LaMarcus Aldridge Rumors | Hoops Rumors

And-Ones: Durant, Green, Aldridge

November 12th, 2015 at 8:45am CST by Chuck Myron

Sean Deveney of The Sporting News mentions the Lakers, Bulls and Knicks as major-market suitors for Kevin Durant, and the Warriors as a team that could catch his eye, but people around the league have long felt as though Durant will either sign with the Thunder or the Wizards, Deveney writes. It’s a sentiment one Eastern Conference GM who spoke with Deveney confirms. Still, Washington doesn’t plan an extravagant pitch, a source tells Deveney, in keeping with the former MVP’s low-key personality. That said, neither the Warriors nor the Heat should be ruled out as potential Durant destinations, according to Frank Isola of the New York Daily News. See more from around the NBA:

Gerald Green punched a man who was trying to restrain him from going from the lobby of his condo building to his unit, according to a police report that Manny Navarro and Charles Rabin of the Miami Herald obtained. The man, who elected not to press charges, was attempting to keep Green in the lobby so that he would be there when rescue officials arrived, the report states, according to Navarro and Rabin. Green had earlier approached the front desk of the lobby with bloody hands and asked for a call to paramedics, then proceeded to the valet area in front of the building and collapsed, the report continues, as Navarro and Rabin detail. Green, who was handcuffed but not arrested, was hospitalized and later released and is serving a two-game suspension from the Heat. Team president Pat Riley said the team still believes it can count on Green, who issued an apology as part of a team statement, Navarro and Rabin add.
The Mavericks weren’t the favorites for LaMarcus Aldridge, but they still had a chance to sign him when they abandoned their pursuit to instead nail down the more certain acquisition of Wesley Matthews, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports details in an inside look at Aldridge’s free agency. Aldridge liked Kobe Bryant‘s basketball chat but little else about the Lakers presentation, while Aldridge was reluctant to share the marquee with James Harden despite an intriguing Rockets pitch and found Raptors GM Masai Ujiri appealing but not convincing enough to sway him to Toronto, according to Wojnarowski.
The Spurs wooed Aldridge with a casual, face-to-face approach from Gregg Popovich and other San Antonio principals, Wojnarowski explains in the same piece. Popovich’s decision to fly in for a second visit, prompted by Aldridge’s second Lakers meeting, helped sealed the deal for the Spurs, thanks in part to a last-minute appeal from Riley that the Heat president intended to use to sell Aldridge on a secondary role in Miami, Wojnarowski writes. Instead, Aldridge took Riley’s message to heart as he embraced the idea of sacrificing some of his impressive offensive numbers in San Antonio’s egalitarian offense, as the Yahoo scribe details.

Western Notes: Russell, Aldridge, Capela

November 11th, 2015 at 9:40pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Rookie D’Angelo Russell is obviously in the Lakers‘ long-term plans, but that doesn’t mean he is ready to take on a huge role just yet, Baxter Holmes of ESPN.com writes.

“I’m not just going to put him out there to put him out there,” Coach Byron Scott said. “If I do that and he’s not prepared and he’s not learning, then I’m preparing him to fail. And I’m not going to do that. I think this kid is too valuable to us.”

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

LaMarcus Aldridge isn’t going to get caught up in his decision to leave Portland when the Blazers host the Spurs tonight, Jason Quick of CSNNW passes along via Twitter. “I’m not going to get into all of that. What is done is done. I feel like both sides kind of have what they want. Now, I’m here,” Aldridge said.
Clint Capela is proving he belongs in the NBA and Rockets GM Daryl Morey has high expectations for the big man, as he tells Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com. “Sky’s the limit for him.” Morey said. “To do what he’s doing at 22 is amazing in the NBA against the talent in the league and to come from playing mostly in the D-League last season, to start a few games for us, and in games that we’ve won, is huge. His ability to protect the rim, run the floor, rebound — we really feel like he’s got a chance to be a high-level player.”
Capela has seen some added playing time this season with Dwight Howard not playing in both games of back-to-backs and there is no urgency to change the game plan, Morey tells Watkins in the same piece. “It’s going to come down to the doctor’s advice,” Morey said. “He has not played back-to-back and he’s played at an extremely high level. So I think the doctors are looking at that and feeling like that’s the smartest course at this point. If he gets to no symptoms whatsoever and playing at a high level, I think they might mix him in at some point. For now and the foreseeable future, I think they want him to sit out back-to-backs.” Howard can hit free agency this summer if he elects to turn down his player option, which is worth slightly more than $23.28MM.

Spurs Notes: Popovich, Aldridge, Leonard

November 9th, 2015 at 11:49am CST by Chuck Myron

Spurs coach/president Gregg Popovich was hesitant to make a definitive statement about how long he’d continue before retiring, but when the question came up while he was pitching LaMarcus Aldridge on signing with the Spurs this summer, he knew he had to answer, as Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe details.

“He outed me,” Popovich said to Washburn. “He put the pressure on me. Who knows when you might want to retire, but he and his agent sat across, and [the agent] said, ‘Ask him, ask him, go ahead and ask him.’ I knew it was coming, so I tried to end the meeting, ‘OK, we gotta go eat. We gotta do something.’ [The agent] said, ‘No, no, ask him.’ That’s when he hit me: ‘What are you going to do? How long are you going to be here?’ I said, ‘I’m here.’ I had just signed a five-year [extension] a year before. The contract was in place, so I told him I’ll be here.”

It’s unclear whether it was departing Wasserman Media Group agent Arn Tellem or another agency representative who prompted Aldridge to ask the question, but regardless, the Aldridge signing apparently secured more than just a star power forward for San Antonio. See more on the Spurs:

Popovich also told Washburn that he and GM R.C. Buford initially weren’t quite sure how to approach Aldridge. “R.C. and I sat in a room and just looked at each other and just said, ‘What do we do now?’” Popovich said. “We don’t know how to do this. So we just decided to be who we are. ‘This is us, you know who we are, you wanna come or not?’”
Kawhi Leonard‘s ability to perform so well on both ends of the floor is “spectacular,” according to Popovich, who applauds the faith he showed when the Spurs decided against an extension last year before re-signing him this past summer, as Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio News-Express relays. “He trusted us,” Popovich said. “We think everything comes at its own pace, at the appropriate time. I think he understood that, and his agent [Brian Elfus] understood it. He knows our history.”
The Spurs are 4-2 so far, but with key figures Aldridge and David West among the team’s six newcomers, they must make adjustments before hitting their stride, as TNT’s David Aldridge examines in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com.

Southwest Notes: Conley, Robinson, Aldridge

October 31st, 2015 at 4:12pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Grizzlies have every intention of re-signing point guard Mike Conley when he becomes an unrestricted free agent next summer, and based on Conley’s enthusiastic recruitment for center Marc Gasol to re-sign with the team this past offseason, the veteran playmaker also desires his time in Memphis to continue beyond this campaign, Michael Lee of Yahoo Sports writes. Gasol said he plans to leave Conley alone this season and won’t pester him to stay in Memphis, Lee adds.

“Yeah, but I cannot force him to do anything that he doesn’t feel that is right. He has to do what is right for him, that he believes in it,” Gasol told Lee. “If you feel forced to do something you don’t believe in, then you’re going to regret it. And whenever he makes his decision, whatever his decision is, he knows our relationship goes way beyond basketball and we’ll always be friends, past this five, 10 years left in our careers. As long as we live, we’re going to be friends. It’s not going to affect our friendship.”

Here’s more from out of the Southwest Division:

Nate Robinson‘s stint with the Pelicans this season lasted less than two weeks, but his release wasn’t because of anything the diminutive guard failed to do, John Reid of The Times Picayune relays (Twitter links). Robinson was replaced on New Orleans’ roster by Toney Douglas, who was thought to be a better fit for the team’s roster, according to coach Alvin Gentry, Reid notes. ”We just thought it was a better fit [with Douglas], nothing against Nate,” Gentry said. “Nate came in and did everything we asked him to do.”
Spurs power forward LaMarcus Aldridge is still finding his footing in San Antonio with his new team, and the player admitts that he’s “not even close” to the player San Antonio signed this offseason, Michael C. Wright of ESPN.com writes. “It’s not the same. I’m not the same person here that I was in Portland,” Aldridge said. “I don’t feel like they need me to be that person all the time. It’s learning how to be myself in the offense. I haven’t figured that out yet. I feel like the whole [team philosophy of] ‘good to great passes’ [is] in my head all the time. Hopefully as the season goes on I’ll figure it out. But right now, I’m just trying to fit in.“
Rockets camp cuts Denzel Livingston, Will Cummings, Joshua Smith, and Chris Walker will join the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, as D-League affiliate players this season, Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle relays (on Twitter).

And-Ones: Cavs, Davis, Aldridge, Kobe, Teodosic

October 20th, 2015 at 9:59am CST by Chuck Myron

The Cavaliers are the pick to win it all and LeBron James is the favorite for MVP in the league’s annual GM survey, as John Schuhmann of NBA.com presents. More than half the executives who responded favor the Cavs, while the Warriors garnered only 17.9% of the vote, the third-lowest percentage for a defending champ in the 13-year history of the GM survey. Still, neither of last year’s Finals teams has Anthony Davis, whom a whopping 86.2% of respondents selected as the player they’d most want to build their teams around.

LaMarcus Aldridge drew 79.3% of the vote for the offseason acquisition who’ll make the greatest impact, and the Spurs garnered the same percentage for the team that had the best offseason, unsurprisingly. See more on Aldridge’s decision amid the latest from around the NBA:

Aldridge thought he would re-sign with the Trail Blazers when he put off thumb surgery last season, and he thinks the Blazers did all they could to keep him, but the lure of playing closer to his home in Texas proved too great when the time came for a decision, as he told Chris Mannix of SI.com. Aldridge said to Mannix that the idea that he left Portland because he couldn’t get along with Damian Lillard was overblown, and that while he and Lillard mutually acknowledged that they could have communicated better with each other, they don’t have a poor relationship. “But I never had an issue playing with him or anything like that or with him being the face or them promoting him or anything like that,” Aldridge said in part. “If I had an issue like that then why go to the Spurs? They don’t promote anybody.”
Kobe Bryant‘s presence was one of the best parts of meeting with the Lakers this summer, Aldridge insisted to Mannix for the same piece, striking back at the notion that he didn’t want to play with the Lakers star.
The GM poll also shows 28-year-old shooting guard Milos Teodosic, who plays for CSKA Moscow but whose NBA rights aren’t tied to any team, as the second-best international player outside the NBA aside from Sixers draft-and-stash prospect Dario Saric. Plus, more GMs want to see revamped lottery odds than any other rules change.

Southwest Notes: Jenkins, Splitter, Pelicans

October 16th, 2015 at 2:02pm CST by Chuck Myron

John Jenkins is the leading scorer for the Mavericks in the preseason so far, and while that’s in large measure because of the absence of some of the team’s key figures, he’s making a strong impression, as Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News details. Jenkins, who left the Hawks in free agency this summer three years after Atlanta picked him 23rd overall, just wishes he could have shown off his game sooner, Sefko relays.

“I put in the work for three years and felt I earned a chance in Atlanta,” Jenkins said. “But I didn’t get it. A lot of guys just need an opportunity. I wasn’t a first-round pick for nothing.”

Jenkins is one of 15 Mavs with a fully guaranteed salary for this season, so his place on the roster seems relatively secure, Sefko posits, even though four Dallas players have partial guarantees. See more from around the Southwest Division:

The Spurs were tense in between the time they agreed to trade Tiago Splitter to the Hawks for virtually nothing aside from the cap space necessary to sign LaMarcus Aldridge and the moment Aldridge agreed to sign with San Antonio, writes Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express News. “We didn’t know what the outcome would be,” coach/president Gregg Popovich said. “But we knew if we wanted to change the team and add talent, it’s something we had to do.”
The partial guarantee on Bo McCalebb‘s contract with the Pelicans is worth $50K, but it won’t kick in unless he sticks through October 27th, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). McCalebb is on a two-year, minimum-salary deal, Pincus also notes.
Jerome Jordan‘s deal with the Pelicans is a non-guaranteed arrangement for one year at the minimum, and the same is true of the pact between Mirza Begić and the team, which New Orleans abruptly waived earlier today, as Pincus also shows on his Basketball Insiders salary page.

Western Notes: Odom, Lillard, Randolph, Davis

October 13th, 2015 at 10:17pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Damian Lillard downplayed any rumored issues between him and LaMarcus Aldridge, and denied that their relationship was part of the reason Aldridge decided to leave the Trail Blazers for the Spurs as an unrestricted free agent this summer, Paul Flannery of SB Nation writes. “Our relationship was fine,” Lillard said. “Me and LA never had an argument. People are searching for something that’s not there. When you have two All-Stars on the same team and one of them decides to leave, it’s automatically, ‘They didn’t get along.’ We had back-to-back 50-win seasons. We both made the All-Star team. We played through him and after that it was me and that was that. We played well together. We never had an issue.”

Portland executive Neil Olshey noted that the franchise sought Lillard’s approval before embarking on a full-rebuild and surrounding the point guard with a younger crop of players, Flannery adds in the same piece. “This was not done without Dame’s participation,” Olshey said. “If he was at all reticent, if he said it would be great if you could get me another vet to help out, we would have gone out and found a couple of other guys to take the pressure off of him. He’s not that kind of kid. He embraces it. He thrives on it.”

Here’s more from out West:

Former NBA player Lamar Odom was hospitalized after he was found unconscious earlier this evening at a Nevada brothel, Andrew Dalton and Sally Ho of The Associated Press report. The 35-year-old was stabilized and taken to Desert View Hospital in nearby Pahrump, a sheriff’s office statement said. There was no further word on Odom’s condition. Odom’s last NBA action came during the 2012/13 season with the Clippers.
Zach Randolph is prepared to do whatever it takes to help the Grizzlies win this season, including accepting a reduction in his minutes in order to preserve his energy and health, Teresa M. Walker of The Associated Press writes. “I think I’m still in my prime, and I’m going to let my game, the way I play, speak for itself,” Randolph said. “But I mean whatever I need to do to help this team, if it’s play less minutes, whatever, I’m with this team whatever we need to do.“
Blazers power forward Ed Davis has switched representation from Relativity Sports to IT Sports Management and agent Paolo Zamorano, Sam Amick of USA Today tweets. Davis inked a three-year, $20MM deal with Portland this offseason.
Dwight Howard has no desire to repeat the circus that accompanied his previous forays into free agency, and he intends to keep the focus on the Rockets‘ 2015/16 campaign, and not where he may be playing next season, Fran Blinebury of NBA.com writes. The big man can opt out of his current deal after the season and become an unrestricted free agent, Blinebury adds, and Howard believes that he can play for another 10 seasons. “Even though this will be my 12th season in the NBA, I still feel like I’ve got a lot left in me,” Howard said. “I believe my best 10 years are still in front of me, if we play it smart and I appreciate the coaching staff, the training staff and everybody for working toward that.“

Southwest Notes: Gentry, Dekker, Aldridge

October 12th, 2015 at 8:50am CST by Eddie Scarito

While the Pelicans organization believes that former coach Monty Williams did a good job during his tenure with the team, the franchise thinks it can get more out of its current roster with new coach Alvin Gentry at the helm, Rob Mahoney of SI.com writes. “It was an organizational decision,” New Orleans GM Dell Demps said. “Monty did a lot of good things for us; I thought that Monty did a great job of establishing a blue-collar approach. I thought our guys played hard. We did feel that we had come to a point where we wanted a change in leadership and our goal is maximizing our team. We wanted to get a coach that was the best fit for our current team in the short term and the long term, and for our organization and our community. We felt Alvin was the ideal choice. His style of play will be a little different than what we’ve done in the past. Our goal is to maximize our group. The West is so tough right now that you have to maximize your team just to compete.”

Here’s more out of the Southwest:

New Orleans decided to enter the 2015/16 campaign with the majority of its roster returning from a season ago based on the recommendations of the players, Mahoney relays in the same piece. “We felt our group played with a sense of desperation in the latter part of last season,” Demps said. “And at the end of the year, in talking to the players, we felt—and they expressed to us orally—that they enjoyed playing with each other and wanted to continue that. We listened.”
Sam Dekker, who is a small forward by trade, will be utilized by the Rockets primarily as a stretch-four this season in an effort to get him on the court more often, Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle relays. “If [Dekker] gets time this year, unless there is an injury, it’s more likely at the four than at the three,” coach Kevin McHale said. “We’ll keep him there. We’ll probably play him a little three also.”
LaMarcus Aldridge is still adapting to life with the Spurs, a transition that he is still struggling to be comfortable with, writes Kevin Ding of BleacherReport.com. “I don’t really handle change well,” Aldridge told Ding. “It’s been weird because I was in Portland for so long, and I kind of know the ways,” he continued. “Things were a little bit tailored to me in a way. Wasn’t too much to have to figure out.“

Southwest Notes: Clippers, Jenkins, Aldridge

October 9th, 2015 at 7:16pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Employing daily meditation and a vegan diet, one that he’s trying to convince Anthony Davis to adopt, Chris Douglas-Roberts is taking a more sanguine approach to his career than he used to as he fights for a regular season roster spot on the Pelicans, as John Reid of The Times Picayune details. The Pelicans have six players, including Douglas-Roberts, who don’t have fully guaranteed salary and 13 who do. ”I was a first-team All-American [in college] — top five player in the country — and got drafted second round,” Douglas-Roberts said. ”So I carried a little bit bitterness and anger from that. I still performed when I was given an opportunity. But my energy just wasn’t right. Now my energy is right.”

Here’s more happenings from the Southwest Division:

John Jenkins has impressed Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle with his aggressive play, though Jenkins, a shooting guard by trade, has had his struggles while filling in at point guard due to a number of injuries, Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com writes. “The learning curve is always going to be there with young players. You know, we’ve got some young guys that are getting a real chance to play and are learning things. That said, I really like Jenkins. You know, Jenkins has played a real aggressive game both of the last two nights. He’s shown he can handle the ball a little bit. He’s done a good job, and he’s got to continue doing what he’s been doing,” Carlisle told Sneed.
The Rockets have been encouraged thus far by the preseason showings of second-year players K.J. McDaniels and Clint Capela, Jenny Dial Creech of The Houston Chronicle notes. Capela was selected with the No. 25 overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, and McDaniels re-signed with the team over the summer after having been acquired from the Sixers at last February’s deadline in exchange for Isaiah Canaan and a second-round pick.
LaMarcus Aldridge, who left the Trail Blazers over the summer to sign a four-year, $84MM deal with the Spurs, is still acclimating himself to San Antonio’s system, but he is pleased with his progress thus far, writes Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com. After making his preseason debut against his former team, Aldridge said, “The night was [a] little overwhelming because it doesn’t really hit you until you really go put on the jersey and then you go play. I knew I was in San Antonio, but it doesn’t really hit you until you’re on the court trying to figure out how to run an offense again and things like that. But I think the process has been going well so far.“

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Southwest Notes: Matthews, Jones, West

September 29th, 2015 at 10:28pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Mavs coach Rick Carlisle has already reportedly ruled out Wesley Matthews for the team’s opener, but the swingman has designs on proving his new coach wrong, Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com writes. “I’m trying to be ready by opening day,” Matthews said. “Whether I can play in it or not, I can’t really control that. But my goal is to [be] ready and available opening day.”

Matthews doesn’t think it relevant to compare how long it has taken other players who have had similar injuries to his own to recover, MacMahon adds. “I don’t really pay too much attention to that because if I paid attention to people that were in my situation before me, then I wouldn’t be up here standing and talking to you guys,” Matthews said, “because I can’t think of too many undrafted free agents that have done what I’ve done.”

Here’s more from the Southwest Division:

Rockets forward Terrence Jones enters the 2015/16 season with a different, more mature outlook, Jenny Dial Creech of The Houston Chronicle writes. “I felt like I really needed to grow as a person,” Jones said. “I think I am a lot more mature this year.” Jones is eligible to ink a contract extension with Houston prior to the deadline on November 2nd.
David West said that the Spurs‘ signing of LaMarcus Aldridge was the deciding factor for him to join the team as an unrestricted free agent this summer, Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express News tweets.
Despite concerns regarding his agility and foot speed, the Spurs‘ signing of center Boban Marjanovic is exactly what the team needed to help offset the free agent losses of Aron Baynes and Tiago Splitter, writes Dan McCarney of The San Antonio Express-News. McCarney notes that Marjanovic’s ample size (7’3″), as well as his inexpensive contract, make the 27-year-old a wise pickup.
Pelicans star big man Anthony Davis is hoping that the additional 15 pounds of muscle he added from working out over the summer will make him an even more dominant player, Brett Martel of The Associated Press relays. “I feel great right now. Even just working out, I feel explosive. I feel quick,” Davis said. “When you start actually going against people and all that, it’s a lot different. So I’m going to see how it is during training camp and preseason and go from there.“
Despite the expectations that arrived in San Antonio along with him, Aldridge is doing his best to fit in and adapt to the way the Spurs organization handles its business, Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News writes. “It’s never been about one guy here,” said Aldridge. “It’s always been about the team. So it’s not about me.”
After missing the end of the 2014/15 regular season and the playoffs, Rockets guard Patrick Beverley is itching to get back on the court, Creech writes in a separate piece. “Six months, nine days,” Beverley said. “That’s the longest I have ever been out and away from basketball. Injuries aren’t something you can control, but I am ready to get back, ready to play and get this thing started.”