When Kelly Oubre struck a deal with the Suns late on Wednesday night, he represented the last of the players on our list of 2019’s top 50 free agents to reach a contract agreement with a team. However, two of those agreements are in flux.
As we previously relayed, Reggie Bullock and the Knicks are attempting to rework a two-year, $21MM deal that fell apart due to an issue with Bullock’s physical, and Marcus Morris is re-evaluating his two-year, $19MM deal with the Spurs now that New York may have cap room again.
As of Thursday morning, there’s still mutual interest between Bullock and the Knicks in finding a new deal that works, per Ian Begley of SNY.tv. Begley notes that a source told him earlier this week that the Knicks are hopeful of landing Morris, whose veteran presence and toughness intrigues the club. Steve Popper of Newsday adds (via Twitter) that he has heard from people inside and outside the Knicks’ organization who think that Morris will end up in New York.
As we wait for resolution on those two free agents, let’s round up a few more notes from around the Atlantic…
- After agreeing to a new deal with the Sixers as a free agent, forward James Ennis expressed major confidence in the team’s outlook for 2019/20, as Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer tweets. “We had a good chance last year. Kawhi (Leonard) is gone. He went to the West,” Ennis said. “So we are going to walk to the Finals in the East.”
- Kevin Durant initially “balked” at the idea of being signed-and-traded to the Nets straight up for D’Angelo Russell, sources tell Brian Windhorst of ESPN. As Windhorst explains, Durant didn’t believe it was a fair deal, presumably because he could have signed outright with Brooklyn using the team’s cap room. The Warriors ultimately ended up including a heavily protected first-rounder in the swap not just to satisfy the Nets, but to satisfy KD, says Windhorst.
- Sources tell Brian Lewis of The New York Post that the Nets‘ newly-added star power could increase Barclays Center revenues by about $40MM through “increased sponsorships, merchandising, and ticket sales.”
Joke will be on u KD when we’re a top 20 team and that pick becomes a 2025 2nd, take that!
If the Warriors are good and are a top 20 team then the pic DOES get relayed to the Nets, right?
The protection is if the Warriors are crappy and then Warriors will keep the pic. Right?
Yeah, it’s top-20 protected, so they’d need to be a top-10 team in 2019/20 for the Nets to get the pick.
correct
Now I am confused. marks said he didn’t know about Durant coming but Durant wanted him to get a pick to sign. So KD didn’t like it because it will show them winning without KD next year.
Marks said he didn’t know Durant was definitely coming until he officially made his announcement, which was at the very start of free agency. At that time, the assumption was that he’d sign outright using the Nets’ cap room.
The sign-and-trade subsequently came together over the rest of that night, so presumably they were in touch by that point, at which point KD got involved in the negotiations (since he had to give his approval to turn it into a sign-and-trade).
The use of the S&T, as deals into open cap space, and requested by the prior team to get a TPE, isn’t totally new, but I can’t remember the last off season it was used this much. Teams have finally figured out the futility of putting together offer sheets, Maybe the reason.
The Durant-DR and KW-Rozier “swaps” would not have worked with matching salaries, so the Nets and Boston, respectively, had to contribute their cap space to the deal, which has a value. If there was a match, the Nets could have signed another player, or paid DJ without using those stupid incentives.
Are Knicks trying to corner the market on power forwards?
last year it was guards. this year wings and forwards. dudes who can play multiple positions. positionless basketball is the new thing
I heard Bullock has plantar fascia and is reworking a minimum deal, which is where they still have the 14.8 million to spend
James Ennis doing his best Paul Pierce impression apparently