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Month: March 2015

Suns Sign Seth Curry To 10-Day Contract

By | at March 11, 2015 1:45 pm

WEDNESDAY, 1:45pm: The deal is official, the team announced.

TUESDAY, 2:32pm: The Suns and shooting guard Seth Curry have reached agreement on a 10-day contract, league sources tell Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). Phoenix has been carrying 14 players, including Earl Barron on a 10-day contract of his own, so the team has plenty of flexibility to add Curry, the younger brother of Warriors star Stephen Curry. The Curry who’s apparently heading to the Suns has been playing for the Magic’s D-League affiliate.

Seth Curry has gained a toehold in the league on previous occasions, joining his brother on the Warriors for camp in 2013, spending a brief tenure with the Grizzlies over the holidays that year, and signing a 10-day contract with the Cavs nearly a year ago. His first tie to the Suns came when he joined the team for summer league action this past July. Curry inked a training camp deal with the Magic that had him on Orlando’s NBA roster with a $100K partial guarantee this past fall. He didn’t make it to opening night, but the Magic’s D-League affiliate traded for his D-League rights before the season, and Curry has spent the season with the Orlando-controlled Erie BayHawks, averaging 23.5 points in 37.0 minutes per game with impressive 48.2% three-point shooting.

Phoenix’s second 10-day contract with Barron expires after Thursday night, so it’s unclear if the Suns intend to replace him with Curry or re-sign Barron for the season and start carrying 15 players. Barron’s a center, so it would seem the addition of Curry wouldn’t be directly related to his status, though that’s just my speculation.

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Team Facebook/Twitter/RSS

By | at March 11, 2015 1:26 pm

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NBPA Rejects Salary Cap Smoothing Proposal

By | at March 11, 2015 12:49 pm

12:49pm: The sides met Tuesday in an attempt to hash out a compromise before ultimately ending the conversation without a deal, sources tell Ken Berger of CBSSports.com (Twitter link).

MARCH 11TH, 12:35pm: The league and the union have reached no agreement on any counter proposal, and the union has informed the NBA that it will not accept any sort of tiered increases to the salary cap, the NBA announced via press release (link to statement via USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt on Twitter). So, it appears as though a giant leap in the cap for the 2016/17 season is inevitable.

FEBRUARY 13TH: The NBPA voted today to reject the league’s salary cap smoothing proposal, Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link). The owners want to gradually increase the salary cap starting in 2016 when the NBA’s new television contract kicks in. NBPA head Michele Roberts said that the shelf-life for players is limited, and the NBPA didn’t want to impact that in any way moving forward, Tim Bontemps of The New York Post adds (Twitter links). Roberts did add that there could be a counter proposal by the NBPA, but the union hasn’t had a chance to decide whether it will produce one, Bontemps notes.

The TV deal, worth approximately $24 billion, is expected to dramatically alter the financial landscape of player contracts after it takes effect for the 2016/17 season. Many executives around the league have already assumed that the cap would jump to $90MM for that season, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe recently wrote, but it’s unclear if that assumption was based on an all-at-once rise to the cap or the tiered increases the league proposed. The NBA thought the union would be fully supportive of its proposal, but the players instead resisted, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.

The cap is at $63.065MM this season after having hung between $58MM and $59MM for three straight years, so an influx of revenues had already begun to have an effect even before the NBA and its TV partners struck the deal this past fall. Next year’s cap is reportedly projected to come in at about $66.5MM.

Maximum salaries are tied to the cap, so they’re in line to escalate dramatically as well, but the league and the union predetermined the minimum salaries and the value of exceptions like the mid-level and the biannual when they came to the most recent collective bargaining agreement in 2011, as Pincus points out (Twitter links). Both sides have an opt-out in that agreement in 2017, and it’s likely that either the NBA, its players, or both parties will exercise their right to terminate the deal. That would give them a chance to adjust the minimums and exceptions a season after the cap is set to spike.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

2 comments National Basketball Players Association Newsstand Salary Cap

And-Ones: Kobe, Draft, Hard Cap, Datome

By | at March 11, 2015 11:59 am

Kobe Bryant thought for a moment after he found out he’d torn his rotator cuff that he might be done with the game, but he insisted he’s never seriously considered not playing next season, as he told reporters Tuesday, including Baxter Holmes of ESPNLosAngeles.com. Bryant left open the possibility that he’ll play beyond 2015/16, the last year of his contract with the Lakers, and he added that he probably won’t decide whether to play in 2016/17 until next season is through, as Holmes notes. Here’s more from around the league:

  • Prominent agent Arn Tellem, in a piece for Grantland, argues that teams have begun to regard the back end of the draft’s second round as less about finding the best available player and more about acquiring the rights to prospects willing to play overseas. Among Tellem’s proposals is to move to a system of draft-eligibility similar to baseball’s in which all players would be automatically eligible at age 18. Tellem would also like to see a rule that would require teams to tender guaranteed minimum-salary offers to retain the rights to second-round picks, though that salary would be cut in half if the draftee instead spends the season playing in the D-League. His ideas likely have an influential audience, since Tellem’s Wasserman agency has close ties to Adam Silver and D-League president Malcolm Turner, notes Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today (Twitter links).
  • Silver, meanwhile, tells Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune that he continues to support a harder salary cap in the wake of the league’s proposal for one in the last round of collective bargaining in 2011, arguing that it would create more parity.
  • The Celtics appear lukewarm about soon-to-be free agent Gigi Datome, and while he told Italian media that he’d like to receive more offers from NBA teams than he does from overseas, clubs from Spain, Russia and Turkey are ready with proposals, sources tell Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia.
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Atlantic Notes: Nets Sale, Wiggins, Embiid

By | at March 11, 2015 10:58 am

Amar’e Stoudemire‘s $2.5MM buyout from the Knicks only represented a net loss of $2,014,330 for him, since it was offset by his prorated minimum salary deal with the Mavs, but it was a savings of $6.25MM for the Knicks, as Marc Berman of the New York Post points out. The $2.5MM that Stoudemire gave up, an amount that Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders first reported, as we noted last month, would have entailed an extra $3.75MM in luxury taxes had the big man remained under contract. Still, Stoudemire collected a total of more than $97.2MM in salary from the Knicks over the course of his five-year contract, and New York is in line to pay at least some tax for a third straight year, meaning the team will incur repeat-offender penalties if it goes over the tax next season. Here’s more from the Atlantic:

  • Sources told Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders that they suspected the sale of the Nets was to have been based off a $1 billion price for the Hawks, but those same sources believe the Atlanta franchise will go for around $900MM instead, as Kyler relays (Twitter links). Multiple sports bankers had believed the Nets would sell for as much as $2 billion, as they told Josh Kosman and Claire Atkinson of the New York Post earlier this month, but that price point never materialized, Kyler hears (Twitter link). Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov appears to be backing away from the idea of a sale.
  • There are whispers that Andrew Wiggins would love to play for the Raptors, but he’s under contract through 2018 and would have to take discount salaries if he wants to play in his native Canada anytime this decade, writes Eric Koreen of the National Post. In any case, the talent pool in Canada has grown enough such that GM Masai Ujiri need not dig deep to fulfill his promise of bringing a domestic talent onto the Raptors, making the GM’s pledge “harmless,” Koreen believes. Still, a majority of Hoops Rumors readers believe that Ujiri shouldn’t concern himself with a player’s nationality.
  • The “minor setback” that Joel Embiid has suffered as he continues to recover from a broken right foot bears watching, but it’s not worth an overreaction, Sixers coach Brett Brown told reporters, including Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The franchise still believes that Embiid is capable of becoming its cornerstone if he can get healthy, Pompey writes.
0 comments Atlanta Hawks Brooklyn Nets New York Knicks Philadelphia 76ers Toronto Raptors

NBA, NCAA Seek Later Draft Withdrawal Deadline

By | at March 11, 2015 10:00 am

A joint proposal from the NBA, NCAA and the National Association of Basketball Coaches would restore the ability for underclassmen to “test the waters” and retain their college eligibility after declaring for early entry to the NBA draft, reports Andy Katz of ESPN.com. The deadline for underclassmen who enter the draft to withdraw and maintain their NCAA eligibility, which was April 15th last year, would move to late May as part of the measure, according to Katz. The NBA would alter the schedule and format for its annual June combine so early entry candidates could take part before the deadline, as Katz explains.

A change that took place for 2011 made it difficult, if not impossible, for underclassmen to accurately evaluate where they were likely to be drafted, or if they were in line to be drafted at all. The proposal would give players more time to assess their stock and a chance to take part in the combine. A lack of an invitation to the combine, which would encompass fewer than 100 players, would provide a signal to a player that he’s not likely to find work in the NBA, as Kentucky coach John Calipari suggests to Katz.

Dan Gavitt, the NCAA men’s basketball championship vice president, said to Katz that there’s a strong chance the proposal will come to a formal vote in January if its formally entered to an NCAA subcommittee in September. UCLA athletics director Dan Guerrero, who heads the NCAA Division I council, said it could take effect in time for the 2016 draft.

The measure wouldn’t change the timing of the draft process for international players and others without NCAA ties, who can withdraw anytime up to 10 days before the draft.

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All Disabled Player Exceptions Expire

By | at March 11, 2015 8:50 am

Tuesday was the final day that teams could use disabled player exceptions, meaning a combined total of nearly $14.307MM in salary cap flexibility has gone by the wayside. The NBA granted the relief to the Pacers, Lakers, Heat and Cavaliers this season, but only the Cavs put their disabled player exception to use. The Lakers forfeited the most flexibility Tuesday, watching two exceptions worth a total of more than $6.349MM disappear.

Coincidentally, the Lakers used another injury-related provision Tuesday, signing Jabari Brown to a 10-day contract via hardship, which allowed the team to add Brown to the roster without dropping another player even though L.A. was already carrying 15 players. The hardship provision only gives teams an extra roster spot, however. It doesn’t allow them any grace as it relates to the salary cap. That’s what disabled player exceptions are for. They allow teams that are already above the salary cap a means to add players for more than the minimum, up to the value of the exception. That same amount can be used to claim a player off waivers, and teams may trade for a player who makes the value of the exception plus $100K.

But, there are a couple of stipulations that help explain why so many disabled player exceptions went unused. They can’t go toward any player whose contract runs beyond this season. So, teams with disabled player exceptions can’t sign anyone to a multiyear deal or claim or trade for a player who isn’t on an expiring contract. Also, the exception doesn’t absolve a team of any luxury tax burden it might incur if using the exception would take it over the tax threshold. That’s probably why the Heat and the Pacers, both of whom would cross the tax line if they used the full amounts of their exceptions, decided to stand pat.

Unlike other exceptions, the disabled player exception may only be used on one player. So, even though the Cavs used only a partial amount of their $4,852,273 exception to trade for Iman Shumpert‘s $2,616,975 salary, they weren’t allowed to spend the rest on another player, meaning the exception disappeared as soon as Cleveland put it to use.

For more detail on disabled player exceptions, including information on how their values are determined, check out our Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Here’s a look at this season’s exceptions and the ones that expired at the end of Tuesday.

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Nets Back Off Sale Plans

By | at March 10, 2015 11:13 pm

Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov has parted ways with Evercore Partners, an investment banking firm he hired to explore the sale of the team, Darren Rovell of ESPNNewYork.com reports. Prokhorov, who owns 80% of the franchise and 45% of the Barclays Center, hired the firm to take offers on the team after observing Steve Ballmer’s whopping $2 billion purchase price for the Clippers. Prokhorov bought the team in May 2010 for $200MM. Forbes magazine lists the Nets as the sixth most valuable team in the NBA at $1.5 billion, Rovell notes.

This development lends credence to a statement made by Nets CEO Brett Yormark last week. “Nothing has happened and they’ve been talking about it [in the media] for a year,”  Yormark said. “So I’d probably say I don’t think anything is going to happen. We have an ownership group that is very committed.”

The investment fund for the government of the nation of Qatar and former interim Clippers CEO Dick Parsons were reportedly interested in purchasing the Nets, a franchise that multiple sports bankers believe would sell for as much as $2 billion, according to Josh Kosman and Claire Atkinson of the New York Post. Kosman and Atkinson also identified “two wealthy U.S. families” as parties potentially eyeing a purchase of the Nets. Others who have been linked to the Nets include investor David Bonderman, former Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, hedge fund manager David Einhorn, and Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

The Nets are now in the fifth season of Prokhorov’s ownership, which happens to be the same season by which he predicted that the franchise would win an NBA title. Unfortunately for the team and its fans, the Nets are closer to winning the draft lottery (if they owned their first-rounder next season) than they are to raising a championship banner. Much of Brooklyn’s current woes are the result of high-risk trades that mortgaged the franchise’s future for a run at a title, a strategy that backfired and will have the team struggling to recover over the next few seasons, something that new ownership wouldn’t necessarily be able to reverse.  But now it would appear that Prokhorov may be around long enough to have to endure the team’s rebuilding years. Of course, the right offer for the team could change everything in a flash, though that is just my speculation.

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And-Ones: Franklin, Draft, Matthews

By | at March 10, 2015 10:38 pm

Based strictly on his skills on offense, Jahlil Okafor is likely to be the No. 1 overall pick in June’s NBA draft, Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com writes. The Duke freshman doesn’t project as a good enough defender to become an impact pro on both sides of the ball, and he isn’t a good enough athlete to have an extremely high ceiling, Howard-Cooper adds. “His offensive ability on the box,” one NBA executive said of the draft appeal of Okafor. “I’m not a huge Okafor guy. But I think the general consensus is that he’s the best player in college basketball.” Both ESPN and DraftExpress have Okafor projected to be the first player selected in this year’s draft.

Here’s more from around the league:

  • Jamaal Franklin, who currently plays for the Los Angeles D-Fenders, the Lakers’ D-League affiliate, is likely to receive an NBA callup soon, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link). Franklin appeared in 21 games for the Grizzlies last season, averaging 1.9 points in 7.7 minutes per game.
  • Karl-Anthony Towns has overtaken Okafor for the top spot in Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com‘s (Insider subscription required) latest mock draft.
  • Pistons coach/executive Stan Van Gundy said that he likes Quincy Miller, who is inked to a 10-day pact, and the team is considering signing him for the remainder of the season, Vincent Ellis of The Detroit Free Press tweets.
  • Wesley Matthews is scheduled to undergo surgery to repair his torn left Achilles on Wednesday, the Blazers announced. Matthews, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, is out for the season courtesy of the injury.
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Central Notes: Pistons, Varejao, Butler

By | at March 10, 2015 9:55 pm

While the Pistons have had to adjust their playing style a number of times this season due to trades and injuries, the one constant has been the team’s focus on the defensive end, David Mayo of MLive.com writes. But it’s Detroit’s defense that has been letting the team down during its current six game losing streak, Mayo adds. The lack of stops, turnovers, and rebounds have led to a dearth of fast break chances, which is hampering the Pistons on the offensive end, Mayo notes.

Here’s more from the Central Division:

  • Jimmy Butler is one of the biggest breakout success stories of the NBA season, and it’s a testament to the swingman’s work ethic that he is in line for a big payday when he hits restricted free agency this summer, Ben Golliver of SI.com writes. The Bulls have indicated that they plan to match any offer sheets that Butler receives this offseason.
  • Cavs coach David Blatt confirmed that center Anderson Varejao is out for the remainder of the season and the playoffs, but he added that the team is very pleased with Varejao’s rehab progress, Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com tweets. Varejao tore his left Achilles tendon back in December.
  • Derrick Rose‘s quiet demeanor isn’t helping him with Bulls fans, who have grown wary of the star point guard due to his numerous injuries, David Haugh of The Chicago Tribune writes. Though Rose recently sounded optimistic about playing again this season, Chicago fans need a bolder statement regarding his return to action from the player instead of his seeming nonchalance about the matter, Haugh opines.
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