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Andre Drummond

And-Ones: Drummond, Seattle, D-League, Griffin

July 15th, 2016 at 11:31pm CST by Luke Adams

Now that we’re more than two weeks into the 2016/17 league year, Bobby Marks of The Vertical takes a look back at this year’s spending spree and attempts to draw some conclusions about the impact of the $94MM+ salary cap. As Marks outlines, the salary cap spike has resulted in 10 teams with $100MM+ payrolls so far, but has made the luxury tax a virtual non-factor. Marks also observes that if the players’ union had accepted the NBA’s cap smoothing proposal, we likely wouldn’t have seen so much roster turnover this offseason, since more teams would’ve been inclined to keep their own free agents.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the league:

  • Andre Drummond‘s new five-year max deal with the Pistons includes an 8% trade kicker, league sources tell Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Players earning a max salary can’t exceed that salary via a trade kicker, but with the salary cap set to get another bump next year and in subsequent seasons, Drummond will technically be earning less than his max after the first year of the contract.
  • Steve Ballmer, who was part of the group attempting to bring the NBA back to Seattle before he bought the Clippers, doesn’t envision Seattle getting a franchise in the near future. Speaking at the Geek Wire Sports Technology Summit in Seattle, Ballmer said the NBA hasn’t had expansion talks at all recently, and added that the league “has really moved to favor teams staying in their current markets.” Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times has the quotes from the Clippers owner.
  • The D-League won’t see the same sort of league-wide salary increase that the NBA will in 2016/17, but the D-League is changing its salary structure, and players will earn more on the whole, as Chris Reichert of UpsideMotor.com details.
  • Sam Gardner of FOX Sports takes an in-depth look at former Campbell forward Eric Griffin, whose quest for a spot on an NBA roster was derailed when he was accused of attempted murder — those charges were dropped last month, and Griffin is still looking for a team willing to give him a shot.
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Pistons Re-Sign Andre Drummond

July 15th, 2016 at 12:01pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 15th, 12:01pm: The signing is official, the Pistons announced via press release.

JULY 1st, 11:40am: The two sides have reached an agreement on a five-year, max deal that includes a player option for the final season, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports (on Twitter).

3:20am: The Pistons and restricted free agent center Andre Drummond are closing in on an agreement on a five-year, maximum-salary contract, reports ESPN’s Marc Stein (via Twitter). If it’s a max deal, the exact value won’t be determined until next week when the cap is set, but it’s expected to be in the $125-130MM range.Andre Drummond vertical

[RELATED: Pistons, Ish Smith agree to three-year contract]

Drummond entered July as one of the top restricted free agents on the market, along with Bradley Beal of the Wizards. Like Drummond, Beal is nearing a five-year max deal with his team. Stein tweets that both agreements are expected to be finalized later on Friday, then will become official sometime after the moratorium ends.

Drummond, who turns 23 in August, earned his first All-Star nod in 2015/16 and was named to the All-NBA third team. The former ninth overall pick led the NBA in total offensive rebounds for the third consecutive seasons, averaging  a career-high 16.2 points and an NBA-best 14.8 rebounds per game for the season.

Although he continued to provide rebounding, rim protection, and efficient offense, Drummond’s one glaring weakness is his free-throw shooting. His free-throw percentage dipped to a career-worst 35.5% in 2015/16 as he was getting to the line more than ever (7.2 attempts per game).

Still, it appears the Pistons are willing to cement Drummond as a long-term fixture in Detroit, despite his free-throw woes. Drummond’s cap hold is currently a modest $8.18MM, so if the team wants to make the most of its cap room, it may hold off on finalizing the big man’s new deal until it uses up all its space. The Pistons hold Drummond’s Bird Rights and can go over the cap to lock him up.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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Qualifying Offers: Drummond, Beal, Powell

June 28th, 2016 at 9:42pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Players eligible for restricted free agency don’t become restricted free agents by default. In order to make a player a restricted free agent, a team must extend a qualifying offer to him. The qualifying offer, which is essentially just a one-year contract offer, varies in amount depending on a player’s service time and previous contract status. A qualifying offer is designed to give a player’s team the right of first refusal. Because the qualifying offer acts as the first formal contract offer a free agent receives, his team then receives the option to match any offer sheet the player signs with another club. You can read more about qualifying offers here.

Teams don’t always formally announce when they submit qualifying offers, which is the case with a number of players who have already been extended these offers by their respective clubs. The procedural moves listed below have been posted to the RealGM Transactions page, with more sure to follow in the next few days:

Also receiving a qualifying offer is Magic center Dewayne Dedmon, with Orlando submitting the $1,215,696 required to make him a restricted free agent earlier today, per Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel.

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Eastern Notes: Johnson, Blake, Drummond

April 25th, 2016 at 2:45pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Former Nets swingman Joe Johnson took some verbal swipes at a number of his former Brooklyn teammates, whom he blames for much of the team’s woes this season, Anthony Puccio of NetsDaily relays (via Twitter). “Honestly, this season in Brooklyn I was in a tough situation, playing with a lot of young guys, stat-chasing guys that really didn’t want to win,” Johnson said, “And in an organization that really was trying to put a team around guys like Brook Lopez, Thaddeus Young and myself to help us at least fight for a playoff spot. So when I sat back and looked at all that I realized it was no reason to even stick around for the fallout of the situation.” The veteran agreed to a buyout arrangement with the team in February that allowed Johnson to sign with the Heat.

Here’s more from the East:

  • Pistons owner Tom Gores reaffirmed the team’s intent to re-sign center Andre Drummond this summer despite his well-chronicled free throw issues, David Mayo of MLive notes. “We’ll talk about it this summer, but we want Andre,” Gores said. “So to me, I don’t think there’s a lot of question about it. Honestly, it’s how we feel about it.” The owner lauded what the 22-year-old center provided for the team rather than harp on Drummond’s anemic 35.5% mark from the charity stripe this season, Mayo adds. “I think he’s had a great year, an All-Star, more double-doubles [than anyone else in the NBA], and when you look at the other centers in the league — everybody’s got something [a weakness], but I’m proud of the 22-year-old man,” Gores said of Drummond. The big man is set to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason, provided Detroit submits a qualifying offer worth $4,433,683, a move that is all but assured judging by Gores’ remarks.
  • Veteran point guard Steve Blake isn’t ready to retire just yet, having indicated that he would like to play in 2016/17, as Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press relays (via Twitter). Fellow unrestricted free agent Anthony Tolliver also said that he wants to return to the Pistons and “put down roots” in Detroit, Ellis adds.
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Eastern Notes: Bazemore, Pistons, Whiteside, Lin

April 24th, 2016 at 1:02pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Hawks‘ Kent Bazemore stands to significantly increase his $2MM salary as he heads toward free agency, but he tells Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe that he has been too busy to think about it. “Honestly, I haven’t had time,” Bazemore said. “It’s been a very aggressive year as far as scheduling, as far as the physical and mental load. I think in December, I had already played 300 more minutes than I had the whole last year. So physically, it was a lot.” Bazemore probably attracted a lot of suitors by averaging 11.6 points and 5.1 rebounds in his first full year as a starter with the Hawks. He was the team’s fourth-leading scorer and third-leading rebounder. Although he can expect to get plenty of offers this summer, Bazemore’s first choice is to remain in Atlanta. “Being able to be out there and play through your mistakes and have a coach [Mike Budenholzer] who takes it personal to coach you,” Bazemore said. “He loves my competitiveness and I love how competitive he is. It’s a match made in heaven.”

There’s more from the Eastern Conference:

  • Cleveland’s 3-0 lead over the Pistons in their playoff series has helped expose some of the changes that need to be made this offseason, according to David Mayo of MLive. The team could use another player who can create off the dribble, Mayo writes, along with more shooters and a reliable backup point guard. The Pistons will also look at what Tobias Harris has brought to the team since he was acquired in February and see how to compensate for the weaknesses in Andre Drummond‘s game.
  • The Heat were hurt by not having the taxpayer’s mid-level exception available last season, writes Bobby Marks of The Vertical. Miami had to use its room mid-level, which limits contracts to two years, to sign free agent center Hassan Whiteside. He emerged into a player who may demand a max contract this summer, and the Heat don’t own his Bird rights because he only had a two-year deal.
  • The hiring of coach Kenny Atkinson, who was Jeremy Lin‘s mentor with the Knicks, could give the Hornets point guard a reason to come to Brooklyn, according to NetsDaily. The Nets need backcourt help and may be interested in Lin, who passed on a $3.5MM mini-mid level offer from Brooklyn last season.
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Central Notes: Kidd, Brown, Jones

April 16th, 2016 at 1:45pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Bucks coach Jason Kidd said the franchise’s biggest need this offseason was to acquire outside shooters who can stretch the floor for the team’s big men, writes Charles F. Gardner of The Journal Sentinel. “In today’s game, two is not going to beat three,” Kidd said. “The three is so important. We didn’t have enough guys that could make the three. There’s no tricks. I’m not going to sit here and make up something that we’re going to have to shoot a higher percentage of twos. You’ve got to be able to shoot the three. Everybody is shooting them. You’ve got to have guys on the floor who can stretch the floor and are threats to make a three.”

GM John Hammond shot down the rumblings that he and Kidd don’t have a solid working relationship, Gardner notes. “We just finished our second season together, and I think we have a very good working relationship,” Hammond said. “We talk together, we spend time together. We have a business relationship; we have a social relationship. With what we do, the season ends but it stays busy. We jump right into the draft until the end of June, and then we begin free agency and summer league. You’re stuck together in the season and in the offseason. It’s part of what we do and we love it.”

Here’s more from the Central Division:

  • Pistons coach/executive Stan Van Gundy said the team inked Lorenzo Brown in order to have enough bodies to practice heading into the playoffs with Reggie Jackson needing rest to recover from an abdominal injury, tweets Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press.
  • Andre Drummond is pleased with how his relationship with Jackson is developing as well as what the point guard has brought to the Pistons franchise, David Aldridge of NBA.com relays. “You know, getting Reggie last season at the trade deadline, I didn’t know what to expect,” Drummond told Aldridge. “He came off the bench for OKC. I didn’t know what he’d be like as a starter. When he came, I spoke him, told him these are the different things that I’m going to need from a point guard. He embraced it. And he’s been playing great for us. He’s building, and we’re working together.”
  • The Cavaliers have added Damon Jones to Tyronn Lue‘s coaching staff for the playoffs, relays Chris Haynes of The Northeast Ohio Media Group. The team believes it can benefit from Jones’ experience and rapport with players in its quest to return to the NBA finals, Haynes adds. Jones spent the season as an assistant with the Canton Charge, Cleveland’s D-League affiliate.
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Central Notes: Williams, Butler, Drummond

April 12th, 2016 at 11:59am CST by Chuck Myron

Mo Williams insists he has no plans to retire after the season, even though multiple people suggest otherwise, reports Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal. Williams visited well-known orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews on Monday, and it’s believed this is the third time he’s seen Andrews about his sore left knee, which has been bothering him for the last couple of years, Lloyd writes. No surgery is planned at this point, but if he were to undergo a procedure, he’d miss the playoffs and perhaps the start of next season, according to Lloyd. Williams, 33, has a player option worth nearly $2.195MM for 2016/17 on his contract with the Cavaliers.

See more from the Central Division:

  • The Bulls head into the offseason with uncertainty, but they have enough talent to win as constituted, Jimmy Butler said when asked Monday, suggesting that the team instead must work harder and avoid selfishness, as the Chicago Tribune relays via video. That conflicts with the front office’s view, which is that they held the core of the team together one year too long, as the Tribune’s K.C. Johnson relayed earlier.
  • Soon-to-be free agent Andre Drummond endured criticism for the lack of enthusiasm he showed after Friday’s playoff-clinching win, one in which Pistons coach/executive Stan Van Gundy sat Drummond for much of the fourth quarter because of his poor free-throw shooting, but Drummond was upset about the death of a friend, notes Rod Beard of The Detroit News (Twitter link). The center nonetheless apologized to his teammates about his demeanor, as Beard points out (Twitter links here), and Van Gundy isn’t upset, MLive’s David Mayo notes. “I’m sure that getting the criticism he got in the newspapers and things like that, I’m sure it does help him to understand that he’s being watched at all times and part of his responsibility as a cornerstone guy in the franchise is to lead and set an example and everything else,” Van Gundy said. “So I do think it’s a good learning experience. But I think the criticism is — look, I think commenting on it is fine. But to really get deep into that it reveals some flaw in his character or something I think would be going way too far.”
  • Our latest Hoops Rumors Community Shootaround invites your input on Drummond’s value as a maximum-salary player.
  • The Cavs have once more assigned Sasha Kaun and Jordan McRae to the D-League, the team announced. Cleveland sent them to the D-League Canton Charge on Monday but recalled them later in the day, reportedly because of the injuries to Iman Shumpert, who’s expected to return to play at the start of the postseason, and Williams.
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Central Rumors: James, Drummond, Bucks Arena

April 4th, 2016 at 9:38pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Cavs coach Tyronn Lue asserted his authority in a recent meeting with LeBron James in which Lue told the superstar small forward to cut out the distractions, Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com reports. Lue’s challenge came in the wake of James’ recent actions, including comments about his desire to play with Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony and cryptic messages on social media, Windhorst continues. James has lifted his game since the meeting, averaging 28.9 points, 8.9 rebounds and 9.6 assists over the past seven games as Cleveland has solidified its status as the Eastern Conference’s top seed, Windhorst adds.

In other developments around the Central Division:

  • Andre Drummond‘s woeful free throw shooting is making it increasingly difficult for Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy to keep his star center on the court at the end of close games, David Mayo of MLive writes. Drummond was on the bench during the closing minutes of Detroit’s crucial win over the Bulls on Saturday night after Chicago began intentionally fouling him. Drummond, who made just one of 10 free throw attempts during that game, is shooting a league-worst 35.4% from the foul line. “In a close game like that, back and forth, we can’t be playing hoping for one point, at most, when they’re playing for two or three,” Van Gundy told Mayo and other media members. “You can’t do that. You’re putting way too much pressure on your defense.”
  • The latest design proposal for the Bucks’ new arena received approval from Milwaukee’s planning commission on Monday, moving the $500MM project forward for groundbreaking this summer, Tom Daykin of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. The development plan also requires Common Council approval, Daykin continues. The arena is scheduled to open by the 2018/19 season, Daykin adds.
  • The Pacers recalled power forwards Shayne Whittington and Rakeem Christmas from their D-League affiliate, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, according to the team’s website. Whittington played in 40 games for the Mad Ants, averaging 12.1 points and 7.9 rebounds, while Christmas appeared in 48 games, averaging 13.9 points and 7.1 rebounds.
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Central Notes: Brown, Drummond, Gibson, James

March 18th, 2016 at 5:34pm CST by Arthur Hill

Dealing with illness and injury in their backcourt, the Pistons signed Lorenzo Brown today as “insurance,” coach/executive Stan Van Gundy told Aaron McMann of MLive. Starting point guard Reggie Jackson is dealing with a viral issue, while reserve Spencer Dinwiddie is recovering from a deep bone bruise in his ankle. With Steve Blake as the only healthy point guard, the Pistons gave a 10-day contract to Brown, who was playing for the Grand Rapids Drive in the D-League. “I watched Reggie the other night and he was sick, and Spencer’s not 100%,” Van Gundy explained. “You start saying, ‘We might want to get that covered.'” Brown was in Detroit’s training camp before the start of last season had two 10-day contracts with the Suns earlier this year. Van Gundy likes Brown’s familiarity with the Pistons’ system, but he doesn’t plan to use him in a game unless there’s an emergency.

There’s more from Detroit and the rest of the Central Division:

  • Van Gundy lashed out at his defense, especially center Andre Drummond, after surrendering 118 points in Wednesday’s loss to the Hawks, writes David Mayo of MLive. The coach expects better rim protection from Drummond, who will be a restricted free agent this summer after agreeing to pass on an extension. Drummond is considered a virtual lock to stay with the Pistons on a max contract. “He’s not contesting shots at the rim,” Van Gundy said. “You look at the per-minute stuff and he’s 38th in the league in blocks per minute. I mean that’s just — maybe he can’t be in the top three or four but you don’t need to be 38th.”
  • Taj Gibson, the subject of trade rumors before last month’s deadline, has emerged as a team leader as a wave of injuries has hit the Bulls, according to Sam Smith of Bulls.com. “This is where young guys have to be veterans, suck it up and do the job,” Gibson said. That’s the way we’ve been playing the last couple of years and what I am trying to transfer to the young guys now.”
  • Cavaliers star LeBron James has posted another cryptic Instagram message, according to Luke Kerr-Dineen of USA Today Sports’ For The Win. James put together a montage of photos of him, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony and others with the message, “Who cares what others say that don’t agree with decisions we make because it doesn’t matter, this is our journey, the path we was giving and we’ll continue to walk it heads high guarding each others back throughout it all!”
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2016 NBA All-Star Game Reserves Announced

January 28th, 2016 at 6:14pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The NBA has officially announced the reserves for the 2016 All-Star game, which will be played at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on Sunday, February 14th. The names of the reserves were first reported by Carron J. Phillips of The News Journal and confirmed by Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal Constitution (All four Twitter links). The starters for both conferences were announced last week, with Stephen Curry, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard voted to tip off the exhibition in the West and LeBron James, Paul George, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Kyle Lowry slated to represent the East.

While the starters are selected by the fans, reserves are chosen by the coaches in each conference, though they are not permitted to vote for players on their own team. Listed below are the reserves for the 2016 NBA All-Star game for each conference:

Eastern Conference

Western Conference

Who was the biggest surprise among the All-Star reserves announced tonight? Share your thoughts with a comment.

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