Los Angeles Lakers Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Rockets, Heat, Lakers Expected To Have Interest In Carmelo Anthony

July 6th, 2018 at 1:18pm CST by Luke Adams

The Thunder intend to part ways with Carmelo Anthony this summer, whether that means trading him, waiving and stretching him, or buying him out and stretching him. With a trade considered a long shot, potential suitors for Anthony expect him to reach the open market, at which point he’ll likely be “pursued vigorously” by contending teams, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarwoski and Royce Young.

According to Wojnarowski and Young, the Rockets, Heat, and Lakers are among the teams expected to express interest in Anthony. Word of Houston’s interest was first tweeted by Marc Stein of The New York Times.

The Rockets have their $5.337MM taxpayer mid-level exception available and pursued Anthony last summer. Heading to Houston would allow Anthony to compete for a title and join old friend Chris Paul.

Anthony could also team up with a close friend in Los Angeles, with LeBron James poised to sign with the Lakers. L.A. still has about $5.6MM in cap room available, so the club would be able to offer Carmelo more than the minimum.

As for the Heat, they haven’t used any of their mid-level exception, so they’d be able to go up to $5.337MM, or perhaps even higher if they’re willing to hard-cap themselves. They might not be as close to title contention as the Rockets or Lakers, but the Heat could have a clearer path to a deep playoff run than L.A. at least, given how much more competitive the West will be. They’d also have a Banana-Boater on their roster if Dwyane Wade opts to return.

Recognizing that the Thunder will have to let him go at some point, Anthony may not be incentivized to surrender much money in a buyout agreement with Oklahoma City. However, if he knows he has a $5MM+ offer lined up with another team, it could push him to give up a little of his Thunder salary to accelerate the process.

Sixers Trade No. 39 Pick Isaac Bonga To Lakers

July 6th, 2018 at 12:05pm CST by clarkcrum

JULY 6: The Lakers and Sixers have officially completed a trade that was initially reported more than two weeks ago, the Lakers announced today in a press release. The draft rights for Isaac Bonga, the No. 39 pick in the draft, are headed from Philadelphia to Los Angeles in exchange for the Bulls’ 2019 second-round pick and cash.

JUNE 20: The Lakers will acquire the No. 39 selection in tomorrow night’s draft from the Sixers, league source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. The Lakers will send the Bulls‘ 2019 second-round pick and cash to the Sixers in return.

The 39th pick, originally owned by the Knicks, was acquired by the Sixers back in 2014 when the Knicks traded it and forward Travis Outlaw to the Sixers in exchange for forward Arnett Moultrie.

As noted by both Eric Pincus and Bobby Marks, this trade, as reported, can’t become official until the new salary cap year begins since the Sixers have already received the allotted $5.1MM in cash this season. As such, the Sixers will essentially be selecting a player for the Lakers tomorrow night.

Lakers' Options As Search For Second Star Continues

July 5th, 2018 at 10:08pm CST by Austin Kent

There’s pressure on the Lakers to get a second star, but it’s far from urgent, Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report writes. So long as the franchise continues to practice patience, they’ll remain flexible enough to have options.

Of course the Lakers could wait to see if a different trade for a star beckons, as reports suggest with Jimmy Butler and as is at least borderline conceivable with Damian Lillard.

An alternative to making a move this season would be giving center Brook Lopez the Lakers’ remaining $5.7MM of cap space on a one-year deal, retaining all of their young players in an audition to see who best fits with LeBron James, then going out shopping for a star next summer.

Lowe’s Latest: Kawhi, Sixers, Celtics, Scott, More

July 5th, 2018 at 3:12pm CST by Luke Adams

The Sixers have not made Markelle Fultz available in Kawhi Leonard trade talks with the Spurs, and the Celtics haven’t been willing to include Jaylen Brown in their discussions with San Antonio, ESPN’s Zach Lowe confirms in his latest article.

We’ve heard variations on Lowe’s report for the last week or two, with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (video link) recently suggesting that the Sixers don’t want to discuss Fultz, Joel Embiid, or Ben Simmons in Leonard talks, and adding that the Celtics’ top five players have been “off-limits” in negotiations with the Spurs — presumably, Woj was referring to Brown, Jayson Tatum, Kyrie Irving, Gordon Hayward, and Al Horford.

Lowe’s full piece on the Leonard situation features several more tidbits of note, including some items only tangentially related to a possible Leonard trade. Let’s round up the highlights…

LeBron James isn’t pressuring the Lakers to add a second star for now, according to Lowe, who says that James “has faith in the combined powers of his supernova talent and the Lakers brand.” LeBron also recognizes that Brandon Ingram has considerable upside and is aware that many star free agents could be on the market in 2019, Lowe notes.
Lowe classifies rumors that Jimmy Butler and Kyrie Irving want to play together as “credible chatter.” However, the Celtics remain confident that they’ll be able to re-sign Irving next year, per Lowe.
Details of Mike Scott‘s contract agreement with the Clippers have yet to surface, but Lowe indicates the deal will use part of the team’s mid-level exception rather than being a minimum-salary signing.
Lowe’s piece is worth checking out in full, particularly for a section in which he brainstorms hypothetical wild-card suitors for Leonard, exploring whether the Raptors, Trail Blazers, Wizards, Timberwolves, Thunder, Heat, Rockets, Bucks, Nuggets, Warriors, Pistons, or Kings might be fits — many are quick “no”s, but some generate some intriguing hypothetical deals.

Pacific Notes: Lakers, Ball, Cousins, Warriors

July 5th, 2018 at 11:09am CST by Luke Adams

While the Lakers‘ agreements with free agents like Rajon Rondo, Lance Stephenson, JaVale McGee drew plenty of confusion and some criticism, the deals represent the rollout of the plan that Magic Johnson outlined to LeBron James when they met late Saturday night, per ESPN’s Brian Windhorst and Ramona Shelburne.

As Windhorst and Shelburne detail, James’ Cavaliers squad was heavily on shooters and offensive-minded players, but lacked genuine play-makers and strong defenders. By contrast, Johnson pitched LeBron on the idea of stocking the Lakers’ roster with “tough-minded play-makers” who can free up James to work in the post and finish in the lanes, rather than having to generate all the team’s offense himself. According to Windhorst and Shelburne, some league executives are fans of the approach.

“I know some people are rolling their eyes but I like what the Lakers have done,” one rival Western Conference exec told ESPN. “You can find shooters. They’ve taken some in the last few drafts. Play-makers matter and are harder to find.”

While the Lakers haven’t focused on shooters with their first round of free agent moves, “all parties agree” that the roster could use more outside shooting, so that need still figures to be addressed, ESPN’s report notes.

Here’s more from around the Pacific:

Addressing news of Lonzo Ball‘s torn meniscus, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said on his podcast that Lakers management didn’t want that information out there. According to Wojnarowski, there’s a belief that Ball’s camp leaked word of the injury in an effort to discourage teams from trading for him. Woj adds (via Twitter) that there’s a chance the second-year point guard will require surgery.
With a Warriors notebook, Anthony Slater of The Athletic writes that Golden State will have an “intriguing escape hatch” if the DeMarcus Cousins experiment doesn’t work out. If Cousins is healthy by the trade deadline but isn’t fitting in with the Warriors, his modest salary and expiring contract would make him a fascinating trade chip, Slater observes.
In case you missed it on Wednesday, we relayed several Clippers updates, writing that the team has signed Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, met with Kyle O’Quinn, and remains interested in bringing back Montrezl Harell.

Latest On Kawhi Leonard

July 4th, 2018 at 4:00pm CST by Luke Adams

While no Kawhi Leonard trade appears imminent, reports on the star forward continue to surface. Already this week, we’ve heard that several suitors that have inquired on Leonard are reluctant to give up key young players, as the Spurs’ asking price for their two-time Defensive Player of the Year remains very high.

Here are a few more of the latest rumblings on Leonard:

Adrian Wojnarowski and Bobby Marks discussed the Leonard situation at length in an ESPN podcast, with Wojnarowski suggesting that teams making offers for Kawhi don’t necessarily hear back from the Spurs, who simply put each offer up on their “board” for evaluation.
Leonard’s lack of a traditional agent may complicate his situation, according to Wojnarowski, who notes that Kawhi is being represented by Mitch Frankel – primarily a football agent – and Leonard’s uncle Dennis Robinson. As Wojnarowski and Marks explain, a veteran NBA agent can often provide an effective back channel in trade talks as potential suitors assess how likely a player is to re-sign after being acquired. In Leonard’s case though, interested teams don’t really have a relationship with Kawhi’s camp and haven’t built a certain level of trust with Frankel and/or Robinson.
While potential Leonard suitors will be wary of his health, the Sixers may be best positioned on that front, says Wojnarowski: “Philly’s unique because one of their primary team physicians was the doctor that Kawhi went to for a second opinion in New York. I think on the surface, people go, ‘How could that be?’ But it just is. So I think it’s very conceivable that Philly has more medical knowledge of Kawhi Leonard than the Spurs do because their doctors had more access to him.”
Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports suggested this week that LeBron James‘ decision to sign with the Lakers may make Leonard more interested in joining the Clippers. However, Wojnarowski isn’t so sure that the idea of going head-to-head with LeBron in Los Angeles as a member of the city’s less iconic franchise would be all that appealing to Kawhi, who might feel dwarfed in that situation.
The Spurs aren’t yet resigned to having passed a point of no return with Leonard, according to Jabari Young of The San Antonio Express-News (link via NBA.com), who says that as long as Kawhi hasn’t been traded, there’s still some hope from the Spurs’ side that the relationship can be repaired.
More from Young on the situation (via RealGM.com): “Obviously [Leonard] is probably being kept in the loop as far as what the Spurs are trying to do trying to trade him, which he’s requested. They’re also sending signals like, ‘Listen, we still want to try to work this out, so if we get down to the wire and all of a sudden, Kawhi, you have a change of heart, let’s sit down. Let’s talk. Let’s try to work it out.'”

DeMarcus Cousins Rumors: Lakers, Rockets, More

July 4th, 2018 at 12:36pm CST by Luke Adams

DeMarcus Cousins‘ free agent decision probably won’t ultimately have the same impact as LeBron James‘ move to the Lakers, but Cousins’ agreement with the Warriors has generated even more discussion over the past couple days based on the shock factor. While many NBA observers expected James to land in L.A., few saw Boogie heading to the reigning champions.

We’ve already relayed several sets of Cousins-related notes, rumors, and other leftovers, but they continue to trickle in today, so we’ve got a few more to round up. Let’s dive in…

The Lakers are fans of Cousins, but felt like they had to pass on him this year because they want to be as competitive as possible in 2018/19 and couldn’t afford to wait on the big man’s recovery from his torn Achilles, league sources tell Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter links). Cousins is trying to make it back for training camp, but is expected to be sidelined until December or January.
ESPN’s Zach Lowe echoes Stein’s sentiment, tweeting that the Lakers never had serious interest in acquiring Cousins this summer, even after trade talks for Kawhi Leonard stalled (at least for now). Stein had reported last night that the Lakers had the opportunity to sign Cousins “at a one-year price point similar to the one that landed him in Golden State.”
According to Sam Amick of USA Today (Twitter link), the Rockets – who also theoretically could have offered Cousins the taxpayer mid-level exception – didn’t consider him a good fit, and had “zero interest.” Amick and Lowe (Twitter links) both point out that not being guaranteed a starting spot may not have appealed to Cousins anyway. Houston remains “all-in” on starting center Clint Capela and plans to match any offer sheet he signs, Amick notes.
In a full article for USA Today, Amick explores the history of notable NBA players suffering Achilles injuries, examining how Cousins’ career might be impacted going forward.

Three Teams Still Have Significant 2018 Cap Room

July 4th, 2018 at 9:32am CST by Luke Adams

We knew coming into the 2018 NBA free agent period that there may not be enough cap room to go around for all the players who hoped to sign lucrative new deals. Now, on the fourth day of the new league year, that’s more true than ever.

Teams like the Lakers, Sixers, Pacers, Nets, Mavericks, and Suns have devoted most or all of their projected cap room to free agent commitments or agreed-upon trades. While many of those clubs could theoretically open up more space with certain moves, they currently don’t project to have a ton of room available once they complete their reported deals.

The early activity from those clubs leaves just three teams with substantial projected cap room for 2018/19. These teams will be worth watching closely in the coming days – and perhaps weeks – to see how they intend to use their remaining cap room.

Will any of them make a run at one of the many intriguing restricted free agents still on the board, such as Clint Capela, Jabari Parker, Zach LaVine, Marcus Smart, or Jusuf Nurkic? Will they want to collect assets by taking on another team’s unwanted contracts, with into-the-tax clubs like the Thunder, Nuggets, and Raptors perhaps looking to cut costs? Their cap room will give these three teams some leverage no matter what path they choose.

Here’s a breakdown of the three clubs in question:

Atlanta Hawks

It’s been a quiet July so far for the Hawks, who signed their three first-round picks and inked Jaylen Adams to a two-way contract, but have otherwise stayed out of the fray. That’s no surprise, as GM Travis Schlenk said last week that the team expected to take a wait-and-see approach to free agency.

Currently, the Hawks have about $22.1MM in available cap room. They could increase that number to approximately $24.8MM by cutting Jaylen Morris and Antonius Cleveland, who are on modest non-guaranteed deals.

The Hawks are the midst of a rebuilding process and will be very patient as they put together their roster. That could mean wanting to use their cap room to take on a bad contract or two, adding more picks to their cache of draft assets. However, if they think the time is right to make a swing for a young restricted free agent who could be a cornerstone piece, they’re in position to do so. One weekend report linked them to LaVine.

Chicago Bulls

Speaking of LaVine, the Bulls‘ projected cap room will be impacted by what happens with the RFA guard. With or without him though, Chicago will have plenty of flexibility.

Currently, with cap holds for LaVine and fellow RFA David Nwaba on their books, along with non-guaranteed contracts for Sean Kilpatrick and Paul Zipser, the Bulls project to have approximately $22.6MM in cap space. The team could increase that number to $26.2MM by releasing Kilpatrick and Zipser. Waiving those players and renouncing their two RFAs would get the Bulls up to about $37.5MM, though that scenario is unlikely.

If the Bulls decide to use their space to pursue an outside RFA target, Chicago native Jabari Parker could be an option.

Sacramento Kings

The Kings have been linked to both LaVine and Parker during the free agent process, but may no longer be eyeing Parker.

Assuming they renounce the cap holds for free agents Vince Carter and Bruno Caboclo, the Kings will have about $18.2MM in cap room. Waiving Nigel Hayes, who has a non-guaranteed contract, would bump that number up to approximately $19.5MM.

If they plan to keep Hayes, the Kings are already 14 players on their roster, so it could make sense for them to use their remaining cap room in one fell swoop if there’s an opportunity they like.

Other teams that could create flexibility

While there are a number of teams that could theoretically clear cap room if they’re willing to waive or trade players on guaranteed contracts, there are a couple clubs whose path to space is quicker and easier than most.

The Nets are one such team. Once they complete their acquisition of Dwight Howard, the Nets project to have approximately $6.6MM in space. That doesn’t include Ed Davis‘ new $4.4MM deal, since Brooklyn figures to complete that signing using the room exception. It also include Joe Harris‘ modest $1.5MM cap hold rather than his new $8MM-ish salary, since the Nets will likely use all their cap room before going over the cap to re-sign Harris.

With a buyout agreement in place for Howard, the Nets are in position to increase their cap room. While it’s not clear how much Howard will give up in his agreement with Brooklyn, let’s say he gives back $5.337MM, the amount he’s reportedly receiving on his new deal with the Wizards. In that scenario, the Nets could add that amount to their $6.6MM in space, getting up to approximately $12MM.

The Lakers are another team to watch. Based on their roster moves to date, they project to have approximately $5.7MM in space. While it looks like they’ll avoid taking on multiyear deals, preferring to preserve cap flexibility for 2019, they could create significant flexibility right away if they’re willing to waive and stretch Luol Deng. Doing so would increase their cap room to about $15.5MM.

Salary information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post.

Spurs' Price For Leonard Remains High

July 3rd, 2018 at 9:27pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Spurs continue to seek a high price from the Lakers in exchange for Kawhi Leonard, salary cap expert Larry Coon said in an appearance today on Spectrum SportsNet (Twitter link). Sources tell Coon that San Antonio is asking for Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, Kyle Kuzma, two first-rounders and the right to swap two other draft choices. “They’re just saying give us everything,” Coon said.

Coon also outlined the Lakers’ remaining cap situation, noting that the signing of Lance Stephenson with the mid-level exception will probably be the final move in free agency after all other cap space is used up.

LeBron James‘ decision to join the Lakers may give Leonard more incentive to become a Clipper, Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports suggested in an appearance on Colin Cowherd’s radio show (Twitter link).
The Lakers are turning their attention to next summer for their next big free agent move, according to Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. The organization’s emphasis on one-year deals helps explain the odd collection of moves that have come down since James committed to L.A. Sunday night. The Lakers re-signed Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, then reached agreements with Stephenson, JaVale McGee and Rajon Rondo, all on one-year contracts. The team expects to have about $76MM in guaranteed money next summer, possibly less if Luol Deng is waived and stretched, leaving enough to offer another max deal.
Rondo, whom Deveney states has wanted to join the Lakers since 2015, could take the starting point guard job away from Lonzo Ball, writes Sam Amick of USA Today. A source tells Amick that the L.A. front office has promised Rondo the chance to compete for a starting spot.

Pelicans Notes: Cousins, Rondo, Randle, Payton

July 3rd, 2018 at 8:07pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Pelicans made a two-year, $40MM offer to DeMarcus Cousins between his Achilles injury in January and the end of the season, Marc Stein of The New York Times states in his latest newsletter. Cousins rejected the offer, and New Orleans’ front office responded by taking it off the table.

Cousins committed to Golden State last night, taking the Warriors’ MLE of $5.3MM for next season. The Lakers had an opportunity to get Cousins for a similar price, Stein adds, but once they passed, it was an easy decision for him to join the Warriors.

The Pelicans hadn’t given up hope of retaining Cousins when free agency began, but the door closed when they signed Julius Randle for $18MM over two years. Stein notes that Anthony Davis played an aggressive role in recruiting Randle to New Orleans.

There’s more Pelicans news to pass along:

The trade with the Kings that brought Cousins to New Orleans will be remembered as a mistake, according to Jeff Duncan of The Times-Picayune. The Pelicans gave up two first-round picks in Buddy Hield and a 2017 selection that turned out to be Zach Collins. In exchange, they got just 65 games out of Cousins.
Rajon Rondo and Cousins both made shrewd business decisions, Duncan adds in the same story. The Lakers gave Rondo more money than the Pelicans were offering, along with the chance to team up with LeBron James. Cousins found a low-stress environment to rehab his injured Achilles while getting an excellent chance to win a ring. The Pelicans also showed they’re not ready to pay the luxury tax, with Randle and Elfrid Payton providing cheaper alternatives to Cousins and Rondo.
The free agent drama in New Orleans could be repeated next summer, writes Scott Kushner of The Advocate. The Pelicans took a little bit of the sting out of losing Cousins and Rondo by agreeing to deals with Randle and Payton. However, Randle can opt out after one season and Payton is only signed for a year. Nikola Mirotic, who fit well alongside Davis after arriving from the Bulls in a midseason trade, will also be a free agent.