Kawhi Leonard Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Southwest Notes: Ellis, Rockets, Leonard

April 7th, 2015 at 10:53pm CST by Will Joseph

Monta Ellis, who has a player option for the 2015/16 season, has “contract numbers for next year in his head” and he’s “very replaceable,” Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News writes in a chat. Ellis has seen a decline in points per game, assists per game and field goal percentage since the All-Star break. Still, he’s a proven scorer who can carry a team on any given night. If he opts out of the final season of his contract, his Early Bird rights allow the Mavericks to make an offer with a starting salary of up to $14.63MM. If Rajon Rondo flees via free agency, locking up Ellis would be a decent fallback plan. If the Mavs kept Rondo, Sefko adds he would be stunned if Ellis also wound up back with the team as well.

Here’s more from the Southwest Division:

A more experienced and mature roster seems to be making a difference for the Rockets as they head into the playoffs, Jenny Dial Creech of The Houston Chronicle writes. In the offseason, the Rockets added Jason Terry and Trevor Ariza. Then, Corey Brewer, Josh Smith and Pablo Prigioni were each acquired during the season and have added strong work ethic and sound basketball knowledge, Creech notes.
Kawhi Leonard, who is set to be a restricted free agent this summer, continues to get overlooked as a star, but with him back in the lineup after the All-Star Break, the Spurs are playing very similar to the way they did last season, which, of course, bodes well for a deep playoff run, Ben Golliver of SI.com writes. San Antonio is 27-10 since Leonard returned from a hand injury in mid-January.

Atlantic Notes: Knicks, Crowder, Lopez

March 29th, 2015 at 1:59pm CST by Zachary Links

The Knicks made the kind of history on Saturday that Phil Jackson probably wants no part of, as Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com writes. The Knicks dropped their 60th game of the season against the Bulls on Saturday night, the highest loss total in the team’s 69-year history. The “good” news, meanwhile, is that the Knicks own the worst record in the NBA with a few games separating them and the T’Wolves for the league’s worst record. Finishing dead last will guarantee the Knicks to pick no lower than No. 4 in June with a 25% chance at the No. 1 choice, which is a silver lining in this frustrating season. Here’s more from the Atlantic Division..

Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe expects the Celtics to extend an offer sheet to Spurs small forward Kawhi Leonard this summer. Boston coach Brad Stevens has praised the pending restricted free agent’s defensive prowess in the past. Of course, there will be plenty of other teams in the mix for Leonard.
Jae Crowder is becoming an indispensable member of the Celtics, opines A. Sherrod Blakely of CSSNE.com. Crowder, who was acquired as part of the Rajon Rondo trade, will become a restricted free agent after the season.
Brook Lopez has stepped his game up recently and Tim Bontemps of the New York Post believes the center has been key to keeping the Nets in the playoff race. Lopez holds a player option worth slightly over $16.7MM for the 2015/16 season. If he continues to play at his currently level, it’s conceivable that he could decline that option in pursuit of a larger deal. Here’s more from the Atlantic Division..
The Celtics are in the playoff chase and that’s thanks in no small part to the progression of second-year head coach Brad Stevens, as Jackie MacMullan of ESPNBoston.com writes.
Stevens has full confidence in Celtics offseason pickup Evan Turner, as A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com writes.

Chris Crouse contributed to this post.

Western Notes: Frye, Leonard, Collison

March 3rd, 2015 at 8:15pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Channing Frye is upset with the Suns’ management, who made some critical comments last week regarding the veteran big man’s departure to the Magic as a free agent last summer, John Denton of Magic.com tweets. Phoenix’s owner Robert Sarver had said that Frye didn’t give the Suns an opportunity to match Orlando’s four-year contract offer. “I think we have to take what that front office says with a grain of salt,” Frye said in response to Sarver’s comments. “I think right now they need to focus on their own team. I think we had many negotiations between [us and] the Suns,” Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel relays.

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

There’s plenty at stake for the Spurs over the next few months, but nothing that happens this spring will alter the value of the max or near-max contract Kawhi Leonard is set to receive in restricted free agency this summer, as Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News believes.
Former Nuggets coach George Karl feels no sense of glee at Denver’s struggles without him, as he said last week, according to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Karl has sympathy for Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke, Spears notes.
Darren Collison underwent successful surgery today to repair a core muscle issue, the Kings have announced. Collison will begin rehabilitation immediately and is expected to be out for approximately six weeks.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Kyler’s Latest: Love, Monroe, Gasol, Leonard

March 3rd, 2015 at 10:58am CST by Chuck Myron

The trade deadline is in the past and the focus is shifting to the draft and this year’s class of free agents. Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders takes a broad look at free agency for the summer ahead, passing along a number of noteworthy tidbits from his conversations around the league. His entire NBA AM piece is worth a read as he examines the outlook for several teams, and we’ll hit the highlights here:

The Celtics are planning to target marquee free agents this summer, with Kevin Love atop their list, followed by Greg Monroe, Kyler writes. Marc Gasol and restricted free agents Kawhi Leonard and Jimmy Butler are others in Boston’s sights, sources tell Kyler. It appears the Celtics will look to re-sign Brandon Bass to a salary lower than the $6.9MM he’s making this season, Kyler suggests, also indicating a likelihood that the Celtics renounce Jonas Jerebko‘s rights. That wouldn’t preclude a new deal with Jerebko, something that Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald reported earlier that the Celtics would like, though it does indicate that the C’s aim to open cap space. That’s a path of questionable merit, as I examined.
There’s a “sense” that the Sixers will make a play for Monroe, too, as well as Butler, Tobias Harris and Reggie Jackson, according to Kyler.
Monroe, Love and Rajon Rondo are at least willing to meet with the Lakers this summer, Kyler hears, though Gasol and LaMarcus Aldridge are long shots for the team, the Basketball Insiders scribe cautions. Still, chatter is connecting the Lakers to just about every would-be free agent, including Jackson and Brandon Knight.
It’s unlikely that Rondo gets a full maximum-salary deal in free agency this summer, league sources tell Kyler, who surmises that teams would float short-term max offers instead. A full max from the Mavs would entail a five-year deal with 7.5% raises, while other teams can offer four years and 4.5% raises.
Sources also tell Kyler that they believe Monta Ellis will opt out this summer, which is no surprise given his level of play and the $8.72MM value of his player option.
Kyler also gets the sense that Paul Millsap is content with the Hawks and would like to stay for the long term, though it appears Atlanta is eyeing an upgrade at DeMarre Carroll‘s small forward position.
The Spurs will make Gasol their top free agent priority this summer, Kyler writes, though the team will have trouble signing him if Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili return at salaries comparable to the ones they’re making. In any case, San Antonio was believed to be the team with the most interest in Monroe last summer, Kyler adds.

Western Notes: Love, Leonard, Smith

December 23rd, 2014 at 6:01pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The end of Kevin Love‘s time with Minnesota was “pretty much set in stone” in January 2012 when he inked a four-year extension with a player option after year three instead of a five-year extension, Wolves coach/executive Flip Saunders admits, according to Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune. The move that owner Glen Taylor and former GM David Kahn made to withhold a five-year extension from the budding superstar seemingly came back to bite Saunders, Kahn’s successor, when Love made it clear this summer that he’d leave the team via free agency in 2015. Still, Love insists it wasn’t the primary reason he wanted out.

“I don’t know, I think more than anything I just wanted to win,” Love said. “Now that we’re doing it here, I’m very happy. I think that was very shortsighted when it first happened, but in the end it was more the constant losing.”

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich relayed that Kawhi Leonard may end up needing surgery this offseason to repair the torn ligament in his right hand, Mike Monroe of The San Antonio Express-News reports (Twitter link). Leonard is set to become a restricted free agent after the season.
A pair of D-League assignments this season have not impacted Pelicans rookie Russ Smith‘s confidence, John Reid of The Times Picayune writes. ”If I go back down, then I’ll just go down and get better,” Smith said. ”But if I’m up here [with the Pelicans], I’ll get better as well. So it’s a win-win situation.” In six games with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, Smith has averaged 16.5 points, 6.2 assists and 1.8 steals.
Houston’s newest acquisition, Corey Brewer, said he didn’t expect his transition to the Rockets to be so easy, Jenny Dial Creech of The Houston Chronicle writes (Twitter links). “But you get out there with these guys, and they make it easy,” Brewer said. His new coach, Kevin McHale was especially happy to have Brewer on the team, Creech adds. McHale called Brewer, “a breath of fresh air,” and also added that Brewer “plays without an agenda.”

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Southwest Notes: Leonard, Gasol, Rockets

December 2nd, 2014 at 10:00am CST by Chuck Myron

Kawhi Leonard will hit restricted free agency in the summer, but Gregg Popovich isn’t moving away from his plan to make the small forward the focal point for the Spurs, as he explains to Michael Lee of The Washington Post.

“We’re trying to loosen up a bit and give him more of a green light,” Popovich said. “He’s getting more license. When you’re a young kid, you’re going to defer to Timmy [Duncan] and Manu [Ginobili] and [Tony Parker]. Now it’s like, ‘To heck with those guys. The Big Three, they’re older than dirt. To [expletive] with them. You’re the Big One. You’ve got to go do your deal.’ So, we’re trying to get him to be more demonstrative in that regard.”

Popovich was speaking tongue in cheek about Duncan, Ginobili and Parker, but it’s not hard to see that he continues to view the 23-year-old Leonard as a building block. Here’s more on Leonard amid the latest from the Southwest Division:

Leonard was non-committal when Lee asked about his upcoming free agency, though it’s the Spurs who can ultimately decide if he returns, since they can match all offers. “I feel like they like me here and I’m going to come back, but we’ll see,” Leonard said, as Lee notes in the same piece. “We’re going to see this summer.”
Zach Randolph expressed confidence during an ESPN appearance Monday that Marc Gasol will re-sign with the Grizzlies, notes Frank Isola of the New York Daily News (Twitter links), but Randolph admits to USA Today’s Sam Amick that sometimes he worries that Gasol will leave. In any case, Randolph said to Amick that he talks to Gasol a bit about the summer ahead, presumably in an effort to get him to stay.
The summer front office upheaval in Memphis that nearly saw coach Dave Joerger leave for the Wolves job didn’t prompt worry for Gasol, Amick reports in the same piece. “I was in contact with everybody [during that time],” Gasol said. “I was in contact with [owner] Robert [Pera], and I was in contact with Coach, and they told me that everything was going to be fine, and I believed them. There was no reason for me not to believe them.”
The Rockets have recalled Clint Capela from the D-League, the team announced. This year’s 25th overall pick put up 9.0 points, 7.2 rebounds and an eye-popping 3.2 blocks in just 14.1 minutes per game across six contests for the D-League Rio Grande Valley Vipers.

And-Ones: Leonard, Millsap, Mekel, Sixers

November 11th, 2014 at 1:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

Kawhi Leonard says he was “never upset” that the Spurs passed on a rookie-scale extension for him before last month’s deadline, as he tells USA Today’s Sam Amick.

“I don’t think I’m going anywhere,” Leonard said. “I mean they love me here. I like the organization, and if it was up to me, I want to finish out with one team like a lot of great players have done, to stay with one organization their whole career and just be loyal to that. You never know. We’ll see what happens next summer, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be in a Spurs jersey for my whole life.”

The Spurs reportedly passed on Leonard’s request for a max extension because they prefer maintain maximum cap flexibility for next summer, even though they’ve indicated that they’ll match any offer another team might make for the player Gregg Popovich calls a “coach’s dream.” Here’s more from around the NBA:

Paul Millsap acknowledged Monday that he’ll look around when he hits free agency in the summer, but he made it clear that the Hawks are the front-runners to re-sign him, as Marc Berman of the New York Post chronicles. “Anywhere could be an option,” Millsap said. “But my loyalty right now is in Atlanta. Free agency is free agency. When it happens, I’ll weigh my options and see where I’m at. But I’m happy in Atlanta right now.’’
A report late last month indicated that the Thunder had interest in Gal Mekel before they were beset by injuries, but with Ish Smith having joined the team as a 16th player and some of the wounded recovering, Mekel and OKC aren’t in active talks, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com.
Details are scarce about the contract that Drew Gordon signed Monday with the Sixers, but it is a multiyear arrangement, according to the RealGM transactions log.
The Timberwolves lost a star when Kevin Love forced a trade this summer, and Flip Saunders recognizes the importance of creating an environment that will help prevent a repeat in the future with Andrew Wiggins, as Bleacher Report’s Ethan Skolnick examines.

Western Notes: Thompson, Kobe, Fesenko

November 5th, 2014 at 1:03pm CST by Chuck Myron

Klay Thompson agreed that the starting salary in his extension with the Warriors couldn’t escalate past the current $15.5MM projection for next season’s 25% maximum salary, even if the max ends up coming in higher, Grantland’s Zach Lowe reports. That means the deal will be no more lucrative than $69MM over four years, and Lowe heard from a couple of agents who believe the Warriors acted unfairly in the way they structured Thompson’s deal (Twitter link). Still, it doesn’t appear that it will end up having been a sacrifice for Thompson, since it’s unlikely next year’s salary cap, to which maximum salaries are tied, will reflect any of the revenue from the league’s new $24 billion TV deal, according to Lowe. The league’s salary cap projections for 2015/16 remain around $66-68MM as league office execs favor a gradual phase-in of the TV money that wouldn’t start until 2016, Lowe writes. There’s more on Thompson and the Warriors amid the latest from Western Conference:

The promise of future production, expendability, strong character and the ability to attract fans are a few of the qualities that current and former team executives tell Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher they believe players who sign maximum-salary contracts should possess. All of those execs agree that Thompson is a max player, but their opinions are mixed on Kawhi Leonard, to whom the Spurs decided against giving a max extension.
Kobe Bryant‘s two-year, $48.5MM extension looks like an albatross for the 0-5 Lakers, but Warriors executive and part-owner Jerry West doesn’t agree, as he told KNBR radio, “Whatever they’re paying, he’s earned it,” West said, as Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group notes (Twitter link).
Timberwolves camp cut Kyrylo Fesenko has inked with Avtodor of Russia, the team announced (translation via David Pick of Eurobasket.com, on Twitter).

Kawhi Leonard, Spurs End Extension Talks

October 31st, 2014 at 1:17pm CST by Chuck Myron

Negotiations on an extension between Kawhi Leonard and the Spurs have met an end with no deal, agent Brian Elfus tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The news is no surprise, since Chris Broussard of ESPN.com reported Wednesday that a deal was unlikely before today’s 11:00pm Central deadline. Leonard is set to hit restricted free agency next summer.

“We feel Kawhi is deserving of a max contract, and we are disappointed that something couldn’t get done,” Elfus said to Wojnarowski. “There’s no debating Kawhi’s value. The market has been set. He’s done everything the Spurs have asked of him, exceeded all of their expectations. Coach [Gregg] Popovich has gone out of his way to call Kawhi the future face of the franchise. We have great respect for the Spurs organization, but here, we simply agree to disagree. There will be no shortage of teams interested in Kawhi’s services next year. There will be a lot of contract scenarios available to us, and we will explore them all.”

Wojnarowski wrote earlier this week that Leonard had been pushing for the max, adding that there had been no progress in discussions with the team even as Elfus and the Spurs spoke several times over the last few weeks. Elfus had been in San Antonio this week to discuss the matter in person, but the Spurs prefer to maintain financial flexibility heading into next summer, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com wrote earlier. Curiosity about next summer’s free agents and the question of whether Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili will retire after the season have led to San Antonio’s desire to hold off on a commitment to Leonard for now, Wojnarowski hears.

Still, Wojnarowski reiterates his earlier report that the Spurs would be expected to match any offer for the 2014 Finals MVP next summer, and the Yahoo! scribe suggests that the Spurs would be more amenable to the max at that point. Several league executives have told Wojnarowski that Leonard will command max offer sheets, but even if he were to sign one, it might turn out to be a money-saving proposition for San Antonio. Leonard can sign a five-year deal with 7.5% raises if he does so directly with the Spurs, but his offer sheets would be limited to no more than four years and 4.5% raises.

Extension Rumors: Butler, Rubio, Thompson

October 31st, 2014 at 11:54am CST by Chuck Myron

The 11:00pm Central deadline for rookie-scale extensions is only about half a day away, and there’s sure to be action in the hours ahead as decisions loom for the remaining eligible players. Here’s the latest as of this morning:

The Bulls and Butler were apart by $2.5MM in average annual value as they talked Thursday, Johnson reports. Butler’s camp doesn’t see a deal happening before the deadline, according to USA Today’s Sam Amick (on Twitter), which isn’t surprising considering the gap.
The Wolves are willing to sign Rubio to a four-year extension worth $52MM, and the team would perhaps be on board with going up to $54MM, according to Wolfson (Twitter link). Agent Dan Fegan has reportedly been seeking the maximum salary for his client, which would likely entail at least $66MM over four years, but Rubio would take $58MM, Wolfson says.
There’s “plenty of pessimism” surrounding the talks between Tristan Thompson and the Cavs as a gap remains in their proposals, reports Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com (via Twitter).

Earlier updates:

Ricky Rubio is more likely than not to sign an extension with the Wolves as advanced negotiations have taken place between the sides over the past few weeks, sources tell Marc Stein of ESPN.com. That echoes an earlier report from Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities, who heard from people outside the organization who believed Rubio and the team would ultimately settle on a four-year, $52MM deal.
Agent Brian Elfus has been in San Antonio negotiating with the Spurs this week, as Stein writes in the same piece, but Kawhi Leonard is nonetheless unlikely to sign an extension, Stein says, seconding a report from ESPN colleague Chris Broussard. Stein hears the Spurs prefer to take Leonard to restricted free agency next summer to maintain maximum financial flexibility. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports wrote earlier this week that the Spurs were reluctant to give Leonard the maximum salary he’s seeking.
Talks are continuing between the Warriors and Klay Thompson and the Cavs and Tristan Thompson, Stein reports.
Brandon Knight and Norris Cole appear unlikely to receive extensions, according to Stein, though talks are still going on between the Bucks and Knight’s agent, Arn Tellem, a source tells Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Stein seconds earlier reports indicating that Jimmy Butler, Reggie Jackson and Iman Shumpert also seem unlikely to sign extensions.
The Bulls are going to have to increase their offer to Butler to entice him to sign, tweets K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. It’s unclear what the Bulls have on the table, but as of a week ago the sides were “millions apart,” as Johnson wrote then.