Kennedy On McGrady, Martin, O’Neal, Arenas
It wasn't long ago that we heard the Bulls had some interest in signing Tracy McGrady, but that possibility no longer appears realistic. After signing first-round pick Marquis Teague, the Bulls are only about $758K under their hard cap line, meaning a veteran's minimum contract for McGrady wouldn't fit unless the team traded another player. Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld confirms that the two sides are no longer talking, and says McGrady will continue weighing his options in hopes of joining a contender. Here are a few more updates from Kennedy on some unsigned veterans:
- Kenyon Martin is talking with several teams, and while he doesn't want to sign for the veteran's minimum, he may end up having no choice, says Kennedy.
- Jermaine O'Neal says "winning a championship is the only goal," and would like to join a contending team on a minimum-salary deal. The Lakers, Bucks, and Suns have watched him work out.
- Sources close to Gilbert Arenas say that he's slimmed down and is fully healthy as he searches for an NBA contract.
- Ben Wallace still hasn't made up his mind about whether to retire or return to the Pistons for one more year. A decision is expected within the next few weeks.
- There's no timetable on Josh Howard's free agent decision, but it sounds like he's close to picking a destination. We heard last week that Howard had narrowed his options to five teams.
Western Notes: Jazz, DeMarre Carroll, Suns
- Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor is moving into a new role with Utah as a top executive within the organization and will no longer serve as GM, writes Brian T. Smith of The Salt Lake Tribune. O'Connor will oversee the process of hiring his replacement, which has already begun, as the 2012/13 season quickly draws closer. Troy Weaver of the Thunder and Cavs assistant GM David Griffin were both tied to the job but will remain with their respective organizations, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter links).
- Jazz small forward DeMarre Carroll welcomes the challenge of competing with the glut of forwards currently on the Utah roster, tweets Smith. Head coach Tyrone Corbin told Carroll that starting positions are up for grabs heading into the season as the former Missouri star plans to stake his claim to one of the spots. Carroll, 26, averaged 4.5 PPG and 2.2 RPG in 24 contests with the Nuggets and Jazz.
- Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com takes an optimistic view of the Suns as they move forward without Steve Nash. While the organization may have lost its backbone from nearly the past decade, the team isn't in shambles as they enter the season sans Nash for the first time since 2003, which Howard-Cooper considers to be a good thing. "Eventually there was going to have to be closure," coach Alvin Gentry said. "The organization decided to do it right now, so it's just a matter of us taking that transition and moving into another phase of Suns basketball."
Odds & Ends: Suns, Sixers, T-Wolves, Wizards
Let's check in on a Thursday evening odds and ends from around the Association….
- Wesley Johnson believes a fresh start with the Suns could do wonders for his NBA career, writes AZCentral.com's Bob Young.
- CSNPhilly.com's Nick Menta asks if the Sixers will be undergoing a youth movement and giving their rookies significant playing time this season.
- Timberwolves general manager David Kahn says he thinks his team will make the playoffs next season if they can stay healthy, writes TwinCities.com's Bob Sansevere. Kahn also wouldn't say whether or not his team was finished making moves.
- ESPN.com's John Hollinger lists his offseason winners and losers.
- SI.com's Zach Lowe profiles his winners of the offseason.
- Hoopsworld.com's Lang Greene and Joel Brigham wonder if maybe the NBA would be better if players weren't allowed to demand trades in public.
- The Wizards have two empty roster spots, and will probably keep it that way to preserve flexibility heading into training camp, writes the Washington Post's Michael Lee. As far as the recently amnestied Andray Blatche goes, so far there has been no significant interest in his services.
Pacific Notes: Lakers, Redd, Warriors
As we wait for basketball action to resume at the London Olympics, let's round up a few of Wednesday's stories out of the Pacific Division….
- Magic Johnson weighed in on the Lakers' offseason moves yesterday, as Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com writes. Johnson praised the Lakers' acquisitions of Steve Nash and Antawn Jamison, but said the team could still use a shooter.
- Michael Redd, who spent 2011/12 with the Suns, is taking his time and weighing his options in free agency, agent Kevin Poston tells Chris Tomasson of FOX Sports Florida (Sulia link). According to Tomasson, after showing interest in Redd earlier, the Suns and Bulls appear to have backed off for now.
- Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News confirms that the Warriors' recent roster moves put them about $400K over the luxury tax threshold. Golden State could trade a player before season's end to dip back under the tax line, but team co-owner Joe Lacob tells Kawakami that he's "prepared to spend money to win."
- Matt Steinmetz of CSNBayArea.com passes along a few comments from Warriors president Rick Welts on plans for the club's proposed San Francisco arena.
Suns Sign P.J. Tucker
AUGUST 1ST: The Suns have officially signed Tucker, the team announced today (Twitter link).
JULY 24TH: Six years ago, P.J. Tucker was selected 35th overall by the Raptors, and played 17 games with Toronto before finding himself out of the NBA. At age 27, Tucker is prepared to make a comeback. Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic reports that the forward has agreed to a two-year, minimum-salary deal with the Suns, with a partial guarantee on the first year.
Since his time with the Raptors, Tucker has played in Israel, Ukraine, Russia, Puerto Rico, Italy, and Greece. He had been under contract to play in Russia for the coming year, but utilized an NBA out clause to sign with the Suns. The $762,195 he could earn as a second-year, minimum-salary player is less than half what he would have made overseas, but Tucker is looking forward to his second chance in the NBA, as he told Coro.
"When was in Toronto, I wasn't half the player I am now," Tucker said. "First and foremost, I'm going to help the young guys and always be a positive voice in the locker room. I look at myself as a defensive player first but I can rebound and handle the ball. I just stick my neck out and play hard. I never let anyone outwork me."
For the Suns' Summer League team in Las Vegas, Tucker averaged 5.8 points and 6.2 rebounds in 21.6 minutes per game. Wendell Maxey of Ridiculous Upside takes a look at the journey that sees the 27-year-old back on an NBA roster.
Pacific Notes: Lakers, Hill, Warriors, Howard
The famed "Princeton Offense" has powered a number of NBA teams, most notably Mike Bibby's Kings and Jason Kidd's Nets, in recent years, and Kobe Bryant is now pushing for the Lakers to use it this season, writes Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. Bryant hopes that it will help create space for him on the floor by keeping defenses honest. "There's so many threats, so many options, it's very tough to defend. Against the type of defenses that teams play nowadays, they load up on one side and are constantly coming with help from the weak side. The Princeton offense makes it very, very tough to lock in on one particular player," Bryant said. Here's more on the Lakers other items out of the Pacific..
- Jordan Hill's contract with the Lakers will pay him $3.5MM in each of the next two seasons, according to HoopsHype (via Twitter). The big man's deal was initially reported to be in the neighborhood of $8MM.
- Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group (via Twitter) estimates that the Warriors have about $3.15MM below the tax line to sign Brandon Rush if the first year of Draymond Green's deal is pegged at $800K. Green agreed to a three-year, $2.6MM contract with the final year ($900K) partially guaranteed, but the exact breakdown is not known.
- Brian Kamenetzky of ESPNLosAngeles.com explains why he believes the Lakers should continue their pursuit of Dwight Howard. Lakers fans by-and-large seem to be sick of the prolonged "Dwightmare" but Kamenetzky argues that from a basketball standpoint, there's no reason to close the door on the deal.
- Suns forward Jared Dudley (via Twitter) watched Jermaine O'Neal work out and insists that the free agent will get signed if he has the chance to audition for an NBA team. Recently, we learned that the Bucks had an eye on the veteran.
Suns Owner On Offseason, Nash, Childress
In his latest column at NBA.com, TNT's David Aldridge takes an extensive look at the Suns' offseason, talking to members of the front office about parting ways with Steve Nash and adding a handful of players in hopes of replacing his production. The piece is a must-read for any Suns fans, with team president Lon Babby and owner Robert Sarver both providing a number of interesting quotes. Here are the highlights from Sarver:
On roster-building and the team's new direction:
"You can't kind of be in no man's land [in the NBA]. You have to be getting better or you have to be getting worse. A number of the fans obviously wanted to keep Steve, but a number of the fans thought we should have moved on last year. In general, I think our fan base was ready for us to move on. The backlash from that wasn't as strong as I thought it could have been. Our fan base was ready for us to get younger. I think we're prepared for it. The reality is that the last two seasons, we were mediocre. I was ready for us to move on."
On wanting to avoid bottoming out, or "tanking":
"We went back and looked at all teams over the last 30 years and how they rebuilt. The reality is that if you go bad for a few years to get good, there's no assurances you're ever going to get good. There are a few exceptions like Oklahoma City, but the majority of the teams have taken six to 10 years to rebuild."
On his willingness to sign-and-trade Nash to the rival Lakers:
"At the end of the day, this just gave us the best option for assets, too, and from a basketball standpoint, if you kind of take the emotion out, it was the best thing for the Suns, for the franchise. I think we've shown in the last couple of years that drafting is one of our strengths, so it kind of played into our strengths. It's one of the things we definitely have to use to move our franchise forward, especially with the new rules with the new CBA."
On amnestying Josh Childress:
"Actually, the Josh thing was my idea. I just felt it made sense. We still felt Josh was a good player. I think the system in which we play, especially with Steve where we need to spread the floor, maybe wasn't the best for him. I think he's good and will still be a good player, but freeing up that cap space allowed us to have more opportunities down the road, to have that space for free agents or to be able to make trades. It was part of being able to make a move for [Luis] Scola and still being able to have the cap space to make other moves next summer."
Odds & Ends: Blazers, Przybilla, Gentry, Villanueva
With Olympic basketball underway in London, new Timberwolves Andrei Kirilenko and Alexey Shved led the Russian squad to a victory over Great Britain in each team's first game. Former NBA veteran Pops Mensah-Bonsu scored 22 points for Britain, and has also reportedly agreed to play in Israel for the coming season. Emiliano Carchia of Sportando (via Twitter) confirms an Israel Today report suggesting that Mensah-Bonsu has agreed to terms with Maccabi Tel Aviv. The 28-year-old had played in regular-season games for the Mavericks, Spurs, Raptors, Rockets, and Hornets in four NBA seasons.
Let's round up a few more Monday odds and ends….
- The Trail Blazers will interview their final four coaching candidates today and tomorrow, starting with Steve Clifford today, tweets Jason Quick of the Oregonian. Kaleb Canales, Terry Stotts, and Elston Turner are the other finalists.
- Joel Przybilla says he's meeting with teams this week and will decide "really soon" where he'll play in 2012/13, though he didn't say if the Blazers are still in the running, according to Quick (Twitter links). We heard last week that the Bucks, Blazers, and Mavericks were all interested in the big center.
- Suns coach Alvin Gentry isn't concerned that the team hasn't extended his contract, which will expire at the end of the coming season. "My view is if a person has a three-year contract, you assess it at the end of three years," said GM Lon Babby, and Gentry is on board with that approach, as he tells Randy Hill of FOX Sports Arizona.
- Plenty of Pistons fans were disappointed that Detroit didn't amnesty Charlie Villanueva earlier this month, but the veteran forward tells Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press that he plans to take advantage of the opportunity and use fans' scorn as motivation.
Pacific Rumors: Suns, D’Antoni, Nash, Caracter
Four of the five teams in the Pacific Division stand at least a reasonable chance to improve in 2012/13. The Lakers, last year's first-place team, brought in Steve Nash and Antawn Jamison. The Clippers will have Jamal Crawford and a healthy Chauncey Billups. The Warriors will finally get to see Andrew Bogut on the floor, and the Kings added another high lottery pick with No. 5 overall selection Thomas Robinson. The only team that figures to take a step back is the Suns, and there are a couple items of interest from Phoenix this afternoon:
- Suns executives believe yesterday's three-team deal that sent Robin Lopez to the Hornets and brought back Wesley Johnson represents a key point in the team's rebuilding phase, Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic writes. The deal was helped along by draft picks and cash the Suns acquired when they sent Steve Nash to the Lakers, team officials said.
- Former Suns and Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni said if he were still coaching in New York, he would have "walked to Phoenix" to persuade Nash to sign with the Knicks, tweets Chris Mannix of SI.com. The Knicks were seen as frontrunners for the two-time MVP before he wound up with L.A.
- Former Lakers reserve Derrick Caracter didn't see much playing time in the summer league for the Hawks, but Steve Kyler of HoopsWorld expects the 6'9" free agent power forward to get a training camp invite (Twitter link).
Pacific Rumors: Bryant, Johnson, Kings, Clippers
Earlier this evening we asked which team is having the best offseason so far, and right now more readers believe it's the Lakers than any other team. That stands to reason, given their sign-and-trade for Steve Nash and re-signing of backup big man Jordan Hill, along with their ability to convince Antawn Jamison to sign a deal for the veteran's minimum, well below market value. Here's what we're hearing from the Lakers and their Pacific Division rivals:
- Kobe Bryant's influence in the Nash acquisition demonstrates Bryant's improved relationship with the Lakers front office, as Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Times writes. Last year, the Lakers hired coach Mike Brown without consulting their star, while Bryant criticized the team on its decision to trade Lamar Odom and for not being more up-front about Pau Gasol's future.
- Marcus R. Fuller of the St. Paul Pioneer Press looks at what's gone wrong the past two years for 2010 No. 4 pick Wesley Johnson, whom the Timberwolves traded to the Suns today as part of a three-team deal.
- The Kings must show maturity and learn to play with more cohesion for the team to improve, opines Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee.
- The Clippers have hired Bob Ociepka as an assistant coach, according to the team's website. The longtime NBA assistant spent last year with the Blazers.