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Doc Rivers On Pierce, Allen, Celtics, Magic

September 3rd, 2015 at 8:54am CST by Chuck Myron

Doc Rivers believes Paul Pierce‘s choice in free agency came down to the Clippers and the Celtics, as the Clippers coach/executive said Wednesday and as Jay King of MassLive.com relays. That would mean the Wizards, with whom Pierce spent last season, finished no better than third.

“I think he wanted to go one of two places. He wanted to come back [to Boston] or he wanted to finish his career at home where he grew up, and I think it’s really cool for me that I can be a part of that,” Rivers said.

Those comments came while Rivers was in Boston for a charity function, so location perhaps played a role. Regardless, Rivers had plenty more to say about Pierce, the Clippers, the Celtics, and other topics, as we’ll round up here:

Pierce, who signed with the Clippers for the full value of the taxpayer’s mid-level exception, was the team’s priciest free agent addition, but Rivers said he’ll use him judiciously, notes Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com. Rivers isn’t guaranteeing a starting spot for the 17-year veteran who turns 38 next month. “Paul will be great. Paul, I don’t want to overuse him. I know that,” Rivers said. “So, I don’t even know how we are going to use him yet. I want to play him at [power forward] a lot. What I want him to be is healthy in the playoffs. So however we can figure that out, that’s what I’m going to try to do.”
Rivers said he and Ray Allen recently played golf, but the Clippers executive added that he didn’t try to convince Allen to sign with the team, tweets Scott Souza of the MetroWest Daily News. The Clips were one of several teams that reportedly attempted to lure Allen this past season, when the shooting guard instead lingered in free agency.
Rivers said the collective trust the Celtics players had in coach Brad Stevens was readily apparent after last season’s flurry of trades, Souza also observed (Twitter link). An ESPN panel recently tabbed Stevens as Boston’s No. 1 reason for optimism about the C’s.
The Magic, another of Rivers’ former teams, have a shot to make the playoffs this year, Rivers said earlier Wednesday in an appearance on Mike Bianchi’s Open Mike radio show on 740 The Game in Orlando, as Bianchi transcribes in the Orlando Sentinel. Rivers praised new coach Scott Skiles. “I think he’s a wonderful coach,” Rivers said. “I think he was a great choice for the franchise. I think people will be surprised with how well they do this year.”

Carlos Boozer Unlikely To Sign Before Season Starts

August 28th, 2015 at 1:40pm CST by Chuck Myron

Carlos Boozer is likely to remain unsigned for the rest of the offseason and instead seek a deal with a playoff contender after the season starts, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Thus, it appears as though the 13-year veteran simply isn’t seeing an offer that he likes for now, though it casts doubt on the idea that he would bite on apparent interest from the Chinese league, an option that had reportedly intrigued him earlier this month.

Boozer, who turns 34 in November, made $16.8MM combined last season from the Bulls, who waived him via the amnesty clause in July 2014, and the Lakers, who submitted a partial claim of $3.251MM to snag him off waivers. He’d be hard-pressed to make even the amount of that amnesty claim on an NBA contract this season, simply because most teams have no more than the $2.814MM room exception to spend. The Mavericks, one of the latest three NBA teams reported to have interest in him, have only the room exception to use, while the Knicks, another of those interested parties, are limited to the minimum. The Rockets have more than $2.274MM left of their mid-level exception, but using it would impose a hard cap on them, and they still have yet to sign No. 32 overall pick Montrezl Harrell. The Spurs, Raptors, Pelicans, Nuggets, Nets, Lakers and Heat were reportedly interested in the Rob Pelinka client earlier this summer, but none of them have the capacity to give him as much as the Lakers paid for him last year. The Lakers renounced their Bird rights to him last month.

The two-time All-Star put up 16.2 points and 9.8 rebounds per game in 2012/13, but his numbers have declined in each of the two seasons since, and his 6.8 boards and 23.8 minutes per contest last season were career lows. Former Nets executive Bobby Marks wouldn’t be surprised if Boozer waited until Christmas to sign (Twitter link). I’d speculate that a decent chance exists that he stays on the market even longer. Ray Allen and Jermaine O’Neal, two other aging former All-Stars, chose to carry on as free agents into the season last year but never wound up signing.

What do you think Boozer will end up doing? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.

Latest On Ray Allen

August 3rd, 2015 at 2:41pm CST by Chuck Myron

Ray Allen still won’t rule out signing with a team, but he doesn’t appear close to doing so, more than a year after last having suited up in the NBA. Allen has no plans to sign with any team, TNT’s David Aldridge heard last week, as he writes in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com, but the NBA’s all-time leading three-point shot maker insisted to media this weekend at a camp in Connecticut that he’s not ready to retire, as Dom Amore of The Hartford Courant relays.

“I haven’t said anything about that and I won’t officially retire,” Allen said. “Because if something came to the table, contractually and situational-ly, I want to be able to take a strong look at it. I don’t want to be that guy that says he’s retiring and then is coming back.”

The 40-year-old is in playing shape, Amore writes, but Allen said the only time he missed basketball this past season was when he watched the Finals between the Warriors and the Cavs, two of the many teams that reportedly had interest in signing him during 2014/15. The Jim Tanner client also expressed that he would be comfortable with his body of work to this point if he does retire, saying that he likes “the feeling of knowing I don’t have to beat myself into the ground,” as Amore chronicles.

The specter of Allen’s free agency lingered for most of this past season until he said in early March that he wouldn’t play and would take the spring and the offseason to decide whether to return to the NBA for the 2015/16 season. He had received serious interest from 14 teams during 2014/15, a source told Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports around the time of Allen’s March announcement, but the market for him is unclear at this point. The Cavs were most often linked to him, but interest from both sides appeared to have faded by shortly after the February trade deadline.

Do you think Ray Allen will play again in the NBA? Leave a comment to let us know.

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Blazers Called On Ray Allen

March 6th, 2015 at 2:23pm CST by Zachary Links

You can’t blame the Trail Blazers for trying. Shortly after losing guard Wesley Matthews for the season due to a torn Achilles’ tendon, Portland GM Neil Olshey called agent Jim Tanner to see if Ray Allen might be interested in signing, league sources told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. However, Olshey was informed that Allen, 39, remains intent on sitting out the season and wouldn’t consider the possibility of joining Portland – or any other team.

All in all, there were reportedly 14 teams – nearly half the NBA – interested in signing Allen until his announcement earlier this week. The Blazers would have presented Allen with a chance to join a playoff-bound team badly in need of a three-point shooter following Matthews’ injury, but it sounds like his mind is made up for good.

It would almost take less time to list the teams that weren’t after the veteran. The Cavs were linked to Allen more than anyone, but they were informed in late February that Allen was not Cleveland-bound. The Grizzlies, too, were ruled out of the running recently. The Warriors, Wizards, Spurs, Heat and Hawks were keeping in touch with Allen’s camp as of early February, and Clippers coach/exec Doc Rivers spoke to him around that time, but they were all rebuffed. The Blazers might go down as the last team to call on Allen this season, but you never know who might give it the old college try.

If Allen doesn’t play again this year, he’ll walk away as the NBA’s all-time leader in three-pointers made and career earnings in excess of $184.356MM, according to Basketball-Reference.

And-Ones: Shaw, Caboclo, Pietrus

March 4th, 2015 at 10:09pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Brian Shaw was Phil Jackson‘s second choice after Steve Kerr to become the Knicks‘ new head coach last summer, but Jackson was leery of the compensation it would take to pry Shaw away from Denver, Marc Berman of The New York Post writes. While it’s doubtful that New York’s team president would part ways with Derek Fisher after inking him to a five-year deal this past offseason, adding Shaw as a veteran assistant on the Knicks’ coaching staff next season is entirely possible, Berman adds. A friend of the coach relayed that Shaw would have considered it an ideal opportunity to become the Knicks’ head man under Jackson had the Nuggets fired him after last season, the Post scribe relays.

Here’s more from around the league:

Raptors rookie Bruno Caboclo is now being represented by Relativity Sports, having parted ways with agent Eduardo Resende, Ryan Wolstat of The Toronto Sun reports (Twitter link).
Clippers executive and coach Doc Rivers said that the team would “most likely” sign Jordan Hamilton to a second 10-day contract when his initial 10-day pact ends this Thursday, Brad Turner of The Los Angeles Times tweets.
It wasn’t surprising that Ray Allen announced that he wouldn’t play this season, Chris Mannix of SI.com tweets. Allen is reportedly content with living the life of a retiree, Mannix adds.
Former NBA player Mickael Pietrus has inked a deal in Puerto Rico with Mets de Guaynabo, Three Eye Sports reports (Twitter link). The swingman’s last NBA appearance was during the 2012/13 campaign when he appeared in 19 contests for the Raptors. In 557 career NBA games Pietrus has averaged 8.3 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 0.8 assists. His career slash line is .425/.355/.665.
NBA teams are still trying to evaluate Emmanuel Mudiay, and decide if he is worth selecting with the No. 1 overall pick in June’s NBA draft, Chad Ford of ESPN.com (Insider subscription required) writes in his profile of the 18-year-old guard. “The two guys with the biggest upsides in the draft are Mudiay and Karl-Anthony Towns,” one NBA GM told Ford. “Jahlil Okafor and D’Angelo Russell are more sure things, but neither of those guys have the ceiling of Mudiay and Towns. And of those four, Mudiay is the best athlete. I can understand a team taking any of those four guys No. 1. But if you’re asking me who has the chance to be a game-changer in the NBA, I think it’s Mudiay. Big risk, big reward.“

Ray Allen Says He Won’t Play This Season

March 4th, 2015 at 1:46pm CST by Chuck Myron

Ray Allen will not play this season, as he says in a statement released through agent Jim Tanner and the Tandem Sports and Entertainment agency. He’s not ruling out a return for 2015/16 but adds that he’ll take rest of this season and the offseason ahead to decide about that, suggesting that it’ll again be a long wait before we know if, much less where, Allen will play again. The 39-year-old has languished as the most sought-after free agent since the start of training camp, though the Cavs, long the front-runner for the friend and former teammate of LeBron James, recently appeared to drop out of the running. They were one of of 14 teams who expressed serious interest, a source tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link).

“Over the past several months, I have taken a lot of time to deliberate what is best for me,” Allen said in the statement. “I’ve ultimately decided that I will not play this NBA season. I’m going to take the remainder of this season, as well as the upcoming off-season, to reassess my situation, spend time with my family and determine if I will play in the 2015/16 season.”

The Grizzlies, too, appeared no longer to be in the Allen sweepstakes as of this weekend, not long after executives around the league reportedly began losing faith that he’d sign. The Warriors, Wizards, Spurs, Heat and Hawks were keeping in touch with Allen’s camp as of early February, and Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers said at about that time that he’d recently spoken to him.

Just about every playoff-bound team reportedly reached out to Allen at some point this season. The Wizards were apparently the most aggressive suitor as of January, though LeBron visited Allen’s home in Miami to woo the sharpshooter while the four-time MVP was in town for rehabilitation.

The Bulls were another suitor, though a trip he made to Chicago earlier this season wasn’t basketball-related, Tanner said. Tanner batted down reports that indicated his intentions regarding one team or another all throughout the process that began when he became a free agent in July. Allen said over the summer that it would take a “perfect storm scenario” for him to play this season, and he pointed to a desire for a veteran coach and more than the minimum salary.

Allen was seemingly leaning toward retirement in late December, though he indicated during the middle of last season that he wasn’t planning to retire so soon. If he doesn’t return, he’ll walk away as the NBA’s all-time leader in three-pointers made and career earnings in excess of $184.356MM, according to Basketball-Reference.

Western Notes: Allen, Grizzlies, McDaniels, Shaw

March 1st, 2015 at 9:58pm CST by Zachary Links

The Mavericks, who currently hold the sixth seed in a tight Western Conference, must improve their level of play and toughness in order to make the playoffs, opines Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News. After losing two straight, the Mavericks will face the Pelicans on Monday in a game Sefko called “urgent,” given the level of competition the Mavericks play against afterward. The Mavericks play winning teams in 10 of their next 12 games.

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

Ray Allen will not be joining the Grizzlies, according to Ronald Tillery of the Commercial Appeal (via Twitter). Late last month, Tillery reported that Memphis was still maintaining interest in the veteran guard. Of course, at this stage, it’s not clear if Allen will sign with anyone at all. If he does come back, he apparently won’t be suiting up for the Cavs, either.
K.J. McDaniels bet on himself last summer by turning down a four-year contract from Sixers GM Sam Hinkie and instead signing for a single season, as Michael Kaskey-Blomain of Philly.com writes. Over the first portion of the season in Philly, the Clemson product was getting tons of playing time and exposure. Now with the Rockets, he’s not seeing nearly as much playing time and isn’t getting a chance to really showcase himself.
It sounds like the Nuggets players are still restless under head coach Brian Shaw. In the fourth-quarter late into Denver’s 104-82 loss to the Jazz, the team broke a huddle with the phrase, “1-2-3…six weeks!,” according to Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post. Of course, there are roughly six weeks to go in the regular season.

Will Joseph contributed to this post.

Cavs Out Of Running For Ray Allen

February 27th, 2015 at 9:28am CST by Chuck Myron

9:28am: The lack of playing time that Allen would see in Cleveland dissuades him from signing there, and the Cavs don’t want to cut a player to make room, Windhorst indicated, so it appears there isn’t interest from either side (audio link at 36:40 mark).

8:38am: It’s still unclear whether Ray Allen will play in the NBA this year, but if he does, it won’t be with the Cavaliers, as Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com said today in an appearance on ESPN Cleveland radio (Twitter link). The Cavs had seemingly been the front-runners for the 18-year veteran since the summer, but it appears that’s no longer the case. Executives around the league have been growing increasingly pessimistic that the sharpshooter will be back this season to add to his all-time record for the most three-pointers made.

Several other teams still seem interested. Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal wrote as recently as a week ago that the Grizzlies would still like to sign him. Windhorst wrote earlier this month that the Cavs were among a group of teams that included the Warriors, Wizards, Spurs, Heat and Hawks who had kept in touch with Allen’s camp, and Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers said around the same time that he’d recently spoken to the sharpshooter. Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal wrote as the All-Star break began that the Cavs had been in touch with Allen’s reps no more than a few days prior, so it appears Cleveland’s departure from the Allen sweepstakes is fairly recent.

It’s unclear if the Cavs lost interest or if Allen decided he doesn’t want to play for the team. Cleveland, which has a full roster of 15 players whose contracts run at least until the end of the season, is on a roll, having beaten the league-best Warriors on Thursday. It was the 18th win in the past 20 games for the Cavs, who could only offer a prorated minimum salary to Allen even if they were to sign him. Cleveland’s already close to $5MM above the luxury tax threshold, so any deal would only add to a long list of expenditures for owner Dan Gilbert.

Execs Losing Faith That Ray Allen Will Sign

February 20th, 2015 at 4:05pm CST by Eddie Scarito

There is a growing feeling among GMs and league executives who are interested in signing Ray Allen that the veteran guard won’t play this season, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports. Allen has been mulling a comeback all season, but neither he, nor his agent Jim Tanner, have made any definitive statements that the player would return to the hardwood during the 2014/15 campaign, Wojnarowski adds. It was rumored that the 39-year-old sharpshooter was going to make a choice regarding his future shortly after the All-Star break.

Allen has been working out, but not at a pace that would allow him a quick transition into NBA playing shape, sources tell Wojnarowski. There’s still time for Allen to make a decision to return, but as one GM told the Yahoo! Sports scribe, “It’s getting late in the game for this to happen.”

The Grizzlies are one team that’s maintained an interest in Allen, as Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal writes in a subscription-only piece. Other teams that have been reportedly linked to the veteran include the Warriors, Wizards, Cavs, Spurs, Heat and Hawks.

Eastern Notes: James, Millsap, Allen

February 13th, 2015 at 9:29pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Cavs superstar LeBron James has been elected as the vice president of the NBPA, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter links). Chris Paul, the NBPA president, has been pushing for James to join him as the No. 2 man in the player’s union for some time now, Wojnarowski adds. The announcement of James’ election was soon overshadowed by the reports that the NBPA had voted to reject the league’s salary cap smoothing proposal for 2016. This news sets the stage for a potential lockout in 2017, when both the league and the union can opt out of the current CBA, though that is merely my speculation.

Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:

Paul Millsap said that the support he has received from Hawks fans and the community in Atlanta would not factor into his decision-making when he becomes a free agent this summer, Nick Powell of NJ.com relays. “It’s a good thing, but I’m not one to base my decision off emotions,” Millsap said. “I base my decisions off of everything else. Where our team is at, can I grow with this team, how’s the coach, how’s the community? There’s a lot of things that factor into it besides emotions.” When asked his feelings about potentially playing in New York, Millsap said, “It’s a good place. I consider myself a guy who could fit in anywhere.“
When Patrick Beverley was asked about potentially joining the Knicks as a free agent this summer, he stated that his first desire was to remain in Houston, Powell adds. “That’s not up to me, that’s up to my agent and stuff like that,” Beverley said. “I’m extremely happy with Houston, that’s one of the teams that kind of took a chance on me for me getting to the NBA, but at the end of the day this is a business, and I’ll let my agent handle that.” Beverly will become a restricted free agent at season’s end.
Though the Heat were indeed in contact with free agent Ray Allen last summer, the team never made a contract offer to the veteran guard, Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald writes.