Emmanuel Mudiay Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Northwest Notes: Taylor, Leonard, Mudiay, Huestis

November 13th, 2015 at 11:15am CST by Chuck Myron

The idea that Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor is looking to sell a minority interest in the team is “old news,” as Taylor put it in a comment to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities, confirming that he’s had contact with Steve Kaplan, with whom he’s reportedly engaged in serious talks (All four Twitter links). Taylor said he’s also spoken to others, but some of them want to move the team and Kaplan doesn’t, Wolfson points out. Kevin Garnett is interested in someday owning the Wolves, but Taylor refused comment on any potential involvement for KG, Wolfson relays. Kaplan would really prefer to become a majority owner, but with few teams on the market, it makes sense that he would buy a smaller stake and position himself to purchase the controlling interest later, observes Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press (on Twitter). See more from the Northwest Division:

The dislocated shoulder that Meyers Leonard suffered in Wednesday’s game will probably sideline him for at least four weeks, and it’s conceivable that he ends up having surgery that would knock him out for the season, an orthopedic surgeon without ties to Leonard or the Trail Blazers told Jason Quick of CSNNW.com. The Blazers have yet to release an official timetable for the big man, who recently turned down a “considerable” extension offer to set up restricted free agency next summer.
Bucks coach and one-time legendary point guard Jason Kidd believes the Nuggets scored with their pick of Emmanuel Mudiay at No. 7 in this year’s draft, predicting that Mudiay will be better than he was, notes Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post. “He’s better already,” Kidd said. “Being able to run an NBA team at 19 is not easy. You look at some of the greats — Magic [Johnson] was able to do it. And you’re looking at this kid Mudiay, who has the opportunity to do something special. So, I would encourage him to be better than me, and I think he will be at the end of the day.”
The Thunder have assigned Josh Huestis to the D-League, the team announced. Huestis spent last season in the D-League in an unusual draft-and-stash arrangement, but this time, he’ll continue to draw NBA paychecks while in the D-League after signing with the Thunder on a rookie scale contract this past summer.

Northwest Notes: Durant, Mudiay, Papanikolaou

November 6th, 2015 at 10:17pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Kevin Durant is well known around the league for his humility, which was certainly on display when he called teammate Russell Westbrook the best player on the Thunder, Anthony Slater of The Oklahoman relays. The Slim Reaper’s comments came mere months after he had proclaimed himself the “world’s best player,” Slater notes. When asked about Westbrook comment, Durant explained, “That’s how I feel. And he feels the same about me. We hold each other on that pedestal. That’s what makes us great teammates. I believe he’s the best player in the world, and he believes the same about me. Of course I’m gonna say that. There’s gonna be nights where I’m the best player on the team. There’s gonna be nights where he’s the best player on the team, when Dion Waiters is the best player on the team. That’s how I feel about my teammates. A lot of people may read into it but any given night it’s different.”

Here’s more from out of the Northwest:

Not surprisingly, Nuggets coach Michael Malone doesn’t have the doubts about Emmanuel Mudiay‘s ability that Byron Scott said he had going into the draft, when the Lakers picked D’Angelo Russell instead. Bill Oram of the Orange County Register has the details. “Unlike some others, we feel he is a point guard that can make good decisions and we feel he’s going to showcase that throughout the season,” Malone said.
Kostas Papanikolaou‘s two-year, minimum salary deal with the Nuggets includes a partial guarantee of $350K for the 2015/16 season, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders relays (via Twitter).
Thunder big man Enes Kanter is fitting in well with the team and the community, a distinct difference from his time spent in Utah with the Jazz, Nick Gallo of NBA.com writes. “Enes has really embraced the community since he arrived in Oklahoma City last season,” said Christine Berney, the Thunder’s Vice President of Community Relations. “From planting trees in Myriad Gardens during NBA Green Week last spring to stopping by the OKC Turkish Festival this fall to visiting the kids and families at OU and Children’s Hospital after the tragedy at OSU’s Homecoming parade, Enes has been so generous with his time. He’s a great ambassador for the team, and a pleasure to work with.”

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Pacific Notes: Russell, Barnes, Ezeli, World Peace

November 4th, 2015 at 10:03am CST by Chuck Myron

Lakers coach Byron Scott didn’t think Emmanuel Mudiay was a true point guard as the draft approached, and the coach questioned his decision-making, but Mudiay dismisses it as just “another human’s opinion,” writes Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. Mudiay delivered 10 assists, albeit with six turnovers, in Denver’s win Tuesday over the Lakers, leading him to retort, “Thank you Byron Scott for saying I’m not a point guard,” tweets Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post. Mudiay played down the stretch of the close game while D’Angelo Russell, whom the Lakers took with the No. 2 overall pick instead of Mudiay, sat on the bench. That left Russell searching for answers, observes Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link).

“I have no idea,” Russell said about how he can convince Scott he’s worthy of crunch-time minutes. “It’s just something I’ve got to deal with.”

Scott insists Russell will have his opportunities, though Russell wasn’t in the mood to compare himself to Mudiay, calling him “just another player,” as Bill Oram of the Orange County Register relays (Twitter links). See more on the Lakers amid the latest from the Pacific Division:

The Warriors failed to reach extensions with Harrison Barnes and Festus Ezeli before Monday’s deadline, but Barnes and Ezeli are fond of their surroundings and GM Bob Myers remains committed to finding a way to keep them, as Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports details. “We worked hard to get both [deals] done, but we weren’t able to,” Myers said to Spears. “We made a good effort. They looked hard at what we proposed. Ultimately, they decided to see what the market was in July, which is fine. We will work just as hard then to try to work something out.”
Metta World Peace, who’s on a non-guaranteed deal, has yet to appear in any games for the Lakers so far, but he’s OK with that, he tells Bresnahan. “It’s about looking at your surroundings, what you’re presented with, how you’re going to take that and become successful,” World Peace said. “How can I help the organization? How can I help myself? How can I help the guys? I’m just locked in. I’m focused on improving and winning. The minute you focus on something else, it’s a problem.”
Caron Butler has averaged 12 minutes per game in three appearances for the Kings so far, but like World Peace on the Lakers, Butler’s offseason signing was in large measure for his experience and locker room presence, as Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee examines.

Western Notes: Mudiay, Davis, West

November 3rd, 2015 at 10:24pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Lakers coach Byron Scott thinks Nuggets rookie point guard Emmanuel Mudiay will be “pretty good,” but he had concerns about his three-point shooting and wasn’t as high on him coming into the draft as he was on D’Angelo Russell, whom the Lakers picked second overall, writes Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. Discussing what stood out about Russell leading up to the draft, Scott said, “His workouts were extremely good. You saw the leadership qualities that he had. You saw the ability to pass the ball and make other guys better, the ability to get to the basket and the ability to knock down 3s, open jump shots and off-the-dribble shots. He had the total package offensively. Defensively, the one thing I thought he did was he competed.”

Here’s more from out of the Western Conference:

Unrestricted free agent Glen Davis, who was reportedly garnering strong interest from the Clippers prior to undergoing surgery to repair torn ligaments, a cyst, and bone spurs in his left ankle, is expected to resume basketball activities by the end of this month, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports relays (via Twitter).
Power forward David West knew that he’d be sacrificing playing time as well as money when he signed with the Spurs this past offseason, a move that he hopes will result in him winning an NBA title, Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News writes. “If I was worried about that stuff, I would have stayed in Indy,” said West, who is coming off the bench for the first time since his second NBA season. “At this stage, it’s just not about that for me.”
Mavericks camp cut Jarrid Famous has signed with Fujian of China, as the Chinese outlet LeTV reported last week (hat tip to the Altius Culture agency) and as international journalist David Pick confirms (Twitter link). Famous replaces Nikoloz Tskitishvili, who’s now signed to play in Japan and who was reportedly engaged in a dispute with Fujian, the team with which he signed after his brief comeback attempt with the Clippers, notes Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Northwest Notes: Wolves, Mudiay, Stone, Jazz

October 29th, 2015 at 8:58am CST by Chuck Myron

Flip Saunders built this year’s Timberwolves in an unusual way, with a seasoned veteran for every position group, notes Lee Jenkins of SI.com. Big man tutor Kevin Garnett, mentor wing player Tayshaun Prince and experienced point guard Andre Miller all signed contracts during the offseason before the late Saunders had to leave the job because of his ailing health. Now, they’re serving as guides through a difficult time as the team mourns Saunders’ death. Minnesota opened the season Wednesday with a one-point win over the Lakers.

“Coach brought us all here for a reason,” coach Sam Mitchell said, according to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports. “And he would expect nothing less than us coming out and being focused and doing the very best job.”

See more from around the Northwest Division:

New coach Michael Malone wants to win, but he acknowledges that so much of this season for the Nuggets is about the education of No. 7 overall pick Emmanuel Mudiay, as Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post relays. “If we’re getting our butts kicked, I’m not going to just sit there and say: ‘Well, this is good for Emmanuel’s development,'” Malone said. “But, overall, I want to be able to say at the end of Year 1 that we gave Emmanuel every chance to succeed and learn going into Year 2, because that’s only going to accelerate the growth of this roster and this organization.”
Thunder camp cut Julyan Stone has signed with Gaziantep of Turkey, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia).
The Jazz named Linda Luchetti the team’s vice president of basketball operations this week, a position that will have her reporting directly to GM Dennis Lindsey, the team announced. The move makes her one of the most highly ranking female basketball executives in the league, though her responsibilities will be focused on the business side of the team, according to The Associated Press.

Eastern Notes: J.R. Smith, Wizards, Contracts

September 3rd, 2015 at 5:30pm CST by Chuck Myron

J.R. Smith‘s new two-year contract with the Cavaliers has an unusual structure that includes partial guarantees for both this season and next, sources tell Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com (Twitter links). This year’s salary, worth $5MM, is guaranteed for only $2MM, and next year’s salary, a player option, has a $2.15MM partial guarantee on the full $5.4MM value, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (All four Twitter links). However, this season’s salary becomes fully guaranteed if the team keeps him through Monday, Pincus adds. That’s almost certain to happen, but the reason that clause is in the contract is so that his 2016/17 salary can become fully guaranteed if he sticks on the roster through the same date next year, in a structure similar to the deal that Kostas Papanikolaou signed with the Rockets last year, Pincus explains. The Cavs formally announced Smith’s signing Wednesday, nearly two weeks after Smith revealed that he would be rejoining the team.

See more from around the Eastern Conference:

Coach Randy Wittman likes the grit that Wizards camp signee Toure’ Murry has shown in the past, but the shooting guard will have to make quite a convincing case for the Wizards to keep him over one of the 15 players on their roster with a fully guaranteed contract, writes J. Michael of CSNMidAtlantic. Jaleel Roberts, the other Wizard with a non-guaranteed deal, won his training camp roster spot more so by his performance at Tim Grgurich’s private camp than through his play with the Wizards summer league squad, Michael hears. Still, Roberts is more likely to make the regular season roster in 2016/17, when the team will ostensibly have greater flexibility, than he is this year, according to Michael.
Kelly Dwyer, Ben Rohrbach and Eric Freeman of Yahoo! Sports weighed in on which 2015 NBA draftee ended up in the best situation to succeed next season. Dwyer chose the Knicks‘ Kristaps Porzingis, while Rohrbach tabbed Justise Winslow of the Heat, and Freeman’s pick was the Nuggets’ Emmanuel Mudiay.
The Cavs had possessed one of the most tradeable contracts in the league in Brendan Haywood‘s non-guaranteed pact, which they had dealt to the Blazers at the end of July. Pincus, in a separate post, ran down some of the most desirable trade chip contracts around the NBA , including Amir Johnson and Jonas Jerebko of the Celtics, the Wizards‘ Kris Humphries and Martell Webster, as well as Ersan Ilyasova‘s deal with the Pistons.

Eddie Scarito contributed to this post.

Emmanuel Mudiay Signs With Nuggets

July 25th, 2015 at 4:59pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Nuggets have signed No. 7 overall pick Emmanuel Mudiay, as Mudiay revealed on his Twitter account. The team hasn’t made a formal announcement, but it did tacitly acknowledge the signing on Twitter.

Courtesy of USA TODAY Sports

Mudiay can receive a maximum of $3,102,240 in the upcoming season and $3,241,800 in 2016/17 with a total of $14.02MM over the next four seasons, as our chart of likely salaries for first-round picks shows. The point guard, who played in China last season after originally committing to SMU, was expected to be a top-five pick leading up to the draft before he slipped to the Nuggets’ spot in the lottery.

With veteran Jameer Nelson the only other viable option on the roster, Mudiay is expected to be the team’s starting point guard in his rookie season. As GM Tim Connelly told Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post, the main concern with Mudiay is not playing him too much.

“I think it’s certainly a slippery slope,” Connelly said. “If you look at a lot of the elite players, they were thrown to the wolves early. Their early failures led to big-time success down the road. There’s going to be nights when Emmanuel is going to look like a 19-year old, and hopefully there’s nights where he looks like one of the elite point guards in the league. But we’re not going to put too much pressure on him. We’re going to kind of let it happen organically. And having a guy like Jameer [Nelson] behind him makes the transition that much easier.”

Northwest Notes: Jazz, Mudiay, Blazers

July 25th, 2015 at 4:00pm CST by Will Joseph

The Jazz have a logjam at point guard behind Dante Exum that they must sort out prior to next season’s opener, Randy Hollis of the Deseret News reports. The trio of Trey Burke, Bryce Cotton and Raul Neto could be fighting it out for two roster spots during training camp, though GM Dennis Lindsey indicated that it’s possible the team could carry four point guards into next season, Hollis continues. Cotton’s quickness and entertaining style make him a candidate to be the second-stringer and displace Burke, a lottery pick whose shooting issues have pushed him to the bench, Hollis adds. The logjam could be broken by trading Burke, who is rumored to be on the block and doesn’t seem to fit coach Quin Snyder’s system, Hollis concludes.

In other news around the Northwest Division:

The Nuggets’ lottery pick Emmanuel Mudiay will be the starter at point guard, Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post opines. While Denver has a safety net in veteran Jameer Nelson, it’s clear that the Nuggets are committed to making Mudiay their floor leader in his rookie season, Dempsey adds. The only concerns are monitoring his workload and allowing him to work through his mistakes, something Nuggets GM Tim Connelly addressed with Dempsey. “We don’t want to put too much pressure on him,” Connelly said. “He’s a 19-year-old kid. We saw some good in summer league and we also saw some bad. I thought that he struggled shooting the ball. We’ve got to improve his free throw line percentage. But I think you see things like positional size, natural playmaking ability, and kind of the will and the approach to be great that excites us.”
Blazers coach Terry Stotts spent a sizable portion of the summer league evaluating five players under contract with the team — Allen Crabbe, Noah Vonleh, Luis Montero, Pat Connaughton and Tim Frazier — and was particularly pleased with Crabbe and Vonleh, Mike Richman of The Oregonian writes. The Blazers added nine new players and are entering a transition season after LaMarcus Aldridge‘s departure. Portland does have some young and athletic talent, however, which has Stotts optimistic, Richman adds.

Dana Gauruder contributed to this post.

Southwest Notes: Smith, Cuban, Curry, Allen

July 18th, 2015 at 10:54pm CST by Arthur Hill

Owner Mark Cuban said the Mavericks weren’t pursuing Josh Smith before he left the Rockets to sign with the Clippers, according to The Dallas Morning News. “We weren’t in that mix at all,” Cuban said in a radio interview with KESN-FM, adding that the Mavericks unsuccessfully tried to sign Smith after he was waived by the Pistons in December. There was a report last week that Dallas was one of the teams in play for the free agent forward.

There’s more from the Southwest Division:

Cuban overpaid free agents by millions to prove his loyalty, charges Tim Bontemps of The New York Post. Being spurned by DeAndre Jordan affected Cuban’s judgment in subsequent deals, Bontemps contends. He praises the Mavericks owner for acquiring Zaza Pachulia cheaply and gambling on Deron Williams for $11MM over two seasons, but writes that the deals given to Wesley Matthews ($70MM over four seasons) and J.J. Barea ($16MM over four seasons) could lead to an ugly cap situation in the future.
The Pelicans haven’t decided whether to offer a contract to Seth Curry, tweets John Reid of The Times-Picayune. GM Dell Demps discussed the possibility tonight on NBA TV. New Orleans is rumored to be close to giving a guaranteed deal to Curry, who was the top scorer in the Las Vegas summer league heading into today’s games.
The Grizzlies‘ Tony Allen is convinced that he made the right choice when he left Boston for Memphis five years ago, writes Geoff Calkins of The Commercial Appeal. The defensive specialist signed with the Grizzlies as a free agent in July of 2010. Allen has two more seasons and more than $10.6MM left on his current contract. “I can’t envision myself no place else,” he said. “I got about five more years.”

Northwest Notes: Malone, Lillard, Harkless

July 17th, 2015 at 11:40am CST by Chuck Myron

Nuggets coach Michael Malone didn’t have too much to say about Ty Lawson, other than that he’s been in contact and that he still considers the point guard “part of the Denver Nugget family,” but Malone, in his conversation with Grantland’s Zach Lowe, provided a glimpse into Denver’s draft night war room.

“It’s very rare when you’re picking No. 7 to get the guy you target. I kid you not, when I got the job, [GM] Tim Connelly said, ‘Emmanuel Mudiay. That’s the guy,'” Malone said.

The team’s other target was Duke small forward Justise Winslow, Malone admitted to Lowe with hesitation. Winslow slipped to the Heat at No. 10. The coach also spoke with Lowe about his time hanging around the Timberwolves last season, and Malone “absolutely” had interest in becoming the head-coach-in-waiting under Flip Saunders in Minnesota, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities. He would have considered such an opportunity over the Nuggets gig, Wolfson adds. Here’s more from around the Northwest Division:

Damian Lillard is a fan of Portland’s trade acquisition of Maurice Harkless, GM Neil Olshey says, and it’s with Lillard in mind that the Blazers are going after players like the former Magic small forward, as The Oregonian’s Mike Richman chronicles. Lillard signed a five-year max extension this month. “When LaMarcus [Aldridge] warned us he wasn’t coming back we went full bore with guys on the same career arc as Damian Lillard,” Olshey said. “Damian’s our best player right now, he’s a two time All-Star. We’re going to bring in players that compliment his skill set, how we want to play and that can grow with him as he continues to improve.”
The Nuggets were reportedly one of three teams interested in signing Sergio Rodriguez, but it doesn’t look like he’ll leave Spain for the NBA again, as Real Madrid wants him to stay, reports David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter links). The contract reportedly contains an NBA buyout clause, but Real Madrid will fight to keep him, Pick says.
The precise value of Jameer Nelson‘s three-year contract with the Nuggets is $13,621,575, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link).
The cap hits in the four-year deal the Nuggets gave Nikola Jokic come to $5,551,000, and year four is a team option, Pincus also shows (Twitter link).