NBA Rumors: Week of Jan. 5 Complete Roundup
Happy New Year, Cleveland Cavaliers fans—your team dove head-first into NBA trading season, and the rest of the league could be following suit if the latest rumors are to be believed.
With a couple of moves, the Cavaliers acquired J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert and Timofey Mozgov, shipped Dion Waiters off and relinquished some future draft picks. It was a bold roster readjustment midway through the season, but it is clear Cleveland is all-in for a title run in the next year or two while the 30-year-old LeBron James is still near his prime.
The flurry of moves from Cleveland could be just the beginning.
There were plenty of rumors around the Association this week, including a handful from New York. Here is a look at some of the whispers from around the league.
Jose Calderon
Ken Berger of CBS Sports provided an update on Jose Calderon and the New York Knicks:
“With the Knicks now owners of the worst record and perhaps worst roster in the league as Phil Jackson hits the reset button in New York, league sources say the next player on the move could be point guard Jose Calderon.”
This makes sense from the Knicks’ perspective, as they try to unload cap space and create roster availability for a rebuild in the near future.
New York fell to 5-34 on the season after a blowout loss Thursday and is not really playing for anything even in an Eastern Conference that will likely include at least one team with a losing record in the playoffs. Trading someone like Calderon, who is not in future plans, is the next logical step.
However, Calderon is 33 years old and has more than $15 million remaining on his contract, so finding a willing suitor is the tricky part. Sure, he is averaging a respectable 9.7 points and 4.3 assists per game and is a veteran with postseason experience who could help a contender, but that is a steep price tag.
Jamal Crawford
Berger also discussed the Los Angeles Clippers and Jamal Crawford in the same story: “The Clippers continue to shop for a starting small forward but have told at least one inquiring team that they do not intend to move valuable sixth man Jamal Crawford in the process, sources say.”
This is a very interesting development. It is difficult to see the Clippers emerging from the loaded Western Conference without an upgrade at the small forward position ahead of Matt Barnes, but Crawford is a critical piece off the bench.
In fact, Crawford is third on the team in scoring at 15.8 points a night and is the only member of the Clippers bench averaging better than 6.2 points a game. If Los Angeles was to involve Crawford in some type of trade for a starting forward, that would theoretically move Barnes to the bench.
He averages 6.7 points per game fewer than Crawford in more minutes, which means the second-team scoring would be even worse than it already is for the Clippers.
In an ideal world, Los Angeles would find a way to upgrade the small forward spot and hold on to Crawford and his lethal three-point shot. Whether it can do that with a combination of picks and future assets remains to be seen.
Reggie Jackson
Jon Hamm of The Oklahoman noted that the Knicks would like to land Reggie Jackson in some type of trade:
“For a few moments on Monday night, it looked like Reggie Jackson was headed to the New York Knicks. Ultimately, he was not part of the deal, but several reports claim that the Knicks hope to re-engage the Thunder and revive those Jackson talks.”
Jackson will be a free agent after the season, so New York could always try to sign him that way. However, the Oklahoma City Thunder can make him a restricted free agent and match New York’s hypothetical offer sheet, so a trade would eliminate that concern from the Knicks’ perspective.
Hamm noted that any type of trade is difficult for the Knicks because they don’t really have any valuable young assets they can offer playoff contenders like the Thunder. New York owes the Toronto Raptors a 2016 first-round pick, so it cannot trade away any 2015 or 2017 first-round selections.
As for the basketball side of things, it is not surprising that the Knicks are interested in Jackson considering he is only 24 years old and still theoretically has his best years of basketball ahead of him. It is all about the future for New York at this point, and Jackson is a high-volume scorer (15.2 points per game) who can also set up his teammates (5.1 assists per game).
There is certainly room for someone like that on the Knicks in the coming years.
Jermaine O’Neal
Marc Stein of ESPN.com pointed out that Jermaine O’Neal may be coming back to the NBA: “The Portland Trail Blazers have joined the race to try to convince former All-Star center Jermaine O'Neal to play one more NBA season at age 36, according to league sources.”
The Portland Trail Blazers actually drafted O’Neal and eventually traded him to the Indiana Pacers after his first four NBA seasons. There is also a need for healthy bodies down low in Portland with Robin Lopez and Joel Freeland both out with injuries.
Stein made a point of noting that the Dallas Mavericks are the favorites to land O’Neal if he returns because he lives in the area offseason. Plus, the addition of a facilitator like Rajon Rondo reportedly intrigues the former Pacer.
O’Neal averaged 13.2 points and 7.2 rebounds a game in his career but was a consistent 20-10 guy in his prime in Indiana. While those days are far behind him, he would be a serviceable big man with postseason experience for a contender looking to add interior depth and veteran leadership.
Jeff Green
Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated and Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today noted that the Boston Celtics have a high asking price for Jeff Green:
Boston is still technically in the race for a playoff spot in the watered-down Eastern Conference, but trading Rondo to the Dallas Mavericks symbolically gestured the end of its 2014-15 contention hopes. That means accumulating future assets in an effort to accelerate the rebuild is priority No. 1 for the Celtics, so it is little wonder they want a first-rounder for their leading scorer (17.6 points per game).
Green actually has a player option for 2015-16 but is not in the long-term plans for the Celtics, hence the rumors.
The problem with Green (and why Boston may end up settling for less than a first-round pick) is that he is a streaky scorer. He is capable of going off for 30 on any given night, but he has also only scored in single digits in three of the last five games, partially because he is shooting a measly 30.5 percent from deep.
Interestingly, this is not the first time Green’s name has come up in rumors this season, although he wasn’t happy about it the first time, via Brian Robb of Boston.com:
“Before you start, I just want to clear the air about some B.S. rumor that came out. I don’t know if the person who made this article is in this [locker room] but the rumor about me wanting to get traded is definitely false. I said that I was frustrated with losing, not frustrated with the team.”
If Green gets traded to a winning team, he won’t have to worry about the losing anymore.
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