Sacramento Kings Rumors | Hoops Rumors

James Anderson Seeing Minutes As Option Looms

March 23rd, 2016 at 11:31am CST by Chuck Myron

Wesley Matthews was angry but not surprised when the Trail Blazers didn’t offer him a chance to return this past summer, as he explained to Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com. It worked out for Matthews, who landed a max contract from the Mavericks, and for C.J. McCollum, who’s affirmed Portland’s faith in him as he’s stepped seamlessly into Matthews’ old job as the Blazers’ starting two-guard. “I don’t blame them for doing what they did, by any means,” Matthews said. “That’s the hand they wanted to play. That’s fine. I’m not bitter, and I didn’t mean for anything to come out like I was bitter. Just would have liked a phone call. Hey, [Blazers GM Neil Olshey] could have texted me. But they’ve got a nice thing going there with [Damian Lillard] and C.J.”

See more on another Dallas wing player amid news from the Western Conference:

It’s conceivable that Chandler Parsons will play again this season for the Mavericks even if he does undergo surgery on a torn meniscus in his right knee, reports Schuyler Dixon of The Associated Press. Parsons is reportedly getting a second opinion before having the procedure, but he’d be able to resume basketball activities within six weeks of having the operation, Dixon hears, meaning it’s conceivable he returns during the playoffs, which begin April 16th. It’s no certainty the Mavs qualify for the postseason, however. They’re one game up on the Jazz for the last playoff spot in the West.
Doc Rivers won’t rule out the possibility of Blake Griffin missing the rest of the regular season, but he’s confident that he’ll be back in game action within the next three weeks before the regular season ends, observes Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times. Griffin will have to serve a four-game suspension once he’s healthy enough to play. The Clippers signed Jeff Ayres for the rest of the season last week.
James Anderson has been frustrated sitting on the bench for long stretches this season with the Kings, even though coach George Karl acknowledges he’s probably the team’s best defender, but the swingman is seeing more playing time of late, notes Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee. Anderson has to decide on a minimum-salary player option for next season.

Cauley-Stein Believes He Can Be Two-Way Force

March 22nd, 2016 at 8:15pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Kings center Willie Cauley-Stein takes umbrage with those who label him as strictly a defensive player, noting that he has a complete set of skills, Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee relays. “I’m a hooper. I do everything – I do it all,” Cauley-Stein said. “So when that stipulation leaves, it’s going to be cool where you’re just not [a defender], but I don’t think it ever will. People don’t want to see that. People ain’t ready for that. They want it to be, ‘You’re a defensive stopper.’ Well, I’m a defensive stopper, and I’ll go get 20 on you if I get the chance. I haven’t got the chance thus far in my career, but I’ve got it in me. I’ve got a lot of different things. Just waiting on the time to do them or having the green light to just hoop. But that comes; I’m a rookie. I kind of have to just wait and perfect it in practice.” The 22-year-old is averaging 6.1 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.0 block per game to go along with a slash line of .592/.000/.622.

Knicks Rumors: Rondo, Karl, Anthony, Galloway

March 21st, 2016 at 12:20pm CST by Arthur Hill

Free-agent-to-be Rajon Rondo said he wants his next team to be the “last stop” in his NBA career, relays Brian Lewis of The New York Post. The Knicks are hoping they might be the destination for the Sacramento point guard, who leads the league in assists with 11.8 per game. New York will have at least $18MM in cap space to use this summer.

Lewis notes that Knicks GM Steve Mills spent 30 minutes talking with Rondo’s agent, Bill Duffy, last week in California. Carmelo Anthony has openly pushed for Rondo to join the team, and interim coach Kurt Rambis has expressed confidence that the 30-year-old can adapt to the triangle offense. After the Kings defeated the Knicks Sunday, Rondo brushed aside concerns that he might not be comfortable in the triangle. “I’m not against anything,” he said. “I’m pretty smart. I can figure out anything I need to figure out.’’

There’s more out of New York today:

Anthony, who has been the focus of rumors saying he might ask to be traded this summer, received support from Kings coach George Karl, according to Ian Begley of ESPN.com. “I’ve seen a winning ‘Melo over the last two years,” Karl said. “I’ve seen him sacrifice his game to try to figure out the team.” Anthony didn’t play Sunday because of a migraine and wasn’t available to speak with reporters, but he has repeatedly voiced his frustrations over the Knicks’ collapse during the second half of the season, which will leave the team out of the playoffs for the third straight year. “He doesn’t want the season to be over April [13th],” Karl said. “I think Melo’s had a Hall of Fame career, and I just know right now, just kind of looking at his body language, he wants to win.”
With restricted free agency looming, Langston Galloway has picked an unfortunate time to fall into a shooting slump, writes Ryan Lazo of The New York Post. Galloway’s 3-point marksmanship was an important weapon for the Knicks during the first part of the season, but teams have begun challenging his shots and daring him to drive. As a result, he’s shooting just 31% from the field in March. His two-year contract expires this summer, and the Knicks have to decide whether he can be a long-term effective scorer. “[Staying in New York] would mean a lot,” Galloway said. “I think they are going to show interest after the season, and I’m hoping I get to stay here.”

Rondo Warms Up To Triangle In New York

March 20th, 2016 at 5:56pm CST by Arthur Hill

Kings point guard and impending free agent Rajon Rondo said former Knicks coach Derek Fisher “might have blacked out a couple of times” when he questioned Rondo’s ability to run the triangle offense, Begley relays. Rondo made some comments questioning the triangle earlier this season, and many interpreted them as a sign that he wouldn’t consider New York in free agency. But Rondo sounded different before Sacramento’s game tonight at Madison Square Garden. “I’m not saying I couldn’t master [the triangle]. I think I can put my mind to it, break down a lot of film if that was the case to be,” Rondo said. “I don’t play in the triangle. I can only speak on what I do know and that’s under George Karl’s system. We’re pretty good offensively. We don’t want to talk about the defense.”

Moreland Sent To D-League

March 19th, 2016 at 10:01pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Kings have assigned power forward Eric Moreland to their D-League affiliate in Reno, the team announced today. A fractured metatarsal in his left foot has forced Moreland to miss 41 games this season. He has appeared in five games for the Kings, scoring four points in 24 minutes.

Nancy Lieberman A Victim of Kings' Power Struggle?

March 17th, 2016 at 9:23pm CST by Dana Gauruder

George Karl has unofficially exiled Kings assistant coach Nancy Lieberman because Karl views her as a confidante to owner Vivek Ranadive, according to Sam Amick of USA Today. That’s created an extra plot twist with the Karl-DeMarcus Cousins saga because Ranadive has been loyal to Cousins and the mercurial center can’t help but notice the in-fighting among the staff, Amick adds. The Kings deny that Lieberman has Ranadive’s ear or that Karl has pushed her to the background, sources indicated to NBCSports.com’s Dan Feldman, though Feldman notes that Amick is well connected and has reported out of Sacramento for many years.

In other news around the Pacific Division:

Power forward Jeff Ayres is relieved he can settle into one place now that the Clippers have signed him for the remainder of the season, Rowan Kavner of Clippers.com reports. The power forward, who played under two 10-day contracts with the Clippers earlier this season, played two games for the D-League’s Los Angeles D-Fenders after being traded from Boise before the Clippers came calling again. “I was telling somebody this morning, I’ve been living out of my suitcase – like really living out of a suitcase,” Ayres told Kavner.
Lakers coach Byron Scott isn’t concerned about Jordan Clarkson‘s shooting slump, Bill Oram of the Orange County Register writes. The second-year shooting guard has averaged 9.7 points, shot 29.5% from the field and made just two of 17 3-point attempts over the past three games. “I don’t put a whole lot of stock into it,” Scott told Oram and other members of the media. “You’re going to have stretches of this season, which is a long season, where you’re going to have some bad games.”
Rookie shooting guard Devin Booker is being groomed as the Suns‘ go-to player at the end of games, according to Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. Interim head coach Earl Watson is putting the ball in his hands during those situations to see how he responds, as Watson relayed to Coro. “Devin has to learn how to finish games at the elbow like Kobe Bryant,” Watson said. “He knows that. We talked about that. That’s the progression of him finishing games.”

Pacific Notes: Cousins, Bender, Knight

March 16th, 2016 at 6:57pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Kings will listen to offers for DeMarcus Cousins this summer, but it’s unlikely that a trade occurs until they lower their asking price, Sam Amick of USA Today writes.

Last June, Sacramento reportedly wanted Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson, the No. 2 pick in the 2015 draft and other draft considerations in exchange for Cousins. Some rival executives believed Sacramento’s demands were outrageous, Amick hears, while other executives viewed the proposal differently, speculating that the Kings didn’t value either the draft picks or unproven prospects as enough for Cousins by themselves because they wanted to win immediately.

The Kings are likely to soften their stance on a Cousins trade if the situation doesn’t improve leading up to the 2017 trade deadline, the scribe adds. Cousins is signed through the 2017/18 season, and he’ll make slightly over $35MM during the two seasons that follow this one.

Here’s more from the Pacific Division

The Kings would like to mend their relationship with Cousins, and some within the organization hope that it could be fixed with a coaching change in the offseason, Amick writes in the same piece.
Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak was in attendance for Maccabi Tel Aviv’s practice in Israel today, presumably to watch Dragan Bender, Jake Fischer of SI Now reports (Twitter link).
The acquisition of Brandon Knight hasn’t worked out for the Suns, and the team would be foolish not to consider trading him, Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post opines. Bontemps argues that Knight’s five-year, $70MM deal is movable, and that with the emergence of Devin Booker, the team can afford to make a move in the backcourt.

Pacific Notes: Scott, Watson, Cauley-Stein, Curry

March 15th, 2016 at 10:13am CST by Chuck Myron

A theory going around the league suggests Byron Scott isn’t necessarily in his last season as Lakers coach, as Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck relays (Twitter links). The idea suggests the Lakers will keep Scott for one more year, delaying the appointment of his successor in case Knicks team president Phil Jackson exercises the opt-out that’s in his contract for the summer of 2017, moves to the Lakers, and wants to handpick a coach, according to Beck. The Bleacher Report scribe cautions that it’s just a theory. Sources close to Jackson and the Lakers tell Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com that the Zen Master is unlikely to return to the franchise that fiancee Jeanie Buss owns, with Jackson loving life in New York and perhaps thinking of coaching the Knicks on a part-time basis, as we rounded up earlier amid a slew of other coaching rumors. There’s news on the Lakers there, and more on other Pacific Division teams here:

Earl Watson has an interim tag on his title as Suns coach, but he’s already dreaming of ways to combine the talents of guards Eric Bledsoe, Brandon Knight and Devin Booker next season when Bledsoe returns from the torn meniscus in his left knee, observes Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. Booker has been seeing time at point guard, but his 6’6″ length means the situation is distinct from Phoenix’s failed experiment of having Bledsoe, Goran Dragic and Isaiah Thomas on the same team, Coro writes.
Watson is a believer in the internal growth of the the team, pointing to the emergence of Booker and Alex Len, as Coro relays in the same piece. “We enhanced bench production without a trade,” Watson said. “How many teams can say they did that without paying a guy to come in? So when you go into free agency, you have six guys who can give you 30 [points] at any time. The creativity is how do you build around it? As a full program, we can throw a lot of things on the board and we don’t have to say, ‘We need to bring in a scoring player,’ that’s going to command most of our money in free agency. Now we can be really crafty.”
Kings coach George Karl plans to increase playing time for Willie Cauley-Stein and Seth Curry down the stretch, notes Sean Cunningham of KXTV-TV in Sacramento (Twitter link). Cauley-Stein recently described Karl’s explanation for not giving him more minutes as “kind of flimsy,” while Curry has expressed mild frustration about his lack of burn.

Draft Notes: Ingram, Simmons, Dunn, Bentil

March 14th, 2016 at 3:18pm CST by Chuck Myron

Duke small forward Brandon Ingram is the new No. 1 crowning the list of top 2016 draft prospects that Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress compiles. Questions that dog LSU combo forward Ben Simmons about his shooting, competitiveness, character and whether he prefers to make highlights over sound fundamental plays have led Givony to make the change to Ingram, as the scribe details in a piece for The Vertical on Yahoo Sports. It’s a fluid process, naturally, and more than three months remain until the June 23rd draft. Still, given the hype surrounding Simmons, it’s a significant development. See more on the player Givony now lists No. 2 amid news on the draft:

Simmons plans to sign with Klutch Sports and agent Rich Paul, league sources told Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports. That comes as no surprise in the wake of a recruiting effort that’s gone on for years, as Wojnarowski details. Emily Bush, Simmons’ older sister, has been a Klutch employee since 2014, Wojnarowski notes.
Top-10 prospect Kris Dunn is leaning toward Roc Nation Sports to represent him, according to Jake Fischer of SI Now (Twitter link). The Providence point guard is No. 5 in Givony’s rankings and seventh with Chad Ford of ESPN.com.
Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops looks at Dunn as well as other key prospects who took part in last week’s Big East tournament. A 38-point game from Dunn’s teammate, power forward Ben Bentil, stole the show, and one Eastern Conference executive told Scotto he’s hearing that Bentil would go in the late first or early second round if he declares.

Pacific Notes: Cousins, Karl, Dawson, Davis

March 14th, 2016 at 11:00am CST by Chuck Myron

DeMarcus Cousins and George Karl can’t find common ground on much these days, even on the matter of whether they spoke with one another in between his one-game suspension and Sacramento’s loss on Sunday to the Jazz. Karl said before the Utah game that he and Cousins had engaged in small talk, but Cousins insisted after the game that the Kings coach hadn’t said a word to him, reports Marc J. Spears of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports. People around Cousins believe Karl has pushed the Kings to suspend him on several occasions this season, according to Spears, who adds that a November tirade Cousins directed at Karl deeply affected the coach. GM Vlade Divac, when told that Cousins believes the suspension came from Karl and not the organzation, only smiled and said simply that he loves Cousins, Spears observes.

“There is a lot of chaos,” Cousins said. “Usually, there is just frustration with coming out and winning games. But so much extra stuff this season. Extra unnecessary stuff. It’s a lot of stuff within. There are battles with guys that should be on your side.”

See more on the Kings situation amid news from the Pacific Division:

Cousins insists he’s not the only one frustrated with the situation, notes Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee. “I know for a fact there’s a lot of frustration in this locker room,” Cousins said. “I believe everyone believes we should be a lot better than we are and we’re just frustrated that we’re not. We haven’t performed to the level of expectations, so there’s a lot of frustration with that.”
Clippers rookie Branden Dawson was freed from jail on $50K bond Sunday afternoon, according to Dan Woike of the Orange County Register (Twitter link). Dawson was arrested Sunday morning on felony domestic violence charges, according to TMZ Sports. His first court appearance is set for April 7th, notes Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times (on Twitter). That’s an off day before an April 8th game at Utah. “Obviously, it’s an awful situation,” Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers said, as Rowan Kavner of Clippers.com relays (Twitter link). “…We’ll figure out what we want to do and how we want to handle it.”
It’s a long shot, but Baron Davis would prefer to rejoin the Warriors if he makes it back to the NBA, notes Jay Mariotti of the San Francisco Examiner. Davis has nonetheless said he’d play for any team as he tries to return, having recently joined the D-League affiliate of the Sixers.