September 9th, 2014 at 10:27pm CST by Charlie Adams
News broke tonight that the 37-year-old Chauncey Billups has decided to throw in the towel, announcing his retirement after 17 seasons in the league. The story was a bit surprising, given the Cavs’ reported interest in the veteran guard, but recent health woes led the former third overall pick to make the decision to retire, even amid interest from a potential title contender in Cleveland.
A five-time All-Star and one-time champion, Billups has already been pegged as a potential Hall of Fame candidate by some analysts around the league. Vincent Goodwill of the Detroit News thinks it’s a conversation worth having on whether or not the now-retired combo guard should get into the Hall, given his complete resume encompassing college, NBA, and FIBA play (Twitterlinks).
While he made stops with seven different teams in his lengthy career, Billups’ arguably finest years were spent in Detroit. “Mr. Big Shot” played a critical role in the Pistons’ 2004 title, earning Finals MVP and helping bring the Motor City its first championship since the 1989/90 season. Over his career, Billups averaged marks of 15.2 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 5.4 assists each night. He drained 41.5% of shots from the floor and put down an impressive 38.7% of his treys. His 89.4% free throw percentage ranks fourth all-time.
Unfortunately, injuries limited Billups to appearing in an average of just over 61 games per season, and he was never able to recover from tearing his Achilles as a member of the Clippers during the 2011/12 campaign. Still, Billups was largely effective while on the floor during his career, as his his 18.8 PER helps demonstrate.
What do you think? Does Billups have the credentials to put him in the Hall of Fame? His career was definitely impacted by injuries, but he proved to be a top flight guard when he was healthy enough to stay on the floor. Vote below and let us know how you came to your decision by posting in the comments section!
The summer is the season of optimism for NBA fans, with draft picks and signings set to fit perfectly and improve teams all over the league–hypothetically. Once the season begins, however, the goodwill can dry up fast. Last year, blockbuster acquisitions in Detroit and Brooklyn had set expectations high for newly hired coaches Maurice Cheeks and Jason Kidd, but both teams struggled out of the gate, placing both coaches on the hot seat. Kidd survived the season and guided the Nets to the playoffs, but the root of conflict survived as well, and Kidd bolted for Milwaukee in a bizarre power struggle. Cheeks was fired in-season, and remains without a coaching job.
Mike Woodson faced constant speculation about his own job, and lasted through the season only to be let go by incoming team president Phil Jackson. Larry Drew bore the brunt of the Kidd move, and Tyrone Corbin was let go by the Jazz, despite his baby-faced roster performing about as well as expected. Mark Jackson led the Warriors to improvement for a second consecutive season, but pushing the Clippers to a Game 7 in the opening round of the playoffs wasn’t enough to salvage his position in Golden State after some turbulence between Jackson, the rest of the coaching staff, and the front office.
In the NBA, very few jobs are ever truly “safe,” unless your last name is Popovich. Let’s look at some of the coaches who could encounter early traces of job insecurity.
1. Winning Enough? Scott Brooks, Kevin McHale, and Frank Vogel. In parts of 13 seasons combined with their current teams, these coaches have only two losing seasons between them. Brooks receives plenty of flack for his in-game strategy and roster management, despite having coached a young Thunder team to a surprise appearance in the 2012 Finals, and regularly orchestrating dominant regular season performances that have been undercut by postseason injuries to Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka. After Oklahoma City’s disappointing series loss to the eventual champions in 2013/14, GM Sam Prestivoiced his support for the coach moving forward.
Vogel built a defensive juggernaut that gave the Heat one of its stiffest annual challenges in the playoffs, but Indiana struggled mightily for much of the second half of last season, and the team will suffer this year from the losses of Lance Stephenson and Paul George. The Pacers squelched rumors that the coach could be let go after the team lost in the Eastern Conference Finals for the second consecutive year, but Vogel will be coaching on an expiring contract unless the team grants him an extension in the coming months.
McHale has failed to take the Rockets beyond the first round in his tenure, and expectations are that the team is due to build on its success around James Harden and Dwight Howard. The front office in Houston didn’t do McHale any favors this offseason, allowing mainstays Chandler Parsons, Jeremy Lin, and Omer Asik to depart while striking out on free agent Chris Bosh.
2. First-Year Coaches: David Blatt, Steve Kerr, Derek Fisher, and Quin Snyder. Blatt was signed to coach a team that failed to reach the playoffs last season, but Cleveland has since become a championship contender with the additions of LeBron James and Kevin Love. It’s rare for a first-time head coach to cut his teeth with such enormous expectations. Kerr takes over for a team that envisions a higher ceiling than they had attained with Jackson. Kerr’s involvement in the decision to withhold Klay Thompson from a potential Love trade could come back to haunt him, especially if the star power forward thrives in Cleveland while the shooting guard’s game doesn’t take off under Kerr’s tutelage.
Fisher and Snyder figure to operate with more patient front offices and fan bases, as both were hired to develop players within their systems with an eye toward the future. Of course, “low-pressure” isn’t typical of any coaching job in the New York market, and Fisher has insisted that his team should make the playoffs this season.
3. The Clock Is Ticking: Jacque Vaughn and Brian Shaw.Vaughn has been at the helm for a rebuilding Magic team the last two years, racking up an understandably poor .262 winning percentage. While Orlando is still far from contending, the team has shored up the rotation with veteran additions and has a number of young players on schedule to provide a bigger impact. A season spent at the very bottom of league standings might be unacceptable to Magic brass, especially if the young pieces fail to pop. Shaw took the reigns for one of the Western Conference’s best teams in 2012/13, but injuries and the departure of Andre Iguodala prevented them from reaching the postseason altogether this spring. The West should be no less fierce this season, but the Nuggets have high hopes that Shaw will be working to meet in just his second year on the sidelines.
4. Anything Can Happen: Jason Kidd and Dave Joerger. Both coaches are entering their sophomore seasons as NBA head coaches after having reached the playoffs on the first try. Aside from their teams’ performances, there are strange off-the-court similarities between the two. Kidd exited Brooklyn in the aforementioned stunner, and Joerger appeared destined to leave Memphis amid a series of puzzling revelations about his relationship with Grizzlies owner Robert Pera, before the two eventually hashed out their differences and agreed on a contract extension. Both would appear to have a long leash for the coming season, but the combustible personalities in play have undermined peaceful coaching situations before.
Who do you think will find himself on rocky footing soonest in 2014/15? As we have routinely seen, ongoing success is no guarantee that a coach is in the clear. If you think I’ve failed to mention the most likely name, vote “Other” and leave your choice in the comments.
September 5th, 2014 at 7:48pm CST by Charlie Adams
On Wednesday morning, Chuck Myron of Hoops Rumors ran down a list of players who spent time as starters in 2013/14 but don’t have NBA contracts in place for the upcoming season. Of the 12 players identified on the list, two had signed overseas (James Anderson and Toney Douglas), one had retired (Shane Battier), one has since agreed to a deal with a new team (Greg Stiemsma, Raptors), and one has signed a qualifying offer to remain with his team for another year (Greg Monroe, Pistons). That leaves seven players with legitimate starting experience sitting without contracts.
One remaining name on the list, Eric Bledsoe, is without a deal mostly because of his status as a restricted free agent. Bledsoe wants more than Phoenix is willing to offer, so seeing the stud point guard moved in some sort of sign-and-trade wouldn’t be shocking. However, given the lack of financial flexibility most teams around the league have at this point in the offseason, it’s highly unlikely he signs outright with a new team before the start of the season.
Taking a look at the six players still on the list, which one do you see as the most likely to sign a new contract first? Some, like Ramon Sessions and Earl Clark, have been linked to teams this summer in one way or another. Others, like Kenyon Martin, haven’t been part of many rumors since the conclusion of the previous season. Let us know which remaining player on Chuck’s list you think will be the first player to ink a new deal by voting in the poll below.
September 1st, 2014 at 8:28pm CST by Zachary Links
Rumors of Rajon Rondo‘s departure have been greatly exaggerated, apparently. A clip emanating from ESPN’s “Around The Horn” had the internet wondering if Rondo had asked for a trade out of Boston. However, Rondo’s agency quickly denied such speculation. Furthermore, ESPN took the video down and a network spokesperson told our own Chuck Myron today that it was pulled because the clip was being characterized as reporting rather than “an informed conversation among our panelists.” In short, Celtics fans, don’t go putting your No. 9 jerseys on eBay just yet.
Rondo, who has said that he isn’t a big fan of change and wouldn’t mind spending the rest of his career in green and white, is apparently more patient than some have given him credit for. After watching his star teammates get shipped off and missing roughly one calendar year due to an ACL tear, many believed that Rondo would aim for a fresh start with another team. If we are to take Rondo and his reps for their word, he’s still eager to help Boston get back to glory.
Still, even if Rondo is on board with rebuilding, that doesn’t mean the C’s won’t explore trading him anyway. At 28, Rondo stands as one of the league’s very best point guards and as he enters his walk year he could bring Boston a windfall of even more young assets and draft picks to build with. The Kings could be a trade partner and although Rondo might be reluctant to sign a new deal with them, they were reportedly willing to deal for Kevin Love without any such guarantee, so it’s possible Sacramento would roll the dice anyway.
The Celtics have a promising rookie one-guard in Marcus Smart and they can afford to wait on his development as they’re ostensibly future-minded. Still, Rondo isn’t exactly a graybeard like ex-teammates Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. He could fit into Boston’s timetable and Danny Ainge seems to believe he and Smart could co-exist just fine.
“Absolutely. No question,” Ainge said in June when asked whether Smart and Rondo could share the floor. “And [Smart] and [Avery] Bradley. No question. [Smart]’s a very versatile player. He can play off the ball. He can handle the ball. With his length and his size, he can probably play against a lot of small forwards — 6’3″, long wingspan, 230 pounds. He’s a very versatile player. Easily those guys can play together, and I think they would really thrive playing together, all of them.”
For now, it seems as though Rondo wants to remain in Boston and Ainge has told anyone that will listen that he wants to keep him there. If you were at the helm of the Celtics, would you trade Rondo between now and the February deadline or hang on to him?
There was a report earlier from ESPNBoston.com’s Jackie MacMullan, in which she noted that Rajon Rondo had informed the Celtics that he wanted out of Boston. This conflicted with previous reports that Rondo was content in Boston and that the Celtics were looking to hold onto their point guard at least up until next season’s trading deadline. But if the report from MacMullan is correct, then Celtics GM Danny Ainge may be forced to deal his still-recovering star player, or at the very least, much sooner than he would prefer to.
Rondo is set to make roughly $12.9MM next season, which will be difficult for teams to salary match and provide Boston with players they will agree to take on. Ainge will prioritize cap flexibility, draft picks, and younger players in any deal for Rondo. This means that any team pitching an offer will need to have expiring contracts, first-rounders, and younger players that fit in with the franchise’s new culture, in order to have a shot at nabbing Rondo.
If Rondo is traded, then where might he be headed? The Kings appeared to be the frontrunners to match up as a trade partner with Boston. Sacramento has previously expressed interest in acquiring the 28 year-old guard, who has career averages of 11.1 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 8.4 APG, and 1.9 SPG. The Kings have a number of intriguing pieces to offer in some combination of Ben McLemore, Jason Thompson, Nik Stauskas, and draft picks. But the main hold-up would be that Rondo has already said that he would not re-sign with Sacramento when he hits free agency. The Kings were willing to trade for Kevin Love after he made a similar decree, so it’s possible they would make the same concession in dealing for Rondo.
The Rockets would be another possibility, MacMullan noted, though after dealing Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik, and losing Chandler Parsons to the Mavs in free agency, Houston has less flexibility or pieces that could have brought in a third team to provide Ainge with the draft picks that he desires to stockpile. There aren’t many players that Houston would be willing to deal that Boston would want, so Houston seems like a long shot here.
Another team that has previously expressed their desire to acquire Rondo is the Knicks. They had attempted to trade for him last season, but had the same issues then that they do today–no tradeable first-rounders in the immediate future, and a lack of younger talent to deal. The Knicks could potentially offer up some combination of Amar’e Stoudemire‘s expiring contract, Iman Shumpert, Tim Hardaway Jr., Jose Calderon, and Shane Larkin, and try to involve another team to get Boston a first round pick. This package isn’t as enticing for Boston as some others they could receive, though if the Knicks could somehow acquire a 2015 first rounder from another team, that, Hardaway Jr, and another player or two isn’t too bad a fallback haul for Ainge.
In the video, MacMullan also mentioned the Lakers as a possibility for Rondo. Los Angeles could offer some combination of draft picks, Julius Randle, and one or both of Jeremy Lin‘s and Steve Nash‘s expiring deals, plus the Lakers probably could be talked into taking on Gerald Wallace‘s $20MM+ that he’s owed over the next two seasons as well. This wouldn’t be a bad return for Boston, especially if they could rid their books of Wallace’s deal in the process. One major hitch would be convincing Rondo to re-sign with the Lakers, which MacMullan said he wouldn’t be willing to do.
One team that I’ll throw into the mix here is the Pistons. They already have Josh Smith on board, who is close friends with Rondo and there was talk in the past that they would be interested in being teammates one day. This might give Detroit an edge in re-signing Rondo, plus it could also keep Smith happy in the short-term. For Detroit, it would give them a star presence at the point, and if Rondo was healthy it would probably guarantee the Pistons a playoff spot in the weak Eastern Conference.
Detroit also has a very intriguing piece that might get the deal done in Greg Monroe. Monroe hasn’t signed his qualifying offer yet, which would severely limit his trade possibilities, and this means that a sign-and-trade deal is still very much on the table. Monroe has demonstrated that he has no intention of re-signing with the Pistons after next season, which means Detroit risks letting him leave for nothing in return. Monroe is exactly the type of high-ceiling younger player that Ainge would be interested in, plus the Pistons have a few other pieces they could mix-and-match along with draft picks to get this deal done. As for whether or not Ainge sees Monroe worthy of a long-term, big money commitment, that is uncertain.
There’s no guarantee that Rondo gets dealt prior to the season beginning. The trade market would have been more robust prior to the NBA Draft, when more teams could have gotten involved. But if Rondo has issued an ultimatum to the Celtics, then they may have no other alternative but to find the best offer they can. Vote below for where you think Rondo will begin the season, and then feel free to expand on your choice in the comments section.
When you look through last season’s trades, you’ll quickly notice that many of the deals revolved around players on the last years of their contracts, second-round draft picks, and other low-impact assets. A good amount of the players traded last year have already moved on from the team that acquired them, and many of the moving pieces failed to significantly help or hinder the fate of the teams involved for 2013/14.
Still, any given trade’s legacy can drag on for many years and in unexpected ways, as Eddie Scarito’s Hoops Rumors Trade Retrospective series has shown. I’ve gathered some of last year’s trades with loose ends and/or ramifications that have already stretched beyond last season.
Kings and Raptors swap Rudy Gay, Greivis Vasquez, Patrick Patterson, and other pieces. While Quincy Acy, Aaron Gray, and John Salmons are no longer a part of either franchise, Gay, Vasquez, and Patterson are all on the same rosters through at least 2014/15. Toronto became a playoff team after this trade, and Gay played some of the best basketball of his career as a King. Each franchise hopes to have cemented part of its future core with this deal.
Cavaliers and Bulls swap Luol Deng, Andrew Bynum, and picks. Deng is now a member of the Heat, and Bynum is an unsigned free agent. The Bulls are still owed Sacramento’s first-round pick, which is top-10 protected through 2017, along with a handful of others from this deal. Chicago also avoided the tax by waiving Bynum’s partially guaranteed contract, and this deal marked the beginning of a strategy to chisel out enough cap flexibility acquire a marquee talent this summer. The team aimed for Carmelo Anthony, but ultimately signed Pau Gasol.
Sixers and Pacers swap Danny Granger, Evan Turner, and more. The Sixers still own the Warriors second-round pick for 2015, and Indiana re-signed Lavoy Allen after receiving him in this trade. The bigger names in Granger and Turner have both landed in Miami and Boston, respectively. The Sixers bought out Granger after the deal, and the remaining hole at shooting guard plays into Philadelphia’s plans to remain less than competitive for the coming season. Granger was no longer a high-impact player for the Pacers at the time of the deal, although the team struggled mightily after his departure and is now without Paul George and Lance Stephenson for 2014/15, offensive talents that made Granger expendable at the time.
A team’s track record of draft success and player development, combined with the deal’s timeliness, all factor into our expectations. Which trade do you expect to look back on as more than a wrinkle in the NBA landscape?
The 2014/15 NBA season will be underway in just under two months, and members of this summer’s much-discussed draft class will finally have a chance to prove that they deserve all the hype they’ve received. Plenty of recent draftees will get the opportunity to make an immediate impact on the court, but only one will be named Rookie of the Year. With the uncertainty that injuries, roster shuffling, and varying playing time all carry, it’s tough to pick a clear-cut favorite in the preseason. Still, it’s fun to take a stab at which college studs will have the most success translating their game to the next level.
The Timberwolves received top pick Andrew Wiggins in the deal that sent Kevin Love off to the Cavs, and the Kansas product will likely see more playing time as a result. Minnesota carries a young, exciting roster, and the chance to play with assist machine Ricky Rubio means Wiggins should be in line to get plenty of good looks from all over the floor. Wiggins’ college teammate, Joel Embiid, would also figure to have a pretty good shot at winning the title with the Sixers if he wasn’t entering the season with so many question marks surrounding his health. As it stands, the freakishly athletic center might miss the entire year.
Jabari Parker of the Bucks and Julius Randle of the Lakers are two big men that are often described by pundits as being “NBA ready,” and they’re each in line to be able to see some serious minutes in their upcoming rookie campaigns. Both will suit up for teams likely figuring to be lottery bound next summer, so they’ll have a good chance to make their presence known on the hardwood. However, whether or not they can deliver on expectations as pros has yet to be seen.
Only 4.9% of Hoops Rumors readers who voted in last year’s edition of this poll selected Michael Carter-Williams to win the award, but the lengthy Syracuse point guard put up big numbers for a less-than-stellar Sixers team and ended up receiving the top rookie honor. It’s always tough to predict who will take the title home, especially with such a talented class, but give us your best prediction by voting in the poll below. I’ve included the top eight picks (minus Embiid) and Nerlens Noel, the talented 2013 Sixers draftee who sat out the entire last season with an injury. I’ve also put in the Bulls’ Nikola Mirotic, a 2011 draft pick who’s been playing overseas and been labeled as the best player in Europe. There’s an “Other” option there as well, so let us know if you think someone else should be considered the favorite by sharing your thoughts in the comments section.
Monday will mark two months since the start of free agency, and still two of the top five players on the 2014 Hoops Rumors Free Agent Power Rankings remain unsigned. The restricted free agencies of Eric Bledsoe and Greg Monroe have dragged on longer than it seemed reasonable to expect, even though teams and their restricted free agents often engage in protracted negotiations, as the Wolves and Nikola Pekovic did last year. There’s little doubting the game-changing ability of either, but the power for Phoenix and Detroit to match all other offers for their respective young stars appears to have effectively short-circuited the market.
Reports have indicated that both Bledsoe and Monroe are prepared to sign their qualifying offers, the standard one-year offers that teams must make at the start of free agency to retain matching rights on their restricted free agents. One report amid a series of dispatches earlier this month indicated that Monroe had already let the Pistons know he would accept the qualifying offer, though other reports conflict with that notion. Bledsoe is insisting that he either receive a max deal or he’ll take the qualifying offer, according to the latest we’ve seen on him.
Signing the qualifying offer would represent a drastic step. Monroe’s QO is worth a shade less than $5.48MM, while Bledsoe would make just $3.727MM this season if he signed his. The Pistons and Suns appear to have made long-term offers that would pay much more than that. Phoenix reportedly has four years and $48MM on the table for Bledsoe, while the Pistons are apparently willing to give Monroe more than $54MM over four years. Still, the max for both would be a five-year, $84,789,500 contract, and it seems neither would be satisfied settling for less. Sign-and-trades remain a possibility, but it doesn’t appear as though there’s much traction toward one for either of the free agents stuck in limbo.
Bledsoe and Monroe could hit unrestricted free agency in a year if they sign their qualifying offers, and while it would seem that both would field more competitive offers from teams who would no longer have to worry that the Suns or Pistons would match, there are no guarantees. Bledsoe has only started 78 games in his career, and it appears few around the NBA regard Monroe as someone worthy of a maximum-salary contract. Only 17 players have signed qualifying offers in the past two decades, and none have carried cachet of either Bledsoe or Monroe, underscoring just what an unusual move it would be.
Let us know whether you think signing the qualifying offer, and the chance to hit unrestricted free agency in a year that comes with it, would be worthwhile for Bledsoe and Monroe, or if you think they should take the more lucrative long-term deals in front of them. Weigh in on your choice in the comments.
As our Chuck Myron noted this morning, the Sixers have been a hub of activity over the past few days. From their involvement in the Kevin Loveblockbuster, to the Hasheem Thabeetdeal, to their agreement with injured rookie center Joel Embiid, the positioning that GM Sam Hinkie and company accomplished has put them in a unique spot from a salary cap flexibility standpoint. Philly seems to have their hands in everything and, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders pointed out earlier tonight, we shouldn’t expect that to change anytime soon.
Whether they’re dumping veterans, hoarding future draft picks or using their current ones on players unlikely to help them now, it’s obvious the Sixers have no intention of competing in the immediate future. Hinkie has the luxury of building his team with ownership’s ultimate confidence, or at least he’s operated as such. However, as careful as he’s been about tipping his hand since arriving in Philly, Hinkie did concede earlier today that trading Thaddeus Young was difficult, perhaps implying that he’s not as narrowly focused on asset collection as it may seem.
The Sixers’ methods are, if nothing else, polarizing in NBA circles. Basketball purists may look down upon what they perceive as tanking while more progressive-minded fans may see a forward-thinking GM taking advantage of a league loophole. So what do you think? A month ago, Hoops Rumors readers thought the Sixers’ rebuild would pay off before that of the Jazz or Magic, implying that there’s a contingent of fans out there who believe in what Hinkie and the Sixers are doing. What about the rest of you? As always, feel free to weigh in via the comments section.
With the pieces of the Kevin Love trade on the verge of becoming official, we can finally begin to think about what this deal means for some of the less-publicized parties involved. We know what it signifies for the Cavaliers, who will acquire their second superstar of the offseason to go with a promising young point guard in Kyrie Irving. I think we can all agree that morphing from the team drafting first in June into the NBA favorite by August is an A-plus offseason any way you slice it.
But how did Minnesota make out in this deal? When all the dust settles on this three-way trade — assuming it’s finalized as is currently being reported — the Timberwolves will have ultimately moved Love, Luc Mbah a Moute and Alexey Shved for Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett and Thaddeus Young. According to Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press (via Twitter), it’s hard to imagine team president Flip Saunders could have acquired a better package for a star player he was probably a year away from losing for nothing. Do you agree?
What we don’t usually see is a fair return for a superstar player — if it even exists — which leads us back to Minnesota’s haul for Love. In Wiggins, the Wolves will land the first overall pick in a loaded draft before he plays a minute in a regular season NBA game. In Bennett, they’ll land a guy who is a year removed from also being selected at the top of the draft. And finally, in Young, they’ll land a veteran who seems destined to be a tremendous role player on a contender.
With all of that in consideration, what grade would you assign Saunders and the Timberwolves for the Love deal? Feel free to justify your grade in the comments section.