Latest On Tristan Thompson
FRIDAY, 8:07am: Thompson and his camp prefer a three-year max contract to the five-year max they sought most of the summer, league sources tell McMenamin. Thompson reportedly became willing to do a three-year max deal last week, but the Cavs are uninterested in such a proposal. The full value of the three-year max for Thompson would be precisely $52,914,188.
11:04pm: Thompson let the deadline pass without signing the qualifying offer, a source tells McMenamin (Twitter link). So, his choices are either to sign a long term deal with the Cavs, sign an offer sheet with another team, or continue to sit out. March 1st would be the last day for him to sign an offer sheet this season, if the saga dragged on that long, and if he held out all season, the Cavs would have the chance to issue another qualifying offer to renew his restricted free agency next July. Both the Cavs and Mark Termini, the negotiator for Paul and the Klutch Sports agency, which represents Thompson, have a history with holdouts, as Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today Sports points out.
2:54pm: The Cavaliers had until last night to extend tonight’s deadline, as former Nets executive Bobby Marks points out (Twitter link), and they decided against it, reports USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt (Twitter link), so the clock ticks for Thompson.
THURSDAY, 2:36pm: The Cavs are operating on the assumption that Thompson will be with team in camp Friday, Griffin said today on NBA TV, according to Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal. The qualifying offer disappears if Thompson doesn’t accept it by midnight Cleveland time tonight. He would remain a restricted free agent in that scenario. He would be free to re-sign with the Cavs or sign an offer sheet with another team, and Cleveland would retain the right to match any offer he signs. He would simply be unable to sign Cleveland’s qualifying offer.
“We fully expect he’ll be here in some form or fashion [on Friday] and we’re excited to get going,” Griffin told NBA TV. “We’re hopeful that he wants to move forward with his teammates in the same way we want to have Tristan here. If we can come to some agreement we will.”
MONDAY, 4:12pm: LeBron James expressed optimism that Tristan Thompson, who continues to linger in restricted free agency, will work out a new deal with the Cavaliers, and GM David Griffin conveyed similar sentiments at media day today, an event that Thompson didn’t attend. USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt rounds up comments from Griffin and James.
“We feel very good about where this is because of who Tristan is and because of the competitor he is and because of the relationship he has with his teammates,” Griffin said.
Griffin said “nothing is lost by what Tristan is doing right now” and said that he doesn’t find his ongoing free agency a distraction, as Zillgitt also relays. Thursday is the final day that Thompson may accept his qualifying offer of nearly $6.778MM before it expires, barring the unlikely event that Cleveland decides to push that deadline back.
“Double T is a huge piece of our team, and he showed to the world how important he is in the postseason,” James said, according to Zillgitt. “I’m optimistic about him being back. All sides — the team, the organization, Tristan and myself — would love to have him for the long term.”
James, a fellow client of agent Rich Paul, added that he would not get involved in the negotiations, notes Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com (Twitter link), a stance he has maintained for months. James was reportedly planning to delay his signing until after Thompson signed his deal, but the four-time MVP instead inked a new contract with the Cavs in early July.
Griffin admitted he would have loved to have come to a deal with Thompson around that time. It appeared on the opening day of free agency that the sides were close on a five-year, $80MM deal, but the power forward instead has sought the max of around $94MM over five years. It again appeared the sides were close to a signing last week, but Thompson and the team still don’t see eye-to-eye. Thompson has threatened to sign his qualifying offer, which would entail a one-year contract, with Paul insisting he won’t re-sign with Cleveland as an unrestricted free agent if it comes to that. I broke down a handful of contract scenarios for the former No. 4 overall pick earlier this week.
More Than 120 Players To Hit Waivers This Month
NBA teams can carry as many as 20 players during the preseason, but they have to trim that number to 15 by October 26th, the last day before regular season games begin. Every team is carrying at least 17 players, and almost half the league has full 20-man rosters. Currently, 573 players are under contract with NBA teams. That number will decline to no more than 450 by the deadline later this month, meaning at least 123 players will go on waivers between now and then.
Some teams have more moves to make than others. The Clippers, Pacers and Trail Blazers need only trim two players. Most teams will end up cutting four or five, but some may release even more. Teams need only carry 13 players in the regular season, and while 27 of the 30 teams had full 15-man rosters on opening night last year, the Bulls, who have 19 players in the wake of today’s signing, and other franchises have made a habit of beginning the regular season with smaller rosters.
Most of the extra players on NBA rosters have non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed contracts, so teams have flexibility, but 16 teams can make signings without having to make a corresponding move. Here’s a breakdown of each team’s open preseason roster spots:
Three open preseason spots
- Clippers
- Pacers
- Trail Blazers
Two open preseason spots
- Hornets
- Kings
- Pelicans
- Suns
- Timberwolves
One open preseason spot
- Bulls
- Lakers
- Knicks
- Magic
- Nuggets
- Raptors
- Rockets
- Thunder
Zero open preseason spots
- 76ers
- Bucks
- Cavaliers
- Celtics
- Grizzlies
- Heat
- Hawks
- Jazz
- Mavericks
- Nets
- Pistons
- Spurs
- Warriors
- Wizards
Note: The Cavaliers have 20 players even without Tristan Thompson, so they’ll have to waive somebody for him to come aboard if he does.
And-Ones: Bender, Wall, Durant, Brown, Lawson
European phenom Dragan Bender will make his U.S. debut in Chicago tonight for Israel Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv for the first of a pair of exhibitions against EA7 Emporio Armani Milan, as Zach Links of Hoops Rumors first reported he was likely to do. The 17-year-old has stirred no shortage of excitement, as international journalist David Pick writes for Bleacher Report. Almost all 30 NBA teams are set to scout the contests, with the Celtics, Nets, Mavericks, Grizzlies and Bucks among them, sources tell Pick. Hornets GM Rich Cho will be there, too, tweets Jake Fischer of SI Now. The Nuggets, Sixers and Magic have had talks with Maccabi officials about the 7’1″ power forward, Pick also hears. Bender is well ahead of where 2015 No. 4 overall pick Kristaps Porzingis was at the same age, Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress told Pick. Givony has Bender as the fifth-best prospect in next year’s draft, while Chad Ford of ESPN.com ranks him seventh.
“The only thing ’17 years old’ about him is his mustache,” Maccabi coach Guy Goodes said to Pick.
See more on Bender and other NBA news here:
- Bender turns 18 next month, so he’ll turn 19 in 2016 and thus be eligible for early entry for the upcoming draft, but it’s not a given that he’ll declare, as Maccabi GM Nikola Vujcic, who also serves as Bender’s guardian, explained to Pick for the same piece. Vujcic suggested to Pick that Bender won’t enter the draft unless he receives a commitment from a team picking in the top three to five selections and suggested that he might decide to stay overseas for a while even if he is drafted.
- John Wall says he and Kevin Durant are “really close” and reiterated that he’ll make a recruiting pitch to the former MVP who hits free agency next summer, though he adds that he’ll be cautious not to take an overbearing approach, as the Wizards point guard explains to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders.
- The Nets declined to waive Markel Brown by Tuesday’s guarantee date, so his $200K partial guarantee jumped to a full guarantee on his $845,059 minimum salary, notes Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). That gives the Nets 13 fully guaranteed contracts among the 20 players they have in camp.
- The Rockets are trying to minimize their risks with Ty Lawson, having told him that they’ll provide a ride for him to any destination at any time, according to TNT’s David Aldridge, who writes in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com. Lawson, for whom Houston traded this summer despite two DUI arrests in six months, has been on his best behavior so far, Aldridge notes.
Sixers Notes: Hinkie, Embiid, Brown, Landry
Sixers owner Josh Harris admits that it’s difficult to watch his team lose, but he insists that he doesn’t want to sacrifice the franchise’s long-term rebuilding plan, notes Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link). Harris is still supportive of GM Sam Hinkie, pointing to the work he’s done via trade, and he doesn’t question the team’s decision to draft Joel Embiid third overall last year despite the fact that he’s likely to miss a second season in a row because of his ailing right foot, as Tom Moore of Calkins Media observes (All Twitter links).
‘When we drafted Joel, it was a good risk to take. I was really disappointed [about the news of his second foot surgery],” Harris said. “When you talk to the doctors, they’re quite optimistic. You have to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.”
See more from Philadelphia:
- Harris and Hinkie didn’t talk about an extension for coach Brett Brown, whose contract expires at the end of the 2016/17 season, but they made it clear they’re fond of him. “I give Brett an A for the job he’s done. He’s an incredible player development person,” Harris said, according to Moore (Twitter links). “I hope and expect Brett to be around the team for a long, long time.” Hinkie believes Brown has also excelled in ways that aren’t readily apparent, as Pompey relays. “I’m proud to see all of you like Brett Brown as much as I like Brett Brown,” Hinkie said to reporters, including Moore, as he pointed to stories about the idea of an extension. “It’s been a real pleasure — and I suspect it’ll continue to be a real pleasure — to work with him. He and I have a great relationship. He’s been a fantastic partner.”
- Carl Landry is still about five or six weeks away from a return following June 2nd surgery to repair a torn ligament in his wrist, but Hinkie indicated that the team intends for him to stick around despite his status as a veteran who’s making a relatively sizable amount of money, as Pompey details. His $6.5MM salary is the highest on the team. “We talked a lot about this situation and how it’s different the way people might perceive it [as nothing more than a salary dump], and the importance of his voice and how that might matter,” Hinkie said. “That doesn’t take away from his game. I think he will be able to play fine.”
- Nik Stauskas, whom the Sixers acquired along with Landry via trade this summer, regrets approaching his rookie year last season with trepidation, as he tells Pompey for a separate piece. “Coming into last year, I had no clue what to expect,” Stauskas said. “I was a little bit nervous, maybe a little bit scared. Coming into the NBA for me was almost a different ball game. Looking back on it, that was probably one of the biggest mistakes I made. It’s still just basketball. It just happens to be with different players in a different league.”
- Undrafted rookie Christian Wood has just a $50K guarantee on his deal with the Sixers, but he’s looked impressive so far, Pompey opines. Brown has praise for the power forward, and particularly for the development of his three-point shot.
Bulls Sign Stefhon Hannah
The Bulls have signed former University of Missouri point guard Stefhon Hannah, the team announced. He played in the D-League this past season and was with the Warriors for training camp in 2012. Chicago only had 18 players, two under the preseason roster limit, so a corresponding move isn’t necessary. The terms of Hannah’s deal aren’t immediately clear, but most signees at this time of year receive minimum-salary deals with little or no guaranteed money.
Hannah, 30, will give the Bulls some depth at the point while Derrick Rose recovers from his fractured orbital bone, which the team says should keep the former MVP from basketball activities for two weeks. The 6’1″ Hannah averaged 5.9 points, 2.1 assists and 2.0 turnovers per game in 22 D-League appearances last season, when he split time between the affiliates of the Kings and the Pistons. The Pedro Power client’s strength is on the defensive side of the ball, as he won back-to-back D-League Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2012 and 2013.
The Bulls have Aaron Brooks, Kirk Hinrich, E’Twaun Moore and fellow camp invitees Jordan Crawford and Jake Anderson available to play point guard in Rose’s stead, though Hinrich, Moore and Crawford also play on the wing, which perhaps created the team’s desire to add Hannah. Chicago has 13 players with fully guaranteed contracts, plus a 50% partial guarantee to Cameron Bairstow, and with the team’s history of carrying fewer than 15 players on opening night, Hannah’s odds of sticking for the regular season appear low.
Texas Notes: Howard, Lawson, West, McGee
Dwight Howard can opt out of his deal at season’s end, but he isn’t planning for the sort of hype that surrounded the last time his contract became an issue, writes Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. Howard declined to talk Wednesday about his potential to become a free agent next summer, though Rockets GM Daryl Morey said last week that he intends to keep the core of the team, including Howard, together for more than just this coming season, Feigen notes. Howard shrugged off the notion that he’s headed into an age-related decline.
“I’m 29 years old,” Howard said, accoring to Feigen. “Regardless of me being in the league for 12 years, I’m still fairly young. I’ll give everything I’ve got for these 10, 11 years I have left.”
See more on the Rockets amid the latest from around the Texas Triangle:
- Ty Lawson asked James Harden to push the Rockets to trade for him shortly after last season’s Western Conference Finals were over, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. The initial rush of major moves in late June and early July passed with Lawson still on the Nuggets, but Houston finally traded for the point guard in late July.
- David West has been saving money since his rookie season with the idea that when he came to the end of his career, he could make professional decisions based on basketball only and not worry about finances, as Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio-Express News details. That’s just what he did this summer, when he turned down a $12.6MM player option from the Pacers and signed for a $1,499,187 minimum salary with the Spurs. “There are a lot of people making a whole lot less than we make that live comfortable lives,” West said to McDonald. “I’ve always kept that in perspective. So when it came down to year 13, knowing you’ve got more yesterdays than tomorrows, you say, ‘Take the money off the table and go where you want to go.’”
- JaVale McGee is showing frustration as the rehab process from stress fracture in his left tibia drags on, but even though he probably won’t be ready for opening night, the dearth of other center options on the Mavs makes it likely the team keeps him, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com. That means the Mavs would end up cutting one of 15 players with a fully guaranteed contract to accommodate McGee’s partially guaranteed deal on the regular season roster. “We know what he’s capable of doing,” coach Rick Carlisle said of McGee. “He has a body of work. We know he’s an NBA player, and we know he has the ability to be a starting player in the NBA. We know he’s very motivated to play. He’s just had a very odd rehab situation that’s been addressed and he’s doing much better. So that’s something that we’re going to have to evaluate and kind of see what’s what as time goes along, but we consider him a guy that’s a great prospect.”
Marc Gasol To Try To Recruit Pau Gasol To Grizzlies
Marc Gasol will be part of an effort to convince Pau Gasol to sign with the Grizzlies, as Marc tells the Spanish outlet Europa Press (translation via HoopsHype). Marc signed a new five-year max deal with Memphis in July, but Pau can opt out of his contract with the Bulls next summer. Marc suggests it would be difficult to convince his brother to leave the Bulls, the team he joined just last year, but Marc says that he and the Grizzlies will try.
Pau’s contract with Chicago is team-friendly, particularly in light of his 18.5 points and 11.8 rebounds per game this past season, a bounceback year for him and one in which he and his brother started at center for their respective conferences in the All-Star Game. The 2016/17 player option in Pau’s deal is worth slightly less than $7.77MM, and though he turns 36 next July, the free agent market will be flooded with cash as the salary cap jumps to a projected $89MM. The Grizzlies have about $46MM in commitments for 2016/17, though that doesn’t include money for Mike Conley, who’s No. 3 on our 2016 Free Agent Power Rankings and whose max salary is a projected $24.9MM.
Power forward Zach Randolph is under contract with the Grizzlies through 2016/17, so the addition of Pau this coming summer would give Memphis a crowded frontcourt. However, Randolph is only one year younger than Pau, and Marc will be 31 by then, so it’s a distinct possibility that age will limit the ability of all three to play heavy minutes anyway. Pau is already in the midst of a frontcourt logjam in Chicago, where he, Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, Nikola Mirotic and recent first-round picks Doug McDermott and Bobby Portis are all candidates for playing time at the power forward and center positions.
Hoops Rumors Chat Transcript
4:03pm: We hosted the weekly live chat.
3:00pm: Training camps are underway, and but offseason matters linger, with Tristan Thompson facing a key deadline Thursday and the Nuggets poised to land Mike Miller. The trade demand that Markieff Morris made this summer is apparently no longer in effect, but, as with the saga of DeMarcus Cousins, George Karl and the Kings, questions remain over how long the detente will last.
We can talk about all that and more in today’s chat, so click here to join!
Pacific Notes: Johnson, Morris, Barnes, Collison
Wesley Johnson grew tired of the individualism on the Lakers last season and sought a change this summer, as Janis Carr of the Orange County Register details. Johnson signed with the Clippers, citing the persistence of the front office that took a similar tack in its pursuit of Josh Smith, and the swingman praised the clear set of expectations that Doc Rivers has laid out for him, contrasting it to what he thought was a disjointed Lakers offense, Carr observes.
“You would go out there and want to play the right way, but everyone wanted to prove themselves,” Johnson said, according to Carr. “So nobody really knew what was going on. Nobody ever knew, so it was hard for anyone to come in and get into a good rhythm or flow. Nobody was playing together.”
See more from the Pacific Division:
- Dan Bickley of the Arizona Republic finds the sudden change of heart from Markieff Morris hard to believe, but Morris and Suns officials recently engaged in a lengthy conversation and expressed a mutual desire to make their partnership work, sources tell Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders. “I’m excited. Happy to be back. Happy to be with my team,” Morris told Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic (Twitter link).
- Harrison Barnes would have been pleased to sign for $10MM a year as of this past June, a source told Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group. The former seventh overall pick more recently turned down a four-year, $64MM offer from the Warriors, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reported.
- Darren Collison signed with the Kings in 2014 chiefly so he could start, but he’s a long shot to remain the team’s starter this season with new signee Rajon Rondo aboard, as Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee examines. Collison wants to start, but he’s not about to rock the boat, either, Voisin writes.
- Robert Upshaw was red-flagged over concerns about the health of his heart during predraft workouts, and though doctors eventually cleared him, he believes the time he had to step away from draft prep set him back, as he explains to Pincus, who writes in a piece for the Los Angeles Times. Upshaw went undrafted and signed a partially guaranteed minimum-salary deal with the Lakers. “It was zero basketball activity, zero activity,” Upshaw said. “It’s hard to get in shape and it’s easy to get out of shape. I got out of shape really fast, it was a month’s time where I was just barely doing anything.”
- The contracts that Juwan Staten and Tony Mitchell signed with the Warriors are non-guaranteed for the minimum salary and cover only one season, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). Ben Gordon‘s full contract details are still unclear, but half of his salary becomes guaranteed if he sticks for opening night, according to former Nets executive Bobby Marks (on Twitter).
Michael Beasley To Play In China
1:50pm: Beasley has essentially acknowledged the deal, posting a Shandong logo on his Instagram account (hat tip to Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel).
11:57am: Michael Beasley has signed a contract with Shandong of the Chinese Basketball Association, as the Chinese outlet Hupu reports (translation via HoopsHype), and as international journalist David Pick confirms (Twitter link). The deal will pay the former No. 2 overall pick $600K this season, a source tells Pick. It’s a return to China for Beasley, who averaged 28.7 points in 38.1 minutes per game across 37 appearances for Shanghai Dongfang last season. Those numbers don’t include the 59-point performance Beasley put on during the CBA All-Star Game in January.
The 26-year-old Beasley returned to the NBA later in the season, signing a pair of 10-day contracts with the Heat, who ultimately inked him to a multiyear deal for the minimum salary. That deal included a team option, but Miami declined it in June, and little chatter about another NBA deal followed this summer, as Beasley’s rumors page shows.
That’s seemingly in contrast to a year ago, when Beasley joined the Grizzlies for training camp only to ask for his release midway through the preseason so he could take the offer from Shanghai Dongfang. He’ll have a chance to once more circle back to the NBA if interest exists at the conclusion of his latest Chinese commitment, which could happen as early as February if Shandong doesn’t make the playoffs.
Do you think Michael Beasley will play in the NBA later this season? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.