2016 November | Hoops Rumors

D’Angelo Russell Gets PRP Injection, Will Miss Two Weeks

November 23rd, 2016 at 5:35pm CST by Arthur Hill

Lakers point guard D’Angelo Russell will be out of action for at least two weeks after receiving a platelet-rich plasma injection in his left knee today, the team announced on its website. His condition will be re-evaluated in a week.

PRP injections are used to stimulate the flow of blood and help with healing in areas with decreased blood flow, explains Mike Bresnahan of Spectrum SportsNet (Twitter link). The minimally invasive procedure was performed in Los Angeles by Dr. Steve Yoon.

Russell has been part of the reason for the Lakers’ early-season success, averaging 16.1 points, 4.8 assists and 3.4 rebounds through the first 13 games. He sat out the team’s last two games and wasn’t expected to play tonight, even before the procedure.

Omri Casspi’s Reps Quietly Exploring Trade Market

November 23rd, 2016 at 4:59pm CST by Luke Adams

Omri Casspi enjoyed a career year in 2015/16 under George Karl and his fast-paced system, but things have slowed down in Sacramento this season under new head coach Dave Joerger. With Casspi spending plenty of time on the bench for Joerger and the Kings, his agents have “quietly been making inquiries” around the NBA about a potential trade, according to Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee.

Voisin stresses that Casspi has not requested a trade, but writes that the veteran forward is “clearly” miserable, and would likely welcome a change of scenery. For what it’s worth, Casspi’s comments to reporters suggest he believes a trade is a possibility. After having said last week that he “might be somewhere else,” he again alluded to the possibility of getting playing time somewhere besides Sacramento, as Voisin details.

“The team is trying to figure out its identity,” Casspi said. “I understand that. But I really wanted to be part of building something special here. The fans have been through hell and high water. They are incredible. They get me going. Hopefully, I will still be part of it. I think I can fit in. The system is a lot like Michael Malone’s, and I adjusted. But I want to play. I need to play. If not here, then somewhere.”

Casspi, 28, averaged a career-high 11.8 PPG last season, and established new career bests in several other categories as well, including RPG (5.9), 3PT% (.409), and 3PT (1.6). This year, he has only appeared in six games for the Kings, averaging just 15.3 MPG and 4.3 PPG in those contests.

The trade market likely won’t pick up until at least mid-December, and it’s possible that Casspi will get a longer look from Joerger and start earning more consistent minutes by then. But if things continue as they have over the season’s first month, Casspi figures to be one of a handful of trade candidates this winter for the Kings. Rudy Gay and Kosta Koufos have also been the subject of trade rumors in Sacramento, while Willie Cauley-Stein and DeMarcus Cousins are among the longer shots to be moved by the team.

DeMar DeRozan Talks Toronto, L.A., Free Agency

November 23rd, 2016 at 3:51pm CST by Luke Adams

Heading into free agency this past summer, DeMar DeRozan seemed likely to re-up with the Raptors, but there were several teams lurking as probable suitors for the All-Star shooting guard. As Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated writes, those teams included the Heat, Clippers, and Lakers.

DeRozan is a Los Angeles native, and the idea of returning to Southern California to play for one of his hometown teams certainly had some appeal to him. However, the 27-year-old quickly reached a new agreement with Toronto instead, declining to take meetings with any other team. DeRozan spoke to Spears about that decision and a few other topics, so let’s round up some of his more interesting quotes from the piece…

On whether it was hard to pass up the opportunity to play for an L.A. team:

“Yeah, of course. At the end of the day, the Lakers are the Lakers. I grew up a Lakers fan. Kobe [Bryant] was my favorite player growing up. I didn’t miss a game as a kid. Just to have the opportunity was amazing. I watched one of my favorite players create a legacy of his own and leave his mark there. He left his own mark there. It will always be there. I want to leave my own mark in Toronto.”

On why he chose not to meet with any teams besides Toronto in free agency:

“If I knew where I wanted to be from the beginning … I didn’t want to waste anybody’s time and just hear somebody else talk or say something when I know in the back of my mind that I want to do something else. As long as that something else was mutual, there was no point of me doing anything else. … I don’t want to waste anybody’s time. I didn’t want to give false hope if I knew what I felt inside was right. And that was me going back [to the Raptors].”

On what it meant that the Raptors pushed hard to re-sign him to a long-term deal:

“It meant a lot. It was a mutual feeling. It made everything else easier. Nobody had a doubt, from the organization to the fans. Everything we created was going to be there and still was going to be the same. That’s amazing when everybody is on the same page.”

On whether he wants to become the greatest player in Raptors history:

“Without a doubt. No question. How many people get to say they hold one record for an organization, or were on the winningest team in Raptors history, or did this with one organization? All of those things last longer than your playing career. It took time for me to get out of the second round [of the playoffs] in Raptors history. And we did that [in 2016], and that’s something that is going to be there. … If we don’t do it and someone else wins a championship, they are still going to revert back to the 2015/16 team as the best team until then. Ten, 15, 20 years from now, whatever it might be, those things last longer. It’s something you put your all into.”

Be sure to check out Spears’ full piece for more thoughts from DeRozan on living in Canada, growing up in Compton, playing for Team USA in the Olympics, and watching the U.S. election results.

Bucks’ D-League Decision Delayed

November 23rd, 2016 at 2:17pm CST by Luke Adams

Less than a week ago, Bucks president Peter Feigin told Gery Woelfel of The Racine Journal Times that he expected the franchise to make a decision on a location for a future D-League affiliate “before Thanksgiving.” However, Feigin is less optimistic about that happening now, as Woelfel writes in a new piece for the Journal Times.

Although Feigin didn’t provide an explanation for the delay in the process or a new timeline for a potential announcement, Woelfel suggests that all three cities in contention to become the home of the Bucks’ future D-League affiliate – Racine, Oshkosh, and Sheboygan – are facing roadblocks.

According to Woelfel, Racine wants to move forward with a $46MM arena and hotel project, but funding remains up in the air. Racine County likely won’t contribute much – if any – money to the project, meaning it will rely on private investors. Mayor John Dickert said on Tuesday that he hopes to announce a financing plan for the proposed arena within the “next couple of weeks.”

Oshkosh officials would also like to build a new arena in their city which could house a D-League squad. However, an agreement with the land-owner for the proposed location has not yet been reached, and there may be environmental problems with the site, writes Woelfel.

As for Sheboygan, local leaders and officials want to renovate and expand the Sheboygan Armory, a venue built back in 1942. The city’s push to land Milwaukee’s D-League affiliate is being led by former NBA player and assistant coach Joe Wolf, but it’s not clear whether the Bucks view the antiquated arena as a viable option.

As Woelfel points out, it would likely take at least a year for any of the three cities to build or upgrade an arena, so the odds of the Bucks adding a D-League franchise for the 2017/18 season are growing increasingly slim. The club may have its eye on the 2018/19 or ’19/20 campaign instead. Currently, Milwaukee is one of eight NBA teams without an active D-League squad — another of those eight teams, Atlanta, has a deal in place to get an affiliate for the ’19/20 season.

Rockets Pull Most Recent Offer To Donatas Motiejunas

November 23rd, 2016 at 1:39pm CST by Luke Adams

1:39pm: According to Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com (via Twitter), the Rockets gave Motiejunas a November 22 deadline to sign their offer. When that date came and went without any action from Motiejunas, the club told him his value has further decreased.

1:21pm: The Rockets have pulled their most recent offer to Motiejunas off the table, league sources tell Stein (Twitter links). According to Stein, the team’s hopes of getting a deal done with the restricted free agent by the end of the day appear to be fading.

10:08am: Nearly a month into the NBA season, restricted free agent Donatas Motiejunas remains unsigned, but there’s a reason to believe progress could be made today. According to ESPN’s Marc Stein (via Twitter), the Rockets view Wednesday as an unofficial deadline for their negotiations with Motiejunas, since it’s the last day a player can sign a contract and still be trade-eligible later this season. Houston will try to get a deal done today with the free agent forward, says Stein.

NBA rules dictate that when a free agent signs a contract, he can’t be traded until December 15 or three months after the date of his signing, whichever comes later. So any player that signed a new contract after September 15 has a unique date when he becomes eligible to be dealt. Because there are exactly three months until this season’s February 23 trade deadline, any player who signs as a free agent after today can’t be traded until after the season.

The Rockets tendered Motiejunas a qualifying offer worth about $4.4MM back in June. However, the 26-year-old didn’t reach an agreement with Houston or sign an offer sheet with a rival suitor during the offseason, and that qualifying offer expired last month. Motiejunas can no longer sign his one-year QO, but remains a restricted free agent, meaning Houston still has the right of first refusal should he strike a deal with another team.

The most recent report on Motiejunas suggested the Rockets had put a multiyear offer on the table that featured about $7MM in guaranteed first-year salary. The proposal sounded similar to deals signed by RFAs like Tyler Zeller and Festus Ezeli earlier this year — two-year pacts in the $15MM range, with only the first year guaranteed.

Although Motiejunas struggled to stay healthy in 2015/16 and his production took a significant hit, he looked like a player on the rise in 2014/15, when he averaged 12.0 PPG and 5.9 RPG to go along with a .504 FG% and a .368 3PT%. He has been plagued by back troubles in recent years, creating some long-term uncertainty about his health and limiting his market.

If the Rockets and Motiejunas don’t reach an agreement today, the team could still sign him at any time, but there would be no clear timeline for a deal to get done.

Community Shootaround: Blazers’ Trade Possibilities

November 23rd, 2016 at 1:02pm CST by Luke Adams

The Trail Blazers’ offseason spending spree has left the team “ripe for a trade,” Zach Lowe writes in his latest piece for ESPN.com. It’s certainly not the first time we’ve heard about Portland’s trade possibilities, and the speculation makes sense — having extended C.J. McCollum, the Blazers are poised to blow past the salary cap threshold in 2017/18, so they’ll probably want to move a contract or two at some point unless they’re prepared to pay a huge tax bill.

As Lowe observes, general manager Neil Olshey pursued Hassan Whiteside in free agency this summer, and “has a well-documented fondness” for traditional low-post scorers like Brook Lopez, Greg Monroe, and Nikola Vucevic. Jusuf Nurkic, Tyson Chandler, and Kosta Koufos are a few of the other centers identified by Lowe as players the Blazers may chase at some point in a trade. Lowe also names Nerlens Noel, though he admits that the league “doesn’t quite know what to make” of the Sixers’ big man.

Making a deal with a team like the 76ers, Nets, Nuggets, or Suns, who all have an excess of cap room, could make sense if the Blazers are trying to shed some salary. As Lowe points out, a swap involving Lopez and Allen Crabbe, whom the Nets tried to sign in July, could make some sense, but CBA rules don’t allow Brooklyn to acquire Crabbe until the 2017/18 league year after he signed the team’s offer sheet.

It’s unclear which assets the Blazers would be willing to give up for a second- or third-tier center who might not move the needle significantly for the club. As Lowe notes, Maurice Harkless and Al-Farouq Aminu would have value as trade chips, but they’re probably more valuable to Portland as players. Crabbe and Evan Turner, meanwhile, are in the first year of huge, long-term deals, which limits their appeal. According to Lowe, Turner was “almost as stunned as you” by the four-year, $70MM offer he received from the Blazers in the offseason — Turner excitedly told close friend Andre Iguodala about the offer, and his former teammate told him to accept it immediately.

In Lowe’s view, it would be more daring for the Blazers to explore the trade market for McCollum, though the ESPN scribe doesn’t expect the team to do so. For now, the team remains in wait-and-see mode on all of their players, as they assess how their pieces fit together.

What do you think? What sort of trade might make sense for the Blazers as they try to make the leap from solid playoff team to legit title contender? Is there a deal that could be out there sooner rather than later, or should the club wait until the 2017 offseason to seriously shake things up? Jump into the comments section below to share your thoughts on Portland’s next step!

Jeff Ayres Let Go By CSKA Moscow, Seeking NBA Return

November 23rd, 2016 at 11:41am CST by Luke Adams

Former NBA big man Jeff Ayres signed with CSKA Moscow earlier this year, but the Russian team has let go of him, according to international basketball journalist David Pick (Twitter links). While Ayres appeared to be receiving interest from Barcelona, Pick reports that the 29-year-old has changed agents and is pushing for a return to the NBA.

Previously represented by Impact Sports Basketball, Ayres has hired BDA Sports for representation, according to Pick. The agency represents several NBA players, including Mike Conley, Goran Dragic, Patrick Beverley, and Aaron Gordon, so its connections could help Ayres find an NBA home. Still, no team currently has an opening on its 15-man roster. Last season, Ayres wasn’t able to land an NBA deal until January, when teams begin signing players to 10-day contracts, and it’s possible that will be the case again this year.

Ayres, formerly known as Jeff Pendergraph, spent two seasons in San Antonio and was part of the Spurs’ 2014 championship team, but wasn’t re-signed after the 2014/15 season. He was the first player selected in the 2015 D-League draft and spent much of the season in Idaho before joining the Clippers in January.

After playing on two 10-day contracts, Ayres signed with the Clippers for the remainder of the 2015/16 season. He appeared in 17 games for L.A., averaging 1.8 PPG and 1.3 RPG in limited playing time. Ayres has also played for the Trail Blazers and Pacers over the course of his six-year NBA career.

Sixers More Likely To Trade Noel Than Okafor

November 23rd, 2016 at 9:02am CST by Luke Adams

Jahlil Okafor and Nerlens Noel have been the subjects of trade rumors for most of the year, and there’s still a good chance that one of the two players will be moved in advance of this season’s trade deadline. According to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders, however, the Sixers “don’t have much desire” to trade Okafor. Kyler tweets that Noel is the more likely trade candidate, as he and the team are “not on the same page at all.”

While Okafor hasn’t said a whole lot about the logjam at center in Philadelphia, Noel referred to the situation as “silly” prior to the start of training camp in the fall, expressing surprise that the front office hadn’t addressed the club’s crowded depth chart by making a trade in the summer. The Sixers, meanwhile, weren’t entirely happy that Noel decided to stay in Massachusetts to work out this summer, according to Bob Cooney of The Philadelphia Daily News. Shortly after he reported to camp, the 22-year-old felt discomfort in his knee, and that issue has kept him out of action ever since.

So far this season, with Noel sidelined due to that knee injury and Okafor and Joel Embiid on minutes limits, the Sixers’ center logjam hasn’t been a major issue. But Noel is getting closer to returning to action, and Okafor’s minutes restrictions have been lifted, so the competition for playing time in the frontcourt is about to heat up, as Cooney writes.

Noel’s return isn’t imminent, but it could happen in December, at which point the team will have to determine how he fits into a frontcourt rotation that also features Richaun Holmes. As Kyler tweets, the fourth-year big man – who will be playing for a potential payday this season – would prefer a situation where he has a more prominent role, rather than one where he splits time with Embiid.

Although Noel’s contract is up in 2017, he’ll be eligible for restricted free agency, meaning any team that trades for him this year would have a leg up to keep him. Noel’s contract situation may provide more incentive for the Sixers to move him, since the team would have to either re-sign him to a huge deal or lose him for nothing if they don’t deal him by this year’s deadline. Okafor, on the other hand, will remain on his rookie contract through the 2018/19 season.

Central Notes: Hoiberg, Jackson, Monroe

November 22nd, 2016 at 10:59pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg believes it’s a different era now than when he played in the NBA in regard to how players communicate in the offseason, Nick Friedell of ESPN.com writes. Hoiberg notices that players are forming relationships with each other at the AAU level and its impacting free agency.

“Really since, shoot, going all the way back to eighth or ninth grade the way it is now,” Hoiberg said “Then just the relationships they build over the summers. These guys all seem to get together in L.A. or Miami or wherever it might be. So they build those relationships, they play together with Team USA now and they do build those special bonds. So yeah, it probably is a little easier to reach out. You see some of the superteams now that are being created, and I think a lot of that has to do with relationships that are built over the summer.”

Here’s more from the Central Division:

Reggie Jackson said he feels “real good” and hopes to be back on the court soon, James Hawkins of The Detroit News relays. “I feel a lot better. Getting stronger, getting more timing, getting my cardio up,” Jackson said. “Trying to get more implemented into practice and just trying to do whatever I can within the limits of protocol.”
Stan Van Gundy isn’t happy with the team’s performance lately, but he doesn’t want to mess with the rotation too much before Jackson returns, Hawkins passes along in the same piece. “I don’t really think we know who we are. I was talking to [owner] Tom [Gores] last night and it’s a lot farther into the season you would like,” Van Gundy said. “We’ll be 30, 35 games into the year before we really can make any real estimations of the team, because you figure it will have to get to that before Reggie has a dozen, 15 games back. It’s going to be a long time in where we’re going to have to do it with our defense and continue to try and get better. But to really firm up rotations and all of that is going to take some time.” The Pistons are 6-9 on the season.
Greg Monroe hasn’t lived up to expectations since joining the Bucks during the summer of 2015 and his role could be further marginalized going forward, Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes. The team has used more small-ball lineups lately, leaving Monroe on the court for only about 10 minutes over the last three games.

Dwyane Wade On Free Agency, Decision To Join Bulls

November 22nd, 2016 at 9:27pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Dwyane Wade believes free agency is “different today” than how it used to be, Nick Friedell of ESPN.com writes. “The league is all about relationships, player relationships,” Wade said. “Obviously presidents and GMs have their job to do to put teams together, but when it comes to free agency, that’s player relationships more than anything. It’s where an individual wants to go, so you have to feel comfortable with where you’re going and who you’re going with. And it starts in that process. Maybe you have a relationship with a guy, maybe you don’t, but it starts in that process when guys are able to reach out to you and you see.”

Wade stressed how important it was for Jimmy Butler to reach out him over the summer. “If Jimmy don’t reach out to me then I’m not coming to Chicago because I don’t think Jimmy wants me here. But Jimmy reaches out to me and says, “D, I want you to come,” it’s a different — that’s simple right there. It’s hard to change my mindset and everything,” Wade added.

The 34-year-old went on to reiterate how hard it was to leave Miami, a place where he’s played his entire career. He said it was a very difficult decision for him and his family. “I cannot sit here and explain to anyone what it’s like to be a free agent,” Wade said. “And what it’s like to have to make a decision about where you’re going. And no one ever thought I would leave Miami. No one ever thought I would be in a Chicago Bulls jersey, but I am, so things happen. And you never know what can happen when it comes to free agency.”

Wade said earlier today that the Nuggets were the first team to contact him during the free agency period and added that they did an “unbelievable job” of recruiting him. His two-year, $47MM deal with the Bulls includes a player option for next season, so he could go through the free agent process again next summer should he choose to turn down that option.

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