Lamar Patterson Signs With Turkish Team
The 48th overall pick in this year’s draft is headed overseas, as Lamar Patterson has signed with Tofas Bursa of Turkey, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). The Hawks acquired the rights to Patterson on draft night, sending their 2015 second-round pick to the Bucks in exchange. The terms aren’t immediately clear, and whether the deal includes any sort of NBA escape clause is unknown.
“Lamar is in a good position to continue his development while playing meaningful minutes for a strong professional program next season,” Hawks GM Danny Ferry said in a statement from the team. “We have a great respect for the international game and will be closely monitoring Lamar’s progress with Tofas.”
The 22-year-old shooting guard acknowledged the chance that he would head overseas but indicated a preference for signing with the Hawks when he spoke last month with Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Patterson expressed excitement about the deal with Tofas Bursa while maintaining that his goal is to eventually play for Atlanta in his comments as part of the statement from the Hawks. It appears that the Hawks are content to stash both of their 2014 second-rounders overseas, since Edy Tavares, whom Atlanta drafted 43rd overall, is reportedly likely to stay with his team in Spain. Still, the Hawks brought 2013 second-round pick Mike Muscala aboard in the middle of last season, so there’s precedent for Atlanta to sign Patterson or Tavares before next summer.
Patterson averaged just 6.0 points in 25.3 minutes per game across six summer league appearances in July for Atlanta, but he was an all-around threat as a senior for the University of Pittsburgh this year. He notched 17.1 PPG in 32.6 MPG while also putting up 4.9 rebounds and 4.3 assists per contest with 38.8% three-point shooting in his final campaign for the Panthers.
Eastern Notes: Scalabrine, LeBron, George
As most of you already know, the Celtics scored a major victory earlier today when Brian Scalabrine announced that he is coming home to Boston to join the television broadcast team. In a heartfelt essay on CSNNE.com, White Mamba explained that he felt that he still had unfinished business with the C’s organization. “Remember when I spurned the Celtics and signed with the Chicago Bulls in 2010? Actually I begged [Danny] Ainge to keep me and he wished me the best of luck,” Scalabrine wrote. “I was thinking, ‘This is really tough.’ I could feel it. I left something I had spent five years creating. I haven’t paid for a meal since 2008. What if all of this goes away?” More out of the East..
- Dwyane Wade didn’t put on an all-out recruiting blitz for LeBron James when the two of them met in Las Vegas shortly before James announced he was returning to the Cavs, as Bleacher Report’s Ethan Skolnick writes. Wade did more listening than talking, as Skolnick puts it, but right after James told him he wouldn’t re-sign with the Heat, Wade, nervous that Chris Bosh would leave, too, put in a call to his remaining superstar running mate. As for Wade, he told agent Henry Thomas not to reach out to other teams on his behalf, preferring all along to stay with Miami, according to Skolnick.
- The Pacers will certainly miss Paul George this season, but they can still make the playoffs, argues Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com (Insider sub. req’d). With George, the Pacers were still projected to regress from their 56 win season thanks to the improved Eastern Conference and Lance Stephenson‘s departure. Pelton’s new projection has them winning 37 games, which could put them in the mix for one of the East’s final playoff spots.
- The Hawks hired European coaching stalwart Neven Spahija as an assistant coach, the team announced. The native of Croatia was the head coach at Cibona Zagreb in his homeland last year and carries almost 30 years of overseas coaching experience into his job with Atlanta.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Southeast Rumors: Douglas, Wall, Scott, Bosh
Heat free agent Toney Douglas was receiving interest from the Bulls until they signed Aaron Brooks, notes Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel, who adds that re-signing Douglas might make sense for Miami, given the lack of depth the club currently has in the backcourt. Let’s have a look at more on the Heat and the Southeast..
- Winderman passes along an excerpt from an interview John Wall had with the Washington Post. “[LeBron James‘ departure] helps us in our division, so we can get a top-three seed and homecourt advantage,” said Wall, confident the Wizards can surpass Miami next season. “We still got to battle it out with Charlotte, but we knew it was always going to be tough getting No. 1 in our division with Miami being at the top the whole time. We know they’re not the same team, but they’re still talented.”
- Any rumors suggesting that CSKA Moscow extended a “lucrative” offer to Mike Scott are likely overstated, hears David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). Scott agreed to re-sign with the Hawks last night.
- Chris Bosh, who was close to leaving the Heat for Houston, thinks that James’ departure will only motivate Miami’s roster, as he tells 104.3 The Ticket (transcription via Matt Moore of CBSSports.com). “We’re still going to be competitive,” said Bosh. “It gives us an opportunity to play with a chip on our shoulder. It has revitalized my attitude towards basketball a little bit. And I’m really excited.”
Eastern Notes: LeBron, Wade, Monroe, Bucks
Dwyane Wade said today that he didn’t try to recruit LeBron James back to the Heat when the two spent time together shortly before the four-time MVP announced his decision to sign with Cleveland, as Wade told reporters, including Jason Lieser of the Palm Beach Post. James didn’t tell Wade about his decision until after their time traveling back to Miami from Las Vegas, according to Wade, but James dropped enough hints to make his choice apparent.
“We had a long flight back from Vegas,” Wade said. “I probably knew then, without him telling me at that moment. You could tell where someone’s heart is and what they’re thinking. I kind of knew at that moment. As his friend, I’m just supportive. As crazy as that might sound, I’m supportive of my friend doing what makes them happy. Obviously same thing with him in this situation. You’ve gotta do what makes you happy — selfishly do what makes you happy. The decision to go back home was that.”
There’s more from Wade amid the latest from the Eastern Conference:
- Wade also said that he wanted to be with a winning team more than he wanted the money he sacrificed when he opted out of his contract and re-signed with the Heat on a discount deal, as Lieser notes. Wade is convinced that the total of $10.694MM over the next two seasons that the transactions cost him gives Miami a better chance at success. (Twitter links).
- Greg Monroe‘s interest in returning to the Pistons isn’t too strong, but while Detroit talked with the Hawks and perhaps the Suns about sign-and-trades involving him, those teams have moved on, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports told podcaster Aime Mukendi Jr. Buddy Grizzard of Hawks/Hoop provides the transcription.
- The Bucks gave second-round pick Johnny O’Bryant $600K in the first year of an otherwise minimum-salary contract, notes Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). Milwaukee used part of its cap space to complete the deal with this year’s 36th overall pick.
And-Ones: Union, Douglas, Nets, Moreland
The contracts for six NBA players will become fully guaranteed if their teams don’t waive them by the end of Friday, and two more players will earn partial guarantees if they avoid getting cut. Draymond Green and Khris Middleton almost certainly won’t be cast aside between now and that deadline, but for the rest, the summer temperatures won’t be the only reason to sweat out the next few days. Here’s more from the NBA:
- Players association VP Roger Mason Jr. insists that union leadership addressed concerns from membership regarding the hiring process for a new executive director and the departure of search committee leader Kevin Johnson, as Mason tells Bleacher Report’s Jared Zwerling. Discord had marked the union’s Monday meeting in which Michele Roberts handily won a vote to fill the executive director vacancy.
- The Bulls had been targeting free agent Toney Douglas, but they’ve abandoned their pursuit after signing Aaron Brooks, according to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune.
- Former NBA head coach Paul Westphal highlights the assistant coaching hires that the Nets officially announced today. Brooklyn also brought on Joe Wolf, Jay Humphries and Mavs assistant Tony Brown. John Welch and Jim Sann are the only holdovers from last season.
- The Warriors and Knicks were interested in undrafted forward/center Eric Moreland, according to Shams Charania of RealGM. Charania reported Tuesday that Moreland had agreed to join the Kings instead.
- The Hawks invited summer league guard Stephen Holt to fall training camp, but he instead signed a deal with a German team, reports Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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.