Harrison Barnes Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Western Notes: LeBron, Warriors, Mavs

July 6th, 2014 at 8:25pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Warriors could have dealt Harrison Barnes to the Magic for Arron Afflalo and a future first-round pick, a source tells Ric Bucher of 95.7 The Game (on Twitter). The Warriors passed, but such a deal would have eased losing Klay Thompson in a Kevin Love trade.

Pacific Rumors: Hawes, Gasol, Frye, Warriors

July 1st, 2014 at 8:37pm CST by Zachary Links

Free agent Spencer Hawes met with Warriors GM Bob Myers in Los Angeles, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. The Warriors have a trade exception that they could use in a sign-and-trade scenario for the big man. Next up for Hawes will be a meeting with Clippers‘ coach/president Doc Rivers. More from the Pacific..

A source tells Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio (on Twitter) that Hawes will meet with the Lakers while he’s in Los Angeles.
Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak met with free agent forward Pau Gasol in person on Tuesday, a league source tells Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com (on Twitter). The meeting took place at an L.A. office building and lasted “a few hours” (link).
The Warriors contacted the agent for free agent big man Channing Frye, according to Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle. The W’s have also gotten calls on young assets Harrison Barnes, Draymond Green, and Festus Ezeli, but haven’t jumped on any of the proposed deals.
Despite early interest in Hawes and Frye, the Warriors are turning their concentration towards signing a backup point guard, a source tells David Aldridge of NBA.com (on Twitter).

Western Rumors: Love, Warriors, Duncan, Lakers

June 23rd, 2014 at 1:46pm CST by Chuck Myron

Sources tell Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher and Baxter Holmes of The Boston Globe that the Warriors trade talks for Kevin Love are “dead,” but Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune isn’t so sure (All Twitter links). The stumbling block appears to be Minnesota’s insistence on Klay Thompson and Golden State’s refusal to give him up, according to Holmes (on Twitter), but Zgoda insists neither Thompson nor Kevin Martin is the stumbling block. Rather, it has to do with whether Harrison Barnes or Draymond Green are involved in the deal, Zgoda says. Here’s more from around the Western Conference:

It appears as though the Spurs and Tim Duncan are considering a scenario in which Duncan would opt out and re-sign with the club for two years in a way that lowers team payroll and yet rewards the longtime star, tweets Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News. Duncan’s option is worth more than $10.361MM.
The Lakers aren’t seriously considering a rumored trade proposal involving the No. 7 pick and Michael Carter-Williams, according to Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. It’s more likely that the Lakers will make a deal that moves them back in the draft order, Deveney writes.
The Nuggets reportedly had interest in signing 2013 second-round pick Joffrey Lauvergne this summer, but the big man has signed a two-year deal with Khimki Moscow, Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia.

Pacific Rumors: Suns, Love, MCW, Henry

June 21st, 2014 at 2:07pm CST by Charlie Adams

The Suns have brought in a multitude of point guards to their pre-draft workouts, and Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press suggests (on Twitter) that such a strategy might be indicative of the team’s willingness to ship off Eric Bledsoe or Goran Dragic in a trade for Kevin Love. Phoenix has been identified as a potential suitor for Love, but the club hasn’t been labeled as serious candidate to land the big man. Here’s more from out west:

The Warriors have been attempting to find a third team to include in a potential deal for Love, but a source close to the situation said it’s been “difficult,” passes along Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (via Twitter).
Meanwhile, Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune notes (on Twitter) that the Warriors could land Love without involving a third team if they included both Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes in an offer.
Michael Carter-Williams has not been included in any of the rumored trade discussions between the Lakers and the Sixers, tweets Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times.
There’s mutual interest in a reunion between Xavier Henry and the Lakers, writes Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News, who adds that LA hopes to hang on to all of their role players with one-year, minimum salary deals.
Alvin Gentry‘s departure to Golden State opens up the Clippers’ top assistant spot to Tyronn Lue, and LA’s fondness for Lue is a major reason the team was open to letting Gentry walk, tweets Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News.

Wolves Unlikely To Move Love Before Season?

June 21st, 2014 at 11:39am CST by Cray Allred

11:39am: The Warriors want to to structure a smaller deal around Barnes and Lee for Love, which is substantially different from Minnesota’s wishes to build a deal around Thompson, Lee, and more pieces for both Love and Martin, writes Kawakami. The inclusion of Lee is understood as a necessity for any deal for both teams, per Kawakami.

11:14am: Wolfson hears that the rumored three-team deal involving Thompson and the Lakers No. 7 pick will not happen (Twitter link). Shelburne tweets that the Warriors have rebuffed calls from LA regarding such a trade.

10:57am: The talks between Minnesota and Golden State deal are indeed at an impasse, write Ramona Shelburne and Marc Stein of ESPN.com. While the Wolves organization is reportedly torn on whether to retain Thompson in a Love deal, Shelburne says there is an “organizational split” in Golden State on whether to give up the shooting guard in a package for Love. Jerry West and Steve Kerr are in opposition to giving up both Thompson and a future first round pick, while others in the organization were prepared to complete a deal that would have sent Thompson, David Lee, and a pick to Minnesota in exchange Love and Martin.

10:40am: The Nuggets offer is likely off the table, now that Denver is “100% certain” that Love would not re-sign with them beyond this season, reports Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (via Twitter). Denver made the offer before knowing Love’s likelihood of re-signing in Denver, per Wolfson. Wolfson tells Hoops Rumors that he doubts the talks between Denver and Minnesota will be completely shut down, however, considering the history between Saunders and Nuggets GM Tim Connelly, who worked together with the Wizards.

9:17am: The Wolves are hesitant to acquire Thompson since he would soon be looking for a big contract, tweets Eric Pincus of The Los Angeles Times. Pincus says that the No. 7 pick wouldn’t be enough for Minnesota, so the Warriors would leverage that pick with their other assets in the three-team scenario. The LA Times scribe says that a deal involving the Lakers is not imminent since the Lakers wouldn’t be able to trade their pick until after the draft (Twitter links).

9:00am: Discussions for a three-team deal that would send Thompson to the Lakers, the seventh pick to the Wolves, and Love to the Warriors were recently put on hold, reports Mike Bresnahan of The Los Angeles Times. The snag was due to disagreement within the Minnesota front office on whether to it would be prudent to retain Thompson as part of a Love trade.

8:40am: The nature of the Wolves trade discussions is making it increasingly unlikely that they strike a deal for Kevin Love before the season begins, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports said on an interview with 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Felger & Mazz radio show. Since the Wolves aren’t in discussions with any teams at the very top of the draft, Wojnarowski said the pressure is off for Minnesota coach and president of basketball ops Flip Saunders to complete a trade prior to the draft, and his potential trading partners are also open to revisiting discussions once the season begins.

Wojnarowski doesn’t think the Celtics have an offer that the Wolves will bite at, and he thinks that Saunders is playing coy with one-sided offers to the Warriors. “Saunders is going around discussing deals that won’t happen, so he can go back to Love and his agent and say, ‘We tried, see you in training camp,’” the Yahoo! scribe said. His sources in Golden State tell him that the Warriors are not “desperate” to acquire Love and will not include both Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes in a package for the All-Star forward, which is the package Wojnarowski says Minnesota wants. A league source confirmed to Tim Kawakami of Bay Area News Group that the Warriors will “flat out” not agree to the latest offers from Minnesota, and that Golden State is uninterested in taking back Kevin Martin in a deal as the Wolves are insisting (Twitter links).

The Nuggets were left out by Wojnarowski in the discussion of front-runners for Love. Presuming they are still involved in talks for Love, Denver would still fit the profile of the no-rush trade scenario for Minnesota, since they only own the No. 11 pick and are building their offer primarily around developed players.

Warriors Shopping Harrison Barnes For Pick

June 20th, 2014 at 11:56am CST by Chuck Myron

The Warriors are dangling Harrison Barnes in trade talks as they attempt to trade for a first-round pick in this year’s draft, as Chad Ford of ESPN.com reports in an Insider-only piece. It’s unclear whether the conversations extend beyond their negotiations with the Timberwolves toward a Kevin Love deal, but it appears Warriors GM Bob Myers and company place a high value on acquiring a first-rounder to replace the one they traded to Utah last year. Golden State is without a pick in either round on Thursday.

The Timberwolves are reportedly interested in Barnes, though Wolves coach/executive Flip Saunders made it clear Thursday that he had no intention of giving up the No. 13 pick in this year’s draft. That would seem to suggest that the Warriors will have to look elsewhere for a 2014 pick, assuming they haven’t already.

Barnes was in trade rumors leading up to the deadline, even though Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob said he wasn’t anxious to move the player the team took seventh overall just two years ago. Still, it appeared the club was targeting a veteran big man who could provide short-term help in return for Barnes, indicating that either Golden State has doubts about his to fulfill his promise or that the team isn’t keen on waiting for him to do so.

Kevin Love Rumors: Friday

June 20th, 2014 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

The draft is less than a week away, and while the event itself will be a game-changer for many teams, there’s a decent chance that the most noteworthy move Thursday night will involve six-year veteran Kevin Love. Here’s the latest as trade talk around the Wolves star grows ever louder:

The Warriors have pulled into the lead in the race for Love, sources tell Baxter Holmes of The Boston Globe, though no deal is imminent, and the Wolves are in no hurry to make a trade, Holmes also hears.
The Wolves have interest in Harrison Barnes as they discuss various scenarios with the Warriors, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com.
The Celtics have so far offered a package of Kelly Olynyk, picks Nos. 6 and 17 in this year’s draft, and a future first-round pick, according to Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald. Boston is willing to discuss different combinations as it seeks to satisfy the demands of the Wolves, but so far Minnesota hasn’t engaged in “true back-and-forth negotiation” with the Celtics, Bulpett writes.
If the Celtics can’t land Love, they’ll likely shift gears into a longer rebuilding that would eventually see them trade Rajon Rondo, Bulpett says in the same piece. A source tells Bulpett that an opposing team is ready to trade for Jeff Green if the Celtics are willing to let him go.
Still, in an appearance Thursday on ESPN, Rondo, who like Love can become a free agent next year, said he wouldn’t be upset if the Celtics didn’t end up with the Minnesota power forward, as Holmes notes in his piece. “No. I can’t go to sleep every night wanting to try to play with Kevin Love,” Rondo said. “Right now I’ve got to go with what we have now in our locker room and coach [Brad] Stevens, so that’s what I’m focused on now.”
The Bulls remain more zeroed in on Carmelo Anthony than Love, Stein writes in his piece, and the same goes for Houston, as Stein examines in a separate article. The Rockets are also readying a pitch to LeBron James should he be willing to listen, Stein adds.

Pacific Notes: Kobe, Young, Scott, Warriors

June 18th, 2014 at 9:48pm CST by Alex Lee

In Brazil taking in the World Cup, Kobe Bryant indicated on Brazilian television that his knee is fully healthy and he is working tirelessly to ensure the Lakers bounce back from what was a difficult year, writes Eric Pincus of the L.A. Times. “We only have three players from last year’s team signed to contracts right now, including me. We don’t have a coach. It’s literally like starting from scratch,” said Bryant, who also reiterated his intent to play only two more years in the NBA.

Here is more news from the Pacific division:

Bryant presumably did not count Nick Young, who is likely to opt out of his deal, among the three players under contract with the Lakers. Speaking to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News, Young said on Wednesday that he would prefer to stay with the Lakers and would be willing to take a hometown discount if the team offered him “more years.” Medina believes the team likes Young, but is unlikely to offer role-player types more than a one year deal in hopes of preserving cap space.
Both Bryant and Young are surely paying close attention to the team’s coaching search. Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio reports (via Twitter) that all indications are that Byron Scott is the leading candidate to become the Lakers next head coach.
There were whispers on Wednesday that the Warriors might be willing to part with Harrison Barnes and David Lee in exchange for Tyson Chandler, according to Marcus Thompson of the San Jose Mercury News, who staunchly opposes the deal from Golden State’s perspective and quickly dismissed any possibility of it materializing.

Warriors Rumors: Jackson, Barnes, O’Neal, Green

March 27th, 2014 at 1:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

Impatience from the ownership suite is at the root of much of the tension surrounding the Warriors, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders writes in his NBA AM piece. The front office is under pressure, and that affects coach Mark Jackson and his coaching staff, according to Kyler, who says the owners often push for roster changes when the team isn’t performing well. The principal owners of the Warriors are Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, but Kyler doesn’t specify whether it’s one or both of them or someone else within the ownership group who is putting the squeeze on. Still, Kyler has other specifics about the uneasiness in Golden State, as we detail below amid our look at the latest from the Pacific Division:

Harrison Barnes was the subject of trade rumors before the deadline, and Kyler hears that Warriors ownership started those talks in hope of flipping Barnes for a veteran big man who could help the team win in the short-term. For what it’s worth, Lacob said in February that he wasn’t anxious to move Barnes.
Jackson previously denied that there’s dysfunction within the Warriors, and Wednesday he also tried to shoot down the idea that he sought head coaching jobs with the Clippers and Nets, among other teams. Monte Poole of CSNBayArea.com has the details.
Jackson is an ordained nondenominational Christian minister, and that’s a draw for many players, including Jermaine O’Neal, who said it was one of the primary reasons he signed with the Warriors, and Draymond Green, as Sean Deveney of The Sporting News observes.
The Warriors expected to contend for the Western Conference title this year, and if they reach the conference finals, Jackson will “almost certainly” return as coach, but if they lose in the first round, he’s a goner, Deveney believes.

Latest On Harrison Barnes

February 20th, 2014 at 11:26am CST by Chuck Myron

THURSDAY, 11:26am: The Cavs have also asked the Warriors about Barnes, but Golden State doesn’t intend to trade him, according to Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio (Twitter link).

WEDNESDAY, 8:08am: The Grizzlies are going after Harrison Barnes as they seek to upgrade their small forward spot, tweets Sam Amick of USA Today. The Warriors are looking for a quality backup big man, but Memphis will clearly have to give up more than Kosta Koufos to acquire Barnes, Amick notes (Twitter link). The Warriors have received a deluge of calls about their second-year small forward, but they’ve been unwilling to trade him unless they can get a marquee player in return, as Amick reported last week.

Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob said a week ago that the team is unlikely to trade Barnes, Klay Thompson or Stephen Curry, and the Warriors have reportedly told Barnes that he won’t be dealt, barring a blockbuster. The seventh overall pick in 2012 is averaging just 10.4 points in 29.2 minutes per game, but he’s shooting 40.9% from three-point range.

Memphis appears ready to shake up its rotation, if not its core, having begun discussions with the Wolves about shipping Tony Allen and Tayshaun Prince to Minnesota for Chase Budinger and J.J. Barea. It would be tough for the Grizzlies, or any team, to construct a trade for Barnes without taking back at least one other high-salaried player, since Barnes is making only a little more than $2.9MM on his rookie scale contract. Most players making that much or less wouldn’t constitute the sort of return the Warriors are looking for. While Golden State has a trade exception worth more than $9.8MM available, absorbing that much salary without sending nearly as much out would put the team into the luxury tax.