Teams With Multiple Clients Of The Same Agency

Agents might not have as much power in the salary-capped world of the NBA as they do in baseball, but they still have plenty to do with the way pro basketball works. Just this week, Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge cited the potential influence that agent Jeff Schwartz and his representation of Paul PierceDeron Williams and Jason Kidd had on this summer's Nets/Celtics blockbuster trade. Teams with a collection of players (and coaches) who work with the same agency often find themselves reliant on those agents for help when it's time to deal.

The connection between the Knicks and Creative Artists Agency has been well-documented. The Hoops Rumors Agency Database shows five Knicks with CAA. Four of them have Leon Rose as their representative, including Carmelo Anthony, offseason trade acquisition Andrea Bargnani, and J.R. Smith, who re-signed with the team on a three-year deal. Even coach Mike Woodson is a CAA client, at the behest of the team, which reportedly didn't want to deal with his old agents because of a lingering grudge.

The Mavericks also have five players with the same agency, with summer signee Monta Ellis the most significant name among the Relativity Sports Clients in Dallas. Relativity CEO Happy Walters splits the representation of Ellis with Jeff Fried of Peake Management Group, as we learned last week. 

Not every collection of players who have the same agency constitutes a power bloc. BDA Management claims Perry Jones III, Andre Roberson and Hasheem Thabeet of the Thunder, but GM Sam Presti probably isn't too concerned with BDA's sphere of influence. Still, plenty of heavy hitters group together, like Chris BoshDwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem of the Heat, all of whom are Henry Thomas clients. 

I've listed every team with at least three players who have the same agency. In some cases, multiple agencies have groups of three or more on a team. The players are listed with their primary agents in parentheses, where applicable. The list may not be 100% accurate, given the difficulty of finding agency information that's up-to-date for each of the league's 450-some players, but if you spot an error or omission, let us know.

Brooklyn Nets

Charlotte Bobcats

Cleveland Cavaliers

Dallas Mavericks

Denver Nuggets

Detroit Pistons

  • Wasserman Media Group (3) — Kentavious Caldwell-PopeTony Mitchell (both Thad Foucher) and Kyle Singler (Greg Lawrence)

Houston Rockets

Los Angeles Clippers

Los Angeles Lakers

Memphis Grizzlies

Miami Heat

Milwaukee Bucks

Minnesota Timberwolves

New Orleans Pelicans

New York Knicks

Oklahoma City Thunder

Philadelphia 76ers

Portland Trail Blazers

Utah Jazz

Washington Wizards

The Hoops Rumors Agency Database was used in the creation of this post.

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