Spurs Eyeing Nicolas Batum
Nicolas Batum will become a restricted free agent at season's end, and it's not clear yet how the Trail Blazers will value him, since the team could have a new general manager in place in a matter of weeks. However, one team that figures to make a "hard push" for Batum is the Spurs, according to Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com.
When Batum entered the league in 2008, he expected to be drafted by the Spurs and was "confused" when he was selected by the Rockets, who traded him to Portland. Batum is close friends and international teammates with Tony Parker and would love to play in Gregg Popovich's system, says Haynes.
Since Batum will be a restricted free agent, the Blazers will have the option of matching any offer sheet the 23-year-old signs. Team president Larry Miller has said the plan is to retain Batum, as long as another club doesn't make him a "crazy" offer. While we don't know how high Portland would be willing to go to keep its starting small forward, the team will have plenty of cap space this summer. Haynes hears from league executives that Batum could command as much as $10-11MM per season.
Chuck Myron of Hoops Rumors examined Batum's free agent stock last night.
John Hammond Interested In Blazers
Bucks GM John Hammond is interested in taking on the same position with the Blazers, tweets Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times. We heard a few days ago that the Blazers were eyeing Hammond for the job, so the interest appears to be mutual.
Earlier today, Ben Golliver of Blazer's Edge rounded up comments Woelfel made on 1250 AM in Milwaukee, saying that the Blazers' interest is "legitimate" and that they would double Hammond's salary. Hammond is due $2MM in the final season of his deal with the Bucks next year. With Milwaukee out of the playoffs, Hammond's job may be in jeopardy, as Woelfel reported last week. When Jason Quick of The Oregonian tweeted about the Blazers' pursuit, he noted the team has not gotten permission from the Bucks to speak with Hammond, but that could be a moot point soon.
Hammond took over the Bucks in 2008 and was Executive of the Year in 2009/10, the only season the team made the playoffs under his watch. Before that, he assisted Joe Dumars in Detroit. Other candidates for the Blazers job include Steve Kerr and Mitch Kupchak, and the team has indicated it may retain interim GM Chad Buchanan. Portland team president Larry Miller met with Kerr this weekend.
Free Agent Stock Watch: Nicolas Batum
Nicolas Batum’s comments last week, in which he called Portland “special” and said he expects to return to the Blazers next year unless a better situation presents itself, represent quite a change from earlier this season. Soon after Batum and the team failed to come to terms on an extension in January, making him a restricted free agent at season's end, Batum’s agent, Bouna Ndiaye, had some harsh words for Blazer management, as Joe Freeman of The Oregonian noted. "They say they love him but they didn't offer him something fair, so that's it," he said. "We tried and there's no deal. On July 1 we're going to look at the market first before we come back to the Blazers. That's for sure."
Whether or not Batum wants to return to Portland, the team resisted trading him at the deadline, and team president Larry Miller has said the team plans on bringing him back, as long as another team doesn't make a "crazy" offer, Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune reported. The Blazers have the right to match any offer, but this indicates there is a ceiling on how much they value Batum. That's subject to change if the team winds up hiring someone to replace interim GM Chad Buchanan, especially since Batum seems like a hard player to properly evaluate. At 23 years old with a 7'1" wingspan, the 6'8" Batum possesses a tantalizing combination of the athleticism to guard multiple positions with an outside shooting touch, having hit 37.2% of his career three-pointers, including 39.1% this year. The problem for Batum, and for general managers, is that this is juxtaposed with inconsistency and less year-to-year improvement than you would expect from a player his age. His per-36-minutes numbers in rebounds, assists, steals and blocks have scarcely budged during his career, and his steadily climbing scoring average, up to 13.9 PPG this year, can be attributed to a corresponding rise in his number of field goal attempts.
The failure of the Blazers to get past the first round of the playoffs in his previous three seasons certainly can't be placed entirely on Batum's shoulders, but in each series, his points and minutes have fallen off from the regular season that preceded it. There are plenty of red flags on Batum's record, but he's still young enough to convince GMs that he can find that extra gear somewhere. He might be a fit for the Jazz, a team with a history of helping young talent develop, or the Raptors, who have coveted a small forward. It all depends on Miller's definition of "crazy," but I still don't think any team is going to go overboard for him. Eggers said he can expect a deal of about $9MM a year, which sounds right for a player of his potential, even if his numbers so far might not support it. Unless the Blazers change course with a new GM, they'll likely bring him back and hope Kaleb Canales or another coach can bring out his best.
Trail Blazers Met With Steve Kerr
It's no secret that Steve Kerr is one of the Trail Blazers' preferred candidates, if not the top choice, for the team's general manager opening. Although Kerr reportedly told Portland earlier this month that he wasn't interested in the position, the Blazers didn't give up their pursuit of the former Suns executive. According to Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype, Blazers president Larry Miller met with Kerr on Saturday, though nothing concrete materialized regarding the GM job.
"The media guys in Portland are getting ahead of themselves with this story," said Kerr's agent, Mark Bartelstein. "Steve has a good relationship with Larry Miller and met with him, but nothing specific was addressed and no offer was made. Steve is very happy with his job at TNT and his life right now, being able to be around his children and spending time with his family. A unique set of circumstances would have to happen for Steve to give up on that. He's not actively looking for anything."
The Blazers are thought to have interest in current NBA executives like John Hammond and Mitch Kupchak, so the team's GM search figures to continue into the offseason, when Portland can receive permission to talk to currently-employed candidates.
Odds & Ends: Amnesty, Magic, Pistons, Blazers
With only six games on the schedule on Friday night, lets take a look at what else is going on in the Association:
- Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson flew to Las Vegas to meet with the Kings' ownership in an attempt to revive arena discussions, says the Sacramento Bee. According to Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com via Twitter, a George Maloof spokesman said the talks were "cordial" but "nothing definitive resulted."
- RealGM has published their helpful "2012 Amnesty 2.0 Primer" which outlines every team's amnesty situation, including which players are eligible as well as which are reasonable candidates. Players are only eligible if they are still under contract with the same team when the CBA was reached.
- Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel tweets that Stan Van Gundy has received no indication from GM Otis Smith that the Magic will sign a free agent center to help deal with the loss of Dwight Howard.
- Joel Brigham from Hoopsworld offers a detailed analysis of the Pistons' roster, and their offseason outlook at improving it. Brigham says that while they have some young building blocks, Detroit also has enough overpaid veterans getting enough minutes to impede their progress.
- Dr. Jack Ramsay was on 1080 The Fan in Portland and discussed the Blazers coaching and GM situations as well as their roster. Ramsay was skeptical that they could land a big-time coach and isn't confident that they can improve significantly.
Blazers Interested In Hammond, Still Eyeing Kerr
The Trail Blazers continue to search for a permanent general manager, and a number of reports on their search have surfaced today. Let's round them up….
- Blazers president Larry Miller says Steve Kerr, who told the team he wasn't interested in the GM opening, hasn't been officially ruled out yet, according to Jason Quick of the Oregonian (via Twitter).
- Portland is interested in Bucks GM John Hammond for the position, tweets Quick. Miller says he has yet to ask the Bucks for permission to speak to Hammond (Twitter link). I imagine that could happen within a week or so, when Milwaukee's season will likely come to an end.
- The Blazers didn't contact Larry Brown about interviewing for the position, though he was interested, tweets Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com.
Trail Blazers Deny They’ve Inquired About Kupchak
In a report by the Associated Press, the Trail Blazers denied having contacted the Lakers about their general manager, Mitch Kupchak. An earlier report suggested that the Blazers were interested in interviewing the Lakers GM for Portland's open position, but so far at least, the Blazers don't seem to have asked permission for an interview.
Portland president Larry Miller said the team will not disclose any specific candidates, but said no person has been interviewed for the position by owner Paul Allen yet. The team is currently under the supervision of interim GM Chad Buchanan, who took over for current Bobcats GM Rich Cho last year. With approximately $25MM in cap space this offseason, the possibility of two lottery picks, a loyal fan base, and a franchise player in LaMarcus Aldridge, being the general manager of the Trail Blazers would appear to be a desirable position, but Allen's unpredictable and unexpected front office personnel decisions in recent years has made the situation quite volatile.
Miller doesn't see it that way. "I think people realize that we're in a good position going into the offseason with the picks that we potentially have, with the cap space that we have. I think it's an attractive situation for somebody. I've gotten no feedback from anyone that people are concerned with where we are. To me, if anything, it's just the opposite."
Blazers Have Strong Interest In Mitch Kupchak
In their latest report for ESPN.com, Chris Broussard and Marc Stein introduce a new name to the list of candidates for the Trail Blazers' general manager opening: current Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak. According to the report, the Blazers have "strong interest" in interviewing Kupchak for the position.
The Blazers re-opened their search for a permanent GM late last month. The team has been interviewing candidates for the position, though presumed top choice Steve Kerr has said he's not interested.
It's not known whether Kupchak would have interest in the Blazers' job or whether the Lakers would be open to granting permission for an interview. Kupchak has served as the Lakers' GM since 2000, though as Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com points out (via Twitter), he doesn't necessarily have the same decision-making power as some other GMs, due to the presence of Jim Buss. The Lakers' executive vice president of player personnel is widely considered to have the deciding vote on basketball decisions.
Blazers’ Batum, Smith Discuss Future
Although we've covered a number of reports about Jamal Crawford's potential free agency over the last week or so, Crawford is far from the only Trail Blazer with an uncertain contract situation heading into the summer. Nicolas Batum and Craig Smith are among the other Blazers facing free agency – restricted for Batum and unrestricted for Smith – and both players spoke to Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com about their options.
"We'll see what happens in July," Batum said after the Blazers' final home game of the season last night. "That may be my last game in the Rose Garden. I don't really want to think about it."
Batum went on to call Portland "special" and said that he expected to be a Blazer next year unless a better situation came along. Of course, as a restricted free agent, Batum can sign an offer sheet with any team, but the Blazers will have the option and the means to match it.
Smith, meanwhile, expressed frustration with his role in Portland. Although he performed well with increased minutes in January, Smith hasn't seen much action in recent weeks, playing in just four games since March 22nd.
"Yeah, it's frustrating. It's real frustrating just to see it unfold how it did," Smith said. "I don't think I got a fair shot. To see the situation end how it did, it's tough."
While Smith said that he'd love to return to the Blazers, he stressed that when he fields offers in free agency this summer, he'll seek a team that is honest with him and can assign him a specified role.
Latest On Jamal Crawford
With the Trail Blazers having been officially eliminated from playoff contention, focus in Portland is turning to the team's offseason plans, which include the status of Jamal Crawford. Crawford holds a player option worth about $5.2MM that he's expected to decline, and the Suns and Warriors may be among the teams that inquire on him if he hits free agency.
Speaking to Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune, Crawford didn't confirm that he would turn down his option for 2012/13, but he did give an idea of his thinking if he doesn't opt in.
"If I do opt out, it doesn't mean I want to leave Portland," Crawford said. "It just means I want long-term security instead of playing on a one-year deal."
Crawford, who also added that he'd like to find a situation where he could be a starter, will have until June 15th to exercise or decline his option. As Jason Quick of the Oregonian notes, most players with options have until June 30th to make their decisions, but the Blazers negotiated the early deadline with Crawford to allow the team to have a clearer picture of its roster heading into the June 28th draft.