Wolves Waive Stiemsma, Gelabale
The Wolves announced that they have waived center Greg Stiemsma and forward Mickael Gelabale. Both moves have been expected for some time.
Both players had contracts for the 2013/14 season that were said to become guaranteed if they were still on the Wolves’ roster at the end of the month. Stiemsma was set to earn $2.69MM next season while Gelabale would have made $916K. According to the Hoops Rumors schedule of guarantee dates, Stiemsma would have had his contract locked in on July 17th while Gelabale would have been guaranteed on the 22nd.
Stiemsma, a former Celtic, averaged 4.0 PPG and 3.4 RPG in 15.9 minutes per game last year. Gelabale, who spent several years overseas, scored 5.0 PPG in 17.9 minutes per contest.
Hoops Rumors Originals
The Warriors missed out on Dwight Howard but landed a big fish when they inked Andre Iguodala. While the deal was initially reported as an outright signing, Luke Adams crunched the numbers and found that the Warriors might prefer to do a sign-and-trade, if the Nuggets are cooperative. Here’s more of this week’s original analysis and reporting from the Hoops Rumors team on a very busy week in basketball..
- Chuck Myron explained the stretch provision.
- Before Howard decided to sign with the Rockets, Luke broke down the cost of a sign-and-trade deal for the Lakers. For several reasons, it would have been ill-advised for Los Angeles.
- There’s a misconception about the poison pill and Luke set us all straight.
- The majority of Hoops Rumors readers said that Howard would sign with Houston. Well done.
- Michael Pina asked who the top free agent available was after the top two were off the board and Josh Smith won pretty easily.
- If you missed out on Luke’s July 1st chat, you can get caught up here.
Cavs Notes: Clark, FA Targets, Korver, Dunleavy
The Cavaliers made a couple of moves this week, agreeing to terms with Earl Clark and Jarrett Jack, as our Free Agent Tracker Shows. They still figure to have close to $15MM in cap space remaining, so they're not done yet. Terry Pluto of the Plain Dealer, amid his look across the spectrum of Cleveland sports, passes along news on the Cavs' summer so far and what might be next, as we detail here:
- Pluto has the value of Clark's deal at $8.5MM, slightly smaller than the $9MM total that Sean Deveney of The Sporting News originally reported.
- The Cavs are in the hunt for a swingman who can shoot and a true center, according to Pluto. They were considering Kyle Korver before he agreed to re-sign with the Hawks, Pluto adds.
- Pluto also confirms Marc Stein's ESPN report that Marco Belinelli passed up more money from the Cavs to go to the Spurs, and says that Mike Dunleavy did the same when he agreed to head to the Bulls.
- Fellow Plain Dealer scribe Mary Schmitt Boyer answers reader questions in her mailbag column, and she touches on the notion of LeBron James returning to the Cavs.
Rockets Aggressively Shopping Jeremy Lin
A source tells HoopsWorld's Bill Ingram that the Rockets are working hard to move Jeremy Lin, but Houston is finding little interest in the point guard (Twitter link). The Rockets' pursuit of a deal comes in spite of GM Daryl Morey's insistence this week that he's not looking to move Lin and Omer Asik, and a more recent report from Ken Berger of CBSSports.com indicating the team was open to keeping them both.
Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors surmised that Morey's comments might simply have been an attempt to boost the value of Lin and Asik while easing possible tensions should the two remain on the roster into next season. Asik doesn't seem placated, as Berger heard Friday that the center wants out of Houston and isn't interested in playing on the same team as Dwight Howard. It appeared Lin and Asik might have been at the center of a trade proposal to the Hawks for Josh Smith, but there were conflicting reports, and Smith ultimately wound up agreeing to sign with the Pistons.
The cap hit for Lin will be $8,374,646 in 2013/14, and an identical amount in 2014/15. Asik has the same deal, as both came to the Rockets via offer sheets last summer. Since Houston wrangled the pair from their former teams using the Gilbert Arenas Provision, their payment schedule doesn't align with their cap hits. Both will be paid slightly more than $5MM this coming season, with balloon payments of more than $10MM set for 2014/15. That could be one reason why teams are reluctant to take on Lin.
Lin and Asik likely represent the most attractive package the Rockets could offer in pursuit of a third star to go with Howard and James Harden, unless they want to throw in Chandler Parsons.
Stretch Provision
The Mavericks centered their 2012 offseason strategy on one-year contracts, but owner Mark Cuban has said that won't be the case for 2013. Instead, Cuban pointed to the stretch provision as a tool that will prompt the team to sign free agents to long-term contracts, even if the plan isn't for those players to stick around until the end of their deals.
The stretch provision allows teams to spread the cap hit for a waived player out over several years. Under the previous collective barganing agreement, teams and players could agree to restructure the payment schedule for any money that remained on their contracts when they parted ways. If a team waived a player with two years and a total of $4MM left on his contract, the club might have a hard time convincing the player to agree to spread the payments out over a longer period of time. The player might take less total money if a significant chunk were handed out up front, but that would still leave a team with a heavy cap hit for a player it no longer had on the roster.
The current CBA solves that dilemma for teams. The post-waiver payment schedule is locked in for players who signed deals after the lockout. If a team waives a player in July or August, the team pays his remaining salary over twice the number of seasons left on the deal, plus one. So, for that player who's waived with two years and $4MM left on his deal, the team would pay him $800K each year for five years.
If a team waives a player in any other month, the team pays the salary for the current season as usual, then spreads out the remaining salary over twice the number of seasons left on the deal, plus one. So, if that same player with a two-year deal worth a total of $4MM wasn't waived until September, the team would be stuck paying him $2MM for the coming season, but the remaining $2MM would be spread out in equal payments of $667K over the following three years. This could make August 31st a key date in NBA offseasons going forward, as teams face decisions about the better method of paying off players they intend to let go.
Cuban spoke about signing free agents to four-year contracts, which would allow the payment, and the cap hit that goes with it, to be stretched over as many as nine years (though unless the team signs a player and waives him the same summer, the payment could only stretch across a total of eight years). If the Mavs were to waive Jose Calderon next summer, a year after they came to terms on to a four-year, $29MM deal, he'd only tie up about $3.1MM of next year's cap. That way, the Mavs could clear room to pursue one of the marquee summer of 2014 free agents. The danger would be in having money that lingers on the books for several years. That could add up if Cuban continues to pursue this strategy.
While the stretch provision regulates when money is paid out, it doesn't prevent teams and players from negotiating a reduced salary as part of a buyout. Non-guaranteed money isn't subject to the stretch provision either, since a team isn't obligated to pay any non-guaranteed portion of a contract once it waives a player. If another team claims a player off waivers, it inherits his contract, including the non-guaranteed portion, and his former team doesn't owe him anything.
Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon's Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.
Post Dwightmare Reactions: Shaq, Lakers, Howard
Dwight Howard's decision to spurn the extra $30MM the Lakers could offer in order to join the Rockets has led to some revelations around the rest of the league. With Dwight as the big free agency coup of the summer, he's turned into the first domino as other teams have made moves in the wake of his announcment.
But the fall-out from Dwight's decision is just starting to expand in scope, and there have been reactions all over. Perhaps most notably, are the words from another former Lakers and Magic star, Shaquille O'Neal.
O'Neal has been critical of Dwight Howard in the past, but he was a bit more condescending when he called Dwight's decision the "safe move," while speaking to assembled media Saturday. But O'Neal's reaction to Dwight's decision wasn't the only fall-out from D-12's move to Texas. Here are more Dwight Howard links now that he's finally made up his mind on where he's going next year:
- A year ago, Howard's camp warned the Rockets that he wouldn't re-sign with Houston if he were traded there. This summer, other Howard suitors tried to convince the big man that James Harden is a selfish teammate. Still, the Rockets persevered, writes Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.
- Former Magic coach Stan Van Gundy thinks Orlando got the better end of the deal when they dealt Howard in the blockbuster trade involving the Sixers, Nuggets and Lakers this past fall. Van Gundy spoke with Fox Sports Florida's Chris Tomasson about how the Magic ended up on top after the initial response had them losing the deal badly.
- There's video of Shaq talking about Howard and the decision, via NBA.com
- ESPN.com columnist J.A. Adande writes about the flummoxing decision by Dwight to leave the Lakers and the extra money, especially when considering his stated motivation to win now.
- The Houston Chronicle's Jonathan Feigen sat down with the best Rockets center since Hakeem Olajuwon to get Howard's side of the story about what brought him to Houston.
- Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News offers a sobering insight for Lakers fans after Howard's decision: Kobe Bryant might have lost his last chance at title number six.
- Finally, we have Mike Bresnahan at the Los Angeles Times on the sketchy Lakers future after Dwight's decision to leave. Their first decision appears to have been not to amnesty Pau Gasol before the last season of his contract.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Russian Team Wooing Timofey Mozgov
10:09am: Mozgov wants to continue playing in the NBA, his European agent, Stanislav Ryzhov, tells Championat (translation via Sportando). Ryzhov confirmed that the Russian club has made its offer.
8:43am: The Nuggets and center Timofey Mozgov have been in talks on a multiyear deal, and while no other NBA suitors appear to have emerged this week, Mozgov has drawn an overseas offer. Lokomotiv Kuban, a team in Mozgov's native Russia, has made a four-year offer to the 7'1" center, club president Andrey Vedischev confirms to the Russian news outlet Championat (translation via Sportando).
Locomotiv will step up to play in the Euroleague for the first time next season, as Sportando's Emiliano Carchia notes, so prying Mozgov away from the NBA would be a well-timed coup for the team. It could be an expensive proposition, since at worst Mozgov could sign his one-year, $3,925,536 qualifying offer from the Nuggets. I'd imagine he and the Nuggets are discussing a deal that includes more guaranteed money than that, though that's just my speculation.
Mozgov is a restricted free agent and the Nuggets have his full Bird rights, so the Nuggets can match any offer he receives from another NBA team, but that privilege does not cover offers from outside the league. The Knicks, Wolves, Bobcats and Heat have all shown interest in Mozgov over the past few months, but none appear to have made an offer since free agency began a week ago.
The Nuggets figure to envision a larger role for the Justin Zanik client this season after trading Kosta Koufos on draft night. If Mozgov re-signs, he'd probably be the backup to JaVale McGee. Zaza Pachulia's three-year, $16MM agreement with the Bucks last night may have set the price for a top-of-the-line backup center.
Magic Sign Victor Oladipo
The Magic have signed No. 2 overall pick Victor Oladipo, the team announced via press release. His rookie-scale figure is close to $4MM, so he’s likely to receive a first-year salary equal to 120% of the scale amount, like most first-round picks. That would give him slightly more than $4.76MM, as our salary chart for this year’s first-rounders shows.
The signing of first-round picks is one of the few transactions allowed during the July Moratorium, so the move is official. Oladipo gives the Magic a high-energy defender with a rapidly improving offensive game. When I examined his potential this spring, I figured Oladipo would continue his rise on draft boards around the league, and he wound up just one pick shy of the top spot.
He was a full-time starter for just one season in high school and two at Indiana University, but the 21-year-old wound up eclipsing fellow shooting guard prospect Ben McLemore in the eyes of the Magic, who have appeared ready to deal Arron Afflalo to clear a space in the lineup for Oladipo.
Latest On Monta Ellis, Andrew Bynum
Top-tier free agents are going fast, leaving Monta Ellis and Andrew Bynum among the best options remaining on the list of available players. Marc Stein of ESPN.com has the latest on teams in line for them:
- Ellis is the top target for the Hawks, according to Stein, who figures the team could make an offer with a starting salary around $10MM based on its available cap space. GM Danny Ferry and company have also given thought to signing Andrew Bynum.
- Bynum is the primary focus for the Mavs, Stein reports, adding that Dallas doesn't appear to have enough cap space left to make a competitive bid on Ellis, whom they've also been eyeing.
- The Nuggets also covet Ellis, Stein observes, and that's fueling the team's desire to trade Andre Miller.
- If Ellis hasn't signed elsewhere by the time the July Moratorium is over on Wednesday, Stein says the Bucks would have to renounce his rights to clear enough room to officially bring aboard free agents O.J. Mayo and Zaza Pachulia, with whom they have agreements.
Odds & Ends: Clippers, Pistons, Cavs, Ellington
The Clippers seem to be done with all their moves this summer and will probably just sign minimum level contracts from here on out, writes Eric Pincus of HoopsWorld (via Twitter). But Pincus also tweeted an update on the Clippers' salary info after the Darren Collison signing that used part of their available MLE earlier tonight.
The deal means Matt Barnes will get less as part of his announced re-signing with the Clippers yesterday. It was reported he'd worked out a three-year deal worth between $11-$12MM, but after Pincus' math that's likely to drop as they split the MLE with Barnes dropping to $10MM over three years.
Here's some more around the league, including teams pursuing free agent Wayne Ellington and the Cavs' future after signing Jarrett Jack.
- League sources tell RealGM's Shams Charania that the Kings are eyeing free agent Sam Young of the Pacers.
- Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio says free agent guard Wayne Ellington is drawing interest from the Bulls, Bucks and Pistons (Twitter).
- About the Pistons, USA Today's Jeff Zillgitt says (via Twitter) that even though they landed free agent Josh Smith, they still want a point guard and shooting wing, the latter role one Ellington could fulfill.
- Keith Langlois of Pistons.com says (via Twitter) that there are 34 players making over $13.5MM next season. He goes on to say that number helps put "youknowwhat" into perspective. We're guessing it's the four-year $54MM (or $56MM, with performance incentives) Josh Smith just agreed to signed for with the Pistons.
- A source has told 1500ESPN.com's Darren Wolfson the Timberwolves are maintaining a regular dialogue with unrestricted free agent Alan Anderson's camp (Twitter).
- Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal takes a look at how the Cavs roster is beginning to take shape in the wake of their agreement with Jarrett Jack.
- Lloyd adds (via Twitter) that the Jack signing probably ends their flirtation with Ellington, whom they didn't tender a qualifying offer because they wanted an upgrade of the kind Jack gives them.