Klay Thompson Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Pacific Notes: Thompson, Towns, Okafor

June 9th, 2015 at 5:20pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Count Andrew Bogut among the Warriors glad the team didn’t budge on its refusal to trade Klay Thompson to the Cavs for Kevin Love, as the Australian center told Grantland’s Zach Lowe. “Thankfully, we didn’t pull the trigger,” Bogut said. “I don’t know if that trade would have gotten us to this point. I didn’t think it would be a huge upgrade. David Lee provides the same output, besides the 3-point shooting. I thought we could have just found a stretch 4 at the veteran’s minimum — someone like James Jones.”

Here’s more from the Pacific Division:

Steve Kerr lobbied against the trade this past summer because he preferred to see how a largely untouched Warriors roster would continue to develop, as he said to Lowe for the same piece. “Continuity was the biggest thing for me,” Kerr said. “When you’ve got something good, let it grow organically. We were already really good on defense, and I knew we would get better on offense. Why do something dramatic? I had a real fear of the unknown.”
Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak says that the franchise has been unsuccessful thus far in getting Kentucky big man Karl-Anthony Towns to come in for a workout or interview, but he does believe it will happen prior to the NBA Draft, Kevin Ding of BleacherReport tweets.
Duke center Jahlil Okafor has downplayed the reports that he is angling to become a member of the Lakers, but he definitely sounds like a player who wants to wear purple and gold in the NBA, Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News notes (Twitter link).
You can see Hoops Rumors’ full prospect profiles for Towns, Okafor, and many other potential draftees here.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Pacific Notes: Lakers, Russell, Warriors

June 7th, 2015 at 11:52am CST by Arthur Hill

Executives around the league believe that the Lakers selecting D’Angelo Russell with the No. 2 overall pick is a legitimate possibility, Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com writes. Howard-Cooper believes the scenario is more plausible if Minnesota selects Karl-Anthony Towns with the No. 1 pick. Bypassing Jahlil Okafor may be an easier choice for the team because of the overlapping skills that he shares with last season’s first round pick Julius Randle. They are both talented on the offensive end, but getting better on defense is expected to be a project for both players.

There’s more from the Pacific Division:

“Continuity” played into Golden State’s decision last summer not to pursue a Klay Thompson-for-Kevin Love trade, tweets Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. “If you want to be good,” said coach Steve Kerr, “you have to have continuity.” Thompson had a different reaction to the rumors about being dealt for a player he grew up with in Oregon. “I thought it was pretty cool, actually,” he told Rusty Simmons of The San Francisco Chronicle (Twitter link).
Part of the reason for the Warriors‘ success is that a pair of former All-Stars have embraced reserve roles, writes Ryan Wolstat of The Toronto Sun. Andre Iguodala and David Lee were established starters when they came to Golden State, but both now come off the bench without complaining. “Selflessness, that’s been the tone of this team, but that’s something that [Iguodala] started off with his decision,” said fellow reserve Festus Ezeli. “To be able to accept his role and then we all accept our role and that’s how a team works.” Iguodala is signed through the 2016/17 season. Lee will be an unrestricted free agent in 2016.

Chris Crouse contributed to this post.

James, Curry, Harden Lead All-NBA Teams

May 21st, 2015 at 10:32am CST by Chuck Myron

LeBron James and Stephen Curry finished atop the voting for the All-NBA Teams, with James Harden, Anthony Davis and Marc Gasol joining them on the first team, the league announced via press release. Russell Westbrook, LaMarcus Aldridge, Chris Paul, Pau Gasol and DeMarcus Cousins comprise the second team. Blake Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, Tim Duncan, Klay Thompson and Kyrie Irving make up the third team.

Curry, the league’s MVP, and James each received 645 points through a system in which five points are awarded a first team vote, three points go for a second team vote and one point is given for a third team vote. The duo garnered 129 first team votes each, making them unanimous first team selections. They were followed closely by Harden, with 125 first team votes and 637 points, and Davis, who had 119 first team votes and 625 points. Marc Gasol, who’s heading into free agency, wasn’t as widely seen as a first-teamer by the media members who cast their ballots, rounding out the squad with 65 first-team votes and 453.

Every member of the second team received at least one first team vote, and Thompson and Irving were the only members of the third team not to get a first team vote. Al Horford also received a first team vote even though he didn’t make any of the teams. The NBA will soon display the votes of each media member on its website, but the league has already distributed the information via press release, so click here to check it out in PDF form.

Warriors Co-Owner On Green, Lee, Luxury Tax

March 16th, 2015 at 2:30pm CST by Chuck Myron

Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob takes an aggressive approach to running his team, and it’s paid off, with Golden State a half-game in front of the Hawks for the league’s best record. His bold approach extends even to his plans for a new arena in San Francisco, though he told Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group that he now finds a 2017 opening date for that building unlikely and is instead focused on 2018. Lacob had plenty more to say, including a remark in which he expressed his hope that Stephen Curry is “a Warrior for life,” in a podcast taped Friday with Kawakami, who transcribes 20 of Lacob’s responses in a full story. The entire interview is worth your time, particularly if you’re a Warriors fan, but we’ll share three of Lacob’s remarks here:

On Draymond Green, set for restricted free agency this summer:

“I obviously have to choose my words carefully here — we’re not trying to make any claims or anything like that. He will go through the restricted free agency process; I’m sure he’ll get offers from other teams. And he’ll have an offer from us, obviously. Look, he’s very much a part of the core here. That’s the way we view him. He just turned 25 years old and along with Steph and Klay [Thompson] and Harrison [Barnes] we have our sort of core young four, if you will, along with a lot of other really good players. All I can say is we’re going to do everything we can to convince him to stay and be a Warrior for a long time. Of course we have the ultimate [choice] in all that — we can match any deal he gets.”

On the possibility of trading David Lee:

“This is really for [GM] Bob [Myers] to figure out and our basketball ops team. We’re going to figure out how to put together the team for next year. And let’s wait to see how the season ends, first. … You don’t know what’s going to happen. … Sometimes you change your view by the end of the year. Look, if that’s the way it works out, he’s an expiring contact and if it’s better for him to move on somewhere else, maybe that might happen. But it might not. I think we have to wait until the end of the year and assess everything when the season’s over.”

On paying the luxury tax:

“No one should be comfortable with that because the penalties are obviously quite severe. We’d always prefer not to. I can’t sit here and lie and say that I would love to pay the luxury tax. No one would love to pay the luxury tax. But we always have known that there could be a time when it’s required, when the team is at such a point, to keep it together, maybe it’s just that point where we have overlapping contacts that add up … where we have to pay the luxury tax to do that, to keep our long-term plan intact. So the answer, without going on and on, is that we are prepared to pay the luxury tax, yes, if we have to. That’s just a part of the business. It’s not something we want to do. And we’ll all see what happens. A lot depends on what other teams do and how free agency goes and so on. There’s really quite a few factors.”

Western Notes: Chandler, Afflalo, Thompson

February 17th, 2015 at 8:10pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Trail Blazers have been pursuing Nuggets forward Wilson Chandler for weeks and remain the team most interested in trading for him, according to Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post. Portland wants to add a scorer off its bench, Dempsey adds, and Chandler would fit that description. Chandler, who is making $6.76MM this season, is averaging 13.9 points in 31.7 minutes per game for the Nuggets.

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

The Blazers are also interested in Nuggets guard Arron Afflalo, and have the most assets among his pursuers to make a trade happen, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The Clippers and Heat, among other teams, are also interested in Afflalo, but don’t have the assets to pull off a deal, Wojnarowski continues. Afflalo is making $7.5MM this season and has a player option for the same amount next season.
Enes Kanter could command a contract in excess of $10MM per season as a restricted free agent this summer and the Jazz center wants to protect his Bird rights if he’s dealt, Wojnarowski reports in the same piece. Kanter reportedly turned down a four-year, $32MM offer from Utah last fall. The Jazz are only willing to trade Kanter if they receive a quality young player and a first-round pick before Thursday’s deadline, Wojnarowski continues. In lieu of a trade, Jazz management and Kanter’s representative Max Ergul have been trying to resolve Kanter’s disappointment over his playing time peacefully, Wojnarowski adds.
The decision to sign Klay Thompson to an extension this past fall was relatively easy, but committing money to players is always a nerve-wracking proposition, Warriors GM Bob Myers tells Tim Kawakami of The Bay Area News Group. Kawakami, in that piece and in another, delves into a Warriors front office that thrives on collaboration, with Myers and co-owner Joe Lacob the primary decision-makers who receive tons of spirited input. Assistant GMs Travis Schlenk and Kirk Lacob, consultant Jerry West and coach Steve Kerr have a say on every move from D-League transactions on up, as Kawakami reveals.
Marc Gasol will not rule out returning to the Grizzlies regardless of how they do in the postseason, Sam Amick of USA Today writes. Gasol will be an unrestricted free agent after the season and the Grizzlies have an edge through the CBA because they can offer him a five-year deal while other suitors can only offer four. The Knicks, Lakers and Spurs are among the teams who will pursue Gasol, Amick adds.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Pacific Notes: Cousins, Karl, Thompson, West

February 13th, 2015 at 12:42pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Kings are poised for trade deadline action after resolving their coaching situation, while in Phoenix, suitors are lining up for Goran Dragic. We’ll run through the latest news and notes from a busy Pacific Division here:

DeMarcus Cousins praised new Kings coach George Karl to reporters at All-Star weekend in New York, saying he looked forward to working with him, tweets Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork.com. The center has expressed exasperation with the team’s coaching turmoil.
Karl was the right choice for the Kings, argues Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee, who also lists Scott Brooks among the names of coaches who would have been candidates for the Sacramento job if the team hadn’t hired Karl.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr was largely responsible for halting a proposed blockbuster last summer that would have sent Klay Thompson to the Timberwolves in exchange for Kevin Love, according to Sean Deveney of the Sporting News. Kerr and Warriors team consultant Jerry West talked ownership out of making the swap, which would have also sent David Lee to Minnesota and Kevin Martin to Golden State, Deveney adds. A source close the talks told Deveney that the trade was a done deal until Kerr, who took the job with the expectation of coaching Thompson, and West convinced management not to do it.
The jealousy that the Warriors worried might develop when they gave Thompson a more lucrative extension than Stephen Curry got a few years ago hasn’t developed, and Thompson doesn’t regret agreeing to contract terms that might give him less than the max, as Deveney writes in the same piece.
West, who made his mark as an executive with the Lakers, is confident the Lakers wouldn’t ask him back, as he said on 95.7 The Game, as station host Matt Steinmetz relays (Twitter links). West’s son, Ryan, is the Lakers’ assistant scouting director, notes Yannis Koutroupis of Basketball Insiders (on Twitter).
Trading Dragic would be a wise move because the Suns are not true title contenders, Dan Bickley of the Arizona Republic argues. Bickley believes the Suns should be acquiring trade assets in order to make a future move to acquire a superstar talent rather than adding short-term pieces such as Ray Allen or Amar’e Stoudemire. If the Suns can add a first-round pick by swapping Dragic while concurrently breaking their point guard logjam, they should not hesitate, Bickley concludes.

Dana Gauruder contributed to this post.

Western Notes: Thompson, Hill, McGee, Davis

December 11th, 2014 at 7:25pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Klay Thompson didn’t feel the need to test the free agent market, nor to entertain the idea of going to another team where he didn’t have to share the spotlight with another player, like he does now with Stephen Curry on the Warriors, Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com writes. “Why go somewhere else and start over when you get a huge contract with one of the best teams in the NBA?” Thompson said. “I think only an idiot would turn that down. I love it here. Love my teammates, the organization, especially the fans, and I never really wanted to go anywhere else.” Thompson inked a maximum salary extension with Golden State in October.

Here’s more from the West:

The two-year, $18MM deal the Lakers gave Jordan Hill this summer drew some head-scratches from executives around the league, but Hill is now the player that Los Angeles gets the most trade inquiries about, Sean Deveney of The Sporting News reports. Hill had heard all the chatter about him not being worthy of his contract, but shrugged it off, notes Deveney. “I heard all that, but I didn’t pay any attention,” Hill said. “I knew I had the skills to do it, I just needed the minutes. With [Mike] D’Antoni, it was hard for me to find the minutes. He wanted me to do the things he wanted me to do to get the minutes. I couldn’t really do what I wanted to do, to play the way I know I could play. So, things happened and now it’s a whole new year. Now, I am one of the main focal points of the team, so I can go out there and do what I am capable of doing.”
The Nuggets have received very little return on their four-year, $44MM investment in JaVale McGee, and the big man would garner little on the trade market thanks to his bloated contract and injury history, Shaun Powell of NBA.com writes. This is the peril of paying big men large salaries, Powell adds. The scribe also ran down a number of other deals handed out to centers that also haven’t worked out well for the teams writing the checks.
There has been some criticism about how the Pelicans are eschewing the draft in an attempt to build an immediate contender around Anthony Davis so he won’t leave as a free agent when he is eligible, Jonathan Tjarks of RealGM writes. Tjarks doesn’t believe New Orleans needs to worry, and despite a glaring weakness at small forward, the franchise should be able to retain Davis.

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).

Warriors Notes: Thompson, Green

November 4th, 2014 at 9:20pm CST by Alex Lee

It’s still early, but the Warriors have taken a commanding lead as the still-unbeaten team that Hoops Rumors readers think can unseat the Spurs as NBA champs. The play of Klay Thompson is undoubtedly a big reason why, as the fourth-year guard, fresh off a contract extension, leads the league in scoring. Here is more on the Warriors:

While the official word on Thompson’s extension with the Warriors is that the full value won’t be known until next July, Zach Lowe of Grantland.com reports that it is not technically a maximum contract (via Twitter). Lowe promises further detail to come, but in the meantime says that Golden State did something “interesting” with the deal that differentiates it from other max-type extensions.
Meanwhile, Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group writes that many in Golden State saw stardom coming for Thompson and it, if that is what we’re seeing here, should not come as a big surprise.
We heard earlier tonight that Draymond Green of the Warriors is switching agents. Sam Amick of USA Today, who reported the Green news, writes that Golden State intends to keep their young forward. Amick adds that Green’s move to the Wasserman Media Group was a strategic one, as the Michigan State product preferred the services of an agency — and an agent in B.J. Armstrong — that could properly capitalize on his unique ability to impact a game beyond what shows up in the box score.

Western Notes: Durant, Rockets, Thompson

November 4th, 2014 at 12:09pm CST by Chuck Myron

The message in HBO’s “Kevin Durant: The Offseason” documentary shows the Roc Nation Sports agency’s heavy hand in Durant’s affairs and paints the reigning MVP as a player who’s eager to win, even if it means leaving the Thunder in 2016, as Ben Golliver of SI.com opines. Even though Durant says as the film’s credits roll that he has “no doubts” about the Thunder’s ability to win a championship eventually, the film makes it clear he’s ready to seek a title elsewhere if any such doubts creep in. We passed along more on Durant this morning, and there’s another Durant-related item amid the latest from the Western Conference:

The Rockets are among the many teams planning a run at Durant when he can become a free agent in 2016, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com says in a video report.
The maximum salaries for 2015/16 won’t be known until July, but the league is estimating that the 25% max that Klay Thompson is set to receive in his extension from the Warriors will give him a $15.5MM salary for next season, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). That would mean $69MM over the life of the four-year deal, as Pincus also illustrates. That’s up significantly from the $14.746MM that 25% max signees received for this season. Kyrie Irving is also in line for the $15.5MM starting salary in his five-year max extension, though he has a better chance than Thompson does to trigger the Derrick Rose rule, which he and the Cavs agreed would give him a max worth approximately 27.5% of the salary cap.
Cory Joseph acknowledges that it wasn’t surprising when he didn’t sign an extension with the Spurs when he was eligible before the end of last month, and the ever-optimistic point guard looks ahead to restricted free agency as an opportunity. Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News has the details.