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Extension Rumors: Plumlee, Hardaway, Zeller

October 31st, 2016 at 3:21pm CST by Luke Adams

Trail Blazers big man Mason Plumlee doesn’t expect to get a new deal done today, per Joe Freeman of The Oregonian (Twitter link). “Unless I go to my phone and my agent has something unexpected for me, there’s not going to be an extension,” Plumlee said. Agent Mark Bartelstein said earlier today that there was “no news” on the Plumlee front, Freeman notes (via Twitter). Still, the 26-year-old would like to remain in Portland long-term (Twitter link via Freeman).

Here are a few more updates and rumors on extension talks around the NBA, with tonight’s deadline looming…

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Latest On Extension Negotiations

October 30th, 2016 at 1:42pm CST by Will Joseph

The Thunder is negotiating extensions with representatives for Steven Adams and Victor Oladipo, Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reports (on Twitter). Discussions are in the $100MM range for Adams, and the $80MM range for Oladipo. Our own Luke Adams examined the extension candidacy of Adams recently, while Arthur Hill looked at Oladipo’s situation.

[RELATED: Players eligible for rookie-scale extensions]

There’s more extension chatter as the October 31st deadline draws near:

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Eastern Notes: Afflalo, Powell, Zeller

March 30th, 2016 at 8:03pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Knicks‘ decision to switch him to a reserve role isn’t sitting well with Arron Afflalo, who now appears all but assured to opt out of his deal for 2016/17 and become an unrestricted free agent this offseason, writes Marc Berman of The New York Post. Afflalo took to his personal Instagram account to voice his displeasure, writing, “Two years of just control what you can control right?… while making years of growth appears as if it has just stopped. Yeah, OK. 10th year coming up and this time around that [expletive] won’t be forgotten.’’

When asked by reporters to explain the Instagram post, Afflalo said, “It didn’t mean much, to be honest. Just a statement to myself. That’s about it. I plan on growing next year. Frustration ain’t the word,’’ Afflalo added. “It is what it is. People can have their opinion of what they feel you bring to a team. That’s their opinion. My opinion may be different. For now it’s about the team, being professional and doing your job. ‘’

Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:

  • Afflalo refutes Knicks interim coach Kurt Rambis‘ account that the two had a discussion about the benching, emphatically stating that there was no miscommunication between the pair and that no conversation occurred, writes Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News. “There’s no breakdown in communication,” Afflalo said. “We never had the communication. …I don’t know why he would say there was a conversation.”
  • Power forward Josh Powell, whom the Bucks waived this preseason, has signed with Indios de Mayaguez of Puerto Rico, the team announced (translation via Orazio Cauchi of Sportando). Powell spent the earlier part of this season with San Lorenzo in Argentina.
  • One of the positives that came out of Al Jefferson missing six weeks due to a knee injury this season was that it proved to the Hornets that Cody Zeller is a legitimate NBA center, writes Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer. The 23-year-old is averaging 9.0 points and 6.3 rebounds in 24.7 minutes per game and could provide Charlotte with a fallback if Jefferson were to depart as an unrestricted free agent this summer.
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Southeast Notes: Beal, Wittman, Bazemore, Zeller

March 5th, 2016 at 2:02pm CST by Arthur Hill

Bradley Beal seems certain to return to the Wizards next season, but coach Randy Wittman’s future is in doubt, J. Michael of CSNMidAtlantic said on an interview this morning with SiriusXM NBA Radio (h/t Kurt Helin of NBC Sports.com.) Michael said Washington plans to match any offers for Beal, who will be a restricted free agent after failing to reach an extension agreement with the team in November (Twitter link). However, Wittman’s job is in jeopardy unless the 30-31 Wizards make a significant improvement by the end of the season (Twitter link). Michael says Wittman was forced to change his system to the floor-spacing approach that Washington currently uses. (Twitter link). He has a 167-189 record in nearly five full seasons as the team’s head coach.

There’s more news from the Southeast Division:

  • Soon-to-be free agent Al Horford established a winning tradition in Atlanta, writes Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The Hawks made the playoffs in eight straight seasons after drafting Horford third overall in 2007, and they can stretch that streak to nine with a decent finish. Horford has stayed silent on the topic of free agency, trying to keep it from being a distraction, but Vivlamore notes that Atlanta is in position to make the best offer: five years at about $146MM.
  • Horford will be the Hawks‘ free agent priority this summer, but they would like to keep Kent Bazemore as well, according to Danny Leroux of The Sporting News. Both will be unrestricted, and Atlanta would like to avoid losing talented wing players two years in a row. DeMarre Carroll left the Hawks last summer to sign with Toronto. Atlanta has Early Bird rights on Bazemore, meaning it can only exceed the salary cap to keep him if his contract starts at less than about $6MM annually. Any additional salary for next season would have to come out of cap room.
  • The Hornets may have benefited from a mid-season knee injury to Al Jefferson, writes Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer. Jefferson, who is headed toward free agency this summer, has missed a significant part of this season with calf and knee problems, but his absence showed that Cody Zeller could handle the rigors of being a starting center.
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Southeast Notes: Whiteside, Zeller, Horford

January 16th, 2016 at 12:17pm CST by Will Joseph

Hassan Whiteside is set to become a free agent this summer and he conceded he factors that in a bit when determining whether or not to play through certain injuries, Jason Lieser of the Palm Beach Post details in a Q&A with the Heat center. When asked if he weighs his upcoming free agency into his decision-making regarding the fine line between resting and playing through injuries, Whiteside told Lieser, “It has something to do with it, but I’m not really thinking about that too much. I’m just trying to think of now.” Whiteside is battling tendinitis in his right knee, but he has missed only two of the Heat’s 40 games this season.

Here’s more from around the Southeast Division:

  • Speaking of Whiteside, who is one of the league’s top big men, the 26-year-old said he will be looking to sign with a team that will give him the best opportunity to secure a championship, Jesse Blancarte of Basketball Insiders relays. “I want to go to a team that’s about winning,” Whiteside said. “[A team] that has a good understanding of what it takes to win and a good city with a good fan base.”
  • Cody Zeller, on whom the Hornets exercised their 2016/17 rookie scale team option in November, has a decent shot to secure the role of Charlotte’s center of the future, Scott Fowler of the Charlotte Observer opines. Zeller is thriving as the team’s center because of his unusual quickness at the position, Fowler writes. Adding to the idea that Zeller will be the team’s center for the long haul, Fowler surmises that Al Jefferson, who is out with a knee injury and is set to be a free agent this summer, likely won’t be back with the team next season.
  • There will be shortage of teams to compete with for the services of Al Horford, a 2016 free agent, but the Hawks remain as good a bet as any to re-sign him because of their solid management structure and recent success, Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders writes.
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Eastern Notes: Irving, Porzingis, Zeller

December 13th, 2015 at 7:11pm CST by Will Joseph

Kyrie Irving is ready to play, according to a source who spoke with ESPN.com’s Dave McMenamin, but Cavs coach David Blatt told reporters the star point guard won’t see the court Tuesday. Despite Irving practicing well and looking good, according to Blatt, the Cavs prefer to use extreme caution with Irving, McMenamin details. While it was reported that Irving would play before January, a Cavs source told McMenamin that the he wouldn’t mind if Irving sat out until February if it meant Irving’s chances of being healthy for an extended playoff run would increase.

Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:

  • Cody Zeller, whom the Hornets exercised their 2016/17 rookie scale team option in November, is thriving in the role of center after playing his first two years in the league as a power forward, Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer writes.
  • Kristaps Porzingis has likely hit a rookie wall, Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News opines. The Knicks‘ European sensation went scoreless for the first time in his NBA career on Saturday and finished a three-game road trip with averages of 5.7 points and 4.3 rebounds per game on 24% shooting, Bondy writes. Porzingis played in only 50 games last season in Spain over nearly seven months, and he is already more than halfway toward reaching his minutes total from last season, according to Bondy.
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Hornets Opt In With Zeller, But Not With Hairston

November 2nd, 2015 at 4:31pm CST by Chuck Myron

4:31pm: The team isn’t planning to pick up Hairston’s option barring an 11th-hour change of heart, a league source told Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer (Twitter link). If so, the Hornets couldn’t re-sign Hairston next summer for more than the value of his option.

3:16pm: The Hornets have exercised their 2016/17 rookie scale team option on Cody Zeller, the team announced (on Twitter). The team has yet to announce its intentions regarding P.J. Hairston, who also has a pending rookie scale team option, seemingly a signal that Charlotte will decline that option. The Hornets face a deadline of 11pm Central tonight to opt in with Hairston. Zeller’s option is worth more than $5.318MM, while Hairston’s is in excess of $1.253MM.

“We are excited to keep Cody Zeller as a part of our core for another season,” Cho said as part of a press release from the team.  “We have been very pleased with Cody’s development on both ends of the floor and look forward to him continuing to expand his game as a member of our roster.”

Zeller, the fourth overall pick in the 2013 draft, started about half the season for Charlotte last year, though his 7.6 points and 5.8 rebounds in 24.0 minutes per game from 2014/15 hardly justify his draft position. The 23-year-old’s scoring is off but his rebounding is up so far this season. He’s come off the bench in all three of Charlotte’s regular season games.

Hairston was the 26th overall pick in 2014, but unlike the more highly drafted Zeller, he’s started all three of Charlotte’s games this season, in part because of the absence of the injured Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. The 22-year-old Hairston has put up only 4.3 points in 19.3 minutes per game so far this year, a slight uptick from the 15.3 minutes per game he averaged as a rookie last season.

The addition of Zeller’s option gives the Hornets only about $39MM in salary commitments for 2016/17, not counting the team’s three-year, $21MM extension with Jeremy Lamb. Agents and executives around the league reportedly believe the salary cap will go up to $95MM this summer. Charlotte’s cap figure for next year doesn’t include any money for Al Jefferson and Nicolas Batum, who come off the books at the end of this season, though it would still be somewhat surprising if Charlotte indeed elects not to pick up Hairston’s option. I considered both options as generally likely to be exercised when I took a leaguewide look at options in September.

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Hornets Rumors: Batum, Zeller, Cho, Clifford

July 28th, 2015 at 9:55am CST by Chuck Myron

The Celtics offered the Hornets a package that included four first-round picks to entice Charlotte to give up the No. 9 pick last month, sources tell Grantland’s Zach Lowe. Boston was willing to give up its own pick at No. 16, the No. 15 pick that they would tentatively have acquired from the Hawks, an unprotected future first-round pick from the Nets (presumably the 2018 pick Brooklyn owes Boston) and a future first-rounder from either the Grizzlies or the Timberwolves (presumably the ones those teams already owe Boston), as Lowe details. Some front office members in Charlotte liked the idea, but owner Michael Jordan preferred to roll with Frank Kaminsky, whom the Hornets took at No. 9, several sources said to Lowe. The Grantland scribe delves into the implications of that choice, and he touches on more, too, as we highlight amid the latest from the Queen City:

  • Nicolas Batum‘s camp has been talking about how much he’d like to play with the Raptors, given the international appeal of Toronto, several league sources tell Lowe. The native of France, whom the Hornets traded for last month, is set to become a free agent after this coming season.
  • The Hornets have been willing to talk about Cody Zeller when they discuss trades with other teams, sources tell Lowe. That jibes with a report from shortly before the draft that Charlotte was aggressively shopping the big man.
  • GM Rich Cho and coach Steve Clifford have had a chilly relationship since last year’s departure of president of basketball operations Rod Higgins, sources familiar with the situation tell Lowe, yet Cho, Clifford and Hornets vice chairman Curtis Polk all downplay the notion. “I would say it’s a good relationship now,” Cho says. “I value his input. We’re not always going to agree, but I wouldn’t expect to.”
  • Polk, Jordan, Cho, assistant GM Chad Buchanan and director of player personnel Larry Jordan, Michael’s brother, are the primary decision-makers for the team, according to Lowe.
  • Charlotte shopped Noah Vonleh and the No. 9 pick in a package to try to move up in the draft before abandoning that pursuit and trading Vonleh in the Batum deal, as Lowe details.
  • The Hornets had interest in Rodney Hood going into last year’s draft, Lowe hears. Hood wound up going at No. 23 to Utah, and Charlotte had an opportunity to move down into a spot where it might have nabbed him instead of Vonleh, as Lowe explains.
  • Hornets brass likes Elliot Williams, whom the Hornets have reportedly agreed to sign to a camp deal, but they see him as an insurance policy and don’t view him as a replacement for backup point guard Brian Roberts, reports Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer (Twitter links).
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Hornets Shop Cody Zeller, Seek Wing Players

June 24th, 2015 at 4:07pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Hornets are aggressively shopping big man Cody Zeller, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link). Charlotte is seeking wing players in return for the second year center in an effort to improve the team’s offense in advance of the NBA Draft, Wojnarowski adds. If the team is successful in dealing away Zeller, Charlotte will give strong consideration to drafting slick-shooting Wisconsin center Frank Kaminsky with the No. 9 overall pick, the Yahoo! Scribe relays.

Quite a few mock drafts peg the Hornets to target a wing who can stretch the floor with his shooting, so it’s not a shock to learn that Charlotte is actively looking to upgrade at that spot. If GM Rich Cho were able to address that need prior to Thursday night’s big event, it would allow the organization greater freedom to maximize the pick by taking the best player available, rather than trying to plug a specific hole in its roster.

Zeller underwent surgery back in April to repair damage to his right shoulder, and is expected to be able to resume basketball activities in July. The 22-year-old appeared in 62 contests for Charlotte this season, averaging 7.6 points and 5.8 rebounds in 24.0 minutes per game. His career numbers are 6.7 PPG, 5.0 RPG, and 1.3 APG, with a slash line of .443/.500/.750.

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Southeast Notes: Hawks, Zeller, Gordon

April 22nd, 2015 at 8:15pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Veteran guard Ben Gordon became the odd man out in the Magic‘s rotation once James Borrego took over as the team’s interim coach, Ken Hornack of FOX Sports Florida writes. Borrego preferred to see what the backcourt pairing of Victor Oladipo and Elfrid Payton could accomplish, which left Gordon on the outside looking in, Hornack notes. Gordon’s $4.5MM salary for 2015/16 is non-guaranteed. In 56 games this season Gordon averaged 6.2 points and 1.1 rebounds in 14.1 minutes per contest.

Here’s more out of the Southeast Division:

  • Hornets big man Cody Zeller had successful surgery today to repair damage to his right shoulder, Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer reports (Twitter link). The 22-year-old appeared in 62 contests for Charlotte this season, averaging 7.6 points and 5.8 rebounds in 24.0 minutes per game. Zeller is expected to resume basketball activities in three months.
  • Grant Hill‘s presence as part of the Hawks‘ new ownership group could aid GM Danny Ferry in retaining his position within the organization, Tim Bontemps of The New York Post opines (Twitter link). Ferry and Hill have ties through Duke University, which both men attended, Bontemps notes.
  • Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press tweeted that Hill’s involvement with the Ressler group should provide a good indicator of how Kevin Garnett could function as part of the Wolves’ ownership when he retires. Garnett has acknowledged an interest in buying the Wolves at some point, and owner Glen Taylor said that his return as a player enhanced his chances of becoming a part-owner.
  • Heat rookie point guard Shabazz Napier showed promise during his rookie season, but needs to be a more consistent player moving forward, Surya Fernandez of FOX Sports Florida writes in his profile of the player.
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