Kings Sign Ty Lawson To One-Year Deal
AUGUST 31: The Kings have officially signed Lawson, the team announced today in a press release. According to a report from CSNCalifornia.com, the point guard’s one-year deal isn’t guaranteed, so the team won’t be on the hook for his full salary if he’s cut before January 10.
AUGUST 28: The Kings have reached an agreement with free agent point guard Ty Lawson, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical (via Twitter). According to Wojnarowski, Sacramento is signing Lawson to a one-year contract for the coming season.
Lawson visited the Kings on Saturday and ultimately decided to sign with the team despite having also received “serious interest” from the Pelicans, tweets Wojnarowski. The 28-year-old has seen his career trajectory change significantly within the last couple years, after he was arrested multiple times on DUI charges and spent time in rehab.
A 2009 first-round pick, Lawson became the Nuggets’ full-time starting point guard during the 2011/12 season, and averaged 16.4 PPG to go along with 8.0 APG over the next four years. However, Denver sent him to the Rockets last July, and Houston subsequently waived him. Over the course of the 2015/16 season, Lawson appeared in 66 total regular-season games, averaging 5.7 PPG and 3.6 APG in part-time roles for the Rockets and the Pacers, who signed him late in the season.
[RELATED: Sacramento Kings’ depth chart at RosterResource.com]
The Kings had been on the lookout for point guard help this offseason, having lost Rajon Rondo in free agency. Rondo’s departure left Darren Collison as the team’s de facto starter at the point, but Collison is facing domestic violence charges, which could eventually lead to a suspension depending on how the case plays out.
While Sacramento added Garrett Temple in free agency and Isaiah Cousins in the draft, Temple is more of a combo guard than a pure point guard, and Cousins was a late second-rounder who has yet to sign a contract.
The terms of Lawson’s contract aren’t yet known. Sacramento doesn’t have any cap room left, but the team has yet to use its $2.898MM room exception. So the veteran point guard could either get a minimum-salary deal or something slightly larger, if the Kings dip into that room exception.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Latest On J.R. Smith, Cavaliers
When the calendar turns from August to September tonight, J.R. Smith will have officially been on the free agent market for two months. Smith is the highest-profile player still available, having started nearly 100 total games (regular season and playoffs) for the eventual champs last season, so it’s worth checking in on him to see where things stand at the two-month mark.
While one report from mid-July suggested that Smith was seeking a $15MM annual salary, the Cavaliers’ offer doesn’t appear to be in that range, which is understandable. There probably aren’t any other teams in the NBA with the cap space and the willingness to go that high for Smith. Plus, the Cavs are already in luxury-tax territory and would have to go way beyond the tax threshold to complete such a deal, making the cost to the franchise much more expensive than just $15MM.
Still, according to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link), the Cavs have put an offer on the table believed to be worth in the range of $10-12MM annually. As Kyler adds in a second tweet, the two sides aren’t all that far apart, and are still expected to eventually reach an agreement — it’s simply a matter of finding a compromise on dollars and years.
Since Smith isn’t missing out on any pay checks at the moment and the Cavs likely won’t find a viable alternative to him at this point in the offseason, there isn’t much urgency yet for either the team or player to get something done. However, that could change in the coming weeks, with training camp and the preseason right around the corner, so it will be a situation worth watching in September.
In 2015/16, Smith averaged 11.5 PPG and shot 43.0% on three-pointers in the postseason after having averaged 12.4 PPG with a .400 3PT% during the regular season. The veteran shooting guard, who turns 31 next Friday, started 77 regular-season games for Cleveland, as well as all 21 of the team’s postseason contests.
Serge Ibaka “Never Asked” Thunder For Trade
While plenty of trades were completed on draft night earlier this summer, none were bigger than the four-player deal that saw Serge Ibaka head to Orlando in exchange for Victor Oladipo, Ersan Ilyasova, and No. 11 overall pick Domantas Sabonis. In his last season with the Thunder, Ibaka reportedly wasn’t thrilled with his declining role, but in a piece for The Cauldron at SI.com, the veteran big man writes that he didn’t make a trade request.
“I never asked to be traded, even though there was a lot of media conjecture that I was unhappy with my role,” Ibaka wrote. “I had an exit meeting with Billy Donovan and Sam Presti after the season, and both went well. But this is still a business, everybody has to do what’s best for them, and I let my agent deal with the business side of things. I just focus on basketball. I’m not the kind of guy who’s going to go in and ask for a trade, and I would have been happy staying with the Thunder. Playing in the NBA was my dream, and I’d be happy playing anywhere.”
Although Ibaka makes it clear that he didn’t ask the Thunder to trade him, it sounds as if agent Andy Miller was at least somewhat involved in finding his client a new home. In the days after the deal was completed, Miller told Chris Mannix of The Vertical that Oklahoma City had “overpromised and under-delivered” on a larger role for Ibaka. Assuming Ibaka agreed with that sentiment, it’s perhaps not surprising that he sounds excited by the idea of getting a fresh start in Orlando, suggesting in his SI.com piece that he feels like a rookie again.
“I’m thrilled to be in Orlando,” Ibaka wrote. “I know that might sound crazy to some people, that I’m excited to go from a contender like the Thunder to a rebuilding team, one that hasn’t made the playoffs in four years, but playing now for Frank Vogel, a coach who prides himself on defense, is very exciting for me. We have a core of like-minded, young, athletic players, which is going to be very fun. We are an old-school, smashmouth team, and I can’t wait to don a Magic uniform on opening night.”
Ibaka’s contract is set to expire after 2017, so the Magic will eventually have to work out an extension or a new free agent contract with him if they hope to keep him in the fold for more than one season.
Chris Bosh’s Camp Frustrated With Heat?
Chris Bosh‘s camp is frustrated with the Heat’s handling of his current situation, according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. As Jackson writes, that frustration is one reason why Bosh has gone on a “social media blitz” this week showing videos and photos of him on the court and working out.
The Heat have yet to indicate one way or the other whether Bosh, who has dealt with blood clots in recent years, will be medically cleared by team doctors to return to action this year. The veteran big man clearly believes he’s capable of continuing his career, and recent social media posts that show him in action may be putting some public pressure on Miami as the team mulls its decision.
If Bosh doesn’t play in a regular-season game by February 9, the Heat could have the option of removing his contract from their cap. However, in order for the Heat to gain that cap relief, a doctor jointly selected by the NBA and the NBPA would have to agree that Bosh’s condition “is career-ending, or severe enough to put him at risk if he continues playing.”
As Jackson observes, Bosh wouldn’t agree with that assessment and recent social media posts by the 32-year-old and his wife are sending a message that the Heat will be in for a fight if they choose to go down that road. If it reaches that point, Bosh’s camp and the players’ union would likely oppose any doctors who would say he couldn’t play.
For now, the Heat and Bosh remain at an impasse, but with training camp and the preseason fast approaching, decisions will have to be made soon.
Stretch Provision Deadline For 2016/17 Salary
August 31 represents an important date on the NBA calendar, since it’s the last day of the year that teams can waive a player and stretch his 2016/17 cap hit across multiple seasons. Teams waiving players after August 31 can still employ the stretch provision to cap hits, but it can only be applied to future-year salaries, rather than to a player’s current-year salary.
Here’s how the rule works, per Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ:
- If a team waives a player between July 1 and August 31, it can stretch the cap hit for that player’s remaining salary over twice the number of years remaining on his contract, plus one. For instance, if a player is under contract for this year and next year at a rate of $15MM per season, his remaining salary can be stretched over the next five years with cap hits of $6MM annually.
- If a team waives a player between September 1 and June 30, the current-year cap hit remains the same, while future-year cap hits can be stretched out over twice the number of years remaining on the contract, plus one. In this scenario, the hypothetical contract from the previous example would count for $15MM against the cap this year, with subsequent $5MM annual cap hits for the next three years.
Today’s deadline doesn’t mean we’ll see a flurry of cuts happen within the next several hours. Most teams aren’t in a position where they’d need to clear extra cap flexibility for an incoming player, so there’s likely not much urgency to open up cap space this season.
For example, the Lakers have a release candidate in Nick Young, who doesn’t appear to be in the team’s future plans. However, Los Angeles is already more than $5MM over the cap, so stretching Young’s 2016/17 salary ($5,443,918) and reducing the current cap hit by about $3MM wouldn’t really help the club gain any spending flexibility in the short term. If the team intends to cut him at some point, keeping Young on the roster through today and perhaps stretching him later would allow the team to minimize future cap hits and get him off the books sooner. Here’s the breakdown:
A handful of other teams around the NBA currently employing players who aren’t in that franchise’s plans will face similar decisions today. However, considering most of those clubs have already done the majority of their cap work for 2016/17 and could benefit down the road by waiting until after today’s stretch provision deadline to waive certain players, we aren’t expecting many big names to hit the waiver wire today.
Salary Cap Snapshot: New York Knicks
Here’s a breakdown of where the Knicks currently stand financially:
Guaranteed Salary
- Carmelo Anthony —$24,559,380 [Contract has 15% Trade Kicker//No-Trade Clause]
- Derrick Rose —$21,323,252
- Joakim Noah —$17,000,000
- Courtney Lee —$11,242,000
- Lance Thomas —$6,191,000
- Brandon Jennings —$4,837,318 [Waived by team; $5,000,000 cap hit reduced by setoff]
- Kristaps Porzingis —$4,317,720
- Kyle O’Quinn —$3,918,750
- Mindaugas Kuzminskas —$2,898,000
- Willy Hernangomez —$1,375,000
- Justin Holiday —$1,015,696
- Sasha Vujacic —$980,431 [Actual Salary — $1,410,598]
- Lou Amundson —$980,431 [Waived by team]
- Ron Baker —$543,471
- Maurice Ndour —$543,471
- Marshall Plumlee —$543,471
- Chasson Randle —$143,860
- J.P. Tokoto —$100,000 [Waived by team]
- Chasson Randle —$100,000 [Waived by team]
Total Guaranteed Salary= $102,613,251
Cash Sent Out Via Trade: $0 [Amount Remaining $3.5MM]
Cash Received Via Trade: $0 [Amount Remaining $3.5MM]
Payroll Exceptions Available
- None [Room Exception used to sign Mindaugas Kuzminskas]
Total Projected Payroll: $102,613,251
Salary Cap: $94,143,000
Estimated Available Cap Space: –$8,470,251
Luxury Tax Threshold: $113,287,000
Amount Below Luxury Tax: $10,673,749
Last Update: 3/3/17
The Basketball Insiders salary pages and The Vertical’s salary database were used in the creation of this post.
Eastern Notes: Bosh, Clifford, Smart
It remains to be seen if the Heat‘s medical staff will allow Chris Bosh, who has missed significant time the past two seasons due to blood clot issues, to take the court this campaign. Regardless of the team’s opinion, the forward has left little doubt regarding his desire to do so, Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel writes. Bosh posted a video on Snapchat earlier this week showing him working out, as well as posting a message where he said, “I know I’ve been gone for a moment, but now I’m back. Everybody is always asking me am I hooping? Yes, I’m hooping. Absolutely. I’m a hooper.”
Bosh still believes the team should medically clear him to play, though the front office hasn’t given any indication that it will do so, but the team does say that it is trying to find an agreeable solution, Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald notes (Twitter links). Miami strongly disputes any notion that it is trying to clear Bosh’s salary of $23,741,060 for this season of its books, Jackson adds.
Here’s more from the East:
- Hornets head coach Steve Clifford is one of the most undervalued assets in the league, Jonny Auping of RealGM posits. The scribe notes that Clifford’s squads have been some of the hardest to score on in the league despite giving heavy minutes to unheralded defensive players like Al Jefferson and Kemba Walker. The strength of Clifford’s system, as well as the positive team chemistry he fosters, could potentially be seen as a draw should Stephen Curry decide to leave the Warriors and return to his home state, Auping adds.
- Marcus Smart is in line to become a bigger part of the Celtics offense now that Evan Turner is no longer a member of the team, something the guard is looking forward to, Logan Mullen of WEEI 93.7 FM notes. “Becoming more aggressive. Becoming more of an offensive threat,” Smart said when asked how he will raise his overall game. “I’m improving and trying to improve every aspect of my game. Trying to become more of a second to third, fourth option on the team in scoring, assists and everything. Just anything I can do to help my team on the offensive end.” Smart also expects to take on more of a leadership role this season, Mullen adds. “I’m ecstatic about it,” Smart said. “This is a great opportunity for anybody, and there’s a lot of people who would die to be in the situation I’m in, so it’s a blessing and I’m ready to step up, like I said. I’m ready for more responsibility, especially as a leader and that role and that aspect. It’s crazy because being able to say that this is a guy who is a leader on the team and it’s only his third year, it’s incredible.”
Poll: 2008 NBA Draft Take Two (Pick No. 11)
Scouting players and predicting how their skills will translate to the NBA is one of the more difficult tasks front offices have on their plates. Looking back over past drafts and how many lottery picks never evolved into stars, or even made a significant impact in the league, illustrates just how often stats, combine numbers and pure gut instinct often come up short.
Of course, we get the opportunity to critique these moves with the benefit of hindsight — a luxury that GMs don’t have on draft night. Having said that, it’s still fun to go back in time and take a theoretical look at how these drafts should have/could have gone.
We’ve been revisiting 2008 draft, which had a number of players who have gone on to post big numbers in the league. This was the year of Derrick Rose (No. 1 overall), Russell Westbrook (No. 4), Kevin Love (No. 5), Brook Lopez (No. 10) and Nicolas Batum (No. 25). Over the next few weeks, we’ll be posting a series of polls asking readers to vote on whom teams should have selected in each spot.
We’ll continue on with the Blazers, who acquired the No. 11 pick from Indiana in a draft day trade. The details of the swap were: Portland acquired the draft rights to Jerryd Bayless (No. 11) and Ike Diogu from the Pacers in exchange for the draft rights to Brandon Rush (No. 13), Jarrett Jack and Josh McRoberts. Since everyone involved in trade is still on the board, we’ll have the swap go through in our draft as well.
So cast your vote for who the Blazers should have selected and check back on Wednesday to see the results, as well as to vote on who the Kings should have taken with the No. 12 pick. Also, don’t limit yourself to a simple button click. Take to the comments section below and share your thoughts on the pick and why you voted the way that you did. If we fail to list a player who you think should be selected, feel free to post that in the comments section and we’ll be certain to tally those votes as well.
- Bulls — Russell Westbrook [Actual Pick — Derrick Rose]
- Heat — Kevin Love [Actual Pick — Michael Beasley]
- Wolves — Derrick Rose [Actual Pick — O.J. Mayo]
- Sonics/Thunder — DeAndre Jordan [Actual Pick — Russell Westbrook]
- Grizzlies — Brook Lopez [Actual Pick — Kevin Love]
- Knicks — Serge Ibaka [Actual Pick — Danilo Gallinari]
- Clippers — Nicolas Batum [Actual Pick — Eric Gordon]
- Bucks — Goran Dragic [Actual Pick — Joe Alexander]
- Bobcats/Hornets — Danilo Gallinari [Actual Pick — D.J. Augustin]
- Nets — Ryan Anderson [Actual Pick — Brook Lopez]
- Blazers (from Pacers) — ?? [Actual Pick — Jerryd Bayless]
If you’re a Trade Rumors app user, click here to vote.
Western Notes: Rubio, Arthur, Pelicans
The Kings have likely found their starting point guard to begin the season in Ty Lawson, who agreed to a one-year deal with the team earlier this week. Prior to Lawson coming aboard, Sacramento had been close to acquiring a point guard via trade, with the Wolves‘ Ricky Rubio the most likely target, according to Sirius XM NBA Radio host Mitch Lawrence (Audio link). It appears the addition of Lawson has put a halt to any trade talks for Sacramento at this time, Lawrence adds. There has been some speculation that Minnesota’s addition of rookie point guard Kris Dunn would ultimately lead to Rubio being dealt.
Here’s more from out West:
- Today’s trade of Joffrey Lauvergne will allow the Nuggets to free up some valuable minutes in the frontcourt, with Darrell Arthur the likely recipient of the extra playing time, Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post writes. Arthur, who inked a three-year, $23MM deal with the team this offseason, has the full confidence of the coaching staff and front office, Dempsey notes. Another player who could benefit from Lauvergne’s departure is rookie Juan Hernangomez, the scribe adds.
- The Pelicans have been aggressively trying to add one of the higher profile free agent guards remaining on the market, Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders tweets. Swingman Lance Stephenson is reportedly going to work out for New Orleans in the near future, and the team had been in contact with Lawson prior to his signing with Sacramento.
- Lakers forward Julius Randle will be out of action for at least 14 days after suffering a laceration to his right hand during practice that required seven stitches, the team announced.
Kevin Seraphin Working Out For Pacers
Kevin Seraphin continues to look for a new NBA home, and is reportedly working out for the Pacers, per Yann Ohnona of L’Equipe, via Twitter (hat tip to HoopsHype). Although Seraphin hasn’t officially confirmed the report, he published an Instagram photo of himself in Indianapolis this afternoon.
We heard last week that Seraphin has been rebuffing contract offers from overseas in the hopes of getting an opportunity with an NBA team. The veteran big man has reportedly received interest from teams in the Chinese Basketball Association, as well as Euroleague clubs, including FC Barcelona.
A former 17th overall pick, Seraphin spent five seasons with the Wizards before playing for the Knicks last season. For his career, he has appeared in 374 regular-season contests, averaging 6.1 PPG and 3.5 RPG to go along with a .483 FG%.
Indiana bolstered its frontcourt this offseason by signing Al Jefferson as a free agent, but the team doesn’t have a ton of depth at center. The Pacers may have interest in Seraphin as a player who could provide some value off the bench on the defensive side of the floor, and as a rebounder.