Earl Clark Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Knicks Considering Ike Diogu

February 23rd, 2014 at 9:37pm CST by Zachary Links

The Knicks are mulling whether to use one of two soon-to-be-open roster spots on power forward Ike Diogu, an NBA source tells Marc Berman of the New York Post. The former lottery pick impressed the team during training camp, but was ultimately released.

The Knicks will have two open spots when Metta World Peace and Beno Udrih’s buyouts become official tomorrow. The undersized forward, who is in the D-League with the Bakersfield Jam and averaging 16.2 points and 8.2 rebounds, could be an option for the club. It should come as no surprise that the Knicks would have interest in Danny Granger if he is bought out by the Sixers but they’ve also got interest in Earl Clark, Ben Gordon (if his buyout is completed), and Antawn Jamison.

Because the club is well into luxury tax territory and owner James Dolan is already paying 17 players this season, the Knicks may only sign one player. With solid rebounding ability and a decent mid-range game, New York may make Diogu their pick.

Odds & Ends: Miller, Neal, Cavs, Warriors

February 21st, 2014 at 4:02pm CST by Chuck Myron

In a radio appearance this morning with William Qualkinbush on WCCP-FM in Clemson, South Carolina, I praised the Pacers‘ acquisition of Evan Turner and deemed the inability of the Suns to find a taker for Emeka Okafor and his expiring contract a missed opportunity. There’s plenty more reaction to Thursday’s trade deadline amid our latest look around the NBA:

The Nuggets are relieved to move on from the Andre Miller situation, writes Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post. For his part, GM Tim Connelly took the high road when discussing the 37-year-old guard. “There’s always going to be issues that pop up,” said Connelly. “There’s no villain here. Unfortunately what happened, happened. We have to have the full support of our coach. I think it’s important that everyone understands that is Brian (Shaw)‘s locker room. (Miller) was out of character. He’s a pro. I’m sure he’s excited to move on to D.C. and help that team make a playoff push.“
Gary Neal didn’t see a whole lot of playing time with the Bucks and head coach Larry Drew acknowledged that the rapid progress of rookie Nate Wolters was partially responsible for that, writes Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel. Neal will now hope to see more burn with the Bobcats.
GM David Griffin says the Cavs will “take a swing at someone” in an effort to fill the open roster spot that Thursday’s trade created, notes Bob Finnan of The News-Journal.
The Warriors would have more interest in Earl Clark than Glen Davis, tweets Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group. Both hit waivers today and should become free agents on Sunday.
The Hawks have recalled Jared Cunningham from the D-League, the team announced. The 24th overall pick in 2012 has made 22 appearances for the Bakersfield Jam this year and only five for Atlanta.

Zach Links contributed to this post.

Sixers Waive Earl Clark

February 21st, 2014 at 10:33am CST by Chuck Myron

10:33am: Philadelphia has officially waived Clark, the team has announced.

7:53am: The Sixers are waiving newly acquired Earl Clark, tweets Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The club has yet to officially announce the move, but the Sixers have to cut someone to get down to 15 players after yesterday’s trio of trades.

Clark came to the team from the Cavaliers along with Henry Sims in the deal that sent Spencer Hawes to Cleveland. The 26-year-old appears destined for free agency just months after signing a two-year, $8.5MM contract this past summer with the Cavs. It’s unlikely any team will claim him off waivers, since the 6’10” forward has underwhelmed this season, averaging just 5.2 points and 2.8 rebounds in 15.5 minutes per game.

His $4.25MM salary is guaranteed for this season, so it will remain on Philadelphia’s books, barring a waiver claim. The deal is non-guaranteed for 2014/15. The Kevin Bradbury client inked with Cleveland after a career year with the Lakers in which he showed glimpses of the promise that made him the 14th overall pick in 2009. He notched 11.9 PPG and 9.0 RPG in 32.9 MPG over a 22-game stretch in 2012/13.

Cavaliers Acquire Hawes For Clark, Sims

February 20th, 2014 at 3:45pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Sixers and Cavs have agreed to a trade that sends Spencer Hawes to Cleveland for Earl Clark, Henry Sims, and draft picks. The deal is now official following the Cavs’ press release. Cleveland is sending their 2014 second-round pick and the Grizzlies’ 2014 second-rounder to the Sixers as a part of the deal.

NBA: Philadelphia 76ers at Utah Jazz

The Cavs had to send out salaries in the deal as they’re over the cap and couldn’t absorb Hawes’ $6.6MM salary without giving someone up. The deal marks GM David Griffin‘s first significant move in his new role with the Cavs. Cleveland was also shopping Tyler Zeller and gave some thought to dealing Luol Deng, but this move went down as Cleveland’s deadline adjustment. The Rockets also reportedly had interest in Hawes in connection to an Omer Asik deal, but that didn’t come to fruition.

Hawes has been putting up career highs in points, rebounds, assists and three-point shooting percentage for the Sixers as he heads into unrestricted free agency this summer. The 25-year-old former 10th overall pick is finishing up a two-year, $13.1MM deal he signed with Philadelphia in 2012.

Zach Links contributed to this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link) first reported that Hawes was on his way to the Cavs. TNT’s David Aldridge (Twitter link) reported that Clark would be going to the 76ers and the Plain Dealer (via Twitter) added that Sims was in the deal as well. Marc Stein of ESPN.com first reported Cleveland’s interest in the center.

Odds & Ends: Kobe, LeBron, Cavs

October 24th, 2013 at 11:11pm CST by Ryan Raroque

T.J. Simers of the OC Register writes that Lakers executive Jim Buss believes he has an understanding with Kobe Bryant regarding next summer, in which he’ll let him hit free agency, spend the money accordingly on free agents, and offer whatever’s left to the Lakers’ star afterwards. When Simers asked him to elaborate, Kobe “vaguely” responded: “We’ve probably talked (about it)…but I’m putting off any thought of that.”

In another piece, Kobe spoke with Mike Bresnahan of the LA Times about his inability to mesh with Dwight Howard last season: “We saw different ways of going about leading this team…Dwight wanted to do it one way and he felt like it was effective. I wanted to do it another way. It was constant tension the second half of the season.”

Here are a handful of tonight’s links to pass along from around the Association:

LeBron James remained diplomatic when asked if winning a third consecutive ring would provide an answer to whether or not he’ll stay in with the Heat beyond this year: “When that bridge comes, I’ll cross it with my family…And we’re going to make the right choice. We’ve been in this position before, I’ve been in this position before, and I’ll be excited about it, but we’ll see what happens” (Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald).
LeBron was also quick to assert that his focus is on the upcoming season, and later emphasized Dwyane Wade‘s health as the key to Miami’s success: “Winning, that’s my only concern right now, winning…I want to put a third ring on the guys that have two. I want to put a first ring on the guys that don’t have any and I want to put a fourth on [Udonis Haslem] and D-Wade. So, that’s my goal…Without (Dwyane), this ship doesn’t continue to move without him, and I hope he knows that,..I think he knows that because he’s a big part of what we do.”
Cavaliers coach Mike Brown is still undecided about how he’ll handle the rotation at small forward this season, having been torn between Alonzo Gee and Earl Clark: “Nobody’s really separated themselves drastically from the other guy…One game, one guy’s played pretty good, then another guy’s played pretty good. … I told those guys, it can go into the regular season, just keep yourself ready to go in case your number’s called” (Jodie Valade of The Plain Dealer).
Steve Nash spoke with Mark Medina of InsideSoCal.com about the challenges of staying healthy at this point in his career.
USA Today’s Sam Amick goes over what he’s learned so far after watching the pre-season.
Jody Genessy of the Deseret News says that the Jazz’ signing of Jamaal Tinsley makes Lester Hudson and Scott Machado longshots to make the final cut.

Central Notes: Cavs, Rose, Sanders

October 19th, 2013 at 10:06pm CST by Spencer Lund

According to Cavs coach Mike Brown, he’d like to keep everyone on the training camp roster. But as Jodie Valade writes in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, cuts are coming and can’t be delayed much longer. The Cavs currently have 20 players and need to get down to the league maximum of 15 before the start of the regular season.

The delay is tied to injuries and the Cavs’ D-League affiliate Canton Charge. Neither Andrew Bynum (knee) or Tyler Zeller (appendectomy) have a set return date, and Jarrett Jack and Carrick Felix are also out. Also, the last three training camp cuts go directly to the Cavs’ Canton team if they haven’t previously played in the D-League, as long as they clear waivers and agree to sign D-League contracts. So, the Cavs are trying to be smart and keep those players around to develop.

Valade notes that forward Henry Sims and guard Matthew Dellavedova are expected to make it through the final cut, though.

Here are some more notes from around the Central division tonight:

Valade and Mary Schmitt Boyer opine, in a tweet, that Alonzo Gee should be the Cavs‘ starting small forward after outplaying Earl Clark all preseason.
After scoring 32 points in 32 minutes against the Pacers on Friday night, Bulls players tell Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times that Derrick Rose is better than ever.
Bulls Swingman Jimmy Butler said, “I think [Rose is] all the way back and more.”
Gravelly-voiced coach Tom Thibodeau is amping up the intensity at Bulls‘ practices writes K.C. Johnson at the Chicago Tribune (subscription only) despite an undefeated record in preseason play so far.
Thibodeau tells Cowley Bulls rookies Tony Snell and Erik Murphy have “a long way to go,” to crack the rotation.
Larry Sanders tells the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Charles F. Gardner that he has “spent a lot of quiet time, meditation, listening to classical music or gospel music…” as well as speaking with God in a effort to calm his emotions. Sanders led the NBA with 5 ejections while helming the defensive paint for the Bucks last season.

Eastern Rumors: Udoh, Clark, Bargnani

October 11th, 2013 at 7:14pm CST by Chuck Myron

Royce White this evening made his first appearance in any sort of NBA game since last preseason, and though the former first-round pick completed a nifty coast-to-coast layup, he committed four fouls in the span of a minute and 26 seconds. It’s questionable, at best, whether the Sixers will pick up his 2014/15 option by the deadline to do so at the end of this month, as Mark Deeks noted yesterday in a piece for SB Nation. Among the latest chatter out of the East, there’s word on another player who’s unlikely to get good news as a contract-related deadline approaches:

Ekpe Udoh‘s name emerged in trade talks this past summer, which would seem to counter any slim chance he has of receiving an extension to his rookie scale contract before the October 31st deadline. His odds of an extension grew worse today as the Bucks announced that he’ll be sidelined as long as six weeks after undergoing right knee surgery.
Earl Clark and coach Mike Brown only briefly worked together on the Lakers, but Clark says Brown’s presence in Cleveland was a major reason why the forward decided to sign with the Cavaliers, according to HoopsWorld’s Steve Kyler (Twitter link).
Keith Schlosser of Knicks Journal believes Andrea Bargnani won’t have any problems fitting in with Carmelo Anthony on the court, and posits that the three draft picks the Knicks gave up in the trade to acquire the former No. 1 overall pick can easily be recouped through future deals. I’d argue that it’s not so easy to acquire draft picks these days, given that the 2013 trade deadline passed without a single first-rounder changing hands.
We rounded up a few items from the Central Division this afternoon.

Contract Details: Bulls, Cavs, Mavs, Nuggets

July 17th, 2013 at 8:37am CST by Luke Adams

In addition to new contracts being finalized and signed, there are a few more cap details worth keeping an eye on throughout July. We won't be updating our traded player exceptions list to reflect all the latest deals until the dust has settled a little and each move has been officially completed, but as our list shows, the Bulls had their $5MM Kyle Korver TPE expire overnight.

There are also a number of 2013/14 salaries becoming guaranteed this month, including Kyle Lowry and Lance Stephenson earlier this week. Mavericks second-year big man Bernard James also appears to be guaranteed for the coming year, since he wasn't waived by July 15th, per Mark Deeks of ShamSports.com.

Here are a few more of the latest contract and cap details worth noting, courtesy of Eric Pincus of HoopsWorld:

Mike Dunleavy's two-year deal with the Bulls is worth the team's full mini mid-level exception, for a total of about $6.51MM. Meanwhile, Chicago second-round pick Erik Murphy gets a two-year, minimum-salary that's not fully guaranteed for either season.
The Bulls also used the stretch provision on Richard Hamilton, allowing the team to spread his guaranteed $1MM over the next three seasons (Twitter link).
The Cavaliers signed Jarrett Jack for a flat $6.3MM per season, while Earl Clark received a flat $4.25MM per year (Twitter links).
Jose Calderon's starting salary with the Mavericks is $6,791,570 (Twitter link). With annual 4.5% raises, that works out to exactly $29MM over four years. Additionally, Gal Mekel's three-year contract with the team is for the minimum and is fully guaranteed.
J.J. Hickson gets the full mid-level for three years from the Nuggets, which works out to about $16.15MM overall.
Two players who were involved in the same sign-and-trade transaction have had their numbers confirmed. Randy Foye receives $3MM from the Nuggets in each of his first two seasons before a $3.135MM 2015/16 salary, which isn't fully guaranteed. Andre Iguodala, meanwhile, signed with the Warriors for exactly $48MM over four years, but his salaries will decrease from $12.87MM this season to $11.13MM in the fourth season (Twitter link).
For the record, that gap between Iguodala's and Foye's first-year salaries should represent the value of the trade exception created by Denver: $9,868,632. I wonder if Iguodala's salary starts so high in part to help the Nuggets create a larger TPE.

Cavaliers Sign Earl Clark

July 12th, 2013 at 10:17am CST by Luke Adams

JULY 12TH: The Cavaliers have officially signed Clark, the team announced today in a press release.

JULY 4TH: The Cavaliers and Earl Clark have reached a two-year contract agreement, according to Sean Deveney of the Sporting News (via Twitter). Deveney reports that the deal will pay Clark $9MM over the two next seasons, while TNT's David Aldridge tweets that the second year will be a team option.

After three years of limited playing time in Phoenix and Orlando, Clark had a bit of a breakout season for the Lakers last year, averaging 7.3 PPG and 5.5 RPG in 59 contests (36 starts), while playing significant minutes in place of the clubs' injured bigs.

Cleveland had been in hot pursuit of Clark all week, with Deveney joking yesterday (via Twitter) that the Cavs seemed to be giving Clark a more aggressive pitch than they gave LeBron James three years ago. While the 25-year-old expressed some interest in returning to Los Angeles, the Lakers had limited cap flexibility to offer Clark a new deal, since the club is already well into tax territory.

For the Cavs, a $4.5MM annual salary for Clark shouldn't put much of a dent in the team's summer cap space. Taking into account cap holds for Anthony Bennett and Sergey Karasev, Cleveland had about $33MM in guaranteed salary on its books prior to the agreement with Clark. Depending on whether the team intends to guarantee C.J. Miles' salary, or keep cap holds on the books for players such as Wayne Ellington and Marreese Speights, there still could be close to $20MM available in cap room.

Clark is represented by BDA Sports Management, as the Hoops Rumors agency database shows.

Eastern Notes: 76ers, Rondo, Stevens, Copeland

July 4th, 2013 at 8:36pm CST by Ryan Raroque

As we continue further into the offseason, the 76ers remain the only NBA team without a head coach. When asked today if the team had begun interviewing head coaching candidates, GM Sam Hinkie was quick to avoid much comment, writes Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Pompey points out that their head coaching search might not conclude until after the summer league, and that Michael Curry – one of the candidates for the job – is leading their summer league roster. He also writes that Spurs assistant Brett Brown could still figure to be another candidate, along with other NBA assistant coaches – David Fizdale of the Heat, Melvin Hunt of the Nuggets, and Chris Finch and Kelvin Sampson from the Rockets – who were at some point tied to the job as well.

Here are some more news and notes out of the Eastern Conference:

A source close to Rajon Rondo says that the 27-year-old point guard is approaching the Celtics' hiring of Brad Stevens with an open mind, tweets Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe.
Washburn wonders if Stevens would considering bringing his former assistants from Butler – namely Matthew Graves (who was recently named the coach of South Alabama in March) and Drew Cannon – onto his coaching staff in Boston, noting that there may be an update on Cannon tomorrow (Twitter links).
Bob Finnan of The News-Herald confirms that Cavaliers assistant general manager David Griffin reached out to forward Chris Copeland and his agent yesterday. Finnan isn’t sure that the team would look to sign him with Clark now on board, but notes that the team does have the flexibility to sign both players.
Eric Pincus of Hoopsworld speculates that Brandon Jennings could be a candidate to play the upcoming year on a qualifying offer for the Bucks and become an unrestricted free agent next summer (Sulia link).
With the market for small forwards drying up, the Cavs had to overpay a little bit in order to secure Earl Clark from free agency, tweets Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal. Though with Cleveland holding a team option for Clark’s second year, Lloyd adds that the team still has a chance to keep some flexibility next summer.
Jan Vesely would still like to remain in the NBA once his contract expires with the Wizards after this year, according to his agent Alex Raskovic (hat tip goes to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando via Twitter).
J. Michael of CSN Washington thinks that it would be wise for the Wizards to pass on a possible reunion with Antawn Jamison.
In addition to Maz Trakh, John Loyer, and Bernard Smith, the Pistons are expected to add another assistant coach to Maurice Cheeks' staff on Sunday, tweets Keith Langlois of Pistons.com.