Kings Likely To Be Buyers At Deadline
The Kings are on a seven-game losing streak and sit in last place in the Western Conference, 11 and a half games out of the final playoff spot. Still, that’s not stopping them from seeking upgrades at the trade deadline, according to Chad Ford’s “Tank Rank” piece for ESPN Insider. Ford hears the Kings are looking to acquire talent rather than sell it off as they attempt a late charge at the postseason.
Ford mentions Marcus Thornton, Jason Thompson, Jimmer Fredette and Carl Landry as players the Kings might dangle in their pursuit of immediate help. A report late last month indicated the Kings would “love to move” Thornton, and Thompson and Fredette have also been a part of multiple trade rumors this season. Landry, who just returned from a hip injury that forced him to miss the first three months of the season, appears to be a new addition to the trade block for Sacramento, which has maintained an aggressive stance on the trade market all year.
The new ownership behind the Kings is eager to give Sacramento a winner as they fend off challenges to a public-funding plan for a new arena. The acquisition of Rudy Gay has helped reinvigorate the small forward’s career, but Sacramento is just 9-15 in games he’s played, a winning percentage of .375 that’s only marginally better than the team’s .319 clip for the season. A push for the playoffs would be doubly puzzling, since Sacramento’s 2014 first-round draft pick goes to the Bulls if it winds up outside the top 12, as our reverse standings show.
Odds & Ends: Mavs, Kings, Draft, Cavs
Mavericks president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson says he’s confident his team is attractive to marquee free agents, the sort he confirms the club will again be chasing this summer, observes Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News.
“The hope is … we’ll be able to [make a marquee hire] sooner than later,” Nelson said. “I think we’ve made an attempt to do that the last two summers. So much for second place. But, yes, that would be the plan and the hope at some level to be able to do that.”
Nelson also suggests the team won’t be aggressive before the trade deadline, and Sefko outlines the reasons why in a separate piece. As we wait to figure out what the Mavs do with the chance to open up roughly $30MM worth of cap space, here’s more on their rivals from around the league:
- A group opposed to a $258MM civic expenditure for a new Kings arena has sued the city of Sacramento, report Ryan Lillis and Dale Kasler of The Sacramento Bee. The legal action has been anticipated since last week, when the city rejected a petition to put the funding up for a public vote.
- The NCAA has cleared draft prospect Chris Walker to play for the University of Florida, according to Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com, who adds via Twitter that the decision makes it a near-certainty that the small forward will return to school for next season. Walker, ranked as the 25th-best prospect for 2014 on the ESPN.com Insider list and No. 27 at DraftExpress, could become a lottery pick in 2015, Goodman says.
- Cavaliers GM Chris Grant expressed confidence today in coach Mike Brown and said he’s unsure if the team will make any changes to the roster in advance of the trade deadline. Mary Schmitt Boyer of The Plain Dealer has more from Grant’s rare chat with reporters today.
- The Cavs have assigned Sergey Karasev to the D-League, the team announced. Carrick Felix, Karasev’s usual traveling partner on trips to the Canton Charge, is out for the next six to eight weeks with a stress fracture in his left knee.
Odds & Ends: Dragic, Jefferson, Carmelo
The summer of 2010 shows why teams would be unwise to make compromising moves at next month’s trade deadline just to clear cap space for the coming offseason, SB Nation’s Tom Ziller writes. Few clubs land true superstars in free agency, but many more have success with cheaper additions, as Ziller explains. While we wait to see how teams position themselves for the summer ahead, here’s the latest from around the NBA:
- Goran Dragic has a realistic chance to earn a spot in next month’s All-Star Game, and if he does, he’ll receive a $1MM bonus, notes Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic.
- Al Jefferson thought Kemba Walker was joking this summer when he suggested the big man should join the Bobcats, but agent Jeff Schwartz persuaded Jefferson to travel to Charlotte, where Steve Clifford helped convince the 6’10” free agent to sign. Steve Aschburner of NBA.com has more from one of 2013’s most surprising moves.
- Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times hears Carmelo Anthony wouldn’t mind joining Chris Paul and Blake Griffin (Twitter link). Rumors have linked Anthony to the Clippers, but most such reports suggest Griffin would go to the Knicks in return for Anthony.
- The Sixers have again sent Lorenzo Brown to the D-League, the team announced. Philly sent Brown to the Delaware 87ers early Monday so he could play in their day game and recalled the point guard in time for him to appear in the big club’s loss to the Suns at night.
- Jimmer Fredette may not be long for the Kings, but he isn’t destined to become the sort of star he was in college no matter where he ends up in the NBA, opines Brad Rock of the Deseret News. Rock hears the Jazz would have passed on him in the 2011 draft even if he had slipped to them at the No. 12 pick.
- The United States Olympic Committee and the NCAA’s Big East Conference have shown interest in hiring incoming NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum, according to USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt.
Northwest Rumors: Miller, Nuggets, Blazers
During last night’s game against the Pacers, the Nuggets honored Carl Scheer, the man who owned the club during their ABA days and helped position them for the big move to the NBA. “We were the outlaws to the NBA guys,” Scheer told Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer. “We had small markets and no real television contract. We had to find ways to entertain people.” Scheer, the creator of the slam-dunk contest, was part of a group that also dreamed up red-white-and-blue basketballs and the three-point line. More on the Nuggets and other notes out of the Northwest..
- One league official tells Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN (on Twitter) that Nuggets guard Andre Miller will be a member of the Timberwolves or Kings before the February trade deadline. Recently, our own Chuck Myron examined the veteran guard as a trade candidate.
- The best move the Nuggets can make is to not make one, argues Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post. Moving the disgruntled Miller, however, is a different story.
- General Manager Neil Olshey deserves a great deal of credit for the job he has done with the Trail Blazers, tweets Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders.
Sacramento Arena Plan Clears Hurdle
Sacramento City Clerk Shirley Concolino has rejected an attempt to put public funding for the city’s new arena up for vote, reports Ryan Lillis of The Sacramento Bee. A pair of groups called Sacramento Taxpayers Opposed to Pork (STOP) and Voters for a Fair Arena Deal had collected nearly 23,000 signatures on a petition to put the funding on a June ballot, which would have cast some degree of doubt on the city’s ability to keep the Kings. The groups will likely take legal action to overturn today’s decision, according to Lillis.
“I’ve never seen a petition with as many flaws as this one,” Concolino said.
Seattle investor Chris Hansen, whose agreement to buy the Kings and move them to Seattle was rejected by the NBA this past spring, admitted in August to bankrolling the petition drive. Several reports have since called the legitimacy of the signatures into question. Concolino said today that several different versions of the petition circulated, some with “substantial” variations. None of the petitions contained a clause required by California law that would inform signers that the result of the vote to deny public arena funding would be binding.
If the Kings don’t move into a new arena by 2017, the league may strip the team from Vivek Ranadive’s ownership group and arrange for it to be sold to owners who’ll move it into a suitable building in another city, as The Bee reported in May. The team must also show progress toward the arena’s completion in a timely manner, so a rejection of $258MM worth of public funding for a $448MM arena would seriously jeopardize the future of the Kings in Sacramento. Still, reports have indicated that voters would be supportive of the funding, so even if the measure appears on the ballot, it wouldn’t necessarily be a significant blow to the city’s efforts to keep the team.
Marcus Thornton Remains On Trade Block
Kings guard Marcus Thornton drew mention in late November as a player the Kings would “love” to move, and two months and two trades later, Sacramento is still trying to deal the 26-year-old shooting guard, according to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). The Kings have maintained an aggressive posture in search of trades throughout the season, engineering a pair of swaps to acquire Rudy Gay and Derrick Williams.
Thornton’s name came up earlier this month as part of a reported proposal the Kings made to the Nuggets for Andre Miller. The Kings inserted Thornton into the starting lineup at about the same time, but he’s averaged slightly less than 24 minutes per game as a starter this month, similar to the amount of playing time he saw as a reserve. His 7.3 points and 7.5 shot attempts per game are career lows by significant margins, and his 9.1 PER is the first below-average mark in that category for Thornton in his five NBA seasons. It’s a stark contrast to the 2011/12 season, when he was Sacramento’s leading scorer.
The 6’4″ shooting guard is Sacramento’s second-highest-paid player, making slightly more than $8MM this year. He’ll make $8.575MM next season in the final year of his contract. That deal is probably making it difficult for GM Pete D’Alessandro to find takers for Thornton, and the Kings would be selling low if they were to trade him.
Sacramento has Ben McLemore, the seventh overall pick from this past June, seemingly penciled in as the shooting guard of the future, so it doesn’t appear there’s much of a call for Thornton on the Kings. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if D’Alessandro hangs on to Thornton through the deadline and tests the market for him again in the summer, when his expiring contract would probably net more in return.
Odds & Ends: Butler, Woodson, LeBron
Last week, Caron Butler seemed to vent a little frustration about his role in Milwaukee after he was removed from the starting lineup recently in favor of giving more minutes to Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton, telling reporters:
“The information I received before coming here is that ‘You’re going to play a lot…And I want to play. I want to be out there to help the situation.”
Since then, Butler appears to have changed tune and reiterated that he wants to stay in Milwaukee, personally taking team owner Herb Kohl aside to let him know how much he values being a part of the Bucks organization:
“I had a moment with Sen. Kohl after the game because I really wanted to talk to him and express to him how excited I am to be here…I want to be here in Milwaukee and I want to be part of the process…This is home to me. I want to help these guys develop” (Gery Woelfel of JournalTimes.com). Woelfel adds that Butler also held similar discussions with GM John Hammond and head coach Larry Drew, whom Butler reportedly has a “healthy rapport with.”
Here’s more from around the Association tonight:
- Despite a disastrous season and questions of Carmelo Anthony‘s long-term future in New York as the Knicks continue to struggle, head coach Mike Woodson doesn’t think Anthony would request a trade by the February deadline: “Melo I think is on board. I know he’s on board…He’s going to be there to the bitter end if it’s a bitter end. But right now he’s going to be there. I trust he’s going to stay there. we got to make sure everybody else is on board’’ (Marc Berman of the New York Post).
- Heat superstar LeBron James thinks it’s too early to say whether or not he’ll play when Team USA participates in the 2016 Olympics: “I don’t know where I stand for 2016…Obviously, if I’m healthy in 2016 that summer, if I can get to leading our country by playing, then that would be great to be a part of that…But I can’t commit to it right now” (Charlie McCarthy of FOX Sports Florida).
- Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times thinks the Bulls may be better off without Luol Deng and explains why the reverse isn’t necessarily true. Cowley thinks Deng would prioritize a shot at a title rather than playing tutor on a young Cavaliers team, and that head coach Mike Brown has already shown signs of not knowing how to use the 28-year-old forward.
- Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press thinks of Dwight Howard‘s snub from starting the All-Star game this year as proof of how much damage he’s done to his reputation over the last few years and that there’s rebuilding to be done (Twitter link).
- According to Ryan Lillis of the Sacramento Bee, the Kings have finalized a deal to buy Downtown Plaza from JMA, a San Francisco-based firm that had purchased the mall back in 2012. The Kings and the city of Sacramento plan to use the site to construct a new $448MM arena.
Pacific Notes: Plumlee, Green, Kings
Rudy Gay has been playing some of the best basketball of his career since joining the Kings, and DeMarcus Cousins has also been on a tear, so hopefully the injuries both suffered in tonight’s game aren’t devastating. Both went out and will not return, per Jason Friedman of Rockets.com (via Twitter). Here are some more notes from around the Pacific Division:
- The Suns have gone from a presumed tanker to playoff contenders. Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck details how Phoenix has stayed competitive with a roster built for the future, even after losing breakout guard Eric Bledsoe to injury. The positive outlook still extends to the future: “The Suns could have six first-round picks over the next two drafts, including four this June. They could have $30 million to spend on free agents this summer, and more in 2015. Their rookie head coach, Jeff Hornacek, is the leading candidate for Coach of the Year.”
- A big part of the Suns‘ sooner-than-expected success has come from the additions of Miles Plumlee and Gerald Green, and Matt Peterson of Suns.com credits Phoenix GM Ryan McDonough for swinging the smart trade that landed those two players and a pick from the Pacers for Luis Scola.
- Kings rookie Ray McCallum benefited from the team’s use of the D-League while spending time with the Reno Bighorns before his recent call up, writes The Sacramento Bee’s Jason Jones. The Kings designate specific developmental areas for players sent down, working with the Reno coaching staff to ensure those areas are focused on. “For him to go down there and get minutes was well needed,” coach Mike Malone says. “And I think if there’s an opportunity for him to play during the rest of the season, he definitely will.”
Odds & Ends: Deng, Dwight, Union, Gay
Luol Deng had a sarcastic response to a question about whether he’d consider returning to the Bulls in free agency this summer, poking fun at the team’s three-year, $30MM extension offer that he rejected, notes Sam Smith of Bulls.com. Still, Deng won’t rule out a Chicago homecoming.
“I have nothing against (anyone),” Deng said. “What happened, happened. I love Chicago. I’ve been there 10 years. There’s no bad blood or anything. What happened, happened. It is what it is. But for me to sit here and say, ‘I’m taking Chicago out of the equation,’ that’s stupid. I was there for 10 years.”
Here’s more from around the league:
- Dwight Howard is returning to USA Basketball after a six-year absence with eyes on being a part of the Team USA squad in the basketball World Cup this summer, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.
- A judge has dismissed the remaining charges in the lawsuit that former players union executive director Billy Hunter brought against Derek Fisher, and Hunter could be on the hook for Fisher’s legal fees, as Ken Berger of CBSSports.com explains. The ruling doesn’t affect Hunter’s litigation claiming the union owes him $10.5MM.
- A report last month indicated the Kings would engage Rudy Gay in extension talks if he performed well, and in spite of his improved play, the team and his reps at Octagon Sports have yet to have that discussion, tweets Sam Amick of USA Today. Gay scored a career-high 41 points last night.
- The Grizzlies have no interest in trading for Pau Gasol, and the Lakers won’t compromise their cap flexibility in any Gasol swap, writes Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders, who thinks the Spanish center will stay put through the deadline (Sulia link).
- The extension that two-year NBA veteran Charles Jenkins signed with his Serbian team includes an escape clause in case he finds work in the NBA, Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia tweets.
- Marc Stein of ESPN.com details the convoluted maneuvers that have allowed the D-League affiliate of the Mavericks to acquire Fab Melo. The 2012 first-round pick signed a D-League contract last week.
Pacific Notes: Plumlee, Len, Young, Kings
Eight teams have given out at least one 10-day contract so far this season, and three of those clubs are from the Pacific Division, as our 10-Day Tracker shows. The Clippers have struck three such deals, the most of any team in the NBA, and all of them have gone to point guards as they look to make up for the absence of Chris Paul. Here’s the latest from the Pacific:
- The Suns insisted that the Pacers include Miles Plumlee in the Luis Scola trade after scouting the 25-year-old center in summer league action, and the result is what Plumlee believes is a “perfect” trade, as he tells Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. Phoenix’s starting center says he’s grateful for his newfound playing time and harbors no ill will toward the Pacers for burying him on the bench.
- One of Plumlee’s backups is Alex Len, the fifth overall pick in the draft this past June. Len has played fewer minutes than 45 other NBA rookies, notes Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. Still, the Suns are no less optimistic about his future, as Coro explains.
- Nick Young‘s strong performance for the Lakers in place of the injured Kobe Bryant suggests he’ll command much more as a free agent than he’d make if he exercises his minimum-salary player option for next season, as Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com examines. Young took a discount to play in his native Southern California this season, but he’s expressed a desire for more financial stability on his next deal.
- Ray McCallum has rejoined the Kings after a stint in the D-League, the team announced. The point guard, whom Sacramento took 36th overall this past June, has notched 20.0 points and 4.3 assists per game in seven D-League appearances.