Free agent swingman Justin Holiday has received interest from the Lakers, Clippers, Bulls, Raptors, Pacers, Wizards, Hornets, and Cavaliers, league sources tell Michael Scotto of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Given how quickly most of the top players came off the market, Holiday represents one of the more intriguing options available, given his ability to knock down three-pointers (1.8 3PG on 35.4% shooting over the last three years) and defend on the perimeter.
According to Scotto, the Grizzlies are open to the idea of accommodating a sign-and-trade deal involving Holiday, so a team with interest in him could potentially acquire him using a trade exception if it doesn’t want to cut into its mid-level.
Here’s more on a few NBA free agents:
- Wizards interim head of basketball operations Tommy Sheppard briefly spoke with free agent big man DeMarcus Cousins in Las Vegas, according to Candace Buckner of The Washington Post (Twitter link). A previous report indicated there was virtually no chance of Cousins signing with Washington, and Buckner cautions that the conversation was described as small talk, but she still refers to it as an “interesting development.”
- The Lakers are in the mix for free agent point guard Trey Burke, according to Marc Berman of The New York Post (Twitter link). Los Angeles still has plenty of roster spots to fill, so it’s not clear how high Burke is on the team’s wish list.
- Veteran NBA big man Darrell Arthur, who sat out last season after being waived by Phoenix in October, is considering a comeback and is open to continuing his career overseas, tweets Emiliano Carchia of Sportando.
- ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, Marc J. Spears, and Ohm Youngmisuk spoke to coaches, scouts, and executives at the Utah and California Summer Leagues to get their thoughts on free agency so far. Among the highlights: McMahon writes that a number of rival executives and scouts believe the Rockets dodged a bullet by not landing Jimmy Butler.
- The Suns have formally renounced their free agent rights to several players, including Dragan Bender, Jamal Crawford, Jimmer Fredette, and Ray Spalding, per RealGM’s transactions log.
Aww Butler all gone. Go back to what you were doing Fertita.
Holiday is trash.
He’s a decent bench player, but takes too many shots.
I don’ t see why the Cavs would be interested in him and not in retaining David Nwaba… Nwaba is better.
Butler is a cancer.
The only locker room that Butler didn’t get along with the vast majority of his teammates was back in Minnesota..
Butler just hates to lose, but the one thing he hates more than losing is seeing talented guys being lazy and not doing everything they can to improve their game. I can’t say I blame him..
I’d love to have Butler on my favorite team any and every day!! You won’t find a harder worker, he leads by example, he comes through in clutch moments offensively and defensively, and he’s overall one of the top 5 two-way players in the NBA, only behind Kawhi, AD, Giannis, and Klay.
You go ahead and see how successful Miami’s next 4 years are with Butler the cancer. All he cares about is being the man. It says a lot that Philly preferred retaining Harris over Butler.
Thing is, on Miami he is finally ‘the man’! He left money behind and found his place. In theory.
Zero chance Cousins signs with Washington. “Interesting development” haha
link to espn.com