Memphis Grizzlies Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Clippers, Pelicans, Grizzlies Ask About Jeff Green

December 18th, 2014 at 3:13pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Celtics aren’t interested in trading Jeff Green in spite of recent inquiries about the forward from the Clippers, Pelicans and Grizzlies, who view the C’s as sellers, according to USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt (Twitter link). That conflicts with a Wednesday report from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, who wrote that the C’s were shopping Green in hopes of landing a first-round pick. Boston turned down an offer for Green and Rajon Rondo that included Jordan Hill and a first-round pick, presumably among other assets, from the Lakers, as Zillgitt reported earlier today.

The interest from the Clippers isn’t surprising, given their apparent need at small forward and reported interest in Corey Brewer, among other targets. The Pelicans were reportedly aggressive in trade discussions as of a few weeks ago, and they, too, could use help at small forward. The Grizzlies aren’t blessed with star-quality wing talent, either, but it’s somewhat odd to see them involved given their 21-4 record. It’s unclear what any of the three teams is willing to relinquish to acquire Green.

The 28-year-old former No. 5 overall pick is in the midst of strong year, averaging a career-high 19.6 points per game, and he’s far and away Boston’s leading scorer this season. Reluctance on the part of Boston to move him would seem to indicate that president of basketball operations Danny Ainge isn’t about to undertake an aggressive rebuilding even if he lets go of Rondo, though given the conflicting reports, it’s tough to get a read on the C’s strategy. Green is making $9.2MM this season and has a player option for the same salary next year.

Western Rumors: Turiaf, Clippers, Gasol, Lopez

December 16th, 2014 at 11:48am CST by Chuck Myron

Wolves coach/executive Flip Saunders told reporters today that it’s likely he’ll try to find a way to use Ronny Turiaf‘s roster spot to help the team in the short term, tweets Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune. Turiaf had surgery today on his right hip, and it’s unclear when he’ll be able to return. His contract, which calls for him to make a guaranteed $1.5MM this year, is up at season’s end, as Zgoda notes. Minnesota is already carrying 16 players through a hardship exception granted in part because of Turiaf’s injury, so his extended absence wouldn’t give the team any more ammunition to apply for a 17th roster spot, which it would be unlikely to receive, anyway. There’s more injury-related news amid the latest rumblings from around the Western Conference:

Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers acknowledged a report that the team is interested in Jermaine O’Neal, telling gathered media, including Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times, that he’s casting a wide net (Twitter link). “Hey, count me in for everybody,” Rivers said. “… We’re looking at everything.”
Jordan Farmar isn’t enamored with his limited role under Rivers, who’s giving him just 15.0 minutes per night, observes Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com. Farmar’s deal with the Clippers includes a player option worth more than $2.17MM for next season.
Marc Gasol isn’t tiring of hearing his name in rumors as he nears free agency in the summer ahead, but he once more made it clear that he’s quite pleased to be in Memphis, notes Chris Mannix of SI.com (Twitter link). The Raptors are the latest team reportedly gearing up for a run at the Grizzlies big man.
Robin Lopez is expected to miss the next four weeks after suffering a broken right hand in Monday’s win for the Blazers against the Spurs, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The Blazers have 15 fully guaranteed contracts, so they have little flexibility to find a replacement.

Raptors Eye Marc Gasol

December 15th, 2014 at 12:19pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Raptors are growing increasingly intrigued by Marc Gasol, according to Cathal Kelly of The Globe and Mail (hat tip to TNT’s David Aldridge). That’s not altogether surprising, since the No. 3 player in the latest Hoops Rumors 2015 Free Agent Power Rankings has been putting up career numbers in Memphis and looms as a seismic figure on next summer’s market. It’s unclear whether Toronto regards him as a free agent target or a possible trade acquisition, though Grizzlies coach Dave Joerger suggested this weekend that the Grizzlies, at 19-4, have no intention to make any moves for the time being. Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace has made it clear that re-signing Gasol is the first priority for the team.

Kelly identifies a dominating inside presence as Toronto’s most prominent need, though the team had placed high hopes in center Jonas Valanciunas, who’s in only his third NBA season after the Raptors drafted him fifth overall in 2011. Bryan Colangelo was in charge of basketball operations for the Raptors when they selected Valanciunas, and the interest in Gasol seems like a subtle hint that current GM Masai Ujiri isn’t as high on the ability of Valanciunas to develop into an elite center, though that’s just my speculation.

The Knicks are reportedly pessimistic about their chances to land Gasol, who’s said that he places a high value on playing for a winning club. Speculation has linked the Spurs to Gasol, but only if Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili retire. The Raptors are atop the Eastern Conference with an 18-6 record. Still, they have more than $49MM committed to nine players for next season, so accommodating the max contract that the Arn Tellem client would surely command next summer beneath a projected $66.5MM salary cap would be difficult.

Western Notes: Kings, Thomas, McGee, Grizzlies

December 15th, 2014 at 11:30am CST by Chuck Myron

Improvements in the performance and temperament of DeMarcus Cousins and a flawed roster unfit for the style Kings management wants to play are among the reasons SB Nation’s Tom Ziller believes the Kings erred in their apparent decision to fire coach Michael Malone. Cousins was one of Malone’s most enthusiastic supporters, notes Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee (Twitter link). Carl Landry has had high praise for Malone, too, according to Jones, who adds that Malone’s players have almost universally held the coach in high esteem (Twitter links). While we wait to see what happens next in Sacramento, here’s more from around the Western Conference:

Isaiah Thomas has fired agent Andy Miller of ASM Sports for reasons both personal and professional, sources tell Darren Heitner of the Sports Agent Blog (Twitter link). The agency confirmed the move, as Heitner notes via Twitter. The Suns guard intends to pick a new agent before the holidays, Heitner adds. Miller negotiated a new four-year, $27MM deal this summer for Thomas, the last pick in the 2011 draft.
JaVale McGee will miss a “significant” amount of time after aggravating a muscle near the tibia in which he suffered a stress fracture that kept him out most of last season, Nuggets coach Brian Shaw said Sunday to reporters, including Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post. “I heard six weeks at one point,” Shaw said. “I don’t know. I don’t think he’s anywhere close to coming back right now.”
Grizzlies coach Dave Joerger downplayed the notion that the team would make changes in spite of rumors indicating that the Cavs have their eyes on Tayshaun Prince and Kosta Koufos, as Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal writes. The Grizzlies are reportedly interested in Ray Allen, though there’s no indication that he would consider signing with Memphis, Tillery points out.

Clippers, Grizzlies, Warriors In Hunt For Ray Allen

December 13th, 2014 at 8:18pm CST by Chuck Myron

8:18pm: Doc Rivers said the Clippers are also interested in Allen, tweets Dan Woike of The Orange County Register. Los Angeles had expressed an interest in Allen over the summer, but Rivers said in October that Allen wasn’t a candidate to join the team.

SATURDAY, 3:28pm: Allen’s agent, Jim Tanner, confirmed that their is a wide range of interest in his client around the league, Shams Charania of RealGM reports. In addition to the previously mentioned teams, the Grizzlies have also expressed interest in the veteran free agent, Charania notes.

4:00pm: Warriors GM Bob Myers told 95.7 The Game today that Golden State did reach out to Allen’s representatives, but Allen isn’t sure about what he wants to do, Diamond Leung of The Bay Area News Group tweets.

THURSDAY, 9:01am: Ray Allen‘s name has drawn mention as the Warriors have engaged in internal discussions about their roster, according to Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group (Twitter link). The Warriors have been evaluating their options regarding their backcourt, Kawakami also tweets, though it’s unclear if they’re looking at bringing in someone new or just thinking about giving more minutes to players who are already on their roster. Golden State is a league-best 19-2, so it doesn’t seem there’d be much of a rush to make changes, though the Warriors’ position as a legitimate title threat no doubt gives them a leg up with sought-after free agents.

The 39-year-old Allen has lingered on the free agent market since July as he’s mulled whether to play again or retire. The Cavs, Wizards, Bulls and Spurs were among seven teams that still reportedly had interest in signing Allen as of late last month. Multiple reports from the past few weeks have cast the Cavs as the favorites to land the league’s all-time leading three-point maker should he decide to return to the NBA, echoing similar reports since the summer and an apparent belief that Cleveland’s front office had maintained into the fall. Still, Allen and agent Jim Tanner have shot down several rumors and have consistently maintained that Allen has yet to make up his mind. A report last week indicated that Allen has let teams know that he’ll entertain offers in January and decide about his future in February.

Allen said this summer that he wanted to play for an experienced coach, and while he didn’t rule out playing for the minimum salary, he made it clear that he’s not keen on the idea. That would appear to put the Warriors at a disadvantage should they pursue him, since Steve Kerr is in his first season as a head coach and Golden State is limited to the minimum salary. Kerr is nonetheless the first rookie coach in NBA history to win 19 out of his first 21 games. The Warriors are also one of the few teams in the NBA with an open roster spot. Leandro Barbosa and Justin Holiday are on partially guaranteed deals that are de facto non-guaranteed arrangements, since both have earned in excess of the amount of their partial guarantees. Holiday has seen little playing time this season, and Barbosa, who’s averaged 13.6 minutes per game this year, didn’t see action in the second half Wednesday, Kawakami notes (on Twitter).

D-League Notes: Mitchell, Adams, Ledo

December 12th, 2014 at 6:31pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The D-League is becoming an integral part of the NBA’s process of developing younger players, as well as a source for locating hidden gems to bolster rosters during the course of the season. You can easily stay on top of which players are coming and going from the D-League all season by checking out our 2014/15 D-League Assignments, Recalls tracker, which is updated daily. You can also find this page anytime on the right sidebar under “Hoops Rumors Features.”

Here are the latest D-League moves:

The Pistons have sent Tony Mitchell to the Grand Rapids Drive, their D-League affiliate, Keith Langlois of NBA.com reports (Twitter link). This will be Mitchell’s fourth D-League assignment of the season.
Jordan Adams has been re-assigned to the Iowa Energy, the Grizzlies‘ affiliate, the team announced in a press release. In his three previous jaunts to Iowa, Adams has averaged 14.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.0 steals in 30.0 minutes per contest.
The Mavericks have recalled Ricky Ledo from the Texas Legends of the D-League, Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com reports (Twitter link). This was Ledo’s fourth assignment of the season to the D-League. In seven appearances for the Legends, he has averaged 13.3 PPG.
The Kings have re-assigned Eric Moreland to their D-League affiliate, the Reno Bighorns, the team announced via Twitter. This will be Moreland’s fourth trip to Reno of the season, and he’s averaging 14.4 points, 13.6 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks for the Bighorns this season.

And-Ones: McGrady, Draft, Hamilton

December 11th, 2014 at 4:14pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The league has been canvassing team executives about the idea of eliminating as much as half of the preseason to make the regular season about 10 days longer, thus building more off days into the schedule, Grantland’s Zach Lowe reports. Any reduction in the preseason wouldn’t take place until the 2016/17 season at the earliest, according to Lowe, and the league has also brought up the idea of allowing organized team activities during the offseason like
the National Football League does, Lowe writes.

Here’s more from around the NBA and abroad:

A recent report from Bleacher Report’s Les Carpenter left some ambiguity about whether Tracy McGrady wanted to return to the NBA, but McGrady confirmed via his verified Facebook account that he no longer wants to play.
There will be more than a dozen NBA scouts in Spain tonight to observe Barcelona taking on Fenerbahce, with their primary focus being on Mario Hezonja, a projected lottery pick in the 2015 NBA draft, Chris Mannix of SI.com reports (Twitter link).
Chad Ford of ESPN.com (Insider subscription required) has released his second mock draft of the year. Ford projects the top three picks in the 2015 draft to be Jahlil Okafor (Duke), Karl-Anthony Towns (Kentucky), and Emmanuel Mudiay (Guangdong).
The Reno Bighorns of the NBA D-League traded for the rights to former NBA player Jordan Hamilton today, the team announced in a press release. In the deal, the Bighorns, the affiliate of the Kings, also acquired the Rio Grande Valley Vipers’ second round pick in the 2015 D-League draft. In return, Reno sent their 2015 first round pick in the D-League draft to the Iowa Energy, the Grizzlies’ D-League affiliate. Hamilton spent the 2014 preseason with the Raptors, before being acquired off of waivers by the Jazz, who later waived him themselves. The Lakers had expressed some interest in Hamilton, but declined to sign him after he worked out for the team last month.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Western Notes: McGrady, Carter, Mavs

December 9th, 2014 at 10:09pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Tracy McGrady thinks the Lakers would be the ideal team for him if he were to return to play in the NBA, as he told Bleacher Report’s Les Carpenter (hat tip to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports). McGrady was contemplating a comeback this fall, as Wojnarowski wrote in September, but a commitment to a basketball showcase that would have him in China during October got in the way. McGrady doesn’t want to play for an NBA team unless he attends training camp with that club, Carpenter writes, so that presumably means he won’t return to the league this season.

Here’s more from out west:

Vince Carter will be 40 years old when his contract with the Grizzlies expires in 2017, and the veteran has every intention of playing until then, Dwain Price of The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports (Twitter links). “My intentions are to play it out for sure. I have no intentions of backing down until the body says so,” Carter said. “Right now I just take it day by day and year by year and go from there.”
The Mavs are finding their point guard-by-committee approach to be successful thus far this season, Steve Aschburner of NBA.com writes. Instead of having a true star at the point, Dallas has instead opted for a quartet of “heady decision-makers” that have all been acquired since June, and who don’t take up a large amount of cap space, Aschburner notes. “The guards we have now, everyone brings a little something different,” Dirk Nowitzki said. “Jameer [Nelson] is probably the best shooter, Devin [Harris] is a great driver. I think Raymond [Felton] has the in-between game. I don’t even know what J.J. [Barea] does. We just give him the ball and he just goes wild out there. We run a couple pick-and-rolls for him, he keeps circling and circling. So I think all four guards bring something to the table, which we need.”
Former Warriors coach Mark Jackson briefly addressed the negative comments made against him by Golden State’s co-owner Joe Lacob, Carl Steward of The San Jose Mercury News reports. Speaking at his weekly sermon, Jackson said, “[Lacob] said I was good for nothing, an owner that knew me for three years and spent a couple of minutes around me, an owner that had the audacity to say that 200 folks don’t like me in the business.”
The remaining $620,794 of the $2,316,429 trade exception the Kings created from the Rudy Gay trade is set to expire tonight. Sacramento had previously used $1,695,635 of this exception when they acquired Reggie Evans from the Nets.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Southwest Notes: Grizzlies, Spurs, Fredette

December 8th, 2014 at 1:30pm CST by Chuck Myron

It would be surprising for the Grizzlies to make a trade anytime soon in spite of reported interest from the Cavs in Tayshaun Prince and Kosta Koufos, as Chris Herrington of The Commercial Appeal writes in his “Pick and Pop” column. Prince has played well and removed the reasons for the Grizzlies to trade him since the start of the season, and Dion Waiters, whom the Cavs are apparently willing to give up, would be a poor fit in Memphis, Herrington believes. There’s another Grizzlies tidbit amid the latest from the Southwest Division:

The Spurs like the players they bring in to have a sense of humor, as witnessed by the continued presence of Matt Bonner, as Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News examines. “We look for a guy that is mature enough to laugh at himself,” coach/executive Gregg Popovich said. “You’re on the bus, you’re on the plane, and you want to be able to enjoy each other. If a kid doesn’t have a sense of humor or the ability to be self-deprecating, it doesn’t work as well.” Bonner, who re-signed this summer, is the longest-tenured Spur outside of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, McDonald notes.
The addition of Gal Mekel to the Pelicans seems like a signal that the team is ready to move on from Jimmer Fredette, as Jimmy Smith of The Times-Picayune believes. Fredette, with New Orleans on a guaranteed one-year contract for the minimum salary, saw just one minute of action in Sunday’s 17-point win against the Lakers.
The Grizzlies have recalled Jordan Adams from the D-League, the team announced. This year’s 22nd overall pick had been in the D-League since November 25th, as our log of assignments and recalls shows. The shooting guard has averaged 14.8 points and 6.5 rebounds in 30.0 minutes per game across four contests for the Iowa Energy.

Cavs Eye Kosta Koufos, Dangle Dion Waiters

December 8th, 2014 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

The Cavs have been asking the Grizzlies about their willingness to trade Kosta Koufos, whose camp has let the Grizzlies know about their dissatisfaction with the center’s playing time this year and last, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The Cavs have told teams around the league that they’re willing to part with Dion Waiters if they can net a “difference-making center” in return, and Koufos would fit the profile, Stein writes. That advances an earlier report from Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio, who’s heard that the Cavs have been open to moving Waiters.

The Cavs are also interested in Grizzlies small forward Tayshaun Prince, as Brian Windhorst, Stein’s ESPN.com colleague, reported last week, but it’s unclear whether Memphis is ready to tinker with its roster amid a 16-4 start. The Grizzlies reportedly tried multiple times this past summer to trade Prince, but there’s been no such chatter surrounding Koufos, even though his minutes have declined in each of the two seasons since Memphis acquired him via trade from Denver. Koufos started 81 games and averaged 22.4 minutes per contest for the Nuggets in 2012/13 and saw that playing time cut to 16.9 MPG in his first season with the Grizzlies. That figure is down to 14.1 MPG this year, and he’s seeing less time on the court than fellow backup big man Jon Leuer. Koufos is making $3MM in the final season of his contract this year, a figure that would fit into the nearly $5.286MM trade exception the Cavs possess and that Windhorst expects Cleveland to use between December 15th and January 10th.

His impending free agency makes Koufos an easier trade target than his former Nuggets teammate, Timofey Mozgov, whose affordable contract runs through 2015/16 and whom Denver appears unwilling to give up, Stein posits. Mark Termini, the agent for Koufos, negotiates contracts for the Klutch Sports Group, an agency with close ties to the Cavs.

The Cavs have reportedly sought rim protection as well as a defensive stopper on the wings in recent months, apparently having had interest in Corey Brewer and Andrei Kirilenko for their perimeter in addition to Prince. Waiters has made his mark primarily on the offensive end, and while he’d like to start, as Stein notes, he’s been coming off the bench since the second week of the season. The Sixers have reportedly held interest in Waiters, a Philadelphia native, at multiple points over the last 12 months, and the Cavs reportedly discussed him with an unknown team picking in the top 10 in the draft this past June. He’s making $4.062MM in the third year of his rookie scale contract.