David Griffin Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Magic Plan To Offer David Griffin Top Front Office Job

April 29th, 2017 at 12:26am CST by Luke Adams

The Magic continue to focus on Cavaliers general manager David Griffin in their search for a top basketball executive, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com, who reports that Orlando intends to offer Griffin a position as the club’s president of basketball operations.

[RELATED: Magic fire GM Rob Hennigan]

Griffin’s contract with the Cavs expires at the end of this season. However, as Windhorst notes, the Magic won’t be able to engage Griffin in contract discussions until Cleveland is eliminated from the playoffs — or wins the NBA Finals.

Orlando’s interest in Griffin was first reported last week by Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical, who suggested that extension talks between the Cavaliers and their GM have been “stalled for months.” Wojnarowski noted at the time that Cavs owner Dan Gilbert has been reluctant to offer his general manager a contract on par with other championship-level NBA executives, but Windhorst writes that Griffin still may end up staying in Cleveland on a new deal.

Griffin has played a major role in building the roster that won the championship a year ago, and LeBron James has endorsed retaining the veteran executive, so it would be somewhat surprising if the Cavs let him get away.

If Orlando is unable to land Griffin, the team figures to turn to a list of candidates that reportedly includes Kevin McHale, Matt Lloyd, David Morway, Pat Garrity, and Travis Schlenk, among others.

Magic Considering Kevin McHale As President

April 28th, 2017 at 6:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

Hall of Famer Kevin McHale is among the candidates to become team president in Orlando, according to Sam Amick of USA Today.

The TNT analyst would bring plenty of experience to the position. He served as president of basketball operations for the Timberwolves from 1995 to 2008, and twice took over as the team’s coach. His last NBA job was as coach of the Rockets from 2011 to 2015.

The Magic are hoping to hire someone with previous GM experience to fill the president’s role. However, McHale is also being considered for a front office position in Minnesota.

Orlando also has strong interest in Cavaliers GM David Griffin, who is not signed beyond this season. That explains why the process has gone so slowly since Rob Hennigan was fired April 13th, as the Magic have hired a search firm but have not spoken to any candidates. Griffin isn’t expected to discuss the job in Orlando until Cleveland’s playoff run is complete.

Amick adds that interim GM Matt Lloyd remains a candidate to keep that post on a permanent basis.

Cavaliers Notes: Griffin, Gilbert, Korver, Williams

April 28th, 2017 at 4:35pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Magic and Suns could both make a run at Cavaliers GM David Griffin after the playoffs end, writes Sam Amico of Amicohoops.com. Orlando, which fired GM Rob Hennigan earlier this month, would consider doubling Griffin’s salary to bring him on board. Phoenix is a legitimate threat because Griffin is from that area and started his career with the Suns. GM Ryan McDonough is safe in Phoenix, according to Amico, but the team could offer Griffin a president’s role, similar to what Phil Jackson has in New York, where he would have the final say on all basketball decisions.

Griffin’s first choice is to stay in Cleveland, and owner Dan Gilbert would like to keep him, but that’s not a guarantee that things will work out. Griffin took over GM’s post in 2014 with the expectation of building a young team, but that changed quickly when LeBron James announced his intention to return. Griffin’s goals quickly changed to building a championship team, and his performance in doing that ensures he will get a big payoff this summer. The only question is whether it comes from the Cavs or someone else.

There’s more today out of Cleveland:

Kyle Korver took an instant liking to the organization after being acquired in a January 7th trade with the Hawks, relays Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. The Cavaliers have Bird rights on the free agent swingman and can go over the cap for his new contract. Vardon indicates that Korver seems likely to re-sign, but there haven’t been any serious internal discussions about his future because of the uncertainty surrounding Griffin.
The same situation affects point guard Deron Williams, Vardon adds in the same piece. The significant different for Williams is that because he signed as a free agent after agreeing to a buyout with the Mavericks in February, the Cavs don’t own his Bird rights. They will be limited to the veteran’s minimum, which was $1.55MM this season, and Williams can probably find better offers elsewhere.
Chemistry concerns that haunted the Cavaliers this season seem like less of an issue after the first-round sweep of the Pacers, writes Marla Ridenour of The Akron Beacon Journal. “A lot of egos can get in the way, a lot of things could get in the way of a team being successful as a team,” said Kyrie Irving. “Us putting our individual sacrifices to the side and the only thing that matters is us winning and advancing, as long as that’s first, we’ll always be in a good place.”

Magic Have Interest In Cavs GM David Griffin

April 21st, 2017 at 10:02am CST by Luke Adams

Having dismissed Rob Hennigan after the end of the regular season last week, the Magic are on the lookout for a new general manager, and one executive receiving interest from Orlando is the architect of the defending champions. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical, the Magic have interest in Cavaliers GM David Griffin. Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders had mentioned Griffin earlier this week as a potential target for Orlando.

[RELATED: Magic fire GM Rob Hennigan]

While the Magic have several candidates on their list of possible replacements for Hennigan, the idea of hiring Griffin intrigues president Alex Martins and the Magic front office, sources tell Wojnarowski. Griffin’s contract with the Cavaliers expires at season’s end, and an extension isn’t necessarily a lock for the GM whose roster won the 2016 NBA championship.

According to Wojnarowski, talks between Cavaliers ownership and Griffin have been “stalled for months,” and there’s an increasing belief around the NBA that Griffin could be lured away from Cleveland. Cavs owner Dan Gilbert has been reluctant thus far to offer Griffin a contract on par with other championship-level executives around the league, sources tell Wojnarowski.

If the Magic do intend to seriously pursue Griffin, their search likely won’t be a quick one, since they’ll have to wait until the end of the Cavs’ playoff run to gauge Griffin’s interest in the job. In the meantime, the team is using Jed Hughes of the Korn Ferry search firm to gather information, while Martins has also been “significantly engaged” in identifying and vetting GM candidates, sources tell Wojnarowski.

As the Magic conduct their GM search, Matt Lloyd has been serving as the interim GM. Wojnarowski hears from GMs around the NBA that Lloyd is so well-respected by front office executives that those execs have been reluctant to make recommendations to the Magic, since they’re hoping Lloyd gets a chance at the full-time job.

Orlando has enough confidence in Lloyd, who is a candidate for the permanent job, that the team is willing to extend the search process and wait out the Cavs even if they make it to the NBA Finals, Wojnarowski writes. That would give Lloyd the opportunity to map out a plan for the draft and free agency.

Details Surrounding Larry Sanders’ Release

April 14th, 2017 at 5:11pm CST by Milo Taibi

When the Cavs released Larry Sanders on April 11, the transaction plainly appeared to be a basketball decision. In his return to the league, Sanders had been unable to crack Tyronn Lue‘s rotation; instead receiving minutes with the Canton Charge. Additionally, Sanders’ replacement- Edy Tavares– had an excellent year in the D-League, averaging 10.6 points with 7.7 rebounds over 48 games with Raptors 905.

An article by Jason Lloyd of The Athletic shed further light on the move, however; implying Sanders’ lack of punctuality may have played a role in his release.

“Sanders is gone again after he struggled keeping up with responsibilities on and off the court,” Lloyd writes. “He missed the team bus from the hotel to the airport Tuesday in Miami, multiple sources with knowledge of the situation told The Athletic, the final blow to his time here after Sanders had previously struggled with punctuality.”

While he didn’t miss out on playing time due to lateness, Sanders’ demeanor appeared to indicate he was “far from being NBA ready.”

Dave McMenamin of ESPN spoke with GM David Griffin about the decision to cut Sanders. Griffin denied any incident being the culprit behind Sanders’ release, instead citing his lack of on-court progress.

“He [Sanders] didn’t have any kind of a setback relative to any of the demons he had or any of those things. He’s an NBA player. He’s kind of flaky. So sometimes you’re late. You’re this. You’re that. None of those things were incidents,” Griffin said.

“I have to take you in totality as a player, and if I know you’re not going to play, then what I’m going to get is everything else. And if I didn’t even feel confident that he’d be a benefit to the group in practice, then it was hard to me to tell coaches, like, ‘This is a guy you got to keep.’ So they had the conversation on the plane [back from Miami]; what else can we do? And we talked about it and we landed, and we talked to all the rest of our staff and made a decision.”

LeBron Endorses Extension For David Griffin

April 3rd, 2017 at 2:56pm CST by Arthur Hill

GM David Griffin, who built the Cavaliers into a championship team, isn’t signed beyond this season but has a powerful advocate in the organization, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com.

LeBron James, who returned to Cleveland under Griffin’s watch, is among many supporters he has in the locker room. James said Griffin “has tried to make every move happen” to raise the talent level in Cleveland.

“He went out, we needed some interior help, he went out and got Timo [Timofey Mozgov],” James said. “We needed some perimeter defense, some perimeter shooting, he made a trade to be able to get Swish [J.R. Smith] and Shump [Iman Shumpert]. And that was the start of it. We needed more interior depth, he got Perk [Kendrick Perkins]. We got guys. We brought guys in. We needed some more athletic wings, he made a move, I don’t know how he finagled it to get RJ [Richard Jefferson] here. And so on and so on …”

“I mean, all the guys that are here. We wanted a stretch-4 to help [Kevin Love] out, we make a trade to get Channing [Frye]. I mean, I can name all the pieces that he’s been able to [acquire].”

Griffin is working on the final year of his contract after extension talks failed last summer. He joined the organization in 2010 as vice president of basketball operations, was named acting GM in 2014 and got the job on a full-time basis later that year.

In addition to acquiring on-court talent, Griffin made the decision to fire coach David Blatt midway through last season and replace him with Tyronn Lue. Griffin rewarded Lue with a five-year, $35 million extension in July.

James understands that many outsiders believes he really runs the franchise, which causes Griffin to get less respect than he deserves.

“Obviously they always want to bring my name into it and say that obviously, it’s easier because guys want to be here because I’m here,” James said. “But at the end of the day, he still has to press the right buttons because I’m not in the war room, I’m not in the draft room with those [front office] guys. I don’t know how much we may be over the luxury tax or if we have a trade exception here or how that’s going to work there or how many days we got to do this. So, it wouldn’t, seriously, I don’t know why it would make any sense to bring in a new GM. That don’t make no sense.”

Adam Silver: Resting Marquee Players A “Significant Issue”

March 20th, 2017 at 10:32pm CST by Milo Taibi

10:32pm: USA Today has obtained a full copy of Silver’s memo, Jeff Zillgitt and Sam Amick report (link). In his statement, Silver implored team owners to be mindful of “business ramifications of sitting players.”

“Decisions of this kind do not merely implicate issues of player health and team performance on the court; they also can affect fans and business partners, impact our reputation, and damage the perception of our game. With so much at stake, it is simply not acceptable for Governors to be uninvolved or to defer decision-making authority on these matters to others in their organizations,” the memo read.

Per Zillgitt, the commissioner indicated there would be a “full discussion of this issue in our Executive Session” on April 6.

8:14pm: NBA commissioner Adam Silver isn’t happy with the growing trend of teams resting star players in nationally televised games. According to a report from Ramona Shelburne of ESPN, Silver issued a memo to league owners on Monday, detailing “significant penalties” for teams that don’t provide sufficient notice of rest games.

Silver’s memo argued these games of rest affect “fans and business partners,” alike, while having a negative impact on the consumer’s “perception of our game.” Per Shelburne, teams must provide “notice to the league office, their opponent, and the media immediately upon a determination that a player will not participate in a game due to rest.” Silver’s memo is certain to be a point of discussion at the NBA Board of Governors meeting on April 6th.

Shelburne relayed a statement from ESPN on the subject:

“As always, our aim is to serve NBA fans with the best matchups involving the league’s top stars and we share the fans’ disappointment. We understand this is a complex issue and we’re working closely with the NBA to best address it going forward from a media partnership standpoint.”

Clearly, the league will face resistance in their efforts at reducing rest games. According to an earlier report from Shelburne, Cavs GM David Griffin received a call from the league after he’d opted to rest three starters in a nationally televised game. Griffin doubled-down on his decision, however, citing injuries to core players Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, and Kyle Korver. Griffin summed up his argument: “I can’t make [LeBron James] drag himself through this tonight by himself and then have everybody else play tomorrow and still not win.

Yeah, it sucks from a timing perspective. I feel bad for the league. I really do. I feel bad for the league, but it is what it is for us, from an injury standpoint.”

League Unhappy With Cavaliers For Resting Stars

March 19th, 2017 at 8:54am CST by Arthur Hill

Cavaliers GM David Griffin got a call from the league office shortly after the team announced its decision to rest three stars for Saturday’s nationally televised game, tweets Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com.

LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love were all held out of the contest with the Clippers, which was shown in prime time on ABC. The Cavs made the move because they are facing a back-to-back situation with a game tonight in Los Angeles against the Lakers.

It was the second straight game that the network was missing star power, as the Warriors rested Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala last week, while the Spurs were missing Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge for medical reasons.

Griffin said an NBA representative called him “seven minutes after it was announced” to express displeasure with the decision (Twitter link).

The game turned into a rout early as Los Angeles pulled away for a 108-78 victory on a night where ABC was competing with the NCAA Tournament for the attention of basketball fans. The network’s broadcasting crew ripped the Cavaliers throughout, with Mark Jackson calling the mismatch “an absolute joke” and Jeff Van Gundy labeling it “a prosecutable offense.”

Shelburne passed along Griffin’s explanation in a series of tweets:

“The decision made itself. Kyrie left the last game with a knee injury so we weren’t going to have him play both games of a [back-to-back].” (Twitter link).
“Kevin Love is rehabbing from knee surgery so he’s not going to play both ends of a back to back.” (Twitter link).
“[Kyle] Korver is legitimately injured so u pick the game ur going to be the most competitive in and that’s the one Bron needs to play in” (Twitter link).
“I can’t make [Bron] drag himself through this tonight by himself and then have everybody else play tomorrow and still not win.” (Twitter link).

Griffin added that he sympathizes with the league, but injuries dictated the Cavaliers’ actions (Twitter link). When asked about the $24B in television rights being paid by ABC, ESPN and TNT, he responded, “Yeah, and they’re paying me to win a championship.” (Twitter link).

Knicks Notes: Jennings, Griffin, Hornacek, Porzingis

March 5th, 2017 at 10:26am CST by Arthur Hill

Brandon Jennings is still taking shots at the Knicks, even though he’s now in a Wizards uniform, relays Keely Diven of CSNMidAtlantic. After his first game for Washington on Friday, Jennings told reporters the change has been beneficial. “I’m in the same position I was in New York,” he said, “but just in a better system for me personally and with a team that actually plays together.” Jennings was never shy about criticizing the Knicks while he played there, perhaps surprised to see the inner turmoil in the organization after signing a one-year deal worth more than $4.8MM last summer. Jennings agreed to a buyout with New York and signed with the Wizards on Wednesday. He will be an unrestricted free agent again in July.

There’s more out of New York:

Cavaliers GM David Griffin said the team agreed to take J.R. Smith from the Knicks in a 2015 trade involving Iman Shumpert so it wouldn’t have to surrender a first-round pick, tweets Howard Beck of Bleacher Report. Griffin recounted the deal Saturday at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. Smith and Shumpert both became contributors during the Cavs’ two trips to the NBA Finals, while the Knicks received Lance Thomas, Lou Amundson, Alex Kirk and a 2019 second-rounder.
Coach Jeff Hornacek says defensive lapses, not the triangle offense, are behind the Knicks’ difficulties in closing out games, according to Al Iannazzone of Newsday. Several players have been pointing fingers at the triangle, with Carmelo Anthony saying after Friday’s loss to the Sixers that other teams adjust during the games, but the Knicks don’t. “When we get down, especially in fourth quarters, we want to run something that’s part of a system,” Hornacek said. “The triangle aspects is one of the systems that you can run that hopefully they can’t double, hopefully they can’t switch. It at least gets you organized in a set.”
Phil Jackson’s attempts to trade Anthony and Derrick Rose before the deadline are evidence that the Knicks will eventually revolve around Kristaps Porzingis, Iannazzone writes in a separate story. He suggests that Porzingis should be made the focus of the offense now, even if it means fewer touches for Anthony.

Cavs Interested In Jose Calderon, Andrew Bogut

February 4th, 2017 at 9:51am CST by Milo Taibi

The Cavaliers may look to play the free agent market after the trade deadline, Marc Stein of ESPN reports. Lakers guard Jose Calderon and Mavs big man Andrew Bogut are two players who “greatly interest” the Cavs in their search for bench help.

Due to salary cap limitations, it appears unlikely that GM David Griffin will pursue Calderon, Bogut, or Deron Williams via trade. What the team hopes, according to Stein, is that one or more of the group is bought out after the February 23 trade deadline.

With neither Bogut nor Williams seemingly interested in a buyout, Calderon has emerged as Cleveland’s most likely target for backcourt depth. The 35-year-old Calderon has averaged 3.5 points with 2.1 assists over 23 games in 2016/17, accumulating three DNPs in the Lakers’ last three games.

Bogut, 32, has posted a career-low 3.0 points per game over 25 appearances with the Mavericks this season. The former No. 1 overall draft pick is in the final year of a three-year, $36MM pact.