2014 February | Hoops Rumors

Atlantic Links: ‘Melo, Granger, Sixers

February 25th, 2014 at 10:44pm CST by Ryan Raroque

Last summer, Dwight Howard decided to leave $30MM in extra earnings on the table in order to find a situation that gave him the best chance to win – a situation that Carmelo Anthony faces in July if he decides to opt out of his contract. Based on the Rockets’ success this year, Sam Amick of USA Today says that there’s no better blueprint for Anthony to follow than Howard’s. Dwight, who says he spoken with Carmelo about that dynamic, offered some advice:

“I know he has just got to do what’s best for him…I’ve been through it. I’ve seen it. The same people that love you one day, if you don’t do what they want you to do, then they’re going to hate you. You’ve got to always remember that you’ve got to do what’s best for you at the end of the day. If people don’t like you, you can’t stop that.”

Here’s more of what we’ve gathered from the Atlantic Division tonight:

Following a recent loss to the Hawks, Anthony told reporters: “It’s definitely testing me…The frustration has definitely sunk in, just from the simple fact we’re losing games the same way over and over and we’re just not learning from that.” After last night’s crushing loss to the Mavs, he told Clifton Brown of the New York TImes, “You score 40, 44, 44, 44, all losses — you kind of ask yourself is it worth it.”
76ers head coach Brett Brown says he isn’t annoyed that Danny Granger would rather play for a contending team instead of Philadelphia, writes Tom Moore of the Bucks County Courier Times. Brown also discussed the team’s rebuilding situation: “This is a very different rebuild than the others…It is completely at the bare bones. It just puts a pretty definitive timeline and set of reality checks on all of us that we have a lot of work to do.”
Brown added that he has plenty of faith in the front office: “I trust Sam Hinkie’s judgment on the process that just happened and the process that’s coming up…I can’t wait to be a part of it, with all of our draft picks. Draft night is one of my favorite nights.”
Jimmer Fredette‘s family would be ecstatic if he could somehow find his way to the Knicks once he’s bought out by the Kings, writes Christian Red of the New York Daily News.

Kings Work Out Royce White

February 25th, 2014 at 8:31pm CST by Ryan Raroque

The Kings worked out forward Royce White and could sign him once Jimmer Fredette clears waivers, hears Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle (via Twitter). Although the expected signing of Orlando Johnson puts Sacramento at the 15-player roster limit, the team will have another spot open if they reach a buyout agreement with Fredette.

White, selected 16th overall in the 2012 NBA Draft, has yet to appear in a single regular season game. The 6’8 forward was traded to the 76ers last July but was eventually cut from the team shortly before the start of the 2013/14 season.

Knicks Interested In Shannon Brown

February 25th, 2014 at 8:28pm CST by Ryan Raroque

The Knicks are showing strong interest in free agent guard Shannon Brown, as per ESPN New York’s Ian Begley (Twitter link). Brown recently completed his second 10-day contract with the Spurs, and we noted on Saturday that New York – along with the Rockets, Heat, and Bulls – had expressed interest.

The 6’4 guard has played in 10 games this season, averaging 2.3 PPG in 10.3 MPG. Brown had been a steady rotation player in Phoenix last season, posting 10.5 PPG on 42% shooting in 59 contests.

Forsberg’s Latest: Fredette, Asik, Green

February 25th, 2014 at 8:23pm CST by Ryan Raroque

Some Celtics fans may have been upset with their team’s the lack of activity around the trade deadline, but Chris Forsberg of ESPN Boston opines that acquiring Jimmer Fredette (if he reaches a buyout agreement in Sacramento) would be the perfect mea culpa, especially with the city’s ‘love’ of reclamation projects. All in all, Forsberg suggests that Fredette would be better suited to join a contender at this point, where he’d have an opportunity to jump-start his career in an offense-focused role and the expectations would be minimal.

Here’s more out of his latest Celtics mailbag:

Forsberg wonders if the team would revisit efforts to acquire Omer Asik from the Rockets this summer, when they’ll have a $10.3MM trade exception as well as plenty of draft picks to offer.
As with many players on the roster, Jeff Green‘s future in Boston could be tied in part to the draft and whether the Celtics end up drafting a player at his position.
There’s always the chance that Kelly Olynyk becomes trade fodder, but Forsberg believes the more cap-effective route would be to nurture the young center and hope his game continues to evolve.
When asked who he thinks will definitely return next year, Forsberg says that with so much hinging on the Celtics’ draft position and who they add on draft night, it’s difficult to say with any certainty. The exceptions are head coach Brad Stevens and – unless they can find a taker by giving up some assets – Gerald Wallace.
Colton Iverson’s NBA future depends on how crowded Boston’s roster is and his development. The team currently owns his rights and has kept tabs on him overseas, and Forsberg notes that the 7’0 center can rejoin the team for summer league with a chance to compete for an official roster spot.
As for the lack of trades around the deadline, Forsberg says the team put a high price on their talent, and as evidenced with the lack of activity around the league, few teams were willing to give up draft picks to acquire players.

Odds & Ends: Shaw, Vesely, Singleton

February 25th, 2014 at 6:45pm CST by Ryan Raroque

Nuggets coach Brian Shaw refuted the idea that he hates his roster and vice-versa, writes Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post. Dempsey says that the potentially harmful narrative arose out of a few radio interviews that the rookie head coach had done earlier this week. Shaw addressed the topic earlier today:

“I can’t remember who it was that asked me yesterday; he said ‘Would you have taken this job with the roster, if it was just the guys who are healthy and playing right now would you have taken this job?’…I said ‘Yeah, I most likely would have taken it.’ But the expectation and everything else would have been different, knowing if there wasn’t going to be (Danilo Gallinari, JaVale McGee, and Nate Robinson) for half the season and the situation be what it is…I don’t hate the roster. What I hate is having to beg guys to play. That simple. That shouldn’t be a part of what coaching should be. And circumstances are what they are. None of us asked for it.”

Here are some more miscellaneous news and notes to pass along this evening:

Forward Jan Vesely intends to continue playing in the NBA rather than returning to Europe after his rookie scale contract runs out at season’s end, agent Alex Raskovic tweets.
Chris Singleton will hit unrestricted free agency after the Wizards declined his fourth-year option before the season, so he knows his next contract is at stake as he attempts to fill in for an injured Nene Hilario, as J. Michael of CSNWashington.com examines.
The Thunder were prepared to give up their own 2014 first-rounder in a deadline deal, but Zach Lowe of Grantland hasn’t heard any suggestion that they were ready to part with the first-rounder the Mavericks owe them. That Dallas pick will likely come higher in the draft order.
Cavaliers head coach Mike Brown was complimentary about Earl Clark, who is reportedly finalizing a contract to join the Knicks: “He’s a good player…He’s going to help (New York), especially in that system playing pick-and-roll and spreading the floor.”

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Atlantic Notes: Nets, Felton, 76ers

February 25th, 2014 at 5:46pm CST by Ryan Raroque

The Nets didn’t end up taking on Jordan Hill and the $17MM tax hit he would have cost them, but their expenditure in the deal to add Marcus Thornton prompted “a lot of angry eye-rolling” from other teams, writes Grantland’s Zach Lowe. Brooklyn’s lavish spending could push the league into another work stoppage in 2017 in an effort to cut off the Nets’ spending, Lowe adds.

Here’s what else we’ve gathered from around the Atlantic Division tonight.

Attorney Michael McCann, in a piece for SI.com, lays out the Knicks’ options amid legal trouble for Raymond Felton. The 29-year-old point guard – facing two counts of weapon possession – posted bail earlier this afternoon and will be due in court next on June 2nd, tweets ESPN New York’s Ian Begley. It’s also worth noting that according to the law under which he was charged, Felton could avoid jail time even if he’s convicted of his felonies, says Scott Cacciola of the New York Times (Twitter link).
A panel of ESPN experts weigh in on the future and current state of Knicks basketball – discussing Felton’s situation, what organizational changes need to be made, and if Carmelo Anthony should leave New York.
76ers head coach Brett Brown tells Tom Moore of the Bucks County Courier Times: “You’re going to see a lot of people come in here over the last 25 games” (Twitter link).
Brown also tells Moore (via Twitter) that 6’8″ forward Hollis Thompson is a “keeper.”

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Pelicans GM On Jackson, Deadline, Free Agency

February 25th, 2014 at 3:54pm CST by Chuck Myron

Pelicans GM Dell Demps says Pierre Jackson plans to play with the club during summer league, and that the team will continue to monitor the diminutive guard as he plays in Turkey on a deal that covers the rest of the season. New Orleans is in a tough position, sitting 10 and a half games out of the playoffs but four games up on the Lakers, the team with the fifth-worst record in the league. If the Pelicans don’t end up with a top-five pick this year, their first-rounder goes to the Sixers. Demps had more to say about Jackson and covered an array of other topics Monday with Pelicans broadcaster Sean Kelley, and Pelicans.com provides the transcript. We’ll hit the highlights here:

On the trade deadline:

“I think for us at this trade deadline we were only looking to add to our core. We weren’t really looking to make any adjustments. We were looking to add. We didn’t want to give up any more assets to acquire any more players at this point. We did that last summer. We gave up a draft pick in this upcoming draft to acquire Jrue Holiday. We feel like Jrue Holiday is going to be our point guard for the future. We have him under contract for four years and we hope that he grows old here and his kids graduate from high school in New Orleans. We didn’t feel comfortable giving up any more assets for players at this time.”

On the team’s midseason signings of Luke Babbitt and Alexis Ajinca:

“Well, a guy like Babbitt, he was playing great in Europe and I really believe if he would have become a free agent this summer, a number of teams would have tried to get him. The reason why he was available, I thought we were able to get him out of his contract early and he didn’t hit the free agency market. I think the same thing for Ajinca. Ajinca was actually leading the Euro league in scoring, which is considered the best league outside the NBA, considered a higher level than college basketball. I think if he goes through the free agent market this summer a number of teams would have tried to acquire him. We thought that we were able to get in early and get those two guys into the program and really get a good understanding of if they can help us or if they cannot help us ahead of the curve. Next year is going to be a big year for us and you don’t want to go into next year with guys on the roster that we are still wondering about.”

On the team’s core:

“I still want to see this group play together. I believe in this group and we still want to add more pieces to this group. I think we are a fun group to watch. We are explosive. We can score a lot of points and I think moving forward we want to add a couple more pieces on the perimeter and interior and improve our defense. I think we will be able to score with anyone in the league.”

On whether he’s high on this summer’s crop of free agents:

“Of course. We are not into max games so we are not going to be looking for players with contracts more $10MM, but we have a number of exceptions that we can use and we have a couple of ways we can get creative as well.”

On Pierre Jackson

“The kid had some bad luck to start with. When we acquired him, we were stacked at the point guard position. Before we drafted him, we had conversations with him asking, ‘If we did draft you, we don’t know where you would fit on this year’s roster. Would you want to go overseas?’ He said yes. When we drafted him, we asked him to play summer league, but because of the trade he wasn’t cleared to play summer league until the third game. He didn’t get to come to the practices. Some guys had practiced for four or five days and they had a couple of games. We kind of just threw him into the fire. Then he catches pink eye, so he misses the next two days recovering from that and he comes back for the last game. He didn’t get a good opportunity to show what he could do.”

Knicks Pursuing Earl Clark

February 25th, 2014 at 3:44pm CST by Chuck Myron

3:44pm: Knicks coach Mike Woodson and GM Steve Mills have spoken with Clark, sources tell Frank Isola of the New York Daily News, who says there’s a “strong possibility” that Clark signs with the team (Twitter link).

2:18pm: The Knicks are going after the recently waived Earl Clark, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. It’s the latest of a string of reports connecting the Knicks to free agents. The Knicks have considered signing Ike Diogu, have been monitoring Lester Hudson, and they’re interested in Tiny Gallon. Today they auditioned Dahntay Jones. The Knicks won’t rule out a pursuit of Jimmer Fredette, either, and while the team would like to add shooting, its primary focus appears to be strengthening its defense, which isn’t Fredette’s strong suit.

Clark became a free agent this weekend after the Sixers waived him Friday, less than 24 hours after acquiring him via trade from the Cavaliers. He averaged 5.2 points and 2.8 rebounds in 15.5 minutes per game this season in the first of a two-year, $8.5MM deal he signed with Cleveland this past summer. The Cavs are on the hook for only half of that money, since the second season was non-guaranteed. The former 14th overall pick had a strong midseason stretch for the Lakers last year, but he’s otherwise failed to live up to expectations.

The Knicks created two roster openings Monday when they waived Metta World Peace and Beno Udrih in buyout arrangements. They can offer only the minimum salary, and since they’re about $17MM into the tax, they’re set to pay $3.25 in tax for each dollar they spend on filling their two open spots.

Knicks Work Out Dahntay Jones

February 25th, 2014 at 3:05pm CST by Chuck Myron

3:05pm: Bartelstein says he’s been in contact with multiple teams about Jones, as Fred Kerber of the New York Post notes.

1:12pm: Ten-year NBA veteran Dahntay Jones is working out for the Knicks today, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The team is seeking a perimeter defender to fill one of its two open roster spots, according to Stein. The Knicks also reportedly have their eyes on Tiny Gallon, a power forward from the D-League.

Jones, 33, was in camp with the Bulls this fall, but there hasn’t been much NBA interest in him since. He split last season between the Mavs and Hawks, starting 19 games but averaging just 3.4 points in 13.0 minutes per contest. The former 20th overall pick’s most productive season was in 2009/10 with the Pacers, when he notched 10.2 PPG in 24.9 MPG.

That year was the first of a four-year, $10.6MM deal for the Mark Bartelstein client, who’s never gone a season without playing in the NBA since entering the league out of Duke in 2003. The Knicks have only the minimum salary to offer Jones or any other free agent.

Central Notes: Irving, Billups, Bucks

February 25th, 2014 at 1:45pm CST by Chuck Myron

Kyrie Irving denies that he wants out of Cleveland, but those close to him have long made it known that he’d like to play elsewhere, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com. Some members of the Cavs organization aren’t sure that he’s deserving of a maximum-salary contract, though it’s likely that Cleveland will seek to extend Irving this summer and make him its Designated Player, Windhorst writes. The starting salary in such a deal would have to be for the max. Irving may prefer to sign a shorter deal that gives him the ability to opt out and hit unrestricted free agency more quickly, as Windhorst examines in a piece that looks forward to what promises to be one of the offseason’s marquee story lines. Here’s more from the Central Division:

Chauncey Billups hopes to make it back from a torn left meniscus this season, but he acknowledges the injury may prompt him to retire, MLive’s David Mayo observes. The Pistons hold a team option worth $2.5MM for the final season of their contract with Billups next year.
Former Bucks swingman Junior Bridgeman is interested in buying a minority stake in the team, reports Don Walker of the Journal Sentinel, who adds that the Bucks are high on the idea, too. Owner Herb Kohl has been seeking investors willing to buy minority shares of the team. Bridgeman owns a share of the Kings that he would have to divest before buying into the Bucks.
Mike D’Antoni spoke to Pacers assistant coach Nate McMillan about a gig on the Lakers staff before he took his job with Indiana, as McMillan tells Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News.

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