Northwest Notes: Johnson, Green, Cooley, Exum
The Nuggets gave extended minutes to guards Nick Johnson and Erick Green in Friday’s game as they battle for a roster spot, writes Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post. Neither was outstanding, as Johnson had three points and three assists on 1-of-7 shooting in 19 minutes and Green shot 2-of-5 while scoring seven points and collecting two assists in 21 minutes. Johnson came to Denver in the trade that sent Ty Lawson to Houston, while Green was part of a 2013 draft night deal that shipped Rudy Gobert to Utah.
There’s more news from the Northwest Division:
- Jack Cooley, who signed today with the Cavaliers, told Spencer Davies of AmicoHoops.net that he was surprised the Jazz let him go. Cooley, who had a non-guaranteed contract in Utah, was waived Tuesday. “You obviously don’t expect that to happen,” he said, “but it’s always good to keep your head up and there’s other good teams out there that’ll look a player up who works that hard. I’ve just got to keep doing what I do, which is work hard, rebound and be physical.”
- Two months after tearing his ACL, Jazz guard Dante Exum is pain free and able to walk without help, according to Aaron Falk of The Salt Lake Tribune. Exum, who is expected to miss the entire 2015/16 season, credits his quick healing to a rigorous program of physical therapy he underwent for a month before having surgery. He would like to be ready for the Olympics in August, although there is no timeline for when he might play again. “At this point, I’m not too sure,” he said. “It’s just a matter of taking it day by day, week by week and month by month.”
- Dion Waiters admits he was out of shape when he was traded from the Cavaliers to the Thunder last season, writes Anthony Slater of NewsOK.com. However, Waiters is working to change his mind and body as free agency looms next summer.
Cavaliers Rumors: Thompson, James, Cooley
Neither side seems to have a sense of urgency to resolve the Tristan Thompson holdout, writes Chris Haynes of The Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. It has been more than two weeks since Thompson let the Cavaliers’ qualifying offer expire, and Haynes reports that there is no ongoing communication between the team and Thompson’s agents, Rich Paul and Mark Termini. The columnist says team members have talked about how difficult a championship run would be without Thompson, and LeBron James has contacted the young forward frequently throughout the contract impasse.
Haynes notes that Thompson’s best option may be to sit out the entire season. Although he would remain a restricted free agent, he would likely see better offers next summer with the expected rise in the NBA’s salary cap.
Haynes writes that the Cavs’ offer of five years in the neighborhood of $80MM remains on the table, despite a recent rumor that the deal has been pulled. However, Thompson and his representatives are holding out for a max contract, either for five or three years.
There’s more this afternoon from Cleveland:
- James may miss the rest of the preseason after receiving an injection in his back, according to Jason Lloyd of The Akron Beacon Journal. James sat out two weeks in January after getting a similar anti-inflammatory shot. The Cavs plan for their superstar to be ready for their October 27th opener against the Bulls.
- Free agent forward Jack Cooley, who signed with the team earlier today, received an $845,059 non-guaranteed deal, tweets Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. That number indicates that it covers one year. Kennedy notes that Cooley will be competing with Austin Daye, Jared Cunningham, Quinn Cook and D.J. Stephens for two open roster spots (Twitter link).
- Thompson’s holdout and a rash of injuries are going to require patience from the coaching staff and front office during the early part of the season, writes Terry Pluto of the Plain Dealer. Five rotation players — Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving, Iman Shumpert, Timofey Mozgov and Anderson Varejao — have had surgery within the past 10 months.
Cavs Pull $80MM Offer To Tristan Thompson?
SATURDAY, 2:02pm: The Cavs didn’t pull their offer, according to Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer, who indicates it might not be worth precisely $80MM but is “in the ballpark” of that number, “give or take.”
FRIDAY, 7:59am: The Cavs withdrew their five-year, $80MM offer to Tristan Thompson when his qualifying offer expired on October 1st, as Salary Cap FAQ author Larry Coon hears and writes within a Basketball Insiders chat. The sides were reportedly close to a deal for those terms on the first day of free agency in July, but instead they’ve been locked into a stalemate ever since, with Thompson’s camp apparently insistent on a max deal of either five years or three.
Mark Termini, as he usually is for Rich Paul’s Klutch Sports, has been Thompson’s lead negotiator, Coon also hears, and as Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today Sports detailed a couple of weeks ago, Termini and the Cavs both have a history with holdouts. Thompson remains a restricted free agent, but only the Trail Blazers have the cap flexibility to sign him to a max offer sheet, and aside from them, only the Sixers can come close. The last day for Thompson to accept an offer sheet would be March 1st, if he still remains unsigned at that point. Should his free agency linger into next summer, the Cavaliers would have the opportunity to make a new qualifying offer by June 30th to continue his restricted free agency.
It’s unclear what sort of offer, if any, the Cavs have on the table for Thompson at this point. Cleveland is dealing with several injuries as the regular season draws near, including the continued absences of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, who were hurt during the playoffs. Iman Shumpert is in line to miss roughly the first two months of the regular season because of a wrist injury that happened shortly before the start of training camp. The Cavs are a league-worst 0-5 in the preseason, though LeBron James has only appeared in two of those games as part of an effort to limit his minutes.
Where do you think the Cavs and Thompson will go from here? Leave a comment to give us your thoughts.
Cavs Sign Jack Cooley, Waive Chris Johnson
11:10am: The Cavs made it official and have announced that Cooley has been signed and Johnson has been waived.
9:15am: The Cavaliers have reached a deal with unrestricted free agent power forward Jack Cooley, Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports reports (Twitter link). The details of the agreement are not yet known, but Cleveland is over the luxury tax line and limited to offering just the league minimum. The Cavs currently have 20 players on their roster, and Cleveland will waive Chris Johnson to clear room to ink Cooley, Chris Haynes of The Northeast Ohio Media Group tweets.
Cooley, 24, was in training camp with the Jazz on a non-guaranteed deal, but Utah waived him on Tuesday. The forward made 16 regular season appearances last season for the Jazz, averaging 1.7 points and 1.6 rebounds in 5.4 minutes of action per night. While Cooley provides additional frontcourt depth, Cleveland could be bringing him in as insurance in the event Tristan Thompson‘s holdout is a prolonged one, though that is merely my speculation.
Johnson, 30, went undrafted out of LSU back in 2009, and is not to be confused with swingman Chris Johnson out of Dayton. The Johnson whom the Cavs are cutting last appeared on an NBA regular season roster back in 2012/13, when he made 30 appearances for Minnesota. His career NBA averages are 2.9 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 0.6 blocks to accompany a slash line of .562/.000/.699. He spent the 2014/15 campaign playing in China.
Cavs Notes: Roster, Christmas, Cunningham
The Cavaliers are planning to have only 14 players on opening night instead of the maximum 15, reports Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. It would take an overwhelming performance from one of the players on the roster bubble to convince the team to carry a 15th man, Haynes hears. Jared Cunningham has a non-guaranteed deal, but he’s the team’s leading scorer in the preseason and “by far” the favorite to join 13 other players with full guarantees, according to Haynes. Cavs coach David Blatt said late Thursday that the team’s 14th spot would likely go to a guard because of point guard Kyrie Irving‘s injury, as Chris Fedor of the Northeast Ohio Media Group relays (Twitter link), and Cunningham plays shooting guard.
See more on the Cavaliers below:
- The contract that Dionte Christmas, another shooting guard, signed with the Cavs last week is non-guaranteed for two years at the minimum salary, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter links).
- The Cavs will likely release a few of their camp invitees after their preseason schedule ends Monday and briefly add replacements for practice purposes, Haynes adds in the same piece. Those replacements would only be on the roster for a few days, since they’ll have to be off the books by October 26th, the day the roster limit shrinks from 20 to 15. In any case, Cleveland intends to keep the roster at 20 players as long as possible, team sources tell Haynes.
- Blatt wasn’t familiar with Cunningham’s game prior to this year’s training camp, but the coach is certainly a fan of the shooting guard’s game now, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com. “Honestly, coming in I did not have direct experience with Jared,” Blatt said. “I hadn’t really seen him play in the league. I didn’t see him play in college. I know his history and looked into what he had done in the NBA and in the D-League. But this is the first time I’ve had a chance to work directly with him and see him on the floor, and he’d done nothing but acquit himself well in every way. He’s playing good basketball. He’s playing two-way basketball, and he’s making a serious run to try and make this team. He’s doing a good job.”
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Cavs Lead With 16 Free Agent Signings
The Cavaliers have drawn plenty of attention the past few months for a free agent they haven’t signed, but even though Tristan Thompson lingers in free agency, Cleveland has taken care of more free agent business than any other team in the league during the 2015 offseason. They signed 16 free agents, three more than the Spurs, the team that recorded the next most free agent signings. The Cavs just made their latest signing this weekend, replacing Michael Dunigan with Dionte Christmas on the camp roster.
It might be easy to presume a direct correlation between free agent activity and success, given the teams at the very top and bottom of the list below. The Cavs and Spurs are strong bets to win their respective conferences this season, while the Jazz, Timberwolves and Sixers are nowhere near the title picture. The presence of the Warriors and Thunder on the bottom half of the list and the Kings and Nets close to the top debunk that theory, however. It has more to do with the fact that the Cavs had only four players signed for 2015/16 when they ended last season, while the Jazz had 13. Cleveland simply had more jobs to hand out.
Still, other factors are at play, since free agent signings don’t encompass draft picks, draft-and-stash signings, trades or waiver claims. The Trail Blazers made significant changes to their roster, but they did much of their work via trade instead of free agency. The Rockets had 10 players under contract on July 1st, but they still wound up making 11 free agent signings.
Here’s a look at the number of free agent signings for each team. Click the team’s name to see the names of each of their signees via our 2015 Free Agent Tracker.
- Cavaliers, 16
- Mavericks, 13
- Spurs, 13
- Kings, 12
- Knicks, 12
- Nets, 12
- Pelicans, 12
- Rockets, 11
- Clippers, 10
- Grizzlies, 10
- Suns, 10
- Heat, 9
- Pacers, 9
- Raptors, 9
- Bulls, 8
- Hawks, 8
- Magic, 8
- Wizards, 8
- Bucks, 7
- Celtics, 7
- Hornets, 7
- Lakers, 7
- Nuggets, 7
- Warriors, 7
- Pistons, 6
- Thunder, 6
- Trail Blazers, 6
- 76ers, 5
- Timberwolves, 5
- Jazz, 4
Eastern Notes: Knicks, Cavs, Raptors
Carmelo Anthony used to despise Sasha Vujacic back when both played in the Western Conference, but now that the combo guard is a member of the Knicks, Anthony sees it from a different perspective, Al Iannazzone of Newsday writes. The Knicks signed Vujacic to a guaranteed deal during the summer.
“We got into it a couple of times,” Anthony said. “He was one of them little dirty players, sneaky, grab your jersey, foul you after the play. He was speaking in his language and now I understand what he was saying to me — it makes me hate him even more back then. Having him on my team is a big plus, knowing how feisty he is. He’s a vet. He knows how to play the game. He knows the system. I think having him is a big plus.”
Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:
- Joe Harris is a lock to make the Cavs‘ regular season roster, reports Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group. Harris’ salary for this upcoming season is guaranteed at $845,059, as Haynes points out.
- The development of Otto Porter, who projects to be the Wizards‘ starting small forward, especially defensively for Washington this season, will be vital for the Wizards’ success, J. Michael of CSNMidAtlantic writes.
- Anthony Bennett is playing with a sense of urgency and is impressing on defense for the Raptors, Ryan Wolstat of The Toronto Sun writes. Toronto signed Bennett to just a one-year deal for the minimum salary after he was waived by the Wolves.
Cavs Sign Dionte Christmas, Waive Dunigan
SATURDAY, 11:30am: The signing is official, the team announced.
THURSDAY, 10:24pm: The Cavaliers are close to signing shooting guard Dionte Christmas, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports reports (Twitter link). The deal is contingent on Christmas passing his physical, which will be administered on Friday, Spears adds. In order to clear a roster spot, the Cavs will release center Michael Dunigan, Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com reports (via Twitter). Cleveland currently has a roster count of 20 players, which is the preseason maximum.
Cleveland is limited to offering Christmas a minimum salary contract, and Spears termed the pending arrangement as a “make good deal,” which likely means that there will be no guaranteed money involved. Christmas, 29, last played in the NBA during the 2013/14 campaign when he made 31 appearances for the Suns, averaging 2.3 points and 1.2 rebounds in 6.4 minutes per contest. He spent last season with Paris-Levallois of France.
Dunigan, 26, was in training camp with the Grizzlies back in 2012, but he’s primarily played overseas since going undrafted in 2011. The Mike Naiditch client came to the U.S. to spend part of last season with Cleveland’s D-League affiliate, notching averages of 11.6 points and 7.1 rebounds in 30.4 minutes per game across 24 regular season appearances. It’s possible that the Cavs are eyeing Dunigan for a spot on the Canton Charge for 2015/16, though that is merely my speculation.
Cavs Notes: Thompson, LeBron, Love
During an appearance on Zach Lowe of Grantland’s podcast, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst opined that the contract standoff between the Cavaliers and restricted free agent Tristan Thompson isn’t likely to end any time soon, as RealGM transcribes. “I think it will take a third party event to bridge the gap here,” said Windhorst. “I actually believe it will probably go [on for] months. This will go well into the regular season.” The ESPN scribe also compared Thompson’s current situation with Anderson Varejao‘s prolonged holdout back in 2007 that saw the center remain unsigned until December 5th of that year. Varejao’s contract impasse finally came to an end when he inked a three-year, $10MM offer sheet with Charlotte that the Cavs matched.
Here’s more out of Cleveland:
- Windhorst also told Lowe that agent Rich Paul, who represents Thompson and LeBron James, wanted to get Thompson’s deal in place prior to James re-signing with Cleveland this summer, but plans changed when Klutch Sports realized how difficult Thompson’s negotiation would be (RealGM transcription). “It was my understanding at the outset that their plan, when I say ‘their,’ I’m talking about Tristan’s representation, was to handle Tristan Thompson’s contract first and then do LeBron’s contract,” Windhorst said. “But five days into free agency, they realized Tristan’s deal was going to go very long and they had a choice to make. LeBron could either exercise influence or not. And whether it was Rich Paul’s decision or LeBron’s decision, they elected not to do that. LeBron signed his contract.“
- Kevin Love has put his difficult 2014/15 campaign behind him and is excited about the Cavs’ chances this season, and he is ready to assume a larger role in the team’s offense, Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com writes. “It’s just, I think, face everything head-on,” Love said when asked about his outlook for this season. “Relationships with all the guys out there on the court, facing adversity with these guys, or staying on a high with these guys, no matter where the season takes you, it’s just I think facing it head-on and trying to be in a collision course for great things. I think if we all put our heads together, we all continue to work and get healthy, I know I sound like a broken record, but I think we can do something special.“
- Familiarity with the city of Cleveland played a major factor in Mo Williams‘ decision to re-sign with the Cavs this offseason, Joe Gabriele of NBA.com relays. “That was huge,” Williams told Gabriele. “It wasn’t that long ago [since I was here]. It feels like a while, but it really wasn’t. So, there’s some familiarity here – the same people, a couple familiar faces with teammates, but mostly everyone is new. The front office is pretty much intact, but in a little different capacity. It was definitely a comfort level and an excitement. And the thing about it is, I really enjoyed every single person in the front office. Griff [GM David Griffin] was here before I left. So, with all those things being said, it was an easy decision for me. Watching these guys fall short last year and me – being, you know, kind of a ‘Cav-at-heart’ – I felt sorry, I felt bad for the city. So that was definitely what made my mind up. When Golden State won that final game, my mind was made up – I was coming back. It was just how much money Griff was gonna give me.“
Central Rumors: George, Jackson, Cavs
Paul George has voiced some displeasure with the Pacers’ plan to move him to power forward, though he says he’s willing to stick with it, Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star reports. George felt overmatched trying to guard Pelicans superstar Anthony Davis in the team’s first preseason game but after meeting with coach Frank Vogel and president of basketball operations Larry Bird, George said on Monday afternoon that he would remain in that role, Buckner continues. “We’re going to still stick with it, see how it works,” he told Buckner. That fact that George lobbied to scrap the team’s entire offseason plan after one game is “lunacy,” Indianapolis Star columnist Gregg Doyel opines. But Vogel told Doyel that he’s not worried about George’s reluctance to play there. “Well, he’s going to buy in, so I’m not really sure how to answer that,” Vogel said. “We’re going to work together to figure out the best combination of all these things.”
In other news around the Central Division:
- Reggie Jackson can produce John Wall-type numbers because he has a top-notch pick-and-roll partner in Andre Drummond and plays in a system suited to his skills, according to Jonathan Tjarks of RealGM.com. Wall complained when the Pistons gave Jackson a five-year, $80MM contract this summer but Jackson doesn’t have to be as talented as Wall to put up gaudy statistics because the Pistons will surround him and Drummond with shooters, Tjarks continues. In contrast, Wall often plays with Nene Hilario and Marcin Gortat up front, which gives Wall less room to drive than Jackson will enjoy in Detroit, Tjarks points out. Even when the Wizards go small, they don’t have a roll man with Drummond’s talent, Tjarks adds, which means Jackson can live up to the contract just by the nature of Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy’s offensive system.
- Cavaliers center Sasha Kaun has no plans to play in Europe again, according to Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal. Kaun joined the Cavs this summer as a backup to Timofey Mozgov on a two-year, $2.5MM deal after his contact with CSKA Moscow expired. “When I said I was done in Europe, I was definitely done in Europe,” Kaun told Lloyd. “Seven years was long enough. My wife [a Kansas native] made an amazing sacrifice in moving over there.” Kaun wanted to join the Cavs three years ago, Lloyd adds, but they only offered him the league mininum.