Western Notes: Nash, Scola, Mayo, Nuggets
The latest updates from around the Western Conference on Friday afternoon:
- Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com reports that there is a low chance that Steve Nash will return on Saturday when the Lakers face the Warriors, although he still hopes to play on Christmas Day.
- Luis Scola reflects on his journey to the NBA and the long wait to get bought out from his team in Spain, as reported by Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic.
- O.J. Mayo tells Jon MacHota of the Dallas Morning News that he holds no hard feelings towards the Grizzlies after signing with the Mavericks this summer.
- The Nuggets do not plan to change course after a historically bad three-point shooting night against Portland, writes Aaron J. Lopez of Nuggets.com.
- LaMarcus Aldridge does not know when he will return from his recent ankle turn, writes Mike Tokito of The Oregonian.
Amick On Clippers, Nuggets, Davis, Raptors
Sam Amick of USA Today has posted a new notebook column covering a variety of topics of interest from around the NBA. Among the subjects touched on are the progress of several Western Conference teams and an update on the Rookie of the Year and MVP races.
- Amick is buying the Clippers as a contender, and points out that head coach Vinny Del Negro is making a strong case for himself as deserving of a contract extension. Del Negro appears to have the support of Clippers owner Donald Sterling as the team's long-term head coach.
- Following a slow start to the season, the Nuggets are starting to improve following high expectations in the preseason, Amick writes.
- Amick catches up with top overall pick Anthony Davis, who says that he is 100 percent healthy following missing several weeks with an ankle injury.
- Amick writes that the latest slate of injuries have been a mixed blessing for the Raptors as they attempt to move certain players. Andrea Bargnani has sunk his value on the market by being sidelined with a torn elbow ligament, while Jose Calderon has raised his by doing an excellent job filling in for the injured Kyle Lowry.
- Michael Beasley has seen his role diminish with the struggling Suns since signing a three-year, $18MM contract this summer, Amick writes.
Western Notes: Billups, Nuggets, Lakers, Suns
The latest rumblings from around the Western Conference:
- Chauncey Billups thinks the Pistons might still be an elite team if they hadn't traded him to the Nuggets four years ago, as Vincent Goodwill of the Detroit News documents. "I still had some great, great years left," the point guard said. "I never wanted to leave, even though I was home (Denver) and it was good to be home, I always wanted to be a Piston. I wanted to retire a Piston."
- Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com tweets that Nuggets coach George Karl wants to coach in Europe again one day, with his son, Coby Karl, as an assistant.
- Aaron J. Lopez of Nuggets.com writes that JaVale McGee is becoming more efficient for the Nuggets.
- Paul Coro of USA Today points out that the Suns own the Lakers' 2013 first-round draft pick as part of the Steve Nash trade, meaning they could benefit if the Lakers continue to struggle.
Pacific Rumors: Dwight, Suns, Gentry, Gasol
Tomorrow, most of the players who signed this offseason become eligible to be traded, and NBA scribes have been busy today rounding up rumors of potential moves. We've passed along pieces from Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN, Marc Stein of ESPN.com and HoopsWorld's Bill Ingram, and now Ken Berger of CBSSports.com checks in with a quarterly report on the season thus far along with his weekly Friday 5 discussion with fellow CBSSports.com scribe Matt Moore. The highlights from both pieces concern Pacific Division teams, and we'll round them up here.
- Berger says sources confirm earlier rumors of an impending shakeup for the Suns, and he also notes the disconcerting struggles that this year's first-round pick Kendall Marshall is having during his stint in the D-League. He agrees with Stein that Alvin Gentry is safe this season, citing owner Robert Sarver's lack of willingness to pay two head coaches, but Berger doesn't think Gentry will be back next year, predicting that he'll wind up on Mike D'Antoni's staff with the Lakers.
- Not surprisingly, Berger tabs Pau Gasol as the league's biggest trade chip, believing the Lakers have little else to offer teams, and that they may have to accept the short end of a deal if it means bringing in players who are a better fit.
- Berger details the frustration Dwight Howard's feeling as the Lakers struggle, and reminds readers that a trade to L.A. wasn't Howard's first choice.
Stein On Pau, Raptors, Varejao, Jazz, Gentry
ESPN.com's Marc Stein has published his Weekend Dime, and leads off the jam-packed column with a look at a handful of players that are candidates to be dealt before February 21st's trade deadline. Here are the highlights on those guys, and from the rest of Stein's piece:
- The Lakers continue to recognize that they're unlikely to get fair value for Pau Gasol, given his health, salary, and performance, and would prefer to avoid another major shakeup anyway. So for now, they're still not seriously considering a Pau trade.
- Multiple front-office sources view the Raptors as the team most motivated to make a move. The team would like to make Andrea Bargnani and Jose Calderon in tandem, but Bargnani's elbow injury may force Toronto to deal Calderon on his own. The Lakers and Mavericks have interest, though neither team is an obvious match for Calderon's $10.5MM+ salary.
- NBA teams believe Anderson Varejao is "highly available," but are skeptical he'll be dealt, since the Cavaliers' high asking price is only increasing. Cleveland is seeking multiple young assets for Varejao, according to Stern, who says the Thunder, a potential match, have exhibited little interest.
- Teams around the league aren't sure whether the Jazz would be more inclined to trade Paul Millsap or Al Jefferson, but the general consensus suggests one of the two will be dealt by the deadline for a front-line point guard.
- Stein lists a few other names that come up repeatedly in talks with sources as trade candidates: Monta Ellis, Brandon Jennings, Derrick Williams, Luke Ridnour, J.J. Barea, Michael Beasley, Courtney Lee, and D.J. Augustin.
- Former Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley may already be interested in buying another team, with the Bucks as a potential target, according to Stein.
- Robert Sarver's assurances that Alvin Gentry will keep his job as Suns head coach shouldn't be viewed as a "dreaded" vote of confidence. Sources tell Stein that Sarver likes Gentry "too much personally to make an in-season change."
Suns Not Pursuing Free Agents
Despite a recent report suggesting that a "major shakeup" could be on the way in Phoenix, the Suns don't currently have any free agents on their radar, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter). That includes Mike Bibby, who worked out for the Grizzlies today, and reportedly has workouts lined up with a handful of other clubs.
The Suns have 15 players on their roster, so if they were considering adding a free agent, someone would need to be released to make room. In that case, Diante Garrett or Luke Zeller could be candidates to be cut, since they're on non-guaranteed contracts. However, it seems the team is uninterested in the free agent market, and has no plans to make any coaching changes.
If a "shakeup" is indeed on the way, it could come in the form of a trade, since many players signed this past offseason, including Michael Beasley, become trade-eligible as of this weekend. For now though, it seems as if the Suns are moving forward with the current roster and hoping for a turnaround on the court.
Odds & Ends: Terry, Mayo, Belinelli, Crawford
We heard earlier today that Mavs owner Mark Cuban would have liked to have kept Jason Terry, who signed with the Celtics. Terry said he was disappointed that the first call he fielded this summer wasn't from the Mavs, as Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram details. Cuban also claims that he vetoed a deal former Mavs coach Don Nelson had set up during the 2004/05 season that would have sent Terry to the Jazz for Raul Lopez, Price notes. That one seems far-fetched, but if it's true, you'd have to give Cuban credit for quite a save. Here's the rest from a busy day and night in the NBA.
- O.J. Mayo can opt out of his contract this summer, but Cuban hopes he'll stay with the Mavs even longer than the eight years Terry was around, Price tweets.
- Chris Paul and former Hornets teammate Marco Belinelli are close friends, but Paul didn't recruit Belinelli to join the Clippers this summer because he thought the Bulls would be a better fit for the Italian sharpshooter, as K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune observes (Sulia link).
- The Bulls went hard after Jamal Crawford before last season, but wound up giving the money they had set aside for him to Richard Hamilton instead, according to Johnson (Sulia link).
- Though Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo was telling reporters Monday that coach Dwane Casey's job is not in jeopardy, Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun wonders whether that will be Colangelo's call to make, surmising everyone in the organization except Jonas Valanciunas shouldn't get too cozy.
- Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times corrects his earlier statement about the draft pick the Lakers owe the Suns, detailing the protections on that and other draft picks that will prevent L.A. from drafting in the first round next June.
- Sean Deveney of The Sporting News gauges the early returns on the rookie-scale extensions handed out before the season, and believes Stephen Curry, Jrue Holiday and DeMar DeRozan are the steals of the bunch.
- SB Nation's Tom Ziller goes in depth on the Maloof family dynamics at play as the fate of the Kings, the team they own, hangs in the balance.
Western Notes: Terry, Virginia, Pavlovic, Suns
Although Jason Kidd and the Mavericks didn't seem to part ways on the best of terms this summer, Mavs owner Mark Cuban had kinder words for Jason Terry, who also left Dallas over the offseason. Cuban said Monday that the club looked at the possibility of a multiyear deal for Terry, but "couldn't make the numbers work," according to Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News.
"I would have liked for him to stay," Cuban said. "But I understood what his goals were. He’s always going to be special and hopefully when his career is over he’ll come back and work with us."
As Terry and his new club, the Celtics, prepare to host Cuban's Mavs tomorrow, let's round up a few more updates out of the Western Conference:
- Dale Kasler of the Sacramento Bee examines the next step for the city of Virginia Beach after the state tentatively rejected a request for $150MM of funding to help build a new arena and lure the Kings to Virginia.
- Although he was something of an afterthought in the three-way trade that sent Courtney Lee to the Celtics this summer, Sasha Pavlovic has shown real value for the Trail Blazers, writes Jason Quick of the Oregonian.
- Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic looks at what's gone wrong for the Suns so far this season.
- Steve Kyler of HoopsWorld hears from Suns sources that the system changes implemented at the start of the season have created major problems for the team's roster.
Lowe On Lin, Anderson, Suns, Lee, Thompson
Most players that signed new contracts over the summer will become eligible to be traded as of this coming Saturday, so Grantland's Zach Lowe took the opportunity to take a look around the league at some potential trade candidates. Here are a few of the highlights from Lowe's piece:
- Even though the Rockets didn't expect to land Jeremy Lin this summer, and didn't expect to acquire another star ballhandler in James Harden, it's still "extremely unlikely" that they'd move Lin.
- There's no indication that the Hornets would consider dealing Ryan Anderson, who Lowe clarifies (via Twitter) becomes trade-eligible this month rather than next month, as we'd previously thought.
- Teams around the league are eyeing the Suns to see if they can extract some value there, but Phoenix almost certainly won't move Goran Dragic and can't trade amnesty pickup Luis Scola. Lowe also notes that "you can count on zero hands" the number of clubs interested in acquiring Michael Beasley.
- It's not out of the question that Courtney Lee could become a trade candidate if the Celtics are seeking a big man.
- Jason Thompson is "coveted around the league" due to his reasonable long-term salary, and is blocking Thomas Robinson in Sacramento, so the Kings could attempt to gauge his value.
- The Mavericks may be a buyer rather than a seller, but they'll be wary of adding any salary that would affect their cap flexibility next summer.
- The Sixers will be in the market for a big man once trade talks pick up.
- Rival executives are wondering if it's too early for GM Neil Olshey and the Trail Blazers to explore the trade market for LaMarcus Aldridge.
Coaching Rumors: Suns, Wizards, Pistons, Kings
We're about a quarter of the way through the NBA regular season, which is enough of a sample size that we can say certain teams have underperformed so far. Sam Amick and Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today take a look at the coaching situations for a few of those teams in their latest piece, examining whether any head coaches are in danger of being let go. We touched on Dwane Casey's situation with the Raptors in a post this morning, but here are the rest of Amick's and Zillgitt's updates:
- After Suns owner Robert Sarver told ESPN.com's Chris Broussard yesterday that Alvin Gentry wasn't on the hot seat, Amick and Zillgitt spoke to Sarver as well. Sarver's vote of confidence in this case was even stronger, as he told USA Today that Gentry's job is safe for the rest of the season.
- Like the Raptors, the Suns may explore an on-court change rather than a coaching move, with Michael Beasley a candidate to be involved — according to USA Today, there's some disagreement between the team and player about what his role should be. However, Sarver still hopes Beasley will work things out in Phoenix: "We're working with him. He's working hard, and we still expect to be able to (salvage the situation)."
- The Wizards are still paying their last head coach, Flip Saunders, so they're unlikely to replace Randy Wittman this year, since it would mean paying three different coaches.
- Pistons owner Tom Gores has high expectations for his club, and wants to see some progress toward the playoffs this year in Detroit, making it a potential make-or-break season for Lawrence Frank.
- Keith Smart's job with the Kings appears safe, though team president Geoff Petrie's future isn't quite so clear.
- The Nets still have faith in Avery Johnson and expect some peaks and valleys with the team's overhauled roster. However, there's an expectation that the team will not only qualify for the postseason but be in position to "make an impact once they get there."
- Despite a slow start for the Pacers, there's still hope in Indiana that Frank Vogel is around to coach the team for years to come.