Pacific Notes: Morris, Kobe, Nash, Thompson
Suns free agent signee Tyson Chandler is optimistic that the team and Markieff Morris can resolve their differences, having gone through a tenuous time himself years ago when New Orleans traded him to the Thunder only to have Oklahoma City nix the deal, as Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic details. Phoenix doesn’t intend to fulfill the trade demand that Morris has made, Coro writes, which jibes with his report from earlier and what Grantland’s Zach Lowe heard, even though Morris reportedly plans on greeting the Suns front office with silence and coach Jeff Hornacek with only one-word answers if they bring him to camp.
“It’s not about them,” Chandler said to Coro about Suns executives. “That’s no offense to Ryan [McDonough], the GM, or the owner. Players play for players and the coaches. You’ve got a bond. Management has nothing to do with anything that goes on when you’re on the court. That’s just my thoughts. I’m not saying this for anything against Keef either. He’s a man and he has to go through his own process. But he can be special and I know he will. I feel like all this stuff will be forgotten once we kick off and we’re having success.”
See more from the Pacific Division:
- The Lakers announced a nine-month recovery timetable when Kobe Bryant had surgery to repair his torn right rotator cuff in January, which would have made his return in time for camp a close call, but he’s been medically cleared for all basketball activities, Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding hears.
- Warriors coach Steve Kerr is high on what Steve Nash can bring as a part-time player development consultant for the team, though he cautioned in an interview with Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group that the deal to hire him for that role isn’t official. Kerr added that he won’t ask Nash to return to play, as the Mavs reportedly considered doing. “In Phoenix we grew very close and he’s probably the smartest basketball player I’ve ever been around in my life, not only the way he played but the way he prepared and trained and thought about the game,” Kerr said to Kawakami. “I just felt like if we could just get him to help out, just be around our guys occasionally and develop relationships, spend some time on the floor with them occasionally, it’d be a big help.”
- Kerr expressed his desire for continuity, though he does envision a role for trade acquisition Jason Thompson, as he said to Kawakami for the same piece. The coach was also quick to point to his fondness to James Michael McAdoo, who has only a partially guaranteed deal with the Warriors.
Pacific Notes: Hibbert, Green, Suns
Draymond Green had spoken with one other unnamed franchise prior this to re-signing with the Warriors this offseason, the forward told Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. “It wasn’t much. I talked to one other team and that was really not a serious conversation at all [because] I knew where I wanted to be,” Green said. “I knew where I was going to be and my focus was to have my agent, B.J. Armstrong, work with the Warriors and get a deal done. That was the main focus. I talked to Joe [Lacob]. I talked to Peter [Guber]. I knew where I was going to be, I knew where home was, and we got it done. It was great that the Warriors stepped up to the plate and got it done in the fashion that they did, where I didn’t have to sign an offer sheet or anything like that and we just got the deal done. It says a lot about the Warriors as an organization, it says a lot about Peter and Joe as an ownership group, it says a lot about the front office with Bob [Myers], Kirk [Lacob], and Travis [Schlenk] and everyone else. I’m one of their guys and they stepped up to the plate and got it done. That meant a lot to me.” Green did note that the Pistons were not the team with which he spoke, Kennedy adds.
Here’s more out of the Pacific Division:
- Roy Hibbert agreed to waive part of his 15% trade kicker to join the Lakers because the franchise made it known that they wanted him, something the Pacers did not do, Mike Bresnahan of he Los Angeles Times writes. “In the long run, it was a no-brainer,” Hibbert said. “If I were to say I wanted my $2MM and the trade couldn’t get done, I would have been back in Indy and wouldn’t have gotten that $2MM anyway. I would have had to basically fight an uphill battle just to try and get on the court. Hopefully I can make that [money] up in the long run if I do well.” The center gave back all but $78,185 of what otherwise would have been a $2.3MM payout for being traded to make the deal happen.
- While the Suns may indeed have enough talent to compete for a playoff spot in the West, the team will likely fall short of the postseason for the third straight year, Tim Bontemps of the New York Post (Facebook link) opines in his season preview of the franchise.
Suns Sign Five Players To Camp Deals
The Suns have officially signed shooting guard Deonte Burton, small forward Kyle Casey, small forward Cory Jefferson, center Henry Sims and shooting guard Terrico White, the team announced. All five players inked non-guaranteed, minimum salary training camp pacts with the team. Phoenix now has a roster count of 18 players, including 13 possessing full guarantees on their pacts.
Burton, 24, went undrafted out of Nevada in 2014 after averaging 20.1 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 4.4 assists against 2.0 turnovers in 38.6 MPG as a Senior. His career NCAA numbers were 16.2 PPG, 2.9 RPG, and 4.0 APG to accompany a shooting line of .439/.337/.751.
Casey, 25, spent the past season playing for Helios Domzale of Slovenia, averaging 12.6 points and 7.2 rebounds in 28.5 minutes per game. That was more playing time than he saw as a senior for Harvard in 2013/14, when he put up 9.7 PPG and 5.6 RPG in 22.0 MPG. At 6’7″, he averaged 1.2 blocks per game as a college senior but fewer than one block per contest in Slovenia last year, and he shot less than 30% from three-point range in both seasons. Casey played for the Nets summer league team in 2014 but didn’t take part in NBA summer league this year.
Jefferson, 24, was the final pick of the 2014 draft and appeared in 50 games for the Nets this past season, averaging 3.7 points in 10.6 minutes per game. The 6’9″ forward was waived by Brooklyn back in July so the team could avoid his non-guaranteed salary becoming partially guaranteed for $150K.
Sims, 25, made 73 appearances for the Sixers last season, including 32 starts. He averaged 8.0 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 1.1 assists in 19.2 minutes per contest. His career numbers through three NBA campaigns are 7.8 PPG, 4.9 RPG, and 1.1 APG to go along with a slash line of .475/.174/.760. The big man wasn’t tendered a qualifying offer by Philadelphia this offseason, making him an unrestricted free agent.
White, 25, spent this past season with Enisey Krasnoyarsk of Russia, where he averaged 11.4 points and 3.4 rebounds in 28.3 minutes per game, with 37.2% three-point shooting. He’s also played in Israel, Serbia and Turkey.
Suns Sign Terrico White To Camp Deal
SEPTEMBER 16TH, 2:15pm: The signing has taken place, though the team has made no official announcement, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). It’s for one year at the minimum salary and non-guaranteed with limited injury protection, Pincus adds, making it an Exhibit 9 contract.
AUGUST 20TH, 1:51pm: The Suns and shooting guard Terrico White have agreed to a deal, reports Shams Charania of RealGM. Agent Daniel Hazan has confirmed the pact, Charania adds. Detroit made White the 36th overall pick in 2010 and he was under contract with the Pistons for more than a year, but he never made a regular season appearance, thanks to the broken right foot he suffered in his first NBA preseason game. White, now 25 years old, has played primarily overseas since, but he’s looking to return to the NBA on what appears to be a training camp deal.
New Orleans signed White shortly after the Pistons let him go in the 2011 preseason, but the former Ole Miss standout didn’t make the regular season roster. He saw NBA summer league action in 2012, 2013 and 2014, but he didn’t sign an NBA deal in any of those years. Ironically, he’s landing this deal with Phoenix despite not having played summer league ball this year. The former Ole Miss standout spent this past season with Enisey Krasnoyarsk of Russia, where he averaged 11.4 points and 3.4 rebounds in 28.3 minutes per game, with 37.2% three-point shooting. He’s also played in Israel, Serbia and Turkey.
Phoenix has been carrying 13 contracts, all of them with fully guaranteed salaries this season, as our roster counts show. White would appear to have a decent chance to stick for the regular season, though the trade demand of Markieff Morris makes it hard to predict exactly what the Suns roster will look like at the start of the season.
Do you think White belongs on an NBA regular season roster? Leave a comment to let us know.
And-Ones: Langdon, Wizards, Fournier
The Cavaliers will hire Spurs scout Trajan Langdon as their Director of Player Administration, sources told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). He will replace Raja Bell, who is leaving to spend more time with his family, Wojnarowski adds. The change was confirmed by Chris Haynes of Northeast Ohio Media Group, who spoke to Bell. “I had so much fun with those boys and the Cavaliers’ organization, but it was just time to be with my family,” said Bell, who served in that role for one season. “It was the right thing to do right now, but I definitely enjoyed my time there.”
In other news around the league:
- Wizards owner Ted Leonsis had reached a tentative deal with Washington, D.C. mayor Muriel E. Bowser to build a $56.3MM practice facility, Jonathan O’Connell of the Washington Post reports. Officials said the city plans to construct and own the facility, which will also include an arena for the WNBA Washington Mystics, while Leonsis would contribute $10MM to aid the surrounding neighborhood, O’Connell continues. Leonsis has been pushing for a state-of-the-art venue to replace the existing practice facility at the Verizon Center in order to attract high-profile free agents next summer, including Kevin Durant, who grew up in nearby Prince George’s County, O’Connell adds.
- Suns forward Markieff Morris and his brother, Pistons forward Marcus Morris, have a court appearance scheduled for Wednesday in Phoenix, Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic tweets. They face felony aggravated assault charges for their alleged roles in a January brawl at a Phoenix recreation center. The duo would be suspended a minimum of 10 games if they are found guilty of a felony and could also face a suspension if they’re guilty of a misdemeanor, former NBA executive Bobby Marks tweets.
- Magic swingman Evan Fournier could have competition for minutes and a sixth-man role this season from rookie Mario Hezonja, Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel reports. Both have similar skills, though playing them together on the second unit is intriguing because it could give Orlando some second-unit firepower, Schmitz continues. Fournier needs to improve defensively and increase his strength to get more playing time, Schmitz adds. He is eligible for an extension until the start of the regular season, and we recently examined his chances of getting it in our Extension Candidate series.
Pacific Notes: Morris, Lakers, Warriors
The wild offseason for Suns disgruntled power forward Markieff Morris continued when the league issued Morris a $10,000 fine for “a public statement detrimental to the NBA,” and more specifically, “Morris’ desire to be traded by the Suns,” Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic writes. Morris has yet to back off his trade demand. The situation will likely get more interesting very soon because the Suns are required to report on September 28th, as Coro mentions.
Here’s more news on the Pacific Division:
- Landing Roy Hibbert in a trade with the Pacers was the Lakers‘ best offseason move, but the summer was another total failure for the franchise, from the perspective of the “championship-or-bust” mentality, SI.com’s Ben Golliver opines. The Lakers flopped in their pursuit of LaMarcus Aldridge, as Golliver points out. Acquiring Hibbert was a worthwhile gamble, however, because the center, who will earn $15.5MM this season in the final year of his contract, cost only unused cap space and a minor draft asset, Golliver writes.
- Despite not making any splashy additions, the Warriors had a solid summer because they were able to re-sign players like Draymond Green and should have a very strong chance at repeating as champs, Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders writes. Power forward Jason Thompson was the Warriors’ biggest addition, but the team did not have to do much tinkering because the roster was already loaded, Kennedy adds.
Atlantic Notes: Anthony, McRae, Larkin
Despite some speculation that the Knicks would be willing to entertain the idea of trading away Carmelo Anthony to the Suns in exchange for disgruntled forward Markieff Morris, it’s not a deal that is likely to ever come to fruition, Ken Berger of CBSSports.com writes. New York hasn’t had internal discussions about trying to get Anthony to waive his no trade clause and hitting the reset button on the franchise, Berger notes. Team president Phil Jackson is also likely aware of the value of a superstar like ‘Melo in the league, and how it would be virtually impossible to recoup an acceptable return for the star, the CBS scribe adds.
Here’s more out of the Atlantic Division:
- The Sixers have made their required tender of a one-year, non-guaranteed, minimum salary offer to Jordan McRae, which will allow the franchise to retain his draft rights, Derek Bodner of DraftExpress relays (Twitter links). McRae, who was selected with the 58th overall pick in 2014 by the Spurs and was dealt to the Sixers on draft night, has not signed the tender yet, though he is expected to attend training camp with Philly, Bodner adds.
- The appeal of playing in New York and the team’s system are two reasons why Shane Larkin felt comfortable signing with the Nets this offseason, Brett Pollakoff of The Sporting News writes. “At the end of the day, the Nets situation was the most appealing for me, just because of the way they play. Their style of play really fits my game well, and I like the New York area,” Larkin told Pollakoff. “I like being in the city. So staying up here was definitely a plus, and just the opportunity that the Nets presented me with — what [GM] Billy King was telling me, what coach [Lionel] Hollins was telling me, how they want me to play, what they want me to do for the team — it just put everything over the top. That’s pretty much why I decided to stay in New York and play for the Nets.“
Pacific Notes: Morris, Curry, Teletovic, Huertas
- Seth Curry resisted overtures from overseas the past two years, but he and agent Alex Saratsis had planned for him to take one of those offers if he couldn’t find his footing in the NBA by this fall, writes Lee Jenkins of Sports Illustrated. An impressive summer league in July drew NBA interest from the Pelicans, Hornets and Warriors, as well as the Kings, who made the best offer and signed him to a two-year guaranteed deal, as Jenkins details. Golden State would have given him the chance to play with his brother, MVP Stephen Curry, but Seth looked the other way. “I didn’t want to go to Golden State,” Seth said. “I didn’t want to go back in Steph’s shadow.”
- Hornacek is high on the game of free agent signee Mirza Teletovic, who seems in line to start at power forward if Morris isn’t in Phoenix, but the Suns coach wants to see better conditioning out of the former Net, as Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic chronicles. “He can shoot the ball,” Hornacek said of Teletovic. “The big thing is he can also makes some plays and he’s got a good eye of the court and good court sense. He’ll drive in there a little bit on a roll and look one way and pass it another way. He understands how to set things up. He probably needs to get in better shape. I don’t think he was used to the running that we do here but he toughed it out and kept going. He just got off a plane the other day from Bosnia.”
- The contract that Marcelo Huertas signed with the Lakers is for one year and non-guaranteed, reports Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. It’s worth the minimum salary with limited injury protection, adds Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times, so it appears that it’s an Exhibit 9 contract.
Suns Sign Kyle Casey To Camp Deal
SEPTEMBER 10TH, 8:07am: The signing has taken place, according to the RealGM transactions log, though the team has made no official announcement.
AUGUST 21ST, 8:31am: The Suns have agreed to sign former Harvard combo forward Kyle Casey to a contract for training camp, reports Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. Casey, who turns 26 in November despite having been out of college ball for only a year, will join former 36th overall pick Terrico White, with whom Phoenix also has a deal for camp, as Shams Charania of RealGM reported Thursday. The Suns have their $2.814MM room exception available, but these are likely minimum-salary arrangements with little or no guaranteed money.
Casey spent the past season playing for Helios Domzale of Slovenia, averaging 12.6 points and 7.2 rebounds in 28.5 minutes per game. That was more playing time than he saw as a senior for Harvard in 2013/14, when he put up 9.7 PPG and 5.6 RPG in 22.0 MPG. At 6’7″, he averaged 1.2 blocks per game as a college senior but fewer than one block per contest in Slovenia last year, and he shot less than 30% from three-point range in both seasons. Casey played for the Nets summer league team in 2014 but didn’t take part in NBA summer league this year.
The additions of White and Casey give Phoenix deals with 15 players, 13 of which are fully guaranteed. The pair stand decent chances to make the regular season roster, depending on the other moves the Suns make between now and opening night, though it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see them end up with Phoenix’s one-to-one D-League affiliate. The Suns brought four players to camp last fall with the understanding that they would play for the D-League Bakersfield Jam if they didn’t stick in the NBA for opening night, as Coro notes.
Who do you think has a better chance to make the regular season roster for the Suns, Kyle Casey or Terrico White? Leave a comment to let us know.
NBA Fines Markieff Morris $10K For Trade Demand
2:30pm: Last week’s tweet from Morris was the statement that clinched the fine, Stein writes in a full piece. The NBA makes a habit of giving players the benefit of the doubt, notes former Nets executive Bobby Marks (Twitter link), so that appears to have been the case with the remarks Morris made to Pompey, but the tweet evidently took it a step too far.
12:57pm: The NBA has slapped Markieff Morris with a fine of $10K for publicly demanding a trade from the Suns, the league announced, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link). It’s not against the rules for either a player or his agent to go to the team with trade demands, but Morris aired his laundry through the media, which the NBA has been fining players for since the 2005/06 season, Stein points out (Twitter links). Morris told Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer early last month that, “I am not going to be there [in Phoenix] at all,” amid his anger over the trade that sent his twin brother, and now ex-teammate, to the Pistons in July.
Morris is set to make $8MM this season, the first in a four-year, $32MM extension he signed last fall, when the Suns allowed him and his brother to split a $52MM pot, so the fine won’t have much of a financial impact on the 26-year-old. Morris doubled down last week on his earlier comments, tweeting that, “My future will not be in Phoenix.” John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 radio first reported that Morris wanted off the Suns, though Morris ostensibly wouldn’t have drawn a fine for that dispatch alone, since it didn’t include on-the-record statements from him.
Agent Leon Rose of the Creative Artists Agency has represented Morris, though his brother recently left the agency, so it’s unclear if he’ll do the same. Regardless, the trade demand has placed the Suns in a compromising position, as I examined when I looked at Morris in a Trade Candidate piece. The Suns appear intent on patching up the relationship, but Gambadoro reported that the 2011 lottery pick won’t talk to Suns front office officials and will respond to coach Jeff Hornacek only in one-word answers.
How do you see things ending up for Morris and the Suns? Do you think any room for reconciliation exists, or should the Suns simply take what they can get for him? Leave a comment to tell us.