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Warriors, Jazz, Others Discussed James Harden

October 29th, 2012 at 10:56am CST by Luke Adams

10:56am: Suns president Lon Babby confirmed to Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic that Phoenix had been engaged with the Thunder in trade talks for Harden, though he says that no proposal ever gained serious traction.

"We were engaged in discussions on numerous occasions," Babby said. "We most recently met in person when we played them [on October 19th]. At the end of the day, there wasn’t a deal that was workable for both sides."

8:53am: According to Zach Lowe of Grantland.com, Thunder GM Sam Presti had at least "semi-serious" trade conversations involving James Harden with a number of teams before eventually accepting the Rockets' offer. Lowe says the Warriors, Jazz, Wizards, and Raptors were among the teams that Presti spoke to before sending Harden to Houston. We heard yesterday that the Suns also pursued a trade for Harden.

The Thunder were seeking a sure-thing player who was still in the first year or two of his rookie deal, according to Lowe. That means Presti figures to have inquired on players like Klay Thompson, Derrick Favors, Enes Kanter, Bradley Beal, and Jonas Valanciunas. Lowe adds that the Thunder GM likely started the process by reaching out to the Hornets about Anthony Davis, though I imagine that conversation didn't last too long.

Here are a few more Harden-related links, as reactions continue to pour in on one of the year's most surprising trades:

  • Berry Tramel of the Oklahoman reports that the Thunder made a last-ditch offer to Harden on Friday, proposing a four-year, $53MM extension. The team gave him a one-hour window to accept it, telling him that if he turned it down, he'd be traded to Houston. According to Tramel's sources, Harden said he needed three days to make a decision, but because the Rockets wanted time to negotiate an extension before Wednesday's deadline, Presti stuck to the one-hour window.
  • The pieces the Thunder acquired for Harden are the same sort of assets the team used to initially build itself into a perennial contender, opines Darnell Mayberry of the Oklahoman.
  • Members of the Spurs, a team the Thunder eliminated from the playoffs earlier this year, were surprised by the deal, as Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News writes. "It's kind of weird to look at OKC and think of them without their Big Three," Danny Green said. "Things are different. Obviously they're still going to be a good team."
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Atlantic Rumors: Kidd, Knicks, Richardson, Pierce

October 28th, 2012 at 1:05pm CST by Chuck Myron

The seismic NBA news in the last 24 hours has come out of the West, but that doesn't mean the East is all quiet with the season two days away. Here's the latest from around the Atlantic Division.

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Eastern Rumors: Harris, Novak, Valanciunas

October 13th, 2012 at 5:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

Either the Celtics or a team with LeBron James or Dwyane Wade on the roster has won the Eastern Conference title every year since 2006, with the exception of 2009, when Dwight Howard and the Magic broke through. With D12 in L.A., it seems the path is clear for the Celtics and Heat to once again battle for Eastern supremacy, though there's a lot that could happen between now and June. Until then, here's the latest from around the East.

  • Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald figures guard Terrel Harris' endorsement deal with Peak, a shoe company with promotional ties to the Heat, means he's a safe bet to make the opening-night roster. Harris has no guarantee on his minimum-salary deal.
  • Steve Novak, a Wisconsin native who went to Marquette, explained his choice of the Knicks over the Bucks in free agency to the New York Post's Marc Berman. "We talked several times when I’ve been a free agent. I never know for sure at what level," Novak said of the Bucks. "But no, I wanted to be back. If I could choose Milwaukee or New York, hands down, New York. It’s the truth."
  • Doug Smith of the Toronto Star disagrees with a scout who thought Raptors rookie Jonas Valanciunas looked "soft" and "scared" in a preseason game this week.
  • Nets guard Joe Johnson says he's eager to share the ball with Deron Williams and get away from the "iso-Joe" style of play that placed the offensive load on his shoulders when he was with the Hawks, writes Howard Beck of The New York Times.
  • John Denton of Magic.com delves into Nikola Vucevic's rich basketball bloodlines, a pedigree that Magic coach Jacque Vaughn believes will serve him well as he attempts the Herculean task of replacing Howard at center.
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Odds & Ends: Van Gundy, Magic, Valanciunas

October 10th, 2012 at 10:37pm CST by Chuck Myron

Former Magic coach Stan Van Gundy is upset that ESPN is denying that they had an agreement for him to join the network's broadcasting team this year, he told Dan LeBatard on 790 The Ticket radio in Miami, as Jason McIntyre of Big Lead Sports observes. Van Gundy claims ESPN pulled the offer, and sources told McIntyre that the network did so at the behest of commissioner David Stern, with whom Van Gundy has feuded in the past. Van Gundy's shadow, not to mention Dwight Howard's, still looms over Orlando, and there's more on the Magic and news from around the league on a six-game preseason night.

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Odds & Ends: Josh Howard, Pittman, Paul

October 4th, 2012 at 11:25pm CST by Ryan Raroque
Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today writes that free agent guard/forward Josh Howard is just waiting for an opportunity to be signed. Howard has fielded interest from several NBA teams and says that he has been given positive feedback. Zillgitt added that Howard's workouts this summer have strengthened his knee and given him confidence in his ability to contribute on an NBA team. We have more of tonight's miscellaneous links from around the Association…
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Odds & Ends: Pacers, Valanciunas, Wallace, Kidd

September 23rd, 2012 at 10:28pm CST by Alex Lee

Let's consolidate all the odds and ends from Sunday night in this post:

  • Jared Zwerling of ESPN New York reports, via Twitter, that Mike Bibby likely won't sign with a team before the start of training camps.  The veteran point guard does expect to sign somewhere, however, but not the Knicks and we heard yesterday, probably not the Celtics.
  • Ben Golliver of CBS Sports provides his offseason report for the Clippers.  Golliver says that after decades where the goal was to not screw up their draft, the Clippers were able to employ a more competitive approach of acquiring established veterans to fit around Chris Paul and Blake Griffin.
  • Darnell Mayberry of the Oklahoman outlines the roster changes and season outlook for each team in the Northwest division, including the hometown Thunder.
  • The Kamenetzky brothers of ESPN Los Angeles discuss via video who has the most to gain and the most to lose on the bolstered roster of the Lakers.

Earlier updates:

  • The staff at HoopsWorld puts together their season preview on the Pacers.  All five of their writers selected the Pacers to win the Central Division, a year after finishing second behind the Bulls.  Lacking the star power of the Heat, Indiana will need popular breakout candidate Paul George to fulfill his potential if they want to go deep into the playoffs. 
  • Raptors Lithuanian prospect Jonas Valanciunas injured his left foot, reports the Toronto Sun.  After Toronto used the fifth pick in last year's draft on him, Valanciunas enters his first NBA season with a ton of hype.  The seven footer was spotted with a walking boot, though all indications are that it is a minor injury.
  • Keith Schlosser of the Knicks Journal gives his take on the news that Rasheed Wallace is being considered by the Knicks.  If that move comes to fruition, Wallace would be joining a roster full of late 30-somethings.  Jason Kidd, in this NBA.com video, seems confident that the supplemental pieces that the team added could put them over the top. 
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Alex Rucker On Raptors’ Offseason Additions

September 17th, 2012 at 1:16pm CST by Luke Adams

Jay Satur of Raptors.com recently sat down with Alex Rucker, the Raptors' Director of Analytics, to discuss a number of topics, including the new players Toronto will add for the coming season. The conversation focused primarily on the Raps' big trade acquisition (Kyle Lowry), the team's major free agent signing (Landry Fields), and last year's fifth overall pick (Jonas Valanciunas). Rucker shared some interesting observations on those players and how they ended up in Toronto. Here are a few of his comments:

On why the team targeted Lowry in trade talks:

"He’s a guy that’s been on our radar for three years as a guy that is underappreciated…. The value that he has is not captured well by the box score, so some people don’t quite get it. A lot of the things he does in terms of his style of play have a lot of value and he does a lot of things really well to help teams win ball games. I think [Rockets GM] Daryl [Morey] referenced that a couple of times in interviews about how a lot of their big wins were attributable to what Kyle did and maybe if you look at the box score, it wasn’t obvious, but he is a winning player."

On adding Lowry and John Lucas III to a point guard mix that already included Jose Calderon:

"When teams are playing us, they’re never going to get a 'backup point guard.' You’re going to get 48 minutes of quality point guard play. So when they bring in their backups and maybe have a drop off in quality, we should be in a position to take advantage of that because we will always have a good point guard on the floor."

On how Fields showed up on the team's free agent radar:

"We identified the wing as a position we wanted to upgrade. We felt like when you come off a season like we did, rebuilding, you look at every position and ask, how we can get better? With the wing spot, we looked across the whole spectrum of free agent and trade target wings and Landry was a guy that kept coming up in conversations. The coaches liked him, management liked him and the analytics liked him. He was a guy that was on the radar months ago as one of the top wing candidates that could help us upgrade at the wing spots.

On the perception that the Raptors overpaid Fields, who signed a three-year, $18.5MM deal:

"If the only year he played in pro basketball was this past season, then I would agree with every bit of criticism that’s out there about the deal. However, there’s this rather large sample of games, minutes, possessions that occurred as a rookie and a lot of that season was a slightly dissimilar situation than the one they currently have in New York…. So what kind of a situation are we looking to have? What kind of offence are we going to run? What kind of personnel are we going to have? How might he fit within that? I’m not thinking he’s going to immediately revert back to his rookie year, if he does, great. But I think the truth is somewhere in the middle and I’m going to be very happy if it’s something in the middle."

On the expectations for Valanciunas:

"Not necessarily from day one but over the long term, I think Jonas will be a guy that is a really good rebounder at both ends and can protect the rim defensively as an on-ball and help post defender. His dedication to improving his free throw percentage speaks to an overall offensive potential that he’s just growing into. So the work ethic and the passion he clearly has for the game, those intangibles combined with what he’s done on the court are real strong indicators that this is a guy, over the long run, that could be this building block at center we have for 10-15 years here in Toronto."

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Raptors Re-Sign Aaron Gray

July 27th, 2012 at 3:47pm CST by Ryan Raroque

JULY 27TH: The Raptors have officially re-signed Gray, according to a team release.

JULY 7TH: Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reported that Aaron Gray has agreed to a two-year deal with the Raptors. The six-year veteran started in 40 games for Toronto last season, averaging 3.9 PPG, 5.7 RPG, and 16.6 MPG in a total of 49 games. Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun tweeted that he expects Gray to receive the team's "room exception", which should be about $2.5MM annually.

With former lottery pick Jonas Valanciunas expected to join the team next season, retaining Gray appears to set Dwane Casey's rotation at the center spot. The former center out of Pittsburgh grabbed at least 7 rebounds in 21 games during limited minutes, and could readily take some pressure off of Valanciunas as he gets acclimated with the NBA game. 

Gray's most notable games last year include an 11-point, 11-rebound effort in 23 minutes against Dwight Howard in a loss to the Magic and a 12-point, 12-rebound performance in 30 minutes during a win against the Pistons. 

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Raptors Sign Jonas Valanciunas

July 18th, 2012 at 4:09pm CST by Luke Adams

The Raptors have officially signed last year's fifth overall pick Jonas Valanciunas, the team announced today in a press release. Valanciunas appears to have finalized his buyout with Lithuanian team Lietuvos Rytas and inked a rookie scale contract to join the Raptors.

"We are very pleased to welcome Jonas to the organization," said Raptors president and GM Bryan Colangelo in a statement. "We are certain that Raptors fans will soon realize that the year-long process was worth the wait."

Because he signed just a year after he was drafted, Valanciunas will likely receive a first-year salary worth 120% of this year's rookie scale amount for the fifth overall pick. Such an agreement would pay him $3,374,640 in his rookie season.

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Atlantic Notes: Lin, Valanciunas, Raptors, Nets

July 16th, 2012 at 1:06pm CST by Luke Adams

"Though he sure didn't act like it," writes Marc Berman of the New York Post, "Jeremy Lin still wants to be a Knick." Berman cites a source close to Lin who says that the young point guard is hoping the Knicks match Houston's offer sheet. Berman's apparent critique of Lin's handling of free agency is somewhat bizarre, considering the Post scribe reported two weeks ago that the Knicks intended to sit back and wait while Lin went out and let the market set his price tag.

As we wait to see whether the Knicks will truly let Lin walk, here are a few more items out of the Atlantic Division:

  • The Knicks still want to make some minor adjustments and figure to make a couple more small moves, says Gery Woefel of the Racine Journal Times (via Twitter).
  • Expect the Raptors to sign 2011 fifth overall pick Jonas Valanciunas in the "next couple days," tweets Doug Smith of the Toronto Star.
  • With Jose Calderon's future in Toronto uncertain, the Raptors would like to upgrade their bench at point guard, says Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun (via Twitter).

Earlier updates:

Read more

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