Rudy Gay Talks Kings, Trade Rumors, Future
Rudy Gay has been the subject of several trade rumors this offseason, but for now, the veteran forward remains on the Kings’ roster, under contract for two more years but with the opportunity to opt out of his deal next summer.
While one report earlier this month indicated that Gay had asked the Kings to trade him, the 29-year-old – in a conversation with Blake Ellington of Sactown Royalty – seemed to deny having made a trade request. Asked if he had told the team to move him, Gay replied, “No. Personally, no I haven’t.”
Of course, based on how Gay worded his comment, one could surmise that perhaps he asked his agent to request a trade on his behalf. Even if no formal trade request was submitted to the Kings, the majority of Gay’s interview with Ellington makes it clear that he’s not thrilled with his situation in Sacramento. The entire discussion is worth reading, particularly for Kings fans, but here are a few highlights from the former eighth overall pick:
On the trade rumors and how the Kings have dealt with the situation:
“I mean it’s been pretty loud as of late so it’s hard not to pay attention to it. I think it just goes to, I don’t know, I think there’s always ways to do things and in this situation I don’t think it’s going about the right way. No matter what your intentions to do with your players, I would think the first thing you want to do is make sure people are happy with what you are doing. That hasn’t been the case.”
On the communication between Gay and the Kings:
“I’ve had communication, but not the kind of communication that I would say I like.
“You don’t want to hear things on the internet, on Twitter. You would like to hear it from out of the horse’s mouth. Just be upfront with people, that’s all you have to do.”
On new coach Dave Joerger and the potential of the Kings going forward:
“I don’t know. Honestly, I haven’t paid attention. I don’t even know who our new players are to be honest with you. I’ve just been focused on trying to be healthy and trying to get in shape and get ready for the season, wherever that might be.”
On what he’s looking for from his NBA team as he enters his age-30 season:
“Stability. I feel like I still have a lot of years left. With stability, look at people like Jamal Crawford, look at people like Paul Pierce, a lot of people. When they have that stability and they know what their worth is for a team and what their job is for a team, how they can work on that and play for that team.
“At this point in my career, I think I want some kind of consistency and we don’t have that here, at all.”
Alex Oriakhi To Play In Turkey
- Kings draft-and-stash prospect Alex Oriakhi, a second-round pick in 2013, has signed a deal with Turkey’s Socar Petkim, per Sportando. It will be the eighth team the well-traveled big man has spent time with since he was drafted out of Missouri three years ago.
Kings Won't Listen To Offers For Cousins
The Kings are refusing to listen to trade offers for DeMarcus Cousins, according to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders. Sacramento is aware of the Celtics’ interest in the All-Star center and has received an offer from the Cavaliers. However, it looks as if the Kings are determined to keep Cousins, who has two seasons remaining on his contract. Since the season ended, Cousins has embarked on a hot yoga program and has dropped about 25 pounds.
Contract Details For Arron Afflalo, Anthony Tolliver
- Two of the veteran free agents signed by the Kings will have small partial guarantees on the second year of their two-year contracts. Anthony Tolliver makes $8MM in each of his two seasons, while Arron Afflalo gets $12.5MM annually, but Tolliver only has $2MM guaranteed for his second year, while Afflalo has just a $1.5MM guarantee in year two.
Rudy Gay Still Available Via Trade
- With Bucks center Miles Plumlee locked up to a new four-year deal, Greg Monroe remains available in trade talks, says ESPN’s Marc Stein (Twitter links). Stein suggests that Monroe and Kings forward Rudy Gay are two of the NBA’s most prominent veterans known to be on the trade block.
Kings Notes: Temple, Cousins, Rookies
The Kings are expecting Garrett Temple to be a major contributor this season, which is something the shooting guard is excited to embrace, Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders writes. “[The Kings] were adamant that they envision me being an integral part of the team and that was obviously great to hear, especially with my background. Being valued as a guy who can produce and will be relied on every night is something that I’ve been waiting for a long time,” Temple tells Kennedy. “Coach [Dave] Joerger believes in my abilities and that I can produce, so I’ll be on the court a good amount this year.”
Here’s more from Sacramento:
- DeMarcus Cousins remains critical of the Kings‘ draft this year, as Sean Cunningham of Sacramento’s ABC10 tweets. “I can’t control [who the team drafted]. I control what I can control. I don’t really understand it, but I do my job,” the big man said.
- Cousins didn’t not attempt to influence the Kings‘ decision making this offseason, including whether or not they should bring back Rajon Rondo, Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee tweets. “I do my job and I let them do theirs,” he said.
- Cousins has been working with Malachi Richardson out in Vegas and he’s very high on the No. 22 overall pick, Cunningham passes along (Twitter link).
- Cousins is impressed with how Skal Labissiere played during Summer League and he loves the addition of Matt Barnes, as Cunningham passes along via Twitter. The Kings brought Barnes in on a two year, $12MM deal.
Mavericks Finalize Contract With Seth Curry
JULY 15: The Mavericks have officially signed Curry, the team confirmed today in a press release.
JULY 4: The Mavericks are nearing a two-year, $6MM agreement with free agent guard Seth Curry, league sources informed Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical (Twitter link). The 6’2” combo guard played in 44 games with the Kings last season, including nine starts, and averaged 6.8 points in 15.7 minutes. He shot 45% on his 3-point tries.
Stephen Curry‘s brother appeared in just four NBA games with three different teams prior to his breakthrough season with Sacramento. The 6’2” shooting guard had his qualifying offer of approximately $1.2MM rescinded by the Kings on Sunday. He made $947,276 during 2015/16.
The Kings considered Curry expendable after they agreed to terms with free agent guard Garrett Temple. Curry hit the free agent market after declining his player option of $1MM for next season. That decision has apparently paid off with Dallas offering a bigger salary and an additional year.
Dallas already had a busy Monday, with the Warriors declining to match its four-year, $94MM offer sheet for restricted small forward Harrison Barnes. Golden State also agreed to trade starting center Andrew Bogut to the Mavericks.
While Curry can play the point, it’s more likely he’ll back up Wesley Matthews at shooting guard.
Kings Sign Three First-Round Picks
The Kings have secured the three players they selected in the first round of this year’s draft, locking them up to rookie-scale contracts. The team announced today in a press release that Georgios Papagiannis (No. 13), Malachi Richardson (No. 22), and Skal Labissiere (No. 28) have all signed their deals.
[RELATED: 2016 Draft Pick Signings]
Sacramento acquired the rights to all three of their first-round picks via trades. Richardson was acquired in exchange from the Hornets in a deal for Marco Belinelli, while the team landed the Papagiannis and Labissiere picks in a swap with Phoenix that resulted in the Suns drafting Marquese Chriss.
The Papagiannis pick at No. 13 was viewed as one of the biggest surprises on draft night, since virtually no mock drafts had him coming off the board so early. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com had the Greek center ranked as the 50th-best prospect in this year’s draft class. However, the Richardson and Labissiere selections received more positive feedback from draft experts.
As our breakdown of salaries for 2016’s first-rounders shows, Papagiannis will be in line for a probable first-year salary of about $2.202MM, with a four-year total exceeding $10MM on his rookie contract, assuming he signs for the maximum allowable 120% of the rookie scale. Richardson ($1.44MM first year, $7.095MM overall) and Labissiere ($1.189MM first year, $6.066MM overall) will receive more modest deals.
Clippers Notes: Griffin, Wilcox, Marble, Redick
Trading away Blake Griffin would mean a sharp change of direction for the Clippers, writes Dan Woike of The Orange County Register. Rumors of a possible Griffin deal surfaced Thursday when Sean Deveney of The Sporting News reported that the Celtics have targeted him and that there’s a feeling around the league that Boston is ready to make a major move. Deveney cited a possible three-team trade that would send Griffin to the Celtics and Rudy Gay from the Kings to the Clippers, but Woike sees a team built around Gay, Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan as less likely than the current roster to be a contender in the West. Griffin has two seasons and about $41.5MM left on his contract.
There’s more news out of Los Angeles:
- The Clippers made a much-needed move to clear some cap space Thursday when they traded C.J. Wilcox to Orlando, according to Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com. Wilcox played just 268 minutes in his two seasons with Los Angeles and was owed more than $1.2MM next season with a $2,183,328 team option for 2017/18. In return, the Clippers received a second-round draft pick in 2020 and Devyn Marble, whose contract is non-guaranteed until today at 5 p.m. Eastern time. Waiving Marble would open up money to sign Raymond Felton, who agreed to terms with L.A. on Thursday.
- The Clippers are right against the luxury tax line with 13 players on guaranteed contracts, tweets Bobby Marks of The Vertical.
- Clippers guard J.J. Redick responded to Commissioner Adam Silver’s warning about “super teams” being bad for the league, writes Kurt Helin of NBCSports.com. In a series of tweets, Redick notes that five teams have won titles since LeBron James joined the Heat in 2010, that the Celtics formed their dominant team through trades and that free agents have earned the right to decide where they want to play. Redick, who has been with the Clippers since 2013, is entering the final season of his contract.
Celtics Rumors: Griffin, Westbrook, Budinger
A Wednesday report from Howard Beck of Bleacher Report suggested that rival general managers around the NBA viewed the Celtics as the biggest threat to acquire Russell Westbrook. Those GMs also believed that Thunder GM Sam Presti would be inclined to move Westbrook sooner rather than later if Presti feels that the star point guard is likely to leave in free agency next summer.
As I pointed out when I passed along that report, however, there has been no indication yet that the Thunder are actively exploring a Westbrook deal. Sean Deveney of The Sporting News writes today that Westbrook’s representatives haven’t received word of any trade talks, and they’d almost certainly be involved in that process — after all, any team acquiring the Thunder star would want to talk to his reps about whether he’d be willing to sign up for a long-term stay with that new team.
As Deveney notes, that doesn’t necessarily rule out an eventual Westbrook trade to Boston, but it probably means that the Celtics haven’t gotten serious about targeting him to this point.
Here’s more from Deveney on the Celtics:
- The consensus among front-office executives at the Summer League in Las Vegas is that the Celtics will attempt to make a major deal soon, says Deveney.
- Boston’s top trade target at this point appears to be Blake Griffin. According to Deveney, a three-way scenario has emerged that would involve the Celtics giving up picks in a deal to acquire Griffin, with the Kings getting involved and sending Rudy Gay to the Clippers. However, opposing front-office execs say the C’s are reluctant to give up their 2018 Nets first-round pick or their swap rights to Brooklyn’s 2017 pick.
- If the Clippers do move Griffin in a deal with the Celtics or another team, they’d want to land draft picks and a “frontline star” to keep them in contention, per Deveney. I’m not sure Gay would qualify as that sort of “star,” but perhaps Doc Rivers feels differently.
- According to Deveney, several front-office members around the NBA continue to bring up Kevin Love as a Celtics target, even though none of those execs believe that the Cavaliers will be inclined to move Love.
- Deveney adds (via Twitter) that the Celtics continue to look for shooting help, and have reached out to veteran free agent Chase Budinger.
- Meanwhile, Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald hears from sources that, while the Celtics have expressed interest in Westbrook and Griffin in the past, there have been no recent trade discussions involving either player. However, he acknowledges that Boston remains “very much open” to a major deal, and says situations remain fluid.