Southeast Notes: Webster, Beal, Kalinoski

Martell Webster‘s partial guarantee of $2.5MM for 2016/17 becomes a full guarantee of more than $5.845MM if he plays in 70 games this coming season, and the Wizards forward has embraced a new commitment to his fitness this summer, as he explains to Ben Mehic of Fansided’s Wiz of Awes blog. Webster also made it clear that he wants to continue to play past the expiration of the contract, backtracking from comments he made this past fall that indicated he would most likely retire in 2017.

“I feel amazing,” Webster said to Mehic. “I transformed by body, I dropped 20 pounds and I’m probably going to drop 10 more, so that I’m about 206 — anywhere from 206 to 210 this next year, that’s what I want to play at. I feel amazing, a lot of pressure has been taken off my back and off of my joints and I feel great.”

See more from Washington and elsewhere around the Southeast Division here:

• The Wizards are hesitant to commit to the four-year, maximum-salary extension that Bradley Beal wants unless it contains some non-guaranteed salary, given his history of injuries, writes J. Michael of CSNWashington.com. That jibes with what Michael heard late last month, when he wrote that the Wizards wanted an escape hatch in any long-term deal while Beal’s camp was insistent upon a player option if he were to take less than the max. Ken Berger of CBSSports.com reported in May that the Wizards were committed to giving him the max, but Michael says the club’s thinking has shifted slightly since last fall, when Washington seemed ready to move full speed ahead with extension plans despite Beal’s broken wrist.
• The Heat and Hornets had expressed interest in signing undrafted Davidson guard Tyler Kalinoski to a deal for training camp, but he signed with Elan Chalon of France instead on a contract that included an NBA out, writes Ian Thomsen of NBA.com. That escape clause has expired, but the NBA dream is not dead for the Kenny Grant client, as Thomsen chronicles in a piece that examines the path of those on the fringe between the NBA and Europe. “A guy with his skill-set is intriguing,” said Dan Craig, who coached Kalinoski on the Heat’s summer league team. “I think he is right there on the brink of being a 14th or 15th guy on an NBA roster. In the right system, under the right coaching, he could possibly come in and give you impact minutes.”