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Northwest Notes: Okafor, Towns, Thunder, Gee

May 20th, 2015 at 8:58am CST by Chuck Myron

Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities believes Jahlil Okafor is the guy at No. 1 for the Timberwolves (Twitter link), who won last night’s lottery, though he cautions that nothing is set in stone. That jibes with the feeling Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune had as of a week ago, when he said he thought the Wolves would go with the Duke center. However Chad Ford of ESPN.com and Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress top their mock drafts with the Wolves picking Kentucky big man Karl-Anthony Towns instead. Wolves coach/executive Flip Saunders played coy Tuesday night, not even deigning to narrow the field to those two, Zgoda notes.

“It’s not that simple,” Saunders said. “We have an idea but there are a lot of different directions we can go. … We have to rely on our ability to select the right players. This will give us great flexibility. Every spot you move up in the draft, you have more control over what’s going to happen and you have more people talking to you.”

Saunders did make it clear that the team almost certainly won’t trade the pick, as Zgoda relays. Here’s more from the Northwest:

Persistent rumors indicate that Jahlil Okafor has his heart set on becoming a Laker, according to Givony, who wonders if agent Bill Duffy, who also represents Andrew Wiggins and who is college buddies with Saunders, will let Okafor work out for the Wolves.
Thunder GM Sam Presti is pleased with the depth of the draft and said that while he’ll have exploratory talks about trading the team’s pick, at No. 14 overall, with all sorts of teams, he’d probably wait until draft night to make a move if he indeed makes one. Presti made those comments and many others to Royce Young of Daily Thunder, who provides a full transcript of their conversation.
Alonzo Gee has been on the roster of a half dozen NBA teams in the past 12 months, but Joe Freeman of The Oregonian will be surprised if he sticks in Portland with a tumultuous summer ahead for the Blazers, as Freeman writes in a roundtable piece examining Gee’s future. Gee becomes an unrestricted free agent in July.

Mavs, Others Prepping Offers For Marc Gasol

May 19th, 2015 at 2:20pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Mavs, Spurs, Knicks and Lakers are putting together proposals to make to Marc Gasol when free agency opens July 1st, multiple league sources tell Michael Wallace of ESPN.com. Not as much has been said about Dallas and Gasol as with the other apparent suitors, though it stands to reason that the Mavs, already linked to Aldridge and DeAndre Jordan, would cast their lot with another marquee free agent. The Spurs have long been identified as a team in the mix for the 30-year-old, though it appears the team will first make a pitch to LaMarcus Aldridge, who’s widely seen as more obtainable, before doing so with Gasol, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported Monday. The Knicks became pessimistic about their prospects of landing the Spanish center late last year, a notion that former Knick and current Gasol teammate Beno Udrih recently reinforced, though it appears that they, like the Lakers, will give it a try.

Gasol has been mum on his plans, though he’s made his affection for the city of Memphis clear while not ruling out any other potential destination. The Grizzlies fear the Spurs more than any other team in the hunt, according to Stein, but the majority of Gasol’s teammates believe he will re-sign, Wallace writes, and Memphis coach Dave Joerger thinks he’s largely made the decision already, as Wallace relays.

“He’s the best player at his position in the league,” Joerger said. “You make preparations if it goes in a direction you’re not happy about. You’re not going to lose sleep at night. It’s not going to do any good. He’s going to do what he’s going to do. Not in the next two weeks are we going to send him a big thing of flowers and it’s going to change his mind. [By then], the cement is dry. We’ll make our last, ‘Hey, this is what’s important to us. What’s important to you?’ Things of that nature. But I’ve got to think his mind is 99% made up.”

Dallas has about $28MM in guaranteed salary against a projected $67.1MM salary cap for next season, but Raymond Felton is reportedly opting in for more than $3.95MM and Monta Ellis can pick up an $8.72MM player option, too. That would still leave flexibility for an estimated $19MM max starting salary for Gasol, a seven-year veteran, but it wouldn’t leave much room for the team to address the point guard position, where Rajon Rondo is unlikely to return.

And-Ones: Payne, Lakers, Jaiteh

May 18th, 2015 at 10:48pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Pacers are intrigued by Murray State guard Cameron Payne, Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star reports. Payne, who worked out for Indiana on Monday, has zoomed up to No. 11 — where the Pacers are currently slotted — on Chad Ford’s ESPN Insider Big Board. He’s No. 20 on Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress prospect list. “We followed him all year,” Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird told Buckner. “We know he can shoot it, he can drive it. He’s a playmaker. His size is against him a little bit but he’s a nice little player. He didn’t play against top schools but that doesn’t mean he can’t play.” Jerian Grant (Notre Dame), Olivier Hanlan (Boston College), Joseph Young (Oregon) Rakeem Christmas (Syracuse) and Richaun Holmes (Bowling Green) also worked out for the Pacers on Monday, according to Buckner. Payne hopes to jump into the top 10 in the draft, as he recently told Hoops Rumors’ Zach Links in a Q&A session.

In other news around the league:

Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak does not anticipate having three rookies on his roster next season, even if the team retains its lottery pick, Bill Oram of the Orange County Register reports. The Lakers must stay in the top five when the lottery results are announced or they will have to convey their first-rounder to the Sixers. They also have the No. 27 and No. 34 overall picks but Kupchak may trade at least one of them. “It may be a little much to add three more young players,” Kupchak told the team’s beat reporters. Kupchak added that the team could bring in as many as 80 players for workouts, Oram adds.
New Jersey native and top prospect Karl-Anthony Towns would be thrilled to be drafted by the Knicks since he grew up as a fan of the team, he told Steve Serby of the New York Post in a Q&A session. “It would be an honor, not only as a player, but as a Knicks fan, to be able to play for that organization,” Towns said. “It’s gonna be, I guess a childhood dream — rooting for the Knicks all this time, and the next thing you know, you hear an organization call your name to go out there and give it your best shot. I think it would very cool, and really very honored and blessed to be able to play for them.”
International prospect Mouhammadou Jaiteh made a strong impression at the draft combine, NetsDaily.com tweets. The 6’11” center has moved up to the No. 34 on Ford’s board and No. 35 spot on Givony’s list.

Wiggins, Mirotic, Noel Lead All-Rookie Teams

May 18th, 2015 at 1:11pm CST by Chuck Myron

Andrew Wiggins was a unanimous All-Rookie First-Team selection, the league announced as it revealed the media voting results for the honors. Nikola Mirotic was the second-leading vote-getter, followed by Nerlens Noel, Elfrid Payton and Jordan Clarkson, all of whom comprise the first team. Marcus Smart, Zach LaVine, Bojan Bogdanovic, Jusuf Nurkic and Langston Galloway make up the second team.

Wiggins far outpaced all other contenders for Rookie of the Year honors after averaging 16.9 points in 36.2 minutes per game this season for the Timberwolves, who acquired the 2014 No. 1 overall pick in the Kevin Love trade. Minnesota, which finished with the league’s worst record this season and has a 25% chance to win the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft, is the only team to place two players on the All-Rookie teams, with LaVine on the second team despite having garnered 22 first-team votes. Every member of the second team received at least three first-team votes.

Payton, the 10th overall selection, is the only first-round pick from 2014 to appear on the first team. Mirotic was a draft-and-stash selection from 2011, Noel was the sixth overall pick in 2013 but qualified as a rookie this season because he sat out all of 2013/14 with injury, and Clarkson was the 46th pick last year, having gone overlooked through all of the first round and half of the second.

Galloway made the second team despite having gone undrafted and not having made his debut until January 7th, after he had signed a 10-day contract with the Knicks. New York followed up with another 10-day deal and finally a multiyear pact for the surprisingly effective point guard.

Clippers Interested In Wesley Johnson

May 18th, 2015 at 10:01am CST by Chuck Myron

The Lakers would love to lure DeAndre Jordan across Staples Center from the Clippers this summer, not surprisingly, according to Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com, and the Clips meanwhile have their eyes on convincing a Laker to switch sides. The Clippers, who are reportedly expected to float a max offer to try to retain Jordan, are also interested in swingman and soon-to-be unrestricted free agent Wesley Johnson, sources tell Shelburne.

Johnson, the fourth overall pick in 2010, has expressed a desire to remain with the Lakers, but he’s made it clear he’s seeking a multiyear deal as he hits free agency for the third year in a row. The Lakers are reportedly intrigued with his potential, but Johnson has struggled with inconsistency that Byron Scott has attributed to an issue “between the ears.” Johnson chalks up that inconsistency to a whirlwind of changing roles during his NBA career, but the Lakers are on the fence about retaining the 27-year-old who’s made 121 starts for the purple-and-gold over the past two seasons, as Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News reported.

The Octagon client averaged a career-high 9.9 points this past season, but even that demonstrates that Johnson has yet to live up to his lofty draft position. The Clippers aren’t set for significant cap room regardless of whether Jordan re-signs, and if the center does come back, the Clips would likely be limited to the $3.376MM taxpayer mid-level exception to sign anyone for more than the minimum. Johnson has made the minimum in each of his two seasons with the Lakers. The taxpayer mid-level limits teams to handing out three-year deals, while the Clips can’t give anyone more than a two-year deal with the minimum-salary exception.

The Clippers aren’t going to bring in another maximum-salary player, as coach/executive Doc Rivers acknowledged, according to Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com, but the Lakers certainly can, and they no doubt aim to do so. They’ve been linked to a laundry list of marquee names, from Kevin Love to LaMarcus Aldridge to Goran Dragic to Rajon Rondo, and it’s not clear exactly where Jordan would fall in the hierarchy of their priorities. Still, it seems as though the market will be strong for the third-place finisher in Defensive Player of the Year voting, whom the Mavs also reportedly plan to pursue.

Pacific Notes: Lakers, Draft, Woodson

May 15th, 2015 at 10:36pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Lakers have an 82.8% chance to secure a top five pick in this year’s NBA Draft lottery. But despite those excellent odds, Los Angeles’ GM Mitch Kupchak is stressed about the outcome, Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News writes. “It’s completely out of our control. But I’m somewhat of a worry-wart,” Kupchak said. “I know our percentage is very high that we end up with a top-five pick, but I have to prepare for if we don’t get it. We’ll be prepared either way.” The executive’s worries stem from the fact that if the pick falls out of the top five it will convey to the Sixers. “If we get a pick, that’s an asset,” Kupchak said. “That’s an asset you can use to trade or work to use it on the player in the draft. If we don’t, we’ll still be able to carry on and move forward.”

Here’s the latest out of the Pacific Division:

Despite having a roster already loaded with outside shooters the Warriors met with Georgia State gunner R.J. Hunter at the draft combine, A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com tweets.
The Lakers interviewed Kentucky big man Karl-Anthony Towns and Duke forward Justise Winslow at the combine, Medina relays (Twitter links).
Mike Woodson, who is now an assistant with the Clippers, indicated he still hopes to land another spot as a head coach, Mark Berman of FOX 26 tweets. “I’ve been a head coach for nine years in this league. Hopefully I’ll get another opportunity,” Woodson said. The former Hawks and Knicks coach has a career record of 315-365.
Kentucky products Willie Cauley-Stein and Trey Lyles interviewed with the Kings, Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee relays (Twitter links).
The Suns will consider taking Wisconsin’s Sam Dekker and Frank Kaminsky when making their draft selection this June, Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic writes. “I feel like I can fit into multiple roles and help the team on the offensive end,” Kaminsky said. “I don’t think I have as many deficiencies on the defensive end as has been so kindly brought up by so many different people. I think I can fit in with just about any team.“

Draft Rumors: Porzingis, Wood, Dawson

May 15th, 2015 at 10:29am CST by Chuck Myron

At least one GM is among the multiple executives who believe Latvian power forward Kristaps Porzingis has a shot to be drafted as highly as No. 2, reports Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com. The head of basketball ops for another team said that he’s a “lock” for the top five and that it wouldn’t be surprising to see him go within the top three, adding that he’d draft him in front of Jahlil Okafor, the Duke center who occupied the top spot in projections for most of the season. The 19-year-old is No. 5 in Chad Ford’s ESPN.com rankings and No. 8 with Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress. Here’s more as draft rumors kick into high gear:

Christian Wood, a power forward out of UNLV, is hoping to follow in Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s footsteps as a ball-handler with unusual height and length, Howard-Cooper writes in the same piece. The Bucks intend to interview Wood, Virginia small forward Justin Anderson and others today, tweets Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times.
Both the DraftExpress team and Ford go in depth on the measurements from the combine, with Ford, in his Insider-only piece, noting that most top prospects sized up well and that this year’s draft class is among the longest groups in memory in terms of both height and wingspan.
Michigan State power forward Branden Dawson has interviewed with the Wizards, Clippers and Pelicans at the draft combine, as he told Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press. Ellis, in the same report, adds Stanley Johnson, Frank Kaminsky and Rashad Vaughn to the list of prospects with whom the Pistons have spoken.
Terry Rozier met with the Pistons, too, as well as the Mavs, Suns, Knicks and Spurs, reports Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders (on Twitter).
The Sixers, Lakers, Cavs and Bucks have interviewed Cameron Payne, Kyler also tweets. Payne spoke with our Zach Links recently about his draft prospects.
Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer adds the Hornets and Warriors to the list of teams speaking with Rakeem Christmas (Twitter link).

Draft Combine Latest: Upshaw, Russell, Booker

May 13th, 2015 at 4:58pm CST by Chuck Myron

Former University of Washington center Robert Upshaw registered perhaps the most impressive numbers as the NBA measured prospects today at the predraft combine in Chicago. He checked in a 7 feet tall and had the greatest standing reach (9’5″), wingspan (7’5.5″), hand length and hand width, notes Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe (Twitter links). Washington dismissed Upshaw in January for a violation of team rules, but his size will surely make teams think twice. The 21-year-old is the No. 30 prospect with both Chad Ford of ESPN.com and Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress. Here’s more from the combine:

D’Angelo Russell is interviewing with the Lakers and Pacers today and the Sixers on Thursday, reports Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter links). The combo guard told Pompey he prefers to play the point and would love to play for the Sixers.
Stanley Johnson, whom the Sixers are hesitant to peg as either a shooting guard or small forward, already interviewed with Philadelphia today, Pompey tweets.
Shooting guard Devin Booker and center Myles Turner are also speaking with the Pacers today, tweets Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star. Check out our full profile on Booker here and our profile on Turner here.
Sam Dekker‘s athleticism stood out as he went through ball-handling and shooting drills Tuesday, as Ford observes in an Insider-only piece. His shooting was solid but not overwhelming, according to Ford, who sees the small forward from Wisconsin going between the 10th and 15th picks.
GMs who spoke with Ford on Tuesday have shooting guard R.J. Hunter ranked as high as No. 12 and as low as No. 21, as Ford writes in the same piece. The NCAA tournament hero is No. 21 in Ford’s ranking.
Brazilian prospect George Lucas registered a 7-foot wingspan today, the longest ever recorded for a point guard in the DraftExpress database, as DraftExpress contributor Derek Bodner points out (Twitter link). Lucas, who also goes by George de Paula, is slated to be one of the participants in five-on-five drills this week, as shown on the full list of five-on-five participants that Ford shared via Twitter.

Lakers Expected To Pursue Jimmy Butler

May 9th, 2015 at 5:51pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Lakers are expected to be one of several teams preparing a maximum salary offer sheet for Bulls guard Jimmy Butler, Shams Charania of RealGM reports. Chicago reportedly intends to match any offer sheet that he signs, but Charania notes that teams around the league are questioning how Chicago will handle the inevitable max contract for another star player given their pricey commitment to Derrick Rose.

Los Angeles only has slightly under $35.1MM in guaranteed contracts on the books for the 2015/16 season, as our Salary Commitment page shows, against a projected salary cap of $67.1MM. That figure only includes contracts for four players and does not include the non-guaranteed contracts of Tarik Black, Robert Sacre and Jordan Clarkson, which together only total roughly $2.7MM. If the Lakers keep all three on the roster, which I speculate they will, the team could still have enough cap room to sign one player to a maximum contract and another player, perhaps Rajon Rondo, to a mid-sized contract.

Butler, who won this season’s Most Improved Player award, averaged 20.0 points, 5.8 rebounds in 38.7 minutes per game. The guard led his team in minutes per contest and no other Bulls player under the age of 29 played more than 30 minutes per game. Chicago has an aging roster and even with nearly $60.2MM in commitments for next season, the team should look to retain the 25-year-old regardless of cost.

Western Notes: D-League, Donovan, Williams

May 8th, 2015 at 9:30pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Billy Donovan‘s track record of success at the University of Florida bodes well for his chances as the Thunder‘s new coach, Joseph Goodman of The Miami Herald writes. In addition to leading his team to back-to-back championships, Donovan also has proven adept at getting his star players to remain longer than they otherwise would have, Goodman notes. The organization certainly hopes this ability will carryover to the pros, since the pending free agency of Kevin Durant in the summer of 2016 is sure to be a hot-button topic in OKC all season long in 2015/16.

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

The L.A. D-Fenders, the Lakers‘ D-League affiliate, informed coach Phil Hubbard that the franchise would not be exercising its team option for him next season, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter links). The D-Fenders struggled to a record of 17-33 under the first-year coach, though NBA callups for Jabari Brown, Jamaal Franklin, and Vander Blue certainly didn’t help Hubbard’s cause, Spears notes.
If the Nets and Deron Williams were to agree to a buyout or if the franchise waives him via the stretch provision, the point guard returning to play for the Jazz is a possibility, posits Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News (Twitter link). Williams spent the first five and a half seasons of his career in Utah before being dealt to Brooklyn back in 2011.
Blazers big man Chris Kaman went to Portland with the intention of being a reserve and mentoring the team’s younger big men, but injuries derailed that plan, Jabari Young of CSNNW.com writes in his review of Kaman’s season. While many players would be thrilled to become a starter, even if it was due to injuries, Kaman wasn’t a huge fan of the change, Young adds. When discussing his role change, Kaman said, “It’s not bad, but it’s not what I came here to do. I knew I came here to back up [Robin] Lopez. And that’s where I see myself and that’s where I feel comfortable.” The veteran has one year remaining on his current deal, though only $1MM of his $5,016,000 salary for 2015/16 is guaranteed.