2016 February | Hoops Rumors

Sixers Notes: Colangelo, Saric, Noel, Smith

February 2nd, 2016 at 7:31pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Sixers don’t expect to be active at this season’s trade deadline, but team executive Jerry Colangelo wouldn’t rule out making a move if the right opportunity came along, Brian Seltzer of NBA.com relays. “In terms of trade, we’re not actively out there looking to make a trade,” said Colangelo. “But, you always have to be open. Things happen usually right around All-Star break. There’s a week or 10 days when there’s a lot of discussion. It may lead to nothing, and I think right now we’re kind of content to say there are too many question marks about certain players, health, and so forth that you have to be very careful. You have to be very selective. Timing’s everything.”

“We had a meeting [Tuesday] morning about the next five years of trade targets, and the next five years of free agency, and what that looks like, and how to put the pieces in place that can give you a chance to make, not just a first move on the chessboard, but the last move,” GM Sam Hinkie added. That’s really critical. I know that sounds sort of far off. Someone like me has to be willing to look around the bend at how we can actually get to where we’re trying to go.”

Here’s more from Philly:

The addition of point guard Ish Smith has improved the play of the team’s outside shooters, a development directly related to Smith’s attacking style of play, Jessica Camerato of CSNPhilly.com writes. “It gives us the opportunity to knock down shots,” Isaiah Canaan said. “With [Smith’s] speed, the defense has to take away his layups or the lob to Nerlens [Noel]. So with everybody running into the paint to lock in on him, it frees us up on our side to knock down shots. We tell him just find us and we’ll make them.“
The team has maintained constant communication with draft-and-stash prospect Dario Saric, who has stated that he intends to join the Sixers next season, tweets Camerato.
Philadelphia is still attempting to successfully blend the talents of big men Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor, a process that would be easier if Noel could play power forward more effectively, according to Colangelo, notes Tom Moore of Calkins Media (Twitter links). The executive admitted that the franchise would need to make a decision regarding its big men for the future, Moore relays.

Clippers Sign Jeff Ayres To Second 10-Day Deal

February 2nd, 2016 at 5:18pm CST by ChrisCrouse

TUESDAY, 5:18pm: The signing is official, the team announced.

SUNDAY, 12:52pm: The Clippers will sign Jeff Ayres to a second 10-day deal, Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times reports (Twitter link). The Arizona State product will cost the Clippers $55,722 in payroll over the length of this deal. The 28-year-old played in two games for Los Angeles during his first 10-day stint with the team, tallying just seven minutes of action.

Ayres filled the roster spot left vacant by Josh Smith after Smith was dealt to the Rockets and with the latest report on Blake Griffin‘s hand sounding pessimistic, Los Angeles has a need for an additional big man. Coach/executive Doc Rivers told reporters last week that Griffin’s timetable of returning in four to six weeks was unrealistic.

Ayres was having an excellent season with the Idaho Stampede before signing with the Clippers, notching a D-League All-Star selection in the process. However, he won’t be eligible to participate in the festivities unless he’s in the D-League at the time of the February 13th game.

Western Notes: Garnett, Gay, Kilpatrick

February 2nd, 2016 at 5:04pm CST by Chuck Myron

Kevin Garnett gave reporters a pointed endorsement of interim coach Sam Mitchell, as well expressed his approval of the direction that the Timberwolves are headed as a franchise, Jerry Zgoda of The Star Tribune relays. “I feel real good about the progression of this team since Day 1 and I think it needs to be said and needs to be understood that I’m endorsing Sam Mitchell and our coaching staff and this organization,” Garnett said. “More importantly, I’m excited about our future. I’m excited about our young players. I feel like we’re getting better. These last 10, 15 games, we’ve gotten better. You see it and I think that needs to be said. I think you all need to understand we’re supportive around here.”

The veteran had raised some eyebrows with his previous silence regarding Mitchell, Zgoda notes. “Just because I haven’t done a lot of interviews and voiced my opinion on a lot of things,” Garnett continued, “I want you guys to understand that not only do I endorse Sam Mitchell, but the other players do, too. We believe not only in him, but the system and what we’re trying to do here. I think everybody needs to understand that. The transformation and what we’re trying to do here is build something for the future and these are the first steps of that. I don’t really come to you guys a lot and say two weeks, but I just want you guys to know that needs to be heard and said.”

Here’s the latest from out West:

The Clippers are looking for a small forward and have interest in Rudy Gay, but their interest isn’t strong enough to obtain him, ESPN’s Chris Broussard says in a video report. Gay has been linked to the Clippers previously, as Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee wrote in January, but it wasn’t clear just how they viewed him. Dana Gauruder of Hoops Rumors profiled the trade candidacy of the Kings combo forward Monday.
Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook don’t have any trouble seeing eye-to-eye, sources tell Zach Lowe of ESPN.com as part of a larger piece on the Thunder. The team has been scanning the market for wing players but hasn’t made any serious pursuits, several league sources said to Lowe, who also hears that new coach Billy Donovan has been better at holding the team’s stars accountable during film sessions than predecessor Scott Brooks was.
The Nuggets don’t intend to sign Sean Kilpatrick for the remainder of the season, Nate Timmons of BSNDenver.com tweets. Kilpatrick’s second 10-day pact expired on Monday.

Central Notes: Meeks, Love, Christmas

February 2nd, 2016 at 3:09pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Pistons have been linked to soon-to-be free agents Ryan Anderson and Al Horford as well as trade candidate Markieff Morris, but they’re satisfied with incumbent power forwards Ersan Ilyasova and Anthony Tolliver, writes Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press. That doesn’t mean they won’t seek an upgrade in the offseason, when Tolliver’s contract expires, but GM Jeff Bower made it clear to Ellis why the team is in no rush to make a deal now.

“That upheaval creates upheaval throughout the locker room,” Bower said. “When you do make changes like that, you’d like to think you’re doing it for more than just minor, insignificant shuffling. Sometimes you need a major shakeup, but usually when those scenarios exist, you have a group you don’t think is functioning well and you don’t see a long-term lifespan with them.”

See more on the Pistons amid the latest from around the Central Division:

Jodie Meeks will face limitations for the rest of this month after encountering a setback in his recovery from the broken foot he suffered at the start of the season, and he’s unlikely to play much this season, Pistons coach/executive Stan Van Gundy told reporters, including Rod Beard of The Detroit News (Twitter links). “For practical matters, it’s really hard to see him being able to get back and make much of a contribution this year,” Van Gundy said.
David Blatt didn’t prioritize making Kevin Love comfortable in the Cavaliers offense, but in Tyronn Lue‘s brief time as Blatt’s replacement, Love already looks more comfortable than he’s ever been since joining Cleveland before last season, writes Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal.
The Pacers have assigned Rakeem Christmas to the D-League, the team announced. The 36th overall pick from the 2015 draft has spent the vast majority of the season with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants and he’s still yet to play in an NBA regular season game.

Heat Eye Joe Johnson For Post-Buyout Market

February 2nd, 2016 at 2:04pm CST by Chuck Myron

Joe Johnson would stir the interest of the Heat if he buys his way off the Nets, Ethan Skolnick of the Miami Herald hears (Twitter link). Johnson said today that he doesn’t know whether he’ll negotiate a buyout but didn’t rule out the idea and added that he’ll have a talk with agent Jeff Schwartz in the next week, as the swingman told reporters, including Andy Vasquez of The Record. The 34-year-old Johnson is making close to $24.895MM, a difficult salary to fit in a trade, and it doesn’t appear as though the Heat see him as a trade target.

The Heat are without combo guard Tyler Johnson, who’s scheduled to undergo rotator cuff surgery this week, for at least two months, and they don’t have an open roster spot to make an addition. Miami could always waive a player and risk eating his salary, but that would be a risky proposition financially. The Heat are faced with either clearing about $5.5MM in salary, likely via trade, or paying repeat-offender luxury tax penalties at season’s end.

Midseason signees usually end up with the prorated minimum salary, though particularly attractive buyout candidates sometimes command more. The Heat have about $2.85MM on their taxpayer’s mid-level exception to spend, but doing so would impose a further financial burden. Johnson is averaging 11.3 points per game, his fewest since the 2002/03 season, and shooting a career-worst 39% from the field, but he put up 13.5 points a night and shot 48.5% in January. Johnson has said multiple times this season that he’ll prioritize finding a winning team when he next hits free agency, and the Heat, at No. 3 in the Eastern Conference, would seemingly fit that bill.

Would Johnson help the Heat? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.

Kevin Durant Fond Of Warriors; Clippers Loom

February 2nd, 2016 at 12:49pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Warriors would be “significant” front-runners for Kevin Durant should he leave the Thunder this summer, league sources told Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports, who places emphasis on the word “significant.” Still, the former MVP isn’t leaning one way or another toward staying or leaving Oklahoma City, Wojnarowski adds. The Wizards, Rockets and Heat still loom as likely suitors, but the Clippers are determined to make a push for him and wouldn’t hesitate to trade Blake Griffin to facilitate the acquisition of Durant, as Wojnarowski details.

Durant wants to win titles and create a legacy, Wojnarowski writes, and the Warriors, the defending champions who sit at 44-4 this season, would give him a strong chance to do so. Draymond Green is on board with the move and is expected to recruit Durant this summer, though Stephen Curry, given his talent and personality, would be the most persuasive voice, Wojnarowski adds, nonetheless leaving it unclear whether Curry is expected to go as hard after Durant as Green is.

Golden State has long eyed Durant’s upcoming free agency, Wojnarowski notes, and so has much of the rest of the NBA, of course. The Warriors nonetheless have a reputation for aiming high, and Harrison Barnes, set for restricted free agency at season’s end, looms as a sign-and-trade chip, as Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group has pointed out.

The Warriors have close to $75MM committed for next season against a salary cap that’s projected to come in at $89MM, and with Durant’s maximum salary projected at $24.9MM, that creates a financial road block. However, Wojnarowski’s Vertical colleague Bobby Marks lays out a hypothetical scenario in which the Warriors trade Andre Iguodala, waive and stretch Andrew Bogut, waive and stretch Jason Thompson, renounce their rights to and elect against a qualifying offer for Barnes and renounce other cap holds to create enough cap room to sign Durant outright.

The Clippers, with close to $78MM in guaranteed salary for next season, would need to perform similar cap gymnastics to open the space necessary to sign Durant, making the sign-and-trade a more viable option. The Thunder wouldn’t go for a sign-and-trade unless they knew Durant was leaving, according to Wojnarowski, who nonetheless points out that Griffin, who starred for the University of Oklahoma, is an Oklahoma native. Teams are already calling the Clippers to inquire about trading for the injured Griffin, but coach/executive Doc Rivers appears set on keeping him and seeing how the team performs in the postseason, Wojnarowski writes.

Joe Johnson Not Dismissing Buyout Idea

February 2nd, 2016 at 12:39pm CST by Chuck Myron

Joe Johnson said today that he doesn’t know whether he’ll ask for a buyout from the Nets but added that he plans to talk with his agent in the next week, notes Andy Vasquez of The Record (Twitter links). The new Jeff Schwartz client said when reports asked whether he would request a trade that his situation isn’t ideal but that he’s not “forcing anything,” according to Vasquez. Johnson is pulling in the league’s second-largest salary this season, nearly $24.895MM, making any trade cumbersome to pull off, but the prospect of a buyout has been the subject of frequent speculation. However, no indication existed at the time of the team’s coaching change last month that the 34-year-old wanted a buyout, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported.

Such a move would entail Johnson giving up a portion of his salary, so he has financial incentive to stay put even though he said in December that he’ll prioritize winning when he next becomes a free agent, which is currently slated to happen at season’s end. The 15th-year veteran reiterated today that he plans to look for a winner in free agency and added that he wants to play two or three more seasons after this one, Vasquez relays (Twitter links).

“A winning situation. It’s not going to be to no highest bidder or nothing like that, I just want to make sure the situation’s right for me,” Johnson said.

Still, the swingman didn’t rule out the possibility that he’d re-sign with the Nets, according to Vasquez (on Twitter). Johnson expressed confusion in September about why Deron Williams bought his way off the Nets this past summer, saying, “It’s not that bad here.” That was before the Nets embarked on what’s been a miserable 2015/16 season so far, as the team is 12-37 so far and without its first-round picks for 2016 or 2018. Brooklyn made the playoffs in all three of the previous seasons that Johnson was a part of the team.

It would be difficult for the Nets to negotiate a buyout at this point, since they don’t have a GM, as Vasquez points out (Twitter link). Assistant GM Frank Zanin is running the front office while the Nets conduct a search, reportedly with the hopes of making a hire before the February 18th trade deadline. Johnson and the team essentially have until March 1st to negotiate a buyout, since that’s the last day that a player can be waived and be eligible to take part in the postseason with another team.

Should Johnson push for a buyout or stay put, collect his checks, and wait to hit free agency in the summer? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.

Head Coaching Status Update For All 30 Teams

February 2nd, 2016 at 11:30am CST by Chuck Myron

Jeff Hornacek on Monday became the fourth NBA head coach this season to be fired, joining David Blatt, Lionel Hollins and Kevin McHale, as the volume of coaching dismissals this season eclipsed the number of coaches who signed extensions with their respective teams. No one seems to be in as tenuous a situation as Hornacek was prior to Monday’s news, but at least three others are “lame ducks,” just like he was. That means they have unexercised team options or are without full guarantees on their contracts for next season, so some level of uncertainty surrounds their long-term future.

Here’s a look at each coaching situation around the NBA, categorized by the changes that have taken place since the start of this past offseason:

Firings

David Blatt, Cavaliers — Replaced by Tyronn Lue
Lionel Hollins, Nets — Replaced by Tony Brown (interim)
Jeff Hornacek, Suns — Replaced by Earl Watson (interim)
Kevin McHale, Rockets — Replaced by J.B. Bickerstaff (interim)

Signed extensions

Brett Brown, Sixers
Steve Clifford, Hornets
Rick Carlisle, Mavericks

Unexercised team options for next season

Dwane Casey, Raptors
Terry Stotts, Trail Blazers
Randy Wittman, Wizards (next season’s salary partially guaranteed)

New hires

Billy Donovan, Thunder
Alvin Gentry, Pelicans
Fred Hoiberg, Bulls
Michael Malone, Nuggets
Scott Skiles, Magic

Other moves

Mike Budenholzer, Hawks — Added president of basketball operations job title
Sam Mitchell, Timberwolves — Named interim coach in place of the late Flip Saunders

The rest of the NBA’s head coaches are believed to be under contract through at least next season. That doesn’t mean their jobs are necessarily safe, and a wide gulf exists between the relative job security of, say, Gregg Popovich and Byron Scott. Still, we’ll list them all here:

Derek Fisher, Knicks
Dave Joerger, Grizzlies
George Karl, Kings
Jason Kidd, Bucks
Steve Kerr, Warriors
Gregg Popovich, Spurs
Doc Rivers, Clippers
Byron Scott, Lakers
Quin Snyder, Jazz
Erik Spoelstra, Heat
Brad Stevens, Celtics
Stan Van Gundy, Pistons
Frank Vogel, Pacers

Categories:
Hoops Rumors Originals

Fallout From/Reaction To Suns Coaching Change

February 2nd, 2016 at 10:29am CST by Chuck Myron

The Suns, as constituted, simply aren’t good enough, GM Ryan McDonough acknowledged today in a radio appearance this morning on the “Doug & Wolf Show” on Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter link). McDonough also said that he accepts responsibility for the state of the team and, when asked about his own job security, said he hadn’t been given any guarantees and hadn’t asked for any (All Twitter links).

“It is our job to coach the players we have and to fill our roster to the best of our ability and we haven’t,” McDonough said.

See more from McDonough and others as the Suns dig out from under Monday’s firing of Jeff Hornacek and the appointment of assistant coach Earl Watson as interim head coach.

Watson will be a candidate for the long-term head coaching job, McDonough also said in his radio appearance (Twitter links). McDonough added in response to a question that he hasn’t reached out to Sixers assistant and former Suns head coach Mike D’Antoni, whom the team has reportedly been poised to target.
Players expressed support for Watson when the Suns shook up their assistant coaching staff in late December, according to Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. Markieff Morris and Watson get along, notes Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link).
The Suns still have a roster built to run the two point guard attack that Hornacek orchestrated, and Hornacek’s firing is a signal of potential changes to come in the team’s approach to player personnel, Coro writes in the same piece. Turnover issues and the emergence of lottery pick Devin Booker, a traditional shooting guard, further that notion, Coro adds.
The Suns set up Hornacek for failure when they neglected to pick up his team option for next season before this season began, making him a lame duck, and when they failed anticipate the fallout from the Marcus Morris trade, contends Paula Boivin of the Arizona Republic. Hornacek deserved some of the blame, but not as much as the Suns organization assigned to him, Boivin opines.
Hornacek’s firing won’t change the problems that hang over the franchise, which sorely lacks a culture of mutual respect and trust between ownership and the rest of the organization, contends Ben Golliver of SI.com.

Nets Notes: Ferry, Cap Exception, Jackson

February 2nd, 2016 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

Danny Ferry is no longer a viable candidate for the Nets GM job, sources tell Brian Lewis of the New York Post. Lewis previously heard that Ferry wasn’t “the likeliest candidate” not long after the former Hawks and Cavs GM emerged as a contender, in spite of his support from former GM Billy King. The candidacy of John Calipari is on the wane, Lewis also hears, which jibes with earlier reports from Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck that Calipari wasn’t under serious consideration and from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, who wrote that owner Mikhail Prokhorov hadn’t shown a willingness to pay the $120MM over 10 years that Calipari reportedly wants. See more from Brooklyn:

It appears the NBA granted Brooklyn’s request for a disabled player exception to compensate for the loss of Jarrett Jack, as Bobby Marks of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports indicates within a look at the team’s situation heading into the February 18th trade deadline. That would give the team a $3.15MM cap exception to sign, trade for or claim a player whose contract doesn’t run past this season.
The Nets felt as though the Thunder “bamboozled” them last year when negotiations on a trade involving Brook Lopez and Reggie Jackson fell apart in the final hour before the deadline, writes Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork.com. Pistons coach/executive Stan Van Gundy said Monday that he thought his team had no chance to trade for Jackson two weeks before the deadline-day swap that sent the point guard to Detroit, as Mazzeo relays.
Restricted free agents are more likely than longer-tenured unrestricted free agents to look for a team that will give them minutes and opportunities rather than a strong chance to win, arguest Jonathan Tjarks of RealGM, who suggests five soon-to-be restricted free agents the Nets should consider this summer.

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