Atlantic Notes: Smith, Knicks, Caboclo, Nets
The Knicks are the sole representatives of the Atlantic Division on today’s slate of games, and they’ll look to take down a Wizards team that comes into Madison Square Garden having lost two straight contests. We’ll round up the latest from New York and the Atlantic below..
- Despite a beat-down frontcourt, the 5-25 Knicks were not among the teams that were interested in bringing aboard the recently waived Josh Smith, as head coach Derek Fisher indicated to Marc Berman of the New York Post. “It doesn’t impact us much so I didn’t really read into it too much at all,” Fisher told Berman, admitting he wasn’t aware that the Rockets had agreed to a deal with Smith.
- The Raptors have assigned Bruno Caboclo to the D-League, the team announced. The 19-year-old rookie will join the Fort Wayne Mad Ants for the first time this season after appearing in three contests for Toronto.
- Andy Vasquez of The Record thinks the Nets would be ill-advised to begin dismantling their roster so early into the new season, especially one in which the Eastern Conference lacks any sort of consistency. Brooklyn is currently holding on to the eighth and final playoff spot, but rumors have suggested that the team is open to moving Joe Johnson, Deron Williams, and Brook Lopez.
Rockets Notes: Jones, Smith, Capela
The Rockets apparently added one power forward to their lineup Wednesday after Josh Smith cleared waivers, and Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle reports that another one may be on the way. “Terrence Jones has been able to do some stuff that honestly he hasn’t been able to do since that thing happened,” said coach Kevin McHale, referring to the nerve problem in Jones’ knee that has kept him out of the lineup since November 3rd. “I was excited just to see Terrence with a smile on his face. He ran on the treadmill. He ran on the floor. He’s been jumping a little bit. I don’t know when – it’s not imminent – that’s just like making a trade for a really quality player and not giving anything up.”
There’s more from an eventful day in H-Town:
- Smith, who committed to joining the Rockets Wednesday afternoon, told Amin Elhassan of ESPN.com that he plans to help his new team in several ways. “I think I can add to their toughness,” Smith said. “I think I can add to their versatility at the four position, being able to pass the basketball and score the ball down low. Just add another basketball IQ, which will help when we make it to the postseason.” Smith is also looking forward to playing alongside James Harden, whom he called “the best two-guard in the game right now.”
- Smith is a perfect fit in Houston, opines Avery Stone of USA Today. Stone likes the match because of Smith’s elite defensive skills, his ability to finish in transition and the Rockets’ lack of a proven NBA power forward.
- Rookie center Clint Capela was recalled Wednesday from the team’s Rio Grande Valley affiliate in the D-League, according to a tweet by Feigen. Capela was sent there December 17th after getting little playing time in his latest two-week stint with the Rockets despite injuries to Jones, Dwight Howard and Kostas Papanikolaou.
- The Rockets were among the teams that pursued James Johnson last summer before he landed in Toronto, according to Shams Charania of Real GM. The Grizzlies and Jazz also requested meetings with the free agent forward, who signed a two-year deal with the Raptors worth $2.5MM per season. Houston also had interest last season before he left the D-League and signed with Memphis.
Raptors Eye Marc Gasol
The Raptors are growing increasingly intrigued by Marc Gasol, according to Cathal Kelly of The Globe and Mail (hat tip to TNT’s David Aldridge). That’s not altogether surprising, since the No. 3 player in the latest Hoops Rumors 2015 Free Agent Power Rankings has been putting up career numbers in Memphis and looms as a seismic figure on next summer’s market. It’s unclear whether Toronto regards him as a free agent target or a possible trade acquisition, though Grizzlies coach Dave Joerger suggested this weekend that the Grizzlies, at 19-4, have no intention to make any moves for the time being. Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace has made it clear that re-signing Gasol is the first priority for the team.
Kelly identifies a dominating inside presence as Toronto’s most prominent need, though the team had placed high hopes in center Jonas Valanciunas, who’s in only his third NBA season after the Raptors drafted him fifth overall in 2011. Bryan Colangelo was in charge of basketball operations for the Raptors when they selected Valanciunas, and the interest in Gasol seems like a subtle hint that current GM Masai Ujiri isn’t as high on the ability of Valanciunas to develop into an elite center, though that’s just my speculation.
The Knicks are reportedly pessimistic about their chances to land Gasol, who’s said that he places a high value on playing for a winning club. Speculation has linked the Spurs to Gasol, but only if Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili retire. The Raptors are atop the Eastern Conference with an 18-6 record. Still, they have more than $49MM committed to nine players for next season, so accommodating the max contract that the Arn Tellem client would surely command next summer beneath a projected $66.5MM salary cap would be difficult.
Atlantic Notes: Knicks, De Colo, Celtics
It might be time for the Knicks to end any thoughts of rebuilding the franchise around their existing core, and change their focus to completely tearing down their roster instead, Harvey Araton of The New York Times writes. The only thing that should prevent New York from doing so is if it can add a premier free agent next summer to partner with Carmelo Anthony, notes Araton. But team president Phil Jackson had admitted that he worries that this season’s disastrous turn will make New York an unattractive option to potential free agents like Marc Gasol and LaMarcus Aldridge, both of whom the Knicks would love to sign, Araton adds.
Here’s more out of the Atlantic Division:
- Despite losing their last 10 games, the Knicks‘ biggest concern right now is Anthony’s left knee, Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com writes. According to Anthony, surgery is the last option that he will consider, Begley notes. “I’m not even looking forward to even discussing the surgery or anything like that,” Anthony said. “I’ll explore as many other options as I can before I go under the knife and get surgery. We really don’t know exactly what’s the problem.”
- The Celtics have recalled James Young and Dwight Powell from the Maine Red Claws, their D-League Affiliate, the team announced. In Maine’s win over Delaware last night, Powell contributed 19 points and nine rebounds in 23 minutes of action. Young also dropped 19 points, including nailing five three-pointers in seven attempts.
- The bad news regarding Young’s latest trip to the D-League is that he injured his shoulder and will be out indefinitely, Julian Edlow of WEEI 93.7 FM reports. “I guess his shoulder subluxed and they’re doing more tests to see the extent of the injury,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. “Those can be very, very short-term things or they can be a little bit longer, but that’s the extent of what I know. He’s getting X-rays right now.”
- The Raptors and other NBA teams reached out last summer to express their interest in Nando De Colo, who wanted to re-sign with Toronto, but those clubs were too late, since he’d already committed to sign with CSKA Moscow, David Pick Of Basketball Insiders reports.
- The Knicks are unlikely to make any deals that would impact their cap space for next season unless they can acquire All-Star level player, Chad Ford of ESPN.com reports in his weekly chat.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
And-Ones: McGrady, Draft, Hamilton
The league has been canvassing team executives about the idea of eliminating as much as half of the preseason to make the regular season about 10 days longer, thus building more off days into the schedule, Grantland’s Zach Lowe reports. Any reduction in the preseason wouldn’t take place until the 2016/17 season at the earliest, according to Lowe, and the league has also brought up the idea of allowing organized team activities during the offseason like
the National Football League does, Lowe writes.
Here’s more from around the NBA and abroad:
- A recent report from Bleacher Report’s Les Carpenter left some ambiguity about whether Tracy McGrady wanted to return to the NBA, but McGrady confirmed via his verified Facebook account that he no longer wants to play.
- There will be more than a dozen NBA scouts in Spain tonight to observe Barcelona taking on Fenerbahce, with their primary focus being on Mario Hezonja, a projected lottery pick in the 2015 NBA draft, Chris Mannix of SI.com reports (Twitter link).
- Chad Ford of ESPN.com (Insider subscription required) has released his second mock draft of the year. Ford projects the top three picks in the 2015 draft to be Jahlil Okafor (Duke), Karl-Anthony Towns (Kentucky), and Emmanuel Mudiay (Guangdong).
- The Reno Bighorns of the NBA D-League traded for the rights to former NBA player Jordan Hamilton today, the team announced in a press release. In the deal, the Bighorns, the affiliate of the Kings, also acquired the Rio Grande Valley Vipers’ second round pick in the 2015 D-League draft. In return, Reno sent their 2015 first round pick in the D-League draft to the Iowa Energy, the Grizzlies’ D-League affiliate. Hamilton spent the 2014 preseason with the Raptors, before being acquired off of waivers by the Jazz, who later waived him themselves. The Lakers had expressed some interest in Hamilton, but declined to sign him after he worked out for the team last month.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Eastern Notes: Payne, Nets, Raptors
The Hawks re-assigned Adreian Payne to the D-League on Sunday night, but instead of heading to Fort Wayne, the rookie was sent to the Austin Toros, the Spurs’ affiliate instead, Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. This was due to the maximum allowance of four NBA players already being on assignment to the Mad Ants at the time, though three of those players were recalled Monday, Vivlamore notes. In his two previous stints with Fort Wayne, Payne has appeared in a total of six games, averaging 13.5 points, 10.5 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 31.3 minutes per contest.
Here’s more from the East:
- This flexible assignment to Austin for Payne actually works in his and Atlanta’s favor since Austin runs a very similar system to the one the Hawks use, Vivlamore adds. “It’s not the same system that we run here [Atlanta],” Payne said of his previous assignments in Fort Wayne. “It’s different. It’s just like coming from college when you learn a different system.”
- With the Nets reportedly willing to trade Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson, Bradford Doolittle of ESPN.com (Insider subscription required) runs down which teams would be the best fit for each. Doolittle opines that Williams would look good in a Pacers uniform, the Lakers would suit Lopez just fine, and Johnson could fit in with the Pelicans.
- The Raptors have no intention of utilizing the remaining $4,583,432 of the trade exception they created from the Rudy Gay trade, which expires tonight, Marc Stein of ESPN.com tweets.
- If the Nets do indeed trade Andrei Kirilenko to the Sixers for a player with a non-guaranteed contract, Brooklyn would be able to create a trade exception worth $3.3MM, Robert Windrem of Nets Daily reports (Twitter link).
Atlantic Notes: Raptors, Rondo, Celtics, Knicks
Raptors GM Masai Ujiri believes that he should let his team continue to grow, stocked as it is with plenty of young players around 28-year-old Kyle Lowry, as he tells Sportsnet’s Michael Grange. It’s more or less the same stance he’s taken ever since the Rudy Gay trade, which went down one year ago today,
“This is the time to let it sit and play itself out,” Ujiri said to Grange. “It’s not the time to play poker, not now.”
Of course, deception is often the key to a skilled poker player, and the Raptors have reason to act now if they’re going to make a move, since a trade exception worth more than $4.583MM that’s left over from the Gay trade expires at the end of today. Nonetheless, it seems only logical to take Ujiri at his word with the Raptors at 16-5 heading into tonight’s clash with the Cavs. Here’s more from around the Atlantic Division:
- Scouts and player personnel officials tell Shaun Powell of NBA.com that Rajon Rondo is no longer the sort of player who can command a blockbuster return in a trade. That’s mostly because of a market flooded with quality point guards, Powell writes, wondering if the Celtics would have received more if they had traded Rondo around the time of this year’s draft.
- The Celtics have sent rookies James Young and Dwight Powell to the D-League again, the team announced (Twitter link). It’s the fifth time that each has been on assignment to the Maine Red Claws this season. Young and Powell are the top two scorers for Boston’s D-League affiliate, checking in at 23.3 and 22.3 points per game, respectively.
- Phil Jackson is being careful not to step into coach Derek Fisher‘s territory, but closer interaction between the Zen Master and Knicks players couldn’t hurt, opines Marc Berman of the New York Post.
Will Cherry To Play In Lithuania
SUNDAY, 2:00pm: Zalgiris Kaunas confirmed the deal via Twitter.
FRIDAY, 4:55pm: Free agent Will Cherry is finalizing a deal to join the Lithuanian team Zalgiris Kaunas, David Pick of Eurobasket reports (Twitter link). Cherry was waived on November 30th by the Cavs in order to clear a roster spot so that Cleveland could claim A.J. Price off waivers. Gino Pilato of D-League Digest reported earlier today that Cherry was headed overseas rather than intending to rejoin the D-League.
Pick also tweets that the deal isn’t likely to be completed until Monday, which is when Cherry would clear D-League waivers, which he is expected to do. The point guard had signed a D-League deal with the affiliate of the Cavs shortly after the Raptors let him go at the end of the preseason and before Cleveland signed him for the big club in the first week of the regular season. The Cavs affiliate rescinded its rights to Cherry so that he wouldn’t have to pay a buyout to head overseas, according to Pilato (Twitter link).
The 6’1″, 23-year-old Cherry appeared in eight games for the Cavs this year, averaging 1.9 points and logging 8.6 minutes per night. Cherry had notched 12.8 PPG and 4.0 RPG while playing 25.3 minutes per contest in five games for the Cavs Summer League team in Las Vegas. He had also played for the Cavs’ D-League affiliate last season, when he provided 11.6 PPG, 3.7 RPG, and 4.5 APG in 30.4 MPG.
Atlantic Notes: Rondo, Knicks, Ross
Three Atlantic Division teams are in line for a top-10 pick in the 2015 draft, as our Reverse Standings show. The presence of the Sixers among that group certainly isn’t shocking, and the Celtics, with the league’s ninth-worst record, aren’t surprising many with their play, either. However, the Knicks are off to their worst start in franchise history at 4-16, and their unexpectedly poor performance doesn’t bode well for the future, either, as we examine amid the latest from the Atlantic Division:
- The Lakers and Celtics had a brief conversation about a Rajon Rondo trade as recently as a few months ago, but the discussion was short and didn’t go anywhere, tweets Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com. The Lakers continue to eye Rondo for free agency this coming summer, Shelburne writes in a full story, echoing a report from Chris Mannix of SI.com a month ago. The Celtics are willing to engage in Rondo trade talks merely on an “informational” basis at this point, and if talks were to heat up with the Lakers, they’d likely ask for at least one first-round pick, the sort of asset the Lakers are hesitant to give up, Shelburne hears.
- The Knicks will make finding a center their top priority in free agency this summer, but they’re not optimistic that they will be able to lure Marc Gasol, a source tells Marc Berman of the New York Post. They’ll make a run at Gasol, the No. 4 player on the Hoops Rumors Free Agent Power Rankings, hoping his friendship with fellow Spaniard Jose Calderon pays dividends, but the Knicks understand he’s more likely to choose a contending team, Berman writes. That’s part of the reason why Knicks management doesn’t want to tank, as Berman explains. Regardless, the Knicks are unlikely to re-sign any of their existing centers aside from Cole Aldrich, according to Berman.
- Terrence Ross will be up for a rookie scale extension from the Raptors this summer, and he’s getting a sudden chance to showcase his ability to take a lead role on offense in the wake of DeMar DeRozan‘s groin injury, as Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun examines.
And-Ones: Rondo, Waiters, McMillan
With the trade speculation regarding Rajon Rondo heading to Los Angeles swirling again thanks to a seemingly innocent breakfast with Kobe Bryant, Yannis Koutroupis of Basketball Insiders examines the potential trade market for the soon-to-be unrestricted free agent. Koutroupis believes the two most likely teams to acquire Rondo would be the previously mentioned Lakers, or the Kings, whom he believes could offer Boston the best possible combination of assets.
Here’s more from around the league:
- Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio runs down some of the bigger names whom he believes could be dealt prior to February’s trade deadline. His list includes Arron Afflalo (Nuggets); Dion Waiters (Cavs); Patrick Patterson (Raptors); and Lance Stephenson (Hornets).
- Waiters has been struggling to find his role on the Cavs this season, and his difficulties led to him getting on the court for just nine minutes Tuesday night against Milwaukee. But the young guard is trying to remain positive, Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com writes. “I think all of us, we know he’s a very, very good basketball player,” teammate LeBron James said. “And when his number is called, I think the best thing is to come in with a lot of energy and effort and you can’t worry about the ball going in. All of us, we all know that. We can’t control it. It’s a make-or-miss league. One thing you can control is how hard you play and how much you give to the team, how much you sacrifice for the team and we’re all trying to do that.”
- Former head coach and current Pacers assistant Nate McMillan is happy being out of the spotlight that comes with being the man in charge, Jabari Young of CSNNW.com writes. “I’ve enjoyed it,” McMillan said of being an assistant coach. “You learn a lot and really the enjoyment for me is you get to coach and you don’t have to deal with the other stuff. I coach and I get to go home. Frank [Vogel] has to coach and come talk to the press. You’re able to coach and work with the guys and do all of those things, but the other part, you don’t have to do.”