Luol Deng Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Luol Deng Opts In With Heat

June 29th, 2015 at 1:30pm CST by Chuck Myron

1:30pm: The move is official, the Heat announced (on Twitter).

1:03pm: Deng has apparently changed course, as agent Herb Rudoy tells TNT’s David Aldridge that he’s opting in, not out (Twitter link).

11:08am: The Heat expect Luol Deng to turn down his player option worth nearly $10.152MM and hit free agency, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links). The deadline for him to do so is today. Stein also hints that the Heat also expect Dwyane Wade to turn down his player option worth $16.125MM, as Wade has hinted he’ll do. Goran Dragic, who already turned down his $7.5MM player option, is “basically a lock” to stay with the Heat, Stein writes, but the same isn’t true of either Deng or Wade.

Heat president Pat Riley made it clear last week that he wants Deng back, even in the wake of Miami’s choice of fellow small forward Justise Winslow with the No. 10 pick. Deng, 30, expressed his love for the Heat organization back in April, citing its medical staff. Still, that was before Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reported that Wade is open to leaving the Heat, throwing Miami’s offseason plans a curveball.

People around the league this spring expressed doubt to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders that Deng could find a salary better than what his option would give him for this coming season. Still, the Interperformances client will probably be able to find a deal that would lock in a greater total of money, albeit over a longer period of time, though that’s just my speculation.

Miami only has about $43MM in guaranteed salaries for next season, but new deals for Dragic, Wade and Deng threaten to push the team beyond the projected $81.6MM tax line. The Heat would pay repeat-offender tax penalties if they’re above the tax line at the end of the 2015/16 regular season.

Southeast Notes: Deng, Oubre, White, Eriksson

June 29th, 2015 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

It’s still unclear what Luol Deng will do with his player option, worth nearly $10.152MM, with tonight’s deadline to decide looming, but the Heat absolutely wants him back, as team president Pat Riley made clear after the draft, notes Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post (Twitter link). That’s in spite of Miami’s selection of small forward Justise Winslow at No. 10. While we wait to see just what Deng will do, here’s more from around the Southeast:

GM Ernie Grunfeld didn’t think the Wizards would have the chance to trade up and nab Kelly Oubre until a day before the draft, and in so doing, Washington landed a player who has a relationship with D.C. native and 2016 free agent Kevin Durant, as Benjamin Standig of The Associated Press examines.
J. Michael of CSNWashington.com looks at the options the Wizards have if Paul Pierce, who’s opting out, doesn’t re-sign.
Forward Aaron White, whom the Wizards drafted 49th overall out of Iowa, will “definitely” play overseas this coming season, as Michael hears, but Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post writes that a decision has not yet been made. “Aaron will play Summer League with the Wizards and then we will evaluate if it is best to go overseas or not this season,” White’s agent, Chris Emens, wrote in an e-mail to Castillo. “Aaron is open to doing whatever the Wizards think is best for his development.”
The pair of players the Hawks drafted in the second-round Thursday will stay overseas, tweets Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Swedish shooting guard Marcus Eriksson, the 50th pick, and Greek forward Dimitrios Agravanis, pick No. 59, remain under contract with Barcelona of Spain and Olympiacos of Greece, respectively, according to Vivlamore.
Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel breaks down the new Magic assistant coaches whose hires the team officially announced Friday: former Bulls assistant Adrian Griffin, former Mavs assistant Monte Mathis, Mario Elie, who last was an NBA assistant with the Nets in 2012/13, and former Lakers D-League coach Conner Henry.

And-Ones: Deng, Pistons, Jazz

May 31st, 2015 at 10:54pm CST by Will Joseph

The Heat hopes Luol Deng, who’s undecided about his more than $10.15MM player option, sticks around for at least one more season after he gave the team exactly what was needed — solid shooting and rebounding — Jason Lieser of the Palm Beach Post writes. Deng said, according to Lieser, that it was a challenging season because it was his first with the team and there was a lot of turnover. Deng, 30, averaged 14 points and 5.2 rebounds per game, and shot 46.9% from the field, which, as Lieser points out, are all similar to his career averages. Lieser adds that keeping Deng for one year is mutually beneficial to the player and team, considering his age and the expected rise of the salary cap next season.

“Lu’s a very unique player — you can’t put him in a specific box,” coach Erik Spoelstra said. “He’s a great off-the-ball, active, energy-type guy, and when you have more playmakers out there, the better he looks and the better he makes those guys look. When we put all that together, you’ll see a more comfortable, confident, aggressive Luol Deng.”

There’s more from around the basketball world:

The Pistons, who own the eighth pick in the draft, have about six “primary” players they are eyeing to take with the selection, according to president of basketball operations and head coach Stan Van Gundy, David Mayo of MLive.com writes. Forwards must dominate that group, Mayo adds, because the team has Andre Drummond at center and depth at both guard positions. Van Gundy likes perimeter floor stretchers offensively who can defend the pick-and-roll, writes Mayo, who lists these players as potential options: Justise Winslow, Stanley Johnson, Frank Kaminsky, Kelly Oubre and Kristaps Porzingis. “I think there’s a lot of guys that are good players and have a lot to offer,” Van Gundy said. “But I think every team may view those guys a little bit differently in terms of their strengths and weaknesses, besides the fit for their team and how they want to play. That’s why I think right now for us that there’s got to be a fairly large group of people that we keep an open mind about.”
Nedim Buza, Lucas Dias Silva, Alan Williams, Sam Thompson and TaShawn Thomas will work out with the Jazz, the team tweeted from its official account.

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Pat Riley On LeBron, Dragic, Wade, Draft

April 20th, 2015 at 12:23pm CST by Chuck Myron

Heat team president Pat Riley said today that he’s “at peace with” the choice LeBron James made last summer to return to Cleveland, and he indicated that everyone else in the organization had moved on, too, as Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald transcribes (Twitter links). That didn’t appear to be the case when Riley, in response to a question about the draft, said there would be “no more smiling faces with hidden agendas, so we’ll be going in clean,” as Goodman also relays from today’s season-ending press conference (Twitter link). That could be interpreted as a jab at James, whose affection for Shabazz Napier was well-known before the Heat drafted him just weeks prior to James’ departure from Miami, but Riley insists his remark could be a reference to “anyone across the board,” Goodman tweets. Regardless, Riley had much more to say about the Heat’s future, and we’ll round up the highlights here:

Riley underscored the importance of re-signing Goran Dragic, as Herald columnist Barry Jackson relays. “If he doesn’t sign, my [expletive] is going to be in that seat and I’ll be writing about it,” Riley said to the gathered media. Still, Riley is “very confident” that Dragic will be back, Jackson notes.
Dwyane Wade‘s health been an ongoing issue, but Riley challenged the 33-year-old to be prepared to play more often. Wade said last week that he intends to opt in for next season. “Dwyane has to change the narrative about his body, his injuries, his missing games,” Riley said. “We’ve had a discussion about that. Night in, night out, there’s always a question of whether he can or cannot [play]. I’d like to see him do whatever he has to do to get himself ready to practice and play every single night. He’s got five months. This is not just a Dwyane Wade problem. It’s throughout the league.”
Riley would like to see the current starters return, Jackson relays in the same piece. That would indicate that the team wants to keep Luol Deng, who’s undecided about his more than $10.15MM player option.
The Heat president laid out what he’s looking for in the draft, where the Heat have a lottery pick as long as it falls in the top 10, and the 40th pick, saying that he wants “developed players, experienced players,” Jackson notes. “While we felt we might have had enough on the perimeter, that might be an area where we look,” Riley said. “I don’t want a one-dimensional guy. [I want] guys that can [shoot], guys that are playmakers, guys that can defend. We will take the best player that’s available.”
Riley believes the Heat will return to title contention next year, Goodman tweets, and he expressed bitter disappointment about falling short of the postseason this time around, as Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel notes (on Twitter). “There is not a person in the organization that doesn’t think we should have made the playoffs,” Riley said.

Southeast Notes: Magic, Harris, Heat

April 18th, 2015 at 8:45am CST by Eddie Scarito

The Magic made some positive strides this season and have a solid young core in place for the future, Kyle Hightower of The Associated Press writes. When discussing what would need to be altered to make the team a contender, GM Rob Hennigan said, “Our focus is on getting better. We want to be a playoff team. We’re not trying to be a lottery team — that’s counter to our goals. This season has been frustrating. It has, I think if you ask our players, our coaches, myself— we expect more. We’re also realistic about how young we are…We think with their development and some pieces added here and there we will start to turn this thing.”

Here’s more from the Southeast Division:

Restricted free agent Tobias Harris characterized his end of season meeting with Hennigan as being productive, Hightower adds. “Talk went good,” Harris said. “Only God knows what’s next. I can’t control the future. None of us can. I’ll leave it up to management to decide what the overall plan is and go from there. We didn’t really talk too much about [his contract], just about the season…He just told me not to worry about it and he’s proud of the year I had.“
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra was complimentary of swingman Henry Walker, whose $1,110,602 salary for next season is non-guaranteed, as was relayed by the team’s official Twitter account. “With a full off-season with us I feel like his player development can continue,” Spoelstra said. Walker appeared in 24 games for the Heat this season, averaging 7.3 points and 3.4 rebounds in 26.2 minutes per outing.
Spoelstra also relayed that the Heat are enamored with Goran Dragic and Luol Deng, both of whom have player options to decide upon this offseason, and that the organization wants both players to return next season, Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post writes. “We love them; Hopefully they love us,” Spoelstra said. “I love working with them and our staff loved working with them. They’re two pros. From an objective point of view, they’re not difficult guys to work with. They’re absolute pros, the kind of guys you want to build your team around, the guys you want to go to work with, the guys you want to be in a foxhole with.“

Latest On Goran Dragic

April 17th, 2015 at 10:45am CST by Chuck Myron

Goran Dragic today confirmed that he’ll turn down his $7.5MM player option for next season, as he’s long planned to do, tweets Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel. The point guard continued to talk up his affection for the Heat during an exit interview with the media today while stopping short of commiting to a return. The Heat can offer a fifth year this summer because they have his Bird rights, and that extra year will be “huge,” Dragic said, according to Jason Lieser of the Palm Beach Post (Twitter link).

“I had a great time in Miami and I want to come back, but we’ll see what happens,” Dragic said, as Lieser tweets.

Dragic said the Heat meet all of the criteria he’s looking for in a team from the basketball standpoint, and he already named Miami his favorite U.S. city, as Lieser relays (Twitter link). Still, the BDA Sports Management client said that he’ll consider every offer this summer, Winderman notes (on Twitter).

The 28-year-old Dragic, who turns 29 next month, reportedly had the Knicks and Lakers in addition to the Heat on his list of preferred destinations as he pushed for a midseason trade from Phoenix. Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News reportedly briefly after the trade that Dragic viewed the Lakers as a “perfect fit” and would relish the chance to join the team in free agency this summer. Still, Sean Deveney of The Sporting News heard at about the same time that Dragic would probably re-sign with the Heat, and the expectation was that the Heat would make a five-year max offer to bring him back, according to Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra made it clear to the media today that he wants to retain Dragic as well as Luol Deng, as Lieser relays in a full story. Deng also has a player option for next season.

“We love them; hopefully they love us,” Spoelstra said. “I love working with them and our staff loved working with them. They’re two pros. From an objective point of view, they’re not difficult guys to work with. They’re absolute pros, the kind of guys you want to build your team around, the guys you want to go to work with, the guys you want to be in a foxhole with. The next two months [the playoffs], what that feels like, you want to have guys like that. When this thing kicks off this weekend, you have to have reliable professionals, and both of those guys’ resumes and careers scream that.”

Southeast Notes: Malone, Carroll, Deng, O’Quinn

April 15th, 2015 at 9:57am CST by Chuck Myron

Former Kings coach Michael Malone “would love to coach” the Magic, as Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel hears (Twitter link). Malone has seemingly been a hot commodity since the Kings fired him in December. Orlando has been expected to consider him, and he’s been linked to the Nuggets opening. Wolves coach/executive Flip Saunders organized a meeting between Malone and owner Glen Taylor earlier this year, according to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link), and Malone has spent time with the Wolves in an informal capacity on at least three different occasions this season. Schmitz advises the Magic to jump on Malone, draft Willie Cauley-Stein and float a max offer sheet to restricted free agent Draymond Green. While we wait to see if the team’s offseason plays out like that, there’s more on the Magic amid the latest from the Southeast Division:

One executive from a team estimates that DeMarre Carroll will see annual salaries of $8-9MM on the deal he signs in free agency this summer, the exec tells Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops. The executive believes that most teams will try to convince the combo forward to sign for $7MM a year, adding that if a club comes up with a $10MM offer, the Hawks seem unlikely to match, as Scotto details.
League sources expressed doubt to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders about Luol Deng‘s ability to find annual salaries better than the nearly $10.152MM he’d have if he opted in with the Heat, as Kyler writes in an NBA AM piece. Still, the possibility remains that Deng would seek a new long-term deal that offers more security, Kyler surmises. Deng is unsure of what he’ll do with the option.
The Magic intend to make Kyle O’Quinn the qualifying offer necessary for them to be able to match offers for him in free agency this summer, in spite of his recent lack of minutes, reports Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. That qualifying offer would be worth more than $1.181MM.

Southeast Notes: Magic, Sefolosha, Deng

April 14th, 2015 at 2:38pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Magic will interview fewer than the half-dozen candidates they brought in when they hired Jacque Vaughn in 2012, and the focus will be on those who have head-coaching experience, as Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel details. It’s almost certain that the Magic regard Scott Skiles as a potential candidate, Robbins writes, and that falls in line with earlier reports. However, it’s unclear if the Magic will give interim coach James Borrego a chance to keep the job for the long term, Robbins adds. The general belief was that Borrego would get a chance to stick around depending on his performance down the stretch, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com wrote in February, and the Magic have gone 10-19 with Borrego as head coach. There’s more on the Magic amid the latest from the Southeast Division:

Thabo Sefolosha blames New York City police for the season-ending injury he suffered outside a New York nightclub last week, as the Hawks swingman made clear to reporters, including Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Soon-to-be restricted free agent Tobias Harris regards the season as a lost opportunity for the Magic, as he tells Robbins for a separate piece. Orlando failed to make much headway this season, and for that to change next year, many league insiders believe the team needs to sign a pair of two-way free agents who are in their primes, according to Robbins.
One reason why Luol Deng likes playing for the Heat is its medical staff, Jason Lieser of the Palm Beach Post notes. Miami’s playoff hopes are nearly extinguished thanks in large measure to injury this year, but all signs point to Deng’s return to the team even as he remains unsure about his player option more than $10.15MM, Lieser writes. “I love this organization,” said Deng, who turns 30 on Thursday. “It’s been top-class and everything. I’ve had one of my healthiest years. It was never anything serious. I’ve felt great about the medical staff. When you’ve been in the league 11 years, as soon as you start putting mileage on your body, you want a group that knows your body and you’re comfortable with them. The organization has been great.”

And-Ones: Salary Tiers, Deng, Jackson

April 13th, 2015 at 10:43pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The maximum salary tiers will rise dramatically over the next two years when the league’s new TV contract takes effect, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports. Currently, players with up to six years of experience can receive a maximum of $14.7MM in the first year of a contract, $17.7MM if they have seven to nine years of experience and $20.6MM if they have at least 10 years of experience. By the 2016/17 season, those maximum salary tiers will rise to approximately $21.0MM, $25.3MM and $29.5MM, Pincus calculates. That will encourage free agents this summer to sign contracts with an opt-out clause for the second year, allowing them to take advantage of the bump in salaries, Pincus continues. LaMarcus Aldridge, Rajon Rondo and Paul Millsap are some of the free agents this summer who could elevate into the top tier in salary in 2016/17 by signing one-year contracts or contracts with an opt-out clause, Pincus adds.

In other news around the league:

Draft prospects Montrezl Harrell of Louisville and Trey Lyles of Kentucky have signed with LeBron James‘ agent, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports tweets. Sam Dekker of Wisconsin has chosen Mark Bartelstein and Priority Sports to represent him, according to Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com. (Twitter link). Chad Ford of ESPN.com has all three rated as first-round prospects, with Dekker ranked No. 15 overall, Lyles at No. 17 and Harrell at No. 24. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress also has all three among his first-round prospects, with Dekker 15th overall, Lyles 19th and Harrell 23rd.
Luol Deng has not yet decided whether he will exercise his player option of approximately $10.15MM for next season, Jason Lieser of Palm Beach Post tweets. The Heat forward is optimistic about the team’s future and has enjoyed playing for the organization this season, Lieser adds.
Pierre Jackson, who ruptured his right Achilles’ tendon playing for the Sixers’ summer-league team last year, has been cleared to resume all basketball activities, according to Spears (Twitter link). Jackson was part of the Nerlens Noel trade between Philadelphia and the Pelicans after the Sixers selected him in the second round in 2013. New Orleans traded Jackson back to the Sixers last year in exchange for Russ Smith‘s draft rights. Jackson is a free agent after the Sixers waived him in September.

Eastern Notes: Mirotic, Deng, Knicks, Pistons

March 30th, 2015 at 9:23pm CST by Charlie Adams

Unsurprisingly, Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau thinks Nikola Mirotic deserves to win Rookie of the Year over Andrew Wiggins and Nerlens Noel, as Mike McGraw of the Daily Herald reveals. Mirotic is second among rookies in points per game since the All-Star break behind only Wiggins, and his contributions on a contending team could ultimately help his case for the award. While we continue to see how the race for top Rookie honors shapes up, we’ll round up more from out east..

Luol Deng has seen heavy time on the court throughout his career, twice leading the NBA in minutes played per night, and the 30 year old admits all the burn has definitely had an effect on him, as Jessica Camerato of Basketball Insiders details. “I feel 45,” Deng said. “I feel old… You’ve got to be smart and realize how your body feels.” The 11th-year veteran has sought advice about playing into his 30’s from Steve Nash and Richard Hamilton, according to Camerato.
Fred Kerber of the New York Post opines that if the Knicks can find a way to finish with even just a .500 record next season, it would mark one of the greatest one-year turnarounds in NBA history. Landing Karl-Anthony Towns or Jahlil Okafor in the draft this June would certainly help New York’s chances, Kerber believes.
Andre Drummond‘s offensive game is expanding, and that could help the Pistons offset the likely loss of unrestricted free agent Greg Monroe, David Mayo of MLive.com writes. Drummond has mostly relied on lob dunks and putbacks for his offensive contributions during his three-year career but has shown improved postup moves in recent games, including five made hook shots against the Heat on Sunday, Mayo adds. That is a welcome development, Mayo opines, considering that Monroe — the team’s main post threat — signed a qualifying offer last summer as a restricted free agent so that he could become unrestricted this summer.

Dana Gauruder contributed to this post.