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Pacers Notes: George, D-League, Ellis

September 13th, 2015 at 2:00pm CST by Will Joseph

Owning the D-League’s Fort Wayne Mad Ants gives the Pacers a notable advantage because the affiliate is only about two hours away, Scott Agness of VigilantSports.com writes. The Pacers want uniformity, Agness adds, and by now owning the team, they’ll be in charge of decisions and be able to have a coaching staff that runs a similar scheme. The Pacers made the purchase official earlier this week.

Here’s more out of Indiana:

  • The success of the Pacers‘ upcoming season largely hinges on whether or not Paul George can be the player he was before he broke his leg, Moke Hamilton of Basketball Insiders writes. Monta Ellis, who signed a four-year deal with the Pacers, is likely more talented than anyone who George previously played with , Hamilton adds. Therefore, the addition of Ellis should help George have a big season and the pairing of the two will likely lead the Pacers back to the playoffs, Hamilton writes.
  • The problem with the Pacers, however, as the New York Post’s Tim Bontemps points out on Facebook, is a lack of depth up front. The Pacers face a gaping hole in the frontcourt without Roy Hibbert, who is now with the Lakers, and veteran leader David West, who turned down a $12.6MM player option to sign with the Spurs for the minimum, Bontemps adds.
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Eastern Notes: Pacers, Knicks, Kaun

September 9th, 2015 at 9:31pm CST by Eddie Scarito

One of the main reasons that the Pacers decided to forge ahead with the purchase of the D-League’s Fort Wayne Mad Ants was the rising salaries of NBA players, Candace Buckner of The Indianapolis Star relays (Twitter links). Team owner Herb Simon said that the Pacers will need young players to go along with the higher paid players on the roster, and that those young players would need development, which purchasing the Mad Ants would help facilitate, Buckner adds.

Here’s more out of the Eastern Conference:

  • The Knicks are unquestionably a better team than a season ago, but just about every other team at the bottom of the Eastern Conference also improved this offseason, opines Tim Bontemps of the New York Post (Facebook link). Bontemps also noted that he expects New York to struggle to compete for the final playoff spot in the East, which would result in the possibility that the team would look to deal small forward Carmelo Anthony to a contender at the trade deadline.
  • The majority of the Pistons‘ roster is now comprised of players acquired by executive/coach Stan Van Gundy, and this season’s focus will be in determining which of those players will have long-term futures with the team, writes Shaun Powell of NBA.com in his 30 Teams, 30 Days series.
  • Sasha Kaun‘s two-year deal with the Cavaliers will see him earn $1,276,000 in 2015/16 and $1,333,240 during the final season, notes Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). Both seasons are fully guaranteed, Pincus adds. Reports initially conflicted on whether the contract would include a player option, and Pincus confirms that it does not.
  • Kendall Marshall will earn approximately $2.1MM this season courtesy of his deal with the Sixers, and his salary is fully guaranteed, Pincus tweets.
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Pacers Purchase D-League Team

September 9th, 2015 at 12:57pm CST by Dana Gauruder
12:57pm: The 11 teams without D-League affiliates will use the system put in place a year go for instances in which the Mad Ants, who had been the only shared affiliate last season, had no room left on their roster, the NBA announced via press release (Twitter link via the Timberwolves). So, if one of the 11 NBA teams without affiliates wants to make an assignment, the D-League will present that team with a list of D-League clubs willing to take the assigned player, and the NBA team will have its pick. If no D-League clubs want to take the player, he’ll be assigned based on a lottery.
12:49pm: The D-League indicates via Twitter that the Pacers will indeed use the Mad Ants as their one-to-one affiliate this year.
12:37pm: The purchase is official, the Pacers announced. Indiana will run both the business and the basketball operations for the D-League club.
The Pacers also named Brian Levy the GM of the Mad Ants, the team’s statement revealed. Levy had been the assistant GM of the Suns D-League affiliate.
“Owning the Mad Ants will be an integral part to the development of our young talent and we’ll have the ability to institute the same offensive and defensive systems and create a winning basketball culture across the state of Indiana,” Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird said. “We are excited to build on the team’s success in Fort Wayne while using it as a training ground for players, coaches and front office personnel.”
Still unclear is whether the Pacers will use the Mad Ants as their exclusive, one-to-one affiliate this season, and if so, what the 11 NBA teams remaining without a one-to-one affiliate will do. Johnson hears it’s likely it will involve a system in which those 11 teams will assign players to various affiliates based on a lottery.
SEPTEMBER 9TH, 8:09am: The sale will be announced in a press conference set for 12:30pm Central, sources told WPTA-TV in Fort Wayne and a source close to the Mad Ants confirmed to Reggie Hayes of the News-Sentinel (hat tip to Johnson). Indeed, the Pacers website indicates a “major announcement” regarding the Mad Ants is set for today. It’s still unclear if a one-to-one affiliation between the Pacers and Mad Ants will be in place for the coming season.
12:53pm: The sale could be delayed until the 2016/17 season to make sure everything is in order, Johnson tweets.
AUGUST 1ST, 12:12pm: The Pacers are expected to purchase the D-League’s Fort Wayne Mad Ants but the details are still being worked out, which has delayed an official announcement, according to Adam Johnson of the D-League Digest (Twitter links). It’s unclear how this will affect the 11 NBA teams who do not have a D-League affiliate, since the Mad Ants are the only unaffiliated team in the league, but the NBA may use a flex assignment system, Johnson adds (additional Twitter links).
A flex assignment system was already in place to accommodate assignments to the Mad Ants, as SeaDubsCentral.com explains. Under that system, the D-League tried to find other teams willing to accept a player from an unaffiliated team if Fort Wayne already had a maximum four NBA players on assignments or two assigned players at the player’s position. The independent NBA team could then choose which D-League team to send that player to. If no D-League team stepped forward to take the player, a lottery system was used to find him a landing spot.
The 11 remaining teams without an affiliate are the Wizards, Trail Blazers, Pelicans, Timberwolves, Bucks, Clippers, Nuggets, Bulls, Hornets, Hawks and Nets.
Logistically, the move makes sense for the Pacers and Mad Ants. Fort Wayne is an approximate two hour drive from Indianapolis and the Pacers can easily shuttle players back and forth. It’s also reasonable to suggest the Mad Ants would forge a tighter bond with their fans by having players on Indiana’s roster gaining experience with an in-state affiliate.
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Eastern Notes: Smith, Johnson, Nets

September 8th, 2015 at 10:16pm CST by Eddie Scarito

J.R. Smith‘s two-year contract with the Cavaliers has become fully guaranteed for the 2015/16 season since he remained on Cleveland’s roster through Monday, as is shown by our schedule of salary guarantee dates, a date first reported by Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. The 29-year-old’s pact had an initial partial guarantee of $2MM included at the time of signing. Smith’s unusual deal also includes a $2.15MM partial guarantee on the full $5.4MM value of next year’s salary, which will become fully guaranteed if he is still a member of the Cavs past September 7th, 2016.

Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:

  • Heat shooting guard Tyler Johnson has been cleared to return to full basketball activities, the team announced (via Twitter). The 23-year-old suffered a broken jaw back in July during Orlando Summer League play. Johnson, 23, will likely need a full training camp in to help him secure a regular season roster spot with the team since Miami has a roster count of 19, including 12 fully guaranteed pacts. The guard’s $845,059 salary for 2015/16 is partially guaranteed for $422,530.
  • David West ‘s decision to jump ship and sign with the Spurs this offseason was the final push that the Pacers required to hit the reset button and begin a retool of the team, Mark Montieth of NBA.com writes in his mailbag. Indiana has added eight new players to its roster this offseason as a result, including Chase Budinger, Toney Douglas, Monta Ellis, Jordan Hill, Glenn Robinson III, and rookies Myles Turner, Joseph Young, and Rakeem Christmas.
  • Former Nets majority owner Bruce Ratner’s Forest City Enterprises made a capital call today worth $26.8MM in order to preserve its 20% ownership stake in the team, Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com relays (Twitter links). Ratner’s group was facing a deadline of today to come up with the funds or have its ownership stake reduced to approximately 8%, Mazzeo notes. Mikhail Prokhorov is in the process of working toward a deal that would give him full ownership of both the team and the Barclays Center.
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Eastern Notes: Beal, Pacers, Celtics

September 6th, 2015 at 6:15pm CST by Will Joseph

Bradley Beal is a very talented player with a lot of upside and one who will receive a maximum deal from a different team if the Wizards don’t sign him to a max extension, Moke Hamilton of Basketball Insiders opines. Hamilton takes into account the expected rise in the league’s salary cap and suggests that Beal is likely worth a large contract because of the league’s current market. Our own Chuck Myron recently examined Beal’s extension candidacy. Ken Berger of CBSSports.com reported in May that the Wizards were committed to paying him the max, but talks didn’t really begin until mid-July, and the sides apparently met with conflicting desires.

Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:

  • The Pacers, with depth in the frontcourt, don’t appear to be a good potential trade partner with the Suns for  Markieff Morris, who issued a trade demand, Scott Agness of VigilantSports.com writes. The four-year, $32MM extension that Morris signed last fall kicks in for this coming season, but a lack of communication between Morris and the team indicates that the relationship will be extremely difficult to repair. For the Pacers, landing Morris would be worth looking into in exchange for a bench player and a second-round pick, Agness adds, but that package would likely not be enough to reel him in.
  • The main problem with the Celtics heading into this season, Chris Forsberg of ESPN.com writes, is the team lacks an elite star. Forsberg compares this group of Celtics to last year’s Hawks and adds that although Atlanta had a remarkable season without a star, it ultimately ran out of gas without a big-time player.
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Los Angeles Rumors: Bryant, Hibbert, Young, Pierce

September 5th, 2015 at 6:31pm CST by Arthur Hill

Kobe Bryant’s continued presence on the Lakers’ roster has kept the franchise in a holding pattern, Shaun Powell of NBA.com opines. Bryant’s $25MM contract this season hampered them from signing a top-level free agent and none of them wanted to join the Lakers anyway just to play one season with Bryant, Powell continues. Bryant, who might retire at the end of the season, could play a valuable role in the rebuilding process by mentoring his younger teammates, Powell adds.

There’s more out of Los Angeles:

  • Roy Hibbert’s lack of speed could be a larger liability in the Western Conference, argues J. Michael of CSNWashington.com. The Lakers acquired Hibbert from Indiana in a July 9th deal, sending a future second-round draft pick to the Pacers in return. While Hibbert may increase the Lakers’ talent level, his plodding style of play could leave him lagging behind other teams in the conference, and Michael fears that coach Byron Scott may be stubborn enough to try to match him up with players such as the Warriors’ Draymond Green.
  • Nick Young of the Lakers and Paul Pierce of the Clippers are among the players projected to decline next season by Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders. Greene expects Young’s minutes, shots and overall role to regress with the addition of Lou Williams and D’Angelo Russell as well as Bryant’s return from injury. The writer expects Pierce, who left the Wizards to sign with the Clippers as a free agent, to have his first season averaging below double figures in scoring. Also on Greene’s list are the Pistons’ Brandon Jennings, the Nets’ Joe Johnson, the Bulls’ Pau Gasol, the Hawks’ Kyle Korver, the Spurs’ Manu Ginobili, the Raptors’ Terrence Ross and the Heat’s Dwyane Wade.

Dana Gauruder contributed to this post.

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Central Notes: LeBron, Hibbert, Bulls

September 2nd, 2015 at 3:30pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Cavaliers and Bulls looked like the two clear-cut favorites in the Eastern Conference a year ago, and while the Bulls’ roster is still largely the same, the Cavs zoomed past them in the playoffs and other Eastern Conference contenders appear to have gained ground. The Heat, Wizards, Raptors, Hawks and perhaps even the Bucks, whom Chicago dispatched in the first round this spring, all appear capable of posing a threat and then some to the Bulls this coming season. While we wait for training camps to open later this month to see how it all unfolds, there’s more on the Bulls and Cavs amid the latest from the Central Division:

  • LeBron James has structured his past two deals with the Cavaliers to give himself a chance to exit every summer, but the Cavs don’t think he’d dare to leave Cleveland a second time, as Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher said recently in a video and as Dan Feldman of ProBasketballTalk notes. That falls in line with a suggestion that Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports made last October, though Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer heard in December that James would be prepared to leave the Cavs if he felt it would be the “appropriate business decision.”
  • The Pacers agreed to trade Roy Hibbert to the Lakers with the caveat that the Lakers would pull out of the deal if they signed a marquee free agent center, Lakers Executive VP of Basketball Operations Jim Buss told Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times. “[Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird] was fine with that,” Buss said. “Bird wanted to put the kid into a spotlight like this.” Hibbert praised Bird for having been up front with him, though David West cited the Pacers’ handling of their desire to move on from Hibbert as one of the reasons he opted out.
  • Sam Smith of NBA.com, writing in a mailbag column, wonders about the lineup choices new Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg will make and looks at whether the season ahead will have as little roster movement for Chicago as the summer did.
  • We asked for your input on the Pistons roster dilemma as part of Tuesday’s Community Shootaround.
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Central Notes: Williams, Irving, Hilliard, Vaughn

August 28th, 2015 at 2:45pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Cavaliers mostly stood pat this summer, but they spent the majority of their taxpayer’s mid-level exception on Mo Williams, and with Kyrie Irving‘s broken kneecap a threat to keep him out as late as January, that move looks wise, writes Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders in his NBA AM piece. The Cavs, with Williams in place, aren’t rushing Irving back, and that’s wise, considering a growing history of injuries for the former No. 1 overall pick, Greene adds. See more from around the Central Division:

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And-Ones: Williams, Thomas, Nunnally

August 22nd, 2015 at 10:52pm CST by Arthur Hill

Alan Williams, who starred at UC Santa Barbara and made an impact during summer league, was surprised that no NBA team was willing to give him a guaranteed contract, according to Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic. Instead, Williams signed with the Double Star Eagles in Qingdao, China, grabbing an overseas spot that usually isn’t available once NBA training camps end in October. “It gave me financial stability, which is something a lot of people don’t get in their first year,” Williams said. “It gives me an opportunity to go out there and develop my game more and play for a pretty good team. Culturally, I get to go to a whole different continent and see how they play.” Williams thought he might get more interest from NBA teams after an impressive performance with the Rockets‘ summer league squad. He averaged  20.5 points and 11.8 rebounds in four games and was named to the all-NBA Summer League second team. Williams is hoping for another shot at the NBA once his CBA season ends in February or March.

There’s more news tonight from around the basketball world:

  • Tyrus Thomas, the fourth pick in the 2006 draft, still dreams of returning to the NBA, writes Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. Thomas missed the entire 2013/14 season after undergoing an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion for an arachnoid cyst. He signed a 10-day contract with the Grizzlies in January, but only appeared in two games. At 29, he is training for another shot at the league and hopes to be in someone’s camp next month.
  • James Nunnally has signed with Sidigas Avellino of the Italian Serie A, according to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. Nunnally, another UC Santa Barbara product, appeared in a combined 13 games with the Hawks and Sixers during the 2013/14 season. He spent last season with teams in Spain and Israel, and played for the Pacers‘ entry in this year’s summer league.
  • Several teams took risks this summer, and Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders evaluates the best and worst of them, including the Lakers‘ and Knicks‘ draft picks, the Rockets‘ deal for Ty Lawson, the Raptors giving big money to DeMarre Carroll and Cory Joseph and the Kings‘ gamble on Rajon Rondo.
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Pacers, Others To Meet With Briante Weber

August 20th, 2015 at 8:43am CST by Chuck Myron

The Pacers are set to meet with undrafted point guard Briante Weber today, reports Scott Agness of Vigilant Sports. At least 15 NBA teams have expressed interest in the former VCU standout, a source tells Agness. Indiana has been among the most aggressive, and they’re the first team Weber is visiting, Agness adds. The 22-year-old will meet with Pacers officials and medical staff, according to Agness, and while he’s been doing on-court work lately, more than six months after a season-ending right knee injury, it’s unclear if he’ll be working out for the team.

Weber, in spite of the injury, was the 73rd-best draft prospect this year, according to Chad Ford of ESPN.com, so it’s not surprising to see him attract attention as training camp approaches. The Ronald Shade client was on pace to break the all-time NCAA Division I career steals record before he suffered a torn ACL, MCL and meniscus in his right knee on January 31st, Agness notes. He averaged 3.9 steals per game in 20 appearances last season to go along with 8.9 points, 4.3 assists and 1.7 turnovers in 26.5 minutes per contest. VCU teammate Treveon Graham signed Monday with the Jazz.

Indiana already has 15 players with fully guaranteed salaries, plus Toney Douglas, who has a partial guarantee of $600K, so Weber would face long odds to stick for opening night if he and the Pacers work out a deal for camp. The Pacers are in talks about a possible purchase of what would be a one-to-one D-League affiliate, but for now, the franchise doesn’t have its own D-League team, so Indiana is without the ability to carry on an organizational partnership with any of the players it cuts at the end of the preseason.

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