December 25th, 2014 at 12:01pm CST by Charlie Adams
Let’s dive in and have a look at the latest rumors and rumblings out of the NBA’s Western Conference:
The Nuggets have received multiple inquiries about the availability of Wilson Chandler, but the team has expressed to the 29-year-old forward that they prefer to retain him, as Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post notes within his weekly mailbag column.
Pau Gasol admits it was a tough decision to leave the Lakers and sign with the Bulls, and not only because of his emotional attachment to the city of Los Angeles, as Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Times details. The Lakers offered offered Gasol deals featuring a no-trade clause worth $29MM over three years and $23MM over two years. Gasol, who eventually signed with Chicago on a three-year, $22MM deal, says it’s been difficult to watch the Lakers struggle this season but that he doesn’t regret his decision.
Discussions between Gal Mekel and Maccabi Tel Aviv have hit a snag, reports David Pick of Eurobasket.com (via Twitter). We learned on Tuesday that the ex-Pelicans guard had an offer from Maccabi to return overseas, but that opportunity has apparently been put on hold. Instead, former eighth overall pick Joe Alexander is finalizing and agreement to leave the Santa Cruz Warriors of the D-League and join Maccabi, Pick passes along (Twitterlinks). Alexander had a deal in place to join the Nuggets for camp this fall before failing a physical.
The Kings and Nets had more trade talks Wednesday regarding Deron Williams, but Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports writes that Sacramento’s desire to pick up Mason Plumlee remains a major obstacle to a deal. “Talks aren’t dead, but nothing’s going to happen with Plumlee involved,” according to an unidentified source. The Kings want Plumlee as a incentive to accept Williams, who has battled a string of injuries and has two full years and more than $43MM left on his contract. Plumlee is still on his rookie deal and is under Brooklyn’s control through the 2017/18 season.
There’s more from the Pacific Division:
Despite watching Carmelo Anthony and Rajon Rondo slip away, Kobe Bryant tells Sam Amick of USA Today that he still has faith in Lakers management. “We did what we could,” he said. “… It’s not from a lack of effort. It’s not from a lack of smarts, so I trust the process.” L.A. will be awash in cap room and is expected to continue to reach out to the top-tier free agents, which includes LaMarcus Aldridge, Goran Dragic and Kevin Love next summer and Kevin Durant in the summer of 2016. Bryant, 36, continues to insist he will retire after his two-year, $48.5MM contract expires after next season.
Pau Gasol, who left the Lakers to sign with the Bulls during the summer, expects an “emotional” experience Thursday night when his new team hosts his old team, reports Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com. Gasol received a two-year deal from Chicago worth more than $14.5MM, with a 2016/17 player option for $7.769MM. In the same game, L.A.’s Carlos Boozer will return to Chicago for the first time since being amnestied.
The Clippers will likely be making a roster move soon, writes Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com. He explains that the team is $788,256 below the NBA’s hard salary cap, which limits its ability to add players. The minimum salary for a veteran with at least two years’ experience would count $915,243 toward the cap, but because of a “nuance” in league rules, a free agent with less than two years’ experience eats up the same amount of cap room. That’s probably bad news for Jared Cunningham, whose salary won’t be guaranteed until January 10th. The Clippers could free up about $600K in cap room by waiving him before that date.
December 23rd, 2014 at 7:33pm CST by Eddie Scarito
Pistons coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy pulled quite a stunner on Monday when he waivedJosh Smith. Smith won’t come off waivers until Wednesday, but it’s likely that he won’t be without a team for long. Numerous franchises have reportedly expressedinterest in signing Smith, including the Clippers, Rockets, Mavericks, Heat, Lakers, Grizzlies, and Kings. While Houston is currently rumored to be the favorite to obtain Smith’s services, the veteran forward is apparently in high demand despite only averaging 13.1 points on 39.1% shooting this season, with both numbers being below his career averages of 15.4 PPG and 45.6%.
The competition to ink Smith is most certainly due to the price tag he can be had for, which will be more than likely for the league-minimum salary, or not much more than that, which is all that most of the teams linked to Smith have to offer the big man. Detroit had garnered little to no interest in its efforts to deal Smith prior to its decision to release him, when his price tag would have been $13.5MM for this season, and whose contract ran for two more seasons at the same rate.
While Smith was clearly not performing up to his contract this year, which according to Hoops Rumors’ 2014/15 Salary Rankings, was good for the ninth highest cap hit amongst small forwards in the league, he’ll be a bargain at around the league-minimum for whichever franchise signs him. But which team would be the best fit for Smith?
One of the biggest issues with Smith’s production in Detroit was its insistence on trying to make him a small forward in an oversize frontcourt, a spot that Smith clearly was not suited to play. On his next team, if his coaches are wise, he’ll more than likely go back to his natural power forward position, though he can also provide some minutes at the three as well in a pinch.
Smith has been a starter for 758 of the 781 career games that he has appeared in, though this trend isn’t necessarily going to continue with his next team. Here’s a quick rundown of the starting power forwards on the teams reported to be in the hunt for Smith:
The quandaries for Smith when making the decision on which team to sign with is how to best market himself for next season and which circumstance would allow him to best rebuild his value. Does he try and chase a ring with a contending team? Or does he try to maximize his playing time, as well as have the best opportunity to put up numbers? Out of the teams listed, Smith would only be a clear upgrade as a starter for the Kings, Heat, and Lakers. Miami is the only one of those three that has a realistic shot at the playoffs, mainly because the Heat reside in the much weaker Eastern Conference, which should give Pat Riley‘s squad the edge amongst that group if Smith chooses the playing time route.
If Smith wants to join a contending team, as has been mentioned as being one of his criteria, then relocating to Texas may be his wisest decision. Smith is close friends with Dwight Howard and Rajon Rondo, who have each campaigned for their respective teams to ink the veteran, and joining the Rockets or the Mavs would certainly be appealing for him as a result of those relationships. Both of those franchises have realistic shots to go deep into the playoffs, but Houston would also offer Smith a much better opportunity to log significant minutes with Motiejunas currently penciled in as the starter.
So where do you think the best fit for Smith to land would be? Cast your votes and sound off below in the comments section to expand on why you believe this would be the best situation for Smith.
Family concerns will matter more than the relationships Jermaine O’Neal has with any city or team when the 36-year-old center decides whether to return to the NBA, and if so, which club he’ll play for, as O’Neal detailed today on his verified Twitter account (linkshere). O’Neal lives in Dallas and has reportedly long wanted to play close to home, and the Mavs are the apparent favorites to land him. The Warriors, for whom O’Neal played last, as well as the Clippers and Cavs are also said to be interested in the 18-year veteran. Of those teams, Golden State is the only one for which O’Neal has played previously, so it would seem that his remarks today are a harbinger that he won’t be returning to the Bay Area, though that’s just my interpretation. Here’s more news related to Pacific Division teams:
People around the league sense that the Suns would be more willing to deal Isaiah Thomas than Eric Bledsoe or Goran Dragic, Grantland’s Zach Lowe writes. Rival executives have picked up the impression that Dragic is the one among those three point guards whom Phoenix would most like to keep, as Ken Berger of CBSSports.com reported this weekend.
The Mavs are “extremely confident” that Rajon Rondo will re-sign with the team, but the Lakers, among others, would love for the point guard to hit free agency, as Sam Amick of USA Today says in a video report. The Lakers were involved in trade talks with the Celtics about Rondo, and Chris Mannix of SI.com indicated last month that the Lakers are likely to pursue him in free agency.
Kings GM Pete D’Alessandro and former Kings coach Michael Malone weren’t on speaking terms during the months leading up to Malone’s dismissal, according to Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee. Tyrone Corbin knows he’s only a short-term solution, according to Voisin, though Chris Broussard of ESPN.com hears that Corbin will have a legitimate opportunity to coach the team (Twitter link), as D’Alessandro has publicly insisted. In any case, Voisin implores the team to hire George Karl.
Miroslav Raduljica and Shandong of the Chinese Basketball Association have agreed to a buyout in which the center gave up $300K of his $1.5MM deal, reports Nick Bedard of Basketballbuddha.com. The Clippers, in a series of money-saving moves this summer, acquired Raduljica from the Bucks and quickly waived him via the stretch provision.
Pistons coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy pulled a stunner today, waivingJosh Smith. Reports quickly identified the Clippers, Mavs and Kings as suitors for Smith in free agency once he clears waivers, as expected, and more clubs are lining up for a chance to obtain him on the cheap. There’s plenty of news rolling in related to Detroit’s bold move and what happens next with the tweener forward, and we’ll pass along the latest in this thread, with any additional updates posted on top:
The Heat have formally applied for a disabled player exception from the league after losing Josh McRoberts for the year, reports Marc Stein of ESPN. While the exception, which would be worth $2.653MM, hasn’t been granted yet, the Heat are hopeful they’ll have it before Smith makes his decision (Twitterlinkshere).
9:46pm update:
The Clippers will have interest in Smith if he clears waivers, ESPN’s Arash Markazi hears from multiple team sources. Markazi adds that the team can only offer Smith the veteran’s minimum and would likely cut Jared Cunningham to make room on its roster. Cunningham’s contract becomes guaranteed on January 10th and he is likely to be released before then either way, per Markazi.
8:51pm update:
Should Smith clear waivers, the Lakers will have a significant financial advantage over most of his other suitors, writes Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times. The disabled player exception they received from Steve Nash‘s season-ending injury allows the Lakers spend up to $4.85MM on a single player, per Pincus, which is more than twice what most other teams can offer. Pincus adds that the Lakers should have the cap space next summer to re-sign Smith.
7:14pm updates:
There is a strong belief among Rockets players, even beyond Howard, that they’ll convince Smith to sign in Houston, reports Wojnarowski (via Twitter).
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said that Smith “fits the profile of the type of guys we love to bring in,” reports Bryan Gutierrez of Mavs Outsider. Cuban added that the Mavs would use Smith more down low than on the wing should they add him, per Gutierrez (Twitterlinks).
While it’s hardly a surprise, Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today reports that the Sixers, flush in cap space, have zero interest in claiming Smith off waivers (via Twitter).
4:05pm update:
The Grizzlies have expressed interest in Smith, too, Grantland’s Zach Lowe hears, acknowledging that it’s nonetheless a long shot for him to wind up in Memphis (Twitter link). The Grizzlies couldn’t pay him any more than the minimum.
3:49pm update:
The Lakers would like Smith to play for them, according to Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link), but they wouldn’t fall into the category of a playoff-bound team, the only sort that Smith is reportedly considering (below).
1:55pm update:
Teams that aren’t headed for the playoffs are out of the running for Smith, tweets Shams Charania of RealGM. That stance would appear to damage the chances of the Kings most of all among the clubs that reports have so far linked to the forward.
1:40pm update:
Smith was “fixated” on finding a way to join the Rockets before he signed with Detroit in 2013, according to Wojnarowski, who writes in a full piece.
1:05pm updates:
The Heat are in the running for Smith, Stein reports (on Twitter). Miami has only the minimum to give.
Houston will allow Smith to choose whether he wants a one-year or two-year deal, Amick hears (Twitter link). The biannual exception limits contracts to no more than two seasons, and the Rockets are without a way to sign him to a longer deal.
12:39pm update:
The Rockets are taking an aggressive stance in their pursuit of Smith, according to Wojnarowski (Twitter link). They attempted to trade for him but couldn’t find a workable salary match that didn’t involved Howard or James Harden, Wojnarowski adds in a second tweet.
12:28pm updates:
Houston will offer Smith its $2.077MM biannual exception, reports Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle (on Twitter). The Rockets are optimistic about their chances to land Smith, given their status as a contender, the opportunity to offer him a large on-court role, and their financial advantage of having the biannual while others are limited to the minimum salary, tweets Sam Amick of USA Today.
No one has been a bigger fan of Smith in recent months than Kings owner Vivek Ranadive, according to Stein (Twitter link).
12:17pm updates:
The Clippers would like to research the matter more thoroughly before committing to a pursuit of Smith, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (on Twitter). Though Marc Stein of ESPN.com hears the Clippers are indeed interested, coach/executiveDoc Rivers said he doesn’t know quite yet what his team will do, as he told reporters, including Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link).
The Rockets do have interest in signing Smith, Wojnarowski reports (Twitter link). Stein reported earlier that Houston, which has the $2.077MM biannual exception to spend, was still thinking about whether it wanted to go after Smith, who’s a friend of Dwight Howard‘s. Howard has said in the past that he and Smith have had conversations about playing together again as they did when they were AAU teammates, notes Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link).
The Kings were the only team to express interest in trading for Smith as the Pistons sought to move him in recent weeks, Stein tweets.The Pistons refused to part with draft picks in any deal or take on burdensome contracts in return, according to Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
Derrick Williams was alongside Jason Thompson in the Kings‘ earliest trade proposals to the Pistons regarding Smith over the summer, and Carl Landry later replaced Williams in those offers, according to Stein (on Twitter). Van Gundy turned them down because he wanted to coach Smith before cutting ties, Stein adds (Twitter link).
The refusal of the Lakers to include Julius Randle in a trade for Rajon Rondo helped prevent the Celtics and Lakers from completing a deal involving the point guard, as Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports reports amid his weekly power rankings. The teams had harbored mutual interest in engineering a swap involving Rondo, Spears adds. The Lakers took Randle one spot after the Celtics drafted Marcus Smart, Rondo’s replacement, in the draft this year, though Randle played in only one game before suffering a broken leg that’s expected to be season-ending. Here’s more on the Celtics:
Rondo was never going to re-sign with Boston if it meant enduring more rebuilding, and the presence of the Lakers as a potential suitor for Rondo in free agency this summer worried the Celtics, as TNT’s David Aldridge writes in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com.
The Celtics took Jae Crowder‘s $915,243 salary into the $3.8MM Joel Anthony trade exception rather than the $1,334,092 that they had left of the Kris Humphries trade exception, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). That was the missing bit of information regarding the C’s deft use of trade exceptions in the Rondo deal, which I explained in detail last week. The Anthony exception, which expires October 17th, 2015, is now worth only $152,757, since Boston used it to take in Jameer Nelson‘s $2.732MM salary, too. Check out our complete list of the active trade exceptions for teams around the league.
The 2016 second-round pick that the Mavs owe the Celtics as part of the Rondo trade will be the better of Dallas’ own pick and Memphis’, which the Mavs acquired in a previous deal, Pincus also reports (Twitter link).
December 20th, 2014 at 2:45pm CST by Eddie Scarito
Mark Jackson said that his recent meeting with Chris Mullin, GM Pete D’Alessandro and DeMarcus Cousins in Sacramento had nothing to do with the Kings‘ coaching position, Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee reports (Twitterlinks). Jackson said the get together was simply to catch up with some old friends. Jackson is one of the names mentioned to be in the running for Sacramento’s coaching vacancy along with George Karl, Vinny Del Negro, and Mullin.
Here’s more out of the Pacific Division:
Kevin Durant has openly praised Kobe Bryant and said that he would love to play alongside the Black Mamba. While Bryant has stated that he has not begun recruiting Durant, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent in 2016, Bryant didn’t rule out trying to lure the Slim Reaper to the Lakers, Baxter Holmes of ESPNLosAngeles.com writes. “No, I think we know each other pretty well,” Bryant said. “I don’t think it’s a discussion that you have in terms of coming here. But I think it’s more of an understanding how to play with each other. If the opportunity came up, then that’s the time to have that discussion.”
The Lakers were lucky to miss out on acquiring Rajon Rondo, Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report writes. Though he believes Rondo is a good player, he isn’t the superstar that Los Angeles needs to build around, and re-signing him this summer, if Rondo was willing, would have eaten into its cap space that could be used to nab a far superior player in the future, such as Durant, Ding opines.
Goran Dragic, who can opt out of his contract with the Suns at the end of the season and become a free agent, was mentioned as a possible target for the Knicks either via trade or free agency. Dragic responded to the report by saying he would be open to the Knicks — as well as everybody else — when he gets on the market this summer, Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv reports. “Every team that is going to be available is going to be an option,” Dragic said. “New York has great fan base, great basketball organization.”
December 19th, 2014 at 7:06pm CST by Eddie Scarito
Andrew Bogut has struggled with various injuries throughout his career, something that weighs heavily on the Warriors’ big man, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports writes. Bogut’s injury woes reached a boiling point during the middle of the 2012/13 season, and Bogut went as far as telling his agent David Baumann that he planned to retire at the end of that season, Spears notes. “I called him midseason and said, ‘I’m done, ‘ ” Bogut said. “My back was so bad at the time. After every game it was like a balloon and it was like catching my tail to get back to the next game. If we had two games in three days, my ankles were really swollen. I had to get around the clock treatment, anti-inflammatories. It got to the point where it just wasn’t responding.”
Here’s more out of the Pacific Division:
Bogut’s most recent malady involves his right knee, for which he recently underwent platelet-rich plasma therapy, and he’ll be sidelined indefinitely as a result. Despite his frustrations, Bogut will attempt to finish out his current deal with the Warriors, which runs through 2016/17, and then decide if he wishes to continue playing, Spears adds. “I got two years left [on my contract] and I will play it by ear,” Bogut said. “My goal is to play these two years out and see where I’m at. I am having fun, but it’s a grind though. Some days you wake up and you can’t walk. It takes you an hour to get your body right, to get to the gym, get to your car. But that’s a part of being a pro athlete.“
The Lakers have recalled Jordan Clarkson from the Los Angeles D-Fenders, their D-League affiliate, the team announced (Twitter link). This was Clarkson’s fourth stint with the D-Fenders of the season.
Jamal Crawford has heard all of the trade rumors surrounding him, but the Clippers guard doesn’t let them get to him, Rowan Kavner of NBA.com writes. “I’ve been in trade rumors ever since I’ve been here, which is the weirdest thing,” Crawford said. “But that’s part of the business, honestly. I can play wherever. I can play here, I would love to play here. But if not, if something happens, you move on and do what you’ve got to do.”
The Heat are slumping, and they’re without Chris Bosh for the time being, but they’re still holding down a would-be playoff spot as they sit in seventh place in the Eastern Conference. They’ll play host to the division-leading Wizards tonight, and while we wait for that, here’s more from around the Southeast Division:
The Hornets believe that a groin injury is behind Lance Stephenson‘s decreased production this season, and that’s has helped motivate the team to back off trade talk regarding him, report Ramona Shelburne and Chris Broussard of ESPN.com. That’s even though Stephenson has had a negative effect on team chemistry, as sources tell the ESPN scribes.
The Hawks have sent Mike Muscala on D-League assignment, the team announced. Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution originally reported the news (Twitter link). Muscala spent a two-day stint in the D-League earlier this season, and he’s averaged 4.9 points in 10.0 minutes per game across eight appearances with the big club so far this year.
The frequent D-League assignments for Jordan Clarkson help prove the Wizards were wise on draft night when they acquired $1.8MM in cash in a trade that sent out the pick that the Lakers used on him, argues J. Michael of CSNWashington.com. Rasual Butler‘s play since taking the roster spot that otherwise ostensibly would have gone to Clarkson is further evidence, Michael believes.
Versatility has been a key asset for Evan Fournier, who’s helping the Magic reap much greater benefit than expected from this summer’s Arron Afflalotrade, which brought Fournier from the Nuggets, as Andrew Perna of RealGM examines.
The Rajon Rondo trade stands to have an immediate effect on the Western Conference playoff race as well as the long-term future of the Celtics, who for many years were an Eastern Conference contender with Rondo. We’ll be rounding up the news still trickling out about the blockbuster trade throughout the day, with any new items added to the top:
There’s no shortage of confidence among Mavs officials that they can re-sign Rondo, a source tells Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com, who adds that obtaining Rondo will make it easier for the club to reach a new deal with soon-to-be free agent Tyson Chandler (Twitter link).
The Lakers planned a final offer of Steve Nash, the protected 2015 first-rounder that the Rockets owe the Lakers, and a second-round pick, Grantland’s Zach Lowe reports.
The Celtics were asking for as many as three first-rounders for Rondo at times in the past year or so, multiple league sources tell Lowe for the same piece.
Brooklyn was also in the mix for Rondo, but the Nets simply couldn’t make a deal work, a league source tells Robert Windrem of NetsDaily (Twitter link).
8:59am update:
Rondo spoke publicly about his fondness for Boston even in the hours before the trade, but privately the soon-to-be free agent was torn between remaining with the Celtics and joining a contender, a source tells Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald (Twitter link). Still, Rondo didn’t tell the Celtics about the way he felt, Murphy adds in a second tweet.
The Celtics had decided that it would have been nearly impossible to compete this coming summer with other teams that could offer Rondo a better chance to win, sources tell Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald. The C’s weren’t sure they wanted to engage in a bidding war for a player who turns 30 in the middle of next season, Bulpett adds.
The desire to complete a deal in advance of two months prior to the trade deadline, giving the teams the power to flip their incoming players in a deal that aggregates their salaries this season, wasn’t a major factor in the timing of the deal, Bulpett also hears. The Celtics were convinced that the offers would get no better and might worsen if they waited, and they didn’t see any better offers earlier in the process, either, sources tell Bulpett.
The Knicks couldn’t have relinquished a first-round pick that would have gone to the Celtics any sooner than 2018, and that’s largely what torpedoed any chance New York might have had of trading for Rondo, as Mark Berman of the New York Post hears. Still, Knicks brass is divided on how well Rondo would fit within the triangle offense, Berman adds.