San Antonio Spurs Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Texas Notes: Mavericks, Spurs, Cuban, Jackson

April 21st, 2013 at 7:16pm CST by Zachary Links

Here's a look at some items on the Mavs and Spurs..

The Mavericks have to make all the right moves this summer in order to get back to the postseason in 2013/14, writes Dwain Price of the Star-Telegram. Price writes that the Mavs badly need a rim protector and dominant rebounder along with a point guard who can create his own shot off the dribble. They had those players two years ago in Tyson Chandler and J.J. Barea, but they turned down one year offers from the Mavs.
Former Mavericks forward Antawn Jamison believes that Mark Cuban will find a way to get Dallas back to the playoffs, Price writes. “I don’t ever count Mark out,’’ said Jamison, who is now with the Lakers. “That little rascal’s got something up his sleeves…You know him. He’s sitting there watching the playoffs like, ‘OK, they think I’m done.’ ‘’
Ric Bucher of 95.7 The Game (on Sulia) disagrees with the Spurs' decision to cut Stephen Jackson loose.

Southwest Notes: Hornets, Mayo, Brand, Spurs

April 17th, 2013 at 4:47pm CST by Luke Adams

As we look forward to the last night of the NBA's 2012/13 regular season, let's round up a few items out of the Southwest Division….

Although the Hornets will finish as one of the bottom three teams in the Western Conference, coach Monty Williams is encouraged by the strides some of his players made this season. "There are a lot of positives," Williams told John Reid of the Times-Picayune. "We firmly believe that guys who come here have a great chance to improve their game because of our program and the things we do. I think it’s just going to get better as we add experience and start to bring in more talent in the next few years."
O.J. Mayo, who has a player option for 2013/14, says he'd like to return to the Mavericks next season, tweets Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. I'd still be surprised if Mayo exercises the option rather than exploring the market.
Elton Brand also expressed a desire to return to the Mavs next season, though he said "we'll see what happens in the summer," as Price tweets.
Writing for The Basketball Jones, Mark Deeks of ShamSports notes how unusual it is for established NBA players like Tracy McGrady to sign deals at the end of the regular season. For the Spurs, there may not be much potential reward, but there's no risk either, says Deeks.
The Grizzlies inked a pair of free agents earlier today, adding Donte Greene and Willie Reed.

Odds & Ends: Budinger, McGrady, Hennigan

April 16th, 2013 at 11:00pm CST by Alex Lee

As Tuesday night winds down, here are some odds and ends from around the NBA:

Chase Budinger, a soon-to-be unrestricted free agent, would like to return to the Timberwolves next season but is only likely to do so if Rick Adelman is retained as the head coach, writes Jerry Zgoda of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Adelman pushed the Wolves to acquire Budinger, who he coached in Houston, in a draft-day trade with the Rockets last June. Budinger missed four months this season with a knee injury.
After he signed Tracy McGrady, general manager R.C. Buford said that with the status of the Spurs roster right now, they "felt like [they] needed to look at some depth and experience," tweets Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News (via Twitter).
The true winner of last summer's biggest blockbuster was Magic GM Rob Hennigan, writes Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel. Hennigan fleeced the Sixers and obtained three first-round draft picks and Arron Afflalo, says Bianchi, and most important, did not end up with Andrew Bynum.
Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer looks at the biggest issues facing the lowly Bobcats this summer, specifically pointing at the futures of head coach Mike Dunlap, restricted free-agent-to-be Gerald Henderson as well as the six other Bobcats who could become free agents.

Spurs Sign Tracy McGrady

April 16th, 2013 at 3:45pm CST by Luke Adams

3:45pm: The Spurs have officially signed McGrady, the team announced in a press release.

3:25pm: The Spurs will sign Tracy McGrady for the remainder of the regular season, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter). Because McGrady hasn't played for an NBA team this season, he'll be playoff-eligible for the Spurs.

McGrady, 33, spent most of the 2012/13 season with China's Qingdao Double Star Eagles, averaging 25.0 PPG and 7.2 RPG in 29 games in the CBA. Despite his solid scoring totals overseas, one executive told Ian Thomsen of SI.com last month that he'd be "shocked" if McGrady signed with an NBA team this season. Zach Lowe of Grantland.com tweets that the move is one of the most "out-of-nowhere" end-of-season signings he can recall.

The agreement with McGrady comes on the heels of another surprising transaction by the Spurs, as the team waived Stephen Jackson on Friday. Jackson's release left the club with just 14 players, so a corresponding roster move won't be necessary to clear room for T-Mac.

McGrady was actually reasonably effective for a bench player in his last NBA action. He spent 2011/12 with the Hawks, putting up 5.3 PPG and a 13.6 PER in 52 contests (16.1 MPG).

Odds & Ends: T’Wolves, Temple, Magic, Mavs

April 14th, 2013 at 12:24am CST by Ryan Raroque

Kevin Love seemed optimistic about being able to bounce back from a difficult season with the best offseason of his life, writes Kent Youngblood of the Star Tribune. He also spoke about his desire for Rick Adelman to continue coaching the team, saying: "We need to have him back…I know his family comes first, but hopefully we can sit down and talk to him. This year has given us a lot of perspective, and hopefully he can see we have the making of a very good team here. We can make a push and have a special year next year…I think he’ll come back.”

You can find more of tonight's miscellaneous links below:

According to Ray Richardson of the Pioneer Press, Rick Adelman has deemed finding a quality shooting guard among the top of Minnesota's priorities this offseason.
Garrett Temple hopes to have found a home with the Wizards, telling J. Michael of CSN Washington that he'd "love" to be back with them next year.
Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel thinks that the Magic should look to move Arron Afflalo, Jameer Nelson, and/or Glen Davis (at least one of them) in order to continue creating cap space for the future.
Jan Hubbard of Sheridan Hoops wonders if a 35-year-old Dirk Nowitzki will have to endure another season like this one, especially if the Mavericks are unable to hit a home run in free agency for the second straight year after breaking up their championship roster.
Though Mark Cuban isn't happy that Dallas is going to miss the postseason, he vouched for coach Rick Carlisle: "Rick’s a great coach…We obviously didn’t have what we thought we would have, but we obviously should have had more. I don’t know if we could have, but we should have, so it’s all on me. If that means I let Rick down, I let Rick down" (Dwain Price of the Star-Telegram reports).
Jeff McDonald of Spurs Nation writes that Manu Ginobili has been "progressing" in rehab according to coach Gregg Popovich, and that the Spurs veteran shooting guard could be cleared for full contact soon. On a more unfortunate note, Boris Diaw is expected to miss three-to-f0ur weeks (including the start of the playoffs) after the forward underwent a procedure to remove a synovial cyst that had been bothering his spine.

Odds & Ends: Mavs, Collins, Jackson, Jordan

April 12th, 2013 at 11:48pm CST by Chuck Myron

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban takes the blame for his team's subpar season, saying he failed to construct an adequate roster and promising he'll be more attentive this summer, observes Tim McMahon of ESPNDallas.com. "I'm not making any predictions," the owner said. "All I'm saying is we're not going to do a traditional rebuild. That's (why) we got all this cap room, so we wouldn't. We're going to be opportunistic."

Cuban also made headlines this evening for his desire to keep Vince Carter for years to come, but there are plenty of other newsmakers tonight:

Contradicting a report from earlier this week, John Finger of CSNPhilly.com writes that Sixers management wants to keep Doug Collins for as long as he has a desire to coach.
Collins will still receive his $4.5MM salary for next season if the Sixers fire him, but he won't get the money if he quits, notes Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News.
Stephen Jackson's discontent, which was apparently at the root of his release from the Spurs, didn't stem from the lack of a contract extension, but simply a desire for more playing time, according to Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News.
Lakers assistant coach Eddie Jordan is nearing a deal to become the next head coach at Rutgers, tweets Chick Hernandez of CSNWashington.com. Jordan is willing to take the job even if it means he'd have to leave the Lakers right away, reports Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Times.
Mike Woodson has interest in Kurt Thomas rejoining the Knicks as an assistant coach next season, as Chris Herring of The Wall Street Journal notes via Twitter.
North Carolina announced sophomore swingman P.J. Hairston is returning to school, tweets Andy Katz of ESPN.com. Hairston is No. 40 on Chad Ford's list of prospects for ESPN.com, while Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com has Hairston at No. 14 on his 2014 mock draft.
Before he gets into the latest edition of his mock draft, Chris Mannix of SI.com discusses Louisville's Russ Smith, whom coach Rick Pitino now says is "50-50" to go pro after it seemed earlier that he would enter the draft. At least one scout who spoke to Mannix thinks Smith would go undrafted in June.

Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors contributed to this post.

Fallout From Spurs’ Release Of Stephen Jackson

April 12th, 2013 at 7:21pm CST by Chuck Myron

Usually, roster moves this time of year involve tweaks to the end of the bench, so San Antonio's decision to waive Stephen Jackson, who averaged close to 20 minutes per game this season, comes as a surprise. We're beginning to hear some of the reasons why the team let Jackson go, as well as some reaction from the locker room.

The timing of the move was strategic, according to USA Today's Jeff Zillgitt. Jackson and the team had discussed a release prior to the trade deadline, but the Spurs preferred to wait until after the March 1st deadline for him to have been eligible to play for another team in the postseason.
Jackson has made just one appearance of at least 20 minutes in the last month, so his lack of minutes made it easier for the team to make the move. Still, it was a risk, since Jackson was popular with his Spurs teammates, notes Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links).
Danny Green, one of Jackson's now-former teammates, expressed shock as he explained his feeling about the move. Dan McCarney of the San Antonio News-Express has the details in three Twitter links.
Gregg Popovich addressed the move with reporters this evening, and fellow Express-News scribe Jeff McDonald shares some of his remarks. "Tough decision, because on a personal basis, I’ve known him a long time and I enjoy him very much," Popovich said of Jackson. "But you’ve got to make decisions that are tough sometimes. We thought this was best for our group." (Twitter links)
Popovich also called the move "a basketball decision and a family decision." Jackson took the news in a "classy" manner, Popovich added, though the coach wouldn't answer whether he thought Jackson had been disgruntled (Twitter links).
The move caught Jackson off-guard, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The Spurs felt Jackson had begun to have a negative influence on the team's younger players, and the team's brass didn't feel like Jackson's play of late was justifying the disruption.
The Spurs front office knew what it was getting with Jackson and had wanted to add "edge" to the locker room when the team acquired him last season, tweets Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com.

Spurs Release Stephen Jackson

April 12th, 2013 at 5:13pm CST by Luke Adams

5:13pm: The Spurs have sent out a press release officially announcing that they've waived Jackson.

4:50pm: Jackson and head coach Gregg Popovich had been "sparring" about Jackson's role with the Spurs all season, according to Wojnarowski. The two sides discussed a potential release prior to the trade deadline, but agreed to move forward for the rest of the season. However, the disagreements resurfaced this week, says Wojnarowski (Twitter links).

4:24pm: With just over a week until the postseason gets underway, the Spurs have waived Stephen Jackson, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter). It's not clear yet why the Spurs are parting ways with Jackson, but one source tells Wojnarowski that it's been "brewing for a few days" (Twitter link). Art Garcia of FOX Sports Southwest first tweeted word of the roster move.

Jackson, 35, hadn't been having a strong season on the court, with his averages of 6.2 PPG and 8.1 PER the lowest he has posted in over a decade. Nonetheless, given the timing of the move and his place in the Spurs' rotation, I would assume he's out of work for off-the-court rather than on-court reasons.

Jackson had been playing out the final year of his contract, earning more than $10MM this season. He won't lose any of that money by being waived, though he will hit free agency a few months earlier than expected. Since he was released after the March 1st buyout deadline though, he'd be ineligible for the postseason, making it unlikely that he catches on with another team next week.

As for the Spurs, they had been carrying a full roster of 15 players, so the move opens up a spot for a free agent, should they choose to make an addition.

D-League Moves: Machado, Baynes, Garrett

April 8th, 2013 at 3:07pm CST by Zachary Links

We'll keep track of today's D-League assignments here..

After signing him yesterday, the Warriors assigned Scott Machado to their D-League affiliate in Santa Cruz, according to a press release. Machado will be in action for the Warriors' first round series against the Fort Wayne Mad Ants on Wednesday.
The Spurs announced that they have recalled Aron Baynes from their D-League affiliate. Baynes has appeared in 11 games with the Austin Toros, averaging 13.9 points and 8.7 rebounds in 26.9 minutes.
Earlier this week, the Suns announced that they had assigned guard Diante Garrett to the Bakersfield Jam of the NBA D-League. Garrett has now been recalled from the D-League. The 6'4" guard was first assigned on January 10th to the Jam, where he averaged 15.1 points, 7.4 assists, and 1.7 steals in seven games for the Jam (five starts).

Southwest Notes: Hornets, Gordon, Spurs, Mavs

April 8th, 2013 at 10:11am CST by Zachary Links

The Hornets couldn't find a deal for Eric Gordon at the trade deadline this year, but they'll probably be open to trading him during the offseason. The guard had the right to veto a deal in his first year, making it extra difficult to find a deal. Could New Orleans part ways with Gordon and others after the season? Here's more on that and other news out of the Southwest..

Steve Kyler of HoopsWorld writes that the Hornets will have options this summer. Kyler expects the Hornets to re-start talks on deals as soon as the season ends with Gordon but possibly other roster veterans like Ryan Anderson and Robin Lopez.
Former NBA player Trajan Langdon is now a scout for the Spurs and combing the D-League for its best talent, writes Gino Pilato of Ridiculous Upside. Langdon has experience at every level of basketball, having also been a college star and a standout in Europe.
Baylor women's basketball star Brittney Griner is ready to take Mavs owner Mark Cuban up on his offer of an NBA tryout after the WNBA season, writes Doug Feinberg of the Associated Press. The 6'8" center will be the first overall pick by the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA draft April 15th.