Knicks Rumors

Atlantic Notes: Noel, Knicks, Young, KG

March 17th, 2015 at 3:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

Rookie Nerlens Noel is already essentially the centerpiece of the Sixers, and he has no complaints about the team’s radical rebuilding, as Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com examines.

“I love the direction that we’re heading in,” Noel said. “I love what [GM] Sam Hinkie is doing with our team: building through the draft, getting young guys and being very particular about the pieces that he brings into this organization. I think this is going to be a very solid team in the next few years and we’re just going to continue to grow together.”

Noel, unlike many other rookies who were drafted in the first round, is set for free agency in 2017, and not 2018, because he signed his rookie scale contract before sitting out the entire 2013/14 season with injury. So, it appears he’ll benefit from a cap surge instead of a potential cap drop like his fellow rookies, as I examined. Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:

The amount of cash the Knicks sent the Pacers this past June for the rights to 57th overall pick Louis Labeyrie was $1.5MM, a league source told Marc Berman of the New York Post. That counted against New York’s 2013/14 traded cash limit and doesn’t apply toward the $3.3MM the team can send out in trades between the end of the regular season and June 30th this year. Labeyrie recently signed a one-year extension with Paris Levallois in France, so a buyout would have to be paid for him to sign with the Knicks for next season, according to Berman.
The Nets‘ acquisition of Thaddeus Young for Kevin Garnett helped the team get younger, but it doesn’t erase the ill-fated trade for Garnett and Paul Pierce from 2013, opines Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. Garnett did fill a leadership role, but no one has stepped into that void in his absence, Bondy also argues.
Brooklyn owes its first-round pick to Boston in 2016 because of that Garnett-Pierce trade, and Tim Bontemps of the New York Post examines how that dynamic and others makes Young’s decision about his player option for next season a crucial one for the Nets.
The Celtics have once more assigned James Young to the D-League, the team announced. It’s the 10th time that Boston has sent 2014’s 17th overall pick on D-League assignment this season, though none of his previous nine trips have covered more than three days.

Atlantic Notes: Young, Jackson, Sixers

March 16th, 2015 at 9:46am CST by Chuck Myron

Thaddeus Young said Saturday that he wants to remain with the Nets even though he hasn’t decided on his early termination option for next season, worth as much as nearly $10.222MM, observes Andy Vasquez of The Record. Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities can’t envision Young turning down that option and pointed to his earlier report that the forward had requested a trade from the Timberwolves through his agent (Twitter links). Young spoke of a mutual feeling of interest in a continued relationship with Brooklyn, and indeed Nets GM Billy King has said the team will do what it can to retain him, as King apparently sees him as a building block for the team’s future. While we wait to see exactly how Young and the Nets proceed, here’s more from the Atlantic Division:

Marc Berman of the New York Post sees signs that Knicks president Phil Jackson will choose to leave the team before his five-year contract is through. The Knicks have fallen flat in Jackson’s first year at the helm, and he hinted to Harvey Araton of The New York Times earlier this season that he isn’t planning a long-term stay in New York.
Veterans Luc Mbah a Moute and Jason Richardson are favorites of Sixers coach Brett Brown, notes Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News, who takes a shot at sizing up the chances that many of the Sixers have of returning to the team next season. Richardson and Mbah a Moute are both set for unrestricted free agency this summer.
Celtics assistant coach Jay Larranaga has drawn the eye of George Mason University, which plans to make him a focus of its search for a new head coach, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Larranaga has surfaced as an NBA head coaching candidate in the past and interviewed for the C’s and Sixers head coaching jobs, Wojnarowski notes.

Atlantic Notes: Jackson, Calderon, Celtics

March 15th, 2015 at 4:05pm CST by Zachary Links

In addition to addressing several Knicks–related topics last week, team president Phil Jackson also touched on the league’s age limit issue, as Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com writes.

“When you have 19- and 20 year-old players that are coming in the league, which is what the majority of the draft picks coming into the league right now, it’s really hard to project what that player is going to be in three years, in the first contract situation,” he said. “I think everybody would like to see [an age limit rule] happen, everybody but the agents that are out there making the money. The players’ union is yet to really make a stance in that direction. But they need to do that. I think that’s an important part of it. Once in a while you get a player like a LeBron [James] or a [Kevin] Durant, but that’s few and far between. There are a lot of kids that don’t make it that have to go back and struggle.”

Here’s more on the Zen Master’s team and other items from the Atlantic Division..

Knicks coach Derek Fisher says the team might shut Jose Calderon down for the season, despite the point guard’s ardent wishes to return to action, Marc Berman of the New York Post writes. Calderon, who is dealing with a left Achilles tendon strain, will miss his tenth straight game when the Knicks finish their five-game road trip against the Suns. The Knicks have the guard under contract through the 2016/17 season.
Phil Pressey has rewarded the Celtics‘ faith in him, Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com writes. The guard would have been easy to part with given his $816K salary, but he’s still one of the 10 players that remain from the team’s 15-man roster on opening night. The C’s have been so high on Pressey that they’ve parted ways with heftier contracts like that of Vitor Faverani ($2.1MM) and Will Bynum ($2.9MM) in order to keep him in the fold. Now, he’s stepping up big in the absence of deadline acquisition Isaiah Thomas.
Dakota Schmidt of Ridiculous Upside explained how the 76ers struck gold with Robert Covington. Even though the 76ers’ offense has been dreadful on the whole, the D-League standout has had a positive impact on their scoring.

Western Notes: Griffin, Jordan, Nurkic, Lakers

March 14th, 2015 at 9:48pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Clippers‘ Blake Griffin will return to action soon, according to Dan Woike of The Orange County Register. Griffin, sidelined for five weeks with a staph infection in his right elbow, could be ready for Sunday’s game with the Rockets. If not, the team expects to have him Tuesday against the Hornets. A final decision on Griffin will be made Sunday morning, tweets Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times.

There’s more from the Western Conference:

Despite a projected jump in the salary cap after the 2016 season, Clippers free-agent-to-be DeAndre Jordan has no interest in signing a one-year contract, reports Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com. Jordan, one of the favorites for the Defensive Player of the Year award, is likely to get a maximum deal this summer. “I’m not going to be greedy and sign a one-year deal,” Jordan said. “Nah. I’m just focused on getting it over with and focusing on playing again. I’m just trying to win here.”
Despite being nearly 7 feet tall and weighing 280 pounds, center Jusuf Nurkic fits into the Nuggets‘ running game, writes Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post. Interim coach Melvin Hunt has increased the tempo since taking over in Denver, and he says Nurkic has no problem keeping up. “Jusuf Nurkic is built to run,” Hunt said. “Don’t let it fool you with the big body he has. He likes a fast-tempo game. Look at the way he guards the pick-and-roll and look how fast his hands are. He has incredible hands and feet. Sometimes he gets a little bored when it’s a slow-tempo game.”
Lakers coach Byron Scott described his team as “selfish” and “not very bright” after Thursday’s loss to the Knicks, writes Jovan Buha in a special report for ESPNLosAngeles.com. Scott didn’t mention any players by name, but expressed frustration that his team is losing winnable games. “I thought we came in with a lack of respect for a team that had beaten us in New York,” he said. “We can’t afford to look at teams’ records and think, ‘OK, their record is worse than us, so we’re a better team than they are.’”

And-Ones: Draft, Knicks, Hawes

March 13th, 2015 at 10:30pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Spencer Hawes‘ first season as a member of the Clippers after inking a four-year, $23MM deal has been a tremendous disappointment, Ben Bolch of The Los Angeles Times writes. “He’s obviously not had the year we’d like, but it’s a long year. It still is a long year,” coach/executive Doc Rivers said of Hawes. “It doesn’t matter if it’s late in the year. I’ve seen guys have horrible regular seasons and then break out in the playoffs. You don’t know where it’s coming, but we still believe in him just like the other 20 teams that wanted to sign him in the league. It’s there and we have to get it out.” The 26-year-old big man is averaging 6.6 points and 3.9 rebounds while only sinking 40.3% of his field goal attempts for the season.

Here’s more from around the league:

The Knicks will need to upgrade at the center position prior to next season and Tommy Beer of Basketball Insiders runs down some free agent big men who New York could target this summer.
Jahlil Okafor continues to occupy the top spot in the latest iteration of Chad Ford of ESPN.com‘s (Insider subscription required) Big Board. The big change in Ford’s 2015 NBA draft rankings is Kentucky big man Karl-Anthony Towns overtaking Emmanuel Mudiay for the No. 2 spot.
Okafor also tops the latest mock draft from Sean Deveney of The Sporting News, with D’Angelo Russell and Towns rounding out Deveney’s top three.

Hoops Rumors Weekly Mailbag 3/8/15-3/13/15

March 13th, 2015 at 9:28pm CST by Eddie Scarito

In addition to our weekly chat, which Chuck Myron facilitates every Wednesday, we have added a second opportunity for you to hit us up with your questions in this, our weekly mailbag feature. Have a question regarding player movement, the salary cap, or the NBA draft? Drop me a line at HoopsRumorsMailbag@Gmail.com or @EddieScarito on Twitter. Now for this week’s inquiries:

“Can you see the Knicks trading their lottery pick (after the draft) to Sacramento for DeMarcus Cousins since the Kings didn’t rule out trading him at the deadline?” — Rodney M.

I honestly don’t see the Kings parting ways with Cousins, who is one of the most talented big men in the league, unless a schism develops between him and coach George Karl that is deemed irreparable. But if given the chance, that’s a deal that Knicks president Phil Jackson should take immediately. Normally, I’m a big proponent of building teams through the draft, but the Knicks’ situation is a complicated one.

I wasn’t a fan of the Knicks re-signing Carmelo Anthony, and I still believe that New York would have been better served to work out a sign-and-trade for ‘Melo instead of tethering all its hopes to an aging, one-dimensional scorer. But the team is stuck with Anthony for the next few seasons, and to get the most out of team owner James Dolan’s investment in the forward, the Knicks need to acquire talent who can help them win immediately. There isn’t a player in this year’s draft, save for perhaps Willie Cauley-Stein of Kentucky, who could step in from day one and be a solid contributor. But he’s not top three pick material, which is where the Knicks will likely be selecting come June.

So if I’m the Knicks, I would explore all of my options with the pick, including trading it. Though the Kings are unlikely to bite and give up on Cousins without seeing what he can be under Karl’s tutelage. I certainly wouldn’t given his talent level.

“Where do you see JaVale McGee ending up?” — Quincy

The easy answer to this question is that he’ll go to the first team to offer him a player option for 2015/16. McGee doesn’t strike me as being picky at this point. He absolutely needs to catch on somewhere and rehabilitate his rep and value before the end of the season. His next contract hangs in the balance. There are a number of contenders who could absolutely use McGee’s skills on the court, but very few of those franchises likely want to deal with him off of the hardwood, where he has a reputation for being immature and difficult.

But not to cheat you on providing an answer, I would say that he’ll most likely end up in Texas with the Mavs or the Rockets. Both teams are willing to gamble on players with questionable maturity, and both could benefit from more depth in the middle.

“Do you see a chance that any player other than Jahlil Okafor becomes the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft?” — Stephen R.

Is there a chance? Absolutely. In fact, Okafor’s hold on the top pick is becoming more tenuous as the NCAA season wears on. It’s not because Okafor has disappointed, because he’s been exceptional for Duke this season. It’s more about potential. Okafor isn’t an elite athlete, nor a good defender for his size, which will limit his overall ceiling somewhat. He’ll be a fixture in the middle for years to come for the team that drafts him, but that doesn’t mean he’ll end up the best player in this draft. There are a growing number of scouts who believe that Karl-Anthony Towns will end up being the superior player in a few short years. Towns does possess the athleticism to evolve into someone quite special on the court. His offense is a work in progress, but he’s already a superior defender to Okafor. But the Duke big man gets the edge in maturity and overall polish over Towns.

The wildcard in this year’s draft will be the positional needs of the team that wins the NBA lottery. A team like the Sixers, who have Joel Embiid and Nerlens Noel in their frontcourt already, may find selecting Emmanuel Mudiay or D’Angelo Russell a more practical choice. Both guards have been mentioned at one time or another as being in contention to go No. 1 overall by various scouts. But barring an injury to Okafor between now and June, I still don’t foresee too many GMs taking a pass on adding Okafor to their roster if given the opportunity on draft night.

“Who do you think will be a sleeper pick in the NBA draft?” — Dustin

This is a funny sort of draft. Just about every player in the second-tier could be considered a sleeper depending on where they are selected. The crop this year is close in so many ways. But I’ll give you a few players who could end up surprising the league.

R.J. Hunter (Georgia State) — Guard
Jakob Poeltl (Utah) — Center
Zhou Qi (China) — Forward
Justin Anderson (Virginia) — Forward/Guard
Robert Upshaw (Washington) — Center

Both Hunter and Poeltl could be mid-to-late first-rounders, though Poeltl may come back for his sophomore season at Utah. Poeltl has a wealth of potential, but needs quite a bit of polish. Coming back for one more season would be a good move, especially given the wealth of big men in this year’s draft.

Hunter is a player who I believe will make a better pro than college player. The kid is fearless and he can and will shoot from anywhere in the arena. He’s hitting under 40% of his field goal attempts this season, which obviously isn’t great. But he’s a player who could turn into a big time scorer off the bench.

Anderson should end up being a mid first round pick as well, and he’s a player with quite a bit of upside and athleticism. As with most college wings, his outside shot needs more consistency, and he needs to figure out how to create his own shot better if he wants to succeed at the next level.

The last two on this list, Upshaw and Qi, are likely second-rounders. Upshaw has first round talent, but with the glut of big men available in this year’s draft, he’ll probably slide a bit as a result. His defense should translate very well to the NBA, but he needs some serious development on offense. Upshaw also has some character concerns. He was dismissed from Fresno State for multiple rules violations before attending Washington. But his talent will make him worthy of a gamble.

Qi is a bit of a wild card. He’s a fantastic athlete with a high skillset. The Chinese big man would be a great draft-and-stash candidate for a patient team. The 19-year-old is scary thin, and would not survive an NBA season until he added some weight and muscle. But Qi just may be the third most talented international player in this year’s draft behind Mario Hezonja and Kristaps Porzingis.

That’s all the space I have for now. I’ll be back next week to answer more of your questions. So please keep filling up my inbox with them in the meantime. Feel free to add to the discussion in the comments section below.

Knicks Notes: Free Agency, Jackson, Larkin

March 13th, 2015 at 10:30am CST by Chuck Myron

The Knicks have the league’s worst record this season, and even with a high lottery pick and plenty of cap flexibility on their way this summer, coach Derek Fisher isn’t under any illusions that the team will jump into title contention in 2015/16, as Marc Berman of the New York Post relays.

“I don’t think we can somehow look to next season and say we’re supposed to win a championship,’’ Fisher said, according to Berman. “We’re at the very bottom or below the ground level for the type of work we have to do to turn this around. We have to continue evaluate everything we do.’’

There’s more on the team’s rebuilding project amid the latest from Madison Square Garden:

Phil Jackson indicated Thursday that he believes the triangle offense will help sell free agents on the Knicks, but the triple post has plenty of critics, as Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com details. Fisher offered a vague hint that the Knicks will move away from the triangle next season, Berman observes in the same piece linked above, but he also defended the system, as Berman also notes.
The Tyson Chandler/Jose Calderon trade was a mistake for the Knicks, and Jackson failed to convince Carmelo Anthony to take a discount of much significance, as Begley opines in a separate piece in which he examines Jackson’s first year as Knicks team president.
Jackson and the Knicks probably won’t re-sign Shane Larkin this summer, Begley surmises in the same piece.
Fellow ESPNNewYork.com scribe Ohm Youngmisuk takes a Knicks-focused look at the implications of the union’s rejection of gradual increases in the salary cap in favor of an immediate spike for 2016/17.

Eastern Notes: Knicks, Jackson, Robinson III

March 12th, 2015 at 9:30pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Even though the Pistons have dropped eight of the nine games that they have played since acquiring Reggie Jackson, the point guard is optimistic about the team’s future and loves the young talent that’s around him, Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders writes. Jackson is also a fan of playing for coach/executive Stan Van Gundy, Kennedy adds. “Playing for Stan has been a change,” Jackson said in an interview with Pistons.com (video link). “He’s a great basketball mind, he sees a lot of what’s going on in the game and how to take advantage of things. He knows what it takes to get everyone involved and going, and we constantly talk about what we see on the court. I think he can only help my game expand that much further and help me on this journey to be one of the best point guards ever.”

Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:

Given the advancing age of Carmelo Anthony and a lottery pick not being guaranteed to turn into a star player, Knicks president Phil Jackson would be wise to try and deal away the team’s first-rounder this year for an established star, Howard Beck of Bleacher Report writes.
An Eastern Conference scout gave Beck another reason the Knicks should consider dealing their first round pick — the lack of a true superstar player in this draft. “I’m not sure either guy [Jahlil Okafor or Karl-Anthony Towns] is a franchise player,” the scout said. “Is it LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, Tim Duncan? I’m not sure about that. But they should be very good players. The downside would be above-average starters, just based on [their] talent. And they’re only 19. You’d think they’re going to get better.“
The Sixers are in no hurry to play Glenn Robinson III, whom they claimed off of waivers from the Wolves last week, Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes. “I got a gut feel to what we are going to do,” coach Brett Brown said, “and I don’t see Glenn being a part of it tomorrow. As I said right when we got him, my plan is to get him a little bit more comfortable. I don’t feel the need [to play him], because I do have an abundance of wings.”

Knicks Notes: Anthony, Roster, Jackson

March 12th, 2015 at 5:31pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Knicks president Phil Jackson made some comments regarding New York viewing free agents as the primary way it will rebuild the team, which lends some credence to the reports that Jackson was considering trading the Knicks’ 2015 lottery pick, Marc Berman of The New York Post writes. “In the present day in the NBA, 19, 20 years old, coming into league, it’s really hard to project what that player will be like in his first contract situation,’’ Jackson said. “So what we’re trying to do what advancement can be made in the short term. How quickly we can get back in the hunt and right away to [compete] for the championship? We know what the first-round pick will mean to us, but we also know we will build the team on free agents. We have 190 players or so who will be free agents. That’s where our priority stands.’’

Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:

Jackson did indicate that he would be willing to be patient with the growing pains of developing a lottery pick, Berman adds. “You get movers and franchise players from the draft,” Jackson said. “We’re rebuilding this team. You have do it that way.’’
The Knicks’ president also relayed that the team isn’t looking to bring in 10 new bodies next season, which means a number of players who aren’t under contract for next season could be re-signed, Berman tweets.
When asked to assess the state of the Knicks, Jackson admitted the season was a lost one, Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com relays (Twitter link). “It feels like it’s a project gone awry,” Jackson said. “This is where we wanted to be at the end of the year, not in the middle of the year.“
The Knicks are hopeful that Carmelo Anthony will resume training this June, Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com tweets. The timetable ‘Melo was given at the time of his surgery in February was that he would be out for four to six months, and the June time frame would be on the early side of that prognosis, Begley adds.

Atlantic Notes: Nets Sale, Wiggins, Embiid

March 11th, 2015 at 10:58am CST by Chuck Myron

Amar’e Stoudemire‘s $2.5MM buyout from the Knicks only represented a net loss of $2,014,330 for him, since it was offset by his prorated minimum salary deal with the Mavs, but it was a savings of $6.25MM for the Knicks, as Marc Berman of the New York Post points out. The $2.5MM that Stoudemire gave up, an amount that Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders first reported, as we noted last month, would have entailed an extra $3.75MM in luxury taxes had the big man remained under contract. Still, Stoudemire collected a total of more than $97.2MM in salary from the Knicks over the course of his five-year contract, and New York is in line to pay at least some tax for a third straight year, meaning the team will incur repeat-offender penalties if it goes over the tax next season. Here’s more from the Atlantic:

Sources told Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders that they suspected the sale of the Nets was to have been based off a $1 billion price for the Hawks, but those same sources believe the Atlanta franchise will go for around $900MM instead, as Kyler relays (Twitter links). Multiple sports bankers had believed the Nets would sell for as much as $2 billion, as they told Josh Kosman and Claire Atkinson of the New York Post earlier this month, but that price point never materialized, Kyler hears (Twitter link). Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov appears to be backing away from the idea of a sale.
There are whispers that Andrew Wiggins would love to play for the Raptors, but he’s under contract through 2018 and would have to take discount salaries if he wants to play in his native Canada anytime this decade, writes Eric Koreen of the National Post. In any case, the talent pool in Canada has grown enough such that GM Masai Ujiri need not dig deep to fulfill his promise of bringing a domestic talent onto the Raptors, making the GM’s pledge “harmless,” Koreen believes. Still, a majority of Hoops Rumors readers believe that Ujiri shouldn’t concern himself with a player’s nationality.
The “minor setback” that Joel Embiid has suffered as he continues to recover from a broken right foot bears watching, but it’s not worth an overreaction, Sixers coach Brett Brown told reporters, including Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The franchise still believes that Embiid is capable of becoming its cornerstone if he can get healthy, Pompey writes.

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