2014 June | Hoops Rumors

Pacific Rumors: Suns, Love, MCW, Henry

June 21st, 2014 at 2:07pm CST by Charlie Adams

The Suns have brought in a multitude of point guards to their pre-draft workouts, and Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press suggests (on Twitter) that such a strategy might be indicative of the team’s willingness to ship off Eric Bledsoe or Goran Dragic in a trade for Kevin Love. Phoenix has been identified as a potential suitor for Love, but the club hasn’t been labeled as serious candidate to land the big man. Here’s more from out west:

The Warriors have been attempting to find a third team to include in a potential deal for Love, but a source close to the situation said it’s been “difficult,” passes along Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (via Twitter).
Meanwhile, Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune notes (on Twitter) that the Warriors could land Love without involving a third team if they included both Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes in an offer.
Michael Carter-Williams has not been included in any of the rumored trade discussions between the Lakers and the Sixers, tweets Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times.
There’s mutual interest in a reunion between Xavier Henry and the Lakers, writes Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News, who adds that LA hopes to hang on to all of their role players with one-year, minimum salary deals.
Alvin Gentry‘s departure to Golden State opens up the Clippers’ top assistant spot to Tyronn Lue, and LA’s fondness for Lue is a major reason the team was open to letting Gentry walk, tweets Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News.

Draft Notes: Embiid, Celtics, Trades

June 21st, 2014 at 12:55pm CST by Cray Allred

Joel Embiid‘s foot injury has shaken up the draft, with split opinions around the league regarding the seven-footer’s prospects for the draft and beyond. One league source tells Baxter Holmes of The Boston Globe that Embiid’s health concerns place him in legitimate danger of plummeting out of the lottery, while others are confident he will still be selected in the top 10. More draft rumblings:

Tyler Ennis will have his second audition for the Magic on Monday, tweets Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel (H/T Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic).
The international teams for Jusuf Nurkic, Nikola Jokic, Nemanja Dangubic, and Vasilije Micic will not put any barriers in place to keep the players from joining the NBA if drafted, per tweets from Yugobasket and Misko Raznatovic (H/T Emiliano Carchia of Sportando).
Marcus Smart, Noah Vonleh, and Aaron Gordon are the Celtics preferred group of draftees at No. 6, tweets Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe.
Boston’s “most likely” scenario for the draft is to keep both of their picks, GM Danny Ainge tells Washburn (Twitter link).

Earlier updates:

The Cavs are making efforts to trade down from the top spot to the No. 3-5 range in the draft, where they think Embiid would still be available, tweets Brett Poirier of Sheridan Hoops. The Magic, sitting at No. 4, have not been contacted by Cleveland, a source tells Poirier (Twitter link). The Sixers and Jazz own the third and fifth pick, respectively.
The Lakers would consider taking Embiid at No. 7 if he fell that far, a source familiar with their thinking tells Mark Medina of Los Angeles Daily News. Unsurprisingly, LA’s choice would hinge on their confidence in the big man’s recovery.
The Lakers are more likely to hang on to that seventh pick than deal it, despite their ongoing efforts to explore what they could net for it, writes Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com. The pick was linked to Klay Thompson as part of the Kevin Love discussions earlier today.
The Suns are willing to trade away the 27th pick for a future first-rounder, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link).
Jakarr Sampson, Niels Giffey, Glenn Robinson III, and Chane Behanan will work out for the Celtics today, tweets Holmes.
As previously reported, the Warriors, Blazers, Pelicans, and Knicks are all looking to acquire first round draft picks, but the price tag is extremely high due to the deep draft pool, reports Alex Kennedy (via Twitter). Kennedy says that teams are asking for future picks that are unprotected or barely protected in return for first-rounders this year.
The NBA has invited 21 prospects to the green room for the draft broadcast, Chad Ford of ESPN.com reveals in two tweets. The invite is a sign of consensus around these players as first round selections. The players invited were Andrew Wiggins Jabari Parker, Joel Embiid, Dante Exum, Noah Vonleh, Aaron Gordon, Marcus Smart, Julius Randle, Doug McDermott, Dario Saric, Gary Harris, Elfrid Payton, Nik Stauskas, James Young, Zach LaVine, Jusuf Nurkic, Adreian Payne, T.J. Warren, Tyler Ennis, Rodney Hood, and Shabazz Napier.

Bulls Pursuing Trade For Arron Afflalo

June 21st, 2014 at 12:19pm CST by Cray Allred

12:19pm: The Magic are asking for “a bundle” in return for the shooting guard, tweets Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer. The Hornets remain interested in acquiring Afflalo, a reality that Bonnell notes has been “no secret” for months.

9:39am: The Bulls are pursuing a trade with the Magic to acquire shooting guard Arron Afflalo, league sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. League executives believe Orlando is prioritizing a trade of Afflalo over reaching an agreement on an extension with the shooting guard. Afflalo has two years and $15MM total left on his contract, but owns an early termination option for the 2015/16 season.

The Bulls are considered a front-runner for landing Carmelo Anthony this offseason, and a trade for Afflalo could complicate that pursuit. Wojnarowski writes that it is unclear how the Afflalo movement in Chicago is affecting their thinking about Anthony. A league source told Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv that the Bulls are the most likely destination for Anthony, but Chicago would need to shed major salary to acquire Anthony as is, let alone if Afflalo was another permanent piece on the books.

At 29, Afflalo is one of the oldest players on a Magic roster loaded with youth. The Magic are still in the process of a rebuild that started when Dwight Howard departed, and aren’t expected to contend at least for another year. That combination led to Afflalo’s reported openness to being traded to a contender.

Rockets Set To Trade Lin, Asik

June 21st, 2014 at 12:11pm CST by Cray Allred

The Rockets have deals in place to move the contracts of both Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik, tweets Sam Amick of USA Today. Houston would need to move both deals to make room for either Carmelo Anthony or LeBron James, but they are waiting to part with Lin and Asik until they are sure they could land either superstar this summer. Presumably, a deal for either would bring back limited returns thanks to the bloated payout due each player for the 2014/15 season. If Houston were to part with the burdensome, but productive players only to strike out in free agency, it would weaken their team heading into next season.

‘Melo is increasingly expected to opt out and change teams, but his decision to leave the Knicks is still weighing on him, writes Chris Herring of The Wall Street Journal. The Rockets are considered a front-runner to land ‘Melo if he opts out as expected, and the Bulls are their steepest competition. Chicago has been zeroing in on the All-Star since February, making a host of moves to clear the necessary cap space to sign him, per Herring. James appears more likely to remain with his home team in Miami, but should he leave the Heat, both the Bulls and Rockets are preparing to pursue him as well.

The Rockets snagged Lin and Asik away from Chicago and New York before the 2012/13 season with identical contracts that include a balloon payment exceeding the cap hit in the final year, which is the approaching 2014/15 season. Ironically, the deals that pried the pair away from their respective teams in 2012 are now putting Houston at a disadvantage against the same teams in acquiring Anthony.

Wolves Unlikely To Move Love Before Season?

June 21st, 2014 at 11:39am CST by Cray Allred

11:39am: The Warriors want to to structure a smaller deal around Barnes and Lee for Love, which is substantially different from Minnesota’s wishes to build a deal around Thompson, Lee, and more pieces for both Love and Martin, writes Kawakami. The inclusion of Lee is understood as a necessity for any deal for both teams, per Kawakami.

11:14am: Wolfson hears that the rumored three-team deal involving Thompson and the Lakers No. 7 pick will not happen (Twitter link). Shelburne tweets that the Warriors have rebuffed calls from LA regarding such a trade.

10:57am: The talks between Minnesota and Golden State deal are indeed at an impasse, write Ramona Shelburne and Marc Stein of ESPN.com. While the Wolves organization is reportedly torn on whether to retain Thompson in a Love deal, Shelburne says there is an “organizational split” in Golden State on whether to give up the shooting guard in a package for Love. Jerry West and Steve Kerr are in opposition to giving up both Thompson and a future first round pick, while others in the organization were prepared to complete a deal that would have sent Thompson, David Lee, and a pick to Minnesota in exchange Love and Martin.

10:40am: The Nuggets offer is likely off the table, now that Denver is “100% certain” that Love would not re-sign with them beyond this season, reports Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (via Twitter). Denver made the offer before knowing Love’s likelihood of re-signing in Denver, per Wolfson. Wolfson tells Hoops Rumors that he doubts the talks between Denver and Minnesota will be completely shut down, however, considering the history between Saunders and Nuggets GM Tim Connelly, who worked together with the Wizards.

9:17am: The Wolves are hesitant to acquire Thompson since he would soon be looking for a big contract, tweets Eric Pincus of The Los Angeles Times. Pincus says that the No. 7 pick wouldn’t be enough for Minnesota, so the Warriors would leverage that pick with their other assets in the three-team scenario. The LA Times scribe says that a deal involving the Lakers is not imminent since the Lakers wouldn’t be able to trade their pick until after the draft (Twitter links).

9:00am: Discussions for a three-team deal that would send Thompson to the Lakers, the seventh pick to the Wolves, and Love to the Warriors were recently put on hold, reports Mike Bresnahan of The Los Angeles Times. The snag was due to disagreement within the Minnesota front office on whether to it would be prudent to retain Thompson as part of a Love trade.

8:40am: The nature of the Wolves trade discussions is making it increasingly unlikely that they strike a deal for Kevin Love before the season begins, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports said on an interview with 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Felger & Mazz radio show. Since the Wolves aren’t in discussions with any teams at the very top of the draft, Wojnarowski said the pressure is off for Minnesota coach and president of basketball ops Flip Saunders to complete a trade prior to the draft, and his potential trading partners are also open to revisiting discussions once the season begins.

Wojnarowski doesn’t think the Celtics have an offer that the Wolves will bite at, and he thinks that Saunders is playing coy with one-sided offers to the Warriors. “Saunders is going around discussing deals that won’t happen, so he can go back to Love and his agent and say, ‘We tried, see you in training camp,’” the Yahoo! scribe said. His sources in Golden State tell him that the Warriors are not “desperate” to acquire Love and will not include both Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes in a package for the All-Star forward, which is the package Wojnarowski says Minnesota wants. A league source confirmed to Tim Kawakami of Bay Area News Group that the Warriors will “flat out” not agree to the latest offers from Minnesota, and that Golden State is uninterested in taking back Kevin Martin in a deal as the Wolves are insisting (Twitter links).

The Nuggets were left out by Wojnarowski in the discussion of front-runners for Love. Presuming they are still involved in talks for Love, Denver would still fit the profile of the no-rush trade scenario for Minnesota, since they only own the No. 11 pick and are building their offer primarily around developed players.

Andray Blatche Opts Out

June 21st, 2014 at 11:25am CST by Chuck Myron

SATURDAY, JUNE 21ST, 11:25am: Blatche has officially opted out, his agency ASM Sports announced via Twitter (H/T Tim Bontemps of The New York Post).

THURSDAY, MAY 15TH, 12:58pm: Andray Blatche says he’ll turn down his player option for next season but adds that he’d nonetheless like to re-sign with the Nets, tweets Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. Blatche’s option is worth slightly less than $1.438MM, but much like last summer, the Andy Miller client can probably fetch more on the market.

Blatche originally signed a one-year, minimum-salary deal with the Nets in 2012 when his stock had cratered following Washington’s decision to amnesty him that summer. He re-signed with Brooklyn last year to a deal at the full value of the Non-Bird exception, but this year, Brooklyn can give him much more via Early Bird rights. That will allow the Nets to give him a four-year deal with a starting salary of up to 104.5% of the estimated $5.565MM league average salary for 2013/14. I’m not sure he’d command quite so much, but Brooklyn won’t be nearly as limited with Blatche as it was last year.

The 27-year-old averaged 11.2 points and 5.3 rebounds in 22.2 minutes per game this season as a backup big man for the Nets, compiling an 18.8 PER that’s quite high for a non-starter. There’s a decent chance a rival suitor will lob an inflated offer and the promise of more playing time his way, but the Nets have shown no fear of getting involved in a bidding war, in spite of this season’s massive tax bill. Blatche’s decision to opt out doesn’t give Brooklyn any cap room or significantly alter the team’s chances of dropping out of the tax. So, Nets GM Billy King will probably do what he can to bring him back, though that’s just my speculation.

Cavs Hire David Blatt As Coach

June 21st, 2014 at 9:48am CST by Chuck Myron

The Cavs have named David Blatt head coach, the team announced. The 55-year-old Massachusetts native makes an unprecented jump from Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv straight into an NBA head coaching position despite a lack of NBA experience as a player, coach or executive.

Cleveland and the Mike Tannenbaum client were deep into discussions on a deal Thursday night and had resumed talks Friday morning following reports that the Cavs had offered him the job. It’s a four-year contract worth $3.33MM in base salary each season, with incentive clauses that would bump the annual salaries as high as $5MM. The fourth year is a team option.

Blatt beats out Clippers assistant Tyronn Lue, who briefly was the lone competition in a two-man race Thursday. Fellow Clippers assistant Alvin Gentry, whom like Lue received a second interview with the team, instead accepted a position Thursday night as an assistant for the Warriors. Blatt was on Cleveland’s radar from the start of its search, but he emerged as a strong candidate late in the process, and his announcement last week that he was leaving Maccabi Tel Aviv to pursue an NBA job appeared to accelerate the process. He said at that time that he’d spoken with GM David Griffin by phone, and this week he had a formal interview with the club.

Blatt has drawn raves for his work overseas, and as the head man for the Russian national team, he worked with Sergey Karasev, whom the Cavs picked 19th in last year’s draft. Still, multiple reports indicate that the hiring all but removes Cleveland from the race to land LeBron James this summer. Still, the Cavs aren’t concerned with adding either a coach or players to bend to the four-time MVP’s wishes, tweets Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio.

The Warriors were pushing Blatt to become an assistant coach for them, and people close to him were apparently advising him to pursue the Golden State job rather than become the first European coach to take an NBA head coaching position. The Timberwolves and Hawks were also reportedly eyeing him for assistant coaching positions, and in Minnesota’s case, he appeared to be Flip Saunders‘ top choice to become a coach-in-waiting of sorts who’d eventually take over as head coach for Saunders.

The Cavs reportedly also interviewed Mark Price, Alvin Gentry, Adrian Griffin, Tyronn Lue, Vinny Del Negro and Lionel Hollins for their head coaching job. Nate McMillan and Mark Jackson also drew mention as candidates. The Cavs also appeared to make a strong run at hiring marquee college coaches John Calipari, Kevin Ollie, Billy Donovan and Tom Izzo.

Photo courtesy USA Today Sports Images. Mary Schmitt Boyer of the Plain Dealer first reported that the sides had reached an agreement, along with additional detail. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported that it was a four year deal, later following with the annual numbers (Twitter links). Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com noted that the final year is a team option (on Twitter) and Sam Amick of USA Today confirmed the full value of the contract, including incentives (Twitter link). Sam Amico noted that the Cavs aren’t trying to impress LeBron James with the hiring or with the addition of any certain players this summer.

Western Notes: LeBron, Gentry, Honeycutt

June 20th, 2014 at 10:28pm CST by Eddie Scarito

If LeBron James opts out of his contract with the Heat, the Rockets will have as an enticing a situation to offer him as any team in the league, writes Howard Beck of Bleacher Report. Beck lays out what options Houston has to fit James’ salary in, plus notes the team views Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh as secondary options if they fail to land James, provided Bosh and Anthony also exercise their ETO’s.

Draft Notes: Tavares, Kings, Embiid

June 20th, 2014 at 9:13pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Be sure and spend Thursday night’s NBA Draft with us here at Hoops Rumors. Beginning at 6pm CDT, I will be hosting a live chat where I answer your questions, provide up-to-the-minute updates on all the picks, as well as weigh in with my thoughts and opinions on all the moves and selections. So save the date and join us for what is shaping up to be an exciting night.

Here’s the latest draft news and notes:

The extension that first-round draft prospect Walter Tavares signed with his team in Spain gives him greater flexibility to join the NBA this year, agent Andy Miller tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). That suggests that the club lowered the amount of his buyout clauses in exchange for securing him for more years should he remain overseas, though that’s just my speculation.
One of the biggest questions heading into draft night is where will Joel Embiid end up. Once a top-three lock, the news of him needing foot surgery has forced many a mock draft maker to revise their projections. One NBA GM who is picking in Top-10 said of Embiid: “My medical people told me flat-out not to take him,” reports Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
LaQuinton Ross, C.J. Fair, DeAndre Daniels, and JaKarr Sampson worked out for the Mavericks today, tweets Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv.
Kings Assistant GM Mike Bratz called Nik Stauskas and Doug McDermott the best two shooters in the draft, reports Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee (Twitter link). Sacramento currently holds the eighth pick in the draft, one slot ahead of the Hornets, who have been linked to McDermott in numerous mock drafts.
The Kings have workouts scheduled this Monday with Keith Appling, Deonte Burton, Mike Dixon Jr., DeAndre Kane, Jarred Shaw, and Aaric Murray, the team announced.
Brian Schmitz of The Orlando Sentinel lays out the case for why the Magic should avoid selecting Embiid in Thursday’s NBA Draft.
Markel Brown will work out for the Spurs on Saturday, tweets Michael Scotto of Sheridan Hoops.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Eastern Notes: Sixers, Draft, Heat, Hairston

June 20th, 2014 at 8:12pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter link) that the Lakers and the Sixers are discussing a deal that would send the seventh-overall pick to Philly, but it wasn’t known what the Lakers would receive in return. The Sixers most desirable player assets are Thaddeus Young and Michael Carter-Williams. Trading Carter-Williams would open the door for Philadelphia to grab Dante Exum with the third pick, but that’s pure speculation on my part.

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