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Atlantic
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Southwest
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Northwest
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Pacific
Chicago’s Pursuit Of ‘Melo Hinges On Mirotic
The Bulls are planning an aggressive pursuit of a major addition this summer and they won’t fear paying the luxury tax if it comes to that, as Chris Broussard of ESPN.com reports in an Insider-only piece. Carmelo Anthony and Nikola Mirotic are the two primary candidates, Broussard writes, adding that it’s an either-or proposition. Chicago will go after the Knicks star if it decides to wait until 2015 to bring on Mirotic, who’d require a hefty salary plus a sizable buyout from Real Madrid of Spain, which has the forward under contract until 2016.
Joakim Noah made a recruiting pitch to Anthony at the All-Star Game, telling him that his best chance to win a ring is in Chicago, and Derrick Rose would also love to see the Knicks star jump to the Bulls, Broussard reported this morning. A report from January indicated that Anthony would prefer Chicago to Los Angeles, though Anthony told reporters at the All-Star break that his priority is to re-sign with the Knicks. Broussard is “beginning to think” that Anthony will leave New York, but that appears to be mere speculation.
The Bulls would have to use the amnesty clause on Carlos Boozer to sign either Anthony or Mirotic for more than the mid-level exception, which would be well beneath market value for either of them. Chicago would likely have to make additional salary-clearing moves to open up enough room for Anthony, depending on how much less than his maximum starting salary of more than $22.458MM he’d be willing to take. The Bulls hold the NBA rights to the 23-year-old Mirotic, widely seen as the best player outside the NBA. Mirotic was the 23rd overall pick in the 2011 draft, but since three years have passed, he and the Bulls are no longer required to come to terms on a rookie scale contract.
Chicago paid the tax last season for the first time in franchise history, and the Bulls are in danger of paying it again this year if Taj Gibson or Joakim Noah trigger incentive clauses in their contracts. There’s a reasonable chance that either Gibson or Noah will do so, and if the Bulls pay the tax this season, another taxpaying year in 2014/15 or 2015/16 would make the team subject to the league’s repeat-offender tax penalties the following season. Those repeater rates begin at $2.50 for every dollar spent beyond the tax threshold.
Kings Sign Royce White To 10-Day Contract
THURSDAY, 12:10pm: Sacramento has made the deal official, the team announced. The statement also notes that the team has assigned White to the D-League, as expected.
WEDNESDAY, 8:21pm: The Kings are expected to sign Royce White to a 10-day contract on Thursday, according to Marc. J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. The team is giving him an NBA opportunity through their D-League affiliate, a source told Yahoo! Sports. The reported plan is to assign him to the Reno Big Horns, where he will be evaluated over four games. The former Iowa State star has battled an anxiety disorder and has a fear of flying. If White’s D-League stint goes well, the Kings will likely sign him to a second 10-day contract and add him to their active roster. The team has one open spot after waiving Jimmer Fredette.
White was taken 16th overall by the Rockets in the 2012 NBA draft. He had difficulties right off the bat because of his anxiety about flying. He missed the entire training camp and thought the Rockets weren’t treating his mental health issues effectively, according to the article. He was eventually suspended by the team for “refusal to provide services” stipulated by his contract.
White never ended up playing for the Rockets and was traded to the Sixers along with the rights to Turkish forward Furkan Aldemir and cash in July 2013, for a conditional second -round draft pick. White played for the Sixers this preseason, but was waived before the season’s start. The Sixers are on the hook for White’s $1,719,480 salary this season.
Thunder Sign Reggie Williams To 10-Day Deal
12:03pm: The Thunder has officially announced the signing, via press release.
7:58am: Four-year NBA veteran Reggie Williams is headed to the Thunder on a 10-day contract, reports Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman. The 27-year-old swingman has been with the Thunder’s D-League affiliate since December following NBA interest from the Bulls and Grizzlies. The official announcement of the signing should take place this morning, according to Mayberry.
Williams spent the past four seasons in the NBA with the Warriors and Bobcats. His sophomore campaign, in which he shot 42.3% from three-point range, helped him earn a two-year, $5.1MM deal with Charlotte after the lockout in 2011. He nonetheless shot just 30.7% from behind the arc over the duration of that contract, and wound up on just a partially guaranteed minimum-salary deal this past summer with the Rockets, who cut him prior to opening night.
The 27-year-old rediscovered his stroke in the D-League, knocking down 38.2% of his three-pointers as he averaged 20.6 points per game over 20 appearances. The Interperformances client will fill Oklahoma City’s lone remaining open roster spot.
Execs, Agents Fear NBA Headed For Lockout
The consensus among agents and executives around the NBA is that the league is on the path toward a lockout in 2017, reports Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. Commissioner Adam Silver and other league officials are already sending out signals that they want a hard salary cap, former union executive director Charles Grantham tells Deveney. Grantham’s time atop the union preceded Billy Hunter’s 17-year run as executive director, but the players have yet to name a permanent replacement. That, too, is helping sow the seeds of a lockout, Deveney writes.
The league and the union both have options after the 2016/17 season to terminate the collective bargaining agreement struck at the end of the 2011 lockout. Most reports have indicated that the agreement will indeed come to an end that year. The league is negotiating a TV rights deal that will most likely ensure that teams continue to receive money even in the event of a lockout, which was the case in 2011. That gives the league incentive to use the lockout as a negotiating tool against the players, who have been unsuccessful in finding alternative revenue streams in the past, as Deveney explains.
Grantham worries that the players are “way behind” in preparing for talks on the next labor deal, though National Basketball Players Association president Chris Paul tells Deveney that he’s not worried about the slow progress toward naming a new executive director. Still, agents feel the delay is “potentially disastrous,” Deveney writes, and they worry that players, wary of repeating the Hunter debacle, won’t give whomever they do hire the support necessary to negotiate effectively.
Nets Sign Jorge Gutierrez To 10-Day Deal
The Nets have signed Jorge Gutierrez to a 10-day contract, the team announced via Twitter. The move had appeared likely last night after Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported that the Nets preferred Gutierrez to Darius Johnson-Odom as they sought a 15th player. Brooklyn had been keeping an open roster spot, with 13 guaranteed contracts and Jason Collins on his second 10-day deal.
Gutierrez, who’s set to become the fourth Mexican-born player to take part in an official NBA game, was with the Nets during the preseason. Though he saw limited action in exhibition games, his performance during camp was key in the team’s decision to bring him back. The 25-year-old has spent time the past two seasons with the D-League affiliate of the Cavs, and he’s averaged 13.9 points and 6.9 assists in 32.7 minutes per game so far this year.
The 6’3″ Gutierrez went undrafted in 2012 out of Cal, where he received Pac-12 Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors. He’s seen short minutes in summer league with the Nuggets and Kings the past two offseasons.
Atlantic Rumors: Carmelo, Crawford, Gay
Joakim Noah attempted to sell Carmelo Anthony on the idea of joining the Bulls this summer when the two spoke at the All-Star break, according to ESPN’s Chris Broussard. The Knicks star was non-committal, though he expressed admiration for the way Chicago plays, Broussard notes, adding that the conversation began with Anthony asking Noah what it’s like to play for Tom Thibodeau (All four Twitter links). Broussard also hears that Derrick Rose, who’s notorious for refusing to recruit other players to the Bulls, would love Anthony to join Chicago and would reach out to him if the team asked him to (Twitter link). I touched on the possibility of the No. 2 player on the Hoops Rumors 2014 Free Agent Power Rankings joining the Bulls when I examined Anthony’s free agent stock Wednesday. Here’s more on Anthony’s current team as we check the latest from the Atlantic Division:
- The Knicks have been linked to 2015 free agent Kevin Love on numerous occasions, but if Anthony re-signs, Love’s poor defense and an offensive game that’s too similar to Anthony’s would make him a poor fit, opines Chris Herring of the Wall Street Journal.
- Soon-to-be free agent Jordan Crawford has fond memories of his time with the Celtics, who traded him to the Warriors in January, and he greeted Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge warmly before Golden State’s game in Boston on Wednesday. Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald has the details.
- Rudy Gay will hear plenty of boos when he returns to Toronto with the Kings on Friday, but Raptors ownership deserves blame for setting up the compromising situation that led to Gay’s acquisition last year, argues Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun.
Kings Likely To Keep Orlando Johnson
Indications are the Kings will keep 10-day signee Orlando Johnson for the rest of the season, as Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee writes within a story about the team’s impending addition of Royce White. Johnson’s 10-day contract is set to expire at the end of Friday, though it’s unclear if the team intends to give him another 10-day contract before locking him up for the rest of 2013/14 or is simply planning to go ahead and sign him for the season.
Sacramento has only 13 guaranteed contracts, meaning there’s room for Johnson and White. Johnson joined the team shortly after the Pacers waived him to accommodate their deadline-day trade with the Sixers. The 24-year-old has seemingly had a rough go of it in a return to his native Northern California, scoring just nine points on 21.4% shooting in 39 total minutes with the Kings, spread out over four games. He’s averaged 2.4 points and 9.1 minutes per game overall this season, declines from his numbers in 2012/13, when he posted 4.0 PPG in 12.1 MPG with the Pacers.
The Kings plan to use the waning weeks of the season to evaluate young talent and sign players who could help the team down the road, Jones writes. That suggests that Sacramento may attach a non-guaranteed second year onto a deal that would retain Johnson for the rest of this season. Sacramento drafted the shooting guard out of UC-Santa Barbara with the 36th overall pick in 2012, trading him to the Pacers shortly thereafter, but the Kings were under different management at the time.
Nets Likely To Sign Jorge Gutierrez
10:58pm: Stein tweets that he’s hearing Gutierrez is the player likely to be signed, his good training camp showing with the team giving him the edge.
7:06pm: The Nets, who just inked Jason Collins to his second 10-day contract may be planning on bringing in another body on a 10-day contract, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The team has just recently worked out both Jorge Gutierrez and Darius Johnson-Odom. The team currently has 14 players on the roster, with one open slot.
Gutierrez has been playing with the Canton Charge this year after being in camp with the Nets back in October. In 35 games in the D-League, he’s averaged 13.9 PPG, 5.7 RPG, 6.9 APG in 32.7 MPG. Gutierrez went undrafted in 2012, and has also played for the Nuggets Summer League team.
Johnson-Odom was selected 55th overall in the the 2012 draft by the Mavs, who immediately traded him to the Lakers. He was waived by the team after appearing in only four games, back in January of 2013. Johnson-Odom then spent the remainder of last year playing in Russia with Spartak St. Petersburg. He then played summer league ball for the Celtics, before signing and later being released by the Lakers. Johnson-Odom has been playing for the Springfield Armor since January 3rd. In 25 games he’s averaged 22.6 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 6.0 APG in 36.3 MPG.
Western Links: Bledsoe, Watson, Carter
Eric Bledsoe is scheduled to return to game action for the Suns sometime in the next week, writes Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic. He will be back on the court either Monday at the Clippers, or Wednesday at home against the Cavs. Before he went down with an injury, the future restricted free agent averaged 18.0 PPG and 5.8 APG. After starting the season 19-11, the team has cooled slightly and gone 16-14 without Bledsoe.
More from the west:
- Chris Haynes of of CSNNW.com details the choice that Blazers guard Earl Watson will have to make this off season between continuing his playing career or coaching.
- 37 year-old Vince Carter believes he can play two more seasons, according to Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Twitter link). The Mavs swingman is averaging 11.9 PPG in 24.3 minutes per contest this year. Carter will be an unrestricted free-agent after the season.
- Mike Trudell of NBA.com looks at the dividends the recently acquired Kent Bazemore is paying for the Lakers. Since being picked up, he has averaged 15.8 PPG, 3.7 RPG, and 2.5 APG while playing 32.5 MPG. Trudell also looks at whether this production is worth the team considering keeping him around beyond this season.