James Anderson Signs To Play In Lithuania
Free agent swingman James Anderson has officially signed a one-year contract with Zalgiris Kaunas of Lithuania, the Euroleague announced. The move is somewhat surprising, since the former 20th overall pick was a significant part of the Sixers roster last season, having started 62 games. Tolis Kotzias of the Greek news outlet SportDay originally reported the news (Twitter link).
The 20th overall pick from 2010 departs the NBA after his strongest season in the league. He averaged 10.1 points and 3.8 rebounds in 28.9 minutes per game for Philadelphia, though his 10.9 PER demonstrates a lack of efficiency. Anderson had difficulty establishing a toehold in the league, as the Spurs declined the third-year team option on his rookie scale contract and his next two deals were minimum-salary arrangements. The Sixers acquired him when they claimed him off waivers from the Rockets last summer, but Philadelphia waived him in June before his minimum salary for the coming season would have become fully guaranteed.
The deal to play in Lithuania is the first overseas venture for the ASM Sports client. It’s unclear whether the contract will allow Anderson, 25, an avenue to return to the NBA at any point this season.
Latest On Kevin Love Talks
10:58pm: Earlier today, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst told ESPN Radio New York (audio link) that a “handshake” deal is in place between the Wolves and Cavs.
8:49pm: A deal that would involve Kevin Love being shipped to the Cavs and Andrew Wiggins going to the Wolves has been in play for weeks, but there is no deal in place yet because there are many other smaller parts of the deal that have yet to be agreed upon, tweets Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press.
Meanwhile, the other suitors for Love – including the Warriors, Bulls, and Celtics – took a backseat once it was learned that Cleveland was making the No. 1 pick in June’s draft available (link). Still, while it’s clear that the Cavs are far and away the frontrunners for a deal, there’s still lots of work to be done before Love can be routed to Cleveland.
The core package that has been mentioned often would have the Cavs sending Wiggins, Anthony Bennett, and a future first round choice to the Wolves for Love. It has also been said that a third team would likely be brought in to help facilitate the trade and the Sixers appear to be very willing partners. After checking in with a source tonight, Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN (on Twitter) believes that Bennett would wind up in Philadelphia if the 76ers are the third team in the transaction. The Wolves instead would prefer to have Thaddeus Young and, apparently, it’s not even close in their minds (link).
Minnesota’s interest in Young was noted late last month, though their interest had apparently been there for quite some time. Young is set to make more than $9.4MM this coming season and has an early termination option he can exercise to hit free agency next summer.
And-Ones: McGrady, Barea, George, Bledsoe
Tracy McGrady, 35, is at peace with his decision to retire from professional basketball, writes Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. While he says that he could still play in the NBA or an overseas league, and admits that he sometimes gets the itch, he’s no longer interested in putting in the necessary work. “At times I get…the urge to go back and play. I still can, I’m young enough to still play. My body feels good; I haven’t played in a couple of years so my body feels great. It’s just the mental part of [not] having that drive to get back in that type of shape and to put that type of time and focus into it,” McGrady said. More from around the Association..
- Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN (on Twitter) gets the sense that J.J Barea wouldn’t be involved in a two-team deal involving Kevin Love and maybe not even in a three-team deal. Because his contract could be difficult to move, Wolfson wonders aloud if the stretch provision could be back in play for the Wolves when it comes to the guard.
- None of the 19 players remaining on Team USA’s roster are planning to pull out of international competition following Paul George‘s catastrophic injury, report Brian Windhorst and Marc Stein of ESPN.com.
- Is Suns restricted free agent Eric Bledsoe a true No. 1 player? David Nurse of HoopsHype looks at both sides of the argument. On one hand, the guard has been the “other guy” everywhere he’s been from Kentucky (John Wall) to the Clippers (Chris Paul) to the Suns (Goran Dragic). On the other hand, Bledsoe has looked like a mini-LeBron at times and is a major impact player on both sides of the court. Ultimately, while a max contract may be tough to swallow, Nurse feels he’s worth it.
- Mavs guard Monta Ellis could be the next NBA notable looking for a change of scenery, writes Jonathan Tjarks of RealGM. The 29-year-old has a player option in his contract and could hit free agency next summer. He’ll be looking for one last long-term deal and the Mavs might not want to lock themselves into a core with a number of defensive issues.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Eastern Notes: Scalabrine, LeBron, George
As most of you already know, the Celtics scored a major victory earlier today when Brian Scalabrine announced that he is coming home to Boston to join the television broadcast team. In a heartfelt essay on CSNNE.com, White Mamba explained that he felt that he still had unfinished business with the C’s organization. “Remember when I spurned the Celtics and signed with the Chicago Bulls in 2010? Actually I begged [Danny] Ainge to keep me and he wished me the best of luck,” Scalabrine wrote. “I was thinking, ‘This is really tough.’ I could feel it. I left something I had spent five years creating. I haven’t paid for a meal since 2008. What if all of this goes away?” More out of the East..
- Dwyane Wade didn’t put on an all-out recruiting blitz for LeBron James when the two of them met in Las Vegas shortly before James announced he was returning to the Cavs, as Bleacher Report’s Ethan Skolnick writes. Wade did more listening than talking, as Skolnick puts it, but right after James told him he wouldn’t re-sign with the Heat, Wade, nervous that Chris Bosh would leave, too, put in a call to his remaining superstar running mate. As for Wade, he told agent Henry Thomas not to reach out to other teams on his behalf, preferring all along to stay with Miami, according to Skolnick.
- The Pacers will certainly miss Paul George this season, but they can still make the playoffs, argues Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com (Insider sub. req’d). With George, the Pacers were still projected to regress from their 56 win season thanks to the improved Eastern Conference and Lance Stephenson‘s departure. Pelton’s new projection has them winning 37 games, which could put them in the mix for one of the East’s final playoff spots.
- The Hawks hired European coaching stalwart Neven Spahija as an assistant coach, the team announced. The native of Croatia was the head coach at Cibona Zagreb in his homeland last year and carries almost 30 years of overseas coaching experience into his job with Atlanta.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Ray Allen Not Leaning Toward Cavs
Ray Allen has ruled out a return to the Heat, but says he hasn’t been leaning toward playing for the Cavs, as had been reported, as Allen tells Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald. Allen is still considering retirement, of course, it sounds like he may have some reservations about playing for an NBA neophyte like Cavs coach David Blatt.
“It will require a perfect storm scenario for me,” said Allen. “I’m in great shape, and I’ll continue to be in great shape, but I don’t want to go to a situation where I don’t understand the rhythm of how a coach coaches. He has to be a great coach, a veteran coach.”
While Allen is good friends with LeBron James and James Jones, he insists that his former Miami teammates haven’t tried to push him to Cleveland. James and Allen vacationed together in the Bahamas, but that was before James made The Decision 2.0.
Of course, there are other suitors out there for one of the league’s best-known long distance shooters. The veteran has also heard from his former coach Doc Rivers who would like him to come join forces with the Clippers. Still, the 39-year-old won’ t necessarily play for cheap, if he plays at all.
“A lot of teams want to be able to get me at the veteran’s minimum. I still have an ego, too. I still have a service to provide, and teams still have to pay me what I feel my presence is worth. I have to take that into consideration, if it’s worth putting my body through what it will take over 82 games.”
Western Notes: Cousins, Gasol, Nurkic, Blazers
DeMarcus Cousins feels like he’s behind in his career because of Sacramento’s inability over the years to find a team that fits around him, but he’s nonetheless ecstatic about what the Kings have done this offseason, as he tells Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee.
“I love what we’re doing. Love what we’re doing. [GM] Pete [D’Alessandro], he’s real aggressive, going after stuff, trying for players we probably have no chance at getting. One of these times we’re going to get lucky, and in the past we wouldn’t do that. Do you know how good that feels? Since [owner] Vivek [Ranadive], Pete, [coach] Michael [Malone], Mullie [team adviser Chris Mullin], [director of pro personnel] Mitch [Richmond] and those guys walked through the [expletive] door, things have been on the rise. I am totally behind it. Michael is like me; he sees everything in black-and-white. I love the fact Pete keeps trying stuff. I am totally behind all this. Rudy [Gay], the [Darren] Collison move, thinking Omri [Casspi] can stretch the floor. And the rookie, that kid [Nik] Stauskas can really play. He makes the game easy and has an impact even when he’s not scoring. I am so happy to be a part of this, of what we’re doing.”
Here’s more from around the West:
- Marc Gasol can hit free agency next summer, but Grizzlies owner Robert Pera said Friday that the team is determined to keep him around for the rest of his career, observes Zach McMillin of The Commercial Appeal. Pera added that convincing Gasol that he can win a title in Memphis will be key, notes fellow Commercial Appeal scribe Michael Cohen.
- No. 16 overall pick Jusuf Nurkic didn’t receive the standard 120% of the rookie scale when he signed with the Nuggets last month, and it’s believed that he’s the most highly drafted player ever to take such a discount, reports Mark Deeks of ShamSports. That’s especially surprising given that Nurkic has to pick up a portion of his buyout from Croatian team KK Cedevita. He’ll receive 108% of the scale amount this year and 107% in the second season, while the pair of team option years on his rookie scale contract are at the usual 120%, according to Deeks.
- The Blazers don’t mind Damian Lillard‘s participation in Team USA activities this summer as much as they would take issue with players who compete for other nations, as The Oregonian’s Mike Tokito explains. That’s because Team USA doesn’t expect heavy minutes and practice time out of its players the way some countries do.
Players Eligible For Veteran Extensions
Tony Parker signed a veteran extension on Friday with the Spurs, but don’t expect a lot of others to follow his lead. Last week, we listed the fourth-year players who are eligible for contract extensions of up to five years. The criteria for those players are fairly simple: If you’re still playing on the rookie-scale deal you signed as a first-round draft pick and you’re entering the final year of that contract, you’re extension-eligible. Kyrie Irving became the first of those players to ink an extension with his current team when he re-upped with the Cavs.
For veteran players like Parker, the criteria are a bit more convoluted. As Larry Coon explains in his invaluable CBA FAQ, veteran contracts of less than four years cannot be extended. However, longer deals can be extended in the following scenarios:
- If a player is on a four-, five-, or six-year deal, it can be extended three years after it was signed.
- If a player previously signed a contract extension, his deal can be extended again three years after the extension was signed.
- If a player previously renegotiated his contract, his deal can be extended three years after the renegotiation was signed, if his salary was increased by more than 10%.
There aren’t a lot of players are eligible for them in any given year, considering the specific circumstances required for a veteran extension. That’s especially true this time around, since the 2011 lockout pushed free agency into December that year. Thus, the work-stoppage also delayed the start of the three-year waiting period for players who signed new deals that year. There’s an unusually large group of players who’ll become extension-eligible in December and January this year, and that, too, is a product of the lockout.
Veteran extensions can be for no more than four years, which includes the current season, meaning a player in the final year of his deal could only add three new seasons. As such, top extension-eligible veterans such as Joakim Noah are far more likely to wait until free agency, where they can maximize their earnings. On the other hand, many other extension-eligible players like Joel Anthony and Travis Outlaw essentially have no chance of receiving new deals from their current teams, which are just waiting to clear those salaries.
Still, somewhere in the middle, there are a handful of players that we can reasonably expect to at least discuss the possibility of a contract extension with their respective teams at some point before next June. Here’s the list of veteran players currently eligible for veteran extensions:
- 76ers: None
- Bucks: None
- Bulls: Joakim Noah
- Cavaliers: Brendan Haywood, Anderson Varejao
- Celtics: Joel Anthony, Rajon Rondo
- Clippers: Jared Dudley
- Grizzlies: Mike Conley
- Hawks: Al Horford
- Heat: None
- Hornets: None
- Jazz: None
- Kings: Rudy Gay, Travis Outlaw
- Knicks: Andrea Bargnani, Amar’e Stoudemire
- Lakers: Carlos Boozer
- Magic: None
- Mavericks: None
- Nets: Joe Johnson
- Nuggets: None
- Pacers: Luis Scola
- Pelicans: None
- Pistons: None
- Raptors: Amir Johnson
- Spurs: None
- Suns: None
- Thunder: Nick Collison, Kevin Durant, Kendrick Perkins
- Timberwolves:
- Trail Blazers: LaMarcus Aldridge, Wesley Matthews
- Warriors: David Lee
- Wizards: None
In addition to the players listed above, several players will become eligible for veteran extensions sometime before next June. Here’s that list, along with the dates they become eligible to sign a new deal:
- Sixers: Jason Richardson (December 10th, 2014), Thaddeus Young (December 9th, 2014)
- Bulls: Derrick Rose (December 12th, 2014)
- Celtics: Marcus Thornton (December 9th, 2014)
- Clippers: DeAndre Jordan (December 11th, 2014)
- Grizzlies: Marc Gasol (December 12th, 2014), Tayshaun Prince (December 9th, 2014), Kosta Koufos (January 25th, 2015)
- Mavericks: Tyson Chandler (December 10th, 2014)
- Nuggets: Arron Afflalo (December 19th, 2014), Wilson Chandler (March 18th, 2015), Danilo Gallinari (January 25th, 2015)
- Pistons: Jonas Jerebko (December 9th, 2014)
- Raptors: Chuck Hayes (December 23rd, 2014)
- Thunder: Russell Westbrook (January 19th, 2015)
- Timberwolves: J.J. Barea (December 12th, 2014), Kevin Love (January 25th, 2015), Luc Mbah a Moute (December 10th, 2014)
- Wizards: Nene (December 13th, 2014)
ShamSports and Storytellers Contracts were used in the creation of this list.
Eastern Notes: Bulls, Raptors, Ayon
The Eastern Conference playoff field for the upcoming season is difficult to predict. The Cavaliers and the Bulls seem like locks, but beyond that, all bets are seemingly off. A majority of Hoops Rumors readers believe the Pacers, conference finalists the last two years, will miss the postseason entirely this time around in the wake of Paul George‘s injury. Here’s the latest from the East:
- Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf is prepared to move on after a report of discord between the team and star Derrick Rose, as Reinsdorf said Sunday in a radio appearance with Bruce Levine and Barry Rozner on WSCR-AM, notes Blake Schuster of the Chicago Tribune. Reinsdorf vehemently denied the existence of any tension, and Rose has also walked back some of his comments in the report.
- The Raptors are assisting DeAndre Daniels in his efforts to find a team in Europe where he can play this season, tweets Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun. Raptors GM Masai Ujiri has indicated that he’s anxious for Daniels, whom Toronto drafted 37th overall in June, to see playing time overseas, as Wolstat reported a month ago.
- Free agent center Gustavo Ayon has dropped hints in the past that seemed to indicate that he envisioned a return overseas, but he tells the Mexican news agency Notimex that he’s prioritizing an NBA deal this summer over playing in Europe (translation via HoopsHype, hat tip to Gigantes del Basket). Ayon indicated that he’s turned down NBA offers and plans to choose a team after the FIBA World Cup concludes in September. The Hawks declined to tender a qualifying offer last month, making him an unrestricted free agent.
Following Specific Players On Hoops Rumors
There are still a few storylines yet to unfold this summer, and in addition to methods of keeping track of your favorite teams, Hoops Rumors also provides ways to easily follow the latest on all of your favorite players. If you want to stay up to date on all the news and rumors on Kevin Love as the Timberwolves move ever closer to trading him, you can visit this page. If you’re interested in how negotiations between the Suns and Eric Bledsoe are going, you can find Bledsoe’s page right here. For intel on where Greg Monroe might end up, go here.
Every player we’ve written about has his own rumors page. You can find any player by using our search box (located in the right sidebar); by clicking his tag at the bottom of a post in which he’s discussed; or, by simply typing his name in your address bar after hoopsrumors.com, substituting dashes for spaces. For example, Love’s page is located at hoopsrumors.com/kevin-love.
You can also set up an RSS feed for any of our player pages by adding /feed to the end of the page URL, like this: hoopsrumors.com/kevin-love/feed. Entering that URL into the reader of your choice should enable you to get updates whenever we write about Love. It works for teams, too. If you’re a Bulls fan, you can enter hoopsrumors.com/chicago-bulls/feed into your reader and stay on top of all the latest from Chicago.
In addition to players and teams, there are a number of other subjects you can track by clicking on the tags we use at the bottom of posts. You can keep tabs on news related to next year’s draft right here. Items related to the NBA D-League can be found on this rumors page. Any news that has to do with the National Basketball Players Association can be found here. Again, you can set up a feed with any of these pages by adding /feed to the end of the URL.
Vasilije Micic To Play In Germany
AUGUST 4TH: The deal is official, as Bayern Munich announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). It’s a three-year contract with an option for the final season, though it’s not entirely clear whether that’s a team option or a player option. The team also apparently makes no mention of an NBA buyout that would allow Micic to join the Sixers next summer.
JULY 21ST: Micic told Aco Lazarević of MVP.rs that the deal isn’t quite done yet, though he confirms he’s in the process of finalizing it (translations via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia and Orazio Cauchi of Sportando, on Twitter).
JULY 15TH: Sixers second-round draft pick Vasilije Micic has an agreement to play for Bayern Munich in Germany, reports David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). The Serbian point guard was the 52nd selection in this year’s draft.
Remaining overseas was the likely outcome for the 20-year-old, who’s played the past few seasons with KK Mega Vizura in his native Serbia. Philadelphia will have no shortage of rookies for the coming season, even without No. 10 overall pick Dario Saric, who’ll also stay in Europe.