Northwest Notes: Rubio, Thunder, Williams
George Karl is currently working as an ESPN analyst a year after coaching the Nuggets, but he remains familiar with his former division rivals in Minnesota. Speaking to Andy Greder of Wolves Now, the reigning Coach of the Year gave his thoughts about what the Timberwolves need to do to earn a playoff spot, and praised the team’s acquisition of Luc Mbah a Moute. Here’s more from around the Northwest:
- After talking to a confidant of Ricky Rubio, Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities gets the sense that Rubio’s camp expects the point guard to receive a five-year maximum extension offer from the Timberwolves when he becomes eligible for it (Twitter links). While Rubio is a valuable asset, the fact that his numbers haven’t improved noticeably since his rookie season is a cause for some concern.
- In an Insider-only piece for ESPN.com, Tom Haberstroh wonders if the Thunder will soon face a repeat of the James Harden situation, with Reggie Jackson set to become extension-eligible next July. Jackson’s rookie deal doesn’t expire until 2015, which is the same summer Kendrick Perkins‘ contract will come off the books, so Oklahoma City should have more flexibility to lock up their new Sixth Man.
- The Thunder‘s D-League affiliate, the Tulsa 66ers, will add Reggie Williams to their roster, a source tells Gino Pilato of D-League Digest. Williams, who was waived by the Rockets prior to the regular season, will be free to sign with any NBA team even though OKC holds his D-League rights.
Odds & Ends: Asik, Gasol, Wolves, Mirotic
With December 15th in our rearview and the trade deadline two months ahead of us, things should start to heat up quickly, as our Luke Adams noted in his Trade Season Primer. Here are some trade-related rumors as well as some odds and ends from around the league on Tuesday night:
- With two days remaining until the Rockets self-imposed December 19th deadline, Marc Stein of ESPN.com tweets that there is a consensus expectation that Omer Asik will be moved in a three-team deal in which he ends up in Boston or Philly.
- Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports adds the Cavs and the Hawks to Stein’s list and says that there is a fifth mystery team in the mix for the center’s services. (Twitter links)
- Meanwhile, Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld tweets that he is hearing that an Asik deal may go down on Wednesday, though he cautions that nothing is definite.
- Kennedy also writes about the possibility of the Lakers finally pulling the trigger on a deal to send the disgruntled Pau Gasol out of Los Angeles, opining that while the team has overvalued the Spaniard in the past, the combination of his contract, his struggles this season and his issues with Mike D’Antoni may finally be enough for the Lakers to move him.
- As Tim Faklis of Canis Hoopus writes, the Timberwolves don’t have the assets to complete another significant trade this season. Faklis concludes that any deal could only involve some combination of Dante Cunningham, Luc Mbah a Moute, Alexey Shved and/or Shabazz Muhammad. Referencing Faklis’ story, Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN tweets that the Wolves are limited in their flexibility and that he is told to expect “status quo” in Minnesota for now.
- We know that not only have the Bulls met with Nikola Mirotic, but that they’re aggressively trying to bring him over from Spain for next season. Nick Friedell of ESPN Chicago tweets that the Bulls “love” Mirotic and that if they get him stateside this summer that it should be considered their big offseason move. To put that into context, Friedell adds that the Bulls consider Mirotic more valuable than the top-10 protected first round pick of the Bobcats that they own. (Twitter links)
Latest On Kyle Lowry
8:36pm: According to Wojnarowski, Knicks owner James Dolan is sensitive to the public perception that GM Masai Ujiri “bamboozled” him in the Carmelo Anthony trade, and the chance of getting criticized for giving up too much in a deal for Lowry has become a hurdle in these talks. Toronto is said to be discussing deals for Lowry with an ever-growing list of teams.
Wojnarwoski adds that New York doesn’t want to include either Shumpert or Hardaway Jr. in discussions (they reportedly refused a proposal involving the former along with Felton), and without Shumpert or a draft pick going to Toronto, there isn’t any traction to a deal. Also, the Knicks are believed to still be hesitant about trading a future first round draft choice to the Raptors, and there seems to be doubt over how long they’ll keep that option on the table.
As for the Nets’ interest, Wojnarowski says the team isn’t willing to include either a 2020 first-round pick or one of its young players – including Mason Plumlee – in a trade package.
4:03pm: Toronto is insisting on a first-rounder from the Knicks in part because taking on Felton would leave the Raptors with more long-term money, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Felton’s deal runs through 2015/16, which is a player option year, while Lowry is on an expiring contract. The Knicks would like to save Iman Shumpert and Tim Hardaway Jr. for another deal, Stein adds (Twitter links). The Raptors are seeking two out of three assets from the Knicks: Shumpert, Hardaway, or a first-rounder, Stein tweets.
3:46pm: The Knicks are refusing to give up a first-round pick, and that’s gumming up the talks between the two teams, tweets Chris Broussard of ESPN.com.
3:24pm: The Nets represent the strongest competition to the Knicks for Kyle Lowry among an “ever-growing list of teams” going after the Raptors point guard, writes Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. New York’s latest offer includes Metta World Peace and a 2018 first-round draft pick to go with Raymond Felton, according to Wojnarowski, who indicates that the Knicks are wavering on their willingness to include the pick.
The Raptors are reportedly asking for a quality young player or a first-round pick, according to Chris Mannix of SI.com, who says the price could be too high for Brooklyn’s tastes (Twitter link). Still, Brooklyn’s interest is legitimate, Mannix writes, and Wojnarowski hears the Raptors are investigating Bojan Bogdanovic, a former second-round pick whose rights the Nets hold.
Lowry is apparently interested in heading to New York, and Wojnarowski says he’s spent most of the season hoping for a trade out of Toronto. The Warriors are another team with interest in Lowry, but the odds that the Warriors land him are “very very slim,” according to Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group, who doesn’t think Golden State has much to offer the Raptors (Twitter links). Lowry has fans in the Timberwolves front office, but the team doesn’t have enough assets or financial flexibility, and isn’t in the mix for the point guard, according to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (on Twitter).
The Knicks can’t trade World Peace until Sunday, since he signed a contract this past offseason. The Raptors would probably buy him out of his two-year, approximately $3.5MM deal if they traded for him, tweets Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun.
Odds & Ends: Collins, Augustin, Mavs, Cavs
Jannero Pargo‘s contract with the Bobcats became fully guaranteed when the team didn’t waive him yesterday, and A.J. Price passed his contract guarantee threshold with the Timberwolves this weekend. That means the rest of the players with non-guaranteed contracts won’t have their deals fully guaranteed unless they remain on their teams until the leaguewide guarantee date of January 10th. We’ll continue to track non-guaranteed contracts here until that date. Here’s more from around the league:
- Free agent center Jason Collins told Michael K. Lavers of the Washington Blade that he doesn’t pin the reluctance of NBA teams to sign him on his sexual orientation. Collins, who hasn’t appeared in an NBA game since publicly revealing last spring that he is homosexual, says he hopes a team will sign him by March 1st.
- The Bulls are zeroing in on D.J. Augustin, and the move would give them four point guards, not including the injured Derrick Rose. They probably won’t be carrying all four by the end of the season, according to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune.
- With Devin Harris suffering a setback in his rehab, Gerry Fraley of the Dallas Morning News wonders if the Mavericks will go after Augustin.
- The Cavs have assigned Carrick Felix, Sergey Karasev and Henry Sims to their D-League affiliate, the team announced. It’s the first assignment for Karasev, while Felix and Sims are making return trips to the Canton Charge.
- Other teams reportedly expect the Nuggets will soon trade Jordan Hamilton for little in return, but the third-year small forward has earned the trust of coach Brian Shaw, according to Aaron J. Lopez of Nuggets.com.
- Shelvin Mack is making the most of his non-guaranteed contract with the Hawks, as Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution examines (subscription required).
West Notes: Augustin, Freeland, Asik, Kings
There are 16 teams in action tonight in what is largely an East Coast-based slate. We do have five Western Conference teams playing, however, including the Suns and Lakers later tonight. Let’s take a look at what else is going on out West on Tuesday night:
- The Timberwolves don’t appear to be targeting D.J. Augustin, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities. The Raptors waived Augustin to make way for yesterday’s trade, and the Bulls are the front runners to land him.
- Joel Freeland looks much tougher than he did last year, and Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com wonders if it stems from a fight he and Luke Babbitt had during practice late last season. For what it’s worth, Freeland has become a mainstay in the Blazers‘ rotation, and Babbitt is out of the league.
- The Rockets are targeting a proven veteran small forward in an Omer Asik trade, one of the many kinds of assets the team is looking for as it seeks to deal its backup center, as HoopsWorld’s Steve Kyler notes. Kyler also examines the Thunder’s approach to player development.
- Speaking of Asik, the Rockets center is changing agents, switching from Andy Miller to the high-powered Arn Tellem of Wasserman Media Group, reports Ken Berger of CBS Sports. As Berger details, Tellem must wait 10 days before his representation of Asik becomes official. Assuming the proper paperwork is submitted today, Tellem can take over for Asik on December 20th, which is a day after Houston’s original target trade date of the 19th. It is also worth noting that Miller has taken legal action in the past when his clients have been poached.
- Responding to news that the campaign for a vote on the Kings‘ arena subsidy has turned in up to 40,000 signatures for their cause, Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson cautioned the public that the group is “not folks who have Sacramento’s best interests in mind,” reports Ryan Lillis of the Sacramento Bee.
Central Links: Cavs, Asik, George, Hinrich
The Pacers are the class of the NBA, but next they face a tough Western road trip that includes tough tests against the Clippers, Blazers, Spurs and Thunder. The only breather appears to be their matchup with the league-worst Jazz. There’s more from Indiana as we check the latest from the Central:
- The Cavs have “kicked the tires” on Omer Asik in the past, writes Bob Finnan of The News-Herald. It’s not clear when Cleveland showed interest in the Rockets center, but it doesn’t appear from the report like the Cavs are in on him now.
- In the same piece, Finnan asserts that the Cavs shouldn’t trade Dion Waiters because he might be the team’s best player, even with Kyrie Irving around. Irving is off to a slow start, but Waiters hasn’t been any better statistically, so I’m not sure that part of the argument holds any water.
- Paul George spoke to Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune this week about a variety of topics, including whether he gave thought to signing with a glamour team in free agency before he agreed to a long-term extension with the Pacers. “Of course everyone does, but you have to look at the bigger picture and the bigger picture here is we’re all young, we did so well last year, we have a core group of guys who are going to be here for a while,” George said. “There’s no need to go to a big market when I have a market where I can win here.”
- George also told Zgoda about his predraft workout with the Timberwolves in 2010, revealing that they didn’t show much interest in him because they were sold on Wesley Johnson. George, the 10th pick that year, still holds a grudge against the nine teams that passed him up, as Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star details.
- The Bulls signed Kirk Hinrich last year with the thinking that they’d reduce his role this season, but the 32-year-old soon-to-be free agent is again a key player for the team after another Derrick Rose injury, observes K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune.
Pacific Notes: Williams, Kings, Lakers
Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee characterizes the Kings’ move for Derrick Williams as “playing a hunch” – a hope that a new situation will help the former second-overall pick tap into his potential. With the franchise in rebuilding mode, Voisin writes that outside of DeMarcus Cousins, Ben McLemore, and Isaiah Thomas, pretty much everyone else is up for grabs on the trading block. Here’s more out of the Pacific Division tonight:
- Mark Deeks of the Score evaluates the Williams-Luc Mbah a Moute swap for both Sacramento and Minnesota. Keeping Williams’ potential in mind, Deeks writes that the Kings took a gamble that was nearly “impossible to pass up,” whereas the Timberwolves appeared to have created a logjam at the wing with Dante Cunningham‘s minutes to account for as well as the eventual return of Chase Budinger.
- According to Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times, Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni “hated” that Elias Harris had to be cut today. Both Bresnahan and Mark Medina of the L.A. Daily News report that the team isn’t expected to fill in their 15th roster spot anytime soon (Twitter links).
- Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel says the Lakers dropped the ball in sacrificing future financial flexibility in order to reward Kobe Bryant with a generous extension. The Los Angeles Times relayed a handful of fan reactions this afternoon regarding the deal, and most didn’t seem to be enthused either.
Upcoming Contract Guarantee Dates
As we’ve outlined before, players on non-guaranteed contracts will see their full-season salaries become guaranteed if they remain on an NBA roster beyond January 7th, 2014. Up until that date, teams can safely release most players on non-guaranteed deals and avoid paying their entire salaries — the club would be on the hook for just a pro-rated portion of that salary, or a partial guarantee that was previously agreed upon.
However, not every player on a non-guaranteed contract has to wait until January to find out whether they’ll be receiving a full season’s worth of pay checks. There are at least three players whose deals are known to include earlier guarantee dates. Here’s a breakdown of who those players are, the dates they’ve got circled on their calendars, and the likelihood that they’ll receive full guarantees:
Maalik Wayns (Clippers)
Guaranteed for $788,872 if not waived on or before December 1st.
We haven’t heard any updates on Wayns’ status since he underwent surgery to repair a torn meniscus in mid-October. While the 22-year-old surely would have preferred to stay healthy, the injury could end up benefiting him financially. As Larry Coon writes in his CBA FAQ, non-guaranteed players who are injured and subsequently waived will receive full guarantees until they’re healthy again or until the end of the season, whichever comes first. So even if Wayns is waived by the Clippers in the next couple days, he’ll continue to earn his salary.
A.J. Price (Timberwolves)
Guaranteed for $947,907 if not waived on or before December 8th.
Ricky Rubio and J.J. Barea are getting nearly all the point guard minutes in Minnesota, so there haven’t been many left over for Price, who has been unproductive in his 30 total minutes this season. The Wolves, who were ravaged by injuries last season, know better than most teams that having more than enough depth can come in handy later in the year, but perhaps the club will choose to release Price and re-add a third point guard if and when one is needed.
Jannero Pargo (Bobcats)
Currently partially guaranteed for $300,000. Guaranteed for $1,399,507 if not waived on or before December 10th.
Like Price, Pargo has been stuck behind a pair of effective point guards in the early going — Kemba Walker and Ramon Sessions are ahead of him on Charlotte’s depth chart. Pargo has played just 15 total minutes in three games, so virtually everything I wrote about Price applies to the veteran Bobcat as well. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see the team cut Pargo to save a little money, then re-sign him later in the season if depth becomes an issue.
Western Notes: Wolves, Thunder, Mavs, Kings
Following up on comments he made yesterday about trading Derrick Williams to the Kings, Timberwolves president Flip Saunders acknowledged that the deal could end up looking very short-sighted, but said he still felt comfortable pulling the trigger.
“You have to look and see: What is the value where you’re at?” Saunders said, according to Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune. “What’s the value going to be in two months? What’s the value going to be at trading deadline? What’s it going to be next year?I just didn’t foresee Derrick being able to play much. And if a guy’s not playing, usually your value is not going to go up.”
Here’s more from around the Western Conference:
- Thunder GM Sam Presti is prioritizing longevity and sustainability when it comes to roster-building and culture-building in Oklahoma City, as Darnell Mayberry of the Oklahoman details.
- David Kahn‘s drafting of Williams in 2011 was understandable, since the forward was viewed as the consensus No. 2 pick at the time. But this week’s trade is the acknowledgment of another failure for the Timberwolves franchise and for the Kahn era, writes Jim Souhan of the Star Tribune.
- Chatting with Mavericks fans on Tuesday, Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News discussed the possibility of moving Shawn Marion, Jordan Farmar as a potential trade target, and why a playoff berth could help the Mavs in free agency.
- After averaging 22.0 PPG in his first three contests with the Reno Bighorns, Ray McCallum has been recalled from the D-League by the Kings, the team announced today in a press release.
- Current Pacers assistant Nate McMillan spoke extensively to Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com about his time as head coach of the Trail Blazers, including his regrets about how he handled Nicolas Batum.
Fallout From Wolves/Kings Trade
The Timberwolves and Kings finalized a trade today that sent Luc Mbah a Moute to Minnesota straight up for 2011’s second overall pick, Derrick Williams. Because Williams is making a little more money this year than Mbah a Moute, the Wolves obtained a trade exception worth $428,576, which will almost certainly go unused. While that TPE may not be noteworthy, a few of today’s quotes out of Minnesota and Sacramento were, so let’s round them up….
- Sources tell Steve Kyler of HoopsWorld that the acquisition of D-Will isn’t the only trade the Kings have discussed. According to Kyler, there’s a belief that the Kings have “one or two more deals up their sleeves.”
- Kings GM Pete D’Alessandro cited Williams’ untapped potential in explaining to Sam Amick of USA Today why the team decided to acquire him. D’Alessandro adds within the same piece that he feels like the Kings owe it to their fans to be aggressive in exploring roster moves.
- Wolves president Flip Saunders tells Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune (Twitter link) that Minnesota talked about acquiring Mbah a Moute over the summer when the team put together the deal that sent Luke Ridnour to the Bucks.
- Reports yesterday indicated that Mbah a Moute would have to undergo a physical before the swap become official, due to concerns about knee issues. However, according to Saunders, that physical has yet to happen — the Wolves were confident enough in their research that they were comfortable completing the deal without it (Twitter link via Zgoda).
- More from Flip: Asked about the possibility of sending Shabazz Muhammad and/or Robbie Hummel to the D-League, Saunders said the notion that they won’t see any playing time with the Wolves isn’t necessarily true (Twitter link via Zgoda).
- Interestingly, while Saunders suggested to Zgoda (Twitter link) that he and Rick Adelman concluded Williams couldn’t play small forward in the Wolves’ system, D’Alessandro says the initial plan for D-Will in Sacramento is to start him at the three (Twitter link via Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld).
- Alexey Shved was rumored to be available as well, but he hopes to remain with the Wolves, as he tells Phil Ervin of FOX Sports North.