Bulls Pick Up Option On Tony Snell
The Bulls have picked up their rookie scale team option on Tony Snell for the 2015/16 season, the team announced. The athletic third-year forward out of New Mexico will make just under $1.536MM next season, as our Rookie Scale Team Option Tracker shows. Snell, who the Bulls took with the 20th pick in the 2013 NBA Draft, averaged 4.5 points in 16 minutes per game for Chicago in his rookie year. He was named First-Team All-NBA Summer League this summer after averaging 20 points and four rebounds over five games in Las Vegas.
Snell’s elite athleticism and defensive potential made him a popular sleeper in the 2013 draft, which was in many ways similar to how K.J. McDaniels was viewed by some this past June. As of four months ago, the Bulls still seemed sold on Snell as a rotation-caliber talent, though there was talk that he was dangled in trade talks prior to the draft. He’ll enter the season as one of many options off the bench on a deep Bulls team.
The move brings Chicago’s commitments for 2015/16 to $60.2MM. That’s fairly close to the projected $66.5MM salary cap, and that figure doesn’t include a new deal for Jimmy Butler, who’ll be set for restricted free agency if he and the Bulls don’t sign an extension by the end of Friday.
Jazz Claim Hamilton, Ingles, Waive Felix
The Jazz have waived Carrick Felix, and they’ve claimed Jordan Hamilton and Joe Ingles off waivers, the team announced in a pair of releases. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports first reported the waiver claims and tweeted the news that the team would release Felix. Utah had been carrying 14 players, so at least one had to go to accommodate the pair of claims. Hamilton, whose minimum-salary deal is partially guaranteed for $25K, comes from the Raptors, so Toronto is no longer on the hook for that money. The Clippers had placed their non-guaranteed contract with Ingles on waivers.
Hamilton made it tough on the Raptors this month, though they ultimately decided to go with Greg Stiemsma over both Hamilton and Will Cherry as they all battled for one open regular season roster spot with matching $25K guarantees. Hamilton averaged 9.5 points and 3.0 rebounds in 18.3 minutes per game in the preseason, more playing time than he had seen in any of his three regular seasons since becoming the 26th overall pick in 2011.
Ingles was a hot commodity after his showing for the Australian national team in the World Cup. The Jazz were among a host of teams that were eyeing the swingman as early as this past spring, and he ultimately decided on the Clippers, though it was surprising to see him fail to garner any guaranteed salary. He’ll make the minimum this year.
Felix’s minimum salary was fully guaranteed, so Utah is on the hook for that money unless he clears waivers. The 33rd overall pick from last year played nine D-League games and seven NBA contests last year with the Cavs, who sent him out primarily for financial reasons in the July trade that brought him to Utah. He has a non-guaranteed salary for 2015/16 that will disappear if he clears waivers.
Utah creeps closer to this year’s $63.065MM cap with today’s pickups, but the Jazz still have less than $60MM in committed salary for this season.
Blazers Opt In With Leonard, McCollum
The Blazers have exercised their rookie scale team options for 2015/16 with Meyers Leonard and CJ McCollum, the team announced. Leonard will make nearly $3.076MM for that season while McCollum has more than $2.525MM coming to him, as our Rookie Scale Team Option Tracker shows.
Leonard has struggled to live up to having been the 11th pick in the 2012 draft, and his minutes per game were nearly cut in half last season from what he saw as a rookie. The 22-year-old has diversified his game over the offseason, displaying an outside jumper in camp this month as the Blazers experiment with converting the 7’1″ Leonard into a power forward. It’s somewhat surprising that Portland was willing to commit to him and not to former No. 5 overall pick Thomas Robinson, whose team option will reportedly go unexercised. The $1.6MM gap between Robinson’s option, the more expensive of the two, and Leonard’s appears to have made a difference.
McCollum entered his rookie season with lots of promise after Portland grabbed him 10th overall last year, but injury helped limit him to just 38 games, and he saw just 12.5 MPG in those appearances. The guard made it into just six of the team’s 11 playoff games last season for 4.0 MPG.
Portland already picked up Damian Lillard‘s rookie scale option for next season, but even with Lillard, Leonard and McCollum on the books, they only have about $23.1MM tied up for 2015/16. Still, LaMarcus Aldridge, Wesley Matthews and Robin Lopez are all set to hit free agency, so there’s reason for the Blazers to keep their ledger relatively clean.
Celtics Waive Will Bynum
The Celtics have waived point guard Will Bynum, the team announced via press release. The move had appeared likely since shortly after Boston acquired him via trade from the Pistons, though the Celtics made attempts to move his guaranteed salary rather than simply release it. The Celtics will be on the hook for Bynum’s nearly $2.916MM salary for this season unless another team claims him off waivers. Boston also announced the waiver of five other players in its press release, so the team is at the 15-man regular season roster limit.
Bynum has spent the past six seasons with Detroit, primarily as a backup point guard. He figured to be the third-stringer behind Brandon Jennings and D.J. Augustin this year, and there wasn’t much room for him on the Celtics, either, with Rajon Rondo and lottery pick Marcus Smart around, among others.
The C’s appeared to acquire Bynum in large measure to reduce the amount of guaranteed salary they would have to eat, as Joel Anthony, who went to the Pistons in that trade, will make $3.8MM this season, about $900K more than Bynum. Boston had been carrying 16 fully guaranteed deals all preseason, but it seems there wasn’t a trade to be had that could fix that logjam and save the C’s from releasing one of those contracts.
Celtics Waive Jarell Eddie
MONDAY, 3:44pm: The move is official, the team announced.
SUNDAY, 5:53pm: Boston has indeed waived Eddie, as is shown on the RealGM transactions page.
SATURDAY, 6:26pm: The Celtics are waiving Jarell Eddie, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. Pincus indicates that the move has already taken place, though the team has yet to make an official announcement. The undrafted rookie was claimed off of waivers by Boston Thursday after the Hawks released him from their training camp roster.
His one-year contract was non-guaranteed, so Boston merely inherited his D-League rights and no actual costs by claiming and waiving the small forward. Of course, another team could still claim Eddie off waivers from the Celtics, which would remove those D-League rights from Boston. Eddie spent time with the Wizards summer league team, and he impressed Atlanta brass in his preseason tenure there.
C’s Waive McGruder, Murphy, Frazier, Watford
MONDAY, 3:43pm: The Celtics have officially waived McGruder, Murphy, Frazier and Watford, the team announced via press release.
SUNDAY, 10:22pm: In addition to the previously mentioned trio, Frazier has now also been waived, according to the RealGM transactions log. The team has made no formal announcement yet.
10:25pm: The Celtics have waived McGruder, Murphy and Watford, according to the RealGM transactions log, though the team has yet to make a formal announcement. Frazier has not been waived yet, though all indications are that he will be tomorrow, as Marc D’Amico of Celtics.com tweets.
TUESDAY, 10:59am: The Celtics will waive Rodney McGruder, Erik Murphy, Tim Frazier and Christian Watford, coach Brad Stevens told reporters, including Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe (Twitter link). All are on non-guaranteed contracts, except for Murphy, whose deal is partially guaranteed for $100K. The moves will leave the Celtics with 16 players, all of whom have fully guaranteed pacts, with one more cut to come before opening night.
Murphy is the only one of the trio with NBA regular season experience, having appeared briefly in 24 games last season with the Bulls, who drafted him 49th overall in 2013. He was nonetheless an afterthought in a series of cap-related moves that began when the Jazz claimed him off waivers from the Bulls late last season. Utah sent him to Cleveland in a three-for-one swap in July, and the Cavs shipped him to the Celtics in their Keith Bogans trade. McGruder, who went undrafted in 2013, was in an NBA training camp for the second autumn in a row after spending last October with the Thunder. Watford also went undrafted that year, though he signed a pair of deals with the C’s this year as Boston waived him to accommodate the Bogans trade, then brought him back. Frazier has had a more conventional tenure with Boston after going undrafted this past June.
The moves still leave president of basketball operations Danny Ainge with a decision to make with Monday’s opening-night roster deadline looming. Will Bynum appeared at one point this weekend to be the guaranteed contract set to go, but the Celtics have yet to commit to parting ways with him.
Blazers To Decline Option On Thomas Robinson
The Blazers have told Thomas Robinson that they won’t exercise their fourth-year team option on his rookie scale contract, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Robinson has been set to make more than $4.66MM in 2015/16 if the Blazers picked up the final year of his deal, but he’ll instead hit unrestricted free agency this summer, with the Blazers unable to pay him more than the amount of his option to retain him. The same would hold true for any team that would acquire him via trade this season.
Robinson has had a difficult adjustment to the NBA after the Kings made him the fifth overall pick in 2012. Sacramento shipped him to Houston in the middle of his rookie season, and the Rockets sent him along to Portland the following summer to clear cap space for Dwight Howard. Robinson saw fewer minutes per game in Portland than he did in either of his other stops, making it in for only 12.5 MPG this past season.
Portland only has about $17.4MM in commitments for 2015/16, so the Blazers would have plenty of room to accommodate Robinson’s option if they changed their minds. Still, LaMarcus Aldridge is poised to command a max deal in free agency this summer, and Wesley Matthews and Robin Lopez are set to become free agents, too.
Knicks Waive Arnett Moultrie
The Knicks have waived Arnett Moultrie, the team announced at the same time at which they confirmed they’ve traded for him (Twitter link). A decision had been due by Friday on a rookie scale team option worth more than $2MM for the 27th overall pick from 2012, but that salary will be nullified unless a team claims Moultrie off waivers. New York will still be on the hook for Moultrie’s 2014/15 salary, worth slightly more than $1.136MM, if another team doesn’t submit a claim.
The 23-year-old Moultrie had been Philadelphia’s longest tenured player before the Sixers shipped him to the Knicks today. Still, he didn’t appear to have much of a future with the team, particularly in light of his drug-related suspension last season. He saw action in only 12 games in 2013/14 after appearing in 47 as a rookie, averaging 3.6 points in 12.4 minutes per game for his career.
New York is set to save about $4.7MM against its luxury tax bill, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com estimates (on Twitter), as a result of putting Moultrie’s salary on the books as opposed to the $3MM in cash that’s guaranteed to Travis Outlaw, who went to the Sixers in today’s trade. The Knicks began today with about $88.9MM in guaranteed salary, well above the $76.829MM tax line, but the league only calculates the tax based on a team’s roster at the end of the regular season. In any case, letting go of Moultrie leaves the Knicks with 15 players, the regular season max, including 13 fully guaranteed contracts and partial guarantees with Samuel Dalembert and Travis Wear.
Knicks Trade Travis Outlaw To Sixers
3:07pm: It’s the Clippers’ 2018 pick that the Sixers would send to the Knicks if they swap second-round draft choices that year, Philadelphia announced.
3:01pm: The trade is official, the Knicks announced (Twitter link). It’s Outlaw to the Sixers and Moultrie to the Knicks. The Sixers get New York’s 2019 second-round selection and the right to swap 2018 second-rounders with the Knicks, too.
2:33pm: The Knicks and Sixers have an agreement that will send Travis Outlaw to Philadelphia, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The Sixers will also receive a future second-round pick as well as the right to swap another second-rounder with New York, according to Stein (Twitter links). Arnett Moultrie goes to New York in the swap, and the Sixers are likely to release Outlaw after the trade becomes official, Stein adds in another tweet.
The Knicks, who’ve been carrying 16 players, had reportedly been poised to release Outlaw. It’s unclear if the plan is to do the same with Moultrie, though Moultrie’s fully guaranteed salary, a little more than $1.136MM, is less than the $3MM that Outlaw is in line for, so the Knicks wouldn’t be on the hook for quite as much dead money if they went that route. New York appears to want to keep rookie undrafted rookie Travis Wear on his nominally guaranteed deal for the 15th and final regular season roster spot. Samuel Dalembert‘s partially guaranteed contract, which the Knicks will almost assuredly keep, and 13 fully guaranteed deals occupy the other 14 spots.
Philadelphia continues a strategy of using its cap space to acquire second-round picks, just as the Sixers did a few days ago in the Marquis Teague trade, last month’s acquisition of Keith Bogans, and numerous other examples since GM Sam Hinkie took control in 2013. Hinkie’s latest move means the Sixers are cutting ties with Moultrie, their longest-tenured player. The Knicks will have until Friday to decide whether to pick up a 2015/16 team option worth more than $2MM on Moultrie if they don’t cut him loose.
Executives from around the league reacted incredulously to the news of the latest Sixers deal, tweets Chris Mannix of SI.com, as the team continues to make deals focused on the future rather than the present. Still, Moultrie seemed to have a tenuous grip on a roster spot, at best, suggesting the only cost to Philadelphia is a degree of salary cap flexibility, of which they still have plenty.
Wolves Waive J.J. Barea, Mavs Plan To Sign Him
MONDAY, 1:59pm: The Wolves have waived Barea, the team announced (Twitter link). It’s unclear if he agreed to give up any salary in a buyout arrangement or if it was a straight release.
SUNDAY, 3:55pm: The Wolves are finalizing a buyout with J.J. Barea, sources tell Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The buyout will be completed before Monday’s 4pm CT roster cutdown deadline, putting Minnesota at the 15-man maximum.
With a logjam of guards in Minnesota, there has been speculation this offseason that the Wolves would buy Barea out of the final year of his contract or trade him. Coach/president Flip Saunders insisted in late September that there was a role for Barea in Minnesota, noting that his camp performance last summer was the best of anyone on the team. Still, with a glut of backcourt options, including free agent pickup Mo Williams, it was clear that Barea could get more burn elsewhere.
The Mavericks are planning on signing Barea once he clears waivers, according to Stein, and the guard wants to return to Dallas. The Mavs’ roster is currently full with the regular season maximum 15 players, so bringing Barea aboard would require another roster move. The guard should clear as he carries a $4.5MM cap number for 2014/15. Stein suggests that Dallas could clear a spot by trading or releasing guard Gal Mekel or big man Greg Smith.
If the Barea-Dallas reunion falls through, there should be plenty of other clubs with interest. The Lakers immediately come to mind as a club that could go for Barea in the wake of Steve Nash‘s season-ending injury.
Earlier today, Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link) heard that the feeling around the league was that Barea would wind up with the Mavs. Barea could be the second member of the Mavs’ 2011 championship team to return to Dallas this offseason, following big man Tyson Chandler.