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Beck’s Latest: Kings, Knicks, Suns, Nets, Rockets

December 15th, 2014 at 2:57pm CST by Chuck Myron

There will be chatter aplenty between now and the February 19th trade deadline, but not all of it will truly constitute trade rumors, as Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck cautions. However, when multiple voices speak in unison, there’s usually a grain of truth involved, and Beck has plenty of tidbits he’s heard from a variety of sources around the league. We already passed along the news that the Pistons are putting Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings on the block, but that’s not the only item of note. We’ll pass along the rest of the highlights here and encourage you to read Beck’s full piece for more:

The Kings head coaching job is George Karl‘s if he wants it, as both Beck and Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee hear (Twitter links). Alvin Gentry and Mark Jackson are also “prime candidates,” according to Beck, though it’s not clear if the Kings are targeting either of them. Karl said to Tom Byrne of SiriusXM NBA Radio today that, “If they’re interested in me, I’m interested in them (Twitter link). Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports first identified Karl as the front-runner for the job, which Tyrone Corbin is expected to assume on an interim basis.
Executives around the league tell Beck that the Knicks are making all of their players except for Carmelo Anthony available, as Beck writes in his piece. A similar scenario is in place for New Orleans, where the Pelicans are open to trading everyone outside of Anthony Davis, Jrue Holiday, Omer Asik and Ryan Anderson, Beck hears.
Many executives expect the Suns to trade one of Eric Bledsoe, Goran Dragic and Isaiah Thomas, according to Beck.
The Nets would probably only move one or two of Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson, team sources tell Beck. The Rockets asked Brooklyn about Andrei Kirilenko before the Nets traded him to the Sixers last week, Beck also hears.
There’s conflicting intel on the Nuggets, whom many executives view as top candidates to become sellers, while one Western Conference exec tells Beck that the Nuggets like their team and aren’t inclined to move anybody. In any case, there’s plenty of interest in Wilson Chandler and Timofey Mozgov, executives have said to Beck.
Many executives and scouts identified Thaddeus Young, Mo Williams and David Lee among likely trade candidates, Beck writes.

Nets Willing To Trade Williams, Lopez, Johnson

December 9th, 2014 at 3:39pm CST by Chuck Myron

3:39pm: Brooklyn has been “very active” in making calls, an executive from an opposing team tells Fred Kerber of the New York Post, adding that he thinks Brooklyn is ready to make a move but that he hasn’t heard that the Nets are close to any deals. Kerber passed along the exec’s remarks within a story on Williams, Lopez and Johnson, so presumably that exec was talking about the team’s calls about those three players and not Andrei Kirilenko, who’s reportedly the subject of renewed chatter with the Sixers.

3:20pm: The Nets are initiating talks with teams about the trio as well as listening when other teams bring them up, Wallach hears (Twitter link).

2:22pm: It isn’t really a new development that the Nets are making Williams, Lopez and Johnson available, a source with ties to the Nets tells Reed Wallach of Nets Daily (Twitter link). Brooklyn has been hard at work seeking a defensive-minded wing player for some time, USA Today’s Sam Amick reports (on Twitter), though it’s unclear if that pursuit is related to the Williams-Lopez-Johnson talks.

1:29pm: The Nets have had “exploratory” conversations with multiple teams about the highly paid triumvirate, though they aren’t merely looking to dump salary and want to remain a playoff team whether or not they make any moves, Stein and Youngmisuk write in a full story. It’s unclear whether Brooklyn would insist on a talent upgrade or whether the team is looking for a lateral move in that regard that would still allow it to cut costs. The Nets would have a tough time unloading any more than one of Williams, Lopez and Johnson in a single deal, given their hefty salaries, so if two or more of them leave Brooklyn, it would likely happen via separate transactions, according to the ESPN scribes.

1:15pm: The Nets are making Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson available in trade talk, report Marc Stein and Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.com (Twitter link). It’s unclear which teams the Nets have spoken to or just how aggressively Nets GM Billy King is looking for deals. King said recently that he was considering “tweaks” to the roster, but he offered only a “We’ll see” when asked about the long-term viability of the Williams-Lopez-Johnson core.

A report from Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck in May indicated that the Nets wouldn’t rule out the idea of trading Williams, who’s making more than $19.754MM this season. Chris Broussard of ESPN.com reported in June that Brooklyn would be more open to trading Williams than Johnson if the Nets could somehow have wedged their way into last summer’s LeBron James sweepstakes. Johnson is on the books this year at nearly $23.181MM, a team high. Still, there were no reports suggesting the Nets were in talks about Williams, much less Johnson or Lopez. Williams and Lopez have 15% trade kickers on their respective deals that the Nets would be responsible for paying should they trade them, but there’s no such clause in Johnson’s contract.

The trio, Brooklyn’s three highest paid players, makes more than $58.654MM combined this season, and each is under contract for 2015/16 at even more than he’s making this year, though Lopez holds a player option. The Nets are just 8-11 and in eighth place in the Eastern Conference after Monday’s blowout loss to the Cavs, and Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov vowed this past summer to cut spending so that the team dodges the luxury tax in 2015/16. The Nets already have more than $76.756MM in guaranteed salary and player options on their books for next season, close to this year’s $76.829MM tax threshold, though the tax line is expected to increase by several million dollars for 2015/16.

Nets Rumors: Kidd, King, Collins

November 20th, 2014 at 10:35am CST by Chuck Myron

Jason Kidd‘s controversial leap from the Nets to the Bucks this summer is a flashpoint for an issue that new union executive director Michele Roberts would like to resolve, as Ken Berger of CBSSports.com details. The union has a rule that bars player agents from representing coaches or executives so that no agent is ever representing people on both sides of the negotiating table, but it’s rarely enforced, as Roberts and agents who spoke with Berger contend. Kidd said that his player agent, Jeff Schwartz, had a role in negotiations for him this summer, as Berger points out. Sources tell Berger that Schwartz kept the Kidd talks separate from discussions surrounding Schwartz clients Shaun Livingston and Paul Pierce, who also left the Nets this summer, but the conflict of interest nonetheless troubles Roberts and others.

“We can’t allow the status quo to remain, i.e. people to act in defiance of the rule because the rule is the rule,” Roberts said. “But I also want to try to do it in a way that makes sense for everyone. If it appears that the rule is not something that we can work around, then it’s time to enforce it.”

There’s more on the Nets and their former coach in the wake of Milwaukee’s three-overtime win Wednesday in Brooklyn:

Kidd cited rumors that the Nets thought about firing him during last season as reason for his distrust of the organization, but in reality the Nets were highly supportive of the first-year coach, writes Chris Mannix of SI.com.
Mannix, writing in the same piece, hears from a Nets official who’s curious whether Kidd knew he would join the Bucks when the coach suggested during a meeting of Nets brass in June, while he was still working for Brooklyn, that the Nets trade Brook Lopez for Larry Sanders. In any case, Nets GM Billy King rejected the idea of such a swap.
Kidd insisted Wednesday that he never tried to convince the Nets to promote him above King, despite reports to the contrary this summer, but the Bucks coach added that he didn’t have much of a relationship with King last year, Newsday’s Roderick Boone observes.
Jason Collins admits that he knew this past summer that he wanted to retire but decided to wait to make an announcement until Wednesday’s meeting of Kidd’s Bucks and the Nets because of his respect for Kidd, a former teammate and coach, Boone notes.

Eastern Notes: Rondo, Haywood, Lopez, Pacers

October 18th, 2014 at 4:35pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The jury is still out on whether or not Rajon Rondo will be in a Celtics uniform beyond this season. One thing that won’t factor negatively against Boston in Rondo’s eyes is the team’s head coach, Mark Murphy of The Boston Herald writes. Rondo has nothing but good things to say about second-year coach Brad Stevens, notes Murphy. “He’s very positive — the most positive coach I’ve been around in my career, and it’s hard not to play for a guy like that,” Rondo said of Stevens. “That’s every day — not just in the locker room. He’s that way off the court, with his family. He’s a role model. He has all of the characteristics of a great leader. He’s great at what he does. He’s all about the team.”

Here’s more from the east:

The Cavs view veteran center Brendan Haywood as a part-time player who can help out when Cleveland faces teams with taller centers, Terry Pluto of the Plain Dealer writes. Haywood is well ahead of schedule in returning from injury, and the Cavs didn’t expect him to return to the court until January, notes Pluto.
After Brook Lopez‘s latest injury scare involving his troubled feet, the Nets are ready to move on, with or without the seven-footer, writes Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News. “I think you have to look at it from the standpoint that the glass is always half-full. I never looked at anything when he did have other injuries that the sky was falling,” GM Billy King said. “That’s why you have a team sport. If it was golf and I was his caddie, I’d be a little more upset because you don’t have a chance to make money. But it’s a team sport.”
In his season preview for the Pacers, Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio writes that it will be a trying season in Indiana without Paul George and Lance Stephenson. If the Pacers are to have any shot at the playoffs, this is the season that Roy Hibbert will need to elevate his game to an elite level, Amico opines.

Eastern Notes: Kidd, Celtics, Heat

June 29th, 2014 at 4:12pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Jason Kidd might look like the “bad guy” right now for trying to leave the Nets, but it might be the smartest thing for him to do, opines Mike Lupica of The New York Daily News. Lupica cites the Nets’ declining roster, absentee owner, and a franchise that seemingly prizes headlines over wins as reasons Kidd might be trying to leave Brooklyn.

Atlantic Notes: Nets, Knicks, Moultrie

February 8th, 2014 at 9:45am CST by Cray Allred

The Nets are still looking to improve their chances at a deep playoff run this season, and Bojan Bogdanović could be the most likely of the few tradable assets they have to be traded away for immediate help, according to Alex Raskin of The Wall Street Journal. The 24-year-old Croatian is currently playing in Istanbul, and while the Nets own his rights, it isn’t a given that they can outbid European teams to add him next year since they are limited to offering the $3.278 million mid-level exception. Here’s more from the Nets and the rest of the Atlantic Division:

In the same piece, Raskin says Nets centers Brook Lopez and Mason Plumlee are the most likely trade candidates after Bogdanović. Lopez, a former all-star and tremendously skilled 7-footer, is injured for the rest of the year, and Plumlee has shown promise in his first year, sporting the highest PER of any rookie so far this year.
Later in the piece, Deron Williams, who has had a voice in front office decision making before, is quoted as saying he doesn’t think the Nets will make a trade, while adding, “The last time I said that, I think, I got traded.”
While Knicks coach Mike Woodson and star Carmelo Anthony both worked last night to put a positive spin on the coach’s standing and the team’s chances of improving, J.R. Smith gave a more mixed account of the situation to Ian Begley of ESPN New York. When asked if his teammates support Woodson, Smith said, “Yeah, I believe so. It’s kind of hard to tell. “Of course, nobody wants to show their whole hand. I think guys really care about him. I think guys care about this team, care about winning.”
Arnett Moultrie is spending some time in the D-League for the Sixers due to conditioning concerns, and Nick Menta of Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia thinks Philly fans should be alarmed at his slow development. Moultrie was obtained in a draft-day deal with the Heat in exchange for a first round pick that now belongs to the Celtics. The pick is lottery protected through next year, and becomes two second rounders after that. The Sixers also still owe a first rounder to the Magic (with staggered protections through 2018) from the Andrew Bynum deal from 2012. Menta says these “outstanding debts” that new GM Sam Hinkie and coach Brett Brown inherited from the previous regime are the reason the Sixers are demanding draft picks in return for trade candidates Evan Turner, Spencer Hawes and Thaddeus Young.

Eastern Notes: Waiters, Sanders, Nets, Green

February 4th, 2014 at 9:37pm CST by Ryan Raroque

Cavaliers shooting guard Dion Waiters has been the subject of quite a few trade rumors throughout the season, and Mary Schmitt Boyer of The Plain Dealer notes that those talks will only intensify as we inch closer to the trade deadline. The second-year guard out of Syracuse insists he isn’t fazed by the possibility that he could be changing addresses soon:

“I don’t worry about that stuff…If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen. If not, it’s not. I can’t control that. It’s out of my hands.”

Here’s more out of the Eastern Conference tonight:

During a live chat with his readers earlier today, Eddie Sefko of SportsDayDFW said that the Bucks aren’t willing to trade Larry Sanders right now because they know they’d be selling low.
According to Yannis Koutroupis of Basketball Insiders, there isn’t any untouchable player currently on the Nets roster, and in a market where star players are difficult to come by, Brook Lopez, Deron Williams, Paul Pierce, and Joe Johnson could be acquired for less than their true value because Brooklyn will clearly be sellers at this year’s trade deadline.
Chris Forsberg of ESPN Boston sheds some light on Celtics forward Jeff Green, who aside from showing glimpses of his obvious potential, has struggled to find a comfort zone this year. With the trade deadline looming, Forsberg says it’s fair to wonder if Green is still a part of Boston’s future plans, and that even considering his under-performance as well as his four-year, $36.2MM price tag, there will still be teams interested in his services.
In a subscribers-only piece for ESPN Insider, Chad Ford cites an anonymous GM who thinks current Syracuse point guard Tyler Ennis will be a more reliable floor general than Kyrie Irving: “If you were to ask me right now whether I’d take Ennis over (Irving), I think it’s Ennis,..He does all the things that help a basketball team win basketball games. You can pick him apart on individual flaws, but I would take this kid right now and trust him to run my team. I think there’s very few freshmen you could ever say that about.”
Though some may be skeptical about how Andrew Bynum‘s past behavioral issues could affect the Pacers’ chemistry, Darvin Ham – formerly an assistant with the Lakers in 2011/12 and now an assistant with the Hawks– vouched for Bynum’s ability to remain focused: “I really spent a lot of one-on-one time with him, been in group settings with him…He’s really not a disruptive guy. He just wants to be left alone and left alone to play the game, plain and simple (Candace Buckner of IndyStar.com).
While Anthony Bennett has struggled for most of the year, Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal writes that the UNLV product hasn’t been listening to the negative talk about his game and doesn’t dwell on his mistakes as much as he’d done earlier in the season: “I was just worried about making a lot of mistakes, with getting subbed out, all that in the back of my head…Now I’m just going out there and giving it my all. Who cares if I get subbed out? I’m just playing.”

Odds & Ends: Suns, Nets, Celtics, Ariza

February 4th, 2014 at 3:17pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Suns are exploring their trade options with Emeka Okafor‘s expiring contract, but if they use it to bring in Pau Gasol or another player via trade, Jeff Hornacek insists it won’t be someone who’ll disrupt the locker room, as Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic observes.

“Our guys have great chemistry,” Hornacek said. “If they ever do anything to bring a guy in here, that guy is going to have to figure out what makes us good chemistry-wise, and he’s going to have to fit in. That’s like every team.”

Here’s more from around the league, with two weeks and two days to go until the trade deadline:

Nets GM Billy King isn’t looking to trade injured Brook Lopez, but he tells Grantland’s Zach Lowe that he’s open to deals that would bring draft picks to Brooklyn.
The Celtics are high on Chris Johnson, though Boston’s proximity to the tax line may keep the team from re-signing him for the season when his second 10-day deal expires Thursday night, as Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com examines.
Trevor Ariza is performing well in a contract year, and the Wizards will probably make a strong push to re-sign him, according to J. Michael of CSNWashington.com.
Chad Ford of ESPN.com heard a couple of weeks ago that the Bucks are unlikely to pull off a major deadline trade, but in his latest Insider-only “Tank Rank” piece, he says they’d like to acquire a young player or a first-round draft pick in exchange for their veterans.
In the same piece, Ford suggests the Magic are making Jameer Nelson and Glen Davis available.
Draft prospect Dante Exum would prefer to play for the Lakers, and Jabari Davis of Basketball Insiders wonders if agent Rob Pelinka would try to use the threat of Exum playing next season overseas to dissuade other teams from drafting him.
The city of San Francisco received a signed petition that proposes a vote on regulations that would erect a hurdle to the Warriors‘ plans for an arena in the city. The San Jose Mercury News has the details.

Atlantic Notes: Carmelo, Lopez, Patterson

January 5th, 2014 at 11:49am CST by Chuck Myron

Carmelo Anthony brushed off rumors of trade talks involving him and Blake Griffin, calling the reports “silly and stupid” to gathered media today, including Frank Isola of the New York Daily News (Twitter link). That doesn’t mean that he and Chris Paul wouldn’t like to join forces, Isola notes, and Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com wrote yesterday that their desire to play together hasn’t waned since Paul first raised the idea in 2010. Anthony addressed the latest talk linking him to Paul, pointing out that, “It never happens,” as Isola also tweets. Of course, there’s wiggle room with that statement, too, since Anthony didn’t say it will never happen. As cryptic messages and conflicting reports abound, here’s the latest from the Knicks and their Atlantic Division rivals:

The Nets believe Brook Lopez will recover fully from the latest surgery on his right foot, but if the procedure designed to make the foot more resistant to injury doesn’t prove successful, the 25-year-old’s career is probably in jeopardy, writes Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com.
Patrick Patterson‘s strong play has helped fuel the resurgence of the Raptors following his acquisition as part of the Rudy Gay trade, observes Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun.
The Knicks and Clippers are denying that they’ve had internal discussions about an Anthony/CP3 trade, but with the Knicks far adrift from their title aspirations, Keith Schlosser of Knicks Journal thinks New York’s front office should be open to such a deal.
Tom Moore of The Intelligencer wonders how the Sixers would have fared if they hadn’t traded Jrue Holiday this past summer.

Odds & Ends: Magic, Stephenson, Warriors

December 28th, 2013 at 7:38pm CST by Jonathan Nehring

Shortly after playing in his first game back since he suffered a torn meniscus, Solomon Jones told Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel he is enjoying more than being able to return to playing for the Magic. Jones, who is playing on a minimum salary contract this season, has enjoyed living close to his childhood home and his family. Averaging almost eight minutes in the games he has played, it will be seen whether Jones will play his way into another season near his home town.

A few other notes around the league.

According to Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated (Twitter Link), rival NBA executives are predicting that Pacers guard Lance Stephenson will be worth between $7-9MM per season when he enters free agency next summer. While the Pacers and Stephenson have both expressed interest in re-signing with each other next season, a $9MM price tag would almost guarantee they will only be able to re-sign either Stephenson or fellow Pacer free agent, Danny Granger.
The Warriors have assigned center Ognjen Kuzmic and guard Nemanja Nedovic to their NBA D-League team, the Santa Cruz Warriors. In a team announcement, the Warriors said both rookies will be able to play in tonight’s D-League game. Kuzmic has missed most of this season with a hand injury but has averaged 4.1 MPG in the games he has played with the Warriors. Nedovic has appeared in all but 10 of the Warriors games averaging 6.4 MPG, and 1.1 PPG.
According to Jason Lloyd of the Beacon Journal, the Cavaliers biggest need this season is at the small forward position. Former head coach Byron Scott told Lloyd in the summer of 2012 that the Cavaliers have been trying to resolve that position for some time but have not been successful to date. Aware that Cleveland spent their first overall pick on small forward Anthony Bennett, Lloyd still thinks the Cavaliers are looking to fill that hole and could do so in this season’s trade market. The only issue according to Lloyd is every inquiring team wants Dion Waiters in any trade they do with Cleveland which is a move the Cavaliers are unwilling to make.
Although we knew Brook Lopez‘s season is over, Mike Mazzeo of ESPN New York reports that Brook Lopez will undergo surgery on his foot January 4th officially ending his 2013/14 campaign. Unless the Nets trade him, Lopez will be back for Brooklyn next season continuing the 4 year contract he signed back in 2012.