National Basketball Players Association Rumors

And-Ones: Divac, NBPA, Silver

June 14th, 2014 at 10:32pm CST by Charlie Adams

Vlade Divac is interested in eventually becoming an NBA GM, reports Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com. Divac says he’s already spoken with the Kings about a job in their front office but that the team hasn’t made him an offer yet. Here’s more from around the NBA:

The players union interviewed six candidates for their vacant executive director position on May 16th, with six more interviews scheduled in late June, and around six more in mid-July, reveals Sam Amick of USA Today (via Twitter).
Adam Silver sat down with Rachel Nichols of CNN to recap the Donald Sterling fiasco and discuss how to handle the debacle going forward (video link).
Peter Keating of ESPN.com argues that tanking doesn’t work and provides metrics to back up his claim (Insider link). Keating also presents different ideas to punish teams that intentionally lose to improve their draft position.
Tom Moore of Calkins Media looks at a variety of options Sixers GM Sam Hinkie could consider if he decides trading up to the No. 1 spot in the draft is necessary to secure Andrew Wiggins.
Mike McGraw of The Daily Herald thinks that Carmelo Anthony would be a much better fit for the Bulls than Kevin Love would be, even if Love is arguably the better player.
Adi Joseph of USA Today takes a look at draft needs for the Thunder and Blazers.

Cray Allred contributed to this post.

And-Ones: Gay, Fisher, Rubio, Rockets, Union

June 11th, 2014 at 12:33pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Kings pulled out all the stops for Tuesday’s meeting with Rudy Gay to try to convince him to remain with the Kings, though GM Pete D’Alessandro was careful not to make too aggressive a pitch, as Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee details.

“There’s no pressure here,” D’Alessandro told Jones before the meeting. “It’s not a pressure situation. It’s got to work. It’s got to work for him, it’s got to work for us, and we’re looking for a really good, just honest conversation, and hopefully, it turns out the way we expect.”

While we wait to find out what Gay decides to do with his player option for next season, worth more than $19.3MM, here’s more from around the league:

Derek Fisher‘s five-year contract with the Knicks contains team options and bonus clauses that could bring it to its reported five-year, $25MM value, but his base pay is much lower according to Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck. Fisher is guaranteed only about $4MM this year, Beck writes.
Ricky Rubio has spoken mostly in positive terms about the Timberwolves, but in an interview with Marca.com, Rubio suggested that he would make signing with a winner his top priority when he hits free agency (translation via HoopsHype). The point guard is up for a rookie scale extension this summer with Minnesota, which hasn’t made the playoffs since he arrived.
Rockets coach Kevin McHale tells Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle that he doesn’t feel like coaching on an expiring contract is a detriment. He also said that he’s confident the team can take the necessary steps forward with minor moves and internal improvements rather than a rumored splashy offseason addition.
Joseph Lombardo, the founder of an investment firm affiliated with the players union for more than a decade, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for forging a contract with the union, reports Tom Hays of The Associated Press. The firm, Prim Capital, had close ties to ousted union executive director Billy Hunter.

Cray Allred contributed to this post.

And-Ones: Hunter, Draft, Hairston

May 21st, 2014 at 10:26pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Ousted players union executive director Billy Hunter has dropped his appeal of a civil ruling in a suit Hunter had brought against former union president Derek Fisher and Jamie Wior, Fisher’s business manager. Hunter must pay more than $200K to cover the legal fees for Fisher and Wior. A case in which Hunter alleges the union owes him $10.5MM remains active. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports has the details in three separate tweets.

More from around the league:

There has been some speculation that Fisher is the favorite to land the Knicks head coaching position if he retires after this season. Another possibility being mentioned for Fisher is him being both a player and assistant coach for the Thunder next season, reports Sam Amick of USA Today (Twitter link). The collective bargaining agreement bars players from actively serving as a player and coach at the same time, but Fisher could perform the duties of an assistant coach while remaining on the active roster as a player.
P.J. Hairston is drawing interest from the Lakers, Clippers, and Jazz, writes Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times. Hairston signed with the Texas Legends of the NBA D-League back on January 14th and averaged 21.8 PPG and 3.5 RPG.
Chris Mannix of SI.com released his latest mock draft.
A number of lottery teams have expressed a willingness to trade their picks, reports Mannix (Twitter link).
Jonathan Tjarks of RealGM.com released his initial mock draft of the year.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

And-Ones: Johnson, Williams, Draft

May 18th, 2014 at 12:30pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Kevin Johnson has made it a point to include Player Agents in the search for the new head of the NBA Player’s Association, writes Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report. This approach differs from former NBAPA head, Billy Hunter, who was known to exclude agents from the decision making process.

More from around the league:

The rapid turnover in coaches and executives is thinning out the candidate pool and forcing teams to get creative in their searches, writes Jason Lloyd of The Akron Beacon Journal. This trend is leading to more coaches getting hired without previous experience, and fewer coaches getting second chances if they didn’t succeed at their first job, opines Lloyd.
Terrence Williams has reached an agreement to play in the Philippines with the Meralco Bolts, reports David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). The former NBA player has played this season with Turk Telekom Ankara, Guayama and the L.A. D-Fenders of the NBA D-league. Williams’ career numbers are 7.1 PPG, 3.6 RPG, and 2.4 APG in 19.1 minutes per contest.
Heading into the draft, the player with the biggest mystery surrounding his game is Dante Exum, writes Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Exum said, “I guess they all have an idea of what I’m about. They’ve seen some of the college players play 40 game seasons, and they haven’t seen me a lot. So I guess when they are trying to look at tape, they can’t see a lot of me.” Exum is projected as an early lottery pick.
Dei Lynam of CSNPhilly.com profiles draft prospects Markel Brown and Nick Johnson.
More than ever, team executives are looking for prospects with solid character when making their draft selections, writes Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press. Talent still rules the decision making process, but if all things are considered equal, teams will seek out the player destined to provide them with the “fewest headaches,” notes Ellis.
Mark Snyder of The Detroit Free Press looks at Kentucky swingman James Young‘s path to the pros and his thoughts on the draft process. You can also check on my draft profile on Young here.

And-Ones: Watson, Love, Seattle, Isiah, Draft

May 16th, 2014 at 5:12pm CST by Chuck Myron

Earl Watson would like to coach the Jazz next season, and he’s picked up the endorsement of restricted free agent Gordon Hayward, as both Watson and Hayward tell Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com. Watson, who played with the Blazers this year, hasn’t ruled out playing again next season, but if he becomes Jazz coach, he’ll target Hubie Brown as an assistant, he says. Here’s more from around the league with an altered title picture now that Serge Ibaka is expected to miss the rest of the playoffs.

Kevin Love will have some say in who coaches him next season on the Wolves, owner Glen Taylor confirmed to Charley Walters of the Star Tribune. President of basketball operations Flip Saunders has spoken with eight candidates, but he hasn’t endorsed any of them to Taylor, Walters adds.
Taylor also said the Wolves lost “a couple million” dollars this year, Walters notes in the same piece.
Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who partnered with Chris Hansen on an ill-fated bid to buy the Kings and move them to Seattle, is open to purchasing any NBA team, but wouldn’t necessarily bring them to the Emerald City, as he tells Shira Ovide of The Wall Street Journal. He says he wouldn’t move the Clippers out of Los Angeles if he bought them.
Isiah Thomas and the Pistons are in preliminary talks about a deal for him to purchase a minority share of the team, reports Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News.
Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey and Cavs GM David Griffin have said they’re open to trading their respective first-round picks for players who can help immediately, according to Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio.
Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson has political aspirations that would make him reticent to accept the post of executive director of the players union, but the job increasingly appears to be his if he wants it, tweets Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times.
Hawks and Cavs officials will meet with draft prospect Alessandro Gentile of the Italian league, Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia reports. The swingman is No. 66 in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress rankings and 100th with Chad Ford of ESPN.com.

Eastern Notes: Boycott, LeBron, Draft

May 14th, 2014 at 10:34pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Heat‘s James Jones, who is also the secretary treasurer of the NBAPA, shot down the notion of a LeBron James led boycott next season if Donald Sterling was still the owner of the Clippers, writes Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. Jones said, “There is no boycott. There isn’t a lot of talk about a boycott. The union wanted to see the league step up and did what they did what we felt was appropriate – which was to remove Donald Sterling. They did that. It’s a process and we know it’s going to take time. But there is total trust between the union and the league and commissioner and the owners, knowing that eventually it will all play out the way we agreed – which is Donald Sterling no longer being the owner of an NBA team. We’re all on the same page. The Donald Sterling situation is a league situation. It’s not basketball.”

And-Ones: Free Agency, NBAPA, Lottery

May 11th, 2014 at 8:28am CST by Eddie Scarito

The NBA’s free agent signing period begins in July, and Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders breaks down where he thinks the big name free-agents like Carmelo Anthony, Luol Deng, Greg Monroe, and Kyle Lowry will end up and how much he thinks they will sign for.

More from around the league:

Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today tweets that in an e-mail sent from Kevin Johnson to the NBA players, the presented plan for the search for the new NBAPA executive director is to interview 8-12 candidates and then narrow it to down to 3-5 finalists. No exact timetable was mentioned.
The crew at Basketball Insiders speculate on who will win the league’s MVP award for the 2014/15 season.
Tom Moore of Calkins Media presents his primer for the May 20th NBA Draft Lottery.

And-Ones: Union, KJ, Bulls, Young, Huestis

May 1st, 2014 at 4:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

Adam Silver’s response to the Donald Sterling fiasco united the players association, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com, and it also facilitated a stronger relationship between the union and the league, as acting union executive director Ron Klempner sees it.

“The league and the players recently have been working more closely together across the board, not just through this event,” Klempner said. “Our player programs staffs have experienced something of a thaw. Everyone feels more secure and confident, knowing that we can work together with the league on projects that will benefit the players.”

Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher has a different take, believing the players’ response to Silver’s ruling was an act of capitulation, and that they missed an opportunity to boycott games until Sterling was officially stripped of Clippers ownership. Just how the Sterling mess plays out remains to be seen, and there’s more on the union amid our latest look around the NBA:

Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson, who’s serving the players in an ex-officio capacity, isn’t a candidate to take the union’s full-time executive director position, given his rising stock as a politician, Windhorst writes in the same piece.
It seems the Bulls will have to make a choice between Kirk Hinrich and D.J. Augustin, but GM Gar Forman isn’t ruling out the possibility of bringing them both back, as Sam Smith of Bulls.com notes.
Kentucky shooting guard James Young, one of 75 early entrants for the draft, has chosen Jay Z and his Roc Nation Sports agency for his representation, notes Zach Braziller of the New York Post.
The Jazz will likely work out fellow draft prospect Josh Huestis, tweets Tony Jones of The Salt Lake Tribune. The small forward from Stanford told Hoops Rumors about his preparation for a chance in the NBA, as we detailed in this morning’s prospect profile.
Terrence Williams didn’t last long in Puerto Rico, as Brujos de Guayama has released him just a few weeks after he joined the team, reports Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. The former 11th overall pick last played in the NBA with the Celtics in 2012/13.

Steve Mills Again In Running For Top Union Job

April 25th, 2014 at 9:25am CST by Chuck Myron

Knicks GM Steve Mills is once more a strong candidate to become the next executive director of the National Basketball Players Association, reports Frank Isola of the New York Daily News. Many around the league had considered it a foregone conclusion that Mills would head the players union last summer, but that changed when the Knicks pulled off a September surprise and hired Mills to run their front office.

Mills lost his title of team president to Phil Jackson when the Knicks brought aboard the Zen Master last month, and Howard Beck of Bleacher Report wrote earlier this week that it was likely that Mills would cut loose or reassigned from his role as GM. Still, Jackson said Wednesday that hiring someone new for the front office is “not a priority.”

The union recently formed a search committee, headed by Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson, to come up with a replacement for Billy Hunter, who was ousted in February 2013. Screen Actors Guild executive director David White and attorney Michele Roberts appeared to be the finalists for the position as of this past February, but the committee is to come up with a new list of three to five finalists by early June.

And-Ones: Knicks, Wolves, Draft

April 11th, 2014 at 10:27pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Knicks won tonight but their playoff chances took a hit when the Hawks also were victorious, reducing their magic number to clinch a playoff spot to one. New York has had its share of issues this season, but the one that sunk the team the most was the trade for Andrea Bargnani, writes Marc Berman of The New York Post. Besides acquiring his large and difficult to trade contract, the team could have potentially used the 2016 first rounder they gave up for Bargnani in a deal for the Raptors Kyle Lowry, writes Berman.

More from around the league:

The Timberwolves plan to trade for help this offseason, but according to owner Glen Taylor, it won’t be a “big trade”, tweets Charley Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
The crew at Basketball Insiders take at look at what steps are needed to fix the Wolves.
The NBA Players Association has formed a brand new search committee to ensure they have a new executive director in place by the start of the 2014/15 season, writes Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com.
Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports believes that the 2014 freshman class might be better than this year’s highly touted group.
The next international draft sensation from Switzerland could be Clint Capela, writes Spears. DraftExpress.com has Capela ranked as the 14th-best prospect in this year’s draft. He’s projected as a first-round prospect in the 20-30 range, but he could improve his standing at the Hoop Summit, opines Spears.
Chad Ford of ESPN.com (Video) breaks down draft prospect Dante Exum.
Xavier Henry‘s surgeries on his left wrist and right knee were successful the Lakers announced. Henry is a free agent after the season ends.