NBA Rumors: Latest Buzz on Potential Nikola Vucevic Trade, Paul Pierce and More
It’s the end of July, which means NBA teams are beginning to solidify their rosters for training camp, finalizing contracts and trying to look for trade partners.
Most of the free agents are off the market, but buzz surrounding trades, potential retirements and contract extensions has pushed itself to the forefront.
Let’s check in with three situations that have been in the news recently.
Nikola Vucevic
The Orlando Magic may have had the most confusing offseason in the league this summer.
They started off with a trade that sent away promising young guard Victor Oladipo, stretch 4 Ersan Ilyasova and first-round draft pick Domantas Sabonis for Serge Ibaka. Then they signed Bismack Biyombo to a monster four-year, $72 million contract and followed that up by giving Jeff Green $15 million for one season.
Now their frontcourt is completely clogged. Aaron Gordon and Nikola Vucevic seemed like the two big-minute guys at the respective 4 and 5 positions before the offseason, but Ibaka, Biyombo and Green all figure to receive large roles based on their contracts and histories as players.
According to ESPN.com’s Zach Lowe, though, Orlando is in “no rush” to trade Vucevic, mainly because he creates interior offense for his team that no one else on the squad can. While that’s true, he’s also probably the worst defender of the Magic’s projected big-man rotation.
The team’s insistence on keeping Vucevic could cause problems. There are only so many minutes available at power forward and center, and we’ll likely see at least two of those players be forced to make significant sacrifices in their roles.
The Los Angeles Times' Brad Turner released news of Paul Pierce’s intentions to return for a 19th NBA season Tuesday night. Shortly following that report, though, Turner said Pierce may not be totally decided yet:
Pierce has been going back and forth on this decision since the end of the 2015-16 season. Immediately after the Los Angeles Clippers lost their first-round playoff series against the Portland Trail Blazers, ESPN.com’s Arash Markazi reported that Pierce said he was “50-50” on whether he would return for the 2016-17 campaign.
Right now, it’s likely a classic veteran dilemma for the 38-year-old Pierce. He wants to end his career on a better note than his terrible performance last season, but he also knows things might get even worse for him with another year under his belt.
Perhaps Pierce should just call it quits this summer. The Clippers (and every other team in the league) don’t have use for a painfully slow small forward whose three-point shooting dipped to just 31 percent last season. However, maybe the veteran does have another good year left in him.
We’ll just have to see what he decides.
Otto Porter
Otto Porter definitely has not lived up to the expectations placed upon him when he was selected No. 3 overall by the Washington Wizards in the 2013 NBA draft. According to Basketball-Reference.com, he ranks just 10th in his draft class in win shares, even though the class is one of the weakest in recent memory.
It’s no surprise, then, that the Washington Wizards are not planning to give Porter an extension this summer. Washington’s intentions, as reported by CSN Mid-Atlantic’s J. Michael, mean the 23-year-old small forward would become a restricted free agent next summer.
The move to hold off on extensions has become more common in general, even with players who obviously deserve them (Kawhi Leonard and Andre Drummond, for example), in an attempt to increase cap flexibility for the next summer. However, this move with Porter could be a sign that the team is considering cutting ties.
Porter’s production down the stretch of the 2014-15 season indicated that he might be heading toward a huge breakout year in 2015-16. He did improve last season, but he was still just a mediocre starting small forward, and his defense didn’t continue to progress as many had hoped.
2016-17 will definitely be a make-or-break campaign for Porter as he determines how much he’ll be worth in restricted free agency and whether the Wizards will want him back.
