Former Bucks center Spencer Hawes officially cleared waivers Saturday, tweets Keith Smith of Real GM. The veteran center was waived Thursday just before the deadline to stretch his salary, allowing Milwaukee to pay the $6MM he’s still owed in $2MM increments over the next three seasons. The 10-year veteran is now free to sign with anyone and has a little more than three weeks to find a team before training camps open. Hawes saw his playing time drop sharply after the Hornets traded him to the Bucks in February. He averaged just 9 minutes per game in Milwaukee, putting up 4.4 points and 2.4 rebounds.
There’s more this morning from the Central Division:
- Bulls officials aren’t concerned about an injury that rookie Lauri Markkanen suffered during Saturday’s EuroBasket tournament, according to Vincent Goodwill of CSNChicago (Twitter link). Playing for Finland, Markkanen hurt his leg on a shot at the buzzer that could have tied the game and had to be helped off the court by teammates. However, the seventh pick in this year’s draft appears to be fine and is expected to play today.
- A series of offseason moves has left the Bulls without the talent to compete for a playoff spot, writes A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE in his “30 teams in 30 days” series. Chicago signaled the start of a rebuilding project on draft day when it traded Jimmy Butler to the Timberwolves in exchange for Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn and the chance to draft Markkanen. That leaves the team with two veterans in Dwyane Wade and Robin Lopez, surrounded by a lot of unproven talent. Blakely criticizes the front office for several bad deals that turned two first-round picks, four second-rounders and Taj Gibson into a group of youngsters with Cameron Payne as the “prize” addition.
- A proposed $140MM renovation of Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena is a good deal for the city, claims Terry Pluto of Cleveland.com. He points out that the $70MM in public financing comes mainly from admission taxes on tickets, meaning it will be paid for by people who use the arena. The deal extends the Cavaliers‘ lease from 2027 to 2034.
I think Man Bun will go back to Charlotte and be their third center behind Howard and Zeller
Doesn’t he get paid his entire salary this year ? It’s just the cap hit that gets spread over 3 years.
I wondered that too. Unless that is something in the CBA that the players agreed to, seems a bit unfair to the player
You mean the 140 million renovation that’s not going to happen due to about 3 urban minister’s effort to pressure the city against what essentially has been Gilbert putting in for all 140 million. I’m from NE Ohio and it’s embarrassing how a couple of idiots determined this outcome.
It’s probably back on, though not officially yet
The bad deals were all centered around McDermott. They traded two firsts and a second for him and Randolph, then were forced to deal a second round pick to get rid of Randolphs contract.
That in itself wasn’t terrible. Obviously, it didn’t work out. But so long as the Bulls were committed to Rose, which they still were, then the idea was they needed shooters around him. They paid what they to pay to do that. Now, Randolph came in that package, and they needed to move him to clear cap space for Mirotic and Gasol. Again, the idea was to space the floor with big shooters and the trio of McDermott, Gasol, and Mirotic was considered a major upgrade for the Bulls in that department.
Again… it didn’t work out because 1- Rose never came close to returning to form. 2- McDermott’s shooting never translated and 3- Mirotic proved to be highly overrated. But while I’ll criticize the execution and result, it’s hard to criticize the logic.
As for the OkC deal… there was neither logic nor execution to that one. That was one of the dumber moves any team made last year.