Week In Review 8/23/15-8/29/15
The NBA fined the Clippers $250K for violating the league’s rules against circumventing the salary cap in their pitch to DeAndre Jordan last month. The Clippers presented Jordan with a potential third-party endorsement opportunity during their meeting with him on July 2nd. That was before Jordan gave his commitment to the Mavericks, one that came undone when he later expressed second thoughts to the Clippers, who convinced him to re-sign.
The league’s investigation concluded that the violation didn’t influence Jordan’s ultimate decision to return to the team. However, the NBA is imposing the fine anyway, since rules prohibit teams from arranging compensation for players outside of the salary set forth via the contractual terms allowed under the collective bargaining agreement. Here’s the rest of the happenings from the week that was…
Free Agent Signings
Eastern Conference
- The Heat signed unrestricted free agent center Keith Benson to a camp deal.
- The Wizards agreed to a training camp deal with Toure’ Murry.
Western Conference
- The Suns agreed to training camp deals with Henry Sims and Cory Jefferson.
- The Lakers signed guard Michael Frazier.
- The Jazz signed Jeff Withey.
- The Suns signed Deonte Burton to a camp deal.
- The Jazz signed unrestricted free agent forward J.J. O’Brien.
- The Thunder agreed to a training camp deal with Talib Zanna.
- The Kings agreed to a deal with shooting guard Marshall Henderson.
You can stay up to date on all of the signings with Hoops Rumors’ free agent tracker.
Contract Extensions
- The Hornets signed forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist to a four-year, $52MM contract extension.
Miscellaneous News
- Former NBA guard Gal Mekel signed a deal with the Serbian team Crvena Zvezda.
- The Heat and the D-League’s Sioux Falls Skyforce formally extended their one-to-one affiliation deal.
- Point guard Marcelo Huertas, who had planned a jump to the NBA this season and had been expected to draw significant interest, has instead signed with Galatasaray of Turkey.
- The Lakers promoted Ryan West to director of player personnel.
- James Nunnally signed with Sidigas Avellino of the Italian Serie A.
- Jordan Hamilton signed a deal to play overseas for the Russian club Krasny Oktyabr.
- Pacers draft-and-stash prospect Stanko Barac signed with Olimpia Milano of Italy.
- Carlos Boozer is reportedly likely to remain unsigned for the rest of the offseason and instead seek a deal with a playoff contender after the season starts.
- The Suns officially named Chris Jent the head coach of their one-to-one D-League affiliate.
- Luka Mitrovic, the 60th pick in this year’s draft, agreed to an extension with Crvena Zvezda of Serbia that runs through the 2016/17 season.
Joey Dorsey, Turkey’s Galatasaray Strike Deal
AUGUST 29TH, 8:38am: The signing is official, the team announced (translation by Emiliano Carchia of Sportando).
AUGUST 18TH, 8:15am: Joey Dorsey and Galatasaray of Turkey have agreed to a deal worth more than $650K, a source tells international journalist David Pick (Twitter link). Agent Misko Raznatovic confirmed the pact (on Twitter). The salary would indicate that it’s a one-year arrangement, and Sportando’s Orazio Cauchi says that’s indeed the case (Twitter link). Pick indicates that the sides have already put pen to paper, though it would appear to be contingent upon a release from the Nuggets, who still have him under contract after acquiring him from the Rockets as part of the Ty Lawson trade. Dorsey has a guaranteed salary of more than $1.015MM coming his way this season as one of 15 Nuggets with fully guaranteed pacts.
Dorsey signed last summer with Houston on a guaranteed two-year, minimum-salary deal that brought him back to the NBA after an absence of three years. Injuries to Dwight Howard and others allowed Dorsey to make an NBA career-high 17 starts this past season, one in which he averaged 2.7 points and 4.0 rebounds in 12.4 minutes per game. The 31-year-old nonetheless saw only 13 total minutes in the playoffs.
Denver is well-loaded at power forward and center, Dorsey’s positions, with Jusuf Nurkic and draft-and-stash signee Nikola Jokić manning the pivot and Kenneth Faried, J.J. Hickson, Joffrey Lauvergne and the newly re-signed Darrell Arthur at the four. Power forward Kostas Papanikolaou is also on the roster at power forward, but his salary of nearly $4.798MM is non-guaranteed, and conflicting reports have emerged about whether the Nuggets will keep him.
Do you think we’ll see Dorsey in the NBA again? Leave a comment to tell us.
Hoops Rumors Community Shootaround 8/28/15
The NBA fined the Clippers $250K for a violation of the league’s rules against circumventing the salary cap during their free agency pitch to DeAndre Jordan. During their meeting with the big man on July 2nd, the Clippers presented Jordan with a potential third-party endorsement opportunity with Lexus that would pay the center $200K annually. That was before Jordan gave his commitment to the Mavericks, an agreement that later came undone when he expressed second thoughts about leaving the Clippers, who convinced him to re-sign.
The league’s investigation concluded that the violation didn’t influence Jordan’s ultimate decision to return to the team. But the NBA imposed the fine anyway, since rules prohibit teams from arranging compensation for players outside of the salary set forth via the contractual terms allowed under the collective bargaining agreement. The violation was unintentional, owner Steve Ballmer wrote in an internal memo he sent to members of the Clippers organization that Dan Woike of the Orange County Register obtained.
“As I shared with everyone on day one of purchasing the Team, being part of the Clippers family means operating with the highest integrity,” Ballmer wrote in part. “We believed we were doing this the right way, and any circumvention was inadvertent. In our effort to support our players in every way possible, we as an organization must be diligent in complying with the CBA.”
This brings me to the topic of the day: Was the league’s punishment of the Clippers fair? If not, what penalty should have been handed down from the NBA?
If you were a member of the Mavericks organization, would you feel satisfied with the Clippers simply having to pay a $250K fine? Or would you argue that no matter what the official findings, the endorsement deal could have indeed played a part in Jordan reversing course and heading back to L.A.? Would a penalty as severe as a forfeiture of a future draft pick be warranted in your eyes? Or are you on the other side of the argument and feel that the punishment was too severe? Take to the comments section below to share your thoughts and opinions on the issue. Feel free to expand the boundaries of the discussion if need be. We look forward to what you have to say.
Atlantic Notes: Knicks, Anthony, Scott
The Knicks need to show that the team has some forward momentum this season if the franchise wants to have a shot at landing premier free agents next offseason, Bradford Doolittle of ESPN.com (Insider subscription required) writes. Doolittle points to the Bucks as an example, who despite their small market, managed to sign Greg Monroe this Summer, a player who the major market Knicks had their sights on. If the Knicks are unable to show improvement in the win column over last year’s squad, then no amount of available cap space will be able to convince stars like Kevin Durant that New York is a preferred free agent destination, Doolittle concludes.
Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- There’s an excellent chance that the Knicks will explore trading Carmelo Anthony this season, Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report opines (video link). New York will likely wait to see how the roster performs at the start of the season, and if the team doesn’t look to be headed toward the playoffs, then it could look to deal Melo, possibly to the Bulls, Bucher notes. Anthony’s contract does include a no-trade clause, so the forward would have to be on board with any potential swap.
- The Raptors gave recent training camp signee Shannon Scott a partial guarantee of $25K on his minimum salary deal, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders relays (Twitter link).
- Despite some skeptics saying that the Nets have the worst starting point guard in the league in Jarrett Jack, forward Thaddeus Young said during an interview on SiriusXM NBA Radio, that the team has full confidence in Jack’s ability to lead them, Tom Lorenzo of NetsDaily writes.
Poll: 2003 NBA Draft Take Two (Pick No. 6)
Drafting players is far from an exact science, and many a GM has been second-guessed for his draft night decisions. I’m willing to bet that every team executive has at least one pick that he would like a mulligan for. While life, and the NBA, doesn’t allow for such opportunities, we at Hoops Rumors decided it would be fun to give our readers a second take at picking players, complete with the benefit of hindsight.
We are in the process of taking you on a journey back to June of 2003, and revisiting a draft that saw the likes of LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh available to potentially change the fortunes of a few struggling franchises. Wade was the first of that group to win an NBA championship, though James and Bosh would later join him in Miami and go on to win multiple titles together years later, while Melo is still seeking his first trip to the NBA Finals. Detroit, which owned the No. 2 overall pick that season, chose to go with Darko Milicic, who didn’t work out so well for the Pistons. Not all picks pan out, but that one is especially painful given the talent that the Pistons passed over to select the big man, who owns career averages of 6.0 points and 4.2 rebounds, and has been out of the NBA since making a single appearance for the Celtics back in 2012/13.
We continue our revisionist history with the Clippers, who used the No. 6 overall pick in 2003 to select Chris Kaman, whose tenure in Los Angeles would last eight glorious seasons. Readers, you are now on the clock! Cast your vote for L.A.’s pick and check back Saturday for the results, as well as to cast your vote for who the Bulls will select with the No. 7 overall pick. But don’t limit yourself to a simple button click. Take to the comments section below and share your thoughts on the No. 6 overall pick and why you voted the way that you did.
Previous Picks
- Cavaliers: LeBron James
- Pistons: Dwyane Wade
- Nuggets: Carmelo Anthony
- Raptors: Chris Bosh
- Heat: David West
If you’re a Trade Rumors app user, click here.
Jazz Sign J.J. O’Brien
The Jazz have signed unrestricted free agent forward J.J. O’Brien, the team announced. The length and terms of the deal were not relayed, but it is likely a minimum salary training camp deal that may include a small partial guarantee, though that is merely my speculation.
O’Brien, 23, went undrafted this year out of San Diego State after making 36 appearances as a senior, averaging 10.3 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 2.4 assists. His career NCAA numbers are 8.1 PPG, 4.9 RPG, and 1.6 APG with a slash line of .471/.247/.601.
The 6’7″ forward played summer league ball for Utah in both Salt Lake City and Las Vegas. The addition of O’Brien will give the Jazz a roster count of 20, which is the preseason maximum.
Thunder To Sign Talib Zanna For Camp
The Thunder have agreed to bring Talib Zanna to camp for a second consecutive autumn, as Shams Charania of RealGM cites sources who say they’re reached a one-year, non-guaranteed deal (Twitter link). The power forward, who went undrafted out of Pittsburgh in 2014, spent this past season with Oklahoma City’s D-League affiliate, furthering the team’s familiarity with the Relativity Sports client. RealGM’s player page for Zanna lists him as under contract with OpenJobMetis Varese of Italy, so it would appear as though that deal has an NBA out.
Zanna, who turns 25 in October, split summer league between the Thunder and Cavs, putting up 6.0 points and an efficient 4.7 rebounds in 15.7 minutes per game. Indeed, at 6’9″, he showed a touch on the boards in the D-League this past year, pulling down 11.0 RPG to go with 13.3 PPG in 27.7 MPG. It’s a skill he didn’t show as much of in college, where he topped out at 8.6 RPG in 30.3 MPG as a senior.
Oklahoma City has 15 fully guaranteed contracts, and they reportedly have camp deals with shooting guards Dez Wells and Michael Qualls. That would make it tough to envision Zanna breaking through and sticking on the roster for the regular season. Still, it’s an opportunity for the Thunder to continue their relationship and get a closer look at him, perhaps with a late-season 10-day contract in mind.
Central Notes: Williams, Irving, Hilliard, Vaughn
The Cavaliers mostly stood pat this summer, but they spent the majority of their taxpayer’s mid-level exception on Mo Williams, and with Kyrie Irving‘s broken kneecap a threat to keep him out as late as January, that move looks wise, writes Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders in his NBA AM piece. The Cavs, with Williams in place, aren’t rushing Irving back, and that’s wise, considering a growing history of injuries for the former No. 1 overall pick, Greene adds. See more from around the Central Division:
- Darrun Hilliard is bothered that he shot only 29% in summer league play, but the Pistons aren’t, observes Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. The team signed Hilliard, this year’s 38th overall pick, to three-year deal with a total of $1.1MM in guaranteed salary. The Pistons also see his ball-handling as a plus that can complement the games of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Jodie Meeks, Detroit’s other shooting guards, as Langlois relays.
- Rashad Vaughn played AAU ball in Milwaukee and was, like Jabari Parker a year ago, hoping the Bucks would draft him, as Sean Deveney of The Sporting News chronicles. The Bucks granted the former UNLV shooting guard his wish when they picked him 17th overall. “I feel like we are a young team that can all come together, grow together,” Vaughn said. “I am looking forward to all of us getting in the gym and starting to work.”
- Pacers draft-and-stash prospect Stanko Barac reportedly sought a path to the NBA this year, and the Pacers apparently had him in for a mini-camp in June, but he’s signed with Olimpia Milano of Italy, the team announced (Twitter link; translation via Sportando’s Enea Trapani).
Warriors To Consider Extension For Festus Ezeli
AUGUST 28TH, 1:59pm: Myers furthered his earlier comments, making it clear in an appearance on KNBR radio that the Warriors want extensions with both Ezeli and Barnes and plan to keep them a long time, as Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group transcribes (Twitter links).
“We’re focused and motivated,” Myers said. “Hopefully we can get something done.”
AUGUST 14TH, 1:08pm: Warriors GM Bob Myers recently said that he’d address the matter of a rookie scale extension for Festus Ezeli before the deadline this fall, and he expressed that he’d like a long-term partnership with Ezeli and Harrison Barnes, who’s also eligible for a rookie scale extension, reports Monte Poole of CSNBayArea.com. The Warriors and Barnes have mutual interest in an extension, as Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group reported in June and as I examined in depth last week.
“We love them and we’re going to try to keep them as long as we can,” Myers said of Barnes and Ezeli. “Thankfully, like with Draymond [Green], they would be restricted free agents [next summer]. But hopefully we can figure something out like we have with a lot of our players. They’re a key part of what we do. Without them, we don’t win a championship.”
That would fit with the narrative that the Warriors have expressed about Ezeli in the past, as members of the organization, from co-owner Joe Lacob to coach Steve Kerr and his staff, have consistently spoken of their faith in Ezeli’s future, Poole notes. Ezeli told Poole that he’d leave the matter up to agent Bill Duffy. The deadline for an extension this year is November 2nd, since the traditional October 31st rookie scale extension deadline falls on a Saturday, as Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ indicates.
Ezeli’s much-pilloried ability to catch passes from teammates has improved, as Poole details, and the three-year veteran was more productive on offense this past season, averaging 4.4 points in 11.0 minutes per game compared to 2.4 PPG in 14.4 MPG when he was a rookie. He missed all of his second season with a right knee injury.
Poole cites speculation that Ezeli might end up with $10MM salaries on an extension, though that seems too high, even with the surging salary cap at play, for a backup who was on the fringe of the team’s rotation last season. Golden State already has nearly $75MM committed for 2016/17 against a projected $89MM salary cap, and even though the tax line is projected all the way up at $108MM, the Warriors have reason to remain financially flexible with leaguewide target Kevin Durant set to hit free agency next summer.
What do you think a reasonable extension for Ezeli would look like? Leave a comment to weigh in.
Carlos Boozer Unlikely To Sign Before Season Starts
Carlos Boozer is likely to remain unsigned for the rest of the offseason and instead seek a deal with a playoff contender after the season starts, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Thus, it appears as though the 13-year veteran simply isn’t seeing an offer that he likes for now, though it casts doubt on the idea that he would bite on apparent interest from the Chinese league, an option that had reportedly intrigued him earlier this month.
Boozer, who turns 34 in November, made $16.8MM combined last season from the Bulls, who waived him via the amnesty clause in July 2014, and the Lakers, who submitted a partial claim of $3.251MM to snag him off waivers. He’d be hard-pressed to make even the amount of that amnesty claim on an NBA contract this season, simply because most teams have no more than the $2.814MM room exception to spend. The Mavericks, one of the latest three NBA teams reported to have interest in him, have only the room exception to use, while the Knicks, another of those interested parties, are limited to the minimum. The Rockets have more than $2.274MM left of their mid-level exception, but using it would impose a hard cap on them, and they still have yet to sign No. 32 overall pick Montrezl Harrell. The Spurs, Raptors, Pelicans, Nuggets, Nets, Lakers and Heat were reportedly interested in the Rob Pelinka client earlier this summer, but none of them have the capacity to give him as much as the Lakers paid for him last year. The Lakers renounced their Bird rights to him last month.
The two-time All-Star put up 16.2 points and 9.8 rebounds per game in 2012/13, but his numbers have declined in each of the two seasons since, and his 6.8 boards and 23.8 minutes per contest last season were career lows. Former Nets executive Bobby Marks wouldn’t be surprised if Boozer waited until Christmas to sign (Twitter link). I’d speculate that a decent chance exists that he stays on the market even longer. Ray Allen and Jermaine O’Neal, two other aging former All-Stars, chose to carry on as free agents into the season last year but never wound up signing.
What do you think Boozer will end up doing? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.