Thunder Sign Domantas Sabonis
The Thunder have signed forward Domantas Sabonis to a rookie scale contract, the team announced via press release. The exact terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it is likely for standard 120% of the rookie scale, meaning Sabonis should be in line to earn $2,440,200 this season, $2,550,000 in 2017/18, $2,659,800 in 2018/19 and $3,529,555 in the final year, provided the team exercises its option on the player for the final two seasons.
Sabonis was the No. 11 overall selection this past June. The 6’11” forward was acquired on draft night by Oklahoma City along with Victor Oladipo and Ersan Ilyasova in exchange for Serge Ibaka.
The 20-year-old earned All-WCC First Team honors as a sophomore after averaging 17.6 points on .611 shooting from the field, 11.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 31.8 minutes in 36 games with the Bulldogs. Sabonis was named to the All-WCC Second Team, All-WCC Freshman Team, NIT All-Tournament Team and NCAA South Regional All-Tournament Team as a freshman, per the release. He also appeared in 35 games in 2013/14 for Unicaja Malaga in the Spanish ACB league.
Pacers To Sign Alex Poythress
The Pacers have agreed to a deal with undrafted free agent Alex Poythress, Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reports. The exact length and terms of the arrangement are unknown, but the scribe does note that the pact includes a partial guarantee. The 22-year-old will likely be ticketed to spend the 2016/17 campaign in the NBA D-League with Indiana’s affiliate in Fort Wayne, Wojnarowski notes.
Poythress had missed the bulk of the 2014/15 campaign due to a torn left ACL. Returning to Kentucky as a senior, Poythress made 31 appearances and averaged 10.2 points, 6.0 rebounds and 0.6 steals in 23.6 minutes per contest. His shooting line for the Wildcats was .601/.304/.706.
The forward appeared in five contests for the Magic’s summer league squad in Orlando, averaging 5.0 points, 1.4 rebounds and 0.8 steals in 10.6 minutes per outing.
And-Ones: Salary Record, LeBron, CBA, D-League
The NBA’s record $24MM television deal is playing out just as predicted, writes Mitch Lawrence of Forbes. With LeBron James signing a three-year, $100MM deal with the Cavaliers, a record 17 teams now have the highest-paid players in franchise history on their current rosters. However, most of them are players who re-signed with their current teams or agreed to contract extensions. The only players who earned that distinction by changing teams this summer are Atlanta’s Dwight Howard, Boston’s Al Horford and Golden State’s Kevin Durant.
There’s more NBA-related news this afternoon:
- Because James has a player option for the third season of his new contract, he can become a free agent in July of 2018, along with Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony, tweets Tommy Beer of Basketball Insiders. In March, James made headlines by speculating on the possibility of the four close friends one day joining forces.
- A “super max” contract is among several changes the NBA and the players union should consider in a new collective bargaining agreement, suggests Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders. That provision would allow for a contract that is 40% of the salary cap, but would only count as a normal maximum deal against the cap. It would be available only to a player who remains with his current team and it would not be tradeable. Kyler also would like to see a third round added to the draft to help teams stock their D-League affiliates, a two-way contract with different salaries when players are in the NBA and D-League, and minimum qualifications that players would have to meet before being eligible for maximum contracts.
- The D-League will holds its national tryouts Sunday in Manhattan, tweets Chris Reichert of Upside & Motor. Among the players who received invitations are Sterling Gibbs of Connecticut, Jonathan Holton of West Virginia, Chris Obekpa of St John’s and Markus Kennedy of SMU (Twitter link).
Pelicans To Sign Shawn Dawson
FRIDAY, 2:12pm: The signing is official, the team announced today.
THURSDAY, 8:47am: Israeli wing Shawn Dawson will be heading stateside this fall, according to Maccabi Rishon, his team overseas. The Israeli club announced (via Twitter) that Dawson has accepted a camp invite from the Pelicans. Roey Gladstone of Channel 5 TV confirms (via Twitter) that Dawson is joining New Orleans on a non-guaranteed contract.
Dawson, 22, averaged 15.2 PPG, 5.7 RPG, 2.8 APG, 1.8 APG, and 1.1 BPG in 39 Israeli League contests last season, shooting 58.7% from the floor and helping lead Maccabi Rishon to a title. Dawson is the second player from the club to reach an agreement with an NBA team this month — we heard yesterday that former Dayton forward Chris Wright, who played in Israel last season, has a deal with the Thunder.
According to one recent report, Dawson turned down a camp invite from the Wizards after playing for Washington in Summer League action last month. If the Pelicans’ offer doesn’t include any guaranteed money, then that decision seems a little curious. It’s possible that Dawson felt he’d have a better chance at earning a regular-season roster spot in New Orleans than he would have in Washington, but the Pelicans are currently carrying 15 players on fully guaranteed contracts, while the Wizards have just 12.
Grizzlies Hire Bob Bender As Assistant Coach
Bob Bender has joined the Grizzlies’ coaching staff, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical. The move completes the staff of new head coach David Fizdale, who was hired in May, Wojnarowski notes.
Bender served as a scout with the Nets last season after working as an assistant with the Bucks in 2013/14. He had spent the previous nine seasons as an assistant with the Hawks after joining the team in 2004. He broke into the NBA as an assistant with the Sixers during the 2002-03 season.
Prior to that, Bender was an accomplished college coach, working for nine seasons at Washington and four years at Illinois State and earning Pac 10 Coach of the Year honors in 1996. Bender played for Indiana’s national championship team in 1976 and later played at Duke.
Owner Indicates Bosh Still In Heat’s Plans
Heat owner Micky Arison offered the first public clue about the team’s plans for Chris Bosh in a letter posted on the team’s website Thursday night. Bosh’s future has been uncertain because of doctors’ concerns over repeated blood clots, but Arison included his name in a statement directed to Heat fans about the upcoming season.
“I fully expect this team, from Pat Riley to Head Coach Erik Spoelstra, to our veterans Chris Bosh, Udonis Haslem, Goran Dragic and Josh McRoberts, to our returning young core of Hassan Whiteside, Justise Winslow, Josh Richardson and Tyler Johnson, to the fresh faces joining the HEAT Family to continue our mantra of being the ‘hardest working, best conditioned, most professional, unselfish, toughest, meanest, nastiest team in the NBA,'” the owner wrote.
Bosh’s last two seasons have ended early after the discovery of blood clots. He was limited to 53 games in 2015/16, averaging 19.1 points and 7.4 rebounds per night. In a July 16th press conference, team president Pat Riley said the Heat would continue monitoring Bosh’s situation until August or September and was searching for ways to revive the veteran power forward’s career, possibly including a limited workload or a restricted travel schedule.
There have been reports that Bosh is eager to play again and that he may file a grievance with the Heat through the players union to force the team to let him back on the court. Bosh still has three seasons and more than $75.8MM left on his current contract. If he sits out the entire 2016/17 season, Miami will have the option of clearing his final two years off its books, saving roughly $25.2MM in 2017/18 and $26.8MM in 2018/19.
Ricky Ledo Will Play In Turkey
Former Mavericks and Knicks shooting guard Ricky Ledo, who spent last season in the D-League, will play in Turkey next season, according to Orazio Cauchi of Sportando. The announcement that he will join the Yesilgiresun franchise was made on social media this morning by Ledo’s agent, Misko Raznatovic (Twitter link).
The 23-year-old was waived by New York in July of 2015 and was picked up by the Reno Bighorns, Sacramento’s D-League affiliate. Ledo, who averaged 21.2 points per game, was a late addition to last season’s D-League All-Star Game. After the season ended, Ledo signed with Santeros de Aguada in Puerto Rico, where he spent two months before being waived.
Ledo was taken by the Bucks with the 43rd pick in the 2013 draft, but was traded to the Sixers and later the Mavericks. He played just 16 NBA games in nearly two seasons with Dallas, making frequent trips back and forth to the D-League. After the Mavericks waived him in February of 2015, he signed two 10-day contracts with the Knicks before inking a deal for the rest of the season. Ledo averaged 7.4 points in 12 games with New York.
Cavaliers To Re-Sign LeBron James
4:40pm: The third year is a player option, Chris Broussard of ESPN.com relays (on Twitter).
4:26pm: The last major free agent has finally come off the board, with the Cavaliers and LeBron James reaching an agreement on a new deal, Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com reports (via Twitter). According to the scribe it will be a three-year, $100MM arrangement. There is no indication yet if the deal includes any options, be it player or team.
The agreement will see James become the highest paid player in the league for the first time in his career, with the veteran set to earn approximately $31MM this coming season, Windhorst notes. The deal will pay him in excess of $33MM in 2017/18, which would be the highest single-season contract in league history, per the ESPN scribe.
There was little intrigue this offseason regarding James making his return to Cleveland, despite the superstar remaining unsigned until now. With the Cavs securing the NBA title this past season, it was merely a matter of when James would sign, not if.
James appeared in 76 games this past campaign, averaging 25.3 points, 7.4 rebounds and 6.8 assists in 35.6 minutes per outing while shooting .520/.309/.731 from the field. The 31-year-old was equally impressive in the postseason, logging 26.3 PPG, 9.5 RPG and 7.6 APG in 21 contests.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
And-Ones: Cotton, Thomas, Mavericks
The Hawks currently have 17 players on their roster, which is three below the preseason maximum, and Atlanta is likely to add to that total prior to the start of training camp, Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal Constitution writes. The team would like to add another point guard and possibly more frontcourt depth, notes Vivlamore. One possibility, as far as backcourt help goes, is unrestricted free agent Bryce Cotton, adds the scribe. Cotton played well on the Hawks’ Las Vegas Summer League squad, appearing in five games and averaging 12.8 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 19.6 minutes.
Here’s more from around the league:
- Former NBA player Adonis Thomas has signed with agent Jim Tanner and Tandem Sports, Liz Mullen of The Sports Business Journal tweets. Thomas last appeared in the NBA during the 2013/14 campaign when he briefly played for both the Sixers and the Magic.
- Available roster spots are becoming scarce around the league, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders notes in his rundown of where each team currently stands as far as roster counts go.
- The Mavs‘ roster looks markedly different from a season ago and team executive Donnie Nelson believes the changes made are for the better, Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com writes. “You know, we’re excited. I think we’re better than we were last year,” Nelson explained. “We also have some really nice young pieces, and I think at the start of training camp we’ll have some really solid veteran leadership in the starting positions laced with guys in their mid-20s. So, it’s a really nice complement of Mavericks that have carried that baton for years and a young complement of Maverick young guns that will be positioning themselves for roster minutes.”
Community Shootaround: Melo’s Legacy
In an interview with ESPN’s Marc Stein, Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony indicated that if his professional basketball career were to end without him winning an NBA championship, he’d still consider it a success if he walked away with three Olympic gold medals and an NCAA title. “I would be very happy walking away from the game knowing that I’ve given the game everything I have, knowing I played on a high level at every level: high school, college, won [a championship at Syracuse] in college and possibly three gold medals,” Anthony said.
Anthony has long been a polarizing player among fans, thanks to his gaudy statistics and lack of playoff success over the course of his career. The tale of the tape on the forward’s NBA career thus far is: In 902 career regular season games Anthony has averaged 24.9 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.2 assists to accompany a shooting line of .453/.344/.812. He’s a nine-time NBA All-Star, has won an NBA scoring title (2013) and is one of the more versatile players the league has ever seen on the offensive side of the game. But…he’s only made it out of the first round of the playoffs twice in his 13-year career.
The player whose career I’ve often compared Anthony’s to is former Hawks great, Dominique Wilkins. While Melo’s game is certainly different from the “Human Highlight Film’s,” Wilkins is a prime example of a star whose statistics never translated into an NBA title. To further illustrate my point, take a gander at Wilkins’ career numbers, which are eerily similar to Anthony’s. In 1074 career regular season contests, Wilkins notched averages of 24.8 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.5 assists to go along with his shooting line of .461/.319/.811. Wilkins enjoyed a bit more playoff success, advancing past the first round on four occasions during his time in Atlanta, but never past the second round.
I reference Wilkins because despite never having won an NBA title, he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2006 and is generally regarded as one of the greats of the game, though not in the same conversation as Jordan, Bird, Magic, etc. Unless the Knicks strike gold in the near future, it appears that Anthony is also destined to end his career with an impressive stat line, but no ring to silence his detractors.
This brings to today’s topic, which is a two-parter: What will Carmelo Anthony‘s NBA legacy be if he fails to win a title during his career? And if he indeed fails to lead a team to a championship, is he worthy of being inducted into the Hall Of Fame?
Take to the comments section to share your thoughts on the subject. We look forward to what you have to say.