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Month: November 2024

Extension For Stephen Curry Appears Unlikely

October 23rd, 2012 at 9:36am CST by Luke Adams

For a number of weeks, chatter surrounding the negotiations between Stephen Curry and the Warriors seemed positive. Curry and his agent expressed optimism about working out a long-term extension, ESPN.com's Marc Stein believed a deal was likely, and as recently as last week there was still a sense on both sides that something would get done.

With Curry's troublesome right ankle acting up again and sidelining him for the rest of the preseason, however, it now appears unlikely that the Warriors will extend him by the October 31st deadline, tweets Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld. The two sides had postponed discussions until after the preseason in part because the Warriors wanted to see how Curry's ankle responded this month. While the recent setback isn't considered serious, it still means there's probably too much uncertainty for the team to proceed with a new contract for now.

Curry, who is entering the fourth and final year of his rookie contract, is set to earn about $3.96MM in 2012/13. If he and the Warriors don't hammer out a new deal by Halloween, he'll almost certainly receive a qualifying offer from the team next summer, making him a restricted free agent.

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Raptors Waive Jerel McNeal, Chris Wright

October 22nd, 2012 at 9:51pm CST by Zachary Links

The Raptors announced that they have waived guard Jerel McNeal and forward Chris Wright.  McNeal played in just one preseason game, while Wright was a DNP-CD for all six games.  Toronto's roster now stands at 16.

Both players hooked on with the Raptors roughly one month ago on non-guaranteed deals.  Wright, 24, appeared in 24 games for the Warriors in his rookie season but notched just 186 minutes in total. The 6'8" forward also played in 13 D-League games, averaging 17.8 PPG and 8.8 RPG. 

McNeal, 25, has never appeared in an NBA game despite signing a 10-day contract with the Hornets in 2011.  The former Marquette standout averaged 19.4 PPG in 47 games for the D-League's Rio Grande Valley Vipers in 2010/11 and spent last season in the Italian league.

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Odds & Ends: Rivers, Pierce, Grizzlies, Magic, Heat

October 22nd, 2012 at 9:50pm CST by Zachary Links

The Hornets suffered a scare earlier this evening as rookie guard Austin Rivers injured his surgically-repaired right ankle in the first quarter of tonight's preseason game against the Mavericks.  The 20-year-old was helped off the floor and was unable to put weight on the right leg, writes Jimmy Smith of the Times-Picayune.  Thankfully, Rivers' postgame X-rays came back negative, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (via Twitter).  Here's more from around the league…

  • Celtics star Paul Pierce confessed to CSNNE's Mike Gorman that he considered moving on from Boston after last year's exit at the hands of the Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals.  Pierce now says that he has a hard time envisioning himself in another uniform.
  • Robert Pera's bid to own the Grizzlies will be on the agenda Wednesday at the NBA's Board of Governors meetings in New York City, sources familiar with the process told Geoff Calkins of The Commercial Appeal.  To finalize the transaction, Pera will need to receive approval three-fourths of the league's majority owners.  Pera has already made waves with a celebrity cast of minority partners including Justin Timberlake and Ashley Manning, the wife of NFL quarterback Peyton Manning.
  • Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel looks at the roster crunch facing the Magic as the deadline approaches.  Swingman Chris Johnson and point guard Armon Johnson are near locks to be cut in the coming days.  That leaves combo forward Justin Harper, power forward Josh McRoberts and swingmen Christian Eyenga, DeQuan Jones, and Quentin Richardson to battle for the final two spots on the roster.
  • Heat guard Dwyane Wade admitted that it's going to be a challenge to get all of the team's new talent to mesh, tweets Chris Tomasson of FOX Sports Florida.  “We have a lot of guys that are so used to being kind of the main focus and not a lot of us are going to be the main focus now,’’ Wade said. “So that’s a challenge to see how we all can incorporate ourselves within our offense and keep each other happy.’’
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Pacific Notes: Warriors, Curry, Lakers, Scola

October 22nd, 2012 at 8:26pm CST by Zachary Links

Earlier today, NBA.com released their annual survey of the league's GMs and the Lakers were voted as the favorite to come out of the Western Conference with 60% of the vote over the Thunder (36.7%) and Nuggets (3.3%).  Not surprisingly, 86.2% of GMs had the Lakers as the team with the best summer moves, but the Warriors were also among those receiving votes.  Here's more out of the Pacific…

  • The Warriors and Stephen Curry decided to table contract talks until the end of preseason, but his situation seems more uncertain after being held out of the last two preseason games, writes Matt Steinmetz of CSNBayArea.com.  Golden State has kept Curry on the sidelines out of concern for his ankle, the same injury that caused him to miss 40 of last year's 66 games.
  • Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times (via Twitter) thought that Chris Douglas-Roberts had a chance to make the Lakers as his size could have allowed him to contribute at multiple spots.  With Douglas-Roberts now out of the picture, Pincus sees Robert Sacre as the guy who makes the cut (Twitter link).  Andrew Goudelock is also in the mix but coach Mike Brown is looking to develop him as a point guard while the club already has four players at the one.
  • Suns forward Luis Scola had hoped to retire with the Rockets, but says that he's happy being in Phoenix, writes Bill Ingram of HoopsWorld.  Scola was amnestied by the Rockets over the summer to remove the $19.4MM that would have been owed to him through 2013/14 from the cp.  The final year of his deal was worth $11MM but just $1MM of that amount was guaranteed.
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Pacers Won’t Look To Move Danny Granger

October 22nd, 2012 at 7:07pm CST by Zachary Links

The Pacers are set to enter the 2012/13 season with their strongest lineup in the post-Malice at the Palace era, but some around basketball still question how far the team can get with Danny Granger as their star player.  However, General Manager Kevin Pritchard told Bill Ingram of HoopsWorld that he believes the team can accomplish much more with the forward in the fold.

“Danny was put into a position a few years ago where he needed to score a lot and now we don’t need his scoring as much, we need his overall game and he’s a heck of an overall player…He’s shown to be very unselfish, he’s given up a lot of his offense to be a better defensive player last year," the GM said. We got the fifth-best record in the league last year, you don’t just say, 'We don’t need him.' That’s a bunch of baloney. I don’t believe that.”

Granger, 29, has two years remaining on a five-year, $60MM contract extension inked on Halloween of 2008.  The deal was backloaded with 10% escalation in each season, putting Indiana on the hook for $13.06MM this season and $14.02MM in 2013/14. 

Granger has seen his PPG average steadily dip across the last four seasons, from 25.7 in 2008/09 to 20.2 last season.  However, as Pritchard eluded to, the current makeup of the club demands less shooting out of the forward.  In 2011/12, Granger averaged 16.4 shot attempts per game versus a career high of 19 in 2008/09.

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Nuggets Exercise Options On Faried, Hamilton

October 22nd, 2012 at 5:47pm CST by Zachary Links

The Nuggets announced that they have exercised their third-year options on forward Kenneth Faried and guard/forward Jordan Hamilton.  The two players were taken with the 22nd and 26th pick, respectively, in the 2011 draft.

Faried will earn $1.348MM in 2012/13 and will see his salary rise to $1.442MM in 2013/14.  Hamilton will see a similarly modest pay increase as he goes from $1.153MM in his sophomore campaign to $1.234MM in 2013/14.  Faried made a name for himself heading into the draft as a tough rebounder and didn't disappoint as he averaged 7.7 RPG to go along with 10.2 PPG.  Hamilton didn't see the same kind of playing time as his fellow rookie, averaging 4.4 PPG and 2.4 RPG in 9.9 minutes across 26 games.

You can keep up with all of this offseason's decisions on 2013/14 rookie contract options by using our handy tracker. 

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Celtics Links: Terry, Sullinger, Green, Barbosa

October 22nd, 2012 at 4:41pm CST by Luke Adams

The Celtics played their final contest of the 2012/13 preseason yesterday, and now have more than a week to look ahead to next Tuesday's opener against Ray Allen and the Heat. As Jessica Camerato of CSNNE.com writes, coach Doc Rivers is heading into next week optimistic about the season, saying that his team has a chance to be "very, very good." Here are the latest Celtics-related stories from around the web:

  • TNT's David Aldridge focuses on the Celtics in his latest Morning Tip piece for NBA.com, examining how new additions like Jason Terry and Jared Sullinger are meshing with the team's established leaders, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Rajon Rondo.
  • According to Rivers, returning forward Jeff Green "stood out more than everybody" this preseason and has a chance have a "terrific" season, writes Paul Flannery of WEEI.com.
  • Rivers says he wasn't surprised that Leandro Barbosa signed with the Celtics for the veteran's minimum, since it seems Barbosa had shifted his priorities to factors besides money. "I think he had us zeroed in on his radar and he understood all the players in front of him," Rivers said, according to Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe. "He didn’t care. He kept saying that, which is refreshing. I was very honest with him. There’s a chance [he may not play] with the numbers. He said, 'I’m not here to ruffle any feathers. I just want to be on a team that wins and hopefully I can help.'"
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Lakers Cut Chris Douglas-Roberts, Greg Somogyi

October 22nd, 2012 at 3:30pm CST by Luke Adams

The Lakers have officially waived Chris Douglas-Roberts and Greg Somogyi, the team announced today in a press release.

According to Mike Trudell of Lakers.com (Twitter link), the Lakers "really liked" Douglas-Roberts, but even after releasing Ronnie Aguilar and Reeves Nelson, the team still had 18 players under contract, meaning at least three more players had to be cut.

Los Angeles' roster count now stands at 16, including three players on non-guaranteed deals: Robert Sacre, Andrew Goudelock, and Darius Johnson-Odom. The Lakers will cut at least one more of those guys, and perhaps two, if the team prefers to keep a roster spot free rather than carrying the maximum 15 players.

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Odds & Ends: Gibson, Kirilenko, Hawks, Rockets

October 22nd, 2012 at 2:42pm CST by Luke Adams

With just eight days until the NBA regular season officially gets underway in Cleveland, Miami, and Los Angeles, let's round up a few updates from around the league….

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Pacific Notes: Barnes, Gasol, Kings, Suns

October 22nd, 2012 at 1:22pm CST by Luke Adams

Last night, we linked to a Los Angeles Times piece detailing the impact Matt Barnes has had in Clippers' camp. Within Broderick Turner's story on Barnes, there are a few more details on the influence Chris Paul had in recruiting the former Laker to L.A.'s other team.

"I've told everybody this: I hate playing against Matt," Paul said of Barnes. "But I knew him on my team, I would love it. He's passionate on defense, just like I am."

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the Pacific Division:

  • Appearing on XTRA Sports 1360 in San Diego, Pau Gasol admitted that the trade rumors swirling around him last season made for an "uncomfortable situation," but said he's excited about the new-look Lakers and the coming season (link via Sports Radio Interviews).
  • The Kings will have to make at least two more cuts before the regular season gets underway, even if coach Keith Smart isn't looking forward to it, writes Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee. "I wish this could be our team, I really do," Smart said of the Kings' current 17-man roster. "I feel we've had a lot of growth from the young guys on our team. I thought all the guys we brought in, if we could keep them and have a true farm system because we've seen those guys develop."
  • As the Suns prepare to make their own cuts, Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic notes that roster hopefuls Diante Garrett and Luke Zeller would only earn the rookie minimum (about $473K) if they were on the team, while Ike Diogu and Solomon Jones would each cost the Suns the veteran's minimum (about $854K).
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