DeMarre Carroll

Odds & Ends: Jefferson, Carroll, Kobe

It’s a lighter-than-usual Friday night slate in the NBA, with only nine games this evening, but it’s been plenty eventful off the court the past couple of weeks. Hoops Rumors readers have pegged Kyle Lowry as the most likely centerpiece of the next major deal, and as we wait to see whether that will be the case, here’s more from the Association:

DeMarre Carroll Signs With Hawks

AUGUST 3RD: The Hawks confirmed the move via press release.

JULY 5TH: DeMarre Carroll will sign with the Hawks, agent Mark Bartelstein tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, who adds that it’s a two-year, $5MM deal for the second Utah forward to leave for Atlanta tonight (Twitter links). Paul Millsap is also headed to the Hawks.

Carroll figures to add depth to an Atlanta front line that includes Millsap and Al Horford. He averaged career highs in points (6.0) and rebounds (2.8) for the Jazz this past season. This will be the fourth contract already for the 27th pick in the 2009 draft who was waived by both the Rockets and the Nuggets before he signed a minimum-salary deal with Utah.

Bartelstein had frequent conversations with the Jazz about a return to Utah for Carroll, but today’s trade with Golden State that brought aboard Richard Jefferson, among others, helped push Carroll out the door, according to Bill Oram of The Salt Lake Tribune (Twitter links).

Odds & Ends: Pekovic, Adelman, Johnson, Sixers

Timberwolves president of basketball ops Flip Saunders remains optimistic that the club will soon re-sign Nikola Pekovic, and tells Sid Hartman of the Star Tribune that he's trying to explain the thought process behind the team's offer to the big man and his camp. Saunders stopped short of confirming that coach Rick Adelman will be back for this coming season, but echoed owner Glen Taylor's comments from last month, saying that he's optimstic that Adelman will return. There's more from Minnesota and other NBA locales in tonight's roundup:

Renounced Players: Wednesday

As teams clear cap space to finalize signings and trades, it may mean renouncing Early Bird or Bird rights to their own free agents, in order to remove cap holds from the books. Once a player is renounced, his previous team has no more claim to him that any other team — he could still be re-signed, but it would have to be done using cap space or an exception. Some of those decisions are more notable than others, but for completion's sake, we'll track the latest of these cap-clearing moves right here:

Earlier updates:

 

Western Links: Brown, Mavericks, Clippers

The deadline for the Suns to waive Shannon Brown in order to pay half of his $3.5MM salary for the 2013/14 season has passed, according to Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic (Twitter). Brown was re-signed to a two-year deal worth $7MM with excess Suns' cap room in July of 2012.

The Suns could waive Brown and only eat half of his $3.5MM contract if they did so before whichever occurred first: 36 hours after 11:59 pm the day of the 2013 NBA Draft, or June 30th. That first deadline has passed, so now the Suns are on the hook for the full amount.

Here are some more notes on the Western Conference, including Kobe Bryant's thoughts on Dwight Howard's free agency:

Jazz Rumors: Mo Williams, Tinsley, Watson

Many players who spent 2012/13 with the Jazz are clients of agent Mark Bartelstein, as Jody Genessy of the Deseret News points out (Twitter link). Mo Williams, Gordon Hayward, DeMarre Carroll, Jeremy Evans and Earl Watson are all Bartelstein clients, and four of those five are either free agents or eligible for a contract extension this summer. Bartelstein spoke with Genessy, revealing much about the critical summer ahead for Utah. We've got the highlights here, along with other news on the Jazz:

  • Bartelstein is disputing a report last night that indicated Williams would not return to the Jazz unless he retains his starting position, Genessy reports (Twitter links). "That is 100% not the case," Bartelstein said. "We would never make a demand of the Jazz or any team."
  • Bartelstein says to Genessy that Williams will keep an open mind in free agency, with the Jazz among the teams he'll consider. "Mo's proven to be a starting caliber point guard in the league," the agent said. "(But) nothing is given to anyone. You earn your minutes" (Twitter links).
  • Whether or not Williams will take a back seat to Trey Burke, fellow Jazz free agent point guard Jamaal Tinsley wouldn't mind re-signing with Utah to mentor the rookie point man, a source tells Bill Oram of The Salt Lake Tribune (Twitter links).
  • Watson, who played through multiple injuries last season, envisions signing with an NBA team again, while Carroll "would love to come back" to the Jazz, Bartelstein tells Genessy (Twitter links).
  • As expected, the team will discuss rookie-scale extensions for Hayward and Derrick Favors later in the summer, after most free agents have signed, Genessy tweets.
  • It sounds unlikely that 47th overall pick Raul Neto will be on the Jazz roster this season, Oram tweets

Jazz Links: Corbin, Williams, Carroll, McNeal

Earlier, we heard that Tyrone Corbin's job was safe after GM Dennis Lindsey showed public support for the Jazz head coach. Brad Rock of the Deseret News examines the situation a step further, noting that Utah had finished off the season winning nine of their remaining 12 games in addition to Corbin's ability to do so with much of the roster's status up in the air for next season and beyond. Here's more of what we've heard out of Salt Lake City tonight:

Jazz Discussed Millsap Deals With Pacers, Clippers

The Utah Jazz did not move Paul Millsap before the February 21 trade deadline, but Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld reports that they discussed deals for the forward with the Indiana Pacers and Los Angeles Clippers, neither of which ended up coming to fruition.

Kennedy tweets that the Jazz and Pacers discussed a trade that would have sent Millsap and Alec Burks to Indiana for Danny Granger and Lance Stephenson. In a separate tweet, Kennedy reports that the Jazz and Clippers discussed a trade of Millsap and DeMarre Carroll for Eric Bledsoe and Lamar Odom.

Millsap, 27, is averaging 15.2 PPG and 7.4 RPG this season. He will be an unrestricted free agent in July.

Northwest Rumors: Carroll, Olshey, Pekovic

There are only six games in the NBA tonight, but four of the five Northwest Division teams are in action, including a clash between the Nuggets and Jazz in a matchup that would be a first-round pairing if the playoffs began today. The division's other teams in action tonight are on the road, with the Trail Blazers facing a stiff test against the Heat while the Nuggets take on the Raptors. While we wait to see how those games turn out, here's what's happening off the court around the Northwest:

  • Jazz forward DeMarre Carroll will be a free agent this summer, but he feels he's found his niche in Utah, as Jared Zwerling of ESPN The Magazine details.
  • Blazers GM Neil Olshey sat down with broadcaster Mike Barrett for a one-on-one that's up on the team's website (video link), and Ben Golliver of Blazer's Edge provides a transcript. Olshey said he coveted Nicolas Batum when he held the Clippers GM job, and revealed that owner Paul Allen never wavered in his commitment to match the offer sheet Batum signed with the Timberwolves this summer.
  • Rival executives tell Grantland's Zach Lowe that the Nuggets are "projecting calm" in advance of the trade deadline. The team seems fairly satisfied with its young core and doesn't want to add much or any payroll, so major moves are unlikely. That's in line with coach George Karl's recent comments indicating there's only a slight chance the team makes a deadline trade. Still, the most common prediction from executives around the league about Denver's playoff chances this year is that they'll go out in the second round.
  • The Wolves love Nikola Pekovic and don't want to trade him, so the smart money is on the club making a smaller move, perhaps one that includes Luke Ridnour, writes Steve Kyler of HoopsWorld.

Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors contributed to this post.

Western Notes: Grizzlies, Harden, Kings, Carroll

The Grizzlies staked their claim to a place among the NBA's elite teams this week with wins over the Heat, Thunder and previously unbeaten Knicks. That has the USA Today, and no doubt others, wondering if Memphis is the best team in the league. It's probably premature to anoint them as such after just eight games, but with Zach Randolph looking fully healthy again, they're certainly a squad worth keeping an eye on. Here's the latest on a few teams trying to catch up to them in the Western Conference standings.

  • Ric Bucher of 95.7 The Game offers a contrasting take on the notion that James Harden only had an hour to decide on the Thunder's extension offer, writing that both Harden and his agent, Rob Pelinka, had been aware for four months that Oklahoma City was not going to give Harden the max (Sulia link).
  • Zach Harper of CBSSports.com details the woes of the 2-7 Kings, but Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee hears the team isn't planning on making any major moves and intends to hold on to Tyreke Evans, DeMarcus Cousins and Jimmer Fredette for the time being (Twitter link).
  • Jazz forward DeMarre Carroll, who's on an expiring contract and hadn't seen meaningful minutes for two weeks, told his agent, "I didn't work this hard to be out of the rotation," as Bill Oram of The Salt Lake Tribune documents. His work paid off last night, when he went 6 for 6 and put up 17 points and five rebounds in close to 23 minutes.
  • New Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said his faith in his offensive system was reinforced by the time he spent coaching Jeremy Lin with the Knicks, tweets Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle.