Northwest Notes: Saunders, Jazz, Thunder
Wolves owner Glen Taylor expects Flip Saunders to return as coach next season, reports Charley Walters of The St. Paul Pioneer Press. Saunders, who also serves as president of basketball operations, led the team to a 16-66 record this year, which was the worst mark in the league and helped Minnesota land the top pick in the draft. However, the Wolves were hampered by injuries all season. “I think he worked so hard last year with all those problems that he wants an opportunity to see if we are healthy, if we really have the team he thought he had,” Taylor said. Saunders expects to hold pre-draft workouts with at least five players, including Kentucky’s Karl-Anthony Towns and Duke’s Jahlil Okafor.
There’s more news from the Northwest Division:
- The Jazz will bring in six more players for pre-draft workouts Sunday [Twitter link]. The players are Andrew Harrison of Kentucky, Terry Rozier of Louisville, Vince Hunter of Texas-El Paso, J.P. Tokoto of North Carolina, Terran Petteway of Nebraska and Aaron White of Iowa.
- Re-signing free agents Enes Kanter and Kyle Singler is as much a business decision as a basketball decision for the Thunder, writes Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman. The columnist questions the wisdom of giving an eight-figure salary to a defensive liability like Kanter, but concedes that Oklahoma City has few options to replace the two players if they sign elsewhere.
- Anthony Morrow was the best free agent signing in Thunder history, Mayberry contends in a separate story. Morrow inked a three-year, $10MM deal last summer and gave Oklahoma City the outside shooting threat it needed. He connected on 43.4% of his shots from downtown and managed to lead the team in games played.
Northwest Notes: Nuggets, Wolves, Batum
The centerpieces for the Nuggets appear to be Danilo Gallinari and Jusuf Nurkic, as Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post sees it, and Kiszla finds it reasonable that the team will talk this summer about trading Ty Lawson, Kenneth Faried, or both. In any case, team president Josh Kroenke made it clear to Kiszla and fellow Post scribe Christopher Dempsey that he intends a strong push to find a star.
“There’s a period of transition that’s coming up, and we’re going to be aggressive … as an organization,” Kroenke said. “And continue to be aggressive until we feel we have the roster that truly can compete for something special.”
Kroenke judges by the volume of trade inquiries that he’s received from other teams, which include two calls since the season ended, that the players on Denver’s roster have plenty of value, Dempsey notes. There’s more on the Nuggets amid the latest from the Northwest Division:
- The Timberwolves are tentatively planning a predraft workout with two-guards Rashad Vaughn from UNLV, J.P. Tokoto from North Carolina and Michael Frazier from Florida next month, reports Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter links).
- The prospect of a Nicolas Batum trade seemed far-fetched last summer, but now it’s a realistic possibility, as The Oregonian’s Joe Freeman writes in a roundtable piece with other Blazers beat writers. Freeman would nonetheless bet on Batum staying in Portland and having a bounceback season in 2015/16, the last on his contract.
- Thunder GM Sam Presti wants to re-sign Enes Kanter and Kyle Singler, and that has to do with the team’s cap situation as much as the talent and production of the pair of soon-to-be restricted free agents, The Oklahoman’s Darnell Mayberry posits. Let them go, and the Thunder wouldn’t have the cap flexibility to replace them, Mayberry points out.
- Kroenke pointed to a lack of communication as the most unexpected shortcoming of Brian Shaw‘s tenure as Nuggets coach, as Dempsey writes in a separate piece.
James, Curry, Harden Lead All-NBA Teams
LeBron James and Stephen Curry finished atop the voting for the All-NBA Teams, with James Harden, Anthony Davis and Marc Gasol joining them on the first team, the league announced via press release. Russell Westbrook, LaMarcus Aldridge, Chris Paul, Pau Gasol and DeMarcus Cousins comprise the second team. Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, Tim Duncan, Klay Thompson and Kyrie Irving make up the third team.
Curry, the league’s MVP, and James each received 645 points through a system in which five points are awarded a first team vote, three points go for a second team vote and one point is given for a third team vote. The duo garnered 129 first team votes each, making them unanimous first team selections. They were followed closely by Harden, with 125 first team votes and 637 points, and Davis, who had 119 first team votes and 625 points. Marc Gasol, who’s heading into free agency, wasn’t as widely seen as a first-teamer by the media members who cast their ballots, rounding out the squad with 65 first-team votes and 453.
Every member of the second team received at least one first team vote, and Thompson and Irving were the only members of the third team not to get a first team vote. Al Horford also received a first team vote even though he didn’t make any of the teams. The NBA will soon display the votes of each media member on its website, but the league has already distributed the information via press release, so click here to check it out in PDF form.
Northwest Notes: Rubio, Singler, Jones, Crabbe
Ricky Rubio did his best to stamp out rumors that his camp is pushing for a trade, making it clear in comments to Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press that he’s not making any such effort to leave Minnesota and that he wants to be there when the team starts winning (Twitter links). “I really want to make it work here,” Rubio said. The point guard’s four-year, $55MM extension kicks in for 2015/16, a season in which the Wolves are in position to become the first team to have three consecutive No. 1 overall picks on the roster. Here’s more from around the Northwest Division:
- Kyle Singler‘s tenure with the Thunder got off to a rough start, but the team wants him back, and the soon-to-be restricted free agent makes it clear that interest is mutual, as The Oklahoman’s Darnell Mayberry details. “I want to be back for sure,” Singler said. “This is the type of environment that I think I thrive in. A winning team. A winning organization. Talented players. This is where I want to be.” Singler also said that joining the team at midseason gives him a leg up on next year in Oklahoma City, furthering the notion that he expects to re-sign.
- Perry Jones III has one more year left on his rookie scale contract, but it seems as though there’s some uncertainty that he’ll return to Oklahoma City for next season, given the Thunder‘s roster logjam, writes fellow Oklahoman scribe Anthony Slater. He’s eligible for a rookie scale extension this summer, but I’d feel safe in speculating that it’s a longshot that he’d receive such a deal.
- A quartet of Blazers beat writers, in a piece for The Oregonian, agree that Portland seems likely to retain Allen Crabbe, whose contract is non-guaranteed for next season. That’s in part because of the low cost associated with the deal, which calls for him to make the minimum, observes Joe Freeman of The Oregonian.
Northwest Notes: Wolves, Thunder, Lopez
The Timberwolves secured the top pick in Tuesday night’s NBA Draft lottery, and though the franchise is unlikely to trade the pick, team owner Glen Taylor indicated that the idea will at least be discussed internally, Ken Berger of CBSSports.com writes. “You never know what it could mean, if you could get the right one or two guys that could change your team,” Taylor said. “When you already have a bunch of young guys, you have to look at this type of stuff. But I think it’s a very hard decision to make.”
Here’s more from the Northwest Division:
- The Wolves owner also noted that the Cavs were reluctant to part with Andrew Wiggins, last year’s No. 1 overall pick, in the deal for Kevin Love, Berger adds. “They didn’t want to do that,” Taylor said. “I can tell you, because I ended up negotiating with their owner. They didn’t want to do that, because you just don’t know how good Wiggins could be in the future and you’re going to hear about that forever and ever and ever. So I think it’s probably highly unlikely, but I think it’s part of the discussion.”
- The Thunder achieved payroll flexibility as a result of the James Harden trade, and while the deal hasn’t resulted in an NBA title as a result, it has allowed the franchise to add a number of useful players to its roster, Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman writes.
- Robin Lopez is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer and the big man indicated that he would like to return to the Blazers for the 2015/16 campaign, Mike Richman of The Oregonian writes. “Nothing’s 100% certain,” Lopez said. “Obviously I’ve loved my time here in Portland. I would love to come back. I’d be very open to coming back, but it’s hard to say 100%. You just never know what’s going to happen.“
- With the Timberwolves having secured the top overall pick in June, Joel Brigham of Basketball Insiders breaks down Minnesota’s potential choices and what each player could bring to the franchise. The three players who make the most sense for the franchise to potentially take are Karl-Anthony Towns, Jahlil Okafor, or Emmanuel Mudiay, Brigham opines.
Scott Brooks To Turn Away Pelicans, Nuggets
Former Thunder coach Scott Brooks plans to decline opportunities to interview with the Pelicans and Nuggets and seems to be leaning toward taking next season off, league sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. It’s not entirely clear from the report whether New Orleans, Denver or both had extended invitations to interview for their vacancies, though Wojnarowski wrote Monday that the Pels were interested in the coach whom Oklahoma City dismissed last month. The Yahoo! scribe heard from league sources who identified Brooks as a top candidate for Denver and for the Magic in the immediate wake of his exodus from the Thunder, and Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders wrote recently that Brooks was second behind Tom Thibodeau on Orlando’s list of preferred candidates. It’s uncertain what Brooks would do if the Magic came calling, but Wojnarowski (on Twitter) describes Brooks as “likely” to sit out 2015/16.
Brooks spent most of the last seven seasons as the Thunder’s coach, his first NBA head coaching gig. His 338-207 record there is impeccable, but he’s only 39-34 in the playoffs and took the vastly talented Thunder to the NBA Finals only once, losing to the Heat in 2012. Still, the lack of postseason success had to do with injuries as much as it did with any of Brooks’ strategic shortcomings to which critics often pointed, and health was the culprit this season as Oklahoma City missed the playoffs. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka, the team’s preeminent stars, all missed significant time in 2014/15.
The 49-year-old Brooks still wants to coach again at some point, but he’s planning to concentrate on television opportunities and family in the season ahead, Wojnarowski hears. Oklahoma City will still be paying Brooks his salary next season, as Wojnarowski points out, since his contract had one more guaranteed season left when the team cut him loose, so the coach has the financial wherewithal to stay out of the game for a while.
Northwest Notes: Okafor, Towns, Thunder, Gee
Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities believes Jahlil Okafor is the guy at No. 1 for the Timberwolves (Twitter link), who won last night’s lottery, though he cautions that nothing is set in stone. That jibes with the feeling Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune had as of a week ago, when he said he thought the Wolves would go with the Duke center. However Chad Ford of ESPN.com and Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress top their mock drafts with the Wolves picking Kentucky big man Karl-Anthony Towns instead. Wolves coach/executive Flip Saunders played coy Tuesday night, not even deigning to narrow the field to those two, Zgoda notes.
“It’s not that simple,” Saunders said. “We have an idea but there are a lot of different directions we can go. … We have to rely on our ability to select the right players. This will give us great flexibility. Every spot you move up in the draft, you have more control over what’s going to happen and you have more people talking to you.”
Saunders did make it clear that the team almost certainly won’t trade the pick, as Zgoda relays. Here’s more from the Northwest:
- Persistent rumors indicate that Jahlil Okafor has his heart set on becoming a Laker, according to Givony, who wonders if agent Bill Duffy, who also represents Andrew Wiggins and who is college buddies with Saunders, will let Okafor work out for the Wolves.
- Thunder GM Sam Presti is pleased with the depth of the draft and said that while he’ll have exploratory talks about trading the team’s pick, at No. 14 overall, with all sorts of teams, he’d probably wait until draft night to make a move if he indeed makes one. Presti made those comments and many others to Royce Young of Daily Thunder, who provides a full transcript of their conversation.
- Alonzo Gee has been on the roster of a half dozen NBA teams in the past 12 months, but Joe Freeman of The Oregonian will be surprised if he sticks in Portland with a tumultuous summer ahead for the Blazers, as Freeman writes in a roundtable piece examining Gee’s future. Gee becomes an unrestricted free agent in July.
And-Ones: Calipari, Wolves, Knicks
The Knicks were the only team to fall in the draft lottery, sliding to the No. 4 overall pick. GM Steve Mills said that the team could still nab a good player at that spot, but also noted the team would listen to trade offers for the pick, Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com relays (Twitter links). Mills also said that the team would likely select a guard or a wing in the draft, which will cause New York to target big men via the free agent market, Begley adds.
Here’s more from around the league:
- South Korean prospect Jong-Hyun Lee will remain in the 2015 NBA draft, his agent Mike Naiditch told Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype (Twitter links). Lee is completing his military service and will be available for workouts after June 13th, Sierra adds. The 21-year-old isn’t currently projected to be selected in June’s draft, and he is the No. 47 ranked international prospect according to Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.
- There were conflicting reports earlier today regarding Kentucky coach John Calipari‘s desire to make the jump to the NBA with the Pelicans. Calipari issued a statement denying his interest, and Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com (Twitter link) notes that while Coach Cal is a master of putting a spin on news reports, the ESPN scribe doesn’t believe he’ll end up in New Orleans next season.
- Wolves coach/executive Flip Saunders said that winning the No. 1 overall pick in the draft lottery will give the team flexibility, but the franchise won’t trade the pick, Andy Greder of the St. Paul Pioneer Press tweets.
- The Thunder are still high on their domestic draft-and-stash pick Josh Huestis, who made a D-League arrangement with the franchise prior to having been selected with the No. 29 pick in last year’s NBA draft, Darnell Mayberry of the Oklahoman relays (Twitter links). When asked if Huestis would be on the team’s roster next season, GM Sam Presti said, “He’s someone that we think very highly of. We think he has a future with the team. He could be [on the roster] as early as next season.“
Northwest Notes: Garnett, Aldridge, Abrines
The Timberwolves got their apparent wish to receive Thaddeus Young in the final version of the Kevin Love trade instead of the Heat’s protected first-round pick this year, and Minnesota flipped Young for Kevin Garnett at this year’s trade deadline. The Sixers, who ended up with that protected Miami pick instead, have about a 9% chance to end up with it as a lottery pick this year, as the lottery odds show. Still, it’s more likely that it ultimately winds up going to Philadelphia next year as a late first-rounder, given the Heat’s strong chance to field a better team next season. Wolves coach and president of basketball operations Flip Saunders doesn’t have any regrets about trading for a aging superstar who’s mentoring rookies and veterans alike, as he told Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck in part two of a lengthy oral history on Garnett.
“What KG brings, the other things, how he might help these other guys analytically be better, is more important than a low first-round pick or whatever it is,” Saunders said.
Here’s more from around the Northwest Division:
- LaMarcus Aldridge finally had the surgery on his left thumb that he put off in late January, the Trail Blazers announced. He’s expected to be able to return to basketball activity in about eight weeks, and while that would carry into July, when he’s set to become a free agent, it shouldn’t affect his stock, given how well he played while he was dealing with the injury, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The Spurs, Mavs, Knicks, Lakers and Celtics are reportedly among the teams gearing up for a run at the Blazers star.
- Thunder draft-and-stash prospect Alex Abrines has officially signed an extension with Barcelona of Spain that carries through the 2018/19 season, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Orazio Cauchi). Jose Ignacio Huguet of Mundo Deportivo first reported the deal, though it remains unclear what sort of NBA outs, if any, are in the contract.
- The Thunder let some of the top shooting prospects know that shooting is an area of need for the team, and Oklahoma City’s interviews at the combine also revealed that the club is focusing on point guards, as The Oklahoman’s Darnell Mayberry examines.
Western Notes: Clippers, Thunder, Grizzlies
DeAndre Jordan is in no rush to discuss his plans as an unrestricted free agent this summer, and if the big man re-signed with the Clippers, his contract would restrict their ability to upgrade their bench, Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times writes. “I’m not a free agent until July,” Jordan said when asked about his future after the Clippers were eliminated from the playoffs. Clippers president of basketball operations and coach Doc Rivers acknowledged that the team’s lack of a strong bench was exposed in the playoffs. It would be hard to improve the bench, if Jordan agreed to a maximum five-year contract with the Clippers for an estimated $108.3MM, Bolch writes. That would leave the Clippers with only the mini-mid-level exception of $3.376MM per year for up to three years and some veteran’s minimum contracts, Bolch adds.
“We have to get this team more support,” Rivers said. “With the contracts we’re hamstrung with, it’s going to be minimum deals for the most part. There are no big deals out there that we’re going to make, most likely.”
Here’s more from the Western Conference:
- There’s a good chance small forward Jeff Green exercises his $9.2MM option for next season and tries to have a breakout year with the Grizzlies, Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal writes. Green struggled in Memphis and approached coach Dave Joerger about moving to a bench role during the regular season.
- The decision to fire Monty Williams as coach was more about the Pelicans‘ ownership and management being uncomfortable with Williams as its leader for the long haul and it had nothing to do with a power struggle or communication issue with GM Dell Demps, Sam Amick of USA Today writes. The Raptors will reportedly gauge interest in Williams as an assistant.
- Maurice Cheeks is emerging as a possible addition to Thunder coach Billy Donovan‘s staff, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports tweets. Cheeks served as an assistant in Oklahoma City under Scott Brooks from 2009 to 2013.