Portland Trail Blazers Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Spurs Remain Interested In Rasual Butler

August 21st, 2015 at 8:55pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Spurs continue to show interest in signing unrestricted free agent forward Rasual Butler, Michael Scotto of Sheridan Hoops reports (via Twitter). San Antonio’s interest in the veteran was first noted by Jason Quick of The Oregonian back in early July. Butler has also reportedly garnered attention this Summer from the Warriors and the Trail Blazers, and Portland was even said to have made a contract offer to the 36-year-old, though Butler was in no hurry to sign at the time.

San Antonio has in excess of $85MM in guaranteed salary already committed for the 2015/16 campaign, which includes 13 players inked to guaranteed contracts, as our roster count for the team illustrates. The Spurs, who are over both the salary cap and luxury tax line, can offer Butler no more than the veteran’s minimum salary. Whether or not that sum would be enough to entice Butler to play in Texas remains to be seen, but certainly the lure of joining a solid organization like the Spurs should hold some level of appeal. San Antonio already has starter Kawhi Leonard to man the three spot, as well as Kyle Anderson and Reggie Williams on the depth chart as reserves.

Butler, a 13-year NBA veteran, averaged 7.7 points and 2.6 rebounds in 75 appearances with the Wizards last season. His career numbers are 7.8 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 0.8 assists to go along with a slash line of .402/.363/.749.

Western Notes: Claver, Lucas, Jazz

August 20th, 2015 at 10:24pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Forward Victor Claver, who spent the last three seasons as a member of the Trail Blazers, officially has an offer on the table from the Spanish club Baskonia, the team announced (translation courtesy of Emiliano Carchia of Sportando). Valencia currently owns Claver’s rights in Spain and the team has five days to match the contract offer made by Baskonia to Claver, Carchia notes. Claver has appeared in 80 NBA contests and has averages of 3.2 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 0.7 assists, and he owns a slash line of .398/.293/.585.

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

Kalin Lucas, who appeared in one game for the Grizzlies last season, auditioned for the Qingdao Eagles of the Chinese Basketball Association, but was not offered a contract by the team, international journalist David Pick relays (via Twitter).
The Jazz announced today that the team promoted Mark McKown to director of sports science/assistant coach and Isaiah Wright to head strength and conditioning coach.
The Blazers aren’t quite starting over as a franchise, but the loss of LaMarcus Aldridge in free agency to the Spurs has forced executive Neil Olshey to invest in intriguing but unproven talent this offseason, Michael Lee of The Washington Post writes. “That’s one of things I’m looking forward to, is what this team is going to become,” Portland coach Terry Stotts said. “The way Neil has constructed the roster, it’s a strong plan with a lot of young players that have a lot of room to grow. I think it’s a plan that is going to be challenging, fun and very rewarding.”

Latest On Dorell Wright

August 17th, 2015 at 8:46am CST by Chuck Myron

Dorell Wright is mulling an offer from a Chinese team, a source tells international journalist David Pick (Twitter link), news that comes on the heels of Sunday’s report from Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald that Wright and the Heat have been in talks. Miami has yet to make an offer, Jackson noted, though it’s been more than a month since Wright publicly expressed interest in returning to the Heat, his original NBA team, as Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel points out.

Wright, a native of Los Angeles, has held interest in playing for the Lakers or the Clippers, as Jabari Young of CSNNW.com wrote in late June. The Wasserman Media Group client is talking to several teams, according to Jackson, but it’s unclear if either L.A. franchise is one of them. The Raptors drafted Wright’s brother, Delon, with the No. 20 overall pick this year and signed him to a rookie scale contract, but no reports have legitimately linked Dorell to Toronto this year.

It’s possible that Dorell is using the apparent interest from China to spur the Heat and other NBA teams to make offers, though that’s just my speculation. In any case, free agency has proven more difficult for him this summer than it did the last time he was on the market, in 2013, when he signed a two-year, $6.135MM deal with with Trail Blazers. The 29-year-old was merely on the fringe of the rotation for two years in Portland and has seen his minutes per game decline in each of the past four seasons, from 38.4 in 2010/11 to 12.3 this year. Still, he sank 38.0% of his three-point attempts in 2014/15, the second best percentage of his 11-year NBA career.

Do you think Dorell Wright ends up in the NBA this season, or do you see him in China? Leave a comment to weigh in.

Heat Rumors: Wright, Chalmers, Winslow

August 16th, 2015 at 9:00am CST by Arthur Hill

The Heat are talking to free agent forward Dorell Wright, according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald, but have not made an offer. If Wright agrees to a minimum deal in Miami, Jackson believes he would become the favorite for the final roster spot, ahead of James Ennis, whose $845K contract is not guaranteed until opening night. Wright, 29, spent his first six NBA seasons with the Heat and is reportedly interested in returning, although he is also talking to other teams. He played last year with the Trail Blazers, averaging 4.6 points in 48 games.

There’s more this morning out of Miami:

Mario Chalmers is trying to remain calm as trade winds swirl around him, writes Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel. Chalmers has spent his entire seven-year career in Miami, but there has been talk that he and his $4.3MM salary could be moved to lessen the Heat’s luxury tax penalties. Recent speculation has him possibly going to the Lakers as a reserve shooting guard or to the Sixers as a short-term point guard, according to Winderman. “I haven’t spoken to anybody,” Chalmers said. “When I had my exit meeting with [team president] Pat [Riley], he said the only way he would trade me was if he had to.”
Justise Winslow plans to use his drop in the draft as inspiration, Winderman writes in a separate story. Winslow surprisingly slipped to the 10th pick after being projected as a possible top five selection. He is currently going through the NBA’s “Generation Next” program, which helps players under age 20 transition to the league. “When the draft was over, it is what it is,” Winslow said of being picked 10th. “That’s the way I feel about it. But, for me, I use that at motivation.”

Blazers Notes: Offseason Changes, Future Goals

August 15th, 2015 at 8:26pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Blazers could have attempted to keep their core intact after LaMarcus Aldridge made it clear he was going to leave in free agency, but the team believed that it wouldn’t have been in the best interest for the franchise long-term, Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com writes.

“Our goal was to bring LaMarcus back,” GM Neil Olshey said. “We were in the mix. He chose to take his career in another direction. But what we weren’t going to do was compound a negative situation and make it worse by signing long-term contracts and taking away flexibility for a team that, quite honestly, wasn’t going to be good enough. You have to be honest with yourself when you put a team together and you have to understand that was a group that got beat 4-1 in the first round of the playoffs with LaMarcus Aldridge, so it’s not reasonable to assume that that group as constructed, with no cap flexibility to bring in other players, was going to be capable of competing at a high enough level to justify giving up a future that can be a lot brighter as long as people understand it’s not going to happen overnight.”

The team’s core already begun to unravel prior to Aldridge’s agreement to sign with the Spurs. Portland let Wes Matthews, who agreed to sign with the Mavs, and Robin Lopez, who ended up inking a deal with the Knicks, leave in free agency and traded Nicolas Batum to the Hornets for an exciting young prospect in Noah Vonleh and a potential starting wing in Gerald Henderson.

Here’s more from Portland:

Allen Crabbe, who readers of Hoops Rumors chose 10th in our re-picking of the 2013 draft, believes people are counting the Blazers out as contenders for the playoffs next season, but the guard feels like the team can prove the cynics wrong, Howard-Cooper writes in the same piece. “We lost four of our five starters, so I’m pretty sure they are [counting us out]. But it’s good to have a chip on your shoulder going into the season. A lot of people may take you lightly in games. It just gives us more motivation to go out there and practice harder, get ready for games and play as a team and just deal with that,” Crabbe said.
Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum are the team’s only true offensive threats, but the lack of proven playmakers will allow Portland’s young talent a chance to develop, Mike Richman of The Oregonian writes. “I think it’s an opportunity for a lot of these players coming in to expand their games offensively in particular,” coach Terry Stotts said. “You look at [Al]-Farouq [Aminu] and Moe [Harkless], they have a chance to become ball handlers, facilitators much in the way that we used Nic Batum.”

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Portland Trail Blazers

Northwest Notes: Durant, Lillard, Saunders

August 12th, 2015 at 10:23am CST by Chuck Myron

Kevin Durant is excited to return to the court and he’s ready for the scrutiny that will come as rumors begin in earnest about his free agency, scheduled for next summer, as USA Today’s Sam Amick observes. Durant, who took part in a light practice with Team USA on Tuesday, said he’ll lean on only three people to convey his thinking.

“Along with Matty Ice [Thunder media relations manager Matt Tumbleson], I’ve got two people who I trust with my life, which is my agent [Rich Kleiman] and my manager [Charlie Bell], who is my best friend as well,” Durant said. “I trust them with my life. So if you hear sources or anything, don’t believe it if it didn’t come from them. I tell them everything. We bounce ideas off of each other. We collaborate on a lot of different things. They give me advice. So throughout this year, if you hear sources from anybody, it’s not true unless you hear it from Charlie Bell, Rich Kleiman or Kevin Durant.”

Bell is not to be confused with the former NBA player by the same name. See more from the Northwest Division:

Damian Lillard knows the Trail Blazers will miss the four starters they lost this summer, but he likes the team’s new additions, as he tells Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. Lillard, who signed a five-year max extension this summer, said he didn’t have an eye on maximizing his earnings with a short-term deal that would allow him to stay on top of an escalating salary cap, and he answered affirmatively when Kennedy asked if he could envision finishing his career with Portland. “Definitely. I mean, I love it here,” Lillard said. “I love living here. I love the people here. This is just my kind of place. After growing up where I grew up [East Oakland, California], you just want to be in a nice, peaceful place. You want to be somewhere where people respect you and somewhere that you have built something. And I feel like I’ve built something great in my first three years here and I will continue to build on it. I consider this a second home. As long as they’ll have me, I’ll be here.”
Timberwolves shooting guard Kevin Martin hasn’t noticed a change in coach/executive Flip Saunders despite his battle with cancer, as Martin told Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune. “It hasn’t been affecting him at all this month,” Martin said. “He has been sending us texts, what he wants from us. He’s upbeat about the coming season.”

Knicks Rumors: Aldridge, Porzingis, Carmelo

August 12th, 2015 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

The Knicks cited the presence of Kristaps Porzingis when they let LaMarcus Aldridge know they wanted him to play center, an idea that nixed the scheduled meeting between New York and the marquee free agent, as Aldridge said Tuesday, according to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News.

“If they’re going to tell me that I have to play center and I don’t want to play center, then of course it’s mutual after that. But before that I was excited to meet with them. I was interested,” Aldridge said. “But they wanted to have their draft pick play and I get it.”

Aldridge also said he spoke with other players to see if they would have interest in joining him if he were to sign with the Knicks, adding that he also chatted with Carmelo Anthony before the Knicks idea went poof, as Bondy relays. Here’s more on the blue-and-orange:

Carmelo Anthony on Tuesday praised the additions of Robin Lopez, Arron Afflalo, Kyle O’Quinn, Derrick Williams and Porzingis but didn’t mention No. 19 overall pick Jerian Grant, for whom the Knicks traded Tim Hardaway Jr., notes Marc Berman of the New York Post. Berman reported in June that Anthony was more upset about losing Hardaway than with the team’s decision to draft Porzingis. However, Anthony strongly denied Tuesday that he was upset with team president Phil Jackson‘s offseason moves.
Before his Tuesday remarks, Anthony took to Instagram to defend the Knicks and make it clear that he has no intention of demanding a trade, as had been speculated, observes Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com. In one comment, Anthony responded to a fan by saying in part, “You are stuck with me buddy.”
Porzingis might have indirectly turned Aldridge away from the Knicks, but another free agent who jumped from the Trail Blazers to New York is impressed with this year’s No. 4 overall pick. “He’s good,” Arron Afflalo said, as Jonah Ballow of Knicks.com relays. “He’s obviously got a lot of talent, some God-given gifts being that tall and that athletic. What I love most about him was his mentality and his humbleness. I really feel like he wants to get better, he wants to be the best player he can be and with that mentality and those tools, it’s just a matter of time.”

Northwest Notes: Waiters, Saunders, Connaughton

August 11th, 2015 at 1:38pm CST by Chuck Myron

Dion Waiters doesn’t see any holes on the Thunder‘s roster, and he’s particularly impressed with new coach Billy Donovan and his staff, as he tells Nick Gallo of Thunder.com. Former NBA head coaches Monty Williams and Maurice Cheeks are among the assistants.

“I think they did a hell of a job as far as coaches, bringing in guys with experience who have been there before,” Waiters said. “They know what they’re doing. For a guy like myself, a young guy, I need those type of people around me so I can pick their brain.”

Waiters would become a restricted free agent next summer if he doesn’t sign an extension by October 31st. Here’s more from around the Northwest Division:

Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor conveyed optimism as he spoke about coach/executive Flip Saunders in the wake of the team’s revelation of his cancer diagnosis, as Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune relays (All Twitter links). The team will work around Saunders’ treatment schedule, Taylor said. “Something like this goes beyond basketball, that’s real life,” he said. “We all take care of each other.”
The Baltimore Orioles drafted and signed Pat Connaughton a year before he joined the Trail Blazers, but basketball comes first for the former Notre Dame standout, as Ian Thomsen of NBA.com details. GM Neil Olshey is adamant that Connaughton, whom Portland took with the 41st overall pick in the NBA draft this year, won’t be playing professional baseball while he’s on his three-year deal with the Blazers, but Olshey won’t close the door on a long-term two-sport future for the shooting guard/right-handed pitcher. “Now, look,” Olshey said, “if he gets into a second contract down the road and that is something he wants to pursue, then that can be a discussion point …”
Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge, himself a two-sport athlete, said the C’s almost drafted Connaughton, Thomsen notes in the same piece. Boston had the 33rd and 45th overall picks.

Latest On Tristan Thompson

August 10th, 2015 at 2:21pm CST by Chuck Myron

Tristan Thompson wouldn’t re-sign with the Cavaliers as an unrestricted free agent next year if he were to take sign his qualifying offer, worth nearly $6.778MM, this summer, as agent Rich Paul tells Michael Grange of SportsNet (Twitter links). That would appear to indicate that the Canadian native is adamant about signing a lucrative, long-term deal before the start of this coming season rather than trying his luck next summer, even though the cap is expected to surge. The former No. 4 overall pick is believed to be seeking maximum-level salaries, writes Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com, but a starting salary of the $16,407,500 max for a player of his experience would cost the Cavs more than $35MM in tax penalties on top of that amount this year, Windhorst estimates.

The Cavs probably haven’t seen the qualifying offer as their preferred route, Windhorst speculates, and given Paul’s statement today, Cleveland has further reason to strike a long-term deal. Still, the Cavs have been offering significantly less than the max, according to Windhorst, and shelling out the max over the long term for a player who chiefly came off the bench behind the newly re-signed Kevin Love might be reason for pause. Thompson averaged only 8.5 points per game in the regular season this past year, though his strength is rebounding and off-the-ball work.

Paul is no stranger to tough negotiations with restricted free agents after last season’s tense back-and-forth with the Suns that resulted in Eric Bledsoe signing a five-year, $70MM deal. Kevin Seraphin, another Paul client, signed his qualifying offer from the Wizards last summer and wound up inking with the Knicks last week. Still, it’s surprising to see Paul and Thompson take such a hard line against the qualifying offer, even though it would entail a playing for a discount this season, since signing it would set up Thompson to become a member of a fairly thin crop of 2016 free agents, outside of Kevin Durant and a few other notables, just as the salary cap is projected to spike to $89MM.

The Cavs are in a tough spot, since LeBron James, Paul’s marquee client, has expressed that he wants Thompson in Cleveland, and James can opt out of his new contract in a year. Thompson and the Cavs were reportedly close to a deal worth more than $80MM on the first day of free agency, but progress stalled. Thompson reportedly asked for $85MM over five years, after initial reports indicated that Draymond Green received that much from the Warriors, but Green wound up with $82MM instead.

In any case, Cavs GM David Griffin said in mid-July that he remained confident the sides would strike a deal. The Trail Blazers and Sixers are the only teams left with enough cap flexibility to approach the max for Thompson, and Windhorst identified the Blazers as the one team remaining that’s a “remote option” for Thompson this year, aside from the Cavs, who hold his Bird rights.

Do you think Thompson and Paul are wise to dismiss the qualifying offer, or do you think it would be advantageous for him to sign it? Leave a comment to let us know.

Western Notes: Nuggets, Lawson, Davis

August 9th, 2015 at 8:42pm CST by Will Joseph

Though it may not be obvious because the Nuggets did not add free agents from outside the organization, the moves Denver GM Tim Connelly made this summer have the franchise pointed in the right direction, Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post writes. The Nuggets had a busy and productive summer, as Dempsey points out, because they committed to more than $100MM on extensions and re-signings of of Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Will Barton and Jameer Nelson. Dempsey writes that Denver made these moves, not only because it did not have the cap space to reel in big-name free agents, but also because it wanted to retain these players.

From a financial standpoint, the Nuggets, like many other teams, should be in position to offer a max contract next summer with the help of the salary cap rise, Dempsey writes. Furthermore, Dempsey adds, the return of Pete D’Alessandro to the front office bolsters the Nuggets in terms of a salary cap and business knowledge standpoint, improving any deficiencies the organization thought it may have had there.

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

Ty Lawson, whom Houston acquired in a trade with the Nuggets, improves the Rockets despite not being a perfect fit, Tim Cato of SB Nation writes. Lawson does not exactly complement star James Harden because Lawson is a ball-dominant player and is not a great defender, Cato adds.
Ed Davis, who signed a three-year contract with the Blazers, told Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders that he really wanted to stay with Lakers, but they could not agree on a deal (Twitter link).