Atlanta Hawks Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Eastern Notes: Sefolosha, Rose, Harrellson

October 13th, 2015 at 6:45pm CST by Eddie Scarito

While he was originally expected to be cleared to return to basketball activities this week, Bulls point guard Derrick Rose is now going to miss the remainder of the preseason, and his availability for the regular season opener is also in doubt, writes K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune. “They still want him to be a little bit careful just with the swelling, make sure his vision is back to where it was before he got hit, before they want him to get anything going on with his blood pressure spiking is how I understand it,” coach Fred Hoiberg said.

“So he’s probably at least a week away from that happening, from where he’s able to get out and work up a sweat, and then hopefully it’s full go from there to where we can get him out into some contact drills, get him back out there running our offense, and hopefully get him ready to play,” Hoiberg continued. “So I think it’s still yet to be determined if we’re going to have him for the opener. But the good news is he’s progressing, he’s getting better. His vision is getting better, and hopefully we’ll get him back soon.”

Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:

There was concern among Hawks officials who saw Thabo Sefolosha‘s X-rays regarding his basketball future after his incident involving the New York City police, for which he was recently cleared of any wrongdoing, Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today writes. The April scuffle left Sefolosha with a broken leg that prematurely ended his season and limited the Hawks in the playoffs, where Atlanta fell in the Eastern Conference Finals. Sefolosha, who is entering the second year of a three-year, $12MM contract, expects to be 100% recovered in time for the season.
Josh Harrellson, who is signed to a non-guaranteed deal with the Wizards, believes his ticket to a regular season NBA roster spot is his ability to make three-pointers from the power forward position, J. Michael of CSNMid-Atlantic.com writes. The 26-year-old credits former Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni for helping him develop that part of his game, Michael adds. “I shot a lot of threes in my rookie year with D’Antoni because that’s how he played,” said Harrellson. “He spaced the floor with one big so he was the first coach to start playing that style. I thrived in that offense. How the NBA is going I think I can start thriving again.“

Hoops Rumors Community Shootaround 10/12/15

October 12th, 2015 at 11:00pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Every season seems to have at least one team that exceeds all expectations and challenges for the top spot in its conference. Last season, we saw that occur in both conferences.

The Warriors were considered a team on the upswing entering last season but there were still serious doubts about their ability to contend. They had a first-year head coach, Steve Kerr, who had no previous experience running an NBA club. The core of the team was young and talented but had yet to make a deep playoff run. Everyone knew their backcourt of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson could shoot but would a perimeter-oriented team thrive throughout an 82-game schedule? Could Andrew Bogut stay healthy for most of the season and carry their interior defense? And just how much more could Draymond Green, a second-round pick, expand his game?

The Warriors answered all the questions with an exclamation point and carried that success over to the postseason during their dream season.

Don’t forget that a similar story unfolded in the Eastern Conference. While the Hawks had a disappointing playoff run, they enjoyed a regular-season run that nearly matched the Warriors’ dominance. The Hawks won 60 games, seven more than the much-heralded Cavaliers.

What made it even more impressive was that the Hawks did it with a core group that even today, most casual fans would have trouble naming. Who considered DeMarre Carroll to be one of the better small forwards in the league prior to last season? How many people thought Jeff Teague and aging gunner Kyle Korver would form one of the league’s most potent backcourt duos? Who thought center Al Horford could make it through a season without another significant injury?

Atlanta’s sudden rise was an eye opener. But that was last year. Somewhere out on the NBA landscape, another team without much hype is about to make a charge toward the top spot.

That brings us to today’s question: Which team will be the league’s biggest surprise and emerge as a contender this season?

Take to the comments section below to share your thoughts and opinions on the matter. Also, be sure to check back later on, as we’ll be responding to readers throughout the evening. We look forward to what you have to say!

Southeast Rumors: Wizards, Lamb, Hawks

October 12th, 2015 at 8:37pm CST by Dana Gauruder

John Wall believes the Wizards will be able to play with a faster tempo now that aging small forward Paul Pierce has joined the Clippers, David Aldridge of NBA.com reports in his weekly column. The Wizards’ floor leader feels that with Otto Porter at that spot in place of Pierce, the club will be able to rely much more on its transition game. “We kind of wanted to be a halfcourt team because he couldn’t get up and down the floor,” Wall told Aldridge. “He’s not the young Paul any more. And he helped us out a lot in so many other ways, making big shots and being a leader. But now it’s going to be an opportunity to let Otto exhale, running the floor, being able to create off the dribble, him slashing to the basket, and just anybody that comes into that position.” The Wizards were just 16th in pace last season but coach Randy Wittman wants more possessions, Aldridge adds. “If you have the ball, and you have an open shot, you’re shooting it,” Wittman said to Aldridge. “If you don’t, you’ve either got to pass, or dribble penetration. You can’t hold it and dribble and dribble.”

In other news around the Southeast Division:

Shooting guard Jeremy Lamb has the most upside among the Hornets’ offseason acquisitions, Ken Berger of CBS Sports opines. With Michael Kidd-Gilchrist likely out for the season, Lamb could be a starter on the wing alongside small forward Nicolas Batum. But Lamb either has to display an improved jump shot or develop his drive game and get to the paint in order to take full advantage of the opportunity, Berger continues. The Hornets’ front office tried to acquire Lamb long before he was finally made available by the Thunder, Berger adds. Lamb was dealt in June to Charlotte for Luke Ridnour and a protected second rounder.
The Hawks are experimenting with a big lineup of Tiago Splitter at center, Al Horford at power forward and Paul Millsap at small forward but the results have been mixed thus far, Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. “Obviously, we have a lot of good big guys,” Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer told Vivlamore. “We are trying to figure out a way to play them together.” The Hawks were 28th in the NBA in rebounds last season and the big lineup could help improve that figure, Vivlamore adds.
The Magic have not found any superstars with their recent lottery picks but they could all contribute the team’s revival, Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel reports.

Cavs Lead With 16 Free Agent Signings

October 12th, 2015 at 5:01pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Cavaliers have drawn plenty of attention the past few months for a free agent they haven’t signed, but even though Tristan Thompson lingers in free agency, Cleveland has taken care of more free agent business than any other team in the league during the 2015 offseason. They signed 16 free agents, three more than the Spurs, the team that recorded the next most free agent signings. The Cavs just made their latest signing this weekend, replacing Michael Dunigan with Dionte Christmas on the camp roster.

It might be easy to presume a direct correlation between free agent activity and success, given the teams at the very top and bottom of the list below. The Cavs and Spurs are strong bets to win their respective conferences this season, while the Jazz, Timberwolves and Sixers are nowhere near the title picture. The presence of the Warriors and Thunder on the bottom half of the list and the Kings and Nets close to the top debunk that theory, however. It has more to do with the fact that the Cavs had only four players signed for 2015/16 when they ended last season, while the Jazz had 13. Cleveland simply had more jobs to hand out.

Still, other factors are at play, since free agent signings don’t encompass draft picks, draft-and-stash signings, trades or waiver claims. The Trail Blazers made significant changes to their roster, but they did much of their work via trade instead of free agency. The Rockets had 10 players under contract on July 1st, but they still wound up making 11 free agent signings.

Here’s a look at the number of free agent signings for each team. Click the team’s name to see the names of each of their signees via our 2015 Free Agent Tracker.

Rockets Claim Arsalan Kazemi From Hawks

October 12th, 2015 at 4:13pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Rockets have claimed Arsalan Kazemi off waivers from the Hawks, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Houston becomes the third team within the past month to have a hold on Kazemi after the Sixers relinquished their draft rights to the Iranian power forward so he could sign with Atlanta. Houston inherits the non-guaranteed contract he received from the Hawks. Kazemi becomes the 20th player on the Rockets, who have 14 signed to fully guaranteed pacts, as our roster count shows.

The former Rice and Oregon player didn’t appear in a preseason game in his brief time with the Hawks, who had him for less than two weeks when they released him Saturday. His deal only covers one year at the minimum salary without any guarantees, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reported, so the Rockets don’t assume much risk. It’s not altogether surprising to see him end up with Houston, since GM Daryl Morey is the former boss of Sixers GM Sam Hinkie, who had acquired his draft rights in a trade with the Wizards in 2013 on the same night that Washington drafted him 54th overall. The waiver claim is the first in the NBA since the calendar flipped to the 2015/16 season on July 1st.

It would nonetheless seem as though the 25-year-old Kazemi, who put up 15.0 points in 38.9 minutes per game for ChongQing AoLong of China last season, faces long odds to make the regular season roster in Houston, given the competition from five other camp invitees. The Rockets face a hard cap because they exceeded the taxpayer’s amount on the mid-level exception with their signings of K.J. McDaniels and Montrezl Harrell, so the distinct possibility exists that Houston won’t carry a 15th man for opening night. Still, the Rockets can keep the D-League rights to as many as four of the players they waive, so perhaps that’s what they have in mind for Kazemi.

Southeast Notes: Richardson, Hezonja, Napier

October 11th, 2015 at 1:55pm CST by Arthur Hill

Josh Richardson‘s ability to play both guard positions may help him earn playing time with the Heat, according to Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel. Responding to a question in his weekly mailbag, Winderman said Richardson’s flexibility may help him stay in Miami rather than be sent to the D-League. The columnist expects Richardson to get more playing time in the Heat’s next two games to show if he belongs in the NBA.

There’s more from the Southeast Division:

Magic rookie Mario Hezonja is quickly developing a reputation for toughness, Winderman writes in a separate story. During last week’s game with Miami, the Croatian stood up to veteran Amar’e Stoudemire when the veteran objected to a screen that Hezonja set. “I’m not allowing anybody to be offensive with my teammates and especially not with me,” Hezonja said afterward.
Even though the Magic traded for Shabazz Napier over the summer, he’s not a lock to make the team, according to John Denton of Magic.com. Miami shipped the second-year player to Orlando in a cost-cutting move, and now Napier is battling for a roster spot. He and Keith Appling are both hoping to become the third-string point guard behind Elfrid Payton and C.J. Watson. However, with a wealth of perimeter players who can initiate the offense, Denton speculates that the team could keep an extra big man and let Napier and Appling go. “Shabazz has a slight frame,” said coach Scott Skiles said. “It’s not that he’s not tough. There are bigger bodies. He’s always going to have that [size disadvantage]. So he’s just got to make up for it with his ability to shoot.”

Hawks Waive Edgar Sosa, Arsalan Kazemi

October 10th, 2015 at 3:35pm CST by Eddie Scarito

3:35pm: Both players have officially been waived, the team announced in a press release.

1:12pm: The Hawks have waived point guard Edgar Sosa and power forward Arsalan Kazemi, Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports (via Twitter). Both players were in training camp on non-guaranteed deals, so Atlanta won’t be on the hook for any funds as a result of these moves. This reduces the Hawks’ preseason roster count to 18 players, including 13 with full guarantees on their deals.

Sosa, 27, went undrafted out of Louisville back in 2010 after posting career NCAA numbers of 9.7 points, 1.8 rebounds, and 2.8 assists. He joined the Pistons summer league entry that year, but he ended up signing overseas with the Italian club Angelico Biella. The point guard spent the 2014/15 campaign playing for Dinamo Sassari in Italy. Sosa’s numbers last season were 10.7 PPG, 1.5 RPG, and 3.5 APG to accompany a slash line of .387/.320/.789.

Kazemi, a native of Iran, played last season for ChongQing AoLong of China in his second year as a pro after he became the 54th overall pick of the 2013 draft. He spent the majority of his college career at Rice before transferring to Oregon for his senior season, when he notched averages of 9.4 points and 10.0 rebounds in 29.0 minutes per game.

Jury Clears Thabo Sefolosha

October 9th, 2015 at 9:56am CST by Chuck Myron

A Manhattan Criminal Court jury found Thabo Sefolosha not guilty on all three charges levied against him for his involvement in an April incident with New York City police, tweets Robert Silverman of The Daily Beast. The Hawks swingman faced up to a year in jail, as Rebecca Rosenberg of the New York Post noted this week, on charges of misdemeanor obstructing government administration, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. The April scuffle left Sefolosha with a broken leg that prematurely ended his season and limited the Hawks in the playoffs, where a 60-win Atlanta team fell in the Eastern Conference Finals. Sefolosha expects to be 100% recovered in time for the season, as Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution relayed at the start of training camp (Twitter link).

The verdict allows Sefolosha and the Hawks to put the incident behind them, though it’s possible that Sefolosha will file a civil suit against the police, whom he claims unlawfully injured him, as Michael McCann of SI.com posited. Sefolosha sought to clear his name as he rejected a plea deal that would have seen the charges dismissed and punishment limited to a single day of community service, Rosenberg points out. Prosecutors earlier dropped their case against former Hawks big man Pero Antic, who was with Sefolosha at the time of the incident. Antic signed with Fenerbahce Ulker of Turkey this past summer.

Hawks coach and president of basketball operations Mike Budenholzer took the stand in Sefolosha’s trial, testifying to the character of the now 31-year-old whom the Hawks acquired via sign-and-trade in 2014, as Danny Knobler passes along in a story for the Journal-Constitution. Sefolosha’s contract calls for him to make $4MM this season and $3.85MM next season, all of it guaranteed.

“All teams do things differently, but character is our most important thing,” Budenholzer said under oath. “Thabo was someone I personally very much wanted and sought. I felt he was exactly the type of person and player we wanted in Atlanta, that I wanted in Atlanta.”

Then-Pacers combo forward Chris Copeland, who has since signed with the Bucks, was stabbed outside the same club on the same night that Sefolosha and Antic were arrested. Prosecutors alleged that the arrests took place when Sefolosha and Antic would not move away from the crime scene after police asked them to do so six times, but sources told Greg Hanlon of SI.com that Sefolosha and Antic were walking back to a car that was to take them to their team hotel when an officer began to chase after them, leading to the arrests.

Southeast Notes: Dragic, Napier, Smith, Holiday

October 7th, 2015 at 10:29am CST by Chuck Myron

Goran Dragic has a new five-year deal worth more than $85MM with the Heat, and he also has more responsibility and a stronger roster around him than ever before, notes Jason Lieser of the Palm Beach Post. Dragic only has played in one NBA postseason, but odds are that’ll change by this spring.

“There’s definitely more pressure now,” Dragic said to Lieser. “You need to show people that you’re worth that money. I know I have my spot, but you need to prove to everybody that you deserve it. There’s pressure, and you need to deal with it. I can do that.”

See more on an ex-Heat point guard amid the latest from the Southeast Division:

Shabazz Napier likes his new surroundings with the Magic and wasn’t surprised when the Heat traded him in the offseason, observes Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel. “During the summer you hear lot of rumors. What actually happened, I wasn’t too surprised at all. If it hit me where I didn’t know about it, then I’d be surprised,” Napier said. “But I kind of had a feeling they kind of needed to get some trades off. I sensed it because I have a great agent [Rob Pelinka], not because I felt they wanted me to get out of there. It’s just sometimes it’s business. They needed extra money and they didn’t need the luxury tax and what not.”
The Sixers made Ish Smith an offer to return, and the Kings and Suns offered him deals, too, before he instead signed with the Wizards, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Sixers seem like they could have used him, but Smith faces long odds to stick for opening night in Washington, since he has a non-guaranteed deal on a roster with 15 fully guaranteed contracts, Pompey writes.
Justin Holiday, one of the few members of the Warriors championship team to depart Golden State this summer, is hoping to follow in DeMarre Carroll‘s footsteps as an under-the-radar signee who blossoms with the Hawks, as Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders details. Holiday’s two-year deal with Atlanta is for the minimum salary, as Basketball Insiders scribe Eric Pincus shows. “The main thing that appealed to me was how the team played,” Holiday said. “Just how coach [Mike Budenholzer] goes about doing things here. I guess DeMarre leaving, obviously that made it available for me to come. So that has to be a big reason why I’m here, but I guess I didn’t focus as much on him not being here. I just think the way they do things here is the main reason why I felt like this was a good place for me to come.”

Eastern Notes: Young, Budenholzer, D-League

October 6th, 2015 at 8:00pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Thaddeus Young was looking for a change after playing on losing teams with the Sixers and Timberwolves, and while he had a brief taste of success with the Nets late last season, he didn’t hesitate to re-sign with Brooklyn even though the team is taking a step back, as Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com details. Young, who’s endured family hardship the past two years, has long been seeking stability, Mazzeo writes. “It was a smooth transition. The guys on the team, the front office and the coaching staff were so welcoming that it made me want to stay,” Young said of his initial experience in Brooklyn. “Whatever we asked for, they got it done. It’s frustrating when you’re in an environment where you’re not happy with a lot of things that go on. But for the most part, I’m happy here, and we have a great coach in Lionel Hollins. I think he’s done a helluva job putting us in a position where we can be successful, and I think he’s going to continue to do that.”

Here’s more from out of the Eastern Conference:

Hawks coach/executive Mike Budenholzer says he’s trying to follow Gregg Popovich‘s lead now that he’s joined the longtime Spurs boss among coaches who also oversee basketball operations for their teams, notes Chris Mannix of SI.com (Twitter link). Budenholzer added that he has a great deal of trust in new GM Wes Wilcox.
The Heat have officially added Octavio De La Grana and Corey Belser as assistant coaches on new coach Dan Craig‘s staff for their D-League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, the team announced.
Nets shooting guard Markel Brown, whose $200K partial guarantee jumped to a full guarantee on his $845,059 minimum salary when he wasn’t waived by his contract’s September 29th guarantee date, will miss the remainder of the preseason, the team announced. Brown is suffering from a strained left oblique muscle.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.