Knicks Front-Runners For Arron Afflalo
WEDNESDAY, 4:24pm: The Knicks and Afflalo have a meeting scheduled for Thursday, Frank Isola of The New York Daily News tweets.
TUESDAY, 12:28pm: Afflalo is open to signing a short-term deal that allows him to become a free agent again in a year or two, and he may ultimately seek such an arrangement, tweets Chris Mannix of SI.com.
MONDAY, 2:03pm: The Knicks are the front-runners for Arron Afflalo, who opted out of his deal with the Blazers last week, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (on Twitter). The same is true of the Knicks and Greg Monroe, though New York will take meetings with LaMarcus Aldridge, DeAndre Jordan and others. Carmelo Anthony has put in a recruiting call to Afflalo and others, as ESPN’s Chris Broussard reported minutes earlier.
League sources who spoke with Wojnarowski estimate that Afflalo’s next deal will be for $36-38MM over three years. The Knicks have only about $31MM in guaranteed salaries for next season, not counting a $3,443,100 cap hold for Kristaps Porzingis and a $1,310,300 cap hold for Jerian Grant, the two players New York wound up with from the first round of Friday’s draft. That, combined with minimum-salary roster charges for open spots, would still likely leave about enough room against the cap, projected at $67.1MM, for a max deal for Monroe and a contract for Afflalo starting around $12MM a year.
Latest On Rockets, Sergio Llull
JULY 1ST, 4:20pm: Llull has decided against joining the Rockets and will stay with Real Madrid, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link).
JUNE 22ND, 9:20am: The Rockets are willing to pay the equivalent of nearly $24MM over three years to draft-and-stash point guard Sergio Llull, according to Jose Luis Martinez of Marca.com (translation via HoopsHype). Martinez cites a figure of 21 million euros, equivalent to almost $23.875MM at the current exchange rate. Such a deal would require the Rockets to open cap space, and it couldn’t become official until after the July Moratorium, since the signing of a former second-round pick like Llull, the 34th pick in the 2009 draft, can’t take place between the end of the regular season and July. The 27-year-old is nonetheless close to a decision on playing for Houston, according to Nikos Varlas of Eurohoops.net, after having picked the brain of current Rockets point guard and former teammate Pablo Prigioni during a meeting last month, as Javier Maestro of Encestando.es writes (translation via HoopsHype).
Still, the fact that Rockets GM Daryl Morey quickly denied a report from March that the Rockets were willing to give Llull $17MM over three years lends some skepticism to the latest report. Llull recently brushed off renewed talk about a Houston deal, citing his contentment with Spain’s Real Madrid and his contract with the team that runs all the way until 2019, as Mark Porcaro shows in the Hoops Rumors Draft Rights Held Players Database. His buyout costs 5 million euros, Martinez writes, or the equivalent of $5.681MM, and with the NBA’s Excluded International Player Payment capped at $625K for next season, Llull would have to foot much of that bill himself. Rockets coach Kevin McHale nonetheless said recently that Houston would love to sign him. Varlas reported earlier this month, after McHale’s comments, that the Rockets were willing to pay the point guard $15-18MM over three years.
The Rockets have about $54.6MM in guaranteed salary tied up for next season, and they’ve expressed interest in re-signing many of their free agents. So, it’ll be a tight squeeze to fit such a lucrative deal for Llull under the projected $67.1MM cap unless Houston makes salary-clearing trades. Llull, a mainstay of the powerful Spanish national team, averaged 11.2 points, 4.4 assists and 1.0 turnovers in 26.2 minutes per game for Real Madrid this season.
Blazers Dream Of Aldridge, Greg Monroe Pairing
The Blazers’ top goal is to sign both LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Monroe, The Oregonian’s Jason Quick reports (Twitter link). Conflicting reports paint a confused picture of whether Portland still has a realistic shot to land Aldridge, but Monroe has the Blazers on a list of four teams with which he plans to meet.
Portland has about $24.9MM in guaranteed salaries on its books, not counting whatever Al-Farouq Aminu would make on his new four-year $30MM deal. A max deal for Aldridge would start at an estimated $18.96MM and a max for Monroe would begin at an estimated $15.8MM, though those figures stand to rise with a new, higher salary cap projection. Assuming those maxes don’t grow too much higher, it would leave just about enough to squeeze in Aminu’s deal, though the Blazers only have seven players on their roster at present, so they would be hit with about $2MM in roster charges plus Aminu’s salary for next season. So, it’s likely the Blazers would either have to clear some salary via trade, buyout, or release via the stretch provision.
In any case, it seems like a long shot, but it does appear to indicate that Monroe is the team’s primary target aside from Aldridge.
Warriors, Draymond Green Cease Talks
3:34pm: It’s “just a gap” between the Warriors and Green, a source who spoke with Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com said, adding that talks are going neither well nor poorly (Twitter link).
2:19pm: The Warriors and Draymond Green have broken off discussions with the restricted free agent poised to shop himself to other teams, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. The Wasserman Media Group client is now poised to shop himself to other teams, though Golden State can still match.
Offers made to DeMarre Carroll, Khris Middleton and Paul Millsap have surprised the Warriors, as the market has been surprisingly robust for forwards like Green, as Spears details. At least five teams, including the previously reported Pistons, Hawks and Rockets, have interest, according to Spears.
Celtics, Jae Crowder Make Progress In Talks
Jae Crowder is progressing in discussions about a deal to re-sign with the Celtics, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). Charania tweeted earlier that the Mavericks, who dealt Crowder to Boston in December, and Celtics were front-runners for the Glenn Schwartzman client.
Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge made it clear this spring that he wanted to re-sign the former 34th overall pick. Crowder has hoped to return, but not before testing the market.
Cavs Mull Trade Proposals For Brendan Haywood
WEDNESDAY, 1:53pm: Several options for trading Haywood are now on the table for the Cavs, Windhorst reports (Twitter link).
3:53pm: Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal hears talks regarding Haywood between the two teams haven’t taken place (Twitter link).
2:59pm: The Cavs are looking for a scoring point guard, Monroe hears, seemingly somewhat different from the facilitator that Windhorst reported Cleveland was seeking.
TUESDAY, 2:07pm: The Spurs and Cavs are talking about trade ideas involving Brendan Haywood and his uniquely valuable non-guaranteed contract, a league source tells Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News (on Twitter). GM David Griffin has more or less confirmed the team is shopping Haywood, who allows Cleveland to take on an eight-figure salary in return while giving the team that acquires him the chance to clear cap room. That could be key for the Spurs in their quest to sign LaMarcus Aldridge or another marquee free agent while keeping their core intact.
San Antonio was confident about its chances to re-sign Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Kawhi Leonard and still ink Aldridge or another max-level free agent, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com wrote. The Spurs are reportedly making Tiago Splitter available for a trade, but dealing him away isn’t a necessity for San Antonio to achieve its goals, Stein also wrote.
Cleveland has appeared to be shooting relatively low as it looks for taker. The Cavs want a facilitating guard who can either back up or play alongside Kyrie Irving, as Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com wrote earlier this month. Still, Haywood’s contract, a quirk of the amnesty clause, could net the Cavs as much as $15,522,500 in incoming salary, though that figure would be tricky, the Cleveland poised to exceed the tax threshold. Even if they’re over the tax line, the Cavs could still bring in as much as $13,253,125.
Grizzlies Close To Deal With Mo Williams
The Grizzlies are close to a deal with Mo Williams, reports Jared Zwerling of Bleacher Report (Twitter link). The would-be deal would run three or four years, Zwerling adds. The Cavs and Hornets have seemingly been in pursuit, and Williams reportedly had mutual interest in Cleveland, where LeBron James has been high on the return of his former Cavalier teammate, as Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group reported.
Interest from Memphis would seemingly be a forboding sign for Beno Udrih, whose salary is only guaranteed for for $923K until Sunday, when the guarantee would jump to more than $2.17MM, especially since the team already has Russ Smith around on a cheaper guaranteed contract and tendered a qualifying offer to Nick Calathes. In any case, the Grizzlies will likely be able to spend the $5.464MM taxpayer’s mid-level exception, which would almost certainly give them to power to outbid the Cavs for Williams.
Paul Millsap Deciding Between Magic, Hawks
1:18pm: Millsap is leaning toward re-signing with the Hawks, according to Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops and Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter links).
11:11am: The Hawks are confident they can retain Millsap, tweets Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today.
8:48am: Paul Millsap met with the Magic overnight, reports Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune (on Twitter), and at this point he’s deciding between those two teams, as Jones and TNT’s David Aldridge report (Twitter links), even though the Pacers and Mavericks also have interest, according to Jones (Twitter link). Orlando offered the power forward a four-year, $80MM deal, reports Chris Broussard of ESPN (on Twitter). The Knicks are interested, too, but Millsap won’t meet with them, nor will he do so with Indiana or Dallas, Broussard adds (Twitter link).
Atlanta has made the same offer the Magic have, Broussard writes in a full story. Their offers appear to be for the max, as the estimated starting salary for a player with Millsap’s experience is roughly $19MM, though that figure doesn’t factor in any rise in the cap projection that would lift the max by about $600K. If the cap winds up as much as $2MM over the previously projected $67.1MM figure, as Ken Berger of CBSSports.com reported was a distinct possibility, it would ostensibly help the Hawks retain both Millsap and DeMarre Carroll, though Orlando’s aggressive entry into the Millsap sweepstakes keeps the pressure on. Atlanta, armed with only Early Bird rights on the two of them, had been losing faith in the idea of re-signing them both.
The Jazz reportedly planned an active pursuit, but as free agency drew near, and especially after the selection of Trey Lyles at pick No. 12 last week, Utah increasingly appeared to be a long shot, tweets Jody Genessy of the Deseret News. Orlando’s play for Millsap is a significant development for the club that’s been in a rebuilding phase since trading Dwight Howard nearly three years ago, and if the Magic land Millsap and turn away from fellow forward Tobias Harris as a result, it could well have implications for the restricted free agency market, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The Magic have long coveted Millsap, having attempted to trade for him before the 2012/13 season, notes Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link).
Latest On Tyson Chandler
WEDNESDAY, 1:14pm: The Bucks look like a decreasingly likely destination for Chandler, reports Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN.com (Twitter link), as do the Mavs, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (on Twitter), leaving the Clippers and Lakers in better position, Stein says.
TUESDAY, 10:37pm: The Lakers are the latest team with interest in Tyson Chandler, reports Chris Broussard of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck heard chatter earlier today about Chandler and Kevin Love joining the Lakers in tandem. Love is meeting with the Lakers this week, as Broussard also reports.
The other Los Angeles team has interest in a sign-and-trade for Chandler if DeAndre Jordan bolts, as Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com wrote this evening, advancing an earlier report from Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com that the Mavs were pondering such a move. The Mavs would like to re-sign Chandler if they miss out on Jordan, as MacMahon has detailed, but Milwaukee and Chandler have mutual interest, according to Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times.
Chandler is finishing up a contract that paid him nearly $14.847MM with Dallas this past season. He’s a client of Jeff Schwartz, who’s represented Bucks coach Jason Kidd. The Lakers are dreaming of signing both LaMarcus Aldridge and DeAndre Jordan, so Chandler would presumably be down their list of priorities.
Latest On Kevin Love
WEDNESDAY, 12:56pm: The Cavs remain confident of retaining Love and are willing to offer the max, reports Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal.
TUESDAY, 10:13pm: Love’s representatives and the Lakers have spoken, and a meeting is planned for this week, reports Chris Broussard of ESPN (Twitter link).
SUNDAY, 9:51am: Kevin Love has indicated to the Cavs recently that he plans to return, Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio tweets. Love officially opted out of his contract on Thursday.
Cleveland is prioritizing signing Love in free agency, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com (Twitter link). “We’re very much intending to pursue him the instant that we’re able to,” GM David Griffin said. Griffin said last week that he was expecting Love to opt out but re-sign with the club in July.
LeBron James expressed his desire for the team to re-sign Love as well as Tristan Thompson, Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith, but he won’t actively recruit any of them. Love will have no shortage of suitors this offseason as the Rockets, Blazers, Lakers, Suns and Celtics have all expressed interest in the power forward.