Luis Montero Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Blazers Likely To Keep Frazier, Alexander, Montero

January 7th, 2016 at 11:16am CST by Chuck Myron

The Trail Blazers expect to keep Tim Frazier, Cliff Alexander and Luis Montero past the close of business today, barring an unexpected trade, meaning their non-guaranteed salaries will become fully guaranteed, reports Jason Quick of CSNNW.com. An outside chance exists that the Blazers will use their league-high cap space of more than $20MM to absorb salary via trade and send out one or more of their trio of non-guaranteed deals in return, though that’s unlikely, Quick writes. Keeping them would give Portland 15 players with 15 full guarantees, limiting the team’s roster flexibility and bringing Frazier, Alexander and Montero one step closer to receiving bonuses of about $926K each if Portland fails to meet the $63MM team salary floor by season’s end, as Quick also points out.

Frazier has played the most prominent role for the Blazers among the three. He started a game against the Hawks last month when Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum were both unavailable, and he played nearly the full 48 minutes in a performance that impressed his teammates, as Quick wrote then. I speculated in the wake of that game that Frazier was probably safe. His contract, which he originally signed in March as a deal that covered the rest of the 2014/15 with a non-guaranteed 2015/16 tacked on, calls for him to make the one-year veteran’s minimum of $845,059.

Alexander was once a highly touted prospect in college whose stock plummeted before he went undrafted last year. He’s appeared on the court for all of 50 seconds since the end of November, and a bone bruise in his left knee that he suffered during the preseason didn’t help matters. Still, the Blazers appear poised to keep him and commit to his full-season salary of $525,093, the rookie minimum. Unlike Frazier, who’s set for restricted free agency after the season, Alexander’s contract runs through next season.

Montero played in only two of Portland’s first 29 games. He’s appeared in five of the nine the Blazers have played since then, though he’s yet to log more than six minutes in any single contest. The undrafted rookie shooting guard from the Dominican Republic, by way of Westchester Community College in New York, was a surprise offseason signing. His contract has him at the rookie minimum salary this season, with non-guaranteed minimum salaries for 2016/17 and 2017/18 also part of the deal. Like Alexander, he started the season with a $100K guarantee, though they’ve already earned more than that amount by virtue of sticking on the roster as long as they have.

Blazers Waive Phil Pressey, Omari Johnson

October 23rd, 2015 at 2:15pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Blazers have waived Phil Pressey and Omari Johnson, the team announced. Both had non-guaranteed deals. The moves leave Portland with 15 players, the regular season limit. Thus, Tim Frazier, Cliff Alexander and Luis Montero are in position to make the regular season roster despite the lack of full guarantees on their contracts, though the team can make additional moves between now and Monday before setting its roster for opening night. A dozen other Blazers have fully guaranteed salaries, as our roster count shows.

Pressey and Frazier were seemingly in a head-to-head battle for the third point guard job, as Jason Quick of CSNNW.com detailed. The 24-year-old Pressey, who signed with Portland shortly after the Celtics waived him this summer, averaged 4.8 points, 2.0 assists and 1.0 turnover in 16.4 minutes per game across four preseason appearances. Frazier, also 24, put up 5.0 points, 2.8 assists and 1.5 turnovers in 14.7 minutes per contest in his four preseason games. He’s one of the few holdovers on the Blazers roster from the end of last season.

Johnson, on his first NBA contract after going undrafted out of Oregon State in 2011, appeared to be much more of a long shot to make the Blazers opening night roster. The 25-year-old combo forward averaged 2.3 points in 5.9 minutes per game across four preseason contests.

Northwest Notes: Chalmers, Jazz, Montero, Withey

August 29th, 2015 at 9:35pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Trading for Mario Chalmers makes sense for the Jazz, Kincade Upstill of the Deseret News opines. The Heat would prefer to offload salary, as they are about $5.66MM above the $84.74MM luxury tax threshold. Miami hasn’t ruled out trading Chalmers, who will make $4.3MM this season in the final season of his contract. The Jazz are nearly $7MM under the salary cap, so the team could acquire the point guard without sending any salary back. Upstill speculates that a second round pick from Utah would get a deal done due to Miami’s financial situation and its lack of future draft picks.

Dante Exum’s injury creates an opening in the team’s rotation. Trey Burke will slide into the staring lineup and Raul Neto, whose rights were acquired from Atlanta on draft night, will presumably be given the opportunity to run the second unit. The Jazz also have Bryce Cotton under contract, but his deal is non-guaranteed and he’s no lock to make the opening night roster. The team could also use Alec Burks as a de facto second unit point guard. That’s an intriguing option. It would also likely involve inserting Joe Ingles, whose a nifty passer who doesn’t need the ball in his hands, into the starting lineup next to Gordon Hayward and Burke, who can both be ball-dominant at times.

The options currently at the Utah’s disposal are all unproven. The team expects to compete for a playoff spot this season and if the cost of acquiring Chamlers, who has demonstrated he can contribute in the postseason, is as low as Upstill insinuates, then the Jazz might be smart to call Pat Riley and attempt to reach a deal.

Here’s more from the Northwest Division:

Luis Montero’s deal with the Blazers only contains $100K in guaranteed salary this season, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets. Montero signed a three-year contract worth $2.4MM in early July. Portland currently has 17 contracts on the books, as our 2015/16 Roster Count page shows. Of those 17 deals, only 12 contain fully guaranteed salary and two, including Montero’s deal, contain partially guaranteed salary, so the 22-year-old has a decent shot at making the opening night roster.
Jeff Withey’s deal with the Jazz, which is a minimum arrangement over two seasons, contains $200K in guaranteed salary, Pincus adds in a seperate tweet. The pact includes a team option on year two. Utah has 20 contracts on the books, with 15 of them, including Withey’s deal, containing at least some guaranteed salary.

Northwest Notes: Jazz, Mudiay, Blazers

July 25th, 2015 at 4:00pm CST by Will Joseph

The Jazz have a logjam at point guard behind Dante Exum that they must sort out prior to next season’s opener, Randy Hollis of the Deseret News reports. The trio of Trey Burke, Bryce Cotton and Raul Neto could be fighting it out for two roster spots during training camp, though GM Dennis Lindsey indicated that it’s possible the team could carry four point guards into next season, Hollis continues. Cotton’s quickness and entertaining style make him a candidate to be the second-stringer and displace Burke, a lottery pick whose shooting issues have pushed him to the bench, Hollis adds. The logjam could be broken by trading Burke, who is rumored to be on the block and doesn’t seem to fit coach Quin Snyder’s system, Hollis concludes.

In other news around the Northwest Division:

The Nuggets’ lottery pick Emmanuel Mudiay will be the starter at point guard, Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post opines. While Denver has a safety net in veteran Jameer Nelson, it’s clear that the Nuggets are committed to making Mudiay their floor leader in his rookie season, Dempsey adds. The only concerns are monitoring his workload and allowing him to work through his mistakes, something Nuggets GM Tim Connelly addressed with Dempsey. “We don’t want to put too much pressure on him,” Connelly said. “He’s a 19-year-old kid. We saw some good in summer league and we also saw some bad. I thought that he struggled shooting the ball. We’ve got to improve his free throw line percentage. But I think you see things like positional size, natural playmaking ability, and kind of the will and the approach to be great that excites us.”
Blazers coach Terry Stotts spent a sizable portion of the summer league evaluating five players under contract with the team — Allen Crabbe, Noah Vonleh, Luis Montero, Pat Connaughton and Tim Frazier — and was particularly pleased with Crabbe and Vonleh, Mike Richman of The Oregonian writes. The Blazers added nine new players and are entering a transition season after LaMarcus Aldridge‘s departure. Portland does have some young and athletic talent, however, which has Stotts optimistic, Richman adds.

Dana Gauruder contributed to this post.

Northwest Notes: Lawson, Wolves, Montero

July 16th, 2015 at 9:00am CST by Chuck Myron

The Nuggets were requesting a first-round pick and a young player in trade talks about Ty Lawson days before his latest DUI-related arrest, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports. Opposing teams were showing little to no interest, Spears adds, advancing a report from Yahoo Sports colleague Adrian Wojnarowski, who said that clubs were waiting for Lawson’s price to come down. Now, after the arrest, the Nuggets are in a position where they’re better off waiting for Lawson’s value to bounce back, an assistant GM tells Spears. We asked for your feedback about Lawson on Wednesday night. There’s more on the Nuggets amid the latest from around the Northwest Division:

Denver is scanning for trades that provide greater financial and roster flexibility, league sources tell Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post. The search is unrelated to Lawson, as Dempsey makes clear. In any case, the report would suggest that the Nuggets are looking to unload a player in a deal that doesn’t bring back anyone in return.
Coach/executive Flip Saunders, with the $2.139MM biannual exception and roughly $1.7MM left on the mid-level exception, sounds open to adding a veteran point guard to the Timberwolves, according to Kent Youngblood of the Star Tribune (Twitter link via Tribune scribe Jerry Zgoda).
The Timberwolves had their choice of three trade exceptions with which they could take in Damjan Rudez from the Pacers, and Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders says they used the $1.5MM Ronny Turiaf exception to do so (Twitter link). That reduces the Turiaf exception, which expires December 19th, to $350,500, essentially exhausting its value.
The Oregonian’s Mike Richman chronicles the unusual journey of Luis Montero to his partially guaranteed contract with the Blazers, adding the Knicks, Sixers, Suns and Thunder to the list of teams that previous reports indicated he worked out for prior to the draft.
A virtually unusable $88K sliver of the Thunder‘s Thabo Sefolosha trade exception expired Wednesday. Oklahoma City used most of what was originally a $4.15MM exception to trade for Dion Waiters in January.
Jazz power forward Trevor Booker‘s salary, which had been partially guaranteed for $250K, is now fully guaranteed for $4.775MM, as our list of salary guarantee dates shows.

Western Notes: Cousins, Levien, Montero

July 15th, 2015 at 10:31pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Kings coach George Karl admits talking hypothetical DeMarcus Cousins trades “behind closed doors,” but Karl tells Ken Berger of CBSSports.com that he rejects the notion that he was actively trying to trade the center. “As a coach, in meetings every year and maybe four or five times a year, you talk about what-ifs,” Karl said. “And 99% of what-ifs never happen. But isn’t it our job to talk about what-ifs? Does this make us better? Does this get us in a better place? That’s our job. There was never a discussion in that area even close to happening, in my opinion. … Never in the whole time of this experience did I ever think that I wasn’t going to coach Cuz.”

Here’s what else is happening around the Western Conference:

Jason Levien has become an unofficial adviser to Kings owner Vivek Ranadive, Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com tweets. Levien was formerly the CEO of the Grizzlies, as well as a former Sacramento assistant GM, Howard-Cooper notes.
The Wolves were able to create a traded player exception worth $5MM as a result of dealing Chase Budinger to the Pacers, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders notes (Twitter link).
Danny Green said that LaMarcus Aldridge contacted him during the free agent process to pick his brain about the Spurs, Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express News tweets. Green also noted that the possibility of playing alongside Aldridge factored heavily into his decision to re-sign with the Spurs, McDonald adds.
The Trail Blazers‘ deal with Luis Montero is a three year arrangement with the first season partially guaranteed, according to former Nets executive Bobby Marks (Twitter links).
The Thunder have removed forward Steve Novak from the trading block, Chris Mannix of SI.com relays. OKC was reportedly seeking financial relief and was willing to flip Novak in exchange for a future draft pick.
Wilson Chandler‘s contract renegotiation and extension with the Nuggets will pay him $10.4MM in 2015/16, $11.2MM for 2016/17, $12.0MM in 2017/18, and $12.8MM during the final season, Pincus notes (Twitter links).

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Blazers Sign Luis Montero

July 11th, 2015 at 4:10pm CST by Arthur Hill

Luis Montero, a 6’7″ swingman out of the Dominican Republic, has signed with the Trail Blazers, President of Basketball Operations Neil Olshey announced today (hat tip to The Oregonian’s Mike Richman). Montero, 22, worked out for Portland before the draft and is part of the Blazers’ summer league team.

Terms of the agreement were not released. However, RealGM lists Montero as eligible for restricted free agency in 2018, a signal that he’s on a three-year deal.

Montero last played in 2013-14 at Westchester Community College. He averaged 15.6 points, 5.9 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game.

Eastern Notes: Kirk, Boylen, Porzingis

June 11th, 2015 at 9:30pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Pistons got an early jump on their offseason today, acquiring Ersan Ilyasova from the Bucks in exchange for Caron Butler and Shawne Williams. Milwaukee GM John Hammond had nothing but praise for the departed big man, Charles F. Gardner and Matt Velazquez of The Journal Sentinel write. “Ersan always represented this organization and this community in a first-class manner,” Hammond said. “He gave 100% night in and night out. We wish Ersan nothing but the best as he continues his career in Detroit.” Here’s more out of the East:

The Bulls are pursuing San Antonio assistant Jim Boylen to become the top assistant on coach Fred Hoiberg‘s staff, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports. Chicago has received permission from the Spurs to speak to Boylen, league sources told Wojnarowski. Chicago has expressed a willingness to discuss the title of associate head coach with Boylen, the Yahoo! scribe adds.
The Nets held pre-draft workouts today for Dakari Johnson (Kentucky), George Lucas (Brazil), Lucas Dias Silva (Brazil), Josh Gasser (Wisconsin), and Luis Montero (Westchester CC), Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops tweets.
Center Alex Kirk worked out for the Knicks today with the hope he can earn an invite to training camp, Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv writes. “I’m not going to come in and try to score 30 points and try to do some of these amazing things that these other guys are going to try to do,” Kirk told Basketball Insiders (video link). “I just want to come in and be Alex Kirk and try to play as hard as I possibly can and hopefully that turns into some training camp offers and just see where that goes from there.” Kirk was waived by New York shortly after being acquired from the Cavaliers this past season.
The Knicks will be one of a number of teams attending a workout for Kristaps Porzingis in Las Vegas this Friday, Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com relays (Twitter links). This is likely to be Prozingis’ only pre-draft showcase, Begley notes. Also participating in the workout will be Myles Turner (Texas) and Jarell Martin (LSU), the ESPN scribe relays.
Kansas swingman Kelly Oubre plans to work out for the Heat in the near future, Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel relays. You can see our full prospect profile for Oubre here.

Western Notes: Hornacek, Blazers, Draft

June 3rd, 2015 at 10:37pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Now that Fred Hoiberg has been officially named as the Bulls’ new coach, there has been speculation linking Suns coach Jeff Hornacek to Hoiberg’s vacated post at Iowa State, Andrew Joseph of The Arizona Republic writes. But Hornacek, who played his collegiate ball for the Cyclones, declined an opportunity to interview for the position, Joseph notes. “[GM] Ryan [McDonough] and I came here for a purpose. We think we’ve got a good young crew that we can build with. We’ll work on getting some more veteran guys to help them but we’ve got a job to do here and that’s our plan,” Hornacek said when asked about the possibility of him departing Phoenix.

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

The Trail Blazers held workouts today for Montrezl Harrell (Louisville), Corey Hawkins (UC Davis), Stefan Nastic (Stanford), Christian Wood (UNLV), Kenneth Smith (Louisiana Tech), and Luis Montero (Westchester Community College), Casey Holdahl of Blazers.com reports (Twitter link).
St. John’s University swingman SirDominic Pointer worked out for the Thunder today, Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv tweets.
UC Santa Barbara forward Alan Williams displayed his wares for the Mavericks today, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders notes (on Twitter).
Wisconsin forward Sam Dekker worked out for the Suns today, Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops tweets. Phoenix is considering taking Dekker with the No. 13 overall pick this June, Scotto adds. You can check out our prospect profile for Dekker here.

Central Notes: Hoiberg, Pacers, Martin

June 2nd, 2015 at 6:43pm CST by Eddie Scarito

With the Bulls‘ current lack of financial flexibility, changing coaches was the best way for the franchise to shake things up after a disappointing playoff run, Bradford Doolittle of ESPN.com writes in his breakdown of what Fred Hoiberg brings to the team on both the offensive and defensive ends of the hardwood. Doolittle also opines that it would serve the team well if Hoiberg were to retain assistant coaches Ed Pinckney and Adrian Griffin, both of whom could maintain the roster’s defensive focus while Hoiberg revamps the offense.

Here’s more from the Central Division:

Kansas swingman Kelly Oubre will work out for the Pacers today, Michael Scotto of Sheridan Hoops tweets. You can view our full prospect profile for Oubre here.
Also scheduled to work out for the Pacers today are Anthony Brown (Stanford), Cady Lalanne (UMass), Luis Montero (Westchester Community College), Jon Octeus (Purdue), and Gabe Olaseni (Iowa), the team announced.
Cartier Martin‘s teammates on the Pistons encouraged him to swallow his pride and exercise his player option worth nearly $1.271MM for next season, Terry Foster of The Detroit News writes. The forward was unhappy with his playing time this past season, having only appeared in 23 contests for Detroit.
The solid play of Tristan Thompson and the Cavs‘ success in the playoffs this season has changed the narrative regarding Kevin Love‘s player option for 2015/16, Ken Berger of CBSSports.com writes. Instead of wondering if Love would return, talk now centers around whether the team needs or wants him to return next season, Berger notes.