Ryan Anderson Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Pelicans Make Eric Gordon Available

July 3rd, 2014 at 9:22am CST by Zachary Links

THURSDAY, 9:22am: The Pelicans deny that they’re quite so active, as fellow Basketball Insiders scribe Steve Kyler reports in his NBA AM piece. The team is having trade talks with other clubs and there’s a leaguewide feeling as though the team is open to moving Gordon and perhaps Austin Rivers, but the Pelicans don’t have much interest in moving Evans, Ryan Anderson, Jrue Holiday and especially Davis, Kyler writes.

TUESDAY, 7:58am: The Pelicans are making most of their roster available in trade talks, including Eric Gordon and Tyreke Evans, tweets Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. It’s not clear exactly who is on the block and who isn’t, but I would surmise that the untouchables list includes 2012’s No. 1 overall pick Anthony Davis. From the sound of it, there may not be many more that are safe.

Both guards have value from a talent perspective but their contracts could hinder the returns for New Orleans. Evans signed a four-year, $44MM pact with the Pelicans (via a sign-and-trade) roughly one year ago to this date. Gordon, meanwhile, is in the midst of a max deal with two years to go.

Pistons, Pelicans Talk Monroe, Anderson Swap

July 1st, 2014 at 12:21pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Pistons and Pelicans have discussed a sign-and-trade that would send Greg Monroe to his hometown of New Orleans in exchange for Ryan Anderson, reports Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times (Twitter link). An earlier report indicated that the Pelicans had inquired about the possibility of a sign-and-trade deal involving Monroe, but it wasn’t clear if the Pistons were receptive.

There’s reportedly a “high possibility” the Pistons will swing a sign-and-trade involving Monroe, a restricted free agent, if he receives a max offer sheet from another team, and the Hawks, Magic and Blazers have all shown interest since free agency began overnight. The Lakers are also expected to have interest and the Cavs are apparently mulling a run as well at the fifth-ranked player in the Hoops Rumors Free Agent Power Rankings.

Pistons coach/executive Stan Van Gundy said recently that he’s spent the majority of his time since joining the team this spring on Monroe’s impending free agency and has been in consistent contact with Monroe’s agent, David Falk. Anderson played just 22 games this past season and underwent neck surgery after a frightening on-court injury, but he’s been one the league’s quintessential stretch power forwards in recent seasons and would seemingly be a better fit with the shooting-deficient Pistons than Monroe is. Still, Monroe, 24, is one of the league’s best up-and-coming big men.

Anderson is set to make slightly less than $8.5MM next season, so taking back Monroe by himself would represent an uneven swap for New Orleans. The Pelicans have limited cap flexibility that’s in line to be swallowed up by their acquisition of Omer Asik, and they’ll have to clear more room just to make the Asik deal work. I’d expect other players to be heading the Pistons’ way should an Anderson-Monroe trade happen.

Pelicans Look To Deal Anderson, Rivers?

June 26th, 2014 at 7:13pm CST by Chuck Myron

7:12pm: New Orleans isn’t shopping Anderson to any teams, a source tells John Reid of The Times Picayune (Twitter link).

5:57pm: The Pelicans are shopping Ryan Anderson and Austin Rivers, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). That contradicts an earlier report from Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com as far as Anderson goes. Goodman says the Clippers have asked the Pelicans about Ryan Anderson, but the Pelicans aren’t making him available for trades.

Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group has heard chatter about Anderson as a possible Warriors target (Twitter link), but it appears he’s off limits. There is some sentiment with the Clippers organization to pursue Rivers, but coach and president of basketball operations Doc Rivers has said that he wouldn’t feel comfortable coaching his son, as Goodman writes in his piece.

New Orleans needs to clear salary approximately equal to what Rivers makes to accommodate their agreement to trade for Omer Asik.

Western Rumors: Warriors, Asik, Parker, Kings

June 26th, 2014 at 12:35pm CST by Zachary Links

In an interview with SiriusXM, Warriors star Andre Iguodala said that he doesn’t believe teammate Klay Thompson should be traded as part of a deal for Minnesota’s Kevin Love, writes Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group. “That’s not going to happen,” Iguodala said. “I want to clear that up right now. We should not trade Klay Thompson. I tell Klay this every day. I text Klay and say, ‘Don’t worry. I’m your man. I’m going to make sure you get paid. I’m going to get you the max (contract). You’ll be taken care of. Don’t stress.’” Here’s more out of the West..

More dominoes will fall from the deal that sent Omer Asik to the Pelicans, tweets Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com. New Orleans may move Austin Rivers to create cap space. One possibility, Windhorst suggests, would be trading him to the Clippers, where Austin’s father holds a trade exception.
The Rockets talked about sending Asik to the Pelicans for Ryan Anderson, but could not get much traction, tweets Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle.
The Jazz remain interested in Jabari Parker, but sources say there’s still a “big concern” about his right foot, which he broke in high school, tweets Jody Genessy of the Deseret News. However, Parker is still in the lead over Andrew Wiggins on their wish list if they can pull off a deal for the No. 1 pick (link).
The Kings appear poised to keep the No. 8 pick, sources tell Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter).
Sponsors continue to be skittish about the Clippers as the team’s ownership situation remains unresolved, as Andrea Chang and Tiffany Hsu of the Los Angeles Times detail.
The Timberwolves received initial criticism for last year’s draft-day trade of Trey Burke to Utah for Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng, but one year later, team president Flip Saunders is happy with the returns, writes Andy Greder of the Pioneer Press.

Ryan Anderson Out For Season

March 25th, 2014 at 1:34pm CST by Chuck Myron

MARCH 25TH: Anderson will indeed miss the rest of the season, the Pelicans announced.

JANUARY 14TH: It’s doubtful that Ryan Anderson will return this season after he suffered a herniated disk in his neck on January 3rd, according to John Reid of The Times Picayune. Anderson spoke to reporters last night and said doctors have advised him to rest for about two months before they determine whether he’ll need surgery to repair the disk, as Brett Martel of The Associated Press details.

“Obviously, I want to get back as soon as possible, but this is something that if I got hit again, it could be more than just career ending. I want to be careful about it,” Anderson said. “We’re going to find out pretty soon how it’s healing and depending on if it’s healing (on its own), then we’ll just keep going with that. But if not, we’ll do the surgery.”

Anderson is nonetheless optimistic that he’ll be able return to action at some point, if not this season. The injury occurred when he collided with Gerald Wallace during a game against the Celtics, forcing Anderson to be taken off the court in traction.

It’s a tough blow for the Pelicans and Anderson, who was having his best season, putting up a career-best 19.8 points per game and leading the NBA in free-throw percentage. Anderson’s name had come up in a few trade rumors over the past several months, though New Orleans was in no hurry to move him, as I noted when I examined his trade candidacy. His injury makes it highly unlikely he’s dealt this season. The 25-year-old is under contract through the 2015/16 season.

Pelicans Receive Disabled Player Exception

February 19th, 2014 at 3:40pm CST by Chuck Myron

WEDNESDAY, 3:40pm: The Pelicans have officially received the exception, according to Stein and Ken Berger of CBSSports.com, who notes that it will expire March 10th (Twitter links).

TUESDAY, 12:54pm: The league is about to grant the Pelicans a disabled player exception for Ryan Anderson, who’s likely out for the season, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). It would be worth $4,154,250, or half of Anderson’s $8,308,500 salary. New Orleans could use it to sign no more than one player to a contract for the rest of the season, or trade for a single player on an expiring contract who makes up to the full amount of the exception, plus $100K.

It’s not clear whether the Pelicans will receive the exception in time for Thursday’s trade deadline, when it would be of greatest use. The Nets, Hawks and Bucks are other teams armed with DPEs. Brooklyn and Atlanta have exceptions worth $5.15MM for Brook Lopez and Al Horford, respectively, while Milwaukee’s is $1.63MM in compensation for the loss of Carlos Delfino.

The Pelicans appear to be one of the most active teams as the deadline approaches, with Eric Gordon, Anthony Morrow, Austin Rivers and Pierre Jackson all on the block. GM Dell Demps and company are reportedly seeking a big man who could offset the loss of Anderson and Jason Smith.

Western Notes: Pelicans, Harris, Franklin

January 7th, 2014 at 2:44pm CST by Luke Adams

Ryan Anderson will be out indefinitely with a herniated disk, the Pelicans announced today (link via Jim Eichenhofer of Pelicans.com). Anderson has been mentioned in a few trade rumors, but didn’t seem likely to be moved this season. Still, if he’s expected to miss a significant amount of time, it could have an impact on New Orleans’ roster decisions before the trade deadline. The team is currently carrying 14 players, leaving one opening available.

Here’s more from the NBA’s better half:

After indicating last night that the Thunder were researching D-League standout Manny Harris, Sam Amick of USA Today follows up by tweeting that Harris had an interview with members of OKC’s front office this week, as the team does its due diligence.
The Grizzlies have recalled Jamaal Franklin from the D-League, the team announced today in a press release. Franklin was assigned to the Fort Wayne Mad Ants on Sunday, and played with the team yesterday in Reno as part of the 2014 D-League Showcase.
Dewayne Dedmon was released by the Warriors earlier this season, but Golden State still has interest in bringing him back, tweets Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports, adding that Dedmon is meeting with three NBA clubs in Reno today.

Trade Candidate: Ryan Anderson

December 20th, 2013 at 8:28pm CST by Chuck Myron

Ryan Anderson has played some of the best basketball of his career this season. Injuries to Anthony Davis and others have left the Pelicans short on big men at times, so Anderson is seeing 36.1 minutes per contest, much more than he ever has. Anderson is averaging a career-high 21.4 points per game after returning from a chip fracture in a toe on his right foot that cost him the first two weeks of the season. Still, his name has been coming up in Omer Asik trade rumors since the summer, and the latest dispatch links him to the Grizzlies in a proposed swap for Zach Randolph.

The Pelicans don’t appear willing to go along with either deal, indicating that rival teams have much more interest in trading for Anderson than New Orleans has in letting him go. GM Dell Demps committed a four-year, $34MM contract to the 6’10” power forward as part of a sign-and-trade in the summer of 2012, just days after the Pelicans drafted Davis. There has been plenty of skepticism since then about the ability of Anderson and Davis to coexist on the floor, since they both seem to fit best at the four spot.

The pairing shared the floor for just 11.4 minutes per game in contests for which they were both active last season, per NBA.com, and opponents outscored the Pelicans by 10.3 points per 100 possessions with Anderson and Davis both in the game. That stat has pulled a 180-degree turn this season. Not counting the Unibrow’s comeback appearance on Tuesday after breaking his hand a few weeks ago, New Orleans has outscored other teams by that same margin of 10.3 points per 100 possessions with the two in the lineup. Anderson has only shared the floor with Davis for a total of 136 minutes over eight games this year thanks to their injuries, but that works out to an average of 17.0 MPG together, a higher rate than last year.

The 6’10” Anderson is a much different player than Davis is, perhaps suggesting their games can complement each other. Anderson led the league in three-pointers made and attempted in 2011/12, when he won the Most Improved Player of the Year award with the Magic. Davis has attempted just six three-pointers in his career, missing all of them. Almost half of Davis’s shot attempts last season came within three feet of the rim, according to Basketball-Reference.com. The Pelicans have been a significantly better defensive team when Anderson has been on the bench the past two seasons, as NBA.com shows, and Davis, drafted as a defensive whiz, is ostensibly around to make up for that.

Coach Monty Williams clearly has some reservations about playing Anderson and Davis together, since it’s not a combination he uses too often. Still, considering the commitment the team has made to both and its reluctance to trade Anderson, it appears as though the plan is for them to share the floor a lot more often. Until the team sees how they mesh in significant minutes together, I’d be surprised if New Orleans traded Anderson. It nonetheless appears there are other clubs that might be high enough on the sharpshooting power forward to make an overwhelming offer to Demps, judging by Anderson’s continued appearance in rumors.

The Pelicans are by no means a finished product, and they have holes at center, unless Williams slots Davis into that position, and small forward. Presuming that Davis returns to the starting lineup at power forward once he’s 100%, that would leave the team with about $20MM tied up in Anderson and Tyreke Evans, both of whom would be reserves. That sort of roster imbalance is difficult to overcome.

Sixers small forward Evan Turner and center Spencer Hawes have been in trade rumors of late, so perhaps there’s a Philadelphia option for the Pelicans. Turner and Hawes are both in contract years, and it might be difficult for Demps to relinquish an asset under team control through 2015/16, as Anderson is, for a pair of soon-to-be free agents. Still, the Pelicans would have the right to match offers for Turner, and they’d have full Bird rights on both players. Hawes, a 43.6% three-point shooter this season, could replace some of Anderson’s floor spacing. The Nuggets, once Danilo Gallinari and JaVale McGee return from injury, might make sense as a trade partner, too, given their glut of frontcourt players and the possibly expendable Wilson Chandler. Still, such ideas are just my speculation.

The Pelicans are certainly in no hurry to rid themselves a player who’s continually improving, so It will probably take an offer that clearly benefits New Orleans to entice Demps to make a deal. Still, the Pelicans are just 11-13 after beginning the season with aspirations of a playoff spot. If the return of Davis can’t spark a turnaround by the February 20th trade deadline, Demps could have the motivation necessary for him to fix a flawed roster. There’s no guarantee that Anderson would be the centerpiece of any significant discussions the Pelicans might have with other teams, but it seems there would be plenty of executives around the league willing to listen if that were the case.

Southwest Notes: Pelicans, Grizz, Rockets

December 17th, 2013 at 7:18pm CST by Alex Lee

Three of the ten NBA teams in action tonight are in the league’s Southwest division, which also seems to be having a busy night in the rumors department. Let’s take a look at the latest coming out of the division:

He’s been mentioned frequently in trade rumors and speculation, but Ryan Anderson isn’t going anywhere, says John Reid of the New Orleans Times-Picayune. According to Reid, the Pelicans aren’t discussing Anderson in any trade scenarios, and the NBA’s three-point leader (3.5 per game) remains “critical” to the club’s plans.
Speaking of the Pelicans, ESPN’s Marc Stein chimes in on the news that Alexis Ajinca is returning stateside to sign with New Orleans, tweeting that he has continuously been told that the improved Frenchman is not the same disappointing player that we last saw in the NBA.
In an Insider-only piece, Tom Haberstroh of ESPN.com questions whether or not the Grizzlies – ravaged by injuries and part of a ridiculously deep Western Conference – should throw in the towel on this season. Haberstroh says that Memphis is statistically more likely to win the No. 1 selection in June’s draft than they are to make the playoffs, and that “tanking” would undoubtedly include trading grit-and-grind staple Zach Randolph.
At the end of his Waiters story, Jared Zwerling of Bleacher Report also confirms that the Rockets could trade Omer Asik by Thursday, citing a source familiar with the situation and reiterating potential destinations that we’ve heard about in recent weeks. In addition to the Asik stuff, Zwerling spoke to a source close to Jeremy Lin who said the recent buzz that the point guard could be traded is just rumors for now and that nothing is “imminent.”

Amick’s Latest: Randolph, Anderson, Asik

December 13th, 2013 at 5:41pm CST by Chuck Myron

We already passed along news about Kyle Lowry from Sam Amick’s latest NBA A to Z post, but the USA Today scribe included plenty more from around the league amid a busy week of trade talks. We’ll hit the highlights here:

Amick hears strong denials from sources close to the Grizzlies and Pelicans about a rumored swap of Zach Randolph for Ryan Anderson. Neither team has discussed the deal, according to Amick. The chatter nonetheless irked Randolph, as he tells Fran Blinebury of NBA.com. “But yeah, it bothers me,” Randolph said in part. “It hurts a little bit. I can’t deny that. But it goes to show you that there ain’t no loyalty in this game. It seems like you only get loyalty in certain organizations. You see it in winning organizations like the Spurs, the Lakers, the Heat.”
The Pelicans and Bucks are no longer a part of trade discussions for Omer Asik, according to Amick. That’s no surprise for New Orleans, which has been reluctant to acquiesce to the Rockets‘ demands for Anderson, and Milwaukee always seemed to be on the fringe of the Asik picture.
The Clippers filled their final roster spot when they signed Stephen Jackson this week, but Lamar Odom remains in the team’s plans, Amick says. Odom appears to be a few weeks shy of being ready to play, and the team’s injuries prompted the Clippers to act swiftly.
Seth Curry went through his scheduled workout with the Grizzlies, and he shot well, but Memphis isn’t expected to add him or the other three guards they were set to audition earlier this week, Amick writes. The Grizzlies have indeed changed their priorities in light of Quincy Pondexter‘s season-ending injury, as Ronald Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported Thursday.