2015 January | Hoops Rumors

Sixers Acquire Jared Cunningham

January 7th, 2015 at 6:58pm CST by Chuck Myron

6:58pm: The trade is official, the Clippers have announced. Los Angeles sent Cunningham, the draft rights to Akyol and cash considerations to the Sixers in exchange for the draft rights to Lishuk. The deal allows the Clippers to create a trade exception worth $915,243, the equivalent of Cunningham’s salary. Philadelphia has yet to make an announcement, and the Sixers couldn’t have traded for Cunningham without offloading someone, since they were carrying a 15-man roster, so it would seem there’s another part of the equation still to be revealed.

6:25pm: The Clippers will receive the rights to Serhiy Lishuk from the Sixers, and Philadelphia will acquire the rights to Cenk Akyol, Bolch reports (Twitter link). Akyol, 27, was selected in the second round of the 2005 NBA draft, and Lishuk, 32, was the No. 49 overall pick in the 2004 draft.

4:52pm: The Sixers and Clippers will also be swapping rights to draft picks as part of the deal, Ben Bolch of The Los Angeles Times tweets.

2:32pm: The Clippers have inquired about Wroten, but those are preliminary talks, according to John Gonzalez of CSNPhilly.com (Twitter link).

2:01pm: It’ll be cash going Philly’s way from the Clippers, and the Sixers will indeed waive Cunningham once they acquire him, Wojnarowski tweets.

1:59pm: The Clippers aren’t taking any players back in the deal, according to Wojnarowski (on Twitter). That means the Sixers would have to offload someone before the deal can become official.

1:56pm: Tony Wroten is the Clips’ target in the deal, according to Dan Woike of the Orange County Register (on Twitter). Wroten, who’s averaging 30.5 minutes per game for Philly, is on a guaranteed rookie-scale contract that would further tighten the squeeze under the team’s hard cap.

1:53pm: The Sixers are unlikely to keep Cunningham once they acquire him, according to Wojnarowski (Twitter link). Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times counters that the Clips are merely exploring a move that will affect whether or not they waive Cunningham (Twitter link).

1:38pm: The Clippers are trading Jared Cunningham to the Sixers, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Cunningham has a non-guaranteed deal and the Clippers were set to waive him in advance of today’s deadline to do so before his minimum salary would have become guaranteed for the balance of the season. Philadelphia has 15 players on its roster, so it’ll need to either send someone to L.A. or make a corresponding move. That’s true even if the Sixers don’t intend to keep Cunningham, as is often the case with the veterans the Sixers acquire via trade.

Trading Cunningham instead of releasing him would help the Clippers financially, since it would remove his entire salary from their books, notes Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). The Clippers would be stuck with the money they had already paid to Cunningham this year counting against their hard cap if they were to waive him. The team is less than $1MM shy of its hard cap, a collective bargaining agreement feature it triggered when it gave out the non-taxpayer’s mid-level exception to Spencer Hawes and the biannual exception to Jordan Farmar.

Cunningham, the 24th overall pick in the 2012 draft, has only played in 40 career NBA regular season games, 19 of which have come this season after he showed enough in the preseason to make the team out of training camp. Still, he’s averaged 1.8 points in just 4.7 minutes per game for the Clippers.

Cavs Acquire Timofey Mozgov

January 7th, 2015 at 6:42pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Nuggets have traded Timofey Mozgov to the Cavs, the teams officially announced. Mozgov heads to Cleveland in exchange for the Grizzlies’ 2015 first-round pick and the Thunder’s 2015 first-round pick, both of which carry protections. The Nuggets send Cleveland the less favorable of the Bulls’ 2015 second-round pick and the Blazers’ 2015 second-round pick. The Cavs are using the $5,285,816 Keith Bogans trade exception to absorb Mozgov’s $4.65MM salary. Cleveland had been carrying 14 players, so the Cavs won’t have to make a corresponding move.

Cleveland’s monthslong pursuit of the Nuggets center had lately progressed to “serious off-and-on” talks, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe wrote earlier this week. Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio heard recently that the Cavs were no longer receiving a “flat no” from Denver. Mozgov has a $4.95MM team option for next season, which gives whichever team holds his rights a degree of flexibility. The 28-year-old has started all 35 games for Denver this season, but the Nuggets had been drawing closer to the realization that they don’t have a true chance to make the playoffs this year, as Lowe also wrote this week.

The Cavs had also reportedly targeted Kosta Koufos, a backup center for the Grizzlies, but the need to acquire a starting-caliber pivot grew when Anderson Varejao was lost for the season with a torn Achilles tendon. Cleveland used the disabled player exception the league granted to compensate for that loss to accommodate Monday’s trade for J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert, leaving the Bogans trade exception available for the Cavs to nab Mozgov, as I explained. Cleveland also acquired the Thunder’s first-round pick in Monday’s trade and used it to strengthen the package for Mozgov, which was key in convincing Denver to make the move, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports writes. Denver can create a trade exception worth $4.65MM, the equivalent of Mozgov’s salary.

The Nuggets will get the Grizzlies’ first-rounder this year if it falls from pick No. 6 to pick No. 14. The same protection is in place for 2016, as Wojnarowski lays out in his story. The protection is only for the top five picks the following two years, and it’s unprotected for 2019, Wojnarowski adds. The Thunder’s pick is top-18 protected this year, top-15 protected in 2016 and 2017, and would become a pair of second-round selections if not conveyed by then, Wojnarowski notes.

Mozgov is in his first year as a full-time starter, averaging 8.5 points, a career-high 7.8 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks in 25.6 minutes per game. He’s not among the league leaders in any traditional category, including blocks per contest, but he gives the Cavs the serviceable rim-protector they’ve lacked since the start of the season. The Nuggets, who first acquired Mozgov in the 2011 Carmelo Anthony trade, receive two picks and the trade exception, assets the team can use to navigate the stacked Western Conference, where their 15-20 record has them in 11th place and five games out of a playoff spot. Teams have been reluctant to part with first-rounders, especially during the season, in recent years, so Nuggets GM Tim Connelly comes away with an unusual haul.

Wojnarowski reported in August that the Cavs and GM David Griffin had offered a first-round pick for the 7’1″ center, but the Nuggets resisted, seemingly hopeful that Mozgov would help them make a run to the postseason. The move clears space in Denver’s lineup for the team’s plentiful other big men, including this year’s first-round pick, Jusuf Nurkic, who’s seen only 13.4 MPG so far.

Photo courtesy USA Today Sports Images. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports first reported the teams had reached an agreement in principle, while Marc Stein and Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com reported earlier that the sides were in advanced discussions and on course to complete a deal today. Wojnarowski reported the Cavs would send out the Grizzlies’ 2015 first-rounder and the Thunder’s 2015 first-rounder (on Twitter), while Jason Lloyd of The Akron Beacon Journal reported that the Cavs would receive a second-round pick (Twitter link).

Eastern Notes: Sanders, Dawkins, Waiters

January 7th, 2015 at 6:30pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Larry Sanders wouldn’t delve into specifics about his absence, but he denied Tuesday that he’s thinking about retirement, as he told reporters, including Bradford Doolittle of ESPN.com. The Bucks center hasn’t played since December 23rd, but he sat on the bench with the team for Tuesday’s game, a first since he took his leave, and he said he’s ready to start working toward a return to the court. “I haven’t said anything like that,” Sanders said of the notion he would retire. “I figure with the absence, something was going to come out like that. It’s not true. What is true is I’m in the process of trying to do what’s best for my psyche and my physical health.”

Here’s more out of the East:

The Heat waived guard Andre Dawkins so that the team could retain some measure of roster flexibility heading forward, Surya Fernandez of FOX Sports Florida writes. “We liked ‘Doc’ and the development he was making,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “Right now it makes more sense for us to have some flexibility.” When asked if any players were being looked at to fill Dawkins’ roster spot on a 10-day contract, Spoelstra said, “It could be filled at any time, that’s the whole point, but nothing is imminent.”
In the moments after he was informed that he had been dealt to the Thunder, Dion Waiters said he felt “bitter” toward the Cavs, Anthony Slater of The Oklahoman writes. But once he settled down and thought about his destination he felt much better about his situation, Slater adds. “I’m just happy they sent me here to another great organization where I get the chance to play with another great player,” Waiters said. “I feel I’m in a win-win situation. So I take it as a positive thing. I get a chance to grow and learn from these guys.”
Waiters was also asked about the Cavs‘ disappointing start to the season, Slater notes. Waiters responded by saying, “Uhh, we never really played together. Of course I’d played with Kyrie [Irving], but I’d never played with Kevin [Love] or LeBron [James] or those type of guys who dominated on their opposing teams. So for them to come to Cleveland, we all had to change our game for the better of the team. Like, for instance, my scoring went down. Ky, he’s used to having the ball, but with LeBron, he’s a guy that needs the ball to facilitate and make plays. It was a chemistry thing that we was still building. Like they said, Rome wasn’t built in one day. We had to continue to figure it out day by day.“

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Southeast Notes: Hawks, Dawkins, Rice, Silas

January 7th, 2015 at 5:15pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Hawks are the only Eastern Conference team with fewer than 10 losses, and tonight they’ll host the Grizzlies, one of three Western Conference clubs with that distinction. Atlanta’s unexpected surge to the top of the East comes against the backdrop of the sale of the team, and with several new would-be owners surfacing, there’s yet more news on the state of the franchise amid the latest from around the Southeast Division:

NBA spokesman Mike Bass made it clear today that the Hawks will stay put even as the club is up for sale, as Bass told Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Twitter link). “The Atlanta Hawks are not moving to another market,” Bass said. A pair of investors reportedly want to buy the team and move it to Seattle.
The Heat have expressed interest in re-signing Andre Dawkins to a 10-day contract “down the road,” agent John Spencer told Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, who writes in his daily notes column. The Heat waived Dawkins on Tuesday.
Glen Rice Jr. had trouble accepting criticism from coaches, but other Wizards players didn’t think he was a poor teammate, according to J. Michael of CSNWashington.com. Michael wrote this past weekend that Rice’s attitude was an issue that contributed to the team’s decision to cut ties.
Wizards camp invitee Xavier Silas has signed with Greece’s Nea Kifisia, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). Silas averaged 10.3 points in 19.3 minutes per game for Washington during the preseason before the team waived him prior to opening night.

Cavs Waive A.J. Price

January 7th, 2015 at 4:40pm CST by Eddie Scarito

4:40pm: Price has officially been released, the Cavs have announced.

4:14pm: The Cavaliers have waived guard A.J. Price, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link). Price’s contract was non-guaranteed, but if he wasn’t released by today’s deadline then Cleveland would have been on the hook for the remainder of his $866,789 salary. The Cavs had 15 players on their roster after the deal to acquire Timofey Mozgov, but this move will leave them with one open spot. The Cavs could conceivably bring Price back on a 10-day contract, though that is merely my speculation.

Price was signed by the Cavs prior to training camp, but was waived so that Cleveland could ink Will Cherry to a contract. The 28-year-old guard then was signed by the Pacers and appeared in 10 contests before being released when Indiana’s hardship provision they used to ink him had expired. The Cavs then brought Price full-circle when they claimed him off of waivers and waived Cherry, in order to bring Price back to Cleveland.

In 256 career games, Price has averaged 5.9 points, 1.5 rebounds, and 2.2 assists. His career slash line is .382/.319/.742.

Wolves Waive Jeff Adrien

January 7th, 2015 at 4:05pm CST by Chuck Myron

4:05pm: Adrien has officially been waived, the team announced via Twitter.

2:04pm: The Timberwolves are set to release Jeff Adrien, reports Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link). Adrien is on a non-guaranteed contract, but if Minnesota fails to waive him by 4:00pm Central today, that minimum-salary deal becomes guaranteed for the balance of the season. He’s the only member of the Timberwolves without at least a partial guarantee, and the team has been carrying 15 players, as our roster counts show.

This move would free up a roster spot for Miroslav Raduljica, whom some reports say has a deal with Minnesota, and Wolfson suggests the team has Raduljica in mind as it prepares to cut ties with Adrien (Twitter link).

In 17 games with the Wolves this season, Adrien has averaged 3.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 0.9 assists while logging 12.6 minutes per contest. His career averages are 4.6 PPG, 4.3 RPG, and 0.7 APG. His career slash line is .474/.000/.628.

Wizards Waive Glen Rice Jr.

January 7th, 2015 at 3:10pm CST by Arthur Hill

WEDNESDAY, 3:10pm: Rice has officially been waived, the team has announced.

MONDAY, 12:27pm: The team has released Rice, according to Michael (Twitter link). There’s been no formal announcement from the Wizards, but they’re set to make one shortly, Michael adds.

SUNDAY, 11:01am: The Wizards are likely to cut second-year guard Glen Rice Jr. before Wednesday’s deadline to waive players with non-guaranteed salary, lest that salary become guaranteed for the season, reports J. Michael of CSNWashington.com. The team had been trying to find a trading partner, but a 48-hour window in which a deal might have been reached has passed, according to Michael.

Rice has been stuck in the D-League since November 20th, partly because of the play of 35-year-old veteran Rasual Butler, who was the last player to make the Wizards’ roster out of training camp. Butler will be retained by the team, Michael reports, and his minimum-salary contract, which was initially non-guaranteed, will be made fully guaranteed. Rice’s minimum-salary deal is only partially guaranteed for $400K this season.

Rice was a second round pick by the Sixers in 2013 and was shipped to Washington in a draft night trade. He appeared in just five games with the Wizards this season, averaging just 2.2 points in 8.5 minutes of play. He was named MVP of the Las Vegas Summer League in 2014 and put up huge numbers in the D-League, but inconsistent shooting at the NBA level combined with a poor attitude to doom his stay in Washington, Michael reports.

Knicks Sign Langston Galloway To 10-Day Deal

January 7th, 2015 at 1:43pm CST by Eddie Scarito

WEDNESDAY, 1:43pm: The signing is official, the Knicks announced (on Twitter).

TUESDAY, 4:43pm: The Knicks are set to sign Langston Galloway to a 10-day contract, Shams Charania of RealGM reports. Galloway was playing for the Westchester Knicks, New York’s D-League affiliate. The Knicks currently have 15 players on their roster, so a corresponding move will need to be made. It was reported that New York was likely to release at least two of the three players they acquired in the three-way trade with the Thunder and the Cavs Monday night.

New York had acquired Lance Thomas, Louis Amundson, and Alex Kirk in the deal that sent Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith to Cleveland, and the speculation was that Thomas would be the only one of the three to be retained. The Knicks have until 4pm central time on Wednesday to decide who they will keep, or else they will be on the hook for the remainder of the players’ salaries for the season.

Galloway has appeared in 19 games for Westchester this season, averaging 16.5 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 2.4 assists while logging 36.8 minutes per contest. His slash line in the D-League this season was .447/.358/.830. The 6’2″ guard was with the Knicks during the preseason after going undrafted out of St. Joseph’s.

Knicks Waive Thomas, Kirk, Amundson

January 7th, 2015 at 1:22pm CST by Chuck Myron

1:22pm: The moves are official, the team announced (on Twitter).

8:59am: The Knicks plan to waive Lance Thomas, Alex Kirk and Lou Amundson, according to Peter Botte of the New York Daily News and Newsday’s Barbara Barker (Twitter links). Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck reported late Monday that the team would waive Kirk and Amundson and keep Thomas. Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com said shortly thereafter that the Knicks would choose two of the three to let go and that Thomas was merely the most likely to be retained, but now it appears New York will release all three of the players it acquired in Monday’s trade. None of the three has any guaranteed salary, save for Kirk, who has a $65K partial guarantee but has already earned more than that amount, putting him on a de facto non-guaranteed contract. The team must waive them no later than 4:00pm Central today to avoid guaranteeing their minimum-salary deals for the rest of the season.

Thomas is the only one of the trio to have seen significant action this season. He started 13 games for the banged-up Thunder earlier this season, and in 22 appearances overall, he’s averaging 5.1 points and 3.4 rebounds in 20.5 minutes per game. Still, Oklahoma City saw him as expendable now that most of its injured players, including Kevin Durant, are back in the lineup. The 26-year-old forward was supposed to have served a less prominent role like the ones Kirk and Amundson played in Cleveland. Kirk, an undrafted rookie center out of New Mexico, has hit the floor for just 14 minutes total in five games during the regular season. The ninth-year veteran Amundson saw 6.6 MPG in 12 appearances for the Cavs, but Cleveland shipped him out along with Kirk even though the team is starved for capable big men.

The Knicks, who have been carrying a full 15-man roster, are set to sign Langston Galloway to a 10-day contract, though that move couldn’t take place until the team makes its cuts. The subtraction of Thomas, Kirk and Amundson plus the signing of Galloway would put the Knicks at the 13-man roster minimum, with plenty of flexibility.

Knicks Rumors: ‘Melo, Shumpert, Smith

January 7th, 2015 at 12:02pm CST by Chuck Myron

It’s likely that the Knicks will eventually decide to shut down Carmelo Anthony for the rest of the season so he can rest his sore left knee, a source tells Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck. ‘Melo plans to return January 15th for New York’s game against the Bucks, but he acknowledged that if he’s still feeling pain once he starts playing again, he might undergo surgery, as Marc Berman of the New York Post writes. A long season is just getting longer for the 5-32 Knicks, who top our Reverse Standings with the league’s worst record. Here’s more from New York:

Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith, traded Monday to the Cavs, were probably ‘Melo’s closest friends on the Knicks, Berman writes in the same piece. “When I first committed back to New York, it’s something I always said I have to trust they know what they’re doing,” Anthony said today. “That was one of the reasons I wanted to come back. So here’s an opportunity with the trust. Everything starts now.‘’
The Knicks worried that Smith’s poor work ethic and Samuel Dalembert‘s frequent tardiness to practices would be negative influences on the team’s younger players, sources tell Beck for the above-linked piece.
Team president Phil Jackson asked Knicks players at the end of last season to identify a reliable second-best player on the team after ‘Melo, and no consensus emerged, Beck also writes.
There’s a “slight chance” the Knicks will re-sign Lance Thomas to a 10-day contract should he clear waivers, Berman tweets. New York is set to waive Thomas, as well as Alex Kirk and Lou Amundson.
The D-League affiliate of the Knicks is unlikely to trade for the rights to Toure’ Murry, which belong to Houston’s D-League affiliate, a source tells Gino Pilato of D-League Digest (Twitter link). Murry is reportedly joining the D-League after having been waived by the Jazz this past weekend.

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