Mavs Re-Sign Bernard James
6:00pm: The deal is official, the team announced.
4:20pm: The Mavs have re-signed Bernard James, Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com announced (on Twitter). Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported a couple of weeks ago that the team was finalizing a one-year deal for the minimum salary with the two-year veteran center. It’s likely a fully guaranteed arrangement, as Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com wrote.
James saw reduced playing time this past season after seeing nearly 10 minutes a game as a rookie. He averaged less than a point in 4.9 minutes per contest in 2013/14, though he was an effective rebounder when he did see the floor, grabbing 10.4 boards per 36 minutes. The 33rd pick from the 2012 draft was a U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant before finishing his college career at Florida State.
The addition of the Happy Walters client gives Dallas 17 players, 15 of whom have guaranteed deals, presuming James’s contract is guaranteed. That spells trouble for Eric Griffin and Ivan Johnson, both of whom have only partial guarantees on their minimum-salary pacts.
Kings Waive Wayne Ellington
4:40pm: The Kings have indeed waived Ellington, the team announced. Sacramento’s statement doesn’t make it clear whether the club officially made the move by Sunday’s stretch provision deadline, though presumably that’s the case.
WEDNESDAY, 8:28am: The RealGM transactions log confirms the move took place Sunday, though the team still has yet to make an official announcement.
MONDAY, 9:11am: The Kings waived Wayne Ellington on Sunday, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The team has made no formal announcement of the move, though it had to have taken place Sunday for the Kings to use the stretch provision to clear most of Ellington’s guaranteed salary of more than $2.771MM for the upcoming season, as Stein points out. USA Today’s Sam Amick reported last month in the immediate wake of the trade that brought Ellington to the Kings that Sacramento was expected to waive him, though Amick cautioned shortly thereafter that the team had yet to make its final decision.
It’s been a whirlwind summer for Ellington, who was involved in two trades. The Mavs sent him to the Knicks in June’s Tyson Chandler deal before New York flipped him to the Kings. He didn’t see much playing time last season after agent Arn Tellem helped him secure a two-year deal with the Mavericks for more than $5.423MM. That contract came on the heels of the most productive of his five NBA seasons, as he averaged 10.4 points and shot 37.1% from three-point range in 25.9 minutes per game for the Cavs after arriving in Cleveland via trade from the Grizzlies in January 2013. He upped his three-point percentage to 42.4% in a meager 8.7 MPG this past season, but teams have still played hot potato with the 26-year-old this summer.
Sacramento will pay out Ellington’s remaining salary in equal amounts of nearly $924K through the 2016/17 season, presuming the team indeed made use of the stretch provision. Before they reached Sunday’s agreement to trade Jason Terry to the Rockets, the Kings had been poised to sit less than $100K shy of the luxury tax threshold in guaranteed salaries once they formalized their deal with Omri Casspi, so waiving Ellington provides additional flexibility. Amick’s report from last month also indicated the team is expected to waive Jeremy Tyler, though his salary is non-guaranteed.
Western Notes: Gobert, Faried, Udoh, Pelicans
The Jazz have a group of promising young big men that includes Derrick Favors and Trevor Booker, as well as Enes Kanter, who’s up for a rookie scale extension. Rudy Gobert didn’t see much playing time last season, but he’s put his offseason improvement on display in the FIBA World Cup this week, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe chronicles.
“We have really high hopes for him,” Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey said. “The tools Rudy has from a height and length standpoint are obvious, and he really likes basketball. A motivated seven-footer is a good place to start.”
Gobert is still a long way off, but it’ll be interesting to see how his development plays into the team’s negotiations with Kanter. Here’s more from the West:
- Kenneth Faried, who’s also extension-eligible, expressed a desire this week to remain with the Nuggets, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com observes (Twitter links). The Thad Foucher client has only helped his stock with Team USA as he’s emerged as a game-changer in the FIBA World Cup.
- The Cavs, Bulls and Kings all had interest in signing Ekpe Udoh, but the chance to play for Doc Rivers on a winning team that emphasized defense persuaded him to choose the Clippers instead, a source tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. Playing time was also a consideration, agent Michael Silverman tells Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link).
- Omer Asik‘s arrival in New Orleans sets the Pelicans up for a drastic improvement defensively and figures to help boost the darkhorse MVP candidacy of Anthony Davis, as Tom Haberstroh of ESPN.com examines in an Insider-only piece.
Clippers Sign Chris Douglas-Roberts
2:54pm: The Clippers made the signing official, making a formal announcement.
2:17pm: The deal has been expected to be for one year, writes Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com, and the same is true of the agreement that Turkoglu is nearing with the team. That’ll help the Clippers squeeze a 15th player onto their roster under their hard cap, since one-year deals for the minimum salary only go on the team’s books for $915,243, the equivalent of the two-year veteran’s minimum, even if the player has more years of service. The league pays the rest.
1:59pm: The Clippers will sign free agent swingman Chris Douglas-Roberts, tweets Dan Woike of the Orange County Register. Woike reported earlier this week that the sides were close to a deal, and last week USA Today’s Sam Amick identified the Clippers as an interested party. It’ll almost certainly be a minimum-salary arrangement, since that’s all the Clippers can give, though it would seem there’s a strong chance it’ll be fully guaranteed, like the deal the team reached today with Ekpe Udoh.
Douglas-Roberts reportedly worked out for the Heat, so that means the Clips have taken another player from Miami’s list of considerations after doing the same with Udoh. The Hornets didn’t appear too interested in re-signing Douglas-Roberts in spite of the extensive role he played for Charlotte after he signed in December as a midseason injury replacement. The Creative Artists Agency client averaged 6.9 points in 20.7 minutes per game and made a career-high 38.6% of his three-point attempts last season, his fifth on an NBA roster.
The move gives the Clippers agreements with 14 players, 13 of whom have guaranteed deals. The team has also apparently been close to signing Hedo Turkoglu over the past few days and has been linked to Ray Allen. In any case, the Clippers can afford to carry a full 15-man roster if they choose after having waived and stretched Carlos Delfino and Miroslav Raduljica last week.
Clippers Sign Ekpe Udoh
2:53pm: The deal is official, the team announced.
11:58am: The Clippers and free agent big man Ekpe Udoh have reached agreement on a one-year deal, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). It’ll be fully guaranteed for the minimum salary, a source tells Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). The four-year veteran’s $981,084 pay will count for the $915,243 two-year veteran’s minimum on the team’s books since the contract will only cover one season, and the league will pick up the rest.
Udoh met with the Clippers last week, as USA Today’s Sam Amick reported. His visit took place the same day the team sent Jared Dudley to Milwaukee for Miroslav Raduljica and Carlos Delfino, whose salaries could be more easily waived and stretched to create room under the hard cap for Udoh and others. The release of Dudley and Raduljica on Friday left the Clippers will 11 players, and Monday they added DeAndre Liggins on what’s presumably a non-guaranteed camp deal. The Clips are also apparently close to deals with Chris Douglas-Roberts and Hedo Turkoglu, and they have just enough cap flexibility and room on the roster to sign them both to guaranteed deals for the minimum. The club also seems to have interest in Ray Allen, but signing him would probably necessitate waiving Liggins, the only Clipper without a fully guaranteed deal, before opening night.
The Clippers appear to be circling back to Udoh after he was reportedly close to a deal with the team in July before Glen Davis re-signed. The Heat were also considering Udoh, a Chris Luchey client, but the Bucks seemed to have little interest in keeping him, declining to make a qualifying offer in June and renouncing his rights the next month. He was in and out of the lineup last season, averaging 19.1 minutes per game despite starting 14 contests. The 6’10” Udoh put up 3.4 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.0 blocks per appearance.
Rockets, Lakers Eye Goran Dragic For 2015
The Rockets are considering a pursuit of Goran Dragic if he turns down his $7.5MM player option to hit free agency next summer, sources tell Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The Lakers are one of many teams around the league also likely to push for Dragic and Eric Bledsoe if they both become unrestricted free agents a year from now, Stein also hears. The prospect that the pair would hit free agency, which hinges on Bledsoe accepting his qualifying offer from the Suns, would prompt teams to go after the guards based on the idea that the Suns would have trouble re-signing both of them in the same summer, as Stein explains.
The apparent worsening relationship between Bledsoe and the Suns makes it tough to envision him re-signing with the team if he takes the qualifying offer, Stein writes. That makes sense, since only one of the 16 players to hit unrestricted free agency the year after signing a qualifying offer re-signed with his team. Bledsoe and the Suns are both pursuing sign-and-trades that would ward off the qualifying offer, according to Stein, but time is running short, since the qualifying offer expires on October 1st, a date that will force a decision.
Dragic would garner increased leverage if Bledsoe inks the qualifying offer, since the Suns almost certainly don’t want to lose both members of their dynamic starting backcourt, as Stein points out. Dragic flourished like never before in coach Jeff Hornacek‘s system this past season, but he’ll turn 29 in May, so there’s a decent chance that the client of BDA Sports Management will never have a better chance to cash in and take the most lucrative deal on the table. Dragic spent parts of two seasons with the Rockets in between stints with Phoenix, and Houston is among the teams with interest in signing his brother, who apparently envisions coming to the the NBA before long.
The Lakers reportedly had interest in floating a lucrative offer sheet to Bledsoe this summer before deciding against it. They can open roughly $30MM in cap space next year, while Houston is set up for only about half of that amount. Still, the Suns only have about $17MM in commitments for 2015/16, so they have plenty of room to accommodate the demands of Bledsoe and Dragic, should they choose, and they’d also have Bird rights on the duo.
Following Specific Players On Hoops Rumors
Training camps begin soon, and activity is beginning to pick up around the NBA as clubs put the finishing touches on their preseason rosters. In addition to methods of keeping track of your favorite teams as they make their moves, 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 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. Updates on the Ray Allen saga are found on this page.
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, Bledsoe’s page is hoopsrumors.com/eric-bledsoe
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/eric-bledsoe/feed. Entering that URL into the reader of your choice should enable you to get updates whenever we write about Bledsoe. It works for teams, too. If you’re a Cavs fan, you can enter hoopsrumors.com/cleveland-cavaliers/feed into your reader and stay on top of all the latest from Cleveland.
In addition to players and teams, there are a number of other subjects you can track by clicking on the tags that 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.
2013/14 Starters Without NBA Deals For 2014/15
Players who served even as part-time starters in one season usually have no trouble landing NBA jobs for the next year, but that’s not always the case. A dozen NBA free agents who made at least 15 starts this past season are without deals for the coming year. Naturally, restricted free agent Greg Monroe heads the list as he and the Pistons engage in protracted negotiations, and Eric Bledsoe, in the same standoff with the Suns, isn’t far behind. Still, there are some intriguing names that remain on the market as unrestricted free agents.
Jordan Crawford shined as a fill-in for Rajon Rondo in 35 starts for the Celtics last season, but he couldn’t duplicate the success in a backup role after a trade sent him to Golden State, and it seems executives around the league are chiefly concerned with his most recent performance. The opposite appears true for Ramon Sessions, who averaged 15.8 points after a trade deadline deal sent him to the Bucks. He still hasn’t signed with less than a month to go before training camp.
A couple of players on this list have found NBA alternatives in the form of overseas deals, while Shane Battier walked away from the game even though he still had enough left to start the majority of the season for the Eastern Conference champs.
The 2013/14 starters without deals for this coming season are listed below, along with the number of starts they made and the team or teams they made them for. The only teams listed are those for which each player made at least one start, so that’s why the Warriors aren’t listed for Crawford.
- Greg Monroe — 82 (Pistons)
- James Anderson — 62 (Sixers) — signed with Lithuanian team
- Shane Battier — 56 (Heat) — retired
- Eric Bledsoe — 40 (Suns)
- Jordan Crawford — 35 (Celtics)
- Greg Stiemsma — 20 (Pelicans)
- Andrew Bynum — 19 (Cavaliers)
- Ramon Sessions — 19 (Hornets/Bucks)
- Earl Clark — 17 (Cavaliers)
- Toney Douglas — 17 (Heat) — signed with Chinese team
- Elton Brand — 15 (Hawks)
- Kenyon Martin — 15 (Knicks)
Sixers Waive Hasheem Thabeet
The Sixers waived Hasheem Thabeet on Monday, according to the RealGM transactions log, though the team has yet to formally announce the move. That means the club released him on the final day before his non-guaranteed $1.25MM salary for this coming season was to have become fully guaranteed, even though it initially appeared as though the Sixers missed that deadline. Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported last week that they were likely to release the former No. 2 overall pick after acquiring him via trade from the Thunder.
The move is the latest indignity yet for the once highly touted 7’3″ prospect whose NBA career started slowly, with a D-League assignment in his rookie season, and never reached its potential. Thabeet is set to become a free agent later today providing he clears waivers, a likely outcome even though his salary isn’t for too much more than the minimum. Teams can’t claim a player making any more than the minimum unless they have cap space, a trade exception, or a disabled player exception, and Thabeet probably isn’t tempting enough to entice a club to burn one of those resources. Still, providing he hits free agency, the timing of the move gives him a chance to sign with a team for training camp.
The trade that sent him to Philadelphia appeared to be chiefly about clearing his salary and creating a trade exception from Oklahoma City’s perspective, while the Sixers netted $100K in cash for their trouble. Thabeet’s release leaves the Sixers with 16 players, only half of whom have guaranteed deals for the coming season.
And-Ones: McGrady, Mudiay, Wright, Faried
Training camp is just four weeks away, and there’s been a recent uptick in players getting invited by NBA teams to compete for camp. Here’s a rundown of news and notes from around the league:
- Tracy McGrady is contemplating an NBA comeback attempt while training with Kobe Bryant to get back in shape, he tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. None of the teams his representatives contacted have registered interest, however, and he’s still contractually obligated to tour China as part of a basketball showcase in October, when NBA teams are in training camp. “The comeback will not happen, unless I have the drive whenever I get back,” McGrady said. McGrady last played, sparingly, with the Spurs in 2012/13, and has since spent time playing Chinese basketball, as well as minor league baseball. McGrady retired roughly a year ago.
- Emmanuel Mudiay, one of the premier 2015 draft prospects, has signed Raymond Brothers to be his agent, tweets Liz Mullen of SportsBusiness Journal. Mullen adds that Brothers negotiated Mudiay’s current contract with a Chinese team.
- Julian Wright, out of the league since 2011, is considering pursuing a comeback via the D-League, tweets David Pick of Eurobasket.com. Wright had been playing with a Russian team and performing well prior to an injury last December, according to Pick.
- Yannis Koutroupis of Basketball Insiders thinks that Kenneth Faried‘s stellar play with Team USA will carry over into the season, and expects the Nuggets to wind up making the power forward their most high paid player. Whether Denver reaches an agreement with Faried on a rookie scale extension before the October deadline, or via restricted free agency next summer, Koutroupis predicts it will take upwards of $14MM in annual salary to lock up “The Manimal.”