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James Not Convinced Cavs-Warriors Is Rivalry

January 15th, 2017 at 9:21pm CST by Austin Kent

It’s no secret that, despite the MVPs, Stephen Curry makes less money than some of his Warriors teammates do. The superstar guard is okay with it. “If I’m complaining about $44MM over four years, then I’ve got other issues in my life,” Curry told the Mercury News in a podcast.

Of course Curry is in line for a hefty pay raise as soon as this summer. Per Chris Haynes of ESPN, Curry will be eligible for a five-year extension worth roughly $210MM and you can be sure that the Warriors will present it to him as soon as they’re able too.

Though it would make little basketball sense for Curry to leave an elite level like a contender, the latest CBA makes it harder to justify on a financial level, too. Were Curry to consider options other than the Warriors, he could only receive $140MM over four years.

“Like I’ve said from Day 1, when I was first asked about free agency, this is a perfect place to play. Bay Area fans are amazing, our organization’s amazing, we’ve put together an amazing team that’s competing for championships every year,” Curry said. “There’s really no reason that I can see right now that would draw me elsewhere.”

There’s more out of the Pacific Division:

  • The Warriors have seven centers on their roster — eight if you include Draymond Green. Tim Kawakami and Marcus Thompson of the Mercury News spoke with assistant general manager Kirk Lacob about how the club structured the roster coming out of training camp and what might come next.
  • Though not as frequently featured on highlight reels as some of his teammates, Luc Mbah a Moute has had a significant impact on the Clippers, writes Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee. Head coach Doc Rivers agrees, offering some bold praise about the 30-year-old veteran. “He is one of the best defensive players in the league, bar none, but because he’s not a scorer, no one really notices, but that’s his value to a team.”
  • Despite their consecutive NBA Finals matchups,  LeBron James does not believe the Cavaliers and Warriors have a rivalry. “We’ve had two great Finals appearances the last two years,” James told the media. “But I had the same with San Antonio when I was in Miami. We weren’t rivals. And I think I played those guys more, so I wouldn’t look at it as rivals.”
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NBA D-League Assignments/Recalls: 1/15/17

January 15th, 2017 at 5:21pm CST by Will Joseph

Here are the D-League transactions for the day so far:

5:21pm:

2:15pm:

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Cavaliers Notes: Korver, Osman, Shumpert, Brown

January 15th, 2017 at 9:00am CST by Arthur Hill

The Cavaliers were interested in Kyle Korver long before last week’s trade was completed, according to Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. GM David Griffin had been asking the Hawks about Korver for the past 12 months, and former GM Chris Grant tried to sign him in 2013, offering more than the four-year, $24MM deal he accepted from the Hawks. The Cavaliers believed they needed to acquire a shooter as quickly as possible after J.R. Smith had surgery on a broken thumb and Mike Dunleavy Jr. was unable to fit into the offense. Korver, 35, is headed for free agency in the offseason and didn’t fit into Atlanta’s long-term plans.

There’s more this morning out of Cleveland:

  • The Cavaliers refused to part with draft-and-stash prospect Cedi Osman in the trade, Pluto adds in the same piece. The 21-year-old wing plays for Anadolu Efes in Turkey and has developed into one of the best prospects in Europe. He wants to join the NBA next season and the Cavs told the Hawks he wasn’t available.
  • The addition of Korver allowed coach Tyronn Lue to insert Iman Shumpert into the starting lineup, writes Jason Lloyd of The Akron Beacon Journal. Shumpert is an improvement over DeAndre Liggins, but Lloyd says Lue was hesitant to start him because he feared the second unit would be too thin. Smith may ultimately reclaim the starting spot, but he isn’t expected back until April. The Cavs started installing plays for Korver at Friday’s walkthrough, and Lue likes the idea of teaming him with LeBron James when the reserves are in the game.
  • Former Cavaliers coach Mike Brown talks in depth about his two stints in Cleveland in an interview with Anthony Slater of The San Jose Mercury News. Now the lead assistant in Golden State, Brown reportedly had trouble connecting with Kyrie Irving and was fired for a second time in 2014 when Irving was eligible for a contract extension.
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NBA D-League Assignments/Recalls: 1/14/17

January 14th, 2017 at 10:32pm CST by Austin Kent

Here are the D-League transactions for the day:

10:32pm:

  • The Spurs recalled guard Bryn Forbes from their D-League affiliate in Austin before today’s game with the Suns.
  • The Lakers sent center Ivica Zubac to the D-Fenders following their afternoon game, giving him a chance to play for both teams in the same day, tweets Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News.

2:56pm:

  • The Warriors recalled Kevon Looney and Patrick McCaw from their D-League affiliate in Santa Cruz, the team has announced in a press release. Both were assigned on Friday. In a victory over Salt Lake City, Looney dropped 18 points and 20 rebounds.
  • The Rockets have assigned rookie center Chinanu Onuaku to their D-League affiliate, tweets Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. Onuaku has averaged 11.8 points and 10.5 rebounds in 19 games for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers so far this season.
  • The Cavaliers have assigned point guard Kay Felder to the D-League, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPN. The rookie expected to be back with the big league club as soon as Sunday.
  • After clearing waivers last week, former Hawks forward Ryan Kelly has rejoined the Maine Red Claws, tweets Chris Reichert of The Step Back. Kelly was called up by the Hawks before suiting up for Maine, but they still held his returning rights.
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Cavs Send $750K To Hawks In Kyle Korver Deal

January 13th, 2017 at 10:12pm CST by Luke Adams
  • The Cavaliers are sending $750K in cash to the Hawks as part of the Kyle Korver trade, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. As our Salary Cap Snapshot for the Cavs shows, the team has now sent out cash in three separate trades during the 2016/17 league year. Cleveland is eligible to send out another $750K.
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Cavs GM Talks Korver, Roster, Trade Possibilities

January 13th, 2017 at 5:59pm CST by Luke Adams

Speaking to reporters for the first time since completing the trade that sent Mike Dunleavy, Mo Williams, and a first-round pick to Atlanta for Kyle Korver, Cavaliers general manager David Griffin admitted that his club had been eyeing the veteran sharpshooter for a while. According to Griffin, the Cavs looked into landing Korver last season, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com.

During his conversation with reporters, Griffin also addressed LeBron James‘ recent public comments about Cleveland needing a point guard and a backup big man. Although he agrees with James on the subject of a point guard, Griffin isn’t convinced that the current roster needs more frontcourt depth. As the GM observed, the Cavs are often at their best when they’re using a smaller lineup with the Finals MVP at the four, reducing the need to add more traditional bigs to the lineup.

Here are a few more of Griffin’s most notable comments from the presser, via McMenamin and Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com:

On potentially adding a “playmaker” rather than simply targeting a backup point guard:

“It’s something where we’re all pretty keenly aware that it would help take some burden off of Kyrie [Irving] and LeBron as our primary playmaker, so if we could get somebody else that could do it … and it really doesn’t even have to be a point guard; it’s just we need playmaking. … Obviously [Tyronn Lue] has done some creative things with Kevin Love to make offense run through him as well. But all season long, we’ve known we need more playmaking and just more intelligence at times on the floor in terms of the decision-making. We’ll continue to try to improve.”

On using their $9.6MM traded player exception (expiring 2/18/17) to acquire Korver, reducing its value to $4.4MM and creating two new TPEs, when the team could’ve held onto the full $9.6MM TPE instead:

“The reason we did it is it’s highly unlikely a team that’s running our cap and tax numbers is going to be able to use the full bandwidth of that number ($9.6MM), and the number of players that fit was really small in terms of people we had any realistic expectation we could acquire. We wanted to do something where we reset the deck with a couple [trade exceptions] that were going to be usable for another year.

“It gives us the most flexibility that we can have moving forward into the summer. We’ve got a couple other [trade exceptions] that are going to expire in July. With the minimum [salaries] changing and everything else moving forward, it’s going to be hard to use those small ones because I think they are probably going to be smaller than minimum, but [team counsel] Tony Leotti and [planning director] Brock Aller are just amazing with what they do and everything with cap space. Essentially that was their creation.”

On the fact that not many teams currently view themselves as sellers:

“The teams that are identified as sellers probably didn’t have what fit us real well, so I think there are far fewer opportunities right now to make trades than there have been in the past for our team, just in terms of fit. … Hopefully that picture clears itself up a little bit by the trade deadline. Maybe some teams that are still playing for right now may end up being in a situation where they start to set the deck for the future, but we need more teams to be out of the playoff picture to really be able to get business done.”

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Shumpert To Replace Liggins In Starting Lineup

January 13th, 2017 at 3:00pm CST by Austin Kent
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Stein’s Latest: Rockets, Cavaliers, Blazers, Pistons

January 13th, 2017 at 11:59am CST by Arthur Hill

ESPN.com’s Marc Stein takes a swing at picking the All-Star starters from each conference and passes along some trade rumors in his latest column. He lists four teams that could be active with the deadline less than six weeks away:

  • The Rockets‘ hopes of acquiring Mike Dunleavy Jr. fell through this week when the Hawks committed to keeping him, but Houston is still looking for another shooter. GM Daryl Morey tried to get involved when Atlanta was searching for a third team in its deal with Cleveland, and he had interest in acquiring Dunleavy when it looked like he might not report to the Hawks. Sources tell Stein that K.J. McDaniels has surpassed Corey Brewer as the Rocket most likely to be traded. McDaniels has one season left on his current deal at more than $3.3MM, while Brewer is signed for one more more season at $7.6MM.
  • The Cavaliers have $4.4MM left from their Anderson Varejao trade exception, which will expire February 20th. That means a trade for a backup point guard may be just as likely as a veteran free agent signing such as Mario Chalmers, Jarrett Jack or Norris Cole.
  • Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has moved ahead of Reggie Jackson on the list of untouchable Pistons in possible trades. Caldwell-Pope is now atop that list alongside Andre Drummond. Detroit is well below .500 since Jackson returned from tendinitis in his left knee in early December. Jackson, whose 5.5 assists per game are the lowest during his time in Detroit, still has three seasons and more than $51MM left on his current deal.
  • Three Trail Blazers who signed huge offseason deals will become eligible to be traded on Sunday. Keep an eye on whether Portland tries to unload some of the salary it committed to Allen Crabbe, Maurice Harkless and Meyers Leonard.
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Adding Point Guard Remains Top Priority

January 13th, 2017 at 10:58am CST by Dana Gauruder

Acquiring a veteran backup point guard will be the next move the Cavaliers make, but there could be others in store, Joe Vardon of the Cleveland Plain Dealer speculates in his latest mailbag column. The team doesn’t trust that rookie Kay Felder can run the offense and defend for 8-12 minutes in postseason games as Kyrie Irving‘s backup, pushing the need for a backup point to the top of the wish list, Vardon continues. The club would also like to add another big man and perhaps an additional wing player, Vardon continues. GM David Griffin could open up roster spots by dumping the contract of injured Chris Andersen and moving a bench player like Jordan McRae for a draft pick, Vardon adds.

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Cavs Create Trade Exceptions With Korver Deal

January 12th, 2017 at 6:31pm CST by Dana Gauruder
  • In the aftermath of the Korver trader, the $9.6MM trade exception that the Cavaliers gained in the trade that sent Anderson Varejao to the Trail Blazers last February has been reduced to $4.4MM, Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical tweets. That exception will expire on February 20, Wojnarowski continues. The Cavs created two more exceptions worth $4.8MM and $2.2MM in the deal that also shipped Mo Williams and a protected 2019 first-round pick to Atlanta. Those exceptions will expire on February 7, 2018, Wojnarowski adds.

Mike Dunleavy Jr. labelled reports that indicated he wanted a buyout from the Hawks “pretty inaccurate” and believes he’ll fit right in with the team, Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reports. The Hawks were hoping to find another team for the 36-year-old swingman when he was included in the deal that delivered sharpshooter Kyle Korver to the Cavaliers, Vivlamore continues. Dunleavy has since received assurances from coach Mike Budenholzer that he’ll get some playing time, though he will not immediately become part of the rotation. “I fit in as far as the way I play,” Dunleavy told Vivlamore. “I move, cut, shoot, pass. That’s the way this team is structured. It’s not a matter of what are you going to do for me or how am I going to fit in. It didn’t take much explaining.”

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