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Rockets Waive Ty Lawson In Buyout Deal

March 1st, 2016 at 9:22pm CST by Chuck Myron

9:22pm: Lawson has officially been waived, the team announced.

7:21am: The Rockets and Ty Lawson have a deal on a buyout, reports international journalist David Pick (Twitter link). The point guard will still be eligible to take part in the playoffs for another team if he formally hits waivers today.

The prospect of a buyout seemed unlikely this weekend, even as the sides were reportedly exploring the idea, with Lawson apparently having indicated a desire to stay in Houston until season’s end. Instead, it looks like he’s headed elsewhere and is giving up a portion of his more than $12.404MM salary to do so. It’s a sharp turn of events from the summer, when the Happy Walters client forfeited the guarantee on next season’s salary to facilitate the trade that sent him from the Nuggets to the Rockets, but little has gone right for Houston this season, and Lawson is averaging a career-low 5.8 points per game in a reserve role. His assists per game have gone from 9.6 last year to 3.4 this year.

It’s unclear just how much Lawson is giving up for the chance to join another team, but the buyout will push the Rockets farther away from their $88.74MM hard cap. They’re only about $524K shy of it for now, keeping them from spending all of the nearly $900K in exception money they still have. It’ll also give the team a second opening on the roster. Houston, already with one vacancy in the wake of Marcus Thornton‘s release, reportedly has some level of interest in Chris Copeland, though a reunion with buyout candidate Kevin Martin is unlikely.

The Jazz appeared to have interest in Lawson amid the trade talks they reportedly engaged in with the Rockets before the deadline, and the Knicks apparently spoke with the Rockets about trading for Lawson, too. The market for Lawson appeared slow early this season, but his appeal figures to be greater now that he’ll be available much more cheaply.

Reports throughout the day provided sometimes conflicting information about whether Lawson and the Rockets had reached a buyout. League sources told Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports a few hours after Pick’s report that the sides were still talking about a buyout but hadn’t struck an agreement yet (Twitter link). Walters confirmed this to Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston (on Twitter). Wojnarowski later tweeted that the sides were getting closer but a hurdle remained. Sources told both Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle and Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com minutes later that the sides had struck a buyout agreement (Twitter links). Wojnarowski clarified that a framework of the buyout was in place and that the deal would become final today once the documentation was finished (Twitter links).

Western Notes: Green, Miller, Dekker

March 1st, 2016 at 7:31pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Warriors combo forward Draymond Green issued a public apology for his halftime outburst on Saturday when things between he and coach Steve Kerr became heated, Monte Poole of CSNBayArea.com relays. “I made a mistake,” Green said. “I admitted my mistakes to my teammates and my coaching staff. I apologized to my teammates, my coaching staff [and] this organization. That wasn’t the right way to handle what needed to be handled. As a leader of this team, I can’t do that. Because it sets a bad precedent for how everything is run around here, how everything should be run, how everything has been ran and how everything will be ran going forward. It won’t happen again. It’s something where my emotions kind of got ahead of me and I let my emotions get the best of me. However, I will never quit on my teammates, as some have reported. I will never quit on my coaching staff. I will never quit on this organization.”

Here’s more from out West:

The Rockets, who reportedly reached a buyout arrangement today with point guard Ty Lawson, will likely use the available roster slot and cap space created to sign another guard, Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports relays.
Andre Miller‘s buyout deal with the Timberwolves saw the team shave $256,333 off what had been an $947,276 obligation to the 39-year-old point guard, leaving Minnesota with a cap hit of just $690,943, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). He’ll see $396,844 on his new minimum salary contract with the Spurs that covers the rest of the season, Pincus also shows. It represents a $250,750 cap hit to San Antonio.
The Rockets have assigned combo forward Sam Dekker to their D-League affiliate, the team announced. This will be Dekker’s third jaunt to Rio Grande Valley on the season.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Rockets, Ty Lawson Explore Buyout

February 27th, 2016 at 11:20am CST by Chuck Myron

SATURDAY, 11:20am: Lawson has indicated that his preference is to finish the season in Houston, which makes a buyout arrangement unlikely at this point, Feigen tweets.

12:59pm: The Rockets want to keep Lawson and fellow buyout candidate Marcus Thornton, but they’ll do what’s necessary to upgrade the roster, tweets Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com.

FRIDAY, 12:32pm: Agent Happy Walters, who represents Lawson, confirmed to Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston that the sides have indeed talked about a buyout. “Yes, we have discussed a few things and we are exploring, but definitely not for sure,” Walters said. The agent made similar comments to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle, telling him that a discussion about a mutually beneficial arrangement has taken place (Twitter link).

11:45am: The Rockets and Ty Lawson are exploring the idea of a buyout, league sources told Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports. Wojnarowski doesn’t specifically say whether the sides have begun talks, but presumably that’s the case. Lawson has a salary of more than $12.404MM this season, the final guaranteed year on his contract. He’d give up some of that to reach free agency, and Houston could use the savings to pursue other players coming free on the buyout market, since the Rockets currently have only $524K to spend beneath their hard cap, as Wojnarowski points out. The sides realistically have until the end of Tuesday to reach a deal, since that’s the last day players can hit waivers and still play for other teams in the postseason.

Houston can’t spend beyond that hard cap, which it triggered when it signed Montrezl Harrell to a deal that, combined with the team’s pact with K.J. McDaniels, meant the team had used more than the $3.376MM taxpayer’s limit on the mid-level exception. The Rockets are reportedly among the teams with interest in Joe Johnson, but some other suitors have significantly more to spend. A Lawson buyout would help the Rockets to a degree, though the most they could spend on any one free agent if they were to free up more room beneath the hard cap would be $914,430, since that’s all they have left on their mid-level. That number, which would decline with each passing day, would pale in comparison to the $2MM or so that other contenders for Johnson could give him.

The Rockets and Jazz reportedly engaged in talks before the deadline about a would-be swap involving Lawson and Trey Burke. Wojnarowski referred to the discussion as merely casual, though Marc Stein of ESPN.com heard the teams were serious about the idea. Wojnarowski wrote then that it seemed doubtful at the time that the Rockets would end up waiving Lawson, but Stein heard the Rockets would give strong consideration to cutting him, and the ESPN scribe today portrays the buyout talks as an inevitable consequence of the failed trade discussion (Twitter link). The Knicks were also among the teams that apparently spoke with the Rockets about trading for Lawson.

Eastern Notes: Morris, Teague, Middleton, ‘Melo

February 22nd, 2016 at 12:31pm CST by Chuck Myron

Ex-Suns coach Jeff Hornacek gave one of the most positive reviews about Markieff Morris that the Wizards encountered when they asked around the league about Markieff Morris prior to last week’s trade, sources told TNT’s David Aldridge, who writes in his Morning Tip for NBA.com. Wizards coach Randy Wittman said he only heard “rave reviews,” while Marcin Gortat and Jared Dudley, former teammates of Morris who are now on the Wizards, told the front office that Morris wouldn’t be a problem, as Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post details. See more from the Eastern Conference as the ramifications of the trade deadline continue:

The Bucks reportedly had at least passing interest in Jeff Teague, but they weren’t willing to part with Khris Middleton to get a deal done, league sources told Aldridge for the same piece. Milwaukee reportedly held tight to Middleton in talks about Ricky Rubio, too. The Hawks were trying to score both a starter and a first-round pick in would-be trades involving Teague, sources told USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt last week (Twitter link).
Meanwhile, the Pelicans were the team that clung to one of their players in their talks with the Bucks, as the conversation between those teams involving Greg Monroe fell apart when New Orleans refused to give up Jrue Holiday, according to Sean Deveney of The Sporting News.
Several teams think that if the Knicks don’t make much progress in their rebuilding by the middle of July, Carmelo Anthony would be willing to waive his no-trade clause, Deveney writes in the same piece. The Knicks spoke with the Rockets about Ty Lawson before the trade deadline, according to Marc Berman of the New York Post.
The retention of Dwyane Wade and Hassan Whiteside this summer would almost assuredly mean the end to Luol Deng‘s time with the Heat, observes Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel, who writes in his mailbag column. Front office executives around the league were led to believe that Deng was available on the trade market before last week’s deadline, as USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt noted (on Twitter).

Rockets, Jazz End Talks On Ty Lawson, Trey Burke

February 18th, 2016 at 10:29am CST by Arthur Hill

10:29am: The talks are over, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports, who indicates the discussion was only casual anyway (Twitter link). Wojnarowski also casts doubt on the idea the Rockets will waive Lawson.

7:47am: The Rockets would give considerable thought to waiving Lawson if they don’t trade him to Utah, sources tell Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link).

THURSDAY: 7:01am: The talks are serious, with the Jazz having committed to send Burke away, and the growing sense around the league is that Utah is ready to accept Houston’s offer, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links). However, Andy Larsen of KSL.com hears the teams are trending in the direction of not getting a deal done (Twitter link).

7:42pm: Utah is looking at deals for several other veteran point guards as well as Lawson, according to Stein.

6:38pm: The Jazz have been interested in acquiring Lawson for a few weeks, tweets Tony Jones of The Salt Lake Tribune. Burke would be headed to Houston in return as part of a proposal the teams are discussing, but his salary is just short of $2.66MM — nearly $10MM less than Lawson — so other players would have to be included to make the deal work, Jones says (Twitter links). Burke is signed through the 2016/17 season, when he will make nearly $3.39MM.

WEDNESDAY, 5:35pm: The Rockets are looking to Utah in their quest to find a taker for point guard Ty Lawson, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Lawson has reportedly been on the market since at least December, while the Jazz have been down a point guard with Dante Exum missing the season after undergoing left knee surgery last summer. A slow market left Houston expecting to hang on to Lawson through the deadline, as USA Today’s Sam Amick reported last month, but it appears the team is making a renewed effort to find a new home for him.

Lawson was expected to add spark to Houston’s offense after being acquired in an offseason deal with the Nuggets. He opened the season as the team’s starting point guard, but proved to be a poor fit and was demoted to the bench after coach Kevin McHale was fired in November. Lawson is averaging just 6.3 points and 3.6 assists in 48 games.

Utah passed on a chance to deal for Lawson last summer, tweets Aaron Falk of The Salt Lake Tribune. He believes any deal made now would have to include more than Lawson. The seventh-year point guard has a salary of more than $12.4MM this season, so it won’t be easy for the Jazz to match without giving up something significant. A combination of Trey Burke and Joe Ingles or Burke and Tibor Pleiss would work, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. Lawson is due to make more than $13.2MM next season, but that salary is non-guaranteed.

If a trade goes through, it would be an unusual deal for two teams locked in a tight battle for a playoff spot. The Jazz entered the All-Star break leading the Rockets by half a game for eighth place in the West.

Texas Notes: Smith, Lawson, Mejri, Ayres

January 23rd, 2016 at 10:52pm CST by Arthur Hill

Josh Smith made an immediate impact for the Rockets after Friday’s trade, and Dwight Howard tells Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle that he’s happy to have his childhood friend back on the team. Smith flew to Houston immediately after the deal was announced, then had six assists, five rebounds and three blocks in a win over the Bucks. “I thought that me and him together in the playoffs was key,” Howard said. “I thought we really had great chemistry on both ends of the floor. All of us have a crazy type of relationship, especially me and Josh. He’s happy. We’re happy he’s back. We’ll see how it works. I think it’s going to be great.”

There’s more NBA news out of Texas:

Ty Lawson has been playing better, but Rockets interim coach J.B. Bickerstaff isn’t ready to make him a starter, writes Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com. Patrick Beverley has been out of action with a sprained ankle, and Bickerstaff said he will remain in the starting lineup when he returns. “People will earn their minutes,” Bickerstaff said. “So both of them want to play obviously, there’s minutes there for both of them. Whoever is playing the best is going to get those minutes and I think that’s the right thing for the team.” It’s a decision that could affect the long-term future for Lawson, whose $13.2MM salary is non-guaranteed for next season.
Salah Mejri may be earning more court time with the Mavericks, according to Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News. The Tunisian center went through a 31-game stretch without playing earlier this season, but he’s impressed the team lately with his defensive presence. “I don’t hesitate to call anybody’s number on our roster,” said coach Rick Carlisle. “Everybody’s played when it counts. He’s one guy that’s been kind of an odd man out because of our depth at center. … He’s making a case that he deserves some minutes.”
Jeff Ayres, who signed a 10-day deal with the Clippers today, said he understood the Spurs‘ decision not to keep him, tweets Ben Bolch of The Los Angeles Times. Ayres said San Antonio explained that there was no room for him after signing free agent David West. “There’s no animosity or anything like that,” Ayres said of coach/president Gregg Popovich. “I understand the business and appreciate how honest he was.” (Twitter link)

Texas Notes: Lawson, Smith, Aldridge, Mavs

January 22nd, 2016 at 10:59am CST by Chuck Myron

The Rockets expect to hang on to Ty Lawson through the trade deadline, as USA Today’s Sam Amick hears (Twitter link). The Bucks have been linked to Lawson of late, as Amick says, echoing a recent report from Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders, who said a trade to Milwaukee was nonetheless unlikely. Houston had reportedly been exploring the market for Lawson as the point guard’s camp sought a way for him to see more playing time elsewhere, but the market proved slow. Houston instead struck a deal to acquire Josh Smith from the Clippers. See more on that amid the latest from Texas:

Smith called the idea of returning to the Rockets “amazing” and said in an interview with Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston that he hopes to deliver leadership to the Rockets and relieve pressure from James Harden and Dwight Howard (All Twitter links here). “I look at that team as being right there, just missing a couple of pieces and I feel like I’m one of those missing pieces,” Smith said to Berman.
LaMarcus Aldridge confirmed that the Suns were the last team other than the Spurs that he considered in free agency this past summer and said that while he enjoyed being the focal point of the Trail Blazers, he’s undergone a change that allows him to take a back seat on the Spurs. Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio News-Express has the details. “I don’t see myself being that guy here,” Aldridge said. “This is more Kawhi [Leonard]’s team, and we all fit in around him and try to make his life a little easier. If I was trying to be that guy still, I should have not come. I’m OK trying to help Kawhi be great every night.”
The Mavericks have recalled Justin Anderson, Jeremy Evans and Salah Mejri from the D-League, tweets Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com. The team had just sent the trio on assignment Thursday.

Rockets Notes: Howard, Lawson, Bickerstaff

January 17th, 2016 at 7:00pm CST by Will Joseph

Rockets GM Daryl Morey told reporters there is no way Houston will be able to make a solid playoff push this year without Dwight Howard when asked about Howard’s future in Houston as the trade deadline approaches, Brian T. Smith of the Houston Chronicle relays. The Rockets are currently seventh in the Western Conference with a 21-20 record. Howard was the subject of trade rumors last month, but he has on multiple occasions denied a report that he’s upset with playing a secondary role to James Harden. The Rockets expect Howard to opt out and hit free agency this summer.

Here are some more highlights from the interview session with Morey and notes regarding the Rockets:

Ty Lawson has played significantly better as of late and Morey believes the point guard still has tremendous upside, Smith details in the same interview transcription. “We know he’s capable of a very high level of play,” Morey said. “He’s done it every year he’s been in the league. … At times the fit on our roster has been challenging for him and us. But I feel like [interim coach] J.B. [Bickerstaff] has been working through that.”
Speaking of Bickerstaff, Morey, in the same interview, applauded the work the interim coach has done in guiding the Rockets, but was noncommittal about Bickerstaff’s future beyond this season. “When the season ends, we’re obviously going to have a tough decision,” Morey said. “And he’s very good – he’ll have a tough decision, too. How well he’s done has put a spotlight on him.”
The Rockets are 17-13 under Bickerstaff and the 36-year-old is starting to feel more comfortable in his interim role, Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune writes. “It’s not about me,” Bickerstaff said. “It’s about what’s best for those guys in that locker room. You have to put personal issues aside and go get a job done. It’s about being a teammate, sacrificing for others and doing things you might not normally do. Figuring out the job, leading a group of guys who have high expectations for themselves and getting the most out of them, that’s most important.”

Southwest Notes: Brewer, Barnes, Williams

January 15th, 2016 at 2:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

More than two dozen players became eligible to be traded today, and among them is Corey Brewer, about whom the Rockets and Suns reportedly had serious discussions as they entertained a swap that would also include Terrence Jones going to Phoenix for Markieff Morris. Still, Suns GM Ryan McDonough denied that any deal was prearranged or pending as he spoke Wednesday on the “Burns & Gambo” show on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM, as Kellan Olson of ArizonaSports.com transcribes. McDonough predicted lots of activity between now and the February 18th trade deadline and promised he’ll take an aggressive approach, though he said he can envision Morris remaining with Phoenix through the end of the season, adding that the Suns are “under no pressure to do anything immediately.” While we wait to see what happens on that front, there’s more on the Rockets and other Southwest Division teams:

Improved defense, better 3-point shooting and the presence of Patrick Beverley in the starting lineup instead of Ty Lawson have sparked the Rockets to improved play, as Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com details, but GM Daryl Morey isn’t satisfied. “I’m worried given our goals,” Morey said, according to Watkins. “We still have a lot of improvement to do and we’re working towards that.”
The performance Matt Barnes has put on for the Grizzlies lately makes it clear his controversial October encounter with Knicks coach Derek Fisher isn’t a distraction to the team and that he’s been one of the most valuable Grizzlies on the court, writes Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal. The 35-year-old has maintained his high level of defensive play all season, and more recently he’s begun to regain his usual shooting touch, Tillery notes. Barnes delivered pithy comments to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News, saying, “I don’t talk to snakes” when asked if he’ll speak to Fisher while the Knicks are in Memphis for Saturday’s game. Barnes sent threatening text messages to Fisher in the weeks preceding Barnes’ alleged physical attack on Fisher at the home of Barnes’ estranged wife, a source told Marc Berman of the New York Post.
A pair of small trade exceptions expired for Southwest Division teams this week, vestiges of the three-team trade that sent Jeff Green to the Grizzlies. The Pelicans allowed their $507,336 Russ Smith trade exception to lapse, while the Grizzlies didn’t find a use for the $396,068 leftover scrap of the Quincy Pondexter trade exception. Memphis used most of that Pondexter exception, originally valued at $3,146,068, to take in Luke Ridnour, whom the Grizzlies promptly flipped for Barnes.
Chris Herrington of The Commericial Appeal doesn’t think the Grizzlies will issue a second 10-day contract to Elliot Williams, whose existing 10-day deal expires at the end of Sunday (Twitter link).

Western Notes: Davis, McDaniels, Lawson

January 7th, 2016 at 10:24pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Anthony Davis‘ maximum salary extension kicks in next season, and the Pelicans will have five years to show the power forward that New Orleans can be a championship contender, though the organization doesn’t feel like it is “on the clock” with its star player, Sean Deveney of The Sporting News writes. “If you look at a situation like that where it is five years,” coach Alvin Gentry said when asked if he feels pressure regarding Davis, “and you’ve got five years to make something happen and keep a guy here — the one thing that [GM] Dell Demps and [team executive] Mickey Loomis have done is that they’ve taken Anthony and surrounded him with really good people, really good players. There is an opportunity for us. When we get everybody healthy, we feel like we can compete with everyone. There is time to get things right.”

Though the team has downplayed the notion that Ryan Anderson will be traded prior to February’s deadline, NBA executives believe that if New Orleans is to make any personnel moves this season it will involve the power forward, Deveney relays. “He is really the only one that has value if you’re a playoff team,” one NBA executive said of Anderson. “I wouldn’t say they’re shopping him, as far as I know, but I would say they’re listening [to offers].”

Here’s the latest from out West:

The NBA has suspended Rockets point guard Ty Lawson three games for the second of his two DUI arrests last year, Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle relays. The league previously suspended Lawson for two games after he pleaded guilty to driving while impaired in Denver last January, and this latest suspension stems from a DUI arrest last June in Los Angeles.
The Timberwolves continue to suffer from a lack of outside shooting and youthful mistakes and interim coach Sam Mitchell has until the end of the season to turn around these deficiencies if he hopes to be named head coach on a permanent basis, writes Michael Rand of The Star Tribune. Mitchell needs to prove to team management that he is indeed the person best suited to develop the franchise’s young talent, Rand adds.
The Rockets have assigned swingman K.J. McDaniels to their D-League affiliate, Feigen notes (via Twitter). This will be McDaniels’ fourth trek to Rio Grande Valley on the season.