JaVale McGee Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Nets Notes: Stephenson, Ferrell, Mockevicius, Beech

September 4th, 2016 at 10:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

Former Nets GM Billy King turned down a trade proposal last season that would have brought Lance Stephenson to Brooklyn, according to NetsDaily.com. King, who lost the GM title in January in a shakeup that cost coach Lionel Hollins his job, nixed the deal, which would have sent Joe Johnson to Charlotte in exchange for Stephenson and other unidentified players. The trade had the approval of Dmitry Razumov, chairman of the Nets’ board of directors, and NetsDaily shares the story as a way of showing that King had final say on all personnel moves, including the disastrous deal with the Celtics that put Brooklyn in its current position. King, the columnist added, also rejected Razumov’s suggestion to pursue JaVale McGee.

There’s more news tonight out of Brooklyn:

Yogi Ferrell, Egidijus Mockevicius and Beau Beech will come into camp knowing that they’re likely headed to the Nets’ new D-League affiliate on Long Island, NetsDaily writes in the same piece. All three received “training camp invites,” which don’t become fully guaranteed unless the players remain on the roster until all contracts are guaranteed in early January. The author notes that roster spots could be hard to earn with Brooklyn having 15 players with fully guaranteed contracts, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Seven of those players have deals that either will expire or can expire after the upcoming season, so the Nets have flexibility if they decide to keep Ferrell, Mockevicius or Beech.
The Nets may pick up another player before camp with the intention of sending him to the D-League, NetsDaily adds. The rights of the last four players cut would automatically go to the Long Island affiliate if they aren’t claimed off waivers. Brooklyn currently has 18 players headed to camp, two shy of the NBA limit.

Mavericks Waive JaVale McGee

July 8th, 2016 at 4:24pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Mavericks have parted ways with center JaVale McGee, the team announced via press release. He now becomes an unrestricted free agent, provided he clears waivers. The franchise was reportedly looking to find a trade partner for McGee, whose salary of $1,403,611 for 2016/17 was scheduled to become fully guaranteed on July 12th.

It’s no surprise Dallas found no takers for McGee, given that free agency is in full swing and there are plenty of available reserve options still on the market for a new home. Since the big man’s guarantee had not yet kicked in, the Mavs won’t be on the hook for any salary as a result of waiving McGee.

McGee, 28, appeared in 34 games for the Mavs this past season and averaged 5.1 points and 3.9 rebounds in 10.9 minutes per outing. The center shot .575/.000/.500 on the year.

And-Ones: Durant, Mack, Evans, Robinson

July 5th, 2016 at 10:36pm CST by Eddie Scarito

A contributing factor that led to Kevin Durant leaving OKC to join the Warriors was his frustration with the Thunder‘s offense and guard Russell Westbrook‘s tendency to dominate the ball, a source close to the “Slim Reaper” told Howard Beck of Bleacher Report. “Ultimately, he got frustrated and felt that they had plateaued,” the source told Beck. “[Coach Billy Donovan] came in, and he still had the same issues that he had with Russ under Scotty [former coach Scott Brooks]. The offense didn’t change much. He still had to take a ton of contested shots every game; and that’s when he had the ball at all. He’s never going to have a game in Golden State where Steve Kerr has to say at halftime, ‘You guys need to get Kevin the ball,’ which happened in OKC.”

Here’s more from around the league:

The chances are increasing dramatically that the Mavericks will look to trade forward Jeremy Evans, Marc Stein of ESPN.com tweets. Evans, 28, has one year and $1,227,286 remaining on his current contract. Dallas is also exploring options to get JaVale McGee and his $1,403,611 salary off the books for next season, Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com tweets. If the center remains on the roster past July 12th his deal becomes fully guaranteed.
The Jazz will keep point guard Shelvin Mack on the roster past Thursday, which means his contract worth $2,433,334 will become fully guaranteed, Tony Jones of The Salt Lake Tribune reports.
Unrestricted free agent guard Nate Robinson hasn’t garnered much interest around the league and a number of teams have been turned off by his stated interest in joining the NFL, Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated relays (on Twitter).
The Warriors are seeking veterans willing to sign team friendly deals to fill out the roster and may be interested in point guard Mario Chalmers and center Kendrick Perkins, Rusty Simmons of The San Francisco Chronicle writes.

And-Ones: Spurs, Celtics, Sixers, Pistons, Nuggets

May 13th, 2016 at 9:00am CST by Chuck Myron

Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili aren’t certain whether they’ll retire, as Michael C. Wright of ESPN.com details, but they’re not the only Spurs liable to hang it up in the wake of the team’s playoff elimination Thursday night. Andre Miller has strongly considered retirement, though he, too, hasn’t made up his mind yet, as he told Marc Spears of The Undefeated (Twitter link). San Antonio’s contract with the 40-year-old Miller expires at the end of next month while Duncan, also 40, and Ginobili, who turns 39 in July, have player options. David West also has a player option, and though he turns 36 over the offseason, the talk surrounding him isn’t of retirement but of the lack of regrets he has about sacrificing roughly $11MM to sign his two-year minimum-salary contract with San Antonio last summer, as Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio News-Express relays (Twitter links).

“It’s been a great experience,” West said of his season with the Spurs. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”

See more from around the NBA:

The Celtics, Sixers, Pistons, Nuggets, Pacers and Trail Blazers all benefited this season from set-off rights, reducing their obligations to waived players who had guaranteed salary remaining on their contracts, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders details. Boston saved $620,306 from the money it owed David Lee because he signed a deal with the Mavs that paid more than $845,059, a figure equivalent to the one-year veteran’s minimum salary, Pincus writes. The Sixers saved $227,241 on JaVale McGee the same way. The Nuggets were spared $68,144 on Pablo Prigioni, the Pacers avoided paying $159,900 to Toney Douglas and the Trail Blazers shaved $327,064 from their bill for Mike Miller, according to Pincus. The Pistons saved $341,353 on Josh Smith, though that figure will be spread evenly over each season of the five-year obligation Detroit still has to him because the team used the stretch provision.
The Pistons also got cap relief for Aaron Gray, whom they owe $452,049 each season from 2015/16 through 2017/18, Pincus points out. Gray had to retire because of a heart condition, but a team can remove the cap hit for a player who had to retire because of a medical reason one year after his final game. Gray last played in 2014. Detroit still must pay the money to Gray, but it doesn’t count against the team’s cap, Pincus notes.
Agent Jason Glushon and the Wasserman agency mutually agreed to part ways, and Glushon will start his own agency, a source told Spears (Twitter link). Glushon has a short list of clients, with none more prominent than Hawks soon-to-be free agent Al Horford, who left Wasserman, Glushon and B.J. Armstrong to sign with Bill Duffy of BDA Sports last fall only to rejoin Wasserman a couple of months later. Jrue Holiday and Norman Powell are other Glushon clients.

Western Notes: McGee, Durant, Price

April 27th, 2016 at 7:31pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Thunder small forward Kevin Durant, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, sees some parallels between himself and Mavs big man Dirk Nowitzki regarding their importance to their respective franchises, Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman relays. “Dirk has been a model of how you should handle things,” Durant said. “I’m just trying to do things my way as well. There’s a lot that comes with it. Dirk has handled it about as good as anybody’s ever handled it in this league. I try to learn from guys like him, Kobe Bryant. From everybody that’s been in that position, handling the situation as being a franchise guy.”

Durant did note that he has had an advantage over Nowitzki with the presence of teammate Russell Westbrook on the roster, Tramel adds. “The good thing about it here, I’m not the only guy,” Durant said. “Having Russell Westbrook along with me, that’s been with me along the way, to have another guy with you going through it and being able to kind of relate to the same things, it helps. I’m not here by myself. The organization’s been great, Russell has been more of a teammate than I could ask for over these last nine years. It’s not just myself.”

While Oklahoma City’s fan base hopes that Durant remains as loyal to the Thunder as Nowitzki has been to Dallas, here’s more from out West:

The Kings are closing in on hiring Pistons executive Ken Catanella as their new assistant GM, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports. Catanella has been with Detroit since being named director of basketball operations in December of 2011, and he was promoted to assistant GM in 2014/15. He and George David were jointly in charge of the Pistons front office during the brief period between the tenures of Joe Dumars and Stan Van Gundy in 2014.
The Mavericks will seek to add a center this offseason but still consider JaVale McGee a part of their future plans, writes Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News. “I don’t want to leave out JaVale McGee,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “He came to us as a guy who was recovering from a very serious [leg] injury. And his deal is a two-year deal and we felt it was going to take two years to get back to being completely healthy and the player he completely was. He’s regained his health, regained his footing and he and Salah Mejri right now are the two centers we have. We’ll certainly look to add somebody else. But we’re going to be looking at those two guys as very important.”
Suns point guard Ronnie Price, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason, said he wants to remain in Phoenix and that he and his teammates need to stay close over the summer to improve team chemistry, Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic writes. “It’s a mutual responsibility for all of us to stay linked in and just stay connected,” said Price. “We talk about being a family and we’ve made great strides. We can’t make those strides and then, in the summer, be like, ‘See you next August.’ We have to stay connected and continue to build so then, when the season gets here, we’re ahead of the game.”

Southwest Notes: Howard, Leonard, McGee

December 19th, 2015 at 3:45pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Though he acknowledges that center Dwight Howard is unhappy with the current state of the Rockets, interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff refutes any notion that Howard is a disruptive influence in the locker room, Sam Amick of USA Today writes. “Since I’ve taken over [for fired coach Kevin McHale], I’ve tried to spend a lot of time with Dwight,” Bickerstaff told Amick. “And Dwight’s mind, his heart, are in the right place. He’s about the right things. Dwight wants to win. He wants to play the right way. He wants to contribute to winning, obviously at a high level. So for me, that’s all I can go on. I trust Dwight. He hasn’t misled me at any point since I’ve known him, since I’ve been working with him. So I can’t hang any value to what other people are saying.”

“I know he’s frustrated, I’m sure,” Bickerstaff continued. “[But] I don’t see him as a guy who’s looking to take the easy way out. … He has been there to perform through all of it. He’s been hurt. He’s been battling the knees, the back, all those things, and never once has he let on that he didn’t want to be a part of it or he was going to take the easy way out. I think he needs to have a bigger role, but I think it’s a combination of how we get him to that point. I’ve got to do a better job of getting him the ball in positions where he can score.”

Here’s more from the Southwest Division:

Spurs small forward Kawhi Leonard isn’t surprised by his ascent to NBA stardom, because he knows just how hard he worked to get his game to its current level, Michael C. Wright of ESPN.com writes. “I worked hard,” Leonard said. “It’s my fifth year. It’s not just about what I did this summer, it’s about the experience I had under my belt for the past four years. It just comes with a mindset. There are a lot of guys that stay in the gym and don’t get any better. It’s about being smart, figuring out your weaknesses and not being scared to do it in the games.“
Despite not seeing much action for the Mavericks as he makes his return from injury, center JaVale McGee remains an important piece for the team given its lack of rim protecting big men, Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News writes. “He’s not 100% of the player he was before the injury just because he hasn’t had a training camp and he hasn’t had a significant amount of time since being cleared,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “Matchups are part of it with everybody playing smaller. It’s just a little trickier getting him minutes.“

Southwest Notes: Mavs, Allen, Martin, Adams

December 7th, 2015 at 12:01pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Mavericks have established a tight-knit locker room, and that’s why the team is in no hurry to make deals once most offseason signees around the league become eligible to be traded December 15th, as Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News wrote last week. The team is 12-9 and, in a surprise, tied for fourth in the Western Conference.

“We’re not exactly sure what we have yet,” said Mavs president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson, according to Sefko.

The Morning News scribe speculates that backup center is the only spot that might elicit an upgrade, with the still-recovering JaVale McGee limited to no more than 15 minutes per game and unable to play back-to-backs, but the Mavs only have two back-to-back sets the rest of the month, Sefko notes. See more from the Southwest Division:

Tony Allen remains a starter, but he’s failed to score or play as many as 20 minutes in four straight games, notes Chris Herrington of The Commercial Appeal, who examines the swingman’s changing role for the Grizzlies. Allen is signed through 2016/17.
Jarell Martin, whom the Grizzlies drafted 25th overall this year, is moving closer to a return from a broken foot, and when he does make his season debut, it’ll be on D-League assignment, Herrington writes in the same piece. Jordan Adams will also probably go to the D-League when he comes back from right knee soreness, Herrington adds.
Center Mirza Begić, briefly with the Pelicans during the preseason, has formally joined Bilbao of Spain on a deal for the rest of the season, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Orazio Cauchi). J.M. Cortizas of El Correo first reported Begić was close to signing.

Southwest Notes: Morey, Williams, McGee, Gentry

November 23rd, 2015 at 3:31pm CST by Chuck Myron

It’s up to the players to pull the Rockets out of the malaise that cost former coach Kevin McHale his job, according to GM Daryl Morey, but Morey acknowledges to TNT’s David Aldridge that some of the fault lies at his own desk, as Aldridge relays in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com.

“Except for Dwight Howard, there really isn’t anybody on the roster playing well, and those are all my decisions,” Morey said. “I can’t hide from that.”

The Rockets won their first game after switching from McHale to interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff but lost both of their games since, and they’re tied with the Kings at 5-9 for 12th place in the Western Conference. See more from the Southwest Division:

Chandler Parsons doesn’t understand why Deron Williams has a reputation as a negative locker room force, citing evidence of the opposite to Jake Fischer of SI.com. Wesley Matthews observes a positive attitude from Williams in the face of challenges, like the erosion of his game, a change Williams acknowledges, as Fischer adds. “My days of scoring 20 and 10 are over. I know that,” said Williams, who gave up nearly $16MM to buy his way off the Nets before signing with the Mavericks for $11MM over two years.
The return of JaVale McGee puts the squeeze on the minutes of early-season revelation Dwight Powell, notes Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News. The Mavs have until January 7th to decide whether to pay McGee his full salary of $1.27MM or waive him and pay only his $750K partial guarantee.
Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry was satisfied as the lead assistant for the Warriors last season and didn’t think he’d end up with another head coaching job until New Orleans came calling, observes Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. “I was not going to take a job just to have a job as a head coach unless it was a situation that I thought was going to give you an opportunity to win and win big and compete for a championship,” Gentry said. “I really didn’t have any desire just to take another NBA job.”

Southwest Notes: Carlisle, McGee, Douglas, Hayes

November 6th, 2015 at 9:59am CST by Chuck Myron

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban usually doesn’t do extensions, but he made an exception with coach Rick Carlisle, whom he signed to a five-year, $35MM extension Thursday, notes Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News details.

“I don’t say, ‘Here, this is the way it’s always going to be.’ The worst policy in the world is to be dogmatic about your policies,” Cuban said. “It was clear he wanted to stay. He didn’t put pressure on us at all. We reached out. What it confirms is we’ll never put money over winning. Winning always comes first.”

It was the right idea for both the team and the coach to extend the contract now, given the questions about whether the Mavericks can do much winning this season, since it removes any doubts about Carlisle’s future, opines fellow Morning News scribe Kevin Sherrington. See more on the Mavs amid the latest from around the Southwest Division:

It’s unlikely that JaVale McGee plays anytime in November, and his timetable for a return from his lingering leg injury is weeks, not days, tweets Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com. McGee’s with the Mavs on a $750K partial guarantee he locked in when he made the opening night roster.
The Pelicans gave Toney Douglas a $50K partial guarantee as part of his deal with them, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). It’s a prorated two-year, minimum-salary contract, according to Pincus.
The deal that the Rockets signed with Chuck Hayes this past weekend covers one year at the prorated minimum salary and is non-guaranteed, Pincus also shows. Since it’s only a one-year deal, it counts toward Houston’s tax and hard cap at only the two-year veteran’s minimum rate instead of the full 10-year minimum that the 32-year-old Hayes is actually making. The league will pay the difference.

Western Rumors: World Peace, Clippers, McGee

October 26th, 2015 at 8:44pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Metta World Peace not only made the Lakers‘ opening-day roster, but the club also plans to make him an assistant coach after his playing career, league sources told Yahoo Sports’ Shams Charania. The veteran small forward, who beat out Jabari Brown for the final roster spot, has been mentoring several young Lakers players, including 2014 lottery pick and power forward Julius Randle, Charania adds. World Peace is excited about the possibility of being a coach, ESPN’s Baxter Holmes tweets. “It would be fun,” World Peace said. “I mean, who wouldn’t want to be a coach? It’s a great life.”

In other news around the Western Conference:

Luc Mbah a Moute secured the Clippers’ final roster spot over veteran forward Chuck Hayes because of his defensive prowess, Dan Woike of the Orange County Register reports. Clippers coach Doc Rivers told Woike that he views Mbah a Moute as a defensive specialist. “He’s one of those guys that can be a great team defender,” Rivers said. The small forward wound up with the Clippers after the Kings voided Mbah a Moute’s free agent deal with the team this summer, claiming he failed his physical because of a shoulder injury, Woike adds.
Center JaVale McGee is still “weeks away” from being cleared to play but Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle is encouraged by his progress, Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com tweets. McGee is rehabbing from a left tibial stress fracture. Salah Mejri appears to be the main backup to Zaza Pachulia until McGee returns.
Al-Farouq Aminu has made a strong impression on his Trail Blazers teammates with his defensive versatility, according to Joe Freeman of The Oregonian. Aminu was signed as a free agent to a four-year, $30MM deal to be their defensive stopper, Freeman continues. “He’s a jack-of-all-trades, a guy who can do everything,” shooting guard C.J. McCollum said to Freeman. “I think he’s really, really talented defensively. He’s a guy who can guard multiple positions, can guard a point guard, he can get switched on the four or five and hold his own, rebound, block shots, run the floor.” However, he may miss the season opener because of a left hamstring strain, Casey Holdahl of Trailblazers.com reports.
Rockets point guard Patrick Beverley is ready for the season opener after a hand injury that required surgery prevented him from playing during the team’s postseason run, Jenny Creech of the Houston Chronicle writes. Beverley missed one preseason game with groin soreness, but averaged 7.7 points and 3.7 assists in seven other preseason outings.