Pistons Notes: Jennings, Baynes, Anthony
Doctors have cleared Brandon Jennings for full basketball activities, and a return by late November or early December is possible, according to Vincent Goodwill of CSNChicago.com (Twitter link). That’s in contrast to a Monday report that Jennings was not close to receiving clearance as he recovered from his torn left Achilles tendon. Jennings, who’s set to make more than $8.344MM this year in the final season of his contract, has been the subject of trade speculation, though Pistons coach/executive Stan Van Gundy has expressed optimism that Jennings and fellow point guard Reggie Jackson can share the floor. See more from Motown:
- Pistons offseason signee Aron Baynes knows he has championship experience to impart from his time with the Spurs, but he has no intention of becoming an overbearing locker room presence, as Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press details. The Pistons inked Baynes, a career reserve, to a three-year, $19.5MM contract in July.
- Baynes said Monday that he will be ready for the start of training camp a week from today despite undergoing ankle surgery this summer, Ellis notes in the same piece.
- Van Gundy made it clear to Joel Anthony that he wanted him back, so when the Pistons chased others, including Baynes, in free agency, Anthony’s desire to re-sign with Detroit didn’t waver, as Keith Langlois of Pistons.com chronicles. Van Gundy plans to use Baynes at power forward against teams that use two traditional big men, Langlois writes, so that would create a role in the rotation for Anthony, who signed a two-year, $5MM deal. “He didn’t have to tell me, ‘We’re trying to get this person,’ as if he has to walk on eggshells with me,” Anthony said of Van Gundy. “I was comfortable with how he was going forward. It’s still a good situation for me. There’s still opportunities for me and that’s what’s important.”
Rockets Sign Cummings, Livingston, Walker
SEPTEMBER 21ST, 6:15pm: The Rockets formally announced the signings of Cummings, Livingston and Walker (Twitter link). Houston waived Yusuf on Friday without ever formally recognizing his signing.
SEPTEMBER 9TH, 6:59pm: Walker has officially been signed, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter link).
SEPTEMBER 5TH, 8:10am: Cummings and Livingston have signed contracts with the Rockets, according to the RealGM.com transactions log.
12:09pm: The signing of Yusuf has taken place, and it’s a non-guaranteed contract worth the rookie minimum salary, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). That means it wouldn’t count against the hard cap the Rockets would impose upon themselves if they signed No. 32 pick Montrezl Harrell for more than the minimum or for longer than two years, as I explained earlier.
11:24am: Feigen has corrected his earlier report, omitting Wood’s name from his revised list (Twitter links). Wood’s status with the Rockets thus appears unclear.
SEPTEMBER 3RD, 11:00am: The Rockets are close to signing Denzel Livingston, Will Cummings, Christian Wood, Remi Yusuf and Chris Walker for training camp, a source tells Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle (Twitter link). A deal with Wood, who went undrafted out of UNLV this year, has apparently been in place since June Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports reported that the Rockets had agreed to sign him, but the other four names appear to be new additions for Houston.
Livingston, a 6’4″ combo guard who played his college ball at Incarnate Word, also went undrafted this year. He saw a smidgen of playing time with Houston’s summer league squad, averaging 2.0 points in 7.5 minutes per contest across three appearances. Cummings, a point guard from Temple, was another college senior passed up in the draft this June. He saw more extensive time for the Rockets in summer league, compiling 10.0 PPG in 22.8 MPG, though his 3.3 assists against 2.8 turnovers per game isn’t an encouraging ratio.
Walker, a once-heralded prospect whose stock plummeted at Florida, put up 4.2 PPG in 8.8 MPG for the summer Rockets. The forward/center declared for this year’s draft after his sophomore season with the Gators. Yusuf is a somewhat more surprising addition, since he didn’t play NBA summer league ball. The guard, a native of Nigeria, played at Texas A&M-Kingsville before going undrafted in 2006, and he spent time last season playing with SKP Banska Bystrica in Slovakia.
The Beat: Diamond Leung On The Warriors
Nobody knows NBA teams better than beat writers, save for those who draw paychecks with an NBA owner’s signature on them. The reporters who are with the teams they cover every day gain an intimate knowledge of the players, coaches and executives they write about and develop sources who help them break news and stay on top of rumors.
We at Hoops Rumors will be chatting with beat writers from around the league and sharing their responses to give you a better perspective on how and why teams make some of their most significant moves. Last time, we spoke with Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe about the Celtics. Click here to see all of the previous editions of this series.
Today, we gain insight on the Warriors from Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group. You can follow Diamond on Twitter at @Diamond83, and click here to check out his stories.
Speights Savors Title As Contract Year Looms
The Larry O’Brien Trophy glistened in front of Marreese Speights this afternoon as about two dozen family, friends and well-wishers clutched paper plates of food in one hand and cell phone cameras in the other while they crammed into a tiny room at the Childs Park Recreation Center in his native St. Petersburg, Florida. The crowded but low-key hometown celebration, the latest stop for the trophy as the Warriors take it on tour around the country, served as a coda to a short but proud offseason for Speights and the Warriors, who start training camp a week from Tuesday.
Three months and three days have passed since the Warriors finished off the Cavaliers for the franchise’s first NBA title in 40 years, and soon begins Golden State’s attempt to win a second in a row. It’s an accomplishment that’s happened so often during the lifetime of the 28-year-old Speights, a period in which 10 NBA champions were the same team that had won the year before, that it almost seems like a rite of passage for the truly elite. Speights doesn’t quite see it that way.
“No, we’re already in a different class, so repeating would just be a bonus,” he told Hoops Rumors, “but hopefully we get another one.”
The 6’10” center/forward nonetheless made it clear as he spoke during today’s event that the team is hungry to add to its trophy collection, and this season, Speights has extra motivation. The three-year, $11MM contract that he signed with the Warriors in 2013 expires at season’s end, and he’s set to hit free agency just as the salary cap is projected to catapult from its present $70MM to $89MM. The Andy Miller client nonetheless insists that he won’t change the way he plays just because it’s a contract year, and that he isn’t focused on the strength of next summer’s market for him.
“I really don’t worry about things I can’t control,” Speights said. “As long as I come into camp, as long as I start the season off good, everything will be all right. So, I’m just focused on the things I can control.”
The Warriors have so far paid to keep their talented team together. They gave Draymond Green a new five-year, $82MM deal in restricted free agency this summer, and rewarded Leandro Barbosa with a one-year, $2.5MM deal after he spent last season making the minimum. They also cast luxury tax concerns aside to pick up their $3.185MM team option on Speights, who made the most of his 15.9 minutes per game this past season. He averaged 10.4 points and 4.3 rebounds per contest, numbers that extrapolate to 23.6 points and 9.7 boards per 36 minutes.
Speights applauded the front office’s efforts to maintain continuity and chemistry, and he also has a positive impression of the team’s most prominent newcomer. Jason Thompson arrives after a series of July trades in which the Warriors shipped out David Lee for Gerald Wallace and flipped Wallace for Thompson, while Thompson went from the Kings to the Sixers and finally to the champs.
“He’s a good player. He’s been in the league. He’s going on his eighth year. He played with Sacramento. He’s going to come to our team and bring us something we need, or something that somebody else can’t bring,” Speights said of Thompson. “So, hopefully he comes in and contributes and that’ll be the role with him.”
Coach Steve Kerr envisions Thompson fitting in somewhere amid a frontcourt that boasts Green, Andrew Bogut, Festus Ezeli and James Michael McAdoo in addition to Thompson and Speights. The role that Lee played last season is “up for grabs,” as Kerr recently told Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group. Thus, Speights, whose minutes in the playoffs this spring were curtailed by a right calf strain, would appear to have a chance to inherit some more playing time. Still, just as with his looming free agency, he won’t focus on decisions that rest in the hands of others.
“Like I said, I don’t know. I just got to worry about things I can control,” Speights said. “I don’t know what my role’s going to be. I’m just going to go into training camp and be the best player I can be, and hopefully, I have a role. So, I’m looking forward to training camp.”
The 16th overall pick from the 2008 draft is a veteran of seven NBA seasons, but he nonetheless made it clear that he’s eager to learn more and improve himself. Not long from now, he’ll learn what it’s like to defend a title, and soon after that, just how much championship experience is worth at the bargaining table.
Rockets Sign Montrezl Harrell To Three-Year Deal
SATURDAY, 11:19am: The Rockets have formally announced the signing (on Twitter).
2:35pm: Rockets GM Daryl Morey took to Twitter to welcome Harrell to the Rockets, so presumably that means he’s signed.
FRIDAY, 9:46am: The Rockets will sign Harrell to a contract worth $3.1MM over three years today, a source tells Feigen (Twitter link). It’ll include no option years or non-guaranteed salary, Feigen also hears. Still unclear is what Harrell will make this coming season, a figure that will determine how much the Rockets have left beneath their hard cap.
WEDNESDAY, 7:37am: Harrell is close to signing, but the sides are still hammering out some details, in spite of what McHale said, according to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle (Twitter link). They do have agreement on the main parts of the deal, Feigen adds.
10:45pm: Rockets coach Kevin McHale said Harrell has signed with the team, Mark Berman of Fox 26 tweets.
11:45am: The sides have reached an agreement in principle, sources tell Spears (Twitter link).
TUESDAY, 11:02am: The Rockets and No. 32 overall pick Montrezl Harrell are finalizing a three-year deal, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). The three-year length means the team is using its mid-level exception and will be hard-capped, as I explained in detail earlier. Houston won’t be able to carry a payroll of more than $88.74MM at any point this season once the deal with the Rich Paul client becomes official. The team already has $86,180,389 in guaranteed salary, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. It’s not immediately clear how much more the deal for Harrell will add to the total, but regardless, the Rockets won’t have much breathing room beneath the hard cap.
No. 31 pick Cedi Osman, the top pick of the second round, is unsigned, while No. 33 pick Jordan Mickey will receive a guarantee of nearly $1.171MM this season in the first year of the four-year contract he signed with the Celtics. No. 30 pick Kevon Looney will make a guaranteed $1,131,960 this season, though his salary was determined by the rookie scale that applies to first-rounders but not second-rounders. So, it would seem that Harrell is in range for a salary of around $1.1MM to $1.2MM, leaving as little as about $1.36MM beneath that hard cap for the Rockets.
Negotiations between the Rockets and Harrell’s camp have largely been quiet, with a late-August dispatch from Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com indicating the sides were talking the only substantive update since the draft in June. Still, it seemed the Rockets were doing what they could to clear the decks for a Harrell signing, breaking off their deal with Chuck Hayes, who later signed with the Clippers, and apparently also having undone their agreement to sign undrafted power forward Christian Wood, who inked with the Sixers instead. Both Hayes and Wood were to receive partial guarantees from the Rockets that would have counted against a hard cap.
Houston could have signed Harrell using the minimum salary exception and avoided the hard cap, but that would have entailed a salary of just $525,093 this season, one that Harrell and Paul were unlikely to have accepted, unless it came in the form of a one-year deal. The Rockets had to make a tender of a non-guaranteed one-year contract for the minimum salary by September 5th, and while signing that would have meant a short-term financial sacrifice for Harrell, he would have hit restricted free agency next summer just as K.J. McDaniels, last year’s No. 32 overall pick, did this year. McDaniels wound up re-signing with the Rockets on a deal worth $10MM over three years, the sort of price Houston probably wants to avoid paying to keep Harrell.
The Rockets instead appear to have averted that scenario at the cost of flexibility for this season. Harrell will presumably become the team’s 14th player with a fully guaranteed deal. Four others are on non-guaranteed deals, as our roster count shows, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see Houston elect not to carry 15 players for opening night, given the team’s financial squeeze. Teams can have between 13 and 15 players during the regular season.
Do you think the Rockets made the right decision to control Harrell for three years and hard cap themselves for this season? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Latest On Spurs, 2013 Pick Deshaun Thomas
SEPTEMBER 2ND, 11:03am: Deshaun Thomas, whom San Antonio drafted 58th overall in 2013, would sign with the Spurs if they make him an offer, a source tells international journalist David Pick (Twitter link). The 6’7″ combo forward from Ohio State has played in France and Spain the last two seasons. The Spurs have only the minimum salary to give, but they have deals with only 18 players and guaranteed pacts with just 13, leaving open spots beneath the 20-man offseason roster limit and the 15-man regular season limit.
Reports from recent weeks have indicated that San Antonio has shown interest in Rasual Butler and Brazilian center Rafael Hettsheimeir, though it’s unclear where the Spurs see Thomas in relation to them. Thomas wasn’t on the Spurs summer league squad this year, in contrast to the past two Julys.
The 24-year-old former McDonald’s All-American averaged 7.9 points and 2.6 rebounds in 20.2 minutes per game with 37.4% three-point shooting for Barcelona of Spain this past season. He was a fairly prolific scorer in college, pouring in 19.8 PPG in 35.4 MPG in 2012/13, his final season with the Buckeyes. Thomas would compete with Matt Bonner, Jimmer Fredette, Reggie Williams, Youssou Ndoye and Keifer Sykes to make it to opening night if he indeed winds up with the Spurs for the preseason.
Do you think the Spurs should give Thomas a shot? Leave a comment to tell us.
Bucks Officially Sign Powell, Horford, Westbrook
The Bucks have officially signed Josh Powell, Jon Horford and Charlie Westbrook, the team announced. All three are on non-guaranteed contracts for the minimum salary that cover one season, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reported earlier this week when he noted the trio had put pen to paper. The contracts give Milwaukee an even 20 players, the preseason limit, though 15 of them have fully guaranteed deals, meaning Powell, Horford and Westbrook are long shots to stick for opening night.
Powell spent last season as part of the Rockets coaching staff after accruing eight years of service time as an NBA player, including two seasons with the Lakers, who won the title both years. Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports first reported earlier this month that the 32-year-old power forward would leave coaching to resume his playing career (Twitter link).
Horford, also a power forward, is the younger brother of Hawks star Al Horford. The 23-year-old went undrafted this year out of Florida after spending most of his college career at Michigan. Michael Scotto of Sheridan Hoops was the first to report that Horford would join Bucks camp (Twitter link).
It’s the second NBA contract for Westbrook, who went undrafted out of South Dakota in 2012. He joined the Heat for the preseason in 2013. Westbrook, 26, was with Hyeres-Toulon Var in France’s second-tier league last season. Charania initially reported the shooting guard’s camp deal with the Bucks (Twitter link).
Now that the team’s summer moves appear complete, what do you think of the Bucks this season? Leave a comment to tell us.
Harrison Barnes Changes Agents
FRIDAY, 3:03pm: Barnes has hired Jeff Schwartz of Excel Sports Management, a source tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Schwartz, who recently picked up LaMarcus Aldridge and Joe Johnson as new clients, also represents Warriors Shaun Livingston and Leandro Barbosa.
THURSDAY, 9:47am: Harrison Barnes has parted ways with agent Jeff Wechsler of 24/7 Sports Management, reports Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer (Twitter link). The rookie scale extension deadline of November 2nd looms just a month and a half away, and Golden State has been reportedly been seeking a deal with him and fellow extension-eligible Festus Ezeli.
Wechsler negotiated a five-year max extension for Kyrie Irving, his only other current NBA client, in July 2014. Barnes has reportedly shared interest with the Warriors in reaching a deal on an extension of his own, though it would be difficult for him to score the max, since he averaged just 10.1 points per game last season. Grantland’s Zach Lowe recently estimated that Barnes would end up with a deal between the four years and $58MM that DeMarre Carroll landed from the Raptors this summer and the projected $20.4MM max for players with Barnes’ level of experience. Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group suggested salaries of $14MM a year, though he and TNT’s David Aldridge figured that Wechsler would start negotiations with an asking price of at least $15MM annually. I reasoned that salaries of $16-18MM would make sense for both sides when I looked in-depth at the extension candidacy of the former seventh overall pick.
New coach Steve Kerr reinserted Barnes into the starting lineup last season, a move that helped spark a 16-win improvement and a run to the franchise’s first NBA title in 40 years. The Warriors have reached extensions with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Andrew Bogut in recent years, so precedent exists for them to do the same with Barnes. The timing of his change of representation is odd, though it’s unclear what the impetus for the decision is. It’s also not immediately clear whom Barnes will hire to represent him going forward. He nonetheless made it clear in July that he envisions staying with the Warriors for the long haul, as Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group reported at the time.
“I mean, we just won a championship,” Barnes said. “Of course I’d love to keep this group together for many years to come, you know what I’m saying? So that’s obvious.”
Nets Sign Justin Harper
The Nets have signed one-year NBA veteran Justin Harper, the team announced via press release. Harper was the 32nd overall pick in the 2011 draft, but this is his first contract since the Magic waived him at the end of the 2012 preseason. The power forward is the 20th player with whom the Nets have either a verbal agreement or a signed contract, as our roster count shows, though only 12 of them have fully guaranteed pacts. His addition presumably means Brooklyn is done with offseason additions, since the preseason roster limit is 20.
Harper, 26, spent this past season with Sidigas Avellino in Italy’s top division, averaging 12.6 points and 4.3 rebounds in 27.2 minutes per game. He’s also played in Israel, France and the D-League during his pro career, one in which he’s scored 20 points in 84 total NBA minutes. Harper has been a frequent presence at summer league over the years, appearing on both the Suns and Pistons summer squads this July and notching 5.4 PPG in 12.5 MPG across 11 contests.
The competition for the final spots on Brooklyn’s 15-man regular season roster holds intrigue. Five players have partially guaranteed deals with the team, while veteran swingman Dahntay Jones and undrafted rookie Yanick Moreira are reportedly coming to camp without any guaranteed money. The level of guarantee in Harper’s contract isn’t immediately clear.
Assuming the Nets start the regular season with 15 players, who do you think will land the last three open spots? Leave a comment to let us know.
Lakers Notes: Scott, Kobe, World Peace
The Lakers didn’t land a marquee free agent this summer, but coach Byron Scott is nonetheless impressed with the upgrades the team made, as he explains to Bill Oram of the Orange County Register in a wide-ranging Q&A. The team drafted D’Angelo Russell No. 2 overall, struck deals with seven free agents and traded for Roy Hibbert.
“I don’t look at the summer as a big disappointment, to be honest with you,” Scott said. “We missed on a guy we were after, obviously, in LaMarcus [Aldridge, who signed with the Spurs]. But to get Roy and to get Lou Williams and to get Brandon Bass, I think [GM] Mitch [Kupchak] did a hell of a job of recovering and making it a summer that you kind of looked back and said, ‘Man, that’s a pretty good recovery.’ I’m happy with the roster we have. We’ve got competition it seems like at every position, which I think is going to be fun to watch in training camp. We’re still very, very young, with the exception, obviously, of [37-year-old] Kobe [Bryant], so I’m excited about that.”
Scott pledged to Oram that he’d limit Bryant’s minutes and do whatever he could to ensure the legend can avoid injury and “go out standing” if this is indeed his last season. See more from the coach amid our check on the purple-and-gold:
- Scott is unsure if the Lakers will sign Metta World Peace, reportedly a strong possibility, but Scott seems high on what World Peace has done for Julius Randle in their workouts together so far, as Oram relays in the same piece. “He’s made Julius work which I think is great,” Scott said in part. “Then when the game is over he’s always talking to Julius about certain things that he feels Julius can do better. So he’s been a good mentor for him, he’s been great for the other guys to see him out here playing the way he’s been playing. He’s still in great great shape his body looks fantastic and he’s been great as far as seeing him running up and down the floor.”
- Eric Saar of Basketball Insiders goes along with many of his colleagues who take a pessimistic view on the Lakers for this season, with Basketball Insiders scribe Alex Kennedy opining that there’s “no way” the Lakers can make the playoffs with their existing roster, given the competition. Saar thinks the Lakers have a shot to make the playoffs in a year or two, though that might be enough for executive VP of basketball operations Jim Buss, since sister and co-owner Jeanie Buss has said she’ll hold him to his pledge to resign if the team isn’t contending for a title by the spring of 2017.