Will Bynum To Play In China
Will Bynum is finalizing a deal to re-sign with the Guangdong Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association, international journalist David Pick reports (Twitter link). While the length and terms of the agreement are unknown, it was relayed back in June by Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post that Bynum had a standing offer to return to China on a three-year deal.
The 32-year-old guard spent most of the 2014/15 season in China with Guangdong, but signed with Washington late in the year and appeared in seven games for the Wizards. Bynum put up 22.3 points, 7.0 assists and 3.2 turnovers in 32.1 minutes per game for the Tigers last season. He had also garnered interest from Barcelona this Summer, according to a report by Enea Trapani of Sportando.
Bynum’s career numbers through parts of eight NBA seasons are 8.1 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 3.3 assists to go along with a slash line of .442/.272/.799. He averaged 3.1 points, 0.9 rebounds, and 2.6 assists in 9.6 minutes per night for the Wizards during his brief 2014/15 stint with the team.
LaMarcus Aldridge, Marcus Morris Change Agents
Spurs marquee free agent signee LaMarcus Aldridge has departed the Wasserman Media Group to join Excel Sports Management, while the recently traded Marcus Morris has left the Creative Artists Agency, reports international journalist David Pick (Twitter links). Aldridge had previously been with Arn Tellem, who’s leaving for a job with the Pistons organization, though RealGM lists his most recent primary agent with Wasserman as having been Michael Tellem, Arn’s son. Morris, who’s been a client of Leon Rose, has expressed displeasure with swap that sent him to Detroit and separated him from twin brother Markieff Morris, who’s demanded that the Suns trade him, too. Coincidentally, the Suns made the trade in an effort to clear cap room for Aldridge, who strongly considered signing with Phoenix before choosing San Antonio instead.
Aldridge signed a maximum-salary deal with the Spurs last month after dogged pursuit from the Suns and several other teams. He was the most high-profile free agent to change teams last summer and had the power to essentially dictate his own terms and location. The 30-year-old would seemingly have little reason for discontent with Wasserman, so I’d speculate that the move is tied to Arn Tellem’s departure. Aldridge won’t be able to elect free agency again until 2018, when he can turn down a player option, so his new relationship with Excel will probably focus on business ventures outside of basketball for the time being.
Marcus Morris has little to negotiate contractually either, having signed a four-year, $20MM extension last fall that kicks in for the coming season. It’s unclear who his next representative will be, but he could seek out agents who would pressure the Pistons to engineer a deal that would reunite him with his brother, though that would be a difficult pursuit. Marcus indicated that he believes he took less than he was worth on his extension, so that may also be a factor in his decision to change agents. It’s unclear whether Markieff, a fellow Rose client, will follow suit. It’s been a mixed summer for Rose. Client J.R. Smith has languished in free agency after he turned down a player option worth nearly $6.4MM, but Jonas Valanciunas, another Rose client, just signed a four-year, $64MM extension, and Rose also represents No. 1 overall pick Karl-Anthony Towns.
The former agents for both Aldridge and Morris will continue to receive the fees based on the deals that the players signed with their respective teams this year, notes former Nets executive Bobby Marks (Twitter link).
Raptors Sign Jonas Valanciunas To Extension
2:51pm: Valanciunas will simply see $64MM on the deal, as there are no bonuses involved, Wojnarowski clarifies (on Twitter).
2:15pm: The deal is official, the Raptors announced (Twitter link). It’s worth $64MM over four years with a player option on the fourth year, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter links). Bonuses could bring the total value to $70MM, Wojnarowski also indicates.
“Jonas’ contributions continue to improve with each season and we view him as a significant part of what we are building in Toronto,” Ujiri said in the team’s press release.
12:41pm: The Raptors and Jonas Valanciunas have reached agreement on an extension, reports Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca (Twitter link). The team and the Leon Rose client had reportedly been close to a four-year, deal worth more than $60MM earlier this week as they were deeply engaged in negotiations. Valanciunas left training with the Lithuanian national team to travel to Toronto this week and undergo a medical exam, national team coach Jonas Kazlauskas said, strongly hinting that Valanciunas intended to sign a deal.
The extension comes as no surprise after GM Masai Ujiri said this past spring that Valanciunas was “a huge part of our team” for the future. Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun reported in early July that the Raptors planned to work toward extensions with both Valanciunas and Terrence Ross, though the team’s brass has seemed especially high on Valanciunas, as they seemed to blame the coaching staff for slow development in the center’s game. The Raptors and head coach Dwane Casey overhauled the team’s group of assistant coaches, bringing in Rex Kalamian, Andy Greer and Jerry Stackhouse.
A figure in excess of $60MM over four years would make Valanciunas one of the league’s most highly paid big men, far eclipsing the $12MM a year that Nikola Vucevic, a center with greater scoring production and similar defensive issues, will see on the extension he signed with the Magic this past fall. Still, Enes Kanter, another interior scorer who’s proven a liability on defense, came away with a max deal of about $70MM this summer as the economics of the NBA change in advance of the projected leaps in the salary cap. An extension for Valanciunas would take effect starting with the 2016/17 season, the first covered under the league’s $24 billion TV deal.
Sportsnet’s Michael Grange speculated that even $60MM over four years would be low, pegging a $64-66MM arrangement as fair value for the team (Twitter links). Grange compared Valanciunas, the fifth overall pick in the 2011 draft, to Tristan Thompson, the No. 4 pick that year who’s apparently been negotiating north of $80MM over five years with the Cavs. Valanciunas, unlike Thompson, isn’t a restricted free agent this summer because he remained overseas for a year after having been drafted.
I’d gone in the other direction, predicting that Valanciunas would end up with $13-14MM a year when I looked at his extension candidacy earlier this month. The timing of the deal is perhaps the most surprising element, since the sides had until November 2nd to sign an extension, and most extensions for less than the maximum salary don’t come until mere days or even hours before that deadline.
The Raptors have been carrying about $45.5MM on the books for 2016/17, a figure that presumes the team will pick up the rookie scale team options on Lucas Nogueira and Bruno Caboclo. That doesn’t include any money for DeMar DeRozan, who has a $10.05MM player option that early indications show he’s likely to decline. Presuming that new deals for Valanciunas and DeRozan would add up to around $30MM, Toronto would have less than $14MM against a projected $89MM cap to use on Ross or on outside free agents.
Do you think Valanciunas is worth more than $15MM a year in this market? Leave a comment to tell us.
The Kevin Love Trade: One Year Later
The one-year anniversary of the Kevin Love trade is Sunday, but we’ll get the jump today and look back at last year’s foremost blockbuster. The official announcement of the deal, which took place on August 23rd, 2014, was a long time coming, as the Cavs and Timberwolves had been working on the swap for months and had to wait for Andrew Wiggins to become eligible for inclusion in the deal. The Sixers became involved during the process, and they scored a first-rounder and two players in exchange for Thaddeus Young.
The Cavs, who went to the Finals, and the Timberwolves, who finished with the league’s worst record, won the lottery and picked Karl-Anthony Towns No. 1 overall, have predictably taken divergent paths since the swap. The Sixers have continued in their slow rebuilding, with their involvement Love trade just one part of a lengthy process. However, the story for many of the figures involved is more complicated.
Below is a look at each of the six players in the trade and what’s happened to them in the past 12 months. We’ve also broken down the fate of the draft pick promised as part of the deal. See it all here:
- Kevin Love (Timberwolves to Cavaliers) — The past season was one to forget for Love, who put up his worst numbers of the past five years. Some of that was to be expected, as he figured to play more of a complementary role on a team with greater talent than he’d ever played with in Minnesota, but Love and new Cavs coach David Blatt struggled to find a role that maximized the power forward’s abilities. A shoulder injury in the first round of the playoffs that knocked him out for the rest of the postseason somehow served as a fitting coda to a frustrating year. Rumors that he’d flee Cleveland for the Lakers or Celtics dogged Love all season, but he just as consistently denied them, and he affirmed his long-term commitment to the Cavs when he re-signed in July on a five-year max deal, one that also made clear Cleveland’s belief in him as a max player.
- Andrew Wiggins (Cavaliers to Timberwolves) — The centerpiece of the package going to Minnesota is already well on his way to making this known more prominently as “the Andrew Wiggins trade.” He entered college two years ago with the expectation that he’d become the next NBA superstar, and while he underwhelmed at Kansas, he spent his first pro season regaining a sterling reputation. He didn’t fall too far with the Jayhawks, having done enough to become the No. 1 overall pick in 2014, and he ran away with voting for the Rookie of the Year award this spring.
- Thaddeus Young (Sixers to Timberwolves) — The Timberwolves apparently insisted on receiving Young instead of the Heat’s first-round pick that had been Cleveland’s, in the hopes that the veteran forward would help the team compete for a playoff berth last season. Injuries scuttled the idea of a playoff run soon after the season began, and while Young was Minnesota’s third-leading scorer at 14.3 points per game, he reportedly told the Wolves he would opt out at season’s end, helping prompt them to trade him to the Nets at the deadline for Kevin Garnett. That swap completed a circle of sorts for Minnesota, which had drafted Love to replace Garnett a year after the deal that sent KG to Boston in 2007. Young fit in seamlessly with the Nets and re-signed with Brooklyn on a four-year, $50MM deal.
- Anthony Bennett (Cavaliers to Timberwolves) — The 2013 No. 1 overall pick showed some improvement last year after his profoundly disappointing rookie season, but he still averaged only 5.2 points and 3.8 rebounds in 15.7 minutes per game. The Wolves reportedly brought up Bennett’s name in trade talk with other teams at the deadline, and they apparently spoke to the Celtics in June about the idea of dealing Bennett to Boston. In a series of polls in which Hoops Rumors readers have been reconstructing the 2013 draft, Bennett has gone undrafted through 13 picks so far.
- Alexey Shved (Timberwolves to Sixers) — The shooting guard whose minutes had fallen off in 2013/14 after a strong rookie season in 2012/13 spent this past year bouncing from team to team. The Sixers traded him to the Rockets in December in a deal that essentially netted the Sixers the 58th overall pick in this year’s draft, and Houston flipped Shved to the Knicks at the deadline. New York reportedly failed to offer Shved the $2.814MM salary for the coming season that he had been seeking, so he instead signed with CSKA Moscow on a three-year, $10.2MM deal that makes him Europe’s highest-paid player.
- Luc Mbah a Moute (Timberwolves to Sixers) — Mbah a Moute posted the highest points and minutes per game of his seven-year NBA career with the Sixers, whose stripped-down roster allowed him greater opportunity than ever. He also served as a mentor for fellow Cameroon native Joel Embiid as Embiid sat out the season with injury, but with Embiid’s career in limbo following another season-ending problem with his foot, Mbah a Moute signed with the Kings last month for a $1.55MM salary. However, Mbah a Moute’s health also came into question, and Sacramento voided the deal because of a shoulder issue. The union was to have filed a grievance earlier this month.
- Miami’s top-10 protected 2015 first-round pick (Cavaliers to Sixers) — The Heat’s debt is still outstanding on the pick that was originally part of Cleveland’s ransom for LeBron James in the sign-and-trade deal that sent him to Miami in 2010. The Sixers nearly wound up with the draft choice this year, but the Heat emerged from the lottery with pick No. 10, the last within the protected range. That pick is again top-10 protected for 2016, but barring another injury-filled season in Miami, the Heat should make playoffs, an outcome that would see the selection finally convey to Philly. A slight possibility exists that the pick will end up going to the Warriors thanks to the Gerald Wallace/Jason Thompson trade. If the pick somehow falls within the top 10 again in 2016, the Heat will keep it but will be forced to send their 2017 first-rounder, with no protection, to the Sixers.
What’s your take on the trade now that a year has passed? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Timberwolves Sign Tayshaun Prince
AUGUST 20TH, 10:59am: The deal is official, the team announced (Twitter link).
“We’re excited to add a veteran like Tayshaun,” Timberwolves coach/executive Flip Saunders said in the team’s statement. “Having coached Tayshaun for three seasons in Detroit, I know that his experience and defensive mindset will benefit our younger players. He also has shown that he can shoot from long distance, which will help our ability to stretch the floor.”
AUGUST 13TH, 12:54pm: The Timberwolves have reached agreement on a one-year deal with Tayshaun Prince for the minimum salary, a source told Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). The move is somewhat surprising, since Minnesota already has 15 fully guaranteed deals. He’ll join Kevin Garnett and the newly signed Andre Miller among the long-tenured veterans supplementing a youthful Wolves core. Prince is “super close” with longtime Pistons trainer Arnie Kander, who also recently joined Minnesota, notes Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link).
Prince finished up this past season in Detroit as a coda to the 10 and a half seasons he spent there at the start of his career. His production bounced back to a degree this past season after a dropoff in 2013/14. The Cavs and Spurs reportedly reached out to the Bill Duffy client at the start of free agency last month, and the Blazers apparently had more recent interest before the Wolves snagged him. Prince spent 2014/15 on the move, as the Grizzlies traded him to the Celtics in the Jeff Green deal and Boston later flipped him to the Pistons at the deadline.
[RELATED: Flip Saunders To Stay In Wolves Job Despite Cancer]
Since it’s only for one year, the deal with Prince will cost the Wolves just $947,276 while the league picks up the tab for the rest of his $1,499,187 salary. It’s not much of a financial burden for Minnesota, which had been carrying about $72.7MM in guaranteed salary, well shy of the $84.74MM tax threshold, but it puts pressure on the team to make a trade before opening night to get down to no more than 15 fully guaranteed deals. Prince’s arrival also seemingly makes it tougher for Lorenzo Brown to stick past the preseason. His salary is partially guaranteed for only $75K.
Prince had hoped to sign with a contender, but the Wolves, who finished with the league’s worst record this past season, don’t fit that bill, notes Keith Langlois of Pistons.com (Twitter link). The small forward signed his last contract while he was still in his prime, so this pact will represent a significant decline in pay from the more than $7.7MM he made in 2014/15. Our Dana Gauruder correctly predicted in Prince’s Free Agent Stock Watch this week that he would end up with a one-year deal, even though the 35-year-old said this spring that he felt he could play for another two or three years.
Do you think Prince is the right fit for the Timberwolves? Leave a comment to let us know.
Texas Notes: Matthews, Harrell, Duncan, Fredette
The Mavericks figure to have a balanced offensive attack again this season, writes Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com, but max-salary signee Wesley Matthews appears the best bet to take over the role of lead scorer from Monta Ellis, who’s now a Pacer, Sneed adds. That’s not a familiar job for Matthews, but given the similarity between the offense he was a part of under former Mavs assistant Terry Stotts with the Blazers and the one that Mavs coach Rick Carlisle employs, the shooting guard is confident he can expand his game, as Sneed relays.
“You know, I’ve never been one to allow someone to label me,” Matthews said. “I always continue to try to get better. I’m not a content type of person. If they come up with a term three-and-D and they want to fit me in that category, that’s fine. But there’s not a thing that I don’t think I can do on the court, and I’m excited for the opportunity. You know, talking to coach Carlisle, I’m obviously familiar with the system, having ran it in Portland. And talking to him, there’s opportunities that he sees how I can help this team. And I’m excited for those opportunities.”
See more from around the Texas triangle:
- The Rockets and Montrezl Harrell, this year’s No. 32 overall pick, remain in talks, as Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com writes at the end of a report on Jason Terry‘s decision to re-sign with Houston. A market value deal for Harrell, which would entail more than the minimum salary, or a contract that stretches more than two years would trigger a hard cap of $88.74MM for the Rockets, who are already approaching that amount.
- Tim Duncan knows some adjustment will be involved, but he’s enthusiastic about the marquee offseason additions the Spurs made, as Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News relays (Twitter link). Duncan re-signed with the Spurs on a discounted deal with a no-trade clause that will pay him $5.25MM with a player option worth $5,643,750 for 2016/17, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.
- The Spurs have a history of turning around faltering careers like his, but the pressure is on Jimmer Fredette to show he can stick in the NBA, as Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders examines. Fredette signed only a partially guaranteed deal with the Spurs, so he’ll have to prove his worth right away, Kennedy adds.
Raptors, Jonas Valanciunas Deep In Extension Talks
THURSDAY, 9:16am: The sides are still working, and while there has been some optimism they’ll strike a deal today, that remains to be seen, Grange tweets.
TUESDAY, 11:19am: The Raptors and Valanciunas are indeed close to deal, tweets Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca, who suggests that it’s a distinct possibility a formal agreement will come this week. However, the timing remains a question mark, and it’s no guarantee the sides reach a deal this week, according to Michael Grange of Sportsnet (Twitter link).
4:23pm: The deal isn’t done, but the Raptors and Valanciunas are in advanced discussions toward a four-year extension that would be worth more than $60MM, Stein adds (on Twitter).
4:20pm: Marc Stein of ESPN.com confirms that Valanciunas on his way to Toronto “to firm up” an extension with the Raptors (Twitter link). It remains unclear whether the sides have an agreement quite yet, however.
MONDAY, 3:53pm: Jonas Valanciunas has left the Lithuanian national team to return to Toronto, where the Raptors have an extension offer waiting for him, Lithuanian national team coach Jonas Kazlauskas said, as Donatas Urbonas of 24Sek.lt writes and as Kevin Rashidi of Canada.com translates and confirms (Twitter link). He’ll undergo a physical, but Kazlauskas indicated the center would sign the deal.
The Raptors have reportedly wanted extensions with both Valanciunas and fellow former lottery pick Terrence Ross in advance of this year’s November 2nd deadline. GM Masai Ujiri this past spring called Valanciunas “a huge part of our team” for the future, and while the development of the 7-footer seemed to plateau this past season, the Raptors apparently placed the blame for that on their assistant coaches.
An extension for Valanciunas would kick in for the 2016/17 season, when the salary cap is projected to hit $89MM. The Raptors are set to enter that season with only about $45.5MM on the books, though that doesn’t include any money for Valanciunas, Ross, or DeMar DeRozan, who can opt out next summer.
Nikola Vucevic, a center who struggles defensively, as Valanciunas does, but who had put up greater offensive numbers, signed a four-year, $48MM extension with the Magic last year. Still, the rising cap prompted me to project, when I examined the extension candidacy of Valanciunas last week, that the Raptors would give the Leon Rose client $13-14MM a year.
Do you think the Raptors and Valanciunas should wait until the extension deadline in the fall, when other deals could help set the market, or are they smart to try to wrap up a deal now? Leave a comment to let us know.
Pacers, Others To Meet With Briante Weber
The Pacers are set to meet with undrafted point guard Briante Weber today, reports Scott Agness of Vigilant Sports. At least 15 NBA teams have expressed interest in the former VCU standout, a source tells Agness. Indiana has been among the most aggressive, and they’re the first team Weber is visiting, Agness adds. The 22-year-old will meet with Pacers officials and medical staff, according to Agness, and while he’s been doing on-court work lately, more than six months after a season-ending right knee injury, it’s unclear if he’ll be working out for the team.
Weber, in spite of the injury, was the 73rd-best draft prospect this year, according to Chad Ford of ESPN.com, so it’s not surprising to see him attract attention as training camp approaches. The Ronald Shade client was on pace to break the all-time NCAA Division I career steals record before he suffered a torn ACL, MCL and meniscus in his right knee on January 31st, Agness notes. He averaged 3.9 steals per game in 20 appearances last season to go along with 8.9 points, 4.3 assists and 1.7 turnovers in 26.5 minutes per contest. VCU teammate Treveon Graham signed Monday with the Jazz.
Indiana already has 15 players with fully guaranteed salaries, plus Toney Douglas, who has a partial guarantee of $600K, so Weber would face long odds to stick for opening night if he and the Pacers work out a deal for camp. The Pacers are in talks about a possible purchase of what would be a one-to-one D-League affiliate, but for now, the franchise doesn’t have its own D-League team, so Indiana is without the ability to carry on an organizational partnership with any of the players it cuts at the end of the preseason.
Hoops Rumors Community Shootaround 8/19/15
The draft class of 2014 arrived into the NBA with plenty of hype, though that fanfare quickly wore off as many of the draftees struggled to make an impact in the league. Four of the top seven overall picks missed significant time courtesy of injuries, and only three of the top 10 selections assumed starting roles for the squads last season. But it wasn’t all bad for the class of 2014, with Andrew Wiggins, Nikola Mirotic, Elfrid Payton, Bojan Bogdanovic, and Nerlens Noel all showing flashes of potential, and in every case but Wiggins’, exceeding preseason expectations. That’s not to disparage the rookie season that Wiggins put together, but it would have been nearly impossible for the young Canadian to live up to the hype that preceded his first game at Kansas, much less the inclusion of him as the centerpiece of the Timberwolves’ return for star player Kevin Love.
In yesterday’s Shootaround we discussed which players would have breakout second seasons in the league. Today, we take a slightly less optimistic approach, which segues into the topic of the day: Which NBA sophomore will regress the most during the 2015/16 season?
Take to the comments section below to share your thoughts and opinions on which second-year player’s performance will disappoint the most, and more interestingly, why you feel that way. If you are an eternal optimist and believe in your heart that the class of 2014 will rise to heights previously unreachable by mere mortals, we want to hear about that as well. We look forward to what you have to say on these matters.
Note: Since these Shootarounds are meant to be guided by you the reader, we certainly welcome your input on the topics we present. If there is something you’d like to see pop up here for a discussion, shoot me a message at hoopsrumorsmailbag@gmail.com or hit me up on Twitter at @EddieScarito to submit topics or ideas for what we should present in future posts.
And-Ones: Morris, Richardson, Draft
Darius Morris, who was waived by the Nets at the end of June, has received contract offers from NBA teams and clubs overseas, but thanks to a foot injury suffered during training, he’ll be out of action for a few months, Morris’ agent, Brian Dyke, told international journalist David Pick (Twitter link). The 24-year-old made 38 appearances for Brooklyn during the 2014/15 campaign, logging averages of 2.2 points, 0.7 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 7.9 minutes per contest.
Here’s more from around the league:
- Joel Brigham of Basketball Insiders tabs new L.A. arrivals Roy Hibbert and Lance Stephenson as two of six players who appear likely to benefit from having changed teams this summer.
- Jason Richardson‘s deal with the Hawks is a one-year minimum-salary arrangement and is without any guaranteed money, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). It has limited injury protection, Pincus also says, so it appears to be an Exhibit 9 contract. Richardson will see $1,499,187 if he sticks for the entire season, but since the deal only covers one season, it would cost the Hawks no more than $947,276, the equivalent of the two-year veteran’s minimum. The league picks up the rest of the tab.
- Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress peered into his crystal ball and released his first mock draft for 2017’s big event. The current top three players on Givony’s draft board are forwards Harry Giles and Jayson Tatum, with point guard Dennis Smith rounding out the top-ranked trio.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.