Marc Gasol Suggests Changes May Be Needed In Memphis
After nine seasons in Memphis, Marc Gasol may be ready for a new start, according to Ronald Tillery of The Memphis Commercial Appeal. In an interview with a Spanish media outlet, the all-star center indicated the Grizzlies should shake things up if they can’t put together a serious run in the playoffs.
“I’m very ambitious and I’ve wanted Memphis to be a great franchise,” Gasol said. “We’ve grown a lot the last 6-7 years, but we have to keep growing. If this is not lined up, maybe we may have to revisit things.”
Gasol still has two years and nearly $47MM left on the extension he signed in 2015, plus a player option worth nearly $25.6MM for 2019/20. So it will be a while before he has any leverage to force Memphis into a trade.
He is a three-time all-star and was named Defensive Player of the Year in 2013. He appeared in 74 games last season, averaging 19.5 points and 6.3 rebounds per night.
The Grizzlies already lost Zach Randolph, who signed with the Kings after eight years in Memphis, while Tony Allen, another key player from the “grit and grind” era, remains a free agent and appears unlikely to return.
Udonis Haslem Discusses Potential Reunion With Dwyane Wade
Veteran forward Udonis Haslem is the latest Heat player to express interest in bringing back Dwyane Wade if he agrees to a buyout in Chicago, writes Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel. Interest in the possibility was reignited with a report Wednesday that Wade and the Bulls could part ways at some point this season.
Wade has a $23.8MM salary and doesn’t seem to fit on a team that started rebuilding by trading Jimmy Butler and not re-signing Rajon Rondo. A buyout is always a possibility, tweets K.C. Johnson of The Chicago Tribune, but the Bulls haven’t changed their position that it would have to be “advantageous” to them, meaning Wade would have to give up a substantial amount of money.
He would have several options if that happens, with one obvious choice being a return to Miami, where he spent the first 13 seasons of his NBA career.
“I talk to D-Wade every day,” Haslem said today on radio station WQAM. “My advice to D-Wade and his advice has always been to me is, ‘Take it one day at a time. Just take it one day at a time, step by step.’ We kind of understand the direction that Chicago is going in. We kind of understand the direction that Dwyane wants to go in the last couple of years of his career. The business side of things sometimes doesn’t always allow both sides to co-exist.”
On Tuesday, Heat center Hassan Whiteside sent out a GIF on social media indicating he would like to see Wade return, and Dion Waiters endorsed the idea on Twitter in July.
The Heat are well over the salary cap after re-signing Waiters and James Johnson this summer and adding Kelly Olynyk in free agency. However, they have retained their mid-level exception, which gives them up to $4.3MM to offer Wade.
Winderman notes that a crowded backcourt could hinder the move, with Waiters and Goran Dragic cemented as starters and Tyler Johnson, Josh Richardson, Rodney McGruder and Wayne Ellington in reserve. There’s also the possibility that Wade could find a reunion with LeBron James in Cleveland more desirable than a return to Miami.
Brandon Bass To Play In China
Veteran forward Brandon Bass has agreed to a $2MM offer to play in China next season, tweets international basketball writer David Pick. Bass will sign with the Liaoning Flying Leopards of the Chinese Basketball Association.
The 32-year-old spent last season with the Clippers, appearing in 52 games as a reserve and averaging 5.6 points in about 11 minutes per night. He has also played for the Hornets, Mavericks, Magic, Celtics, and Lakers in a 12-year NBA career.
Bass made a little more than $1.55MM with the Clippers last year, but hasn’t received an attractive offer since entering free agency. Because the Chinese season ends before the NBA season, he will be eligible to return to the league in March or April.
Central Notes: Kennard, D. Williams, Antetokounmpo
The Pistons are more optimistic than ever about rookie Luke Kennard after watching his summer league performance, writes Keith Langlois of NBA.com. The 12th pick in this year’s draft, Kennard averaged 17.2 points per game as Detroit’s team advanced to the finals in Orlando. He made 11 of 23 shots from 3-point range during the 10-day competition and eased any fears the Pistons may have harbored about his defense.
“Pretty much what we thought offensively, maybe even did a better job passing the ball than I thought,” said coach/executive Stan Van Gundy. “He’s able to make plays off the dribble , that nice change of pace, and things I hadn’t seen a lot of. He really has a great feel for the game and how to play in addition to clearly his ability to shoot the ball.”
There’s more from the Central Division:
- Richard Jefferson offered some insight on his Road Trippin’ podcast about why Deron Williams is unlikely to return to the Cavaliers, relays Daniel Rappaport of Sports Illustrated. Jefferson said the veteran guard’s “eyes did not light up” about coming off the bench in Cleveland, but joked that the Warriors’ “eyes lit up” whenever Williams checked into the Finals. Williams didn’t turn out to be a good fit for the Cavs after joining the team in late February in the wake of buyout with the Mavericks. He was particularly bad in the Finals, shooting 2 of 16 for the series and averaging 1.0 points and 1.2 assists per game. Williams’ contract with Cleveland expired after the season, and he remains a free agent.
- Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, whose $100MM extension begins with the start of the season, has another big payday ahead, writes Nick DePaula of ESPN. He will be a free agent in the shoe market at the end of September after making just $25K from Nike last year and expects to top that figure several times over. Antetokounmpo is hoping to exceed the nearly $5MM-per-year deal that Kristaps Porzingis received from Adidas, with one industry specialist speculating that he could receive $7MM to $10MM annually.
- The Bucks won’t be the only team playing at their new arena, according to the Associated Press. The NBA team has reached a seven-year agreement allowing Marquette to use the facility, which is expected to open ahead of the 2018/19 season.
NBA Free Agents Who Have Joined Teams Overseas
Approximately 450 players finished the 2016/17 season on NBA rosters, but not all of those 450 players will find a spot on an NBA team in 2017/18. With rookies, undrafted free agents, and international signees poised to occupy at least a few dozen roster spots around the league this season, some NBA players will have to look elsewhere for work.
Some of those players will retire, and others will end up in the G League, while many will head overseas to continue their playing careers in some of the best non-NBA professional leagues around the world. Salaries generally aren’t as lucrative in those leagues, and they don’t provide the opportunity to compete against the world’s very best players.
Still, an NBA role player who decides to head overseas can often match or exceed his potential minimum NBA salary, and will have the chance to take on a much larger role for an international team. That’s why even some players who have had some NBA success and are still in their 20s – such as Brandon Jennings – have opted to make the jump overseas this offseason.
Listed below are the players who finished the 2016/17 season on an NBA roster and have since reached an agreement with an international team. Each player’s former NBA team is listed, along with his new team overseas, and a link to our story on his new deal.
- Brandon Bass, Clippers: Liaoning Flying Leopards (China)
- Rakeem Christmas, Pacers: Galatasaray (Turkey)
- Norris Cole, Thunder: Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel)
- Justin Hamilton, Nets: Beijing Ducks (China)
- Brandon Jennings, Wizards: Shanxi Brave Dragons (China)
- Ty Lawson, Kings: Shandong Golden Stars (China)
- Donatas Motiejunas, Pelicans: Shandong Golden Stars (China)
- Brian Roberts, Hornets: Olympiacos (Greece)
- Sergio Rodriguez, Sixers: CSKA Moscow (Russia)
- Kevin Seraphin, Pacers: Barcelona (Spain)
- Axel Toupane, Pelicans: Zalgiris Kaunas (Lithuania)
- Christian Wood, Hornets: Fujian Sturgeons (China)
Meanwhile, here are a few more players who are headed overseas after spending a good chunk of the 2016/17 season on an NBA roster — these players were waived by their NBA teams before the end of the year.
- Marcelo Huertas, Rockets (waived in February): Baskonia (Spain)
- Terrence Jones, Bucks (waived in April): Qingdao Eagles (China)
- Jordan McRae, Cavaliers (waived in March): Baskonia (Spain)
- Luis Scola, Nets (waived in February): Shanxi Brave Dragons (China)
- Hollis Thompson, Sixers (waived in January): Olympiacos (Greece)
- Note: Thompson also signed two 10-day contracts with the Pelicans in February and March.
Hoops Rumors’ 2017 Free Agent Tracker was used in the creation of this post.
And-Ones: Muhammad, Franchise Players, Sims
Free agent forward Shabazz Muhammad remains one of the most noteworthy names on the open market, and with still no deal in hand, the four-year veteran is looking to change agents, according to Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News (Twitter link). If that sounds familiar, it’s because Muhammad just hired a new agent in the spring — the former Rob Pelinka client made the move to Rich Paul after Pelinka landed with the Lakers as their new GM.
As Wolfson adds in a separate tweet, at least six teams have checked in on Muhammad, but the former first-round pick entered free agency hoping to get a mid-level type deal, perhaps similar to what Patrick Patterson received from the Thunder (three years, $16MM+). At this point in the offseason, Muhammad will be hard-pressed to find more than a minimum salary deal, which explains why he’s not necessarily thrilled with Paul’s work.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the league:
- In an interesting piece for Bleacher Report, Dan Favale explores which player out of a group that features Karl-Anthony Towns, Joel Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Kristaps Porzingis would make for the best young franchise cornerstone. Favale eventually makes Antetokounmpo his pick.
- Bleacher Report also published a feature this week that saw various staff writers conduct a re-draft of NBA rosters for the 2017/18 season, if each player was made available. The first round of that hypothetical re-draft starts with LeBron James to the Knicks and ends with Devin Booker to the Raptors.
- Veteran center Henry Sims, who has appeared in 135 total NBA games, will head to Italy for the 2017/18 season, having reached a deal with Vanoli Cremona, as Emiliano Carchia of Sportando details. Sims, who last played in the NBA in 2015/16 with the Nets, saw action in 25 games last season for the G League’s Salt Lake City Stars.
Buyout Remains Possible For Dwyane Wade, Bulls
AUGUST 17, 10:59am: The original article at ESPN.com on Wade and the Bulls has been updated (hat tip to Blog A Bull) — without a source to confirm his initial claim, Friedell no longer suggests a buyout is “expected.” While Friedell has backed off that assertion, he still says that “nobody would be surprised” if Wade decides he wants out of Chicago and reaches a buyout agreement with the team in the next few months.
AUGUST 16, 3:18pm: Few NBA teams are expected to drop in the standings this season like the Bulls, who lost two of their top players this summer when they traded Jimmy Butler and waived Rajon Rondo. The third member of last season’s “three alphas” – Dwyane Wade – also isn’t long for Chicago, according to Nick Friedell of ESPN, who writes that Wade and the Bulls are expected to reach a buyout agreement at some point in the coming months.
Wade, who inked a two-year deal with the Bulls in 2016, had a player option for the 2017/18 season, giving him the opportunity to head elsewhere in free agency if he so chose. Wade opted in before the Bulls traded Butler and cut Rondo, though it’s not clear if those moves would have impacted his decision anyway — exercising his player option puts Wade in line to earn $23.8MM this season, and he wouldn’t have matched that annual salary if he’d opted out and signed a new contract.
Still, shortly after Wade opted in and the Bulls opted to rebuild, rumors begin to swirl about a possible buyout. For their part, the Bulls have attempted to put those rumors to rest. Executive VP of basketball operations John Paxson suggested in June that any buyout agreement would have to be “advantageous” to the franchise, and head coach Fred Hoiberg said last month that he didn’t expect Wade to be bought out.
At the time Hoiberg made his comments in July, Friedell indicated there was a “widespread belief” among Bulls officials that Wade wouldn’t be willing to give up enough of his $23.8MM salary to make a buyout worthwhile for the club. Considering Friedell is now writing that an agreement is expected to happen at some point in the next few months, he may have heard something in recent weeks that influenced his view on the subject, though it’s worth noting that he doesn’t cite any sources.
There’s no real deadline for the Bulls and Wade to reach a buyout agreement, though veterans are generally bought out before March 1 so that they retain their playoff eligibility. As Friedell details, Chicago has shifted to full-fledged rebuilding mode and shouldn’t mind finishing among the NBA’s cellar-dwellers in 2017/18. Parting ways with Wade would help out the Bulls in their race to the bottom, so it’s possible the team won’t wait until February to explore a buyout.
Rakeem Christmas To Play In Turkey
Former Pacers forward Rakeem Christmas is heading overseas for the 2017/18 season. Turkish team Galatasaray announced today (Twitter link) that Christmas will be joining the club. It’ll be a one-year deal, according to the team (Turkish press release).
Christmas, 25, made his NBA debut for the Pacers in 2015/16 after earning a spot on the G League All-Star team that season. He played in just one game in ’15/16 for Indiana, but had a strong year for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, averaging 13.9 PPG, 7.1 RPG, and 1.7 BPG in 48 contests.
Christmas stuck with the Pacers for 2016/17, appearing in 29 regular season games for the team. However, the 6’9″ forward saw limited action in those games, averaging 2.0 PPG and 1.9 RPG in just 7.6 minutes per contest. He was waived last month by Indiana before his salary for the coming season became guaranteed.
Austin Daye, Tibor Pleiss, and Joey Dorsey are among the former NBAers who have played for Galatasaray in Turkey in recent years.
17 Players Vying For Spots On USA’s AmeriCup Roster
USA Basketball has begun the process of selecting its roster for the AmeriCup 2017, the first of a series of qualifying tournaments under FIBA’s new format. As Brian Mahoney of The Associated Press details, Team USA doesn’t need to win the AmeriCup to qualify for the next World Cup and Olympics, but it’s a tournament the U.S. must participate in to eventually play in more crucial events.
Because upcoming qualifiers will take place during the NBA season, Team USA is putting together a roster primarily made up of G League players and veterans who have been playing overseas, as we previously learned. With training camp set to begin on Thursday, 17 hopefuls are suiting up for Team USA, with the program poised to eventually pare that group down to a 12-man roster.
Here are Team USA’s training camp participants, via USA Basketball:
- Billy Baron (UCAM Murcia, Spain)
- Rod Benson (Wonju Dongbu Promy, South Korea)
- Alec Brown (Windy City Bulls)
- Will Davis II (Reno Bighorns)
- Larry Drew II (Sioux Falls Skyforce)
- Reggie Hearn (Reno Bighorns)
- Darrun Hilliard (Detroit Pistons)
- Jonathan Holmes (Canton Charge)
- Ra’Shad James (Cedevita Zagreb, Croatia)
- Kendall Marshall (Reno Bighorns)
- Darius Morris (Rio Grande Valley Vipers)
- Xavier Munford (Greensboro Swarm)
- Marshall Plumlee (New York Knicks)
- Jameel Warney (Texas Legends)
- C.J. Williams (Texas Legends)
- Reggie Williams (Oklahoma City Blue)
- Derek Willis (University of Kentucky)
Although there are no high-profile names in this group, several players have some NBA experience. Hilliard is currently a free agent, but appeared in 77 games over the last two seasons for the Pistons. Drew, Munford, and Plumlee have all played in at least a dozen NBA games.
Marshall, Morris, and Reggie Williams are perhaps the most notable names on the list, having played regular rotation roles for various NBA teams in recent years. Marshall was a lottery pick in the 2012 draft, while Williams has appeared in more than 200 NBA games since 2010.
None of the players on Team USA’s training camp roster are currently under contract with an NBA club, but Willis – the only player of the group who has yet to play professional ball – has reportedly agreed to a training camp deal with the Pistons.
The club will be coached by Jeff Van Gundy, an international rookie himself, and will eventually participate in preliminary round games in Uruguay later this month. If Team USA wins its group – which also includes Panama, the Dominican Republic, and host Uruguay – it would advance to the semifinals in Argentina in early September.
As Mahoney outlines in his report, Team USA won’t face real pressure to win until November, when the club need a top-three finish in a pool that includes Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Cuba in order to start advancing to later qualifiers. For more in-depth details on how those qualifiers work, be sure to check out FIBA’s breakdowns for the 2019 World Cup and the 2020 Olympics.
Community Shootaround: Dwyane Wade
The Bulls inked Dwyane Wade to a two-year contract last offseason, but the franchise has undergone some renovations with an eye on rebuilding for the future. Wade, at age 35, doesn’t appear to fit in those plans and earlier today, it was reported that he and the team are expected to work out a buyout agreement in the coming months.
Should the future Hall of Famer reach a buyout agreement with Chicago, where is the best place for him to continue his career?
Cleveland might be a logical fit given his friendship with LeBron James. Houston would give Wade an opportunity to play alongside James Harden and Chris Paul to form one of the best backcourt rotations in recent memory. The Heat seem like they’re one player away from breaking into the Eastern Conference’s top-4 and Wade could be that contributor that helps get Pat Riley home court in the opening round of the playoffs.
The Spurs could use Wade as a primary ball handler until Tony Parker returns from injury then watch the shooting guard’s minutes to ensure he stays healthy for a playoff run. A lineup of Parker, Wade, Kawhi Leonard, LaMarcus Aldridge and Pau Gasol with Patty Mills, Danny Green, Manu Ginobili and a potentially healthy Rudy Gay coming off the bench would be a tough out in the playoffs.
Do you feel Wade should sign with any of the aforementioned teams or is there another club that would be a better fit? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below. We look forward to what you have to say!