Roy Hibbert Rumors | Hoops Rumors

California Notes: Stephenson, Hibbert, Warriors

October 12th, 2015 at 12:56pm CST by Chuck Myron

Many around the league believe the Lakers can quickly return to the NBA elite, with one executive telling Baxter Holmes of ESPNLosAngeles.com that they’re just “one big deal” from a favorable position. Still, Holmes heard pessimism from many others, including an agent who called them “hopeless” and “the West Coast Knicks,” and those who had pointed criticism for Mitch Kupchak, Nick Young and especially Byron Scott. Legendary Laker Shaquille O’Neal, now a Kings part-owner, pointed to the roster as a whole.

“They need to do the same thing Sacramento did — get new players,” O’Neal said to Holmes.

Little can be done about the top of the roster this time of the year, but the Lakers and other Pacific rivals face multiple decisions about how to fill out their bench, as I examined earlier. See more from California’s NBA teams:

Clippers trade acquisition Lance Stephenson believes Doc Rivers and the Clippers are giving him a better chance at success than he had in Charlotte, where he didn’t feel the team used him properly last season, as he tells Dan Woike of The Orange County Register. “I was just sitting in the corner. That’s not trying to be a star. A star normally gets the ball,” Stephenson said.
Roy Hibbert, set for free agency at season’s end, has impressed in his first action since the offseason trade that took him to the Lakers, observes fellow Orange County Register scribe Bill Oram. “He’s been absolutely solid,” Kobe Bryant said of Hibbert. “Defensively he’s been great. Offensively he’s been great and he’s another great passer on this team. We look forward to playing off him a lot.”
The Warriors purchased the land for their new privately funded arena in San Francisco, the team announced. The purchase price wasn’t disclosed, but team indicated the entire project will cost in excess of $1 billion. “We’ve been the Bay Area’s team for more than 50 years, and this plan keeps us in the Bay Area for the next 50 and beyond,” Warriors president and COO Rick Welts said. “If there were any lingering doubts about our commitment to Mission Bay, purchasing this land should put them to rest. We love this neighborhood – nobody else is getting this land.”

Lakers Rumors: Playoffs, Buss, Hibbert, Huertas

September 25th, 2015 at 12:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Lakers roster is strong enough for the team to have legitimate playoff aspirations, GM Mitch Kupchak contends, as USA Today’s Sam Amick writes. “The goal every year, of course, is to win the championship,” Kupchak said. “I’m really hopeful that we can be fun to watch, and certainly win a lot more games than we won last year. I don’t know why hopes of a playoff position shouldn’t be in the picture. That’s kind of where it stands.” Still, Kupchak was more guarded than he was a year ago, when he declared that the expectation for last season’s squad was to win a championship, observes Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times. The Lakers instead finished a franchise-worst 21-61. See more on the purple-and-gold:

Kupchak downplayed the idea that co-owner Jim Buss will resign from his job as the team’s executive VP of basketball operations if the Lakers don’t make the Western Conference Finals by 2017, a standard to which primary owner Jeanie Buss has said she’ll hold her brother. Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News has the details. “If he felt that way and I agreed, we would’ve traded our picks for veteran players,” Kupchak said. “But we didn’t.” Jim Buss has seemingly tried to soften the parameters of his pledge that he’d step down if the Lakers aren’t contending by the end of the 2016/17 season.
The GM sees D’Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson and Julius Randle as starters for the future, and he also expressed high hopes for Roy Hibbert, who’s on an expiring contract, as Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times relays. “Hibbert is young enough to be included,” Kupchak said. “If Roy has a good to great year, and we can bring him back at 28 years old, I don’t know why he can’t be part of that core.”
Lakers players are impressed with what they’ve seen from Brazilian rookie Marcelo Huertas during voluntary team workouts, and the point guard has a legitimate chance to make the opening night roster, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. Huertas signed a contract with no guaranteed money, and while the Lakers have plenty of flexibility with only 12 fully guaranteed deals, the team is open to offloading one of those full guarantees if someone on a non-guaranteed pact proves a better player, Kupchak said, as Pincus notes in his piece.
Former Lakers coach Phil Jackson thinks it’s possible Kobe Bryant will play for a team other than the Lakers in 2016/17, as we detailed earlier.

Pacific Notes: Butler, Hibbert, Leuer

September 23rd, 2015 at 9:29pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Kings‘ locker room could be rather volatile this season given some of the strong personalities present, and the team is likely to rely on veteran forward Caron Butler to act as a stabilizing influence, Alec J. Neuharth-Keusch of USA Today writes. Butler, who inked a two-year, minimum salary deal with Sacramento this offseason, understands that he was brought in more for his intangibles than for his statistics, the USA Today scribe notes. “Off general principle, you get a certain respect for being around for so long and guys just respect you,” Butler said. “But at the same time, you gradually come to the position to address issues vocally. I’m more of a guy that likes pulling guys to the side to just talk to them one on one and educate them.”

Here’s more out of the Pacific Division:

One storyline for the Lakers during the 2015/16 campaign will be how well center Roy Hibbert will fit in with the team, and if he’ll play his way into being either a part of the franchise’s future, or become a possible trade deadline asset, Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News writes.
Jon Leuer, after having spent the last month working out in Phoenix, is excited about what he can do in the Suns‘ offense given his strong outside shooting, Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic writes. “Seeing how we can get up and down, just being able to run the floor and play at this pace are things that will really help,” Leuer said. “I feel one of the undervalued parts of my game is how I can get out and run. And seeing where the shots will come and how they come is something I feel really comfortable with.” The 26-year-old was acquired in a draft day trade with the Grizzlies. Coro recently took part in our interview series, “The Beat,” and weighed in on a number of topics related to the Suns.
With the team’s stars now surrounded by a solid and versatile supporting cast, the Clippers will be expected to advance deep into the playoffs, writes Tim Bontemps of The New York Post (Facebook link) in his season preview. If Los Angeles is unable to do so, it may be time for the franchise to consider making significant roster changes, Bontemps adds.

Lakers Notes: Scott, Kobe, World Peace

September 18th, 2015 at 1:59pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Lakers didn’t land a marquee free agent this summer, but coach Byron Scott is nonetheless impressed with the upgrades the team made, as he explains to Bill Oram of the Orange County Register in a wide-ranging Q&A. The team drafted D’Angelo Russell No. 2 overall, struck deals with seven free agents and traded for Roy Hibbert.

“I don’t look at the summer as a big disappointment, to be honest with you,” Scott said. “We missed on a guy we were after, obviously, in LaMarcus [Aldridge, who signed with the Spurs]. But to get Roy and to get Lou Williams and to get Brandon Bass, I think [GM] Mitch [Kupchak] did a hell of a job of recovering and making it a summer that you kind of looked back and said, ‘Man, that’s a pretty good recovery.’ I’m happy with the roster we have. We’ve got competition it seems like at every position, which I think is going to be fun to watch in training camp. We’re still very, very young, with the exception, obviously, of [37-year-old] Kobe [Bryant], so I’m excited about that.”

Scott pledged to Oram that he’d limit Bryant’s minutes and do whatever he could to ensure the legend can avoid injury and “go out standing” if this is indeed his last season. See more from the coach amid our check on the purple-and-gold:

Scott is unsure if the Lakers will sign Metta World Peace, reportedly a strong possibility, but Scott seems high on what World Peace has done for Julius Randle in their workouts together so far, as Oram relays in the same piece. “He’s made Julius work which I think is great,” Scott said in part. “Then when the game is over he’s always talking to Julius about certain things that he feels Julius can do better. So he’s been a good mentor for him, he’s been great for the other guys to see him out here playing the way he’s been playing. He’s still in great great shape his body looks fantastic and he’s been great as far as seeing him running up and down the floor.”
Eric Saar of Basketball Insiders goes along with many of his colleagues who take a pessimistic view on the Lakers for this season, with Basketball Insiders scribe Alex Kennedy opining that there’s “no way” the Lakers can make the playoffs with their existing roster, given the competition. Saar thinks the Lakers have a shot to make the playoffs in a year or two, though that might be enough for executive VP of basketball operations Jim Buss, since sister and co-owner Jeanie Buss has said she’ll hold him to his pledge to resign if the team isn’t contending for a title by the spring of 2017.

Pacific Notes: Hibbert, Green, Suns

September 16th, 2015 at 10:20pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Draymond Green had spoken with one other unnamed franchise prior this to re-signing with the Warriors this offseason, the forward told Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. “It wasn’t much. I talked to one other team and that was really not a serious conversation at all [because] I knew where I wanted to be,” Green said. “I knew where I was going to be and my focus was to have my agent, B.J. Armstrong, work with the Warriors and get a deal done. That was the main focus. I talked to Joe [Lacob]. I talked to Peter [Guber]. I knew where I was going to be, I knew where home was, and we got it done. It was great that the Warriors stepped up to the plate and got it done in the fashion that they did, where I didn’t have to sign an offer sheet or anything like that and we just got the deal done. It says a lot about the Warriors as an organization, it says a lot about Peter and Joe as an ownership group, it says a lot about the front office with Bob [Myers], Kirk [Lacob], and Travis [Schlenk] and everyone else. I’m one of their guys and they stepped up to the plate and got it done. That meant a lot to me.” Green did note that the Pistons were not the team with which he spoke, Kennedy adds.

Here’s more out of the Pacific Division:

Roy Hibbert agreed to waive part of his 15% trade kicker to join the Lakers because the franchise made it known that they wanted him, something the Pacers did not do, Mike Bresnahan of he Los Angeles Times writes. “In the long run, it was a no-brainer,” Hibbert said. “If I were to say I wanted my $2MM and the trade couldn’t get done, I would have been back in Indy and wouldn’t have gotten that $2MM anyway. I would have had to basically fight an uphill battle just to try and get on the court. Hopefully I can make that [money] up in the long run if I do well.” The center gave back all but $78,185 of what otherwise would have been a $2.3MM payout for being traded to make the deal happen.
While the Suns may indeed have enough talent to compete for a playoff spot in the West, the team will likely fall short of the postseason for the third straight year, Tim Bontemps of the New York Post (Facebook link) opines in his season preview of the franchise.

Central Notes: LeBron, Hibbert, Bulls

September 2nd, 2015 at 3:30pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Cavaliers and Bulls looked like the two clear-cut favorites in the Eastern Conference a year ago, and while the Bulls’ roster is still largely the same, the Cavs zoomed past them in the playoffs and other Eastern Conference contenders appear to have gained ground. The Heat, Wizards, Raptors, Hawks and perhaps even the Bucks, whom Chicago dispatched in the first round this spring, all appear capable of posing a threat and then some to the Bulls this coming season. While we wait for training camps to open later this month to see how it all unfolds, there’s more on the Bulls and Cavs amid the latest from the Central Division:

LeBron James has structured his past two deals with the Cavaliers to give himself a chance to exit every summer, but the Cavs don’t think he’d dare to leave Cleveland a second time, as Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher said recently in a video and as Dan Feldman of ProBasketballTalk notes. That falls in line with a suggestion that Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports made last October, though Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer heard in December that James would be prepared to leave the Cavs if he felt it would be the “appropriate business decision.”
The Pacers agreed to trade Roy Hibbert to the Lakers with the caveat that the Lakers would pull out of the deal if they signed a marquee free agent center, Lakers Executive VP of Basketball Operations Jim Buss told Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times. “[Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird] was fine with that,” Buss said. “Bird wanted to put the kid into a spotlight like this.” Hibbert praised Bird for having been up front with him, though David West cited the Pacers’ handling of their desire to move on from Hibbert as one of the reasons he opted out.
Sam Smith of NBA.com, writing in a mailbag column, wonders about the lineup choices new Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg will make and looks at whether the season ahead will have as little roster movement for Chicago as the summer did.
We asked for your input on the Pistons roster dilemma as part of Tuesday’s Community Shootaround.

Pacific Notes: Kobe, Buss, Casspi, Suns

August 28th, 2015 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

Lakers Executive VP of basketball operations Jim Buss believes Kobe Bryant is worth his league-high $25MM salary this season after all he’s done for the franchise and said that while the team is operating on the premise that Bryant will retire at season’s end, he’d welcome him back with open arms if he’s willing to accept a role that fits his age and ability. Buss made his comments as part of an interview with Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times, adding that he “feels like we’ve righted the ship” with coach Byron Scott and a new cast of key players, even if the team didn’t sign a star free agent this summer.

“It’s just that it takes time to build a core that guys want to play with,” Buss said to Pincus. “I understand a superstar doesn’t want to come in and say, ‘Oh, we still have two or three years of rebuilding.’ I think with Jordan Clarkson, [D’Angelo] Russell, [Julius] Randle, even [Roy] Hibbert … we’re getting a core of seven or eight players.”

See more on the Lakers amid the latest from around the Pacific Division:

Buss, also a part-owner of the team, has no regrets about pledging in April 2014 to resign from his basketball operations position if he couldn’t restore the Lakers to contention in three or four years, as he said to Pincus for the same piece. Buss’ sister Jeanie, the primary owner of the franchise, has said she’ll hold him to that pledge if the Lakers aren’t back in the Western Conference Finals by the spring of 2017. Still, the top goal for this season, Jim Buss said to Pincus, is identifying core players for the future, and not necessarily making the playoffs.
Omri Casspi cited DeMarcus Cousins, calling him the best center in the league in an interview with James Herbert of CBSSports.com, among the reasons why he decided to re-sign with the Kings this summer.
The Suns officially named Chris Jent the head coach of their one-to-one D-League affiliate, the franchise announced Thursday. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported earlier this month that the sides were finalizing a deal. Jent had been Michael Malone‘s lead assistant with the Kings.

And-Ones: Morris, Richardson, Draft

August 19th, 2015 at 9:33pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Darius Morris, who was waived by the Nets at the end of June, has received contract offers from NBA teams and clubs overseas, but thanks to a foot injury suffered during training, he’ll be out of action for a few months, Morris’ agent, Brian Dyke, told international journalist David Pick (Twitter link). The 24-year-old made 38 appearances for Brooklyn during the 2014/15 campaign, logging averages of 2.2 points, 0.7 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 7.9 minutes per contest.

Here’s more from around the league:

Joel Brigham of Basketball Insiders tabs new L.A. arrivals Roy Hibbert and Lance Stephenson as two of six players who appear likely to benefit from having changed teams this summer.
Jason Richardson‘s deal with the Hawks is a one-year minimum-salary arrangement and is without any guaranteed money, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). It has limited injury protection, Pincus also says, so it appears to be an Exhibit 9 contract. Richardson will see $1,499,187 if he sticks for the entire season, but since the deal only covers one season, it would cost the Hawks no more than $947,276, the equivalent of the two-year veteran’s minimum. The league picks up the rest of the tab.
Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress peered into his crystal ball and released his first mock draft for 2017’s big event. The current top three players on Givony’s draft board are forwards Harry Giles and Jayson Tatum, with point guard Dennis Smith rounding out the top-ranked trio.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Western Notes: Exum, Hibbert, Teletovic, Craft

August 6th, 2015 at 9:10pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Jazz point guard Dante Exum‘s knee injury is unfortunate, but just because he was playing for the Australian national team when he sustained it doesn’t mean the NBA should keep its players from international competition, argues Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders. National teams usually employ trainers and medical staff that could mitigate the damage that might otherwise happen if players were engaging in pickup games or other less organized offseason play, Kyler points out.

Here’s more out of the Western Conference:

Roy Hibbert‘s mental approach seems key to his performance, so the new Lakers center has hired a sports psychologist, writes Baxter Holmes of ESPN.com, and an Eastern Conference executive tells Holmes he’s optimistic that in a contract year, with Kobe Bryant pushing him, Hibbert will have a bounceback season.
The Suns were badly in need of a stretch-four last season, and with the signing of Mirza Teletovic to a one-year, $5.5MM deal, Phoenix appears to have rectified that deficiency, Samuel Cooper of BrightSideOfTheSun.com writes. In the post, Cooper also breaks down Teletovic’s game using footage from last season to illustrate what he can bring to the team.
Aaron Craft, who made 50 appearances for the Warriors’ D-League affiliate last season, has signed a deal with the Hungarian team Szolnoki Olaj, Craft’s agent Misko Raznatovic announced on Twitter (translation by Orazio Cauchi of Sportando). The 24-year-old averaged 9.2 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 6.2 assists for Santa Cruz during the 2014/15 campaign. It’s unknown if Craft’s pact contains any NBA outs.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Pacific Notes: Hibbert, Crawford, Cousins, Evans

July 28th, 2015 at 3:24pm CST by Chuck Myron

Lakers trade acquisition Roy Hibbert is excited to play for coach Byron Scott, and while he cautioned that he has nothing against Pacers coach Frank Vogel, the center made it clear as he spoke with TNT’s David Aldridge that his preference this summer was to end up on a team with a former player as coach. Hibbert also expressed his unwavering sentiment for Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird, even though Bird strongly signaled to the media this spring that he was ready to move on from the former All-Star.

Larry was very up front with me,” Hibbert said. “He said before the press conference that I can’t promise you minutes next year, and they wanted to go in a different direction. So it wasn’t like what happened came out of nowhere, what he said. I’ll always say that Larry changed my life. I was on the phone with my agent in the office during the [2009] draft process and Larry said ‘If Roy’s there at 17, we’ll take him.’ That meant a lot to me. I know that things change and the NBA is ‘What have you done for me lately?,’ but I could never say a bad thing about Larry or the Pacers organization.”

We had more on Hibbert’s old team earlier today, and now here’s the latest on his new team’s division rivals:

The Clippers aren’t anxious to trade Jamal Crawford, but trade rumors from earlier this summer, his exclusion from the team’s DeAndre Jordan recruiting effort, and the addition of newcomers at his position are inauspicious signs for his future with the team, as Dan Woike of the Orange County Register examines. Crawford seems to be wondering about whether the Clippers still appreciate him, and that doesn’t auger well for team chemistry if he’s still on the roster at the start of the season, Woike believes.
DeMarcus Cousins is a major fan of Reggie Evans, notes Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops, who writes amid a look at the top remaining free agents. Evans, who spent the last season and a half with the Kings, remains unsigned.
Quincy Acy has a non-guaranteed salary on the second season of his new two-year deal with the Kings instead of a player option, as had previously been reported, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link).
Undrafted rookie Duje Dukan‘s two-year deal with the Kings is for the minimum salary, Pincus shows on the same page.