K.J. McDaniels Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Atlantic Rumors: Celtics, Smart, Nets

June 25th, 2015 at 12:13pm CST by Zachary Links

The latest from the Atlantic Division..

The Celtics have indicated that they “would have to be blown away” by an opportunity to move Marcus Smart, a source tells Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe (on Twitter). Earlier this week it was reported that the Celtics were seeking Nerlens Noel in a deal for the guard. Smart and Noel were No. 6 overall picks in back-to-back years.
Nets GM Billy King told reporters there is a possibility the Nets could go into next season with Brook Lopez, Thaddeus Young, Joe Johnson, and Deron Williams all on the roster, Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork.com tweets.
When asked if Lopez and Young are max players, the Nets GM replied, “Next question,” according to Mazzeo (Twitter links).
One agent representing a fringe first-rounder the Sixers called for told Jake Fischer of SI (on Twitter) that he doesn’t want his client “to be the next K.J. McDaniels.” McDaniels was a high second round selection of the Sixers last year but wound up signing a one-year, minimum contract offer with them after a protracted contract battle. Later in the year, he was traded to the Rockets, and he’ll now hit free agency this summer.

Rockets Rumors: McDaniels, Terry, Beverley

May 25th, 2015 at 9:43pm CST by Dana Gauruder

K.J. McDaniels hopes to re-sign with the Rockets this summer when he’s expected to enter restricted free agency, as he said to Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston (All Twitter links). The Rockets can reserve the right to match competing bids for the rookie, who has missed the playoffs with a fractured wrist, if they tender a qualifying offer worth slightly more than $1.045MM.

In other news regarding the Rockets:

Jason Terry will play again next season, he told Marc Stein of ESPN.com. “100%,” the veteran point guard said to Stein before Monday’s Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals. Terry, an unrestricted free agent after the season, moved into the starting lineup when Patrick Beverley suffered a season-ending wrist injury. The Rockets will try to re-sign Terry, Stein adds.
Beverley expressed his desire to remain with the Rockets but his value has gone up during his absence in the playoffs, Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reports. The Rockets were able to advance to the conference finals without him but their weakened perimeter defense has been exposed by the Warriors’ Stephen Curry, Feigen continues. “I think I have a gift very few people have,” Beverley said to Feigen. “I know I’m the best on-ball defender in the NBA. I’m the best point guard defender in the NBA. I think the whole league knows that.” Beverley had a bargain-rate contract of $915,243 this season and is seeking a substantial raise and long-term security. “I put myself in position these last couple years to be successful and take care of my family for the rest of my life,” he added to Feigen. “I’ve been here three years on a minimum contract. At the end of the day, I have to understand business is business.”

Texas Notes: Morey, McHale, Rondo

April 23rd, 2015 at 12:59pm CST by Chuck Myron

Reports have indicated the Rockets would like to re-sign Patrick Beverley and Josh Smith, and GM Daryl Morey tells Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com that the same feeling applies to other Rockets.

“We’re pretty focused on now, but obviously pretty much everyone on this team, we’re going to be focused on trying to bring them back,” Morey said. “We got quite a few free agents, Josh Smith is one, we’re going to address in the offseason. We feel if our team can keep executing, we feel like we can keep getting better with the group that we have here.”

Corey Brewer, Jason Terry and K.J. McDaniels are the team’s other soon-to-be free agents. Here’s more from Houston and elsewhere around the Lone Star State:

Morey also lauded Kevin McHale in his interview with Watkins, saying that a team’s coach “has a huge impact” on the decisions free agents make when they sign. The Rockets inked McHale to a three-year extension in December.
Several members of the Mavs organization rolled their eyes after the team announced Wednesday that Rajon Rondo was out indefinitely with a back injury, seemingly dubious that his health has anything to do with his absence from the team, as Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com examines. Coach Rick Carlisle acknowledged that he doesn’t expect Rondo, set for free agency this summer, to return to Dallas.
Sources close to Rondo tell Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders that the Mavs have never been an ideal fit for the point guard and that everyone involved has just been trying to make the best of it, as Kyler writes within in NBA AM piece.
The Spurs and Mavs reportedly believe they’ll have a chance to sign LaMarcus Aldridge this summer, as we passed along earlier.

Western Notes: McDaniels, Duncan, Brooks

April 16th, 2015 at 8:30pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Rockets rookie K.J. McDaniels will likely miss the playoffs due to a fractured wrist, Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle relays (Twitter link). McDaniels has played sparingly since being acquired from the Sixers, appearing in 10 games and averaging 1.1 points in 3.3 minutes per night. The swingman will be a restricted free agent this summer if Houston extends him a qualifying offer worth $1,045,059.

Here’s more news out of the Western Conference:

Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News (Twitter link) believes that Tim Duncan will put off retirement to return to the Spurs for his 19th NBA season. The 38-year-old is set to become an unrestricted free agent at season’s end.
Carlos Boozer said he would like to return to the Lakers if the team makes additions to the roster that would allow it to be a playoff contender, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets. The unrestricted free agent also indicated that he would be open to a role off the bench, Pincus adds.
Both Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook offered support to embattled Thunder coach Scott Brooks, whom the team is reportedly evaluating prior to making a decision on his future, Anthony Slater of the Oklahoman relays (Twitter links). When asked about his coach’s performance, Westbrook said, “He did a great job. I don’t think he gets enough credit behind the scenes. Obviously he can’t make players do things they don’t want to do. With the group of guys we have on our team and the guys that wanted to be here, I thought he did a great job of keeping the boat afloat.“
Trevor Booker, whose $4,775,000 salary for next season is non-guaranteed, indicated that he would like to remain with the Jazz, Jody Genessy of The Deseret News tweets. The forward appeared in 79 contests for the Jazz this season, averaging 7.2 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 1.1 assists in 19.8 minutes per game.

Western Notes: Allen, Grizzlies, McDaniels, Shaw

March 1st, 2015 at 9:58pm CST by Zachary Links

The Mavericks, who currently hold the sixth seed in a tight Western Conference, must improve their level of play and toughness in order to make the playoffs, opines Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News. After losing two straight, the Mavericks will face the Pelicans on Monday in a game Sefko called “urgent,” given the level of competition the Mavericks play against afterward. The Mavericks play winning teams in 10 of their next 12 games.

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

Ray Allen will not be joining the Grizzlies, according to Ronald Tillery of the Commercial Appeal (via Twitter). Late last month, Tillery reported that Memphis was still maintaining interest in the veteran guard. Of course, at this stage, it’s not clear if Allen will sign with anyone at all. If he does come back, he apparently won’t be suiting up for the Cavs, either.
K.J. McDaniels bet on himself last summer by turning down a four-year contract from Sixers GM Sam Hinkie and instead signing for a single season, as Michael Kaskey-Blomain of Philly.com writes. Over the first portion of the season in Philly, the Clemson product was getting tons of playing time and exposure. Now with the Rockets, he’s not seeing nearly as much playing time and isn’t getting a chance to really showcase himself.
It sounds like the Nuggets players are still restless under head coach Brian Shaw. In the fourth-quarter late into Denver’s 104-82 loss to the Jazz, the team broke a huddle with the phrase, “1-2-3…six weeks!,” according to Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post. Of course, there are roughly six weeks to go in the regular season.

Will Joseph contributed to this post.

Rockets Acquire K.J. McDaniels

February 19th, 2015 at 9:32pm CST by Chuck Myron

9:32pm: The trade is official, the Rockets have announced. The pick headed to the Sixers is the less favorable of Minnesota’s and Denver’s 2015 second-rounders.

3:23pm: The Sixers are trading K.J. McDaniels to the Rockets for Isaiah Canaan and a second-round pick, sources told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. It originally appeared as though Canaan was headed to the Knicks.

McDaniels is on a one-year contract for the rookie minimum, a product of an impasse in negotiations with the Sixers prior to the start of training camp. The 32nd overall pick in this past summer’s draft, he signed Philadelphia’s required tender, a non-guaranteed offer the Sixers had to extend to retain his draft rights, and he earned his place and then some on Philly’s roster, sticking past the leaguewide guarantee date to ensure he’d receive his full salary.

Canaan had an impressive training camp and averaged 24.4 minutes per game in November while starter Patrick Beverley missed time, but his playing time dried up quickly, and he’s played only a total of 37 minutes since New Year’s Day.

Atlantic Notes: McDaniels, Thomas, Knicks

December 24th, 2014 at 6:12pm CST by Arthur Hill

Sixers rookie K.J. McDaniels could be a hot commodity this summer, according to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. Coming out of Clemson, McDaniels expected to be drafted in the first round, but slipped all the way to the 32nd pick. He is playing on a one-year, non-guaranteed contract worth just $507,336 and can become a restricted free agent next summer. Philadelphia offered two guaranteed years and a little more cash, but he turned it down for an earlier shot at free agency.

There’s more news from the Atlantic Division:

The deal that Malcolm Thomas signed this week with the Sixers is a non-guaranteed four-year arrangement for the minimum salary, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). The final season is both non-guaranteed and a team option, as Pincus denotes on his salary page for Philly.
Phil Jackson’s insistence on using the triangle offense may be sabotaging Knicks‘ coach Derek Fisher, writes Marc Berman of The New York Post. Fisher is off to a 5-25 start, the fifth worst winning percentage for anyone who has coached at least 30 games, and there are calls around the city to scrap the offense that Jackson used to win 11 NBA rings. However, a source close to Fisher contends the problem is the team’s lack of talent. “He has taken on a terrible roster situation thanks to owner meddling and mismanagement back to the Zeke [Isiah Thomas] days,” the unidentified source said. “There are at least a half-dozen terrible teams in this league, and they’re one of them.’’
The Celtics have more rotation players than they need right now, reports Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com. After last week’s trade that sent Rajon Rondo to Boston for Jameer Nelson, Brandan Wright and Jae Crowder, Boston now has 15 rotation-worthy players on its roster but no real stars. That can create headaches for coach Brad Stevens as he tries to allocate playing time. “[It’s] still going to take a lot of time,” Stevens said after Tuesday’s loss in Orlando. “… I think one of the things that I’m going to eventually be looking for is clear answers and I don’t think that we leave this road trip with those.”

Eastern Notes: McDaniels, Sixers, Cavs, Pistons

November 22nd, 2014 at 8:43pm CST by ChrisCrouse

With the Sixers season already taking a turn for the worse, rookie K.J. McDaniels needs to play more, argues Tom Moore of Calkins Media. McDaniels, who signed an unusual deal for a second-round draft pick that keeps him under contract for only one season, is averaging 9.3 points per game while playing only 22.6 minutes per game. If McDaniels continues to show potential, he could end up with a more lucrative deal than most players with his experience and draft status. If that is the case, his success may pave the way for other second-round picks to emulate his strategy of signing just a one-year deal, though that is just my speculation.

Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:

The Sixers do not have a timetable for when the team’s turnaround will begin, writes Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The team began this season with a record of 0-12. Pompey compares the club to the 2007 SuperSonics, who lost their first eight games on their way to 20-62 record. The main difference between the two teams is that the Sonics had Kevin Durant during his rookie season, while the Sixers currently lack so much talent that many suggest the top team in college could beat them.
Kevin Love hasn’t looked like the superstar who many people hailed him as last summer, writes Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group. Kawakami also cites the Cavs’ current need for an additional wing defender as further evidence that the team shouldn’t have traded Andrew Wiggins. While Wiggins isn’t totally developed as an NBA player, defense is one of his specialties. Cleveland is reportedly one of the teams looking to add Wolves defensive specialist Corey Brewer to its roster.
If the Pistons attempt to trade any of their players this season, Josh Smith and Brandon Jennings make the most sense as candidates due to their large contracts, opines David Mayo of MLive.com in his weekly mailbag. Although trading one or both of these players would financially benefit the team long term, Detroit has no financial urgency to move either contract as the team will be comfortably under the NBA’s salary cap this offseason. Mayo suggests that while the team may have the financial flexibility to re-sign Greg Monroe, it is unlikely he stays since he already turned down a substantial offer from the Pistons and is set to become an unrestricted free agent this offseason.

Eastern Notes: Hawks, Sixers, McDaniels, Vonleh

October 3rd, 2014 at 2:30pm CST by Chuck Myron

There’s concern around the league that NBA franchises are overvalued, in part out of worry that the union will negotiate a better deal for itself in the next collective bargaining agreement, as Sean Deveney of The Sporting News details. That “buy low, sell high” mentality helps explain why Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov seems motivated to cash out on at least part of his majority share of the team. There’s more from Deveney’s piece pertaining to another team on the market, as we pass along here:

Deveney also hears that Hawks owner Bruce Levenson was open to selling his controlling interest in the team even before the discovery of his racially charged email. We rounded up today’s latest on the Hawks sale right here.
The Sixers only signed two players in free agency this year, both to minimum-salary deals, as our Free Agent Tracker shows, but co-owner Josh Harris insists he’s willing to spend in the future, notes Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News (Twitter links). “We’ve bottomed out and now together we build,” Harris said.
Grantland’s Zach Lowe confirms that the deal that K.J. McDaniels signed with the Sixers was indeed the team’s required tender, as I speculated. Teams must offer their second-round picks a one-year, non-guaranteed contract for the minimum salary to retain their draft rights, and those are the terms that McDaniels signed for.
Hornets rookie Noah Vonleh says he didn’t work out for Charlotte before the draft because his agent didn’t believe he’d still be available when the Hornets picked at No. 9 overall, as Vonleh tells Scott Fowler of the Charlotte Observer.

Eastern Notes: Webster, Heat, McDaniels

October 2nd, 2014 at 10:13pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Martell Webster doesn’t envision himself playing basketball for much longer thanks to chronic back pain, Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post writes. Webster is still in the process of rehabbing from his third back surgery in four years, and says he’ll most likely retire when his contract with the Wizards runs out in 2017. “I’ve always wanted to retire young,” Webster said. “I love this game and I respect this game, but I only want to be in it as long as I can be effective and as long as I can feel comfortable.”

Here’s the latest happenings in the Eastern Conference:

Heat coach Erik Spoelstra isn’t necessarily looking for his new players to replace the departed LeBron James, Ray Allen, and James Jones, Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel writes. “Number one,” Spoelstra said, “we have to look at this team differently. It’s in a different lens. So we might not have to fill in the same boxes that we’ve had in the past. I think that might be a dangerous way to look at it. It’s open to where to this group can go. We felt, secondly, that we have enough shooting, and we’re encouraged by the guys that, one, either have a resume for it, or, two, have really been working on it.“
The Hornets and Hawks might live to regret only inking Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap respectively, to shorter deals than they could have, Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders opines. While he believes the idea of short-term deals is a sound one, Jefferson is all but assured to exercise his player option next summer, and both are expected to test out the free agent market. Both franchises will face competition to re-sign their players, and the new deals might prove more costly than if both players had simply been signed to longer deals in the first place.
Kyler also weighed in on K.J. McDaniels‘ deal with the Sixers. According to Kyler, McDaniels did the smart thing in rejecting Philly’s original four-year offer with very little in guaranteed money. McDaniels has an excellent chance at seeing significant playing time this season, and could easily parlay a decent season into a three or four year deal worth $4MM or $5MM, which would in essence double what the Sixers offered him, notes Kyler. By signing a one-year arrangement McDaniels will become a restricted free agent at season’s end.