Mike D’Antoni Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Pacific Rumors: Nash, D’Antoni, Thompson

March 13th, 2014 at 3:29pm CST by Zachary Links

No one can accuse Steve Nash of not being honest. When asked by reporters today why he won’t retire, the Lakers guard said, “It’s just a reality. I’m not going to retire because I want the money. It’s honest,” according to Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com (via Twitter links). “You’re going to have people say he’s so greedy he’s got to take this last little bit…Yes, I do. I have to take this last little bit. I’m sorry if that’s frustrating to some but if they were in my shoes they would do the exact same thing.”

Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni says that he doesn’t think about his job status, despite the constant speculation, tweets Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times. “My job is to finish up as good as we can. Then everybody huddles…and we’ll see what happens,” the coach said.
D’Antoni also downplayed Kobe Bryant‘s recent criticism of the Lakers organization, Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News tweets. There was also a report that Bryant is unhappy with D’Antoni and has no interest in playing for him next season.
Jason Thompson, the subject of trade talk before February’s deadline, is trying to make the most of his benching by Kings coach Michael Malone, writes the Sacramento Bee’s Jason Jones.

Lakers Rumors: Kobe, D’Antoni, Kupchak

March 13th, 2014 at 10:58am CST by Chuck Myron

The Lakers made plenty of news Wednesday, and Kobe Bryant was at the center of it, as usual. The team announced he was out for the season, and the Black Mamba was sharply critical of management at an afternoon press conference. The story that Bryant wants the team to get rid of coach Mike D’Antoni emerged later. There’s still more on the purple-and-gold, as we detail:

Bryant has yet to meet with management to express his feelings about D’Antoni, notes Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com, who adds that those talks with happen after the season (Twitter links).
Bryant wants aggressive moves, but GM Mitch Kupchak isn’t sure he’ll use all of the cap space the Lakers can open up this summer, telling David Leon Moore of USA Today that he’s wary of signing the wrong players and locking the team into mediocrity. “Patience is the key,” Kupchak said. “With the new collective bargaining agreement, there are no quick fixes. You cannot outbid teams for star players.”
Lakers co-owners and siblings Jeanie and Jim Buss aren’t much closer than when they weren’t speaking to each other before the death of their father, according to Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding, who examines the Lakers as they reach a nadir in their storied history.

Kobe Bryant Wants Mike D’Antoni Fired

March 12th, 2014 at 4:32pm CST by Chuck Myron

Kobe Bryant has “no interest” in playing for Mike D’Antoni next season, and the Lakers star wants the team to change coaches, sources tell Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. Bryant took several shots at Lakers management during a press conference today, but apparently his greatest frustration is with D’Antoni, whose contract runs through 2014/15. Bryant said today that he can’t understand why the Lakers haven’t brought former coach and soon-to-be Knicks executive Phil Jackson back to the franchise.

Bryant would like to see the Lakers re-sign Pau Gasol, who’s openly feuded with D’Antoni at times since the coach came aboard early last season. D’Antoni also never clicked with Carmelo Anthony when they were together with the Knicks, as Deveney points out, and Bryant wants the team to make significant improvements in the offseason, when Anthony figures to be the best free agent available.

The Lakers have long appeared deferential to Bryant, bidding against themselves when they granted him a $48.5MM extension in November. Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com wrote recently that D’Antoni didn’t seem to have much of a future in L.A., and D’Antoni met last week with GM Mitch Kupchak to discuss the state of the team after a blowout loss to the Clippers. Bryant’s most recent comments suggest he doesn’t exactly see eye-to-eye with the team’s brass, but his wishes are nonetheless an ominous sign for D’Antoni, who’s gone 62-74 in his time with the Lakers.

L.A. Notes: D’Antoni, Lakers, Barnes

March 7th, 2014 at 9:11pm CST by Cray Allred

Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak met separately with both coach Mike D’Antoni and vice president of player personnel Jim Buss to discuss the state of the team following their embarrassing loss to the Clippers on Thursday night, a team source tells Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com. The front office still desires to stick with D’Antoni and see how the team responds going forward, says Shelburne. D’Antoni’s job has appeared safe all season, although Shelburne earlier divulged that his status beyond next season, when his contract expires, is on shaky ground. We’ll see if chatter surrounding his job increases as the offseason approaches. Here’s more from Los Angeles:

D’Antoni said the meeting in question wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, per Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com (Twitter link).
Ben Bolch of The Los Angeles Times says it makes no sense for the Lakers to part with D’Antoni before his contract expires after next year. Bolch argues that the Lakers should ride out another lackluster season and rethink their coaching situation in 2015, when they stand a better chance of landing a difference-maker in free agency to complement their upcoming draft selection.
In a 5-on-5 post for ESPN, J.A. Adande, Chris Broussard, Israel Gutierrez, Marc Stein, and Ethan Sherwood Strauss all think the Lakers should target 2015 as the best opportunity to reload for title contention, not this summer.
Jabari Davis of Basketball Insiders takes a look at the Lakers options regarding Steve Nash and the stretch provision, pointing out that the team has the freedom to make their decision after the free agency dominoes have fallen in 2014. If the Lakers don’t end up in need of cap space for next season, it may be more prudent to keep Nash and absorb his contract rather than waiving him and extending the salary hit into 2015.
Matt Barnes was in a few trade rumors last month, but he remained with the Clippers through the deadline and has been playing remarkably well ever since. Barnes is intent on staying with the team and Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times wonders if the 11th-year forward is trying to prove a point to the Clippers front office.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Coaching Rumors: D’Antoni, Corbin, Woodson

March 7th, 2014 at 12:47pm CST by Chuck Myron

Doc Rivers has quickly become the singular voice of authority for the Clippers, but what Lakers counterpart Mike D’Antoni says carries no such weight, as Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com examines. D’Antoni, who’ll be in the final year of his contract next season, doesn’t seem to have much of a future with the team, Shelburne writes. It’s been nearly a year since the start of the most prolific offseason coaching purge in NBA history, and while it’s unlikely there will be 13 new sideline bosses next season, there will probably be at least a few. Here’s more on where a couple of other coaches stand:

Tyrone Corbin said he hasn’t had discussions with the Jazz about a new contract to replace the one that expires at the end of the season, tweets Jody Genessy of the Deseret News. Corbin casts the decision to hold off on talks as his, as Genessy also notes, and the coach insists that his uncertain future hasn’t affected the team’s performance. Corbin said he isn’t feeling any extra pressure, either (Twitter links).
Mike Woodson has been mistrustful of the Knicks front office, according to Frank Isola of the New York Daily News, who wonders what GM Steve Mills‘ chat with Phil Jackson about the coaching job will do to Woodson’s relationship with his bosses (Twitter link).
There was more than a year between the end of Woodson’s tenure with the Hawks and the start of his time with the Knicks, but he didn’t receive any NBA head coaching offers during that period, a source tells Marc Berman of the New York Post.

Kupchak On Tax, Draft, D’Antoni, Tanking, Nash

February 14th, 2014 at 9:36am CST by Chuck Myron

Mitch Kupchak told reporters Thursday that the Lakers scouting staff isn’t attending more college games than in years past, in spite of the likelihood the team will end up with a rare top-10 pick. Still, he admitted his focus on the future probably means he’ll be dedicating more of his own time to the draft this year. The Lakers GM also said it’s “not a big concern at all” that the team move below the tax line this year. He had plenty more to say about the draft, the tax, and other subjects, and we already passed along a few snippets of his remarks Thursday night. We’ll provide much more here, courtesy of a pair of pieces from Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News and a single story from Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com.

On the repeater tax:

“It’s going to be very difficult for us to be a repeater in the next two years just by virtue of all the free agents we have. And then even if you’re in the repeater tax, if you’re in the repeater tax by $30MM, you get killed. If you’re in the repeater tax by a $1.5MM or $2MM, then it’s really inconsequential.”

On this year’s draft:

“I think it’s a really good draft. Like most drafts, it changes going into the season and when you’re in the middle of the season and I expect it to change still a little bit between the beginning of March until the end of March, but I think it’s a good draft and some players that I don’t think anybody expected to be formidable picks in the draft a month ago, you’re starting to see some guys you didn’t hear about play really well. So, I think it’s a good draft in general and I think there’s a couple, three name guys that really jump out at you.”

On Mike D’Antoni:

“I think he’s done a great job. Under very trying circumstances, I think he’s done a great job.”

On the notion of tanking:

“Winning is never a bad thing. I’m not a karma guy, but if you try to manipulate this thing, it doesn’t work out the way you think it works out. You’re better off doing the right thing to do and whatever happens, happens for the right reason.”

On the acquisition of Steve Nash in 2012:

“No regrets. We had a chance. You have to recognize where you are as a franchise. We felt we had a two year window, maybe three to go for a championship. That’s what we did. Looking back on it, which nobody can do, that’s a different story. But at the time, we knew exactly what we were doing.”

Lakers Notes: Lottery, Gasol, D’Antoni

February 1st, 2014 at 10:09pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Lakers are in the midst of a tough season, and their long-term prospects aren’t that bright. The team currently has the sixth-worst record in the league at 16-31, and are not even close to being in the playoff hunt in the tough Western Conference. The Lakers have been down as a franchise before. There have been a couple of stretches since the early 1990’s where the team wasn’t in contention for a title. Rebuilding doesn’t happen overnight, but Ben Bolch of The Los Angeles Times has a five-point plan to fix the team:

First, the Lakers need to finish the season with the worst possible record that they can, so they can benefit from a higher lottery pick. A big part of achieving this goal would be to convince Kobe Bryant to take it easy on his minutes when and if he returns this season. Losing more could mean the difference between the sixth pick and the third pick in the upcoming draft. Those three spots could be the gap between drafting a true franchise changing talent, or just a good rotation player.
Bolch also says the team needs to move Pau Gasol before the trade deadline. This would allow the team to get something for him, rather than letting him leave after the season for nothing in return. The team could try to flip him to a contender for some expiring contracts and a draft pick.
He also believes the team should cut ties with coach Mike D’Antoni. Bolch wants the team to aim high, and try to lure Phil Jackson out of retirement, or someone like George Karl, or Jeff Van Gundy, coaches who have had success in the playoffs, and are more adaptable to their personnel.
Bolch doesn’t think the team should try to change their entire roster after the season. He believes players like Steve Blake, Jodie Meeks, and Nick Young have value. All three players can be key role-players, and the team should be able to retain them without breaking the bank. He also thinks that if Steve Nash doesn’t retire, the Lakers should use the stretch provision and waive him.
Lastly, Bolch thinks the team should be wary of the free agent market. If they strike out on LeBron James or Carmelo Anthony, then they would be better off enduring another down season and going after Kevin Love or Kevin Durant the following year. This would be preferable to signing lesser players to bad deals that would hinder their salary cap for future moves.

Lakers Rumors: Carmelo, D’Antoni, Free Agents

January 27th, 2014 at 11:47am CST by Chuck Myron

The Lakers stood at .500 on December 20th, but since then, they’ve won only three of their last 19 games, leaving them without a realistic chance of making the playoffs this season. That doesn’t happen often in Lakerland, but even with a high draft pick coming, the team is focused on solving its woes via free agency. That’s the focus of the chatter around the Lakers today, less than 24 hours after could-be target Carmelo Anthony scored 35 points to help send the purple-and-gold to their latest loss. Here’s the talk:

Marc Berman of the New York Post detects an icy edge to the relationship between Anthony and Mike D’Antoni, his former coach. Berman figures the hard feelings make it unlikely that Anthony would sign with the Lakers this summer.
If Anthony does sign with the Lakers, it would be an ominous sign for D’Antoni’s job security, opines Harvey Araton of The New York Times.
Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding lays out seven reasons why Anthony won’t sign with the Lakers, suggesting that ‘Melo’s ball-stopping, defensive shortcomings, and character flaws are already giving the Lakers pause.
Within the same piece, Ding notes that Lakers brass is pleased with the job D’Antoni has done this season.
As a free agent destination, the Lakers “might be less desirable than at any point in their history,” writes Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders, who points to changing economics and increased leaguewide television exposure as reasons why.
Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com answers reader questions in a Laker-themed mailbag column. Markazi can envision the Lakers and Pau Gasol agreeing on a much cheaper deal for the big man this summer.

Western Notes: Bledsoe, Love, Kaman

January 9th, 2014 at 8:31pm CST by Ryan Raroque

ESPN’s Kevin Pelton wonders if the Suns can continue to play well without Eric Bledsoe, mentioning that in the ten games Bledsoe has missed, Phoenix has gone 5-5 (Insiders only). Should the 24-year-old guard be unable to return this season, Pelton doesn’t think the Suns will have trouble finding a viable backup point guard, whether it be Leandro Barbosa (recently signed to a 10-day contract) or acquiring one with an expiring deal via trade.

Here are some more links to share out of the Western Conference tonight:

In the midst of mounting frustration in Minnesota, Ken Berger of CBS Sports wonders if the Timberwolves should consider trading Kevin Love before he hits free agency.
Lakers center Chris Kaman is still confused about his on-again/off-again role in Mike D’Antoni’s rotation, telling Mike Bresnahan and Eric Pincus of the L.A. Times: “I honestly can’t answer that question for you without telling you a lie. I really have no clue why. I’d just be making something up…I haven’t played in six games and then all of a sudden I play [Wednesday]…I really have no rhyme or reason for it. When it’s my turn, it’s my turn and when it’s not, I just sit and be positive and try to be professional about it.”
The city of Sacramento filed an eminent domain lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court that seeks to take control of a former downtown Macy’s department store for the development of a new sports arena, reports Ryan Lillis of the Sacramento Bee. The Kings wired $4.3MM to the city in anticipation of the city taking the eminent domain action.
Aaron Falk of The Salt Lake Tribune briefly mentions that at a reasonable price of $4MM this season, Brandon Rush could become one of the Jazz’s best assets leading up to the February trade deadline.
Doug Robinson of the Deseret News discusses how Trey Burke has been one of the lone bright spots of a “bad” 2013 NBA Draft.
Despite their continued struggles, the Lakers aren’t resorting to any finger-pointing, writes Janis Carr of the OC Register.

Odds & Ends: Gasol, Knicks, Clippers

December 13th, 2013 at 11:24pm CST by Chuck Myron

It seems high trading season has begun early this year, as this week has featured another Rudy Gay swap, plenty of rumors about Omer Asik and Kyle Lowry, and a flurry of roster moves. Sunday is December 15th, the day many players become eligible for inclusion in trades, so the week ahead doesn’t figure to be any slower. Here’s more from a busy Association:

Kobe Bryant dismisses the notion that Pau Gasol and Mike D’Antoni are at odds, as Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com notes via Twitter. “That’s every year,” Bryant said. “They’re like an old couple. That’s every year. It’s not really anything new. It’s not a big deal.” Of course, D’Antoni and Gasol have only been together since last season.
Every part of the Knicks franchise is in “complete chaos,” says Frank Isola of the New York Daily News (Twitter link). New York lost to the Celtics tonight for the second time in six days, but in contrast to Sunday’s 41-point blowout, this time it was only by four.
Ongoing negotiations for a local TV deal helped motivate the Clippers to spend on Chris Paul and Doc Rivers, according to Bleacher Report’s Jared Zwerling.
Many around the league see Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg as the top candidate for an NBA head coaching job among those currently leading college teams, tweets Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com.
HoopsWorld’s Nate Duncan tries to identify the players who’ll stick around for the long-term on the Suns, Jazz and Kings as each team rebuilds.