The Lakers expressed interest in former NBA player and current Michigan coach Juwan Howard for their head coaching job, but Howard declined the overture, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Los Angeles reportedly has Darvin Ham, Terry Stotts and Kenny Atkinson advancing to the final stage of interviews. Howard has experience coaching Lakers superstar LeBron James as an assistant with the Heat, but he’ll stay at Michigan and coach his two sons next season instead, Wojnarowski reports.
Howard interviewed for the Lakers’ head coaching job in 2019 before joining Michigan. The Lakers ultimately hired Frank Vogel, who guided them to a championship in 2020 and was fired last month after the team finished 33-49.
Here’s more from around the Pacific:
- Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN examines why this is the best version of Draymond Green yet. Green has been productive for the Warriors, averaging 7.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and 6.2 assists with his usual versatile defense. He’s also shot a career-high 52% from the floor and a below-average 25% from deep.
- The Suns may be willing to pay Deandre Ayton what he’s seeking in restricted free agency, but Greg Moore of The Arizona Republic says the team first needs to determine whether he actually wants to stick around. Ayton only played 17 minutes in the team’s season-ending loss to Dallas last round, attempting just five shots. He did, however, average 17.2 points and 10.2 rebounds for Phoenix this year, helping the club win 64 games.
- James Ham of The Kings Beat examines whether the Kings would consider moving up in the draft. Sacramento currently owns the No. 4, No. 37 and No. 49 picks in the event.
If Suns keep Ayton and McGee, luxury tax is $77 million next season
Ayton $30.5 million
McGee $6 million
Going forward, tax increases …,
Tough call on Ayton but I hope he man’s up and stays. Sprinkle in more tenacity. He’s still a young man with upside….if he wants it.
The only reason should Ayton stay is if Robert Saver is willing to pay up.
Yeah cheap @ss Sarver needs to pony up and not lose one of the teams 3 best players for nothing since it wont open any cap room losing him.
Man’s up? What does that even mean?
I still don’t understand the Saric and Shamet inks
Phx knew this day was coming and could have eased the burden
If my son was ever NBA bound I’d want Shamets agent on my side
Half the league is just stealing money.
I wouldn’t say all that . More than half the leagues on some sort of exception, vet min , rfa (restricted) status or rookie (restricted) contract.
Open cap, well let’s just say it’s a good time to be an avg NBA player today .
But Landry…woof I just don’t see how you draw up that contract sober if your Phx.
Most of its not guaranteed at least. The last two years aren’t guaranteed.
When his and JJJ’S contracts came out last year I was shocked. Then the dust settles and they seem market value when guys are healthy.
The truth is, as some Suns fans have admitted, Jones is overrated as a GM. For all the good moves he’s made, he’s also made a lot of questionable ones.
Ayton was an easy call—and he didn’t take Luka to begin with
I still don’t understand the point of the Warren trade (even though he has been hurt, but that’s just bad luck)
Cam Johnson was a good pick but I haven’t seen a single report or rumor that indicated he wouldn’t have been available significantly later in the draft. There wasn’t a single whiff indicating he shouldn’t have traded down for more assets.
Not a bad GM but not an elite one either, at least not yet.
There were some medium talents let go too easily— Warren, Holmes, Melton, jalenSmith.
Credit to Jones for not getting teased & drawn out by Bender, Oubre, joshJackson, treyDaniels…
And good gets in Bridges, Crowder, Paul, Craig, Payne, Kaminski, Saric, Rubio, McGee… I have to like getting camJohnson, even drafted early. They already traded down once.
The Shamet contract was iffy. But Ayton was never signable for less than max… To me Jones saying no is a credit. If they want him, he is still there, but max is too much.
He took a very old school approach where he didnt necessarily try to maximize assets as much as caring about getting what he wanted to build his roster
That is a very good question, right?
Why would Ayton wanna stick in PHO, they clearly made him feel less valued than lesser players (Bridges), he is underutilized by the team, gets blamed when they lose, but when they win, well it is CP3 or D-Book not him… really why would he?
There might be a lot of truths in what you say but that still doesn’t mean there’s not a ton of reasons for Ayton to want to stay in Phx
Most of this is just radio play from the agent team trying to get top dollar, let’s remember that before we go tooo far into the he said/she said aspect
Truth is Ayton has them over the barrel and his team knows it. Does that mean Aytons worth max? Well, the way Silver has set up cap , yes kinda, even if its begrudgingly ….
But on the other hand Phx has every right to try and bring the number down as best they can . We will see in 2 months, this is all just business till then
There is actually almost zero truth in what he said. Bridges is exponentially better and more valuable than Ayton, and they still want to pay Ayton similarly to him, but Ayton wants the max b/c he claims he is being disrespected if he doesnt get it. If that’s how he feels, that’s fine, and nobody is saying he doesnt have e every right to do what he wants…he is still wrong though. Maybe he does get paid what he wants, but that’s only due to circumstances, not b/c he currently legitimately warrants it
Agree Formerlyz, he doesn’t have to be worth it to get it and his agents know that
I like the way Silver has set up cap but just like any system there’s always going to be loopholes. Ayton is in position to take advantage of it and his agent team is just working the body right now in the early Rds so the head falls later and they get the number they want (or close(r) to it)
I do think Don’s statement of Paul and Booker get all the spoils when they win has a lotta truth to it for better or worse
B/c Chris Paul is the main reason they win, as are Bridges, Crowder, Cam Johnson
I actually dont necessarily think Phoenix has to give in here. If Ayton doesnt want the already overpay of close to 18-$22 million, they can move him and grab cheap options at the 5, as there are always comparable players available. They might do it, but I think they’ll at least explore moving him, if they cant come to an agreement on that amount
PHX wants cost assurances.
Ayton can do a lot more than he’s asked to do in PHX. He secretly loves shooting jumpers but for the betterment of his team, coaching and playing with CP3 that part of his game is suppressed.
Jarret Allen makes 20 million for 4 more years. He’s not as good or potentially versatile as Ayton but can do 95% of what PHX asks of Ayton. That 5% being to catch and pass in traffic.
Mark Williams is coming out of Duke.
Nic Claxton will get between 8-10 million per.
McGhee has showed what a rim running, Pick and Dive center can do for PHX’s offense.
PHX would be better in the short term trading for Jarret Allen or Clint Capela if they wanna pay a high end defensive center 20 million to also score 15 to 17 points. That’s 15 million less per year that what Ayton is going to cost. That 15 million is what Cam Johnson extention is going to look like.
Not too sure Allen or Capela are for trade, especially Allen.
“He secretly loves shooting jumpers but for the betterment of his team, coaching and playing with CP3 that part of his game is suppressed.”
The problem is I’m not sure this is actually true, which would be an indictment of Monty and the coaching staff.
In the short-term, absolutely, it would be better for the team. But in the long run, it is a questionable decision. Using the regular season to develop those important abilities in anticipation of the playoffs is a viable, and sometimes necessary, strategy. Sure, there may be some initial growing pains—and regular season losses—which would result from that but the tradeoff would likely be worth it. You always have to be thinking two steps ahead.
Monty even admitted to a failure to develop his young players in this way, not in terms of Ayton but with respect to Bridges and Johnson. By forcing one of CP3 and Booker to always be on the floor and running the offense through them did he ensure any struggles by those players against swarming defenses in the playoffs could doom the Suns. For that reason and others, I think Monty is overrated as a head coach. Not bad, just not elite.
Think about this: the Suns were by far the best team in the West last year. So why not use that cushion to do some experimenting even if it would cost some wins? There was no excuse not to do so. Just because you would become a contender doesn’t mean you should lose sight of the importance of fostering growth and development. It is a balancing act.
I do agree, though, that if they’re going to ask Ayton to only do the things he’s been doing already there’s little point in paying him that kind of money IF you can get another cheaper quality center in a S&T
I don’t think PHX will have a big issue matching a max offer sheet for Ayton, if he can command it. They were willing to give him a better 4-year deal last year (with 8% increases, vs the 5% that’s the maximum that can be in an offer sheet). I’m skeptical that he can command that offer sheet, even now (maybe OKC). But even if he can, it was still the right call not to give him the 5 year max last year.
The only way PHX can possibly end up worse here is if Ayton bets on himself and signs his Qualifying Offer, making him an UFA next year. Nobody at this price level has ever done that, and it ties him to PHX next year. He can request a S&T, but he’s a RFA (big difference than with a UFA), so that has to be on PHX’s terms.
Unless he Simmons it.
Ayton would be an excellent fit in Chicago, if they could figure out a way to make it happen. Probably would have to involve a sign n trade with vucevich and white on the bulls end.