Sixers, Blazers, Pacers, Hawks Talk Pick Swaps
The Sixers and Trail Blazers have spoken about a trade that would send the No. 23 pick to Philadelphia in exchange for the 35th and 37th picks and perhaps more, sources tell Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter links). The Pacers and Hawks have had exploratory talks about a swap of the 11th and 15th picks, presumably with other assets involved, Kennedy also hears, citing league sources. Philadelphia is willing to trade up from the No. 3 spot to acquire D’Angelo Russell, league sources tell Ken Berger of CBSSports.com, who writes within his Draft Buzz column.
Jahlil Okafor earlier this month became the focus of the Lakers at the No. 2 pick, as Chris Mannix of SI.com reported, so a willingness from Philly to trade up for Russell would indicate some doubt from the Sixers that the Lakers indeed prefer the Duke center. Karl-Anthony Towns appears to be headed to the Timberwolves with the No. 1 pick, though he’s denied a report that Minnesota has already told him he’ll be their choice.
Philadelphia leads the NBA with six picks in this year’s draft, five of which are in the second round. The Blazers appear focused on free agency, with LaMarcus Aldridge, Wesley Matthews, Robin Lopez and Arron Afflalo among the soon-to-be free agents on the roster, so moving off the nearly $1.004MM cap hold for a first-round pick would presumably have some value to them.
Willie Cauley-Stein has said that Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird called him a $100MM player, so it would appear Indiana has strong interest in him. Concerns about Cauley-Stein’s health threaten to push him out of the top 10, as Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress wrote in his mock draft this week, though it would seem a stretch if he were still available at No. 15. The Hawks are worried that they won’t be able to bring back the duo of Paul Millsap and DeMarre Carroll in free agency, but trading up for a higher pick wouldn’t help them create more cap space unless they gave up salary in such a deal.
Latest On Ty Lawson, Nuggets, Kings
2:22pm: Karl is “enamored” with the notion of trading for Lawson, Kenneth Faried and Wilson Chandler, Berger writes in another piece, presumably in a deal that sends out Cousins. The Nuggets are open to trading Lawson and Chandler, but the Poison Pill Provision attached to Faried’s recently extended contract would make the salary-matching cumbersome for any deal involving him before July, Berger adds.
TUESDAY, 10:45am: Karl would consider trading Rudy Gay for Lawson, a source told Chris Broussard of ESPN in a story that centers on Kings owner Vivek Ranadive’s unwillingness to allow any DeMarcus Cousins trades. That would seemingly throw Karl’s ability to engineer a Gay-Lawson trade through Kings front office chief Vlade Divac into question, though that’s just my speculation.
MONDAY, 5:24pm: The Nuggets and Kings have discussed a deal involving Ty Lawson, but the sides have found little traction, league sources tell Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. Chad Ford of ESPN.com suggested as much in a recent chat. Sacramento has been pursuing Lawson from Denver with the sixth pick at the heart of would-be deals, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders wrote in his NBA AM piece earlier today. Kyler nonetheless hears that Denver’s demands for Lawson are too high for the Kings and that Sacramento isn’t on board with giving up the No. 6 choice and future draft picks for Lawson.
Still, the Kings continue to make Nik Stauskas available, Berger reports, while the Nuggets are involved in a potential trade scenario that would send their No. 7 pick to the Knicks, an executive from another team told Berger. The Nuggets would also give up the right to swap first-rounders with the Knicks next year, one that they gained via the Carmelo Anthony trade, in such a deal, Berger adds.
Kings coach George Karl would reportedly love for the team to acquire Lawson, whom he coached with the Nuggets. Still, Denver was asking for multiple first-round picks for him at the deadline, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe reported.
Stauskas, whom Sacramento took eighth overall last year, became available as early as this past January, as Berger reported then. Knicks president Phil Jackson has expressed a willingness to trade back from the No. 4 pick, and speculation has resulted in numerous such scenarios.
Knicks Among Preferred Destinations For Cousins
The Knicks are on the list of teams that DeMarcus Cousins would like to play for, writes Ken Berger of CBSSports.com, who nonetheless suggests New York lacks the assets to make that happen. Agent Dan Fegan would like to see him on the Lakers, Berger adds. An earlier report from Sam Amick of USA Today indicated much the same about the desire of Cousins’ camp to see him in purple-and-gold, but Cousins likes Sacramento and has asked not to be traded, according to Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee.
Knicks team president Phil Jackson suggested to reporters today that the Knicks don’t have the assets necessary to make a credible offer for Cousins, according to Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com (Twitter link). The primary chip the Knicks would appear to have, aside from Carmelo Anthony, is the No. 4 pick in this year’s draft, though Jackson today downplayed the idea that they’ll trade it. He told reporters that he’s listening to offers but “not soliciting so much” and pegged the chances of the Knicks moving down in the draft at only 5%, as Chris Herring of The Wall Street Journal relays (Twitter links). Still, Sacramento would rather take back veterans, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported overnight.
The Kings appear to be a house divided, with Karl pushing for a trade and owner Vivek Ranadive insisting time and again, just as front office chief Vlade Divac has, that Cousins is not available for any swap, as Wojnarowski detailed. The Lakers are making a push, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported Monday, also identifying the Nuggets as a likely suitor. The Celtics, another team reportedly likely to go after the All-Star center, appear to have the most to offer, as Berger notes.
New York can’t trade its No. 4 pick until after the draft, and absorbing Cousins’ salary would be easier after the July Moratorium. The same is true of the Lakers and their pick, so a Cousins trade to either destination would appear unlikely to become official for at least another couple of weeks, even if the clubs might reach an agreement in the interim.
Jordan Mickey Likely To Go In First Round
LSU big man Jordan Mickey has been climbing up draft boards over the past couple of months and his rise could culminate in becoming a first round selection. On Tuesday afternoon, Mickey told Hoops Rumors that a team picking in the 20s told him that they’ll select him if he’s still on the board at that time.
Mickey is currently is ranked No. 31 in this year’s class by Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress and No. 44 by Chad Ford of ESPN.com. The athletic 20-year-old (21 in July) would outperform those projections by a wide margin if he’s selected in the 20s, but he could conceivably go even higher than that.
Mickey tells Hoops Rumors that he’ll be working out for Boston on Wednesday, his second audition for Boston in recent weeks. Given the last-minute workout, it’s quite possible that the C’s are viewing Mickey as an option with their No. 16 pick. Boston picks again at No. 28, No. 33, and No. 45, but he might not be available that far down.
Earlier this week, LSU blog TigerRag reported that Mickey received a guarantee from a team picking later in the first round. In his sophomore year at LSU, Mickey averaged 15.4 PPG, 9.9 RPG, and an eye-popping 3.6 blocks per contest.
Cavs Pick Up Option On Timofey Mozgov
1:00pm: The move is indeed official, the team confirmed.
9:59am: The Cavs have picked up their $4.95MM team option on Timofey Mozgov, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). The team has yet to make an official announcement, but it would appear that the move has indeed taken place. It’s largely an academic transaction, since it would have been shocking if Cleveland had turned down a relatively inexpensive option on the starting center whose acquisition helped turn the team’s season around this year.
Mozgov came from Denver via trade on January 7th in a move that involved two first-round picks heading to the Nuggets. Cavs GM David Griffin and his staff had long coveted the 7’1″ native of Russia, and when the Cavs rebounded from a 19-20 start to reach the Finals with Mozgov locking down the interior on defense, it validated the team’s pursuit.
Cleveland has only slightly more than $31MM in guaranteed salary after picking up Mozgov’s option, though that number doesn’t include a slew of marquee free agents, including LeBron James and Kevin Love. The Cavs appear intent on retaining much of their team and have reportedly had internal discussions about a shelling out a payroll between $100-$110MM plus some $75MM in taxes next season.
Offseason Outlook: Cleveland Cavaliers
Guaranteed Contracts
- Kyrie Irving ($15,800,000)1
- Anderson Varejao ($9,638,554)
- Timofey Mozgov ($4,950,000)2
- Joe Harris ($845,059)
Non-Guaranteed Contracts
- Brendan Haywood ($10,522,500)3
Options
- LeBron James ($21,573,398 — Player)4
- Kevin Love ($16,744,218 — Player)5
- J.R. Smith ($6,399,750 — Player)6
- Mike Miller ($2,854,940 — Player)7
Restricted Free Agents/Cap Holds
- Tristan Thompson ($11,916,019) — $6,777,589 qualifying offer
- Iman Shumpert ($6,542,438) — $4,433,683 qualifying offer
- Matthew Dellavedova ($1,147,276) — $1,147,276 qualifying offer8
Unrestricted Free Agents/Cap Holds
- James Jones ($947,276)
- Shawn Marion ($947,276)
- Kendrick Perkins ($947,276)
- No. 24 pick ($1,068,400)
Draft Picks
- 1st Round (24th overall)
- 2nd Round (53th overall)
Cap Outlook
- Guaranteed Salary: $26,283,613
- Non-Guaranteed Salary: $10,522,500
- Options: $52,522,306
- Cap Holds: $23,515,961
- Total: $112,844,380
The Cavaliers went through an astounding transformation in the space of one year that wasn’t limited to the obvious change that took place when LeBron James came back. To be certain, the return of James had some degree of influence on just about every move the team has made since, and even some of those that took place before, as GM David Griffin and company cleared the cap space necessary to sign him for the max. Still, only four of the players who ended the 2013/14 season on the Cavs roster are still with the team, and coach David Blatt is new, too. Griffin, in his first full year on the job, has been busy, and he’ll stay that way.
Only four Cavs have guaranteed contracts for next season, and as many as 10 players are either headed for free agency or can choose to do so. The Cavs will have to pay dearly if they’re to keep together a roster that, even with two of its three best players injured, took the Warriors to six games in the Finals. Tristan Thompson is in line for a sizable raise from his rookie scale salary of not much more than $5.138MM, and James, Kevin Love, J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert and Matthew Dellavedova also appear likely to command raises, to varying degrees. The Cavs are reportedly bracing for a payroll that ends up between $100MM and $110MM, figures that don’t include the luxury taxes they’d incur for crossing the tax threshold, projected at only $81.6MM. Owner Dan Gilbert appears willing to pay to help Cleveland win an elusive championship, but winning isn’t just a matter of throwing money around.
That said, the Cavs will assuredly make another max offer to James when he opts out, as he’s widely expected to do in search of a two-year max deal with a player option. Cleveland will certainly accommodate that wish, moving on to the thornier issue of Love. The former All-Star whom James pushed the team to acquire didn’t appear to be the right fit for the Cavs. His numbers dropped off precipitously, and while that wasn’t thoroughly unexpected on a team with far more talent than he’d ever played with, Love nonetheless looked at times like a mere shadow of the player he was in Minnesota. That the team won two playoff series and came halfway to winning the Finals without him further speaks to the idea that the Cavs would be just fine if he weren’t there. Rumors have gone on for months suggesting Love would seek a way out, but Love has been just as persistently expressing that he’s intent on staying in Cleveland. Griffin expects the Jeff Schwartz client to opt out even though he told Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group in January that he planned to opt in, but it nonetheless appears as though he intends to re-sign with the Cavs. Conflicting reports paint somewhat different pictures of whether the Cavs intend to make a max offer for him. The Cavs would have a difficult time replacing him if he were to go elsewhere, so it would not be surprising if that max offer indeed goes on the table.
The return of James and Love would allow the team to keep its core intact, but so many other decisions loom about the rest of the roster. Thompson plays Love’s position, but he also shares agent Rich Paul with James, who’s indicated that he wants Thompson to stay with the Cavs. Reports show that Thompson and Paul have asked for a max or a near-max deal after rejecting a four-year, $52MM offer from the Cavs during extension talks this past fall. A max deal for Thompson would start at an estimated $15.8MM and go up by 7.5% of that initial amount each season, so it would entail far more than what Cleveland apparently offered in an extension if Thompson wants a lengthy deal. The former No. 4 overall pick could instead demand a short-term deal to more quickly reach unrestricted free agency and the escalated salary cap that’s on the horizon. A max deal, whatever its length, might not be the ideal outcome for Cleveland, given the positional overlap and Thompson’s modest career scoring average of 10.1 points per game, but retaining a talented inside force with upside, and keeping James satisfied, would have its benefits.
Smith plans to opt out and re-sign, as he told ESPN’s Chris Broussard, but the Cavs surely won’t want to lock themselves into paying a premium over a long, fully guaranteed deal to a player who’s shown as much inconsistency as Smith has over the course of his career. Eight-figure salaries seem like a reach, but Smith is surely looking for better than his nearly $6.4MM option would give him. A compromise involving salaries of $8MM or slightly more would make sense, though that’s just my speculation.
Smith’s companion in the trade that brought them both in from the Knicks is also poised to hit free agency, though Iman Shumpert’s will be of the restricted variety. That said, the advantage that Cleveland has to match all competing bids is mitigated to a degree by the knowledge other suitors have of the Cavs’ cap situation. Given Cleveland’s other plans, the Cavs wouldn’t have the means to sign a comparable replacement for Shumpert if they failed to match an offer sheet from another team. Six teams have already expressed interest in the Happy Walters client and league executives believe he’ll command salaries in excess of $8MM, Haynes reports. Still, Shumpert isn’t an elite defender; he only drew one vote in All-Defensive Team voting this year, though he was eighth among shooting guards in ESPN’s Defensive Real Plus/Minus. He’s a passable three-point shooter, but not a dangerous one, so he doesn’t quite fit the “three-and-D” mold. The 25-year-old was expected to start for the Cavs when the trade went down, but he wound up coming off the bench after Smith proved more valuable while a shoulder injury delayed Shumpert’s Cavs debut. Cleveland would have to swallow hard before matching an offer sheet with eight-figure salaries if it comes to it.
Dellavedova sure outplayed his minimum-salary deal in the Finals, but the Cavs surely won’t get carried away with a small sample size. An inflated price for Dellavedova wouldn’t cost other teams as much as it would cost the Cavs, given the team’s expected tax bill, so that would give another team incentive to come in high with an offer for him. Still, it would be surprising to see the undrafted guard end up with a salary greater than the value of the $3.376MM taxpayer’s mid-level exception next season, and if he does, Cleveland wouldn’t be wise to match an offer sheet for that sort of money.
The Cavs could use their Early Bird rights with Dellavedova to bring him back for a taxpayer’s mid-level amount and still have their actual taxpayer’s mid-level to spend on an outside free agent. The Cavs would like to add a facilitating guard who can either back up or play alongside Kyrie Irving, as Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com reported. Former Cleveland State standout Norris Cole, another Paul client and a former teammate of James on the Heat, looms as a possibility, though the Pelicans can match offers for him as a restricted free agent. So, too, is the case for the Spurs and Cory Joseph, another former first-round pick with whom the Cavs have been linked. Mo Williams reportedly has strong interest in the Cavs, but the taxpayer’s mid-level would represent a pay cut, and at 32, he’s outside the age range of 26 to 30 that Griffin has said he’ll prioritize.
Regardless of whom the Cavs might sign with that exception, Brendan Haywood‘s non-guaranteed salary gives the team a uniquely valuable trade chip. The Cavs can take in as much as $5MM more than Haywood’s salary via trade if they manage to pull off the trade after the July Moratorium but before they cross the tax threshold, or $13,253,125 if they’re already a tax team. So, technically, they could trade Haywood for David Lee, allowing the Warriors to move off Lee’s nearly $15.494MM salary and waive Hawyood’s non-guaranteed salary to help mitigate their tax bill. The efficacy for Cleveland of paying Lee that much money, plus the taxes on that amount, to compete for time at the same position as Love and Thompson play is dubious, however. The Cavs could instead dangle the Haywood contract to try to acquire just about any trade candidate on a team looking to shed salary, though it appears, from Windhorst’s latest report on the team’s efforts to find a taker for Haywood, that Cleveland is looking at modestly priced options, a sign of some level of austerity.
Still, it doesn’t seem as though the Cavs will do much holding back financially as they aim to cross the finish line after coming ever so close to a championship this year. Griffin has made it clear that he understands that as James enters his 30s, the team has no time to hesitate. The Cavs will no doubt try to win as much as they can before James’ vast abilities inevitably tail off. It’s difficult to predict exactly when that will happen, but Cleveland would be wise to plan for it. Re-signing Smith, Shumpert and others to reasonably priced short-term deals this summer will give the team a chance to get out from the tax in a few years, which could forestall repeat-0ffender tax penalties and, most crucially, allow the Cavs access to tools like the full mid-level and sign-and-trades again. Flexibility is key for NBA teams, and even as Cleveland commits to a bloated payroll for 2015/16, the Cavs can help themselves this summer if they retain as much capacity as possible to once more go through significant chances if necessary a few short years from now.
Cap Footnotes
1 — Irving’s salary will be equivalent to the league’s maximum for a player with four years of experience. That figure won’t be known until after the July Moratorium, so an estimate is used above.
2 — Mozgov’s salary was originally in the form of a team option, but the Nuggets have picked up that option.
3 — Haywood’s salary would become fully guaranteed if he remains under contract through August 1st.
4 — The cap hold for James if he opts out would be the lesser of $24,773,280 and the league’s maximum salary for a player with 10 or more years of experience. It’d almost certainly be the latter, an estimated $22,120,000.
5 — The cap hold for Love if he opts out would be the lesser of $23,578,593 and the league’s maximum salary for a player with seven to nine years of experience. It’d almost certainly be the latter, an estimated $18,960,000.
6 — The cap hold for Smith would be $9,773,265 if he opts out.
7 — The cap hold for Miller would be $3,278,400 if he opts out.
8 — The cap hold for Dellavedova would be $947,276 if the Cavaliers elect not to tender a qualifying offer.
The Basketball Insiders Salary Pages were used in the creation of this post.
Arron Afflalo Opts Out From Trail Blazers
JUNE 23RD: The deadline for Afflalo to opt in was Monday, and since that’s lapsed, he has officially opted out, The Oregonian’s Joe Freeman reports. Player options require players to say when they’re opting in, but they don’t have to give any notice if they’re opting out.
JUNE 21ST: Afflalo is expected to opt out, tweets David Aldridge of TNT.
MAY 7TH: It’s still too early to say definitively that Afflalo will opt out, sources tell The Oregonian’s Joe Freeman, who writes in a roundtable report that examines the shooting guard’s brief time with the Blazers and whether the team should bring him back for next season.
MAY 1ST: Arron Afflalo intends to turn down a $7.75MM player option for next season and become a free agent this summer, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. That’s even though a shoulder injury forced him to miss the initial two games of Portland’s first-round series against the Grizzlies and seemed to limit him the rest of the way. Afflalo went scoreless over about 29 minutes of play across the final two games of that series, which the Blazers lost 4-1. As the end of the regular season neared, he was reportedly ready to let his postseason performance dictate what he would do with the option, with the plan seemingly having been to opt in if he didn’t play well, so it appears the Sam Goldfeder client has changed course.
The Blazers gave up a first-round pick, among other assets, to acquire Afflalo from the Nuggets at the deadline, but it looks like yet another key member of their team will hit free agency. Fellow shooting guard Wesley Matthews, LaMarcus Aldridge and Robin Lopez are also among the Blazers who can choose to leave this summer. GM Neil Olshey said Thursday that he has contingency plans for each in case they don’t re-sign, and it seems increasingly likely that he’ll have to employ his plan for Aldridge, who no longer appears the safe bet to re-sign that he once was. Portland only has about $23MM in guaranteed salary for next season against a projected $67.1MM cap, so the Blazers have no shortage of flexibility.
Portland has Afflalo’s Bird rights, though unless the Blazers are willing to insert a fifth year in the 29-year-old’s next contract, that will matter little, since he’s not a contender for a maximum salary. The Blazers can offer 7.5% raises instead of 4.5% raises, but another team can offset that with a higher salary in the first year of the deal. Afflalo was the Magic’s leading scorer in 2013/14 with 18.2 points per game, but his scoring was off significantly, from 18.2 points per game last year to 13.3 this season, despite a much less profound dip in the number of his field goal attempts. He was better defensively this season, as Basketball-Reference’s Defensive Box Plus/Minus shows, but he had a woeful 8.2 PER in his 25 regular season games as a Blazer.
Nuggets Eye Sergio Rodriguez?
The Nuggets are one of three NBA teams interested in signing four-year NBA veteran and current Spanish league point guard Sergio Rodriguez, reports Jesus Perez Ramos of Mundo Deportivo (translation via HoopsHype). The 29-year-old Rodriguez is seeking $6MM salaries on a deal that covers at least three fully guaranteed seasons, according to Ramos. Conflicting reports paint a confused picture of whether Rodriguez is high on a return to the NBA, where he hasn’t played since 2009/10, but Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, who indicated that Rodriguez does want back in the league, wrote that NBA front offices regard him as an elite backup point guard.
Rodriguez’s deal with Real Madrid requires a buyout worth 2 million euros, Ramos writes. That’s the equivalent of more than $2.234MM at today’s exchange rate. Even though that’s much greater than the $625K that NBA teams can’t exceed in international buyouts this coming season without essentially taking the rest out of the player’s paycheck, it isn’t expected to be an obstacle to getting him to the NBA, according to Wojnarowski.
The Nuggets have more than $53MM in guaranteed salary against a projected $67.1MM cap, though the team has been heavily involved in trade rumors of late, so just how much it’ll have to throw around is unclear. Rodriguez put up 10.7 points, 5.1 assists and 1.8 turnovers in 21.9 minutes per game this season in Spain. He averaged 4.3 PPG, 2.9 APG and 1.3 TOPG in 13.2 MPG across his time in the NBA with the Trail Blazers, Kings and Knicks.
Warriors To Shop David Lee
TUESDAY, 9:36am: The Warriors are looking for Lee takers with their first-round pick, at No. 30, as a potential addendum to a deal, Grantland’s Zach Lowe writes. Golden State nonetheless almost certainly won’t give up two picks, league sources tell the Grantland scribe. Record gate receipts from their Finals run has fueled Golden State’s comfort with absorbing a moderate tax hit, accrording to Lowe, who suggests that Golden State could find a happy medium with its tax payments if it did a buyout with Lee that left a reduced portion of his salary on its books or traded him in a deal that brought back some salary, but not as much as Lee makes.
FRIDAY, 8:07am: Myers wouldn’t rule out the idea of trading Lee but didn’t confirm that the club is actively trying to trade him, either, as he spoke to reporters Thursday and as Monte Poole of CSNBayArea.com relays.
“I know it’s been reported, but we’re still trying to figure out everything with the roster,” Myers said. “At this stage, we usually have more time before the draft or free agency. But I won’t sit here and say we’ve decided anything definitively. If I did, I’d probably end up changing my mind, or we would change our mind. Because what I’ll find out now and what we’ll find out is the next seven days prior to the draft and whatever it is until July 1, there’ll be a lot of different things that’ll be thrown at us that we’ll explore. So it’s not the right time to even say we’re absolutely going in one direction or the other.”
WEDNESDAY, 12:57pm: The Warriors and representatives for David Lee have agreed to work together to find another team willing to take on his salary of nearly $15.494MM for next season, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The news comes as no shock, as a new deal for Draymond Green, which GM Bob Myers this week indicated was a likelihood, would send the team zooming well past the projected $81.6MM luxury tax threshold if Golden State doesn’t shed salary. Lee, the team’s most expensive player this past season, re-emerged in coach Steve Kerr‘s rotation during the Finals, but he’d largely been a non-factor this season prior to that.
The Warriors engaged in serious discussions about Lee with the Jazz near the deadline, according to Spencer Checketts of 1280 The Zone, son of former NBA executive Dave Checketts. Golden State has long been willing to trade Lee for assets of value, but the team hasn’t been on board with simply giving away the favorite of co-owner Joe Lacob, as Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group reported at the deadline. Still, it would appear as though the team would prefer to unload Lee’s salary in exchange for players with little or no guaranteed money, which would make it difficult for Golden State to extract much for him via trade. Lacob wouldn’t rule out trading Lee when Kawakami asked him about it earlier this spring, and Lee last week acknowledged the possibility that the Warriors might trade him in the offseason ahead.
The 32-year-old Mark Bartelstein client has been diplomatic about his reduced playing time, though he admitted in March that it was challenging at times, saying that it would be impossible for him to accept if the Warriors weren’t as successful as they are. He saw just 18.4 minutes per game this past season, by far his fewest since he was a rookie, and just 8.2 MPG in the playoffs.
Lee’s contract, which expires after next season, is nonetheless challenging for the Warriors to move while clearing salary. Golden State would either have to find a willing trade partner with enough cap space to absorb it (the Jazz would likely qualify) or take back non-guaranteed contracts in return in a deal with a capped-out team that must send back salary pursuant to the league’s salary matching rules. No team in the league has a trade exception large enough to take on Lee.
Andrei Kirilenko Retires
JUNE 23RD, 9:06am: Kirilenko has made a final decision to retire, as he told Russia’s Sportexpress (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia).
JUNE 10TH, 8:16am: Retirement is the most likely outcome, Kirilenko admitted to the Russian media outlet Championat, offering only a 20% chance that he’ll play again as he cited the feeling that his body is not up for another full season (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia).
JUNE 2ND, 8:38am: Kirilenko put the brakes on retirement talk, telling Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com via email that calling it quits is indeed a possibility for him but that it’s not yet a certainty, and that he’ll ponder the idea further over the summer (Twitter link).
JUNE 1ST, 6:34pm: Andrei Kirilenko has decided to retire after failing to receive an invitation from the Russian National Team to play in Eurobasket this summer, David Pick of Eurobasket.com tweets. That does not come as a surprise, since Kirilenko planned to make last season his final one in professional basketball. The 34-year-old most recently played with CSKA Moscow in his native Russia, appearing in 11 games and averaging 8.5 points and 5.3 rebounds.
Kirilenko made his last NBA appearance with the Nets early last season. He appeared in seven games for a total of 36 minutes before taking a leave of absence in November to tend to his wife, who reportedly endured a complicated pregnancy before giving birth to a healthy baby boy in February.
Brooklyn traded him to the Sixers in December but Kirilenko refused to report to Philadelphia. The Sixers placed him on unpaid suspension before releasing him in an apparent buyout deal shortly after the trade deadline passed. He signed with CSKA Moscow in late February.
He spent parts of 13 seasons in the NBA, mostly with the Jazz. He joined Utah in 2001, two years after he was drafted 24th overall. Noted for his defensive prowess and versatility, Kirilenko spent 10 seasons in Utah, making an All-Star appearance in 2004.
He returned to Europe to play for CSKA Moscow during the 2011 lockout and stayed with the team for the balance of the 2011/12 season. He returned to the NBA the next year with the Timberwolves, but he surprisingly turned down a $10.219MM player option for 2012/13. Instead, he inked a two-year deal for about $6.509MM with the Nets that sparked controversy given the steep discount and the presence of fellow Russian Mikhail Prokhorov as Brooklyn’s owner. The NBA investigated the deal after complaints from at least one other team, but the league found no wrongdoing.
However, Kirilenko failed to make a major impact for Prokhorov’s Nets. For his NBA career, he averaged 11.8 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 30.0 minutes per game with an 18.7 PER and 47.4% shooting. Kirilenko made more than $106.738MM during his NBA career, according to data from Basketball Reference and Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders, though that doesn’t account for any money he lost during his Sixers suspension this year.