Southeast Notes: Harris, Jefferson, Heat, Wittman
The Lakers, Knicks, Sixers and Hawks have been linked to soon-to-be restricted free agent Tobias Harris, but the belief is that the Magic would match just about any offer of less than $13MM a year, according to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders, who looks at Harris and other top free agents. It’s unclear whether those four non-Orlando teams are interested, Harris is interested in them, or both, though the Knicks are reportedly planning a pursuit amid conflicting reports about whether he’s eager to play for them. Kyler wrote earlier this month that there’s a sense that the Sixers will make a play for Harris, too. Here’s more from around the Southeast Division:
- It’s likely that Al Jefferson will turn down his $13.5MM player option for next season, Kyler writes in the same piece, adding that while the belief is that he’d like to remain with the Hornets, there’s also a sense that the 30-year-old will go to the highest bidder in free agency.
- Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel wonders whether the Heat will sign a big man to help a thin frontcourt rotation in the wake of Hassan Whiteside‘s injury. Whiteside is out at least a few more days with a hand laceration that will probably take two weeks to heal completely, as Jason Lieser of the Palm Beach Post relays. The Heat were reportedly among the teams with interest in signing JaVale McGee earlier this month.
- Coaches rarely last in the NBA, but SB Nation’s Tom Ziller argues that the Wizards have been too patient with Randy Wittman.
And-Ones: Draft, McRoberts, Beverley
Josh McRoberts is traveling with the Heat for the first time since tearing the meniscus in his right knee in early December, Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post writes. “He’s progressing very well, but we’re not getting ahead of ourselves right now and I wouldn’t look too much into this road trip,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “It’s really to help him with his spirits being around the team, and we’re enjoying that, but the larger picture is he’s going to be able to do more work with our training staff. The last couple road trips we left him back there to work with our trainers, but we’ve had so many injuries that we need our full staff here right now. That means Josh has to come with us. But he will not be working with the basketball coaches, not yet.”
When asked about the possibility of McRoberts returning to action this season, Spoelstra said, “He’s still not working with coaches. Everything is with trainers right now. I check in with him every single day. Most of the work is in the training room and the weight room. I’m not thinking about him playing this year.”
Here’s more from around the league:
- The Rockets will learn on Wednesday if Patrick Beverley will need season-ending surgery on his injured wrist, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter links). The guard is waiting for doctors to inform him if continued play will risk further ligament damage before making his final decision, Spears adds.
- The Wizards and the Nets are both interested in one-to-one affiliations with D-League teams, Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today tweets. Both franchises currently share the Fort Wayne Mad Ants with the 11 other NBA teams also without one-to-one affiliations.
- LSU sophomore forward Jordan Mickey is leaning toward entering the 2015 NBA draft, Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link). Mickey averaged 15.4 points and 9.9 rebounds per game for the Tigers this season. The 6’8″ big man is currently ranked as the No. 81 prospect by DraftExpress.
- Sean Deveney of The Sporting News looked at 10 players whose performances in the NCAA Tournament improved their NBA draft stock. Deveney’s list includes Justise Winslow (Duke), Terry Rozier (Louisville), Jerian Grant (Notre Dame), and Jakob Poeltl (Utah).
Southeast Notes: Sessions, Deng, Oden, Scott
Ramon Sessions is growing more comfortable with the Wizards, especially offensively, after a deadline-day trade that brought him to Washington ended a brief and unusual tenure with the Kings, as Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post details.
“I’ve been around for a while and I’ve been around with a few different teams and it was probably one of the strangest things, to have three coaches by the All-Star break,” Sessions said. “A lot different things you’re hearing from different people and it didn’t really correlate with what was going on on the court. So it was tough. It definitely was tough. Me being an older guy, it was a little easier, but I know for some of the young guys it had to be real tough.”
Here’s more from around the Southeast Division:
- The Suns reportedly had interest in Luol Deng at last year’s trade deadline and during this past offseason‘s free agency, but they didn’t ask about him as they negotiated the Goran Dragic deal with the Heat last month, Grantland’s Zach Lowe reports.
- The Heat have been planning a free agency push for 2016, but that’ll be difficult unless team president Pat Riley wants to break up the core he has now, as Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel examines.
- Ohio State coach Thad Matta has suggested that Greg Oden will make another NBA comeback attempt, but the former No. 1 overall pick had limited passion for the game last season with the Heat, Winderman writes in the same piece.
- The toe injury that’s sidelined Hawks power forward Mike Scott doesn’t involve a broken bone as previously reported, writes Paul Newberry of The Associated Press. Scott was reportedly expected to miss four to six weeks as of a week ago, but now it’s likely he’ll be back at full strength for the playoffs, according to Newberry. The postseason begins three weeks from Saturday. The team’s 10-day contract with Austin Daye, whom the Hawks signed to offset the loss of Scott, expires overnight tonight.
Andray Blatche Inks Multiyear Deal In China
1:47pm: The deal doesn’t include any NBA escape clauses, Pick clarifies to Hoops Rumors, but it’s unclear if the team would allow him to play toward the end of an NBA season once the Chinese season ends.
MONDAY, 7:47am: The deal is worth a total of $7.5MM, a source tells David Pick of Eurobasket.com, adding that the big man has put pen to paper on the contract. The salary is guaranteed, and Blatche has no interest in returning to the NBA, Pick also hears (Twitter links).
SATURDAY, 8:56am: Former NBA player Andray Blatche is set to sign a three year deal to return to the Xinjiang Flying Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association, AsiaBasket.com reports (hat tip to HoopsHype.com). Financial terms have not been disclosed but the deal is reportedly the largest in the history of the CBA, and possibly the largest in overseas basketball history, the report notes. Shams Charania of RealGM.com first reported the possibility of Blatche re-signing with Xinjiang. The 28-year-old big man dominated the Chinese league last season, averaging 31.0 points and 14.5 rebounds in 38.7 minutes per game for the Flying Tigers.
A number of NBA teams were reportedly interested in signing Blatche for the remainder of this season, including the Nets and Grizzlies. Miami had also shown interest in Blatche, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported back in December, though the emergence of Hassan Whiteside likely dampened the Heat’s interest in inking Blatche, speculated Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com. Heat officials reportedly made preliminary inquiries about the Andy Miller client last summer, but Miami reportedly had longstanding concerns about Blatche’s maturity and behavior.
Blatche has appeared in a total of 564 NBA games over the course of his career. His last taste of action in the league came during the 2013/14 campaign with the Nets when he logged 11.2 PPG and 5.3 RPG in 22.2 minutes per game. Blatche’s career numbers are 10.1 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 1.4 assists per contest. His career shooting numbers are .467/.237/.725.
JaVale McGee Backs Off Player Option Demand
JaVale McGee now prefers a deal that carries only through the end of the season, a source tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports, who writes in his weekly power rankings. That indicates a turnabout from earlier this month, when he was reportedly seeking a player option for 2015/16 on any deal. That was apparently at the root of failed negotiations with the Celtics, who wanted a team option. Most of the contending teams reportedly inquired about the B.J. Armstrong client earlier this month, and, as Spears reports today, McGee still wants to play for a postseason contender.
It’s unclear if the lack of an insistence on a player option will spark a renewed interest, as chatter about the 27-year-old has slowed considerably after a brief period in which he seemed a prime target following his release from the Sixers. The Mavs were “seriously interested” a few weeks ago, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported then, but Spears reported last week that they were no longer in pursuit. The Rockets, Raptors and Heat also appeared to be teams in the mix for McGee at the time of the strong interest from Dallas, but even at that point, there was “no way” the Raptors would cross the tax line to sign him, according to Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun.
While Houston, Miami and Toronto likely wouldn’t go over the tax threshold for this season with a multiyear arrangement for the minimum salary, a one-year deal reduces McGee’s cost if he signs for the minimum. That’s because the league would cover the difference between the two-year veteran’s minimum and the minimum for a six-year veteran like McGee if the contract only covered a single season. It would mean a savings of $32,533 for this season for a team that signs him to a one-year minimum deal instead of a two-year minimum deal, and it would come with the cost certainty of knowing that McGee couldn’t force the team to pay him a salary for next season, too.
Eastern Notes: Beasley, Payton, Harkless
The Nets are two and a half games behind the Celtics for the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference and Tim Bontemps of the New York Post believes the next four games will decide their season. Brooklyn will play Milwaukee on Friday and then Indiana, Boston and Charlotte. Any loss hurts twice as much as it will elevate the direct competition closer to a playoff berth.
Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:
- The Heat and Michael Beasley have indeed agreed to a rare team option (and not non-guaranteed salary) for next season in their deal, confirms Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link).
- Elfrid Payton has improved as the season has progressed and the Magic have found their point guard of the future, opines Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. After recording a triple-double on Wednesday night, Payton seems to be feeling more comfortable leading the team. “I’m just working, putting up shots, getting in the gym, working hard,” Payton said. “I think the confidence has always been there, but I know I’ve got the support of my teammates.”
- Maurice Harkless has seen more minutes since Orlando fired coach Jacque Vaughn and the team likes how the forward is playing, writes Robbins in a separate piece. “He’s showing that he wants to play,” interim coach James Borrego said. “There’s a confidence about him right now, and he’s got to continue to play with that.” Harkless is under contract through next season, but he is eligible for a rookie scale extension this summer.
Southeast Notes: Ferry, Bazemore, Bosh, MKG
Kent Bazemore admits that Danny Ferry‘s name gets brought up in the Hawks‘ locker room quite a bit and the guard believes Ferry deserves credit for putting a championship contender together, as he tells Charles Bethea in an interview for Grantland.com.
“[Ferry is] definitely a huge part of this year’s success. It was unfortunate what happened, but that doesn’t change the way I feel about Mr. Ferry. I flew into Atlanta this summer and had lunch with him. And he’s a great guy,” Bazemore said. “We sat there, we laughed, we joked. He has a huge group of friends, believe it or not, in the NBA. So I look at it as a business. He’s trying to do his best for his organization, and he’s done a great job of getting the right guys in and creating a team that’s number one in the East and almost the best team in the NBA right now, recordwise. He could win the GM award.”
In our latest poll, about 30% of Hoops Rumors readers believe Ferry should win the Executive of the Year award. As we wait to see whether or not the summer controversy surrounding the Hawks prevents Ferry from taking home the trophy, we’ll round up more from the Southeast:
- Bazemore, before signing his two year, $4MM deal with the Hawks, played last season with Kobe Bryant and the Lakers. Some have suggested that free agents would be disinterested in signing with Los Angeles because of Bryant. Bazemore tells Bethea that that’s simply not the case and that it wasn’t difficult to play with the 17-time All-Star.
- Chris Bosh isn’t letting his season-ending injury prevent him from contributing to the Heat, as Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel observes (subscription only link). Bosh has been playing the role of an assistant coach, and Dwyane Wade is supportive of what the big man brings to the bench. “If he sees something, he’ll come to you and he’ll tell you,” said Wade. “He’s been exciting. He’s been into it. I think he’s just enjoying being around the game again. We feel his excitement. It’s just good just to look over there and see him.”
- Hornets coach Steve Clifford believes Michael Kidd-Gilchrist has the talent to become the best perimeter defender in this generation of NBA players, according to Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer. Kidd-Gilchrist becomes extension-eligible this summer, and such strong words likely indicate the Hornets would prefer to keep the Kentucky product around going forward.
Chris Crouse contributed to this post.
Eastern Notes: Beasley, Bucks, Celtics
Michael Beasley‘s latest stint with the Heat has been a success, writes Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald. Miami signed him through at least the remainder of the season, after his second 10-day contract expired on Tuesday, and coach Erik Spoelstra believes he can be a contributor down the stretch. “Michael has been very good, and with all the changes and moving parts, we are very fortunate to add a player who is familiar to us and our system,” Spoelstra said. “He has improved a great deal and he has helped us, so he has made the most of the opportunity, and we’ll go from there.”
Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:
- Beasley confirmed that his contract for next season will be a team option, according to Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel (Twitter link).
- The Bucks have signaled that they won’t pony up any more than the $250MM they’ve already committed toward the construction of a new arena in Milwaukee as legislators continue to haggle over public funding, as Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel details.
- The Celtics may be on the verge of making the playoffs, but Jimmy Toscano of CSNNE.com (video link) is looking ahead to the offseason to see which free agents might land in Boston. Toscano believes it would be wise for the franchise to look at Draymond Green and Wesley Matthews as possible free agent targets. Toscano also names Greg Monroe as someone who the team could conceivably land.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Heat Sign Michael Beasley For Season
1:26pm: The signing is official, the Heat announced.
1:12pm: The deal is believed to cover next season as well with a team option, according to Winderman, who writes in a full story. I’d speculate that next season would involve non-guaranteed salary rather than a team option, since that’s a more typical structure for this sort of contract, but that remains to be seen.
WEDNESDAY, 12:10pm: Karnes confirms via Twitter that his client will re-sign with the Heat.
TUESDAY, 1:02pm: Heat coach Erik Spoelstra indicated today that the Heat will re-sign Michael Beasley on Wednesday to a contract that covers the balance of the season, tweets Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Today is the final day of his second 10-day contract with the team, so the sides would have to do a deal for at least the rest of 2014/15 if they were to continue their partnership. It wouldn’t be surprising to see the team indeed commit to the former No. 2 overall pick for at least the next month or two, given the praise that Spoelstra and team president Pat Riley have given him since he signed the first of his 10-day contracts with Miami late last month.
The Jared Karnes client has also played a fairly prominent role for the team on his pair of 10-day deals, averaging 9.5 points and 3.9 rebounds in 22.9 minutes per game across 10 appearances. Those averages are better than he posted last season, when he was on the Heat’s roster all year. He spent most of this season playing in China after a brief stint with the Grizzlies during the preseason.
Miami has a full 15-man roster with 14 players already signed through at least the end of the season, so a new deal for Beasley would close off the Heat’s ability to add another player without waiving someone else. Miami is limited to giving Beasley no more than the minimum salary, but the team can tack an extra year onto the deal if it wants and if Beasley and Karnes permit it. It would be reasonable to expect Beasley to demand at least a significant partial guarantee for that to happen, but it’s unclear if either side is thinking beyond 2014/15.
Eastern Notes: Rose, Stevens, LeBron, Pistons
After Derrick Rose tore his meniscus, he was given a six-week recovery timeline that began on February 27th, but Tom Thibodeau said today that the former MVP is “ahead of schedule” in the healing process, notes K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. Thibodeau also said he was “hopeful” that Taj Gibson and Jimmy Butler would return to action this week, but the Bulls coach stopped short of making any guarantees. Here’s tonight’s look at the Eastern Conference:
- Celtics coach Brad Stevens is defying stereotypes and proving a coach hired straight out of the NCAA can be effective in the NBA, writes Chris Bernucca of Sheridan Hoops, who points to P.J. Carlesimo, Tim Floyd, Leonard Hamilton, Lon Kruger, Mike Montgomery, Jerry Tarkanian, and Rick Pitino as big names who failed to make their mark at the NBA level.
- Pat Riley admitted he was surprised when LeBron James left the Heat to re-join the Cavs, and he regarded the decision made by LeBron a result of the “contemporary attitude of today.” However, Terry Pluto of The Plain Dealer isn’t shocked in the least at James’ decision and argues that the same attitude is the what led LBJ to originally leave Cleveland in 2010.
- The Pistons took a risk when they made a deal to acquire Reggie Jackson, and given Detroit’s 2-10 record in games in which Jackson appears, both the soon-to-be restricted free agent and the team are hoping they can figure out how to effectively mesh during the last month of the season, as David Mayo of MLive details. It’s worth noting that Jackson scored 23 points and dished out 20 assists in tonight’s win over the Grizzlies.