NBA Rumors Round-Up
NBA Rumors: Cavaliers Contact Donovan
Updated15 Oct 2021
Check out the biggest rumors of the day in our NBA Rumor Round-Up. For more rumors and news, check out Basketball Insiders’ headlines, which are constantly being updated.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have contacted Florida’s Billy Donovan about their coaching vacancy, sources told ESPN.com.
Donovan said Thursday that several NBA teams had called him about openings in recent days but that he still plans to be with the Gators next season.
“I have spoken to a couple NBA teams, and that’s all I’m going to say,” Donovan said. “It’s always flattering, but at the same time, I’ve always said that I’m very happy here and like it here.”
During the NCAA Tournament, Donovan admitted that he is still intrigued about the possibility of coaching in the NBA, but he’s always quick to stress that he’s happy with the Florida Gators.
In 2007, Donovan agreed to terms with the Orlando Magic to become the team’s next head coach, but he backed out several days later and Orlando went on to hire Stan Van Gundy.
Donovan has been linked to a number of NBA jobs this offseason, and the Cavaliers are the latest to contact him, per this report.
Donovan signed a three-year contract extension earlier this year, which will keep the head coach with the Gators through the 2018-19 season and pay him $3.7 million each year.
While it sounds like he’ll be back at Florida next season, Donovan does seem interested in making the jump to the NBA at some point before he decides to retire. Whether that happens sooner or later remains to be seen.
After meeting with Minnesota Timberwolves president Flip Saunders on Thursday, Memphis coach David Joerger is scheduled for a sit-down talk with owner Glen Taylor that could ultimately clear the way for him to become the Timberwolves coach, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
The Grizzlies are likely to ask for a second-round pick in exchange for letting Joerger out of his contract to coach the Timberwolves, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
Reports have indicated that the Grizzlies may want to go in a different direction at head coach and that Joerger wants out as well, so this may be best for all involved parties.
Memphis recently underwent a front office change, with Jason Levien and Stu Lash no longer with the organization. Robert Pera reportedly wanted to fire Joerger early in the 2013-14 season, and had to be talked down from doing it. He also decided to personally conduct the exit meetings with players, which is something that is usually done by a head coach or executive.
It seems that Pera wants to be more hands on going forward, and Joerger was a hire by the Levien regime so he may want his own coach on the sideline.
Memphis would ask for compensation from Minnesota, but only because they wouldn’t want to set a precedent that they let their head coach out of his contract without receiving anything in return. A second-round pick is a small price to pay for the Timberwolves, if they are confident that Joerger is the best man for the job in Minnesota.
Still, all indications have been — despite the drop in production this season — Garnett will be back in Brooklyn for what would be the 20th season of his stellar NBA career. The fact is $12 million is an awful lot of money – no matter how much you’ve made in the past – and after playing much, much better over the final few months of the season, it would be easy to see Garnett agreeing to rejoin Pierce for one final season in Brooklyn before riding off into the sunset next summer.
This would be good news for the Nets, considering how much they gave up in order to acquire Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce last summer. It would have been somewhat of a waste if they mortgaged their future for one season of Garnett and Pierce, the former due to retirement and the latter due to free agency.
Garnett is due to earn $12 million next season with the Nets, and as the article states, that’s a lot of money to walk away from. KG has made $315,372,398 throughout the course of his career from his NBA contracts alone (not including endorsements), but he may want to collect his final $12 million and give it one more run in Brooklyn.
The Nets advanced to the second round of the playoffs this season and Garnett played well down the stretch. Next season, Brooklyn may be even better since the team will have some continuity and Jason Kidd will have a year of coaching experience under his belt.
If Garnett returns to Brooklyn, it’s likely that Pierce would be back too since they seem to be somewhat of a package deal at this point. This would be the 20th season of Garnett’s career and he just turned 38 years old this month.
