Sixers Sign Pierre Jackson
6:28pm: Jackson has announced his signing on his personal Instagram account (H/T Dwain Price of Fort Worth Star-Telegram via Twitter).
4:50pm: Jackson’s rookie minimum salary of $507,336 is guaranteed for $400K, Deeks tweets.
3:23pm: The Sixers have signed point guard Pierre Jackson to a partially guaranteed one-year deal, reports Mark Deeks of ShamSports (All Twitter links). It completes an unusual odyssey to an NBA contract for last year’s 42nd overall pick, who put on a dazzling performance in the D-League but failed to come to terms with the Pelicans, the team that held his NBA rights until trading them to Philadelphia last month.
Jackson, 22, averaged 29.1 points, 6.2 assists and 4.0 turnovers in 41.5 minutes per game for the D-League’s Idaho Stampede last season after he went unsigned through last summer. The numbers helped drive up his value, and once it became clear the Pelicans and agent Colin Bryant couldn’t agree on an NBA deal, New Orleans allowed Bryant to reach out to other teams to see if they’d be interested in trading for Jackson’s NBA rights. The Wizards, Cavs and Nuggets were among those who were reportedly in the mix, but Jackson fled to Turkey after no deal materialized, signing with European powerhouse Fenerbahce Ulker.
The overseas experiment didn’t go so well, as the 5’10” Jackson averaged just 4.3 points in 10.3 minutes for Fenerbahce. Jackson joined the Sixers for summer league after the trade, but he ruptured his achilles tendon, an injury that threatens to knock him out for the entire season. It’s therefore somewhat odd that the Sixers would sign him to a one-year deal. It’s conceivable that Jackson merely signed the required one-year tender that Philadelphia had to make to keep his draft rights, but the fact that the deal is partially guaranteed makes that a remote possibility, as Deeks notes.
Pelicans Sign Jimmer Fredette
JULY 24TH, 5:44pm: Fredette’s signing with New Orleans is official, per a team release.
JULY 18TH, 8:06am: Fredette will make the minimum salary, according to Reid’s full story.
JULY 17TH, 11:33pm: The Pelicans have reached agreement with Jimmer Fredette on a one-year deal, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). New Orleans targeted shooting help after losing Anthony Morrow to the Thunder this past weekend, and moved quickly to add the sharpshooting Fredette, Stein adds (via Twitter). John Reid of the New Orleans Times-Picayune was the first to confirm Stein’s report (via Twitter). The financial terms of the deal are not yet known.
The 25-year-old was bought out by the Kings in Feburary approximately two-and-a-half years after Sacramento made him the 10th pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. Fredette, an Octagon Sports client, signed in early March with a Bulls team desperate for offense, though he only averaged seven minutes of burn in eight games once arriving in Chicago. There hasn’t been much buzz around the BYU product leading up to this news, however Panathinaikos of Greece reportedly expressed some interest a month ago.
Fredette will presumably compete for backcourt minutes with Austin Rivers, Russ Smith and John Salmons behind starters Jrue Holiday and the often-injured Eric Gordon. While he probably lacks the size and defensive ability to be an impact guard, Fredette has knocked down three pointers at a 40.1 percent clip for his career. He will likely assume that type of specialist role in New Orleans.
Pelicans Sign Patric Young
THURSDAY, 5:42pm: The signing has been officially announced by New Orleans in a team release.
SUNDAY, 8:38am: The Pelicans have signed rookie free agent Patric Young to a two-year deal, reports Adam Silverstein of OnlyGators.com. The signing was confirmed by Young via his Twitter account. In the tweet, Young wrote, “It’s a blessing to announce that I signed a contract with the New Orleans Pelicans. Thank you to everyone that supported me!!!” The terms of the deal were not disclosed but it is likely for the NBA rookie minimum. Young joins a crowded frontcourt in New Orleans that already features Anthony Davis, Ryan Anderson, Omer Asik, and Jeff Withey.
The 6’9″ power forward/center went undrafted out of Florida this year and impressed over the last two weeks in the Las Vegas Summer League, averaging 7.4 PPG and 8.0 RPG in five games.
In four seasons with the Gators, Young averaged 8.7 PPG, 5.7 RPG, and 1.1 BPG while playing 24.3 minutes per contest. His career slash line was .577/.000/.569.
Mavs Sign Jameer Nelson
5:27pm: The deal is official, as the Mavs announced in a team release.
3:50pm: Nelson has completed the paperwork on his deal, tweets Shams Charania of RealGM, so presumably all that’s left is for the Mavs to receive it and make an official announcement.
THURSDAY, 2:05pm: The deal will run two years and include a player option for the final season, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com.
TUESDAY, 11:04pm: Jameer Nelson will sign with the Mavericks on Thurday, sources tell Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. As expected, Dallas will use their $2.732MM room exception on the veteran point guard, who has spent all 10 of his seasons in the NBA with the Magic before being waived by the team in June. While all signs have pointed towards the sides nearing a deal for a few days now, there were some conflicting reports that Nelson’s camp was speaking with other teams earlier today. The Pelicans, Nets and Pistons were also reported to have interest in the Saint Joseph’s product.
Nelson, a Steve Mountain client, averaged 12.1 points and 7 assists in 32 minutes per game last season on a rebuilding Magic team. As Spears notes, he is expected to compete with Raymond Felton and Devin Harris for the starting point guard position in Dallas, who has now added Nelson, Felton, Al-Farouq Aminu, Tyson Chandler and Chandler Parsons to a team that won 49 games last year. The team also expressed interest in free agent point guard Mo Williams, though this agreement makes that an unlikely possibility.
Now 32, Nelson will be joining a veteran-laden team in Dallas that might just have title aspirations next season despite striking out on all the big-time free agents they’ve reportedly coveted over the past few offseasons. After a handful of losing seasons in Orlando, joining a contender could inject life into Nelson, who earned his lone All-Star nod in 2009 for a Magic team en route to the NBA Finals. As Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News points out, the additions of Nelson and Aminu leave the Mavs with one roster spot remaining and only a minimum salary deal to offer for it.
Western Notes: Huestis, Kings, Hamilton, Hill
The idea of having Josh Huestis sign in the D-League in exchange for becoming an NBA first-round draft pick came from his representatives rather than the Thunder, agent Mitchell Butler tells SB Nation’s Mike Prada.
“This was the perfect team and the perfect storm,” Butler said. “This isn’t for everyone.”
Butler also told Prada that the Thunder haven’t said whether they plan to sign Huestis to an NBA deal next summer or at a later point. There’s more on Huestis among the latest from the Western Conference, as we detail:
- The union sees the Thunder‘s arrangement with Huestis as a positive, as interim executive director Ron Klempner said to Grantland’s Zach Lowe. “This is an example of the player flipping the script,” Klempner said. “The player essentially drafted his team.”
- Kings GM Pete D’Alessandro said he’s on the lookout for rim-protection and particularly shooting to round out the roster in an attempt to make the playoffs this season, as he told Jared Zwerling of Bleacher Report.
- Richard Hamilton tells David Alarcon of HoopsHype that he’s fielded a couple of calls from NBA teams and that while he considered retirement, he’d like to return to the NBA with a contending team. The 36-year-old, who last played in 2012/13, said that the Timberwolves showed interest in signing him early last season, but he declined to specify any teams that have spoken with him more recently.
- Jordan Hill‘s two-year deal with the Lakers contains a team option for the final season, according to Mark Deeks of ShamSports.
Rockets, Francisco Garcia Have Mutual Interest
Francisco Garcia “definitely” has interest in playing in Houston again and agent Aaron Goodwin has spoken with the Rockets about his client, as Goodwin tells Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. The Rockets are one of a handful of teams reported to have shown interest in the swingman this month, and Goodwin said that he and Garcia continue to sort through their options.
The 32-year-old Garcia turned down a minimum salary option to remain under contract with the Rockets for this coming season, and Houston has multiple ways to give him more money than he passed up. The Rockets still possess their $5.305MM mid-level and $2.077MM biannual exceptions, and they can also give Garcia up to 20% more than the minimum salary through his Non-Bird rights.
The Jazz, Pelicans and Nets were the other teams apparently interested in Garcia as of two weeks ago, though Goodwin told Feigen that Garcia would prefer to sign with a title contender. Brooklyn has the strongest chances of at least a deep playoff run among those three, though the Nets would be limited to giving Garcia no more than the minimum salary.
Suns Waive Dionte Christmas
The Suns have waived guard Dionte Christmas, the team announced (on Twitter). His non-guaranteed minimum salary was to have become fully guaranteed if Phoenix hadn’t waived him by the end of the month.
Christmas was a favorite of Suns GM Ryan McDonough, who’d worked with the 27-year-old when they were together with the Celtics. Phoenix signed to a deal that included a partial guarantee for last season even though the team had an abundance of other guaranteed deals, and the unbalanced Marcin Gortat trade helped create an opportunity for him to stick around for the regular season.
The former Temple Owl saw limited playing time this past season, the first in which he saw any regular season NBA action. He averaged 2.3 points in 6.4 minutes per game across 31 appearances.
Cavs Sign Andrew Wiggins
The Cavaliers have signed No. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins, the team announced. The move triggers a 30-day period in which Cleveland can’t officially complete a trade involving him. The Timberwolves have demanded Wiggins be a part of any package involving Kevin Love, and while there are conflicting reports, many of them indicate Cleveland is willing to include him.
It’s a virtual certainty that Wiggins will receive a salary of slightly more than $5.5MM this season, as our table of salaries for 2014 first-round picks shows. That amount would help salaries match in a trade should the Cavs decide to pull one off after the 30 days are up. Still, the Cavs could have traded his rights immediately had they held off on signing him, using other players to help balance the salaries.
The 6’8″ swingman entered his freshman season at Kansas last year as far and away the top prospect for the 2014 NBA draft, but an underwhelming performance allowed others, including teammate Joel Embiid, to contend for the top spot. Embiid seemed the odds-on favorite until he broke his foot, and Wiggins prevailed over Jabari Parker of Duke, to whom the Cavs also reportedly gave strong consideration.
Wiggins averaged 17.1 points and 5.9 rebounds along with 34.1% three-point shooting in 32.8 minutes per game for Kansas this past season, earning consensus All-American honors. The 19-year-old chose agent Bill Duffy of BDA Sports as his representative.
Cavaliers Sign Joe Harris
THURSDAY, 2:56pm: The contract is official, the team announced.
TUESDAY, 7:20pm: The deal will reportedly be for $2.7MM over three seasons, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.
6:55pm: The Cavaliers will sign second-round pick Joe Harris to a three-year rookie deal, a source tells Shams Charania of RealGM.com (Twitter link). The deal will be guaranteed over two seasons with a team option in the third year, Charania adds. Since the arrangement stretches over three years, the Cavs will use cap space to complete the transaction, as neither the minimum-salary exception nor the room exception allows for a contract that long.
The small forward from the University of Virginia was the 38th best prospect in the rankings that Chad Ford of ESPN.com compiles but just 49th with Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress. He had a slightly reduced role this past season as a senior after notching 16.3 points per game in his junior year. He put up just 12.0 PPG this time around, but he maintained 40.0% three-point shooting, so he shapes up as a long-distance threat for Cleveland.
Harris spoke to Zach Links of Hoops Rumors prior to the draft, crediting Virginia coach and highly touted NBA coaching prospect Tony Bennett for helping him improve defensively.
Teams With Hard Caps For 2014/15
The NBA’s salary cap is really a misnomer of sorts, since it doesn’t truly cap salaries. Look no further than last year’s Nets for confirmation of that. They doled out nearly $103MM in salaries, incurring more than $90.57MM in luxury taxes and smashing the record for the greatest expenditure on a single roster in NBA history.
The NBA’s salary cap is commonly referred to as a “soft cap,” but there are still ways that teams can impose a “hard cap” upon themselves and set a finite limit to their spending. If a team’s salary exceeds the luxury tax threshold ($76,829,000) by more than $4MM, that team is not permitted to acquire a player via sign-and-trade, or to use the non-taxpayer’s mid-level or biannual exceptions. The only exceptions available to such a team are the taxpayer’s mid-level of $3,278,000, the minimum-salary exception, and whatever form of Bird rights they have on their own free agents. As soon as a team completes a sign-and-trade deal, uses its BAE, or uses more than $3,278,000 of its MLE to sign a player, that club becomes hard-capped at $80,829,000 for the 2014/15 season. In other words, team salary can’t exceed that amount at any point between now and June 30th, 2015.
For some clubs, that hard cap isn’t a major concern. For instance, the Suns still have about $18MM in breathing room below the hard cap, so they have plenty of flexibility to re-sign restricted free agent Eric Bledsoe to a max contract if need be. On the other hand, the Clippers are only about $1MM below the hard cap, so any trades or signings they make for the rest of the season will have to be constructed to ensure their team salary doesn’t surpass that $80.829MM cutoff.
More clubs may trigger hard caps as the offseason wears on, but here are the teams that are now locked into a hard cap for the 2014/15 season, along with an estimation (via Basketball Insiders) of their current team salaries and the reason(s) why the hard cap was created:
Hawks
Hard cap created: Acquired Thabo Sefolosha via sign-and-trade
Estimated team salary: $60,975,564
Rockets
Hard cap created: Acquired Trevor Ariza via sign-and-trade
Estimated team salary: $68,125,942
Wizards
Hard cap created: Acquired Kris Humphries via sign-and-trade; acquired DeJuan Blair via sign-and-trade; signed Paul Pierce via non-taxpayer MLE
Estimated team salary: $76,646,603
Suns
Hard cap created: Acquired Isaiah Thomas via sign-and-trade
Estimated team salary: $51,805,537
Warriors
Hard cap created: Signed Shaun Livingston via non-taxpayer MLE
Estimated team salary: $72,232,245
Pacers
Hard cap created: Signed C.J. Miles and Damjan Rudez via non-taxpayer MLE
Estimated team salary: $74,798,942
Clippers
Hard cap created: Signed Spencer Hawes via non-taxpayer MLE; signed Jordan Farmar via biannual exception
Estimated team salary: $79,679,772
Grizzlies
Hard cap created: Signed Vince Carter via non-taxpayer MLE; signed Beno Udrih via biannual exception
Estimated team salary: $75,529,943
Trail Blazers
Hard cap created: Signed Chris Kaman via non-taxpayer MLE; signed Steve Blake via biannual exception
Estimated team salary: $69,322,824
Kings
Hard cap created: Signed Darren Collison via non-taxpayer MLE
Estimated team salary: $75,852,705