Al Horford Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Southeast Notes: Spoelstra, Ibaka, Splitter

August 16th, 2016 at 3:30pm CST by Arthur Hill

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra made no mention of Chris Bosh in two video messages posted today on the team’s website, relays Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. The status of the veteran big man remains uncertain after his past two seasons were cut short because of blood clots. Spoelstra singled out Hassan Whiteside, Josh Richardson, Justise Winslow and Tyler Johnson as defensive leaders who will define the team in the post-Dwyane Wade era. “You learn pretty quickly in this league that your roster is going to change,” Spoelstra said, “sometimes your staff changes. Expectations change. It’s like that every year. Just when you get comfortable, it will change. This is a new challenge. We’re embracing the change. We’re excited about the future, excited about the guys we have on our team. You also have to have the right kind of players.” Owner Micky Arison named Bosh as part of the Heat’s future in a recent letter to Miami fans.

There’s more from the Southeast Division:

The Magic can offer an extension to newly acquired power forward Serge Ibaka, writes Bobby Marks of The Vertical. Ibaka, whom Orlando picked up in a draft-night deal with the Thunder, is about to enter the last season of a four-year, $49MM extension he received from Oklahoma City. Ibaka would be limited to a 4.5% raise from his $12.2MM salary in the first year of an extension because the Magic are over the salary cap, Marks notes, and because he has been traded in the past six months Ibaka can only have two years added to his contract.
Tiago Splitter believes the Hawks will be a much better defensive team with Dwight Howard replacing Al Horford at center, according to Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He also cited an improvement in defense at point guard, where Dennis Schroder is taking over for the traded Jeff Teague. “[Howard] is a little bit more of a defensive player than Al, more rebounds, more physical presence on the court,” Splitter said. “That is going to change our team. … Dennis, he is also a great defender. He’s a better defender than Jeff. He will pressure the point guard the whole court.” Splitter, who had hip surgery in February and was limited to 36 games last season, also figures to improve the defense with his return to the lineup.
The Hawks hired Richard Midgley as their west coast scout, Vivlamore writes in a separate story. Midgley has been a coach at Modesto Christian High School in California for the past two seasons.

And-Ones: Salary Record, LeBron, CBA, D-League

August 12th, 2016 at 2:59pm CST by Arthur Hill

The NBA’s record $24MM television deal is playing out just as predicted, writes Mitch Lawrence of Forbes. With LeBron James signing a three-year, $100MM deal with the Cavaliers, a record 17 teams now have the highest-paid players in franchise history on their current rosters. However, most of them are players who re-signed with their current teams or agreed to contract extensions. The only players who earned that distinction by changing teams this summer are Atlanta’s Dwight Howard, Boston’s Al Horford and Golden State’s Kevin Durant.

There’s more NBA-related news this afternoon:

Because James has a player option for the third season of his new contract, he can become a free agent in July of 2018, along with Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony, tweets Tommy Beer of Basketball Insiders. In March, James made headlines by speculating on the possibility of the four close friends one day joining forces.
A “super max” contract is among several changes the NBA and the players union should consider in a new collective bargaining agreement, suggests Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders. That provision would allow for a contract that is 40% of the salary cap, but would only count as a normal maximum deal against the cap. It would be available only to a player who remains with his current team and it would not be tradeable. Kyler also would like to see a third round added to the draft to help teams stock their D-League affiliates, a two-way contract with different salaries when players are in the NBA and D-League, and minimum qualifications that players would have to meet before being eligible for maximum contracts.
The D-League will holds its national tryouts Sunday in Manhattan, tweets Chris Reichert of Upside & Motor. Among the players who received invitations are Sterling Gibbs of Connecticut, Jonathan Holton of West Virginia, Chris Obekpa of St John’s and Markus Kennedy of SMU (Twitter link).

Eastern Rumors: Noel, Celtics, Pistons, Horford

August 11th, 2016 at 2:49pm CST by Luke Adams

Jahlil Okafor has been the Sixers big man who has been the subject of the most trade rumors and speculation this offseason, but he hasn’t been the only frontcourt player in Philadelphia mentioned in those rumors. Teammate Nerlens Noel has also been considered a trade candidate, with the 76ers needing to clear a logjam up front and add a little more talent in their backcourt.

According to A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com, Noel hasn’t asked to be traded and nothing tangible is in the works at this point. However, multiple sources tell Blakely that the former Kentucky Wildcat would be “very open” to being dealt if the Sixers choose to go in that direction. One league source also informed Blakely that the Celtics continue to have interest in Noel.

The Sixers will be faced with a decision soon on Noel — they’ll essentially have to determine this offseason or next summer whether he’ll be a part of their long-term future. The 22-year-old is extension-eligible this year for the first time, and will reach restricted free agency in 2017 if he and the Sixers don’t come to an agreement on a new deal. Odds are that Noel probably isn’t going anywhere before the 2016/17 begins, but it’s still a situation worth keeping an eye on.

Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:

Although the Pistons‘ free agent moves the summer – with the exception of Andre Drummond‘s new deal – mostly involved adding complementary players, the team did have its sights set on one of the premier stars available. As Keith Langlois of Pistons.com details, Detroit was one of a handful of clubs to land a meeting with Al Horford. Stan Van Gundy explains that the Pistons could have fit in Horford and still added a backup point guard, but the team was ultimately happy to end up with Jon Leuer and Boban Marjanovic after Horford went to Boston. “It’s like a power hitter being able to take a swing at the home run and let it all go, but end up not striking out,” Van Gundy said.
In an interview with ESPN’s Marc Stein, Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony suggested that if his professional basketball career ends without an NBA championship, he’ll still consider it a success if he walks away with three Olympic gold medals and an NCAA title. “I would be very happy walking away from the game knowing that I’ve given the game everything I have, knowing I played on a high level at every level: high school, college, won [a championship at Syracuse] in college and possibly three gold medals,” Anthony said.
Paul George tells Sean Highkin of ProBasketballTalk that he’s excited about the Pacers‘ new direction, including the addition of veteran point guard Jeff Teague. “[Pacers president] Larry [Bird] has put it on display that he wants to get us back to the Eastern Conference [playoffs], see where we can take it from there,” George said.

Eastern Notes: Ainge, Kuzminskas, George, Scola

July 24th, 2016 at 8:07pm CST by Arthur Hill

President of basketball operations Danny Ainge was able to quickly rebuild the Celtics by maximizing the return for his stars when the team got too old, writes Moke Hamilton of Basketball Insiders. Ainge sent Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to the Nets for a package of draft picks and traded Rajon Rondo to the Mavericks instead of letting him become a free agent. This summer’s signing of Al Horford accelerated the building process, and Hamilton believes it makes the Celtics legitimate contenders in the East. Boston is also set up well for the future, with only Horford, Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder and Isaiah Thomas under contract for 2017/18. Even if the Celtics pick up their team option on Marcus Smart, they may have more than $50MM to spend on free agents next July.

There’s more out of the Eastern Conference:

Mindaugas Kuzminskas provides enough offense to become a rotation player for the Knicks, according to Trevor Magnotti of Upside and Motor. The 6’9″ Lithuanian forward signed with New York earlier this month after playing in Europe for the past five seasons. Knicks president Phil Jackson said the team wanted to find a mobile small forward who could shoot from distance. That describes Kuzminskas, who gets most of his points on cuts to the basket, but is also a streaky shooter from 3-point range. However, there are questions about his defense, which Magnotti warns might limit his playing time until he proves he can contribute on that end.
Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski says Paul George is playing the best basketball of his life two years after the broken leg that had many concerned about his career, writes Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News. The Pacers‘ star, who had 18 points in Friday’s exhibition win over Argentina, said he had to put that scary incident out of his mind to be effective again. “It’s behind me,” George said. “I don’t play the game expecting to get hurt. I know it’s a possibility. But there’s no thought in my mind I’m going to get hurt. I play this game because I love it. I just play hard.”
Newly signed Nets power forward Luis Scola will be Argentina’s flag bearer at the Summer Olympics, according to the Associated Press. “I had the chance to play four Olympics, to play 10 years in the NBA, to carry the flag for my country, win an Olympic gold medal,’’ Scola said. “I mean, different things that happened along those days that I couldn’t even dream of those because it would be too wild to dream.”

Heat Notes: Wade, Ellington, McGruder

July 19th, 2016 at 11:34am CST by Luke Adams

On Saturday, we rounded up several of the comments made by Pat Riley during a press conference, including his thoughts on Dwyane Wade‘s departure, the team’s unsuccessful pitch to Kevin Durant, and Chris Bosh‘s uncertain future. During that session, Riley also addressed whether or not the Heat had any interest in Al Horford, admitting the team eliminated the free agent big man from consideration very early in free agency.

“It’s not out of a lack of respect for him, it’s that at 12:01 am, I came to an agreement with Hassan,” the Heat president said, per Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post. “I don’t care if Dallas came in after us, we had Hassan. Once we got Hassan, I didn’t want to string along anybody else. … We like Al, we love Joakim Noah. Everybody that was at the top – the DeRozans, the Beals, the Batums, Howard, Horford – all those guys, their deals were done. Horford is going to really help Boston, I think. But we didn’t really push on that one.”

Here’s more out of South Beach:

Riley said on Saturday that the Heat don’t plan to use their $2.9MM room exception this summer, but that doesn’t mean it will go unused for the entire league year. As Anthony Chiang of The Palm Beach Post writes, the club intends to use it in February or March if a noteworthy veteran free agent becomes available, like Joe Johnson did last season.
Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel looks back at the Wade/Riley situation, noting that the crux of the issue between the two sides involved Riley’s preference to go season-by-season for Wade’s next few years. The longtime Heat star wanted a longer-term commitment from the franchise.
Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders has provided several salary-related updates on recent signings by the Heat. As Pincus details, Wayne Ellington‘s second-year salary ($6.27MM) is non-guaranteed until the first day after 2017’s July moratorium. Additionally, Stefan Jankovic and Okaro White got similar two-year, minimum-salary deals from the club, while Rodney McGruder got a three-year contract worth the minimum.
Jankovic, White, and McGruder all start with $100K guarantees, but each player has different deadlines for when more of their salaries become guaranteed, per Pincus. McGruder has four upcoming guarantee dates for his 2016/17 salary, then has multiple guarantee dates for his 2017/18 salary as well.

Atlantic Notes: Kuzminskas, Lin, Sullinger

July 10th, 2016 at 3:58pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Knicks are hoping Lithuanian small forward Mindaugas Kuzminskas can help fill the void left by losing Derrick Williams to Miami, writes Marc Berman of The New York Post. Kuzminskas signed with New York Saturday, choosing the Knicks over the Lakers and Hawks. The 6’9″ small forward played in the Spanish League this season and has been compared with Danilo Gallinari. “We felt like we needed an agile, mobile 3 that had some ability to shoot distance and spread the court,’’ said team president Phil Jackson. “It may take him an adjustment to NBA play — we understand. It gives us another opportunity to play smaller, quicker with a wide extension of spacing.” The Knicks gave Kuzminskas a two-year deal, using almost all of their $2.9MM room exception for 2016/17. A source told Berman that Jackson hopes to add shooting guard Sasha Vujacic to the roster, along with a “cheap” veteran big man.

There’s more from the Atlantic Division:

Reuniting with former mentor and current Nets coach Kenny Atkinson and getting a chance to be the leader of a rebuilding franchise led Jeremy Lin to Brooklyn, Brian Lewis of the New York Post details.
Sergio Rodriguez will miss Tuesday’s game with his Spanish team to finalize a deal with the Sixers, according to Orazio Cauchi of Sportando. He agreed to a one-year, $8MM contract with Philadelphia last week.
Considering the Celtics added Al Horford, it’s best for Jared Sullinger that the power forward is now an unrestricted free agent because of an expected lack of playing time in Boston, A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com writes. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Sullinger land a one or two-year deal worth $6MM per season, Blakely adds.

Celtics Notes: McHale, Thomas, Durant, Horford

July 10th, 2016 at 11:17am CST by Arthur Hill

Immediately after he was fired as coach of the Rockets in November, Kevin McHale received a job offer from the Celtics, according to Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald. He hasn’t joined the organization yet, but McHale appreciates the gesture from president of basketball operations Danny Ainge, his former teammate. “Danny and I are very good friends,” McHale said, “and once he heard about it, he basically called up and said what a bunch of BS it was, first of all. He said, ‘I feel bad for you.’ Then he said, ‘Any job you want up here, you just let me know.’” One exception, of course, was head coach Brad Stevens‘ job.

“Danny said, ‘You want to help the big guys? You just want to come in and see where it fits? You just tell me,” McHale continued. “Whatever you want to do, you let me know and we’ll make it work.’” McHale, who still had two years left on his Rockets contract, did some television work this season, but is not in a hurry to get back into coaching or front office position.

There’s more news out of Boston:

Point guard Isaiah Thomas was unhappy that Boston missed out on Kevin Durant, but he believes the Celitcs made their best effort to attract him, relays A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE. Boston was among five teams that met with Durant last weekend in the Hamptons, and Thomas was part of the Celtics’ contingent. “I walked out thinking we had a chance at him,” he said. “But I didn’t think he was going to go to the Warriors; I definitely didn’t think that. But leaving that meeting, I had a sense he was leaving OKC.”
Thomas can finally reveal the name of the player who asked him during this season’s All-Star break what it was like to play in Boston, writes Mark D’Amico of Celtics.com. It was Al Horford, who signed a four-year, $113MM contract with the Celtics. “I wrapped that one up, I just didn’t want to say anything,” Thomas said. “I knew he was coming to Boston for sure.”
Thomas has offered to be a recruiter to help Ainge add some more talent, relays Chris Forsberg of ESPN.com. Thomas said he knows a few players who would like to join the Celtics and named one veteran who he believes would help the club. “I know there is an old guy out there named Jason Terry — he can still hit some shots,” Thomas said. “That’s my old head. I know there’s some shooters out there that can put the ball in the basket and hopefully we can get our hands on them.” Terry, 38, is a free agent after spending the past two seasons in Houston. He played for the Celtics during the 2012/13 season.

Celtics Sign Al Horford

July 8th, 2016 at 9:42am CST by Will Joseph

JULY 8: The Celtics have officially announced the signing of Horford, who says in a statement that he’s “extremely excited” to be heading to Boston.

JULY 2: The Celtics plan to sign Al Horford to a four-year, $113MM deal, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical. Horford, on his verified account, changed his avatar to the Celtics’ logo and tweeted, “Celtics Pride,” in an unsubtle way of announcing the agreement.

The signing is a coup for the Celtics, who have not landed a free agent in his prime in quite some time, as Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe relays. The decision is also somewhat surprising, given that the Hawks appeared to have momentum to re-sign the veteran, according to Wojnarowksi, who just minutes prior reported the Celtics figured Horford would stay in Atlanta. Alas, the Hawks and Horford were $6MM apart on a deal, Wojnarowski tweets.

Interestingly, there was also a time when Horford preferred to sign with the Wizards, per Wojnarowski. What’s more, the Thunder pitched to Horford, but he turned them down because there was no assurance that Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook would be there long-term, Wojnarowski tweets. Horford also reportedly had some level of interest from the Lakers, Magic, Pistons, and Nets, but those teams were never serious suitors for the veteran big man.

In Horford, the Celtics now have one of the better big men in the league. The longtime Hawk leaves the franchise he joined as the No. 3 overall pick in the 2007 draft, and the city in which developed into a four-time All-Star. Horford appeared in all 82 regular season games for Atlanta this past season, averaging 15.2 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.2 assists in 32.1 minutes per night. His shooting line was .505/.344/.798.

We ranked Horford as this year’s No. 3 free agent, behind only Durant and LeBron James. This is turning out to be a big weekend for Boston, which hosted Durant Saturday and still as the cap flexibility to land the superstar, as Bobby Marks of The Vertical points out on Twitter.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Eastern Rumors: Hawks, Millsap, Wade, Jennings

July 7th, 2016 at 3:17pm CST by Luke Adams

In an interesting piece on the Hawks, Zach Lowe of ESPN.com explains that Atlanta’s original offseason plan was to re-sign Al Horford to pair him with Dwight Howard, and to move Paul Millsap in exchange for young players and/or draft assets. That plan ultimately fell apart, but before it did, the Hawks spoke to the Nuggets, Suns, Raptors, and Rockets about a Millsap deal, according to Lowe, who adds that Denver had been ready to move a “players-and-picks package” led by Kenneth Faried.

Before the Hawks could move Millsap though, the team needed to be sure it could re-sign Horford, and when the longtime Hawk chose the Celtics instead, Atlanta decided to hang onto Millsap. Per Lowe, there was some debate about how much the Hawks offered and how much Horford demanded, but the gap between the two sides may have only been about $5MM in total.

Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:

Hornets general manager Rich Cho confirmed that his team, which officially acquired Marco Belinelli in a trade today, tried to sign the Italian sharpshooter in free agency a year ago (Twitter link via Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer).
During Dwyane Wade‘s free agency saga, Heat president Pat Riley never called Wade directly, per Ethan Skolnick of The Miami Herald (Twitter link). As Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel notes (via Twitter), Riley and Wade had a meeting after last season ended, but it was owner Micky Arison who was in touch with the former Finals MVP during this past week’s negotiations.
According to Marc Berman of The New York Post, Brandon Jennings was seeking a one-year contract from the Knicks in the hopes of proving himself and boosting his stock for 2017’s free agent period. New York, which wanted to maintain cap room for ’17, was happy to oblige.
Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders spoke to Courtney Lee about the veteran shooting guard’s decision to sign with the Knicks, and being recruited by Joakim Noah.

Hawks Re-Sign Kent Bazemore

July 7th, 2016 at 1:39pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 7: The Hawks have sent out a formal press release announcing their new deal with Bazemore.

JULY 1: The Hawks have secured one of their own free agents, according to Michael Scotto of The Associated Press, who reports (via Twitter) that Atlanta and Kent Bazemore have agreed to terms on a four-year, $70MM contract, which will feature a player option on the final year.

It’s the second big-money deal the team has struck today — the Hawks also reached an agreement with Dwight Howard on a three-year contract worth $70.5MM. The two deals for Bazemore and Howard will almost certainly take Atlanta out of the running for Al Horford, meaning he’ll likely find a new home within the next few days.

Bazemore, who went undrafted out of Old Dominion, emerged as a reliable three-and-D player for the Hawks last season, averaging 11.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 1.3 steals per game, while shooting 35.7% from beyond the arc.

We heard early in free agency that it might take an offer in the $19-20MM-per-year range to land Bazemore, and the Hawks will ultimately pay a little less than that — his reported deal averages $17.5MM annually. According to David Aldridge of NBA.com (via Twitter), Bazemore turned down four-year, $72MM offers from the Lakers and Rockets to return to Atlanta.

In addition to Los Angeles and Houston, the Bucks, Grizzlies, Nets, and Pelicans were among the rival suitors for Bazemore, and were in touch with him before he made his decision, according to Shams Charania of The Vertical. There had been speculation that Bazemore would take a few days before deciding on his team — instead, he agreed to a contract with the Hawks on the day of his 27th birthday. Not a bad gift.

The value of Bazemore’s new deal is right in line with the four-year, $70MM deal agreed to by Evan Turner and the Trail Blazers earlier today.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.