Mark Bartelstein Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Draft Updates: Hudson, Alkins, Porter, Palmer

March 27th, 2018 at 9:57pm CST by Dana Gauruder

University of Florida shooting guard Jalen Hudson plans to declare for the draft without hiring an agent, Jeff Goodman of ESPN tweets. A Virginia Tech transfer, the 6’6” Hudson averaged 15.5 PPG in his junior year while making 40.4% of his 3-point tries. He’s currently ranked No. 39 on ESPN’s Jonathan Givony’s Top 100 prospects list.

In other news regarding the draft:

Arizona guard Rawle Alkins confirmed he’s headed for the draft and intends to hire an agent, which will officially end his college career, he declared on his Twitter feed. Sports Illustrated reported early this month that Alkins intended to declare for the draft. The 6’5” Alkins, who averaged 13.1 PPG, 4.8 RPG and 2.5 APG in his sophomore year, is ranked No. 59 by Givony.
Missouri forward Michael Porter Jr. is close to signing with agent Mark Bartelstein and Priority Sports, league sources told international expert David Pick (Twitter link). Porter, whose lone college season was wrecked by a back injury, declared for the draft on Sunday. The 6’10” Porter is currently rated No. 7 by Givony.
The Nebraska duo of guard James Palmer Jr. and forward Isaac Copeland Jr. have declared for the draft without hiring an agent, according to a school press release. The 6’6” Palmer averaged 17.2 PPG, 4.4 RPG and 3.0 APG as a junior. The 6’9” Copeland averaged 12.9 PPG, 6.1 RPG and 1.0 BPG in his junior campaign. They are not on Givony’s Top 100 list.

Gordon Hayward Decision on Hold?

July 4th, 2017 at 2:34pm CST by Arthur Hill

2:34pm: Hayward has changed his mind four times since Saturday, a source tells Tony Jones of The Salt Lake Tribune (Twitter link). Agents are speculating to Sean Deveney of The Sporting News that a sign-and-trade or possibly a separate Celtics deal is holding up a formal announcement (Twitter link).

2:25pm: Boston’s offer is $127.8MM over four years, with a player option likely after the third season, reports A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.

2:05pm: The leak regarding Hayward’s decision may lead to a delay in his announcement, Himmelsbach tweets, with Bartelstein suggesting the situation may not be resolved today. “That was the goal,” he said, “but now we’ve got to kind of regroup here a bit.”

Jazz president Steve Starks has tweeted a statement that reads, “We trust Gordon and his agent that no decision has been made. Good communication all day and a great relationship.”

1:50pm: The Celtics haven’t heard from Hayward yet, but they aren’t denying the report from ESPN, tweets Mark Murphy of The Boston Herald. Sources are telling Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe that the move is a formality and the teams just need to be notified (Twitter link).

1:40pm: Conflicting information is beginning to filter out concerning Gordon Hayward. David Aldridge of TNT claims Hayward has not reached a decision and is still weighing his options (Twitter link). Hayward’s agent, Mark Bartelstein, says the same thing to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com. “Gordon hasn’t made a decision yet,” Bartelstein said. “We are still working through it.” (Twitter link).

1:19pm: Gordon Hayward will announce today that he’s signing with the Celtics, tweets Chris Haynes of ESPN.com.

The All-Star forward, who spent his first seven NBA seasons in Utah, was considered the top prize left on the free agent market. The Celtics, Jazz and Heat all held meetings with him over the past three days. The move will reunite him with Brad Stevens, his college coach at Butler.

Boston’s belief that it had a shot at Hayward affected its decision to be conservative in its pursuit of Jimmy Butler and Paul George, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link).

With about $27MM in cap space, the Celtics don’t have quite enough cap room to sign Hayward to a full max deal. Hayward could agree to accept a little bit less, or the Celtics could try to move some salary before the moratorium ends on Thursday. One path, Blakely tweets, is to pull their qualifying offer for Kelly Olynyk, renounce all their free agents, waive Jordan Mickey and Demetrius Jackson and trade away one other contract.

Hayward, 27, is coming off his best season, setting careers highs with 21.9 points and 5.4 rebounds per game. He gives the Celtics another dangerous shooter who can stretch defenses and share the scoring load with Isaiah Thomas.

Extension Rumors: Plumlee, Hardaway, Zeller

October 31st, 2016 at 3:21pm CST by Luke Adams

Trail Blazers big man Mason Plumlee doesn’t expect to get a new deal done today, per Joe Freeman of The Oregonian (Twitter link). “Unless I go to my phone and my agent has something unexpected for me, there’s not going to be an extension,” Plumlee said. Agent Mark Bartelstein said earlier today that there was “no news” on the Plumlee front, Freeman notes (via Twitter). Still, the 26-year-old would like to remain in Portland long-term (Twitter link via Freeman).

Here are a few more updates and rumors on extension talks around the NBA, with tonight’s deadline looming…

Tim Hardaway Jr. and the Hawks continue to discuss a possible extension, but an agreement remains unlikely, several people familiar with the situation tell Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. According to Vivlamore, both sides have interest in working something out, but may wait until 2017 to attempt to finalize a deal.
It doesn’t appear as if Cody Zeller and the Hornets will complete a new deal before today’s deadline arrives, tweets Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer.
Stan Van Gundy continues to express pessimism about reaching an agreement with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope or Reggie Bullock. Van Gundy said this afternoon he’d be “surprised” if the Pistons lock up either player today, per Rod Beard of The Detroit News (Twitter link).
The Timberwolves and Shabazz Muhammad are “far apart” in negotiations, a source tells Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated.

Cavs Consider Mark Bartelstein For Front Office

February 14th, 2014 at 8:06am CST by Chuck Myron

The Cavs are thinking about making a pitch to agent Mark Bartelstein to have him join the team’s front office, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. It’s unclear whether Cleveland envisions putting the founder and CEO of Priority Sports & Entertainment in the role of primary decision maker, or if he’d serve in an assistant capacity. In any case, it’s unlikely the team can convince Bartelstein to make the move, Stein writes.

Any significant change the Cavs might make to their management team probably wouldn’t happen until after the season, according to Stein. Cleveland hopes interim GM David Griffin is successful enough at the trade deadline and through the rest of the season to make a convincing case to retain his job permanently. Griffin apparently has a mutual desire to head up Cleveland’s front office for the long term, Stein says.

David Lee, Taj Gibson and Gordon Hayward are among the prominent names on Bartelstein’s list of clients, as our Agency Database shows. The notion of an agent joining team management is unusual, but not unprecedented. Suns president of basketball operations Lon Babby and Warriors GM Bob Myers are former agents, as Stein points out.