And-Ones: Love, Mudiay, Byron Scott
Here are a few miscellaneous news and notes to pass along out of the Association tonight:
- It’s a safe bet that Kevin Love will be traded from the Timberwolves before opening night this upcoming season, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities.
- The NCAA had cleared top 2015 draft prospect Emmanuel Mudiay to play academically, but there were still issues about his status as an amateur when he decided earlier this month to instead play in China, multiple sources tell Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv (Twitter link).
- Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak insisted in a press conference today that the team saw Byron Scott as its preferred candidate from the beginning of its coaching search, as Mike Trudell of Lakers.com notes via Twitter. Kupchak also said that Scott’s appeal to Lakers fans and experience as a former Lakers player played a role in the team’s decision, tweets Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com.
- Former Warriors coach Mark Jackson has changed agents, dropping Arn Tellem in favor of Rich Paul, the agent for LeBron James, TNT’s David Aldridge reports amid his Morning Tip column for NBA.com. Jackson denied a report before the Cavs hired David Blatt that he was interested in Cleveland’s head coaching job.
- Hawks swingman Kyle Korver has gone from being the 51st pick in the 2003 draft to arguably becoming one of the league’s most valuable role players, and Grantland’s Zach Lowe takes a comprehensive look at the evolution of the sharpshooter’s game over the years. In another piece, Lowe briefly touches on the effect that Jeff Hornacek had on Korver’s development when Hornaceck was an assistant on the Jazz.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Mike Scott Mulling Offer From CSKA Moscow
Hawks restricted free agent Mike Scott is thinking about taking a lucrative three-year offer from Russian powerhouse CSKA Moscow even though he’d prefer to remain in the NBA, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). The Hawks have been working to re-sign the power forward, as Wojnarowski noted last week when the team reached agreement with Shelvin Mack, its other restricted free agent, but there’s seemingly been little progress toward a deal.
Mack said in May that he wanted to remain with the Hawks, but other NBA teams were reportedly confident as free agency began this month that they could pry him from Atlanta. News has been otherwise quiet on the Aaron Mintz client, as I noted last week in a look at the remaining restricted free agents across the league, and it seems that going overseas is growing more appealing for Scott as NBA interest stagnates.
Scott, 26, grew into a more prominent role for the Hawks this past season after mostly manning the bench as a rookie in 2012/13. The 43rd overall pick from the 2012 draft averaged 9.6 points and 3.6 rebounds in 18.5 minutes per game this year, and his role expanded further in the postseason, when he saw 20.9 MPG.
Hawks Sign Adreian Payne
The Hawks have signed No. 15 overall pick Adreian Payne, the team announced via Twitter. He’ll likely receive more than $1.855MM this season, as our table of salaries for 2014 first-round draft picks shows.
Payne, a 6’10” power forward, showed steady improvement over his four years at Michigan State, gradually expanding his shooting range and averaging 16.4 points and 7.3 rebounds with 42.3% accuracy from behind the three-point line as a senior. The 23-year-old’s age appeared to be a concern for some teams, but the Hawks drafted him more highly than it seemed he’d go, as Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress listed him as the 19th-best prospect and Chad Ford of ESPN.com pegged him 22nd.
Atlanta struggled with injuries in its frontcourt this past season, and the presence of Payne will help the team add to its depth. Two Hawks big men who played key roles last season, Pero Antic and Mike Scott, remain unsigned.
Teams With Hard Caps For 2014/15
The NBA’s salary cap is really a misnomer of sorts, since it doesn’t truly cap salaries. Look no further than last year’s Nets for confirmation of that. They doled out nearly $103MM in salaries, incurring more than $90.57MM in luxury taxes and smashing the record for the greatest expenditure on a single roster in NBA history.
The NBA’s salary cap is commonly referred to as a “soft cap,” but there are still ways that teams can impose a “hard cap” upon themselves and set a finite limit to their spending. If a team’s salary exceeds the luxury tax threshold ($76,829,000) by more than $4MM, that team is not permitted to acquire a player via sign-and-trade, or to use the non-taxpayer’s mid-level or biannual exceptions. The only exceptions available to such a team are the taxpayer’s mid-level of $3,278,000, the minimum-salary exception, and whatever form of Bird rights they have on their own free agents. As soon as a team completes a sign-and-trade deal, uses its BAE, or uses more than $3,278,000 of its MLE to sign a player, that club becomes hard-capped at $80,829,000 for the 2014/15 season. In other words, team salary can’t exceed that amount at any point between now and June 30th, 2015.
For some clubs, that hard cap isn’t a major concern. For instance, the Suns still have about $18MM in breathing room below the hard cap, so they have plenty of flexibility to re-sign restricted free agent Eric Bledsoe to a max contract if need be. On the other hand, the Clippers are only about $1MM below the hard cap, so any trades or signings they make for the rest of the season will have to be constructed to ensure their team salary doesn’t surpass that $80.829MM cutoff.
More clubs may trigger hard caps as the offseason wears on, but here are the teams that are now locked into a hard cap for the 2014/15 season, along with an estimation (via Basketball Insiders) of their current team salaries and the reason(s) why the hard cap was created:
Hawks
Hard cap created: Acquired Thabo Sefolosha via sign-and-trade
Estimated team salary: $60,975,564
Rockets
Hard cap created: Acquired Trevor Ariza via sign-and-trade
Estimated team salary: $68,125,942
Wizards
Hard cap created: Acquired Kris Humphries via sign-and-trade; acquired DeJuan Blair via sign-and-trade; signed Paul Pierce via non-taxpayer MLE
Estimated team salary: $76,646,603
Suns
Hard cap created: Acquired Isaiah Thomas via sign-and-trade
Estimated team salary: $51,805,537
Warriors
Hard cap created: Signed Shaun Livingston via non-taxpayer MLE
Estimated team salary: $72,232,245
Pacers
Hard cap created: Signed C.J. Miles and Damjan Rudez via non-taxpayer MLE
Estimated team salary: $74,798,942
Clippers
Hard cap created: Signed Spencer Hawes via non-taxpayer MLE; signed Jordan Farmar via biannual exception
Estimated team salary: $79,679,772
Grizzlies
Hard cap created: Signed Vince Carter via non-taxpayer MLE; signed Beno Udrih via biannual exception
Estimated team salary: $75,529,943
Trail Blazers
Hard cap created: Signed Chris Kaman via non-taxpayer MLE; signed Steve Blake via biannual exception
Estimated team salary: $69,322,824
Kings
Hard cap created: Signed Darren Collison via non-taxpayer MLE
Estimated team salary: $75,852,705
Central Notes: Pistons, Cavs, Irving
The Pistons have turned over a third of their roster this offseason, and new president and coach Stan Van Gundy has been the architect of that change. David Mayo of MLive examines the team’s moves and believes Detroit may have lost ground in the Eastern Conference with all the improvements made to the Cavs, Bulls, Hawks, and Hornets rosters.
Here’s more out of the Central Division:
- Van Gundy believes being the president and coach of the Pistons is an advantage when recruiting free agents, writes Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press. Van Gundy said, “I can present the roster and talk about roles free agents could play. If you’re talking to them as a coach, it’s probably a little more realistic than just the front office — so a slight advantage, but not a whole lot.” Still, Van Gundy does admit that money is the biggest factor, saying “It’s not as much an advantage as money. My experience with the NBA is about 99.9% of the time the guy takes the best contract offer. Most guys aren’t going to make a big sacrifice, so money is No. 1, but then there are all kinds of things after that.”
- With all the buzz about a potential Kevin Love for Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett trade being in the works, Kyrie Irving isn’t worried if the Cavs complete the deal or not, writes Cameron Moon of the Northeast Ohio Media Group. Irving claims he hasn’t seriously thought about the deal being made, and also said, “There are so many guys who have inside sources. Until it happens and I get the call from our GM, other than that I haven’t really considered anything.“
- The Cavaliers have had quite a busy and surprising offseason so far. The crew at Basketball Insiders (video link) break down all the moves the team made and what they mean for the franchise going forward.
And-Ones: Boozer, Blair, Williams, Mavs
With the Bulls using their amnesty provision on Carlos Boozer on Tuesday, only seven NBA players remain amnesty-eligible as noted in our 2014 Amnesty Primer. But the five teams that haven’t used the provision will have to wait until next summer, as Wednesday marked the deadline for this offseason.
Boozer was snatched up by the Lakers earlier today for a manageable price of $3.25MM, though as ESPN’s Marc Stein reports (via Twitter), the Duke product had strong interest in the Rockets had he gone unclaimed and cleared waivers. Meanwhile, Eric Pincus of the L.A. Times speculates that Boozer’s presence might signal a more complimentary role for rookie Julius Randle unless the playoff-hungry Lakers consider June’s No. 7 pick a small forward (Twitter links are here).
Here’s more from around the league on Thursday night:
- DeJuan Blair‘s starting salary in his new deal with the Wizards is $2MM, Hoops Rumors has learned, so that leaves just $16K on the Eric Maynor trade exception the team reportedly used to absorb him via sign-and-trade from the Wizards. That effectively exhausts the Maynor exception, which expires this coming February 20th, since the remaining $16K wouldn’t be enough to absorb another player.
- Louis Williams left his exit interview with Hawks officials expecting to be traded, as he told Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, who writes in a subscription-only piece. The instinct was correct, as the Hawks shipped Williams to the Raptors late last month, but Williams said he harbors no ill feelings toward the Atlanta brass.
- Multiple reports have linked Mo Williams to Dallas in recent days, but a source tells Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com that the Mavericks are pursuing another free agent whom they would prefer to spend their room exception on.
- The Mavs‘ deal with Devin Harris, which became official earlier tonight, is for four years and $16.55MM, reports Dwain Harris of the Fort Worth Star Telegram (via Twitter). Meanwhile Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News has the yearly breakdown, reporting that Harris will make $3.878MM next season, followed by $4.053MM in 2015/16, $4.228MM in 2016/17 and $4.403MM in what is a partially guaranteed fourth year in 2017/18.
- Metta World Peace would love to play for the Lakers, Clippers or Knicks, as Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News hears, adding that it seems any conversation World Peace may have had about a return to the Lakers wasn’t too serious (Twitter link).
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Eastern Rumors: Boozer, Blair, Durant
Ethan Skolnick of Bleacher Report details how the Heat’s maneuvers to accommodate the Big Three back in 2010 are now proving costly with the departure of LeBron James. The Heat’s 2015 first round pick–given to the Cavs as part of James’ sign-and-trade to Miami–is still owed to Cleveland, and Miami is still paying Mike Miller‘s amnestied contract while the sharpshooter is on the verge of re-teaming with LeBron in another city. Here’s more from the East:
- The Hawks, reportedly one of the favorites to place a bid on Carlos Boozer, took a step in that direction, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders confirms the team has officially slipped beneath the cap (Twitter link).
- The Mavs promised DeJuan Blair that they would try to sign-and-trade him to give him a financial boost, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com, and indeed it appears Dallas is close to sending him to the Wizards via sign-and-trade,
- The Wizards will bring University of Maryland women’s assistant coach David Atkins as an assistant coach for player development, tweets Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com. A handful of rival executives see it as a sign that Washington has begun to position itself to make a run at Durant, a D.C. native, according to USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt (Twitter link), since Atkins was one of Kevin Durant‘s high school coaches, fellow ESPN scribe Mark Stein notes (on Twitter).
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Eastern Notes: Stephenson, Miller, Knicks
Some Pacers players attempted to persuade the team to sweeten its offers to Lance Stephenson, but the front office resisted, according to Sean Deveney of the Sporting News. Stephenson agreed early this morning to bolt for the Hornets, and as his new three-year, $27.5MM deal quickly came together, the Pacers never received the opportunity to match Charlotte’s offer, as Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star writes. There’s more on his deal amid the latest from the Eastern Conference:
- The Mavs made a three-year $20MM offer to Stephenson, reports Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv (Twitter link). The new Hornets two-guard would have joined the Mavs instead if the Rockets hadn’t passed on matching the Mavs’ offer sheet to Chandler Parsons, according to Chris Broussard of ESPN.com.
- The Pacers made two different five-year offers to Stephenson, but he rejected them both, favoring a shorter arrangement, agent Alberto Ebanks tells Buckner (Twitter link). Indiana wasn’t willing to go shorter than five years, Broussard writes in his piece.
- The Nuggets had a three-year, $12MM offer on the table for Mike Miller, but he passed it up for two years and $5.5MM with the Cavs thanks to persistent entreaties from LeBron James, as Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com details.
- Knicks president Phil Jackson thinks the team has too many guards, and he may end up waiving Wayne Ellington, whom New York acquired in the Tyson Chandler trade, writes Marc Berman of the New York Post.
- The Jazz almost doubled the average annual value of the deal that the Wizards were willing to give Trevor Booker, according to J. Michael of CSNWashington.com.
- The Hawks held on to Pero Antic through Tuesday, meaning his non-guaranteed salary for 2014/15 has become fully guaranteed for $1.25MM. The same is true for Kyle O’Quinn, whose minimum salary with the Magic went from non-guaranteed to fully guaranteed when Orlando kept him Tuesday.
Heat Sign James Ennis
TUESDAY, 5:32pm: The Heat have officially announced the signing, according to a team press release.
“We were excited to draft James a year ago and have been impressed by the growth of his game in Summer League and Puerto Rico, as well as his terrific experience in Australia, leading Perth to a championship,” said team president Pat Riley in a statement. “We are looking forward to the infusion of energy he will bring to our roster.”
JUNE 13TH: With the Heat on the ropes to the Spurs in the NBA Finals, the need for the team to get younger and deeper is becoming apparent. The Heat are pleased enough with the development of 2013 second-round pick James Ennis that there is a “strong likelihood” the team will sign him this summer, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link).
After a strong season in Australia’s National Basketball League where he averaged 21.2 PPG, 7.2 RPG, and 2.0 APG, Ennis spent the past week working out for the Heat front office in Miami, reports Charania (via RealGM). Ennis, 23, will headline the Heat’s Summer League rosters in Orlando and Las Vegas, according to the article.
The Heat acquired Ennis from the Hawks, who selected him with the 50th overall pick in the 2013 NBA Draft. The potential signing of Ennis would likely be a multi-year deal, sources told Charania.
Hornets, Hawks Likely To Bid On Carlos Boozer
The Hornets and the Hawks are early favorites to register a bid for Carlos Boozer while he’s on amnesty waivers, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter links). The Bulls used the amnesty provision to waive Boozer this afternoon.
Teams are required to have cap space to submit a bid, unlike with regular waivers, which allow teams to use trade exceptions. It’ll take at least enough cap room to register a bid for Boozer’s $1,448,490 minimum salary, a GM confirms to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link), though it’ll probably take significantly more than that, given the interest. Boozer will go to the team that makes the highest bid, if there are multiple bids, and if there are two or more bids for the same amount — a possibility, since it’s a blind bidding process — Boozer would go to the team with the worst record from last season. The team that makes the winning bid will pay that amount for Boozer next season, while the rest of his $16.8MM salary will be covered by the Bulls. The bidder’s portion will count against the salary cap, but Chicago’s won’t.
Charlotte has about $52.652MM in guaranteed salary for this coming season, giving it slightly less than $10MM in cap flexibility to make a bid. The Hawks are technically operating over the cap, but they could open about $12MM.