Southwest Notes: Williams, Randolph, Bairstow
Deron Williams has no issue with Rick Carlisle‘s desire to call plays from the bench, as Rajon Rondo did last season, and that’s led to a smooth relationship for a coach and player who seemed to enter the season with a strong chance of clashing, as Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com examines.
“I’ve really enjoyed getting to know him and working with him,” Carlisle said of Williams. “I’ve always had great respect for his game. Two months into this, he’s flat out one of the best players I’ve ever coached.”
Williams signed a two-year, $11MM deal with the Mavericks in the summer, but he can hit free agency again in 2016 if he opts out. See more from the Southwest Division:
- The five games the Grizzlies played without Zach Randolph because of injury last month provided encouraging signs about the team’s ability to function with Randolph in a reduced role in seasons to come, writes Chris Herrington of The Commercial Appeal. Still, Memphis, which went 3-2 over that stretch, doesn’t have the caliber of wing players necessary to thrive without a fully engaged Randolph yet, Herrington posits. In the immediate future, with a shortage of big men, Herrington expects the Grizzlies to look to add a big if Brandan Wright‘s injury turns out to be a long-term affair.
- The acquisitions of JaMychal Green, Matt Barnes and Mario Chalmers over the past 11 months were positives for the Grizzlies that represent a change in style toward more 3-pointers, fast breaks, steals and free throws, Herrington writes in the same piece.
- The acclimation of Cameron Bairstow, who’s with the Spurs affiliate on D-League assignment from the Bulls, hasn’t been without a hitch, but it’s nonetheless an example of how the flexible assignment system benefits San Antonio’s affiliate, as Spurs D-League coach Ken McDonald detailed to Adam Johnson of D-League Digest.
And-Ones: Gortat, Pelicans, Matthews, Hammon
Marcin Gortat blasted the negativity surrounding the Wizards following tonight’s last-second loss to the Raptors, tweets J. Michael of CSNMidAtlantic.com. Gortat says the poor atmosphere has taken the fun out of coming to the arena. This isn’t the first time this season that the center has talked about being unhappy. Two weeks ago, he complained about being publicly criticized by coach Randy Wittman following a loss to the Thunder. Gortat is still committed to Washington for four more seasons on the $60MM contract he signed in 2014.
There’s more from around the world of basketball:
- Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry says Tyreke Evans and Norris Cole could make their season debuts Tuesday, tweets John Reid of The Times-Picayune. Evans underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee in October, and Cole is recovering from a high ankle sprain.
- Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle credits offseason addition Wesley Matthews for the team’s improvement on defense, tweets Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com. Carlisle says the former Blazer’s size and versatility have made a difference on that end of the floor.
- Assistant coach Becky Hammon is playing an active role on the Spurs‘ bench, writes Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. During a second-quarter timeout in tonight’s win over the Hawks, Vivlamore watched San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich step back and let Hammon run the huddle and diagram a play.
- Brook Lopez‘s decision to sign a new three-year contract with the Nets tops a list of questionable moves compiled by Steve Aschburner of NBA.com. Even though he got $63MM in the deal, Lopez is locked into a terrible team during the prime years of his career. Also on Aschburner’s list are Jahlil Okafor‘s missed opportunity to tell the Sixers not to draft him, Pau Gasol‘s choice to come to the Bulls in 2014 when he could have gone to the Spurs, the Clippers‘ offseason acquisitions and Josh Smith‘s decision to leave the Rockets for L.A.
Texas Notes: Dekker, Matthews, Spurs
Rockets combo forward Sam Dekker is glad to have undergone the surgery to repair a herniated disk in his back, even if it will cost him at least the first three months of his rookie campaign, Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle writes. “I’m a little more comfortable,” Dekker said. “I feel good, happy we got everything out of the way. Now, we heal. I met with a lot of people, got a lot of different opinions. We decided this was the best decision. Catching this early will now be good for me for the rest of my career.”
Dekker noted that the issue with his back flared up during summer league play, and that he initially hoped that he would be able to play through the pain this year, Feigen adds. “It effected everything I did on and off the court,” Dekker said. “That was probably the biggest part, being able to get up, walk and get out of bed in the morning. You don’t want to [be unable] to do that, especially at my age, 21. If I want to play a long time in this league, better get that fixed. With how I like to do things, hopefully we can get back as soon as possible. I already began the rehab process.”
Here’s more from the Lone Star state:
- Mavs swingman Wesley Matthews admitted lamenting the missed opportunities of his 2014/15 Blazers squad, where injuries derailed any chance that the team had to advance in the playoffs, Chris Mannix of SI.com relays. Matthews also noted that his future with Portland was directly tied to whether or not the team re-signed LaMarcus Aldridge, the SI scribe adds. When asked if he ever thought about what might have been in Portland, Matthews told Mannix, “A little bit, but not so much anymore. When it first happened, when the season ended the way it did, yeah, I thought about it. We were good. We were a top four team in the league. That wasn’t a fluke, either. You couldn’t help but think about it. I wasn’t sure [after the season] if I’d be back. It was kind of 50-50, really. I came to find out that my fate was tied to LMA [Aldridge]. That’s the decision [Blazers GM] Neil [Olshey] wanted to make with the organization.”
- With the offseason signing of Aldridge and the continued emergence of small forward Kawhi Leonard, the roles of the other members of the Spurs have changed this season, something that the team is still adjusting to despite its 12-3 record, Michael C. Wright of ESPN.com writes. “People are still trying to figure out when and where their shots are and what’s right and wrong in the offense. So that leads to a little bit of hesitation,” Tim Duncan said. “We’re gonna make mistakes, and we’re gonna use as we always do, use the 82 [regular season games] to figure those mistakes out and try to minimize them as much as possible. It’s very different for us, but it’s been wonderful because [the new players have] been great, willing to learn.“
Suns Sign Bryce Cotton
7:30pm: The signing is official, the team announced.
2:31pm: The Suns are in the midst of calling up point guard Bryce Cotton from the D-League affiliate of the Spurs, sources tell Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Signing Cotton to an NBA contract wouldn’t require a corresponding move, since Phoenix has an open roster spot beneath the 15-man limit. Phoenix already has three point guards, with Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight and Ronnie Price, but Bledsoe is questionable for tonight’s game with sore right knee. Bledsoe missed Monday’s game, when coach Jeff Hornacek gave lottery pick Devin Booker his first start since high school in Bledsoe’s place, notes Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic.
Cotton, 23, finished last season with the Jazz after signing a pair of 10-day contracts and a three-year deal. However, that three-year contract didn’t include any guaranteed salary beyond last season, and Utah released Cotton during the preseason last month, choosing to give more time to wing players instead of carrying a third healthy point guard. He joined the D-League shortly thereafter, heading back to the Spurs affiliate, which had acquired his rights when San Antonio designated Cotton as an affiliate player in 2014.
The undrafted former Providence player averaged 5.3 points, 1.0 assist and 0.8 turnovers in 10.6 minutes per game across 15 NBA appearances with Utah last season. He’s been impressive against D-League competition in his two seasons as a pro, piling up 22.4 points, 4.7 assists and 2.5 turnovers in 39.8 minutes per contest during 38 total games, four of which have come this month.
Do you think Cotton can help the Suns? Leave a comment to let us know.
Southwest Notes: Bickerstaff, D-League, Gee
Rockets interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff believes that the team has become more orderly in its approach since Kevin McHale was fired as head coach last week, Mark Berman of FOX 26 relays in a series of tweets. “Our attitude has changed over the last week and a half. We’ve taken a more serious approach to what we’re doing,” Bickerstaff said. “Guys are more disciplined in what we’re doing and they were hungry for that. That was the first thing they were calling for, some more discipline, some more structure, some more rules.”
Here’s more from the Southwest Division:
- The Mavericks intend to use their D-League affiliate to help get their younger players minutes this season, Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News writes. Discussing Justin Anderson and Salah Mejri, who had been assigned to the Texas Legends recently, coach Rick Carlisle said, “It’s a positive to be able to send guys there to get game action. We’re going to do more of it. It’s a positive tool for our franchise and for those guys. It’s a win-win. In this instance they were able to play in the game last night and we got them here [Saturday night].”
- Despite Alonzo Gee only averaging 3.5 points in 21.1 minutes per contest this season, Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry considers the small forward a vital part of the team due to his defensive prowess, John Reid of The Times Picayune writes. ”I know my role on the team and I try to focus on my role,” Gee said. ”You can’t really coach effort. I try to be the hardest-playing player on the floor. I’ve glad to be in that situation. That’s why I wanted to come here, I felt like it was an opportunity to play.”
- Jazz camp cut Bryce Cotton, who currently plays for the Spurs‘ D-League affiliate in Austin, hopes to return to the NBA this season, and he believes that hustle and effort are his tickets back to the big league, writes Jabari Young of The San Antonio Express-News. “Being called up last year and being blessed to finish the season [in Utah], I still didn’t feel like I could kind of sit back and coast,” Cotton said. “I still felt like I needed [to prove a lot]. I wanted to work as hard as I could, but unfortunately it just ended up with me being waived. The biggest thing that I’ve learned is just continuous emphasis on remaining professional on and off the court, always having a great attitude and being a great teammate.”
And-Ones: Sixers, Bucks, Stoudemire
One reason why the Sixers are the worst team in the league right now is because almost half the team’s salary (which is close to $60MM) is going to players no longer on the roster, Michael Schwartz of ESPN.com details. Perhaps even more startling, 17 players make more this season than the combined salaries of the Sixers players who have taken the court this season, according to Schwartz. While the present is dreadful, the future seems bright, Schwartz writes, because the Sixers could own up to four first-round draft picks in the 2016 draft and already have five draft picks from the past three drafts under team control.
Here’s more from around the basketball world:
- The Bucks have assigned Damien Inglis to the Canton Charge of the D-League, Milwaukee announced in a press release. Inglis is headed to the Cavs affiliate as part of the flexible assignment rule since the Bucks are without a one-to-one partnership with a D-League team. Inglis has appeared in five games for the Bucks this season and averaged 1.6 points and 1.6 rebounds per game.
- Amar’e Stoudemire believes his lack of playing time is part of a bigger plan to preserve his body, Marc Berman of the New York Post relays. Stoudemire has played in only two games with the Heat despite saying he is healthy, Berman notes. “We’ve got a big picture in mind,” Stoudemire said. “We know we want to be there in the postseason. We want guys to stay healthy. Now, it’s not about wearing somebody down during the regular season. It’s about really just keeping the maintenance program and making sure we’re at 100% strength by the playoffs.” The veteran power forward inked a one-year, $1.5MM deal with Miami this past summer.
- David West, who signed with the Spurs for $1.5MM as a backup instead of staying with the Pacers for $12MM, is playing well while filling in for LaMarcus Aldridge, who remains sidelined, Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News writes.
2015/16 Salary Cap: San Antonio Spurs
The NBA’s salary cap for 2015/16 has been set at $70MM, which is an 11% increase from this past season, and the luxury tax line will be $84.74MM. The last cap projection from the league had been $67.1MM, and the projection for the tax line had been $81.6MM.
With the October 26th cutoff date to set regular season rosters now past, we at Hoops Rumors are in the process of running down the current salary cap commitments for each NBA franchise for the 2015/16 campaign. Here’s the cap breakdown for the San Antonio Spurs, whose regular season roster can be viewed here:
- 2015/16 Salary Cap= $70,000,000
- 2015/16 Luxury Tax Line= $84,740,000
- Fully Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $83,991,382
- Partially Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $1,257,305*
- Non-Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $1,144,958
- Total Salary Cap Commitments= $86,393,645
- Remaining Cap Room= -$16,393,645
- Amount Above Luxury Tax Line= $3,179,650
*Note: This amount includes the $507,711 due Jimmer Fredette, who was waived by the team.
Cap Exceptions Available:
- None
Cash Available to Send Out In Trades= $3,400,000
Cash Available to Receive Via Trade= $3,400,000
Last update: 11/20/15 @ 9:00am
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Texas Notes: McHale, Harden, Howard, Aldridge
The poor play of the Rockets to start the season struck a chord with owner Leslie Alexander, but he admits changing coaches from Kevin McHale to interim boss J.B. Bickerstaff isn’t guaranteed to fix the team’s problems, as Jerome Solomon of the Houston Chronicle relays.
“You don’t know for sure, right?” Alexander said. “But when you watch your team play and you know you’re going to lose … I knew I was going to lose the Boston game. I knew I was going to lose the Golden State game. I knew I was going to get crushed. I knew the way the players were playing, the way they were playing defensively. They weren’t playing hard, they weren’t running back. And they were sloppy. Their movements were sloppy. I knew we were going to lose.”
Still, myriad reasons, from injuries to poor shooting to roster moves that haven’t panned out, exist for Alexander to have drawn a different conclusion about the best way to turn the team around, Solomon posits. See more on the Rockets amid the latest from the Texas Triangle:
- The respective camps around James Harden and Dwight Howard each went into the 2014 offseason “whispering” about their desire to get rid of the other, and the stars have never truly meshed, writes Fran Blinebury of NBA.com. That neither has become a strong locker room leader is central to the Rockets‘ issues, Blinebury believes.
- The Spurs‘ offense has lagged alarmingly when the starting five has played, and while LaMarcus Aldridge, averaging only 14.8 points per game, rejects the notion that he should demand the ball more often, the Spurs didn’t sign him to reprise Tiago Splitter‘s role, argues Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News. Spurs coach/executive Gregg Popovich believes the ex-Blazer must find a balance between fitting in the team’s egalitarian system and rediscovering his own high-scoring game, McDonald notes.
- Trade acquisition Zaza Pachulia has meshed with Dirk Nowitzki on the inside, and that’s helped offset the sluggish 3-point shooting of the Mavs guards so far, fueling the team’s surprising 8-4 start, observes Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News.
Josh Howard Plans To Sign In D-League
Former All-Star Josh Howard plans on signing to play in the D-League, a source tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). It’s part of an NBA comeback attempt for the 35-year-old who nonetheless remains open to an overseas deal, Spears adds. Howard, who averaged 19.9 points per game for the Mavs in 2007/08, was last under NBA contract with the Spurs, who signed him and quickly waived him in 2013 to grab his D-League rights.
The Spurs still have those D-League rights, since he played for their affiliate within the past two seasons. Howard averaged 14.7 points in 29.5 minutes per game for San Antonio’s D-League team over 24 appearances in 2013/14, decent numbers that nonetheless signaled that his game was far from its peak. He last saw NBA regular season action with the Timberwolves in 2012/13, when he put up 6.7 points in 18.8 minutes per contest over 11 appearances before he suffered a torn right ACL.
Howard might be best known for admitting in 2008 that he used marijuana in the offseason. Still, he was a key part of the Mavericks before and after that remark. His career took a downturn when he tore the ACL in his left knee four games into his brief tenure with the Wizards, who acquired him from Dallas in a trade midway through the 2009/10 season. He’s played in only 76 NBA games since then.
Western Notes: Powell, Aldridge, Knight
The strong play of Dwight Powell for the Mavericks has given the franchise some enduring benefit from last season’s trade for Rajon Rondo, Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com writes. Powell has worked extremely hard to develop his game, something that hasn’t gone unnoticed or unappreciated by his teammates, MacMahon adds. “The kid basically sleeps in the gym,” Mavs power forward Dirk Nowitzki told reporters. “He never goes home. It seems like every time I come in, he’s in there working, either lifting or running or shooting. He just wants to get better all the time. Now that he’s got some playing time, he’s still working harder than everybody else.” The 24-year-old is averaging 10.5 points and 8.1 rebounds thus far this season, well above his career numbers of 5.2 PPG and 3.5 RPG.
Here’s more from the West:
- The Suns‘ decision to acquire Brandon Knight from the Bucks last season is finally starting to pay off, with Knight playing some of the best basketball of his young career as he and Eric Bledsoe mesh perfectly together, writes Tom Ziller of SB Nation in his analysis of Phoenix’s backcourt duo.
- The Spurs have recalled Jonathon Simmons from their D-League affiliate in Austin, the team announced via press release. Simmons notched 17 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists in one contest on his assignment.
- LaMarcus Aldridge remains happy with his decision to join the Spurs over the offseason, and he is pleased with his relationship with coach Gregg Popovich thus far, Ananth Pandian of CBSSports.com writes. “He’s very particular as far as basketball, you know, doing things right,” Aldridge said about his new coach. “But as soon as the game is over, he’s on to a different thing, making sure we are good as human beings. I think that’s a really good balance. He doesn’t burn you out. He’s not always basketball, basketball, basketball. He actually gives you the time to be free.”
- It’s the play and “aloofness” of James Harden that’s frustrated Rockets teammates, Jeff Zillgitt and Sam Amick of USA Today write, clarifying Zillgitt’s earlier tweet that Harden’s “style” had created tension.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.