Eastern Notes: Caboclo, Antetokounmpo, Murry
The Raptors front office staff gave broad support to selecting Bruno Caboclo 20th overall when GM Masai Ujiri brought up the idea to them on draft night, observes Chris Mannix of SI.com. The Mavericks and Celtics were also interested in the unheralded Brazilian prospect, Mannix reveals, and an earlier report indicated that the Jazz and Suns were poised to draft Caboclo, too. Toronto pulled another surprise when it signed Caboclo for this season rather than stash him overseas, even before he impressed in summer league play, as Mannix writes.
“When a guy goes overseas you don’t get to monitor him as closely, to see if he is getting stronger, to see all of what he is doing,” Ujiri said. “Keeping him here, we can do that. When he needs playing time, send him to the D-League. He can play in NBA practices, he can go through a training camp and after the year we will wait to see where he is and what more he needs to develop.”
Here is what else is going on in the Atlantic division on Friday evening:
- When the Knicks took Greek guard Thanasis Antetokounmpo with the 51st pick in June, many believed they did so with the intent of stashing him overseas. As Marc Berman of the New York Post points out, the team could also assign Antetokounmpo to their D-League affiliate without giving him an NBA contract, in turn preventing him from taking up one of their 15 NBA roster spots.
- The Heat are indeed among the teams with interest in free about Toure’ Murry, a source tells Ian Begley of ESPN New York. Aaron Falk of The Salt Lake Tribune suggested as much late last month.
- Pistons assistant coach Scott Roth will become the new head coach for Sevilla of the Spanish League, reports ESPN’s Marc Stein, where he will coach 2015 lottery hopeful Kristaps Porzingis. Roth joined the bench in Detroit mid-season in February after three years as an assistant in Toronto. In all, he worked as an assistant on six NBA teams and was also a coach in the D-League. (Twitter links)
- Pistons center Andre Drummond is confident that current teammate Greg Monroe will be back in Detroit for the 2014/15 season, writes Vince Ellis of USA Today. We heard this morning that Monroe might not want to return to the Motor City and this isn’t the first time Drummond has addressed his teammate’s status as a restricted free agent. Monroe has the option of signing his qualifying offer from the Pistons and becoming an unrestricted free agent next summer.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Nuggets Sign Erick Green
AUGUST 1ST: The deal is official, the team announced.
JULY 26TH, 7:51pm: Green’s three-year contract is non-guaranteed, as detailed on Basketball Insiders’ Eric Pincus’ salary sheet for the Nuggets, coming in at $2,332,826 of total salary.
FRIDAY, 7:55am: Green signed his contract with the Nuggets on Thursday, according to the RealGM transactions log, though the team has yet to announce the deal.
THURSDAY, 2:20pm: It’ll be a three-year deal for Green, the 46th pick in last year’s draft, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports tweets. That means Denver will use a portion of its mid-level exception to complete the signing.
WEDNESDAY, 8:06pm: After a strong summer league showing, Erick Green will sign a multi-year deal with the Nuggets, reports Nikos Varlas of Eurohoops (hat tip to Sportando). The Virginia Tech product played for Italy’s Mens Sana Siena last season after being selected by Utah in the second round of the 2013 NBA Draft (his rights were then traded to Denver). Green averaged 11.5 points on 51 percent shooting in 28 games for Siena last season, helping to lead the team to the seventh game of the Italian finals.
Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post confirms the deal, writing that Green will likely fill the team’s need for a third point guard behind Ty Lawson and Nate Robinson. As Dempsey notes, Green averaged 16.6 points, 3.0 boards and 2.6 assists per game for the Nuggets this summer, in turn convincing the team that he was capable of handling point guard duties in the NBA. His scoring ability was likely never in doubt, as the 23-year-old was the leading scorer among Division I players in his final season in Blacksburg.
The financial terms of the deal are not yet known, though the original report indicates that the pact will extend beyond one year. After adding Gary Harris in the draft and Arron Afflalo via trade, the signing of Green currently puts the Nuggets’ roster at 14 players. Denver also selected international prospects Jusuf Nurkic and Nikola Jokic in June, though it is unclear if either will play for the team this season.
Nuggets Sign Jusuf Nurkic
JULY 31ST: The signing is official, the Nuggets announced.
JULY 23RD: The Nuggets have signed 16th overall pick Jusuf Nurkic, reports Mark Deeks of ShamSports (via Twitter). Nurkic will likely be making more than $1.7MM this season, as our table of salaries for 2014 first-round picks shows.
Denver’s other first rounder, Gary Harris, signed his deal with the team earlier this month. However the situation with Nurkic, a 19-year-old international prospect from Bosnia, was less clear as his addition to the Nuggets roster faced the obstacle of a $1.77MM buyout due to his overseas club. Eventually, Nurkic and KK Cedevita (of Croatia) agreed to spread the buyout over two seasons. With Denver paying the $600K Excluded International Player Payment Amount this upcoming season, that would put Nurkic on the hook for about $285K in 2014/15 and the full $885K in 2015/16, meaning he will pocket roughly $1.42MM in his first season in the NBA.
At 6-foot-11 and 280 pounds, Nurkic is a traditional center that rocketed up draft boards due to his size and touch around the basket. As Denver GM Tim Connelly indicated after the draft, the Bosnian is a “long term play” although he does possess the skill level that could allow him to have an impact sooner than some think.
Mavericks Sign Al-Farouq Aminu
10:52am: The team has formally announced the signing, via press release.
JULY 29TH, 10:21am: The deal is official, according to the RealGM transactions log and Eric Pincus of Basketball insiders (Twitter link), though the team has yet to make an announcement.
JULY 23RD: Free agent forward Al-Farouq Aminu will sign with the Mavericks, Chris Haynes of CSN Northwest reports (via Twitter). Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas confirms the deal, citing Aminu’s agent Raymond Brothers and adding that it will be for the veteran’s minimum (Twitter links). More specifically, the pact is for two years and $2.1MM with a player option for the second year, reports NBA.com’s David Aldridge (via Twitter). Aminu played the last three seasons in New Orleans after being drafted No. 8 overall in 2010 by the Clippers. The Wake Forest product, still only 23, averaged 7.2 points and 6.2 rebounds for the Pelicans in 2013/14.
MacMahon reported that the Mavs were interested in Aminu earlier this month, a report that Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram seconded a few weeks later. This is the latest move in a busy offseason for the Mavericks, who voided their contract with Rashard Lewis earlier today and are reportedly close to a deal with point guard Jameer Nelson. Dallas also acquired Tyson Chandler and Raymond Felton via trade in June and, of course, stole Chandler Parsons from the rival Rockets earlier this month.
As Aldridge adds, Lewis’ knee surgery caused Dallas to turn to Aminu. Aldridge also indicates that the Mavs have retained their $2.7MM room exception, which is expected to go to Nelson (Twitter links). At only 23 years of age, Aminu makes for an interesting addition to a new-look Mavericks team that will look to improve on a 49-win season in 2013/14. The former Demon Deacon will add versatility and rebounding ability to the Dallas frontcourt.
Pelicans Re-Sign Darius Miller
JULY 25TH: The deal is official, the team announced.
JULY 18TH: Shortly after adding free agent Jimmer Fredette to their backcourt, the Pelicans have struck a deal with small forward Darius Miller, reports John Reid of the New Orleans Times-Picayune (via Twitter). After being selected by the Pelicans in the second round of the 2012 NBA Draft, Miller averaged 3.3 points in 14.6 minutes per contest over two seasons in New Orleans. However, in June the team opted not to extend the Kentucky product a qualifying offer that would have been worth $1.15MM for next season. The terms of this deal are not yet known.
The 6-foot-8 Doug Neustadt client was the sixth Wildcat taken in the 2012 draft, including Miller’s current and former teammate Anthony Davis, who the Pelicans took No. 1 overall. In his senior year, Miller helped lead the Wildcats to a national title, averaging 9.9 PPG on .474/.376/.797 shooting.
Miller figures to provide depth on the wing for the Pelicans, who possess a talented roster but don’t really have any small forwards with Miller’s height or length. A year after adding Jrue Holiday and Tyreke Evans to a roster that already contained a budding superstar in Davis, the Pelicans added Omer Asik, Jimmer Fredette and have now brought back Miller this offseason.
Pelicans Sign Jimmer Fredette
JULY 24TH, 5:44pm: Fredette’s signing with New Orleans is official, per a team release.
JULY 18TH, 8:06am: Fredette will make the minimum salary, according to Reid’s full story.
JULY 17TH, 11:33pm: The Pelicans have reached agreement with Jimmer Fredette on a one-year deal, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). New Orleans targeted shooting help after losing Anthony Morrow to the Thunder this past weekend, and moved quickly to add the sharpshooting Fredette, Stein adds (via Twitter). John Reid of the New Orleans Times-Picayune was the first to confirm Stein’s report (via Twitter). The financial terms of the deal are not yet known.
The 25-year-old was bought out by the Kings in Feburary approximately two-and-a-half years after Sacramento made him the 10th pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. Fredette, an Octagon Sports client, signed in early March with a Bulls team desperate for offense, though he only averaged seven minutes of burn in eight games once arriving in Chicago. There hasn’t been much buzz around the BYU product leading up to this news, however Panathinaikos of Greece reportedly expressed some interest a month ago.
Fredette will presumably compete for backcourt minutes with Austin Rivers, Russ Smith and John Salmons behind starters Jrue Holiday and the often-injured Eric Gordon. While he probably lacks the size and defensive ability to be an impact guard, Fredette has knocked down three pointers at a 40.1 percent clip for his career. He will likely assume that type of specialist role in New Orleans.
Mavs Sign Jameer Nelson
5:27pm: The deal is official, as the Mavs announced in a team release.
3:50pm: Nelson has completed the paperwork on his deal, tweets Shams Charania of RealGM, so presumably all that’s left is for the Mavs to receive it and make an official announcement.
THURSDAY, 2:05pm: The deal will run two years and include a player option for the final season, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com.
TUESDAY, 11:04pm: Jameer Nelson will sign with the Mavericks on Thurday, sources tell Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. As expected, Dallas will use their $2.732MM room exception on the veteran point guard, who has spent all 10 of his seasons in the NBA with the Magic before being waived by the team in June. While all signs have pointed towards the sides nearing a deal for a few days now, there were some conflicting reports that Nelson’s camp was speaking with other teams earlier today. The Pelicans, Nets and Pistons were also reported to have interest in the Saint Joseph’s product.
Nelson, a Steve Mountain client, averaged 12.1 points and 7 assists in 32 minutes per game last season on a rebuilding Magic team. As Spears notes, he is expected to compete with Raymond Felton and Devin Harris for the starting point guard position in Dallas, who has now added Nelson, Felton, Al-Farouq Aminu, Tyson Chandler and Chandler Parsons to a team that won 49 games last year. The team also expressed interest in free agent point guard Mo Williams, though this agreement makes that an unlikely possibility.
Now 32, Nelson will be joining a veteran-laden team in Dallas that might just have title aspirations next season despite striking out on all the big-time free agents they’ve reportedly coveted over the past few offseasons. After a handful of losing seasons in Orlando, joining a contender could inject life into Nelson, who earned his lone All-Star nod in 2009 for a Magic team en route to the NBA Finals. As Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News points out, the additions of Nelson and Aminu leave the Mavs with one roster spot remaining and only a minimum salary deal to offer for it.
Contract Details: Brooks, Bairstow, Brown
As free agent transactions around the league become official, so do the monetary specifics of their contract agreements. Here’s a round up of the latest contract details to come to light this evening:
- The minimum salary contract Aaron Brooks signed with the Bulls is for one year, as Mark Deeks of ShamSports reveals on his updated Bulls salary page.
- Cameron Bairstow‘s three-year contract with the Bulls is guaranteed for $425K in year two and otherwise non-guaranteed past the first season, Deeks also reports.
- Markel Brown‘s two-year deal with the Nets is fully guaranteed in year one, with a series of guarantee dates for the second season, as Deeks shows.
- The two-year deal the Nets gave Cory Jefferson is similar, except it’s only guaranteed for $75K this year, Deeks also notes.
- The Nets gave Bojan Bogdanovic a 15% trade kicker on his three-year deal rather than the player option that he initially appeared to be getting, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports on his Nets salary page.
- Robbie Hummel‘s deal with the Timberwolves is fully-guaranteed for $880K for the upcoming season, reports Pincus. It was originally reported to be worth $900K. Pincus adds that the deal allows Hummel to block any trade Minnesota may try to include him in (Twitter links).
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Suns Re-Sign P.J. Tucker
JULY 23RD: The deal is official, the team announced. The Suns used cap space to complete the transaction.
7:22pm: The third year of Tucker’s deal includes about $3.8MM of non-guaranteed money, writes Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic. Coro also indicates that Tucker has yet to sign the contract.
JULY 10TH, 6:35pm: The Suns will re-sign restricted free agent P.J. Tucker to a three year deal worth $16.5MM, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter). Tucker met with Suns owner Robert Sarver and head coach Jeff Hornacek yesterday and it was believed that talks would spill over to today. The terms of the deal would allow Phoenix to utilize Tucker’s Early Bird Rights, their Mid-level exception or their available cap room to bring back the forward, though there have yet to be reports of which option they’ll choose.
The 29-year-old Texas product has carved out a nice role the past two seasons in Phoenix as a solid defender and a positive influence in the locker room. Tucker, who is represented by the Arete Sports Agency, averaged 9.4 points and 6.5 rebounds in 30.7 minutes per game last season for a Suns team that nearly made the playoffs. While Phoenix has been mentioned as suitors for some of the NBA’s top free agents, it has mostly been on the periphery. However, they’ve had a busy Thursday after reportedly hosting restricted free agent Isaiah Thomas and now locking up Tucker.
There was talk last week that several teams had inquired about the possibility of acquiring Tucker from Phoenix via sign and trade but they came away convinced that the Suns were determined to keep him. The Wizards and Raptors were specifically reported to have had interest.
And-Ones: Salary Cap, Huestis, Allen, Hornets
Executives from teams around the league believe the NBA will attempt to prevent any sharp jump in the salary cap from one year to the next when heightened TV revenues come in by gradually increasing the cap, Grantland’s Zach Lowe reports. The union would have to consent to any such effort, Lowe tweets. Some teams project that the cap will be as much as 30% higher two years from now, as Lowe adds in his full piece.
Let’s take a look at what else is brewing around the league on Wednesday night:
- Josh Huestis should accept the required tender the Thunder are obligated to make to retain his draft rights rather than follow through on a promise to sign instead in the D-League, as Mark Deeks of ShamSports argues in a piece for Hoop365.com.
- Ray Allen, currently vacationing in China, told a Chinese news outlet that he will return home on Thursday to get MRIs on both of his legs before making a decision about the 2014/15 season, tweets Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com, who adds that multiple teams are interested.
- Hornets head coach Steve Clifford indicated that he’d like to add some depth at center behind Al Jefferson and Bismack Biyombo, reports Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer. Bonnell adds that such an addition would likely be a veteran on a minimum salary deal (Twitter links).
- After a number of years in the lottery, the Jazz have assembled the type of young and promising core that should make them a threat in the near future, opines Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders.
Chuck Myron contributed to the post.