Rudy Gay Rumors | Hoops Rumors

And-Ones: Sixers, Gay, D-League

January 18th, 2016 at 3:34pm CST by Will Joseph

The Sixers will listen to offers, but it doesn’t seem like the Philadelphia will be making any deals before the trade deadline, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. This would present a change under GM Sam Hinkie because the Sixers have made trades around this time in each of the last two seasons, Pompey adds. It is worth mentioning that since the Sixers hired longtime NBA executive Jerry Colangelo to serve in their front office, there seems to be a different direction with the franchise more willing to acquire veteran talent.

“We will continue to look for opportunities if there are things that we can do to add players for now and the future,” Hinkie said. “We will look, but I’m not sure it will happen.”

Here’s more from around the basketball world:

The Grizzlies can improve their current roster and make a vital move for the future by acquiring Rudy Gay in a trade with Kings, Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal suggests in a Q&A piece. It was recently reported that the Pelicans are interest in acquiring Gay. Memphis, however, would benefit from adding Gay because he would bring scoring, versatility and tough defense, Tillery writes. The Grizzlies traded Gay in 2013.
Speaking of Gay, he’s an intriguing possibility for the Pelicans, but his contract would do harm to the team’s cap space and his 3-point shooting and defense have both been inconsistent, Justin Verrier of ESPN.com writes. Gay is owed $13.3MM next season, as Verrier points out. It remains to be seen whether the Pelicans will be collecting assets for an offseason reboot or making a postseason push, Verrier surmises.
The Celtics recalled Jordan Mickey from the Maine Red Claws, their D-League affiliate, the team announced in an emailed press release. Mickey’s recall is for ankle treatment, though, and he won’t be joining the Celtics on their current trip, Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald tweets.

Western Notes: Gay, Price, Brown, Williams

January 15th, 2016 at 10:03pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Kings and Pelicans are continuing trade talks focused on Rudy Gay, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. The latest report is that Sacramento is refusing to accept New Orleans’ offer of Eric Gordon and Alonzo Gee. The Pelicans reportedly turned down an offer of Gay for Ryan Anderson earlier this week. In November, Gay signed a three-year, $40MM extension with the Kings, with a player option on the final season in 2017/18. Gordon is making more than $15.5MM in the final year of his contract, while Gee inked a two-year, $2.75MM free agent deal with the Pelicans in July.

There’s more tonight from the Western Conference:

The Suns‘ Ronnie Price won’t be able to resume basketball activities for at least three weeks after having surgery on his right big toe, tweets Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic. Surgeons had to remove “loose bodies” from the toe. The veteran guard has appeared in 34 games this season.
The 10-day contracts signed by the Suns‘ Lorenzo Brown and the Grizzlies‘ Elliot Williams will both expire on Sunday, tweets former Nets executive Bobby Marks. He notes that both teams will have the option of offering a second 10-day contract.
The Rockets have recalled K.J. McDaniels from their Rio Grande Valley affiliate in the D-League, the team tweeted today. McDaniels has appeared in just 11 games with Houston after signing a three-year, $10MM deal in the offseason.

Pacific Notes: Gay, World Peace, Kelly, Acy

January 15th, 2016 at 11:00am CST by Chuck Myron

It’s not accurate to say the Kings have Rudy Gay on the block, and Sacramento isn’t actively shopping him, sources tell James Ham of CSN California and CSNBayArea.com, adding that it’s unclear whether the team’s reported offer to the Pelicans of Gay for Ryan Anderson took place. Gay has strong relationship with DeMarcus Cousins and Rajon Rondo, Ham notes, adding that Gay recruited Rondo, a longtime friend, when the point guard was a free agent this past summer. Gay has also been linked to the Bulls and the Clippers in the past, according to Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee, and much has changed since the Kings made him virtually untouchable in trade talk a year ago, Jones adds. He’s struggled to fit into coach George Karl‘s system on the court, Jones writes, noting that the team has had concerns about its depth at two guard all season and speculating that Rondo’s presence might make Gay expendable. See more on the Kings and the rest of the Pacific Division:

Metta World Peace would like to play in the NBA for another two seasons, though it appears he’ll be OK with whatever the outcome is following the end of his Lakers contract this summer, observes Janis Carr of the Orange County Register. The 36-year-old is meanwhile dispelling his volatile reputation, serving as a mentor for younger Lakers, as Carr details. “I didn’t think he would be that nice of a guy,” rookie D’Angelo Russell said. “But he’s one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met.”
Ryan Kelly is seeing less playing time this season than in his first two years with the Lakers, but he’s confident that he’s a much better player than he was when he arrived in the NBA, Carr notes in a separate piece. He’s on an expiring contract and is set for restricted free agency at season’s end.
The Kings netted Gay, Quincy Acy and Aaron Gray in the same trade with the Raptors a little more than two years ago, and all three are still paying dividends, with Gay and Acy on the roster, and Gray, an assistant for the Pistons D-League team, still a confidant of Acy’s, as The Bee’s Matt Kawahara details.

Scotto’s Latest: Anderson, Gay, Morris, Motiejunas

January 14th, 2016 at 12:21pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Pelicans rejected a trade proposal from the Kings of Ryan Anderson for Rudy Gay, league sources told Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops, a signal that Sacramento is making Gay available. New Orleans has reportedly been listening to offers about Anderson but not shopping him, and coach Alvin Gentry has said it’s unlikely the Pelicans trade him this season. A straight-up exchange of Anderson for Gay trade would move the Pelicans to within $1MM of the luxury tax threshold, so it’s not surprising New Orleans said no. Scotto heard more about Anderson and several other trade candidates, as we’ll summarize here:

The Pistons are expected to pursue Anderson in free agency, league sources told Scotto. Stan Van Gundy said in October that Anderson, incumbent Pistons power forward Ersan Ilyasova and Kevin Love are in a class by themselves among those who combine effective rebounding and 3-point shooting.
The Suns, who reportedly engaged in talks with the Pelicans about a swap of Markieff Morris for Anderson, now prefer young players or draft picks in exchange for Morris, Scotto’s league sources say.
The Clippers are making Josh Smith available for a trade, according to Scotto, essentially a reprise of earlier this season, when Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports reported the Clips had gauged interest in him. Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers denied that earlier report, however.
The Rockets have taken Donatas Motiejunas off the trade market, but Terrence Jones remains available, Scotto reports. Houston earlier had talks with Phoenix about a swap of Jones and Corey Brewer for Morris, as Scotto revealed, and those discussions were serious, Marc Stein of ESPN.com later added. Brewer becomes eligible to be traded Friday.
Scotto adds the Mavericks to list of teams with interest in trading for Timberwolves shooting guard Kevin Martin.

Atlantic Notes: Colangelo, Okafor, Lee, Ross

December 10th, 2015 at 10:01am CST by Chuck Myron

The Sixers decided to hire Jerry Colangelo because they felt GM Sam Hinkie mishandled negative publicity surrounding Joel Embiid and Jahlil Okafor in recent months, Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher says in a video. Owners with minority stakes in the Sixers pressured primary owner Josh Harris to make the move, Bucher adds. It’s inaccurate to say that the hiring came about in part because of pressure from owners who complained to the league about the Sixers’ rebuilding and its negative financial ripple effects, league sources told Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who writes at the bottom of a larger piece. Still, commissioner Adam Silver was indeed involved in the move, Pompey adds. See more from the Atlantic Division:

The NBA continues to investigate the recent incidents involving Okafor and it hasn’t decided whether it will mete out punishment on top of the two-game suspension the Sixers issued last week, league officials told TMZ Sports. Colangelo has a strong relationship with agent Bill Duffy, who represents Okafor, as Bucher points out in his video. “Based on what we currently know, we support the 76ers’ approach in this matter,” an NBA spokesperson said to TMZ Sports. “The league office is continuing to investigate the events of that night.”
David Lee doesn’t regret the trade that brought him to the Celtics and ended his time with the Warriors, even as Golden State has embarked on a 23-0 start, as Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group relays. Lee’s representatives reportedly cooperated with the Warriors as they sought a new home for him this summer. “This is a business, and because of the salary cap and things like that, it was time for me to move on, and that’s what I did,” Lee said. “It couldn’t have ended any better.”
Terrence Ross is much the same player he was a few weeks after the Rudy Gay trade two years ago, and that’s perhaps the glaring issue for the swingman who signed a three-year, $31MM extension with the Raptors last month, writes Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca. His game grew more in the immediate wake of the trade than it has since, and inconsistency has plagued him, Lewenberg asserts.

Latest On Kings, George Karl, DeMarcus Cousins

November 12th, 2015 at 10:55am CST by Chuck Myron

10:55am: Cousins and Divac have become close, notes SB Nation’s Tom Ziller amid his column on the Kings saga.

10:15am: George Karl will remain the coach of the Kings through this season, vice president of basketball operations Vlade Divac said in response to a question from Lisa Gonzales of KCRA-TV in Sacramento, in spite of reports from Wednesday indicating that his job is in immediate danger (Twitter link). A league source who spoke with Ken Berger of CBSSports.com disputes the idea that Divac asked Kings players if the team should fire Karl, as was reportedly the case.

Still, it’s much more likely that the Kings will fire Karl than trade Cousins, sources close to Kings ownership tell Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders. The possibility exists that the Kings will part ways with both Karl and DeMarcus Cousins, Berger also hears. Karl’s contract has about $10MM left on it, and it’s fully guaranteed through 2016/17 with a $1.5MM partial guarantee for 2017/18. Cousins has a fully guaranteed total of nearly $51MM left on his deal, which runs through 2017/18.

Cousins has made it clear to Kings brass that he doesn’t want the team to fire Karl, sources tell Chris Mannix of SI.com. However, the Karl-Cousins partnership was “doomed from the start,” a league source told Berger, and a person familiar with the team said to Berger that Karl has irritated the front office and players alike. Karl wanted to suspend Cousins last season for negative body language during timeouts, two sources told Mannix. Still, sources on both sides of the relationship between Karl and Cousins who spoke with Mannix believe that the relationship can be saved. Cousins had expectations of winning this season, and it was his frustration with losing that was the primary impetus for Cousins’ verbal excoriation of Karl after Monday’s loss, but Cousins believes that another coaching change won’t help the team in the standings, as Mannix details.

Several Kings players, including Ben McLemore and Rudy Gay, have expressed frustration about Karl, but the team’s meeting on Tuesday wasn’t out of the ordinary, sources tell Brian Windhorst and Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Cousins, who publicly apologized for reportedly yelling profanities at Karl after Monday’s loss, cited an air of positivity after the meeting, according to Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee. Divac tried to calm Cousins during his tirade but said later that he’s OK with the star center’s outburst and that he doesn’t think Cousins was only pointing his criticism at Karl, as Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports details. Coaches and team officials met with the players after the players held a meeting of their own Tuesday, Spears also notes.

“I’m not sure a panic button was pushed as you all magnified it,” Karl said, as the ESPN report relays. “Team meetings and six-game losing streaks happen. The newness to our team? I don’t know. But I thought the last two days have been good for us.”

Karl admits he delegates more of his duties than before he endured a recurrence of cancer during his time with the Nuggets, but he disputes the idea that his energy is diminished, as Jones relays via Facebook. Kings management has reportedly been concerned with Karl’s stamina. Owner Vivek Ranadive is reportedly more interested than ever in Kentucky coach John Calipari, who remains intrigued with the idea of returning to the NBA, despite his denials, Mannix adds. “Rumblings” indicate that Kings minority owners, reportedly frustrated with Ranadive’s failure to consult with them on moves, “desperately” want to wrest control of the team from Ranadive, though they have little power to make that happen, Mannix writes.

How long do you think Karl will remain coach of the Kings? Leave a comment to tell us.

Karl Wants Kings To Trade DeMarcus Cousins

June 25th, 2015 at 3:12pm CST by Chuck Myron

THURSDAY, 3:12pm: The Kings’ internal dismay with Karl is coming far more from top exec Vlade Divac than Ranadive, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (on Twitter). Meanwhile, all signs currently point to them holding on to the No. 6 pick (link).

1:06pm: Kings owner Vivek Ranadive is frustrated with the Cousins/Karl rift because when he was hired, the coach said he would not be involved in personnel, sources tell Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee (on Twitter).

TUESDAY, 2:34pm: Divac, sounding irritated, repeated again that he won’t trade Cousins and denied that Karl is making any push for such a deal, as Divac said to Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee (Twitter link).

7:30am: George Karl has an intense desire for the Kings to trade DeMarcus Cousins, and he and some members of the team’s front office have expressed to executives and coaches from other teams that they hope to have owner Vivek Ranadive’s blessing to trade the All-Star soon, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Ranadive and vice president of basketball and franchise operations Vlade Divac have nonetheless been adamant about not trading Cousins, and Karl has been trying to recruit Divac and other Kings players to make a push to convince Ranadive to change his mind, according to Wojnarowski.

Cousins is aware of Karl’s push to trade him, and people around the Kings and Cousins increasingly believe that the relationship between the coach and the team’s star is beyond repair. Cousins tweeted emojis depicting a snake in the grass after Wojnarowski’s story emerged late Monday night.

Karl’s insistence that he can’t get along with Cousins has irritated Ranadive, Wojnarowski writes. Ranadive reiterated his long-held stance that he won’t trade Cousins in an interview Monday with USA Today’s Sam Amick.

“We have zero interest in moving Cousins, so I don’t know where that’s coming from,” Ranadive said in reference to the rumor that the Lakers are pursuing Cousins. “But if you like, you should talk to Vlade, because I know Vlade feels exactly the same way. And I’m deferring to Vlade on everything. We have no interest in moving him. From my perspective, it’s really simple: we feel that he’s a one-of-a-kind player, and we have a group of players right now and we’re going to build on it.”

Kings higher-ups believe it’ll be tough to find value for Cousins and believe they have a better chance to find the right trade for Rudy Gay, according to Wojnarowski. Sacramento is pursuing trades for Gay and the rest of its roster, Wojnarowski hears. The Lakers are reportedly pushing for Cousins and have had exploratory talks with the Kings, but Sacramento would rather take back veterans than the No. 2 overall pick, the Yahoo! scribe writes.

Cousins has privately feared that Karl wanted him out, and Karl’s remark in April that he’s never had one player who would be untradeable didn’t exactly assuage those concerns, tweets Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee. Cousins, who is a Relativity Sports client, and his representatives have been told he won’t be traded, and Cousins likes Sacramento, Jones also tweets. Amick hears a somewhat different story, that Cousins’s camp is clearly in favor of the center becoming a Laker. Cousins has asked not to be traded, according to Jones, so it would seem there are conflicting messages surrounding the talented 24-year-old big man.

Latest On Ty Lawson, Nuggets, Kings

June 23rd, 2015 at 2:22pm CST by Chuck Myron

2:22pm: Karl is “enamored” with the notion of trading for Lawson, Kenneth Faried and Wilson Chandler, Berger writes in another piece, presumably in a deal that sends out Cousins. The Nuggets are open to trading Lawson and Chandler, but the Poison Pill Provision attached to Faried’s recently extended contract would make the salary-matching cumbersome for any deal involving him before July, Berger adds.

TUESDAY, 10:45am: Karl would consider trading Rudy Gay for Lawson, a source told Chris Broussard of ESPN in a story that centers on Kings owner Vivek Ranadive’s unwillingness to allow any DeMarcus Cousins trades. That would seemingly throw Karl’s ability to engineer a Gay-Lawson trade through Kings front office chief Vlade Divac into question, though that’s just my speculation.

MONDAY, 5:24pm: The Nuggets and Kings have discussed a deal involving Ty Lawson, but the sides have found little traction, league sources tell Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. Chad Ford of ESPN.com suggested as much in a recent chat. Sacramento has been pursuing Lawson from Denver with the sixth pick at the heart of would-be deals, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders wrote in his NBA AM piece earlier today. Kyler nonetheless hears that Denver’s demands for Lawson are too high for the Kings and that Sacramento isn’t on board with giving up the No. 6 choice and future draft picks for Lawson.

Still, the Kings continue to make Nik Stauskas available, Berger reports, while the Nuggets are involved in a potential trade scenario that would send their No. 7 pick to the Knicks, an executive from another team told Berger. The Nuggets would also give up the right to swap first-rounders with the Knicks next year, one that they gained via the Carmelo Anthony trade, in such a deal, Berger adds.

Kings coach George Karl would reportedly love for the team to acquire Lawson, whom he coached with the Nuggets. Still, Denver was asking for multiple first-round picks for him at the deadline, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe reported.

Stauskas, whom Sacramento took eighth overall last year, became available as early as this past January, as Berger reported then. Knicks president Phil Jackson has expressed a willingness to trade back from the No. 4 pick, and speculation has resulted in numerous such scenarios.

And-Ones: Kings, Allen, Lopez, Wolves

February 11th, 2015 at 10:33am CST by Chuck Myron

DeMarcus Cousins and Tyrone Corbin both called the latest round of Kings coaching upheaval a “distraction,” as Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee relays (Twitter link). Cousins released a statement through his agency saying that he hadn’t been consulted when the team fired Michael Malone and isn’t being consulted now, expressing hope for a quick resolution and support for George Karl should the team choose to hire him. Still, Cousins decried the public chatter of a coaching move while Corbin remains in place. Rudy Gay, who’s hinted at dissatisfaction with Corbin in the past, instead expressed admiration Tuesday for the job Corbin’s done under trying circumstances, as Jones also notes in his story.

While we wait to see how it all plays out in Sacramento, here’s more from around the league:

A Nets source tells Windrem that no deal with the Hornets involving Lopez, Stephenson and Zeller was ever that close (Twitter link).

Earlier updates:

There’s no guarantee that Ray Allen makes his decision on whether or not he’ll return to the NBA this season within 10 days of All-Star Weekend, as Jim Tanner, Allen’s agent, tells Chris Broussard of ESPN (Twitter link). It was rumored that the 39-year-old sharpshooter was going to make a choice regarding his future shortly after the All-Star break.
The Hornets offered Lance Stephenson and Cody Zeller to the Nets last month and were ready to call the league office to finalize the trade, reports Robert Windrem of NetsDaily (All Twitter links). The sides were quite close to agreement, Windrem adds, and so close that people at the D-League Showcase, which was taking place at the time, thought it was a fait accompli, Grantland’s Zach Lowe tweets. It was the closest Brooklyn has come to trading Lopez, Joe Johnson or Deron Williams this year, according to the NetsDaily scribe.
The Wolves sent the Hornets $344,462 in cash Tuesday in the Mo Williams trade, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders shows on his Wolves salary page (Twitter link). Minnesota created two trade exceptions in that deal, one worth Troy Daniels‘ $816,482 salary and another worth the $500K difference between the salaries for Williams and Gary Neal, Pincus tweets.
That means the Wolves had to take Adreian Payne into one of their existing trade exceptions to make their trade with the Hawks work, and that’s just what Minnesota did. The Wolves absorbed Payne’s $1,855,320 salary into their $4,702,500 Corey Brewer exception, leaving the $6,308,193 Kevin Love exception untouched and reducing the Brewer exception to $2,847,180, as Pincus shows on the Basketball Insiders Wolves salary page.
The Hawks would wind up with Minnesota’s second-round picks for both 2020 and 2021 if the lottery-protected 2017 first-rounder the Wolves gave up in the Payne trade doesn’t convey to Atlanta by 2019 at the latest, Pincus also reports on that page.

Charlie Adams contributed to this post.

Kings Rumors: Cousins, Jackson, Karl, Gay

February 10th, 2015 at 3:07pm CST by Chuck Myron

DeMarcus Cousins made it clear that he didn’t want the Kings to fire former coach Michael Malone, but owner Vivek Ranadive told him that he had to do so because Malone clashed with GM Pete D’Alessandro and had missed a meeting, sources tell Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher. Cousins asked the team at that point to hire Mark Jackson, but as the Kings instead decided to stick with Tyrone Corbin, team officials promised they would consult him in the future, Bucher also hears. The team now is reportedly close to a deal with Karl, and plenty seems up in the air. Here’s the latest from California’s capital city:

Some close to Cousins weren’t sure if Karl’s personality and the intensity of Cousins would be a match, as Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee writes. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports wrote Monday that Cousins’ agents. Dan Fegan and Jarinn Akana, have given their approval of Karl and were merely wary of the team’s swift coaching changes.
Cousins wasn’t alone among Kings disenchanted with the way the team ousted Malone, Jones adds in the same piece. Rudy Gay recently said he felt “lost” on the court, according to Jones. Gay signed his extension with the Kings in large measure because, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports originally wrote, he wanted to play for former coach Michael Malone,
Ranadive asked D’Alessandro to meet with Karl last week, Jones also writes in his piece. It seemed Monday, before the owner gave the GM the go-ahead to hire Karl if he wished, that Ranadive was hesitating while D’Alessandro pushed for a deal, though perhaps that wasn’t the case.
The Kings are expected to hire Vance Walberg as an assistant coach should the team complete a deal with Karl, as Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group hears (Twitter link). Walberg, currently a Sixers assistant who previously worked under Karl on the Nuggets, has made his mark on offense, Haynes notes.