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Suns GM Discusses Trades, Plumlee, Green

July 30th, 2013 at 12:54pm CST by Luke Adams

Suns GM Ryan McDonough recently appeared on KTAR 620 AM in Phoenix to discuss his team's offseason moves, including last weekend's trade that sent Luis Scola to the Pacers (hat tip to Steve Kyler of HoopsWorld). Speaking to Dave Burns and John Gambadoro, McDonough provided a few interesting quotes relating to the Scola deal and the possibility of further trades down the road. Here are some highlights:

On one way the team could take advantage of its stash of future first-round picks:

"When teams have maybe a disgruntled superstar, what are they looking for in return? Well, they're looking for picks, that's what they want. None of those guys are available right now, but as you know, some of the time you don't always see that coming. You look at the Deron Williams situation or something like that, and these things just kind of happen out of the blue. I think we're well-positioned to strike if and when the next disgruntled superstar becomes available."

On whether the Suns have made or received trade calls for Kendall Marshall:

"I'm not going to go into that with specific guys on the roster. I guess generally… I've talked about all of them. All of the guys on the roster have been discussed. I think we as a franchise, you have to consider offers for all of them. Obviously there are varying interest levels and the guys are at varying ages with different contracts, but we have to consider all opportunities. Now that being said, we're really happy with our salary cap position going forward, we're very happy with our draft pick position, and we think we also upgraded the talent on the roster."

On whether Miles Plumlee and Gerald Green are expected to contribute to the Suns in 2013/14:

"I think we'll be able to get something out of both of them. I was down in Orlando Summer League at the beginning of the month, and Miles Plumlee, playing for the Pacers' Summer League team, looked very good for the second year in a row. He's a good rebounder, he's always been a very good rebounder per minute, even going back to his days at Duke…. I like Miles. His character, rebounding, and athleticism, I think will fit right in here."

On Green:

"We drafted him with the Celtics in the summer of 2005…. Gerald has always had the athleticism and the scoring ability and the talent. He just needed to mature, which he has. I think going to Russia was a humbling experience for him, and then coming back the hard way in the D-League…. I think both [Plumlee and Green] will play significant roles for us next year."

Eastern Notes: Pacers, Knicks, Scola

July 27th, 2013 at 5:55pm CST by Spencer Lund

The Pacers' acqusition of Luis Scola from the Suns today involved them sending out Miles Plumlee, Gerald Green and a lottery-protected 2014 first-round pick. That first-round pick is lottery-protected through 2019, and would become unprotected in 2020, reports Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. Of course, the Pacers seem like shoo-ins for the playoffs, so the Suns will likely get the pick in 2014.

The Suns and Pacers had been discussing the Luis Scola trade for weeks, but when Indiana threw Miles Plumlee into the deal, the two sides quickly reached an agreement, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link).

Pacers GM Kevin Pritchard said the team doesn't plan another major move anytime soon, but said "we are always open for business" when addressing reporters today, including Michael Pointer of the Indianapolis Star:

"(Team president) Larry (Bird) has long admired Scola’s ability to rebound and score the ball," Pritchard also said. "We watched him last year with Phoenix. We always felt he would be a perfect person for us in terms of backing up (David) West and backing up (Roy) Hibbert, being part of our second unit and being a scorer on that unit."

Larry Bird, especially, has coveted Luis Scola for years, notes Mark Montieth of Pacers.com, and the opportunity to add his skills as a sub for front-court starters Roy Hibbert and David West, proved too juicy to pass up, despite losing a likely late first-round pick next year.

Here's what else is happening around an increasingly top-heavy Eastern Conference, including more from the Pacers…

NBC 6 anchor Adam Kuperstein and Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel discussed the upgrades the Pacers have made to their bench this offseason (Twitter link): Chris Copeland and Scola in place of Tyler Hansbrough and Sam Young, while C.J. Watson replaced D.J. Augustin as the backup for George Hill at the point.
Winderman details the familiar opponents the Heat will likely face this coming season in the Eastern Conference playoffs, with the Pacers, Knicks and Bulls leading the charge to unseat the Eastern Conference champions over the last three seasons.
The Knicks and Gustavo Ayon have not engaged in discussions, tweets Jared Zwerling of ESPNNewYork.com. Ayon is still on waivers after the Bucks released him Thursday. Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors examined teams who could claim the big man before he hits free agency.
J.R. Smith has already received $8.974MM of his $17,947,125 deal with the Knicks, writes Frank Isola of the New York Daily News. Mark Deeks of ShamSports reported this week that Smith would receive half of this year's salary by November 15th, but it appears the Knicks have already given him all of his salary for 2013/14 and part of his 2014/15 pay.
Mary Schmitt Boyer of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer answers questions in her mailbag including whether the Cavs' 33rd pick in this year's draft, Carrick Felix, has enough abilities to secure a roster spot.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Pacers Acquire Luis Scola From Suns

July 27th, 2013 at 2:31pm CST by Chuck Myron

2:31pm: The Suns have also confirmed that the trade is official, via their website.

2:06pm: The Pacers have announced the trade in a press release.

"I’m very, very excited to play for the Pacers," Scola said, as part of the Pacers statement. "They are one of the top three teams in the NBA with a good shot to win a championship. I think it’s a great team and this is a great opportunity. I can’t wait."

1:39pm: The Pacers and Suns have reached an agreement on a trade that sends Luis Scola to Indiana, tweets USA Today's Sam Amick. Paul Coro notes that the framework of the deal, reported earlier by Amick and Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, will send Gerald Green, Miles Plumlee and Indiana's lottery-protected 2014 first-round draft pick to Phoenix in exchange for Scola (Twitter link).

The move strengthens the Pacers as they attempt to overcome the Heat, who've knocked them out of the playoffs the past two seasons. Scola will be of particular help on the offensive end, where he's a career 14.2 points-per-game scorer, and he'll improve a second-unit that lagged far behind Indiana's starting lineup last season. The Suns claimed him off amnesty waivers from the Rockets last summer, and the inexpensive bid helped faciliate the deal with Indiana. Scola will make more than $4.5MM this year, with a non-guaranteed $4.868MM in 2014/15.

Suns GM Ryan McDonough reunites with Green, whom the Celtics drafted 18th overall in 2005, when McDonough was beginning to work his way up Boston's front office chain of command. Green will make $3.5MM this year and next as part of a three-year contract he signed with the Pacers last summer, before he wound up buried on coach Frank Vogel's bench. Plumlee, the 26th overall pick in 2012, was even farther down the Pacers depth chart, appearing in more D-League games (15) than NBA contests (14) last season.

The jewel of the deal for Phoenix appears to be the pick, which will almost certainly be at the back end of the first round. Still, the Suns are in line for three first-rounders in next year's talent-rich draft, including their own, as SB Nation's Paul Flannery points out (Twitter link). Sending the 33-year-old Scola out will allow the team to develop more of its young talent, and perhaps shave a few wins from its total, giving the team a better chance at the top overall pick.

Pacers Nearing Trade For Luis Scola

July 27th, 2013 at 1:34pm CST by Chuck Myron

1:34pm: Green, Miles Plumlee, and a protected 2014 draft pick are the parts headed to Phoenix in the proposal, Wojnarowski tweets. USA Today's Sam Amick tweets that the pick is lottery protected. Marc Stein of ESPN.com notes that the deal is still a proposal at this point, so it looks like a formal agreement has not yet been reached (Twitter link).

SATURDAY, 12:56am: The "early word" is that the Pacers will send Gerald Green and draft considerations to Phoenix in exchange for Scola, Stein reports. The teams are still discussing the specifics of the picks headed Phoenix's way (Twitter links).

FRIDAY, 10:50pm: The Suns and Pacers are having "serious" talks about a trade that would ship Luis Scola to Indiana, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The teams are close to an agreement, Wojnarowski also tweets, but the deal won't involve Danny Granger, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link).

The Pacers have been pursuing Scola for weeks, according to Wojnarowski (Twitter link), though both front offices have been keeping the news quiet. The Pacers re-signed starting power forward David West this summer, and they also brought in Chris Copeland. Centers Roy Hibbert and Ian Mahinmi are on long-term deals, so there wouldn't seem to be an immediate fit for Scola, unless one of Indiana's big men is headed to Phoenix.

As Stein notes, the news originated in Scola's native Argentina, where Juan Sebastia, Scola's publicist, tweets tonight that Scola is headed to the Pacers, and that the deal will become official Saturday. Scola is set to make a little more than $4.5MM this season, with a non-guaranteed $4.868MM on the books for 2014/15. The Suns are under the cap, but the Pacers are over it, so Indiana would have to give up about $3MM in salary to make the deal work if Scola is the only player Phoenix is giving up.

The Pacers could make a straight-up acquisition of Scola work with either Mahinmi or Gerald Green, or they could aggregate the salaries of Lance Stephenson, Miles Plumlee and Orlando Johnson. West and Copeland are ineligible to be traded until the middle of next season because they signed new deals this summer.

The 33-year-old Scola has been remarkably durable in his six-year NBA career, missing just eight regular season games, all of them in 2010/11. His minutes declined somewhat last year in his first season with the Suns, who claimed him off amnesty waivers after the Rockets cut him in a cap-clearing move. He notched 12.8 points, 6.6 rebounds and 26.6 minutes per game in 2012/13, with a 16.7 PER that's nearly identical to his career mark of 16.9.

Draft Updates: Saturday Evening

May 18th, 2013 at 10:45pm CST by Chuck Myron

10:45pm: There have been some updates on the second to last day of the Chicago predraft camp, which started on Thursday and ends tomorrow night, as well as other draft-related news, including a few players who hope their names are announced earlier, rather than later, by David Stern in June.

Virginia Tech guard and ACC Player of the year, Erick Green, told CSN Washington's J. Michael that he expects to be drafted higher than expected. Despite averaging 25 PPG along with 4 APG and 4 RPG in his last college season, Virginia Tech's awful record kept him off the national radar, and at a smidgen under 6'2" he's undersized for an NBA off guard.
One player the Wizards interviewed was Duke's Mason Plumlee, who Green beat out for ACC Player of the Year. When Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer asked Plumlee whether he believes he's a top 10 pick, Plumlee told him: "I feel like athletically and how I played this year, I’ve proven that I am."
Another player hoping to be a lottery pick, but who didn't play in a big conference like the ACC, is Lehigh University's C.J. McCollum, who spoke with Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal about his size (he's undersized for an off guard like Green, but can play both guard positions). Two teams who don't really have a need at guard, in the Cavs and Wizards, both interviewed McCollum.
Norvel Pelle is even further off the radar than the others mentioned, but he's a player who Jeremy Woo described at Zagsblog.com as "the most enigmatic player on the court" in Chicago, and he didn't even play in college after failing to qualify academically. Despite some praise from Woo, and one Western Conference scout's take that Pelle "would have to make it via the NBA's D-League," another scout was a bit more harsh with his assessment, saying that the rail-thin 6'11" 20-year-old was "an AAU tragedy who got bad advice. Wasted years of development. Get his passport ready."
After watching Bobcats general manager Rich Cho inquire time and again about players in the 10-20 pick range, Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer believes the Bobcats might be looking to trade down from wherever they wind up in the draft lottery this Tuesday, May 21st.
Josh Robbins writes at the Orlando Sentinel that Magic Senior Vice President Pat Williams, is their good luck charm because his teams have won the draft lottery four different times: once for the Sixers in 1986, and three times for the Magic in 1992, 1993 and 2004.

3:00pm: There isn't on-court action at the Chicago predraft camp this weekend as there was Thursday and Friday, though teams and players remain in town until tomorrow. Several general managers tell Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel that they would prefer the event focus less on putting players through drills and afford them more time for interviews. With ESPN televising the part of the combine with players on the hardwood, I wouldn't expect the GMs to get their wish anytime soon. Here's the latest draft-related news:

The league posted measurements and athletic testing results from the combine participants on NBA.com.
Jeff Goodman of CBSSports.com rounds up his observations from the combine, passing along gloomy opinions on the top talent from a pair of NBA GMs, one of whom says, "There's really no one worthy of the top pick."
MLive's David Mayo provides a master list of all the draft prospects whom the Pistons have interviewed either formally or informally, along with the dates of the individual workouts those players have scheduled with the team.
Jamaal Franklin attended the combine despite a sprained ankle that kept him out of workouts and drills, and he interviewed with at least nine teams, according to Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union-Tribune. His first workout is scheduled for June 3rd with the Mavs, and the Hawks, Nets, Cavs and Bucks are also "in the mix," Zeigler writes.
The Sixers interviewed Rudy Gobert on Friday, reports Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Chris Mannix of SI.com quizzed some of the top prospects with questions they likely heard in their interviews with teams.

Spencer Lund contributed to this post

Central Notes: Speights, Cavs, Plumlee

February 9th, 2013 at 5:35pm CST by Sean Highkin

With Derrick Rose returning to the Bulls soon, the Pacers rounding into a serious challenger to the Heat in the Eastern Conference playoff picture, and the Bucks looking like a late-seed sleeper, here's a look at the happenings around the Central Division.

Mary Schmitt Boyer of the Plain Dealer has a new mailbag column in which she discusses the possibility that Marreese Speights will be traded before the February 21 deadline. She believes it's possible if the team believes he will opt out of his $4.5MM option for next season, but says his veteran experience makes him worth keeping around.
Schmitt Boyer does not know when Lucas Nogueira and Augusto Lima, two Brazilian draft prospects represented by Anderson Varejao's agent, Dan Fegan, plan to enter the NBA draft.
Schmitt Boyer writes that the Cavs did not make an attempt to trade for Rudy Gay because his contract would have limited their options in future years of free agency.
Schmitt Boyer breaks down the protections on the Lakers' first-round pick the Cavs own, explaining that Cleveland only gets to swap their own pick with the Lakers if Los Angeles makes the playoffs.
Schmitt Boyer writes in a separate column that Cavs GM Chris Grant is known to make a lot of moves at the deadline, and she expects him to be active again this year.
Curt Cavin of the Indianapolis Star has a feature on Pacers rookie Miles Plumlee, who is currently playing in the D-League.

D-League Moves: Aron Baynes, Miles Plumlee

February 4th, 2013 at 11:09am CST by Luke Adams

Here are Monday's D-League assignments and recalls, with the latest moves added to the top of the page throughout the day:

Aron Baynes has been recalled from the Austin Toros, the Spurs announced in a press release. Baynes played in a pair of Toros' losses over the weekend, excelling in his first D-League contest on Friday, with 30 points and 10 boards.
The Pacers have re-assigned Miles Plumlee to the D-League, the team announced today in a press release. It's the sixth time this season that the 2012 first-round pick has been assigned to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. In his previous five stints, Plumlee has appeared in 12 games for the team, averaging 12.7 PPG and 11.1 RPG.

D-League Moves: Miles Plumlee, Kevin Jones

January 31st, 2013 at 3:52pm CST by Luke Adams

Here are Thursday's D-League assignments and recalls, with the latest moves at the top of the page:

The Pacers have re-assigned Miles Plumlee to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, the team announced today in a press release. Plumlee has averaged a double-double for Indiana's D-League affiliate in 11 games with the Mad Ants this year, posting 12.8 PPG and 11.2 RPG.
A day after assigning him to the D-League, the Cavaliers have recalled Kevin Jones, the team announced in a press release. Jones recorded 18 points and 14 rebounds in the Canton Charge's loss to the Erie BayHawks last night, and will rejoin the Cavs for their game tomorrow in Detroit.

D-League Moves: Plumlee, Tyler

January 20th, 2013 at 12:14pm CST by Chuck Myron

We'll round up today's D-League assignments and recalls here, with the latest news on top.

Miles Plumlee is back with the Pacers, as the team announced it's recalled him from the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. The rookie's latest D-League assignment, his fifth, lasted four days. He's played in 11 games with the Mad Ants, averaging 12.8 points and 11.2 rebounds in 31.3 minutes. That's in contrast to just 22 total minutes with Indiana.
The Warriors have reassigned big man Jeremy Tyler to Santa Cruz of the D-League. It's the fifth time he's been sent down this season, but Tyler has only played in four games for Santa Cruz this season, notching 15.0 points and 8.3 rebounds in 30.5 minutes per contest. The 39th overall pick in the 2011 draft has appeared in a total of 48 minutes over 16 games for Golden State this season, with 17 points and 11 rebounds.

D-League Moves: Pittman, Jones, Plumlee

January 16th, 2013 at 4:08pm CST by Luke Adams

We'll keep track of today's D-League assignments and recalls right here, with any additional moves posted to the top of the list throughout the day:

The Heat will recall Dexter Pittman from their D-League affiliate in time for tomorrow's game, according to Sam Amick of USA Today. When I examined potential solutions for Miami's rebounding woes earlier today, I noted that giving Pittman and other internal frontcourt options more minutes could be a short-term approach for the club.
Terrence Jones has been re-assigned to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the Rockets announced today in a press release. Jones was recalled from the D-League on Monday, but wasn't active for Houston's game against the Clippers last night.
The Pacers have re-assigned Miles Plumlee to the D-League, the team announced today in a press release. It's already the fifth time this season that Plumlee has been assigned to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. While he's barely seen the court for the Pacers, the 2012 first-round pick has averaged a double-double in eight games with Fort Wayne, posting 13.4 PPG and 11.5 RPG.