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Heat Notes: Beasley, Mason, Riley

Former Heat big man Kurt Thomas is considering an NBA return, but it won’t be with the club he played for more than any other.  The veteran’s agent says that he won’t play for the Knicks as he wants to play for a team with a “legitimate” chance of winning the title.  Ouch.  Here’s the latest from South Beach..

  • The Heat‘s reclamation projects continue to pay off, writes Ethan Skolnick of Bleacher Report.  Michael Beasley, Chris Andersen and Roger Mason Jr. have all contributed off of the bench and Greg Oden could provide another major boost when he returns.
  • The contract guarantee deadline is Tuesday, but Heat coach Erik Spoelstra spoke confidently about Mason being on the roster for the rest of the season, writes Shandel Richardson of the Sun-Sentinel. “We don’t take him for granted or other players like that off the bench,” Spoelstra said. “Roger, now, is gaining more confidence each game that he plays with our system. Those kind of guys are hard to find. They really are. To be able to sacrifice, to understand the big picture, to be available when we need him and to be able to produce and not be cluttered in the mind, I think a lot of teams would like to have a guy like him or some of the other guys we have.
  • Drew Voros of Index Universe spoke with Heat president Pat Riley about his methods for success in a wide-ranging interview.

Eastern Notes: Pacers, Young, Harrellson

The Pacers announced their recall of Solomon Hill from the D-League today, a move that came none too soon for the rookie, as Scott Agness of Pacers.com details. Hill averaged 29.5 minutes in two games for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, about 10 fewer minutes per game than Pacers teammate Orlando Johnson saw during his assignments to the D-League last season.

“The D-League is for developing talent and I didn’t get a chance to play,” Hill said. “I sat the whole fourth quarter. It’s like, is it really a developmental league? I’m very grateful for the opportunity to play with the Mad Ants organization, but in order for me to try to develop, I have to be on the floor. That just makes me think about my next trip, if I want to go back down there. I’m kind of not tempted to go back down there now just because if I go down there and play 25 minutes after a two-hour drive, it’s like, am I really developing?”

Hill went on to say that he still feels like he got something from the experience, but it’s a reminder that the continued growth of the D-League will face some resistance. Pacers coach Frank Vogel doesn’t believe in sending players to the D-League if they don’t want to go, so don’t count on seeing Hill in Fort Wayne again. Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:

  • Any team in the league would love to have Thaddeus Young, an NBA executive tells Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News, who calls the forward the Sixers‘ best trade chip. Young says to Cooney that he wants to be in a winning situation, but he laughs off the notion that he’s disgruntled with the Sixers.
  • This time around, Josh Harrellson doesn’t have to worry as much about Tuesday’s contract guarantee date, writes David Mayo of MLive.com. The Pistons forward didn’t survive the cut with the Heat last season, but this year, he’s a rotation player and much more likely to stick.
  • As the Cavs ponder their options with Andrew Bynum, the Plain Dealer’s Terry Pluto implores the team to make a move to upgrade its roster and stick to its plan of striving for a playoff berth this season.
  • In today’s mailbag, a reader asks Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel if the Heat should consider making a run at the recently waived Hedo Turkoglu. Rashard Lewis more or less already has the role that Turkoglu would fill as a big man with range, even if there’s no such thing as too much three-point shooting, Winderman writes.

Zach Links contributed to this post.

Berger On Asik, Lakers, Clippers, Lowry

Word is the Rockets now expect to keep center Omer Asik past next month’s deadline and beyond, writes Ken Berger of CBSSports.com.  Houston worked hard to find a deal last month but the market for the big man right now isn’t so great.  “Teams that are tanking don’t want him to make them better and winning teams want to steal him,” one rival GM said.  On top of that, the teams with room in 2015 can sign him anyway as a free agent on a more reasonable contract.  More from Berger’s column..

  • For now, the Lakers intend to keep Pau Gasol and ride it out with the current group.  In fact, league sources say the Lakers even inquired on Raptors guard Kyle Lowry to help patch up at the one spot, though the talks didn’t go anywhere.  Things could change, however, as the temptation to dump salary and avert a date with the dreaded repeater tax will remain given their current position
  • Doc Rivers is realizing the Clippers‘ roster has more holes than he initially thought and league sources say he’s is looking for frontcourt help on the trade market.  It would help matters if they still had Eric Bledsoe to dangle but he went in the three-team deal that yielded J.J. Redick and Jared Dudley.
  • Meanwhile, the Timberwolves are also after frontcourt help in the form of an athletic rim protector.
  • League sources say the pairing of Bledsoe and Goran Dragic in the Suns backcourt isn’t expected to be a long-term solution for the Suns.  Execs believe Dragic will opt out of his contract following the 2014/15 season, putting pressure on GM Ryan McDonough to make a trade.  Jazz standout Gordon Hayward has put his team in a similar spot as his price may prove too high for Utah when he hits restricted free agency this summer.
  • The Cavaliers and Kings have been among the most aggressive teams in pursuit of trades, league sources say.  On the heels of acquiring Rudy Gay from Toronto, the Kings are “swinging for the fences” on the trade market, one rival executive said.  Sacramento wants to shore up the point guard position, but Kings GM Pete D’Alessandro‘s true long-term target is said to be Warriors sharpshooter Klay Thompson.
  • In addition to the Lakers, Knicks, and Nets, the Timberwolves, Warriors, and Celtics are among the teams that have inquired about a deal with the Raptors for Lowry, league sources say.  Raptors GM Masai Ujiri is said to have multiple deals he could do for Lowry that would involve receiving an expiring contract in return or slotting him into another team’s trade exception.  For Toronto take on future salary, they’d probably demand a first-round draft choice.
  • The reception to the proposed “wheel system” to determine NBA draft placement has been mixed.  Meanwhile, it has sparked other ideas, including a straight lottery with all 14 non-playoff teams getting an equal shot at the No. 1 pick.

Following Specific Players On Hoops Rumors

As we’ve outlined before, there are a number of different ways to follow Hoops Rumors via Facebook, Twitter, and RSS. If you don’t want to follow all the site’s updates, you can subscribe to team-specific or transaction-only Facebook, Twitter, and RSS feeds. Although we don’t have Facebook pages or Twitter feeds for specific players, you can also easily follow all our updates on your favorite player.

If, for instance, you want to keep track of all the latest news and rumors on Carmelo Anthony as he plays a potential contract year, you can visit this page. If you’re interested in keeping tabs on the latest trade rumors involving Andrew Bynum, you can find Bynum’s page right here.

Every player we’ve written about has his own rumors page. You can find your player of choice by using our search box (located in the right sidebar); by clicking his tag at the bottom of a post where he’s discussed; or, by simply typing his name in your address bar after hoopsrumors.com, substituting dashes for spaces. For example, Carmelo’s page is located at hoopsrumors.com/carmelo-anthony.

In addition to players and teams, there are a number of other subjects you can track by clicking on the tags we use at the bottom of posts. Items related to the NBA D-League, for instance, can be found on this rumors page. If you want to follow updates on the 2014 NBA draft, those are all available here.

Notable January Trades

Most of this season’s deals will go down within 24 hours of the February 20th trade deadline. That doesn’t mean January won’t feature at least one intriguing swap. Last season there were two trades, and while the Grizzlies helped their ledger with a three-for-one swap with the Cavs on the 22nd, the deal that really made waves came eight days later, when Memphis shipped Rudy Gay out of town. The Raptors put Gay into yet another trade last month, so there’s certainly precedent for big names changing teams at or before this point in the season.

Here’s a look back at the most significant January trade from each of the past four years, deals in which the Grizzlies and Mavericks figured prominently:

January 30th, 2013: In a three-team deal, the Grizzlies traded Rudy Gay and Hamed Haddadi to the Raptors, the Pistons traded Austin Daye and Tayshaun Prince to the Grizzlies, and the Raptors traded Jose Calderon to the Pistons and Ed Davis and a 2013 second-round pick (Jamaal Franklin) to the Grizzlies.

  • The only player from this trade still with Toronto less than a year later is Daye, and he wasn’t even sent to the Raptors in this deal; he signed with the Raptors in the offseason after playing out the rest of 2012/13 with the Mavericks. The Pistons are similarly empty-handed, though they used the cap flexibility created when they sent out Prince’s long-term deal to help them sign Josh Smith this past summer.

January 4th, 2012: In a three team deal, the Grizzlies traded Xavier Henry to the Pelicans and a 2012 second-round pick (Tornike Shengelia) to the Sixers, the Pelicans traded a second-round pick (Glen Rice Jr.) to the Sixers, and the Sixers traded Marreese Speights to the Grizzlies.

  • The Pelicans (then Hornets) wound up with a player picked 12th overall just 18 months prior for the cost of a mere second-round pick, though Henry didn’t display his promise until he wound up with the Lakers this season. The Grizzlies dealt Henry away for frontcourt depth in the wake of an injury to Darrell Arthur, and Memphis would shed Speights a little more than a year later in last year’s three-for-one trade. The Sixers sent out both of the second-rounders they acquired in later trades.

January 24th, 2011: The Mavericks traded Alexis Ajinca, cash, and a 2013 second-round draft pick (Jamaal Franklin) to the Raptors for Georgios Printezis.

  • Recent Pelicans signee Ajinca endured his second trade in a little more than six months and was on his way out of the league for two years until New Orleans brought him back two weeks ago.

January 11th, 2010: The Mavericks traded Kris Humphries and Shawne Williams to the Nets for Eduardo Najera.

  • Humphries was a lightly regarded backup before he got to the Nets, but the then-sixth-year power forward assumed his most significant role to date in New Jersey, and the Nets re-signed him to a one-year, $8MM deal after the lockout. He made even more on his next contract, a two-year, $24MM pact that expires at the end of this season.

Hoops Rumors Features

Hoops Rumors passes along the latest news and rumors on NBA player movement 365 days a year, but those aren’t the only updates you’ll see on the site. On our right sidebar, you’ll find a number of additional features and featured posts. Here’s a rundown of a few of them:

  • You can follow all our updates about your favorite teams or players on your iPhone or iPad using the Hoops Rumors app.
  • We’re still keeping a close eye on free agency with the help of our list of 2013 free agents. If you want to look ahead to the summer of 2014 or 2015, we’ve rounded up those free agents as well. All of these FA lists will continue to be modified as needed.
  • Not all the players currently on NBA rosters have guaranteed deals, and we’ve broken down the non-guaranteed contracts by team. All the deals on that page will become guaranteed next week if players aren’t waived on or before Tuesday.
  • Our list of 2013/14 roster counts is a convenient tool for keeping tabs on how many players your favorite NBA team is carrying, and how many guaranteed contracts are on each club’s books.
  • It’s trade season in the NBA, so we’re tracking this season’s deals and profiling players we consider trade candidates.
  • If your favorite team has a better chance at Andrew Wiggins or Jabari Parker than at a playoff berth, be sure to follow our reverse standings, which are updated daily to reflect the projected 2014 draft order.
  • We’re keeping tabs on this season’s D-League assignments right here.
  • Our agency database is a handy reference point for determining the representation for virtually every NBA player.
  • Using our 10-day contract tracker, you can find any 10-day contract signed since 2007, sorting by player, team, year, and other variables.
  • On Mondays at 4:00pm CT, I answer readers’ questions in a live chat. You can check out transcripts of our past live discussions here.
  • Our list of outstanding traded player exceptions is updated whenever a trade exception is created, is used, or expires.
  • We’re tracking teams’ amnesty provisions — using our complete list, you can check to see which clubs have used the amnesty clause and which will have it available next summer.
  • The Hoops Rumors glossary helps explain some of the more complex concepts in the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement.
  • Zach Links rounds up the best of the blogosphere every Sunday in his weekly Hoops Links feature.
  • If you’re looking to catch up on a few days worth of content, our Week in Review posts round up the week’s news and rumors, while our Hoops Rumors Originals posts recap the site’s original content for the week. Both round-ups are published every Sunday.
  • Be sure to check out the Featured Posts section on the right sidebar for more original pieces from the Hoops Rumors writing team. Recently, we detailed how December’s Kings/Raptors trade worked financially, listed players with trade kickers, and explained why the Rockets had imposed an unofficial deadline to trade Omer Asik.

Odds & Ends: Irving, Raptors, Trade Talk

As the Andrew Bynum rumors continue to pour in, the Cavaliers got some very good news today. Currently sitting only three games out of the East’s eight seed, the Cavs announced that star guard Kyrie Irving‘s left knee sustained no structural damage on Tuesday when he had to be helped off the court after an awkward fall.

Let’s take a look at what else is happening around the NBA on Wednesday:

Odds & Ends: Grizzlies, Horford, Bennett, Dolan

While they’re only a few months removed from an appearance in the Western Finals, the Grizzlies aren’t currently in position to make the playoffs this season, and may have to start looking toward the future, Mark Deeks of ShamSports.com writes in a piece for SBNation.com. Tonight’s look around the Association…

  • An NBA exec says that even though he hasn’t spoken with the Cavs, “they’re clearly aggressive” in trying to trade Andrew Bynum and are active in other talks, according to Sam Amico of FOX Sports (via Twitter).
  • Al Horford will undergo surgery for his torn pectoral muscle on Tuesday, a source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter).  Last week, we learned that the Hawks big man is done for the season thanks to the injury.
  • Cavs rookie Anthony Bennett is trying to cope with the widespread criticism he has received so far this season, writes Bob Finnan of the News-Herald.  The No. 1 overall pick is averaging 2.4 points and 2.0 rebounds while shooting 27.7% from the field and 15.4% from the three-point arc.
  • Knicks owner James Dolan’s poor basketball sense has put the club in a terrible position, opines Phil Mushnick of the New York Post.

Luke Adams contributed to this post.

Players Out For Season Worth Total Of $54.2MM

News that another former All-Star will probably miss the season broke Friday, as Al Horford went down with a torn pectoral muscle. He joins a group of seven players who are either definitively out for the year or appear to have a strong chance of missing the rest of the season. Derrick Rose‘s more than $17.6MM salary leads the bunch, and put together, those injured players will make $54,200,765 in 2013/14. All of that money is guaranteed salary.

It’s a figure that’s just a few million dollars shy of the $58.679MM salary cap, and it’s greater than the entire payroll of the Sixers, who have a player of their own on the list in Nerlens Noel. That total doesn’t include the salaries of recovering stars like Kobe BryantRussell Westbrook and Marc Gasol, who are all missing significant time but should return later this season. It also doesn’t account for players like Danilo Gallinari and Carl Landry, who’ve yet to play this season because of injury but are slated to come back at some point before 2013/14 is over.

Some of the teams with players who are out for the season may wind up with some additional flexibility via the disabled player exception, but even that wouldn’t make an injured player’s salary stop counting against the salary cap or toward luxury tax penalties. When a player with a fully guaranteed contract goes down for the season, it’s a sunk cost.

Here are the seven players lost for 2013/14, in descending order of their salaries:

ShamSports was used in the creation of this post.

Atlantic Notes: Noel, Kidd, Knicks, Woodson

Today’s look at the Atlantic Division..

  • Nerlens Noel is steadily progressing in his rehabilitation from a torn ACL,  a source told Shams Charania of RealGM.  The Kentucky product has added muscle and weighed in at 223 pounds late last week.  However, there doesn’t’ appear to be any urgency to get Noel onto the court this season within the 76ers organization.  It wouldn’t make sense to rush Noel back given the club’s current position and the upside that the big man has.
  • Andy Vasquez of The Bergen Record wonders if the Nets‘ victory over the Bucks was a product of coach Jason Kidd‘s message finally getting through or the Bucks just being a weaker opponent.  Yesterday, it was reported that Kidd is losing the locker room as Brooklyn continues to struggle.  If Kidd can’t right the ship, he might be ousted before the February All-Star break.
  • Kidd’s not the only New York coach in trouble, of course.  Mike Woodson needs to save the Knicks‘ season to save his job, writes Filip Bondy of the New York Daily News.  Tyson Chandler points to team fatigue, but Knicks’ management might not give Woodson the benefit of the doubt.