Denver Nuggets Rumors | Hoops Rumors

And-Ones: Anthony, Marks, Lucas, Tavares

March 6th, 2016 at 11:08pm CST by Arthur Hill

Five years later, no clear-cut winner exists in the blockbuster trade that sent Carmelo Anthony from the Nuggets to the Knicks, writes Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News. The teams have combined to win just one playoff series since the 12-player deal, Bondy notes, when New York defeated the Celtics in 2013. The Knicks got the superstar they wanted, but Denver wound up with two young but frequently injured players in Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler. The Sixers benefited, as the Knicks’ first-rounder was sent to Denver, which later traded it to the Magic, which dealt it to Philadelphia, which ended up with the rights to Dario Saric.

There’s more from around the basketball world:

Sean Marks, whom the Nets hired as GM last month, said he has tried to learn something important during every stop in his NBA career, writes Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel. As a player, Marks spent two seasons under current Heat president Pat Riley from 2001 to 2003. “The vision of it’s not about me,” Marks said. “Pat Riley’s, ‘The disease of me,’ I’ve obviously taken that from him.”
John Lucas III, who played briefly with the Pistons last season, has been waived by the Pacers affiliate in the D-League, tweets Chris Reichert of Upside and Motor. The move took place because he has plans to sign with an overseas team, Reichert hears.
The Hawks sent center Edy Tavares to the Austin Spurs in the D-League, the team announced today. Tavares has appeared in 12 games with Austin this season, but also two with Canton and two with Bakersfield because the Hawks don’t have a direct affiliate. He is averaging 9.6 points and 9.1 rebounds in D-League play.
The Clippers have assigned guard C.J. Wilcox to the Cavs affiliate in the D-League. The Clippers also don’t have a direct affiliate, so Wilcox has played for Canton and Bakersfield in two prior D-League stints this season. His D-League averages are 17.8 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.9 assists in 15 games.

Northwest Notes: Mohammed, Mudiay, Stotts

March 6th, 2016 at 11:24am CST by ChrisCrouse

The Thunder signed Nazr Mohammed to be a team leader in the locker room, Berry Tramel of the Oklahoman writes. “He knows what’s right and what’s wrong,” Russell Westbrook said. “He definitely can keep everybody accountable and try to find ways to help us win more games.” Mohammed reached the finals with Oklahoma City’s 2012 team, backing up Kendrick Perkins at the five.

The team traded Perkins away at last year’s deadline and the team misses the center’s presence in the locker room, Tramel adds. Mohammed should provide leadership, just in a different way than Perkins did.

“Perk’s a special guy.” Mohammed said. “His voice is always going to be hard to replace because that’s just his personality. I speak in my own way. I’m definitely a vocal guy, but I’m more of a pull-a-guy-to-the-side-and-explain type of guy and only speaking to the group when necessary.”

Here’s more from the Northwest Division:

The Nuggets believed Emmanuel Mudiay could be an elite player when they drafted him No. 7 overall last summer and although he struggled to begin the season, the point guard is starting to look the part, Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post writes. “For a 19-year-old kid, to kind of go through the adversity that he was going through, he bounced back in a big way. That gives me so much hope and excitement for the future,” coach Mike Malone said.
The Blazers embrace coach Terry Stotts and the team’s chemistry is a major reason why Portland is in the playoff hunt this season, Jason Quick of Comcast Sportsnet. Portland has a team option on Stotts for next season. “I always want to play hard for him,’’ said Ed Davis, who joined the team on a three-year, $20MM deal last offseason. “That’s one thing I can say: Everybody on this team can play for Coach, and it’s not like that on every team.”

Thunder Notes: Mohammed, Payne, Cheeks, Durant

March 5th, 2016 at 6:20pm CST by Arthur Hill

After veteran center Nazr Mohammed opted to come out of “semi-retirement” and sign with the Thunder, he explained his decision in a post on Sportsblog.com. The 37-year-old hasn’t played in the NBA this season. His last action was with the Bulls in 2014/15, when he appeared in 23 games. Mohammed said he was considering full retirement before Oklahoma City GM Sam Presti called with an offer. “As a young player, your only desire is to be in the NBA,” Mohammed said. “As you get older, your desire is to play for certain organizations with certain circumstances, making it a little tougher to find the right fit. Mine was a combination of all of the above. Most of the teams that I had interest in didn’t need my services, and I didn’t have the desire to go just anywhere. And some teams just didn’t want me.” The 18-year vet was a member of the Thunder team that reached the NBA Finals in 2011/12.

There’s more out of Oklahoma City:

The Thunder’s trade at the deadline that brought Randy Foye from Denver has sharply reduced the playing time of rookie Cameron Payne, writes Anthony Slater of The Oklahoman. Even though Payne is a point guard and Foye is more of a shooting guard, Payne has fallen victim to coach Billy Donovan‘s new substitution pattern that sees Kevin Durant take most of the ball-handling responsibilities when Russell Westbrook is resting.
The Thunder hoped to have assistant coach Maurice Cheeks, who is recovering from hip surgery, back at practice today, but it will be some time before he can be part of games, Slater tweets. “Standing up and down during games, is that good for his hip?” Donovan said. “I’m not sure what the doctor will tell him.”
Durant’s best strategy in free agency may be to follow the example LeBron James set, according to Tommy Beer of Basketball Insiders. Beer argues that Durant should maximize his earnings by signing a two-year contract with the ability to opt out in the summer of 2017. By then, the cap is expected to rise and Durant will be a 10-year veteran, which significantly increases the amount he can earn. Chuck Myron of Hoops Rumors examined the issue in depth last month.

Financial Impact Of Deadline, Buyouts: Northwest

March 4th, 2016 at 2:48pm CST by Chuck Myron

The effects of the trade deadline and buyout season are still being felt around the NBA as teams negotiate with new free agents and fill open roster spots. Hoops Rumors will be taking a team-by-team look at the financial ramifications of all the movement. We began earlier with looks at the Southwest, Pacific and Central divisions, and we’ll continue with the Central Division:

Jazz

Utah’s parade of 10-day contracts appears to be over thanks to the deadline trade that filled the team’s open roster spot and netted the Jazz’s starting point guard for the past five games. The team used its cap space to add Shelvin Mack as part of a three-team swap that only cost the Jazz a second-round pick. The deal also brought the team above the $63MM salary floor, thanks to Mack’s $2,433,333 pay. The Jazz overshot the minimum team salary, adding $1,817,873 more than they had to, but the move entailed no long-term sacrifice, as Mack’s contract is non-guaranteed for next season, and it appears, given Mack’s prominent role in Utah, that the trade has been worth the extra expenditure so far.

Nuggets

Denver has been opening its checkbook in an apparent effort to address injury concerns, though the team’s trade deadline swap also reaped a pair of second-round picks. That move involved the absorption of Steve Novak‘s $3,750,001 salary and D.J. Augustin‘s $3MM pay in exchange only for the $3.135MM that Randy Foye makes. The buyout with Novak saved $396,242, and the Thunder gave the Nuggets $1.16MM in cash, according to Bobby Marks of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports, but the trade still cost Denver $2,058,759, a relatively heavy price considering the team’s faint playoff hopes. Augustin went into the role of backup point guard amid concern that Jameer Nelson would miss the rest of the season, and Nelson still hasn’t played, so the deal has come in handy in that regard.

The Nuggets used their disabled player exception for Wilson Chandler‘s season-ending injury to accommodate the uneven exchange of salaries, applying it to Novak and his larger salary so that they could create a $135K trade exception for the difference between the salaries for Foye and Augustin, though the trade exception is so tiny that it’s virtually useless. Similarly, Axel Toupane‘s $30,888 10-day contract is but a pin prick of an expenditure in the wake of another injury, one that threatens to end the season for Danilo Gallinari. The Nuggets spent more when they gave JaKarr Sampson a prorated minimum-salary contract worth $258,489 for the rest of the season. That deal also includes a non-guaranteed minimum salary for next season. Denver neither gave up nor acquired any salary that’s guaranteed beyond the end of this season, so none of Denver’s deadline or buyout season moves necessarily have bearing on the team’s ledger for next year.

Thunder

Oklahoma City took advantage of a rare opportunity to save money and exchange two players who were out of the rotation for one who’s in it. The same $3,218,759 that represents Denver’s cost of its trade with the Thunder is the amount of Oklahoma City’s savings in raw salary, though it’s actually a windfall of significantly more for taxpaying OKC. The Thunder’s tax bill dropped a projected $7,148,705 because of the trade, and they also scored a trade exception for Novak’s $3,750,001 salary. The swap also created an open roster spot, and GM Sam Presti hinted at a willingness to use it on a signing, but so far, that hasn’t happened.

Timberwolves

It seemed for months as though the Wolves and Kevin Martin were headed for a parting of ways, though they stuck together just about as long as they possibly could. Minnesota didn’t trade Martin at last month’s deadline and the sides didn’t reach a buyout deal until the night of March 1st, the final hours before the point at which Martin would lose eligibility to appear in the postseason with another team. The financial sacrifice involved for Martin explains why. He resisted making any promise to turn down his $7,377,500 player option for next season before the deadline, reportedly dissuading would-be trade partners, but he agreed to sacrifice exactly half of the option and $352,750 of this season’s salary as part of his buyout, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. Thus, Martin gave up a total of $4,041,500, more than anyone else in the period since the trade deadline. The Wolves are left with $3,688,750 for Martin next season, and they have a few days’ grace to decide whether to use the stretch provision to spread that evenly over the next three years or pay it all at once in 2016/17. Early indications are that Minnesota won’t stretch the salary, tweets Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press. The Wolves also took $256,333 off their obligation to Andre Miller in his buyout, dropping their payroll to less than $1MM over the salary cap. They rolled some of that savings into a 10-day contract for Greg Smith that costs $55,722.

Trail Blazers

The Blazers predictably used their ample cap space as a depository for salary that other teams wanted to move off, taking on Anderson Varejao and Brian Roberts in a pair of trades. Look for the moves to continue, since the team is still $513,142 shy of the salary floor. The addition of Varejao in a deal that otherwise involved only draft picks added $10,256,800 to this season’s ledger, though the Cavs will pay a majority of that, including the exercised trade kicker included in that figure. Portland made use of the stretch provision to spread his salary for next season, which was almost entirely guaranteed, over the next five years at equal payments of $1,984,005, though the Cavs paid a portion of those amounts, too, because of the trade kicker. The acquisition of Roberts is much simpler since he’s on an expiring contract, but again, the Blazers don’t have to shell out for the majority of his $2,854,940 salary because he already received most of his paychecks from the Heat. Portland gave up $75K in cash to Miami as part of the Roberts deal, but the team would have had to pay that money anyway to reach the salary floor.

The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

Nuggets Sign Axel Toupane To 10-Day Deal

March 3rd, 2016 at 2:49pm CST by Chuck Myron

THURSDAY, 2:49pm: The signing is official, the team announced via press release. The contract will cover five games, against the Nets, Mavs, Knicks, Suns Wizards.

TUESDAY, 9:36am: The Nuggets plan to sign Raptors affiliate player Axel Toupane to a 10-day contract, league sources tell Shams Charania of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). The 23-year-old swingman has been playing for Toronto’s D-League team since the Raptors cut him from the NBA roster at the end of the preseason. Denver has an open roster spot and a need on the wing with Danilo Gallinari expected to miss the next month after tearing two ligaments in his right ankle, as The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported overnight.

Toupane is averaging 14.6 points and 5.6 rebounds in 29.7 minutes per game for Raptors 905, Toronto’s D-League outpost. It’s his first season in North America, as he spent the past several years with Strasbourg IG in his native France. He went scoreless in about 22 minutes of preseason action spread over two games on the NBA roster this past fall.

He’ll bolster the team’s depth in the wake of the Gallinari injury, one that presents a serious challenge to Denver’s ability to compete, in part because fellow small forward Wilson Chandler was already out for the season. The 27-year-old Gallinari is in the midst of a career year, fresh off a renegotiation and extension that ties him to Denver until at least the summer of 2017, when he can opt out. The eighth-year veteran’s 19.5 points per game are by far a career high, and he’s the leading scorer for the Nuggets, who have faint playoff hopes as they sit six games back of the eighth-place Rockets.

The Nuggets can’t receive an additional disabled player exception and already spent the one they had for Chandler in their deadline-day trade for D.J. Augustin and Steve Novak. A wrist injury threatens to sideline Jameer Nelson for the season, but Denver is still one long-term injury shy of qualifying for a 16th roster spot via hardship.

Nuggets Consider Shutting Down Danilo Gallinari

March 3rd, 2016 at 8:01am CST by Chuck Myron

The Nuggets are thinking about sitting Danilo Gallinari for the rest of the season even if he returns to health with a few games left on the schedule, coach Michael Malone acknowledged to reporters, including Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post. The 27-year-old small forward suffered two torn ligaments in his right ankle during Friday’s game that are expected to sideline him for a month, as Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports reported Tuesday, the same day that The Vertical’s Shams Charania reported the team would sign D-League small forward Axel Toupane to a 10-day contract.

Only five games are on the schedule for the Nuggets in April, as Dempsey points out, raising the question of whether it would be wise to put the team’s veteran centerpiece back on the court and risk additional injury with only a few games left to go.

“I’ve already thought about that. I don’t have an answer,” Malone said. “I think it’s a very good question. At that point, depending on where we are, it’s going to depend on four games to go, what is the picture? Are we 15 games out of the playoffs? Well, it probably makes sense to play some of our younger guys and let them get minutes and see what they can do. But we’ll see.”

Denver is six games behind the Rockets, who hold the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Malone said the team would consult Gallinari to see whether he wants to return to action, adding that the Michael Tellem client had earned the right to have input with his performance this season. The eighth-year veteran is in the midst of his best year in the NBA, averaging 19.5 points and 5.3 rebounds in 34.7 minutes per game, all career highs.

The Nuggets couldn’t get a disabled player exception, even if Gallinari becomes likely to miss the rest of the season, and while Wilson Chandler and Jameer Nelson are also sidelined, Denver still falls short of the four long-term injuries needed to qualify for an extra roster spot via hardship. The team already spent the disabled player exception it reaped from Chandler’s season-ending injury in the deadline-day trade with the Thunder. Nelson hasn’t played since January 30th because of a severely sprained left wrist, though he was available for Wednesday’s game, Dempsey notes. Kenneth Faried and Emmanuel Mudiay did play Wednesday despite minor ailments.

Gallinari is signed through next season with a player option for 2017/18, thanks to a rare renegotiation and extension deal that he and the team pulled off this past summer. The Nuggets reportedly turned away interest that the Celtics had in trading for him before last month’s deadline.

2015/16 Salary Cap Update: Denver Nuggets

March 2nd, 2016 at 9:17pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The NBA’s salary cap for 2015/16 is set at $70MM, which is good for an 11% increase from last season, and the luxury tax line is fixed at $84.74MM. With the February 18th cutoff date for trades and the de facto deadline of March 1st for buyouts now past, we at Hoops Rumors are in the process of updating the salary cap commitments for each NBA franchise for the 2015/16 campaign. Here’s the cap breakdown for the Denver Nuggets, whose regular season roster can be viewed here:

2015/16 Salary Cap= $70,000,000
2015/16 Luxury Tax Line= $84,740,000
Fully Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $71,325,201*
Remaining Cap Room= –$1,325,201
Amount Below Luxury Tax Line= $12,862,888*

*Note: This amount includes the $440,000 owed to Pablo Prigioni, the $815,421 owed to Joey Dorsey, the $845,059 due Nick Johnson, the $350,000 owed Kostas Papanikolaou and the $100,000 due Erick Green, all of whom were waived by the team. This amount also includes the $5,217,258 on the books for J.J. Hickson and the $3,333,115 owed to Steve Novak, both of whom agreed to buyouts with the team and were subsequently waived.

**Note: Mike Miller‘s salary for tax purposes is $1,499,187.

Cap Exceptions Available:

Trade Exception= $135,000 (Randy Foye. Expires February 18th, 2017)

Cash Available to Send Out In Trades= $3,400,000

Cash Available to Receive Via Trade= $2,960,000

Note: Despite the trade deadline having passed, the NBA season technically doesn’t end until June 30th. Teams are able to again make trades upon the completion of the regular season or when/if they are eliminated from the playoffs, whichever comes later. So these cash limits still apply.

The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

Texas Notes: Miller, Ginobili, Parsons, Lawson

March 2nd, 2016 at 12:39pm CST by Chuck Myron

Spurs coach/president Gregg Popovich had no shortage of praise for new addition Andre Miller, who signed Monday with San Antonio following his buyout from the Timberwolves, as Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News relays. Miller is just as glad to be with the Spurs as Popovich is to have him, McDonald notes.

“He’s one of those players you look at and say, ‘Boy, I could figure out how to fit him in,’” Popovich said. “He has been such a great player for several teams, and he does the same thing (everywhere). He’s just a pro, the consummate pro.”

See more on the Spurs amid news from the Texas triangle:

Manu Ginobili is progressing much more quickly in his recovery from a testicular injury than the Spurs thought he would, Popovich said Tuesday, as Express-News scribe Melissa Rohlin chronicles. The Spurs expected Ginobili would miss at least a month when they announced that he underwent surgery February 4th, but Tony Parker hinted Tuesday that Ginobili could return next week. It’s unclear what that means for the team’s reported pursuit of fellow wing player Kevin Martin.
Chandler Parsons thinks he’s playing the best basketball of his career, and it’s clear that he’s moved past the early-season struggles he went through as he recovered from a knee injury that prematurely ended his playoff run last spring, as Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News examines. Parsons is set to turn down his player option this summer and entertain an aggressive pitch from the Magic, as well as interest from the Rockets, Heat, Lakers, Nets, Knicks, Trail Blazers, Nuggets and possibly Thunder, but the Mavs remain the favorites for him, as Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com reported Tuesday.
Ty Lawson‘s failure to produce for the Rockets was a product of lost confidence, people around the team told Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Houston waived Lawson in a buyout deal Tuesday.

And-Ones: Oden, Sampson, Lee

March 1st, 2016 at 10:28pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Mavs power forward David Lee struggled to get into shape this season following the Warriors‘ NBA title run of last season and turned some heads when he said that he finally committed himself to getting fit when he fell out of the Celtics‘ rotation in preparation for joining another team, Chris Forsberg of ESPN.com writes. Despite the negative implications of Lee’s remarks, Boston coach Brad Stevens isn’t upset with his former player, Forsberg notes. “I don’t know if that is semantics or how he meant to say it,” Stevens said. “I think the biggest thing that he was probably saying there was that, when you’re not playing, you have to find other ways to stay ready. And maybe I’m wrong. But I think that he certainly took [to his] diet, he worked out hard — he worked out hard enough that if he would have played, he would have been gassed in the games. Sometimes you can’t do that if you’re going to be playing 15 minutes per night. He was going two or three times hard per day during that stretch. So, no, I wasn’t frustrated by it. In fact it set a pretty good example for the other guys that weren’t playing.”

Stevens also acknowledged the difficult spot Lee was placed in with him not being in the team’s regular rotation, Forberg writes. “That was hard. That was really hard. And it was harder on [Lee] than anybody else, but we talked about it a lot,” Stevens said. “We didn’t have hardly any injuries with our bigs and we had a lot of bigs that, especially at the end of games, were going to be relatively the same position. And so it put a lot of guys on the bench. And it was different guys at different times. To his credit, when we eventually settled on playing others, he handled it really well. Kudos to him. I’m happy he’s doing well.”

Here’s more from around the league:

Former NBA top pick Greg Oden was released by the Jiangsu Dragons of the Chinese Basketball Association recently, but he appreciates the opportunity that the club gave him, Joshua Bateman of USA Today writes. “It was a great opportunity for me to come and just play basketball, which I haven’t been able to do for awhile,” Oden said. “They got me playing. For me, that’s all I can say. I’ve had a lot of years where I actually just couldn’t play and this year I’m actually able to be out there on the court and play 25 minutes when I never thought I would see over 20 minutes in a game. And I’m playing three games a week. For me, that’s just something I didn’t even think I would ever be able to do.”
Chad Ford of ESPN.com (Insider subscription required) has released his latest mock draft and his current top three players are Ben Simmons of LSU, Duke’s Brandon Ingram and Croatian big man Dragan Bender.
JaKarr Sampson‘s contract with the Nuggets doesn’t contain any guaranteed salary beyond this season, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reveals (Twitter link), resolving earlier reports that conflicted. It’s a two-year pact for the minimum salary.
Joe Johnson gave back exactly $3MM in his buyout from the Nets, reports Pincus relays (Twitter link).
Kris Humphries agreed to forfeit precisely $1MM as part of his buyout with the Suns, Pincus also notes (Twitter links)

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Magic To Aggressively Target Chandler Parsons

March 1st, 2016 at 8:30am CST by Chuck Myron

The Magic loom as the most significant threat to the Mavericks to sign Chandler Parsons to a new contract this summer, reports Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com. Parsons is a virtual lock to turn down his $16.023MM player option for next season with the salary cap moving sharply upward, and he’s expected to receive a maximum-salary contract, MacMahon writes. Sources who spoke with MacMahon anticipate an aggressive pursuit from Orlando and expect the Heat, Lakers, Nets, Knicks, Trail Blazers, Rockets and Nuggets to come after the 27-year-old, too. The Thunder, would also have interest if Kevin Durant bolts, MacMahon adds, pointing to the presence of Billy Donovan, Parsons’ college coach, in Oklahoma City.

The Mavs realize they’ll need to once more put on a recruiting effort for the versatile small forward they signed to a loaded offer sheet in 2014, but they nonetheless appear to be the favorites for him again this summer, according to MacMahon. That’s because of the loyalty he feels toward owner Mark Cuban and teammate Dirk Nowitzki, as well as the fondness Parsons has for Rick Carlisle, having advocated for the five-year extension the team gave the coach earlier this season, the ESPN scribe writes. The relationship between Parsons and Carlisle is nuanced, MacMahon explains, with Parsons wary of whether Carlisle fully trusts him on the court, but Carlisle this week referred to Parsons as “a franchise-caliber player in the making” in a message to MacMahon.

The Magic opened enough cap flexibility in trades last month to sign two players to max contracts this summer, with only about $36MM in guaranteed salary on next season’s books against a projected $90MM cap. Orlando and soon-to-be free agent Al Horford reportedly have mutual interest, and Horford went to the University of Florida, just as Parsons did.

Parsons is in his fifth season, so he’ll be eligible for the lowest of the three maximum salary tiers, likely with a starting salary approaching $21MM. The Mavs will have only his Early Bird rights this summer, though they’ll function essentially as full Bird rights would for Parsons because his projected max is within 175% of his nearly $15.362MM salary for this season. The only difference will be that the Mavs can only offer four years instead of the five that they could with full Bird rights. Dallas will still have the opportunity to give him 7.5% raises instead of the 4.5% that the Magic and others will be limited to. That would mean a difference of some $4MM over the life of a four-year deal. Still, Parsons will value comfort and on-court opportunity over money as he decides where to sign, sources familiar with his thinking tell MacMahon.

In any case, the Mavericks appear committed to doing what they can to keep Parsons. Cuban indicated as much about a month ago to MacMahon, referring to Parsons and Wesley Matthews as a “crushing tandem on the wing.”