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Eastern Notes: Dunn, Sixers, Bucks

March 26th, 2016 at 9:09pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Sixers are interested in drafting Providence’s Kris Dunn should the team have a pick in the range where the point guard is projected to go, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Dunn is the fifth-best prospect in the upcoming draft, according to Jonathan Givony of Draft Express, while Chad Ford of ESPN.com has him as the seventh-best prospect. The Sixers are currently atop our Reverse Standings, meaning if the season ended today, they would be a guaranteed one of the top four selections. Philadelphia owns a top-three protected first-rounder from the Lakers, a top-10 protected first-rounder from the Heat, and a top-15 protected first-rounder from the Thunder.

Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:

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Eastern Notes: Johnson, Frye, Noah, Brown

March 18th, 2016 at 9:49pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Heat’s up-tempo offense was enough to convince Joe Johnson to choose Miami over Cleveland, according to Jason Lloyd of The Akron Beacon Journal. When he was hired to replace David Blatt, Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue announced that he wanted to speed things up, but Johnson apparently preferred the fast-paced approach already established in Miami. “Style of play was probably the biggest difference,” Johnson said. “[The Heat] told me they wanted to get up and down the floor and run, and I mean it enticed me. I thought it was the best fit.” The Cavs will face Johnson on Saturday night for the first time since he made his decision.

There’s more from the Eastern Conference:

  • Channing Frye‘s former coach in Orlando believes he will be a valuable asset for the Cavaliers in the postseason, Lloyd adds in the same piece. “When he’s on the floor, they’re looking for him,” Scott Skiles said. “So much attention is on other players, and that’s Channing’s game. He just kind of finds spots, and when he gets his feet set, he’s as good of a big man shooter as there is.” Cleveland picked up Frye from the Magic last month in a deal at the trade deadline.
  • The Bulls‘ Joakim Noah is unlikely to play again this season, but he tells K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune that his focus is on getting healthy, not his upcoming free agency. Noah had surgery on his separated left shoulder on January 19th, with a projected recovery time of four to six months. “It’s not about free agency right now,” the veteran center said. “People can say, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t think about it.’ You’re always going to think about it. But out of respect for my teammates who are going through the grind, which I know very well, I’m trying to stay focused on what they’re going through.”
  • The NCAA Tournament gives Sixers coach Brett Brown a chance to look toward the future and provides a nice distraction from his 9-59 team, writes Bob Cooney of The Philadelphia Inquirer. “Watching all of the games and the spirit of the tournament and the excitement of trying to figure out who we might draft comes into play, but mostly I just love the time of year,” Brown said.
  • The Bucks sent guard Rashad Vaughn to Canton of the D-League, the team announced today. He averaged 2.4 points and 1.1 rebounds in 61 games with Milwaukee.
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Central Notes: Drummond, Jackson, Vaughn

October 21st, 2015 at 9:21pm CST by Eddie Scarito

It’s a credit to the relationship formed between Pistons owner Tom Gores, coach/executive Stan Van Gundy, and center Andre Drummond that all parties would agree to hold off on signing an extension to allow the team to retain more cap space heading into next offseason, Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press writes. “I will tell you I’ve learned from conversations that we had we’re really giving ourselves the flexibility to build this team up and do the right things to get us where we need to be,” Drummond told reporters. “I’m just ready to prepare for the season, and whenever that time comes again, I’ll be prepared for it.”

Drummond’s willingness to put his future payday on hold impressed Van Gundy, Ellis notes. “As much as Andre wants to be here, he desperately wants to win and wants to be part of a contender and wants us to have the flexibility to continue to add people to this team,” Van Gundy said. “He has a great relationship with Tom — a very open, honest, trusting relationship. They spend a lot of time talking about this. I think it shows Andre’s maturity and leadership that he would step forward and put the team ahead of himself.”

Here’s more from the Central Division:

  • Reggie Jackson, who re-signed with the Pistons this summer for five years and $80MM, has a stake in whether or not Drummond remains in Detroit, Aaron McMann of MLive.com writes. “He’s a big reason, reason 1A-1B, I went solely into staying here,” Jackson said. “He was always on me about making sure I signed. So I’m just trying to make sure everything’s going in the right direction to still be here and try and make a lot of memories.“
  • Jackson also relayed that he and Drummond spoke privately about the center’s decision, and the point guard called it a big one for the big man’s future, McMann adds in the same piece. “It’s a mature move either way,” Jackson said. “Whatever he decides is what he decides. I just would love to know that I have this guy with me during my tenure being here, wearing this red and blue. I just want what’s best for Andre. I want what’s best for his career. I definitely want him to be here and I want to make a lot of memories and a lot of highlights in the Palace and bring back this city.“
  • Bucks rookie shooting guard Rashad Vaughn has been turning heads with his stellar preseason play, and he may turn out to be the steal of the 2015 NBA Draft, writes Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. “He plays with a great demeanor,” coach Jason Kidd said. “He doesn’t get up too high and doesn’t get too down in the things that he’s done. He is showing that he deserves time to play and he’ll get it. … At 19 years old, he’s very mature. He acts a lot older on the court and off the court.”
  • The Cavs finally struck a deal with Tristan Thompson today, as we passed along earlier. See the details here.
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Central Notes: Jefferson, Vaughn, Pistons, Pacers

October 13th, 2015 at 12:15pm CST by Chuck Myron

Richard Jefferson felt uncomfortable with the prospect of playing for the Mavericks once DeAndre Jordan turned his back on the team, and the veteran small forward took agent Jeff Schwartz’s advice to take a delicate approach to undoing his own verbal commitment to Dallas, as Jefferson details to Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com. The 35-year-old signed a guaranteed one-year, minimum-salary contract with the Cavs after asking Mark Cuban’s permission to break off their deal.

“And so, [Schwartz] was like: ‘Well, Rich, I can call, but we should probably tell the Mavs first. And let’s see. Because I don’t want to call the Cavs and all of the sudden the Cavs call the Mavs about what’s going on and it comes back on me and it looks like I’m trying to do stuff behind their back,'” Jefferson said. “And so, we talked to Mark first and I asked him for permission, and he said, ‘That’s fine.’ And then there was some interest here [in Cleveland] and it was pretty much a no brainer.”

See more from the Central Division:

  • Rashad Vaughn‘s mature demeanor impressed Bucks coach Jason Kidd before Milwaukee drafted him 17th overall this June, and the rookie is making waves on the court, too, as Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel examines. “The Vaughn kid put on a show in the fourth quarter, as he did in Chicago the other night,” Pistons coach/executive Stan Van Gundy said after his team’s game against the Bucks Saturday. “We’re going to be dealing with him for a long time in the league. He’s got a quick release and can really, really shoot the ball.”
  • Detroit has experienced a whirlwind of player movement under Van Gundy, so in spite of their apparent interest in Markieff Morris, the Pistons would be well-served to consider the benefits of roster stability over yet another change, opines Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press.
  • The commitment to a traditional lineup that the Pacers made in the past seemed aimed at beating the Heat, but now that president of basketball operations Larry Bird has shifted the team’s roster and on-court philosophy, Paul George isn’t the only one who must fit in, argues RealGM’s Andrew Perna. Coach Frank Vogel, who’s under contract through 2016/17, must also prove he can lead a more potent attack on offense.
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Central Notes: Williams, Irving, Hilliard, Vaughn

August 28th, 2015 at 2:45pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Cavaliers mostly stood pat this summer, but they spent the majority of their taxpayer’s mid-level exception on Mo Williams, and with Kyrie Irving‘s broken kneecap a threat to keep him out as late as January, that move looks wise, writes Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders in his NBA AM piece. The Cavs, with Williams in place, aren’t rushing Irving back, and that’s wise, considering a growing history of injuries for the former No. 1 overall pick, Greene adds. See more from around the Central Division:

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Bucks Sign First-Rounder Rashad Vaughn

July 17th, 2015 at 4:43pm CST by Eddie Scarito
Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

The Bucks have officially signed Rashad Vaughn to a rookie scale contract, the team has announced. The guard out of UNLV was the No. 17 overall selection in this year’s NBA Draft. Vaughn was the Mountain West Conference’s Freshman of the Year for the 2014/15 season.

Vaughn will earn more than $1.733MM this coming season in the first year of a four-year deal, presuming he receives the standard 120% of the rookie scale, which is most likely the case. The player can expect to take home $1,811,040 in 2016/17, $1,889,040 in 2017/18, and $2,901,565 in the contract’s final year.

The 18-year-old spent one season with the Runnin’ Rebels, appearing in 23 games and averaging 17.8 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 1.6 assists. His shooting numbers were .439/.383/.694. He was the No. 38 overall ranked player in this year’s draft according to Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress, while Chad Ford of ESPN.com rated Vaughn as a first round pick, slotting him at No. 22 overall.

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And-Ones: Labor, Moratorium, Max Salaries

July 15th, 2015 at 10:16am CST by Chuck Myron

Commissioner Adam Silver struck an optimistic tone about labor negotiations with a December 15th, 2016 deadline looming for owners and players to opt out of the collective bargaining agreement, writes Sam Amick of USA Today.

“You know, I’m not sure if the players association is going to opt out,” Silver said as he addressed media Tuesday. “[Union executive director] Michele [Roberts] made some early remarks suggesting maybe they were leaning that direction, but she hasn’t told me that she plans to opt out. And I know that in discussions that she and I have had and I’ve had with players association representatives, it’s clear the goal on both sides is to avoid any sort of work stoppage whatsoever and maybe even to avoid the opt out.”

Still, Silver claims a “significant number of teams” are losing money, Amick notes. The commissioner said the league projects that it’ll need to issue a $500MM check to the players after the 2016/17 season because total salaries aren’t expected to add up to the required 50-51% of basketball related income, even as the salary cap surges, as Ken Berger of CBSSports.com observes. Berger sees a strong chance that the owners opt out, in spite of Silver’s seeming confidence that such can be avoided. Here’s more from around the league:

  • Owners discussed the idea of changing the July Moratorium to avoid sagas like the one that surrounded DeAndre Jordan as he decommitted to the Mavs to return to the Clippers, but none of the owners could come up with an appealing solution, Silver said, according to Berger.
  • The projected maximum salaries for next season are $20.4MM for players with fewer than seven years of experience, $24.9MM for those with seven to nine years in the league, and $29.3MM for veterans of 10 or more years, tweets former Nets executive Bobby Marks. See this year’s max salaries right here.
  • The union continues to consider a get-tough stance on agencies that represent both players and coaches, but the most likely outcome is a continuance of the same policies, despite the conflict of interest, Grantland’s Zach Lowe reports. Agencies are allowed to represent both as long as they create separate divisions, with separate agents, to handle player and management clients, as Lowe explains. Still, not all are pleased with arrangement, and when the Bucks, who have close ties to Excel, drafted Excel client Rashad Vaughn last month, some people around the league found it untoward, Lowe writes.
  • The Nets once more led luxury taxpayers for this past season, though it wasn’t the record amount of some $90MM from a year ago. This time, they paid $19.98MM, followed by the Cavs with $6.96MM, the Clippers at $4.8MM, and the Thunder at $2.79MM, salary cap expert Larry Coon tweets. Teams that didn’t pay the tax saw $830K each as a result.
  • The second-round pick that the Celtics are sending to the Thunder as part of the Perry Jones III trade is Boston’s own 2018 second-rounder, but if it falls within the top 55 picks that year, the Celtics’ debt to Oklahoma City is extinguished, according to RealGM.
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Western Notes: Barton, Buycks, Blazers

June 23rd, 2015 at 10:49pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Nuggets have tendered Will Barton a qualifying offer worth $1,181,348, making the guard a restricted free agent this offseason, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter link). The move was expected since both sides have previously expressed a desire for the player to return to Denver next season. The 24-year-old saw sparse playing time with the Blazers over his first two and a half seasons in the league, but the deadline trade that sent him to Denver this February provided him with more opportunities to get on the court. He averaged 11.0 points in 24.4 minutes per game over 28 appearances for the Nuggets.

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

  • The Warriors are exploring options regarding trading up from the No. 30 overall pick in the draft, Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com tweets. Which player the team could be targeting with such a move is unknown, Howard-Cooper adds.
  • The chances that the Lakers will select Duke big man Jahlil Okafor with the No. 2 overall pick have increased since last week, Chad Ford of ESPN.com relays (on Twitter). Ford pegged the odds at 70% last Friday, and now has them at 80% that Los Angeles nabs Okafor on Thursday night.
  • The Lakers have informed free agent guard Dwight Buycks that they are interested in re-signing him for next season, David Pick of Eurobasket.com tweets. Buycks, who inked a single 10-day deal with the team this past season, was reportedly set to be signed for the remainder of the 2014/15 campaign before a hand injury knocked him out for the remainder of the team’s contests.
  • The Blazers will work out UNLV shooting guard Rashad Vaughn on Wednesday, reports Gery Woelfel of the Journal Times.
  • Woelfel adds the Warriors to the list of teams that have worked out UNLV big man Christian Wood.
  • Working out for Portland today were Darion Atkins (Virginia), Javonte Green (Radford), Charles Jackson (Tennessee Tech), Jordan Railey (Washington State), Satnam Singh (India), and Gary Bell Jr. (Gonzaga), the Blazers announced.
  • Virginia swingman Justin Anderson is scheduled to work out for the Grizzlies on Wednesday, Chris Vernon of ESPN 92.9 FM relays (Twitter links). Vernon also dispels the notion that Memphis made a draft promise to LSU big man Jarell Martin, and says that Martin shut down scheduling any further workouts for other reasons.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

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Central Notes: Pistons, Vaughn, Cavs

June 22nd, 2015 at 6:43pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Pistons are not expecting their lottery pick to become a starter next season but they will keep the pick unless they get a superstar talent, Keith Langlois of Pistons.com reports. Coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy told the team’s beat reporters on Monday that with ample cap space — approximately $20MM even after the Ersan Ilyasova deal — that he’ll fill the starting small forward vacancy through free agency or a trade, Langlois continues. Tayshaun Prince, the starting small forward during the second half of last season, is an unrestricted free agent. Van Gundy virtually shut the door on reports that the Pistons were shopping the No. 8 overall pick, including one on Monday about a possible deal with the Knicks for guard Tim Hardaway Jr., Langlois adds. “The one thing we are firm on is – minus a superstar being available – we won’t trade out of the draft,” Van Gundy said. “For your salary structure and everything else, it’s too important. It’s probably unlikely that we trade back, but it’s not impossible.”

In other news around the Central Division

  • Van Gundy acknowledged during the same press conference that he was “not entirely optimistic” about retaining unrestricted free agent Greg Monroe, the Associated Press reports. Though Van Gundy indicated it wasn’t a foregone conclusion, Monroe is expected to find a starting job elsewhere. The trade for Ilyasova gives the Pistons a starting-caliber power forward to replace him.
  • Shooting guard Rashad Vaughn was among six players brought in by the Bucks in their final pre-draft workout, according to the team’s website. Vaughn is rated No. 19 on ESPN Insider Chad Ford’s Top 100 prospects list, twice as high as DraftExpress’ Jonathan Givony, who pegs him at No. 38.  The group consisted of mostly late first-round and second-round prospects, including centers Mouhammadou Jaiteh and Josh Smith (Georgetown) and forwards Christian Wood, Cody Larson and J.P. Tokoto. The Bucks own the No. 17 and No. 46 picks in the draft.
  • Syracuse center Rakeem Christmas was part of a group workout with the Cavaliers on Monday, according to Michael Scotto of Sheridan Hoops (Twitter link). Christmas is rated No. 34 on Ford’s board and No. 43 by Givony. The Cavs hold the No. 24 and No. 53 selections on Thursday.
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Eastern Notes: Russell, Porzingis, Raptors

June 18th, 2015 at 9:27pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Ohio State playmaker D’Angelo Russell had an under-the-radar workout with the Knicks back on June 11th, shortly before he pulled out of a scheduled workout with the Sixers due to an undisclosed illness, Marc Berman of The New York Post writes. There are rumblings that Philadelphia has become enamored with forward Kristaps Porzingis, and Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress has Philly taking the Latvian with the No. 3 overall pick in his latest mock draft. However, a league source insists the Sixers taking Porzingis over Russell is a reach and they are after the best available player regardless of position, Berman notes. “If you’re basing taking him [Porzingis] because of last week’s workout, you should be fired,’’ the league source told Berman.

Here’s the latest from the East:

  • Porzingis met with representatives from the Magic today in Orlando, but did not work out for the team, Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops relays (Twitter link).
  • Texas big man Myles Turner has an individual workout scheduled Friday morning with the Hornets, Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer relays (on Twitter). The majority of mock drafts predict that Charlotte will select a wing who can score from deep, and though Turner does have the ability to stretch defenses, selecting him could prove redundant in the wake of the team’s acquisition of Spencer Hawes from the Clippers.
  • The Raptors held pre-draft workouts today for Terry Rozier (Louisville), R.J. Hunter (Georgia State), J.P. Tokoto (North Carolina), Phil Greene (St. John’s), Tekele Cotton (Wichita State), and Jarekious Bradley (Southeast Missouri State), the team announced.
  • Michael Qualls (Arizona), Rashad Vaughn (UNLV), Richaun Holmes (Bowling Green), and Josh Smith (Georgetown) all pulled out of their scheduled workouts with the Nets today, The Brooklyn Game relays (Twitter link). The reason for Qualls’ withdrawal is obvious, with the player having suffered a torn ACL, but it is unclear why the other players declined to attend the showcase.
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