- The identity of the coach means little in free agent recruiting, but muted though it may be, the presence of Steve Clifford has a positive impact on the way players view the Hornets, observes Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical. Clifford, like Terry Stotts of the Trail Blazers and Quin Snyder of the Jazz, makes a small-market team attractive through his ability to get the most out of players and increase their market value, Wojnarowski writes. The Hornets signed Clifford in November to an extension that ties him to Charlotte through at least the 2018/19 season.
Hornets center Spencer Hawes underwent an MRI today that revealed a sprain of the MCL in his right knee, and he’ll miss the remainder of Charlotte’s first round series against the Heat as a result, the team announced via press release. The big man will be re-evaluated in a week’s time, according to the team. Hawes has appeared in five playoff games for the Hornets and has averaged 3.6 points and 3.2 rebounds in 10.6 minutes per contest. The 28-year-old still has two years remaining on his contract, though his pact does include a player option for 2017/18 worth $6,021,175, so he should have more than ample time to recover prior to hitting the open market.
- Hornets swingman Courtney Lee wasn’t initially thrilled about the deadline trade that landed him in Charlotte but said a phone conversation with coach Steve Clifford changed his mind about the move, as Justin Verrier of ESPN.com details. “I know what type of coach he is and what he demands of his players, the amount of hours he put in with preparing the team and his attention to detail,” Lee said of Clifford. “So I got excited about joining him again.” Clifford was an assistant with the Magic when Lee was a rookie during the 2008/09 campaign.
The Magic, Bucks, Trail Blazers and Hornets are the favorites for Dwight Howard in free agency this summer, as Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com writes within a broader piece on the Rockets, Howard’s current team. Houston has long expected Howard to turn down his $23.282MM player option for next season in search of a max deal that would pay him about $30MM next season, and Howard and fellow Rockets star James Harden have a chemistry that one team source described to Watkins as “cordially bad.”
Howard would prefer to re-sign with the Rockets but would entertain the idea of returning to the Magic, his first NBA team, as Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher heard. Howard told Bucks play-by-play announcer Gus Johnson he wanted the Rockets to trade him to Milwaukee at the February deadline this year, Johnson said. The Hornets and Rockets had exploratory trade talks about Howard before the deadline, and Howard played under Charlotte head coach Steve Clifford when he was an assistant. This is the first reported link between Howard and Portland this year.
The 30-year-old former All-Star is known for indecisiveness regarding contract matters in the past, so it would be no shock if this list of front-runners undergoes drastic changes between now and July, when he can sign a contract with a new team. Howard was a client of agent Dan Fegan during his split with the Magic and one-year Lakers tenure, but earlier this year he dropped Fegan in favor of Perry Rogers, Shaquille O’Neal’s rep.
Chandler Parsons publicly campaigned Tuesday for Howard to join him on the Mavericks, but the Mavericks don’t want to give Howard a deal approaching the max, and Dirk Nowitzki, who’s spoken openly about potential free agents in the past, declined comment when asked about the possibility of Howard in Dallas, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com.
The Magic are in line to have no shortage of cap room this summer, with enough flexibility to sign two max free agents. Portland doesn’t have quite that much but still has more than enough flexibility to afford a max contract for Howard, even with Damian Lillard‘s max extension kicking in. The Bucks would likely have to perform some cap gymnastics to accommodate Howard, since they already have close to $62MM in guaranteed salary committed against a projected $92MM cap. Charlotte only has about $46MM on the books, but that doesn’t include any money for soon-to-be free agents Al Jefferson, whom Howard would likely replace if he were to sign with the Hornets, or Nicolas Batum.
Regardless, it appears Howard would face a difficult atmosphere if he were to return to Houston next season. One source close to the Rockets told Watkins that Howard lost the respect of his teammates, though a Rockets player who spoke with Watkins offered a dissenting view. Harden and Howard have spoken about their on-court issues and Harden paid for Howard’s birthday dinner earlier this season, but the high-scoring guard feels Howard is too distracted and doesn’t demand the ball enough, according to Watkins. Howard doesn’t feel Harden respects him and solicits the opinions of former teammates about what he can do to fix that, as Watkins details.
What’s your best guess as to where Howard ends up? Leave a comment to share your idea.
- The hiring of coach Kenny Atkinson, who was Jeremy Lin‘s mentor with the Knicks, could give the Hornets point guard a reason to come to Brooklyn, according to NetsDaily. The Nets need backcourt help and may be interested in Lin, who passed on a $3.5MM mini-mid level offer from Brooklyn last season.
- Nicolas Batum isn’t definitively out for the rest of the Hornets‘ first-round series against Miami, tweets Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer, dispelling an earlier report, but he’s unlikely to return unless it goes at least six games, Bonnell says. Batum is poised for free agency this summer.
The NBA’s relationship with the D-League continues to grow, and this season a total of 19 NBA teams have one-to-one affiliations with D-League clubs. Those NBA organizations without their own affiliates were required to assign players to D-League clubs associated with other NBA franchises. D-League teams could volunteer to take on the assigned players, and if no volunteers emerged, the players were assigned at random.
This significant change from the 2014/15 season came about after the Pacers purchased the Fort Wayne Mad Ants and turned them into their one-to-one partner for the 2015/16 campaign. Other NBA teams have interest in following suit in the years ahead, and the NBA’s ultimate goal for the D-League is for all 30 NBA franchises to have their own D-League squads. You can view the complete list of D-League affiliates here.
We at Hoops Rumors will be recapping the D-League-related activity for the 2015/16 campaign for each team, and we’ll continue with the the Charlotte Hornets, one of the 11 NBA franchises without their own D-League affiliate:
The Hornets made three assignments for the 2015/16 season, sending one player (Aaron Harrison) to the D-League for a total of 30 days. Listed below are all the assignments and recalls made by Charlotte for the 2015/16 campaign:
- January 21st: Assigned Aaron Harrison (1st) [Oklahoma City Blue] — Recalled January 23rd
- February 1st: Assigned Aaron Harrison (2nd) [Oklahoma City Blue] — Recalled February 8th
- March 13th: Assigned Aaron Harrison (3rd) [Erie BayHawks] — Recalled April 3rd
Here is how Harrison, Charlotte’s lone assignee, performed while on assignment to the D-League this season:
- With the Oklahoma City Blue: In four games, he averaged 9.3 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists. Harrison’s slash line was .308/.167/.714.
- With the Erie BayHawks: In nine games, Harrison averaged 21.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists. His shooting line was .377/.300/.840,
- Totals: In 13 combined games, Harrison notched averages of 17.6 points, 3.7 rebounds and 1.9 assists. His combined slash line was .363/.265/.820.
- Jeremy Lamb‘s role with the Hornets has decreased significantly since the beginning of the season and his future in Charlotte is up in the air despite having three years remaining on his deal, Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman writes. The 23-year-old made 66 appearances for the Hornets this season and averaged 8.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 18.6 minutes per outing. Lamb is scheduled to earn $6,511,628 in 2016/17.
- Hornets swingman Nicolas Batum will miss the remainder of the team’s first round series against the Heat with an ankle injury, tweets Chris Haynes of The Northeast Ohio Media Group. Batum’s X-rays showed no fracture in his injured ankle, Haynes adds. See more about Batum’s impending free agency here.
Nicolas Batum has been “perfect” for the Hornets, contends Kemba Walker, who hopes the team shells out the money necessary to keep the swingman as he heads into free agency this summer, notes Scott Fowler of the Charlotte Observer. Still, it’s conceivable that Batum has played his final game for the team, as he suffered a sprained left ankle Wednesday in the second game of Charlotte’s first-round series versus the Heat. Teammate Al Jefferson doesn’t think he’ll be back at any point during the series, according to Justin Verrier of ESPN.com, and with the Hornets down 2-0, the outlook is bleak. Batum won’t rule out leaving for another team, but he’s said he wants to be back with Charlotte, as Fowler relays. “Our core is young, we signed our coach to an extension and we’re winning,” Batum said as the playoffs began. “We can have a great run here.”
- The Hornets surprised a number of draft experts when they selected Frank Kaminsky over Justise Winslow in the first round of the 2015 NBA draft. Coach Steve Clifford indicated that it was a matter of redundancy that led Charlotte to pass on Winslow, Jackson relays in a separate piece. “[The decision] was difficult, because Justise is a good player. But so much of it is need. Justise’s position, that versatile three/four, is what we have in Michael Kidd-Gilchrist [who missed most of the season with injury]. But we were really high on Frank anyway,” Clifford said.
- Jeremy Lin, who said he almost signed with the Mavericks for the $2.814MM room exception this past summer, drew an offer from the Nets for the $3.376MM taxpayer’s mid-level exception but turned it down, with his camp of the belief that he could get $5MM a year, league sources tell NetsDaily (Twitter link). Lin instead signed with the Hornets for the $2.139MM biannual exception amount.
- Hassan Whiteside says he and his representatives tried several times without success to convince the Hornets to give him a tryout before he signed with the Heat last season, as Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post relays. Whiteside, who hits free agency again this summer, is from Gastonia, North Carolina, just outside of Charlotte.