Having landed Gordon Hayward, the Celtics have shifted their focus to adding a rim-protecting big man, and are showing interest in several free agents who fit that bill, tweets Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype. Currently, the Celtics could only offer the $4.3MM room exception, but if they clear more than the minimum space necessary for Hayward’s deal, they could potentially make a bigger offer.
Speaking of Hayward, Jody Genessy of The Deseret News talked at length with agent Mark Bartelstein about how and why his client’s free agency announcement turned into such a mess on Tuesday. As Genessy details, via Bartelstein, Hayward went back and forth between the Jazz and Celtics before making his final decision.
Here are more free agency updates from around the NBA:
- Having reached a deal with Dion Waiters, the Heat have interest in bringing back James Johnson and Luke Babbitt as well, writes Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. Bartelstein, who is also Johnson’s agent, will talk to Pat Riley tonight, according to Jackson.
- While Richard Jefferson, who is under contract for 2017/18, plans to return to the Cavaliers, James Jones may not, per Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. Agent Joel Bell says that neither the Cavs nor Jones have made any decisions, but a source tells Vardon that Jones – who is a free agent – won’t be back in Cleveland next season.
- The Timberwolves have touched base with veteran free agent Vince Carter, but there’s nothing “concrete” happening with him for now, tweets Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News.
- The Mavericks are considering adding German power forward Maxi Kleber, per Sportando (Twitter link). Kleber expects to continue playing for Bayern Munich if he doesn’t make the jump to the NBA.
Dedmon to Boston
Let babbit walk pls
I laid off 1000 people
If Boston ends up having 2 million in cap space, just for purposes of this example, could they sign Dedmon for 6.3 using the cap space plus the room exception?
No, room exception can’t be combined with cap space. In order to offer more than the room exception, they’d have to create more than $4.3MM in cap space, which probably isn’t too likely at this point.
Thanks Luke. That was helpful
Ok thanks. That’s what I thought, but I wasn’t entirely sure.