Pacific Notes: Allen, Warriors, Thomas, Corbin
The Warriors are among a group of several teams that have remained in contact with Ray Allen, reports Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com. Golden State appeared to have dropped out of the Allen sweepstakes after GM Bob Myers said in December that they had reached out to him, but the Warriors are still in the mix, according to Windhorst, who adds that they felt they were close to a deal with him earlier this season. The Wizards, Cavs, Spurs, Heat and Hawks are others who’ve kept in touch with the all-time leading three-point shot-maker, Windhorst writes, adding that Allen plans to make a decision on his future after All-Star Weekend. There’s more on the Warriors amid the latest from around the Pacific Division:
- Warriors assistant GM Travis Schlenk indicated that the team is hesitant to make even the slightest of moves between now and the trade deadline, as Matt Steinmetz of 95.7 The Game observes after Schlenk spoke with Steinmetz and John Dickinson on “The NBA Show.” “We’ve been good for the past couple years,” Schlenk said. Maybe not championship quality but we’ve been playoff caliber. I tell [GM] Bob [Myers] all the time ‘Our job now is not to screw it up.’ When you’re sitting with the record we have, and the year we’ve had, you’d like to tinker but you don’t want to mess it up. Chemistry is such a big thing, and our group of guys has such great chemistry. We’d hate to do a move just to do a move and have it mess up our chemistry. I don’t know we’ll do anything. We’re certainly active. … But at the same time, we’ve got to be cautious as well.”
- Isaiah Thomas has chosen Excel Sports Management’s Sam Goldfeder as his new agent, reports Liz Mullen of SportsBusiness Journal (on Twitter). The Suns guard dropped Andy Miller of ASM Sports earlier this season.
- Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports and Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee share the sentiment that the Kings should show Tyrone Corbin respect by coming to a speedy resolution on his future (Twitter links). Sacramento is deep into talks with George Karl after GM Pete D’Alessandro earlier said that Corbin would remain the team’s head coach until season’s end.
And-Ones: Wizards, KG, Stoudemire, Cavs
The Wizards are looking at free agents from overseas and players who will buy out their contracts before turning to the trade market, according to J. Michael of CSNWashington.com (on Twitter). The Wizards don’t want to sacrifice their long-term flexibility, so free agents are more attractive to them at this time (link). An attractive trade offer could change that, but that hasn’t come up yet (link).
- The Clippers would be interested in Amar’e Stoudemire or Kevin Garnett if they became available on the buyout market regardless of Blake Griffin‘s status, according to Dan Woike of the Orange County Register (on Twitter).
- The Cavs announced that they have recalled guard Joe Harris from the Canton Charge. Harris has played in six games for the Charge this season, averaging 18.2 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 33.2 minutes per game. The 23-year-old guard has played in 36 games (one start) for the Cavs this season, averaging 2.8 points in 10.8 minutes per game.
- Bismack Biyombo‘s MRI shows that he’ll miss at least two more weeks of action, according to Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer (via Twitter). The Hornets youngster was mentioned in trade rumors prior to the season and the latest diagnosis means that he’ll be sidelined through the trade deadline.
- The best move the Pistons could make at the deadline is not making one, opines David Mayo of MLive.com. The Pistons merely are on the edge of playoff contention, nothing more, and with so many roster holes after this season, they shouldn’t trade away key pieces for the future to complete the run.
- Expect the 76ers‘ core to be intact after the deadline, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes.
And-Ones: Sanders, Antetokounmpo, Porter
Team sources say Larry Sanders has done everything that has been asked of him since he was suspended by the NBA for at least 10 games on January 16th for a drug violation, according to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). The league stipulated that the suspension will remain in effect until he fully complies with his treatment program and there remains no timetable for his return.
There’s more from the Eastern Conference:
- Celtics coach Brad Stevens thinks the Bucks‘ Giannis Antetokounmpo “has a chance to be special,” according to A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com. Antetokounmpo has been able to retain his skills and athleticism despite a notable growth spurt since reaching the NBA. “He is unique,” Stevens said. “His length … everyone talks about length as a buzz word in basketball, but then there’s him or a couple of guys like him. There’s not that many.” Antetokounmpo has more than two seasons and $6.82MM remaining on his rookie deal. If he continues to progress, I would speculate that some team offers him a maximum value contract when he becomes a restricted free agent; that is if the Bucks don’t sign him to an extension before then.
- Another member of the 2013 draft class, Otto Porter, is thriving for his team. The Wizards are starting Porter in place of Bradley Beal, who is out of the lineup because of an injury, and the franchise may have found a player who can contribute come playoff time, writes Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post. Porter has averaged 10.0 points and 4.3 rebounds per game during his four games as a starter.
- The Hawks have recalled Mike Muscala from the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the D-League, according to the team’s twitter feed. The big man accrued 12 points, eight rebounds and three assists in the Mad Ants’ win on Saturday.
- The Grizzlies have recalled Jordan Adams from their D-League affiliate, the Iowa Energy, according to the team’s twitter feed. Adams accumulated four points, seven rebounds and four assists during the lone game of his latest D-League assignment.
Arthur Hill contributed to this post
Hawks Trying To Woo Ray Allen
4:56pm: The Hawks have indeed had discussions with Allen’s representatives about coming to Atlanta, but nothing appears to be imminent at this time, Vivlamore tweets.
8:27am: The Hawks are trying to convince Ray Allen to consider signing with them when and if he decides to play in the NBA this season, though the Cavs remain the favorites to land the 39-year-old, tweets Ryen Russillo of ESPN Radio. Still, coach Mike Budenholzer, acting as the team’s GM in place of Danny Ferry, who’s on a leave of absence, said he’s reluctant to tinker with a roster that’s won 34 of its last 37 games, as Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes.
“For us to be open to improving the group and adding more depth, with Thabo [Sefolosha] healthy or without Thabo healthy or without Thabo having this injury, it’s kind of the same mindset,” Budenolzer said. “We really like our group. You are hesitant to do anything. There is a little more opportunity for a six- to eight-week window but I don’t think it changes much if at all.”
Sefolosha, who plays the same position Allen does, is about a week into a six-to-eight-week timetable for recovery from a strained calf. Still, Sefolosha plays a much different style than the sharpshooting Allen, the league’s all-time leading three-point shot-maker. The Hawks have a full roster of 15 players signed through the end of the season, as our roster counts show, so they’d have to eat someone’s salary to accommodate Allen. Still, they have slightly more than $3MM worth of cap space to throw at the Jim Tanner client, who this past summer signaled a strong desire for more than the minimum salary should he return to the NBA this season.
Cleveland only has the minimum to give, and the same is true of the Wizards, who are reportedly Allen’s most aggressive suitor. Russillo wrote in December that he’d heard that Allen would make his decision in February, though Chris Mannix of SI.com wrote last week that people around the league increasingly believe that Allen knows the team he’d like to play for, and is simply deciding whether he wants to play at all. The Clippers, Grizzlies, Bulls and Spurs are other teams linked to Allen within the past few months. The Warriors seemed to have abandoned their earlier interest.
Southeast Notes: Pargo, Orton, Payton
Hassan Whiteside has proven a remarkable midseason pickup, scoring 24 points and grabbing 20 rebounds Wednesday to further cement that status, but the Heat haven’t reaped much benefit in the standings. They lost Wednesday’s game to the league-worst Timberwolves and have but a half-game lead on the Nets for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Here’s more from the Southeast Division:
- The Hornets aren’t ruling out a reunion with Jannero Pargo later this season once the back injury that led to his release has healed, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com hears (Twitter link). Charlotte waived Pargo on Wednesday to sign Elliot Williams to a 10-day contract.
- Magic rookie point guard Elfrid Payton has seen action in every game Orlando has played so far, but embattled coach Jacque Vaughn isn’t hesitant to sit him when he proves ineffective at the start, as Ken Hornack of Fox Sports Florida points out. In any case, Payton has shown flashes, but the transition from playing in the NCAA’s Sun Belt Conference last year to the NBA season this time around has proven a challenge, Hornack writes. The Magic gave up the rights to Dario Saric, a future first-rounder, and a second-round pick just to acquire Payton at the draft this past summer.
- Wizards camp invitee Daniel Orton is joining the Purefoods Star Hotshots of the Philippines, a team official told Richard Dy of Spin.ph. Orton confirmed to Snow Badua of Spin.ph that he’s set to play with the club as soon as a hand injury heals. The four-year NBA veteran had been with the Sichuan Blue Whales of China before their season ended this week.
And-Ones: Heat, D-League, Brown, Knicks
Knicks coach Derek Fisher said that it was very important for New York to sign Louis Amundson and Lance Thomas for the remainder of the season, Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com reports (Twitter link). Both players are inked to 10-day deals that expire this week. In five appearances for the Knicks this season, Thomas has averaged 9.8 points and 4.8 rebounds in 26.0 minutes per game. Amundson has also made five appearances for New York, and his averages are 4.6 points and 5.8 rebounds in 21.4 minutes per night.
Here’s more from around the league:
- All of the injuries that the Heat have endured this season haven’t allowed the team to see how effective its intended roster could be, Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel writes. “The most disappointing thing is we’re not even having a chance to be at full strength, to even see what we could do,” said Miami center Chris Bosh. “Not 100%, but just at least have most of our guys. It just seems like every time we’re about to turn the corner, there’s a drawback. And it is what it is. I can’t really say anything else.”
- The Cavaliers have recalled Joe Harris from the Canton Charge, their D-League affiliate, the team has announced. This was Harris’ third jaunt of the season to the D-League. Harris has played in two games for the Charge this season, averaging 18.0 points and 8.0 rebounds in 39.5 minutes per game.
- The Warriors have assigned center Festus Ezeli to the Santa Cruz Warriors, their D-League affiliate, the team has announced in a press release. Ezeli has missed the last 16 games with an ankle sprain. Golden State also announced that it has recalled Ognjen Kuzmic, who concludes his fifth sojourn of the season in Santa Cruz.
- With the trade deadline rapidly approaching, Basketball Insiders’ Cody Taylor looked at some players whom the Hawks, Hornets, Heat, Magic, and Wizards could be willing to deal.
- Lorenzo Brown will earn $48K from his 10-day contract with the Wolves, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter link). One-year veterans, like Brown, and rookies cost their teams slightly less than other players when they sign 10-day contracts, as Chuck Myron of Hoops Rumors explained earlier this month.
Wizards Interested In Will Bynum
The Wizards have joined the Cavs among the teams interested in point guard Will Bynum, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). The seven-year veteran is in China with the Guangdong Southern Tigers, who haven’t lost since he joined them in early December. The regular season ends February 1st for the Tigers, but the playoffs could keep him off-limits for NBA teams until late March, Charania adds.
Bynum has put up strong numbers in China, averaging 23.2 points and 7.4 assists against 3.3 turnovers per game. The longtime Piston went to the Celtics in a preseason trade, but the Celtics waived the Mark Bartelstein client amid a roster crunch before opening night in spite of a guaranteed salary of nearly $2.916MM.
Washington has an open roster spot, and though it seems the club would prefer to use it to sign Ray Allen, for whom the Wizards are reportedly the most aggressive suitor, it’s still seems a long shot that Allen would head to the nation’s capital. Washington, just like Cleveland, is limited to handing out the prorated minimum salary to Bynum, Allen or any other free agents.
Eastern Notes: Kobe, Wizards, Durant, Lopez
Kobe Bryant wanted to join the Wizards more than a decade ago when Michael Jordan was with the team, Bryant acknowledged to Michael Lee of The Washington Post. While Jordan was playing with the Wizards, Bryant told him several times that he wanted to come to Washington, assuming that Jordan would again head basketball operations for the Wizards as he did before his comeback, sources tell Lee. Jordan was confident he would sign Bryant when he became a free agent in 2004, Lee hears, but the current Hornets owner never got that chance, since then-Wizards owner Abe Pollin decided against letting Jordan run the front office upon his final retirement from playing in 2003. The Wizards missed out on a star then, but they have their sights set on acquiring one a dozen years later, as we detail:
- It’s a long shot but more than a pipe dream that the Wizards would land Kevin Durant when he hits free agency in 2016, as TNT’s David Aldridge writes in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com. A D.C. income tax loophole would allow Durant to save more than $700K per year in tax payments if he played for the Wizards instead of the Thunder, as Aldridge explains. However, the Thunder, who hold Durant’s Bird rights, can offer better annual salary raises than the Wizards or any other team can.
- J.R. Smith got over some initial mixed feelings about the trade that sent him from the Knicks to the Cavs and calls playing for Cleveland “the best situation for me as a person,” as he told Aldridge for the same piece. Smith has a player option worth nearly $6.4MM for next season.
- Trade candidate Brook Lopez would prefer to stay with the Nets, as Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports writes amid his weekly power rankings.
- Scouts, coaches and GMs at the D-League showcase were puzzled when the Sixers signed Larry Drew II, who had been playing for the Heat’s affiliate, to a 10-day contract earlier this month, as Gino Pilato of D-League Digest hears (Twitter links). Drew put up strong numbers, with 10.1 assists per game and 40.4% three-point shooting in 21 D-League appearances this year, but there were other, more intriguing prospects, Pilato believes. Drew signed his second 10-day deal with Philly earlier today.
Multiple Teams Interested In Nate Robinson
JANUARY 26TH: The Clips remain interested in Robinson but are looking into other deals first, a source told Spears for his weekly power rankings column.
JANUARY 23RD: The Clippers are still Robinson’s preferred free agency destination, Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter link). Doc Rivers, Los Angeles’ president of basketball operations and coach, recently said that the team intends to use its remaining two roster spots to add veteran players next month. Robinson would certainly qualify as a veteran addition, but there have been conflicting reports regarding L.A.’s level of interest in the diminutive guard.
5:09pm: The Cavs won’t pursue Robinson beyond their initial inquiry, according to Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group (Twitter link).
JANUARY 19TH, 11:55am: Robinson reached out to the Heat, but the Heat still hadn’t responded two days after the inquiry, as Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald hears. That seemingly conflicts with Spears’ report from Thursday that Miami was interested in Robinson (below).
2:12pm: USA Today’s Sam Amick suggests that the Clippers have cooled on the idea of signing Robinson (Twitter link). The situation regarding the former Slam Dunk champ is “fluid,” Amick says.
JANUARY 16TH, 7:45am: The Clippers are “running unopposed” atop Robinson’s wish list, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com.
JANUARY 15TH, 7:37pm: Washington won’t make a roster move until it knows what Ray Allen‘s plans are, J. Michael of CSNWashington.com tweets.
7:32pm: Robinson would like to play for the Wizards, but the team isn’t currently interested in his services, Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post reports (Twitter link). This conflicts with Spears’ earlier report that Washington was indeed interested in Robinson’s services.
7:04pm: The Clippers are still the frontrunners to land Robinson, Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders tweets.
5:49pm: The Wizards and the Heat are also interested in Robinson, Spears tweets.
5:42pm: The Cavaliers have also expressed interest in Robinson, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link).
4:18pm: The Clippers are likely to sign Robinson now that he’s reached a buyout agreement with the Celtics, Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com reports (Twitter link).
3:33pm: The Clippers have interest in Nate Robinson, who’s agreed to a buyout deal with the Celtics, and they’d still like to sign him once they complete the Austin Rivers trade, tweets Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports suggested earlier this week that the Clippers were a possible suitor, and Bolch indicates that’s indeed the case. The Clippers had spoken with the Nuggets about acquiring the 5’9″ guard via trade before the Nuggets instead sent him to Boston this week, Wojnarowski also wrote.
Clippers president of basketball operations and coach Doc Rivers was Robinson’s coach when Robinson was with the Celtics for parts of 2009/10 and 2010/11, including Boston’s run to the 2010 NBA Finals. Robinson, whose seeing a career-low 14.1 minutes per game, reportedly wants to have a chance to showcase his talents in advance of this summer’s free agent market as well as to again play with a contender.
The Clippers would give him a crack at another title, but their backcourt is fairly crowded, with Chris Paul, Jamal Crawford and J.J. Redick in prominent roles. Backup point guard Jordan Farmar has averaged almost precisely as much playing time this year as Robinson did with the Nuggets, and Farmar has apparently been wanting more. Farmar doesn’t appear likely to head to Boston in the Austin Rivers trade, but Kings have reportedly discussed swapping Ramon Sessions for Farmar.
The Clips’ roster is at 15 players, including Dahntay Jones, whom the team signed to a 10-day contract Wednesday, though much remains up in the air. The Clippers are less than $1MM shy of the hard cap as it stands, and it’s not quite clear what they’ll relinquish in the Rivers trade and where they’ll stand in relation to that $80.829MM hard cap once the trade goes through, but they’d need roughly $450K available to sign Robinson anytime soon to a prorated minimum salary for the rest of the season.
Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com suggested this week that the Cavs are in the mix for Robinson, too. The Celtics have yet to officially waive Robinson, though Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders indicated Wednesday that they were waiting on Jameer Nelson to complete his physical with the Nuggets, which would put a bow on the trade that sent Robinson to Boston (Twitter link).
Chris Singleton Joins Thunder’s D-League Team
The D-League affiliate of the Thunder has acquired former Wizards forward Chris Singleton, the team announced. Gino Pilato of D-League Digest reported earlier this week that the former 18th overall pick was expected to sign with the D-League, so it appears that he did so and that the Oklahoma City Blue claimed him from the D-League player pool that new signees enter when they join the league. The 25-year-old remains free to sign with any NBA team.
Singleton signed with the Pacers this past offseason after hiring agent Todd Ramasar, but he failed to make the opening-night roster. The Heat were also interested, but it became clear that the Wizards no longer had him in their plans after three seasons in which he saw declining minutes per game each year.
He averaged 3.0 points per game in just 10.0 MPG across 25 appearances last season after notching 21.7 MPG in all 66 games during his lockout-shortened rookie season. The Wizards decided in the fall of 2013 to decline the fourth-year team option on his rookie scale contract, setting him up for unrestricted free agency this past summer.