Los Angeles Lakers Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Pacific Notes: Carroll, Clippers, Kobe

November 30th, 2015 at 4:22pm CST by Chuck Myron

Mutual interest existed between the Suns and DeMarre Carroll over the summer, and a signing was close, as Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic details. Phoenix was intrigued after landing Tyson Chandler and before LaMarcus Aldridge signaled that he would strongly consider the Suns, while Carroll liked the idea of playing for Jeff Hornacek and assistant coach Earl Watson, according to Coro. Ultimately, the possibility of landing Aldridge made it too tough for the Suns to commit, Coro writes, and Carroll signed with the Raptors on a four-year, $58MM deal.

“They [the Suns] were going to come visit me,” Carroll said. “It was going to be my third or fourth visit and they were going to come to my house but I ended up signing with Toronto. LaMarcus had everybody held up. But I felt like Toronto was making me a priority and was a team that really wanted me. There were only a couple of those teams, outside of LaMarcus. Toronto was one of those teams. They chose me over LaMarcus so it made me feel wanted.”

Carroll, who played under Hornacek and with Watson on the Jazz, wouldn’t rule out the possibility of signing with the Suns later, saying “Maybe next go-around,” as Coro also relays. See more from the Pacific Division:

The Clippers are making exploratory calls about potential trades amid their displeasure over a surprisingly poor 9-8 start, according to Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio (Twitter link). It’s unclear if the calls have been any more substantial than conversations of due diligence. Jamal Crawford‘s name came up in more trade rumors than any other Clipper over the offseason, but coach/executive Doc Rivers said in September that he’d be “very surprised” if Crawford weren’t still a Clipper at season’s end. The Clippers are deep in the tax, limiting their maneuverability, and they have a single trade exception worth less than $1MM.
Kobe Bryant is “at peace” with his decision to retire at season’s end, coach Byron Scott observed, according to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News, and it was meditation that helped the 37-year-old decide to end his career. Bryant told reporters that his mind had always drifted to basketball when he meditated until he recently, when he noticed that was no longer the case, as Mike Trudell of Lakers.com relays (on Twitter).

Columnists On Kobe Bryant’s Retirement Decision

November 30th, 2015 at 1:02pm CST by Chuck Myron

Kobe Bryant‘s decision to retire at season’s end sent ripples throughout the NBA, even though it’s no real surprise that this will be his last year in the familiar purple-and-gold. Just about every NBA writer has weighed in on the news, and while it’s impossible to share everyone’s opinion in an easily digestible form, we’ll provide a healthy cross-section of perspective here:

No one in the Lakers organization was 100% certain that Bryant would walk away at season’s end until he said so on Sunday, according to Chris Mannix of SI.com. Bryant doesn’t want a mawkish farewell tour, so instead it seems he’ll fade away without much fanfare, just as Michael Jordan did in his Wizards days, which is fitting, since no one has ever come closer to copying Jordan’s game than Bryant did, Mannix writes.
Bryant’s willingness to play through pain transcended that of Jordan, but it also precipitated the end of his career, Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding believes.
A strong bounceback from two injury-marred seasons and fast growth from the Lakers around him might have convinced Bryant to come back next season, but neither factor materialized, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports details.
Disregard for the draft, failure to reap trade assets for Pau Gasol, bungled decisions about who should coach the team, and free agent failures put the Lakers in the position they’re in now, not Bryant’s sizable salary and lagging performance, contends Sean Deveney of The Sporting News.
Retiring at season’s end is the only realistic ending for the broken-down Bryant, argues Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post.
Bryant wanted to become the best player ever, and while he fell short of that, he’s easily in the top five all-time, posits Vincent Bonsignore of the Los Angeles Daily News.
Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca sees it differently, concluding that Tim Duncan‘s career has been better than Bryant’s in almost every respect. Duncan, enmeshed in the Spurs’ egalitarian, ball-moving offense, embodies a changed NBA landscape that casts the individualistic Bryant as a vestige of a bygone era, Grange opines.

More Reaction To Kobe Bryant’s Retirement Plans

November 30th, 2015 at 9:25am CST by Chuck Myron

The finality of Kobe Bryant‘s decision to make this season his last dates back to this past summer, when he reached out to Michael Jordan to tell him, “This is it,” as Baxter Holmes of ESPN.com relays.

“We had some laughs, went back and forth about it,” Bryant said to reporters about his conversation with Jordan. “But the important thing for him, he said, ‘Just enjoy it. No matter what, just enjoy it. Don’t let anybody take that away from you, no matter what happens, good or bad. Enjoy it, man.'”

Bryant is enjoying even the difficult parts of the experience, telling reporters that he’s not considering a midseason retirement “because there is really beauty in the pain of this thing,” tweets Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. We rounded up some of the early reaction Sunday, and now see more as the countdown begins for Bryant’s final game, scheduled to come at home against the Jazz on April 13th:

The idea that this season would be Bryant’s last is no shock, as Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak reiterated that it’s been his understanding for a while that this would be the end, Holmes notes in a separate piece. The executive admits that it’s less than ideal for Bryant to play his final season on a losing team, but said “there was really no other way to go about it,” as Holmes relays. “Now we were hopeful that we would get off to a better start this year,” Kupchak said in part. “We think we added a couple veterans, along with a bunch of young players, and I thought we’d be better than two wins into the season. That’s not to say that we’d be on pace to win 50 or 60 games. But I thought we’d be a little bit better. But clearly we’re not playing at the kind of level that a player of Kobe’s age and experience finds challenging.”
Former Lakers teammate Sasha Vujacic, who’s now playing for the Knicks, isn’t quite sure that Bryant is really in his final season, notes Howie Kussoy of the New York Post. “He’ll be bored with retirement, so he might come back,” Vujacic said. “You never know … He can always come back.”
Dwight Howard complimented Bryant on Sunday, calling him “one of the greatest to play the game” and citing his “amazing career,” but he couldn’t keep a straight face when asked if he learned something from the legendary shooting guard, observes Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. Howard, who famously failed to mesh with Bryant during their lone season as teammates, laughed for five seconds before asking for the next question, as Bondy details.

Kobe Bryant To Retire After Current Season

November 29th, 2015 at 11:00pm CST by Will Joseph

6:00pm: Kobe Bryant announced that this will be his final season in a letter published in The Players’ Tribune.

“This season is all I have left to give,” Bryant writes. “My heart can take the pounding. My mind can handle the grind. But my body knows it’s time to say goodbye.”

Kelvin Kuo/USA Today Sports Images

Bryant, 37, is undoubtedly one of the greatest players of all time, but injuries in recent seasons have taken a toll on the superstar’s body, as he alludes to in his letter. Bryant has spent his entire 20-year career with the Lakers. He has won five NBA championships and earned MVP honors in 2008.

The news does not come as a surprise and confirms widespread speculation that this would be his final season. What’s more, according to Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak, Bryant signaled to the organization that this would be the end of his storied career back in the spring. Kupchak then publicly said on multiple occasions that the Lakers expected Bryant to retire.

Bryant, 37, in the final year of a two-year deal that will pay him $25MM this season, entered Sunday’s game against the Pacers averaging 15.7 points per game on a career-worst 31.5% shooting percentage. Bryant remains the NBA’s highest-paid player. Not including endorsements, Bryant earned $303,238,062 in his career, according to Basketball-Reference.com.

Bryant’s field goal percentage and 3-point percentage both rank last in the NBA among qualified players. Despite his struggles, the Lakers have publicly supported Bryant and coach Byron Scott said the future Hall of Famer would not be benched. “I would never, never, never do that,” Scott told the media after practice on Friday. “That’s not an option whatsoever. No, that’s not an option.”

Bryant was drafted out of high school by the Hornets with the 13th overall pick in 1996 but was traded to the Lakers. He currently is third on the NBA’s all-time scoring list, behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone.

Reactions To Kobe Bryant’s Plan To Retire

November 29th, 2015 at 8:15pm CST by Will Joseph

Lakers coach Byron Scott told reporters, including Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News (Twitter link), that he was the first person Kobe Bryant told about the superstar’s plan to retire after this season. Scott said Bryant informed him on Saturday. Scott reiterated that Bryant plans to play the rest of the season, Mike Trudell of Lakers.com tweets.

Here’s more news, notes and reactions on Bryant’s announcement:

Scott also told reporters that he believes Bryant had at least one more year in him, Baxter Holmes of ESPN.com relays (on Twitter). Bryant, 37, is averaging 15.7 points per game on a career-worst 31.5% shooting percentage (heading into action Sunday).
Bryant notified the Lakers of his intentions to retire on Sunday, Bill Oram of the Orange County Register tweets. Bryant’s decision comes across as a strategic one because it turns attention away from the dissection of his statistics, and it comes before a home game and then a game at his native Philadelphia, Oram also notes on Twitter.
USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo told Marc Stein of ESPN.com that Bryant remains in contention for a spot with the USA Basketball team in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics (Twitter link). Bryant said earlier this month that he would be thrilled to play for USA Basketball. Bryant won gold medals the past two Olympics.
Stein also relays on Twitter that Bryant previously told him he has no plans to play a season overseas.
Bryant believes the next chapter of his life will revolve around telling stories in various media forms, he told Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press before making his announcement.
Commissioner Adam Silver issued a statement regarding Bryant’s decision. “With 17 NBA All-Star selections, an NBA MVP, five NBA championships with the Lakers, two Olympic gold medals and a relentless work ethic, Kobe Bryant is one of the greatest players in the history of our game,” Silver said. “Whether competing in the Finals or hoisting jump shots after midnight in an empty gym, Kobe has an unconditional love for the game. I join Kobe’s millions of fans around the world in congratulating him on an outstanding NBA career and thank him for so many thrilling memories.”

Western Notes: Rondo, Lakers, Nuggets

November 29th, 2015 at 5:54pm CST by Will Joseph

The Mavs should have never acquired Rajon Rondo in a deal with the Celtics, according to Dallas coach Rick Carlisle, Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com reports. Rondo had a mostly tumultuous four months with the Mavs last season and he often clashed with Carlisle, MacMahon writes. Rondo, as MacMahon points out, averaged 9.3 points, 6.5 assists and 4.5 rebounds per game in 46 games with the Mavs, who were 26-20 when he played and 24-12 without him last season.

“Listen, we all did everything we could to make it work. It was challenging,” Carlisle told MacMahon. “Going back in time, it’s a deal we should have shied away from, for the sake of us and for the sake of him. It’s a deal we shouldn’t have made. I think we all realize that now, but when you do a deal like that, you’ve got to do everything possible to make it work. I learned a lot going through the year with him and trying to be creative and use some of his unique abilities. He’s a very talented player, and he’s having a great year this year, which is basically no surprise.”

Rondo, now with the Kings, is averaging 12.4 points and 11 assists per game.

Here’s more out of the Western Conference:

Kings coach George Karl is unsure if DeMarcus Cousins will return Monday, but believes it was best Cousins didn’t play over the weekend because the center has been injured, with a lower back strain, and frustrated, Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee relays.
Despite the fact Kobe Bryant is experiencing his worst season, Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post opines that the superstar’s minutes should not be reduced. The topic has been debated by several scribes, especially with the Lakers struggling to win games.
Darrell Arthur, who re-signed with the Nuggets during the summer, has added an improved 3-point shot to his arsenal lately, Dempsey writes in a separate story.

And-Ones: Gortat, Pelicans, Matthews, Hammon

November 28th, 2015 at 10:52pm CST by Arthur Hill

Marcin Gortat blasted the negativity surrounding the Wizards following tonight’s last-second loss to the Raptors, tweets J. Michael of CSNMidAtlantic.com. Gortat says the poor atmosphere has taken the fun out of coming to the arena. This isn’t the first time this season that the center has talked about being unhappy. Two weeks ago, he complained about being publicly criticized by coach Randy Wittman following a loss to the Thunder. Gortat is still committed to Washington for four more seasons on the $60MM contract he signed in 2014.

There’s more from around the world of basketball:

Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry says Tyreke Evans and Norris Cole could make their season debuts Tuesday, tweets John Reid of The Times-Picayune. Evans underwent arthroscopic surgery on his right knee in October, and Cole is recovering from a high ankle sprain.
Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle credits offseason addition Wesley Matthews for the team’s improvement on defense, tweets Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com. Carlisle says the former Blazer’s size and versatility have made a difference on that end of the floor.
Assistant coach Becky Hammon is playing an active role on the Spurs‘ bench, writes Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. During a second-quarter timeout in tonight’s win over the Hawks, Vivlamore watched San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich step back and let Hammon run the huddle and diagram a play.
Brook Lopez‘s decision to sign a new three-year contract with the Nets tops a list of questionable moves compiled by Steve Aschburner of NBA.com. Even though he got $63MM in the deal, Lopez is locked into a terrible team during the prime years of his career. Also on Aschburner’s list are Jahlil Okafor‘s missed opportunity to tell the Sixers not to draft him, Pau Gasol‘s choice to come to the Bulls in 2014 when he could have gone to the Spurs, the Clippers‘ offseason acquisitions and Josh Smith‘s decision to leave the Rockets for L.A.

Lakers Rumors: Scott, Draft Pick, Bryant

November 28th, 2015 at 6:30pm CST by Arthur Hill

With the Lakers skidding to a 2-12 start, coach Byron Scott has found it necessary to block out “angry fans” calling for his job and other changes, according to Baxter Holmes of ESPN.com. Scott says he has a relative monitoring his Instagram account, and he has advised her not to respond to any of the complainers. “I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to fans because fans are fans,” Scott said. “Fans aren’t at practice every day. They don’t know the preparation. They don’t know what goes into it. They just see the end product, so they have no idea. And they all have their opinions, but I don’t put a lot of stock into it.” He said he hears from some fans who understand that the rebuilding process takes time, but most expect to win right away.

There’s more news out of Los Angeles:

The danger of losing their first-round pick is hanging over the Lakers’ season, Holmes writes in the same piece. The pick is top-three protected and will go to the Sixers if it falls any lower than that. “I don’t think about that stuff right now,” Scott said. “To me, it’s impossible to think about the team and trying to get our young guys better and try to get our team better and then also think about a pick that’s six months away that you might not even get.” L.A. shipped the pick to Phoenix in the 2012 trade for Steve Nash, then the Suns sent it to Philadelphia in February in a three-way deal involving the Bucks.
Count TNT analyst Charles Barkley among the observers who believe it’s time for Kobe Bryant to call it quits, according to Mike Bresnahan and Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times. “Somebody asked me how I knew it was time to retire,” Barkley related. “I said because I was pump-faking. So now I see Kobe and he’s pump-faking because he’s scared they are going to block his shot. That’s what the pump-faking is. People are knocking your shot into the stands.”
Bryant’s rough start could make a split after this season much easier, contends J.A. Adande of ESPN.com. If Bryant continues playing the way he has so far — averaging 15.2 points per game on 31% shooting — Adande believes the Lakers have no obligation to bring him back for another year.

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Los Angeles Lakers

And-Ones: Scott, Daye, Lawson

November 26th, 2015 at 8:39pm CST by Will Joseph

Lakers coach Byron Scott believes he still has the support of GM Mitch Kupchak and executive vice president of basketball personnel Jim Buss, Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News details. The Lakers are 2-12 so far this season. Scott, as Medina points out, is in the second year of a four-year contract worth $17MM, with a team option for the final season.

“We still understand that this is a process,” Scott said, per Medina. “We have a lot of young guys on this team that we feel will be very good players. But it’s not going to happen in a month. It’s going to take some time. It might take a year or two.”

Here’s more from around the basketball world:

Austin Daye, who the Cavs waived in October, is close to signing overseas with Victoria Libertas Pesaro, a team in Italy, according to Italy news source Spicchi d’Arancia (h/t Emiliano Carchia of Sportando). Daye agreed to join the Cavs in September on a non-guaranteed deal. The 27-year-old former 15th overall pick averaged 5.0 points in 11.9 minutes per game in six preseason appearances. Daye’s career numbers through 293 NBA contests are 5.2 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 0.7 assists per game.
Ty Lawson‘s playing time is being compromised because of his poor play and Patrick Beverley‘s return from an injury, Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle relays. Lawson, whom the Rockets acquired in July despite his legal problems, was held scoreless Wednesday for the second straight game.
The Knicks are better this season, but in order for New York to continue to play well, Carmelo Anthony needs to step up as a leader internally and remain heavily invested in the team, Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders opines.

Pacific Notes: Bryant, Leuer, Johnson

November 26th, 2015 at 8:52am CST by Eddie Scarito

Despite shooting guard Kobe Bryant‘s early season struggles, Lakers coach Byron Scott said that he doesn’t intend to cut down on the veteran’s minutes, Eric Pincus of The Los Angeles Times relays. “I have not considered that yet. It’s too early in the season,” said Scott, who also noted that he doesn’t believe Bryant is suffering from fatigue. “I think he’s averaging about 30 minutes a game. He’s still getting plenty of rest. I don’t think so — maybe [he] is, but in my opinion watching it, I don’t think so. Obviously he’s struggling right now with his shot. In the last few days, he said he feels great. I don’t think it’s a matter of him being tired, or his legs behind tired, I think it’s just a matter of his timing being a little off.”

Here’s more from the Pacific Division:

Jon Leuer, whom Phoenix acquired in a draft day trade this year from Memphis, has been a hidden gem off the Suns‘ bench this season, writes Ben York of NBA.com. Over his last three appearances, Leuer is averaging 10 points per game while shooting 63% from the floor and an amazing 60% from beyond the 3-point line.
Clippers coach Doc Rivers continues to experiment with his rotation in an effort to find the right mix, and swingman Wesley Johnson may be utilized as a starter more often going forward thanks to the energy he brings to the court, notes Ben Bolch of The Los Angeles Times. “I like Wes the most because of his size and his ability to shoot, but there’s nights where you play a great offensive player at that spot and we may go with a defensive guy. We’re going to just keep moving it around,” Rivers said. If Johnson is moved into a more prominent role with the team it may affect his decision regarding exercising his $1,227,286 player option for 2016/17, especially with the salary cap set to increase markedly, though that is merely my speculation.
Kings coach George Karl is still acclimating himself to the team’s new players, but Karl does believe that Sacramento’s current roster is far superior to last season’s squad as far as talent goes, Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee writes.