The relationship between coach Randy Wittman and Wizards players isn’t what it used to be after in a season in which he’s endured criticism and public questioning of his authority, writes J. Michael of CSN Mid-Atlantic. Marcin Gortat has simmered all year after Wittman criticized his lack of rebounding after a November game, and he and the coach went months without having a conversation to address the matter as Gortat chose to remain silent on the issue, Michael writes. The coach, who has only a partially guaranteed salary for next season, and the center had their ups and downs even before this season, as Michael points out.
Bradley Beal‘s harsh comments toward his teammates after Wednesday’s loss in Sacramento are a sign of underlying problems on the Wizards, contends J. Michael of CSN Mid-Atlantic. Beal, who is headed toward restricted free agency this summer, said the team isn’t “hungry enough” and seemed to give up in the closing moments of the game. “We bark too much,” Beal said. “We say what we need to do. We scream at one another. We can even try to blame [coach Randy Wittman] if we want to, but at the end of the day we still the ones playing. … We just do dumb mental lapses that just mess up the game and end up hurting us in the long run.” Michael thinks Beal and John Wall need to get together as team leaders and work out whatever personal differences they have with each other before their relationship is too far gone.
There’s more from the Southeast Division:
- Nicolas Batum figures to be the most sought after among a large group of Hornets free agents, writes Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer. Contracts for Marvin Williams, Courtney Lee and Al Jefferson will also expire at the end of the season and Jeremy Lin has the choice to opt out, but Batum has risen above the crowd with his versatile play. “I’ve been around teams where people think about their contract and their personal situation. I can’t understand that,” Batum said. “With this team, we know if we do great as a team, if we all do our jobs, everything will work out.”
- If the Heat were giving any thought to trading point guard Goran Dragic and pursuing Grizzlies free agent Mike Conley, Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald says Dragic has changed their minds with his recent performance. “We love Goran,” said team president Pat Riley. “Now he’s playing like The Dragon. His game has opened up. I’m very happy that we have this point guard.”
- The Hawks plan to keep Lamar Patterson and Edy Tavares with the Austin Spurs through the D-League team’s playoff run, according to Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Both rookies have spent extensive time in the D-League this season. Tavares, a 7’3″ center, has played in 27 games for the affiliates of the Spurs, Suns and Cavs, while Patterson has been in 17 games with San Antonio’s and Cleveland’s D-League teams.
- The buyout market signing of Kris Humphries has returned the big man to a traditional inside role after the Wizards tried to make him into a stretch four earlier this season, and the arrangement has been beneficial for the Hawks, coach/executive Mike Budenholzer said, notes Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post. Humphries goes back on the free agent market July 1st. “He’s fit in really well,” Budenholzer said. “I’d just say rebounding is an area where we need to be better and he’s kind of come in and given a little life. He tracks offensive boards, goes to the offensive boards. And I’m hoping he’ll be more of an influence on our other guys even though it’s not something we prioritize. He brings a little bit of a physicality, a little bit of a toughness. And then he can make shots, he can spread the court. Shoot threes, make threes. And his personality, he’s added a little personality to our locker room, too, so it’s just been a really good fit.”
- Markieff Morris makes Washington’s defense better, his contract isn’t a killer, and the top-nine protected pick the Wizards gave up in the trade to acquire him is unlikely to cost the team a landmark player, contends J. Michael of CSN Mid Atlantic, who sees the deal as a victory for Washington. “It’s the versatility of him being able to guard postup guys as well as out on the perimeter, whether it’s a three, four or five guy,” coach Randy Wittman said. “His knowledge of the game, his willingness to pass. He’s a willing passer and makes great decisions at the other end.”
Carmelo Anthony understands he can force his way out of New York if he desires, writes Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports. In a wide-ranging interview about his career and the state of the Knicks, Anthony acknowledged that he refused to waive his no-trade clause amid rumors of possible deals before last month’s deadline. “I guess I have all the power,” he said. “If I really wanted to get out of this situation I could have waived that no-trade clause. But I’ve stuck with it and I’m still sticking with it.”
How much longer he’ll stick with it is anyone’s guess. The Knicks are looking at another summer of upheaval, with a major decision surrounding the fate of interim head coach Kurt Rambis and possibly a limited return of Phil Jackson to the bench. Whatever happens, Anthony made it clear that his patience with New York management is wearing thin. He’s tired of missing the playoffs, which the Knicks are doing for the third straight season, and he expects the franchise to add at least one big-name free agent this summer. “Now it’s time to start competing for a championship, not just competing for the playoffs,” Anthony said. “Those days for me are over with.”
There’s more news out of New York:
- The time has come for Anthony and the Knicks to part ways, argues Tom Ziller of SB Nation. Anthony expects to be surrounded by veteran stars, and pursuing them isn’t the best strategy for New York right now, Ziller writes. Instead, he says the team should focus on rebuilding around rookie Kristaps Porzingis. The columnist suggests the Lakers, Rockets, Mavericks, Celtics and Wizards as possible destinations for Anthony.
- Anthony offered more fuel for the argument that he’s thinking of moving on, according to Marc Berman of The New York Post. “It’s hard to answer those type of questions when you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Anthony said today. “We still have a month left to the season. To be thinking, ‘Am I going to be on this team next [season]?’ That’s for you to speculate. I don’t know what’s going to happen this summer. I can’t predict that.”
- Rambis would prefer that Porzingis skip the Olympics this summer, writes Barbara Barker of Newsday. “I understand players’ commitments to their country and their desire to play for their country,” Rambis said. “But from a selfish standpoint, looking at it purely from a Knicks standpoint, yeah, we’d want him here working with us the whole time.”
Heat point guard Goran Dragic praises former teammate Beno Udrih for accepting a buyout agreement, Ira Winderman of the Florida Sun Sentinel reports. Udrih’s buyout after suffering a season-ending foot injury eased the signing of swingman Joe Johnson and alleviated the team’s luxury tax issues, Winderman continues. “In the end, he helped a lot for this team with that buyout, what he did,” Dragic told Winderman. Udrih, who is still utilizing the Heat’s facilities during his rehabilitation, could re-sign with the Heat during the offseason, Winderman adds.
In other news around the Southeast Division:
- The Magic‘s decision to hire Scott Skiles as head coach and bring in an experienced staff has not worked, according to Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. Orlando has a 9-24 record since New Year’s Day and doesn’t look much different than the team that Jacque Vaughn coached last season, Robbins continues. That makes Skiles’ rallying cry to make the playoffs ring hollow, Robbins adds. “The fact that we haven’t been able to consistently do the things that we need to do is not a good sign,” Skiles told Robbins. “But at any point we could do them. We just haven’t gotten it done.”
- Reserve Magic big man Jason Smith has positioned himself to take advantage of the league’s rising salary cap this summer by emerging as a valuable bench piece, John Denton of the team’s website writes. Smith, who becomes an unrestricted free agent again this summer, is averaging 6.7 points and 2.5 rebounds in 14.9 minutes as a rotation player. He signed a one-year, $4.3MM contract with Orlando last offseason and is shooting 49.9% from the field despite being primarily a midrange jump shooter, Denton adds. “I just try to be a spark off the bench,’’ Smith told Denton, adding that he prefers a backup role at this stage of his career. “I can get a feel for the game and how [the opponent] is going to play and how we’re playing on defense.”
- The Wizards lead the league in games lost due to injury but the front office and coaches are a bigger reason why they’ve had a disappointing season, Brett Koremenos of RealGM.com argues. The front office filled the back end of their roster with declining veterans and journeymen, while the coaches failed to make proper adjustments when injuries struck and the team needed to rely on its depth, Koremenos continues. The Wizards take too many low-percentage, long two-point shots because the playbook has a lot of complex, ineffective sets, Koremenos adds.
The trade deadline underwhelmed this season, but a robust buyout market followed, and the effects of the changes linger. Hoops Rumors has taken a team-by-team look at the financial ramifications of all the movement. We examined the Southwest, Pacific, Central, Northwest and Atlantic divisions earlier, and we’ll conclude with the Southeast Division:
Hawks
Atlanta didn’t make the sort of landmark trade involving Jeff Teague, Al Horford of Dennis Schröder that reports suggested the Hawks might, but they made a swap that saved a bit for this season and next and later put the savings toward a buyout market signing of Kris Humphries. The Hawks shed a combined $384,601 in money against the cap when they sent out Justin Holiday and Shelvin Mack for Kirk Hinrich, and even though Chicago took responsibility for Hinrich’s $141,068 trade bonus, Atlanta’s real savings came to less than that $384,601 figure, since the players involved had already received the majority of their paychecks from the teams that had them before the deadline. The swap was more about moving off Holiday’s $1,015,696 guaranteed salary for next season. That gives the Hawks slightly more cap flexibility, reducing their commitments to about $51.7MM for 2016/17, but it also provided funding for Humphries’ $1MM salary, an above-minimum amount that came via a prorated portion of the room exception.
Heat
Perhaps no team had a wilder financial ride through the deadline and buyout season than the Heat did, ducking the tax line with three salary–shedding trades, going back over to sign Joe Johnson, and finally slipping back beneath the tax threshold when they worked a buyout with the injured Beno Udrih, an arrangement that raised eyebrows. Miami began $5,627,059 above the tax threshold as deadline week got underway. Two days before the deadline, the Heat artfully constructed a three-team deal that allowed them to exchange Chris Andersen‘s $5MM salary for Brian Roberts‘ $2,854,940 pay without having Memphis or Charlotte take back too much incoming salary for matching purposes. That still left them millions into the tax, so they pulled off the Jarnell Stokes deal with the Pelicans on the day of the deadline, sending out one of the vestiges of the early-season Mario Chalmers trade along with $721,300 cash for a phantom second-round pick. That cash was essentially the fee that New Orleans charged for agreeing to pay Stokes’ remaining salary, and it represented all the money the Heat had left to trade, by rule. Miami had already spent the rest of its $3.4MM allotment in the Zoran Dragic and Shabazz Napier deals, meaning the Heat had to find another way to pull off their second deadline-day trade.
Fortunately for them, the Trail Blazers valued Roberts as someone worth having on their roster, and his contract helps them toward the salary floor. So, they were willing to give up $75K for Roberts, an amount of cash less than the financial benefit of absorbing his contract for salary-floor purposes, and the Heat kicked in their 2021 second-rounder. That left Miami $218K below the tax, and it seemed the Heat could declare victory after a season-long effort to avoid repeat-offender penalties. All they had to do was wait until March 6th to sign anyone, and they’d be OK.
Miami was not content to sit out the buyout market, however. The Heat scored the prize of buyout season on February 27th, signing Joe Johnson that day to a prorated minimum salary contract and sending themselves back over the tax by $136,106. Thus, it was time for team president Pat Riley to once more work his magic.
It remains unclear what convinced Udrih to forfeit $90K of his salary in a buyout deal when the right foot injury expected to sideline him until late May made it unlikely he’d recoup that money through signing with another team. It’s conceivable that Riley made Udrih promises about a new contract later on, though that would be against the rules, and it’s likely the reason why teams around the league scrutinized the Udrih buyout. Still, the Heat didn’t get all that they might have wanted, since the failure of the Sixers or Blazers to claim Udrih off waivers, a move that would have helped them toward the salary floor, left Miami just $46,106 under the tax. That’s not enough to sign anyone until next month, short-circuiting the apparent mutual interest between the Heat and Marcus Thornton, who went to the Wizards instead, as we touch on below.
Hornets
Somewhat remarkably, all of the four players involved in the three-team trade that brought Courtney Lee to Charlotte are on expiring contracts. The Hornets simply absorbed an extra $1,618,620 in cap hits for this season, the equivalent of the difference between Lee’s salary and the combined salaries of Brian Roberts and P.J. Hairston, and the $542,714 cash Charlotte received in the deal essentially wipes out the real monetary cost, since Memphis already gave Lee most of his paychecks. Charlotte has since poured a little more money into this season, signing Jorge Gutierrez to a pair of 10-day contracts and a subsequent contract that Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders confirms is a prorated minimum-salary deal for just the rest of this season. The total expenditure on Gutierrez, with his 10-day contracts and rest-of-season deal put together, is a paltry $300,899, a figure that, like the trade, doesn’t touch the team’s cap flexibility for the summer ahead.
Magic
The primary asset Orlando scored at the deadline was cap flexibility for this summer, sloughing off $23,793,029 from next season’s guaranteed salary commitments, a chunk almost large enough to represent a middle-tier max slot by itself. Less widely noted was the team’s creation of a $8,193,029 trade exception for Channing Frye‘s salary, the league’s second largest such exception behind only Cleveland’s newly created $9,638,554 Anderson Varejao trade exception. It would disappear should the Magic officially open cap room this summer, as expected, but it remains a valuable tool that Orlando can use to accommodate trades around the draft. It appears the Magic already used a small portion of it to claim Chris Copeland‘s $1.15MM salary off waivers last month in a move that helped them reach the salary floor.
Wizards
Markieff Morris could ultimately prove a bargain, given a contract that’s below the market value his production from previous seasons would suggest, but this season was a disaster for him in Phoenix, and Washington paid dearly to trade for him, adding salary for both the present and the future while also relinquishing a protected first-round pick. The $1.37MM difference between the salary for Morris and the combined salaries of DeJuan Blair and Kris Humphries doesn’t matter much because all three already received most of their pay from the teams they were with before the trade. The greater concern is the $24MM over the next three years that’s coming Morris’ way, and particularly the $7.4MM he’ll see next season, when the Wizards would love to have Kevin Durant playing alongside him. The salary Morris makes for next season is not enough to knock Washington out of the projected cap flexibility necessary to afford a max contract for Durant, even with Bradley Beal‘s cap hold, but the trade is still a long-term bet on a player who regressed disconcertingly this year amid constant trade rumors.
Washington wasn’t done spending, scoring J.J. Hickson in the buyout market on a prorated minimum-salary deal and later doing the same with Marcus Thornton, who serves as an injury replacement for the waived Gary Neal. That’s an extra $473,638 for this season. Still, the Wizards elected not to spend their disabled player exception left over from Martell Webster‘s injury, allowing it to expire last week. That’s no surprise, since the Wizards are only $448,438 shy of the tax line after their recent spree.
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
The Wizards brought in Marcus Thornton because they needed someone healthy, coach Randy Wittman said, but Thornton is hoping that he’s more than just a stopgap measure, as Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post relays. The two-guard is on a minimum-salary deal through the end of the season, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders confirms, but Thornton indicated that he’d like to re-sign once he hits free agency in the summer.
“It’s about me going to some place I can fit in right away,” Thornton said. “And it could be long term. … Hopefully I could find a home here.”
He’ll be asked to make an impression with his shooting, observes J. Michael of CSN Mid-Atlantic. Thornton is a career 35.9% 3-point shooter. See more from around the Eastern Conference:
- Knicks team president Phil Jackson confirmed the team will sign Tony Wroten but conceded that he “needs a lot of medical attention” and probably won’t play in a game this season, notes Al Iannazzone of Newsday. Reports a week ago indicated Wroten and the Knicks were poised for a two-year deal.
- The Zen Master’s stance that an all-out pursuit of a point guard this summer isn’t necessary doesn’t augur well for the Knicks, given the presence of an outstanding point guard on the teams with the top records this season, contends Frank Isola of the New York Daily News.
- Christian Wood returned to the D-League affiliate of the Sixers following the early termination of his 10-day contract, notching 23 points and eight boards Sunday, notes Chris Reichert of Upside & Motor (Twitter link). Philadelphia has released Wood twice this season.
Southeast Missouri State freshman Tony Anderson intends to enter the 2016 NBA Draft, Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com reports. “This was the plan before I got to college,” Anderson told Goodman. “I don’t plan on playing college basketball again. I know it’s a rare situation, but my goal is to play in the NBA.” The league’s new rules allow underclassmen to again “test the waters” and take part in the NBA combine while still maintaining their college eligibility should they decide to withdraw from the draft. But it appears Anderson is set on leaving school, telling Goodman he has already withdrawn from classes and intends to hire an agent. The power forward did note that he hasn’t spoken with any potential representatives yet, the scribe adds. “I’m taking the process slow of getting an agent,” Anderson said. “I’m letting God lead me in that.”
If Anderson does hire an agent he won’t have the option to return to school, which could prove problematic if he goes undrafted in June, an outcome that is a distinct possibility, according to several NBA executives Goodman spoke with about the player. “He needs to go back to school,” one executive told Goodman. “With his numbers — on that team — he doesn’t have a chance.” The 18-year-old only notched 4.8 points and 2.3 rebounds in 14.9 minutes per contest this season.
Here’s more from around the league:
- If LeBron James can return to Cleveland and be embraced by the fans, the possibility exists that the same could happen for Dwight Howard in Orlando, Brian Schmitz of The Orlando Sentinel posits. The scribe notes that a reunion, while improbable, has the potential to benefit both sides. Returning to a star-hungry Magic squad would allow Howard to be the primary option once again on offense, while Orlando would land itself an upper-tier player who could help attract other free agents, Schmitz adds. Howard’s firing of agent Dan Fegan could also help make a reunion happen, as Fegan’s relationship with the team was a contentious one, Schmitz also notes. The Rockets center is widely expected to turn down his player option and hit free agency this summer.
- The Mavericks believe they will be better off in the long run having allowed Monta Ellis to depart as a free agent and adding Wesley Matthews in his stead, despite Matthews not yet providing the same production Ellis did during his two-year stint in Dallas, Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News writes. Coach Rick Carlisle did note that he was pleased with Ellis’ play for the team and added that salary cap constraints factored heavily into the decision to not pursue the shooting guard last summer, Sefko relays.
- The Suns, Nets, Wizards and Pelicans all saw disabled player exceptions expire Thursday, the leaguewide deadline to use them. Phoenix’s was worth $5.464MM to offset Eric Bledsoe‘s injury, Brooklyn had one worth $3.1MM for Jarrett Jack, Washington’s came in at $2,806,750 for Martell Webster, and New Orleans had one for $1,691,012 because of Quincy Pondexter‘s injury.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
The Kings have given DeMarcus Cousins a one-game suspension, the team announced, in the wake of his outburst toward coach George Karl during a timeout in Wednesday’s game. Cousins continued his tirade after the game, upset that Karl wasn’t defending him to refs, and Cousins jawed with GM Vlade Divac too, reports Chris Mannix of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports (Twitter links). It was odd timing, as Karl told Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee after the game that he would undergo a minor procedure for cancer in his throat today. It’s the latest chapter in the up-and-down relationship between Cousins and Karl, and it costs the star big man $144,109, 1/110th of his salary for the season. Cousins, who’ll miss Friday’s game against the Magic, wasn’t the only Kings player upset with Karl on Wednesday, as we detail amid news from the Pacific Division:
- Kings rookie Willie Cauley-Stein found it difficult to accept Karl’s explanation for the decreased minutes he’s seen of late, as James Ham of CSN California relays. Karl told reporters not to overreact to Cauley-Stein’s minutes dip, saying he’ll see plenty of burn the rest of the season and pointing specifically to the matchups involved in Wednesday’s game, Ham notes. “That’s funny, that’s funny, kind of flimsy, [because] I can guard five positions, so that’s redundant, otherwise I wouldn’t be here,” Cauley-Stein said. “There should be no matchup problems ever. So that’s just an excuse I think. However, I’m not the coach.”
- Larry Sanders is living in Los Angeles and has Lakers season tickets, as he told Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. The 27-year-old center who walked away from the game last year said he can envision making a comeback but remains wary of the NBA grind and said he won’t return to the situation he was in before, Kennedy relays, a subtle hint that he wouldn’t consider returning to the Bucks. Sanders praised Magic coach Scott Skiles, who was the Bucks coach when he entered the NBA, Kennedy also notes. The former 15th overall pick recently told Shams Charania of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports that he plans to play in the NBA again but only after he tends to other opportunities.
- The Markieff Morris trade appears to have been beneficial for both the Suns and the Wizards, though much depends on where the top-nine protected pick that Washington owes Phoenix ends up in the draft order, observes Jeremy Cluff of the Arizona Republic.
Suns owner Robert Sarver said he’s committed to keeping GM Ryan McDonough for next season and optimistic about the team’s position for the future, in an extensive interview with Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. Sarver referred to rookie Devin Booker as a potential face of the franchise and also expressed belief in fellow recent first-round picks Alex Len, T.J. Warren and Archie Goodwin. The owner maintains faith in disappointing offseason signee Tyson Chandler, believing that he’ll perform better next season, when he’ll be 34. Still, Sarver insisted that he’ll leave matters of player personnel to McDonough and company, even as he feels a responsibility to set the tone.
“My biggest regret is that, as a manager of people, I feel I let the organization down in terms of the culture,” Sarver said to Coro. “I didn’t put my hand print on that culture and maybe didn’t hold people as accountable as I should and really make sure we’re putting that together. But I’m starting to see some of that.”
Sarver also stumped for public funding of a new arena and pointed to a clause in the team’s lease at Talking Stick Resort Arena, its existing home, that would allow the Suns to leave in 2021, as Coro relays. See more from around the NBA, which has seen the last of referee Joey Crawford, as Steve Aschburner of NBA.com reports:
- Derek Fisher insists he didn’t lose his job as Knicks coach over character or integrity issues, as he writes in an essay for The Cauldron blog on SI.com. Fisher addressed his preseason encounter with Matt Barnes at the home of Barnes’ estranged wife, writing that he didn’t retaliate against Barnes during the incident and that he never had issues or much of a relationship with Barnes before that. Still, Fisher failed to address why he was in California and away from the Knicks when the episode took place, notes Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News (Twitter link).
- It’s still possible for the Wizards to sign draft-and-stash prospect Tomas Satoransky this summer even in the wake of the four-year extension he signed with Barcelona of Spain, which doesn’t include an NBA out until 2017, a source tells Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post. The Wizards could buy out Satoransky’s contract before the extension kicks in, Castillo hears, adding that Washington would likely sign him to a two-year deal with a team option on the second season if the team brings him stateside.
- Luis Scola‘s professionalism is well-known around the league, and Anthony Bennett, cognizant his NBA career was teetering on the brink, sought out his advice not long before the Raptors waived the former No. 1 overall pick last week, team sources tell Doug Smith of the Toronto Star. The release of Bennett was an eye-opener, rookie Delon Wright said, as Smith also notes in his look at the roles of nonstars in the NBA.