Celtics Rumors

D-League Moves: Suns, Cavs, Celtics

The D-League began its season this past weekend, and no one’s off to a hotter start than Wolves camp invitee Brady Heslip, who’s playing for the affiliate of the Kings. He’s scoring a league-leading 39.0 points per game after two contests, and while it’s early, he’s making a case to appear on an NBA roster before too long. In the meantime, several players who are already on NBA contracts spent the weekend on D-League assignment, and we’ll round up their latest comings and goings here:

  • A pair of 2014 first-round picks are back with Phoenix, as the Suns have recalled No. 14 selection T.J. Warren and No. 18 pick Tyler Ennis from the D-League, the team announced. Warren put up a sizzling 36 PPG in two appearances for the Bakersfield Jam this weekend, while Ennis averaged 22.0 PPG and 7.5 assists per contest. The Suns assigned the pair to Bakersfield on Thursday.
  • The Cavs have recalled Alex Kirk from the D-League, the team announced. Kirk didn’t appear in the only game the Canton Charge played during his three-day assignment, a three-overtime loss to the Sixers affiliate.
  • Rookies James Young and Dwight Powell are back with Boston after a two-day D-League assignment, the Celtics announced (Twitter link). The duo scored 21 points a piece and Powell came down with 17 rebounds in a win Sunday for the Maine Red Claws.

Eastern Notes: Beal, Love, Rondo, Smith

The Wizards’ Bradley Beal is expected to practice Monday and could be back in the lineup by Friday, reports Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post. The high-scoring guard, who hasn’t played since fracturing his left wrist October 10th, went through a dribbling and shooting drill on Saturday. Last month, the Wizards  exercised Beal’s fourth-year contract option worth $5.7MM. Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:

  • Even though Kevin Love is likely to become a free agent this summer, the Cavaliers don’t believe he will leave Cleveland, writes Jason Lloyd of The Akron Beacon Journal. A rumor emerged last week that Love would consider opting out of his current contract at season’s end and to sign with the Lakers. Lloyd cautioned that many more rumors are likely regarding the six-year veteran before the season ends, but the Cavs are confident in his commitment to Cleveland.
  • The CelticsRajon Rondo cites improved health as the reason for his fast start, according to Mark Murphy of The Boston Herald. ACL surgery limited Rondo to just 29 games last season, and the eight-year veteran said he never felt comfortable after his return. “I can get to the paint a lot easier now,” said Rondo, who will be an unrestricted free agent in the summer. “Last year I was pretty slow, and now I’m a step faster.” 
  • The KnicksJ.R. Smith remains on the trading block, tweets Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com. Begley notes that the team is having ongoing internal discussions about dealing Smith, and has been since July. The 10-year veteran is being paid close to $6MM this year and has a player option for nearly $6.4MM next season.

Minor Moves: Jerrett, Celtics, Johnson

The D-League season is underway, and with it will come a fast pace of assignments and recalls from NBA teams. We’ll be keeping track of those moves throughout the season in the post linked here and noting each transaction within our regular coverage. There are a pair of D-League notes and a move from overseas this afternoon amid our look at the latest news involving NBA players and minor league teams.

  • The Thunder recalled Grant Jerrett from the D-League today, the team announced via press release, just hours after sending him down to their affiliate for a practice. Coach Scott Brooks explained that the Thunder have been engaging merely in film study and walkthroughs of late, so the team wanted to allow him to engage in a full practice as he continues to recover from left ankle surgery, as Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman details (All four Twitter links).
  • The Celtics have assigned James Young and Dwight Powell the the Maine Red Claws, their D-League affiliate, the team announced. Young has appeared in two contests for Boston this season, averaging 1.7 points and 1.2 rebounds in nine minutes per game. Powell has seen less than a minute’s worth of regular season action after logging 1.7 PPG and 1.2 RPG in six preseason appearances.
  • Heat camp invitee Chris Johnson is signing with China’s Zhejiang Chouzhou Golden Bulls, a source tells David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). Johnson is a three-year NBA veteran center who last saw regular season action with the Timberwolves in 2012/13. He’s not to be confused with swingman Chris Johnson, whom the Sixers waived this afternoon.

And-Ones: Love, Union, Sterling

Kevin Love earlier today dismissed a report linking him to the Lakers, and he also told reporters Friday that his offseason visit to Boston wasn’t a fact-finding mission to see if he’d like to play for the Celtics, notes Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com.

“The fact is, my agent [Jeff Schwartz] is a big Red Sox fan,” Love said. “I’d been planning on that for a long time to come in and check out not only the city, but a Red Sox game and we had a great time and we plan on coming back. It’s tough because I wasn’t a free agent last summer. I have potential to be a free agent this summer or next. It’s just one of those things. It’s obviously a tremendous city. People love it here [in Boston]. Basketball and sports in general are huge here, but it’s been fantastic being a part of the Cavaliers now. We have a team that’s formidable, has a big presence and we see a lot of you guys [in the media] on a daily basis.”

Love makes it clear that he has affection for Boston, but that it doesn’t necessarily mean he wants to play there. Here’s more from around the league:

  • Union executive director Michele Roberts explains why she doesn’t think eliminating maximum salaries would hurt the players who aren’t making the max in the full text of her interview with Pablo S. Torre of ESPN The Magazine. Snippets of their Q&A that ESPN released earlier this week caused a stir and prompted a response from commissioner Adam Silver. The full interview reveals that Roberts is having regular talks with Silver and that players have expressed their support for a team in Europe.
  • Donald Sterling named Adam Silver, David Stern and former Clippers interim CEO Dick Parsons among 18 witnesses he may call to the stand in a trial to resolve his $1 billion federal lawsuit against the NBA, reports Nathan Fenno of the Los Angeles Times. A recent court filing revealed that Sterling lawyer Maxwell Blecher had begun talks with the NBA about a possible dismissal of the suit, but Blecher has withdrawn from representing Sterling, Fenno writes. Blecher tells Fenno that he’s unaware if any such talks are currently proceeding.
  • It’s “widely anticipated” that the NBA and the D-League will someday implement contracts that will allow players on NBA rosters to be paid D-League salaries while on D-League assignment, writes Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Currently, all players on D-League assignment continue to draw their NBA salaries, which are at least some 20 times greater than the maximum $25,500 D-League salary.

Atlantic Notes: Rondo, Livingston, Knicks

A plurality of Hoops Rumors readers said that they thought the Sixers would win between 10 and 15 games when we asked earlier this week, but it’s worth wondering whether the “Less than 10” wins option might have garnered a few more votes if the poll had appeared this morning. The season debut of Michael Carter-Williams Thursday was a 53-point loss to the Mavericks as the pain continues in Philadelphia. Here’s more from around the Atlantic Division:

  • An Eastern Conference executive isn’t sold on Rajon Rondo‘s worthiness of a maximum-salary contract and believes the point guard’s impending free agency is a drag on his trade value, as the exec tells Chris Mannix of SI.com.
  • The Nets and Shaun Livingston had mutual interest heading into the offseason, but he made it a priority to seek as lucrative a contract as possible after he missed out on higher paydays earlier in his career, as Tim Bontemps of the New York Post details. The Nets could only offer the mini mid-level, and Livingston exceeded those salaries in his new contract with the Warriors. “At the end of the day, everything I’ve been through as a player in this league, was about putting myself in the best position, one, to win, and also to get the value as a player, your market value,” Livingston said. “I think that was my case last [summer].”
  • The mere presence of Phil Jackson boosts the public perception of the struggling Knicks, who can sell hope based on the championship coaching experience of the newly minted executive, opines Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News.

And-Ones: Silver, Harris, Bryant, Celtics

Commissioner Adam Silver fired back at union executive director Michele Roberts, who held up players as the linchpins of the league while calling the salary cap “incredibly un-American.” The NBA sent remarks from Silver to media, including John Schuhmann of NBA.com, just hours after Roberts made her comments, “We couldn’t disagree more with these statements,” Silver said. “The NBA’s success is based on the collective efforts and investments of all of the team owners, the thousands of employees at our teams and arenas, and our extraordinarily talented players. No single group could accomplish this on its own. Nor is there anything unusual or ‘un-American’ in a unionized industry to have a collective system for paying employees – in fact, that’s the norm.”

Here’s more from around the league:

  • Tobias Harris says his first choice would be to remain with the Magic in restricted free agency this summer, according to John Denton of Magic.com. A report Wednesday indicated that Harris has strong interest in signing with the Knicks, so perhaps New York is Plan B.
  • Kobe Bryant has the same amount of championship rings as Tim Duncan (five), but that doesn’t stop the Lakers star from being envious of how the Spurs have kept their core together for so many years, Dan McCarney of The San Antonio Express-News writes. Bryant told Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times, “I’m extremely jealous of that. I don’t know if I can express to you how jealous I am of the fact that Tim [Duncan], Tony [Parker], Manu [Ginobili] and Pop [Gregg Popovich] have been together for all those years. Like, I can’t even. It would be like if me, Pau [Gasol], L.O. [Lamar Odom] and Phil [ Jackson], if we were all here still. It’s crazy.”
  • The Celtics were one of the teams reportedly interested in acquiring Kevin Love this past summer, but Boston wasn’t able to entice the Wolves into making a deal. Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com believes that with the way the franchise’s young core is performing it may end up being a blessing that no trade came to pass. Forsberg does add that the team still needs another star player to pair alongside Rajon Rondo, and Love would have certainly fit that bill.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Atlantic Notes: J.R. Smith, Knicks, Rondo

The Pacers do have at least some level of interest in J.R. Smith, according to Marc Berman of the New York Post, who reported earlier this month that Indiana discussed Smith in conversations with the Knicks about a potential deal involving Chris Copeland. The Knicks are confident about the market for the former Sixth Man of the Year and aren’t merely looking to swap him for an expiring contract, a source tells Berman. While we wait to see how the Knicks proceed, there’s more from New York amid the latest from the Atlantic Division:

  • Derek Fisher isn’t sure about the timetable that Phil Jackson has suggested for making judgments about the players on the Knicks roster, as Berman relays in the same piece. “I don’t know if it’s a fair assessment or not,’’ Fisher said. “[Phil] obviously knows a lot about his offense, but I think it’s more than just a guy is going to get it. Each player and person has different learning curves. I don’t know if there’s a date. It’s more where our team is from a management standpoint. For me, I don’t have a date on when I would assume a guy should or shouldn’t have it. I’m going to coach him until he’s here or isn’t here. Those won’t be my decisions.’’
  • Rajon Rondo told reporters that he didn’t disagree with Kendrick Perkins, who said earlier Wednesday that Rondo, set for free agency at season’s end, would like to remain with the Celtics, observes Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald“It’s about accurate,” Rondo said. “I mean, from media day in the beginning, that’s what I said initially. So regardless of what’s going on in the season, my perspective hasn’t changed. I love being a Celtic.”
  • Perkins, who’s also poised to become a free agent in the summer, is open to returning to the Celtics, saying it would be up to Boston’s brass to bring him back if they want him, Bulpett notes. The 30-year-old Thunder center sees Boston as increasingly attractive for free agents, as he told reporters, including Bulpett.
  • The Sixers are a long way from respectability, but tonight’s season debut for Michael Carter-Williams, who’s back from shoulder surgery, will pair him with Nerlens Noel for the first time. Having two building blocks on the floor at once will represent a landmark moment in Philly’s rebuilding, opines John Smallwood of the Philadelphia Daily News.

Atlantic Notes: Rondo, McDaniels, Fisher

With tip off for the Celtics and Knicks only a few minutes away, let’s take a look at some of the news and notes coming out of the Atlantic division:

  • Rajon Rondo would like to stay in Boston, according to close friend and former teammate Kendrick Perkins, who spoke to a number of Celtics reporters, including Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe, before Wednesday night’s Thunder-Celtics game (via Twitter). Rondo will be an unrestricted free agent this summer and we recently heard the Lakers might pursue him.
  • The impressive play of Sixers’ second round pick K.J. McDaniels has many in Philly wondering how long it will be before the rookie cracks the starting lineup, writes Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. While starting for the downtrodden Sixers is hardly remarkable — even for a rookie — McDaniels’ success is noteworthy because the Clemson product opted to gamble on himself with a one-year deal earlier this fall rather than sign the team’s four-year offer.
  • Knicks head coach Derek Fisher said he would currently be suiting up for his 19th season had the opportunity to hop right into coaching not come up this offseason, according to Chris Herring of the Wall Street Journal (via Twitter). Fisher, of course, spent the past two-plus seasons in the Oklahoma City backcourt rotation.

Eastern Notes: Waiters, Frye, Thomas, Powell

Dion Waiters may have been moved out of the starting lineup, but Cavaliers coach David Blatt tells Alex Kennedy of  Basketball Insiders that the third-year guard should think of himself as a “second starter.” “I just don’t like the term ‘bench player’ because I don’t think that’s what he is,” Blatt said. “He’s a player who plays important minutes in the game when we need them. To me, whether he begins the game [as a starter] or not is less significant. It’s about the minutes he plays and what he does in those minutes.” Still on his rookie contract, Waiters is under the Cavaliers’ control through the 2016/17 season.

Also in the Eastern Conference:

  • The Magic know what Channing Frye can do for them, but his new teammates don’t always know where he is, reports Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel. “When I’m watching film, he’s open more times than he’s receiving the basketball,” lamented Magic coach Jacque  Vaughn. “That’s just guys not knowing where he’s going to be yet, not knowing how the defense is going to play him.” The growing pains are to be expected for the Magic, who brought in eight new players during the offseason. Frye, a big man with three-point range, came to Orlando as a free agent, signing for $32MM over four years.
  • Malcolm Thomas, who was waived Monday by the Sixers, has opted to undergo knee surgery, according to Dei Lynam of CSNPhilly.com. Thomas, who was playing about 14 minutes per game, suffered a left knee effusion and will be out of action for four to five weeks.
  • The CelticsDwight Powell has no complaints about his short stint in the D-League, writes A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com. Powell, who was recalled by the Celtics Monday, scored 29 points in a Maine Red Claws scrimmage. “It’s very important for me or any player really, to work on your skills,” Powell said. “I’m glad I was able to get down there.”  Powell came to Boston this summer as part of a three-team deal with the Nets and Cavaliers. He has yet to appear in a regular-season game for the Celtics.

Atlantic Notes: Raptors, Pressey, Knicks

The Raptors are tied for the league’s best record at 6-1, and any trepidation about whether Kyle Lowry merely lucked into his four-year, $48MM deal thanks to an aberration of a season last year is dissolving with each passing game. His 17.9 points per contest this season is precisely the same number he put up in 2013/14, when he set a new career high. While we wait to see just how well Lowry and the Raptors will continue to play, here’s more from Toronto and other Atlantic Division locales:

  • Greivis Vasquez and James Johnson haven’t been Raptors teammates for long, but the point guard is already sold on the value of the forward the team signed this past summer, note Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun notes and Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports (Twitter links). “He’s a little spicy, a little crazy, but I love playing with a guy like him because I know he’s got my back,” Vasquez said.
  • The decision the Celtics made to keep Phil Pressey past the date his minimum salary became guaranteed this summer is paying off with Marcus Smart injured, as Marc D’Amico of Celtics.com examines.
  • Phil Jackson has made his share of changes in his eight months as Knicks president, but none of them appear to have made a difference in the team’s effectiveness, opines Marc Berman of the New York Post.