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Rumors: Changes coming for the Kings?

By Chad Ford

NBA Insider

Send an Email to Chad Ford Wednesday, May 21

Updated: May 21

9:23 AM ET

The pain still hasn't worn off in Sacramento, after losing Game 7 to the Mavs last weekend. For years the Kings have been taking baby steps toward a title. Last year's seven-game Western Conference Finals series with the Lakers was supposed to be evidence that the team had finally arrived.

But a plethora of injuries this season actually forced the Kings to take a step back. With ultra-aggressive owners the Maloof brothers, and one of the NBA's top executives, Geoff Petrie, at the helm, will the Kings shake things up again this summer?

"We can't panic," said Kings co-owner Joe Maloof told the Sacramento Bee. "But the whole season was a little weird, with all the injuries. There have to be adjustments, and I don't know what they are yet. Geoff (Petrie) will know what to do."

Petrie is probably nowhere near ready to decide what has to happen in Sacramento this summer, but a few tidbits are trickling out here or there.

The Kings are hoping that either Keon Clark opts out of his contract this season or that they can trade him this summer if he decides to stay another year. Clark, who was once considered a top-notch hire, didn't pan out toward the end of the season. He was supposed to provide the team with another legit low-post option on offense, and shot blocking and rebounding on defense. He didn't do much of either.

It's unlikely that Clark will opt out. He didn't do enough to improve his value, but a trade may work for both sides. Several teams, including the Blazers (no surprise there), Knicks, 76ers, Sonics and Pacers have expressed interest. The Kings aren't going to get an all-star in return, but Clark does have some value. If Antonio McDyess gets a clean bill of health, a Clark-for-Kurt Thomas trade could make a lot of sense.

The team also has to decide what to about Jim Jackson and Hedo Turkoglu. Clearly, coach Rick Adelman favored Jackson this season. If the team decides to re-sign him this summer, it needs to move Turkoglu while he still has value.

Turkoglu becomes a restricted free agent at the end of next season and has already been sending signals to the Kings that he wants out. The Pistons, Bulls, and Nuggets have all shown interest in Turkoglu. Both the Pistons, Nuggets and Bulls all have lottery picks they might be willing to part with (provided they're not in the top 3) in return for Turkoglu.

Either way the Kings' changes will probably be minor. Long term, they have to begin thinking about a replacement for Vlade Divac. He's 35 and, given his offseason work habits, won't last much longer. That's why grabbing a top pick and nabbing someone like Chris Kaman may make some sense.

Pippen to retire?

Is Scottie Pippen going to follow Michael Jordan into the old folks home?

"I think I am going to quit playing, really," Blazer forward Scottie Pippen told the Portland Tribune. "It's just something I have been thinking seriously about. It might be better for me to walk away now than in a year or two."

Just a few weeks ago it sounded like Pippen would be one of the hottest names on the free agent market. The Lakers seemed like a lock to land Scottie. But Pippen says the grind of the NBA season may just be too much for him to bear.

"When you get older, it's a little tougher to get yourself into shape," he continued. "Most of my teammates are young, and they can flip it on in two weeks. As an older player, you play a lot of catch-up. It is a longer offseason. It has gotten harder for me to prepare my body and gear myself up mentally for the long grind . . . My decision about whether or not to play has to be made before any decision about where I want to play. I am going to take some time off right now. I will know I have made the decision if I am not preparing myself for next season. If I don't feel like picking it back up again, that will be it."

If Pippen decides to retire, don't expect him to disappear from basketball completely. Pippen has talked about working in the front office or on a coaching staff after he retires. He's even went as far as to suggest that he's the perfect candidate for the Blazers' open GM position. That may be pushing it a bit Scottie.

Wolves pondering what to do with Brandon

Now that's it's clear to everyone that Terrell Brandon is going to retire, the Wolves have an interesting dilemma on their hand.

Do they attempt to trade Brandon this summer to a team looking to clear cap space? Brandon's $11.1 million salary will mostly be paid by insurance and will come off the cap in February.

Or do they keep him on the roster, get a $4.5 million disabled player exception from the league and try to add talent that way.

Several teams looking for cap room, like the Heat, Hawks, Wizards and Raptors, might be willing to give away a decent player in return for some cap and luxury-tax relief.

The Wizards are looking to move Jerry Stackhouse and could package him along with Jahidi White for Brandon's contract. That move would put the Wizards about $18 million under the cap for 2004. The Raptors would consider offering Antonio Davis. The Heat have been looking to move Eddie Jones. And the Hawks would probably give the Wolves their choice of Glenn Robinson or Theo Ratliff.

But, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune, Wolves owner Glen Taylor is contemplating keeping Brandon, pocketing the savings when he comes off the books (removing Brandon's salary would put the Wolves below the luxury-tax threshold) and praying that Kevin Garnett doesn't hold it against him when it comes to start negotiating an extension.

Our guess is that KG wouldn't be amused.

Draft workouts

Jazz: GM Kevin O'Conner and director of player personnel Walt Perrin are in Italy and France this week checking out international prospects. O'Conner will also go to Yugoslavia this week to see a few more players.

Grizzlies: The team worked out Mario Austin, Will McDonald and Uche Nsonwu-Amadi on Monday. Arizona State's Tommy Smith, Virginia's Travis Watson, Maryland's Steve Blake and Marcus Hatten of St. John's worked out in Memphis on Tuesday.

Hawks: Ugonna Onyekwe of Pennsylvania, Ronald Dupree of LSU, Lavell Blanchard of Michigan and Prentiss Gates of the NAIA's Southern Polytechnic State University will work out in Atlanta today. Ohio's Brandon Hunter, Arizona State's Tommy Smith, Jerome Beasley of North Dakota and Florent Pietrus (Mickael's brother) of EB Pau-Orthez (France) will work out Friday. Detroit's Willie Green, Tony Bland of San Diego, New Mexico's Ruben Douglas and Notre Dame's Matt Carroll are set to work out on Monday

Celtics: PIT MVP Jerome Beasley worked out in Boston on Tuesday.

Nuggets: The team had Georgetown center Wesley Wilson, South Florida center Will McDonald, San Diego center Jason Keep, Maryland guard Drew Nicholas and Stanford guard Julius Barnes in to work out on Tuesday. Florent Pietrus, Miami forward James Jones, Utah forward Britton Johnsen, Indiana forward Jeff Newton, St. John's guard Marcus Hatten and Boston College guard Troy Bell are scheduled to work out today.

Bulls: On Thursday, the Bulls will bring in Marquette's Dwyane Wade, Duke's Dahntay Jones and BYU's Travis Hansen.

Critical decisions looming for Kings

Ailene Voisin / Sacramento Bee

End of the trail for Pippen?

Kerry Eggers / Portland Tribune

Brandon windfall is hardly worth it

Dan Barreiro / Minneapolis Star Tribune

Jazz Keep Tabs on Overseas Talent

Phil Miller / Salt Lake Tribune

Grizzlies workout

Ronald Tillery and Ron Higgins / Memphis Commercial-Appeal

Hawks officials assess first four players today

Michael Lee / Atlanta Journal-Constitution

New Jersey thriving away from home

By Terry Brown

NBA Insider

Wednesday, May 21

Updated: May 21

10:28 AM ET

No playoff team in the entire Eastern Conference lost more road games than the New Jersey Nets. Only one Western Conference playoff team won fewer games away from home. They lost by 9 in Chicago, 17 in Boston, 22 in Detroit and twice in Cleveland. Who cares what the margin was in either case. On one particular trip through Texas, they lost three consecutive road games by a total of 35 points. At 16-25, they were arguably the worst road team in the entire playoffs.

That was, of course, until the playoffs actually started and now the New Jersey Nets, 6-1 on the road in the postseason after winning the last two in Detroit, are arguably the best.

"Nobody believed us when we said we were trying to be greedy," Richard Jefferson told the NY Times after last night's 88-86 win. "When you're down 10 going into the fourth quarter, that's when you show your greed."

And by greed, I believe he means one and only one shot by the Detroit Pistons.

During the regular season, the Nets averaged a very mediocre 42.9 rebounds per game, tenth best in the 29-team NBA. On the road, they averaged an even worse 42.2. But then came the playoffs and 45.4 rebounds per game. Then came the road trip to Detroit in the playoffs and all of a sudden, they're averaging 49.5 rebounds per game, even more impressive when you realize the Golden State Warriors led the league this regular season at 46.7 per game.

"Ben is their guy,"Jefferson explained in the Detroit News of how it works on offense. "There's not many other guys crashing the boards. If you can keep Ben off, you can get some offensive rebounds."

Collins

"Ben gets a lot of blocks," Net center Jason Collins explained in the same article of how it works on defense. "When someone goes down the lane, he goes to block the shot. I'm just following right behind. He's leaving me open."

Wallace may have led the league in rebounding for the second year in a row and may be averaging a whopping 20.5 during the Eastern Conference Finals, but it's every other Net and every other Piston that's making the difference.

Without Ben Wallace's numbers, the Pistons averaged 25.2 rebound per game during the regular season. Take out his contributions in this series, and they're averaging only 19. In fact, take away his work on the offensive glass and the Pistons have a grand total of only 6 offensive rebounds in two home games. Even with Big Ben, they're getting only 8 per game this series compared to the 12.2 the Nets have gotten all playoffs while the Spurs are at 12 and even the lightly-armored Mavs are at 11.7.

But the greed isn't stopping there.

Not only are the Nets allowing the Pistons only one shot per offensive set, they're forcing them into some very bad ones.

"Our guys," coach Byron Scott said in the Detroit Free Press, "have a little bit of a chip on their shoulders. They want to show that we're a good defensive team, also."

During the regular season, the Nets gave up, on average, 90.1 points per game on opponent's 42.7 percent shooting. And considering that the Pistons averaged 91.4 points per game during the regular season on 43 percent shooting, it looked like that would be the case again in this postseason series.

Instead, Detroit point guard Chauncey Billups has gone from shooting 42 percent in the regular season to 28 percent in this series. Sure, he's still playing hobbled on that bad ankle, but veteran Clifford Robinson has also gone from 39 percent to 33 percent while sixthman Corliss Williamson has gone from 45 percent to 27 percent and Tayshaun Prince, the Piston hero of series past, has gone form 45 percent to 26 percent.

As a result, the Nets are holding the Pistons to only 80 points per game on 38.8 percent shooting in their two road victories.

"Everybody asks about our fast break;" Jason Kidd told the Detroit Free Press, "nobody talks about our defense."

But that's okay. Because before these playoffs started, no one was talking about their ability to win on the road, either. But with either the 60-win Spurs or 60-win Mavs in the next round and 50-win Pistons to finish in this one, the 49-win Nets still have some work down the road.

"To go home with a 2-0 lead, having the next two at home," Scott began in the NY Post, "obviously we're feeling pretty good."

New Jersey players are swaggering after Game 1

Helene St. James / Detroit Free Press

They're Halfway Home

Fred Kerber / New York Post

Rebounding propels Nets

Dave Dye / Detroit News

Peep Show

By Chad Ford

NBA Insider

Send an Email to Chad Ford Wednesday, May 21

Updated: May 21

11:04 AM ET

Cleveland Cavaliers: The Jeff Van Gundy Era may be dawning in Cleveland just a day before the draft lottery. "I enjoyed the opportunity to sit down with Jim Paxson and Gordon Gund in New Jersey [on Thursday] to discuss their philosophy," said Van Gundy in the Plain Dealer."I'm not desperate to coach because of my time here with Turner, but I'll look into another coaching job based on how it fits." But former coach and fellow broadcaster Mike Fratello thinks it's a great fit. "He would be a perfect match for not only Cleveland but for other positions as well," Fratello said in the same article. "That Cleveland organization has a chance to break through this coming year ... A person like Jeff will bring organization to that program and they would have a basic defensive philosophy to work under. If they did wind up with Jeff Van Gundy, it would be a great choice."

Mourning

Miami Heat: Whether he stays in Miami nor not, Alonzo Mourning is going to have a serious impact on the future of the Heat franchise. "I think there is always going to be, in whoever negotiates with Zo or signs so, you walk around on eggshells a little bit with the whole situation,'' Heat coach Pat Riley told the Miami Herald. "But he's been cleared to play, and if he is healthy and he can perform like he did two seasons ago, he's going to help somebody.'' If the Heat retain his rights, they can obviously benefit from his contributions on the court or they can use him in a sign and trade deal. If they relinquish his rights, the Heat will have about $7M in cap space to get another player. ''I think a lot of it will be predicated with what happens in the draft, or a lot of it could be predicated with what happens Thursday night (in the draft lottery),'' Riley said. "I think we have as much versatility and flexibility as we had, with the exception of the amount of room, with the first year we went into free agency (1996). But anything is liable to happen.''

Denver Nuggets: Denver GM Kiki Vandeweghe is gathering all the horseshoes and rabbit feet he can get his hands on for tomorrow draft lottery. "We have a bunch of stuff that's pretty cool that we're going to be taking with us," Vandeweghe said in the Denver Post. "And I've got a checklist of a bunch of stuff I have to do before I get up in the morning. It's really been a lot of fun. But you know what it really is, is the power of positive thinking." In the 18-year history of the lottery, the Nuggets have never improved their draft standing by way of the bouncing balls, but hope to this year with so much at stake. "We're also having a lottery party at a local sports bar, and fans are being encouraged to bring their lucky charms," said Mark Broussard of the club's P.R. department.

Seattle Supersonics: Unlike the Nuggets, the Sonics aren't getting their hopes up, especially since they have only a 2 percent chance of getting the top pick and are one of only two teams not to have a Top 10 choice in the last 12 years. "It makes your job more difficult, and you just have to roll up your sleeves and work that much harder," Seattle GM Rick Sund said in the Seattle Post Intelligencer. "You try to get a young player or someone established in the league who has not reached his potential."

Cavs move closer to picking a coach

Branson Wright / Cleveland Plain Dealer

Riley happy to have flexibility in offseason

Israel Gutierrez / Miami Herald

Nuggets hope for a fortunate bounce

Anthony Cotton / Denver Post

Sonics need lotto luck

Danny O'Neil / Seattle Post-Intelligencer