Brandon Jennings Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Central Notes: Bucks, Harris, Pistons

January 27th, 2015 at 8:28pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker said today that he’ll put a plan that would raise $220MM in public money for a new Bucks arena into the state’s budget, as expected, writes Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The budget requires approval from the state legislature. The money will come from a “jock tax” charged to Bucks players as well as those from visiting teams. The Bucks owners have pledged up to $150MM for the arena, and former owner Herb Kohl has put up $100MM, so it appears Walker’s plan would fill the gap needed to fully fund the building, which will likely cost $400MM-$500MM, as Walker wrote Monday.

Here’s more from the Central Division:

The Cavaliers have assigned Joe Harris to the Canton Charge, their D-League affiliate, the team has announced. This will be Harris’ third stint in the D-League of the season.
Brandon Jennings has undergone successful surgery to repair the damage to his ruptured left Achilles tendon, the Pistons have announced. The team didn’t put a timetable on Jennings’ return to the court, but he will certainly be out for the remainder of the 2014/15 campaign.
Pistons president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy indicated that the team is likely to add another point guard to the roster soon, Keith Langlois of NBA.com reports (Twitter link). Detroit is reportedly eyeing Norris Cole of the Heat as a trade target
Detroit isn’t willing to sacrifice future assets to obtain a point guard or to make a run at the playoffs this season, Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press reports. “We want to give ourselves every chance, so we want to get some help, but we won’t mortgage anything in terms of the future,” Van Gundy said. “We’re not going to go out and give away assets, picks or anything like that. No, we’re not gonna do that.” The Pistons could look to the NBA D-League for backcourt help instead, Ellis adds. “Again, we’ve got several options,” Van Gundy said. “We haven’t decided which direction to go right now.”

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Pistons Eyeing Norris Cole

January 27th, 2015 at 6:43pm CST by Eddie Scarito

With point guard Brandon Jennings out for the season, the Pistons are looking into the possibility of trading for the Heat’s Norris Cole, Chris Haynes of The Northeast Ohio Media Group reports. The talks between the two teams have been described as exploratory, and no deal is imminent, Haynes notes. Detroit is in search of a point guard to add to its depth, and the current plan is to acquire a short-term option and evaluate that player at the end of this season, Haynes adds. This Pistons were also reportedly interested in D-Leaguer Lorenzo Brown, who is set to ink a 10-day deal with the Timberwolves instead.

“We definitely got to get a third point guard, there’s no question,” said Detroit’s president of basketball operations and coach Stan Van Gundy. “To go out and get a guy who would be a huge difference maker, you probably have to give up something that would hurt you down the road. We’re not in panic time here. We’re not going to do that and be sitting here in the summer kicking ourselves for trying to do something short-term that would hurt us in the long-term.”

Cole would certainly fit the Pistons’ criteria, since he is set to become a free agent at the end of this season. The Heat are reportedly open to dealing the 26-year-old out of Cleveland State, and Cole was reportedly a part of a proposed deal with the Nets for Brook Lopez. Miami team president Pat Riley has denied that he made any proposals to Brooklyn, and he insists that the that Heat haven’t made any offers to any team. The Hornets have also been mentioned to have interest in Cole, with Charlotte seeking to add depth in the wake of Kemba Walker‘s injury. Walker is likely to miss at least six weeks of action.

In 39 appearances this season, including 23 as a starter, Cole is averaging 6.2 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 3.4 assists in 24.4 minutes per game. His slash line is .386/.239/.711. His career averages over four seasons are 6.2 PPG, 1.8 RPG, and 2.5 APG.

Timberwolves, Pistons Eye Lorenzo Brown

January 27th, 2015 at 9:32am CST by Charlie Adams

9:32am: The Wolves plan to sign Brown to a 10-day deal this week, probably in advance of Wednesday’s game against the Celtics, according to Stein (on Twitter). It’s not entirely clear whether there’s an agreement between Minnesota and the point guard or if Detroit remains in the equation, but it seems the situation is fast-moving. The Wolves can terminate their contract with Raduljica early, though they’d still be on the hook for the full 10 days’ worth of salary to him.

TUESDAY, 9:23am: The Timberwolves have Brown in their sights, too, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com, who says Minnesota is envisioning a 10-day deal. The Wolves are still without Ricky Rubio, though their most recent loss came at small forward, where Robbie Hummel is out for four to six weeks with a broken hand. Minnesota, which originally drafted Brown and brought him to camp in 2013, has 15 players on its roster, though Miroslav Raduljica is on a 10-day contract that expires at the end of Wednesday. Flip Saunders and company inquired about Brady Heslip recently, according to Darren Wolfson of ESPN 1500 Twin Cities (Twitter link), but Heslip struck a deal to play in Bosnia. Even though Brown is with the affiliate of the Pistons, he’s free to sign with any NBA team.

SUNDAY, 2:03pm: The Pistons are “strongly considering” signing Lorenzo Brown, according to Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). Detroit fears that starting point guard Brandon Jennings might be out for the rest of the year, so bringing aboard Brown would help supplement the club’s backcourt depth. The Pistons’ roster stands at 14 players, so no corresponding move would be needed to accommodate a potential signing.

Charania doesn’t specify what sort of contract that the Pistons are considering offering Brown, and although it could be just a 10-day deal, it wouldn’t be surprising for Detroit to ink the former second-round pick to a deal that covers the remainder of the season. Jennings tweeted “6/9 months” this morning, presumably implying he would be sidelined for the remaining portion of the 2014/15 season.

Brown, 24, spent training camp with the Pistons after playing 26 games for the Sixers last season. In 18 D-League games for the Grand Rapids Drive this year, Brown has scored 16.8 points per night and shot an impressive 50.4% from the floor.

Brandon Jennings Out For Season

January 25th, 2015 at 4:07pm CST by Chuck Myron

4:07pm: The Pistons have confirmed that Jennings will miss the rest of the season via press release.

3:32pm: Jennings has indeed suffered a torn Achilles and will miss the remainder of the season, as Wojnarowski writes in his updated piece. Shams Charania of RealGM passed along this morning that Detroit was considering bring aboard Lorenzo Brown, and a source tells Wojnarowski that the club will indeed look to add a guard, either through a trade or free agent signing.

9:05am: The Pistons have “significant fear” that Brandon Jennings suffered a torn left Achilles tendon during Saturday’s game, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. He’ll undergo an MRI today. Pistons coach/executive Stan Van Gundy acknowledged late Saturday that the injury “doesn’t look good.” A tear would be season-ending.

Detroit doesn’t have the ability to apply for a disabled player exception, both because the team is under the cap and because the deadline to apply for disabled player exceptions passed earlier this month. The Pistons have less than $100K in cap room, but they do have a prorated portion of their room exception, and they have an open roster spot.

The injury would come with unfortunate timing for both Jennings and the team, who’ve enjoyed a mutual renaissance since the Pistons waived Josh Smith last month. The 25-year-old Jennings is averaging 19.8 points and 7.0 assists since Smith’s departure, and the Pistons are 12-4 over the stretch, rising from a 5-23 start to just a half game out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Jennings makes $8MM this season and has one more year worth nearly $8.344MM left on his deal.

A report earlier this month indicated that Detroit was still making Jennings available for a trade after there were conflicting reports about whether the team was shopping the point guard. Van Gundy denied that he was initiating talks with anyone, though the Lakers apparently called the Pistons about Jennings and Greg Monroe. More recently, Van Gundy expressed contentment with his roster as it stands.

Eastern Notes: Jennings, Waiters, Patterson

January 24th, 2015 at 11:08pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Pistons‘ Brandon Jennings will be evaluated Sunday after leaving Saturday’s game with pain in his left leg, according to Keith Langlois of Pistons.com (Twitter links). There are fears that it is an Achilles injury, but nothing can be certain until he undergoes some tests. Jennings said he felt like he had been kicked in the back of his lower leg. “It doesn’t look good,” said Detroit coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy, who expressed concern that Jennings will be out of action long-term. The Pistons have an open roster spot and can sign a player to a 10-day contract to replace Jennings.

There’s more from the Eastern Conference:

Dion Waiters may have a productive NBA career, but it was time for him to leave the Cavaliers, writes Jason Lloyd of The Akron Beacon Journal. Cleveland had been listening to offers for Waiters for more than a year, according to Lloyd, but couldn’t find the right deal until the January 5th trade that sent him to Oklahoma City. LeBron James was a defender of Waiters when he returned to the Cavaliers, but gave up by the end, Lloyd writes. “I ain’t really care what nobody say,” said Waiters, who will return to Cleveland with the Thunder on Sunday. “It ain’t affect me. I slept good every night.”
The Hawks and Lamar Patterson are still watching each other closely, reports KL Chouinard of Hawks.com. Patterson, a second-round pick by Atlanta last year, is spending this season in the Turkish Basketball League. He still talks to many of the Hawks players and hopes to eventually be part of Atlanta’s team. “I’m over here working, just trying to become the best player I possibly can,” Patterson said. “Hopefully I can suit up in a Hawks uniform next season.”
Former Buck Carlos Delfino hopes to resume his NBA career next season, tweets Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times. Delfino, who also played for the Pistons, Raptors and Rockets, underwent foot surgery in December of 2013. Milwaukee traded his rights to the Clippers on August 26th, 2014, but Los Angeles waived him three days later.

Lakers Ask Pistons About Monroe, Jennings

January 12th, 2015 at 5:52pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Lakers have asked the Pistons about Greg Monroe and Brandon Jennings in the past month, reports Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com (Twitter link). They also inquired about Dion Waiters, Shelburne adds, presumably indicating that the Lakers contacted Cleveland before the Cavs shipped him to Oklahoma City a week ago.

Monroe has a de facto no-trade clause because he signed his qualifying offer from the Pistons this past offseason, and he and agent David Falk have let it be known they don’t want a trade this year. The big man would forfeit his Bird rights if he were to approve a trade, but the Lakers, with only about $35.1MM in cap flexibility for 2015/16, are set to have enough cap flexibility to sign him using cap space. The Lakers were reportedly uninterested in signing Monroe this past summer.

There have been conflicting reports about whether the Pistons were shopping Jennings, though the most recent dispatch indicates that Detroit is at least open to the idea of letting him go. Jennings makes $8MM this year and nearly $8.345MM in 2015/16, but his contract comes off the books in advance of the heavily anticipated summer of 2016, when the salary cap is set to surge. Monroe’s qualifying offer gives him almost $5.48MM this season, a bargain price, but he’s due for a significant raise in unrestricted free agency this coming summer.

Waiters is on a rookie scale contract and will be extension-eligible this summer before the deal runs out after next season. Still, it seems unlikely the Thunder would part with him so quickly after his acquisition. The Pistons, 8-1 since waiving Josh Smith, probably aren’t inclined to make a move right now, either, but the interest from the Lakers signals that L.A. isn’t content to languish at the bottom of the standings to protect its draft position. The team owes its first-round draft pick to the Suns if it doesn’t fall within the top five selections, and the Lakers are currently fourth in the Reverse Standings.

Bucher’s Latest: Kings, Pelicans, Cavs

January 9th, 2015 at 1:10pm CST by Chuck Myron

It’s no secret that the Nets trio of Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson are available on the trade market, and they’re among a long list of players that GMs say teams are open to trading as the February 19th deadline approaches, according Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher. Jeff Green, Brandan Wright, Lance Stephenson, Greg Monroe, Brandon Jennings, Goran Dragic, Nik Stauskas, Ben McLemore, Jason Thompson, Arron Afflalo and most of the other Nuggets are also on that list, with Bucher, in many cases, confirming earlier reports. Still, Bucher hears plenty of new rumbles, as he passes along in his piece, and we’ll hit the highlights here:

Kings owner Vivek Ranadive unilaterally made the decision to fire former coach Michael Malone, sources tell Bucher, even though GM Pete D’Alessandro claimed the decision as his own. Most of the Kings organization was pleased with the direction the team was headed in and believed the team was overachieving, though there were doubts that Malone was the long-term solution, Bucher writes.
Ranadive wanted to make a splash with Malone’s successor, but Kings front office executives prevailed upon him to keep Tyrone Corbin as head coach, according to Bucher. Ranadive would relish the chance to turn the screws on the Warriors, of whom he used to be a part-owner, by hiring Mark Jackson, the ex-Warriors coach, a source tells Bucher, who nonetheless believes that the team won’t hire Jackson during this season.
Talk “circulating around the league” suggests that Pelicans owner Tom Benson is eyeing former Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars and former Mavs and Nets coach Avery Johnson if he decides to make changes, Bucher writes. Still, Pelicans sources tell Bucher that the club hasn’t contacted either Dumars or Johnson, and that there are no signs that Benson is definitively displeased with either GM Dell Demps or coach Monty Williams.
Several executives from around the league don’t believe the pair of trades the Cavs made this week assure the team of any more than a second-round appearance, according to Bucher. One exec tells Bucher that the Cavs “overinflated” the market with what they gave up for Timofey Mozgov.

Poll: Can The Pistons Make The Playoffs?

January 3rd, 2015 at 9:17pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Addition by subtraction is an overused phrase in the sports world but sometimes it holds true. The Pistons were struggling during the first two months of the season, and the team decided that a change was necessary. Josh Smith signed a four-year, $54MM contract with the Pistons during the 2013 offseason but after playing just 105 games with the team, Detroit waived him.

At 5-23, the 2014/15 season seemed to be a good opportunity for Detroit to tank and end up with a valuable pick in the 2015 draft. However, the team responded by winning four straight games and its unified play has drawn comparisons to the Raptors of last season. Toronto traded Rudy Gay midseason and earned the third seed in the Eastern Conference with stellar play in the second half of the 2013/14 campaign. It’s early but the Pistons are only four games behind the Heat for the eighth seed and only four teams in the Eastern Conference have longer win streaks than Detroit’s current four game streak.

There remains a lot of uncertainty with this team. Although starting point guard Brandon Jennings has emerged as a leader since Smith’s departure, the 25-year-old is reportedly on the trade block. There have been rumors of Greg Monroe being dealt since he signed his qualifying offer, but the fifth-year forward would have to approve any trade since he essentially has a de-facto no-trade clause in his contract. After the shocking release of Smith, it’s clear that Stan Van Gundy isn’t shy about moving on from players whom he inherited from the previous regime.

Still, the Eastern Conference isn’t strong beyond its top five teams and to earn a lower seed, teams will most likely not even need a record above .500. The Pistons have the talent to compete with any contender for the eighth seed and 35 of their 49 remaining games are against Eastern Conference foes. Will Detroit keep up its current play and reach the postseason this year?

And-Ones: LeBron, Thunder, Fisher

January 1st, 2015 at 10:03pm CST by Eddie Scarito

LeBron James is expected to miss the next two weeks of action thanks to injuries to his back and left knee, the Cavaliers have announced. Coupled with the season-ending injury to Anderson Varejao, Cleveland suddenly finds itself a bit short-handed. The league has approved the franchise’s request for a disabled player exception, but with the league maximum 15 players already on their roster the Cavs would need to waive or deal a player to be able to utilize it.

Here’s more from around the league:

The Thunder are edging closer toward the summer of 2016, which is when Kevin Durant can elect to depart Oklahoma City as a free agent, and the speculation is that it will take an NBA title to keep him in town beyond then. The team’s play as of late has gotten it back on track for the season after enduring a multitude of injuries, Jeff Caplan of FOX Sports Southwest writes. “I’m excited. Obviously we need everybody healthy,” coach Scott Brooks said. “But I like the fact that our guys compete regardless of who’s on the floor. They get out there and compete. We haven’t had as many wins as we would like, but we’re competing every night. We put ourselves in a position to win games and we have a no-excuse mentality.”
Derek Fisher said that the Lakers never reached out to him after last season, and the Knicks were the only offer he had to become a head coach, Marc Berman of The New York Post writes. “I never had any conversations with the Lakers of coaching the team,’’ Fisher said. “This was the only one. It doesn’t disappoint me in any way. I never pretended to run the Lakers or make decisions for them. I did the best I could when I played. They don’t owe me anything. I don’t owe them anything.’
Brandon Jennings has emerged as a leader since the Pistons released Josh Smith, Brendan Savage of MLive.com writes. “Brandon has noticeably gotten back to probably what is his natural personality,” coach Stan Van Gundy said. “He’s really having fun. He’s talking a lot, joking with guys, things like that. I think he had been suffering. He hadn’t been playing real well, we hadn’t been winning. He had gotten really quiet.” There were conflicting reports regarding Detroit shopping the veteran point guard prior to Smith being released.
The Raptors have recalled Bruno Caboclo from the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the D-League, the team announced in a press release. This was Caboclo’s first D-League assignment of the season.

Central Notes: Pistons, Love, Bucks, Stephenson

December 22nd, 2014 at 5:55pm CST by Chuck Myron

Greg Monroe and agent David Falk have made it clear that they don’t want any trade this season, though the Pistons have asked about Monroe’s willingness to approve a trade, writes Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News. Monroe has the right to block any deal because he signed his qualifying offer in the offseason, and he’d lose his Bird rights if he were to be traded. There have been conflicting reports about whether the Pistons are shopping Brandon Jennings, but Goodwill writes that he is indeed on the block. The team’s brass is setting a high price for its assets, but other front offices have yet to meet those demands, according to Goodwill, who wrote his piece before today’s Josh Smith bombshell. We’ve been tracking the latest on Smith all day, and as we continue to do so, here’s more news from the Central Division:

Wolves president of basketball operations Flip Saunders insists that had it not been for the offer from the Cavaliers, he wouldn’t have traded Kevin Love this year, as Saunders told reporters, including Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press (Twitter link). There were simply no other proposals he liked, despite seemingly fevered interest from half of the league’s teams.
Saunders also seemed to confirm that Love had forced his way off the Wolves, as Krawczynski relays in a full piece. “Minnesota people are pretty loyal,” Saunders said. “When you turn on Minnesota they don’t forgive you.” Still, Saunders added that he has no hard feelings, Krawczynski tweets.
Bucks owners Wesley Edens and Marc Lasry saw the Milwaukee franchise as a “blank slate,” Krawczynski writes in another piece, adding that the ownership duo has quickly revamped the business side of the team and is very pleased with how their roster is taking form. “It’s better than the Spurs. Those are the old guys,” Edens told Krawczynski. “Would you trade Giannis [Antetokounmpo] and Jabari [Parker] and all the rest of the young guys for them?”
While initial reports had Edens and Lasry pledging $100MM towards a new arena in Milwaukee, the actual number the owners have agreed to commit has since grown to $150MM, reports Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Walker reminds us that former Bucks owner Herb Kohl agreed to kick in $100MM himself and that there might be additional private capital coming. Whatever amount on top of that is required to build the arena will come from public financing, Walker says, adding that the team faces an NBA-mandated deadline of fall 2017 to have the new facility in place.
Pacers players aren’t embracing the idea of bringing Lance Stephenson back to the team, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com hears (Twitter link). Indiana’s front office was reportedly cool to the idea as the Pacers engaged in preliminary talks with the Hornets about trading for the shooting guard.

Alex Lee contributed to this post.