Orlando Magic Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Magic Interview Mike Woodson

May 28th, 2015 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

Magic GM Rob Hennigan met with Clippers assistant Mike Woodson this past weekend in Southern California, but the team is focused instead on Scott Skiles, whose status as the front-runner for the Orlando job has only strengthened, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The Pelicans have also interviewed Skiles, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported late Wednesday, so ostensibly Woodson remains in the hunt for the Magic job as a fallback option.

Woodson spent the past season as an assistant to Doc Rivers after the Knicks fired him last year. He’d meet the Magic’s desire for candidates with NBA head coaching experience, as he’s spent parts of nine seasons as the bench boss for the Knicks and the Hawks, going a combined 315-365 in the regular season and 18-28 in the playoffs. Rivers earlier reportedly called the Magic to endorse the hiring of Tom Thibodeau, a former assistant of Rivers.

Resolution to the drama between Thibodeau and the Bulls is expected no later than Friday, as K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune reported, with a firing seemingly the likely outcome. So, Thibs could become available to the Magic and other teams without the requirement that Orlando send compensation to the Bulls. Several reports have indicated that the Magic have had interest in Thibodeau, but many have overstated the level of that interest, Johnson wrote last week.

Pelicans Interview Scott Skiles

May 27th, 2015 at 10:47pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Pelicans’ search for their next head coach continues, and the latest person to interview with the team is Scott Skiles, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports. It comes as a bit of a surprise that Skiles sat down with New Orleans, since it had been previously reported that he was the front-runner to replace interim coach James Borrego in Orlando. Pelicans GM Dell Demps, who played for Skiles when he coached in Greece, is an admirer of his, Stein notes.

The 51-year-old Skiles is reportedly the preferred choice of the Magic’s ownership, which has been enamored with him since his stint as a player for the franchise back in the 1990s, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The former point guard also fits the criteria that Magic GM Rob Hennigan has set for the team’s next head coach, which includes having a successful résumé as a coach, and having a strong background on emphasizing defense and accountability. Skiles owns a career regular season coaching record of 443-433, and has a career playoff record of 18-24. He has been a head coach for the Suns, Bulls, and most recently, the Bucks.

New Orleans has also reportedly interviewed Warriors assistant Alvin Gentry, as well as former NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy, in its search to replace former head coach Monty Williams. The meeting with Van Gundy had been described as very preliminary, with both sides just beginning to get a feel for the other. The Pelicans are reportedly intending to schedule a second meeting with Gentry once the Warriors’ playoff series against the Rockets has been completed. Current Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau has also been mentioned as a possibility for the vacancy, though the Pelicans are reportedly reluctant to give up draft pick compensation in return for Thibs, and the Bulls have been rumored to be waiting for all the available coaching positions to be filled before parting ways with him.

Magic, Kings, Celtics Interested In Kosta Koufos

May 27th, 2015 at 9:53am CST by Chuck Myron

The Magic, Kings and Celtics are interested in soon-to-be free agent Kosta Koufos, sources tell Aris Barkas of Eurohoops.net. The Grizzlies would like to keep the Ohio native who also has Greek nationality, though that will have much to do with Memphis’ pursuit of a new deal with Marc Gasol, Barkas hears. The Grizzlies are aware of the desire Koufos has to play a starting role, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com recently wrote, and such a gig wouldn’t be open to Koufos in Memphis if Gasol re-signs.

The interest from Sacramento and Boston dates back to earlier this season, when Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com identified the Kings as among the teams that had called Memphis about trading for the former 23rd overall pick. The Celtics were also one of many who made Koufos trade proposals to the Grizzlies, according to Stein. Orlando is the apparent newcomer among the suitors, but the presence of center Nikola Vucevic, whose incentive-laden, four-year, $48MM extension kicks in next season, would seemingly make the Magic an odd choice for Koufos. Vucevic played occasionally at power forward in the past, as Basketball-Reference shows, but it would nonetheless be a difficult fit if Koufos is to see starter’s minutes. Cousins has played exclusively at center in the NBA, but his athleticism makes him a candidate to see time at power forward if the Kings land Koufos. The Celtics have Tyler Zeller, Jared Sullinger and Kelly Olynyk, among others, jockeying for time on the interior, but Koufos would have as clear a shot at a starting job in Boston as he would anywhere.

The Kings, Celtics and Magic all have the capacity to open enough cap room to give the Mark Termini client a significant raise on this season’s $3MM salary. Sacramento, with about $53MM in commitments, has the least amount of flexibility, but even that provides ample breathing room against a projected $67.1MM cap. The Grizzlies have Koufos’ Bird Rights and can spread their financial offer to the 26-year-old over five years, an advantage other teams don’t have, though just how much of an edge that would really give Memphis remains to be seen.

Southeast Notes: Wizards, Hawks, Thibodeau

May 26th, 2015 at 5:15pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Wizards majority owner Ted Leonsis said that the team will look to establish its own D-League franchise once its new practice facility was completed, Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post relays (Twitter links). Leonsis said the team wishes to have a site secured by the end of this offseason, and potential locales include Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, Castillo adds. The Wizards were one of the 13 teams that shared the Fort Wayne Mad Ants this past season. Washington only assigned one player to the D-League during the 2014/15 campaign.

Here’s more from the Southeast Division:

The Hawks‘ difficulties in this year’s NBA playoffs have shown the need for the franchise to add another outside shooter, as well as a defensive-minded big man this offseason, Jeff Schultz of The Atlanta Journal Constitution opines. Atlanta has been hampered by injuries, but the team’s lack of depth has certainly been exploited by the Cavs this postseason.
Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers, who has close ties to the Magic organization, has called the team advocating for the franchise to acquire current Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau, K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune reports. Scott Skiles is the current front-runner for the team’s vacant coaching position, and the Magic are reluctant to offer Chicago compensation in return for Thibodeau, Johnson notes.
The Heat would be best served not to deal the No. 10 overall pick in this year’s draft for multiple picks, opines Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel. Winderman’s reasoning is that the team doesn’t intend to rebuild anytime soon, so nabbing a potential starter at No. 10 would be a wiser move than hoping to get lucky with lesser picks.

Latest On Tom Thibodeau

May 25th, 2015 at 4:02pm CST by Chuck Myron

MONDAY, 4:02pm: People around the league who look up to Thibodeau increasingly express worry that the Bulls indeed plan to wait for the three NBA vacancies to fill up and then simply fire Thibs, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com.

SATURDAY, 2:58pm: The Bulls are determined to hold on to Thibodeau until the remaining coaching vacancies have been filled, meaning that if they then fire him, it would likely leave him out of coaching for the 2015/16 season, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports.

THURSDAY, 2:39pm: The Magic’s interest in Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau has been overstated, a source tells K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune (Twitter links). Thibodeau, whose seemingly rocky relationship with Bulls management appears poised to result in a split this summer, has long been linked to Orlando’s vacancy. However, recent reports that the Magic would be willing to pay him $7-9MM a year and that the Orlando job is Thibodeau’s for the taking are off-base, Johnson hears, as is the notion that the team is prepared to give the Bulls compensation for the right to hire him. The Bulls are widely expected to demand assets in return for letting Thibodeau out of his contract, which runs two more seasons, and a recent report indicated that the Magic would likely be willing to give up one or two second-round picks for the right to hire Thibs.

Still, the Magic may indeed still wind up talking to Thibodeau at some point, Johnson adds. As of Wednesday, no team had yet contacted the Bulls to request to interview Thibodeau, a league source told Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. The Bulls haven’t spoken with Fred Hoiberg, reportedly the team’s top choice to replace Thibodeau if Chicago indeed parts ways with its coach, the source also said to Berger. Alvin Gentry, another apparent front-runner for the would-be Bulls opening, reportedly has strong interest in the Pelicans job, which he interviewed for Monday. The Bulls want to set up a clear plan of succession before starting talks about what sort of compensation they’d want from other teams in exchange for letting them hire Thibodeau, Berger wrote last week.

Thibodeau isn’t about to quit and simply give up the nearly $9MM left on his contract, as Johnson recently observed, and if the Bulls are determined to make Thibodeau go away, they likely have a distinct financial motivation to work out a deal with another team. Most NBA coaching contracts, including those the Bulls have given out in the past, have a set-off clause that would absolve the team of whatever it owes the coach if he takes another job at an equal or greater salary during the term of the pact, Berger explains. So, if Thibodeau can find another team willing to pay him at least $4-5MM a year, the Bulls probably won’t owe him any money, according to Berger. The Nuggets are “not an option” for Thibodeau, Berger also wrote, apparently leaving Orlando and New Orleans as the only teams with existing vacancies left to bid.

Eastern Notes: Pierce, Magic, Wizards

May 22nd, 2015 at 9:22pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Wizards are still unsure if Paul Pierce, who has a player option for 2015/16 worth $5,543,725, will play next season, but coach Randy Wittman doesn’t believe that he’ll need to try and sell the veteran forward on returning to Washington for another campaign, Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post writes. “I don’t need to recruit Paul,” Wittman said. “What Paul saw here and what he did here, not only with the team but with the city, all of that plays into it. His family was comfortable here. Will I sit down and talk with him? Yeah. But I don’t think I need to recruit him.”

Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:

John Wall is one of the many people in D.C. who wants Pierce to return to the Wizards next season, Castillo adds. “Who wouldn’t want to have a Hall of Fame guy back on this team? He meant so much to us,” Wall said. “Just his leadership, his work ethic, being a mentor, talking to us, and giving us those words of encouragement and that extra grit and fight. He has to do what’s best for him and his family, and that’s taking time off and deciding whether he wants to come back and play. Like he said, it gets tougher and tougher each year, roll out of bed and being 37 years old, it’s tough for him. Everything he gave us this season was another big key why I wanted to come back and try to win and get to the next round.”
Magic guard Victor Oladipo showed marked improvement in his second season in the NBA, and he is looking forward to who the team can add to its roster this offseason, Ken Hornack of FOX Sports Florida writes. But in the event the team stands pat in the free agent market, Oladipo still believes Orlando can improve upon its 25 wins this season, Hornack relays. “We might make some additions, and hopefully they’ll come in and help us,” Oladipo said. “But at the end of the day, I feel like the core group of guys we have here has just got to get better. If they do, if we do, I think we’ll be where we need to be. We’re going to push each other. It’s all about winning. Everybody has to get that mentality of doing whatever it takes to win. And if we lose, they’ve got to hate losing.“

Southeast Notes: Magic, Nene, Heat

May 22nd, 2015 at 4:30pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Magic are unlikely to add a player with the No. 5 overall pick who can make an immediate impact, so any dramatic roster improvements will need to come via the free agent market, Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel writes. Orlando would have about $14MM in available salary cap space if the team were to waive Ben Gordon and Luke Ridnour before their salaries for next season become guaranteed, Robbins adds.

“Organizationally,” Magic CEO Alex Martins said, “we’ve always maintained the same approach, the same philosophy: when available, spending up to the tax level as it relates to free agency. Our ownership has given us the ability to do that again, and we’ll continue to do that in these upcoming free-agent years, this offseason and next year as well.”

Here’s the latest out of the Southeast Division:

One of the Wizards‘ top priorities this offseason will be to add a stretch four, which would result in Nene playing more at center, something the player might not be too keen on, Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post writes.
Wizards coach Randy Wittman indicated that Nene shifting to the reserve center role wouldn’t diminish his value to the team, Castillo adds. “As we saw down the stretch, he played some five, he and Marc in that situation,” Wittman said. “Him playing that position doesn’t make it a lesser role. We’ve got to look at what works best for who we have here. … With what John Wall does and the pace of play, we’ve got to play fast.”
Heat president Pat Riley indicated that the team is looking for an all-around player who can score from the outside with the No. 10 overall pick in this June’s NBA Draft, Joseph Goodman of The Miami Herald writes. “A lot of times you have a player or two players who are playmakers that are your best playmakers and your best scorers, but they might not have that kind of range or that kind of game, so you need to go out and get two or three of those kinds of players,” Riley said. “And so, while we felt we had enough maybe on the perimeter, that might be an area where we look, but I don’t want him to be a one-dimensional guy.”

Pacific Notes: Lakers, Divac, Draft, Warriors

May 21st, 2015 at 12:01pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Lakers will look at D’Angelo Russell for the No. 2 overall pick, but preliminary indications are that they’ll take either Jahlil Okafor and Karl-Anthony Towns, depending on which one of those two is left after the Timberwolves pick, as Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times hears. Trading the pick is also an option, GM Mitch Kupchak says, as Sean Deveney of The Sporting News tweets. In any case, the choices at No. 2 are a bit better than the Lakers would have had if the lottery had gone according to form and the team had ended up with the fourth pick. Here’s more from around the Pacific Division:

Kings president of basketball and franchise operations Vlade Divac said his team should be open to trading its draft pick, but in comments that Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee relays, he distanced himself from the mechanics of any such move. “I’m leaving that to my basketball people,” Divac said. It’s an odd statement from the team’s top basketball executive. In any case, Chad Ford of ESPN.com identified the Kings, who pick sixth, among the teams most likely to trade their top-10 pick, along with the Magic, Pistons, Heat and Hornets, as Ford wrote in a chat with readers.
The Kings and the Pacers are the teams with the most interest in Willie Cauley-Stein, Ford adds in the same piece.
Andrew Bogut is a fan of the way Steve Kerr handles his assistant coaches, as the big man tells Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group a year after assistant coaches were squarely in the spotlight for Golden State. The departures of assistants Brian Scalabrine and Darren Erman from the Warriors bench last year were symbolic of the tumult near the end of Mark Jackson‘s time as Warriors coach. “In their own way, they all have free reign,” Bogut said of Kerr’s staff. “You see them talk to the media, which is something that wasn’t happening with us the last couple of years. There’s no agendas where a coach thinks, ‘Oh, he’s doing extra workouts with this guy, he’s trying to take my job, or vice-versa, or he’s trying to get himself a head-coaching job.’ We don’t have any of that. We have guys that say something when they need to say something and to be professional throughout.”

Southeast Notes: Grant, Hornets, Heat

May 20th, 2015 at 4:31pm CST by Zachary Links

Notre Dame point guard Jerian Grant tells Hoops Rumors (Twitter link) that he’ll be working out for the Hornets on June 8th. That audition will mark just the second team workout for Grant, who previously worked out for the Pacers.

Grant and his agent are hearing (link) that he could go as high as No. 8 with teams estimating his range to be somewhere between No. 8 and No. 20. He added that based on those rumblings, it sounds unlikely that he’ll be available for teams selecting beyond No. 22. Stay tuned for Grant’s entire conversation with Hoops Rumors as a part of our Draft Prospect Q&A series which also features conversations with Cameron Payne, Richaun Holmes, and more.

Here’s today’s look at the Southeast Division..

Historically, the No. 10 pick — owned by the Heat this year — has produced plenty of high-caliber, rotation-worthy players, as Couper Moorhead of Heat.com writes. Some of the most notable players to come off the board at No. 10 include Paul Pierce, Eddie Jones, Jason Terry, and Joe Johnson. In recent years, Brook Lopez, Andrew Bynum, Paul George, and Brandon Jennings have heard their names called at No. 10.
Heat president Pat Riley has indicated that he’ll be looking for perimeter defending and three-point shooting in the draft, Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald writes. In a perfect world, Riley has said he would like a player similar to Warriors shooting guard Klay Thompson, who was the 11th pick of the 2011 draft.
The Magic weren’t thrilled to land at No. 5, but GM Rob Hennigan and CEO Alex Martins put a positive spin on it, as Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel writes. “We feel good about it,” Hennigan said. “We stayed where we expected to stay. Luckily, we didn’t move back, so we’ll take the hand that was dealt to us and certainly make the most of the pick we have.”
Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel is less bullish about the talent available at No. 5 and he feels that the Magic should dangle the pick in a trade.
More from Schmitz, who looked back at Kyle O’Quinn‘s season. Fellow Sentinel scribe Josh Robbins reported last month that the Magic will make O’Quinn the qualifying offer necessary for them to be able to match offers for him in free agency this summer.

Scott Brooks To Turn Away Pelicans, Nuggets

May 20th, 2015 at 11:33am CST by Chuck Myron

Former Thunder coach Scott Brooks plans to decline opportunities to interview with the Pelicans and Nuggets and seems to be leaning toward taking next season off, league sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. It’s not entirely clear from the report whether New Orleans, Denver or both had extended invitations to interview for their vacancies, though Wojnarowski wrote Monday that the Pels were interested in the coach whom Oklahoma City dismissed last month. The Yahoo! scribe heard from league sources who identified Brooks as a top candidate for Denver and for the Magic in the immediate wake of his exodus from the Thunder, and Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders wrote recently that Brooks was second behind Tom Thibodeau on Orlando’s list of preferred candidates. It’s uncertain what Brooks would do if the Magic came calling, but Wojnarowski (on Twitter) describes Brooks as “likely” to sit out 2015/16.

Brooks spent most of the last seven seasons as the Thunder’s coach, his first NBA head coaching gig. His 338-207 record there is impeccable, but he’s only 39-34 in the playoffs and took the vastly talented Thunder to the NBA Finals only once, losing to the Heat in 2012. Still, the lack of postseason success had to do with injuries as much as it did with any of Brooks’ strategic shortcomings to which critics often pointed, and health was the culprit this season as Oklahoma City missed the playoffs. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka, the team’s preeminent stars, all missed significant time in 2014/15.

The 49-year-old Brooks still wants to coach again at some point, but he’s planning to concentrate on television opportunities and family in the season ahead, Wojnarowski hears. Oklahoma City will still be paying Brooks his salary next season, as Wojnarowski points out, since his contract had one more guaranteed season left when the team cut him loose, so the coach has the financial wherewithal to stay out of the game for a while.