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James, Curry, Harden Lead All-NBA Teams

May 21st, 2015 at 10:32am CST by Chuck Myron

LeBron James and Stephen Curry finished atop the voting for the All-NBA Teams, with James Harden, Anthony Davis and Marc Gasol joining them on the first team, the league announced via press release. Russell Westbrook, LaMarcus Aldridge, Chris Paul, Pau Gasol and DeMarcus Cousins comprise the second team. Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, Tim Duncan, Klay Thompson and Kyrie Irving make up the third team.

Curry, the league’s MVP, and James each received 645 points through a system in which five points are awarded a first team vote, three points go for a second team vote and one point is given for a third team vote. The duo garnered 129 first team votes each, making them unanimous first team selections. They were followed closely by Harden, with 125 first team votes and 637 points, and Davis, who had 119 first team votes and 625 points. Marc Gasol, who’s heading into free agency, wasn’t as widely seen as a first-teamer by the media members who cast their ballots, rounding out the squad with 65 first-team votes and 453.

Every member of the second team received at least one first team vote, and Thompson and Irving were the only members of the third team not to get a first team vote. Al Horford also received a first team vote even though he didn’t make any of the teams. The NBA will soon display the votes of each media member on its website, but the league has already distributed the information via press release, so click here to check it out in PDF form.

Western Notes: Jokic, Afflalo, Aminu

May 7th, 2015 at 6:45pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Mavs forward Al-Farouq Aminu has indicated that he’ll turn down his minimum-salary player option with the team for next season, but both sides have indicated a willingness to rekindle their relationship next season. When discussing his feelings regarding returning to Dallas in a radio interview with KRLD-FM 105.3 (hat tip to the Dallas Morning News), Aminu said, “People are still playing now, so it’s hard to tell, but I really want to. … Nobody likes moving and different things like that. I’ve been in L.A. then I went to New Orleans and now here. It’s always better to stay where you’re at but things happen. But it would be nice.”

Here’s more from the NBA’s Western Conference:

When asked what positives he would pitch about playing in Dallas to prospective free agent targets, Aminu said, “I guess it’s what I went through last year when I was coming to play here. It’s a great city. It doesn’t get that cold, which is nice. Also, the practice facility is in the arena is close, as well as the airport, so it’s not a lot of long hours you have to drive back and forth to places. It does become a drag. You’re going to play with great players. Obviously you’re probably going to win and then you’re going to have a chance at a championship.”
Nuggets 2014 second-round pick Nikola Jokic is seeking a long-term deal from Denver or else he’ll remain overseas, a source tells David Pick of Eurobasket.com (via Twitter). There are reports that the Nuggets intend to ink the big man prior to the NBA summer league commencing.
Blazers guard Arron Afflalo has to make a decision this offseason regarding his player option worth $7,750,000, and Sean Meagher of The Oregonian examines the pros and cons of the 29-year-old returning to Rip City in 2015/16.
Sam Amick of USA Today looks at the path Warriors star Stephen Curry has taken from being the No. 7 overall selection in the 2009 NBA draft to winning the league’s MVP award this season.

Western Notes: Pelicans, Curry, Batum

May 5th, 2015 at 10:33pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Pelicans would prefer to re-sign all of their free agents this offseason which would allow them to stay over the cap and use the full mid-level exception to sign another veteran player, Zach Lowe of Grantland.com writes. New Orleans currently has $40,582,846 in guaranteed salary and another $16,699,815 in non-guaranteed funds committed for the 2015/16 campaign. Pelicans players who will become unrestricted free agents this summer include Omer Asik, Luke Babbitt, Jimmer Fredette, and Dante Cunningham.

Here’s more out of the NBA’s Western Conference:

2014/15 NBA most valuable player Stephen Curry didn’t initially want the Warriors to draft him, and instead was hoping to go to the Knicks who were selecting one pick later than Golden State, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports writes. “The Knicks had [pick] eight and we thought in New York he’d be a great fit. We really wanted him to drop to eight,” Curry’s agent Jeff Austin said. “Once we got to seventh, we were like, ‘C’mon man, don’t pick him with [Golden State].’ At the time, the Warriors were not in our mind as a preferred destination.“
The Blazers could look to deal Nicolas Batum and his expiring contract worth $12,235,750 this offseason, Jabari Young of CSNNW.com writes. When asked about the possibility of being traded, Batum said, “If that happens, it happens. That’s the business, I understand that. I mean, I can’t control that. All I can control is what I put on the court. I know what I am going to do this summer is try to get better.” If Portland is able to unload Batum the team could target Mavs forward Al-Farouq Aminu, Young speculates. Aminu has a player option worth $1,110,602 that he intends to opt out of this summer.
Dwight Howard is happy being a member of the Rockets, but he admitted that the venom fans spewed at him as a result of his free agent decisions still weigh on him, Kristie Reiken of The Associated Press relays. “Sometimes it hurts,” Howard said. “It used to hurt a lot more as I went from this guy that everybody likes to everybody hated me because I wanted to play basketball on another team. And I’m like: ‘Hey listen it’s really not that serious. If I stopped playing today, your life is going to be the same, my life is going to be the same, it’s just I’m not going to be playing basketball. So why should it matter what I decide?’“

Stephen Curry Wins MVP

May 4th, 2015 at 10:03am CST by Will Joseph

MONDAY, 10:03am: Curry has indeed won the MVP, the league announced via press release. He garnered 100 out of 130 first-place votes. Harden, the second-place finisher, received 25, while the other five went to LeBron James, who came in third. Russell Westbrook, Anthony Davis and Chris Paul followed in the voting among media members. To see each voter’s ballot, click here.

SUNDAY, 6:33pm: Stephen Curry will be named the league’s Most Valuable Player, reports CSNBayArea.com’s Monte Poole, who cites multiple league sources. The official announcement, Poole writes, is expected to be made between Games 1 and 2 of the Western Conference semifinals series between the Warriors and the Grizzlies.

Curry, 27, would become the first Warrior in the franchise’s 53-year California history to win the award, Poole notes. Curry, who led the Warriors to an NBA-best 67-15 regular season record, was the top vote-getter in this year’s All-Star Game, which he started in for the second straight season. Curry will be only the second Warriors player to win the NBA MVP award, tweets Yahoo! Sports’ Marc J. Spears, who noted that the other was Wilt Chamberlain of 1959/60 Philadelphia Warriors.

After the Warriors’ Game 1 win, Curry was asked if he expected to win the MVP. Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group transcribed the post-game interview.

“I honestly have no idea,” Curry said. “It’s obviously just — in the middle of a playoff series, it’s hard to kind of separate yourself with other things that may or may not happen. Obviously I know what the situation is, and just trying to focus on the game, and if I get a call tomorrow, I’ll definitely be happy, and there will be a lot of people that can be proud of that moment, as well, and we’ll enjoy it. But right now I’m happy we won Game 1. I’ll wake up tomorrow a fresh new day, and we’ll see what happens.”

The slick-shooting sixth-year point guard averaged 23.8 points per game, which was good for sixth in the league. He also averaged 7.7 assists (sixth in the league) and 2.04 steals (fourth in the league). He shot 44.3% from 3-point range (fourth). His 91.4% on free throws was tops in the league. The runner-up in the voting, reports Poole, citing sources, was Rockets star James Harden.

The award is further confirmation of Curry’s status as one of the game’s best values. The Warriors signed him to a four-year, $44MM extension in the fall of 2012 amid concerns over his ability to avoid then-persistent ankle injuries. He’s missed only 10 games in the three years since and is making just a little more than $10.629MM on the backloaded deal.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Western Notes: Hill, Kanter, Warriors

April 22nd, 2015 at 9:31pm CST by Eddie Scarito

During his exit interview with Jordan Hill, Lakers coach Byron Scott told the big man that he wasn’t happy with the consistency of his efforts this season, Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News relays. “He was disappointed he didn’t see that energy,” Hill said. “That’s something else I need to work on.” It’s unclear if the franchise will exercise its $9MM team option on Hill, Medina adds. The team is focusing on the draft and free agency before making decisions on its current roster, something that Hill understands, Medina notes. “It’s going to be a big offseason for the Lakers,” Hill said. “It’s up in the air right now. They don’t know what’s going to happen. I have to stay positive and hope everything will fall into place.”

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

Enes Kanter has undergone arthroscopic surgery on his left knee, knocking him out of action for four-to-six weeks, Anthony Slater of The Oklahoman relays. The big man can become a restricted free agent this summer if the Thunder tender him a qualifying offer worth $7,471,412.
The Warriors as a team are influenced by both former coach Mark Jackson and current coach Steve Kerr emotionally, but it is the emergence as Stephen Curry as a leader that has put the team over the top this season, Tim Kawakami of The Bay Area News Group writes.
Clint Capela has unexpectedly stepped into the Rockets‘ playoff rotation and has risen to the challenge after being used sparingly all season, Jenny Dial Creech of The Houston Chronicle writes. “He’s a good kid,” coach Kevin McHale said. “He plays hard all the time. Nothing bothers him. Whether he had a really good last play or a really bad last play, he plays hard on the next play. That’s key. You do that, and you don’t drag all your baggage with you down the floor because you missed a shot or if you don’t defend.“

Suns Sign A.J. Price To 10-Day Contract

March 21st, 2015 at 6:44pm CST by Dana Gauruder

SATURDAY, 6:44pm: The Price signing is official, tweets Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic. Price will be on the Suns’ active roster for tonight’s game in Houston.

FRIDAY, 5:34pm: The Suns will release Seth Curry and sign A.J. Price to a 10-day contract, a league source told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Price played for the Pacers and Cavaliers this season. He appeared in 10 games with Indiana, averaging 10.5 points, 2.7 assists and 19.3 minutes, before the club waived him in late November. Cleveland claimed him off waivers and he appeared in 11 games with the Cavs, averaging just 2.0 points, 1.2 assists and 7.9 minutes, until they waived him in early January.

The former University of Connecticut guard played 28 games for the Timberwolves last season. He played 57 games, including 22 starts, with the Wizards during the 2012-13 season.

Curry appeared in just two games with the Suns after signing a 10-day contract earlier this month. The younger brother of Warriors star Stephen Curry had been playing for the Magic’s D-League affiliate. His first tie to the Suns came when he joined the team for summer league action this past July. Curry averaged 23.5 points in 37.0 minutes per game with the Erie BayHawks before joining Phoenix.

Warriors Co-Owner On Green, Lee, Luxury Tax

March 16th, 2015 at 2:30pm CST by Chuck Myron

Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob takes an aggressive approach to running his team, and it’s paid off, with Golden State a half-game in front of the Hawks for the league’s best record. His bold approach extends even to his plans for a new arena in San Francisco, though he told Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group that he now finds a 2017 opening date for that building unlikely and is instead focused on 2018. Lacob had plenty more to say, including a remark in which he expressed his hope that Stephen Curry is “a Warrior for life,” in a podcast taped Friday with Kawakami, who transcribes 20 of Lacob’s responses in a full story. The entire interview is worth your time, particularly if you’re a Warriors fan, but we’ll share three of Lacob’s remarks here:

On Draymond Green, set for restricted free agency this summer:

“I obviously have to choose my words carefully here — we’re not trying to make any claims or anything like that. He will go through the restricted free agency process; I’m sure he’ll get offers from other teams. And he’ll have an offer from us, obviously. Look, he’s very much a part of the core here. That’s the way we view him. He just turned 25 years old and along with Steph and Klay [Thompson] and Harrison [Barnes] we have our sort of core young four, if you will, along with a lot of other really good players. All I can say is we’re going to do everything we can to convince him to stay and be a Warrior for a long time. Of course we have the ultimate [choice] in all that — we can match any deal he gets.”

On the possibility of trading David Lee:

“This is really for [GM] Bob [Myers] to figure out and our basketball ops team. We’re going to figure out how to put together the team for next year. And let’s wait to see how the season ends, first. … You don’t know what’s going to happen. … Sometimes you change your view by the end of the year. Look, if that’s the way it works out, he’s an expiring contact and if it’s better for him to move on somewhere else, maybe that might happen. But it might not. I think we have to wait until the end of the year and assess everything when the season’s over.”

On paying the luxury tax:

“No one should be comfortable with that because the penalties are obviously quite severe. We’d always prefer not to. I can’t sit here and lie and say that I would love to pay the luxury tax. No one would love to pay the luxury tax. But we always have known that there could be a time when it’s required, when the team is at such a point, to keep it together, maybe it’s just that point where we have overlapping contacts that add up … where we have to pay the luxury tax to do that, to keep our long-term plan intact. So the answer, without going on and on, is that we are prepared to pay the luxury tax, yes, if we have to. That’s just a part of the business. It’s not something we want to do. And we’ll all see what happens. A lot depends on what other teams do and how free agency goes and so on. There’s really quite a few factors.”

Pacific Notes: Cousins, Karl, Thompson, West

February 13th, 2015 at 12:42pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Kings are poised for trade deadline action after resolving their coaching situation, while in Phoenix, suitors are lining up for Goran Dragic. We’ll run through the latest news and notes from a busy Pacific Division here:

DeMarcus Cousins praised new Kings coach George Karl to reporters at All-Star weekend in New York, saying he looked forward to working with him, tweets Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork.com. The center has expressed exasperation with the team’s coaching turmoil.
Karl was the right choice for the Kings, argues Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee, who also lists Scott Brooks among the names of coaches who would have been candidates for the Sacramento job if the team hadn’t hired Karl.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr was largely responsible for halting a proposed blockbuster last summer that would have sent Klay Thompson to the Timberwolves in exchange for Kevin Love, according to Sean Deveney of the Sporting News. Kerr and Warriors team consultant Jerry West talked ownership out of making the swap, which would have also sent David Lee to Minnesota and Kevin Martin to Golden State, Deveney adds. A source close the talks told Deveney that the trade was a done deal until Kerr, who took the job with the expectation of coaching Thompson, and West convinced management not to do it.
The jealousy that the Warriors worried might develop when they gave Thompson a more lucrative extension than Stephen Curry got a few years ago hasn’t developed, and Thompson doesn’t regret agreeing to contract terms that might give him less than the max, as Deveney writes in the same piece.
West, who made his mark as an executive with the Lakers, is confident the Lakers wouldn’t ask him back, as he said on 95.7 The Game, as station host Matt Steinmetz relays (Twitter links). West’s son, Ryan, is the Lakers’ assistant scouting director, notes Yannis Koutroupis of Basketball Insiders (on Twitter).
Trading Dragic would be a wise move because the Suns are not true title contenders, Dan Bickley of the Arizona Republic argues. Bickley believes the Suns should be acquiring trade assets in order to make a future move to acquire a superstar talent rather than adding short-term pieces such as Ray Allen or Amar’e Stoudemire. If the Suns can add a first-round pick by swapping Dragic while concurrently breaking their point guard logjam, they should not hesitate, Bickley concludes.

Dana Gauruder contributed to this post.

Western Notes: Curry, Jackson, Green

January 12th, 2015 at 10:15pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Stephen Curry is a legit contender to win the 2014/15 most valuable player award, opines Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group. The Warriors have the league’s best record at 29-5 and Curry’s player efficiency rating is 27.13, which ranks fourth best in the league. With those numbers, Curry belongs in the conversation for this season’s MVP award, along with James Harden, Anthony Davis and LeBron James, whose candidacy I briefly wrote about on Sunday.

Here’s more from the Warriors as well as another contender in the Western Conference:

The arrival of Dion Waiters might mean a further diminished role for Reggie Jackson, writes Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman. Jackson will be a restricted free agent in the offseason and Mayberry speculates that Jackson will garner a contract worth upwards of $12MM annually. For that price, the Thunder might be interested to see if they can get similar production off their bench from Waiters for a fraction of the cost.
The Warriors are constructed to contend for a championship this season, opines Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group. Golden State is the top ranked team in defensive efficiency this season. However, the window for the team to contend as currently constructed might be closing as key piece Draymond Green is set to become a restricted free agent. The team already has $82.6MM in salary commitments for next season and it will likely be forced to make a move if it wants to re-sign Green.
Warriors center Andrew Bogut says he has no relationship with former coach Mark Jackson, as Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group writes. “I haven’t heard from him since [his firing]. I know he keeps in touch with some guys on the team, but I’m kind of in a different crowd I think.” The Australian big man has played well this season under new coach Steve Kerr. He is averaging 2.0 blocks per game and sports a player efficiency rating of 16.87.

Western Notes: Suns, Mekel, Curry

December 25th, 2014 at 8:27pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Suns have assigned Tyler Ennis, Archie Goodwin, and T.J. Warren to the Bakersfield Jam, their D-League affiliate, the Associated Press reports. Ennis and Warren each appeared in two games during their one previous assignment to Bakersfield this season. Warren is averaging 36 points and 6.0 rebounds for the Jam, and Ennis has averaged 22 points and 7.5 assists per contest. This will be Goodwin’s first trip of the season to the D-League.

Here’s the latest from the Western Conference:

With the Warriors‘ fast start to the season, Stephen Curry‘s stature around the league and his value is rising right along with the franchise’s, Antonio Gonzalez of The Associated Press writes.
Gal Mekel said that he has passed on numerous overseas offers, and that he “wouldn’t have been able to live with himself” if he had missed out on any NBA offers because of accepting an overseas deal, David Pick of Eurobasket reports (Twitter links). Mekel was recently waived by the Pelicans, though New Orleans coach Monty Williams has indicated that the team will consider re-signing the player.
Kevin Durant‘s recent ankle injury has shown just how fragile the Thunder‘s playoff hopes are, Royce Young of ESPN.com writes. “You can’t take winning for granted,” Oklahoma City coach Scott Brooks said. “Winning a game is hard. My first-year coach, Jimmy Lynam, used to always say that. Winning a game in this league is tough. And number one is health. Having your full roster to work with gives you the best chance to win.”