Jordan Clarkson Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Lakers Rumors: Bryant, Scott, Nance Jr.

January 16th, 2016 at 8:31pm CST by Arthur Hill

Kobe Bryant will not be part of the 2016 Olympic team, tweets Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News. Bryant, who is retiring after this season, said he wants his final game to be in a Lakers uniform. He won gold medals in 2008 and 2012, but decided he’ll leave 2016 to the younger players, saying, “I think it’s their time.” Bryant added that he has no interest in broadcasting once his career is finished (Twitter link).

There’s more Lakers news out of Los Angeles:

Coach Byron Scott may be ready to give more responsibility to the younger Lakers, Medina writes. That means the first-round picks from the last two seasons, Julius Randle and D’Angelo Russell, could be called on to close out games along with rookies Larry Nance Jr. and Anthony Brown and second-year combo guard Jordan Clarkson. “It’s all about getting these young guys to continue to develop,” Scott said. “Then the winning part comes into that as well. We’ve been in a bunch of games. Now we have to get to the point where these guys learn how to close these games out.”
Nance has been the most surprising of the youthful Lakers, according to Mike Bresnahan of The Los Angeles Times. The 27th overall pick in last year’s draft, Nance has made an impression with his leaping ability and outside shooting. “When it is all said and done and we look at their careers, Larry Nance Jr. may be the more advanced out of all these players,” TNT analyst Reggie Miller said this week. “He has the most energy.”

Lakers Notes: Kupchak, World Peace, Black, Huertas

January 3rd, 2016 at 12:59pm CST by Arthur Hill

Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak said the team can’t move on from its current situation until Kobe Bryant is retired, tweets Eric Pincus of The Los Angeles Times. Kupchak touched on a number of subjects during a speech today to season ticket holders. He said it’s going to be “virtually impossible” for Jordan Clarkson to leave the team in free agency next summer (Twitter link), rookie D’Angelo Russell has a chance to be an elite player but has to grow up first (Twitter link) and that he’s concerned about losing the 2016 first-round pick (which goes to the Sixers if it’s outside the top three), but players and coaches are being instructed to try to win (Twitter link). Kupchak also believes the Lakers will be in a stronger position to attract big-name free agents next summer (Twitter link).

There’s more out of Los Angeles:

The Lakers will have three decisions to make this week on non-guaranteed contracts, Pincus writes in a separate piece. Action must be taken by Thursday to provide a 48-hour waiver period before the official cutdown date, which is January 10th. L.A. has to decide whether to keep Metta World Peace ($1.5MM), Tarik Black ($845,059) and Marcelo Huertas ($525,093).
Bryant says age and the nearness of retirement have changed his philosophy about basketball, according to Paul Flannery of SB Nation. “I think I’ve matured quite a bit as a person,” Bryant said. “I think at the same time, I’ve lost a lot of the edge because with maturity comes a more docile approach to the game. Whereas back in the day there’s no compromise. There is no understanding. It’s this or nothing. As you get older you start to get more perspective. It’s a great thing as a person, but as a player not so much.”
With the league’s second-worst record, the Lakers currently have a 19.9% chance at landing the top draft pick, which will likely be LSU’s Ben Simmons, writes Kevin Pelton of ESPN. Pelton analyzes the top nine contenders for Simmons and says if the Lakers stay in the No. 2 slot, they will have a 55.6% chance at remaining in the top three and keeping their pick.

Heat, Bulls, Celtics Make Pitches For Cousins?

December 16th, 2015 at 10:43am CST by Chuck Myron

WEDNESDAY, 10:51am: The Celtics and Kings still haven’t had any conversation about Cousins, tweets Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald. Kings GM Vlade Divac indicated that he hasn’t received a ton of calls about Cousins and again signaled that he has no intention of trading the star center, according to Sam Amick of USA Today (on Twitter).

3:37pm: Heat sources who spoke with Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel deny any link between Whiteside and Cousins (Twitter link).

TUESDAY, 2:19pm: The Heat, Bulls and Celtics are actively pursuing DeMarcus Cousins, though the Kings have no plans to make a deal, league sources tell Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops. The teams are nonetheless actively pursuing the Sacramento center, and Miami is offering Hassan Whiteside, Justise Winslow, plus others with enough salary to make a deal work, according to SheridanHoops founder Chris Sheridan. Miami would have to give up significantly more salary than the $3,463,068 that Whiteside and Winslow make to reel in Cousins, who makes nearly $15.852MM, however. The Heat are a taxpaying team, so they can’t take in any more than 125% plus $100K of what they give up in a swap.

A source tells Scotto that the Bulls are looking to find more playing time for rookie Bobby Portis, who’s stuck in a crowded frontcourt that features Joakim Noah and Pau Gasol, who can both become free agents this summer, along with Taj Gibson and Nikola Mirotic. Noah and Gibson are available, according to Scotto, though Bulls sources insist to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders that a Noah trade is not a consideration. The Celtics have copious draft assets, with as many as five extra first-round picks coming their way, though it’s unclear exactly what they’re willing to put on the table.

Cousins is signed through 2017/18, unlike Whiteside, who’s poised for free agency this summer. The Heat only have Early Bird rights on Whiteside, so they can’t exceed the cap to pay him more than the estimated average annual salary for next season, an amount that’s likely to come in far beneath his market value. Sacramento or any team that would trade for Whiteside would inherit those rights, so the Kings wouldn’t necessarily have any easier time re-signing him than the Heat would.

The Kings have held steadfast to Cousins in recent months after a flurry of rumors over the summer. They would have taken D’Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson, Julius Randle and a late first-rounder from the Lakers in exchange for Cousins in the offseason, but the Lakers were unwilling to do such a deal, according to Sheridan.

Pacific Notes: Karl, Cousins, Bass, Russell, Clarkson

October 5th, 2015 at 11:00am CST by Chuck Myron

Weeks before reports surfaced that coach George Karl was trying to trade DeMarcus Cousins and, subsequently, that the Kings were thinking about firing Karl, the coach remarked that he never felt he had a player who was off-limits for a trade. That comment was a mistake, Karl admitted to Kayte Christensen of CSN Bay Area (video link), and the coach apologized to Cousins, as CSN Bay Area’s James Ham notes.

But it’s my responsibility to be smart enough to not say things like that,” Karl said to Christensen, in part. “So I did apologize because I thought that was the only thing, maybe some other things, but really the only thing that got us separated was that comment that then everybody wrote [that] we’re going to trade [Cousins].”

Time will tell if the relationship between Karl and Cousins will remain on solid footing, but winning would probably go a long way toward keeping both of them satisfied, as Akis Yerocostas of SB Nation’s Sactown Royalty recently suggested in a recent installment of our Top Bloggers series. See more from the Pacific Division:

Metta World Peace is with the Lakers during the preseason in large part to mentor Julius Randle, but if World Peace doesn’t stick for the regular season on his non-guaranteed deal, fellow offseason signee Brandon Bass will still be there for Randle, as Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times details. Fostering the development of the 2014 No. 7 overall pick part of the reason why Bass, too, is on the Lakers roster this season, Pincus writes.
Bass is also a fan of Lakers coach Byron Scott, for whom he also played at the beginning of his career with New Orleans, Pincus notes in the same piece. “Coach Scott was someone who inspired me to continue to work hard, to be the player I am today,” Bass said. “My first two years I didn’t play much, so he was very motivating to me, letting me know how hard I have to work to be a pro.”
D’Angelo Russell was skeptical when Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak told him before the draft that the Lakers thought he and Jordan Clarkson could co-exist in the backcourt, but all parties seem on board with the idea now, notes Baxter Holmes of ESPNLosAngeles.com. “We’re two totally different players,” Clarkson said. “He’s an excellent passer and I’m real aggressive and it just kind of comes together.” Clarkson is set to hit restricted free agency at season’s end.
The Clippers are so far struggling to incorporate the nine newcomers to the team, observes Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times.

Pacific Notes: Clarkson, Gudaitis, Iguodala

October 2nd, 2015 at 10:31pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Lakers guard Jordan Clarkson has chosen Jeff Austin and Chris Emens of Octagon Sports to represent him, Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News reports. Clarkson was previously represented by Mike George of Excel Sports Management, which reportedly broke off its relationship with the young guard back in September. The young combo guard was reportedly frustrated with the agency’s communication and felt he received conflicting information about marketing opportunities, according to an earlier report by Medina. Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press first reported the split. Clarkson is eligible to become a restricted free agent next summer.

Here’s more from the Pacific Division:

Lithuanian big man Arturas Gudaitis, whose draft rights are held by the Kings, said that Sacramento has expressed interest in signing him for next season, according to a report by Donatas Urbonas of 15min.It (translation by Emiliano Carchia of Sportando). Gudaitis, who is signed to a multi-year deal with the Lithuanian club Lietuvos Rytas, said his dream is to play in the NBA, and that he will travel to Sacramento to work out for the team after his season is completed, Urbonas notes.
The Warriors intend for veteran swingman Andre Iguodala to continue his role as a top reserve during the 2015/16 season, Diamond Leung of The Bay Area News Group writes. “Nothing is set in stone, but we won 67 games, so I don’t think we’ll change the starting lineup to start the season,” coach Steve Kerr had said prior to taking his leave of absence due to back related issues. “Why would we? Why would we change what we did last year when we had as much success as we did?“
Jamal Crawford has been the subject of numerous trade rumors throughout the offseason, but he says that his time spent in New York as a member of the Knicks prepared him for the daily barrage of questions from the media, Janis Carr of The Orange County Register writes. “That time [in New York] prepared me for this,” Crawford said. “It’s a business and in a day, you can only control what you can control and worry about how you can get better.” The veteran shooting guard also noted that he is extremely happy to still be a member of the Clippers, Carr adds. The franchise was reportedly exploring trades involving the two-time Sixth Man of the Year shortly before the draft, with other reports this summer indicating that the Heat, Cavs and Knicks have held interest, but Doc Rivers recently said that the team was unlikely to deal Crawford.

Lakers Rumors: Playoffs, Buss, Hibbert, Huertas

September 25th, 2015 at 12:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Lakers roster is strong enough for the team to have legitimate playoff aspirations, GM Mitch Kupchak contends, as USA Today’s Sam Amick writes. “The goal every year, of course, is to win the championship,” Kupchak said. “I’m really hopeful that we can be fun to watch, and certainly win a lot more games than we won last year. I don’t know why hopes of a playoff position shouldn’t be in the picture. That’s kind of where it stands.” Still, Kupchak was more guarded than he was a year ago, when he declared that the expectation for last season’s squad was to win a championship, observes Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times. The Lakers instead finished a franchise-worst 21-61. See more on the purple-and-gold:

Kupchak downplayed the idea that co-owner Jim Buss will resign from his job as the team’s executive VP of basketball operations if the Lakers don’t make the Western Conference Finals by 2017, a standard to which primary owner Jeanie Buss has said she’ll hold her brother. Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News has the details. “If he felt that way and I agreed, we would’ve traded our picks for veteran players,” Kupchak said. “But we didn’t.” Jim Buss has seemingly tried to soften the parameters of his pledge that he’d step down if the Lakers aren’t contending by the end of the 2016/17 season.
The GM sees D’Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson and Julius Randle as starters for the future, and he also expressed high hopes for Roy Hibbert, who’s on an expiring contract, as Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times relays. “Hibbert is young enough to be included,” Kupchak said. “If Roy has a good to great year, and we can bring him back at 28 years old, I don’t know why he can’t be part of that core.”
Lakers players are impressed with what they’ve seen from Brazilian rookie Marcelo Huertas during voluntary team workouts, and the point guard has a legitimate chance to make the opening night roster, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. Huertas signed a contract with no guaranteed money, and while the Lakers have plenty of flexibility with only 12 fully guaranteed deals, the team is open to offloading one of those full guarantees if someone on a non-guaranteed pact proves a better player, Kupchak said, as Pincus notes in his piece.
Former Lakers coach Phil Jackson thinks it’s possible Kobe Bryant will play for a team other than the Lakers in 2016/17, as we detailed earlier.

Pacific Notes: Morris, Clarkson, White, Cousins

September 4th, 2015 at 9:44am CST by Chuck Myron

The Suns seem to want to repair their relationship with Markieff Morris, but Morris signaled that he has no intention to go back on his trade demand, tweeting Thursday that, “My future will not be in Phoenix.” The four-year, $32MM extension that Morris signed last fall kicks in for this coming season, so the Suns wield the hammer, but the power forward has told confidants that he won’t talk with Suns front office executives and will give only one-word responses to coach Jeff Hornacek, as John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 FM reported recently. While the tension rises in Phoenix, see more on the Suns and their Pacific Division rivals:

Excel Sports Management was the party that broke off its relationship with Jordan Clarkson, but the Lakers combo guard was frustrated with the agency’s communication and felt he received conflicting information about marketing opportunities, a league source told Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press first reported the split.
Terrico White is confident that the past few years playing overseas have improved his game and his mental approach, and the 36th overall pick from the 2010 draft indicated to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders that he had multiple NBA options for training camp before agreeing to a deal with the Suns. “My main focus is just getting on an NBA [regular season] roster, whether it’s with Phoenix or another team,” White said to Kennedy. “If I do make the team in Phoenix, I think it’s a great fit and I feel like I could bring a whole lot since I’m still young but I also have experience too. … My agent, Daniel Hazan, was talking to different teams and Phoenix had a better plan for me than other teams, so we decided to go with the Suns.”
Whether the personalities of DeMarcus Cousins and Kings coach George Karl will mesh going forward has been the subject of much discussion this summer, but Karl’s desire for an up-tempo attack and the interior game of Cousins raise some on-court question marks, too. However, the way Karl used Carmelo Anthony at the end of their time together with the Nuggets provides a blueprint for a fast-paced attack that still gets the best out of Cousins, even though ‘Melo and Cousins play different positions, as Zach Harper of CBSSports.com argues, pointing to similarities in the way they get their shots.

Pacific Notes: Morris, Clarkson, Sims, Koufos

September 2nd, 2015 at 12:09pm CST by Chuck Myron

Markieff Morris demanded a trade last month, but the Suns are giving no outward appearances of a rift, going so far as to tweet birthday greetings with an illustration of the now 26-year-old, which strikes an awkward tone in light of the power forward’s recent comments. The Suns “need and want” Morris, Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic wrote last week, so it would appear the team is making its best to attempt to patch up the relationship before the start of training camp at month’s end. Morris wasn’t planning a verbal offensive when he came across Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, to whom he expressed his demand, Coro notes, though John Gambadoro had heard a week before Morris made the demand that the former 13th overall pick wanted out of Phoenix. See more on the Suns amid the latest from the Pacific Division:

The Excel Sports Management agency has ended its relationship with Lakers point guard Jordan Clarkson, reports Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press. It’s an unusual move, since players typically make the call to change agents, and not the other way around. Clarkson, the 46th overall pick from last year’s draft who far outstripped expectations as a rookie, is set for restricted free agency next summer. Agent Mike George had been Clarkson’s primary representative.
Suns camp signee Henry Sims is determined to prove his production for the Sixers wasn’t merely a product of playing for an inferior team, as he tells tells Coro for a separate piece. The three-year NBA vet saw inconsistent playing time in his season and a half in Philadelphia, though he doesn’t begrudge the chances the Sixers gave him when they did put him on the floor, Coro notes. “Being gritty is how I made my name,” Sims said to Coro. “It’s how I earned my way. But getting up and down like they do here is something I can do. Here, the talent is off the chart. Even though they’re young guys, they’ve been in the league a while. You’ve got the head of the snake, Eric Bledsoe, making it easier — he and B-[Brandon] Knight. I’ve still got tons to prove.”
Kosta Koufos left an elite Western Conference team when he departed the Grizzlies for Sacramento this summer, but he believes the Kings can make the playoffs, and he has enduring respect for George Karl, who once coached him on the Nuggets, as Koufos expressed on SiriusXM NBA Radio (Twitter links; full audio here).

Pacific Notes: Kobe, Buss, Casspi, Suns

August 28th, 2015 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

Lakers Executive VP of basketball operations Jim Buss believes Kobe Bryant is worth his league-high $25MM salary this season after all he’s done for the franchise and said that while the team is operating on the premise that Bryant will retire at season’s end, he’d welcome him back with open arms if he’s willing to accept a role that fits his age and ability. Buss made his comments as part of an interview with Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times, adding that he “feels like we’ve righted the ship” with coach Byron Scott and a new cast of key players, even if the team didn’t sign a star free agent this summer.

“It’s just that it takes time to build a core that guys want to play with,” Buss said to Pincus. “I understand a superstar doesn’t want to come in and say, ‘Oh, we still have two or three years of rebuilding.’ I think with Jordan Clarkson, [D’Angelo] Russell, [Julius] Randle, even [Roy] Hibbert … we’re getting a core of seven or eight players.”

See more on the Lakers amid the latest from around the Pacific Division:

Buss, also a part-owner of the team, has no regrets about pledging in April 2014 to resign from his basketball operations position if he couldn’t restore the Lakers to contention in three or four years, as he said to Pincus for the same piece. Buss’ sister Jeanie, the primary owner of the franchise, has said she’ll hold him to that pledge if the Lakers aren’t back in the Western Conference Finals by the spring of 2017. Still, the top goal for this season, Jim Buss said to Pincus, is identifying core players for the future, and not necessarily making the playoffs.
Omri Casspi cited DeMarcus Cousins, calling him the best center in the league in an interview with James Herbert of CBSSports.com, among the reasons why he decided to re-sign with the Kings this summer.
The Suns officially named Chris Jent the head coach of their one-to-one D-League affiliate, the franchise announced Thursday. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported earlier this month that the sides were finalizing a deal. Jent had been Michael Malone‘s lead assistant with the Kings.

Pacific Notes: Jordan, D-League, Suns

August 27th, 2015 at 9:16pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer stressed that the team’s sale pitch to DeAndre Jordan which included an endorsement deal with Lexus for $200K a year, and subsequently garnered the organization a $250K fine from the league, played no part in the center’s decision to spurn Dallas and return to Los Angeles, Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders writes. “Today, the NBA announced it has fined the team for violating NBA rules in our presentation to DeAndre Jordan on July 2nd,” Ballmer relayed in an internal team memo (hat tip to Dan Woike of the Orange County Register). “The League’s investigation concluded that the presentation of a potential third-party opportunity had no impact on DeAndre’s decision to re-sign, and having been a part of the process, I can attest to this fact. As we, and the basketball world, observed DJ ultimately chose to stay with the Clippers because he felt it was his best opportunity to win a championship, and because of his desire to remain part of the Clippers family.”

Here’s more out of the Pacific Division:

The L.A. D-Fenders, the Lakers‘ D-League affiliate, filled out head coach Casey Owens‘ staff with Paul Woolpert, Brian Walsh, Jermaine Byrd, and Will Scott, who were all named as assistants, tweets Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News.
The one-year, minimum salary training camp deals that Henry Sims, Deonte Burton, and Cory Jefferson inked with the Suns include no guaranteed salary, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders notes (via Twitter).
Lakers 2015 first-rounder D’Angelo Russell believes that he and 2014 second round pick Jordan Clarkson can be an effective tandem playing together in the backcourt, as he told ESPN 710’s Mychal Thompson and Mike Trudell during a radio appearance. “I feel like we’re dangerous for our team,” Russell said of he and Clarkson. “We both rebound. We both can push the break, and we both can run the wing. So if he gets it and I’m running the wing, he can set up the offense or make the right decisions and vice versa with me. I feel like it’s dangerous, and we can play together easily. I think it will just take some time.“