Lakers Rumors: Westbrook, Harden, Kobe
Earlier today, we learned that Greg Monroe is slated to meet with four teams this summer, including the Lakers. Monroe, who is looking for a two-year deal with an option, says he wants to play for a playoff-caliber team. The Lakers will try and convince Monroe that they are ready to win in 2015/16 as they duke it out with the Knicks, Bucks, and Trail Blazers. Here’s the latest out of L.A…
- The Lakers are working to unload contracts to create significantly more salary cap space, league sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter).
- An executive, presumably from another NBA team, who spoke with Baxter Holmes and Larry Coon of ESPN.com expects that former Thunder teammates Russell Westbrook and James Harden will join the Lakers when they both become free to do so. That won’t be for a while, since Westbrook has two more years left on his deal and Harden has three remaining on his.
- Kobe Bryant is expected to take part in the Lakers’ pitch meeting with LaMarcus Aldridge tonight, according to Sam Amick of USA Today Sports (on Twitter). Kobe’s inclusion is not definite, he adds, but it is part of the plan at this time. In a full article, Amick says the meeting is also expected to include team president and governor Jeanie Buss, GM Mitch Kupchak, assistant general manager Glenn Carraro, coach Byron Scott, senior vice president of finance Tim Harris, as well as representatives from Time Warner Cable and AEG.
- Magic Johnson, meanwhile, won’t be around for the Lakers’ initial free agent pitches, as Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News writes. Magic is currently on vacation in Europe and it’s unclear when he’ll return.
Pacific Notes: Karl, Barnes, Lakers
Magic Johnson casts a shadow over the Lakers organization even though he’s no longer a part of it in any way, having sold his minority ownership share, as Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding examines. Johnson doesn’t have a relationship with any of the members of the Buss family who control the franchise aside from Jeanie, the team’s Board of Governors representative, with whom he remains close, according to Ding. The Busses have always insisted that the team isn’t for sale, but Johnson would be a prime candidate to front a bid for the Lakers if they ever became available, Ding writes. There’s more on the Lakers amid our look around the Pacific Division:
- George Karl admits he has a great degree of fondness for his former players on the Nuggets, observes Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee. Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck heard in February that Karl would love for the Kings to acquire Ty Lawson or any of the players he coached on the 2012/13 Nuggets, his last NBA team, but it’s uncertain how much influence, if any, Karl has under new basketball operations chief Vlade Divac.
- Defense, leadership and career-best 36.7% three-point shooting this year are the hallmarks of what’s been perhaps Matt Barnes‘ best NBA season, as Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times details. The timing is fortuitous for the Clippers small forward, whose salary of almost $3.543MM for next season is only guaranteed for $1MM.
- Baxter Holmes of ESPNLosAngeles.com examines the conundrum the Lakers face as Rajon Rondo looms as a likely free agent target while incumbent point guard Jordan Clarkson exceeds expectations.
And-Ones: Cavs, Nets, T’Wolves
There are plenty of head coaching options for the Cavaliers to consider, as the league’s current list of free agent coaches includes Mike D’Antoni, Lionel Hollins, Mark Jackson, and George Karl. Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio briefly profiles each of the above-mentioned candidates according to their chances of landing in Cleveland next season. Additionally, Amico mentions Alvin Gentry, Jerry Sichting, Mark Price, Alex Jensen, and Steve Kerr as other names to keep in mind.
Here are some more miscellaneous news and notes to pass along tonight:
- Despite talk that Kevin Garnett could potentially retire after this season, with Paul Pierce slated to hit unrestricted free agency, all signs point toward both returning to the Nets next year, writes Tim Bontemps of the New York Post.
- Timberwolves brass will be heading to Chicago tomorrow in preparation for the NBA’s pre-draft combine and are expected to request interviews with many players, including Michigan State’s Gary Harris, Michigan’s Nik Stauskas, Kentucky’s James Young, Creighton’s Doug McDermott, and Duke’s Rodney Hood, reports Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune.
- In the same piece, Zgoda writes that the Wolves are looking to acquire their own D-League affiliate.
- Don’t be surprised if LeBron James chooses to distance himself from Roger Mason Jr.‘s recent comments about boycotting the 2014/15 season if Donald Sterling still owns the Clippers, writes Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today.
- Assuming he re-signs with the Thunder in 2016, Kevin Durant could earn somewhere around $143.75MM over five years, as Berry Tramel and Jon Hamm of NewsOK explain.
- During an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Magic Johnson revealed that he declined an offer from Pistons owner Tom Gores to be part of his ownership group in Detroit (H/T to The Detroit News). Magic had been responding to the claim from Donald Sterling that the former Lakers star had been conspiring to purchase the Clippers.
NBA Eyeing Sale Of Clippers To Magic Johnson
Magic Johnson has gone back and forth in public statements about whether he wants to buy the Clippers, but many around the NBA believe commissioner Adam Silver and the league’s owners want to sell the team to him, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Johnson and the Guggenheim Partners, who together as a consortium own baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers and the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, are willing to pay in excess of $1 billion to buy the Clippers, Wojnarowski writes. Banned Clippers owner Donald Sterling fears that the league is steering the team toward Johnson, and that’s part of the reason why Sterling keeps assailing Johnson in racially charged rants, according to Wojnarowski.
The Yahoo! scribe first noted the interest of Johnson and the Guggenheim Partners last month, even before Silver issued Sterling’s lifetime ban and the league began to formally move toward forcing the sale of the Clippers. Johnson denied any such interest, but Wojnarowski continued to hear that the Hall-of-Famer wanted the team, and Johnson ultimately acknowledged his desire a couple of weeks ago.
Several groups and investors have made their designs on purchasing the Clippers known, but it appears as though Johnson and the Guggenheim Partners have the inside track. Silver issued an apology to Johnson on Monday after Sterling’s latest verbal attack. Still, legal challenges loom not only from Sterling but also from his wife, Shelly, who jointly owns the team as part of a family trust. There’s little chance that the matter will reach resolution anytime soon, so it could be a while before Johnson or any new Clippers owner takes control of the team.
L.A. Notes: Magic, Rivers, Farmar, D’Antoni
Magic Johnson earlier this week denied interest in buying the Clippers, but he’s apparently changed his mind, judging by his remarks Wednesday, as Ben Bergman of 89.3 KPCC reports (hat tip to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia).
“I will be owning an NBA team sometime,” Johnson said. “Is the Clippers the right situation? Of course. It’s one of the premiere franchises.”
The teams of Johnson’s past and perhaps his future have been most prominent in news across the league this week, and there’s more this afternoon on both the Lakers and the Clippers:
- Doc Rivers hasn’t made it entirely clear whether he intends to return to the Clippers, but he says he has no interest in making the jump across Staples Center to coach the Lakers, observes Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link).
- Jordan Farmar was a fan of Mike D’Antoni, but the soon-to-be free agent point guard doesn’t find the Lakers any less attractive now that the coach has resigned, as Farmar tells Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. “I want to be a Laker,” Farmar said. “I like playing for Mike. Whether it’s Phil Jackson, Mike D’Antoni or whoever else coaches this team, that won’t deter me from wanting to be a Laker.”
- D’Antoni reportedly would like another NBA coaching job, but the general sentiment leaguewide is that his success with the Suns was an aberration, writes Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. A GM who spoke to Deveney called D’Antoni a “one-trick pony.”
- There seems to be a decent chance that the Clippers will sell for more than $1 billion, but It will take more than money to buy the team, as James Rainey and Nathan Fenno of the Los Angeles Times examine.
- Cavs guard Jarrett Jack believes every player in the league should boycott practices and games next season if Donald Sterling still owns the Clippers by then, as Jack said today on 95.7 The Game, tweets Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group.
Silver Bans Sterling For Life, Issues $2.5MM Fine
NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced a lifetime ban and a $2.5MM fine for Clippers owner Donald Sterling. The NBA’s investigation found that it was indeed Sterling expressing racially charged statements on a recording. Sterling has been fined the maximum amount allowable in the NBA’s constitution. Silver will urge the board of governors to force Sterling to sell the team, and the commissioner said he’ll “do everything in my power to ensure that happens.”
Sterling admitted that it was his voice on the recording, Silver said, asserting that the NBA has the authority, with a vote of three quarters of the league’s owners, to force Sterling to sell. The effort to force him out will begin immediately, according to the commissioner, and he expects to receive the support from owners necessary to remove the longtime Clippers boss.
Silver believes the players will be satisfied with the decision, adding that he’s had multiple conversations with Kevin Johnson, who’s acting as the union’s voice during the Sterling saga. The NBA is not considering letting any of the Clippers out of their contracts, according to Silver.
The key response may come from Clippers coach and executive Doc Rivers, who’s expressed uncertainty about whether he’d return to the team if Sterling were to stay as owner. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports suggested earlier today that the Clippers players might follow his lead and ask for trades if Rivers were to leave.
Rumors have linked Magic Johnson to the team as a potential buyer, and Silver said today that Johnson is “always welcome as an owner in this league.” Johnson took to Twitter to express satisfaction with the NBA’s verdict.
The specter of a lawsuit from Sterling remains, and Silver said Sterling didn’t express remorse over his comments. Sterling, an attorney, is notoriously litigious, and there was speculation that the threat of a lawsuit would prompt Silver to opt for a light punishment.
Photo courtesy USA Today Sports Images. Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News, Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News, Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune, Chris Mannix of SI.com, Sean Deveney of The Sporting News, Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com, Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders, Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck, Ken Berger of CBSSports.com, and A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com provided detail via Twitter.
Wojnarowski’s Latest: Sterling, Rivers, Johnson
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports has news on the Donald Sterling fiasco, with the league and the player’s union set to address the issue this afternoon. Let’s dive in:
- Sources tell Wojnarowski that Doc Rivers won’t return to the team next year if Sterling remains, suggesting that it would set off a player revolt that might end up with the team’s stars demanding trades.
- Several league officials, including owners and members of the Board of Governors, tell Wojnarowski that they believe the commissioner has been contemplating calling for a vote among owners to strip the franchise from Sterling and take the team under league control until it can be sold.
- A former Clippers official tells Wojnarowski that Sterling is enjoying the spotlight of the scandal, glad that the focus is off Rivers and the players and back on him. Sterling is likely to fight the NBA until the very end, the source tells Wojnarowski.
- Though Magic Johnson took to Twitter to deny Wojnarowski’s earlier report that he’s interested in buying the team, Johnson wants to be in a position to purchase the club if it becomes available, Wojnarowski asserts. Johnson and potential investors spent time on Monday investigating the possibility of buying the team, sources tell Wojnarowski.
- Sterling’s estranged wife, Rochelle, who often goes by Shelly, believes she can wind up with the Clippers, but Silver and the rest of the league owners aren’t amenable to that solution, sensing that the team must leave the family’s hands, Wojnarowski writes.
- When Sterling nearly blocked the J.J. Redick sign-and-trade last summer, people close to the owner believe that it was in part because Sterling worried that Redick’s four-year, $27.755MM deal was too much for a white player, Wojnarowski hears. Sterling believes that black players possess superior athleticism, strength, and talent, according to Wojnarowski.
NBA Owners Want To Oust Donald Sterling
10:58am: A source close to Johnson says he has had no conversations about buying the Clippers, tweets Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com. Shelburne adds in a second tweet that the Clippers aren’t for sale, pointing out the difficulty the NBA faces in forcing Sterling to give up the team.
8:21am: Owners across the NBA want Donald Sterling out, and the consortium of Magic Johnson and the Guggenheim Partners is eager to purchase Sterling’s Clippers, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The sale price could be in excess of $1 billion, according to Wojnarowski. One member of the NBA’s Board of Governors tells Wojnarowski that a fine and a suspension for Sterling would be “meaningless” and would be interpreted as a failure of the league to accept responsibility for the problems set off by Sterling’s alleged racist comments.
The Guggenheim Partners, a financial services firm, and Johnson are the owners of baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers, and they recently bought the WNBA’s financially troubled Los Angeles Sparks. They saw purchase of the Sparks as a strategic move that would draw themselves closer to the NBA, according to Wojnarowski. They’ve wanted to purchase the Lakers, and, as Wojnarowski reports, they recently make an aggressive push to do so before the Buss family made it clear that they’re not selling.
NBA owners are pushing commissioner Adam Silver to find a way to force Sterling out of the league, cognizant of the negative perception that will persist if they don’t, Wojnarowski writes. The sale of the team to Johnson, the target of one of the racist barbs Sterling is alleged to have made, would help the league repair its image problem. It would also smooth relations with the players union, which is seeking the maximum punishment for Sterling, as fellow Yahoo! scribe Marc J. Spears writes.