NBA Teams Commit Close To $475MM In Extensions
- Anthony Davis, Pelicans — five years, maximum salary
- Damian Lillard, Trail Blazers — five years, maximum salary
- Jonas Valanciunas, Raptors — four years, $64MM
- Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Hornets — four years, $52MM
- John Henson, Bucks — four years, $44MM
- Jeremy Lamb, Hornets — three years, $21MM
- Terrence Ross, Raptors — three years, almost $33MM
- Harrison Barnes, Warriors
- Bradley Beal, Wizards
- Andre Drummond, Pistons
- Festus Ezeli, Warriors
- Evan Fournier, Magic
- Maurice Harkless, Trail Blazers
- Terrence Jones, Rockets
- Meyers Leonard, Trail Blazers
- Donatas Motiejunas, Rockets
- Andrew Nicholson, Magic
- Miles Plumlee, Bucks
- Jared Sullinger, Celtics
- Dion Waiters, Thunder
- Tony Wroten, Sixers
- Tyler Zeller, Celtics
Magic, Evan Fournier Pass On Extension
11:10pm: The sides failed to reach an extension by the deadline, as expected, Robbins notes (on Twitter).
9:40am: The Magic aren’t expected to sign Evan Fournier to a rookie scale extension by the 11pm Central deadline for them to do so tonight, sources tell Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). That will set up the former 20th overall pick for restricted free agency in July.
The Bouna Ndiaye client who just turned 23 seemed eager for a deal, expressing his hopes for an extension at the start of camp, though he said within the past several days that it would be OK if an extension didn’t happen. Chatter about the prospect of an extension between Fournier and the Magic was quiet over the offseason, so today’s news comes as no surprise despite the shooting guard’s breakout season in 2014/15. He made 32 starts and scored a career-high 12.0 points per game, though injury limited him to just five games after the All-Star break.
Fournier is making more than $2.288MM this season, the last on his rookie scale contract. His qualifying offer is worth almost $3.279MM, but he has a decent chance to up that to about $4.434MM if he triggers the starter criteria this season. He’s started all three games for Orlando so far this season, and if he starts 41, the value of his qualifying offer rises to the larger amount.
The Magic acquired Fournier from the Nuggets in the summer of 2014, and the French native who was a bit player on Denver’s 57-win 2012/13 team is eager to win again, notes Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. Fournier is off to a strong start this season, averaging 14.7 points in 35.7 minutes per game, better numbers in a small sample size than in any of his previous seasons, but his mid-range game and his defense show room for improvement, as Dana Gauruder of Hoops Rumors wrote in September when he profiled Fournier’s extension candidacy.
Orlando already has more than $60.5MM committed for 2016/17, so a deal for Fournier would further impinge on the team’s flexibility against a projected $89MM cap. Still, some agents and executives around the league reportedly believe the cap will surge to $95MM.
What sort of deal do you think Fournier will end up with in restricted free agency? Leave a comment to let us know.
Latest On Raptors, Terrence Ross Extension Talks
9:45pm: An extension deal is unlikely as the deadline nears, Sam Amick of USA Today tweets.
8:42pm: The two parties are still in negotiations and it’s 50-50 whether an extension will get done before the deadline, Marc Stein of ESPN.com tweets.
MONDAY, 11:27am: The Raptors remain open to giving Terrence Ross an extension by tonight’s 11pm Central deadline, but the team isn’t about to overspend and would prefer to wait to see how he performs this season before signing him, reports Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca (Twitter links). That leads Lewenberg to suggest that an extension between the sides is unlikely, even as they reportedly continue to discuss the matter.
Most people around the league, including the Raptors brass, have questioned the motor of the former No. 8 overall pick, according to Lewenberg, and the team is concerned about his consistency, Lewenberg adds. Comments that coach Dwane Casey made this weekend point to Toronto’s worry about Ross’ up-and-down performances. Still, the Raptors are confident that he can thrive in his new sixth-man role, Lewnberg writes, and it’s one that the Aaron Mintz client says he likes.
Ross said this weekend that it would be “an honor” to receive an extension. The Raptors planned in July to pursue the idea, and they began talks over the summer, as Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun reported. They signed a four-year, $64MM extension deal with Jonas Valanciunas, the team’s other player up for a rookie scale extension, but a deal for Ross has never appeared a likelihood. It appeared a 50-50 proposition as of several days ago, as Zach Lowe of ESPN wrote at that point.
Toronto already has more than $59.9MM in salary committed against a projected $89MM cap for 2016/17, though some executives and agents reportedly think the cap will go up to $95MM. In any case, the total for the Raptors doesn’t include any salary for Ross or for DeMar DeRozan, who can turn down a $10.05MM player option to hit free agency in July.
Western Notes: Ezeli, Miller, Lillard, Diawara
Festus Ezeli‘s favorable perception of the Warriors hasn’t changed in the wake of the end of extension talks between agent Bill Duffy and the team, as Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group relays. The center is headed into restricted free agency in July with the extension window officially set to close at 11pm Central tonight.
“Obviously [Duffy] didn’t come up to an agreement with the team, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that I want to be here for the rest of my career, and I love these guys,” Ezeli said. “I love the team. We discussed it a little bit with my family, and [Duffy] kind of told us what he thought was best moving forward, and we went with that.”
See more from the Western Conference:
- Part of the reason the Timberwolves wanted to sign Andre Miller is because Flip Saunders wanted to shore up the team’s troubles with simply inbounding the ball at the end of games, as TNT’s David Aldridge notes within his Morning Tip column for NBA.com. Of course, Miller’s leadership was key, too, and Saunders told Miller ahead of time that the team would be signing fellow veteran Tayshaun Prince, as Miller said to Aldridge for a piece that further shows the respect the Wolves have for the late coach/executive.
- Damian Lillard‘s play has been surprisingly underwhelming so far this season, but it’s chiefly a product of his willingness to experiment with his game so that he can tailor it to the needs of the Blazers‘ overhauled roster, as Jason Quick of CSNNW.com examines. “It’s easy for me to go out there and get 35 and have seven assists and the game not be played as well,’’ Lillard said. “But if we are going to play the game the right way and if our team is going to grow and keep getting better, then I have to make sure we are doing things the right way.’’
- Four-year NBA veteran and Grizzlies camp cut Yakhouba Diawara has signed with CSP Limoges of France, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). Freelance journalist Guido Guida first reported the news (Twitter link).
Hornets Opt In With Zeller, But Not With Hairston
4:31pm: The team isn’t planning to pick up Hairston’s option barring an 11th-hour change of heart, a league source told Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer (Twitter link). If so, the Hornets couldn’t re-sign Hairston next summer for more than the value of his option.
3:16pm: The Hornets have exercised their 2016/17 rookie scale team option on Cody Zeller, the team announced (on Twitter). The team has yet to announce its intentions regarding P.J. Hairston, who also has a pending rookie scale team option, seemingly a signal that Charlotte will decline that option. The Hornets face a deadline of 11pm Central tonight to opt in with Hairston. Zeller’s option is worth more than $5.318MM, while Hairston’s is in excess of $1.253MM.
“We are excited to keep Cody Zeller as a part of our core for another season,” Cho said as part of a press release from the team. “We have been very pleased with Cody’s development on both ends of the floor and look forward to him continuing to expand his game as a member of our roster.”
Zeller, the fourth overall pick in the 2013 draft, started about half the season for Charlotte last year, though his 7.6 points and 5.8 rebounds in 24.0 minutes per game from 2014/15 hardly justify his draft position. The 23-year-old’s scoring is off but his rebounding is up so far this season. He’s come off the bench in all three of Charlotte’s regular season games.
Hairston was the 26th overall pick in 2014, but unlike the more highly drafted Zeller, he’s started all three of Charlotte’s games this season, in part because of the absence of the injured Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. The 22-year-old Hairston has put up only 4.3 points in 19.3 minutes per game so far this year, a slight uptick from the 15.3 minutes per game he averaged as a rookie last season.
The addition of Zeller’s option gives the Hornets only about $39MM in salary commitments for 2016/17, not counting the team’s three-year, $21MM extension with Jeremy Lamb. Agents and executives around the league reportedly believe the salary cap will go up to $95MM this summer. Charlotte’s cap figure for next year doesn’t include any money for Al Jefferson and Nicolas Batum, who come off the books at the end of this season, though it would still be somewhat surprising if Charlotte indeed elects not to pick up Hairston’s option. I considered both options as generally likely to be exercised when I took a leaguewide look at options in September.
Central Notes: Parker, Thompson, Jones
Jabari Parker will return Wednesday for his first game since he tore his left ACL in December, as Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported (Twitter links), and as the Bucks confirm. It appeared the team was concerned he’d have to remain out until late this month, but he’s instead a go this week for Milwaukee, which has started the season a disappointing 0-3. Tyler Ennis will also make his season debut for the Bucks in that game after dealing with a shoulder injury. See more from the Central Division:
- Tristan Thompson hinted to TNT’s David Aldridge that he was on board with sitting out all of this season if it was necessary for him to get a fair deal, as Aldridge writes within his Morning Tip column for NBA.com. The power forward finally re-signed with the Cavs on a five-year, $82MM deal late last month after lengthy negotiations. “I didn’t worry about it,” Thompson said. “Obviously I love playing the game of basketball. That’s what God blessed me to do. At the same time, playing in the NBA, it’s a business side to it. At the end of the day, myself, Rich [Paul], Mark [Termini], we handled it the way we felt best. We weren’t worried. If the deal gets done, it gets done. If not, so be it, sit out the whole season [and] work on my game, and just get better. It was no wondering if it would get done, or nervousness. If I had it to do over again, I’d do it the same way — no regrets.”
- The Cavs have named former player and Termini client Damon Jones an assistant coach for their D-League team, notes Chris Reichert of Upside & Motor (Twitter link). Cleveland originally planned to have Jones, who served last year as a shooting consultant for both the Cavs and their D-League team, move into that full-time D-League role for last season, but he wasn’t interested, according to Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal (on Twitter).
- The Pacers have assigned Rakeem Christmas and Shayne Whittington to their D-League affiliate, the team announced. Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star first reported the moves would take place (Twitter link). They’re the first players any NBA team has assigned to the D-League this season, and the first that Indiana has ever assigned to its new one-to-one D-League affiliate.
Pacers Decline 2016/17 Option On Solomon Hill
The Pacers have decided not to exercise their team option for 2016/17 on Solomon Hill, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports. That means he’s set to become an unrestricted free agent this coming summer. Hill, the 23rd overall pick in 2013, was to make about $2.306MM on the option, which covered the fourth season of his rookie scale contract. The deadline for the team to make its call on the option was 11:00pm Central tonight.
Hill was a rock for the Pacers last season, when he was the only member of the team to appear in all 82 games and led an injury-hit Indiana squad in total minutes played, as Scott Agness of VigilantSports noted earlier today. The 24-year-old small forward has only made a brief two-minute cameo so far this season, however.
The decision will make it difficult for the Pacers to re-sign Hill next summer if he manages to find his way back into the rotation this season, since they won’t, by rule, be able to give him any more than the value of the option next year. That impediment would transfer if the Pacers dealt Hill to another team, likely making him a less attractive trade target for potential suitors who find his upside intriguing.
Still, Indiana elected to keep the $2.306MM off the books for 2016/17, a season for which the team already has more than $57MM committed against a salary cap that many agents and executives reportedly think will go up to $95MM. The Pacers are without any other pending rookie scale options or extensions. Hill joins Sergey Karasev, whose option the Nets will reportedly turn down, as the only two players whose teams declined their options among the more than 50 who entered camp with rookie scale options left on their respective contracts. Anthony Bennett had a rookie scale team option on his contract with the Timberwolves, but it disappeared when the Wolves released him in a buyout deal.
Do you think Hill should be part of an NBA rotation? Leave a comment to tell us.
Warriors, Festus Ezeli Break Off Extension Talks
NOVEMBER 2ND, 1:46pm: Ezeli won’t be signing an extension, the team says, according to Ethan Sherwood Strauss of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
2:33pm: Myers told reporters today that negotiations with Ezeli continue, notes Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group, which runs directly counter to the idea that they haven’t engaged in talks.
OCTOBER 27TH, 1:17pm: The Warriors and Festus Ezeli haven’t had extension talks and he is expected to hit restricted free agency next summer, a source told Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). As with Harrison Barnes, who is also unlikely to sign an extension, the deadline to do so is November 2nd.
Ezeli, who turned 26 last week, was a somewhat surprising extension candidate when GM Bob Myers expressed interest in doing a deal, given the limited playing time he’s seen over the past three seasons, though Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group speculated that the center might end up with a deal worth $9-11MM annually. The former 30th overall pick expressed strong sentiment toward staying with Golden State as camps began a month ago. Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob told Kawakami recently that it would be OK with him if Ezeli and Barnes hit restricted free agency next summer, though Lacob indicated a preference that the team reach extensions with both.
The 6’11” Ezeli returned last season after missing all of 2013/14 with injury, though he still managed only 11.0 minutes per game in 46 appearances. He started 41 games for Golden State as a rookie but still saw just 14.4 minutes per game that season. I looked in depth over the summer at the extension prospects for the Bill Duffy client, concluding that a back-loaded deal with salaries between $8MM and $10MM made the most sense. He’ll have a chance to gauge his value around the league this coming July, though the Warriors can match all competing bids if they tender a qualifying offer of about $3.013MM.
Golden State has a history of signing key players to extensions, having done so with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Andrew Bogut. Ezeli has yet to perform to their level, however.
Nets Likely To Make Mike Conley Top 2016 Target
People around the team believe that Mike Conley is the 2016 free agent that the Nets are most likely to make their top target next summer, according to Chris Herrington of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis. His connection to Nets coach Lionel Hollins, who used to be the bench boss for the Grizzlies, remains strong, with Conley having called him “like a second father almost to me,” as Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork.com noted this weekend. Still, Mazzeo suggests that it will be tough for the Nets to make themselves appealing to the point guard who’s No. 3 behind only LeBron James and Kevin Durant in our latest Free Agent Power Rankings, and Herrington doesn’t regard the Nets as a serious threat to sign him.
Conley, 28, is coming to the end of a deeply discounted contract that’s set to give him only slighly more than $9.588MM this season, but not many believe he’ll leave Memphis, as TNT’s David Aldridge wrote this summer. Marc Gasol hinted this summer that Conley is planning a long-term future with the Grizzlies, though the center more recently said he wouldn’t try to coerce his teammate into staying.
The Nets have a hole at point guard, where Jarrett Jack, who’s been a reserve for most of his 10 previous seasons in the NBA, is the starter in the wake of the team’s offseason buyout deal with Deron Williams. Brooklyn owes its 2016 first-round pick to the Celtics without protection, so GM Billy King will likely have to turn to veterans if he is to upgrade the roster after this season. The Nets have only about $45MM committed for next summer, when Joe Johnson comes off the books, and some around the league believe the salary cap will shoot up to $95MM.
Conley will be eligible for a projected maximum starting salary of $24.9MM for 2016/17, though that number is based off the league’s official cap projection of $89MM, and since max salaries are tied to the cap, a $95MM cap would enable Conley to command more. His agent is Mike Conley Sr., his father.
The Grizzlies can use Bird rights to go over the cap to retain Conley, though with less than $48MM committed for 2016/17, they have the cap flexibility to go after another team’s key free agent. Herrington speculates that they might pursue Harrison Barnes, who broke off extension talks with the Warriors last week, though Barnes will be a restricted free agent, meaning the Warriors can match offers for him.
What do you think of Brooklyn’s chances to land Conley or another marquee free agent next summer? Leave a comment to let us know.
Celtics, Zeller, Sullinger Opt Against Extensions
The Celtics won’t be signing Tyler Zeller or Jared Sullinger to extensions before tonight’s 11pm Central deadline for them to do so, a league source tells Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe (Twitter link). That allows the big men to become restricted free agents in July. The news is no shock, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported late Sunday that extensions seemed unlikely for the pair, and the team only envisioned an extension for either if they were to give the team discounts, according to Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald.
Zeller, a Sam Goldfeder client, appeared over the summer to have the better chance of the two to end up with an extension, as A. Sherrod Blakely reported in August, and Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders pegged those chances at 50-50 soon thereafter. Speculation indicated that the Celtics would be on board with salaries anywhere beneath $12MM a year, a high number for the 25-year-old who averaged only 21.1 minutes per game last season that demonstrates the effect of the expected rises in the salary cap. President of basketball operations Danny Ainge confirmed in late August that preliminary talks had begun with both Zeller and Sullinger.
Ainge had “great interest” in a new deal with Sullinger as of this spring, but any such deal with the 23-year-old David Falk client was likely to have come with a weight clause, as Jackie MacMullan of ESPNBoston.com wrote at the time. The C’s reportedly discussed Sullinger in trade talks with the Knicks around the time of the draft, but the general feeling is that the team would be pleased to re-sign both Sullinger and Zeller in restricted free agency next summer, Bulpett wrote recently.
Both are part of a crowded Celtics frontcourt that also includes Amir Johnson, David Lee, Kelly Olynyk and second-round draft pick Jordan Mickey, though only Mickey and Olynyk have guaranteed salaries for next season. Boston has a wealth of flexibility, with less than $34MM committed for 2016/17 against a salary cap that some around the league reportedly think will surge as high as $95MM.