Jeremy Lin Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Lakers Notes: Clarkson, Hill, Melo, Bryant

January 31st, 2015 at 8:14pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Lakers believe they have a contributor in rookie Jordan Clarkson, writes Jovan Buha of ESPNLosAngeles.com. “I think we have a pretty good basketball player in this young kid,” coach Byron Scott said. “When he falls on his face, he gets right back up. He wants to get better; he works his butt off every single day. If you look at his first game [starting] against San Antonio, and his last game last night, he’s shown improvement.” Clarkson is averaging 13.8 points per game while shooting 40.4% from the field during his four games as the team’s starting point guard.

Here’s more from Los Angeles:

Jordan Hill and Jeremy Lin are among the players whom Jabari Davis of Basketball Insiders believes could be dealt before the trade deadline. Hill would probably garner the most in a trade but the center has a de-facto no trade clause in his contract, which might make a deal difficult. Kennedy lists the Clippers and the Blazers as potential destinations for Hill based on their need for frontcourt depth.
Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant decided they wouldn’t work as teammates last summer when Anthony was a free agent, writes Marc Berman of the New York Post. “It was a great visit. The conversations I had with Kobe was just man to man. We both had to come to reality and say, ‘Is this what we really want?’ And it didn’t happen,” Anthony said. The forward also added that he believes Bryant will not retire at the end of the season. “I know him, and this is not the way he wants to go out,’’ Anthony said. “I’m pretty sure he’ll do whatever he has to do to get back on the court one more time before he hangs them shoes up.’’
Some people doubt that Kobe Bryant will be able return to the NBA from his latest injury, but Fran Blinebury of NBA.com is optimistic that the 36-year-old will silence his doubters. Blinebury compares Bryant to other former stars, such as Charles Barkley and Hakeem Olajuwon, who were injured late in their careers yet continued to play, just not at the level than people were used to seeing.

Pacific Notes: Rivers, Green, Lin, Boozer

January 19th, 2015 at 5:29pm CST by Chuck Myron

The back-and-forth that preceded Doc Rivers‘ jump from the Celtics to the Clippers in 2013 was the product of a careful approach Rivers took to his Clippers contract, as Rivers tells Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald. The coach knew then-owner Donald Sterling had resisted paying guaranteed salary to coaches he’d fired in the past, as Bulpett details.

“That was the delay, the contract,” Rivers said. “People don’t realize it, but the deal could have been done three weeks before it happened. … It’s the longest written contract in coaching history. Five different lawyers had to look at it. Even my lawyer sent it to another lawyer. That tells you the hesitation in who I was going to be working for.”

Rivers is on a different contract with the Clippers now after striking a five-year deal worth more than $50MM with new owner Steve Ballmer. There’s more from Rivers and Bulpett amid the latest from the Pacific Division:

Rivers, who also serves as president of basketball operations for the Clippers, won’t hesitate to admit a mistake and reverse course on a personnel move he’s made in the past if necessary, a lesson he learned from Danny Ainge, as Rivers says to Bulpett.
All signs point to the Warriors matching offers this summer for soon-to-be restricted free agent Draymond Green, even if it means shelling out a little more than they’d like and crossing the luxury tax line, USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt and Sam Amick write.
The Lakers probably won’t be re-signing offseason acquisitions Jeremy Lin and Carlos Boozer when both enter free agency this summer, according to Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times.
Austin Rivers has split with agent David Falk, notes Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. Rivers, whom the Clippers acquired via trade last week, hits unrestricted free agency this summer.

Lakers Notes: Gasol, Lin, Bryant, Kelly

January 2nd, 2015 at 1:46pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Lakers could make sense as a potential suitor for Marc Gasol this summer, opines Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. Gasol once belonged to the team, but he was sent to the Grizzlies seven years ago as part of the deal that brought his brother Pau to L.A. “He needs to play as good as he can and take his team as far as he can,” Pau Gasol said about his brother. “Then he can think about his future afterwards. He can put everything aside and then he can evaluate everything on if he wants to stay in Memphis. That seems like a pretty reasonable option. Or he can give it a shot to another place. We’ll see. But who knows. That’s later. Right now, it’s a distraction.”

Let’s have a look at more on Gasol and the latest out of L.A.:

Ed Davis, who was Gasol’s teammate on the Grizzlies before joining the Lakers, doesn’t think it’s likely Gasol leaves Memphis to join L.A. next season, as Medina notes in the same piece. While Davis doesn’t completely rule out a change in scenery for his former teammate, he thinks it would take “something unexpected” for Gasol to leave what he has established in Memphis.
A free agent who may be on the way out of L.A. is Jeremy Lin, who expressed frustration over his season on his website. “This season has gone in the opposite direction that I anticipated,” Lin wrote. “I went through one of the worst, if not the worst, slump I’ve had in my basketball life, as well as having some of my poorest performances ever as a basketball player. Also at times, it has felt like the barriers were insurmountable or that I was powerless to control things around me.”
Coach Byron Scott told Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com that his plan to limit Kobe Bryant‘s playing time has been successful. “So far, the experiment is working,” Scott said. “We’re just going to keep at it and see how it turns out.” Bryant, who sat out three games last week, has been averaging 32 minutes of court time since his return, about five minutes less than before.
The Lakers expect to welcome Ryan Kelly back to action tonight, Medina reports. Injuries to both of Kelly’s hamstrings have limited him to just three games this season. “I never want to be seen as somebody who gets hurt a lot,” Kelly said. “But I’m excited for the future.” Last summer, the Lakers gave Kelly a two-year deal worth about $3.4MM.

Charlie Adams contributed to this post.

Lakers Notes: Kobe, Scott, Lin

December 8th, 2014 at 6:23pm CST by Alex Lee

After showing signs of life last week with consecutive wins over the Raptors and Pistons, the Lakers have since lost three straight and now sit at a disappointing 5-16. They don’t play tonight, but that never prevents the Lakers news from flowing out of Hollywood. Here is the latest on the purple and gold:

Byron Scott thinks the Lakers will be “right back where we belong” for the 2016/17 season, as he tells TNT’s David Aldridge, and in position to try to convince Kobe Bryant to stay past his contract, which runs through 2015/16. GM Mitch Kupchak isn’t optimistic that Kobe will keep playing, as he says in Aldridge’s weekly Morning Tip column for NBA.com. “All indications are, to me, from him, that this (two-year contract) is going to be it,” Kupchak said. “If somebody’s thinking of buying a ticket three years from now to see Kobe play, I would not do that. Don’t wait. Do it this year.”
Kupchak and Lakers part-owner Jim Buss have told Scott that his first two years as head coach might be difficult as the team rebuilds, Jimmy Smith of the Times-Picayune writes in a profile of Scott. According to Smith, Scott had long wanted to return to Los Angeles, where he grew up and played professionally, but was leading the franchises in New Orleans and then Cleveland the previous two times the Lakers had head coaching vacancies.
Kupchak had wanted to bring offseason acquisition Jeremy Lin to the Lakers for the entirety of the point guard’s career, according to Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report. Lin, born in Los Angeles and raised in Northern California, has had a rocky start to his stint in L.A. and was recently removed from the starting lineup. The Lakers acquired the fifth-year guard from the Rockets this summer.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Western Notes: Rockets, Lin, Coaches, Kanter

October 19th, 2014 at 10:30am CST by ChrisCrouse

The Rockets have not settled on their opening night roster yet, writes Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. “That’s why we’re experimenting,” coach Kevin McHale said. “There are still a lot of unknowns. We have a lot of guys who haven’t just taken a spot where you say, ‘I’m really comfortable. This guy has really taken the backup spot.’ We have a lot of guys still fighting for spots.” Houston brought 20 players to camp and has not made any official cuts, although it would seem the team is down to 18 players for 15 roster spots with Robert Covington and Akil Mitchell not having been with the team for the last week.

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

Jeremy Lin is humbled by the offseason trade that sent him to the Lakers, writes Mike Bresnahan of the The Los Angeles Times. Lin said, “When I first got there [Houston], I was supposed to be the guy and they were supposed to kind of hand the torch to me. And I ended up getting traded away basically for nothing. Actually, they had to give a draft pick to convince someone else to take me. Pretty much given away for nothing. Definitely not how I envisioned it.”
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich loves the play of JaMychal Green, tweets Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News. The unfortunate thing for Green is that the Spurs don’t currently have an opening-night roster spot for him, Monroe adds.
Wolves head coach Flip Saunders is praised by local high school and college coaches for his open-door policy, writes Andy Greder of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “We are a very close fraternity as far as coaches, and what you want to do is make sure you’re open,” Saunders said.
Jazz forward Enes Kanter has as much to gain this season as anyone on the team, opines Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune. Kanter will head into restricted free agency next summer if the Jazz do not reach a deal on an extension with him by the October 31st deadline.
In a roundtable preview for the Kings, SB Nation’s Tom Ziller predicts that Sacramento will pull off a major trade this season, citing GM Pete D’Alessandro‘s aggressive track record and abundance of assets at his disposal.

Cray Allred contributed to this post.

Stein’s Latest: Parsons, Cavs, Mavs, Rockets

October 7th, 2014 at 12:08pm CST by Chuck Myron

Rockets GM Daryl Morey and Mavs owner Mark Cuban downplay the intensity of their personal rivalry in interviews with Marc Stein of ESPN.com, even though both have made some incendiary statements about the other. Their teams have been involved in a tug-of-war over high-powered free agents in the past few summers, and the case of Chandler Parsons brought the rivalry into focus. Stein’s piece sheds light on many unreported aspects of Parsons’ free agency, and the entire piece is worth a read, particularly for Mavs and Rockets fans. We’ll share the most newsworthy tidbits here:

The Cavs were the most fervent suitor of Parsons early in free agency this summer, viewing him as a plan B if LeBron James didn’t return, and Kyrie Irving, a friend of Parsons’, tried to recruit him to Cleveland, as Stein chronicles. The Mavs weren’t willing to wait on a definitive “no” from either LeBron or Carmelo Anthony before swooping in with their offer sheet, one that Parsons agreed to rather than sign a two-year max deal that the Rockets offered, Stein also reports.
Parsons told Stein he would have re-signed with the Rockets for less early in free agency, and Stein hears he sought a four-year, $48MM deal from Houston, which was instead engaged in a pursuit of more established stars.
Cuban was honest with Parsons about the risk that he was taking, as he explains to Stein. “I told Chandler from the start [of free agency]: ‘Do you want me to be brutally honest with you?'” Cuban said. “And he said yes. So I told him with as much granularity as I could that I think it’s a 10% chance at best that we could get ‘Melo, but we had to try. Then, we started hearing our percentage was getting higher, and I told Chandler that, too. But then, when we weren’t hearing a whole lot from the Melo camp, we knew we were pretty much out. So I told Chandler [on July 9th]: ‘I could end up being the dumbest idiot in NBA history, but even if LeBron comes back to us and says he’s choosing us, I’m committing to you.'”
The Mavs were also high on Gordon Hayward and Eric Bledsoe, but they found Parsons the most obtainable of the three restricted free agents they wanted most, Stein writes.
Morey pursued Kyle Lowry early in free agency, but cooled on him and turned his attention to Chris Bosh instead, as Stein explains. Bosh seemed on his way to the Rockets before he inked a five-year max deal with the Heat, and even Morey thought that he had Bosh within his clutches, as he admits to Stein. “Given our understanding of where things were,” Morey said, “we felt like we were 95 percent-plus to potentially having the best team in the league. There was nothing promised, but I did believe [Bosh] was coming in almost every scenario except the one that happened at the last minute [Miami trumping Houston’s offer with a five-year max].”
The Rockets agreed to trade Jeremy Lin to the Lakers before receiving a commitment from Bosh because the Lakers refused to wait any longer and because a trade proposal from the Sixers instead would have cost multiple first-rounders instead of just one.
The Rockets, like many teams, are turning their eyes to 2016, and they plan to let James Harden act as the primary recruiter for former teammate Kevin Durant, who can hit free agency that summer, Stein writes.
Agent Dan Fegan proposed the structure of the three-year offer sheet that Parsons signed with the Mavs, and the three-year length, in particular, drew raves from Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace, who noted its contrast with the typical four-year offer sheet, as Stein passed along. Cavs GM David Griffin also expressed admiration for the deal, as he tells Stein. “The contract structure was extremely creative,” Griffin said. “I think it will be a significant moment in the way restricted free agency discussions are handled in the future.”

Western Notes: Rubio, Nash, Thompson

July 28th, 2014 at 8:47pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Wolves are willing to give Ricky Rubio an extension similar to the four-year, $44MM extension Stephen Curry signed with the Warriors two years ago, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities. Rubio and agent Dan Fegan are asking for the max over five seasons. We took a look at Rubio and other extension candidates earlier today.

Daryl Morey On Lin, Parsons, Bosh

July 14th, 2014 at 3:19pm CST by Chuck Myron

Rockets GM Daryl Morey gambled and lost with Chandler Parsons, electing not to match a near-maximum three-year offer sheet from the Mavs when he could have simply brought him back for $964,750 had he exercised Houston’s team option on the small forward. He also missed out on Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh last week, settling for a much less glamorous agreement with Trevor Ariza. Morey took to the radio airwaves Monday in Houston to try to explain just what went wrong, and he called the structure of the Parsons offer sheet “one of the most untradeable structures that I’ve ever seen,” as we passed along earlier. Adam Wexler of CSNHouston.com and the Houston Chronicle roundup more of Morey’s remarks on SportsTalk 790 and SportsRadio 610, and we’ll hit the highlights here:

On why the team completed the Jeremy Lin trade an opened cap room:

“We had the offer to Chris, while it looked extremely likely, our deal for Jeremy [Lin] was going to go away. We had to move before we had the 100% [from Bosh], because the Lakers were ready to move on with other things.”

On the decision against matching the deal for Parsons:

“It takes three, at least, three elite players with very little exception, throughout history, it takes three elite players and a good set of players that fit around them. Once Bosh said ‘no’ it put us into another very difficult decision of, is matching Chandler Parsons, do we have a better chance of winning a title by matching it or not matching it. That comes down to a very simple question, is [James] Harden, [Dwight] Howard, Parsons a three that can be a championship three? I actually think it can be. I think Chandler is a great player, getting better. Really, really good player, no doubt. But the question is actually: is Harden, Howard, Parsons, is that three a better championship odds than Harden, Howard and the team we can put together with a guaranteed lottery pick, trade exceptions, mid-level young team improving and continuing to be flexible? That was the very tough decision before us. But I can tell you this, in our opinion it was not close. We are in a better [place] to win a championship by not matching it, once Bosh goes away than by not matching it.”

On the opportunity the team lost and what it can still accomplish:

“We felt like we were on the, right there, on having potentially having the best team in the NBA if we got Bosh and matched Parsons. We feel great about where we’re at, as well. With the youngest playoff team last year and a team that is continuing to improve with Patrick Beverley and a young core behind it and a lot of ways to continue to improve this season … We were right at the precipice of, what I would argue maybe is the best team in the NBA.”

On his expectations for the year ahead:

“We feel we were almost there with the Bosh-Parsons moves. When that didn’t happen we felt like the best thing to do was step back. We’ve now got a pick, a guaranteed lottery pick basically that is now is exactly structured like the pick that got us James Harden last time. We now have trade exceptions, we now have cap room and we also have pretty good team that’s a top four seed team in the west even with the decision not to match Chandler.”

Lakers Acquire Jeremy Lin

July 13th, 2014 at 12:22pm CST by Chuck Myron

SUNDAY, 12:22pm: The trade is now official the Lakers have announced via their website. Los Angeles will receive Lin, plus Houston’s first-round pick in 2015, and the 2015 second-round pick that the Rockets had acquired from the Clippers. The Rockets in turn receive the rights to Sergei Lishchuk.

FRIDAY, 1:59pm: The Rockets and Lakers have reached agreement on a deal that sends Jeremy Lin to the Lakers, reports Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported earlier that the teams were finalizing such a deal, while Marc Stein of ESPN.com broke the story about the talks. A future first-round pick is also headed to the Lakers, Goodman confirms, while Wojnarowski’s previous reporting indicated other draft considerations will go from Houston to the Lakers, too. The Lakers will send out cash and the rights to a draft-and-stash prospect who’s playing overseas, Wojnarowski also reported, but no salary will go Houston’s way, helping clear room for Chris Bosh, who’s nearing a commitment to the Rockets.

The first-rounder headed to the Lakers is Houston’s 2015 pick, tweets Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times. It’ll include protections, and the Rockets will also send a second-rounder the Lakers’ way, according to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle (Twitter link).

The deal indicates that the Lakers are ready to move forward and focus on next summer’s free agent group, since they’re committing nearly $8.4MM of their cap space to Lin. They missed out on LeBron James, and while Carmelo Anthony reportedly hasn’t told the Lakers they’re out of the running for him, another report indicates that ‘Melo has narrowed his choice to the Knicks and Bulls.

Rockets, Lakers Close To Jeremy Lin Deal

July 11th, 2014 at 1:53pm CST by Chuck Myron

1:53pm: The Lakers would send cash and the rights to a draft-and-stash prospect playing overseas, but no salary, to Houston, according to Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

1:50pm: A future first-round pick and other draft considerations would accompany Lin from the Rockets to the Lakers as part of the deal the teams are nearing, Wojnarowski adds (on Twitter).

1:40pm: The Rockets and Lakers are finalizing a deal that would send Lin to the Lakers, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.

12:54pm: The Rockets are attempting to trade Jeremy Lin to the Lakers, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). A report earlier this week indicated that Houston had a deal in place to send Lin to the Sixers, though Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News wrote earlier today that the sides were merely discussing such a deal. Houston is trying to get rid of Lin’s salary in an effort to clear cap room for Chris Bosh, whom the Rockets believe will commit to them soon.

The Lakers missed out on LeBron James, and it seems as though Carmelo Anthony has narrowed his choices to the Knicks and Bulls, so that might motivate the Lakers to take on Lin’s expiring contract and concentrate instead on next summer’s free agent market. Lin’s cap hit for the coming season will be close to $8.4MM, but because of his backloaded deal signed via the Gilbert Arenas Provision, he’ll make close to $15MM in actual salary.