Heat Sign Greg Whittington For Camp
THURSDAY, 2:21pm: The deal is official, the Heat announced.
TUESDAY, 9:01am: The Heat and undrafted small forward Greg Whittington have reached agreement on a one-year, non-guaranteed deal, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). The 22-year-old from Georgetown had three partially guaranteed offers from NBA teams last month, as Charania reported then, so it’s surprising to see him take one without a guarantee, even though he played for Miami’s summer league squad. Still, the Heat seem to offer him a decent shot at the regular season roster, since they have only 13 fully guaranteed deals.
Whittington was a longshot for the draft, as Chad Ford of ESPN.com ranked him as only the 108th-best prospect. He nonetheless looked sharp during the Las Vegas summer league, averaging 13.0 points and 8.2 rebounds in 30.3 minutes per contest while nailing eight of 17 three-pointers in five appearances after a so-so four-game stint for the Heat in the Orlando summer league. He had seen limited action since an ACL injury to his left knee during the summer of 2013. Academic trouble clouded his time at Georgetown, and after his dismissal from the school, he joined the Westchester Knicks, though he never appeared in a game.
Tyler Johnson would appear to have the inside track on the 14th regular season roster spot for Miami, since he has a partial guarantee worth half of his minimum salary, but James Ennis, Keith Benson and Corey Hawkins all have non-guaranteed pacts. So, Whittington will ostensibly compete with that trio to make it to opening night.
Going into camp, who do you think is the favorite for the Heat’s last regular season roster spot? Leave a comment to let us know.
Heat Fully Guarantee Hassan Whiteside’s Salary
The Heat have turned Hassan Whiteside‘s partially guaranteed salary for this coming season into a fully guaranteed salary, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). The big man had previously been assured only 50% of the $981,348 three-year veteran’s minimum that his contract calls for him make this season, though little chance existed that Miami would have released Whiteside before the full salary was to have locked in on December 1st. Thus, today’s move essentially amounts to a goodwill gesture on the part of the Heat, with the Sean Kennedy client set to hit unrestricted free agency in July 2016.
Teams and players under contract are free to alter clauses that pertain to the amount of guaranteed salary if they mutually consent to doing so, and the Heat already made one such adjustment this summer. Miami’s deal with James Ennis was to have become 50% guaranteed on August 1st, but instead the sides agreed to keep his salary non-guaranteed until opening night, when a full guarantee would kick in. Other clubs have adjusted contracts in a fashion more similar to what the Heat have done with Whiteside. Last year, the Bucks guaranteed Kendall Marshall‘s full salary more than two months ahead of his scheduled guarantee date.
Whiteside becomes the 13th Heat player with a fully guaranteed contract. Half of Tyler Johnson‘s salary is guaranteed, while Ennis, Corey Hawkins, Keith Benson and Greg Whittington have non-guaranteed salaries.
Who do you think will win the final two regular season roster spots for the Heat? Leave a comment to tell us.
Landry Fields Out Five Months With Hip Injury
12:oopm: Wojnarowski’s full story says Landry “will miss five months of the season.” That would suggest that he’ll be out longer than simply five months from now. If the timetable is five months from the start of the regular season, he’d be on track to return in late March.
11:45am: Landry Fields will miss five months after having labrum surgery on his hip, a source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). It’s unclear which hip is the trouble spot. The injury might explain why the swingman has remained in free agency seemingly with few nibbles from NBA teams. The Knicks, who were the original team for the 27-year-old out of Stanford, reportedly reached out to him on the first day of free agency, but rumors about him have since been lacking.
Fields is coming off a season of career lows with the Raptors, with whom he never carved out the consistent sort of role he enjoyed in New York, where he was a starter for all but five games during his two seasons there. The former 39th overall pick signed with Toronto in 2012 on a three-year, $18.75MM offer sheet that the Knicks declined to match. The Raptors renounced their rights to Fields in July, so they couldn’t re-sign him for more than the minimum if they want him back.
A five-month timetable would have the Chris Emens client on track to return in February, shortly before the All-Star break and the trade deadline. Teams often shy away from making free agent additions as those events draw near, but the market grows fertile again toward the end of February once the deadline, set for February 18th this year, has passed.
Do you think Fields will find an NBA deal this season once he’s healthy? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Latest On Ricky Rubio
The Timberwolves no longer believe in Ricky Rubio as the long-term solution at point guard and have surveyed the trade market for him, as Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher hears (video link). They’re not engaging in trade talk about him now, Bucher adds, nonetheless suggesting a decent chance exists they again explore the subject when the season starts. The dispatch comes despite Rubio’s continued insistence that he would prefer to remain in Minnesota and a recent report from Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities that the Wolves weren’t shopping him.
Bucher said that the Nets, Mavericks, Knicks and, most of all, the Bucks make sense for him as a trade destination, though that appears to be speculation. The Knicks “tested the waters” to see if they could trade Jose Calderon, according to Bucher, though it’s unclear if he’s referring to the team’s reported attempts to deal Calderon before the trade deadline this past winter or if he’s heard of more recent efforts on that front.
Wolves coach/executive Flip Saunders made mention of Rubio in June when he listed some of the team’s cornerstone players, referring to him as “a great point guard,” so that would run counter to the idea that the Wolves are ready to move on from the former fifth overall pick. Reports in May conflicted on whether Rubio’s camp, which includes agent Dan Fegan, was trying to convince the Wolves to trade him, but Rubio came out shortly thereafter to deny that he wanted out of Minnesota, and Rubio’s most recent comments reiterated that.
The incentive-laden four-year, $55MM extension that Rubio signed last fall kicks in for this coming season, when he’s slated to make $12.7MM. The 24-year-old who turns 25 next month is the highest-paid player on the Timberwolves. He played in a career-low 22 games this past season, chiefly because of injuries to his left ankle.
Do you think the Wolves should part with Rubio or keep him? Leave a comment to let us know.
Doc Rivers On Pierce, Allen, Celtics, Magic
Doc Rivers believes Paul Pierce‘s choice in free agency came down to the Clippers and the Celtics, as the Clippers coach/executive said Wednesday and as Jay King of MassLive.com relays. That would mean the Wizards, with whom Pierce spent last season, finished no better than third.
“I think he wanted to go one of two places. He wanted to come back [to Boston] or he wanted to finish his career at home where he grew up, and I think it’s really cool for me that I can be a part of that,” Rivers said.
Those comments came while Rivers was in Boston for a charity function, so location perhaps played a role. Regardless, Rivers had plenty more to say about Pierce, the Clippers, the Celtics, and other topics, as we’ll round up here:
- Pierce, who signed with the Clippers for the full value of the taxpayer’s mid-level exception, was the team’s priciest free agent addition, but Rivers said he’ll use him judiciously, notes Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com. Rivers isn’t guaranteeing a starting spot for the 17-year veteran who turns 38 next month. “Paul will be great. Paul, I don’t want to overuse him. I know that,” Rivers said. “So, I don’t even know how we are going to use him yet. I want to play him at [power forward] a lot. What I want him to be is healthy in the playoffs. So however we can figure that out, that’s what I’m going to try to do.”
- Rivers said he and Ray Allen recently played golf, but the Clippers executive added that he didn’t try to convince Allen to sign with the team, tweets Scott Souza of the MetroWest Daily News. The Clips were one of several teams that reportedly attempted to lure Allen this past season, when the shooting guard instead lingered in free agency.
- Rivers said the collective trust the Celtics players had in coach Brad Stevens was readily apparent after last season’s flurry of trades, Souza also observed (Twitter link). An ESPN panel recently tabbed Stevens as Boston’s No. 1 reason for optimism about the C’s.
- The Magic, another of Rivers’ former teams, have a shot to make the playoffs this year, Rivers said earlier Wednesday in an appearance on Mike Bianchi’s Open Mike radio show on 740 The Game in Orlando, as Bianchi transcribes in the Orlando Sentinel. Rivers praised new coach Scott Skiles. “I think he’s a wonderful coach,” Rivers said. “I think he was a great choice for the franchise. I think people will be surprised with how well they do this year.”
Hoops Rumors Chat Transcript
4:03pm: We hosted the weekly live chat.
3:00pm: Less than a month remains before the start of training camp, and negotiations between Tristan Thompson and the Cavaliers are still at a stalemate, with limited contact, at best, between the two sides, as Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer told us this week. The best of the remaining 2015 free agents is stuck in limbo, but that’s not the only storyline that persists. It’s been a summer of broken deals, from DeAndre Jordan‘s infamous flip–flop, to Richard Jefferson‘s less controversial exit from the Mavs, to Luc Mbah a Moute‘s voided Kings deal, to the fractured agreement between Chuck Hayes and the Rockets, one that led him to join Jordan, his fellow almost-Texan, on the Clippers. Maybe we should have seen it coming this spring when the Thunder hired Billy Donovan, who reneged on a deal to become the Magic’s coach in 2007.
In any case, we can talk about all of that and more in today’s chat. Click here to join!
Central Notes: LeBron, Hibbert, Bulls
The Cavaliers and Bulls looked like the two clear-cut favorites in the Eastern Conference a year ago, and while the Bulls’ roster is still largely the same, the Cavs zoomed past them in the playoffs and other Eastern Conference contenders appear to have gained ground. The Heat, Wizards, Raptors, Hawks and perhaps even the Bucks, whom Chicago dispatched in the first round this spring, all appear capable of posing a threat and then some to the Bulls this coming season. While we wait for training camps to open later this month to see how it all unfolds, there’s more on the Bulls and Cavs amid the latest from the Central Division:
- LeBron James has structured his past two deals with the Cavaliers to give himself a chance to exit every summer, but the Cavs don’t think he’d dare to leave Cleveland a second time, as Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher said recently in a video and as Dan Feldman of ProBasketballTalk notes. That falls in line with a suggestion that Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports made last October, though Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer heard in December that James would be prepared to leave the Cavs if he felt it would be the “appropriate business decision.”
- The Pacers agreed to trade Roy Hibbert to the Lakers with the caveat that the Lakers would pull out of the deal if they signed a marquee free agent center, Lakers Executive VP of Basketball Operations Jim Buss told Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times. “[Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird] was fine with that,” Buss said. “Bird wanted to put the kid into a spotlight like this.” Hibbert praised Bird for having been up front with him, though David West cited the Pacers’ handling of their desire to move on from Hibbert as one of the reasons he opted out.
- Sam Smith of NBA.com, writing in a mailbag column, wonders about the lineup choices new Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg will make and looks at whether the season ahead will have as little roster movement for Chicago as the summer did.
- We asked for your input on the Pistons roster dilemma as part of Tuesday’s Community Shootaround.
Top Non-Scale Rookie Salaries
The Timberwolves are set to have this season’s highest-paid first-year player, as the rookie scale will bestow more than $5.7MM on Karl-Anthony Towns. They’ll also have the most well-compensated rookie in another regard. No rookie on a non-scale contract is slated to make as much as Nemanja Bjelica, the former draft-and-stash prospect who signed a three-year, $11.7MM deal with Minnesota in July. The 35th overall pick from 2010 will make more than all but the top four picks from this year’s draft.
This offseason has yet to produce non-scale deals as large as the ones Nikola Mirotic and Kostas Papanikolaou wrangled last summer, when they arranged for salaries of $5.305MM and nearly $4.8MM, respectively. Plus, a portion of the salaries for draft-and-stash rookies usually go toward buyouts to their overseas teams. Still, Bjelica, Tibor Pleiss of the Jazz and Nikola Jokic of the Nuggets proved once more that waiting to sign and developing overseas instead can be a lucrative path, particularly for second-round picks. They, as well as undrafted free agent Boban Marjanovic, are in line for the top four non-scale rookie salaries this season. Jordan Mickey, the highest second-round pick from this year’s draft to have signed so far, is next on the list.
No. 32 pick Montrezl Harrell is liable join this ranking soon, though the Rockets would be hard-capped if they gave him more than the minimum. A few other names may well appear, with salaries for Sasha Kaun of the Cavs and apparent soon-to-be Lakers signee Marcelo Huertas still unreported. For now, 16 rookies who aren’t on rookie scale contracts will make more than the minimum, including Maurice Ndour, who curiously signed for just $1MM more than the $525,093 rookie minimum from the Mavs. The full list is as follows:
- Nemanja Bjelica, Timberwolves — $3,950,001
- Tibor Pleiss, Jazz — $2.9MM
- Nikola Jokic, Nuggets — $1.3MM
- Boban Marjanovic, Spurs — $1.2MM
- Jordan Mickey, Celtics — $1,170,960
- Richaun Holmes, Sixers — $1,074,169
- Rakeem Christmas, Pacers — $1,007,026
- Joseph Young, Pacers — $1,007,026
- Edy Tavares, Hawks — $1MM
- Raul Neto, Jazz — $900K
- Pierre Jackson, Sixers — $750K
- Norman Powell, Raptors — $650K
- Pat Connaughton, Trail Blazers — $625,093
- Anthony Brown, Lakers — $600K
- Darrun Hilliard, Pistons — $600K
- Maurice Ndour, Mavericks — $525,094
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Pacific Notes: Morris, Clarkson, Sims, Koufos
Markieff Morris demanded a trade last month, but the Suns are giving no outward appearances of a rift, going so far as to tweet birthday greetings with an illustration of the now 26-year-old, which strikes an awkward tone in light of the power forward’s recent comments. The Suns “need and want” Morris, Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic wrote last week, so it would appear the team is making its best to attempt to patch up the relationship before the start of training camp at month’s end. Morris wasn’t planning a verbal offensive when he came across Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, to whom he expressed his demand, Coro notes, though John Gambadoro had heard a week before Morris made the demand that the former 13th overall pick wanted out of Phoenix. See more on the Suns amid the latest from the Pacific Division:
- The Excel Sports Management agency has ended its relationship with Lakers point guard Jordan Clarkson, reports Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press. It’s an unusual move, since players typically make the call to change agents, and not the other way around. Clarkson, the 46th overall pick from last year’s draft who far outstripped expectations as a rookie, is set for restricted free agency next summer. Agent Mike George had been Clarkson’s primary representative.
- Suns camp signee Henry Sims is determined to prove his production for the Sixers wasn’t merely a product of playing for an inferior team, as he tells tells Coro for a separate piece. The three-year NBA vet saw inconsistent playing time in his season and a half in Philadelphia, though he doesn’t begrudge the chances the Sixers gave him when they did put him on the floor, Coro notes. “Being gritty is how I made my name,” Sims said to Coro. “It’s how I earned my way. But getting up and down like they do here is something I can do. Here, the talent is off the chart. Even though they’re young guys, they’ve been in the league a while. You’ve got the head of the snake, Eric Bledsoe, making it easier — he and B-[Brandon] Knight. I’ve still got tons to prove.”
- Kosta Koufos left an elite Western Conference team when he departed the Grizzlies for Sacramento this summer, but he believes the Kings can make the playoffs, and he has enduring respect for George Karl, who once coached him on the Nuggets, as Koufos expressed on SiriusXM NBA Radio (Twitter links; full audio here).
Northwest Notes: Rubio, Harkless, Claver
Ricky Rubio answered affirmatively when asked whether he wanted to remain with the Timberwolves and praised the team’s offseason additions in an interview with Jamie Goodwin of the Gulf News in Dubai, where the point guard had traveled for a basketball camp. Reports conflicted this spring on the subject of whether Rubio’s camp was pushing for a trade, though comments since that time from Rubio and Wolves coach/executive Flip Saunders have downplayed the notion that a trade is forthcoming. See more on Minnesota’s Northwest Division rivals here:
- The Trail Blazers were eyeing Maurice Harkless long before they traded with the Magic this summer to acquire him, as GM Neil Olshey tells Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. “Mo was very high on our board a few years ago in the [2012] draft,” Portland general manager Neil Olshey said. “We were excited about him. He has a lot of potential. He fits our model right now; he’s an emerging young player. He’s got a lot of talent. We have a lot of faith in our player development staff and our coaches that guys hit their ceilings, and we know Mo’s not even close to his ceiling at this point. He’s going to get a great opportunity with us to be the player we loved coming out of the draft.”
- Former Blazers small forward Victor Claver has officially signed with Lokomotiv Kuban of Russia, the team announced (hat tip to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). International journalist David Pick first reported the deal this weekend. It had appeared that Claver would return to his native Spain to play, but he’s instead headed to Russia, where he finished up this past season with Khimki Moscow after hitting NBA waivers. The Blazers traded him to the Nuggets in the Arron Afflalo deal, and Denver released him a few days later.
- The Jazz have hired Jordan Brady as an assistant coach for their D-League affiliate, the team announced. He spent last season as a Lakers D-League assistant coach. He’ll work under D-League head coach Dean Cooper and replace Andrae Patterson, who moved into a front office role with the Jazz this summer.