Month: November 2024

Mavs Re-Sign Jalen Jones, Waive Terry Larrier

August 10th, 2018 at 12:20pm CST by Luke Adams

AUGUST 10, 12:20pm: The Mavericks have formally re-signed Jones, according to a press release issued by the club. Both moves are now official, increasing the team’s roster count back up to 20 players.

AUGUST 9, 6:00pm: The Mavs have formally waived Larrier, the team announced in a press release.

1:13pm: The Mavericks‘ offseason roster continues to undergo charges, with Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News reporting that the club will waive camp invitee Terry Larrier and bring back Jalen Jones, who was released by the club last month.

Larrier, who signed with the Mavs at the end of July, will have his stint with the club cut short due to a major knee injury. According to Sefko, the former UConn forward suffered a torn ACL in a workout and will miss the entire 2018/19 season.

Because Larrier had only been on a “make-good” summer contract, he won’t receive his full-season salary. However, the Mavericks will pay him for training camp and will monitor his rehab — he’ll undergo ACL surgery in Dallas and will rehab with the Mavs and their G League affiliate, the Texas Legends.

As for Jones, he opened the 2017/18 season on a two-way contract with the Pelicans before being cut in January. The Mavericks claimed him off waivers and he finished the year with Dallas. Jones’ two-way deal was for two years, but the Mavs opted to go in another direction with their two-way slots this summer, waiving him in July. Jones, a 6’7″ forward, appeared in 16 overall NBA games last season, including 12 with Dallas.

By swapping in Jones for Larrier, the Mavs will keep their offseason roster at 20 players, the maximum allowed. Dallas reportedly reached a contract agreement with Donte Ingram as well, but it’s not clear when the club intends to finalize that deal.

Scola, Nicholson Expected To Continue Playing In China

August 10th, 2018 at 11:59am CST by Luke Adams

Former NBA power forwards Luis Scola and Andrew Nicholson are expected to continue their playing careers in China, according to a pair of reports relayed by Sportando.

Scola, who initially signed with the Shanxi Brave Dragons last July, is signing with the Shanghai Sharks for the 2018/19 Chinese Basketball Association season, per Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. The news comes on the heels of Trevor Booker‘s announcement that he’d be joining Shanxi, presumably taking over Scola’s old role.

In his first CBA season, Scola averaged 27.8 PPG, 13.7 RPG, and 3.4 APG in 37 games for the Brave Dragons, though the team only managed a 16-22 record. Scola, a longtime NBA big man who played for the Rockets, Suns, Pacers, Raptors, and Nets from 2007 to 2017, will be joining a Sharks team that was led by Jimmer Fredette (36.9 PPG) last season.

As for Nicholson, he’s expected to sign with the Fujian Sturgeons after playing for the Guangdong Southern Tigers in 2017/18, according to a Chinese report passed along by Sportando.

Nicholson, who teamed with fellow NBA vets Yi Jianlian and Donald Sloan last season for Guangdong, recorded 22.2 PPG, 8.3 RPG, and 1.6 APG in 46 CBA contests. The Tigers advanced to the CBA semifinals before being eliminated by the Liaoning Flying Leopards.

A former Magic first-round pick, Nicholson appeared in 285 total NBA regular season games from 2012 to 2017 with Orlando, Washington, and Brooklyn before making the leap to China last September.

Stan Van Gundy Uncertain About Coaching Future

August 10th, 2018 at 10:50am CST by Luke Adams

Having been dismissed by the Pistons earlier this year, Stan Van Gundy went from holding two key roles with the franchise – president of basketball operations and head coach – to being out of work. Van Gundy still had one year left on the lucrative five-year contract he signed with Detroit back in 2014, so it won’t hurt him financially to sit out the 2018/19 season, but he admits he’s not sure what his next move will be.

As Rod Beard of The Detroit News details, Van Gundy recently appeared on Real Talk Basketball on The Pros Club Podcast Network, telling former assistant coach Rex Walters that he’s as “lost” as he’s ever been. Van Gundy said that when he’s been ousted from jobs in the past, he had a “pretty good idea” that he was still going to continue coaching elsewhere. This time around, he’s less certain.

“If I could get a job (for next season), I had planned to coach. Now, I really don’t know. I’m really lost right now — I don’t have an idea. My wife wants me to retire,” Van Gundy said. “I have people looking into some media things and I’m looking into some teaching opportunities in college, sports management programs and things like that.

“I want to do something, but if I’m not coaching, I don’t want to work too hard,” Van Gundy continued. “If I’m going to be grinding, then I want to coach; if I’m not going to be coaching, I want to be semi-retired, at least. I really don’t know (what I’m going to do).”

The Pistons made the decision to part ways with Van Gundy several weeks after the regular season ended, by which point two teams had already hired new head coaches and multiple other teams were nearing the end of their respective searches. That prevented him from becoming a legit candidate for other NBA coaching openings this spring.

Still, Van Gundy remains well-respected around the NBA and is a good bet to draw interest from teams that make coaching changes during or after the 2018/19 season, assuming he’s decides he’s still interested in returning to the NBA sidelines.

Stan Van Gundy

Poll: Will Wizards Be A Top-Four Team In East?

August 10th, 2018 at 9:56am CST by Luke Adams

With LeBron James out of the East for the first time since 2003, confidence is on the rise around the conference. Jaylen Brown essentially guaranteed that the Celtics will make it to the NBA Finals, while Brook Lopez has said the Bucks love their chances to come out of the East.

Wizards point guard John Wall joined the chorus this week, telling Michael Lee of Yahoo Sports that he feels like “we’re all equal” in the East. While the Wizards haven’t made it to the NBA Finals in recent years, neither have the Celtics, Raptors, Sixers, Pacers, or any other non-LeBron Eastern team, Wall points out.

“Y’all might have been to the Eastern Conference finals, where we haven’t been to, but none of y’all were going to the Finals. It was one guy going to the Finals,” Wall said. “Ain’t nobody separated from nothing. I know one guy that separated himself from the Eastern Conference every year and that was LeBron James and the Cavs. Other than that … if you lose in the second round, or the conference finals, you still didn’t get to your ultimate goal.”

Wall went on to say that “on paper” a handful of Eastern teams look strong, but he observed that there are still questions about how the Celtics will mesh with Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving returning, or how Kawhi Leonard will look with the Raptors. In Wall’s view, the top four or five teams in the East are all bunched together, and he’s willing to put the Wizards “right there” in that group.

This kind of talk is nothing new from the Wizards. Heading into the 2017/18 season, Bradley Beal called Washington the team to beat in the East, despite the fact that the club had been eliminated by Boston in the second round of the 2017 playoffs — multiple Wizards that year claimed publicly that they would’ve beaten the Cavaliers in the postseason if given the chance. This past spring, after losing as the No. 8 seed to the top-seeded Raptors, Markieff Morris told reporters that “sometimes the better teams don’t win.”

So far, the Wizards have done little to back up their big talk, and oddsmakers aren’t convinced they’ll do so this year either — the Wizards’ early over/under of 44.5 wins ranks sixth in the East, behind Boston, Toronto, Philadelphia, Indiana, and Milwaukee. Still, perhaps with LeBron out of the conference, this is the year that Washington makes its run.

What do you think? Are the Wizards a top-four team in the East? Will they claim home court advantage for the first round and/or win a first-round series in the spring?

Vote below in our poll and jump into the comment section to weigh in on the Wizards.

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.

Zhaire Smith Undergoes Foot Surgery

August 10th, 2018 at 8:12am CST by Luke Adams

AUGUST 10: Smith underwent surgery on Thursday evening to repair the Jones fracture of the fifth metatarsal in his left foot, the Sixers announced in a press release. The club intends to update Smith’s recovery timetable at a later date.

AUGUST 7: An MRI on the injured left foot of Sixers rookie Zhaire Smith has revealed a Jones fracture, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports. According to Charania, Smith – who hurt his foot on Monday during a developmental camp in Las Vegas – will see another specialist in Philadelphia, but is expected to undergo surgery later this week.

It’s a tough blow for a 76ers team that has had bad luck with injuries to top draft picks in recent years. Former third overall pick Joel Embiid didn’t appear in a regular season game until his third year in the NBA, 2016’s No. 1 selection Ben Simmons missed his entire rookie season, and 2017’s top pick Markelle Fultz played just 14 games last year.

While Smith won’t enter the NBA faced with the same expectations that Embiid, Simmons, and Fultz had, he was Philadelphia’s top selection in the 2018 draft. The former Texas Tech forward, the No. 16 pick, was acquired by the Sixers on draft night along with a future first-rounder in a trade that sent 10th overall pick Mikal Bridges to Phoenix.

The Sixers likely won’t announce a timeline for Smith’s recovery until after he undergoes surgery, but the team has been very cautious with injuries to key young players. While that doesn’t necessarily mean we won’t see Smith at all during his rookie year, a similar injury sidelined Simmons for a full season in 2016/17, as Derek Bodner of The Athletic notes (via Twitter).

Even without Smith, the Sixers figure to have a good amount of depth on the wing, with J.J. Redick, Robert Covington, and Wilson Chandler all in line for major roles.

Pacific Notes: Kings, Clippers, Lakers

August 9th, 2018 at 8:33pm CST by Austin Kent

The Kings added to their glut of big men when they drafted power forward Marvin Bagley with the second pick of the 2018 draft. Now, James Ham of NBC Sports Bay Area writes, head coach Dave Joerger will have to figure out how to juggle the frontcourt rotation.

Given his stature as one of the top picks in the summer draft, Bagley is a lock to play significant minutes for the Kings. He could see time at both the four and the five.

Ham writes that Harry Giles, a first-rounder in 2017, could see major minutes in his first taste of NBA action as well. The big man may have to shake off rust after sitting out last year to fully recover from knee injuries, but could be part of the Kings’ starting frontcourt of the future.

There’s more from the Pacific Division this evening:

A batch of coaching changes demonstrate the Clippers‘ franchise-wise commitment toward player development, Tomer Azarly of the team’s official site writes. The club will have Casey Hill join Doc Rivers’ staff after serving last year as the head coach of the team’s G League squad. Brian Adams will take his place with the Ontario affiliate and Natalie Nakase will move from the G League to big league squad’s development staff.
Clippers‘ forward Danilo Gallinari will ask the team to let him play for the Italian national club in September, Emiliano Carchia of Sportando writes. Gallinari was limited to just 21 games last season due to a fractured hand but appears to be healthy this summer.
A panel of ESPN staffers has concluded that the team that added the greatest basketball player of his generation will have the biggest turnaround this season. Alas, LeBron James‘ Lakers are also expected to suffer from the most team turmoil, according to ESPN’s panel.

Central Notes: Pacers, Drummond, Leuer

August 9th, 2018 at 5:30pm CST by Austin Kent

A number of low profile offseason additions have helped the Pacers take a step forward this summer, so say a number of league experts, as Scott Horner of The Indianapolis Star writes.

The Pacers added significant depth when they brought aboard Tyreke Evans, Kyle O’Quinn and Doug McDermott and will benefit from the addition of first-round pick Aaron Holiday and whatever inevitable improvements Victor Oladipo makes to his game over the course of the offseason.

There was no shortage of journalists willing to praise the Pacers for their summer work and NBA.com’s David Aldridge even went so far as to say that they’re as good a threat as any in the East to challenge the Celtics this season.

Here’s more from around the Central:

There’s no denying that Andre Drummond has been busy working on his perimeter shooting, at least if you’ve followed his Instagram stories this offseason. Rod Beard of The Detroit News writes that the Pistons big man is hoping to use the new weapon to move away from the basket. “Adding that to my game is something I’ve been working on for years but this is the year where I’ve taken it to another level of putting up a lot more shots, and I’m getting more comfortable with it,” Drummond said.
Fans may be quick to call the new-look Eastern Conference a three-horse race involving the Celtics, Raptors and Sixers, but Brook Lopez assures Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype that the Bucks are confident they can take the crown. “I think we’re very confident that we can, no question, win the East.“
Injured Pistons forward Jon Leuer had successful surgery yesterday, the team announced in a press conference. The procedure is related to a meniscus injury that occurred in a workout earlier this week. His status will be updated prior to training camp.

Nowitzki Unsure If 2018/19 Season Will Be His Last

August 9th, 2018 at 3:58pm CST by Luke Adams

Dirk Nowitzki will set a new NBA record this fall when he officially enters his 21th season with a single franchise. But even after making history as a Maverick, Nowitzki isn’t ready to assume he’ll call it a career after the 2018/19 campaign. Speaking at a kids’ summer camp event on Wednesday, Nowitzki said he remains unsure whether next season will be his last, as Dwain Price of Mavs.com details.

“I’m going to make that decision (about retirement), I guess, once obviously I see how the season goes,” Nowitzki said.

As the veteran big man points out, he had a very healthy year in 2017/18, appearing in 77 games and remaining productive for the Mavericks. As he enters his age-40 season, there’s no guarantee he’ll continue to be able to stay on the court that often going forward, but if he stays injury-free again, he’ll want to consider all his options in the summer of 2019.

“If next year is going to go sort of the same (in terms of health), then hey, maybe, and we’ll leave the door open and I’m going to play another (season),” Nowitzki said, per Price. “But I want to approach this as if there is no tomorrow and then just hopefully have a great year. I’m going to try to be efficient again as I’ve often tried my entire career. We’ll just go from there, but hopefully it’s going to be a lot more fun than last year.”

The Mavericks’ win totals have slipped from 50 to 42 to 33 to 24 over the last four seasons, but Nowitzki is confident that this year’s roster has the talent necessary to reverse that trend. The longtime Mav called DeAndre Jordan one of the NBA’s most effective two-way centers and said that No. 3 overall pick Luka Doncic has “all the tools” to succeed in the NBA.

“I think we should be a lot better than last year,” Nowitzki said. “That’s not a secret.”

NBA Teams With Hard Caps For 2018/19

August 9th, 2018 at 2:57pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA salary cap is somewhat malleable, with various exceptions allowing every team to surpass the $101.869MM threshold once that room is used up. In some cases, teams blow past not only the cap limit, but the luxury-tax limit as well, with clubs like the Warriors, Thunder, Rockets, Trail Blazers, Raptors, and Wizards going well beyond that tax line this year.

The NBA doesn’t have a “hard cap” by default, which allows those clubs to build significant payrolls without violating CBA rules. However, there are certain scenarios in which teams can be hard-capped.

When a club uses the bi-annual exception, acquires a player via sign-and-trade, or uses more than the taxpayer portion ($5.337MM) of the mid-level exception, that club will face a hard cap for the remainder of the league year.

When a team becomes hard-capped, it cannot exceed the “tax apron” at any point during the rest of the league year. The tax apron is set at a point approximately $6MM above the luxury tax line. For the 2018/19 league year, the tax apron – and hard cap for certain clubs – is set at $129.817MM.

So far this year, nine teams have imposed a hard cap on themselves by using the bi-annual exception, using the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, or acquiring a player via sign-and-trade. Listed below are those nine teams, along with how they created a hard cap.

Charlotte Hornets

Used approximately $6MM of mid-level exception to sign Tony Parker and Devonte’ Graham.

Detroit Pistons

Used approximately $5.75MM of mid-level exception to sign Glenn Robinson, Khyri Thomas, and Bruce Brown.

Los Angeles Clippers

Used full mid-level exception ($8.641MM) to sign Luc Mbah a Moute and Mike Scott.

Memphis Grizzlies

Used full mid-level exception ($8.641MM) to sign Kyle Anderson.

Milwaukee Bucks

Used full mid-level exception ($8.641MM) to sign Ersan Ilyasova and Pat Connaughton.
Used bi-annual exception to sign Brook Lopez.

Minnesota Timberwolves

Used approximately $6.59MM of mid-level exception to sign Anthony Tolliver and Keita Bates-Diop.

New Orleans Pelicans

Used full mid-level exception ($8.641MM) to sign Julius Randle.
Used bi-annual exception to sign Elfrid Payton.

New York Knicks

Used approximately $8MM of mid-level exception to sign Mario Hezonja and Mitchell Robinson.

San Antonio Spurs

Used approximately $6.99MM of mid-level exception to sign Marco Belinelli and Chimezie Metu.
Used bi-annual exception to sign Dante Cunningham.

Currently, none of the hard-capped teams listed above have team salaries within $5MM of the tax apron, so that hard cap shouldn’t be a real issue for most of these clubs during the 2018/19 league year. However, that could change if any of these teams – particularly the Hornets or Pistons – makes additional free agent signings or takes on extra money in a trade at some point.

Poll: How Long Will Jabari Parker Be A Bull?

August 9th, 2018 at 2:20pm CST by Luke Adams

It wasn’t one of the most lucrative long-term deals of the summer, and it almost certainly won’t have any impact on the NBA championship in 2019, but the Bulls‘ two-year, $40MM deal with Jabari Parker was one of the most interesting free agent signings of 2018.

The contract, which is guaranteed for $20MM in year one with a $20MM team option for 2019/20, was one of the last big-money deals of July. At the same time the Bulls were finalizing their agreement with Parker, the Nets were using their remaining $20MM+ in cap room to absorb a pair of unwanted contract from the Nuggets, acquiring a pair of draft picks in the process. The Hawks were preparing for a similar deal with their leftover cap space, taking on Carmelo Anthony‘s $27MM+ salary in a trade that allowed them to add a future first-rounder and get out of their long-term commitment to Dennis Schroder.

For rebuilding teams with cap room to spare, moves like the ones made by the Nets and Hawks are common. It often makes more sense for those front offices to essentially rent out their cap space and net a young player or draft pick in the process than it would to use that space to sign a free agent of their own.

The Bulls could’ve taken a similar approach, but instead they opted to use their room on Parker, a former No. 2 overall pick whose NBA development has been slowed by a pair of ACL tears. The hope is that the 23-year-old Parker will bounce back and become a key part of Chicago’s core alongside the franchise’s other young building blocks.

Before his latest major knee injury in 2017, Parker had averaged 20.1 PPG, 6.2 RPG, and 2.8 APG with a .490/.365/.743 shooting line in 51 games during the 2016/17 season. Those are very promising numbers for a player who was still 21 years old at the time.

While Parker’s offensive upside is obvious, there are still plenty of questions about his game. He’s not a strong defender, and his decision-making on offense can sometimes leave something to be desired. Although it’s possible he’ll still evolve into a star, that looks far less certain than it did a few years ago. And it’s not clear how he’ll fit in with the Bulls, whose lineup already features another defensive liability on the wing (Zach LaVine), as well as several players who figure to dominate the ball on offense.

Parker’s short-term deal with the Bulls will give the club an exit ramp. If things don’t work out for the Chicago native, he likely won’t still be a Bull at this time next year, since the team will have the opportunity to decide on his second-year option.

On the other hand, there’s no guarantee that the former Duke forward will remain with the Bulls long-term even if he does excel in his hometown — his two-year pact will give him the opportunity to reach unrestricted free agency again in 2020, at which point he could sign with any team.

What do you think? How will the Bulls’ experiment with Parker play out? Will the former top-two pick be one-and-done in Chicago, or will his short-term contract eventually turn into a long-term stay?

Vote below in our poll and jump into the comment section to share your thoughts.

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.

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