, Van Gundy likely would have made the deal that brought Reggie Jackson from Oklahoma City to Detroit, contends David Mayo of MLive. Jackson offers more size at point guard, Mayo notes, and Van Gundy likes having bigger players on the perimeter. Although the Pistons may not have pursued the three-team trade without Jennings’ injury, Mayo argues that they would have accepted it, assuming it had been proposed. Jennings will become a free agent next summer when his three-year, $24MM contract expires.

And-Ones: Brooks, Contracts, Spurs

August 5th, 2015 at 10:36pm CST by Eddie Scarito

With the bulk of the offseason free agent signings in the rearview, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders examined whom he believes to be the best values amongst the free agent contracts doled out this Summer. The Cavs‘ re-signing LeBron James snagged the top spot, but Pincus also is a fan of the Celtics inking Amir Johnson, David West signing with the Spurs, and Brandan Wright‘s pact with the Grizzlies. The Basketball Insiders scribe notes that the best aspect of Johnson’s deal with Boston is that the second year is non-guaranteed, making him a potentially valuable trade chip next season.

Here’s more from around the league:

MarShon Brooks, who last played in the NBA with the Lakers during the 2013/14 season, has signed with the Jiangsu Dragons of the Chinese Basketball Association, Shams Charania of RealGM reports (Twitter link).
The Rockets sent the Nuggets $440k as part of the trade for Ty Lawson, and the Thunder forked over $1.5MM to the Celtics as part of the trade for Perry Jones III, Pincus relays (Twitter links).
Danny Green believes that the combination of the Spurs signing free agent LaMarcus Aldridge, and re-signing both Kawhi Leonard and Tim Duncan, will likely keep coach Gregg Popovich from retiring in the near future, Mike Monroe of The San Antonio Express News relays. “Without LaMarcus and Kawhi I think he’s out the door when Timmy [Duncan] leaves,” Green said. “Them being here I think extends his tenure just a little bit longer. Pop loves the game, obviously. I don’t see him stepping away fully. Even if he ever did he’d always be in the front office, or around or something.”

Northwest Notes: Christon, Brown, Wolves

August 3rd, 2015 at 9:22pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Semaj Christon, the 55th pick in the 2014 draft, has signed with Italy’s Vuelle Pesaro, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). Christon leaves the Thunder’s system after having spent this past season playing for Oklahoma City’s D-League team, but the Thunder retain his NBA rights as a draft-and-stash prospect. Check out our freshly updated list of draft rights held players here, compiled by Mark Porcaro.

In other news around the Northwest Division:

Lorenzo Brown‘s minimum salary is partially guaranteed for $75K, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). Brown was in line to receive $200K if he had remained on the Timberwolves roster through Saturday, as Hoops Rumors reported, before he and the Wolves changed the guarantee structure as part of a deal that would keep him on the roster for training camp, as Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities heard.
The Timberwolves will keep shooting coach Mike Penberthy around, president of basketball operations Flip Saunders told of Dan Barreiro KFAN Radio (hat tip to Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press and Andrew Renschen), a move that will likely please Ricky Rubio, Krawczynski observes (Twitter links). Rubio, the team’s most highly paid player, had developed a bond with Penberthy, who hadn’t been certain to return, the AP scribe notes.
The first two years of Tibor Pleiss‘ contract with the Jazz are fully guaranteed, with a $500,000 guarantee for the third season, Pincus reports in a separate tweet. Pleiss signed a three-year, $9MM contract on July 14th.

Northwest Notes: Alexander, Gallinari, Thunder

August 3rd, 2015 at 5:33pm CST by Chuck Myron

Cliff Alexander‘s camp deal with the Trail Blazers covers three years and has a $100K partial guarantee, according to former Nets executive Bobby Marks, writing for HoopsHype. Alexander was one of 441 players who took part in at least one of the three summer leagues without having signed a guaranteed contract, and that $100K means he wound up with a lot more than many summer leaguers, who left only with the $127 per diems they received while taking part in the Orlando, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City leagues, as Marks details. There’s more on Alexander amid the latest from around the Northwest Division:

Alexander told SB Nation’s Ricky O’Donnell that it “blindsided” him when he went undrafted in June, but agent Reggie Brown of Priority Sports said to O’Donnell that going undrafted was a better fate than having become a draft-and-stash pick (hat tip to TNT’s David Aldridge). “We knew the draft-and-stash would not be of benefit to him,” Brown said. “Cliff was not mature enough at 19 years old to go overseas for the first time. He didn’t have an older brother to help guide him like Emmanuel Mudiay did. I thought that would have been disastrous for his career so I made the decision not to do it. I could have took a lot of pressure off myself and in the media it looks great to have one of those teams take him, but I had to look him in the eye and tell him that we can’t do this. This is not best for your career. I felt he had the heart big enough to climb out of this.”
Danilo Gallinari will see precisely $14MM this season, $15.05MM next season and $16.1MM in 2017/18 as part of his renegotiation-and-extension with the Nuggets, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders shows (Twitter link).
The Thunder made a cost-cutting move in July, trading Perry Jones III to the Celtics, but the Oklahoma City organization isn’t anxious to move any more contracts and feels an urgency to win, sources close to the Thunder tell Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders, who writes in an NBA AM piece.

Western Notes: Jazz, Kanter, Davis, Donovan

August 2nd, 2015 at 3:03pm CST by Zachary Links

The National Basketball Players Association plans to file the action next week after the Kings voided Luc Mbah a Moute‘s contract over a failed physical. Meanwhile, we learned earlier today that the Kings are standing by their medical findings, which indicated a problem with the forward’s right shoulder. While we wait to see how that plays out, here’s more from the West..

Matt Moore of CBSSports.com looked back at the Jazz‘s decision to move Enes Kanter. Kanter received a max deal from the Thunder, and while he was worth those big bucks to OKC, the Jazz simply didn’t value him the same way. It would seem that many teams shared Utah’s opinion as Kanter sat on the restricted free-agent market for most of the free agency period without receiving an offer sheet, before the desperate Blazers offered up the max. Meanwhile, Moore says that there are compelling reasons to think Kanter’s attitude and defensive limitations will make the deal look like a bad idea for OKC.
Big man Glen Davis is still talking to the Clippers but he’s open to playing overseas if he doesn’t sign a contract in the NBA, a source told Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. On Friday it was reported that there was “optimism” on both sides that a pact could be reached. The eight-year veteran averaged career lows in points and minutes per game in 2014/15. Still, the John Hamilton client was one of only eight players to average more than 10 minutes per game in the playoffs for the Clippers this spring.
The Oklahoman’s Anthony Slater profiled the path of Billy Donovan, who was appointed as the new coach of the Thunder in April. Donovan was hired as the coach of the Magic for a cup of coffee years ago before bailing on the agreement and returning to Florida. Now, Donovan says that he’s ready for the challenges of the NBA.

Northwest Rumors: Burke, Huestis, Donovan

August 1st, 2015 at 1:35pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Trey Burke views the Jazz’s logjam at point guard as a source of motivation, Aaron Falk of The Salt Lake Tribune reports. This summer and upcoming season is crucial to Burke’s future with the club, Falk continues. Burke was a lottery pick in 2013 but lost his starting spot to 2014 lottery selection Dante Exum. The Jazz also have point guards Bryce Cotton, Raul Neto and Olivier Hanlan on the roster. Burke shot just 36.8% from the field and 31.8% on 3-point attempts last season while averaging 12.8 points and 4.3 assists in 30.1 minutes. His shooting percentage was the lowest of any player attempting at least 1,000 shots since 1965, Falk adds. “I just look at it as another test. A stepping stone. You can use it as motivation going into training camp,” Burke said during a conference call. “Right now, I’m really dedicating myself and, come training camp, I know I’ll be prepared, and that’s all that matters.”

In other news around the Northwest Division:

The Thunder gave Josh Huestis the full 120% bump on his rookie scale contract and thus he will make about $1.1MM this season, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets. Huestis made a pre-draft arrangement with Oklahoma City in 2014 to be taken in the first round and then delay signing a rookie contract. He spent last season with the Thunder’s D-League affiliate while making approximately $25,000. Huestis, who signed a four-year deal with a team option after the second season, is glad he took that gamble, according to Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman. “Obviously I was the first to do it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes a more common practice,” Huestis said to Mayberry of the domestic-draft-and-stash route. “Not only does it give you an opportunity to stay close to your organization and stay in America, but you get to play against great competition and learn from great coaches and a great staff.”
The focus on the Thunder this offseason has centered on new head coach Billy Donovan, Jenni Carlson of The Oklahoman writes. Donovan has already drawn rave reviews from people around Oklahoma City for his personality and seems to be a good fit with the community, Carlson adds.

Thunder Sign Josh Huestis

July 30th, 2015 at 5:33pm CST by Chuck Myron

5:33pm: The signing is official, the Thunder announce via press release.

“We are excited to add Josh to our roster as he allows us to continue to increase our depth through his athleticism and versatility,” GM Sam Presti said. “Josh knows our culture and our organization as a result of his time with the Blue [Oklahoma City’s D-League affiliate] and we look forward to his continued development with the Thunder.”

JULY 30TH, 5:00pm: Huestis has signed his rookie scale contract, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link), though the Thunder have yet to make an official announcement. The addition of Huestis gives Oklahoma City 15 fully guaranteed contracts.

JULY 14TH, 2:12pm: The Thunder are expected to fill the roster spot that their agreement to trade Perry Jones III will open up with Josh Huestis, last year’s No. 29 overall pick, reports Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman (Twitter link). Huestis spent the past year in the D-League as part of unique arrangement in which he promised to play for Oklahoma City’s affiliate in exchange for having been drafted in the first round.

Huestis wasn’t a likely first-round prospect coming into the draft, but it appears he’s headed for a rookie scale contract. Such deals are given out only to first-rounders, and they include two seasons of guaranteed salary. His contract, should indeed he sign this year, would be based off the 2015 rookie scale, so he’d get a salary worth more than $1.140MM for this season, with another guaranteed year of more than $1.191MM coming his way if he signs for the standard 120% of the rookie scale. Assuming such, the full amount of his rookie scale contract would be nearly $5.818MM, as our table of first-round salaries shows.

The Toby Bailey client nonetheless seemed willing as of this spring to play another year in the D-League. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him make frequent appearances with OKC’s D-League team again this year, though if he’s on an NBA contract, he’d continue to draw his NBA salary while doing so. The small forward’s stats weren’t eye-popping this past season for the Thunder affiliate, as he averaged 10.3 points and 5.7 rebounds in 33.1 minutes per game.