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Deal Between Arenas, Chinese Team In Jeopardy

October 31st, 2012 at 8:27am CST by Luke Adams

OCTOBER 31ST, 8:27am: According to Jon Pastuszek of NiuBBall.com, another hang-up in talks between Arenas and Guangdong is the team's desire to have him undergo a tryout before officially committing to anything. It appears Arenas may be open to trying out for the team, as he wrote on his Weibo blog: "Packed and ready to go to China! Can’t wait to meet my coaches and teammates and reunite with my buddy Yi for a Championship run." Based on the reports to date, I'd guess nothing is quite finalized quite yet, with Arenas hoping to nail down the agreement in person.

OCTOBER 30TH, 6:52pm: The deal between Guangdong and Arenas is falling apart amid disagreements over a payment schedule and the team's concerns about the guard's fitness level, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Guangdong has begun to search for another former NBA guard to replace Arenas, Wojnarowski adds.

OCTOBER 24TH, 8:33am: Jon Pastuszek of NiuBBall.com passes along a Chinese report, noting that Guangdong GM Liu Hongjiang has said a deal hasn't been officially reached with Arenas yet. There are still some details to be worked out, and a contract likely won't be finalized until the CBA preseason.

OCTOBER 22ND, 1:59pm: Arenas had been in talks with the CBA's Shanghai Sharks but appears to have opted to sign with Guangdong instead, tweets ESPN.com's Marc Stein.

12:34pm: A week after Tracy McGrady officially signed with the Qingdao Double Star Eagles, it appears another former NBA All-Star may be heading to China too. Gilbert Arenas is closing in on a one-year contract with the Guangdong Southern Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter).

We heard less than a month ago that Arenas was considering playing in China or another country overseas, though he was prioritizing an NBA job. As Marc Stein of ESPN.com wrote in late September, Arenas still had some time to seek out NBA offers and then perhaps weigh his options in the CBA or other professional leagues — three and a half weeks later and still without an NBA contract, the veteran guard seems to be getting more serious about China.

While Arenas didn't make much of an impact in Memphis, reports this offseason have suggested that the 30-year-old is in good shape and is fully healthy. Signing in China would also allow Arenas the opportunity to return to the NBA late in the season, if he impresses overseas, since the CBA regular season ends in March.

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2012/13 Hoops Rumors Writer Predictions

October 30th, 2012 at 11:12pm CST by Luke Adams

With the NBA's 2012/13 regular season just underway, Hoops Rumors' writing team has weighed in with predictions for the coming year. We've made our picks for the top eight seeds in each conference, the Conference and NBA Finals teams, and the winners of the league's major awards.

Click on the link below to see predictions from Luke Adams, Chuck Myron, Zach Links, Alex Lee, Ryan Raroque, Sean Highkin, Michael Pina, and Daniel Seco. And be sure to chime in below in the comments section with your own selections!

2012/13 Hoops Rumors Writer Predictions

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Odds & Ends: Curry, Gibson, Warriors, Thabeet

October 30th, 2012 at 10:59pm CST by Chuck Myron

Stephen Curry didn't want extension talks to go down to the wire, but it appears that's the case, as Curry's comments to Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle lead Simmons to conclude that agent Jeff Austin and Warriors GM Bob Myers continue to try to work out a deal (Sulia link). Since Curry left a preseason game after tweaking his ankle ten days ago, we've heard multiple reports suggesting a deal was unlikely. Nothing's final until tomorrow's 11:00pm Central time deadline, and with about 24 hours to go, there's news on another extension-eligible player among notes from the first night of the 2012/13 regular season.

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Mavs To Decline Option On Dominique Jones

October 30th, 2012 at 10:09pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Mavericks won't pick up their $2.3MM fourth-year option on Dominique Jones by tomorrow's deadline, meaning he'll become an unrestricted free agent next summer, Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News reports. The move doesn't come as too much of a surprise, since the team was reportedly shopping him in trades a few days ago in hopes of keeping a roster space open for the recently waived Delonte West.

Jones, who'll make $1.27MM this year, has played sparingly in the two seasons since the Mavs made him the 25th overall pick of the 2010 draft, averaging 2.5 points in 7.9 minutes for his career. He's struggled with his shot, connecting on only 36.4% of his field goal attempts. 

The move isn't official yet, but assuming it will be, that leaves just two other players with pending rookie-scale option decisions, as our tracker shows: Quincy Pondexter of the Grizzlies, and Cole Aldrich of the Rockets.

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Eastern Notes: Raptors, Wizards, Harkless

October 30th, 2012 at 9:46pm CST by Chuck Myron

Hurricane Sandy hit the Northeast hard, but it won't postpone Thursday's clash between the Knicks and Nets in Brooklyn, as had been feared. That's just one of many intriguing openers this week, including the Celtics' visit to Miami, where the Heat were presented with their championship rings. As the NBA tips off, we'll share some Eastern Conference news to go along with our update from the West earlier this evening.  

  • Raptors president and GM Bryan Colangelo admitted it's been difficult not to try to speed up his team's rebuilding process, as he tells Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun. "We passed on multiple opportunities to bring in players via transactions that would have thwarted our efforts," Colangelo said. "At times, it was tempting. But we had to stick to the plan. There has had to be a patience and strategy to every decision we’ve made. The deals we could have made were more of a tonic than a long-term solution."
  • Colangelo also shared his feelings about rookie Jonas Valanciunas, saying, "It’s become apparent that in order for us (to get better) Jonas needs to be thrown into the fire. The sooner he develops into a nightly contributor, the sooner we get closer to our goal.”
  • Wizards coach Randy Wittman said injuries to John Wall and Nene Hilario influenced the team's decision to keep Jannero Pargo and Earl Barron over Shelvin Mack and Brian Cook, reports Michael Lee of The Washington Post.
  • Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel believes the Magic should give rookie Maurice Harkless significant playing time this season so they can figure out whether the 19-year-old small forward is a building block for the future. 
  • A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com notes via Twitter that every player in the three-team trade that brought Courtney Lee to the Celtics has been waived except Lee and Sasha Pavlovic, whose presence on the Blazers roster is helped along by the fact the Celtics are paying his salary.
  • Carlos Boozer's five-year, $75MM contract obscures the valuable production he brings to the Bulls, argues Scoop Jackson of ESPN.com.
  • Terry Pluto of The Plain Dealer saw lots of positives about the Cavs' youth movement in the team's opening-night win against the Wizards.
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Clippers Waive Travis Leslie

October 30th, 2012 at 8:30pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Clippers have waived guard Travis Leslie, trimming their roster to 14, reports Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link). The team will be on the hook for the one-year veteran's guaranteed minimum salary of $762,195. They could have saved some of that money by waiving him by August 1st, when the deal included only a partial guarantee of $250K for this season, but opted to bring him to training camp instead.

Leslie, whom the Clippers drafted 47th overall in 2011, saw action in just 10 games for the team last season, averaging 1.4 points in 4.5 minutes. The 6'4" University of Georgia product got in just as many games for the Bakersfield Jam, the Clippers' D-League affiliate, putting up 10.2 PPG in 20.4 MPG. He appeared in four of L.A.'s preseason contests this year, putting up 3.0 PPG in 8.2 MPG.

The move frees up a roster spot, though the Clippers can only sign someone to the minimum salary after using their full mid-level exception on Jamal Crawford and their bi-annual exception on Grant Hill over the summer. That would seem to put them out of the running to re-sign Kenyon Martin, who's reportedly seeking a deal around $3MM.

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Western Notes: Meeks, Tinsley, Roy, Blazers

October 30th, 2012 at 8:21pm CST by Chuck Myron

The NBA released its annual report on the growing international presence on its rosters, noting the Spurs have a record eight players from overseas, notes Art Garcia of Fox Sports Southwest, and that includes players from Australia, Brazil, Canada, France and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as HoopsWorld's Alex Kennedy points out (Twitter links). The Timberwolves have five of the league's international players from four different countries, according to the team (Twitter link). As the league continues to attract talent from around the world, here's what's going on around the Western Conference. 

  • Jodie Meeks couldn't be more content with his decision to sign with the Lakers, even though the Wizards and Bucks offered him more money this summer, Kennedy reports.
  • In the same piece, Kennedy also checks in with Jamaal Tinsley, whose deal with the Jazz is non-guaranteed, as we learned last night. The backup point guard is enthusiastic about Utah's veteran offseason additions, but Brad Rock of the Deseret News believes the team's younger players are the key.
  • Ray Richardson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press looks at how the Timberwolves plan to use Brandon Roy this season, noting that the plan is for him to see 30 to 32 minutes per game, down from his career 35.6 MPG average.
  • The Blazers hired Chris McGowan as team president last night, but he'll take a hands-off approach to the basketball operations side of the franchise, reports Mike Tokito of The Oregonian.
  • No. 1 overall pick Anthony Davis is set to make his debut for the Hornets on Wednesday against the Spurs, and Davis believes he gained much from going against Duncan as the Hornets conducted voluntary scrimmages against the Spurs in the summer, writes John Reid of The Times-Picayune.
  • The focus is on the present in Memphis, where Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace largely stood pat over the summer with a roster on the fringes of contention amid the ownership transfer from Michael Heisley to Robert Pera, as Ronald Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal examines.
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Nuggets Sign Ty Lawson To Four-Year Extension

October 30th, 2012 at 7:56pm CST by Luke Adams

7:56pm: The team announced via press release that Lawson has signed the extension, making it official.

2:18pm: Lawson's extension will be worth $48MM over four years, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter).

2:07pm: The Nuggets and Ty Lawson appear to have come to an agreement on a four-year extension for the Denver point guard. While we don't have any details yet on the exact terms, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports confirms (via Twitter) that the two sides have agreed to a new deal. Lawson broke the news today on his own Twitter feed.

"It Looks like im going to be a nugget for another 4 yrs," Lawson tweeted. "Thanks to the Kronke family, Masai, nuggets fans and everybody 4 believing In me."

Lawson had long been considered one of the top candidates from this year's class of extension-eligible fourth-year players to sign a contract extension, with ESPN.com's Marc Stein reporting earlier this month that it seemed like more a question of "when" than "if." Negotiations between the two sides seemed to stall earlier this week, but it appears that was just a temporary setback.

TNT's David Aldridge reported overnight that Lawson had turned down the Nuggets' offer of four years and $45MM, so the amount the 24-year-old agreed to is likely a little higher. When I examined Lawson as an extension candidate earlier this summer, I estimated that an annual salary in the neighborhood of $10MM could be about right, suggesting that perhaps it could go a little higher if Lawson was extended for four years rather than five.

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Kenyon Martin Seeking Mini Mid-Level

October 30th, 2012 at 7:15pm CST by Chuck Myron

Kenyon Martin's name is one of the most prominent remaining on our list of free agents, and he still believes he's worth the mini mid-level exception, tweets Jared Zwerling of ESPNNewYork.com. It's unclear whether Zwerling is referring to the $3.09MM taxpayer's mid-level exception or the $2.575MM room exception. Martin's preference is to play for a championship contender, as Zwerling also notes.

Martin's agent, Andy Miller, indicated his client was conditionally open to playing for the veteran's minimum in September, saying he would do so in a "comfortable team role." It seemed he was on the verge of signing with the Knicks right before training camp, and went so far as to take a physical for the team, but no deal ever materialized. The Knicks instead turned to Rasheed Wallace, who made the opening-night roster after inking a non-guaranteed minimum salary deal. Martin also drew interest from a team in Israel, but turned down its offer of $900K.

It seems as if Martin, who turns 35 in December, is willing to wait for injuries and other matters to arise that would put a team in greater need for his services. Still, he might be asking a bit much for a deal around $3MM in the middle of the season, especially since Martin averaged career lows in scoring, rebounding and field goal percentage last season.

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Central Rumors: Jennings, Bulls, Gibson, Pacers

October 30th, 2012 at 6:30pm CST by Chuck Myron

The 2012/13 season is now under way, as the Cavaliers and Wizards have tipped off in Cleveland. Even as we celebrate the start of a new season, there are a few offseason matters still to be resolved, with decisions on rookie-scale extensions chief among them. There's news on a couple of Central Division players up for those extensions this evening, along with other a few other notes of interest.

  • Knowing other teams can't backload an offer to Taj Gibson in restricted free agency the same way the Rockets did with Omer Asik this past summer, the Bulls are holding firm on their four-year extension offer of $30-32MM to Gibson, K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune reports. Still, the two sides have made progress in talks that Gibson characterized as positive, Johnson adds.

Earlier updates:

  • The odds of an extension for Brandon Jennings are "more none than slim," according to Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times (Twitter link). Last we heard, Jennings was reportedly seeking a deal worth $9-10MM from the Bucks.
  • The success of the past two seasons gave Bulls GM Gar Forman and vice president John Paxson leeway as the team regressed the summer in the wake of Derrick Rose's injury, but the executives will ultimately be judged by whether they find another star to complement their former MVP point guard, David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune believes. 
  • In the same piece, Haugh notes that Forman doesn't anticipate losing Taj Gibson in restricted free agency if the Bulls don't sign him to an extension before tomorrow's 11pm Central time deadline.
  • Despite last season's success, few pundits are predicting another step forward for the Pacers, who are still approaching this year with the mentality of an underdog, writes Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star.
  • Anderson Varejao's name has come up in several trade rumors over the past several months, but Zach Lowe of Grantland.com opines that he's just the sort of players the Cavs should want around their younger guys (Twitter link).
  • Cavs owner Dan Gilbert regrets guaranteeing his team would win a championship before LeBron James, as Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal notes (Sulia link).
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