Marcus Smart May Finalize Deal With Celtics Today
Marcus Smart hopes to finalize a new contract with the Celtics when he and agent Happy Walters meet with the team later today, tweets Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports. The agreement is expected to be in the range of $46-$50MM over four seasons, with reports yesterday that talks are “going in the right direction.”
Smart is one of top names remaining on the market after nearly three weeks of free agency. His restricted status has scared teams away from making an offer sheet because of the likelihood that the Celtics will match.
Smart has expressed frustration over the slowness of contract talks and a perceived lack of interest from Boston. There have been rumors that he was thinking about taking the Celtics’ $6.1MM qualifying offer and testing the market again as a free agent next summer.
The 24-year-old guard is among the NBA’s top perimeter defenders. He averaged 10.2 points per game last season and shot a career best .367 from the field.
Lakers Sign Joel Berry
The Lakers have signed point guard Joel Berry, the team officially announced today. Terms of the deal have not yet been released.
Berry, 23, went undrafted in the 2018 NBA Draft after spending four seasons at North Carolina. He was named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2017 NCAA Final Four as a junior after leading North Carolina to a National Championship.
As a senior last season, Berry earned First Team All-ACC honors after averaging 17.1 points in 33.1 minutes per game. He was a member of the Lakers’ 2o18 NBA Summer League squad, but failed to see any game action after suffering an ankle injury.
Rockets Looking To Sign Isaiah Hartenstein?
According to a report from Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle, the Rockets are working toward signing 2017 second-round pick Isaiah Hartenstein to an NBA deal with hopes they will reach an agreement by the end of the week.
Hartenstein, 20, had a strong showing for the Rockets during this year’s NBA Summer League after the 7-foot center played for the Rockets’ G League affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, last season.
Before being selected No. 43 overall in last year’s draft, Hartenstein played with Lithuanian club Zalgiris Kaunas, where he helped lead the team to a seventh straight Lithuanian Basketball Club title.
With the Vipers, Hartenstein averaged 9.5 points and 6.6 rebounds in 18.7 minutes per game, making 57.1 percent of his shots. He averaged 10.3 points and eight rebounds per game during this year’s Summer League.
Hartenstein’s signing could mean the end of center Zhou Qi‘s time with the Rockets. Both big men Nene and Chinanu Onuaku have fully-guaranteed salaries for the upcoming 2018/19 campaign, while Qi has no guaranteed money on his contract that runs through 2021.
Northwest Notes: Noel, Thomas, Favors, Blazers
Five years removed from being drafted No. 6 overall in the 2013 NBA Draft, newly-acquired Thunder big man Nerlens Noel is looking to rehabilitate both his game and reputation in Oklahoma City, writes Brett Dawson of The Oklahoman.
A one-and-done talent at college powerhouse Kentucky, Noel is aware of the rumors surrounding his game – that he’s a talented but unwilling to work – but he’s ready to come out this season and turn things around.
The Thunder are ready for that too, which is why head coach Billy Donovan and All-Stars Russell Westbrook and Paul George all made recruiting pitches to Noel on the first night of free agency.
“I’m excited about having him,” Donovan said. “He’s early in his career, and I know his career probably hasn’t evolved into what he’d hoped when he was a rookie. But he’s still very young, and he’s still got a lot of time to continue to get better.”
Noel has yet to have much of any success at the NBA level so far. He sat out his first season in Philadelphia recovering from injury and then saw his playing time dwindle after the Sixers drafted up-and-coming star Joel Embiid. But now that Noel feels he has a new home where winning is a priority, he is ready to prove his worth.
“You want to be in a situation where you’re wanted on a team that really wants to win,” Noel said. “That means the utmost to me, and that’s what my game is. I don’t think playing on teams that are really headed in the other direction complements me as well or makes me look as good as I might want to.”
There’s more from the Northwest Division:
- Armed with deep motivation after having his career curtailed by injury, Nuggets point guard Isaiah Thomas is eager to play for a team who wanted him, reports Christopher Dempsey of Nuggets.com. Thomas, who played for head coach Mike Malone in Sacramento during his breakout season in 2013-14, credits Malone’s trust in him as a key to his continued success.
- Per Aaron Falk of UtahJazz.com, Jazz forward Derrick Favors is looking for an increased role on offense next season. During his free agent meeting with Utah’s front office, the two parties spoke about getting Favors more cuts to the basket and playing out of pick-and-roll or dribble-handoffs more often.
- The Trail Blazers have made a couple of minor roster moves in the past day or so, deciding to retain guard Wade Baldwin and part ways with center Georgios Papagiannis.
Raptors Notes: Ujiri, Leonard, DeRozan, VanVleet
By trading away franchise cornerstone DeMar DeRozan, Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri demonstrated his belief that Toronto’s roster, as constructed pre-Kawhi Leonard, wasn’t going to get the job done against the Celtics or the rest of the Eastern Conference, reports Chris Mannix of Yahoo Sports.
But now that Leonard is a Raptor, the obvious question becomes, for how long? The Lakers, like most everyone else who follows or reports on the NBA, believe they will land Leonard next summer. Yet, the brass in L.A. felt the same way last summer when they saw Paul George, who publicly voiced his desire to play in Hollywood, be traded to the Thunder only to re-sign with Oklahoma City earlier this month without so much as a second look at the Lakers.
Per Mannix, however, this feels different. The Raptors don’t have an MVP sidekick to pair with Leonard like the Thunder have in Russell Westbrook, and as Chris Haynes of ESPN blunty tweeted earlier today, Leonard has “no desire” to play in Toronto. But then again, Toronto is not an undesirable city, it plays host to one of the most rabid fan bases in all of professional sports, and Ujiri will have an entire year to sell Leonard on a future in Canada.
Ultimately Ujiri, who another front office executive tagged as “really impressive” and a “tremendous asset,” chose to roll the dice on an MVP-caliber player knowing that there were risks attached. It remains to be seen, at least until next summer, whether Ujiri’s gamble will payoff.
There’s more from The North:
- In a subsequent tweet from Haynes, the ESPN scribe mentions how players around the NBA have not failed to notice that the Raptors have yet to make a statement thanking DeRozan for his contributions over a nine-year period with the franchise.
- In another article for Yahoo Sports, Michael Lee opines that the DeRozan/Leonard trade is unique because both of the marquee players involved are furious with the deal. For his part, DeRozan is particularly hurt because he claims to have been told by the Raptors just recently that he wouldn’t be traded out of Toronto. And after former franchise stars like Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter, and Chris Bosh bolted, it seems cruel for a player like DeRozan, who actually wanted to stay in Toronto, to be sent packing without his approval.
- In other Raptors‘ news, re-signed guard Fred VanVleet sat down with Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype for a wide-ranging interview detailing everything from his free agency experience this summer and last season’s breakout performance to his thoughts on former coach Dwane Casey and new head coach Nick Nurse.
Financial Impact Of Leonard/DeRozan Blockbuster
The blockbuster trade completed today by the Spurs and Raptors involving Kawhi Leonard and DeMar DeRozan will, of course, have massive on-court ramifications for both teams. However, it’s also worth taking a closer look at the deal from a financial perspective to see exactly how it worked, how it will impact the players involved, and how it will affect the Spurs’ and Raptors’ short- and long-term cap outlook.
Let’s dive right in and examine the financial implications of today’s mega-deal…
No more Designated Veteran Extension for Kawhi
By earning a spot on the All-NBA First Team in two of the last three seasons, Leonard became eligible for a super-max contract known as a Designated Veteran Extension. Generally, players with Leonard’s years of NBA experience are only eligible for maximum-salary contracts worth up to 30% of the cap, but Kawhi’s All-NBA nods qualified him for a deal starting at up to 35% of the cap in 2019/20.
As we outlined on Tuesday, a five-year Designated Veteran Extension starting in ’19/20 is currently worth a projected $221MM+ based on the NBA’s latest cap projections. However, since a player can only get that form of contract extension from the team that signed him to his initial rookie scale extension, Leonard will no longer qualify. Instead, he’ll be eligible next summer for a five-year deal with the Raptors worth a projected $189.66MM, or a four-year contract with another team worth a projected $140.6MM.
While many observers will say that Leonard “lost” $30MM+ (or $80MM) due to today’s trade, that’s not necessarily accurate. There’s no guarantee that San Antonio would have put that Designated Veteran Extension offer on the table for Kawhi as he came off an injury-plagued season, so it’s not as if he formally turned down $221MM+. Depending on how his 2018/19 season plays out, there’s also no guarantee he’ll be in line for a max deal next offseason — a lot can change in a year.
Still, Leonard’s maximum possible earnings for the next several years have a lower ceiling as a result of today’s trade.
Leonard gets a trade bonus
It wasn’t all bad news for Leonard, who lost access to that super-max extension and will move to Canada from Texas, a state with no income tax. His contract included a 15% trade kicker, so he’ll receive a modest bonus as a result of today’s trade.
Because player-option years aren’t taken into account when calculating trade bonuses, Leonard’s 15% trade kicker will only apply to his $20,099,189 salary for 2018/19. His 15% bonus will be worth $3,014,878, increasing his ’18/19 earnings to $23,114,067.
How salary-matching worked in the trade
Due to the size of the contracts changing hands in this deal, both the Raptors and Spurs were permitted to take back up to 125% (plus $100K) of their outgoing salaries. This was slightly complicated by the fact that Leonard counted for $20,099,189 (no trade kicker) from the Spurs’ perspective and $23,114,067 (15% trade kicker) from the Raptors’ perspective.
For the Spurs, simply sending out Leonard wasn’t enough to take back DeRozan ($27,739,975), let alone Jakob Poeltl ($2,947,320). San Antonio had to include more salary in the swap, which was one reason why Danny Green ($10,000,000) was part of the deal. Combining Leonard’s and Green’s cap hits, San Antonio was eligible to absorb up to about $37.72MM. DeRozan and Poeltl comfortably fit within that threshold.
For the Raptors, simply sending out DeRozan’s $27,739,975 salary allowed them to take back up to about $34.77MM. That was more than enough to absorb both Leonard and Green, even after taking into account Kawhi’s trade kicker.
Since Poeltl wasn’t needed for salary-matching purposes, the Raptors will create a traded player exception worth his $2,947,320 salary. It’s the only TPE generated in the deal, and Toronto will have until July 18, 2019 to use it.
Impact on 2018/19 cap outlook
In an unusual development, both the Spurs’ and Raptors’ team salaries will actually increase as a result of this deal due to Leonard’s trade kicker. That’s not a big deal for San Antonio, whose team salary will only increase very marginally — the Spurs are still well below the luxury-tax threshold.
For the Raptors though, the modest increase in 2018/19 salary will have an impact. By my count, the club now has about $138.99MM committed to 13 players. That would result in a total tax bill of about $29.59MM, and that number will increase when Toronto fills out its roster with a 14th player.
A cost-cutting move is a possibility for the Raptors. C.J. Miles ($8,333,333) and Norman Powell ($9,367,200) became more expendable today with Leonard and Green joining the small forward mix, so perhaps Toronto will explore moving one of them. For now though, this projects to be one of the league’s most expensive rosters.
Impact on 2019/20 and beyond
While the Raptors added a little salary for 2018/19, they cleared their cap for future seasons in today’s deal. DeRozan remains under contract for $27,739,975 in 2019/20, with a player option worth the same amount in 2020/21, while Poeltl has a ’19/20 team option worth $3,754,886. Conversely, Leonard and Green are on expiring contracts.
Prior to today’s trade, the Raptors had $113.27MM in projected guaranteed money on their cap for 2019/20, with player options for Miles and Jonas Valanciunas bringing that number up to $139.62MM. In other words, the team was a strong bet to remain in the tax again next season.
By removing $31.49MM from that total in today’s deal, the Raps no longer project to be a tax team in 2019/20. They probably won’t have cap room, which would be a problem if Leonard walks. But the club would be loaded with expiring contracts in that scenario — by 2020/21, only Powell ($10,865,952) and OG Anunoby ($3,872,215) remain on the books, creating a ton of flexibility for Toronto to go in any number of directions a couple years from now if the Leonard experiment doesn’t work.
As for the Spurs, they’ve significantly reduced their potential cap flexibility for next summer, with their projected guarantees increasing from about $59.16MM to $90.65MM, by my count. That total doesn’t include Marco Belinelli‘s player option or Bryn Forbes‘ salary, since the exact details of those newly-signed contracts aren’t yet known. With a cap of $109MM projected for 2019/20, the Spurs may not end up having any real space available.
The Spurs’ 2020/21 outlook might not be impacted by the deal, since DeRozan and Poeltl can both reach free agency that year. However, if DeRozan exercises his $27,739,975 player option and the Spurs look to lock up Poeltl beyond his rookie deal, those deals would once again eat into the club’s projected space.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Salary information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post.
Raptors Expected To Sign Jordan Loyd To Two-Way Deal
1:37pm: The deadline for Loyd to opt out of his deal with Darussafaka to join an NBA team has passed, and NBA rules don’t allow the Raptors to pay for his release, as David Pick and Murphy note (Twitter links). As such, it will be up to Loyd and his reps to see if they can figure things out with his Turkish club to free him up to head to Toronto.
11:44am: The Raptors are poised to sign guard Jordan Loyd to a two-way contract, reports Blake Murphy of Raptors Republic. Barring any snags with Loyd’s buyout from Turkish team Darussafaka, he’ll ink a two-year deal with Toronto, according to Murphy.
An undrafted free agent out of Indianapolis, Loyd played for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in his first professional season in 2016/17 before heading overseas to play for Hapoel Eilat in Israel last year. The 6’4″ guard averaged 15.1 PPG, 4.2 RPG, and 4.0 APG in 49 G League games in ’16/17.
Loyd, who will turn 25 later this month, participated in Summer League action for the Raptors in Las Vegas, posting 8.3 PPG, 2.8 RPG, and 2.8 APG in 17.3 minutes per contest. As Murphy notes, the Raps played Loyd primarily at point guard in Vegas, and he adapted well, committing just four turnovers in four games.
Toronto isn’t currently carrying any players on two-way contracts after promoting Lorenzo Brown to the 15-man roster and withdrawing Malcolm Miller‘s qualifying offer, so Loyd is set to occupy the first of those two openings.
Hawks, Thunder Have Discussed Carmelo Anthony
The Thunder and Hawks have engaged in discussions on a potential trade involving Carmelo Anthony, reports NBA columnist Mitch Lawrence (Twitter link). According to Lawrence, the Thunder are looking at Dennis Schroder and Mike Muscala, and if the two sides can make a deal, Atlanta would buy out Anthony’s expiring contract.
Per Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Hawks and Thunder spoke in Las Vegas about a possible trade involving Anthony, but those talks didn’t get serious. Still, Vivlamore acknowledges that things could change now that Atlanta has acquired another point guard in Jeremy Lin.
The Hawks have been exploring possible trades involving Schroder for much of the offseason, and ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported last week that their acquisition of Lin may expedite the process of moving Schroder. While the 24-year-old has been a productive player on the court, concerns related to his legal troubles and locker-room fit have limited his appeal to both the Hawks and to potential suitors. Lawrence indicates that trading Schroder is Atlanta’s “No. 1 priority.”
Schroder was arrested on a misdemeanor battery charge last September, with Georgia officials recommending in March that he be prosecuted for felony aggravated battery. He figures to face discipline from his team and/or the league when that case is resolved. Jail time also isn’t entirely out of the question, though Hawks officials are reportedly confident that will be avoided.
Meanwhile, the Thunder continue to explore ways to part ways with Anthony without simply having to waive him. Cutting Anthony outright and stretching his salary over the next three years would result in cap hits of $9.3MM+ annually through 2020/21. Oklahoma City would like to find a way to reduce its projected tax bill by cutting costs in an Anthony trade, though it’s unclear if the team is willing to add an asset – such as a future first-round pick – to make that happen. That may be a sticking point for the Hawks, per Lawrence and Vivlamore.
We outlined in detail last week how an Anthony trade could work for a team that has available cap room, but not necessarily enough to accommodate his full $27.93MM salary. The Hawks meet that criteria. They can create about $10MM in cap space, so they wouldn’t have to match salaries if they were to trade for Anthony — Schroder ($15.5MM) and Muscala ($5MM) would be enough.
More Notes, Updates On Kawhi Leonard Blockbuster
The Raptors and Spurs officially announced their blockbuster trade involving Kawhi Leonard and DeMar DeRozan today, issuing a pair of press releases to confirm the deal. However, the Raptors have yet to conduct a physical on Leonard, as ESPN’s Brian Windhorst noted during an appearance on Outside the Lines.
Windhorst suggests there’s a chance that the Raptors could waive Leonard’s physical, since they just want the two-time Defensive Player of the Year on their roster and may be willing to take a gamble on his health. Still, it’s a situation worth keeping an eye on. Last year, the Cavaliers and Celtics seemingly finalized their Kyrie Irving blockbuster before Isaiah Thomas‘ physical held up the deal for an extra week. I don’t expect that to happen here, and it’s even less likely that this trade falls through, but it’s not necessarily officially official until the Raptors make a call on that physical.
Here are many more reactions, notes, and updates on today’s mega-deal:
- Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri has a reputation for making bold decisions, but the team’s acquisition of Leonard is his boldest move to date, writes Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca. As Lewenberg observes, Ujiri has long wanted to land a bona-fide superstar, and finally gets a chance to do so with his deal for Leonard.
- Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich informed Leonard’s camp of today’s trade early on Wednesday in what was called a “cordial” conversation, a source tells David Aldridge of TNT. According to Aldridge, Leonard isn’t thrilled about being sent to the Raptors for a few reasons, including the higher taxation rate in Canada — Texas, of course, has no state income tax.
- The Spurs‘ top priority in Leonard trade talks was landing an established scorer capable of averaging 20+ PPG, per NBA columnist Mitch Lawrence (Twitter link). The club achieved that goal by landing DeRozan.
- According to Sean Deveney of The Sporting News, there’s a “fine line between hope and desperation,” and Deveney believes the Raptors land on the wrong side of that line with this trade.
- The trade is “tantalizing on paper” for the Raptors, but includes plenty of red flags and comes at a cost, given DeRozan’s loyalty to the franchise, writes Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca.
- The Raptors are sending a loud message that they’re not happy with merely being good and want to be great, says Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post.
- Longtime Spurs swingman Danny Green posted a goodbye message to the club and its fans today on Instagram, adding that he’s looking forward to his “next chapter” in Toronto.
- We passed along more notes on the Spurs/Raptors trade earlier today.
Celtics, Marcus Smart Engaged In Serious Talks
12:05pm: Smart and the Celtics are “going in the right direction” and “getting close” to working something out, a source tells Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe (Twitter link). According to Himmelsbach, there’s a hope that a deal could be in place within the next week.
11:00am: Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge and agent Happy Walters are engaged in serious talks about a new contract for restricted free agent Marcus Smart, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter). According to Wojnarowski, the two sides are discussing a potential four-year deal in the $46-50MM range.
Smart, 24, entered free agency for the first time this summer after spending the first four seasons of his NBA career in Boston. Because he received a qualifying offer from the Celtics, Smart can’t sign outright with any other team, and has watched as most clubs with cap room around the league have used that space to sign or acquire other players.
Various reports during the last couple weeks have indicated that Smart has been frustrated with how his restricted free agency has played out. The Celtics had seemingly been reluctant to engage in direct negotiations, preferring to let the market set the price with an offer sheet. However, the veteran guard was unable to find a team willing to put a lucrative offer sheet on the table.
With Smart’s market drying up, the Celtics have apparently re-engaged with his camp on a long-term deal in the range of $12MM annually. That always seemed like about the right price for Smart, who reportedly received a four-year extension offer in the $44-48MM range from the Celtics last fall. However, the former sixth overall pick said at season’s end that he believed he was worth more than $12-14MM per year.
Smart, a career .360/.293/.756 shooter, has never been an overly productive or efficient offensive player, though he did post a career-high 4.8 APG in 2017/18. However, he’s considered one of the top perimeter defenders in the NBA and is viewed as an excellent teammate.
Smart is one of the last NBA restricted free agents still on the market. Clint Capela (Rockets), Rodney Hood (Cavaliers), Patrick McCaw (Warriors), and Montrezl Harrell (Clippers) remain unsigned too, along with a few two-way RFAs.