Los Angeles Lakers Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Lakers Sign Marcelo Huertas

September 9th, 2015 at 1:29pm CST by Chuck Myron

SEPTEMBER 9TH, 1:29pm: The deal is official, the Lakers announced.

AUGUST 31ST, 3:54pm: The Lakers and Brazilian point guard Marcelo Huertas have come to terms on a one-year deal, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (on Twitter). Ismail Senol of the Turkish outlet NTV SPOR had reported earlier today that Huertas would sign with a Western Conference team (Twitter link; translation via Sportando’s Orazio Cauchi). Huertas had reportedly agreed to a deal with Galatasaray of Turkey, but he asked for more time to scan NBA interest, as Cauchi relays via Senol.

Wojnarowski first reported four months ago that Huertas was planning to sign with an NBA team this year and that he was expected to draw aggressive pursuit from teams seeking a backup. The 6’3″ Huertas, who turned 32 in May, seemed to change his mind shortly thereafter, but agent Gerard Darnes said a month ago that Huertas was still focused on landing an NBA deal and that Octagon colleague Alex Saratsis continued to negotiate toward that end on his behalf.

Huertas went undrafted back in 2005 and has played each season since in Spain, save for a year in Italy. He’s been a mainstay for FC Barcelona the past four seasons, and he averaged 7.7 points, 4.3 assists and 1.8 turnovers in 21.1 minutes per game in 2014/15.

It’s unclear whether the Lakers are exceeding the rookie minimum of $525,093 for Huertas, though that’s often required to convince European players to sign stateside. If that’s the case, the Lakers have their $2.814MM to dip into. They only have 12 fully guaranteed contracts, as our roster count shows, so there’s plenty of roster flexibility and a decent chance for Huertas to stick for opening night if he isn’t the 13th Laker with a guaranteed deal.

The Lakers are taking some risks this offseason. What do you think of their approach? Leave a comment to tell us.

Western Notes: Bryant, Gates, Malone

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

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

Here’s more out of the West:

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

Pelicans In Mix As Sean Kilpatrick Nears Camp Deal

September 7th, 2015 at 2:10pm CST by Chuck Myron

One-year NBA veteran shooting guard Sean Kilpatrick is closing in on signing a deal for training camp, and the Pelicans are squarely in the mix, reports Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link). The 25-year-old who was with the Timberwolves on a 10-day contract last season was a participant in recent workouts with the Pelicans, Hawks, Spurs and Lakers.

New Orleans has plenty of roster flexibility, with 13 fully guaranteed salaries and a partial guarantee for Bryce Dejean-Jones the team’s only commitments so far. They were reportedly to have worked out shooting guard Corey Webster, a prospect from New Zealand. The Hawks and Spurs also have only 13 full guarantees apiece, but they have plenty of others on non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed arrangements. The Lakers have a dozen full guarantees but are similarly stocked with multiple players who are without fully guaranteed salary.

The 6’4″ former Cincinnati Bearcat averaged an impressive 18.2 points in 28.7 minutes per game in summer league for the Bucks this year, but Milwaukee has 15 full guarantees and it’s unclear if the team has interest in him for camp. The Timberwolves have 16 fully guaranteed deals, so Kilpatrick would seemingly have a tough time making the regular season roster in Minnesota despite his experience there. The Wolves signed Kilpatrick in large measure because he was in close proximity to New York when they were short a player before a game against the Knicks, but he saw plenty of playing time in his brief stint with Minnesota, putting up 5.5 PPG in 17.9 MPG.

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.

Pacific Notes: Morris, Clarkson, White, Cousins

September 4th, 2015 at 9:44am CST by Chuck Myron

The Suns seem to want to repair their relationship with Markieff Morris, but Morris signaled that he has no intention to go back on his trade demand, tweeting Thursday that, “My future will not be in Phoenix.” The four-year, $32MM extension that Morris signed last fall kicks in for this coming season, so the Suns wield the hammer, but the power forward has told confidants that he won’t talk with Suns front office executives and will give only one-word responses to coach Jeff Hornacek, as John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM reported recently. While the tension rises in Phoenix, see more on the Suns and their Pacific Division rivals:

Excel Sports Management was the party that broke off its relationship with Jordan Clarkson, but the Lakers combo guard was frustrated with the agency’s communication and felt he received conflicting information about marketing opportunities, a league source told Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press first reported the split.
Terrico White is confident that the past few years playing overseas have improved his game and his mental approach, and the 36th overall pick from the 2010 draft indicated to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders that he had multiple NBA options for training camp before agreeing to a deal with the Suns. “My main focus is just getting on an NBA [regular season] roster, whether it’s with Phoenix or another team,” White said to Kennedy. “If I do make the team in Phoenix, I think it’s a great fit and I feel like I could bring a whole lot since I’m still young but I also have experience too. … My agent, Daniel Hazan, was talking to different teams and Phoenix had a better plan for me than other teams, so we decided to go with the Suns.”
Whether the personalities of DeMarcus Cousins and Kings coach George Karl will mesh going forward has been the subject of much discussion this summer, but Karl’s desire for an up-tempo attack and the interior game of Cousins raise some on-court question marks, too. However, the way Karl used Carmelo Anthony at the end of their time together with the Nuggets provides a blueprint for a fast-paced attack that still gets the best out of Cousins, even though ‘Melo and Cousins play different positions, as Zach Harper of CBSSports.com argues, pointing to similarities in the way they get their shots.

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.

Pacific Notes: Morris, Clarkson, Sims, Koufos

September 2nd, 2015 at 12:09pm CST by Chuck Myron

Markieff Morris demanded a trade last month, but the Suns are giving no outward appearances of a rift, going so far as to tweet birthday greetings with an illustration of the now 26-year-old, which strikes an awkward tone in light of the power forward’s recent comments. The Suns “need and want” Morris, Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic wrote last week, so it would appear the team is making its best to attempt to patch up the relationship before the start of training camp at month’s end. Morris wasn’t planning a verbal offensive when he came across Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, to whom he expressed his demand, Coro notes, though John Gambadoro had heard a week before Morris made the demand that the former 13th overall pick wanted out of Phoenix. See more on the Suns amid the latest from the Pacific Division:

The Excel Sports Management agency has ended its relationship with Lakers point guard Jordan Clarkson, reports Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press. It’s an unusual move, since players typically make the call to change agents, and not the other way around. Clarkson, the 46th overall pick from last year’s draft who far outstripped expectations as a rookie, is set for restricted free agency next summer. Agent Mike George had been Clarkson’s primary representative.
Suns camp signee Henry Sims is determined to prove his production for the Sixers wasn’t merely a product of playing for an inferior team, as he tells tells Coro for a separate piece. The three-year NBA vet saw inconsistent playing time in his season and a half in Philadelphia, though he doesn’t begrudge the chances the Sixers gave him when they did put him on the floor, Coro notes. “Being gritty is how I made my name,” Sims said to Coro. “It’s how I earned my way. But getting up and down like they do here is something I can do. Here, the talent is off the chart. Even though they’re young guys, they’ve been in the league a while. You’ve got the head of the snake, Eric Bledsoe, making it easier — he and B-[Brandon] Knight. I’ve still got tons to prove.”
Kosta Koufos left an elite Western Conference team when he departed the Grizzlies for Sacramento this summer, but he believes the Kings can make the playoffs, and he has enduring respect for George Karl, who once coached him on the Nuggets, as Koufos expressed on SiriusXM NBA Radio (Twitter links; full audio here).

Northwest Notes: Rubio, Harkless, Claver

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

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

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

Western Notes: Allen, Hayes, Majok

September 1st, 2015 at 10:31pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Despite having already proven his versatility to the team, Tony Allen knows that he’ll have to fight for minutes this season on a deep Grizzlies squad, Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal (subscription required) writes. For his part, Allen indicated that he’d willingly accept any role the team asked him to play, Tillery adds. “I don’t get into that. It is what it is. It’s not how you start. It’s how you finish,” Allen said. “I just want to come in, go to work and when I leave [the coaches] will be like, ‘He put his all out there on the line.’ Starting doesn’t mean anything to me. I’ve already shown that.” The 33-year-old appeared in 63 games for Memphis in 2014/15, including 41 starts, and averaged 8.6 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 1.4 assists in 26.2 minutes per contest.

Here’s more from out West:

Chuck Hayes‘ one year, minimum salary deal with the Clippers is non-guaranteed, former NBA executive Bobby Marks confirms (via Twitter). Dan Woike of the Orange County Register first reported that no guaranteed salary would be a part of the agreement. That means his salary wouldn’t have bearing on any would-be hard cap unless he makes the opening night roster, as Marks points out (Twitter link).
Lakers draft-and-stash power forward Ater Majok has signed with the Polish club Trefl Sopot, the team announced (translation courtesy of Emiliano Carchia of Sportando). Majok was selected by Los Angeles with the No. 58 overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft.
Timberwolves combo forward Anthony Bennett hopes to use his strong play for Team Canada this Summer as a springboard to a strong NBA season, Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca writes. Former NBA player and current GM of the Canadian senior men’s team, Steve Nash, is a firm believer in Bennett’s potential, Lewenberg notes, with Nash saying of the young forward, “For me, just to be around him and to see how seriously he’s taking it and how hard he’s worked and how hard he’s trying to pick up the details, like I said, those are the ingredients that are going to make him a great NBA player and a guy that plays in the league for a long time. So I’m [incredibly] proud of Anthony and the work he’s put in this summer.” Minnesota would reportedly be willing to deal Bennett for the right price, though the team isn’t actively shopping the 2013 No. 1 overall pick.

Heat Notes: Dragic, Andersen, Chalmers, Wade

September 1st, 2015 at 11:31am CST by Chuck Myron

Some of the teams with interest in Goran Dragic retreated from the idea of trading for him at the deadline because they felt the Heat had him essentially wrapped up for a long-term deal, sources from across the league tell Grantland’s Zach Lowe. Still, no one registered a tampering complaint, and a Heat spokesperson said to Lowe that there was no prearranged deal for when he hit free agency in the summer. The Lakers seemed to hang around as a threat, but the Heat appeared to have the inside track to re-sign Dragic right from the time he got to Miami. The All-Star combo guard indeed re-signed on a five-year deal worth slightly more than $85MM last month.

The Heat’s latest move became public this morning, with Miami reportedly having agreed to a camp deal with former Georgetown small forward Greg Whittington. See more from South Beach here:

Chris Andersen and Mario Chalmers have been available to anyone who would have them, as Lowe hears from sources around the league, which falls in line with Lowe’s report from early July that the two were available “for nothing” in return. The Heat would prefer to clear salary but expect to keep Chalmers until at least the start of training camp and are finding a soft market for the Birdman, as Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reported last week.
Zoran Dragic and the Heat were in agreement that a trade was necessary before the Heat shipped him to the Celtics, with Dragic eager to find more playing time, as the shooting guard’s representatives told Jackson. Thus, Goran Dragic is not upset about the move that eventually saw his brother released so he could return to play in Europe, Jackson writes.
The Heat would have serious problems if Dwyane Wade misses too much time this season, but with offseason additions Gerald Green and Justise Winslow, the team is set at shooting guard if Wade goes down, as Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel writes in a mailbag column. The real issue would be replacing Wade’s ball-handling with a point guard behind Dragic.