Oklahoma City Thunder Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Northwest Notes: Marshall, Blazers, Thunder

July 25th, 2015 at 8:34pm CST by Arthur Hill

Coach/executive Flip Saunders said the Wolves have had no conversations with Kendall Marshall, tweets Jon Krawczynski of the Associated Press. Minnesota has been rumored to have interest in the free agent guard, whose 2014/15 season was cut short by an ACL tear.

There’s more this evening from the Northwest Division:

It wasn’t entirely by choice, but the Blazers are adopting a youth movement this offseason to build for the future, writes Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Faced with the reality that free agent LaMarcus Aldridge might depart, Portland began targeting young talent. The team signed Ed Davis, Al-Farouq Aminu, Phil Pressey and Cliff Alexander, and traded for Maurice Harkless, Mason Plumlee and Noah Vonleh. Add in draftee Pat Connaughton and there are a lot of fresh, young faces on Portland’s roster. “I know for myself and the coaching staff, it’s going to be a fun year,” said coach Terry Stotts. “There’s a lot of young talent and I think it’s really exciting for them. We’ve got a lot of guys who are looking for the opportunity to get more playing time and show what they can do in the league.”
Andre Roberson could be cut out of the Thunder’s rotation entirely if he fails to win a starting job, speculates beat writer Anthony Slater in a roundtable for The Oklahoman. Slater’s theory is that if Dion Waiters or Anthony Morrow is the starter, Roberson’s role on the second unit could be seized by Cameron Payne or Kyle Singler. Roberson is slated to earn more than $1.2MM next season, with a team option for nearly $2.2MM in 2016/17.
The Thunder didn’t make any flashy offseason player acquisitions, but they shouldn’t be overlooked as contenders, writes Zach Harper of CBSSports.com. Oklahoma City’s major moves were the hiring of coach Billy Donovan and the re-signing of Enes Kanter and Singler, but an injury-free year from Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka would put the Thunder back in the title race.

Bucks Nearing Deal With Chris Copeland?

July 21st, 2015 at 9:13pm CST by Chuck Myron

9:13pm: Copeland had a strong workout with the Bucks today, but the Spurs and Thunder are still in the mix for his services, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports tweets.

7:30pm: The Bucks and Copeland are working to finalize a deal, and it is expected to be completed sometime this week, Marc Stein of ESPN.com tweets.

JULY 21ST, 12:22pm: Copeland has traveled to Milwaukee for a meeting with the Bucks and perhaps to take a physical, Woelfel tweets.

JULY 17TH, 2:09pm: Some higher-ups from around the league think the Bucks have become the front-runners for Copeland, Woelfel reports (Twitter link).

JULY 14TH, 11:42am: The Bucks are interested in Chris Copeland, but they have yet to make an offer to the unrestricted free agent forward, reports Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times (Twitter link). Milwaukee is still looking to replace the perimeter shooting it gave up in the Ersan Ilyasova trade, Woelfel notes, pointing to Copeland’s career 37.3% three-point shooting.

That three-point shooting percentage was above 40% before this past season, when he nailed only 31.1% and dropped out of the Pacers rotation in the second half as many of Indiana’s regulars returned to health. His season ended prematurely when he was stabbed and suffered a broken elbow in April outside a New York nightclub.

Milwaukee is among four teams on Copeland’s radar, and the 31-year-old is expected to decide between them in the next couple of days, Woelfel tweets. The Wizards were linked to the John Spencer client early in free agency.

Copeland signed a two-year, $6.135MM deal with Indiana two years ago, when he was coming off a surprisingly successful rookie season with the Knicks, with whom he made his NBA debut six years after going undrafted out of Colorado. He wasn’t able to duplicate that performance with the Pacers, who declined their chance to match competing bids for him this summer when they elected not to make a qualifying offer that would have been worth nearly $3.919MM.

Celtics Rumors: Ainge, Smart, Young, Jerebko

July 19th, 2015 at 4:59pm CST by Arthur Hill

Danny Ainge‘s quest to find hidden gems explains some of the Celtics’ offseason moves, writes A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com. On a team without superstars, the executive is constantly searching for untapped potential. That’s why he picked up Amir Johnson, David Lee and Perry Jones III and took a calculated draft risk with Terry Rozier. Ainge is hoping at least one of his acquisitions will duplicate the success of DeMarre Carroll in Atlanta or Khris Middleton in Milwaukee.

There’s more news from Boston:

Two dislocated fingers on his right hand will prevent Marcus Smart from making a trip to Africa for an August 1st exhibition game, according to Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald. Smart suffered the injury during summer league play and had to miss the final two games for the Celtics’ entry. There is no timetable for his recovery, but Smart is relieved that they weren’t broken. There is no speculation so far that the injury will linger into training camp.
Paul Pierce is an admirer of the moves the Celtics have made, Bulpett writes in a separate story. “They asked Danny to get good pieces, good tradable pieces, good foundation pieces, and that’s what he’s been doing,” Pierce said. “Over time you have to figure out who you’re going to keep and who you’re going to move to get better until you find that piece.”
James Young will spend part of the summer working out with former MVP Kevin Durant, according to Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. The players share the same agent, Rick Kleiman, and Young is excited about the opportunity. “He’s going to be able to start being able to play soon,” Young said of Durant. “I can’t wait. He’s a great guy, a great offensive player, one of the best players in the league, one of my favorite players growing up.”
The Celtics were always the first choice for Jonas Jerebko, who re-signed with the team last week, writes Marc D’Amico of Celtics.com. “I had some offers, but my first choice was always coming back here and we worked it out and I’m happy to be back,” Jerebko said. “There were teams that were knocking on the door, but I just liked being in Boston and what we had going on.”

Western Notes: Durant, Matthews, Hamilton

July 17th, 2015 at 2:28pm CST by Chuck Myron

Executives from around the league seem to think that Kevin Durant will end up re-signing with the Thunder next year, but the Wizards, Mavericks, Lakers, Heat, Knicks and Nets are expected to be among his most dogged suitors, writes Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post. Damion James, a Wizards summer-leaguer whom Castillo describes as Durant’s best friend, says it’ll come down to wins and losses.

“He’ll do whatever it takes to win. Whoever gives him the best chance to win is where he’s going to end up,” James said.

The Thunder certainly seem to have kept themselves in the discussion on that front, having just paid the max to avoid losing Enes Kanter. Here’s more from around the Western Conference:

No contract handed out this summer has seemed to draw as many surprised reactions for its munificence as the one Wesley Matthews ended up with from the Mavericks, observes Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald. The shooting guard was going to make $57MM over four years with the Mavs before they bumped his deal up to the maximum of $70,060,025, notes Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com. “A healthy Wesley Matthews at $70MM is insane,” one GM told Bulpett. “But Wesley Matthews coming off Achilles’ surgery at $70MM? What’s a stronger way to say insane?”
Justin Hamilton is close to a deal with Valencia of Spain, according to Paco Garcia Caridad of the Spanish outlet Marca (Twitter link; translation via Trapani). Hamilton, who went to the Finals with the Heat in 2013/14, finished this past season as a member of the Timberwolves.
Miroslav Raduljica has agreed to sign with Panathinaikos of Greece, reports Sportando’s Enea Trapani. The Kings reportedly had interest in the big man who was briefly with the Wolves this past season. The team was reportedly close to a deal with Nikola Milutinov, whom the Spurs drafted 26th overall, but now the status of negotiations with Milutinov is unclear. Regardless, the Spurs have already filed paperwork with the league saying they won’t sign Milutinov this year, thus clearing his cap hold.

Northwest Notes: Lawson, Wolves, Montero

July 16th, 2015 at 9:00am CST by Chuck Myron

The Nuggets were requesting a first-round pick and a young player in trade talks about Ty Lawson days before his latest DUI-related arrest, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports. Opposing teams were showing little to no interest, Spears adds, advancing a report from Yahoo Sports colleague Adrian Wojnarowski, who said that clubs were waiting for Lawson’s price to come down. Now, after the arrest, the Nuggets are in a position where they’re better off waiting for Lawson’s value to bounce back, an assistant GM tells Spears. We asked for your feedback about Lawson on Wednesday night. There’s more on the Nuggets amid the latest from around the Northwest Division:

Denver is scanning for trades that provide greater financial and roster flexibility, league sources tell Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post. The search is unrelated to Lawson, as Dempsey makes clear. In any case, the report would suggest that the Nuggets are looking to unload a player in a deal that doesn’t bring back anyone in return.
Coach/executive Flip Saunders, with the $2.139MM biannual exception and roughly $1.7MM left on the mid-level exception, sounds open to adding a veteran point guard to the Timberwolves, according to Kent Youngblood of the Star Tribune (Twitter link via Tribune scribe Jerry Zgoda).
The Timberwolves had their choice of three trade exceptions with which they could take in Damjan Rudez from the Pacers, and Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders says they used the $1.5MM Ronny Turiaf exception to do so (Twitter link). That reduces the Turiaf exception, which expires December 19th, to $350,500, essentially exhausting its value.
The Oregonian’s Mike Richman chronicles the unusual journey of Luis Montero to his partially guaranteed contract with the Blazers, adding the Knicks, Sixers, Suns and Thunder to the list of teams that previous reports indicated he worked out for prior to the draft.
A virtually unusable $88K sliver of the Thunder‘s Thabo Sefolosha trade exception expired Wednesday. Oklahoma City used most of what was originally a $4.15MM exception to trade for Dion Waiters in January.
Jazz power forward Trevor Booker‘s salary, which had been partially guaranteed for $250K, is now fully guaranteed for $4.775MM, as our list of salary guarantee dates shows.

Western Notes: Cousins, Levien, Montero

July 15th, 2015 at 10:31pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Kings coach George Karl admits talking hypothetical DeMarcus Cousins trades “behind closed doors,” but Karl tells Ken Berger of CBSSports.com that he rejects the notion that he was actively trying to trade the center. “As a coach, in meetings every year and maybe four or five times a year, you talk about what-ifs,” Karl said. “And 99% of what-ifs never happen. But isn’t it our job to talk about what-ifs? Does this make us better? Does this get us in a better place? That’s our job. There was never a discussion in that area even close to happening, in my opinion. … Never in the whole time of this experience did I ever think that I wasn’t going to coach Cuz.”

Here’s what else is happening around the Western Conference:

Jason Levien has become an unofficial adviser to Kings owner Vivek Ranadive, Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com tweets. Levien was formerly the CEO of the Grizzlies, as well as a former Sacramento assistant GM, Howard-Cooper notes.
The Wolves were able to create a traded player exception worth $5MM as a result of dealing Chase Budinger to the Pacers, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders notes (Twitter link).
Danny Green said that LaMarcus Aldridge contacted him during the free agent process to pick his brain about the Spurs, Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express News tweets. Green also noted that the possibility of playing alongside Aldridge factored heavily into his decision to re-sign with the Spurs, McDonald adds.
The Trail Blazers‘ deal with Luis Montero is a three year arrangement with the first season partially guaranteed, according to former Nets executive Bobby Marks (Twitter links).
The Thunder have removed forward Steve Novak from the trading block, Chris Mannix of SI.com relays. OKC was reportedly seeking financial relief and was willing to flip Novak in exchange for a future draft pick.
Wilson Chandler‘s contract renegotiation and extension with the Nuggets will pay him $10.4MM in 2015/16, $11.2MM for 2016/17, $12.0MM in 2017/18, and $12.8MM during the final season, Pincus notes (Twitter links).

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

And-Ones: Labor, Moratorium, Max Salaries

July 15th, 2015 at 10:16am CST by Chuck Myron

Commissioner Adam Silver struck an optimistic tone about labor negotiations with a December 15th, 2016 deadline looming for owners and players to opt out of the collective bargaining agreement, writes Sam Amick of USA Today.

“You know, I’m not sure if the players association is going to opt out,” Silver said as he addressed media Tuesday. “[Union executive director] Michele [Roberts] made some early remarks suggesting maybe they were leaning that direction, but she hasn’t told me that she plans to opt out. And I know that in discussions that she and I have had and I’ve had with players association representatives, it’s clear the goal on both sides is to avoid any sort of work stoppage whatsoever and maybe even to avoid the opt out.”

Still, Silver claims a “significant number of teams” are losing money, Amick notes. The commissioner said the league projects that it’ll need to issue a $500MM check to the players after the 2016/17 season because total salaries aren’t expected to add up to the required 50-51% of basketball related income, even as the salary cap surges, as Ken Berger of CBSSports.com observes. Berger sees a strong chance that the owners opt out, in spite of Silver’s seeming confidence that such can be avoided. Here’s more from around the league:

Owners discussed the idea of changing the July Moratorium to avoid sagas like the one that surrounded DeAndre Jordan as he decommitted to the Mavs to return to the Clippers, but none of the owners could come up with an appealing solution, Silver said, according to Berger.
The projected maximum salaries for next season are $20.4MM for players with fewer than seven years of experience, $24.9MM for those with seven to nine years in the league, and $29.3MM for veterans of 10 or more years, tweets former Nets executive Bobby Marks. See this year’s max salaries right here.
The union continues to consider a get-tough stance on agencies that represent both players and coaches, but the most likely outcome is a continuance of the same policies, despite the conflict of interest, Grantland’s Zach Lowe reports. Agencies are allowed to represent both as long as they create separate divisions, with separate agents, to handle player and management clients, as Lowe explains. Still, not all are pleased with arrangement, and when the Bucks, who have close ties to Excel, drafted Excel client Rashad Vaughn last month, some people around the league found it untoward, Lowe writes.
The Nets once more led luxury taxpayers for this past season, though it wasn’t the record amount of some $90MM from a year ago. This time, they paid $19.98MM, followed by the Cavs with $6.96MM, the Clippers at $4.8MM, and the Thunder at $2.79MM, salary cap expert Larry Coon tweets. Teams that didn’t pay the tax saw $830K each as a result.
The second-round pick that the Celtics are sending to the Thunder as part of the Perry Jones III trade is Boston’s own 2018 second-rounder, but if it falls within the top 55 picks that year, the Celtics’ debt to Oklahoma City is extinguished, according to RealGM.

Celtics Acquire Perry Jones III

July 14th, 2015 at 2:42pm CST by Chuck Myron

NBA: Oklahoma City Thunder at Dallas Mavericks

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

2:42pm: The deal is official, the Thunder and Celtics announced. The second-rounder headed to the Thunder is a protected 2018 selection, according to Oklahoma City. Boston’s announcement calls it a conditional 2018 pick, so the protection is probably such that it may not ever end up conveying to the Thunder.

To recap, the Thunder get that pick, while the Celtics get Jones, Detroit’s 2019 second-round pick and cash.

2:03pm: The pick going to the Celtics is Detroit’s 2019 second-rounder, which Oklahoma City picked up in the Reggie Jackson trade, Mayberry reports (on Twitter).

1:51pm: The second-rounder headed Boston’s way isn’t one of OKC’s own picks, a source Himmelsbach (Twitter link).

1:47pm: A protected second-round pick is going to Oklahoma City in the move, according to Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman (on Twitter). That’ll allow the Thunder to create a trade exception equivalent to Jones’ salary, Mayberry notes. The Celtics will absorb Jones into cap space, tweets former Nets executive Bobby Marks.

1:30pm: The Thunder will trade Perry Jones III to the Celtics, along with a second-round pick and cash, reports Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald (Twitter link). It’s not entirely clear what’s going back to Oklahoma City, but it doesn’t amount to much, Bulpett says, indicating that it’s a move the Thunder are making with luxury tax savings in mind. Indeed, the deal stands to save the Thunder some $7MM in combined salary and tax payments, tweets Royce Young of ESPN.com.

Oklahoma City had been carrying a payroll of about $98MM, well above the $84.74MM tax threshold, and moving off of Jones’ salary, worth more than $2.038MM, has reportedly been a priority. Chris Mannix of SI.com reported before the draft that the Thunder were shopping the former 28th overall pick, among others, adding after the draft that Oklahoma City was holding out for a first-round pick. That sort of return for Jones wasn’t to be, but it appears as though the Thunder have at least unloaded his rookie scale contract, which is entering its final season.

It’s unclear if the Celtics envision Jones as part of their long-term plan, and indeed much is in flux for the Celtics, as a source tells Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe that the team is active on many fronts (Twitter link). Jones, who turns 24 in September, is eligible for a rookie scale extension, though that seems unlikely. The forward is coming off a career year for the Thunder, who thrust him into more minutes than before amid injuries to much of their usual rotation players, but he still put up only 4.3 points in 14.7 minutes per game.

For all the hottest NBA rumors and deals, follow us on Twitter!

Follow @HoopsRumors

Execs Think Kevin Durant Will Stay With Thunder

July 13th, 2015 at 11:48am CST by Chuck Myron

Most of the executives with whom Ken Berger of CBSSports.com has spoken at summer league think Kevin Durant will re-sign with the Thunder in free agency next summer. The Lakers, Mavericks and Wizards are among a small group of teams with any legitimate shot at the former MVP, Berger adds. The Knicks are also on the fringes, though Berger largely dismisses their candidacy.

Dallas had begun to think of itself as a contender for Durant when it had secured commitments from DeAndre Jordan and Wesley Matthews, and while Jordan’s well-publicized flip-flop might have hurt the confidence of the Mavs, it seems they’re still in the picture. An associate of Durant’s recently told Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald that if Durant were to leave the Thunder, he would do so to sign with the Wizards, the forward’s hometown team. Another person close to Durant told Frank Isola of the New York Daily News several months ago that Durant could envision playing with the Knicks. An NBA GM told Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv around that same time that the Knicks had about the same shot as non-Thunder contenders for his services that at that point included the Clippers and Nets as well as the Wizards and Lakers.

The latest projected maximum salary for Durant, who’ll be a nine-year veteran after next season, is $24.9MM, according to former Nets executive Bobby Marks (Twitter link). The surging salary cap means 16 teams have at least $20MM in cap flexibility for next summer as it stands, Marks points out (All Twitter links). The Thunder aren’t among them, but they have Durant’s Bird rights to exceed the cap, and even after matching Portland’s max offer sheet to Enes Kanter on Sunday, they’re not in line to pay the luxury tax beyond 2015/16, even if they re-sign Durant, notes Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link).

Thunder Match Blazers’ Offer For Enes Kanter

July 12th, 2015 at 8:10pm CST by Will Joseph

8:10pm: Oklahoma City has announced the move is official via press release.

7:40pm: The Thunder have informed the Trail Blazers they have matched Portland’s $70MM offer sheet for restricted free agent Enes Kanter, reports Yahoo Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski (on Twitter). Enes’ deal includes a player option on the fourth year and a 15% trade kicker bonus, Wojnarowski reports in a full story.

The expectation around the league was that the Thunder would match, according to Royce Young of ESPN.com (on Twitter). The deadline is today. The Blazers signed Kanter on Thursday to an offer sheet worth the max over four years, with a player option on year three. It was an easy decision to match, Wojnarowski tweets, because Oklahoma City offered Kanter about $62MM and always planned for the possibility of a max offer sheet.

Oklahoma City has about $79MM in salary commitments for this coming season. That puts them well above the $70MM cap, and the new deal for Kanter pushes the team far beyond the $84.74MM tax threshold. If they don’t make any other moves, the Thunder would have roughly a $24MM luxury-tax payment due at the end of next season, Young writes in a full story. The Thunder, according to Young, who cites league sources, are likely to shop forwards Steve Novak and Perry Jones III to help alleviate some of the pending financial hit.

Kanter, 23, excelled after Oklahoma City acquired him from the Jazz. He averaged 15.9 points per game and 8.9 rebounds per game last season with the Thunder and Jazz. Thunder GM Sam Presti had expressed interest in re-signing the big man.

“We traded for Enes last season with the intention of keeping him as a member of the Thunder for several years to come, and we are excited that he will continue with us,” Presti said the press release. “He adds valuable depth to our roster, diversity to our frontcourt and the dimension that he brings offensively will positively impact our team.”