Luke Walton Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Pacific Notes: Rondo, Jordan, Walton, Nance Jr.

November 14th, 2015 at 4:17pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Clippers big man DeAndre Jordan has demonstrated growth since last season, with his play on the court, as well as in his overall maturity level, Justin Verrier of ESN.com writes. “I don’t know if it’s necessarily because of what happened this offseason, but I’d say he’s been more mature, more focused. He’s been a better leader,” shooting guard J.J. Redick said. “I’d say the same about Blake Griffin, I would say the same thing about Chris. Those guys are really locked in. It goes without saying — they just want to win a championship, and we have to follow that lead.” Redick is of course referring to Jordan almost joining the Mavericks as an unrestricted free agent before suddenly reversing course and deciding to re-sign with Los Angeles via a four-year, $87.6MM pact.

Here’s more from the Pacific Division:

Despite all the reports of turmoil in Sacramento, one bright spot for the team has been the recent play of point guard Rajon Rondo, who has impressed embattled coach George Karl with his orchestration of the Kings‘ offense, Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee writes. “Rajon is very intelligent there, and I think he’s ahead of the curve,” Karl said. “I’ve been surprised by the numbers he’s putting up from the standpoint of understanding our team.”
Luke Walton has been performing admirably filling in as interim coach for the Warriors while coach Steve Kerr recovers from multiple back surgeries, guiding the team to a 10-0 start to the 2015/16 season. While Walton is anxious for Kerr to return to the team, he also adds that he would like to become a head coach on a more permanent basis down the line, Ben Golliver of SI.com relays. “I would love to at some point. It’s been a lot of fun. It’s enjoyable,” Walton responded when asked about potentially becoming a full-time head coach. “It’s something I would like to do one day with my own team. That’s nothing I’m trying to rush into. I’m just grateful for this opportunity and learning. As hectic as this has been and as crazy as this has been, obviously I can’t wait for Steve to get back. I’ll be thrilled to hand this thing over to Steve once he’s ready.”
Lakers rookie Larry Nance Jr. credits his four years as a starter for the University of Wyoming for preparing him for the rigors of the NBA, and believes his experience gives him an edge over many other first year players, Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News writes. “I’m not taking anything away from the young guys to the guys that come out early. Obviously you can look around the league and you can look around our locker room,” said Nance. “But I think we’ve grown up mentally and may be a little bit more ready physically.”

Pacific Notes: Clark, Chandler, Cousins, Walton

October 6th, 2015 at 4:30pm CST by Chuck Myron

Ian Clark has shot well during camp and shown improving skill as a point guard, as well as the ability to defend multiple positions, all of which bodes well for his chances to stick with the Warriors on his non-guaranteed deal, as Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle examines. He’s also lingering after the end of most practices so he can play one-on-one with Stephen Curry, Simmons notes.

“He’s played well,” Curry said. “He’s not just a shooter. He’s shown that he can put the ball on the floor and make plays. He’s been around a couple of different teams and our summer-league program. I think he understands how we play, and he’s fitting right in. It’s fun to watch those five or six guys fighting for a roster spot, but Ian has definitely shown that he’s confident, and he’s making the most of an opportunity right now.”

Golden State has 13 players on fully guaranteed contracts and James Michael McAdoo on a partially guaranteed deal, as our roster count shows, leaving Clark among six likely fighting for a single regular season spot. See more from the Warriors amid the latest on the Pacific Division:

The free agent signing of Tyson Chandler has displaced Alex Len from the Suns starting lineup, but the 2013 No. 5 overall pick sees it as an opportunity to learn from an experienced mentor, writes Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. Suns senior adviser Lon Babby also arranged for Len to work with Tim Duncan for a few days this summer, Coro notes. “I learn something new every day,” Len said. “Like I talk to Tyson and he tells me something and I can apply it in the game right away. Like positioning and little things he helps with. I feel the game has slowed down a little bit from last year to this year. Now, when I dive and catch the ball, I see other guys more and read the game better.”
Luke Walton‘s career trajectory has seen him go from a first-time assistant, to winning an NBA title, and now to Warriors interim head coach in the span of 14 months, Ann Killion of the San Francisco Chronicle writes.
Kings center DeMarcus Cousins is pleased with the team’s veteran offseason additions, who all fit with Sacramento’s intent to try to contend this season, writes Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report. “You’ve got guys who know how to play the game, guys that know the game,” Cousins said. “Coming out and building chemistry is even easier. Trying to do that with younger guys? They’re trying to figure out their game and learn how to play.“

Steve Kerr To Take Leave Of Absence

October 2nd, 2015 at 3:29pm CST by Eddie Scarito

3:29pm: Walton tempered Adams’ remarks a bit, saying that a return for Kerr within a few days would be the best-case scenario and that his absence could still stretch on for weeks, notes Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group (Twitter link).

FRIDAY, 10:28am: Warriors assistant coach Ron Adams expects Kerr to return in only a few days and that he will certainly be back in time for the team’s regular season opener on October 27th, which takes place at home against the Pelicans, Adams told SiriusXM NBA Radio this morning (Twitter links or hear the audio).

THURSDAY, 3:26pm: Warriors head coach Steve Kerr will take a leave of absence from the team in order to focus on his recovery and rehabilitation from back surgery, the team announced in a press release. The length of Kerr’s absence is unknown, and it will be determined by the speed of his progress. Luke Walton, the team’s lead assistant, will serve as the interim head coach.

Kerr underwent surgery on his back to repair a ruptured disc back in late July and then had follow-up surgery in early September. “After the first two days of training camp, I realized I need to take a step back and focus on my rehabilitation in order to be ready for the grind of another NBA season,” said Kerr. “As I noted last week, my summer was difficult and no fun due to the multiple back surgeries. At this point, I simply want to get healthy and back to my normal daily routine on and off the court.”

It’s unclear at this time if Kerr, who led the Warriors the NBA title last season, his first as a coach, will return in time for the start of the regular season. “At this point, the most important thing is to make sure Steve is healthy, completely recovered and ready for not only the rigors of a long NBA season, but day-to-day life in general,” said Warriors GM Bob Myers. “We don’t anticipate the recovery process will be long term, but as of today we don’t know the exact timeframe. We’ll evaluate his progress daily and provide updates as necessary.”

Pacific Notes: Lieberman, Moreland, Durant

July 30th, 2015 at 10:28pm CST by Chuck Myron

10:28pm: The Kings and Lieberman have reached an agreement, Lieberman tells Voisin (Twitter link).

7:29pm: The NBA will boast multiple female assistant coaches for the first time this season, as the Kings are expected to hire Hall of Famer and women’s basketball pioneer Nancy Lieberman to head coach George Karl‘s staff, reports Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee. Kings VP of franchise and basketball ops Vlade Divac told Voisin today that he’ll make Lieberman an offer, and she said to Voisin that she’ll accept it.

“George and I talked about bringing her back after she helped us at summer league,” Divac said. “She was terrific. She brings a different dimension. I think [it’s] a nice opportunity for her.”

She’ll join Spurs assistant Becky Hammon, the head coach of the Las Vegas Summer League champs, who became just the second female NBA assistant coach ever last summer, and the first to hold such a position full-time. Lieberman has previously served as head coach of the Mavs D-League affiliate. Here’s more from around the Pacific Division:

The Kings decided one-year veteran Eric Moreland‘s playing style was too similar to that of No. 6 pick Willie Cauley-Stein, helping prompt Sacramento to waive Moreland on Thursday rather than guarantee his salary, as Shams Charania of RealGM writes. Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee wouldn’t be shocked to see Moreland end up with Denver, where former Sacramento GM Pete D’Alessandro, who signed him to the Kings last year, works in the Nuggets front office, but Bill Herenda of CSN California heard early word suggesting that won’t happen (Twitter links).
The Warriors will surely chase Kevin Durant next summer, when he’s set for free agency, but realistically, they’d have to sign-and-trade for him, and such a deal would probably have to include Harrison Barnes plus more, as Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group posits in a look at Golden State’s chances for the former MVP.
Golden State has promoted Luke Walton to lead assistant to replace Alvin Gentry, the team announced. Gentry became the head coach of the Pelicans earlier this summer. Walton joined the Warriors coaching staff last year.
The Suns have officially added Earl Watson, Nate Bjorkgren and Jason Fraser to their coaching staff, the team announced. Watson and Fraser come from the Spurs D-League team while Bjorkgren had coached Phoenix’s D-League affiliate. Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group first reported the addition of Watson, who helped with the Suns’ pitch to LaMarcus Aldridge, his former teammate with the Trail Blazers.

And-Ones: Bucks Arena, Mavs, Huestis

July 27th, 2015 at 10:43pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The $500MM plan to fund a new Bucks arena has enough votes to pass the Wisconsin State Assembly on Tuesday, Republican Majority Leader Jim Steineke said, according to Scott Bauer of the Associated Press. Under the proposal, half of the cost would initially be paid by state and local taxpayers and the other $250MM would come from current and former Bucks owners, Bauer continues. If approved without any changes by the Assembly, the bill would then head to Governor Scott Walker for his consideration, Bauer adds.

In other news around the league:

The Mavericks have renounced their rights to Bernard James, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets. Pincus notes the Mavs did the same thing last summer, then re-signed him. James’ cap hold was $947,276.
The Spurs’ contract with Reggie Williams is not guaranteed, Pincus reports in a separate tweet. Williams would make approximately $1.186MM this upcoming season if he gets paid the full amount.
The Thunder are saving their final open roster spot for Josh Huestis, Marc Stein of ESPN.com hears (Twitter link). Oklahoma City selected the 6’7” forward with the 29th overall pick in 2014 but he spent last season with the Oklahoma City Blue of the D-League.
The Warriors will hire from within regarding their coaching moves and promote Luke Walton and Jarron Collins, Monte Poole of CSNBayArea.com tweets.

Pacific Notes: Hibbert, Young, Brown, Davis

July 10th, 2015 at 9:23pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak said in an appearance on Time Warner Cable SportsNet that he had the Roy Hibbert trade lined up with the Pacers in advance of the start of free agency as a fallback in case the Lakers fell short with their primary free agent targets, notes Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link). LaMarcus Aldridge, DeAndre Jordan and Greg Monroe all passed on the purple-and-gold, so Hibbert it is for the Lakers, who made his acquisition the last of their moves under the cap. That’s key, since it meant that the trade wouldn’t otherwise work unless Hibbert agreed to waive part of his 15% trade kicker. He wouldn’t have been allowed to waive it unless the Lakers were in such a position, but they were, and he gave back all but $78,185 of what otherwise would have been $2.3MM, according to Pincus (Twitter links).

Here’s the latest from the Pacific Division:

The 2018 first-round pick that the Kings owe the Sixers from this month’s three-player trade is protected only for the top 10 picks, according to salary cap expert Larry Coon (Twitter link). It’s unprotected for 2019. It’s possible that it’ll roll over to 2019 even if Sacramento’s pick ends up out of the top 10 in 2018 if the Kings have to send their 2017 first-rounder to the Bulls as part of a previous trade, Coon notes (on Twitter; also see RealGM).
The 2020 second-round pick that the Suns will receive from the Pistons as part of the Marcus Morris trade is Detroit’s own selection, according to RealGM.
Despite Nick Young reportedly being on the trading block, Kupchak said of the forward, “I do see him being a core player this year,” Mike Bresnahan of The Los Angeles Times tweets. The GM did stress that Young would need to show improvement on the defensive side of the game, Bresnahan adds.
Lakers second round pick Anthony Brown‘s contract calls for him to earn $700k for the 2015/16 season, $875k the second year, and $1MM in 2017/18, Pincus relays (Twitter links). The first two years of the deal are fully guaranteed, but the final season is non-guaranteed, Pincus adds.
Kings executive Vlade Divac said that Sacramento has had discussions with unrestricted free agent point guard Andre Miller, but the team is exploring numerous options, Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee relays (Twitter link).
Brandon Bass‘ free agent deal with the Lakers is for two years and $6.135MM, and includes a player option for the second season, note Pincus and Sam Amick of USA Today (Twitter links). Bass was signed using available cap space, which means Los Angeles still retains its $2.8MM room exception, Bresnahan tweets.
Kupchak said that if unrestricted free agent Ed Davis had waited one more day before signing a deal with the Blazers, the Lakers would have been able to re-sign him, Pincus tweets. Instead, Davis inked a three-year, $20MM pact with Portland.
The Warriors are considering promoting assistant Luke Walton to replace Alvin Gentry as the associate head coach on Steve Kerr‘s staff, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports reports (via Twitter).

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Atlantic Notes: Sixers, Walton, Celtics

February 5th, 2015 at 4:59pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The success of the Sixers’ 2014/15 campaign will be gauged by the amount of players the team finds who are “keepers,” Sam Donnellon of The Philadelphia Daily News writes. Two players who just might fit that description are Hollis Thompson and Robert Covington, Donnellon notes. Both players are proving themselves to be valuable assets who could play large roles in Philadelphia’s future, the Daily News scribe adds.

Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:

The Celtics have assigned Andre Dawkins and Phil Pressey to the Maine Red Claws, their D-League affiliate, the team announced. This will be the fourth trip of the season to the D-League for Dawkins, and the first trek for Pressey.
Luke Walton was all set to join Derek Fisher‘s staff as an assistant this past offseason, but with the blessing of Knicks president Phil Jackson, who is Walton’s mentor, Warriors coach Steve Kerr nabbed Walton first, Marc Berman of The New York Post writes. The Knicks could have used Walton’s expertise with the triangle offense to help ease the transition, one that hasn’t gone smoothly, Berman adds. “It’s definitely tough,’’ Walton said. “I think Derek knows that. I know Phil knows that. It’s about patience and building. And I don’t think you come in right away and teach a brand-new team who has never known the triangle and executing it the way it needs to be executed in the first season. When we played triangle [in LA], we had the same core and then added a couple of new guys each year. And it was the same coaches running practice with it every day, drilling. Even then it takes players a while to fully grasp it.’’
The Sixers are making progress as a franchise but still have quite a bit of work to do before they can become a winning team, Tom Moore of Calkins Media writes. The primary void that the team has is in its distinct lack of a star player who GM Sam Hinkie can build around, Moore notes.

Western Notes: ‘Melo, Mavs, Bledsoe, Kaman

July 4th, 2014 at 1:19pm CST by Chuck Myron

The offer the Mavs are making to Carmelo Anthony involves a starting salary of slightly more than $18MM, reports Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com (Twitter link). That would mean a max of $77MM over four years, though McMahon pegs the likely value of the offer at $75MM. In any case, that’s significantly less than the nearly $96MM over four years the Lakers are reportedly offering in a max deal, and about $50MM less than the five-year max that the Knicks have apparently put on the table. There’s more from MacMahon on the Mavs amid the latest from the Western Conference:

The Mavs have confidence they’ll strike a deal to re-sign Devin Harris, presuming they don’t land Anthony or LeBron James, even if some of the inflated agreements around the league this week have pushed his market value higher, MacMahon writes. The team sees Isaiah Thomas as its primary fallback option should Harris sign elsewhere, and Dallas has also been in contact with the agent for Wasserman client D.J. Augustin, MacMahon adds.
There are some who believe that agent Rich Paul’s talks with teams about LeBron are instead intended to pitch clubs on Suns restricted free agent Eric Bledsoe, whom Paul also represents, tweets USA Today’s Sam Amick.
The Blazers came to terms with Chris Kaman believing they wouldn’t be able to sign Spencer Hawes or Channing Frye, according to TNT’s David Aldridge (Twitter link).
The Warriors have officially hired Alvin Gentry, Ron Adams and Luke Walton as assistant coaches, the team announced. Gentry, who spent last season as a Clippers assistant, was a candidate for multiple head coaching vacancies this summer. Adams was an assistant with the Celtics last season while Walton was an assistant for the Lakers D-League affiliate.
Marcus Camby, 40, still harbors aspirations of returning to the NBA after missing last year as he recovered from left foot surgery, an injury that prompted the Rockets to waive him just before the start of the regular season.

West Rumors: Sterling, Williams, Afflalo, Miller

June 30th, 2014 at 8:02pm CST by Zachary Links

A new doctor has declared Clippers owner Donald Sterling mentally fit after a comprehensive medical examination in Las Vegas over the weekend, a source with knowledge of the situation told Shelby Lin Erdman of CNN. The testing was arranged by one of Sterling’s attorneys and conducted with one of the top dementia and Alzheimer’s disease specialists in the country. More out of the West..

Free agent Mo Williams has no meetings set with other teams and his “only goal” is to sign a new deal with the Blazers, a source tells Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com (on Twitter).
New Nuggets guard Arron Afflalo sounds intent on exercising his opt out after the 2014/15 season. “It’s probably something that I always anticipated, even beyond when I first signed this deal with Denver,” Afflalo told Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post. “I knew my game, I knew my maturity, I knew I would grow as a player. And I wanted to have that option as I got older and I progressed as a player. So hopefully I’ll out-perform my contract and put myself in a better situation. That was my intent from the beginning, even before this year, was to play out the four years and progress as a player.”
Grizzlies swingman Mike Miller tells Ronald Tillery of the Commercial Appeal (via Twitter) that he’s meeting with his agent tomorrow in Los Angeles before talking with four or five clubs. Meanwhile, the Grizzlies can prevent him from looking around if they come to him with the right deal.
A source tells Sean Deveney of the Sporting News (on Twitter) that there are four or five suitors out there for Jordan Hill, including the Rockets and Mavs. He’s not ruling out a Lakers return and will take his time through the process with an eye on a longer deal.
Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak says the club is putting Julius Randle through a series of physicals this week to test his foot though, right now, he doesn’t expect surgery, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com.
There is strong mutual interest in Vince Carter‘s return to the Mavericks, but several playoff teams are expected to express interest in the 37-year-old swingman, writes Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com. The Heat, Thunder, Blazers, and Raptors are among the playoff teams that are seen as potential fits for VC, according to a source.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr is discussing an assistant coaching job on the staff with Luke Walton, league sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter).
Lakers unrestricted free agent Kent Bazemore is expected to draw interest from the Hawks, Celtics, and Suns among others, tweets Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders.

Atlantic Notes: Cartwright, Walton, Sixers

June 7th, 2014 at 8:41pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Bill Cartwright is waiting to hear from either Phil Jackson or Steve Kerr about an assistant coaching position, writes Mitch Abramson of The New York Daily News. According to the article, Cartwright had met with Jackson back in April about joining the Knicks bench if Kerr was hired as coach. On his lack of recent contact with Jackson, Cartwright said, “We’re waiting for them to make a decision, obviously about the head coach and there’s nothing going on.” On possibly working as an assistant under Derek Fisher, Cartwright said, “That’s a Phil question, not my question. I’m looking to coach. There’s really nothing more to say, outside of that. I’m looking to coach.”