Vlade Divac Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Latest On Kings Front Office

April 8th, 2015 at 11:19am CST by Chuck Myron

Kings owner Vivek Ranadive indeed sees vice president of basketball and franchise operations Vlade Divac as the team’s primary basketball decision-maker instead of GM Pete D’Alessandro, league sources tell Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The team put Divac above D’Alessandro on its organizational chart when it hired its former center in March, though it wasn’t immediately clear whether Divac would be at the controls. D’Alessandro’s future with the club is unclear, as Stein and Grantland’s Zach Lowe (Twitter link) write. Sacramento is looking to hire another front office executive to support Divac whether or not D’Alessandro remains with the Kings, Stein hears.

Former Kings adviser Chris Mullin, who left the team a week ago to coach at St. John’s, his alma mater, was D’Alessandro’s closest ally, according to Stein. Mullin lost influence with Ranadive when he refused to coach the team immediately after the midseason firing of Michael Malone rather than wait until next season, sources tell the ESPN scribe. Mullin and D’Alessandro resisted the hiring of Divac, though D’Alessandro said last month that he and others were pleased to have Divac aboard, as Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee reported then.

Ranadive’s appointment of Divac atop the basketball power structure means the owner has once more hired a top hoops executive after hiring a coach, since George Karl joined the team in February, though Divac has made it clear that he likes Karl, Stein notes. Divac worked in the Lakers scouting department after his retirement in 2005, and he served as president of Serbia’s Partizan Belgrade and as an adviser to Spain’s Real Madrid, as Stein points out. He’s also done Olympic and FIBA administrative work and has a reputation as a unifying force, according to Stein. That jibes with a recent report from The Bee’s Jason Jones that Ranadive has wanted to end the discord that’s marked the front office of late. Ranadive had lost faith in the front office’s plan, Jones tweets.

D’Alessandro came aboard shortly after Ranadive bought the team in 2013. The GM had been former Nuggets GM Masai Ujiri‘s chief aide, and Denver was reportedly leaning toward hiring D’Alessandro for its own GM vacancy in 2013, when Ujiri left to head the Raptors. D’Alessandro’s tenure in charge of Sacramento’s basketball operations was marked by an aggressive posture toward trades, particularly in his first season, when the team acquired Rudy Gay from Ujiri and the Raptors. The Kings under D’Alessandro pushed Gay to opt in for this season and signed him to an extension this past fall, and they gave DeMarcus Cousins a max extension the previous offseason.

Pacific Rumors: Robinson, Kings, Bhullar

March 30th, 2015 at 6:45pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Nate Robinson‘s sore left knee is improving and he could return to the Clippers since coach Doc Rivers was pleased with what he saw from him, according to Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link). Robinson was not signed for the remainder of the season after his two 10-day contracts expired because of the injury but he’s expected to be cleared to play by week’s end, Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports tweets. Rivers indicated to Bolch that Robinson’s return was a strong possibility when he’s ready to play. “I liked what Nate brought us,” Rivers said “I liked his energy.” However, Robinson’s return could be delayed until Lester Hudson‘s 10-day contract expires. Hudson was signed on Sunday to take the roster spot vacated by Robinson, whose last 10-day contract expired on Thursday. The 30-year-old Hudson was the Chinese Basketball Association MVP the last two years before joining the Clippers.

In other news around the Pacific Division:

Kings owner Vivek Ranadive wants to put an end to the discord in the team’s front office, league sources tell Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee. Jones writes about Chris Mullin, the Kings adviser who is reportedly expected to accept an offer to instead become the coach at St. John’s University and who, according to fellow Bee scribe Ailene Voisin, opposed the hirings of coach George Karl and new Kings exec Vlade Divac.
The Kings are also hopeful Sim Bhullar will eventually make their NBA roster as his conditioning improves, Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee reports. Bhullar, a 7-foot-5, center, has been playing for the Kings’ D-League affiliate, the Reno Bighorns, after getting waived by Sacramento during training camp. Bhullar came to camp at nearly 400 pounds and has since shed approximately 45 pounds, according to Voisin. Ranadive is intrigued by Bhullar’s skill set but feels Bhullar still needs to drop another 40-50 pounds, Voisin adds. “He needs to get in much better shape,” Ranadive told Voisin. “That will help him get up and down the floor, and he’s been working on that.”

Western Notes: Gasol, Kings, Jazz, Messina

March 19th, 2015 at 12:29pm CST by Chuck Myron

“The understanding is” that Marc Gasol will indeed be the No. 1 target of the Spurs this summer, depending on the fates of fellow soon-to-be free agents Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, a Western Conference GM told Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. Gasol has given plenty of signals that he prefers to stay in Memphis, and if he were to leave, he would likely move only to a team that would give him a better chance to win a title, sources also tell Deveney. The Spurs would conceivably fit that bill, but even if they don’t end up with Gasol, one GM expects San Antonio to make a surprise move this summer and hints that it’ll come at draft time, as Deveney details. There’s more on the Spurs amid the latest from around the Western Conference:

Kings adviser Chris Mullin, reportedly a candidate for the team’s coaching position earlier this season, resisted the recent hirings of coach George Karl and vice president of basketball and franchise operations Vlade Divac, high-ranking team execs tell Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee. GM Pete D’Alessandro also resisted the hiring of Divac, who’s technically atop him in the organization, according to Voisin, though D’Alessandro said to Voisin on Tuesday that he and others are pleased to have the former center around.
The Hornets have three prominent former members of the Jazz, and Al Jefferson, Marvin Williams and Mo Williams all expressed fondness for their time in Utah when their new team came to Salt Lake City for Monday’s game, observes Mike Sorensen of the Deseret News. Mo Williams will hit free agency again this summer, and Jefferson can, too, if he turns down a $13.5MM player option.
Spurs assistant coach Ettore Messina would like to become a head coach in the NBA someday, but he’s content with the Spurs and said he’d ask Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford for advice before pursuing a head coaching job, as Messina told Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia).

Pacific Notes: Rivers, Granger, Divac

March 10th, 2015 at 12:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

Doc Rivers and Flip Saunders hold the dual titles of coach and president of basketball operations for the Clippers and Timberwolves, respectively, but they’ve encountered vastly different jobs, as Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune explores.

“It’s not been hard, Flip’s had to do a lot more,” Rivers said. “They have a lot more work, far more assets than they have to try to get in and out. He has a ton of [financial] flexibility. When I came here, I looked at our roster and flexibility and there was not a lot we could do. We were more in the minimum contract and mid-level [exception] stuff. You’ve got to have assets and we do, but none that we want to trade. He has had a lot more work to do than I have. He’s trying to rebuild an entire team.”

Rivers signed a new deal worth more than $50MM over five years with the Clippers this past summer. Here’s more from the Pacific Division:

Danny Granger says he considered retirement after undergoing knee surgery when he was with the Pacers in 2013, according to Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. He’s never been the same since missing all but five games of the 2012/13 season, but the Suns trainers have told him “it can be fixed,” as Coro details. The 31-year-old with a player option of more than $2.17MM for next season explored options to buy his way off the Suns and join a contender shortly after the deadline-day trade that sent him from Miami to Phoenix, but he decided against it, Coro writes.
Granger added that he wants to get “extremely healthy” before playing again, and while Suns coach Jeff Hornacek wouldn’t rule out his return before season’s end, as Coro relays in the same piece, the chances don’t appear overwhelmingly strong. “As we go on, if we’re still in the race, yeah, why not get a veteran guy like that in there?” Hornacek said. “If somehow we’re out of it, then maybe it makes more sense to play the young guys. Our thoughts right now are we’re still in the playoff hunt and we’re still going to go after it. If he can give us something toward the end there, maybe that happens.”
Vlade Divac turned down other opportunities to work in NBA front offices before he joined the Kings as vice president of basketball and franchise operations last week, as he tells USA Today’s Sam Amick.

Pacific Notes: Nash, Dragic, Suns, Divac

March 4th, 2015 at 9:16am CST by Chuck Myron

Steve Nash hasn’t made any formal pronouncements regarding the end of his career, but he’s under no illusions that he’ll be coming back to the NBA, as he made clear Tuesday on The Bro Jake Show on TSN Radio 1040 Vancouver, as TSN.ca transcribes. Nash’s contract with the Lakers expires at season’s end.

“I never worked as hard as I did the last 18 months, two years, twice a day almost every day to try to just give it that one last year,” Nash said. “And I finally just had to admit that it’s just not meant to be.”

Nash added that he accepts the situation because “I gave it everything I possibly could.” While we wait for the 41-year-old to finally close the book on his career, here’s more from around the Pacific Division:

The Suns promised Goran Dragic before last summer’s sign-and-trade acquisition of Isaiah Thomas that they wouldn’t add to an already crowded backcourt, multiple league sources tell Bleacher Report’s Ethan Skolnick.
A lack of leadership and dispassionate, inconsistent play from the Suns doesn’t exactly make the franchise attractive to marquee free agents who want a winning situation, opines Dan Bickley of the Arizona Republic.
Vlade Divac‘s new position as vice president of basketball and franchise operations for the Kings technically puts him on top of the team’s basketball staff, but the practical implications of that aren’t as clear-cut, according to Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee. The team’s official announcement of Divac’s hiring, released after Voisin’s story, indicates that Divac will be advising the front office and coaching staff.

And-Ones: Divac, Okafor, Knicks

March 3rd, 2015 at 10:39pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Kings have hired former NBA player Vlade Divac as their vice president of basketball and franchise operations, the team has announced. “With an unparalleled philanthropic track record that spans the globe, Vlade Divac is the epitome of our NBA 3.0 philosophy,” Sacramento owner Vivek Ranadive said. “He has a unique perspective and global stature that will only further elevate our organization around the world.” In a career that spanned 16 NBA seasons, Divac averaged 11.8 points, 8.2 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.1 steals, and 1.4 blocks per game. Ranadive was the driving force behind hiring Divac, Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee tweets.

Here’s more from around the league and abroad:

With the Guangdong Southern Tigers having been eliminated from the Chinese Basketball Association playoffs, Will Bynum, Jeff Adrien and Chris Daniels have become free agents and are eligible to sign with NBA teams, Enea Trapani of Sportando tweets.
The NBA has fined the Knicks for team president Phil Jackson‘s public comments regarding Ohio State freshman D’Angelo Russell, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link). Upon leaving Ohio State’s game last Thursday night, Jackson told reporters that Russell was a “great looking kid, [a] great prospect.” This is the second time in his brief career as an executive that Jackson has been fined for tampering. The first instance was for his comments regarding Derek Fisher last spring while Fisher was still a member of the Thunder.
Mike D’Antoni would be an excellent fit as the next coach of the Nuggets, Adi Joseph of USA Today opines. Joseph cites Denver’s personnel, who would be well-suited to D’Antoni’s style of play, as the main reason the former Knicks and Lakers coach could match up well with the Nuggets.
With the Knicks currently owning the worst record in the NBA according to Hoops Rumors’ Reverse Standings, New York has the best odds of snagging the top pick in June’s NBA draft. Chris Herring of The Wall Street Journal examines the pros and cons of projected No. 1 overall pick Jahlil Okafor, and how the big man would fit in with the Knicks.
The Lakers intend to apply for a hardship exception once Ronnie Price misses his fourth consecutive game, Eric Pincus of The Los Angeles Times reports. Los Angeles has lost Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Julius Randle and Price for the season. The Lakers have discussed the matter internally, but haven’t decided if they will use the exception if granted, Pincus adds.