Denver Nuggets Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Western Notes: Bryant, Gates, Malone

September 8th, 2015 at 6:48pm CST by Eddie Scarito

With Kobe Bryant entering the final year of his current deal, the Lakers were hampered by the Mamba’s $25MM salary when trying to rebuild their roster this offseason, and as a result this season will be more of a farewell tour for the superstar than a run at a final title, Shaun Powell of NBA.com writes in his season preview of the club. Powell also notes that while Bryant has a reputation as someone willing to do anything to win a championship, if that was indeed the case he would have pushed to join a contender for what could end up being his final NBA campaign. So instead, Powell opines that Bryant is willing to win, but only on his terms.

Here’s more out of the West:

Former Pelicans assistant coach Bryan Gates, who wasn’t retained when Monty Williams was fired, has been added to Flip Saunders‘ staff with the Timberwolves, Ken Berger of CBSSports.com reports (Twitter link).
New Nuggets coach Michael Malone acknowledged that he was consulted by the team’s front office prior to troubled point guard Ty Lawson being traded to the Rockets, Nicki Jhabvala of The Denver Post writes. “We’re a team. There’s no separation between church and state,” Malone said of his relationship with Denver’s front office. “We’re together, we’re one, we communicate, and I think that’s so important. But at the end of the day, Tim’s [Connelly] job as GM is to make those decisions, obviously with the blessing of [team president] Josh Kroenke. They asked my opinion, I gave it, I tell him what I feel and believe in, and then whatever decision they make I roll with it.”
The Trail Blazers will have to take a committee approach to try and replace the rim protection that was lost when Robin Lopez departed for the Knicks in free agency this Summer, Mike Richman of The Oregonian writes.

Northwest Notes: Nurkic, Wolves, Kanter

September 5th, 2015 at 7:56pm CST by Arthur Hill

Nuggets center Jusuf Nurkic is sitting out the Eurobasket tournament as he continues to rehab his left knee, though he hopes to be healthy enough to play for the Nuggets at the start of the season or shortly thereafter, Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post reports. Nurkic was planning to play for Bosnia and Herzegovina before he underwent knee surgery in May to repair a partially torn left patella tendon, Dempsey continues.

There’s more from the Northwest Division:

The Wolves‘ lottery luck turned around and gave them perhaps the second franchise player in their history, writes Shaun Powell of NBA.com. Karl-Anthony Towns, the first player selected in this year’s draft, has the potential for greatness, according to Powell, and he has the good fortune of being tutored by Minnesota’s other franchise player, Kevin Garnett. The writer believes Towns’ addition makes Nikola Pekovic expendable, although his salary of more than $35MM over the next three years may make a deal difficult until at least the trade deadline. Ricky Rubio may also be dealt now that rookie Tyus Jones and veteran Andre Miller are in town. With a wealth of young and inexpensive talent on hand, Powell sees the Wolves as contenders for a top free agent next summer.
Enes Kanter tells Carla Hinton of The Oklahoman that efforts to accommodate his Muslim faith made him feel welcome in Oklahoma City. Kanter, whose four-year, $70MM offer sheet with the Blazers was matched by the Thunder, said the organization set up a prayer room for him at Chesapeake Energy Arena.

Dana Gauruder contributed to this post.

Eastern Notes: J.R. Smith, Wizards, Contracts

September 3rd, 2015 at 5:30pm CST by Chuck Myron

J.R. Smith‘s new two-year contract with the Cavaliers has an unusual structure that includes partial guarantees for both this season and next, sources tell Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com (Twitter links). This year’s salary, worth $5MM, is guaranteed for only $2MM, and next year’s salary, a player option, has a $2.15MM partial guarantee on the full $5.4MM value, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (All four Twitter links). However, this season’s salary becomes fully guaranteed if the team keeps him through Monday, Pincus adds. That’s almost certain to happen, but the reason that clause is in the contract is so that his 2016/17 salary can become fully guaranteed if he sticks on the roster through the same date next year, in a structure similar to the deal that Kostas Papanikolaou signed with the Rockets last year, Pincus explains. The Cavs formally announced Smith’s signing Wednesday, nearly two weeks after Smith revealed that he would be rejoining the team.

See more from around the Eastern Conference:

Coach Randy Wittman likes the grit that Wizards camp signee Toure’ Murry has shown in the past, but the shooting guard will have to make quite a convincing case for the Wizards to keep him over one of the 15 players on their roster with a fully guaranteed contract, writes J. Michael of CSNMidAtlantic. Jaleel Roberts, the other Wizard with a non-guaranteed deal, won his training camp roster spot more so by his performance at Tim Grgurich’s private camp than through his play with the Wizards summer league squad, Michael hears. Still, Roberts is more likely to make the regular season roster in 2016/17, when the team will ostensibly have greater flexibility, than he is this year, according to Michael.
Kelly Dwyer, Ben Rohrbach and Eric Freeman of Yahoo! Sports weighed in on which 2015 NBA draftee ended up in the best situation to succeed next season. Dwyer chose the Knicks‘ Kristaps Porzingis, while Rohrbach tabbed Justise Winslow of the Heat, and Freeman’s pick was the Nuggets’ Emmanuel Mudiay.
The Cavs had possessed one of the most tradeable contracts in the league in Brendan Haywood‘s non-guaranteed pact, which they had dealt to the Blazers at the end of July. Pincus, in a separate post, ran down some of the most desirable trade chip contracts around the NBA , including Amir Johnson and Jonas Jerebko of the Celtics, the Wizards‘ Kris Humphries and Martell Webster, as well as Ersan Ilyasova‘s deal with the Pistons.

Eddie Scarito contributed to this post.

Northwest Notes: Rubio, Harkless, Claver

September 2nd, 2015 at 8:47am CST by Chuck Myron

Ricky Rubio answered affirmatively when asked whether he wanted to remain with the Timberwolves and praised the team’s offseason additions in an interview with Jamie Goodwin of the Gulf News in Dubai, where the point guard had traveled for a basketball camp. Reports conflicted this spring on the subject of whether Rubio’s camp was pushing for a trade, though comments since that time from Rubio and Wolves coach/executive Flip Saunders have downplayed the notion that a trade is forthcoming. See more on Minnesota’s Northwest Division rivals here:

The Trail Blazers were eyeing Maurice Harkless long before they traded with the Magic this summer to acquire him, as GM Neil Olshey tells Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. “Mo was very high on our board a few years ago in the [2012] draft,” Portland general manager Neil Olshey said. “We were excited about him. He has a lot of potential. He fits our model right now; he’s an emerging young player. He’s got a lot of talent. We have a lot of faith in our player development staff and our coaches that guys hit their ceilings, and we know Mo’s not even close to his ceiling at this point. He’s going to get a great opportunity with us to be the player we loved coming out of the draft.”
Former Blazers small forward Victor Claver has officially signed with Lokomotiv Kuban of Russia, the team announced (hat tip to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). International journalist David Pick first reported the deal this weekend. It had appeared that Claver would return to his native Spain to play, but he’s instead headed to Russia, where he finished up this past season with Khimki Moscow after hitting NBA waivers. The Blazers traded him to the Nuggets in the Arron Afflalo deal, and Denver released him a few days later.
The Jazz have hired Jordan Brady as an assistant coach for their D-League affiliate, the team announced. He spent last season as a Lakers D-League assistant coach. He’ll work under D-League head coach Dean Cooper and replace Andrae Patterson, who moved into a front office role with the Jazz this summer.

Joey Dorsey, Turkey’s Galatasaray Strike Deal

August 29th, 2015 at 8:38am CST by Chuck Myron

AUGUST 29TH, 8:38am: The signing is official, the team announced (translation by Emiliano Carchia of Sportando).

AUGUST 18TH, 8:15am: Joey Dorsey and Galatasaray of Turkey have agreed to a deal worth more than $650K, a source tells international journalist David Pick (Twitter link). Agent Misko Raznatovic confirmed the pact (on Twitter). The salary would indicate that it’s a one-year arrangement, and Sportando’s Orazio Cauchi says that’s indeed the case (Twitter link). Pick indicates that the sides have already put pen to paper, though it would appear to be contingent upon a release from the Nuggets, who still have him under contract after acquiring him from the Rockets as part of the Ty Lawson trade. Dorsey has a guaranteed salary of more than $1.015MM coming his way this season as one of 15 Nuggets with fully guaranteed pacts.

Dorsey signed last summer with Houston on a guaranteed two-year, minimum-salary deal that brought him back to the NBA after an absence of three years. Injuries to Dwight Howard and others allowed Dorsey to make an NBA career-high 17 starts this past season, one in which he averaged 2.7 points and 4.0 rebounds in 12.4 minutes per game. The 31-year-old nonetheless saw only 13 total minutes in the playoffs.

Denver is well-loaded at power forward and center, Dorsey’s positions, with Jusuf Nurkic and draft-and-stash signee Nikola Jokić manning the pivot and Kenneth Faried, J.J. Hickson, Joffrey Lauvergne and the newly re-signed Darrell Arthur at the four. Power forward Kostas Papanikolaou is also on the roster at power forward, but his salary of nearly $4.798MM is non-guaranteed, and conflicting reports have emerged about whether the Nuggets will keep him.

Do you think we’ll see Dorsey in the NBA again? Leave a comment to tell us.

Carlos Boozer Unlikely To Sign Before Season Starts

August 28th, 2015 at 1:40pm CST by Chuck Myron

Carlos Boozer is likely to remain unsigned for the rest of the offseason and instead seek a deal with a playoff contender after the season starts, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Thus, it appears as though the 13-year veteran simply isn’t seeing an offer that he likes for now, though it casts doubt on the idea that he would bite on apparent interest from the Chinese league, an option that had reportedly intrigued him earlier this month.

Boozer, who turns 34 in November, made $16.8MM combined last season from the Bulls, who waived him via the amnesty clause in July 2014, and the Lakers, who submitted a partial claim of $3.251MM to snag him off waivers. He’d be hard-pressed to make even the amount of that amnesty claim on an NBA contract this season, simply because most teams have no more than the $2.814MM room exception to spend. The Mavericks, one of the latest three NBA teams reported to have interest in him, have only the room exception to use, while the Knicks, another of those interested parties, are limited to the minimum. The Rockets have more than $2.274MM left of their mid-level exception, but using it would impose a hard cap on them, and they still have yet to sign No. 32 overall pick Montrezl Harrell. The Spurs, Raptors, Pelicans, Nuggets, Nets, Lakers and Heat were reportedly interested in the Rob Pelinka client earlier this summer, but none of them have the capacity to give him as much as the Lakers paid for him last year. The Lakers renounced their Bird rights to him last month.

The two-time All-Star put up 16.2 points and 9.8 rebounds per game in 2012/13, but his numbers have declined in each of the two seasons since, and his 6.8 boards and 23.8 minutes per contest last season were career lows. Former Nets executive Bobby Marks wouldn’t be surprised if Boozer waited until Christmas to sign (Twitter link). I’d speculate that a decent chance exists that he stays on the market even longer. Ray Allen and Jermaine O’Neal, two other aging former All-Stars, chose to carry on as free agents into the season last year but never wound up signing.

What do you think Boozer will end up doing? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.

Northwest Notes: Henderson, Wolves, Claver

August 24th, 2015 at 4:38pm CST by Chuck Myron

No player has been with a Northwest Division team longer than Nick Collison, who carved out a long-term stay with the SuperSonics/Thunder franchise even though he’s never played a starring role. He’ll make $3.75MM this season and next on the extension he signed in February. We listed the longest-tenured member of every team earlier today, and we’re sharing more from the Northwest Division here:

Trail Blazers trade acquisition Gerald Henderson wasn’t surprised the Hornets dealt him away, though the timing of the move caught him off guard, since it came the week after he opted in, as he tells Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer. He maintains ties to the Charlotte area, but he’s enthusiastic about his new team. “It was not so much about being traded as where I was going. This is a contract year,” said Henderson, who’s set for free agency next summer. “I wanted to be at a place with opportunity, a good organization and potentially a chance to win. I got all those things in Portland.”
The Timberwolves allowed the $6,308,194 trade exception they picked up in the Kevin Love trade to expire unused Sunday, though that wasn’t a surprise, as I suggested earlier this month. They still have five other trade exceptions, the largest of which is worth $5MM and doesn’t expire until next July.
Victor Claver officially joined Valencia of Spain after the team matched the offer sheet he signed with Baskonia, the Spanish ACB league announced (Twitter link; translation via Austin Green of LosCrossovers). Valencia had held his Spanish rights from the time he spent with the team before his jump to the Trail Blazers in 2012. He finished up this past season playing in Russia after the Nuggets waived him following his inclusion in the Arron Afflalo trade.

Latest On Carlos Boozer

August 21st, 2015 at 12:26am CST by Chuck Myron

7:54am: The Shandong Lions, another Chinese team, are also going after Boozer, as Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia indicates via Twitter.

12:26am: The Sichuan Blue Whales and other Chinese teams are expressing interest in Carlos Boozer, and while the Rob Pelinka client is intrigued, he’s still pursuing NBA deals, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links). News regarding the 33-year-old has been scarce since a late-July report indicated that the Knicks, Rockets and Mavericks were eyeing him. The 33-year-old has lingered in free agency since July, when the lucrative five-year deal he signed with the Bulls expired. He made $16.8MM last season as a member of the Lakers, though Chicago paid all but the $3.251MM figure the Lakers bid when they claimed him via amnesty waivers.

Few NBA teams have more than the $2.814MM room exception to spend at this point. The Mavs have that amount available, though they already have deals with 20 players, the offseason maximum. The Knicks spent the room exception on Kevin Seraphin and have only the minimum to offer. The Rockets have about $2.274MM worth of their mid-level that they could spend, though doing so would leave the team hard-capped and without the means to give No. 32 pick Montrezl Harrell a market-value contract. Boozer and the Clippers reportedly had mutual interest in July, but they only have the minimum to spend, and while the Spurs, Raptors, Pelicans, Nuggets, Nets, Lakers and Heat have all apparently had interest over the course of the summer, it’s unclear if that’s the case now. Thus, I’d speculate that Boozer is only receiving minimum-salary offers from NBA teams at this point.

Andray Blatche signed a three-year, $7.5MM deal with China’s Xinjiang Flying Tigers this past spring, and a few weeks ago Shavlik Randolph inked a contract for at least $4.5MM over three years, numbers that suggest that Boozer, if he went to China, stands a decent chance to top the $1,499,187 he’d see on an NBA minimum deal. Still, Metta World Peace wound up with less than that in his deal with Sichuan last summer. A Chinese team would nonetheless offer Boozer a chance to double-dip, since the Chinese Basketball Association ends well in advance of the NBA season, giving players an opportunity to latch on with NBA teams at prorated salaries for the stretch run.

Will Joseph of Hoops Rumors examined Boozer’s free agent stock in depth earlier this month.

Where do you think Boozer ends up? Comment to tell us.

Nuggets Waive Joey Dorsey In Buyout Deal

August 18th, 2015 at 1:12pm CST by Chuck Myron

1:12pm: Denver has waived Dorsey, the team announced via press release. He’s giving up $200K of his salary in the buyout, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter links), who also indicates that the Nuggets waived their set-off rights as part of the arrangement. That means the Nuggets will have to pay Dorsey $815,241 if he clears waivers, regardless of the money he makes playing elsewhere the rest of this season.

10:49am: The Nuggets and Joey Dorsey have agreed to a buyout deal that will facilitate his departure for Turkey’s Galatasaray, reports Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post (Twitter link). Dorsey, whom Denver will waive as part of the arrangement, has already signed a deal worth more than $650K with Galatasaray, as international journalist David Pick reported earlier this morning. The Nuggets had been set to pay him a guaranteed salary of more than $1.015MM for this season. It’s unclear how much of that Dorsey has agreed to forfeit.

Another NBA team could claim Dorsey off waivers and foil his plan to go overseas once the Nuggets release him, but that’s an unlikely outcome, since his salary is fully guaranteed. Dorsey, whom the Nuggets acquired from the Rockets in the Ty Lawson trade, averaged a career-high 12.4 minutes per game and made 17 starts, also a career best, for Houston last season, though injuries to Dwight Howard and others helped him to his place in the rotation. The Rockets were reportedly ready to trade him in December to free up a roster spot for Josh Smith, but Houston found no takers and released Tarik Black instead, a move that paved the way for Dorsey’s starts, all of which came after Smith replaced Black. The 31-year-old Dorsey was out of the mix by the playoffs, when he saw just 13 total postseason minutes.

Denver will have 14 fully guaranteed contracts once it formally sheds Dorsey. Erick Green has a $100K partial guarantee on his minimum salary, and conflicting reports shroud the future of Kostas Papanikolaou and his non-guaranteed salary of nearly $4.798MM. The Nuggets are limited to paying no more than the minimum salary to outside free agents after using the room exception to re-sign Darrell Arthur.

Western Rumors: Lawson, Davis, Jazz

August 17th, 2015 at 10:29pm CST by Dana Gauruder

New Nuggets coach Michael Malone said the club made a “good move” by dealing troubled point guard Ty Lawson to the Rockets last month, Nicki Jhabvala of the Denver Post reports. The Nuggets received a protected 2016 first-round pick, four players and cash for Lawson in the trade. “We wish Ty well. I mean that sincerely. That’s not just coach talk,” Malone said to Jhabvala. “We all wish him well. But it was a move that we felt was a good move for us. I hope he’s able to get his life in order, and when he does, we all know he’s a special player.” Malone added to Jhabvala that he had input on the deal. Lawson has completed his court-ordered 30-day stint in an alcohol rehabilitation program, according to Mark Berman of FOX26 Sports in Houston. Happy Walters, Lawson’s agent, told Berman via text message that Lawson was released on Monday afternoon. Lawson entered the program after being charged with two DUIs in seven months.

In other news around the Western Conference:

Glen Davis expects to sign a contract by the end of the month, he told SI.com’s Maggie Gray (video link). Davis, one of the remaining unrestricted free agents on the market, said in the interview that he doesn’t want to play for a rebuilding club. “I want to go on a team that’s competing for a championship,” he said. The Clippers have shown interest in re-signing Davis.
Treveon Graham’s three-year, minimum-salary contract with the Jazz has a $75K guarantee, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets. The former VCU shooting guard signed with Utah on Monday.