Zaza Pachulia Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Texas Notes: Pachulia, Cuban, Harden, Butler

November 14th, 2015 at 6:31pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Mavericks didn’t get the center they wanted this summer, but Zaza Pachulia wasn’t a bad consolation prize, writes Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com. When DeAndre Jordan changed his mind about coming to Dallas, the Mavericks swung a deal with Milwaukee to bring in Pachulia. The 13-year veteran has been an early-season surprise, posting double-doubles in points and rebounds five times in the first nine games. He credits the Mavericks’ experience for their 5-4 start. “You look around the locker room and guys have been in the league 10, 11, 12, 17 [years], so these guys know how to play the right way,” Pachulia said. “It’s like day and night when I came from Milwaukee. It’s become so much easier. Maybe because the mentality that I have is to play team basketball, it’s easier for me to fit in this system.”

There’s more basketball news from the Lone Star State:

After years of Western dominance, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban sees the balance shifting, MacMahon posts on ESPN.com. “The East looks like the better conference so far,” Cuban said. “That’s a good thing.”
Rockets star guard James Harden and coach Kevin McHale have different levels of concern about the adjustment to Ty Lawson, according to Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com. Lawson was acquired in a July trade with the Nuggets to give the team an extra playmaker. However, the 4-5 Rockets are off to a disappointing start — losing twice to the Nuggets and once at home to the Nets — and McHale doesn’t like what he has seen. “Both of those guys have to play better,” the coach said. “They have to play better defense, they have to rebound, keep people out of the middle, it’s just not them, it’s a multitude of people.” Harden thinks the adjustment to Lawson is just a matter of time. “I look at when LeBron [James] went to Cleveland with Kyrie [Irving] they didn’t mesh right away,” Harden said. “It takes time. I’m not worried about that.”
The Spurs are noticing the contribution of Rasual Butler, even though he’s not playing much, writes J. Michael of CSNMidAtlantic.com. The 36-year-old Butler, who signed with the team just before camp started, hasn’t seen more than 15 minutes in a game yet this season or scored more than six points. “He’s a good shooter. He’s aggressive. Always a smart veteran who makes good decisions. He helps us off the bench because of those things,” said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.

Central Notes: Shumpert, LeBron, Monroe

July 13th, 2015 at 1:01pm CST by Chuck Myron

Six teams offered a first-round pick to the Cavaliers for Iman Shumpert at the trade deadline this past February, and three of them had max-level cap flexibility this summer, reports Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group. That made Cleveland’s front office “incredibly nervous” as it sought to re-sign the swingman in restricted free agency, despite its ability to match competing offers for him. The Kings were one of the teams that thought about an offer before Shumpert, who’d made it a priority to remain with the Cavs, did just that and signed a new deal.

“We were thinking about it,” Kings Vice President of Basketball Operations Vlade Divac told Haynes, “but we had some other options that came up better for us.”

Haynes wonders just what those better options could have been, but the upshot is that Shumpert is staying put. Here’s more from around the Central Division:

The Cavaliers certainly aren’t trading LeBron James, but if they did, they’d have to pay a 15% trade kicker as part of his new contract, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter link). The bonus would only take effect if he were to opt in for next season.
The precise value of Mo Williams‘ two-year deal with the Cavs is $4,294,500, with $2.1MM coming this season and the rest set aside for the player option year in 2016/17, as Pincus shows on Basketball Insiders (Twitter link).
The Bucks had been trying to trade Zaza Pachulia in the days after they struck a deal with Greg Monroe, sources told Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Milwaukee swapped Pachulia to the Mavs last week.
Monroe told Scoop Jackson of ESPN.com that if the Pistons had put on the same sort of hard push that the Clippers made to convince DeAndre Jordan to renege on his deal with the Mavs, he might have stuck with Detroit. “I can’t lie, it probably would have made me think, maybe affected my decision a bit,” said Monroe, whose deal with the Bucks is official, so there’s no going back now. “I mean, I was there for five years, my whole NBA career to this point. I knew the people in the organization, I loved my teammates, so I mean, I can’t lie. I’m not saying if that had happened, I would have changed my mind, but I know that would have affected me, and I probably would have had to ponder a little bit more.”

Mavericks Rumors: Cuban, Matthews, Williams

July 11th, 2015 at 1:45pm CST by Arthur Hill

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban dismissed DeAndre Jordan‘s apology and celebrated the trade for Zaza Pachulia today on CyberDust, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com. “When is an apology not an apology? When you didn’t write it yourself. Next,” Cuban wrote of the Clippers’ center, who committed to Dallas before changing his mind Thursday. He also said the the Mavericks have been working for some time to acquire Pachulia. “He is a good rebounder,” Cuban stated, “and in the hard to believe category he shoots the 15 foot pick and pop at the same level as … Dirk [Nowitzki]. Look it up!”

There’s more this afternoon from Dallas:

Wesley Matthews never considered reneging on his deal with Dallas after hearing about Jordan, MacMahon writes. Matthews spent time in Los Angeles with Jordan and Chandler Parsons the weekend before free agency began, and they had several conversations about playing together. Matthews said Cuban gave him the opportunity to back out of his deal after the news about Jordan broke, but that wasn’t an option for the former Blazer. “I came to Dallas with one intention, and that’s to win,” Matthews said. “I’m excited about it. With DeAndre or without DeAndre, I know that this organization is a championship organization.”
Had Jordan come to the Mavericks, the team would not have had enough cap space to offer Deron Williams a two-year, $10MM deal, MacMahon tweets. Williams is expected to sign with Dallas for that figure after clearing waivers.
Although the Mavericks were interested in Williams, they didn’t consider a trade with the Nets because he would have consumed too much cap space, according to ESPN.

Central Notes: Love, Bucks, Morris

July 10th, 2015 at 8:15pm CST by Eddie Scarito

New Pistons forward Marcus Morris wasn’t initially thrilled with the Suns for dealing him to Detroit, Perry A. Farrell of The Detroit Free Press writes. “I wouldn’t say stunning, but in Phoenix, I would say I didn’t have a great opportunity,” Morris said today. “I kind of wanted to play with my brother [twin Markieff Morris] so much that I kind of took away from myself. I didn’t think I had an opportunity to get better. I don’t think I had the chance to grow as a player over there. I think the opportunity is here for me. Everybody knew how bad I wanted to play with my brother. Phoenix knew. For them to trade me without consent or telling me was like a slap in the face, because of the contract I took from those guys and the money I took from them. I’m happy to be here. I’m a Piston. I’m a Bad Boy. I’m ready to get started.”

Here’s the latest from the Central Division:

The future second-rounder going to Indiana in the Roy Hibbert trade is the Lakers’ 2019 pick, tweets salary cap expert Larry Coon. The Pacers also net a trade exception equivalent to Hibbert’s salary of more than $15.5MM, Coon points out, but that will vanish when Indiana’s deal with Monta Ellis becomes official, unless the Pacers can somehow turn the Ellis transaction into a sign-and-trade.
The second-round pick heading from the Mavs to the Bucks in the Zaza Pachulia trade is Dallas’ 2018 selection, and it’s top-55 protected, according to RealGM. The same level of protection is on the 2020 second-rounder Milwaukee gets from the Wizards in the Jared Dudley deal, as RealGM also reveals. Both swaps produced trade exceptions, notes Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Twitter link). The Bucks get one worth $5.2MM from Pachulia and another for $4.25MM from Dudley.
The salaries in Khris Middleton‘s five-year, $70MM deal with the Bucks fluctuate up and down from year to year, but the starting salary is $14.7MM, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets.
Kevin Love indicated that he and LeBron James had what Love termed, “an honest talk,” prior to Love deciding to re-sign with the Cavaliers, Tom Withers of The Associated Press writes. “He happened to be in Los Angeles the same time I was,” Love said of James. “So, we just talked everything out and a lot of stuff was very honest and we came to a really good place and we agreed on a lot of things, so I think that was also a very big deal when you’re talking to the best player in the world.“

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Mavs Acquire Zaza Pachulia From Bucks

July 9th, 2015 at 8:02pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

8:02pm: The trade is official, the Mavericks and Bucks announced via press release. A future second-rounder is on the way to the Bucks in the transaction.

7:55pm: The Bucks would receive a second round pick in return from Dallas, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports tweets.

7:53pm: The Mavericks and Bucks are engaged in discussions regarding Dallas acquiring Zaza Pachulia, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports (on Twitter). It’s unclear what Milwaukee is seeking in return for the 31-year-old center, be it draft picks or players. Pachulia is set to earn $5.2MM next season, the final year of his current deal.

Dallas is badly in need of help at center after being spurned by unrestricted free agent DeAndre Jordan, who reversed course on Dallas after reaching a verbal agreement on a contract and returned to the Clippers. Pachulia would certainly be a step down talent-wise from Jordan or last year’s starter, Tyson Chandler, but the Mavericks are stuck having to sift through the remaining available players in the wake of the flurry of signings that became official today.

Pachulia appeared in 73 games for the Bucks last season, including 45 as a starter, and averaged 8.3 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 2.4 assists in 23.7 minutes per contest. His slash line was .454./.000/.788. Through 12 NBA campaigns the big man’s numbers are 7.0 PPG, 5.6 RPG, and 1.2 APG.

Eastern Notes: Noel, Maxiell, Bird

March 12th, 2014 at 8:22pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Jason Maxiell hasn’t played in the Magic’s last nine games and has only one appearance since January 29th, but he’s trying to maintain a positive outlook, writes Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. Maxiell stated, “I’m respecting that this is a year for the young guys to develop and improve for next year. With the coaching staff and [general manager] Rob [Hennigan] and [assistant general manager] Scott Perry, I think more of the bigger picture is moving forward for next year and having a mixture of experienced young guys mixed in with some vets.” Robbins mentions that the lack of playing time could hurt Maxiell in the long run because of his contract. He signed a free-agent contract with the Magic during the offseason, and his salary of $2.5MM for next year is non-guaranteed and he won’t be owed anything if the team waives him before mid-July.

Odds & Ends: Trades, Bucks, Pelicans, Grizzlies, Kings

December 9th, 2013 at 10:17pm CST by Jonathan Nehring

With the young NBA season already containing two trades; it appears many more will be on the way in the near future. A few notes regarding potential trades and other league notes:

Zaza Pachulia will be out at least four weeks with a broken right foot, the Bucks announced today. With so many injured players, Grantland’s Zach Lowe cautions the team against making a trade to help the team stay competitive, even though owner Herb Kohl is averse to tanking (Twitter links).
The injuries have presented a few of the Bucks‘ younger players with a chance to impress, and they’ve taken advantage, as Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel examines. Coach Larry Drew admits that they might steal minutes from more established players when they return.
With the loss of Tyreke Evans in addition to already injured Anthony Davis and Greg Stiemsma, Jimmy Smith of The Times-Picayune warns Pelicans fans that the future is bleak. Smith also points out that the apparent decrease in future wins will do very little for the Pelicans since they will likely not own their first round draft pick next summer.
Following the season ending injury to Quincy Pondexter, the Grizzlies told the Commercial Appeal’s Ronald Tillery (via Twitter) they will not add a player that will “stunt” rookie Jamaal Franklin‘s fair shot at the rotation.
While some have said the Kings are the “losers” of the Rudy Gay trade, Sam Amick of USA Today points out (via Twitter) the Kings may have more to lose. If the Kings improve this season’s record too much, they run the risk of losing their 2014 first round pick to the Cavaliers. The pick is protected and will stay in Sacramento if in the top 12 picks but would go to Cleveland as payment for the J.J. Hickson trade if it falls outside the top 12.
The Kings may also risk losing their new stadium plans if a group of taxpayers have their way. Dale Kasler of the Sacramento Bee reports if city residents obtain 40,000 signatures by tomorrow the proposed $258MM city subsidy will have to be placed on next June’s ballot.
Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com details (ESPN Insider piece) the eleven most interesting trade targets after the Rudy Gay trade. The list includes Paul Millsap, Luol Deng, Dion Waiters, Greg Monroe, Omer Asik, Zach Randolph, Iman Shumpert, Spencer Hawes, Evan Turner, DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Odds & Ends: Rivers, Stan Van Gundy, Jazz

October 17th, 2013 at 11:07pm CST by Ryan Raroque

Clippers coach Doc Rivers sits down with Harvey Araton of the New York Times to discuss the scrutiny that accompanied his exit from Boston and his willingness to accept the responsibility if things don’t go well in Los Angeles: “But when (the opportunity to coach the Clippers) presented itself, I thought, ‘Wow, this would be a unique situation for me…If there’s a mistake, it’s my fault. I don’t want to blame someone else. I want to blame me.”

Rivers also commented on how the free throw shooting struggles of DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin has been somewhat of an achilles’ heel for the team in the past: “Blake and D. J., they missed a couple, and their whole game changed…Blake would stop driving, stop attacking, because he didn’t want to get fouled. D. J. didn’t even want to touch the ball. Then he would take all that defensive energy he had and throw it out of the game.”

Here are the rest of tonight’s miscellaneous links:

Despite the tumultuous way in which their working relationship ended in Orlando, former coach Stan Van Gundy still thinks that the Magic should retire Dwight Howard‘s number, writes Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel (Subscribers only).
Jazz camp hopeful Lester Hudson values his opportunity to stick in the NBA after being a career journeyman since entering the league (Aaron Falk of The Salt Lake Tribune). In another Utah-related piece, John Lucas III talks about being fueled to secure his NBA future after his international and D-League experiences: “Every time I step on the court, (I think), ‘I don’t want to go back to Italy. I don’t want to go back to Spain. Don’t want to go back to China (or the) D-League…I feel like I’m at home. I just have that in the back of my head all the time, so when I step on that court I give it everything I have” (Jody Genessy of the Deseret News).
Chris Forsberg of ESPN Boston answered a few questions from his readers in his newest edition of “Celtics Mailbag.”
Bucks head coach Larry Drew spoke about the importance of having a veteran like Zaza Pachulia around the team, especially with their familiarity together stemming from their history in Atlanta (Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel).

Kyler’s Latest: Bucks, Magic, Knicks, LeBron

July 18th, 2013 at 9:58am CST by Luke Adams

When I asked Hoops Rumors readers yesterday what Brandon Jennings' future holds, about half of you predicted a return to Milwaukee, either on a one-year contract or on a longer-term deal. And according to Steve Kyler of HoopsWorld, the Bucks have indeed shifted their focus back to retaining Jennings, after their pursuit of Jeff Teague fell short. Here's more from Kyler on the Bucks and a few other situations:

While the Bucks' three-year, $15MM contract with Zaza Pachulia was viewed as an overpay, sources tell Kyler that Pachulia had received two-year offers worth about the same amount annually, making that third year necessary for Milwaukee to get a deal done.
The Magic haven't been very involved in free agency this summer, but they continue to work the phones on possible deals. According to Kyler, the team is hoping to reach a buyout agreement with Al Harrington that would reduce his guaranteed salary for the 2014/15 season.
We've already heard that the Pelicans are preparing an offer in the $3MM range for Greg Oden. Kyler reports that the offer may be worth $3MM+ annually for two years, adding that Oden's camp is looking for a "safe" spot for the former first overall pick to continue his career. An organization with patience and the right kind of expectations is Oden's preference.
Although the Knicks will continue to be active in looking to add talent this year and next, the team will be careful about taking on any salary beyond next season, says Kyler. With Carmelo Anthony, Amar'e Stoudemire, Tyson Chandler, and Andrea Bargnani set to come off the books by the summer of 2015, the Knicks barely have any salary on their books beyond that.
It's been widely assumed that LeBron James will opt out of his contract next summer in search of a new long-term deal, but Kyler says that's not a lock. LeBron will also have the chance to opt out in the summer of 2015, and the continued health and production of Dwyane Wade figures to play a significant part in the MVP's decision.

Bucks Sign Zaza Pachulia

July 17th, 2013 at 4:55pm CST by Spencer Lund

JULY 17TH, 4:55pm: The Bucks have officially finalized their deal with Pachulia, the team announced today in a press release.

JULY 6TH, 11:03pm: According to sources close to the situation, Marc Stein of ESPN.com writes that the Bucks and Pachulia verbally agreed to a three-year deal that will pay him $16MM. Pachulia will be re-united with his coach with the Hawks last season when he follows Larry Drew to the Bucks.

9:46pm: Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tweets that it's a three-year $15MM deal. ESPN.com's Chris Broussard tweets the same, as does NBA.com columnist David Aldridge (Twitter), but Yahoo! Sports' Marc J. Spears says the deal is actually worth $15.6MM over three years (Twitter) while referencing that ESPN first reported the story (see below).

Gardner adds that Pachulia will be a good locker-room presence for the Bucks and provide nice addition of toughness inside to team with blossoming big man Larry Sanders (Twitter).

Pachulia is represented by Jim Connor of Williams & Connolly according to the Hoops Rumors Agency Database. Zaza averaged 5.9 PPG and 6.5 RPG in 21.8 MPG during a 2012/13 season that saw him appear in 52 games for the Hawks.

9:37pm: Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski tweets that league sources are telling him the deal is worth $15MM over three years.

9:33pm: Stein tweets that the Bucks have agreed to a three-year deal worth $16MM for Zaza Pachulia.

9:31pm: ESPN.com's Marc Stein says (Twitter) the Bucks are "pushing very hard" to get Hawks big man, Zaza Pachulia. They're reportedly offering in the $5MM a year range, Stein adds (Twitter).