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Western Notes: Lakers, Young, Ellis

December 25th, 2013 at 8:12pm CST by Jonathan Nehring

Since the NBA’s inception, only one trade and four other NBA transactions have occurred on Christmas Day. Thus, a slower evening of transaction news can be expected. However, a few notes in the Western Conference.

Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News explains how the Lakers‘ commitment to re-signing Kobe Bryant and having max flexibility in next summer’s free agent market has allowed for the breakout performances of players such as Xavier Henry, Wesley Johnson, and Nick Young. Medina also speculates what big free agent(s) the Lakers may pursue next summer as well as how they adjust to life beyond Kobe.
Speaking of breakouts, Nick Young is hoping this season’s performance with the Lakers will provide his future with more financial stability like his former teammate John Wall was given this offseason. Young has played for 4 teams in the 3 years since he signed the Wizards’ qualifying offer on his rookie deal but hopes a team will provide him more security in the near future. He is currently playing for the veteran minimum and has a player option at the end of this season. Young told Michael Lee of The Washington Post that although this is not the security he hoped for, he is embracing playing for his hometown team and learning from one of basketball’s greatest – Kobe Bryant.
Dwain Price of The Fort Worth Star-Telegram claims the jury is still out on the Mavericks three-year, $25MM free agent Monta Ellis but that early returns are encouraging. The NBA’s most improved player in 2007 signed with the Mavericks this past summer. Ellis is averaging 20.6 PPG and 5.9 APG this season.

Pacific Links: Young, Marshall, Nedovic

December 21st, 2013 at 1:41pm CST by Chuck Myron

All five Pacific Division teams are in action tonight, and the slate includes a matchup between the Lakers and the disappointing Warriors. Golden State could fall to .500 with a loss, despite preseason thoughts of challenging for the Western Conference title. Here’s the latest from the Pacific:

The injury-hit Lakers haven’t had much to celebrate, but Nick Young is nonetheless having fun in purple-and-gold, and he tells Tracy Weissenberg of SLAM Online that the experience is better than the half-season he spent with the Clippers in 2011/12. “The Clippers got a lot of hype with all the highlights they do. Obviously, they got a better record than us right now, but Lakers is tradition,” Young said. “I grew up being a Laker fan. The city always being Lakers fans. I remember going to the Laker parades after winning championships. It’s nothing like being a Laker. It changed my view of the NBA right now, being a Laker.”
Kendall Marshall has longstanding connections to a few Lakers, and that had him keeping a close eye on the team before he signed with L.A. this week, observes Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times. “They look like they really enjoy playing together,” the former Suns lottery pick said of his new team. “Any team that plays together, you want to be a part of.”
The Warriors have recalled Nemanja Nedovic from the D-League today, just one day after sending him down, the team announced. The rookie scored 29 points for the Santa Cruz Warriors last night, and he’ll be back with Golden State in time for tonight’s tilt with the Lakers. The Warriors are keen on one-day assignments, as I noted earlier this month.

Pacific Links: Granger, Lakers, Nunnally, Kings

October 4th, 2013 at 9:52pm CST by Chuck Myron

Kings team president Chris Granger had been a candidate to succeed Adam Silver as NBA deputy commissioner before he accepted the Sacramento job this summer, Kings owner Vivek Ranadive revealed, reports Dale Kasler of The Sacramento Bee. Granger told a gathering of Sacramento business leaders that the city's longstanding support of the Kings weighed heavily on the league as it debated letting the club leave for Seattle. There's more from the Kings among the latest from the Pacific Division:

Jordan Farmar agreed to a minimum-salary contract with the Lakers on July 10th, and his longstanding friendship with Nick Young inspired Young to do the same the very next day, as Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times examines.
The Suns treated James Nunnally well during a two-day tryout last month, and that led the sought-after camp invitee to choose Phoenix, writes Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. Nunnally is confident about his chances of making the team.
Plenty of uncertainty surrounds Jimmer Fredette, a trade candidate whose 2014/15 team option is not certain to be picked up by the deadline at the end of this month. Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee looks at how the new Kings regime views the third-year guard.

Western Notes: Kobe, Young, Mavericks

August 15th, 2013 at 11:04pm CST by Ryan Raroque

Sitting outside of Staples Center tonight with late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, Lakers guard Kobe Bryant says that he'll never accept being called the greatest Laker ever from Magic Johnson considering that he learned so much from him. As for his injury timetable, he's not sure if he'll be back by opening night at this point but is trying his best to get ready (ESPN Los Angeles' Arash Markazi via Twitter). Here are the rest of tonight's miscellaneous tidbits from the Western Conference:

Markazi and ESPN LA's Ramona Shelburne relay that Kobe would have picked North Carolina instead of Duke had he not decided to make the jump to the NBA out of high school, and shared that the Clippers feared they wouldn't be taken seriously if they drafted a 17-year-old despite telling him that he'd given them the best workout they've ever had (All Twitter links).
Flabbergasted that his team was projected to finish 12th in the West this year, Nick Young is "upset and ready for the season," writes Markazi: "How are you going to be ranked that low with Kobe and Pau and Nash? There’s always going to be haters and we just have to keep proving them wrong."
Tim Cowlishaw of SportsDayDFW thinks that the seventh or eighth-seed will be the best-case scenario for the Mavericks if all goes well this year. Jarret Johnson of the Star-Telegram looks at why there's optimism surrounding the team heading into the season.
Noting that six general managers around the league have previous ties with the Spurs along with four former coaching assistants now leading teams of their own, Dan McCarney of Spurs Nation describes why San Antonio's structure is a model that many teams want to follow but will find hard to duplicate.
Timberwolves' president Flip Saunders says that Kevin Love is now 242 lbs after playing last season at 250 (Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press via Twitter).
Paul Coro of AZ Central tweets a picture of the Suns' new uniforms, which were debuted tonight.

Contract Details: Andersen, Young, Roberson

July 18th, 2013 at 8:49am CST by Luke Adams

The specific figures on several of this summer's contracts continue to trickle in, so we'll keep passing along any notable details or changes related to those deals. Here's the latest:

Chris Andersen will be getting the minimum salary in his deal with the Heat, according to Mark Deeks of ShamSports (Twitter link). Previous reports indicated he'd receive 120%, the most the Heat could give him via Non-Bird rights.
Eric Pincus updated several team salary figures at HoopsWorld, including the Pacers, Clippers, Lakers, Bucks, Timberwolves, Pelicans, Knicks, Thunder, Magic, 76ers, and Suns.
Nick Young's deal with the Lakers includes a 15% trade kicker, tweets Pincus.
According to Pincus, Mike Conley, Zach Randolph, Carmelo Anthony, and Kendrick Perkins all saw their cap hits for next season increase or decrease, based on having met or failed to meet incentives (all four Twitter links).
While most of this year's first-round picks will sign for 120% of their rookie-scale amount, it appears Thunder first-rounder Andre Roberson signed for just 80% of his, tweets Pincus.
It seems as if Dwight Buycks received a portion of the Raptors' mid-level exception rather than the minimum salary. Deeks tweets that he'll get a guaranteed $700K from Toronto. Buycks reportedly signed a multiyear deal, so it's not clear if his second-year salary exceeds the minimum or includes a guarantee.

Lakers Sign Nick Young

July 16th, 2013 at 10:36am CST by Luke Adams

JULY 16TH, 10:36am: Young's deal with the Lakers is actually a two-year pact, with a player option in year two, reports Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times. Since it's a minimum-salary contract, the option is worth the minimum as well.

JULY 11TH, 6:35pm: The Lakers have officially signed Young, the team announced today (via Twitter).

5:17pm: According to USA Today's Jeff Zillgitt, Young's deal with the Lakers is for one year and $1.11MM, which is the veteran's minimum for a player entering his seventh year of NBA service.

4:14pm: Nick Young has agreed to sign with the Lakers, according to agent Mark Bartelstein (Twitter link via Sam Amick of USA Today). Considering Los Angeles has already committed its mini mid-level exception to Chris Kaman and can't acquire players via sign-and-trade, Young will presumably sign a minimum-salary deal.

Young, 28, averaged 10.6 PPG with a .413 FG% in 2012/13 with the Sixers. Prior to playing in Philadelphia, Young had spent most of the rest of his six-year NBA career with the Wizards. Although he had a brief stint with the Clippers in 2011/12, the USC product "will be with the team he always dreamed of playing for" when he officially signs with the Lakers, according to Bartelstein.

While Young isn't a particularly efficient player (12.8 career PER), he'll provide some much-needed scoring for a Lakers team that's expected to open the season without Kobe Bryant. Assuming the contract is for one year and the minimum, which seems likely given the club's cap constraints and desire to avoid adding long-term salary, Young could provide a good return on the Lakers' investment.

Western Notes: World Peace, Kings, Young, Pek

July 12th, 2013 at 10:44pm CST by Chuck Myron

Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni told Marc Berman of the New York Post that the team's decision to amnesty Metta World Peace was purely financial.

"Obviously it’s a byproduct of the CBA," D’Antoni said. "As a person and player, I couldn’t find anyone better. He’s great. I enjoyed coaching him. I hope he finds something great. He deserves it. It’s not the coaches. It’s management. They have to manage the cap."

The former Ron Artest probably won't be heading back to Sacramento, with the Kings not planning to place a bid through amnesty waivers, according to Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee (on Twitter). While World Peace contemplates a future with another L.A. team, the Lakers have turned their attention elsewhere, and we cover that and other news out of the Western Conference:

Nick Young's minimum-salary pact with the Lakers is only for one year, but GM Mitch Kupchak suggested that the 28-year-old is a part of the team's long-term plans, as Dave McMenamin passes along (Twitter link). "Although it's a short contract, we hope he would be here for a very long time," Kupchak said.
Talks between the Wolves and Nikola Pekovic are still going on, but they're moving slowly, tweets Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune, who figures they'll drag on into next week, at least. President of basketball ops Flip Saunders characterizes the negotiations as "progressing," Zgoda observes in another tweet.
Saunders also indicated that the Wolves aren't planning another major move this summer. "What you see is what you get," he said, as Zgoda notes via Twitter.
The Warriors' ambitions of opening a San Francisco arena by 2017 seemed far-fetched in the beginning, and it's becoming clear that the building won't be ready until 2018 at the earliest, as Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group details.

FA Updates: Jennings, Oden, Calderon, Knicks

July 2nd, 2013 at 10:00am CST by Luke Adams

The second day of 2013 free agency is underway, and we can probably expect to see a few more agreements reached today. In the meantime, here are a few news items and rumors on some notable free agents:

Brandon Jennings' representatives at Excel Sports gave the Bucks an undisclosed amount on Monday that Jennings would be willing to accept to re-sign with the team, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. According to Spears, Milwaukee would prefer to sign Jennings outright rather than having to decide whether to match an offer sheet, but it's not clear whether the team is on board with the figure Jennings has in mind.
Free agent big man Greg Oden will likely choose between the Spurs, Heat, Cavs, Celtics, and Grizzlies, a source close to the player told ESPN.com's Jeff Goodman. Yesterday, we heard that those five clubs were interested in the former No. 1 overall pick as well as the Pacers, Kings, and Mavericks.
Jose Calderon is meeting with the Kings in Sacramento today, agent Mark Bartelstein tells Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype (Twitter link).
The Bucks, Blazers, Spurs, and Hawks are pursuing Zaza Pachulia, tweets TNT's David Aldridge.
Nate Robinson and Matt Barnes have notified the Knicks that they're interested in signing with the club, and are waiting to see "where the Knicks are," a source tells Jared Zwerling of ESPNNewYork.com (Twitter link).
Flip Saunders and the Timberwolves have inquired on Nick Young, according to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (via Twitter).

Lakers Rumors: Farmar, Garcia, Young, D12

July 1st, 2013 at 12:30am CST by Luke Adams

We rounded up a few Lakers notes earlier tonight, but now that free agency has begun, there are plenty more updates out of Lakerland. Here's the latest:

There's been contact between the Lakers and former guard Jordan Farmar, and there's mutual interest between the two sides, a source tells Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com (Twitter link). However, a reunion would likely be dependent on the team's other moves.
There is also mutual interest between the Lakers and Francisco Garcia, tweets McMenamin.
The Lakers have inquired on unrestricted free agent Nick Young, agent Mark Bartelstein tells McMenamin (Twitter link).
Wayne Ellington's agent also received a call from the Lakers, tweets McMenamin.
In addition to calling Dwight Howard, GM Mitch Kupchak wanted to briefly meet with free agent big man, according to Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times (via Twitter). Bresnahan adds in a follow-up tweet that Kupchak was able to make that happen.
We heard earlier tonight that the Lakers reached out to Earl Clark and inquired on Chris Copeland.

Eastern Notes: Young, Lowry, Bulls, Heat

April 10th, 2013 at 10:27am CST by Luke Adams

With just a handful of games left in the 2012/13 regular season, only one postseason club in either conference is locked into its playoff seed — the East's top team, the Heat, remain a comfortable 10 games up on the second-place Knicks, despite the fact that New York has won 13 consecutive contests. The Bucks aren't locked into that No. 8 seed in the East yet, but they'll likely end up there, meaning last night's game in Miami, in which the Heat beat Milwaukee 94-83, figures to be a playoff preview.

Here's more from around the Eastern Conference:

When he hits free agency this summer, a long-term contract will be a priority for current Sixers guard Nick Young, as he tells Lang Greene of HoopsWorld.
Kyle Lowry called his first year with the Raptors frustrating and disappointing, but believes the team has the talent to bounce back next season, writes Doug Smith of the Toronto Star. As Smith notes, Lowry's contract for 2013/14 is mostly non-guaranteed, but after giving up a likely lottery pick for Lowry and trading Jose Calderon, the Raptors are a mortal lock to bring back the former Rocket next season.
Given Jimmy Butler's emergence, the Bulls should "think long and hard" this offseason about whether to consider shopping Luol Deng, says Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com.
Earlier this week, Heat president Pat Riley suggested that he wants to keep Miami's Big Three intact for years to come and "have one of those 10-year rides." Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel explores Riley's comments in his latest mailbag.
Pistons coach Lawrence Frank, who may be on the hot seat this summer, expressed some annoyance to Terry Foster of the Detroit News about the way many of his coaching colleagues are criticized.