New York Knicks Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Atlantic Notes: Thornton, Calderon, Williams

January 14th, 2015 at 6:30pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Celtics are receiving inquiries about Marcus Thornton, but interested teams are concerned about Thornton’s salary, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link). Thornton, who will become an unrestricted free agent at season’s end, is making $8.575MM this year. Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:

The Celtics were able to create a trade exception worth $625,280 as a result of the Jameer Nelson for Nate Robinson deal with the Nuggets, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter link).
With Jose Calderon reportedly on the trading block, Jesse Blancarte of Basketball Insiders looks at a number of theoretical deals that the Knicks could make to unload the veteran point guard.
Point guard Deron Williams is out indefinitely for the Nets with a rib injury, and has no idea when he’ll be able to play again, Brian Lewis of The New York Post writes. “I’m still pretty sore. I don’t have a timetable, just taking it one day at a time,” Williams said. “There’s nothing you can do, really. They’re doing some laser and heating it up; just rest. Other than that, there’s nothing really you can do.” Williams also expressed his displeasure with the conflicting medical reports that he has received from various doctors, Lewis adds.
When Langston Galloway signed his 10-day deal to join the lowly Knicks, his college coach Phil Martelli gave him some sage advice, Mike Sielski of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes. “What I told him on the phone was none of that mattered [the Knicks’ losing ways],” Martelli said. “If his routine was to get there early, then get there early. If his routine was to be active on the bench, then be active on the bench. When you’re a young guy, you end up emulating those who are ahead of you. It’s not his nature to ‘be selfish,’ but in a lot of ways, he had to be who he was and not fall into what the media would say about the Knicks or anything like that. Their request to him was not to save them. Their request to him was to be a professional.”
Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov failed in his “get a ring quick scheme,” and will leave the franchise far worse off than when he purchased it, Michael Lee of the Washington Post writes in his profile of Prokhorov. The Russian billionaire is reportedly trying to sell his interests in the team.

Knicks Notes: Antetokounmpo, Calderon, Martin

January 14th, 2015 at 4:18pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Bucks swingman Giannis Antetokounmpo believes strongly that the Knicks should call up his older brother, Thanasis Antetokounmpo, from the D-League, Marc Berman of The New York Post writes. “He’s ready,’’ the younger Antetokounmpo said. “I don’t think the Knicks have to lose anything. They lose 15 [straight] now. Tomorrow is going to be 16. They don’t have anything to lose. My brother could bring energy to the team and [is] hard-working, and guys from the team can see that and take something from him.’’ With three players currently on their roster with 10-day contracts, the Knicks will have an available slot shortly, Berman notes.

Here’s more out of New York:

Kenyon Martin, who is currently with the Bucks on a 10-day deal, was asked why the Knicks didn’t show any interest in his services this season, Berman writes in a separate piece. Martin’s response was, “You got to ask them that, boss. You know that. They made that decision. It is what it is. I moved on. I went and got my surgery and did most of [the rehab] on my own. I don’t hold no grudges. I thought it would’ve been a little different. It is what it is. I’m not bitter.’’ Milwaukee is reportedly considering signing Martin for the remainder of the season.
Point guard Jose Calderon understands that he could be traded by the Knicks prior to February’s deadline, Al Iannazzone of Newsday writes. “It can happen,” Calderon said. “Why are you going to be surprised? They’re changing stuff. I don’t know what’s really on their minds right now. I have no idea what’s going to happen. It’s the NBA. It’s a business. They have a plan. They really want that cap space. That’s why they made some of the moves. It can happen again.” The Knicks appear to be shopping Calderon along with Andrea Bargnani.
Calderon isn’t focusing on his trade status, Iannazzone adds, but rather on trying to help turn around a nightmarish Knicks season. Calderon said that until something changes he will consider himself part of New York’s future, the Newsday scribe notes. “I came here thinking I was part of it [the Knicks’ rebuilding plan],” Calderon said. “I’m still thinking about it. It’s nothing different yet. So I’m still part of it.“

Eastern Notes: McRae, Stoudemire, Kidd

January 13th, 2015 at 10:09pm CST by Eddie Scarito

There’s a possibility that 2014 second-rounder Jordan McRae could join the Sixers prior to the end of the season, Tom Moore of Calkins Media writes. McRae, whose rights the Sixers acquired from the Spurs on draft night, has been averaging 20.9 points in 18 games for Melbourne United of the Australian league this season. Philadelphia coach Brett Brown has kept a watchful eye on McRae’s progress overseas, Moore notes. “We are always paying attention to Jordan,” Brown said. “He’s in a good situation. He’s playing a lot of minutes and continuing to score. Jordan is always in the back of our minds.”

With the Sixers having an open roster spot thanks to Andrei Kirilenko being placed on the suspended list, Brown was asked about the possibility of McRae filling that slot, Moore adds. “It’s a fair question,” Brown said. “How we decide to handle Jordan will be determined — just not now. We have talked a lot about it.”

Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:

Kevin Love‘s comment that he intends to opt in and remain with the Cavaliers for the 2015/16 campaign leaves the team with one less distraction this season, Yannis Koutroupis of Basketball Insiders writes.
The Knicks are reportedly not looking to deal Amar’e Stoudemire, but the team has had internal discussions about the possibility of reaching a buyout agreement with him so that Stoudemire could try and catch on with a contender, Mark Woods of ESPNNewYork.com reports.
Jason Kidd has found a fit as the coach of the Bucks that he didn’t during his time with the Nets, Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today writes. Last year’s Brooklyn squad didn’t need a teacher in the way that Milwaukee does, and it’s a role that Kidd is more suited to, Zillgitt opines.
Cavs coach David Blatt‘s level of comfort in Cleveland would benefit greatly from a stout endorsement from LeBron James, something that hasn’t happened yet, Sam Amick of USA Today writes.
One of the Knicks‘ biggest issues as a franchise is their poor player development history, Chris Herring of The Wall Street Journal writes. “The Knicks have always had the money to spend. But because they saw that as their advantage, it might have also become a reason to put off being patient with a rebuild,” John Nash, a former NBA GM, told Herring. “They may have felt they didn’t have the time to truly develop young players.” New York’s problem isn’t poor drafting, as the franchise has actually had three first-team All-Rookie selections the past four seasons, Herring notes. But those players have all regressed offensively in their second seasons, which is an alarming trend, the Wall Street Journal scribe adds.

Atlantic Notes: Stoudemire, Celtics, Nets

January 13th, 2015 at 4:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

Amar’e Stoudemire isn’t sure that he wants to remain with the Knicks amid a rebuilding effort, as he told reporters, including Marc Berman of the New York Post. The Knicks reportedly have no plans to trade Stoudemire, who’s set for free agency at season’s end.

“It’s a very difficult situation at this point,’’ Stoudemire said. “It’s a hard decision for me to make. My loyalty has always been with New York and the Knicks. So it will be tough right now to make a decision as far as going somewhere else at this point. It’s something I have to think about. I’m sure over time I’ll sit and think about the best scenario for myself. For now, I know I’ve been through injuries throughout my career. I have to make sure I’m able to be strong enough and prepared to play for a team contending for a championship. New York is trying to rebuild. Hopefully that will be sooner than later.’’

Stoudemire laments the departure of now-Cavalier Iman Shumpert, who like Stoudemire is a client of Happy Walters, as Berman notes. Here’s more from around the Atlantic Division:

The Celtics are receiving $1,319,236 in cash from the Grizzlies as part of the Jeff Green trade, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link).
Mikhail Prokhorov lost an estimated $400MM in one day in the midst of global economic trouble late last month, an attorney and adviser to Russian oligarchs tells Stefan Bondy and Mitch Abramson of the New York Daily News. Russia’s economic downturn is reportedly one of the reasons that Prokhorov has reportedly put the Nets up for sale.
An industry consultant tells Scott Soshnick of Bloomberg.com that he believes that the Nets will command a price akin to the $2 billion the Clippers fetched, while a consultant said to Soshnick that he isn’t sure that the Nets are as attractive as the Clippers were.
Some believe that Andrei Kirilenko is giving up the rest of his salary this season to tend to his wife as she endures a difficult pregnancy, according to Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. However, Pompey hears from a Brooklyn source who questioned whether that’s indeed the reason the forward hasn’t played in two months.

New York Notes: Knicks, Nets, Melo, Howard

January 12th, 2015 at 8:22pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Knicks own a record of 5-35, which is good for first place in our reverse order rankings. After the trade last week that sent J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert to the Cavs, the team clearly won’t be buyers at the trade deadline this season. It’s early in the season for most other teams hovering around .500 to make that kind of decision but Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles (Twitter link) has put the Nets in the conversation about potential sellers in the NBA marketplace.

Here’s more from the Empire State:

Carmelo Anthony wants to be involved in recruiting players to the Knicks, tweets Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork. “This is why I wanted to come back, to be a part of the plan,” Anthony says. New York is projected to have room for the addition of at least one maximum level contract, although the exact amount of cap room will be unknown until the salary cap is calculated during July’s moratorium.
Dwight Howard will play in Brooklyn for the first time tonight and he reminisces on what could have been if he would have been traded to the Nets, as Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork writes. “Like I said, everything happens for a reason. There was a point in time where I thought this [Brooklyn] was the best place for me to play basketball. I guess things didn’t happen the way I wanted them to,” Howard said. The Nets were once on the shortlist of teams that the center preferred to be traded to when he was still with the Magic.
Jason Terry will also return to Brooklyn for the first time since being traded from the team last season. The 15-year veteran thought the Nets were going to achieve more over the last few seasons. “I’m surprised a lot,” Terry told reporters, including Tim Bontemps of The New York Post. “For me, when I came here it looked like they were going to put something together a big run for two or three years down the line. But when there’s that much pressure on you to win, and it doesn’t happen, they’re gonna make changes.” As a member of the Rockets, most would consider Terry to now be in a better position to win another NBA title.

Knicks Shop Jose Calderon, Andrea Bargnani

January 12th, 2015 at 10:19am CST by Chuck Myron

The Knicks are active in attempts to trade Jose Calderon and Andrea Bargnani, reports Marc Stein and Ian Begley of ESPN.com. However, New York is clinging to Amar’e Stoudemire and doesn’t plan on trading him, Stein and Begley add. Bargnani is a candidate to hit waivers next month if team president Phil Jackson can’t find a trade partner by the February 19th trade deadline, according to the ESPN scribes.

Knicks coach Derek Fisher last month called Bargnani a “big piece to the future,” but it appears that’s changed in short order as the Knicks have plummeted to the worst record in the league. The Knicks relinquished their 2016 first-round draft pick as part of the trade that brought Bargnani from Toronto, but injury has kept him from all but two games this season. He’s making $11.5MM this year, the final season of his contract, but league executives reportedly believed over the summer that it would require the Knicks to attach two first-round picks to offload him. There’s a decent chance that price has come down some, with Bargnani drawing ever close to the end of his deal, but it still seems like it’ll be hard for Jackson to find a taker.

A report last week indicated that Jackson hadn’t yet given up on Calderon, in spite of speculation that he’d be the next Knick to go after the team sent Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith to Cleveland last week. The team’s stance on Calderon, too, appears to have changed, and while there are plenty of teams who are high on him, the point guard’s contract stands as a deterrent, Stein and Begley write. Calderon is making between $7MM and $8MM each season through 2016/17.

The Knicks reportedly shopped Stoudemire over the summer and discussed a deal with the Sixers, though Stoudemire’s salary of more than $23.4MM makes him quite difficult to trade. He’s proven a key part of the Knicks this season, averaging 13.1 points and 7.4 rebounds in 26.4 minutes per game, making 13 starts. It’s conceivable that the Knicks would re-sign him, at a greatly reduced rate, for next season once his contract expires this summer, Stein and Begley write.

Pacific Notes: Rivers, Bryant, Wright, Kerr

January 11th, 2015 at 10:33pm CST by Arthur Hill

Clippers coach Doc Rivers isn’t sure if he is permitted to talk to his son about joining the team, writes Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times. Austin Rivers is expected to be moved from Memphis to Boston Monday as part of a three-team deal. Rumors emerged that the Celtics don’t want to keep Rivers and could be shipping him to the Clippers, although a third team may be needed to facilitate the deal. “I maybe should call the league,” Doc Rivers said. “It may be tampering. Listen, if it got to that point, yeah, we would talk, clearly.”

There’s more from the Pacific Division:

Lakers coach Byron Scott said he played Kobe Bryant too many minutes early in the season and dropped a hint about shutting Bryant down for the rest of the year, according to Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com. Bryant has missed six of the team’s last 11 games, but Scott said any decision will be made gradually. “I keep thinking about game-to-game right now,” he said. “So I haven’t gotten to that point. Maybe after the All-Star break, maybe we will start talking about something like that if necessary.”
New Suns center Brandan Wright impressed the opposition coach in Sunday’s double overtime loss to Memphis, reports Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic. Wright had seven points and two rebounds in 15 minutes of action in his first game since Friday’s trade from the Celtics, but the Grizzlies’ Dave Joerger sees him as a perfect fit. “He plays off the ball as well as anybody in the league, being able to get into pick-and-rolls and then separate and get out of pick-and-rolls,” Joerger said. “What you do on that deal is then you either have dunks or you create long close-outs of two guys who are very willing and capable of making perimeter shots. Then if you have to run out too fast, whew. You just keep chasing your tail.”
The Warriors‘ Steve Kerr is coaching the best team in the NBA, but he could have been with the worst, writes Fred Kerber of The New York Post. Kerr admits he had a verbal commitment to join the Knicks before opting for Golden State. “I told [Knicks president Phil Jackson] that I was going to come as long as we could work a contract out,” Kerr said. “And we didn’t ever work a contract out.”

Knicks Notes: Jackson, Fisher, Free Agency

January 10th, 2015 at 7:17pm CST by Arthur Hill

Team president Phil Jackson is accepting blame for the disaster that has befallen the Knicks, reports Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com. After Saturday’s lopsided loss to the Hornets, Jackson made a public statement to New York fans in which he acknowledged his mistakes. “Obviously I didn’t do the right thing in picking the group of guys that were here,” Jackson said. “A lot of it was etched in stone, we had guys with guaranteed contracts. But in anticipating that we were going to be better, that we were giving hope to our fans that maybe there’s a possible playoff opportunity here, you know, that goes on me.” The Knicks are 5-35 and hold the top spot in Hoops Rumors’ Reverse Standings.

There’s much more from the Big Apple:

Jackson remains optimistic that New York will be a popular destination for free agents this summer, Begley tweets. Jackson said several agents contact the team regularly to pass along their clients’ interest.
Before midseason officially arrived, the Knicks started playing for next year, writes Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. The team cleared some cap room with this week’s trade that sent J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert to Cleveland. Much more will open up this summer when Amar’e Stoudemire and Andrea Bargnani come off the books. “It’s not easy to build a team,” coach Derek Fisher said. “Going forward there’s always been a balance you’re trying to find between talent, character, mental toughness, physical toughness, experience, coachability, all of the different factors. There’s no guarantee that it all works out even after you do all that assessment.”
Spending money has rarely brought success for the Knicks, writes David Berri in Time Magazine. Berri, an economics professor at Southern Utah University, analyzed the Knicks’ performance in seasons where they ranked among the NBA’s biggest spenders. He found that since 1987/88, when New York’s payroll was among the league’s three highest, the team had a losing record in 12 of those 17 seasons.

Eastern Notes: Wroten, Taylor, Butler

January 10th, 2015 at 10:58am CST by Eddie Scarito

CSNPhilly.com’s John Gonzalez took an in-depth look at the potential trade value of Tony Wroten, who was rumored to be the subject of trade discussions between the Clippers and the Sixers earlier this week. A pair of league executives told Gonzalez that Wroten could possibly net GM Sam Hinkie two second-rounders, and another said that it would be difficult to get fair value for Wroten, so it would be wiser to hang on to the guard. Philadelphia currently owns a whopping 15 second round draft picks between now and 2020.

Here’s more from the East:

The Hornets have recalled Jeffery Taylor from the Austin Spurs of the NBA D-League, the team has announced. In four games with the Spurs he averaged 11.8 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 26.2 minutes per contest. This was Taylor’s initial jaunt of the season to the D-League.
Rasual Butler had the remainder of his contract guaranteed for the season when he remained on the Wizards’ roster past Wednesday’s deadline. The veteran swingman’s play has made him an integral part of Washington’s rotation, and Butler also has a fan in Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau, Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post writes. Thibodeau, who briefly coached Butler in Chicago, said of his former player, “I think it’s the perfect fit for him and he’s a great pro. He’s a guy who plays year-round and stays in great shape. And I think when you look at what John Wall does and you look at what Andre Miller does, he’s the perfect fit because he creates space and his career says how well he can shoot the three. But to be doing it at this stage of his career is a real credit to him. But we always felt strongly about his professionalism, his attitude, how much he loved he game. And the shooting part, that’s never going to go away.”
Despite all of the Knicks‘ struggles this season, first year coach Derek Fisher‘s confidence hasn’t wavered, and he believes this turbulent campaign will help him become a better coach, Al Iannazzone of Newsday writes.

Knicks Sign Amundson To 10-Day Deal

January 10th, 2015 at 8:40am CST by Eddie Scarito

SATURDAY, 8:40am: The signing is official, New York has announced.

FRIDAY. 8:42pm: The Knicks continue to look to add to their roster, and now have set their sights on another player that who was acquired in the recent three-way trade with the Cavs and the Thunder. New York is eyeing Louis Amundson for a 10-day deal, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports (Twitter links). Amundson, who was waived after being acquired, could be signed as early as Saturday, Stein notes.

Amundson appeared in 12 contests for Cleveland this season, averaging 0.9 points and 1.7 rebounds in 6.6 minutes per contest. His career numbers over 358 games are 3.5 PPG, 3.5 RPG, and 0.7 BPG. His career slash line is .489/.000/.487.

New York’s roster count is currently at 14 players, which includes Lance Thomas, who is also reportedly being inked to a 10-day contract.