LaMarcus Aldridge Rumors | Hoops Rumors

And-Ones: Knight, Lopez, OKC, Clippers

February 15th, 2015 at 11:22pm CST by Zachary Links

Impending restricted free agent Brandon Knight says he’s in a “great situation” with the Bucks, but that’s no guarantee that he’ll want to stay put, Susan Bible of Basketball Insiders writes. “Well, speaking for myself, I would want to go into a situation where I can win,” Knight said regarding what factors he’ll consider in free agency. “I think that’s the biggest thing. Winning has to be a priority. I’m pretty sure if you ask any top free agent, winning is going to be the main thing.” Here’s more from around the Association..

An executive told Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter links) that the Thunder and Nets are the most aggressive teams in trade talks. The two teams want to make a move and they may wind up trading with each other. He adds that OKC’s interest in center Brook Lopez is real and he wouldn’t be surprised to see a deal involving him go down.
The Clippers have been trying very hard to make a trade, but they don’t have the assets to swing a worthwhile deal, so they’ll instead try and sign bought out players to bolster their roster, Kennedy tweets.
When asked whether the frigid weather would scare him off from signing in New York, Blazers big man LaMarcus Aldridge responded, “It’s cold everywhere,” Sean Deveney of the Sporting News tweets.
Yannis Koutroupis of Basketball Insiders gathered quotes from Aldridge, Knight, and other prospective Knicks free agent targets regarding their thoughts on the team and the city.
Any deal the Suns make would be made in the name of building an elite team down the line, not a fringe playoff team now, as Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic writes. Meanwhile, both Isaiah Thomas and Goran Dragic have been mentioned in recent trade rumors.

Latest On LaMarcus Aldridge’s Injury

January 24th, 2015 at 2:04pm CST by ChrisCrouse

2:04pm: Aldridge tested his thumb out and made the determination on his own that he wanted to play, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link).

SATURDAY, 1:34pm: Aldridge is delaying having surgery and is expected to play this evening, the team has announced. (Twitter link). The forward has elected to wait until after the season to have the damage to his thumb repaired, Jabari Young of CSNNW.com tweets.

THURSDAY, 8:17pm: LaMarcus Aldridge has a radial collateral ligament tear in his left thumb and will miss six to eight weeks, according to the Blazers’ twitter feed. He will undergo surgery but it’s unclear when he will have the procedure.

The forward injured his thumb in Monday’s win over the Kings and the injury forced him to miss the game against the Suns on Wednesday. The Blazers are thin in the frontcourt, already missing Robin Lopez and Joel Freeland due to injuries.

The Blazers sit at 31-12 on the season but are only five and a half games up on the Suns, who reside in eighth place in the Western Conference. With such a competitive conference, the team may look to add depth via free agent signing or trade, although that is just my speculation. In any case, Portland can’t apply for a disabled player exception, since the deadline to do so passed a week ago. The team doesn’t have an open roster spot, and only three injuries isn’t enough for the team to warrant a hardship exception to sign a 16th man. If the Blazers manage to open a roster spot through a trade or release, they have a prorated sliver of the mid-level exception left that’s worth close to $437K, but that’s not much more valuable to them than the minimum-salary exception, which is always at their disposal.

Western Notes: Holiday, Aldridge, Goodwin

January 21st, 2015 at 8:20pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday is expected to miss two to four weeks of action after tests revealed that he has developed a stress reaction in his lower right leg, the team has announced. The injury is in the same leg that required surgery during the 2013/14 campaign. In 37 appearances this season, Holiday is averaging 15.2 points, 3.5 rebounds and 7.1 assists in 33.7 minutes per game.

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

Josh Davis, who was in training camp this season with the Spurs, is leaving the D-League to sign a contract with the Meralco Bolts in the Philippines, Shams Charania of RealGM reports (Twitter link). Davis has appeared in 22 games for Austin, San Antonio’s D-League affiliate, averaging 13.8 points, 10.6 rebounds, and 2.1 assists in 34.0 minutes per contest.
The Suns have informed inquiring teams that Archie Goodwin is a big part of the franchise’s future, Charania writes in a separate article. Goodwin’s comments about being frustrated with his playing time were taken out of context, according to his agent, Charles Briscoe, Charania notes. “Archie doesn’t want out of Phoenix,” Briscoe said. “His words have been twisted in a recent article: We’re willing to wait for Archie’s opportunity. Any player in the NBA wants to play immediately, but we understand that Phoenix is in a playoff push. If we have to wait for next year, we’re OK with that. We know he will get his opportunity, and he’ll be ready.”
A number of league executives have brought up the possibility that LaMarcus Aldridge could sign with the Spurs this summer, something that Dan McCarney of The San Antonio Express-News thinks is highly unlikely to occur. Either Tim Duncan or Manu Ginobili would need to retire for San Antonio to free up enough cap space to sign Aldridge, and neither player is a safe bet to stop playing, McCarney notes.. Aldridge would also have to sacrifice roughly $30MM in salary to leave the Blazers, which is also improbable, McCarney adds.
The Clippers have recalled C.J. Wilcox from the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA D-League, the Mad Ants have announced. Wilcox has appeared in five games for Fort Wayne this season, averaging 13.2 points and 3.4 rebounds per contest.

Lowe’s Latest: Aldridge, Spurs, Sanders

January 21st, 2015 at 9:28am CST by Chuck Myron

Grantland’s Zach Lowe spoke with a half-dozen executives from four different teams who brought up the possibility that LaMarcus Aldridge would sign with the Spurs this summer. It’s still unlikely that the All-Star power forward winds up with San Antonio, Lowe asserts, noting that Aldridge pledged this past summer to re-sign with the Blazers when he hits free agency after this season. The Spurs declined to give Kawhi Leonard a max extension this past fall, reportedly in part to preserve flexibility to sign a max-level free agent this summer in case Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili retire. The Blazers have nonetheless always been leery of teams from Aldridge’s native Texas above all other potential suitors for the 29-year-old who hits free agency this coming summer, according to Lowe. A November report indicated that the Mavs planned a run at him, though that was before Dallas acquired Rajon Rondo, and the Mavs would have to renounce their rights to some desirable free agents to chase Aldridge, as Lowe points out.

The Grantland scribe has more tidbits picked up from this past weekend’s D-League showcase in his must-read column, and we’ll focus on the news related to player movement here:

Larry Sanders will likely miss many more than 10 games on his latest drug-related suspension, according to Lowe, who hears from league sources who expect the Bucks and Sanders to eventually strike up buyout talks. Sanders is in the first year of a four-year, $44MM extension.
The Celtics have been calling teams in the past week and letting them know that they’re willing to take on cap-eating contracts, Lowe writes. Boston is over the cap but about $11.8MM shy of the luxury tax line this season, and the Celtics have only about $33.5MM in commitments for next season.
There’s “major skepticism” that the Suns will be able to acquire a first-round draft pick in exchange for Miles Plumlee, Lowe hears. That’s certainly no surprise, though Phoenix is looking for a first-rounder as they shop the big man, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported Sunday.
Executives from teams around the NBA have tried to sell league brass on an earlier trade deadline, Lowe reports, suggesting that the teams are aiming to move the deadline up by at least a week or two. This year’s deadline is February 19th.

Northwest Notes: Burks, Aldridge, Shaw

December 6th, 2014 at 4:45pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Jazz guard Alec Burks met with specialists on Friday to have his injured left shoulder examined and the results were positive, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link). According to Wojnarowski’s sources, Burks won’t require surgery and will undergo rehab that could allow him to return in as little as two weeks. Jody Genessy of the Deseret News (Twitter link) has heard differently, and his sources inform him that Burks will definitely require surgery, either now or at the end of the season.

Here’s more from the Northwest Division:

LaMarcus Aldridge is set to become an unrestricted free agent next summer, and has said that his comfort level with the Blazers organization, the city, and the media, will play a big factor in making his ultimate decision, Jason Quick of The Oregonian writes. “The relationship I’ve built here is invaluable,” Aldridge said. “I definitely value it a lot because it took work on both ends. I’m definitely comfortable here, but this is all I know. I can’t say I would be uncomfortable in those other environments you talk about, but I can say I’m comfortable here, because I’ve been here so long and I understand this market, this city, this organization. So there’s that extra level of comfort here.”
Aldridge’s teammates say that his legacy might be a factor in making his free agent decision as well, Quick adds. “We haven’t talked about this stuff, but I’m just speaking if I were him,” Wesley Matthews said. “If I were him, seeing my name creeping up on the ranks in the all-time lists … that changes stuff. That’s big time. That’s legacy. I don’t know. I can’t speak for him. But that might be a factor, a role.”
Brian Shaw‘s 100th game as Nuggets head coach was Tuesday night, and the former player reflected on how the league has changed since he last put on a uniform, Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post writes. “Understanding that it’s a different day and age that we live in,” Shaw said. “Some of the things that we have to deal with that weren’t around. For instance, when I played, cell phones, social media, things of that nature that are just different.I tell the guys that when I first got in the league in 1988, we didn’t have cell phones; I don’t even know if we had computers. “

Mavs To Pursue LaMarcus Aldridge

November 7th, 2014 at 8:49am CST by Chuck Myron

LaMarcus Aldridge made it clear over the summer that he intends to re-sign with the Blazers when his contract expires after this season, but the Mavs plan to see if the Texas native will change his mind and sign with them instead, writes Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News. It’ll be a long shot, as Sefko points out, but while Dirk Nowitzki stopped short of making a public recruiting pitch, he’s nonetheless made it clear that the idea of playing with Aldridge appeals to him, Sefko observes.

The Mavs have just $28.7MM in commitments for 2015/16 and only three players with fully guaranteed contracts, though that doesn’t include more than $16.6MM combined in player options for Monta Ellis, Raymond Felton, Jameer Nelson and Al-Farouq Aminu. Dallas likely would still have enough flexibility to float a maximum-salary offer to Aldridge, who grew up in nearby Seagoville, Texas, even if all four player options are exercised. The former University of Texas standout nonetheless reiterated at the start of training camp that he wants to re-sign with Portland, even though he’ll surely draw interest from teams around the league as one of the best free agents in the 2015 class.

There were trade rumors involving Aldridge throughout 2013, but after the Blazers sprinted to a fast start in 2013/14, he warmed to the idea of a long-term future with the team. Aldridge said this summer that he’s looking forward to the chance to sign a five-year contract, which would only be possible if he signs a new deal with Portland this coming offseason. He could only tack an additional three years onto his existing deal if he were to sign the max extension that the Blazers have offered, and he could only receive a four-year pact if he signed with a team other than Portland.

Still, it doesn’t appear that the Wasserman Media Group client is looking to truly make the most of his earnings potential. Aldridge, in his ninth season, will be eligible for a maximum salary worth approximately 30% of the cap next summer, but if he signs a one-year deal, he’d not only hit free agency again in 2016, when the league’s new $24 billion TV deal kicks in, but he’d also be eligible for a higher maximum salary. Veterans of 10 or more seasons can make up to about 35% of the cap, but Aldridge is reportedly uninterested in signing for just one season next summer.

Western Notes: Mavs, Grizzlies, Aldridge, Barea

October 6th, 2014 at 3:04pm CST by Chuck Myron

Charlie Villanueva has impressed Mavs coach Rick Carlisle, who insists Villanueva’s lack of guaranteed money won’t prevent the team from keeping him for opening night, as Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com chronicles.

“It’s going to come down to who plays the best, who fills needs,” Carlisle said. “And we’ll go from there. Mark [Cuban]’s the kind of owner, he’s not going to let a few dollars get in the way of keeping the right team together.”

Still, it’d cost the Mavs, who have 15 guaranteed contracts plus partial guarantees with Eric Griffin and Ivan Johnson, at least $991,482 in dead money to waive the players necessary for them to keep Villanueva, unless they can work out some sort of trade. While we wait to see just how much Cuban is willing to sacrifice, here’s more from the Western Conference:

Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace told Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal that he wasn’t explicitly told not to perform his duties while former CEO Jason Levien was in charge of the team, as Tillery writes in a subscription-only piece. Wallace clarified that he made his own choice to remove himself from player personnel, Tillery notes. Wallace also made a run at openings with the Kings last year and Cavs earlier this year, according to Tillery.
The new TV deal won’t affect LaMarcus Aldridge‘s plan to sign a long-term deal with the Blazers this summer, a source tells The Oregonian’s Joe Freeman, pointing out that the maximum salary goes up as the salary cap does. Still, it’s worth noting that cap figures only affect the amount of a max contract for the first season of the deal, and since it appears unlikely the cap will rise dramatically until the summer of 2016, there’s still plenty of incentive for Aldridge to sign a short-term deal instead.
Wolves coach/executive Flip Saunders didn’t seem merely to be trying to up J.J. Barea‘s trade value when he said the guard was one of the team’s best performers in camp again this year, writes Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune.
The NBA’s national TV deal isn’t the only one due for a sharp increase, as some predictions have the Clippers local TV rights fees increasing to $80MM annually from the $20MM the team receives each year under the current arrangement, tweets Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. The existing deal is up after the 2015/16 season, Kennedy notes (on Twitter).

Northwest Notes: Arthur, Blazers, Wolves

October 4th, 2014 at 2:31pm CST by Eddie Scarito

When asked if he’d like to remain with the Nuggets past this season, Darrell Arthur said, “Oh yeah, for sure. My family loves it here. My mom was just up here for a couple of weeks and she just loves it – loves the atmosphere, loves the people here. I love the organization, everything. It’s a family organization, they welcome you with open arms. I definitely would like this to be home,” Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post relays. Arthur is in the final season of his contract and will become an unrestricted free agent next summer.

Here’s more from the west:

NBA TV’s Steve Smith was in Portland covering the Blazers training camp and discussed the contract situations of LaMarcus Aldridge, Wesley Matthews, and Robin Lopez. All three players are in the final year of their respective deals and Smith was asked if it would become a distraction and he said, “LaMarcus being the main one. I can’t speak for him, but I think he’ll be the easiest one to figure out. He’ll be all right. I think Wesley Matthews and Robin Lopez, financially — I’m not saying they’re not set, we all are, we play in the NBA — but LaMarcus is going to get the max. Now with those other two guys, you have to balance sacrificing for the team and making as much money possible in your career. I think this contract is … the big one for those guys.”
Smith also discussed the offseason additions of Steve Blake and Chris Kaman, saying, “It’s funny. Sometimes you look at moves — and, like you said, they’re not huge as far as names that go across the entire association — but Steve Blake is one of those veterans that just fits well with this team. You can tell just by watching practice. And he makes home here in Portland. So you have a guy who’s comfortable. He’s played here, what, three times? Chris Kaman, if you want to draw up a Portland Trail Blazer, it’s Chris Kaman. He just looks like he belongs. (laughs) And also, I think the pressure is off him. He can come in and be himself.“
Ricky Rubio believes that the departure of Kevin Love to the Cavs will be good for both Love and the Wolves, Jeff Caplan of NBA.com writes. “Of course we had a lot going on last year and the media was talking, they were wondering if Kevin wanted to be here, blah, blah, blah, and that hurt the team and hurt himself,” Rubio said. “Now that he’s not here, the media’s not going to talk about that anymore. I think that’s going to be good for him and for us.”

Blazers Owner On Aldridge, Tax, Involvement

September 30th, 2014 at 3:43pm CST by Chuck Myron

Paul Allen has to settle for the title of second-richest NBA owner, since new Clippers owner Steve Ballmer outranks him, at least according to the Forbes 400. Allen and his Blazers have recently found themselves looking up at the Clippers and others in the NBA standings, too, but there weren’t many teams in between Portland and the top last year. Allen is enthusiastic about the direction of the Blazers, but he stopped short of declaring his team a contender when asked after the team’s first practice today. The tech magnate opened up about plenty of other topics, as Casey Holdahl of Blazers.com transcribes. We’ll share a few highlights here:

On extension talks this summer with LaMarcus Aldridge

“I just thought it was very important that we have a direct discussion with LA. It went great. We presented him with a couple of options and obviously he thinks the option of being unrestricted next season and of course looking at a very long [new contract] is the one he chose to pursue. We understand that, but we thought we should talk through all those things. It was just great to be able to sit down with LA and get a chance to really understand his thinking about the team. He’s very excited about the team. You guys talked to him at media day yesterday and I hope you got that sense, too.”

On paying the luxury tax:

“I think it’s been a while since I’ve been in the luxury tax. David Stern used to give me an extremely hard time about being as deep in the luxury tax as we went at one point. It’s not something I’m looking at, at this point, but look, we’ll try to do what we can to be as competitive as we can in the future without causing ourselves a bunch of problems down the road by going way over the cap and impacting our ability to sign free agents in the future and things like that. So it’s a very delicate balancing act to try and create yourself a championship window and then keep developing young players, too. I think if you look at, for instance, what the Seahawks, what we did winning the Super Bowl, that was with a very young team. So you have to blend the experience with young players and develop those as well. That’s something [GM] Neil [Olshey] and his staff are very focused on.”

On his involvement with the team:

“It’s funny, I was just looking at the press guide. Certainly I was excited when I first became the owner. I think now, I’m just as excited. I think we’ve got a great staff here and I’m not quite as involved in the details of things as I used to be, although I still love the draft. We’re going to have a meeting after this practice to go over the plan for the season and even looking ahead to the offseason after that to try and see what things we’re going to keep in mind. I love it and it’s going to be an exciting year.”

Northwest Notes: Jackson, Aldridge, Rubio

September 30th, 2014 at 9:01am CST by Chuck Myron

Reggie Jackson‘s continued insistence on starting for the Thunder complicates the notion of an extension for the fourth-year guard, as The Oklahoman’s Anthony Slater examines, writing that a deal before the October 31st deadline would be “surprising.” Still, Kevin Durant tells Sam Amick of USA Today that Jackson loves the organization and believes that “it’s going to all work out,” as a report this weekend indicated that the Oklahoma City front office is enamored with Jackson. While we wait to see what happens as the Thunder face an extension deadline with a talented sixth man for the second time in three years, here’s more from around the Northwest Division:

LaMarcus Aldridge repeated his intention to re-sign with the Blazers in the summer while pointing out that it doesn’t make financial sense for him to sign an extension, as he told reporters, including Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune.
Ricky Rubio indicated to reporters Monday that he believes extension talks are affecting his ability to perform on the court, notes Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press. Still, Wolves coach/executive Flip Saunders doesn’t think they’re hurting his game, Krawczynski adds. Rubio and Wolves owner Glen Taylor reportedly spoke several times by phone last week.
There’s “no way” Kenneth Faried ends up with a max extension from the Nuggets, writes Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post, who speculates that $12MM annual salaries would fit the bill for the power forward.