Odds & Ends: Embiid, Boozer, Turner
Jeff Goodman of ESPN released his report about Joel Embiid “strongly considering” a return to Kansas for his sophomore season, noting that while the Cameroon native recently stated he didn’t feel ready for the NBA, those feelings could change depending on his development over the rest of the year. Earlier this evening, we noted that Adam Zagoria of Zagsblog relayed the first scoop from Goodman via Twitter.
After tonight’s game against Baylor, Embiid spoke with reporters: “I’m not even thinking about (going pro) right now…I’ll make a decision after the season, but I’m definitely considering coming back to school.”
Many NBA executives told ESPN.com that Embiid is their frontrunner to be selected first overall in June, according to Goodman. The Kansas center – who admittedly thought of redshirting prior to the start of the season – is averaging 11.2 PPG, 7.7 RPG, and 2.7 BPG thus far during his freshman campaign, and is reportedly shocked at the impact he’s been able to make.
Here are the rest of the notable links we’ve gathered up tonight:
- Carlos Boozer hasn’t been happy with being benched in favor of Taj Gibson once the fourth quarter rolls around, letting reporters know about his frustration on Monday: ‘‘I think I should be out there, but it’s [Tom Thibodeau’s] choice,…He makes the decisions out there. I play; I don’t coach. He coaches, so he decides that. But, honestly, he’s been doing that a lot since I’ve been here, not putting me [in the game] in the fourth quarter. Sometimes we win. More times than not, we don’t. But that’s his choice’ (Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Sun-Times).
- Boozer continued: ‘‘It’s very frustrating, especially when I’ve got a great game going or what have you. Obviously, as a competitor, you want to be out there to help your team win. Especially when the game is close, you can do things that can help your team win. And not being out there, all you can do is really cheer them on. But that’s [Thibodeau’s] choice.’’
- Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN tweeted that nothing has changed since the beginning of the season regarding the Timberwolves’ interest in 76ers guard Evan Turner. Although Minnesota covets Turner, President of Basketball Operations Flip Saunders is still not willing to include a first rounder that Philadelphia would want in return.
- During his chat with readers, Eddie Sefko of SportsDayDFW downplayed the possibility that the Bucks would deal Larry Sanders. Additionally, Sefko doesn’t believe that the Mavericks would be interested in pursuing the Milwaukee big man, especially with frontcourt positions already occupied by Samuel Dalembert, DeJuan Blair, and Brandan Wright.
- Sefko doesn’t foresee the Mavs making a huge splash on the trade market, saying that if any move is to be done, it’ll involve players at the bottom of the roster instead of the top. One deal he thinks would make sense involves trading Wayne Ellington for an expiring contract, thus allowing Dallas to free themselves of $2.5MM next season.
- As for the Pau Gasol sweepstakes, Sefko gets the sense that Dallas has at least made cursory inquiries and labels their chances at landing him as a “long-shot.” As for LeBron James potentially becoming available this summer, Sefko says that not being among the top on the list of preferred destinations won’t deter the team from making their free agent pitch.
- With the Thunder owning and operating their D-League affiliate Tulsa 66ers, it has allowed Oklahoma City to create an infrastructure which maximizes player development, writes Anthony Slater of NewsOK.
Atlantic Links: Brown, Stoudemire, Carmelo
After previously being part of a Spurs coaching staff that helped San Antonio win three titles, Philadelphia head coach Brett Brown tells Keith Pompey of The Inquirer that bringing a championship culture to the 76ers is much tougher than he anticipated:
“It’s much harder…It’s something that I didn’t judge properly. It doesn’t diminish my enthusiasm being here. I just recognize the monster ahead of us…Trying to build a program to the level we hope to build it to requires so much work and so much luck. And there is no wiggle room. You can’t skip a single step.”
You can find some more miscellaneous links worth passing along out of the Atlantic Division below:
- Knicks forward Amar’e Stoudemire is more than eager to be a contributor and asserted that he’s ready to play without minute restrictions: “From a doctor’s standpoint, there hasn’t been (minute) limitations since the first week of the season…So we can’t keep saying limitations; that’s a coach’s decision at the end of the day. I feel great. I am ready to play. But it’s up to him if he wants to play me or not” (Frank Isola of the New York Daily News).
- Stoudemire added that he’s spoken with head coach Mike Woodson about increasing his role: “Yeah. I talk to Coach all the time about it. He knows I am ready. He knows how hard I train. He watches me in the weight room and also on the basketball court. The whole training staff knows, the Knicks organization knows how hard I train. I am ready to play. But it depends on how the game is played.”
- In response to Mike Wilbon’s recent argument on ESPN that the Bulls should look to add Carmelo Anthony on the premise that stars win in this league, ESPN New York’s Ohm Youngmisuk thinks the same can be said for why the Knicks must do what they can to keep him in New York.
- Henry Abbott and David Thorpe of ESPN discuss why Tyson Chandler hasn’t been able to make the same defensive impact we’re used to seeing from seasons past.
- Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News explains why Raymond Felton isn’t fit to be the team’s starting point guard.
- Tim Bontemps of the New York Post looks at how Shaun Livingston orchestrated his mid-season turnaround. The Peoria native put up 9.2 PPG on 46.1% shooting to go with 4.5 RPG and 1.5 SPG in 29.7 MPG during Brooklyn’s 10-3 stretch in January, and is averaging 18.5 PPG on 51.9% shooting over his last two contests.
Eastern Notes: Waiters, Sanders, Nets, Green
Cavaliers shooting guard Dion Waiters has been the subject of quite a few trade rumors throughout the season, and Mary Schmitt Boyer of The Plain Dealer notes that those talks will only intensify as we inch closer to the trade deadline. The second-year guard out of Syracuse insists he isn’t fazed by the possibility that he could be changing addresses soon:
“I don’t worry about that stuff…If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen. If not, it’s not. I can’t control that. It’s out of my hands.”
Here’s more out of the Eastern Conference tonight:
- During a live chat with his readers earlier today, Eddie Sefko of SportsDayDFW said that the Bucks aren’t willing to trade Larry Sanders right now because they know they’d be selling low.
- According to Yannis Koutroupis of Basketball Insiders, there isn’t any untouchable player currently on the Nets roster, and in a market where star players are difficult to come by, Brook Lopez, Deron Williams, Paul Pierce, and Joe Johnson could be acquired for less than their true value because Brooklyn will clearly be sellers at this year’s trade deadline.
- Chris Forsberg of ESPN Boston sheds some light on Celtics forward Jeff Green, who aside from showing glimpses of his obvious potential, has struggled to find a comfort zone this year. With the trade deadline looming, Forsberg says it’s fair to wonder if Green is still a part of Boston’s future plans, and that even considering his under-performance as well as his four-year, $36.2MM price tag, there will still be teams interested in his services.
- In a subscribers-only piece for ESPN Insider, Chad Ford cites an anonymous GM who thinks current Syracuse point guard Tyler Ennis will be a more reliable floor general than Kyrie Irving: “If you were to ask me right now whether I’d take Ennis over (Irving), I think it’s Ennis,..He does all the things that help a basketball team win basketball games. You can pick him apart on individual flaws, but I would take this kid right now and trust him to run my team. I think there’s very few freshmen you could ever say that about.”
- Though some may be skeptical about how Andrew Bynum‘s past behavioral issues could affect the Pacers’ chemistry, Darvin Ham – formerly an assistant with the Lakers in 2011/12 and now an assistant with the Hawks– vouched for Bynum’s ability to remain focused: “I really spent a lot of one-on-one time with him, been in group settings with him…He’s really not a disruptive guy. He just wants to be left alone and left alone to play the game, plain and simple (Candace Buckner of IndyStar.com).
- While Anthony Bennett has struggled for most of the year, Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal writes that the UNLV product hasn’t been listening to the negative talk about his game and doesn’t dwell on his mistakes as much as he’d done earlier in the season: “I was just worried about making a lot of mistakes, with getting subbed out, all that in the back of my head…Now I’m just going out there and giving it my all. Who cares if I get subbed out? I’m just playing.”
Western Notes: Harris, Blake, Babbitt
Earlier today, the Lakers notified guard Manny Harris that they do not plan to retain him beyond his second 10-day contract, tweets Bill Oram of the OC Register. We noted yesterday that L.A. wasn’t expected to keep Harris on board with a trio of the team’s point guards returning to the lineup.
Aside from a sensational 18-point, 6-for-9 shooting performance against the Knicks a little over a week ago, Harris’ numbers have been underwhelming through his eight game stint for the most part, averaging 6.8 PPG on 33.9% shooting overall and 29.4% from long distance in 19.9 MPG. However, as we speak, the 6’5 guard is leading the Lakers with 13 points on 5-for-5 shooting at halftime against the Timberwolves tonight, and although he might not be on the team tomorrow, Harris is putting together a compelling audition for potential suitors.
Here are some more links to share out of the Western Conference tonight:
- In response to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders’ tweet that the Lakers would look to shed another $3MM in the form of Jordan Hill, Steve Blake, or Chris Kaman in a potential Pau Gasol deal, fellow Basketball Insiders writer Eric Pincus (via Twitter) says that L.A. would actually like to keep Blake beyond this season.
- Despite Russian-based team Nizhny Novgorod’s initial plan to hold Luke Babbitt to his contractual obligations and prevent him from signing with an NBA team, Pelicans GM Dell Demps managed to negotiate a buyout agreement that took two weeks to get finalized, reports John Reid of NOLA.com. New Orleans head coach Monty Williams is hopeful that Babbitt can be a contributor right away: “We thought having some more depth at our wing spot and there’s a chance he can play some four (power forward) because of his ability to shoot the ball..He’s a young player who had some success in Portland and played really well overseas. We kept our eye on him and have been trying to get it done for a couple of weeks, maybe a little bit longer. Finally it happened for us.”
- Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle shared his thoughts with Eddie Sefko of SportsDayDFW on current Grizzlies guard and former Mavs draft pick Nick Calathes, who is expected to start in place of the injured Mike Conley when the two teams meet Wednesday night. Dallas reportedly dealt Calathes in order to create a roster spot for Gal Mekel: “They’re similar players…We went that direction and at that point it made no sense to hold onto Calathes’ rights. They both have gotten much better since they got into the NBA. I’m happy for Nick. And we like Gal. It wouldn’t make any sense to have both of them here.”
- So far, the 2013/14 season may not have always been ideal as one would hope for Samuel Dalembert, who on separate occasions this season has been called out by Carlisle for lack of conditioning and being undisciplined on the court. In another piece for SportsDayDFW, Sefko notes that with his recent 18-point, eight rebound, and 7-for-8 shooting performance against the Cavaliers, the 32-year-old center is slowly regaining the trust from everyone on the team, including Carlisle, who doesn’t appear to have any choice at this point but to ride Dalembert as much as he can.
Latest On Suns, Lakers, Pau Gasol
8:10pm: The Lakers don’t believe that the talks with the Suns about Gasol are over, and discussions with Phoenix and other teams are expected to continue through February 20, tweets Ramona Shelburne of ESPN Los Angeles.
7:49pm: The Suns have halted talks with the Lakers regarding Gasol because L.A. reportedly wants too much in return, according to Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times. Of the four first-round picks that Phoenix could possibly own this year, the Lakers were said to have been pushing for either the pick owed from Minnesota (top 13-protected) or Washington (top 12-protected. The other two draft choices the Suns have at their disposal include their own (currently projected at 22nd overall) and Indiana’s (now 30th).
Talks could resume before the February 20 deadline, but there needs to be a compromise on which first round pick the Lakers would receive in a Gasol deal, tweets Bresnahan.
8:13am: The Lakers and Suns spoke again Monday about the idea of a swap of Pau Gasol for Emeka Okafor, but the Suns want to see how Gasol’s recovery from a strained groin progresses before furthering the talks, report Ramona Shelburne and Marc Stein of ESPNLosAngeles.com. The Spanish center is set to miss the next three games. If such a trade were to happen, it wouldn’t take the Lakers completely out of tax territory, so they’d insist on receiving draft picks or young players along with Okafor.
Still, the Lakers don’t feel they absolutely must avoid the tax this season, and even if they decide to do so, they believe trading Gasol isn’t their only path out of tax territory, as Shelburne and Stein write. That’s been their belief since last month, when they were involved in negotiations with the Cavs about trading for Andrew Bynum. The Lakers and Cavs have stayed in touch about Gasol in the time since, but there’s nothing imminent on that front, according to the ESPN report. The Lakers expect the market for Gasol to improve closer to the deadline, but they’re all right with holding on to him and retaining the flexibility that his nearly $19.3MM expiring contract will give them in the summer.
The Suns are willing to trade multiple 2014 first-round picks for a star player, but they realize such a talent is unlikely to become available before the deadline, Shelburne and Stein note. Thus, Gasol intrigues Phoenix, since he’s a veteran who could help the team’s playoff drive without cutting into this summer’s cap space.
Draft Rumors: Embiid, Exum
Here’s the latest we’ve come across regarding the 2014 NBA Draft:
- Adam Zagoria of Zagsblog.com (via Jeff Goodman of ESPN) tweets that Kansas center Joel Embiid is leaning toward staying another year in school. If true, this significantly impacts the 2014 draft, as the 7’0 big man has been projected by some to be the number one overall pick in June.
- In a piece for Zagsblog, Zagoria mentions that there are some sources close to the Kansas program who believe that Embiid would prefer to stay in school, although they also think the opportunity to play in the NBA next year may eventually be too great to pass up.
- In that same article, NBA analyst Greg Anthony tells Zagoria that he thinks Embiid should return to Kansas for another season: “(Joel’s) instincts aren’t where you want them to be. At (the NBA) level, they don’t teach, they coach…Our league drafts potential, it doesn’t draft a polished, finished product. I think a lot of these kids are really, really good and really talented but a lot of them could use another year.”
- Anthony applied the same logic to other heralded collegiate freshmen, including Andrew Wiggins, Jabari Parker, Julius Randle, and Aaron Gordon: “I would say that Jabari’s probably the most polished of all of them…And listen, it’s gonna be hard for them not to come out, I get that part. But it wouldn’t hurt any of them to come back to school…I’m a proponent of guys being able to come out of high school. I think these kids are more talented than the draft we had a year ago, but you want them to be a little bit more polished when they come here.
- Prospective 2014 lottery pick Dante Exum made it recently known that he’d like to be drafted by the Lakers next June, getting the ball rolling on speculation that his representation might try to find a way to dissuade undesired teams from drafting him. Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders doesn’t put any faith into the idea that Exum’s agent can force the Australian point guard’s way to Los Angeles, adding that the rookie contract scale removes a lot of power out of the agent’s hands during the draft process. Overall, Kyler believes Exum’s comment has been blown out of proportion and warns not to read into it too much at this point, especially since Exum has yet to meet with a single team (All Twitter links).
Odds & Ends: Gasol, Pelicans, Buyers/Sellers
Earlier today, we heard that the Suns’ interest in continuing talks with the Lakers about a potential Pau Gasol deal hinges on the 7’1 Spaniard’s recovery from a strained groin injury. With news from InsideSoCal.com’s Mark Medina that Gasol’s rehab will keep him out of action for at least another two weeks, this most likely creates another hurdle in trying to complete a potential deal.
Here’s plenty more from around the Association:
- Kevin Ding of the Bleacher Report (via Twitter) says that because of the injury, Gasol may or may not have played his final game for the Lakers. One certainty, however, is that the Lakers are now more motivated to deal him than before.
- The Pelicans have been “extremely active” in trade talks over the past few days, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. It’s unclear exactly what sort of deals they’re working on, but they announced last night that center Jason Smith is lost for the season, and they’ve reportedly been seeking a trade for a big man.
- Regardless of whether or not Andrew Bynum can produce for the Pacers, the decision to bring him aboard represents a pledge from team management to the players that they’re willing to do whatever it takes to win a championship, says Jared Zwerling of the Bleacher Report.
- In the same piece, Zwerling lists several teams who could be among the league’s buyers and sellers at the trade deadline this season, labeling the 76ers, Jazz, Bucks, Lakers and Bulls are potential sellers, while the Bobcats, Warriors, Knicks, Nets, Cavaliers, Wizards, Suns, Mavericks, and Pistons are potential buyers. According to one executive, the Timberwolves and Nuggets could fall into either group depending on what transpires in the next week or so.
- Cedevita of Croatia has waived Josh Selby after the former Grizzlies guard suffered an injury, tweets David Pick of Eurobasket.com. Selby played 10 games in the NBA last season.
- The NBDL’s Texas Legends’ close proximity to their NBA-affiliate Mavericks has made it easy for both to enjoy a highly active partnership as far as developing the Mavs’ young players, writes Dwain Price of the Star-Telegram. Frisco, Texas – where the Legends are based – is located about 30 miles north of downtown Dallas, conveniently allowing the Mavs an option to send someone to play for the Legends one night and then head back for NBA practice the next day.
- The 76ers announced that they’ve assigned big man Arnett Moultrie and guard Lorenzo Brown to the Delaware 87ers (Twitter link).
- The Hawks have sent guard Jared Cunningham to the Bakersfield Jam of the NBDL, according to a team press release earlier this afternoon.
- The Celtics announced that center Vitor Faverani was assigned to their D-League affiliate Maine Red Claws earlier today.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Trade Candidate: Shawn Marion
In a sign of the times around the NBA, there hasn’t been much chatter this season about Shawn Marion. He’s a 35-year-old complementary player on an expiring contract who plays for a middle-of-the-pack team, just the sort of guy who used to be prime trade bait. Expiring deals aren’t as valuable as they used to be, now that shorter contracts have allowed more teams to be able to clear significant cap room each summer. Executives around the league nonetheless believe Marion is a candidate for a trade, and his name emerged Monday in connection with the Mavs’ interest in Evan Turner.
Marion is about to return from a minor shoulder ailment that’s kept him out the past few days, but his performance gives no signs that his body has gone into an accelerated decline. He’s no longer the dynamic weapon who made four All-Star Games and twice averaged more than 20 points per game for the “Seven Seconds or Less” Suns, but he remains a cagey and versatile defender, capable of guarding both forward positions. He’s also rediscovered a three-point stroke that’s been dormant for more than a decade. He’s canning 36% of his three-pointers, a rate he hasn’t seen since making 38.7% of his threes in 2002/03. Perhaps buoyed by his success, he’s taking 2.3 shots from behind the arc every night, his most since 2007/08.
The Mavericks are a better per-possession defensive team when he’s off the floor, per NBA.com, but that’s been the case for four seasons running. This year, it probably has as much to do with having to share the floor with fellow starters Jose Calderon and Monta Ellis, notorious defensive sieves, as it does with any slippage on Marion’s part.
The Sixers are looking for a first-round pick in exchange for Turner, and as Tim McMahon of ESPNDallas.com points out in his mailbag column, the Mavs have their hands tied because of the pick they owe the Thunder. Dallas might not convey that pick until 2018, but because of the Stepien Rule, the Mavs can’t trade any first-rounder before 2020, since doing so might result in the team losing its first-rounder in back-to-back years. This complicates any deal the Mavs consider for Marion, since they can’t attach him to an attractive pick to entice youth-focused teams to take him on.
Still, the Celtics, with plenty of draft picks already in tow and the desire to unload Jeff Green and Avery Bradley, could present an opportunity. The Mavs once more have their eyes set on pursuing a marquee free agent this summer, so Green’s long-term deal probably isn’t of interest, but Bradley, a restricted free agent this summer, could shore up the club’s perimeter defense. Dallas would have the right to match offers if it wants to retain Bradley, and the flexibility to let him go in the pursuit of a splashier name. The issue with this scenario is that the Celtics would have to include more salary to make the deal work, and with few expiring contracts to spare, Dallas might be unwilling to take on a lengthy commitment to anyone signed beyond this season. Perhaps the Mavs and Celtics could pursue a one-for-one swap of Marion and Kris Humphries, a free agent at season’s end. That would allow the Mavs to preserve their flexibility and free the Celtics from their tight squeeze under the luxury tax line, allowing them to make other moves. Still, such a deal is just my speculation.
Another idea would put Marion back in Phoenix. The Mavs could facilitate their free agent push if they managed to get a hold of Emeka Okafor‘s bloated expiring deal, though it would require Dallas to send extra salary along with Marion. If the Suns were willing to take on Wayne Ellington, who’s guaranteed $2.77MM for next season, the deal would be feasible. Dallas would give itself extra room for this summer, and Phoenix would have a proven veteran who could be an upgrade over untested P.J. Tucker and Markieff Morris at the forward positions. Plus, the Mavs could probably command a late first-round pick.
Yet even if the teams were actually considering it, that deal still might not pass muster with the Mavs, since they’d like to make the playoffs this season. Sacrificing a still-useful Marion for someone who probably won’t see the court at all this season won’t help Dallas accomplish its short-term goal. Still, the Mavs likely aren’t content to merely make the postseason and get knocked out in the first or second round, and that’s probably their ceiling this year. A championship is a long-term goal for this franchise, and moving Marion in a deal that can help the club sign a top-tier free agent capable of delivering another title to Dallas might be the wisest decision.
Odds & Ends: Suns, Nets, Celtics, Ariza
The Suns are exploring their trade options with Emeka Okafor‘s expiring contract, but if they use it to bring in Pau Gasol or another player via trade, Jeff Hornacek insists it won’t be someone who’ll disrupt the locker room, as Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic observes.
“Our guys have great chemistry,” Hornacek said. “If they ever do anything to bring a guy in here, that guy is going to have to figure out what makes us good chemistry-wise, and he’s going to have to fit in. That’s like every team.”
Here’s more from around the league, with two weeks and two days to go until the trade deadline:
- Nets GM Billy King isn’t looking to trade injured Brook Lopez, but he tells Grantland’s Zach Lowe that he’s open to deals that would bring draft picks to Brooklyn.
- The Celtics are high on Chris Johnson, though Boston’s proximity to the tax line may keep the team from re-signing him for the season when his second 10-day deal expires Thursday night, as Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com examines.
- Trevor Ariza is performing well in a contract year, and the Wizards will probably make a strong push to re-sign him, according to J. Michael of CSNWashington.com.
- Chad Ford of ESPN.com heard a couple of weeks ago that the Bucks are unlikely to pull off a major deadline trade, but in his latest Insider-only “Tank Rank” piece, he says they’d like to acquire a young player or a first-round draft pick in exchange for their veterans.
- In the same piece, Ford suggests the Magic are making Jameer Nelson and Glen Davis available.
- Draft prospect Dante Exum would prefer to play for the Lakers, and Jabari Davis of Basketball Insiders wonders if agent Rob Pelinka would try to use the threat of Exum playing next season overseas to dissuade other teams from drafting him.
- The city of San Francisco received a signed petition that proposes a vote on regulations that would erect a hurdle to the Warriors‘ plans for an arena in the city. The San Jose Mercury News has the details.
How Gasol-Okafor Deal Would Work Financially
The Suns are an NBA rarity at this point in the season, with approximately $5.25MM in cap space. Most other clubs are over the cap, and the few that aren’t don’t have quite as much room to spare. Cap space is useful for many reasons, and as the trade deadline approaches, teams with this sort of flexibility can absorb costly players in lopsided swaps.
The Suns are in talks with the Lakers about trading Emeka Okafor and his $14,487,500 salary to the Lakers for Pau Gasol, who makes $19,285,850. There’s a gulf of $4,798,350 between their salaries, but that’s less than the amount of cap space the Suns have available, so Phoenix could shoehorn Gasol’s inflated deal into its payroll and still have room left over.
Reporters have frequently cited Phoenix’s cap space as the reason why such a trade is possible, but the teams could still do a one-for-one swap of Gasol and Okafor even if Phoenix uses all or part of its cap space on someone else. In spite of the wide difference between the salaries that Gasol and Okafor make, they still fit within the league’s salary-matching rules for capped-out teams. When a team makes a trade for a player making between $9.8MM and $19.6MM that takes it more than $100K over the cap, the incoming salary must be no more than $5MM greater than what it sends out. The Suns would be taking on Gasol’s salary, and that’s less than $5MM more than what Okafor makes.
It’s reasonable to suspect this caveat might come into play. The negotiations about such a deal appear to be in the early stages, and both teams have their reservations about it. The Suns, looking to upgrade their roster for a run at the playoffs, might trade a player other than Okafor — perhaps Channing Frye — to a team other than the Lakers if they fear that L.A. won’t pull the trigger. The Suns can do this with the knowledge that they could still make the Gasol-Okafor deal if the Lakers decide in the end that they’re willing. So, the Lakers can’t gain leverage by holding up Phoenix’s pursuits outside of an Okafor deal.
The only sort of deal the Suns could do that would prevent a one-for-one exchange of Gasol and Okafor, other than a trade that sends Okafor to another team, of course, would be one that puts Phoenix’s payroll above $70,949,650. Adding the difference between Gasol’s salary and Okafor’s to that amount would bring the Suns to the $75.748MM tax apron. The salary-matching restrictions are more severe for trades that would take a team above the apron. In that case, Gasol’s salary could be no larger than 125% plus $100K of what the Suns would give up to get him. Okafor’s salary wouldn’t cut it in this circumstance.
Still, it’s highly unlikely the Suns, with a payroll of about $53.4MM, would draw anywhere close to the apron between now and the deadline. So, Phoenix president of basketball operations Lon Babby and GM Ryan McDonough have plenty of options, and they don’t need to wait for the Lakers to make up their minds. If negotiations break their way, the Suns are in a position to make multiple significant trades before the deadline.
Note: Gasol’s contract includes a 15% trade kicker, but it’s meaningless, since no player can collect on a trade kicker if it would push his salary beyond the maximum salary for a player of his experience. Gasol already makes more than the max for players with 10 or more years of experience, so his trade kicker is null and void.
ShamSports, Basketball Insiders and Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ were used in the creation of this post.