Chris Wallace Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Grizzlies Notes: Wallace, Joerger, Conley, Gasol

May 9th, 2016 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace didn’t speak with the Kings about the front office job that ultimately went to Ken Catanella, a Grizzlies source told Geoff Calkins of The Commercial Appeal, who nonetheless heard from a Kings source that Wallace went so far as to engage in contract negotiations with Sacramento. Wallace denied that he spoke with the Kings, as Chris Vernon of WMFS-FM relays (Twitter links), with Wallace telling Vernon he has no reason to leave amid what he calls the best run of his career. “I never interviewed for a job with Kings,” Wallace said. “I’ve been in Memphis 9 years. I’m not interested [in] going anywhere.”

The notion that Wallace would leave the top front office job in Memphis for the No. 2 post under Vlade Divac in Sacramento would be troubling if accurate, Calkins posits. See more from Tennessee:

Grizzlies management wanted to keep Joerger, but the coach forced the issue, Calkins writes in the same piece. Still, Joerger wasn’t Wallace’s guy, as Calkins points out.
Key players on the Grizzlies as well as the team’s front office weren’t in Dave Joerger‘s corner, and Marc Gasol and Mike Conley never embraced Joerger’s style in his three seasons as head coach, according to Peter Edmiston of WHBQ-FM and The Commercial Appeal (Twitter links).
The Grizzlies are in the middle of the pack, NBA’s no-man’s land, and the imperative this summer is that they acquire players who fit with a long-range plan, The Vertical’s Bobby Marks opines.
To see the latest on the Grizzlies coaching search, click here.

Grizzlies Notes: Coaching Search, Joerger, Conley

May 8th, 2016 at 10:56am CST by Arthur Hill

Former Pacers coach Frank Vogel will be part of a long list of candidates to replace Dave Joerger, according to Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal. Tillery expects the Grizzlies to reach out to veteran coaches David Blatt, Brian Shaw, Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy. GM Chris Wallace promised a “thoughtful and comprehensive” process, adding that there is no rush to find a replacement. He plans to consider college coaches as well as NBA assistants. “We don’t have a guy,” Wallace said. “We’ll talk to people and see how it goes. It’s not about dealing from a pre-existing category. It’s about finding the right guy. We’re very much in the preliminary stages.” Tillery writes that “reshaping” the team, which the front office didn’t believe Joerger was willing to do, will be among the responsibilities for the next coach.

There’s more out of Memphis:

Wallace’s call for stability in the organization is laughable, writes Geoff Calkins of The Commercial Appeal, pointing out that in the past four years, the Grizzlies have been through an ownership change, two GM changes and two coaching changes. Joerger had been expressing his unhappiness in subtle ways throughout the season, Calkins notes, and felt betrayed when Jeff Green and Courtney Lee were dealt away at the trade deadline. Joerger also said the roster was “old and slow” and repeatedly praised Jazz rookie Rodney Hood, whom the Grizzlies passed over in the draft. Calkins questions whether free agent point guard Mike Conley will want to re-sign with an organization that has seen so much turnover.
The Grizzlies may not have enough to offer on the free agent market, according to Ben Dowsett of Basketball Insiders. Memphis must decide by June 29th whether to pick up a $9.4MM option for next season on Lance Stephenson. If the Grizzlies keep him and all their other contracts while renouncing Matt Barnes and Chris Andersen, they will have about $60MM in guaranteed salary against a cap projected at more than $90MM. However, Conley carries a $14MM cap hold, which means money must be cut in other areas for the team to offer a max contract. Vince Carter and JaMychal Green are possibilities, as they both have contracts that won’t be guaranteed until January. Brandan Wright and his $5.7MM deal could be traded to clear more room. Dowsett speculates about Eric Gordon, Joe Johnson, Arron Afflalo, Gerald Henderson and Leandro Barbosa as possible free agent targets.

Kings To Meet With Dave Joerger

May 7th, 2016 at 9:12pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Kings and Dave Joerger will have a face-to-face meeting about the team’s coaching vacancy on Sunday, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Sacramento had been pushing hard to gain permission from the Grizzlies to speak with Joerger prior to him being fired by the team.

Earlier today, it was reported that there is mutual interest between the two parties. Joerger was making $2MM per year for the Grizzlies and Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reported that the Kings were willing to double his salary, something that made the job attractive to Joerger despite the team’s recent display of instability.

The franchise was interested in hiring Memphis’ current GM Chris Wallace for its front-office vacancy and Wallace spoke with the Kings before they decided to hire Ken Catanella, Stein passes along in a pair of tweets. Wallace took full responsibility for the Grizzlies’ decision to part ways with the 42-year-old coach.

GM Chris Wallace On Firing Dave Joerger

May 7th, 2016 at 11:51am CST by Eddie Scarito

The Grizzlies made the somewhat surprising move of firing coach Dave Joerger earlier today after he led a patchwork roster that had been decimated by injuries to a record of 42-40 and the seventh playoff seed in the Western Conference this season. The relationship between Joerger and Memphis’ front office had reportedly become toxic and contentious, and Joerger’s request to interview for the Kings’ and Rockets’ vacant coaching posts was apparently the final straw between the coach and team. Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace discussed the move to part ways with Joerger on the team’s official website. The entire article is worth a read, but here are some of the highlights:

On why Joerger was fired:

“The decision was made because I believe you need a deeply committed leadership team in order to establish the strong culture needed for sustainable long-term success. I don’t want to get into specifics, but our goal now is to identify the best candidate for our organization. The decision was not about Dave’s in-game coaching. Dave did an admirable job managing games. However, being an NBA head coach is about more than just coaching a 48-minute game.”

On who made the decision to fire Joerger and if team owner Robert Pera was involved:

“This was my decision. I explained my decision to Robert, just as any GM would to their owner, and he was supportive. This was not an easy decision for me and as we all know often the right decision isn’t the easy one. But with that said, I am confident that change was necessary to grow the type of culture that is needed for sustained success.”

On whether parting ways with Joerger will give the perception of organizational instability and hurt the team in free agency this offseason:

“This decision is about ensuring stability for years to come. We are a stable and unified organization and one of only three teams to have made the playoffs for six straight years. We’re planning for sustained success and will find a coach that shares our long-term outlook. Regarding your second question, our core players have re-signed with this organization time after time. We have had success attracting other talent like Brandan Wright and Vince Carter and we will continue to build on this success.”

On whether firing Joerger was motivated by personal reasons, given the reported tension between the former coach and front office:

“Nothing about this decision was personal. Neither I, nor anyone in our front office has anything against Dave as a person. This decision is solely about what I believe is best for the organization. We wish him and his family the very best in the future.”

On Joerger’s claims that he wasn’t given ample input into personnel matters and roster construction:

“We actively sought Dave’s input and thoughts on player personnel decisions, including all drafts, trades and free agency. And frankly, decisions in recent years were made with Dave’s close involvement.“

Grizzlies Notes: Joerger, Chalmers, Randolph

November 7th, 2015 at 9:16pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace is preaching patience and he defended the job of coach Dave Joerger in the wake of a report questioning his job security, Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal writes.

“When things aren’t going well, there’s always a lot of noise from the outside,” Wallace said. “You can’t let it permeate the air you’re breathing as a team. You just have to keep your head down and do what you’ve done in the past to be successful. I don’t see Dave on the hot seat. We’re six games into the season. We’re struggling right now, but Dave’s a proven commodity and he’s got a talented staff.”

Here’s more out of Memphis:

Earlier in the week, the Grizzlies were linked to Mario Chalmers, who is on the trade block because of Miami’s tax implications, but Wallace downplayed the idea of a trade happening, Tillery writes in the same piece. “We’re always searching for ways to improve the team. You can’t predict what will happen. But we’ll never operate with the mindset that you have to do a deal. I don’t think the sky is falling. We have the weapons to be a strong team this year. We just have to be who we are and regain our identity,” Wallace said.
There are rival executives who believe the Grizzlies will ultimately entertain trading Zach Randolph with an eye on adding youth and athleticism to the roster, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Outside of Mike Conley and Marc Gasol, Randolph is the trade piece that would most likely net a difference maker, Stein adds. Randolph signed a team-friendly two year, $20MM extension with Memphis in 2014 that kicked in this season.

Draft History: Chris Wallace

May 23rd, 2015 at 3:01pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The 2015 NBA draft is a little over a month away, and for teams that aren’t still participating in the NBA playoffs, the focus is on using that event to build toward a better future. Now that the NBA Draft lottery is complete, the speculation can truly begin as to which player each franchise will pin its hopes on for the future. Of course, having one of the top selections in any draft doesn’t guarantee that a team will snag a future All-Star. Team executives and scouts still have the difficult task of making the correct call with their picks.

With this in mind we at Hoops Rumors will be taking a look back at the draft history of the primary basketball executive for each NBA team. Their names, reputations, and possibly employment will be on the line as a result of the decisions to come on June 25th, and we’ll be examining what they’ve done in previous years in charge of a club’s front office. Note that many of them have played other sorts of roles within a team’s executive structure, but this won’t take that into account. We’ll begin with a look back at the calls made by Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace…

Celtics (January 2001-May 2003)

2001 Draft

No. 10 Overall — Joe Johnson: 1062 games, 17.3 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 4.2 APG. .443/.371/.800.
No. 11 Overall — Kedrick Brown: 143 games, 3.6 PPG, 2.4 RPG, 0.7 APG. .405/.274/.640.
No. 21 Overall — Joseph Forte: 25 games, 1.2 PPG, 0.7 RPG, 0.7 APG. .234/.000/.800.

Notable players passed over: Richard Jefferson (No. 13), Zach Randolph (No. 19), Gerald Wallace (No. 25), Tony Parker (No. 28), and Gilbert Arenas (No. 31).

2002 Draft

No first-rounder, No. 22 overall pick (Casey Jacobsen) owned by Suns.
No. 50 Overall — Darius Songaila: 495 games, 6.9 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 1.2 APG. .499/.158/.844.

Notable players available at draft slot or passed over: Carlos Boozer (No. 35) and Luis Scola (No. 56).

Grizzlies (June 2007-November 2012, May 2014-Present)

2007 Draft

No. 4 Overall — Mike Conley: 581 games, 13.4 PPG, 2.9 RPG, 5.6 APG. .442/.374/.803.

Notable players passed over: Joakim Noah (No. 9), Arron Afflalo (No. 27), and Marc Gasol (No. 48).

2008 Draft

No. 3 Overall — O.J. Mayo*: 506 games, 14.3 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 2.9 APG. .432/.377/.822.
No. 27 Overall — Darrell Arthur**: 373 games, 6.5 PPG, 3.6 RPG, 0.7 APG. .442/.274/.762.

*Acquired from Wolves along with Greg Buckner and Marko Jaric in return for No. 5 overall pick (Kevin Love), Brian Cardinal, Mike Miller, and Jason Collins.

**Acquired in three team trade with Rockets and Blazers in return for the No. 28 overall pick (Donte Greene) and a 2009 second round pick.

Notable players passed over: Russell Westbrook (No. 4), Love (No. 5), Brook Lopez (No. 10), Roy Hibbert (No. 17), JaVale McGee (No. 19), Serge Ibaka (No. 24), DeAndre Jordan (No. 35), and Goran Dragic (No. 45).

2009 Draft

No. 2 Overall — Hasheem Thabeet: 224 games, 2.2 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 0.8 BPG. .567/.000/.578.
No. 27 Overall — DeMarre Carroll: 316 games, 7.6 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 1.2 APG. .462/.366/.733.
No. 36 Overall — Sam Young: 249 games, 5.8 PPG, 2.3 RPG, 0.7 APG. .442/.280/.742.

Notable players passed over: James Harden (No. 3), Ricky Rubio (No. 5), Stephen Curry (No. 7), Brandon Jennings (No. 10), Jrue Holiday (No. 17), Ty Lawson (No. 18), and Jeff Teague (No. 19).

2010 Draft

No. 12 Overall — Xavier Henry: 185 games, 5.7 PPG, 1.9 RPG, 0.6 APG. .406/.325/.635.
No. 28 Overall — Greivis Vasquez: 375 games, 9.2 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 4.9 APG. .422/.356/.816.

*Traded the No. 25 overall pick (Dominique Jones) to the Mavericks for cash.

Notable players passed over: Larry Sanders (No. 15), Eric Bledsoe (No. 18), Hassan Whiteside (No. 33), and Lance Stephenson (No. 40).

2011 Draft

No first round pick. No. 20 overall (Donatas Motiejunas) owned by Timberwolves.
No. 49 Overall — Josh Selby: 38 games, 2.2 PPG, 0.5 RPG, 0.9 APG. .330/.143/.720.

Notable players available at draft spot or passed over: Kenneth Faried (No. 22), Nikola Mirotic (No. 23), Reggie Jackson (No. 24), Jimmy Butler (No. 30), Chandler Parsons (No. 38), and Isaiah Thomas (No. 60).

2012 Draft

No. 25 Overall — Tony Wroten: 137 games, 11.2 PPG, 2.5 RPG, 3.0 APG. .416/.234/.654.

Notable players passed over: Draymond Green (No. 35) and Khris Middleton (No. 39).

2014 Draft

No. 22 Overall — Jordan Adams: 30 games, 3.1 PPG, 0.9 RPG, 0.5 APG. .407/.400/.609.
No. 35 Overall — Jarnell Stokes*: 19 games, 3.0 PPG, 1.8 RPG, 0.2 APG. .568/.000/.536.

*Acquired from Jazz in exchange for a 2016 second-rounder.

Notable players passed over: Rodney Hood (No. 23), K.J. McDaniels (No. 32), and Jordan Clarkson (No. 46).

And-Ones: Wallace, Kirk, Pistons, Draft

November 30th, 2014 at 9:35pm CST by Zachary Links

Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace is glad to be back in the driver’s seat, as Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald writes. “I basically stepped aside. No one told me to step back,” Wallace explained. “My role was reduced, but I intentionally stepped back from the players and the coaches. I did not want to be seen as someone that was a meddler last year. I went to games, but I did not interact with the players or coaches during that time. I stayed involved in the game. I was watching the college game closely and the NBA game and attending games at both levels, because I planned on getting back. I didn’t know it was going to be here.” More from around the NBA..

The Cavs announced that they have assigned center Alex Kirk to their D-League affiliate, the Canton Charge. Kirk averaged 23.7 PPG and 9.7 RPG in three games for the Charge this season. He has also appeared in three games for the Cavs this season.
The Pistons recalled Tony Mitchell from the Grand Rapids Drive of the D-League, according to the RealGM transactions log.
If the draft was tomorrow, Kansas guard/forward Kelly Oubre might not be a top pick, tweets Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress. Oubre has been seeing limited minutes so far for the Jayhawks, but there’s still plenty of season ahead for the frosh. He’s currently rated No. 5 in DraftExpress’ 2015 mock.

Western Notes: Mavs, Grizzlies, Aldridge, Barea

October 6th, 2014 at 3:04pm CST by Chuck Myron

Charlie Villanueva has impressed Mavs coach Rick Carlisle, who insists Villanueva’s lack of guaranteed money won’t prevent the team from keeping him for opening night, as Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com chronicles.

“It’s going to come down to who plays the best, who fills needs,” Carlisle said. “And we’ll go from there. Mark [Cuban]’s the kind of owner, he’s not going to let a few dollars get in the way of keeping the right team together.”

Still, it’d cost the Mavs, who have 15 guaranteed contracts plus partial guarantees with Eric Griffin and Ivan Johnson, at least $991,482 in dead money to waive the players necessary for them to keep Villanueva, unless they can work out some sort of trade. While we wait to see just how much Cuban is willing to sacrifice, here’s more from the Western Conference:

Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace told Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal that he wasn’t explicitly told not to perform his duties while former CEO Jason Levien was in charge of the team, as Tillery writes in a subscription-only piece. Wallace clarified that he made his own choice to remove himself from player personnel, Tillery notes. Wallace also made a run at openings with the Kings last year and Cavs earlier this year, according to Tillery.
The new TV deal won’t affect LaMarcus Aldridge‘s plan to sign a long-term deal with the Blazers this summer, a source tells The Oregonian’s Joe Freeman, pointing out that the maximum salary goes up as the salary cap does. Still, it’s worth noting that cap figures only affect the amount of a max contract for the first season of the deal, and since it appears unlikely the cap will rise dramatically until the summer of 2016, there’s still plenty of incentive for Aldridge to sign a short-term deal instead.
Wolves coach/executive Flip Saunders didn’t seem merely to be trying to up J.J. Barea‘s trade value when he said the guard was one of the team’s best performers in camp again this year, writes Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune.
The NBA’s national TV deal isn’t the only one due for a sharp increase, as some predictions have the Clippers local TV rights fees increasing to $80MM annually from the $20MM the team receives each year under the current arrangement, tweets Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. The existing deal is up after the 2015/16 season, Kennedy notes (on Twitter).

Western Notes: Grizz, Pleiss, Clark, Kings

August 1st, 2014 at 7:56pm CST by Alex Lee

Grizzlies owner Robert Pera indicated that the decision to keep Chris Wallace in charge of the team’s basketball operations had to do with more than just on-court matters, as Pera said today before assembled media, including The Associated Press.

“When you are looking at this team in Memphis, I think you’ve for to look at the general manager in two respects,” Pera said. “One is the basketball performance. The other I’ve learned with Memphis the past couple of years is this idea of community involvement. And everybody loves Chris in Memphis. He is a special person for the Memphis community.”

Here is what else is going on out West:

The Thunder made an attempt this summer to bring seven foot German Tibor Pleiss, a 2010 draft-and-stash selection, to the NBA this season but the price of the buyout was ultimately prohibitive, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Oklahoma City will again try to bring the 31st selection of the 2010 draft to the states for the 2015/16 season, a possibility Woj calls “likely”, but the big man will play for FC Barcelona this year. (Twitter links)
Making his weekly radio appearance, Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey said that the team has a few things to take care of before deciding on the contract of shooting guard Ian Clark, tweets Jody Genessy of the Deseret News. Clark played 23 games in Utah as a rookie last season after signing a two-year deal with the Jazz last July. His salary for the upcoming season is not guaranteed.
After years of frustration, construction finally began Friday on the Kings new arena in Sacramento, writes Dale Kasler of the Sacramento Bee. The agreement on the arena site, facilitated by new owner Vivek Ranadive, was a critical factor in the NBA rejecting the franchise’s relocation to Seattle. The $477MM structure is scheduled to be ready for the 2016/17 season.
Back in Sacramento this week, Suns guard Isaiah Thomas provided plenty of juicy quotes to Blake Ellington of Sactown Royalty, indicating that he knew he probably wouldn’t be returning to the Kings when he saw his former team had inked fellow point guard Darren Collison. “When they did that, I knew I wasn’t coming back,” Thomas said. “If you bring in somebody, a draft pick or somebody that’s just not better than me I feel like it is disrespectful. When they picked Darren Collison, I felt like it was time for me to move on.”

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Grizzlies Hire Ed Stefanski For Front Office

July 29th, 2014 at 3:19pm CST by Chuck Myron

3:19pm: The hiring is official, the team announced via press release.

9:25am: The Grizzlies have identified the front office addition they’ll make to assist GM Chris Wallace, reaching agreement with former Nets and Sixers GM Ed Stefanski to become the executive vice president of player personnel in Memphis, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The selection is a surprise, since Stefanski wasn’t among the several executives linked to the Grizzlies in the past few months. A report just three days ago indicated the team’s progress toward a hire had stalled.

Memphis had reportedly been looking for someone to serve as a “GM-in-waiting” of sorts who would train under Wallace until he was ready to assume Wallace’s duties as the team’s top basketball executive. Stefanski, already having served as GM for two NBA franchises, probably wouldn’t need much training if the team envisions him as its future front office leader, but he’ll at least start off beneath Wallace on the organizational chart, as Wojnarowski indicates. Grizzlies owner Robert Pera said recently that he might promote Wallace to president of basketball operations.

Pacers vice president of basketball operations Peter Dinwiddie and former Raptors and Knicks GM Glen Grunwald were the leading candidates that Wojnarowski identified two weeks ago. Chris Makris, the GM of the Grizzlies’ D-League affiliate, also appeared to be in the mix, at least to a degree. Memphis reportedly interviewed Dinwiddie, Grunwald, Nets assistant GM Bobby Marks, and Knicks director of pro personnel Mark Hughes. The team made Thunder assistant GM Michael Winger an early target before he turned them down. Knicks director of player personnel Mark Warkentien was also an apparent candidate.

Stefanski most recently worked under Bryan Colangelo in the Raptors front office from 2011-13. Stefanski helped build two NBA Finals teams while serving as Nets director of scouting from 1999 until his appointment as the team’s GM in 2004.