LAS VEGAS – There was a delay Sunday. Kendall Marshall, the No. 10 pick in the draft, a point guard with passing skills and court vision rarely seen among rookies, did not play in the Suns summer-league opener while waiting for either a contract or insurance arrangements to be finalized, what basically amounts to a minor paperwork issue he plays Tuesday.
In a time of great point-guard transition in Phoenix, though, there are no such certainties once the real season begins. Marshall arrived in the lottery. The bedrock of the Suns, Steve Nash, joined the Lakers in a sign-and-trade, costing Marshall the chance to learn from one of the best but also creating minutes that probably would not have otherwise existed. Then the Suns agreed to a four-year deal to bring Goran Dragic back, and there went some of Marshall’s post-Nash minutes.
The lottery pick from North Carolina is not sure where it leaves him, but he also does not seem to care whether he enters training camp No. 1 on the depth chart or as the projected backup, only now behind another veteran.
“I think there were plusses and negatives both ways,” he said of the chance to study under Nash. “He’s one of the greatest minds to ever play this game and I feel like I could have learned a lot from him. At the same time, you can also learn a lot from experience, just being thrown out there.”
And then to have the Suns bring in Dragic?
“As a team, you want to win,” Marshall said. “If they feel like that’s what it’s going to take for us to win, then I have no problem with that.”
The Phoenix Suns continued an aggressive rebuild of their franchise Sunday when they submitted the highest bid for free agent forward Luis Scola and were awarded the rights to the 32-year-old forward, according to league sources.
Because of Scola’s contract with Houston, which had $10 million in unguaranteed money in the final year of the deal, the Suns had to submit a bid of at least $3.3 million per year for Scola, and commit $10 million over three years.
Several teams, including Dallas and Cleveland, were believed to have submitted bids for Scola, who was amnestied on Friday by the Rockets in order to clear more cap room for potential runs at Orlando’s Dwight Howard, or to be able to take on other big contracts in potential trades if they don’t get Howard. Scola, according to a league source, wanted to go someplace where he would play right away.
The Suns knew it would be difficult for them to retain franchise player Steve Nash, and the team agreed to a sign-and-trade deal with the Lakers earlier this month for the 38-year-old guard. But the Suns were able to get two future first-round and two future second-round picks, along with $3 million, for Nash.
And Phoenix has come out of the gate in free agency, signing former Rockets guard Goran Dragic to a four-year, $30 million deal, and quickly following that up with a three-year, $18 million deal for Timberwolves forward Michael Beasley. The Suns tried to get Hornets restricted free agent Eric Gordon, giving him a four-year, $58 million offer sheet. But New Orleans insisted all along it would match any sheet for Gordon, and it did.
It looks like the Rockets have grown tired of having the best record in the draft lottery every year, being annually the last team not to qualify for the playoffs.
So they’re diving.
They might as well be leaping from an airplane door without a parachute or plummeting to depths that normally require a scuba tank and flippers.
They’ll call it simply modifying the course, staying flexible with contracts and keeping themselves attractive to potential trade partners.
The New York Knicks continued to spend for quality depth before the end of the July Moratorium, agreeing to terms with veteran center Marcus Camby on a three-year, $13 million contract Monday in a sign-and-trade deal with Houston that will send Toney Douglas, Josh Harrelson and Jerome Jordan to the Rockets, along with two future second-round picks.
The 38-year-old Camby is still a productive player, averaging 7.1 points and 9.3 rebounds last season in 24 minutes a night for the Rockets after being traded to Houston from Portland for Jonny Flynn and Hasheem Thabeet. In New York he’ll be the backup to starter Tyson Chandler at center and spot Amar’e Stoudemire at power forward. It will be Camby’s second tour of duty in New York, after playing for the Knicks from 1998-2002.
His deal, according to a source, is only partially guaranteed for the third season, meaning it will either be a two-year deal for $10 million or revert to the three-year, $13 million deal if New York decides to keep him.
Douglas saw significant playing time as a rookie, but injuries and the electric play of Jeremy Lin consigned him to a deep reserve role last season. But in Houston, Douglas will be one of the few point guards on the roster. The Rockets have committed to giving Lin a four-year deal worth $28 million when the free-agent moratorium ends on July 11, but the Knicks are almost certain to match.
New York also agreed to terms last week with Jason Kidd to be Lin’s backup next season. Houston lost free agent Goran Dragic to the Suns in a free-agent deal and opted to trade last season’s starter at the beginning of the year, Kyle Lowry, to Toronto for a conditional Lottery pick.
The changing of the (point) guard in the Rockets’ backcourt continues at a furious pace.
First free-agent Goran Dragic was told that the club would not meet his asking price and was cut loose.
Now Kyle Lowry has been traded to Toronto. League sources confirmed reports by the Houston Chronicle and ESPN.com that Lowry will be exchanged for a future first-round draft pick that will protected in both directions.
The exodus of Rockets point guards continued Thursday with the Rockets sending Kyle Lowry to the Toronto Raptors for a package built around a future first-round draft pick, a person with knowledge of the deal said.
The pick will have limited protections, but was called “a likely lottery pick.” Protections, still being discussed, could keep the pick from coming in the upper echelon of the draft. In an unusual clause in the deal, the Rockets also will not get the pick next season if the Raptors’ season keeps the pick from getting too late in the draft.
The Rockets will get forward Gary Forbes in the deal, according to a person with knowledge of the trade, but the deal was made to get the pick, rather than the player. The trade will not become official until July 11.
So in the past week the Rockets have severed ties with both of the players who started at point guard last season. (more…)
HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – Nothing gets the masses more excited this time of year than the notion of a blockbuster deal-to-be, something the Houston Rockets have mastered the past five years.
Dwight Howard‘s name is at the forefront of the rumors. And that’s always a good thing for everyone other than the folks in Orlando (check the video above).
The Rockets also do not want to stop there in their climb up the draft board, and they do not want to add three rookies to the three players they drafted last season. With that in mind, they have been talking to teams throughout the top 10, especially Sacramento, which holds the fifth pick, and Toronto, which has the eighth pick, about moving up.
To move that much they would have to offer a veteran, rather than a package of picks. Guard Kyle Lowry is considered the most likely player to be moved, in part because of his relatively modest contract. But according to a person involved in the process, Lowry has in recent conversations seemed more open about returning to the Rockets since his comments last month and the team would like to bring him back if he is not the key to a larger deal.
While Magic center Dwight Howard is the Rockets’ top target, the Magic have not specifically said what it would take to get him since trade talks between the teams ended March 15, and have not indicated which player they would want to get in the draft to help facilitate a deal.
The Rockets are also are still interested in a deal for the Lakers’ Pau Gasol, according to a person with knowledge of their planning, but not at the price they would have paid before the season when they agreed to send Kevin Martin, Goran Dragic, Luis Scola and a first-round pick to New Orleans in the three-team deal blocked by commissioner David Stern.
HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – No one will ever question the love folks in Phoenixhave for Steve Nash or the love he’s shown them back over the years.
Love, however, might not be enough to save this relationship come summer. Nash is going to be a free agent in July. And even though he insists that the Suns will be on his short list of possibilities, there is a very real chance that his 10-year run (covering two different stints with the team) could have come to an end last night with that thunderous standing ovation at US Airways Center.
“It was obviously amazing to get that type of reception and support,” Nash said. “It’s very special because it’s not something I asked for or imagined. To get that kind of reaction means it’s authentic, the relationship I thought we had. It really feels special. The fans have been phenomenal and it’s meant a lot to me to play in a city like this as long as I have and to feel important to the fans and community. I just feel like a very lucky guy.”
Lucky enough to stick around for whatever the Suns continuing rebuilding process has in store?
HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – Did the punishment fit the crime?
You knew we had to ask. And you knew we were going to discuss it on Episode 76 of the Hang Time Podcast, even if we didn’t know what the suspension was for the Lakers’ Metta World Peace while we were yapping about it.
(The league handed down a seven-game penalty for World Peace’s nasty elbow to the side of the head of Thunder swingman James Harden shortly after we finished taping.)
In addition to that conversation, we spent some quality time talking with Houston Rockets point guardGoran Dragic. He joined us to talk about the Rockets’ wild late-season ride that didn’t result in a playoff bid, his hoops heroes as a child, why he’s a NBA player and not a soccer star and plenty more.
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HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – We’ll get back to our MVP debate later this week.
While we wait to decide between LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Kobe Bryant for the top award, today we get an early look at the frontrunners for the Most Improved Player award.
Our West Coast bureau chief Scott Howard-Cooper weighs in today with something of a surprise pick in Jeremy Lin of the Knicks. And he overlooks the fact that Lin played just 53 percent of the Knicks’ game this season and instead focuses on the impact Lin had and the seismic rise in production for the undrafted Lin from his rookie season to this one.
H-C makes the case:
Twenty-seven games, 25 starts, 17.9 points, 7.4 assists and 44.5 percent shooting in 33.1 minutes. The season-long numbers: 35 games, 25 starts, 14.6 points, 6.2 assists, 44.6 percent shooting and 26.9 minutes.
But yes. Playing barely more than half the season, the equivalent of 43 games in a season with an ordinary calendar, is enough to earn Most Improved.
HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS — This is shaping up to be the Year of the Dragon in Houston. As in Goran “Dragon” Dragic, who is playing some serious ball and made life without Kyle Lowry feel a lot more reassuring.
Dragic is coming off Player of the Week honors for going nuts against Chicago, the Lakers and Sacramento, when he averaged almost 21 points, eight assists and two steals and superbly directed the Houston offense.
Somewhere between his goals and potential, Goran Dragic believed all this would happen.
With Kyle Lowry out for the past month, the 6-3 Dragic has become the Rockets’ most reliable force, among the league’s most productive point guards and soon, one of the most coveted free agents of the summer.
He doesn’t pretend to be surprised.
“I always expected this,” Dragic, 25, said. “I believed I could do it.”
