Derrick Favors Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Stein’s Latest: Extensions, Jazz, Cavs, J.R. Smith

October 14th, 2016 at 12:27pm CST by Luke Adams

Within his latest piece for ESPN.com, NBA insider Marc Stein takes a look around the league to attempt to determine which players entering the final year of their rookie scale contracts are most likely to sign extensions before the October 31 deadline. As Stein points out, the uncertainty surrounding the CBA may make some players or teams reluctant to finalize a new deal that won’t go into effect until next summer, but there are still a few extension candidates worth monitoring.

According to Stein, Jazz center Rudy Gobert is viewed as the most likely candidate to be extended this month — Utah wants to lock up both Gobert and Derrick Favors to long-term deals, recognizing that securing those players could help convince Gordon Hayward to re-sign next summer. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (Pistons), Gorgui Dieng (Timberwolves), and Shabazz Muhammad (Timberwolves) are also in play for potential extensions, says Stein.

Here’s more from the ESPN scribe:

It’s not clear how eager the Thunder will be to get something done with Steven Adams and/or Victor Oladipo before October 31, since the team may be enticed by the possibility of maintaining 2017 cap room, Stein notes. Oklahoma City could take the same approach the Wizards and Pistons did with Bradley Beal and Andre Drummond, respectively, waiting to extend them in order to maximize cap room. Of course, waiting until 2017 would almost certainly mean doing max deals for Adams and/or Oladipo.
As high as they are on Dennis Schroder‘s potential, the Hawks may want to see how he handles the starting point guard job in Jeff Teague‘s absence before committing to a long-term deal, Stein writes. In that case, an extension this month seems unlikely.
The Cavaliers had been offering a $10-11MM annual salary to J.R. Smith, and while it’s possible they’ve increased their offer, it hasn’t been enough to entice Smith to sign. Sources tell Stein “it’s only a matter of time” before the free agent guard starts to engage more seriously with other teams.
While they don’t have the cap room for him at this point, the Celtics‘ reported interest in Smith is genuine, according to Stein, who suggests Boston could explore moving some salary to another team in order to create space for Smith.
There are whispers that the Cavaliers have “strong interest” in bringing Mario Chalmers aboard when he’s healthy enough to play, per Stein. Chalmers, who remains on the free agent market, continues to recover from Achilles surgery.
The Jazz don’t appear inclined to add anyone to their roster as a temporary fill-in while Gordon Hayward’s broken finger heals, Stein writes.

Extension Candidate: Derrick Favors

August 8th, 2016 at 7:51pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Veteran contract extensions rarely occur in the NBA. The current Collective Bargaining Agreement places heavy restrictions on contract restructuring and extensions. In most cases, it doesn’t make sense for one party or the other.

This summer, a couple of notable exceptions have popped up. James Harden agreed to a max extension, allowing the Rockets to lock up their franchise player for at least another year beyond the two seasons remaining on his contract. Russell Westbrook, who could have become an unrestricted free agent next summer, agreed to a max extension with the Thunder that will keep him under contract for at least another season.

Both players could remain with their respective teams — Harden in 2019/20 and Westbrook in 2018/19 — for an additional season if they decide not to opt out of the final year of those extensions.

Jazz power forward Derrick Favors doesn’t have the star power or resume of that duo but he, too, is eligible for a veteran extension this offseason. The player’s current contract must be at least four years to qualify for an extension and Favors signed a four-year, rookie-scale extension in October 2013.

Favors could officially sign a veteran’s extension during training camp on the third-year anniversary of his current contract. There’s ample financial reasons for Favors to work out such an agreement.

Favors is scheduled to make $11.05MM this season and $12MM in 2017/18. If he received a bottom tier max from the Jazz, he could essentially double his salary for the next two seasons.

Utah currently has more than $10MM in salary-cap space and could open up a little more by waiving a player with a non-guaranteed contract. They have two such players on the books — Chris Johnson and Jeff Withey.

From that point, Favors could receive two more years on his deal, though the numbers could range wildly. He could either get the max 7.5% raises in those two years. Conversely, the numbers could nosedive by as much as a 40% maximum decrease in the first year of the extension and another 7.5% decrease in the final season.

As Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders details, that means Favors could wind up with a four-year restructuring/extension worth anywhere from $70MM to $99MM. If Favors waited until he became an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2018, the max he could earn over the next four years would be approximately $86.3MM.

LIke Harden and Westbrook, he could aim for an opt-out in the final year of the extension, though the Jazz might not be interested in doing so. If they agreed to an opt-out, they’d be giving him a whopping raise while only being assured of having him an additional season. That would be a very generous offer to a player who hasn’t made an All-Star team.

The Jazz also have major decisions to make regarding two of their other top players. Leading scorer Gordon Hayward will almost assuredly opt out of the final year of his contract and become an unrestricted free agent next summer. Utah will have to decide whether to sit back and hope Hayward re-signs next summer or whether to explore trade possibilities, though Hayward has a 15% trade kicker in his contract.

Center Rudy Gobert is eligible for a rookie-scale extension before the start of the season, though the Jazz could also lock him up next summer when he becomes a restricted free agent.

Favors is undoubtedly a productive, if somewhat brittle, player who is entering his prime years. He’s just 25 years old and coming off back-to-back years in which he averaged at least 16 points, eight rebounds and 1.5 blocks. Favors has missed some time with assorted injuries since he started playing regularly — nine games in 2013/14, eight in 2014/15 and 20 last season.

Advanced stats are generally kind to Favors. He posted a rock-solid 21.71 PER last season, well above the 15.0 average. His offensive and defensive box ratings via BasketballReference.com are also above average, though he’s never had an OBR above 1.0. His overall Box Plus/Minus of 2.7 last season was a career best.

There’s another factor the Jazz must consider in their decision whether to extend Favors — what kind of player do they project Trey Lyles to be over the next few seasons?

The 2015 lottery pick posted modest stats in his first season, averaging 6.1 points and 3.7 rebounds. On the flip side, Lyles played well enough to remain in the rotation all season and he’s just 20 years old. If Utah believes Lyles could develop into a starter at power forward and possibly replace Favors two years down the road, what’s the incentive to extend Favors?

Either Favors or the club could decide to put off extension talks until next summer. He’d still be eligible for an extension entering the final year of his contract, as Westbrook was this summer. The tricky part is there’s no guarantee the current rules will still be in place.

Negotiations between the league and the Players’ Association appear to be going well but if they break down, either side could opt out of the CBA next summer. Even if the sides reach an agreement on a new CBA, the rules could change in terms of veteran extensions.

Given his team-friendly contract, Favors and agent Wallace Prather have plenty of motivation to get something done this summer. The Jazz will probably be willing to accommodate them, as long as Favors doesn’t shoot for the max and an opt-out clause.

Photo courtesy of Jeff Swinger / USA Today Sports

Western Rumors: Warriors, Galloway, Harden

July 25th, 2016 at 5:33pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Changes at the center spot made to accommodate Kevin Durant‘s contract could lead the Warriors’ downfall, Jonny Auping of RealGM.com opines. The Warriors traded starter Andrew Bogut to the Mavericks and lost Festus Ezeli in free agency while signing Zaza Pachulia and retaining Anderson Varejao. Pachulia put up solid stats with the Mavs last season and is noted for his leadership, but his second-half performance was a disaster, Auping continues. He shot just 52.6% in the restricted area after the All-Star break, making him the team’s biggest offensive liability and essentially played himself out of the rotation by the postseason, Auping notes. And at this stage of his career, Varejao is arguably the worst backup center in the league, according to Auping. The offensive limitations of Pachulia and Varejao will allow opponents to double-team one of the Warriors’ stars and defensively, they offer no rim protection, Auping adds.

In other doings around the Western Conference:

Langston Galloway isn’t sure how the Pelicans will use him in the backcourt, according to John Reid of the New Orleans Times Picayune. The former Knick, who signed a two-year, 10MM deal with New Orleans, told Reid that coach Alvin Gentry and GM Dell Demps informed him that he could play extensively at both spots. ”So far, getting a chance to meet with Alvin and Dell, we just had a chance to say it’s a great opportunity to work hard and compete at the point guard and off-guard positions,” Galloway said.
Derrick Favors, Russell Westbrook and Paul George are some of the other players eligible to renegotiate their contracts and receive an extension, as James Harden did this month, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders writes. Any team trying to trade for Westbrook, who can hit the free agent market next July, would probably want him to sign an extension before agreeing to a deal, Pincus continues. Harden’s actual salary over the last three years of his extension won’t be determined until the 2017/18 salary cap is announced, as Pincus details while breaking down all the figures.
Durant’s restaurant in Oklahoma City will close and open under a new name, part of the fallout from his decision to join the Warriors, Brianna Bailey of The Oklahoman reports.

Northwest Notes: De Colo, Nuggets, Stotts, Jazz

May 16th, 2016 at 11:29am CST by Luke Adams

Nando De Colo, who is coming off a big year with CSKA Moscow, is reportedly drawing interest from several NBA teams hoping to bring him back to North America. According to Nikos Varlas of Eurohoops.net, the Nuggets have been monitoring De Colo for some time, and are interested in making him an offer. However, with CSKA Moscow invested in hanging onto the Euroleague standout, and De Colo’s NBA rights still being held by Toronto, his contract situation will be a tricky one to navigate.

As we wait to see what happens with De Colo, let’s check in on a few other Monday notes from out of the NBA’s Northwest division:

A report last week indicated that the Trail Blazers intend to discuss a possible extension for head coach Terry Stotts, and according to Jay Allen of Rip City Radio 620 AM in Portland (Twitter link), Portland’s current offer to Stotts is in the neighborhood of $20MM over five years. Allen cautions in subsequent tweets that those numbers are hardly set in stone, noting that they could just be a starting point for the two sides.
The criteria for renegotiating an NBA player’s contract are somewhat complicated and restrictive, but the Jazz could rework Derrick Favors‘ deal this October if they so choose, and Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders explains why it might make sense to do so.
Trey Burke, who was once considered the point guard of the future in Utah, may not longer be a part of the plans going forward for the Jazz, writes Randy Hollis of The Deseret News. As Hollis details, general manager Dennis Lindsey remains positive about Burke, but the former top-10 pick saw his minutes slashed this past season, and didn’t start a single game.

Northwest Notes: Favors, Malone, Pleiss

February 24th, 2016 at 7:30pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Tuesday morning marked the five year anniversary of the trade that sent Deron Williams to the Nets and landed Derrick Favors in Utah, a place the power forward initially wasn’t thrilled to be headed to, Jody Genessy of The Deseret News writes. But despite his initial concerns, Favors is content playing for the Jazz, Genessy adds. “Welcome to the NBA, basically. That’s my memory,” Favors said. “Coming from New Jersey, being 19 coming all the way over to Utah, a place I’d never been before. It was different, but I grew up, got used to it and I like it here. I’ve matured a lot. Obviously I’m not 19 anymore. My game changed a lot. I’ve changed as a person. Five years ago seems like forever.“ The 24-year-old still has two more seasons remaining on his contract after this one, so his loyalty to the Jazz won’t be put to the test until the summer of 2018, when he is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent.

Here’s more from the Northwest Division:

The Jazz are pleased with the development of center Tibor Pleiss and credit his four stints in the D-League this season for his improvement, Genessy notes in the same piece. “He’s getting an opportunity to play. Whatever his play looks like in my mind is what’s being accomplished is just those minutes,” coach Quin Snyder said. “Look at his line, his numbers. He’s fouling less, been more productive. Really, if you watch him, he looks more comfortable and that’s the primary thing.” The 26-year-old has appeared in 15 games for Idaho this season and has averaged 12.6 points and 9.8 rebounds for the Stampede.
The Nuggets are a much more stable team with Michael Malone as head coach, and his no-nonsense demeanor and desire to avoid discord separates him from former Denver coach George Karl, who has had numerous issues since taking over as coach of the Kings, Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post writes. Malone, whom Sacramento was fired last season, has observed Karl’s difficulties getting along with Kings center DeMarcus Cousins, a player with whom Malone had reached a common ground, Kiszla adds. “I was real with him, I was honest with him, I coached him, I disciplined him, I held him accountable. I never tried to be his buddy. I never tried to coach around him,” Malone said of his relationship with Cousins. “And, at the end of the day, I am a competitor. I hate to lose. At the end of the day, DeMarcus is a competitor. He hates to lose. We had that in common.“
One of the reasons that the Blazers are in the playoff hunt this season is the play of shooting guard C.J. McCollum, whose emergence is not a surprise to Portland’s front office, Ian Thomsen of NBA.com writes. “Damian [Lillard] and C.J. are our two best players,” GM Neil Olshey said. “They are our two best passers, our two best shooters and our two best scorers. The irony is, if C.J. doesn’t get hurt in camp as a rookie, then we were having this conversation two years ago. He was that good.“

Western Notes: Parsons, Favors, Looney

January 20th, 2016 at 10:28pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Mavs small forward Chandler Parsons has been spending quite a bit of crunch time sitting on the bench, something the player understands is better for the team, Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com writes. “I get paid to play basketball,” said Parsons. “Coach gets paid to make decisions and make substitutions. Whenever my number is called, I’ve got to be ready to play. I don’t really worry about things that are out of my control. I just try to do whatever it takes to help our team win games.” Parsons is still trying to regain his explosiveness after undergoing knee surgery last March.

“Of course, I want to be out there. I want to play,” Parsons continued. “It’s the most exciting part of the game, the most important part of the game. Nothing’s unconditional. I’m not saying every game I deserve to be out there at the end of the game, but obviously as a competitor and a player, you want to be out there and you want to play when it matters in crunch time.”

Here’s more from the West:

Jazz power forward Derrick Favors, who has missed the last 15 contests with a back injury, is making his way closer toward a return to the court, Aaron Falk and Tony Jones of The Salt Lake Tribune note. “With Derrick, it’s all a part of a process,” coach Quin Snyder said. “Back injuries are tricky. Some days you feel good, and you feel like you can play. Other days, you don’t feel so good. Above anything, we just want him to be healthy. But it’s a process, and we have to take it one day at a time.”
Warriors 2015 first-rounder Kevon Looney is driven by his fall from being a projected lottery pick to the No. 30 overall pick, Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com writes. Looney’s drop was due to concerns over his hip, which he underwent surgery to correct back in August, Howard-Cooper notes. “I feel like they missed out,” Looney said of the teams that bypassed him back in June. “I’ve been waiting to show them, to come back from an injury and show my whole game, take some of the labels off of me and show my talent and show I can really contribute. I want to show everybody. A lot of people have already written me off, saying, ‘I can’t wait to see you next year.’ Like it’s over for me and I had no chance of playing. But that’s not my plan. Hopefully I’ll get in this year and I’ll make a contribution and show everybody.“

Jazz Notes: Favors, Burks, Booker

September 20th, 2015 at 3:16pm CST by Will Joseph

Four years after the trade that sent Deron Williams from the Jazz to the Nets in exchange for Derrick Favors, Devin Harris, draft picks and cash considerations, it’s Favors who has emerged as the top player, Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News writes.

Favors, who averaged a career-high 16 points per game last season along with 8.2 rebounds per game and 1.7 blocks per game, said his goal is to make the All-Star team this year for Utah. Meanwhile, the Nets waived Williams in a buyout agreement during the summer.

“I thought about the trade for the first couple of years and what might’ve been if I stayed on [with the Nets],” Favors told Bondy. “But obviously it worked out for me.”

Here’s more out of Utah:

Alec Burks, who had left shoulder surgery in January, can be looked at as the best addition to the Jazz because he missed the majority of last season and Utah did not make any splashy signings in the summer, Ben Dowsett of Basketball Insiders writes in a preview of the team. Burks, who was a breakout player in his last full season, has some work to do defensively, as Dowsett adds. The Jazz signed Burks to a four-year extension worth $42MM plus incentives, so the 24-year-old is a cornerstone for the team.
Trevor Booker said surgery to repair a nasal fracture went well and he’ll start playing basketball next week, Andy Larsen of Saltcityhoops.com tweets. Booker’s salary for this season is fully guaranteed for $4.775MM.

Northwest Notes: Favors, Bjelica, Malone

September 9th, 2015 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

Derrick Favors had started only eight games the season before he signed his four-year, $49MM-plus extension with the Jazz in 2013, but GM Dennis Lindsey tells Adi Joseph of The Sporting News that the team wasn’t worried. Lindsey credits Favors with having patiently waited his turn to inherit a major role.

“The present screams while the future whispers,” Lindsey said. “And many of those contracts, you do have to project. But Derrick gave us a great sense of calm with how he’s handled himself as a player and as a person.”

Lindsey added that he considered supplementing the team’s playoff push this season with a veteran free agent addition or a splashy trade but decided against it when the right player didn’t emerge, entrusting Favors and the other members of the team’s youthful core with taking the next step this season. While we wait to see if they can, see more on the Jazz and their Northwest Division rivals:

Favors wasn’t initially sold on Utah, but that’s changed, as he said to Joseph for the same piece. “I didn’t expect to stay [long term], no,” Favors said. “Utah was so different, I was so new to it. I didn’t expect to stay. But as the years have gone on, I’ve grown to love it. I got used to it. I just started feeling comfortable. I like how calm and chill it is in Utah. It’s a good thing and it’s a bad thing. The bad part is, maybe after a big game you want to go out and hang out or whatever, and there’s really not too many spots like that in Utah. Down here, you could go anywhere. Out in Utah, it’s chill, laid-back. There’s not a lot of rah-rah stuff going on. You can focus on your job, your career, whatever else you have going on.”
Nemanja Bjelica will fight for minutes at a crowded power forward position as a rookie this year, but the Timberwolves draft-and-stash signee figures to earn his share of playing team, and he’s capable of becoming a star in the NBA, opines SB Nation’s Liam Boylan-Pett. His performance in this week’s Eurobasket tournament has provided glimpses of why he can succeed at the NBA level, as Boylan-Pett examines.
The addition of coach Michael Malone is one of the few moves that the Nuggets have made recently that seem to have struck the right chord, writes Shaun Powell of NBA.com in his 30 Teams, 30 Days series.

Western Rumors: Durant, Cauley-Stein, Lee, Suns

July 8th, 2015 at 10:02am CST by Chuck Myron

The Mavericks believe they’re legitimate contenders for Kevin Durant next summer, buoyed as they are by their agreements to sign DeAndre Jordan and Wesley Matthews, reports Chris Mannix of SI.com. Of course, they’ll have plenty of competition, as many teams will no doubt line up for a chance at the player atop the 2016 free agent class. The Wizards have reportedly loomed as the top threat to the Thunder for the former MVP. Here’s more from around the Western Conference:

One lottery team took Willie Cauley-Stein off its board completely over concerns about his surgically repaired left ankle, while another two teams cleared him, but “just barely,” according to Mannix, who writes in the same piece. The Kings drafted Cauley-Stein sixth overall.
The Warriors didn’t have any option of moving David Lee for no salary in return when they agreed to take on Gerald Wallace from the Celtics, according to Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group. The trade agreement nonetheless shrinks Golden State’s projected outlay from nearly $150MM in combined payroll and tax payments to about $128MM, Kawakami writes.
Suns coach Jeff Hornacek knows and likes Derrick Favors from his time as a Jazz assistant coach, but Utah is firm in its position to keep the power forward, writes Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic, suggesting that Phoenix is more likely to make a major addition via trade than free agency at this point. Speculation linking the Suns to Ryan Anderson doesn’t seem likely to bear fruit, Coro adds.
The Thunder met with free agent Keith Appling on Tuesday, a visit that could lead to a training camp invitation, according to Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press. The former Michigan State point guard was with the Lakers for preseason this past fall.

Northwest Notes: Favors, Ingles, Lyles, Nuggets

June 27th, 2015 at 4:04pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Derrick Favors is not being shopped around the league by the Jazz despite the team’s reported interest in free agent Paul Millsap, a source told Aaron Falk of the Salt Lake Tribune. A source had told Jody Genessy of the Deseret News earlier this week that Favors might be traded to make room for Millsap. While the Jazz are likely to gauge Millsap’s interested in returning to Utah, they like the defensive pairing of Favors and Rudy Gobert along the interior, Falk continues. That duo had a defensive rating of 92.5 points allowed per 100 possessions, fourth best in the NBA, over the last 29 games when the Jazz went 19-10, Falk notes. Favors also has a team-friendly contract averaging $11.6MM over the next three seasons, Falk adds.

In other news around the Northwest Division:

Utah will make a $1,045,059 qualifying offer to Joe Ingles, giving the Jazz the right to match all offers for the one-year veteran in free agency this summer, reports Tony Jones of The Salt Lake Tribune (Twitter links). That’s no surprise, since Tribune scribe Gordon Monson had identified mutual interest this spring between the Jazz and the Australian swingman. Utah is still planning to re-sign him, Jones adds.
The Jazz selected Trey Lyles with their first-round pick over his Kentucky teammate Devin Booker because of his playmaking ability and defensive versatility, according to Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune. Lyles can not only back up Favors, he can slide over to small forward and even center on occasion, Jones continues. Booker would have come onto the team as the third shooting guard with no apparent path to playing time, Jones adds.
The Nuggets let two trade exceptions expire unused Friday — one worth $1.75MM for Anthony Randolph, who went out in the trade that brought in Jusuf Nurkic and Gary Harris, and the other worth $1,422,720 that was a vestige of last summer’s Evan Fournier/Arron Afflalo trade.
Former NBA point guard Sergio Rodriguez confirmed to The Oregonian’s Jason Quick that he is thinking about returning to the NBA and will gauge the market after free agency begins Wednesday. He called the buyout in his contract with Real Madrid of Spain, worth a reported 2 million euros that comes to almost $2.234MM at today’s exchange rate, a reasonable one, Quick adds. Conflicting reports of late had painted different pictures about whether Rodriguez was considering the NBA, and another report identified the Nuggets as one of three NBA teams with interest.