2014 January | Hoops Rumors

Atlantic Notes: Nets, Olynyk, Patterson

January 21st, 2014 at 8:03pm CST by Zachary Links

Fans who made it out to the Barclays Center tonight are being treated to a competitive game as the Nets are up 46-42 on the Magic at halftime. Joe Johnson, or Joe Jesus as Kevin Garnett calls him, leads the way with 10 points for Brooklyn while Glen Davis has 8 points and 6 boards on the other side. Tonight’s look at the Atlantic..

The Nets got the rights to Eden Bavcic in the Tyshawn Taylor trade with the Pelicans, but GM Billy King says that we shouldn’t expect to see him in the NBA, writes Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. The 29-year-old is currently plying his craft in the Greek League.
Peter Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com grades the Celtics at the midway point of the season. Rookie Kelly Olynyk gets a C despite the considerable hype he had coming into the season. Meanwhile, Kris Humphries, who came over in the blockbuster with the Nets, gets a B+ for his play. Recently, Hump said that he wants to remain with the C’s beyond this season.
The Raptors also got a report card thanks to Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun. Patrick Patterson gets an A- for his work in Toronto even though he struggled for the first part of the season with the Kings. GM Masai Ujiri gets a B for pulling the trigger on the Rudy Gay deal but Wolstat notes that there’s still a great deal of work to be done.

Southwest Notes: Rockets, Belinelli, Taylor

January 21st, 2014 at 6:53pm CST by Zachary Links

Tonight’s look at the Southwest Division as the Pelicans get set to take on the Kings..

In an Insider-only piece for ESPN.com, Tom Haberstroh looks at what the teams outside of the “big four” of the Heat, Pacers, Thunder, and Spurs can do to put themselves in contention. The Rockets, according to Haberstroh, have to find a way to upgrade their turnstile perimeter defense. Wesley Matthews of the Blazers would give them a boost in that department and even though he doesn’t offer the same kind of D, C.J. Miles of the Cavs would also be an upgrade.
Marco Belinelli says he had more lucrative offers than the two-year, $5.6MM deal he signed with the Spurs over the offseason, but the opportunity to play for one of the best teams in the NBA, alongside long-time idol Manu Ginobili, was too good to pass up, writes Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News. “I know money is important,” he said. “But I’m a young guy and I want to improve my game. Money will come. I just want to win.”
Pelicans coach Monty Williams is unsure about the role that newly-acquired guard Tyshawn Taylor will fill for his club, writes John Reid of the Times-PIcayune.

Draft Notes: Embiid, Parker, Smart

January 21st, 2014 at 5:57pm CST by Zachary Links

Jabari Parker is universally regarded as the top talents in the 2014 draft class, but the Duke star may not enter his name into the mix at all. Executives around the league are reportedly starting to wonder if he might take an extra year with Coach K & Co. while his father says that he has yet to make up his mind. Here’s tonight’s latest draft notes..

The 2015 draft could actually shape up to be better than the highly-anticipated 2014 draft, writes Yannis Koutroupis of Basketball Insider. With Parker and Kansas center Joel Embiid reportedly on the fence about jumping in this June, they could help bolster a draft that features five big men with All-Star potential in Jahlil Okafor (Duke), Myles Turner (Undecided), Cliff Alexander (Kansas), Trey Lyles (Kentucky) and Karl Towns (Kentucky).
Parker and Embiid appear undecided on entering this year’s draft, but it’s common for players in their position to have some doubts, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders writes. Kyler figures there’s little chance either will pass up the chance to start drawing NBA paychecks next season.
Today on ESPN.com (Insider sub. req’d), five draft experts battled it out over some hot draft topics. The group looks at how Marcus Smart would fit alongside Magic rookie Victor Oladipo, who could fall out of the lottery, whether Andrew Wiggins would make the Cavs playoff contenders, and more.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Daniel Orton To Join Celtics D-League Team

January 21st, 2014 at 4:32pm CST by Chuck Myron

Free agent center Daniel Orton will sign with the D-League and play for the Maine Red Claws, the affiliate of the Celtics, USA Today’s Sam Amick reports (Twitter links). The Red Claws are acquiring his D-League rights via trade from the Tulsa 66ers, according to Amick. Orton had offers from Chinese teams, Amick adds, but he will instead showcase his skills within the range of most NBA observers.

The Sixers waived Orton earlier this month, just before his contract would have become guaranteed for the rest of the season. Philadelphia had picked him up during the preseason a few days after the Thunder cut him loose. The 6’10” Orton was the 29th overall pick of the 2010 draft out of the University of Kentucky, but he missed the 2010/11 season with injury and has yet to blossom. He’s appeared in a total of 51 NBA games so far, with career numbers of 3.0 points and 2.8 rebounds per game with a 10.6 PER.

He hasn’t fared too much better when his NBA teams have assigned him to the D-League, putting up 12.4 PPG and 7.8 RPG in 27.8 minutes per game over 31 contests. If he impresses this time around, the Celtics will have the flexibility to sign him to the big club, since they have only 13 guaranteed contracts. Orton will nonetheless remain eligible to sign with any NBA team.

Pacific Notes: Plumlee, Len, Young, Kings

January 21st, 2014 at 3:52pm CST by Chuck Myron

Eight teams have given out at least one 10-day contract so far this season, and three of those clubs are from the Pacific Division, as our 10-Day Tracker shows. The Clippers have struck three such deals, the most of any team in the NBA, and all of them have gone to point guards as they look to make up for the absence of Chris Paul. Here’s the latest from the Pacific:

The Suns insisted that the Pacers include Miles Plumlee in the Luis Scola trade after scouting the 25-year-old center in summer league action, and the result is what Plumlee believes is a “perfect” trade, as he tells Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. Phoenix’s starting center says he’s grateful for his newfound playing time and harbors no ill will toward the Pacers for burying him on the bench.
One of Plumlee’s backups is Alex Len, the fifth overall pick in the draft this past June. Len has played fewer minutes than 45 other NBA rookies, notes Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. Still, the Suns are no less optimistic about his future, as Coro explains.
Nick Young‘s strong performance for the Lakers in place of the injured Kobe Bryant suggests he’ll command much more as a free agent than he’d make if he exercises his minimum-salary player option for next season, as Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com examines. Young took a discount to play in his native Southern California this season, but he’s expressed a desire for more financial stability on his next deal.
Ray McCallum has rejoined the Kings after a stint in the D-League, the team announced. The point guard, whom Sacramento took 36th overall this past June, has notched 20.0 points and 4.3 assists per game in seven D-League appearances.

Danilo Gallinari To Miss Season

January 21st, 2014 at 2:35pm CST by Chuck Myron

Danilo Gallinari will miss the rest of the season after undergoing surgery on his ACL today, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Gallinari didn’t have ACL surgery this past spring, instead having a procedure done to repair his meniscus, according to Wojnarowski (Twitter link). The Nuggets announced in April that he had torn the ACL in his left knee, and he hasn’t played in a game since. The doctor who performed the initial surgery believed Gallinari could strengthen the ACL enough to play on it without the traditional operation, but the knee didn’t respond, as Wojnarowski explains in his full story.

Gallinari said last week that the thought of missing the entire season had crossed his mind, a change from earlier, when he indicated he didn’t consider that a possibility. The Nuggets haven’t been the same without him, compiling a 20-20 record so far compared to last season’s 57-25 mark. The Warriors upset the Nuggets when they were without Gallinari in last year’s playoffs.

The 25-year-old is in the midst of a four-year, $42MM extension that runs through 2015/16 and pays him more than $10.1MM this season. The deadline to apply for a disabled player exception was January 15th, so the capped-out Nuggets can only sign a minimum-salary player to replace him. Today’s announcement strengthens the chance that Denver will look to make changes that favor the future over the present come the trade deadline.

The Nuggets will recoup some of their obligation to Gallinari this season through their insurance policy, which pays 80% of his salary for any games he misses over the latter part of the season. That’ll work out to a savings of about $4.5MM, tweets Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post.

‘Serious Suitors’ Interested In Buying Bucks

January 21st, 2014 at 1:30pm CST by Chuck Myron

Four “serious suitors” would be willing to negotiate with Bucks owner Herb Kohl about buying the team, reports Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times. Kohl said last month that he’s seeking partners to share the ownership of the club, but the 78-year-old insisted then that he “isn’t going anywhere,” in spite of years of rumors that he’d give up the team.

One of the suitors is a group of five or six investors with Wisconsin ties, according to Woelfel, who notes that Kohl would appear to prefer to make sure the club remains in the hands of locals. Another potential owner is someone from Chicago who’s had an offer on the table for years, Woelfel writes without identifying who it is. Reading between the lines, it seems like that’s Michael Heisley, the former Grizzlies owner who lives in Chicago and has been connected with the Bucks in the past, though that’s just speculation on my part.

If Kohl sells the team sometime soon, the price could come in anywhere from $380MM to almost $500MM, according to Woelfel. That wouldn’t include the cost of a new arena, a project Kohl has been pushing civic leaders to support. Two of Woelfel’s sources believe there’s a strong chance the arena will be built. Kohl, a former Wisconsin senator, is “obsessed” with making the arena a part of his legacy, Woelfel writes, having heard from a source who says Kohl is considering footing more than $100MM worth of the construction bill.

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Milwaukee Bucks

Atlantic Rumors: Carmelo, Nets, Rondo

January 21st, 2014 at 12:08pm CST by Chuck Myron

Players and coaches around the league share the general feeling that Carmelo Anthony will leave the Knicks in free agency, according to Frank Isola of the New York Daily News, who believes the star is weary of the team’s losing. Anthony and other Knicks embraced Nets coach Jason Kidd after Brooklyn’s blowout win over their crosstown rivals yesterday, and Isola sees it as evidence that the club misses Kidd and other veterans on last year’s roster who are no longer around. Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:

The Nets created trade a small trade exception as part of their swap with the Pelicans today, worth $788,872, equivalent to Tyshawn Taylor‘s salary. They don’t get one as part of their deal with the Bulls, since Marquis Teague is making more than Tornike Shengelia.
Boston anticipated Rajon Rondo would someday become the leader of the team, and so the Celtics have groomed him for that role, one GM Danny Ainge believes he’s better prepared to embrace now that he’s adopted a calmer demeanor, observes Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald.
The Celtics appear high on Zeke Marshall, as the team’s front office pushed to acquire his D-League rights via trade earlier this year, according to Mike Taylor, Marshall’s coach with Boston’s D-League affiliate. Marla Ridenour of the Akron Beacon Journal has more on the already well-traveled prospect who went undrafted out of the University of Akron this summer.
SB Nation’s Tom Ziller names the Knicks and Nets as two of the league’s most desperate teams, suggesting much is at stake for the New York City franchises between now and the trade deadline.

Nets Swap Backup PGs With Pelicans, Bulls

January 21st, 2014 at 11:09am CST by Charlie Adams

The Nets have officially announced a pair of trades, acquiring Marquis Teague from the Bulls in a one-for-one swap for Tornike Shengelia, and sending Tyshawn Taylor and cash to the Pelicans in exchange for the draft rights to Edin Bavcic, a 29-year-old big man playing in Greece.

The moves won’t greatly impact any of the teams’ rotations, as none of the active players involved in the trade have averaged as much as 13 minutes per game this season, and each of them has seen multiple D-League assignments. Teague was a first-round pick in 2012, but he struggled to find minutes for Chicago. Shengelia doesn’t figure to be a critical piece for the Bulls, but he is a big body who can potentially provide frontcourt depth off the bench. Shams Charania of RealGM.com tweets the Bulls intend to give him a shot at some minutes. Bavcic was originally a second-round draft choice of the Raptors in 2006, but he’s never played in the NBA, so it appears he’s merely a throw-in.

Sending off Taylor will provide a bit of much-needed financial relief for Brooklyn, which is currently set to face about $80MM in luxury tax penalties in July. Shengelia and Taylor will both earn $788,872 this season, while Teague will make $1,074,720. The move will save the Nets from paying some extra tax dollars this season, but Teague’s contract runs through 2014/15, one year longer than the pacts Shengelia and Taylor are signed to.

Since the Pelicans had an open roster spot and Taylor is on a minimum-salary contract, they can absorb him without giving up a player. Brooklyn creates a vacancy on its roster with the moves, as the Nets had been carrying the maximum 15 players all season.

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports was the first to report the trades, which were agreed upon Saturday (Twitter links). Originally, it appeared the Pelicans would send the Nets a heavily protected second-rounder, but it looks like the teams agreed on including Bavcic in the deal instead.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Kris Humphries Wants To Stay With Celtics

January 21st, 2014 at 8:52am CST by Chuck Myron

Kris Humphries seemed open to a trade earlier this season, around the time a report indicated the Celtics would “love to move” the 10th-year big man. A few more months around the team appears to have changed Humphries’ attitude, and now he tells Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe that he’d like to stick around.

“I want to be a part of this whole, building this team and doing all that stuff with the new coach and all that, I want to be here,” he said. “You never know if they want you or they don’t want you or what their plans are, but I like Boston, my teammates. I’m just getting a chance to play with [Rajon] Rondo a little bit now.”

Humphries, a free agent at season’s end, has developed a friendship with Rondo, and teammates have grown to respect the willingness of Humphries to play hurt, Washburn writes. Increased minutes have no doubt played a role in the newfound contentment Humphries has found in Boston, as he’s seen his minutes gradually escalate over the course of the season. He’s spent most of the season as a bench player, but he’s started the team’s last seven games.

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