Central Notes: Ellis, Rondo, Pistons
Monta Ellis‘ role with the Pacers keeps declining, notes Zach Lowe of ESPN.com. The 31-year-old shooting guard has been replaced in the starting lineup by Glenn Robinson III and has struggled to contribute off the bench. Ellis is averaging just 8.3 points per game, the lowest since his rookie season, and shoots just 29% from 3-point range. He’s also taking a career-low 9.3 shots per 36 minutes and his free throw and assist rates have both fallen. Ellis is signed for $11.23MM next season and has an $11.7MM player option that Lowe expects him to exercise in 2018/19.
Here’s more from the Central Division:
- Rajon Rondo said he wasn’t trying to be the “bad guy” when he called out Dwyane Wade and Jimmy Butler, as K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune relays (Twitter links). “I have a great relationship with the young guys [on the Bulls] and they had some things to say,” Rondo said. “When people express feelings relationships get better.”
- Coach Fred Hoiberg said there will be no suspensions for any of the Bulls players as a result of the verbal battle between Wade, Butler and Rondo, Nick Friedell of ESPN.com passes along (Twitter link). However, Hoiberg did say there will be fines handed out.
- Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy says the idea of a 10-man rotation isn’t workable, even though the team is getting past its injury problems, relays Aaron McMann of MLive. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Jon Leuer recently returned to the lineup, giving Detroit 10 players who have seen regular playing time this season. But Van Gundy says decision have to be made on what’s best for the team, not to make sure certain players get enough minutes. “I like having all of those guys available,” he said. “It certainly gives us more flexibility, but the idea it’s as simple as, ‘Play 10,’ or ‘Play nine’ … you start charting out the minutes guys should get, and it doesn’t work.”
Chris Crouse contributed to this post
Bulls Notes: Hoiberg, Rondo, Mirotic, Forman
Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg will eventually have to pick a side in the ongoing verbal battle involving Rajon Rondo, Dwyane Wade and Jimmy Butler, writes Vincent Goodwill of CSNChicago. The team has seen verbal sniping this week, with Wade and Butler questioning the effort some of the players and Rondo responding on social media by saying his former Celtics teammates wouldn’t criticize players in the media. Goodwill states that Hoiberg faces a “defining moment” in trying to diffuse the situation.
There’s more today out of Chicago:
- Nikola Mirotic and Michael Carter-Williams have been the main sources of frustration for Wade and Butler, according to K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune. Johnson adds that both addressed the players privately before speaking to the media. “I’m very expressive. I want good for these guys. I try to help these guys,” Wade said. “But there also comes a time [when] I can’t want it for you. It’s not every person on this team. But guys know who they are if they want to be real with themselves, if they’re doing enough.”
- GM Gar Forman is expected to make a statement to the media at this afternoon’s shootaround, Johnson tweets. Rondo will also reportedly answer questions (Twitter link).
- Waiving Rondo would be the easy way out for the Bulls, says Bobby Marks of The Vertical on a podcast with Chris Mannix. Marks suggests a team meeting where all the players can discuss their grievances and says Rondo shouldn’t be made a scapegoat for exposing the problems in the Bulls’ locker room. The former Nets executive also criticizes the Bulls’ roster, which he says is poorly formed outside of Butler and Wade.
Rondo Rips Wade, Butler For Criticizing Teammates
Bulls guard Rajon Rondo ripped teammates Dwyane Wade and Jimmy Butler in an Instagram post for their leadership qualities after they criticized younger teammates following a home loss to the Hawks on Wednesday. The Instagram post was retweeted by numerous media members, including Bulls beat writer Nick Friedell of ESPN.com.
Without naming Wade and Butler in the post, Rondo called out the duo for voicing their frustration about their teammates’ desire, effort and decision-making to the media after Chicago squandered a late lead to Atlanta. Rondo pointed to his early NBA years, when he was a young point guard, and said “my vets” — the post included a picture of former Celtics duo Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett — would not have gone public with those criticisms. He also questioned the Bulls’ duo work habits and approach to adversity.
Here is the full post:
“My vets would never go to the media. They would come to the team. My vets didn’t pick and choose when they wanted to bring it. They brought it every time they stepped in the gym, whether it was practice or a game. They didn’t take days off. My vets didn’t care about their numbers. My vets played for the team. When we lost, they wouldn’t blame us. They took responsibility and got in the gym. They showed the young guys what it meant to work. Even in Boston when we had the best record in the league, if we lost a game, you could hear a pin drop on the bus. They showed us the seriousness of the game. My vets didn’t have an influence on the coaching staff. They couldn’t change the plan because it didn’t work for them. I played under one of the greatest coaches, and he held everyone accountable. It takes 1-15 to win. When you isolate everyone, you can’t win consistently. I may be a lot of things, but I’m not a bad teammate. My goal is to pass what I learned along. The young guys work. They show up. They don’t deserve blame. If anything is questionable, it’s the leadership.”
Rondo, who has seen his playing time diminish after beginning the year as the team’s starting point guard, figuratively threw a stick of dynamite on an already volatile situation. Rondo aligned with his younger teammates at the expense of undermining Wade and Butler.
It will be interesting to see how Bulls management handles the controversy. Rondo is making a guaranteed $14MM but is now sharing time with Jerian Grant and Michael Carter-Williams. His $13.4MM salary for next season is not guaranteed and the front office could decide to cut him loose sooner rather than later, given his public stance on the team’s leadership.
Dwyane Wade, Jimmy Butler Criticize Bulls Teammates
The Bulls suffered another frustrating defeat on Wednesday night, blowing a 10-point lead in the final three minutes and losing 119-114 to the Hawks. The collapse represented a boiling point for a pair of Bulls stars, as Dwyane Wade and Jimmy Butler questioned the effort and heart of their teammates in post-game comments, per K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune.
“I wish I could say that everyone in here is going to go home and not eat tonight. I can’t say that. I don’t know that they care enough,” Wade said. “Games are supposed to hurt. You’re not supposed to sleep. You’re not supposed to want to talk to anybody. I don’t know if that is in guys in this locker room. Hopefully, they can prove me wrong. But I will challenge them to see if losses like this hurt.
“They have to figure it out as individuals,” Wade added. “Guys have to look at themselves in the mirror and see if you really care enough. Are you putting everything into it for your teammates and for yourself? I would say no.”
Butler echoed Wade’s sentiments, questioning whether their teammates were as upset about the team’s bad losses this season as they should be.
“If you don’t come in this (expletive) pissed off after you lose any game, something is wrong,” Butler said. “This is your job. This is what you’re supposed to love to do, and I don’t think that everybody looks at it that way. I want to play with guys who care, guys who play hard, who want to do well for this organization, who want to do whatever it takes to win.”
Wade and Butler also questioned the Bulls’ shot-attempt decisions down the stretch, with players like Paul Zipser and Nikola Mirotic taking – and missing – key three-pointers late in the game. Butler suggested that the club needs to make a better effort to get the ball into the hands of its best players in key late-game situations, while Wade acknowledged that players should be ready to take open shots, but added that “you better have made that shot a lot of times and you better have put the work in — and I don’t see that enough.”
“Me and Jimmy, Coach puts the ball in our hands a lot to make plays, to make shots. That’s our job,” Wade said. “I think for the majority of the season we’ve done it when (it) counted, when we needed to. I can look at Jimmy and say Jimmy is doing his job. I think Jimmy can look at me and say Dwyane is doing his job. I don’t know if we can keep going down the line and be able to say that.”
The Bulls remain in the playoff picture in the East, as their 23-24 record is good for the No. 8 seed. However, given the frustration in the locker room, and the criticisms coming from team leaders, it would be surprising to see Chicago stand pat over the next few weeks. The club’s front office figures to explore ways to improve – or shake up – the roster prior to the trade deadline, though Butler had no interest in offering suggestions for potential deals.
“That’s not my job,” Butler said, per Nick Friedell of ESPN.com. “I don’t give a damn about no trade deadline. I just want to win now. Not later. Now.”
Bulls Shopping Rajon Rondo, Nikola Mirotic
A disappointing first half of the season has led the Bulls to put Rajon Rondo and Nikola Mirotic on the trade market, reports Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times.
However, a source adds that Chicago’s front office isn’t getting the type of offers it wants for either player.
Rondo was briefly benched and then relegated to the second unit after signing a two-year deal worth nearly $27MM over the summer. He is averaging 6.6 points and 6.7 assists in 36 games thiss season, barely half of his numbers in Sacramento a year ago. Rondo could be an attractive trade piece because only $3MM of his salary for next season is guaranteed as we outlined in our Trade Candidate series.
Mirotic is making nearly $5.8MM in the final season of his contract. He is averaging 9.3 points per game and shooting 39% from the field, and has widely been considered a disappointment since signing with Chicago three years ago.
Jimmy Butler has reportedly expressed disappointment to the front office about the current roster, but a source says he doesn’t want to betray his teammates by singling anybody out.
“I take everything personal,’’ Butler said after Friday’s loss to Atlanta. “I hate losing. I’ll leave it at that. Losing is something I don’t accept, we shouldn’t accept. We gotta go out and be better.”
Bulls Notes: Wade, Butler, Grant, Rondo
Dwyane Wade calls his first half season in Chicago “average” and says he’s still adjusting to life with the Bulls, relays Nick Friedell of ESPN.com. Wade is still playing at an All-Star level, averaging 18.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.8 assists a game, but the team has been disappointing at 21-22. Because his $47MM deal includes a player option for next season, Wade will face another decision on his future this summer. Wade admits he left his “comfort zone” after 13 seasons in Miami. “Whenever I feel a certain way about anything, I always think about that, that I made the decision, and it’s a challenge that I wanted for myself,” he said. “Like I said maybe in the [introductory] presser or somewhere, the easiest for me to [have done is] to just ride off into the sunset in my comfort in Miami. And no one [would have] judged me at all. … But I made it a little more difficult than that because I’m a competitor, so I challenged myself.”
There’s more this morning from Chicago:
- Wade’s future with the Bulls may be tied to Jimmy Butler‘s, Friedell writes in a separate piece. There are internal discussions in the organization about committing to a rebuilding process, which Wade wouldn’t be interested in at age 35. He said Butler played a key role in recruiting him to Chicago and will affect his decision when free agency arrives again. “One of the main reasons I’m here is Jimmy,” Wade said. “He’s the one who called me and got me to come here. So that’s a big part of my decision and everything else, is what Jimmy’s doing, what his future looks like and all that. And I’ve made it very clear. So I have no idea from that standpoint. You just have to wait and see and then see what works out.” Butler is signed through the 2019/20 season, but was the subject of multiple trade rumors last offseason.
- Horace Grant, who serves as special advisor to president and chief operating officer Michael Reinsdorf, says Chicago doesn’t need any drastic moves to reach the postseason. In a video posted on CSNChicago, the former Bull says the team just needs its key players to stay healthy. “I wouldn’t worry about trading anyone,” Grant said. “I wouldn’t worry about trading Jimmy or anything. I will find a way with the pieces that we have now, which I sincerely think that we’re going to make the playoffs, that we’re going to make a push.”
- Rajon Rondo, who has had several run-ins with his coaches, would like to be an NBA head coach when he’s done playing, writes K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune.
Westbrook Tops Snub List Among All-Star Starters
Triple-double machine Russell Westbrook, the league’s leading scorer, will not be among the Western Conference starters for next month’s All-Star Game in New Orleans. The league’s Twitter feed unveiled the starters for each conference, and the Thunder superstar lost out in the balloting to Stephen Curry and James Harden (Twitter links).
As ESPN.com’s Rachel Nichols points out, the fan voting counts for 50%, while the players’ votes weigh in at 25%, as does the media vote under the revised system. According to NBC’s Kurt Helin, Westbrook missed out because the fans had him third among Western Conference guards behind Curry and Harden.
Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Davis and Kevin Durant will comprise the starting frontcourt for the West.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jimmy Butler and LeBron James were selected as the frontcourt starters for the Eastern Conference. DeMar DeRozan and Kyrie Irving were chosen as the starting backcourt.
It’s a breakthrough for Antetokounmpo, who will be making his first All-Star appearance. Arguably the biggest snub on the Eastern Conference side was Celtics point man Isaiah Thomas, the fourth-leading scorer in the league and the conference’s top scorer.
Do you think Westbrook should have garnered a starting spot ahead of Curry or Harden? Besides Westbrook, which other player has the biggest beef about failing to land a starting spot in the league’s annual showcase event? Take to the comments section to share your thoughts.
Central Notes: Gores, Bullock, Butler
Despite the team’s dismal record, Pistons owner Tom Gores has every bit of confidence in Stan Van Gundy to lead the franchise, and is optimistic that the club will turn things around in the second half. “I think we’re going to make a run,” Gores told the media on Sunday night, per Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. “I like our guys. I like this group of guys. We’re going to make a run.”
After sneaking into the playoffs and faring as well as anybody could have hoped against the Cavaliers in the first-round, the Pistons have struggled in 2016/17. Heading into Sunday’s matchup with the Lakers, the team was 11th in the Eastern Conference.
Elsewhere in the Central Division:
- Although it only briefly halted Jimmy Butler‘s impressive season, the small forward is said to have lost as many as 10 pounds while suffering from the flu last week says Sean Highkin of The Athletic. In his first game back from the illness, the Bulls star dropped 28 points, eight rebounds and six assists.
- It didn’t take long for Reggie Bullock to get dropped into the deep end for the Pistons, writes Rod Beard of the Detroit News. Bullock had intended to work his way back from a torn meniscus slowly, but injuries to other perimeter threats on the roster have pushed him into a bigger role, faster.
- The Cavaliers are said to still be looking for more pieces before the trade deadline. Quentin Albertie of FanSided’s King James Gospel blog has put together five different options that they could pursue using their reduced trade exception.
Stein’s Latest: Cousins, Dragic, Butler, Matthews
The latest piece from ESPN.com’s Marc Stein is packed full of noteworthy trade rumors and tidbits, many of which we’ve already passed along. As Stein reported, the Trail Blazers are eyeing Tyson Chandler, the Nuggets are “openly shopping” Jusuf Nurkic, the Hawks are seeking at least a “quality” first-round pick to headline a Paul Millsap trade, and the Nets are looking for two first-rounders in any deal for Brook Lopez.
That’s not all though. Here’s a round-up of several more interesting notes from Stein:
- With the new designated player extension set to become available when the league’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement goes into effect in July, the Kings are preparing a summer extension pitch for DeMarcus Cousins, according to Stein. Given the opportunity to present Cousins with a strong extension offer, and the fact that they remain in the playoff hunt in the West, the Kings would require a “monster offer” to consider changing their plans and considering a Cousins trade.
- The Heat‘s asking price for Goran Dragic remains “too high to encourage any serious trade discussions,” according to Stein.
- Sources with knowledge of the situation have emphatically denied that the Bulls have made Jimmy Butler available, despite recent speculation to the contrary, Stein reports.
- Stein is also told that Mavericks swingman Wesley Matthews isn’t currently on the trade block. Sources tell Stein that Dallas has been “batting away pitches” for Matthews.
- While the Warriors are relatively short on trade options, they’re a strong candidate to add a player who gets bought out of his contract later in the season, says Stein.
- Stein also relays a report from ESPN colleague Chris Haynes, who says that Norris Cole is nearing a return to full health after battling a hamstring issue. Cole could draw interest from teams seeking point guard help, such as the Cavs.
Atlantic Notes: Butler, Wright, Thomas
Lost in the headlines coming out of Atlanta are rumors that the Bulls may look to shop Jimmy Butler. Such an idea isn’t particularly new – the All-Star was said to be on the block during the 2016 NBA Draft – but the impact of such a deal would be significant. Two Atlantic Division teams, the Celtics and Sixers, have been linked to the Bulls swingman and may or may not be in the mix of clubs looking to attain him.
While Keith Pompey of The Inquirer thinks that Butler would be a good fit with the Sixers alongside Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, A. Sherrod Blakely of Comcast SportsNet speculates that the Celtics may not have enough to get a deal done. The C’s have been said to be seeking a star, but Blakely suggests that Chicago will be looking for a “major haul” that Boston wouldn’t be able to meet.
Over the course of the next few weeks, teams will continue to inquire about the Bulls All-Star as he averages 25.2 points, 6.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game. Butler is owed $17.6MM this season and is signed through 2020.
There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:
- Out of action since Summer League, Delon Wright is creeping ever closer to making his return to action for the Raptors. Mike Sorensen of The Deseret News writes that the sophomore guard will begin playing 3-on-3 next week for the first time since undergoing shoulder surgery. Sorensen writes that Wright may not see action until “possibly next month.”
- The Raptors and Celtics already had a tough road ahead of them in the Eastern Conference, but Sports Illustrated’s Ben Golliver writes that the recent acquisition of Kyle Korver could spur them to be bolder as the trade deadline approaches.
- We wrote about Isaiah Thomas‘ emergence as a star earlier this week, but Comcast SportsNet has recently put together five reasons why the point guard should be considered a max contract player. The Celtics could soon renegotiate the contract that he first signed with the Suns in 2014.
- The D-League affiliate of the Nets has acquired the rights to recently waived R.J. Hunter, the team writes in a press release. Hunter had previously played for the Bulls, though only saw action in three games this season.