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Latest On Kevin Durant

May 6th, 2016 at 11:10am CST by Chuck Myron

The theory among the teams eager to pursue Kevin Durant this summer is that the Thunder’s second-round series against the Spurs will decide whether he leaves Oklahoma City, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Durant would stay if the Thunder win and leave if they lose, Stein relays, stressing that it’s merely an assumption among the front offices. The Spurs, with the series tied 1-1, indeed have designs on luring Durant to San Antonio, Stein hears, echoing what several rival executives suggested to Chris Mannix of The Vertical in March.

Zach Lowe of ESPN.com recently compared the talk about Durant joining the Spurs as “eerily similar” to the early rumblings that connected LaMarcus Aldridge to San Antonio last year. Still, the Warriors loom as another powerful suitor, and The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported in February at that they would be significant front-runners for Durant if he were to leave the Thunder. Golden State is optimistic about its chances, and chatter has gone on since the Warriors’ record 24-0 start about the kinship Durant formed on Team USA with Stephen Curry and Andre Iguodala, Stein writes. The Wizards, Heat, Celtics, Rockets, Lakers and Clippers are planning hard pushes for Durant, too, according to Stein, who cautions that it’s premature to peg any team aside from the Thunder as the favorite to land him.

Neither the Warriors nor the Spurs have the cap flexibility to sign Durant for his max of an estimated $26MM for next season without making trades, waiving players via the stretch provision, or both. The Vertical’s Bobby Marks illustrated a scenario involving maneuvers that would give the Warriors enough room to sign Durant, and Danny Leroux of The Sporting News laid out San Antonio’s path. The Clippers would have to offload either Chris Paul, Blake Griffin or DeAndre Jordan, as I noted in our offseason outlook for the team earlier today.

The teams who assume Durant will stay with the Thunder if Oklahoma City advances to the next round of the playoffs suggest he’d go for a two-year contract with a player option on year two, the same sort of contract LeBron James favors, according to Stein. That would allow Durant the flexibility for him to hit free agency again next summer, when Russell Westbrook‘s contract expires, and it would represent the most lucrative path for the former MVP, as I examined. Still, Durant told Stein at the All-Star break that he hadn’t considered such a contract structure.

Wizards Poised To Make Offer To Tomas Satoransky

May 6th, 2016 at 10:37am CST by Chuck Myron

The Wizards have decided to make a multiyear guaranteed offer to draft-and-stash prospect Tomas Satoransky, sources tell Nikos Varlas of Eurohoops.net. Washington can’t formally present a contract to the Czech combo guard until July, but it appears the team is eager to finally bring the 32nd pick from the 2012 draft to the NBA.

The buyout attached to Satoransky’s contract with Barcelona of Spain is $1.5MM, Varlas notes. That exceeds the $650K that the Wizards can pay toward a buyout without it counting against the cap. The rest would go in the form of a signing bonus spread over the life of the contract in proportion to the percentage of salary guaranteed each year. Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post heard earlier this year that the Wizards would likely sign the 24-year-old to a two-year deal with a team option on the second season if they were to bring him stateside this summer, so in that structure, the entire bonus would hit the cap for this coming season. Varlas’ report suggests multiple seasons will be guaranteed, in which case the cap hit for the bonus would come in season-by-season increments.

Regardless, the addition of Satoransky would give Washington another young player to develop behind backcourt mainstays John Wall and, presuming he re-signs, Bradley Beal. The 6’6″ Satoransky averaged 9.5 points in 24.0 minutes per game with 38.8% 3-point shooting for his Spanish team this past season, and the year before he shot 43.5% from behind the arc.

Knee Expected Back By Start Of Season After Knee Procedures

May 5th, 2016 at 12:50pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Sixers struck deals to hire NBA Associate VP of basketball operations Ned Cohen to a high-ranking basketball operations job and Wizards VP of Scouting Marc Eversley as vice president of player personnel, report The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski, USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt and The Undefeated’s Marc J. Spears (All Twitter links). Cohen and Eversley will presumably report to president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo. Many around the league regard Cohen highly and see him as a future GM, Wojnarowski tweets. Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post previously reported the Sixers were interviewing Eversley, who worked under Colangelo on the Raptors.
John Wall has undergone procedures on both knees, but he’s expected to be ready for the start of next season, the Wizards announced.

Wizards To Work Out A.J. English

May 4th, 2016 at 1:16pm CST by Chuck Myron

Ex-Iona combo guard A.J. English will have predraft workouts with the Bucks, Cavaliers and Wizards, reports Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv (Twitter link).

Wizards Notes: Grunfeld, Morris, Wall

April 30th, 2016 at 8:51pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Wizards owner Ted Leonsis is firmly behind team president Ernie Grunfeld, as well as the rest of the front office, and he explained his rationale for not making broader changes, writes Jerry Brewer of The Washington Post. “Because we were executing to the plan,” Leonsis said. “If we had varied from the plan and the plan didn’t work, then I think it would’ve been in my realm of responsibility to take a look. But we were executing a plan that we agreed to when I bought the team five years ago.”

Here’s more from Washington:

During exit interviews, many of the players on the Wizards indicated that they liked and admired Markieff Morris and that they wanted to play alongside him on the court, according to Leonsis, as J. Michael of CSN Mid-Atlantic passes along.
Leonsis also compared the Wizards‘ deal to acquire the power forward to the 2013 deal for Marcin Gortat, as Michael writes in the same piece. “Was [the Morris trade] on strategy or off strategy? Who did we get for Gortat? Would I trade Gortat for [Tyler] Ennis? The answer is yes,” Leonsis said. The Suns received the No. 18 selection of the 2014 draft as a result of the Gortat trade and they selected Ennis. Washington owes its first-rounder, currently slotted as the No. 13 pick, to Phoenix as part of the Morris trade, as long as the lottery doesn’t move the pick into the top nine.
Newly hired coach Scott Brooks believes John Wall has a chance to grow his game even further and bring the Wizards to new heights, Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post writes. “He has another level, maybe two or three levels. Not only from a basketball standpoint, [but] from a leadership standpoint.” Brooks said. “He has the ability to be one of the best players in the game,”

Wizards Had Brooks Even Before Recruiting Visit

April 29th, 2016 at 1:48pm CST by Chuck Myron

Scott Brooks had already decided he wanted the Wizards job if it were to be offered to him when team executives Ernie Grunfeld and Tommy Sheppard flew to California to recruit him in what turned out to be a 10-hour meeting, writes Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post. “I got everything I wanted, and I wasn’t looking for anything else,” said Brooks, whom the Wizards officially hired this week. “This is where I wanted to be.”

Wizards Notes: Brooks, Porter, Grunfeld

April 28th, 2016 at 9:26pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Wizards believe they landed their ideal coach in Scott Brooks, whose success at the NBA level and track record of working with young players appealed to the franchise, relays J. Michael of CSN Mid-Atlantic.com. “We felt like he was the perfect coach for our situation,” team president Ernie Grunfeld said. “His record speaks for itself. He’s been where we want to be, where we want to go to. The other thing we love about him is he developed young players.”

Brooks noted his respect for the team’s roster and stressed the need to establish a new culture, Michael adds. “I’ve been competing against this team for a lot of years,” Brooks said. “This day and age with NBA teams, you need two-way players to compete night in and night out. I have very simple rules and I always establish from the very start, ‘Your job is to play hard every night. The second job you have to do is play hard for your teammates. That’s who you’re playing for every night. You have to establish those goals early on. I believe the character of the group will embrace that.”

See more Wizards-related items:

Team owner Ted Leonsis is glad Brooks has a positive view of Otto Porter and Kelly Oubre, notes Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post, adding that the organization wasn’t pleased with the lack of playing time Porter received his first two seasons and the low minutes Oubre saw this year. Porter “didn’t take that next step” this season, Leonsis said, believing that Brooks will give him a chance to remedy that, tweets J. Michael of CSN Mid-Atlantic.
The Wizards were compelled to move quickly to hire Brooks because of the amount of teams that were expected to be in the market for new coaches, Michael writes in a separate piece. Brooks had already been contacted by members of ownership from the Rockets and Timberwolves prior to Washington locking him up on a five-year deal, Michael adds.
Leonsis indicated that Grunfeld’s job was never in jeopardy this season, though matters would have changed had the executive deviated from the team’s plan, Castillo relays in a series of tweets. The plan the owner referred to was one geared toward gaining as much cap flexibility as possible for this summer, Castillo notes. Leonsis did add that he expected the team to be able to make the playoffs while executing this strategy and that missing out on the postseason was a disappointment, the scribe relays.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Wizards May Be Better Served To Avoid Max Free Agents

April 28th, 2016 at 6:30pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Wizards have plenty of holes to fill with the approximately $28MM worth of cap flexibility the team will have this summer, and finding a reliable backcourt mate for John Wall should be at the top of Washington’s list of tasks, Bobby Marks of The Vertical opines in his offseason primer for the franchise. Marks also adds that landing Kevin Durant via free agency this summer is a long shot and the Wizards may be better served to spread the money around to build up their depth rather than spending it all on one max contract.

Wizards Pushed Hard To Trade For Ryan Anderson

April 28th, 2016 at 3:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Wizards made a strong push to acquire Pelicans stretch four Ryan Anderson via trade at the deadline in February, but Washington didn’t want to give up the first-round pick that ultimately wound up going to Phoenix in the Markieff Morris deal, according to TNT’s David Aldridge. Morris is under contract for three more seasons while Anderson is set to hit free agency this summer.

Brooks Wasn't Co-Favorite For Rockets Job?

April 28th, 2016 at 1:01pm CST by Chuck Myron

Scott Brooks was a candidate for the Rockets coaching job, but he wasn’t a favorite, according to Feigen, who writes in the same piece. Marc Stein of ESPN.com heard Brooks and Jeff Van Gundy were the two front-runners for the Houston gig shortly before Brooks took the Wizards job instead.