Eastern Notes: Realignment, Love, Butler, Pistons
The Pacers, for all their woes, would make the playoffs if they began today, as Eastern Conference teams enjoy a much easier path to the postseason, but Mavs owner Mark Cuban isn’t the only one around the league pushing to change that. Discussion about realignment is just in “some infant stage” as it circulates among the NBA’s power brokers, Grantland’s Zach Lowe writes, but commissioner Adam Silver says the league is closely studying the issue. Suns owner Robert Sarver and Thunder brass are among those who’ve advocated the idea of simply taking the 16 best teams for the playoffs, Lowe reports. Those teams would stand to benefit from such a structure this year, and there’s concern around the league that self-interest will drive the debate, as Lowe also notes. While we wait to see whether momentum gathers for change, here’s the latest from the weaker conference:
- Kevin Love indicated his desire to remain in Cleveland for the long term shortly after the trade that brought him to the Cavs, and he reiterated his intention to do so in a radio appearance with Chris Mannix of SI.com and NBC Sports Radio, as “The Chris Mannix Show” Twitter account relays. Love can opt out of his contract at season’s end, but last month he batted down a rumor that he had interest in signing with the Lakers this coming summer.
- Rasual Butler has proven quite a find for the Wizards after having made the team out of camp on a non-guaranteed deal for the minimum salary, as Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post examines after Butler’s game-high 23 points in Monday’s win against the Heat.
- Stan Van Gundy‘s failure to offload either Greg Monroe or Josh Smith in the summer stunted his ability to affect real changes for the Pistons, who are stuck between full-on rebuilding and trying to win now, opines Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News.
Eastern Notes: Whiteside, Beal, Butler, Cavs
League executives are confident that Bradley Beal will command a max extension from the Wizards, RealGM’s Shams Charania hears. Washington has made it known around the league that it intends to do whatever’s necessary to secure the shooting guard for the long term, Charania adds, echoing a report from last month indicating that the Wizards were already planning to ink Beal to an extension when he’s eligible for one in the offseason ahead.
Here’s more from the east:
- The Heat see new signee Hassan Whiteside as a prospect they can develop for the long term, coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters, including Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. The center had worked out two times in three years for the team, including an audition last week, as Jackson writes in a separate piece.
- Whiteside’s free agent deal with the Heat is for two years, and includes partial guarantees for each season, Charania reports (Twitter link). It’s presumably a minimum salary arrangement, since the Heat are limited to giving out no more than that.
- The Bulls and Jimmy Butler failed to reach an agreement on a contract extension, setting him up to become a restricted free agent next summer. But Butler isn’t letting his contract situation distract him and is continuing to work hard, Nick Friedell of ESPN.com writes in his profile of the swingman. “I feel like I’ve never been the best player,” Butler said. “I’ve never been highly recruited, so I’ve always had all the chips stacked up against me and I’ve always found a way to make things happen. [The contract talk] is just another obstacle, another hurdle. But I think I’m in the right direction and if I keep my eye on the prize I think I’ll end up successful.”
- Not all “superteams” are created equal, and it takes great sacrifices to make a combination of superstar players work, something the Cavs are finding out the hard way, Howard Beck of Bleacher Report writes. “I tell people all the time that it’s easy to say the word sacrifice,” veteran swingman Mike Miller said. “But to sacrifice, whether it’s playing time, shots, things like that, without knowing the outcome, it’s scary. And that’s what you’re asking players to do here in Cleveland again. You got young, talented players that are asked to sacrifice without knowing what the outcome could be. If you don’t win a championship, is it worth it?“
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Al Harrington Leaves China Amid NBA Interest
China’s Fujian Sturgeons have signed DJ White to replace Al Harrington, who has opted out of his contract, the team announced (translation via Emiliano Carchia of Sportando). Harrington left the team to pursue “immediate NBA offers,” according to David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link), and the GM of the Sturgeons acknowledged that the NBA was a possibility for Harrington as he spoke to reporters, Carchia writes. Still, it’s unclear which NBA teams have interest in the 34-year-old power forward. Many former NBA players who sign to play in China are bound to their respective clubs for the abbreviated Chinese season, but the deal that Harrington inked in August contained an out clause, according to Evan Wang of Hupu.com (Twitter link). The terms of the deal for White aren’t immediately clear.
Harrington was in fine form in the early going this season for Fujian, averaging 32.8 points and 10.8 rebounds with 37.5% three-point shooting in 38.7 minutes per game. The 16-year NBA veteran said in August that he had drawn interest from some non-contending NBA teams but that he hoped to re-sign with the Wizards, the team he played for last season, when he returned from China. The Wizards have a full 15-man roster, but they have Glen Rice Jr. on a partially guaranteed deal, and Rasual Butler‘s contract is non-guaranteed. Nene, who plays Harrington’s position, is dealing with plantar fasciitis in right foot, as Todd Dybas of The Washington Times notes, though the team doesn’t expect the injury to keep him out for long. Harrington struggled to find playing time last year with the Wizards after spending most of 2012/13 recovering from the effects of a staph infection that he contracted while undergoing knee surgery in April 2012. The Dan Fegan client was a key cog for the Nuggets prior to the operation, averaging 14.2 PPG and 6.1 RPG in 27.5 MPG during the 2011/12 season.
White, whose one-month deal with Spain’s Laboral Kuxta expired a few weeks ago, had reportedly been looking for a chance to latch on with an NBA team, but he’ll instead return to China, where he spent much of the previous two seasons. He’s been able to parlay his Chinese stints into NBA work both years, joining the Celtics at the end of the 2012/13 season and the Hornets (then Bobcats) last spring.
Cavs, Wizards, Bulls, Spurs Still Eyeing Ray Allen
4:00pm: The Cavs remain the “undisputed favorites” to sign Allen, providing he decides to play again, writes Ken Berger of CBSSports.com.
3:35pm: The Wizards haven’t checked in on Allen recently, but that doesn’t mean the team isn’t still interested in him, reports Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post (Twitter link).
12:59pm: The Cavs, Wizards, Bulls and Spurs are among a group of seven teams that maintain interest in signing free agent Ray Allen, tweets Chris Broussard of ESPN.com. Allen has been spending time in Miami and continuing to stay in shape, Broussard adds, but while it’s not entirely clear whether the Heat are one of those seven, the 39-year-old sharpshooter has reportedly ruled out a return to the franchise with which he’s spent the past two seasons.
The four teams Broussard identifies in his latest dispatch have all been linked to Allen over the past several months, with Cleveland most frequently mentioned in connection with the Jim Tanner client. A report earlier this month indicated that the Bulls remained in contact with Allen’s representatives, and Cavs GM David Griffin was reportedly speaking with Allen’s camp in early October, with the Cavs still seemingly the front-runners at that point. The Cavs maintained belief as late as mid-September that Allen would eventually sign with them, but Tanner denied a couple of weeks later that a deal between Cleveland and his client was imminent. That was one of several occasions since the start of free agency that Allen’s camp has shushed rumors, and whether Allen even wants to continue playing at all is still unknown.
The Spurs have the most flexibility to pay Allen among the teams Broussard lists, since San Antonio still has a $3.228MM slice of its mid-level exception left after using part of it to re-sign Aron Baynes. The Spurs would nonetheless need to unload a player on a fully guaranteed contract to sign Allen. The Wizards, Bulls and Cavs are limited to the minimum salary, but they all possess players on non-guaranteed contracts, and Chicago has an open roster spot, as our roster counts show.
Southeast Notes: Heat, Williams, Rice Jr.
The Heat are a better team with Dwyane Wade on the court, but him missing time due to a hamstring injury has helped build chemistry amongst the team’s newcomers, Shandel Richardson of The Sun Sentinel writes. “When you don’t have that guy [Wade] on the court, it’s a huge void that you have to fill,” Chris Bosh said. “I think it’s both a good and a bad thing. We want him out there, but at the same time our rookies are gaining a ton of experience and our new guys are gaining a ton of experience. It’s forcing the chemistry to happen a lot sooner.”
Here’s the latest from the Southeast Division:
- Heat president Pat Riley deserves credit for taking a chance on signing Shawne Williams, despite some of the criticisms Riley received for fully guaranteeing this season’s salary, Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald opines. Williams is rewarding Riley’s faith by averaging 11.4 points and is currently fifth in the league in three-point percentage, bombing away with a 50.9% success rate, notes Jackson.
- Glen Rice Jr.‘s D-League assignment by the Wizards has less to do with his verbal outburst directed toward coach Randy Wittman and is more about the player’s overall development, J. Michael of CSNWashington.com writes. With the season underway, there isn’t enough practice time to fully develop younger players like Rice, who hasn’t seen any game action since November 7th, Michael adds.
- Despite his lackluster performance during last year’s playoffs, the Heat re-signed Mario Chalmers, but his role and the team’s expectations of him have changed, Surya Fernandez of FOX Sports.com writes. Chalmers had started every game that he’s appeared in the previous three seasons but is now coming off the bench. “That’s a requirement when you have a championship-level team,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “So nobody feels badly for anybody that has to sacrifice when you have an opportunity to be a part of a great team. That’s the hardest part of great teams is getting guys to sacrifice. So now the role has to be a little different with this team. He’s embraced that role and he’s been able to produce in this role. I think some of the experiences he went through the last six years have helped him get to this point.”
D-League Moves: Hawks, Wizards, Mavs
Wednesday was the 23rd day of the NBA season, and teams had already made 31 D-League assignments or recalls by the time the day was through. We’ve been keeping track of all the comings and goings, and we’ll continue to log them throughout the season on the post linked here. The movement continues, as we detail:
- The Hawks sent Adreian Payne to the D-League today, reports Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, who adds that the team plans to keep him with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants through this weekend’s games, at least. The Hawks are without a one-to-one affiliate, as they share the Mad Ants with a dozen other teams.
- One of those teams is the Wizards, who sent Glen Rice Jr. to the Mad Ants today, the team announced. Payne and Rice are the only two players so far this season who’ve gone on NBA assignment to the Mad Ants, who can only carry as many as four NBA assignees at once. The NBA and the D-League have established a protocol to help NBA parent clubs of the Mad Ants find a place for their D-League-bound players if the openings in Fort Wayne are full, as we detailed earlier.
- The Mavs have assigned Ricky Ledo to the their one-to-one D-League affiliate, the team announced. Ledo played in more than three times as many D-League games as he did NBA games last season, and he’s yet to appear in a game for the big club this year.
And-Ones: Nene, Green, Cap, Johnson
We have nine games on the NBA slate for tonight, the best of which is undoubtedly the Southwest division showdown in Memphis between the 9-1 Rockets and the 9-1 Grizzlies. Some might say the Grizzlies’ impressive record should include an asterisk, as the Kings continue insist that last week’s game-winner by Courtney Lee be overturned. However, Memphis GM Chris Wallace is confident the league will uphold his team’s victory, he tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.
With that settled, let’s take a look at what else is going on around the Association on Monday night:
- Nene and Gerald Green have joined the BDA Sports agency, as Liz Mullen of the SportsBusiness Journal reports in a subscription-only piece. Nene had been with Dan Fegan of Relativity Sports, while agent Kenton Edelin was Green’s representative. Green’s contract with the Suns is up after this season, while Nene’s deal with the Wizards runs through 2015/16.
- Almost all team executives believe the salary cap for 2015/16 will fall somewhere between $66MM and $68MM, according to Grantland’s Zach Lowe. Lowe includes this nugget in a longer analysis of yesterday’s Rudy Gay extension, which the Grantland scribe describes as “fair-ish” next season and as a potential steal come 2016/17. Lowe also believes that the Kings would like to add another piece after this season if they can free up some salary. He speculates that Jason Thompson and his $6.43MM 2015/16 salary could be a trade candidate.
- Now in his 14th season at age 33, Joe Johnson tells David Aldridge of NBA.com that he can’t imagine playing too much longer after his deal is up with the Nets. Johnson, who recently got into some hot water after saying his team was playing selfishly, is under contract through next season with Brooklyn and will hit free agency at age 35 in the summer of 2016.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Eastern Notes: Beal, Love, Rondo, Smith
The Wizards’ Bradley Beal is expected to practice Monday and could be back in the lineup by Friday, reports Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post. The high-scoring guard, who hasn’t played since fracturing his left wrist October 10th, went through a dribbling and shooting drill on Saturday. Last month, the Wizards exercised Beal’s fourth-year contract option worth $5.7MM. Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:
- Even though Kevin Love is likely to become a free agent this summer, the Cavaliers don’t believe he will leave Cleveland, writes Jason Lloyd of The Akron Beacon Journal. A rumor emerged last week that Love would consider opting out of his current contract at season’s end and to sign with the Lakers. Lloyd cautioned that many more rumors are likely regarding the six-year veteran before the season ends, but the Cavs are confident in his commitment to Cleveland.
- The Celtics‘ Rajon Rondo cites improved health as the reason for his fast start, according to Mark Murphy of The Boston Herald. ACL surgery limited Rondo to just 29 games last season, and the eight-year veteran said he never felt comfortable after his return. “I can get to the paint a lot easier now,” said Rondo, who will be an unrestricted free agent in the summer. “Last year I was pretty slow, and now I’m a step faster.”
- The Knicks‘ J.R. Smith remains on the trading block, tweets Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com. Begley notes that the team is having ongoing internal discussions about dealing Smith, and has been since July. The 10-year veteran is being paid close to $6MM this year and has a player option for nearly $6.4MM next season.
Eastern Notes: World Peace, Sixers, Humphries
Metta World Peace believes it was a post-game locker room confrontation with J.R. Smith last year that led to him not being re-signed by the Knicks this season despite his familiarity with the triangle offense, Marc Berman of The New York Post writes. “I don’t understand why they didn’t [sign] me,’’ World Peace said. “But then again, I’m very direct. I think I was too direct in the locker room, too direct to J.R. Smith. It wasn’t from a bad place. If someone is not playing defense or not giving effort, that’s my specialty. I don’t hold back on my words. Nobody wants to talk direct to them. We don’t give it to them straight. I said some things directly to J.R. Smith in the locker room and he challenged me back, said some direct things to me. But he understood where we came from.”
Here’s more from the east:
- As the Sixers‘ losses continue to mount, head coach Brett Brown still feels pride in what the franchise is working for and constantly reminds the players of the team’s plan, Jenny Dial Creech of The Houston Chronicle writes. “It is hard, but it it’s something you remind yourself – why did you take the job?” Brown said. “What are the true realities of the roster we have? What’s the possible outcomes if we can navigate through the first few years we have to face? Sometimes its hard with the personnel that we have. I gotta coach them. I gotta remind them every single day that they have to be focused on the process, not the result.”
- Raptors big man Jonas Valanciunas‘ production has been under a higher level of scrutiny this season but head coach Dwane Casey is quick to defend his young player, Mike Ganter of The Toronto Sun writes. “He’s a young kid and his curse is two years ago when he got here everybody said he was the second coming,” Casey said. “Everybody was expecting that sort of impact. As a staff, all we expect is he’s going to grow at the right time, at the right pace and [eventually] he’ll get there. But everybody is waiting for him or wanting him to be more than what he is ready to be right now. He’s right where we need him to be.”
- Sign-and-trade acquisition Kris Humphries has added a needed level of toughness and physicality to the Wizards‘ frontcourt, Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post writes.
Eastern Notes: Labor, J.R. Smith, Butler, Cavs
The collective bargaining agreement is in place at least until 2017, but LeBron James wants to see constructive labor negotiations start sooner rather than later in the wake of sharp remarks this week from union executive director Michele Roberts and commissioner Adam Silver. Joe Vardon of the Northeast Ohio Media Group has the details.
“At some point we would like to start conversations, because you don’t want to get to a point to where the deadline happens and now we’re scrambling,” James said. “Our game is too good, it’s too popular, everyone loves our game all across the world and we don’t want to get to a point where there’s another lockout.”
While we wait to see if LeBron can help bring the sides to the table, here’s the latest on his rivals from the Eastern Conference:
- The Knicks continue to have internal discussions about ways to trade J.R. Smith, just as they have since July, tweets Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com. A report early this month indicated that New York and the Pacers had engaged in talks about a Smith trade, and while a follow-up cast doubt on that notion, the most recent dispatch indicates that the Pacers do have interest in the volatile shooting guard.
- An anonymous executive suggests to fellow ESPNNewYork.com scribe Ian O’Connor that Smith continues to be a viable trade asset in the proper circumstances. “J.R. has had a lot of issues but he can be a big-time scorer when he’s doing the right things,” the executive said. “There’s always a team out there willing to take a chance on somebody if they feel he can put them over the top, and there’s no doubt J.R. can play. People are going to be concerned about chemistry issues in the locker room, so it would have to be a strong leadership and coaching staff that take him in.”
- Randy Wittman was the driving force behind the Wizards‘ decision to sign Rasual Butler, as the coach prevailed upon the team to invite the 35-year-old to camp, according to J. Michael of CSNWashington.com, who writes in his mailbag column. The move has paid off, as Butler made the opening-night roster and is averaging 8.8 points in 17.6 minutes per game.
- The Cavs have assigned rookie Alex Kirk to the D-League, the team announced. Kirk has only seen three minutes of regular season action thus far for Cleveland.