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Western Notes: Sloan, Phil, Nash

January 30th, 2014 at 8:55pm CST by Ryan Raroque

During Friday night’s game against Golden State, the Jazz will honor former head coach Jerry Sloan by raising a banner with the number “1223” embroidered on it, which denotes the total number of wins (regular season and playoffs) he helped deliver to Utah over his coaching career. Kurt Kragthorpe of The Salt Lake Tribune caught up with former Jazz and current Nets guard Deron Williams to get his current thoughts on Sloan:

“A big part of my success early in my career was due to him and the things he kind of instilled in me…So I’m definitely happy for him, and it’s going to be a special moment. The fans there just love him to death.” Williams also elaborated on the halftime argument with Sloan several years ago which reportedly triggered the former coach’s resignation:

“We got into a little argument — nothing more than we’ve ever done…So the way the fans perceive it is just one thing I can’t really control. Like I said, there’s no hard feelings on my end, and I enjoyed playing for him. I miss playing for him.”

Here’s more out of the Western Conference tonight:

  • During an appearance on NBA TV, former Lakers coach Phil Jackson said that while he agreed with the decision to give Kobe Bryant a two-year extension, he also thinks the team “paid him more than I would have gone for” (Bill Oram of the OC Register via Twitter).
  • Oram also wrote about Steve Nash‘s return to practice today, noting that the former MVP is eight days away from celebrating his 40th birthday. Nash hasn’t had much to celebrate about since arriving in Los Angeles, and was candid about his frustration with injuries: “This is the toughest thing I’ve been through in my career…I came to L.A. with nothing but the highest hopes and expectations, and it’s been nothing but personal disappointment.” 
  • Dave McMenamin of ESPN Los Angeles has more from Nash: “Ever since I broke my leg, nothing’s been the same. Nothing’s been easy. But I also look for challenges in life, so this is a great opportunity for me to learn about myself and try to fight through it and hopefully on the other side, I’ll be a better person.”
  • Sid Hartman of the Star Tribune discussed his thoughts on the Timberwolves’ struggles: “At times they have no energy whatsoever…They need a great point guard, and (Ricky Rubio) is not a great point guard.” Rubio is averaging 8.5 PPG, 8.2 APG, 4.6 RPG, and 2.6 SPG on the season, but Hartman appeared to imply that Rubio’s struggle to score points in the fourth quarter is a glaring weakness.
  • Grizzlies guard Mike Conley may not have been selected to the All-Star team this year, but opposing coaches know his value, writes Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal (Subscribers only).
  • Bill Ingram of Basketball Insiders presents his list of this year’s All-Star snubs from the Western Conference.
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Odds & Ends: Bynum, Gasol, Nash, Camby

January 3rd, 2014 at 10:58pm CST by Chuck Myron

Andrew Bynum‘s agent won’t get into specifics over what dissolved Bynum’s relationship with the Cavs, but it apparently wasn’t about his surroundings.

“Cleveland is not the problem. Cleveland is not a negative connotation,” agent David Lee said, according to Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal. “Andrew has shied away from publicity his entire life. He’s not a guy who needs the limelight. He lives in a simple neighborhood there. He walks his dog and rides his bike to the store. He goes to the movies by himself. Cleveland wasn’t a problem for him.”

While we wait to find out Bynum’s next destination, here’s the latest from around the NBA:

  • The Lakers can envision ways of avoiding the luxury tax that don’t involve trading Pau Gasol, so that’s why they’re insisting they receive more than salary relief in any potential Gasol swap, according to Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com (Twitter links).
  • Steve Nash acknowledged to fellow ESPNLosAngeles.com scribe Dave McMenamin that he’s a candidate to hit the waiver wire this summer if his health doesn’t improve. “I don’t know all the technical possibilities but obviously know that nothing is guaranteed,” Nash said. “Obviously right now I have a guaranteed contract, but the future is totally in flux and anything is possible in the NBA and frankly with my health.”
  • Jared Zwerling of Bleacher Report (on Twitter) spoke with Marcus Camby‘s agent, who gave him an update on the big man’s status as he recovers from the foot injury that prompted the Rockets to waive him in October. “[He’s] doing well, still rehabbing and does plan on playing when he completes his rehab likely towards the end of the month,” the agent, presumably Rick Kaplan, said.
  • Raptors GM Masai Ujiri isn’t necessarily looking to overhaul his club.  “We’ll continue to evaluate the team. I know it’s what we keep saying but it’s been a huge encouragement by the way the team has played,” the GM said, according to Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun (Twitter links). “We want to be a good team. We want to be a winning team. But if it’s not that way, then we have to figure out a way to rebuild the team.“

Zach Links contributed to this post.

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Lakers May Soon Acquire Point Guard

December 19th, 2013 at 7:06pm CST by Luke Adams

7:06pm: Pincus reveals in his full story that Mike D’Antoni has acknowledged the Lakers will probably need to add a point guard: “We’ll talk with [GM Mitch Kupchak]” said D’Antoni after practice on Thursday. “We’re looking but we don’t want to just get anybody.” Pincus notes that free agents Darius Morris and Chris Duhon played for D’Antoni in LA last season, but the writer also sees Jamaal Tinsley, Sebastian Telfair, and Shannon Brown as potential targets (among others).

More than likely, the Lakers will use their open roster spot to add a player on a non-guaranteed deal. “That’s what you [probably] do,” said Kupchak. “It’s actually more flexibility [than a 10-day contract].” Regardless, players can’t sign 10-day deals until January 6th, and the Lakers can’t afford to wait that long with Bryant, Blake, Farmar, and Nash all sidelined.

3:30pm: The Lakers are considering adding a guard, tweets Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times.

3:01pm: The Lakers’ backcourt took two more devastating hits today, as the team announced that Kobe Bryant will miss the next six weeks, while Steve Nash won’t return to action for at least four more weeks. According to the Lakers (Twitter link), Bryant suffered a fracture of the lateral tibial plateau in his left knee.

Steve Blake was already expected to miss another several weeks while he recovers from a torn UCL, and Jordan Farmar will be out for at least a few more days before being reevaluated next Tuesday. A report yesterday indicated that L.A. wasn’t in the market for a point guard, but as the injuries continue to pile up, you have to wonder how long the club can go without adding a healthy body to its backcourt, if only for insurance purposes. Coach Mike D’Antoni suggested Xavier Henry would take over point guard duties for the Lakers for now (Twitter link).

As our list of roster counts shows, the Lakers have an open 15th spot, and also have three players on non-guaranteed contracts, so the team has the flexibility to add a free agent. Contracts don’t become fully guaranteed for about another three weeks, so the Lakers could add a short-term replacement with the intention of waiving that player by January 7th.

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Steve Nash Acknowledges He May Not Play Again

December 8th, 2013 at 12:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

Steve Nash‘s tenure with the Lakers hasn’t gone nearly as he expected it to, but recently he batted down a rumor that the nerve root irritation in his back was prompting him to consider retirement. Now Nash says he isn’t ruling out the possibility that his career is over, as Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News observes.

“I might not be able to play anymore,” Nash said. “I might have to yo-yo it. I might be able to play the rest of the way. Honestly right now, I’m trying to see if I can play the rest of the way.”

Nash has been taking his rehab at a slow pace in an effort not to have to “yo-yo” back and forth between the active and inactive lists. A setback in his recovery could mean trouble, but he knows that if he is going to play again, he’ll have to take a risk and “dance with the devil” sooner or later.

The two-time MVP called his recent troubles “a horrible 18 months for me,” as Medina notes, though his problems started just a little more than 13 months ago, when he fractured his leg in a game against the Blazers. Nash has said that he hasn’t felt the same since that injury, and he also suffered from back and hamstring problems last season, when he missed a combined 34 regular season and playoff games.

If Nash decides to quit, and NBA doctors were to rule him medically unable to play, the Lakers could be allowed to wipe the more than $19MM remaining on his contract from their books. Still, that’s a longshot even if Nash doesn’t return. The more likely scenario if Nash retires would involve the Lakers waiving him and using the Stretch Provision to defray his cost. Nash has repeatedly expressed a desire to play out his contract, which runs through next season, and it doesn’t sound like he’s ready to give up on that yet, even if he realizes he might have to at some point.

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Lakers Notes: Kobe, Nash, Gasol

November 26th, 2013 at 11:54am CST by Luke Adams

On a day when Derrick Rose was ruled out for a second straight season and the Timberwolves agreed to trade 2011’s second overall pick to Sacramento, Kobe Bryant dominated NBA headlines. The Lakers star signed a two-year extension with the team worth $48MM+, ensuring that he’ll remain under contract through 2016. We passed along several reactions to the agreement last night, but updates continue to trickle in, so today’s round of Lakers notes focuses heavily on Kobe’s new deal. Let’s dive in….

  • Bryant tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports that he and the Lakers didn’t really negotiate his extension. According to Bryant, the team proposed a deal and he “simply agreed to the offer.”
  • Lakers executive vice president Jim Buss told Ramona Shelburne of ESPN Los Angeles that the Buss family felt like the extension was the “right thing to do.”
  • Buss on the deal: “This wasn’t something I decided to do; this wasn’t something [general manager] Mitch Kupchak decided to do. This was a Buss family decision…. We made him the highest-paid player in the NBA because we felt like it was the right thing to do. This wasn’t about what somebody else would pay him or outbidding anyone for him.”
  • It’s possible the Lakers will waive Steve Nash using the stretch provision next summer. But that would likely only happen if that extra $6MM+ in cap space would be the difference between the team signing or not signing a top target, says Steve Kyler of HoopsWorld. Stretching Nash’s cap hit would give L.A. less flexibility in 2015 and 2016, which could discourage the club from going that route.
  • Asked today if he’ll be the next Laker to sign an extension, Pau Gasol replied that he hasn’t talked to the team about it, and is keeping his focus on the court for now (Twitter links via Dave McMenamin of ESPNLA and Mike Bresnahan of the L.A. Times). Kupchak later confirmed that the team isn’t currently planning on an in-season extension for Pau (Twitter link via Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News).
  • In an Insider-only piece for ESPN.com, Kevin Pelton presents a few best-case scenarios for the Lakers in the wake of Kobe’s extension.
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Lakers Notes: Nash, Kelly, Harris, Young

November 23rd, 2013 at 5:36pm CST by Luke Adams

As we heard yesterday, Steve Nash denied having considered the possibility of retirement, telling reporters that he still has “18 months” of basketball left, referring to the last two years on his contract. Nash also told Dave McMenamin of ESPN Los Angeles that he’s “inching forward” in his physical therapy and rehab, and Mike D’Antoni suggests that the veteran point guard could return to practice during the first week of December. Here’s more on the 39-year-old and his Lakers teammates:

  • Nash recognizes that speculation about his retirement is inevitable at this point of his career, as he tells McMenamin: “I’m 40 in a couple of months. I think people look at the success I’ve had in my career and they wonder if I still have the motivation just to get on the court. But I do. The perspective is that I’ve only got a short window of basketball left in my life. I want to try to get in as much hoops as I can before it’s time to do something else.”
  • The Lakers have assigned Ryan Kelly and Elias Harris to their D-League affiliate, as Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv notes via Twitter. The team had just recalled the rookies on Thursday after initially sending them down last week. Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times expects the Lakers will bring them back to the big club in advance of Sunday’s game.
  • The Lakers signed Nick Young this summer to a minimum-salary contract, and he’s proved a bargain so far, having entered Friday with the fourth-highest scoring average among reserves this season, as McMenamin examines.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

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Odds & Ends: Nash, Bennett, Cavs, Pacers

November 22nd, 2013 at 1:50pm CST by Luke Adams

A report earlier this week suggested that Steve Nash might be considering retirement after being diagnosed with nerve root irritation. However, Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni quickly refuted the notion that Nash was debating ending his career, and the point guard himself echoed that stance today. Asked if he had thought about retiring, Nash replied, “No, not at all,” according to Bill Oram of the O.C. Register (Twitter link). The 39-year-old’s plans don’t seem to have changed since two weeks ago, when he announced his intentions to play out his current contract.

Here’s more from around the NBA:

  • Despite Anthony Bennett‘s poor start, the Cavaliers have ruled out the possibility of assigning him to the D-League’s Canton Charge, a source tells Bob Finnan of the News-Herald. According to Finnan, the Cavs feel like the first overall pick is best served practicing and playing against NBA talent.
  • Tom Ziller of SBNation.com explores the Cavaliers‘ disappointing first month, wondering if GM Chris Grant could be on the hot seat.
  • Phil Richards of the Indianapolis Star takes an extended look at how Larry Bird has built the Pacers into a title contender.
  • With the Nets set to play in Minnesota tonight, Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune observes that Andrei Kirilenko‘s decision to turn down his $10MM player option has greatly benefited the Timberwolves.
  • The last time he was playing on an expiring contract, Spencer Hawes believes he psyched himself out by consciously trying to improve his stock for free agency. As he tells Lang Greene of HoopsWorld, Hawes isn’t thinking about his expiring deal as much this time around, opting to focus only on what he can control as he approaches free agency.
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Steve Nash Seriously Considering Retirement?

November 19th, 2013 at 5:06pm CST by Luke Adams

5:06pm: A source close to Nash who’s familiar with the point guard’s thinking tells Medina that the retirement chatter is “premature.”

3:39pm: Mike D’Antoni told reporters, including Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News (Twitter link), that Nash hasn’t mulled retirement.

10:08am: Only a week and a half ago, Steve Nash expressed his intent to play out the remaining two years on his contract, in spite of a number of nagging injuries. However, according to longtime NBA writer Peter Vecsey (Twitter link), those health problems, including nerve root irritation, may be forcing Nash to reconsider. Vecsey hears that the veteran point guard is “seriously considering calling it a career.”

Given Nash’s recent comments about attempting to play this season and next, I’d be surprised if his retirement was imminent. He’s expected to be re-evaluated later this month, and for now, the Lakers are waiting on his return rather than exploring alternatives at point guard. Still, if the timetable for Nash’s return gets extended, or he suffers a setback, both he and the team will have to seriously weigh all their options.

As Vecsey’s tweet suggests, if Nash were to retire, he’d still get paid and the Lakers would receive cap relief next season. Nash is owed about $9.7MM for 2014/15, so if he’s cut anytime between now and August 31st, 2014, that amount can be stretched over three years. The Lakers’ cap hit in that scenario would be about $3.23MM annually from ’14/15 through ’16/17.

It’s also possible that the Lakers could receive even more cap relief if NBA doctors were to rule Nash medically unable to play for the next two years. Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times explained that potential scenario last week, noting that medical retirements are rare in the NBA.

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Kupchak: Lakers Standing Pat, Waiting On Nash

November 13th, 2013 at 8:30am CST by Luke Adams

A report surfaced yesterday suggesting that rival executives expected the Lakers to start inquiring on point guard help, but Mitch Kupchak believes the team will be able to get by without Steve Nash in the short term. The Lakers GM told Mark Medina of Inside SoCal.com that he doesn’t anticipate making any moves to shore up the club’s backcourt.

“Not right now,” Kupchak said. “We have three capable point guards. I’d like to have three again. But with Steve being out these two weeks, I think we’re fine at that position.”

The Lakers’ stance indicates that the team believes Nash won’t be sidelined for a significant amount of time. The initial timetable for the 39-year-old has him missing two weeks, with a re-evaluation coming later this month. There’s been some speculation that Nash’s recurring back issues may force him to consider early retirement, which could save the Lakers some money if doctors rule the veteran unable to play. However, neither Nash nor the Lakers are thinking about that possibility, according to coach Mike D’Antoni.

“There’s always going to be a debate, but we’re not going to debate it, talk about it,” D’Antoni said (via Mike Bresnahan and Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times). “He’s going to try to get ready, he’s going to try to play and we’re going to try to win. It’s really simple for us. It’s not real difficult.”

If Nash were to be ruled out for a longer period of time, I’d expect the Lakers to reconsider their options. But for now, like the Knicks with Tyson Chandler, the Lakers seem content to stand pat. For both big-market teams, adding a replacement via free agency would come at an increased price due to tax penalties, while acquiring a player via trade may cost assets they don’t have.

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Odds & Ends: Wizards, Pelicans, Nash

November 12th, 2013 at 11:22pm CST by Chuck Myron

Wizards owner Ted Leonsis has said he expects his club to be a “playoff-caliber team” this year, but today he backtracked from the notion that the Wizards face an ultimatum of making the postseason, observes Joseph White of The Associated Press.

“Playoffs or bust, what does that mean?” Leonsis said in an interview that also touched on his ownership of the NHL’s Capitals. “Shut the team down if we don’t make the playoffs for the Wizards? We would certainly, if we don’t make the playoffs, for both teams we would do our due diligence in a more hypersensitive manner, right? Because we didn’t meet our expectations. But the team’s not going bust. The fan base isn’t going bust. It would just heighten the scrutiny that we have to do.”

The Wizards, with GM Ernie Grunfeld and coach Randy Wittman on expiring contracts, fell to 2-5 with tonight’s loss to the Mavericks. Here’s more from around the NBA:

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