GM David Griffin isn’t concerned about the possibility of losing J.R. Smith, writes Sam Amico of Amicohoops. There reportedly has been little interest outside of Cleveland in the 30-year-old free agent shooting guard, who started 77 games during the regular season and was an important contributor to the Cavaliers’ championship run. “These things sometimes take time,” Griffin said. “When the time is right, something will get done. I’m very confident about that.” The team has remained in contact with with Smith, tweets Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com, who adds that Smith’s situation is not related to LeBron James‘ contract talks. Haynes says James is “no rush” to wrap up his new deal.
A delay in working out an extension with Tyronn Lue has several Cavaliers assistants working in the summer league without contracts, according to Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com. The deals for Jim Boylan, Phil Handy, James Posey and Vitaly Potapenko expired July 1st. Lue, who has promised they will all be kept on his staff, is negotiating an extension after winning an NBA title in his first season as a head coach. He is still under a four-year, $6.5MM contract that he had as an assistant after refusing a three-year, $9.5MM offer when he replaced David Blatt in midseason. Lue has a year left on his current deal and said he isn’t worried about the status of the extension. “It’ll eventually get done,” he said.
There’s more coaching news around the league:
- The Cavaliers are expected to make Damon Jones an assistant coach, Haynes writes in the same piece. Jones will replace Bret Brielmaier, who recently joined the Nets‘ staff.
- After a two-month wait while the Warriors made their way through the playoffs, former Golden State assistant Luke Walton finally got to coach the Lakers, writes Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com. Walton made his debut Friday night in the Las Vegas Summer League and received a rousing ovation from Lakers fans in attendance. “I know I still have a lot to learn, but I think everybody does, no matter how long you’ve been doing any job,” Walton said. “I’m excited and I feel like I’m ready for this and I’m looking forward to it.”
- The Lakers did not keep player development coach Thomas Scott, tweets Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News. Scott is expected to pursue other opportunities.
- The Kings have added Bob Thornton and Larry Lewis as assistants to new head coach Dave Joerger, tweets Sean Cunningham of KXTV in Sacramento.
The Rockets, who offered a four-year contract worth about the same amount as his deal with the Hawks, were “really, really close” to reaching an agreement with Kent Bazemore, reports Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle (Twitter link). While that may be somewhat encouraging for Houston, the Rockets have yet to lock up one of their top free agent targets. Heading into the weekend, the club remains in the hunt for Al Horford and Ryan Anderson.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the NBA:
- The Nets spent plenty of time on Friday weighing whether or not to sign Trail Blazers RFA Allen Crabbe to an offer sheet, sources tell Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The Nets are big fans of Crabbe, but an offer sheet could tie up the team’s cap for three days after the moratorium ends, which could backfire if Portland matches it. The Blazers are probably less likely to match a big offer for Crabbe now that they have an agreement with Evan Turner, but it’s still not out of the question.
- The Cavaliers and head coach Tyronn Lue have begun discussing a contract extension, per Chris Haynes and Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. As the duo explains, Lue didn’t sign a new deal when he was promoted from his assistant role to replace David Blatt this year, and the gamble paid off. Lue will be in line for a much bigger raise now that he has a championship under his belt than he would have been if he’d signed a new contract earlier this year.
- The Bulls are among the teams showing interest in Dion Waiters, tweets ESPN’s Chris Broussard. Broussard also reiterates something we’ve heard multiple times over the past couple days, writing that the Kings are very interested in Waiters and will meet with him this weekend.
- The Sixers have been making some significant offers to veteran free agents in the hopes of landing one or two of them, says Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). Philadelphia struck a deal on Friday with Jerryd Bayless, but it sounds like the team has made other offers that exceed Bayless’ $9MM per year.
LeBron James is falling in the NBA Finals with the Cavaliers team that he built, writes Dave Hyde of The Sun-Sentinel. It was James’ decision to leave Miami for Cleveland two years ago because he saw a franchise with younger talent, Hyde notes, and he pushed for the deal that sent Andrew Wiggins to Minnesota for Kevin Love. James also approved the trade with New York that brought J.R. Smith and supported the hiring of Tyronn Lue, who had no previous experience as a head coach. Cavs managment has given James everything he wanted since his return, Hyde writes, saying it shows the danger of letting a player make too many personnel decisions.
There’s more from the Central Division:
- James’ desire to have Love as a teammate instead of Wiggins shaped the Cavaliers‘ destiny, contends Shaun Powell of NBA.com. Wiggins’ defensive prowess would have been much more valuable against the Warriors, Powell argues, noting that he is also capable of creating offense with his dribble, in contrast to Love, who has settled into a role as a 3-point shooter since he arrived in Cleveland. Wiggins also could have eased the Cavaliers’ financial burden with a rookie contract instead of the maximum deal that Love got last summer.
- The Cavs’ bench has been letting them down in the finals, points out Marc Berman of The New York Post. Channing Frye, who was acquired in a February deal with the Magic, only has two points in the series. Iman Shumpert has been held to 11. Love came off the bench to score 11 in Game 4, but the rest of the reserves combined for just four points. Berman says depth will need to be the focus of Cleveland’s offseason moves.
- New Pacers coach Nate McMillan will keep Dan Burke and Popeye Jones as part of his staff, tweets Scott Agness of Vigilant Sports. Agness says McMillan seems to have decided on a third assistant, but no announcement has been made.
- The Pistons may concentrate on power forwards with the 18th pick in the draft, writes David Mayo of MLive. Detroit traded that pick to Houston for Donatas Motiejunas in a February deal that was later rescinded, so it’s clear that Pistons management recognizes the need for help at the four spot. Mayo lists Michigan State’s Deyonta Davis, Gonzaga’s Domantas Sabonis, Marquette’s Henry Ellenson and Kansas’ Perry Ellis as four possibilities.
It’s a busy Wednesday for the Bucks, who are hosting seven prospects for workouts in Milwaukee, according to the team’s website. Utah big man Jakob Poeltl is getting a close look from the team in an individual workout, while the other six prospects are participating in a group workout. Those players are Jameel McKay (Iowa State), Alex Poythress (Kentucky), Wayne Selden (Kansas), Angel Rodriguez (Miami), Andrew Andrews (Washington), and Ryan Arcidiacono (Villanova).
Here’s more from out of the Central division, including a couple more pre-draft workout updates:
- In an interesting piece at Cleveland.com, Chris Haynes details a phone call that took place between Tyronn Lue and Cavaliers general manager David Griffin earlier this year, when Lue tried to convince Griffin that David Blatt shouldn’t be fired. However, the GM had already up his mind, and by the end of the call, Lue had agreed to become Cleveland’s new head coach. Now, Lue is preparing his team for the NBA Finals, while Blatt has signed a two-year contract to coach a team in Turkey.
- Florida State guard Malik Beasley is scheduled to visit the Bulls on June 8th and 9th, according to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). Chicago currently holds the 14th and 48th overall picks in this year’s draft.
- Within his latest mailbag, David Mayo of MLive.com explains why he doesn’t think Ryan Anderson is a realistic target for the Pistons, and looks into Andre Drummond‘s long-term ceiling.
It remains to be seen how well new Pacers coach Nate McMillan has evolved since his stint with the Blazers, given how much the league has changed since then, Candace Buckner of The Indianapolis Star writes. “The interesting thing is that Nate went to Portland and had a pretty decent run of success there but played a very methodical, slowed-down, precise type of offense,” said former player Brent Barry, who was coached by McMillan for four seasons, “and I think that’s why a lot of people are interested in how it is after Larry’s comments with regards to coach Vogel, wanting to be a more up-tempo offensive, quick-strike team, how it is that Nate has changed and evolved during his time on the bench in Indiana.”
McMillan acknowledged that the game has changed on offense, telling reporters, “In 2005, nobody was talking about spread lineups. There’s no way, back in the day, I’d allow my center to be out here working on 3s. [Now] every team in the league’s center works on 3s. It’s just a different game.”
Here’s more from the Central Division:
- The Pacers will hold their third predraft workout on Monday and participating will be Anthony Barber (North Carolina State), Ben Bentil (Providence), Kay Felder (Oakland), Armani Moore (Tennessee), Rasheed Sulaimon (Maryland), and Caleb Swanigan (Purdue), the team announced.
- The Pistons‘ roster is relatively set for the 2016/17 season, which means that the team could look to get creative with its second round pick this June, Keith Langlois of NBA.com writes. Detroit’s options with the No. 49 overall pick include drafting an international player who’ll spend at least one more season in development overseas or trading it for a future second-round pick containing reasonable protections, Langlois adds. The Pistons are without second-rounders in 2017, 2019 and 2020, the scribe notes.
- Former Cavaliers coach David Blatt reached out to Tyronn Lue, the man who replaced him in Cleveland, to offer his support and praise for the team’s postseason play, Chris Haynes of The Northeast Ohio Media Group relays. “He’s just a good person,” Lue told Haynes. “Always encouraging, always supportive. He just said how proud he was of me and what we’re doing, and that means a lot coming from him. His friendship is something I truly appreciate and value.“
- The Bucks, who hold the No. 10 overall pick in this year’s draft, are likely to hold onto the pick rather than trade it, Jim Paschke of NBA.com relays (video link). According to GM John Hammond, due to the difficulty involved in moving up in the draft, any deal involving Milwaukee’s pick would likely be to trade down.
Bulls swingman Jimmy Butler reaffirmed his desire to remain with in Chicago and said that he will definitely be with the team next season, Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com writes. “I love the city of Chicago. I’ve played here my entire career,” Butler said. “Let’s not get that misunderstood. I love the guys that we have on the roster. We continue to bring in high-character guys. I’m learning with [Fred] Hoiberg. I’m not perfect, I’ll tell you that. But I’m ready. I think I have to be able to help this team win games, though, that’s for sure.”
When asked if he believes he will be with the team in 2016/17, Butler told Friedell, “Yeah, I think so. I definitely do. I do think that with the year that we did have last season — it’s unacceptable. So you have to then, truth be told, you got to look at everything. I didn’t do my job, so truth be told, can I help this team win? That’s the question that’s brought up. And I can’t be mad at that. You can use whatever excuse you want to use, but we didn’t make the playoffs. That’s all anybody sees and that’s rightfully so. So do I think I’m going to be here? Yeah, I think so. But that’s just me thinking.”
Here’s more out of the Central Division:
- The Bucks held a workout on Wednesday that included A.J. English (Iona), Trahson Burrell (Memphis), Joel Bolomboy (Weber State), Matt Tiby (UW-Milwaukee), Jameel Warney (Stony Brook) and Shawn Long (Louisiana-Lafayette), the team announced.
- Seton Hall sophomore guard Isaiah Whitehead cancelled his workout with the Pacers that was scheduled for Wednesday and the player is giving serious consideration to returning to school for his junior campaign, Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv relays.
- The hiring of Tyronn Lue as coach and his willingness to confront LeBron James and regain control of the team turned around the Cavaliers‘ season and made Cleveland a true threat to win the NBA crown, Ken Berger of CBSSports.com writes.
The success that Stan Van Gundy has had since joining the Pistons in the dual role of coach and executive opened the doors for other joint arrangements around the league, Keith Langlois of NBA.com writes. When asked if he felt pressure to make his arrangement in Detroit work so it could open up similar avenues around the league for his coaching brethren, Van Gundy told Langlois, “Yeah, I think that’s fair to say. Actually, yeah. I don’t know about pressure, but you certainly feel — I don’t want to say the word obligation, either. I don’t know what the word would be. But you do feel a responsibility to do well and to show that coaches can do these things.” Since Van Gundy was hired by the Pistons, the Hawks (Mike Budenholzer) and Timberwolves (Tom Thibodeau) have made similar dual-role arrangements, Langlois adds.
Here’s more from out of the Central Division:
- Despite his loyalty to former Pacers coach Frank Vogel, Brian Shaw would welcome the opportunity to become Indiana’s next head coach, Scott Agness of VigilantSports relays. “I spent two seasons there under Frank Vogel as the associate head coach and I’m familiar with some of the players on that team and the way that they do business there,” Shaw said. “With that being said, it’s a bittersweet situation to be in, position to be in, because I have so much respect for Frank Vogel. I think he did a great job, especially with what he’s had to go through over the last couple of seasons with Paul George’s injury last year, losing David West and Roy Hibbert and Lance Stephenson, guys who were critical parts of the two teams that went to the Eastern Conference finals. Obviously, that is the goal of any coach to want to run their own system and be the head guy in charge of trying to put things together.” Shaw is reportedly one of a number of candidates that team executive Larry Bird is considering to replace the fired Vogel.
- In response to a fan-posed question on their official Twitter account, Bucks co-owner Jamie Dinan indicated he would like to re-sign unrestricted free agent combo forward Steve Novak for next season. Novak only appeared in three games with Milwaukee before a sprained left MCL prematurely ended his season, but the veteran has expressed his desire to re-sign with the franchise this summer.
- With the Cavs struggling down the stretch of the regular season, Kevin Love credits a talk coach Tyronn Lue gave to the team for sparking the recent hot streak Cleveland has been on, Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com writes.
Channing Frye‘s huge performance in Game 3 of the series with the Hawks helped justify GM David Griffin’s $32MM decision to bring him to Cleveland, writes Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com. The Cavaliers acquired Frye from the Magic at the trade deadline, sending a second round pick to Orlando in return. Cleveland had to absorb the rest of Frye’s contract, which runs through 2017/18, plus luxury taxes, bringing the total cost of the deal to about $32MM. Frye, who had 27 points off the bench Friday as the Cavs won in Atlanta, was close to joining the Cavaliers before. He visited them in 2009, but opted for Phoenix. Griffin recruited him in 2014, offering the chance to play with Kyrie Irving and possibly Gordon Hayward, but those plans were scuttled when LeBron James announced he was returning to Cleveland.
There’s more news as the Cavs return to the conference finals:
- Cleveland gave Frye an opportunity he never had in Orlando, according to Brian Schmitz of The Orlando Sentinel. The 33-year-old Frye was a veteran stuck in a rebuilding situation with the Magic, but now he’s surrounded by All-Stars and has the chance to win a title. “When I got traded here I knew there was responsibility to come at the level these guys are playing at,” Frye said. “[Magic coach] Scott Skiles told me, ‘Hey Channing man, you’re a great player, you’re going to help them win a game in a series, you know. You’re going to help them win a game and do some bigger things.’ I always think about that.”
- This may be Tyronn Lue‘s first postseason as a head coach, but he’s performing like a veteran, writes Jason Lloyd of The Akron Beacon Journal. Lue compiled a 27-14 record after taking over for the fired David Blatt in January. Now he’s trying to surpass Blatt’s performance from a year ago and lead the Cavaliers to a championship. “Being able to push the right buttons is actually working out,” Lue said. “It feels good right now.”
- The sweep of Atlanta sets up a possible series with the Heat, with the highest stakes since James left Miami two years ago, according to Mitch Lawrence of Forbes.com. “It’d be great to play against those guys in the postseason,” James said of his former team. “Throughout my whole career, I’ve always wanted to go against [Dwyane] Wade in a playoff series. We’ve always talked about it even before we became teammates in ’10. It’s not been heavy on my mind, but it’s crossed my mind throughout my whole career.”
Because the Pacers declined to exercise their team option on Solomon Hill for 2016/17, the small forward is now set to become an unrestricted free agent and Indiana cannot offer Hill a salary for next season greater than $2,306,019, which is the value of the option the Pacers declined. Team executive Larry Bird, speaking at today’s press conference, noted that he told Hill in his exit interview that that the team would consider re-signing him, Candace Buckner of The Indianapolis Star relays in a series of tweets. Bird also told the 25-year-old that he did him a favor by declining the option because it lit a fire under him this season, Buckner adds. Hill made 59 appearances for the Pacers this season, notching averages of 4.2 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.0 assist in 14.7 minutes per contest. His shooting line on the season was .447/.324/.857.
Here’s more from out of the Eastern Conference:
- Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue has consistently held LeBron James accountable for his mistakes, something former coach David Blatt was unable or unwilling to do, and it has strengthened the relationship between James and Lue as a result, Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com writes.
- Bucks GM John Hammond told members of the media that Milwaukee hopes to establish its own D-League affiliate in time for the 2017/18 season, as Chris Reichert of Upside & Motor relays (via Twitter).
- The Nets made significant strides in their 3-point shooting as a team after David Nurse joined the team as a shooting coach in January, Ian Begley of ESPN.com notes (ESPN Now link). Prior to Nurse’s arrival, Brooklyn shot just 32.6% from beyond the arc, which was good for 28th in the league, Begley writes. But the Nets actually led the league from deep after Nurse came aboard, sinking a stellar 40.7% of their 3-point shots.