Northwest Notes: Henderson, Wolves, Claver
No player has been with a Northwest Division team longer than Nick Collison, who carved out a long-term stay with the SuperSonics/Thunder franchise even though he’s never played a starring role. He’ll make $3.75MM this season and next on the extension he signed in February. We listed the longest-tenured member of every team earlier today, and we’re sharing more from the Northwest Division here:
- Trail Blazers trade acquisition Gerald Henderson wasn’t surprised the Hornets dealt him away, though the timing of the move caught him off guard, since it came the week after he opted in, as he tells Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer. He maintains ties to the Charlotte area, but he’s enthusiastic about his new team. “It was not so much about being traded as where I was going. This is a contract year,” said Henderson, who’s set for free agency next summer. “I wanted to be at a place with opportunity, a good organization and potentially a chance to win. I got all those things in Portland.”
- The Timberwolves allowed the $6,308,194 trade exception they picked up in the Kevin Love trade to expire unused Sunday, though that wasn’t a surprise, as I suggested earlier this month. They still have five other trade exceptions, the largest of which is worth $5MM and doesn’t expire until next July.
- Victor Claver officially joined Valencia of Spain after the team matched the offer sheet he signed with Baskonia, the Spanish ACB league announced (Twitter link; translation via Austin Green of LosCrossovers). Valencia had held his Spanish rights from the time he spent with the team before his jump to the Trail Blazers in 2012. He finished up this past season playing in Russia after the Nuggets waived him following his inclusion in the Arron Afflalo trade.
Jazz Sign Jeff Withey
4:16pm: The deal is official, the Jazz announced.
2:43pm: The Jazz have agreed to sign former Pelicans center Jeff Withey, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The Darren Matsubara client is getting a two-year, partially guaranteed deal that includes a team option on year two, according to Wojnarowski.
The Pelicans withdrew their qualifying offer, worth $1,147,276, to the former 39th overall pick shortly before news broke that they had struck a deal to re-sign Alexis Ajinca. The Jazz have more than $6MM in cap space, but it’s unclear just how much of that the former Kansas standout will see. He played a limited role with New Orleans, averaging 11.8 minutes per game in 2013/14, his rookie year, and just 7.0 MPG this past season.
Withey has what Wojnarowski deems a strong chance to stick around for opening night, since the Jazz have only 13 fully guaranteed contracts. Still, he’ll compete with Chris Johnson, Elijah Millsap, Bryce Cotton, Jack Cooley and Treveon Graham, all of whom are on the Jazz roster with partially or non-guaranteed salary.
Assuming the Jazz start the season with 15 players, which two players without fully guaranteed deals do you think they’ll keep? Leave a comment to tell us.
Hawks, Pelicans To Work Out Sean Kilpatrick
Former Timberwolves shooting guard Sean Kilpatrick will be a participant in workouts that the Hawks and Pelicans are set to conduct soon, reports Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link). The Lakers and Spurs previously worked him out, as Wolfson notes. The 25-year-old averaged 5.5 points in 17.9 minutes per game across four appearances while on a 10-day contract with Minnesota this past season.
Geography had a significant influence in on Minnesota’s decision to sign the former University of Cincinnati standout, since he was close to New York, where the Wolves were set to play the Knicks without the minimum eight healthy players. Still, he saw plenty of playing time during the 10-day stint and seems to be attracting no shortage of attention from other NBA clubs now. He was on the Bucks summer league squad last month and spent time with the D-League affiliates of the Warriors and Sixers this past season.
The Lakers and Hawks have the $2.814MM room exception to spend, while the Pelicans have their $2.139MM biannual exception and the Spurs are limited to paying no more than the minimum. An all-out bidding war for Kilpatrick seems unlikely, though it wouldn’t be surprising if the interest from multiple teams results in a guaranteed deal of some kind, though that’s just my speculation.
Which team do you think would make the most sense for Kilpatrick? Leave a comment to tell us.
Longest-Tenured Players For Each NBA Team
Injuries and age may have knocked Kobe Bryant down a few pegs among the league’s best players, but no one can touch him atop the list of the longest tenured players in the NBA. He’s been a member of the Lakers for more than 19 years, and while it seems like he’ll fall just shy of making it into a third decade with the team, with his contract set to expire June 30th and the expectation that he’ll retire at that point, that’s not a certainty just yet, as we discussed Sunday.
Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki are the only other players to have been with their respective teams since the 1990s, with a wide gap between them and fellow 2003 draftees Dwyane Wade and Nick Collison. This list doesn’t include players who had non-consecutive terms with teams. If it did, Kevin Garnett would be No. 1, having originally joined the Timberwolves in the 1995 draft, nearly 20 years before he rejoined the team at the trade deadline in February.
The past year has seen little turnover atop the list, as the six players who’ve been with their teams the longest are the same from this past October, when we last compiled the ranking. It seemed at that point that LaMarcus Aldridge, No. 7 on last year’s list, would continue to stick around the Trail Blazers, but he changed his mind about recommitting to Portland and signed with the Spurs instead. He’s one of 10 among the 30 players on last year’s list to have changed teams. Thus, the players listed for the Blazers, Celtics, Kings, Pacers, Hornets, Nuggets, Pistons, Bucks, Knicks and Sixers are all different, though Philadelphia remains the team with the longest tenured player who’s been there the shortest time. That distinction belongs to Nerlens Noel, who finished third in Rookie of the Year voting just this past season after sitting out his first year with the team.
Markieff Morris is the Suns’ entry on this list, but he’d like that to change, having demanded a trade. He could eventually wind up back on this list for his next team, the way Carmelo Anthony has done for the Knicks more than four years since he pushed his way off the Nuggets. The ‘Melo trade gave Denver two players who now share the title of longest tenured Nugget. Both Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari, fresh off renegotiations and extensions, don’t appear to be heading elsewhere anytime soon.
See the full list here:
- Los Angeles Lakers: Kobe Bryant. Acquired via trade on July 11th, 1996.
- San Antonio Spurs: Tim Duncan. Drafted on June 25th, 1997.
- Dallas Mavericks: Dirk Nowitzki. Acquired via trade on June 24th, 1998.
- Miami Heat: Dwyane Wade. Drafted on June 26th, 2003.
- Oklahoma City Thunder: Nick Collison. Drafted on June 26th, 2003.
- Cleveland Cavaliers: Anderson Varejao. Acquired via trade on July 23rd, 2004.
- Atlanta Hawks: Al Horford. Drafted on June 28th, 2007.
- Memphis Grizzlies: Mike Conley. Drafted on June 28th, 2007.
- Chicago Bulls: Joakim Noah. Drafted on June 28th, 2007.
- Minnesota Timberwolves: Nikola Pekovic. Drafted on June 26th, 2008.
- Brooklyn Nets: Brook Lopez. Drafted on June 26th, 2008.
- Los Angeles Clippers: DeAndre Jordan. Drafted on June 26th, 2008.
- Golden State Warriors: Stephen Curry. Drafted on June 25th, 2009.
- Toronto Raptors: DeMar DeRozan. Drafted on June 25th, 2009.
- Sacramento Kings: DeMarcus Cousins. Drafted on June 24th, 2010.
- Indiana Pacers: Paul George. Drafted on June 24th, 2010.
- Boston Celtics: Avery Bradley. Drafted on June 24th, 2010.
- Washington Wizards: John Wall. Drafted on June 24th, 2010.
- Utah Jazz: Gordon Hayward. Drafted on June 24th, 2010.
- Denver Nuggets: Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari. Acquired via trade on February 22nd, 2011.
- New York Knicks: Carmelo Anthony. Acquired via trade on February 22nd, 2011.
- Charlotte Hornets: Kemba Walker. Drafted on June 23rd, 2011.
- Phoenix Suns: Markieff Morris. Drafted on June 23rd, 2011.
- Houston Rockets: Donatas Motiejunas. Acquired via trade on June 24th, 2011.
- New Orleans Pelicans: Eric Gordon. Acquired via trade on December 14th, 2011.
- Portland Trail Blazers: Damian Lillard. Drafted on June 28th, 2012.*
- Detroit Pistons: Andre Drummond. Drafted on June 28th, 2012.
- Milwaukee Bucks: John Henson. Drafted on June 28th, 2012.
- Orlando Magic: Andrew Nicholson. Drafted on June 28th, 2012.
- Philadelphia 76ers: Nerlens Noel. Acquired via trade on July 10th, 2013.
Note: We went by the date a player was drafted, rather than the date that he signed his first contract. If multiple teams selected their longest-tenured players in the same draft, the team that made its pick first is the first team listed.
* — The Trail Blazers selected Meyers Leonard, who’s also still with the team, later in the same draft.
Aside from Markieff Morris, which of the players on the list do you think will be the next to change teams? Leave a comment to tell us.
Phil Jackson On Williams, Afflalo, Vujacic
Phil Jackson has endured his share of criticism since becoming team president of the Knicks, but he defended his offseason additions in the latest of his interviews with Charlie Rosen for ESPN.com. The Knicks failed to land a superstar in this summer’s free agency, instead taking a piecemeal approach with their cap space as they used it on Robin Lopez, Arron Afflalo, Derrick Williams and others. The executive made his lengthiest comments about Williams, who, according to Jackson, is confident that he already knows the triangle because of the time he spent watching Jackson’s Lakers in the 2000s and videos he found more recently on YouTube.
The entire piece is a must-read, especially for Knicks fans, and we’ll pass along a few highlights here:
On Derrick Williams:
“I mean, there’s no doubt that Derrick has the talent, size and strength to be a more-than-capable NBA player. However, his development has been hindered by several factors. From the start of his pro career, being the second overall draft pick has been like an albatross around his neck, something that he, and lots of other people, felt a lot of pressure to live up to. I told him that right now he’s an NBA player and it no longer makes any difference where he was drafted. He just has to learn how to play the game the right way. That means developing a defensive mindset, developing an intermediate game and improving his long-range shooting.”
On Arron Afflalo:
“Some NBA watchers have questioned whether or not Arron has anything left as he nears his 30th birthday, but I’m positive that he does. He has a gym in his Las Vegas home and he works out religiously. Actually, he’s such a hard-worker that he holds his teammates accountable if they try to cut corners in any way. I look for Arron to be a leader on this team. He wanted us and we wanted him, so Arron and the Knicks is a very good match.”
On Sasha Vujacic:
“Except for a 10-day contract with the Clippers in 2014, Sasha hasn’t played in the NBA for four years, but at age 31 he still has plenty of game. He’s a classic streak-shooter who, when he’s zeroed in, can totally change a game in three minutes. He’ll be a significant force for us coming off the bench.”
Extension Candidate: Donatas Motiejunas
The Rockets made a somewhat unexpected postseason run to the Western Conference Finals without Patrick Beverley and Donatas Motiejunas, both of whom sat out the postseason with injury. Houston nonetheless re-signed Beverley, though he came back at a relative bargain of a deal worth four years and $23MM, and the Rockets brought in Ty Lawson, who’ll challenge him for the starting point guard position. Motiejunas already has plenty of competition at power forward in Houston, but it remains to be seen whether he, like Beverley, is prepared to do a post-injury deal with the Rockets and risk signing at an ebb tide in his leverage.
The Wasserman Media Group client has the luxury of waiting until next summer, unlike Beverley, whose contract expired at season’s end. Yet a deal during this offseason would give Motiejunas greater stability, since the Poison Pill Provision makes it difficult for teams to trade players between the time they sign rookie scale extensions and the time those extensions kick in the following July. It would also allow him to capitalize on a 2014/15 regular season in which he made 62 starts, nearly four times as many as the total number of starts he made in his first two years in the league. He played a critical role for a Rockets team that managed to overcome injuries to Dwight Howard and others and finish with the second-best record in the West before the 24-year-old Lithuanian suffered his own injury, a back ailment that required surgery.
Motiejunas averaged 12.0 points in 28.7 minutes per game this past season, with that offense coming in the quintessential Rockets way. He took less than 10% of his shots from distances that were more than 10 feet away from the basket but within the three-point line, as Basketball-Reference shows. Most of his looks were within 10 feet, as he gave Houston an interior presence, but when he ventured outside to shoot his three-pointers, he made 36.8% of them, a significant improvement on a career three-point percentage that had been 26.9% going into last season. The question of whether his strong shooting season is an outlier or a true indication of his improvement will no doubt hang over negotiations.
The 7-footer’s rebounding numbers are discouraging, as he collected only 5.9 boards per game. Some of that probably has to do with the presence of Howard, but D12 only played in 41 games and posted his lowest RPG since his rookie season. Motiejunas meanwhile rebounded less frequently per 36 minutes this past season than he did in 2013/14.
Defensively, his numbers are mixed. He was a plus on that side of the court, according to Basketball-Reference’s Defensive Box Plus Minus, and the same is true in ESPN’s Defensive Real Plus Minus, though he ranked as just the 29th-best power forward in that category this past season. The Rockets gave up 1.1 more points per 100 possessions when Motiejunas was on the floor compared to when he wasn’t, according to NBA.com, though that’s a stat that doesn’t separate him from what the other four players on the floor were doing. Still, it’s not encouraging for his case that the Rockets were a net 2.3 points per 100 possessions better overall with Motiejunas sitting.
Motiejunas was more efficient last year than he’d been in the past, as his career-best 14.4 PER indicates, but that’s still below 15.0, the mark of an average player in that category. That pales in comparison to the 18.3 PER of Terrence Jones, the other Rockets power forward up for a rookie scale extension. The relative value of Jones versus Motiejunas will color the negotiations for both. Jones missed significant time with an injury last season, too, and their numbers weren’t all that dissimilar. Still, areas of separation, such as the PER number, will loom large.
The Rockets will have about $44.5MM committed for 2016/17, assuming they pick up Clint Capela‘s rookie scale team option. That doesn’t include any money for Howard, who has a player option worth nearly $23.3MM, or Lawson, whose more than $13.2MM salary is non-guaranteed. Bring them both back, and Houston would have at least $81MM against a projected $89MM cap, and perhaps more if Howard opts out and re-signs at a higher number. An extension for either Motiejunas or Jones would make it more difficult for Houston to replace Howard if he bolts and perhaps even put the team in danger of crossing the projected $108MM tax line if Howard and Lawson remain.
Motiejunas is more power forward than center, but the $64MM over four years that Jonas Valanciunas is receiving in his extension from the Raptors is a factor. The rises in the salary cap that will come in the next few years are already having a profound effect on the economics of player salaries, and even if Motiejunas can’t quite command what his fellow Lithuanian got, it’s fair to suggest an extension would entail salaries of around $12-14MM a year.
It’s difficult to envision Rockets GM Daryl Morey, who values flexibility, committing to a number like that. Houston will have a tough time clearing cap space next summer anyway, but Morey has proven adept at that. The extension would also compromise Morey’s flexibility for trades this season, given the Poison Pill Provision. Morey and company will probably have discussions with the Motiejunas camp and make at least a token offer, but I doubt that reaching a deal will be a priority. Motiejunas has incentive to make the Rockets think twice about such a stance, given his strong season, but he’d probably have to take less than he could command on the open market to get Morey to budge, and little reason exists for him to take a discount if he’s looking to capitalize on his performance.
Should the Rockets sign Motiejunas to an extension? Leave a comment to give us your thoughts.
Previous Negotiations For Rich Paul Clients
The Cavaliers and Leon Rose client J.R. Smith reached a deal last week, leaving perhaps the most intriguing free agent negotiations to clients of Rich Paul. The agent who counts LeBron James as his most famous client is also the representative for Tristan Thompson and Norris Cole, who’ve remained in restricted free agency for almost two months. Paul is also the agent for Montrezl Harrell, this year’s No. 32 overall pick, and the Rockets are facing a tricky contract situation with him, as I examined.
Paul is gaining a reputation for dragging out negotiations, and while Thompson, Cole and Harrell aren’t his first clients to stay on the market for months at a time, that hasn’t been the case with everyone he represents. Here’s a look at how free agency has gone in the past for his seven clients currently under contract:
- Eric Bledsoe — No high-profile free agent, outside of Ray Allen, stayed on the market longer last summer than Bledsoe did. He and the Suns didn’t agree to sign his five-year, $70MM contract until September 24th, just days before the start of training camp, and public contentiousness marked the negotiations. The Timberwolves reportedly offered a four-year max deal less than a week before he re-signed with Phoenix.
- Kentavious Caldwell-Pope — The eighth overall pick from 2013 was with Thad Foucher of the Wasserman Media Group when he signed his rookie scale contract with the Pistons. He’ll become eligible for a rookie scale extension next summer, giving Paul his first crack at negotiating with an NBA team on behalf of the shooting guard.
- LeBron James — James kept the NBA world waiting last summer as he made up his mind about returning to Cleveland, turning the usual flood of early-July transactions into a trickle. Still, he didn’t linger in free agency an inordinately long time, announcing his choice on July 11th, 2014, the same day he put pen to paper. This year, James was reportedly going to put off negotiations until Thompson’s situation was resolved, but that didn’t end up happening, and he re-committed to the Cavs on July 9th before making it official on July 10th.
- Cory Joseph — There was little delay with Joseph, who committed to the Raptors on July 5th and signed on July 9th, the first day after the July Moratorium. The Spurs withdrew their qualifying offer to Joseph shortly before the report that he’d agreed to terms with Toronto, though the timing suggests that Joseph, Paul or someone else from the point guard’s camp told San Antonio about the Raptors deal before it became public knowledge.
- Trey Lyles — Negotiations on rookie scale contracts are almost always straightforward and without fanfare, but that wasn’t the case with Lyles, this year’s No. 12 overall pick. Reports indicated that some complications emerged, and Jody Genessy of The Deseret News explained to Hoops Rumors that they had to do with incentives the Jazz wanted in the contract that Lyles and Paul didn’t. Ultimately, Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey admitted blame for the holdup that caused the forward to miss the first two games of the revived Salt Lake City summer league, an absence that rankled Utah fans.
- Ben McLemore — As with Caldwell-Pope, McLemore wasn’t a client of Paul’s yet when he signed his rookie scale contract with the Kings in 2013. McLemore, whom Sacramento took with the selection before the Pistons drafted Caldwell-Pope, can have Paul negotiate toward a rookie scale extension when he becomes eligible for one next summer.
- Kevin Seraphin — Seraphin and the Wizards didn’t do a rookie scale extension when he was eligible in 2013, setting him up for restricted free agency last year. Paul helped him take a somewhat unconventional route, as he signed his qualifying offer on July 17th, 2014 (though news of the signing didn’t come out until July 18th). Seraphin and Paul had motivation not to drag out talks too long, since the Wizards had the power to unilaterally withdraw the offer, worth a fully guaranteed one-year salary of nearly $3.9MM, anytime through July 23rd. Taking the qualifying offer triggered unrestricted free agency for him this year, and this time he lingered in free agency a bit longer, committing to the Knicks on August 4th before making it official on August 6th.
Heat Sign Corey Hawkins
3:53pm: The deal is official, the Heat announced.
3:35pm: The Heat are poised to sign undrafted shooting guard Corey Hawkins, reports Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel (Twitter links). The 24-year-old son of former NBA player Hersey Hawkins averaged more than 20 points per game two out of his last three seasons at UC Davis and won this year’s Big West Player of the Year award, as Winderman notes. The terms of Hawkins’ deal are the same as Keith Benson‘s, who inked a non-guaranteed training camp pact with Miami earlier this month, Winderman tweets.
Hawkins will compete for one of ostensibly two open spots on the regular season roster for Miami, which is carrying 12 fully guaranteed salaries plus Hassan Whiteside‘s partially guaranteed deal, one that the Heat will almost certain keep.
The 6’3″ guard spent his freshman season at Arizona State, then transferred to UC-Davis, where he spent his remaining three collegiate campaigns. Hawkins’ career averages are 15.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 2.7 assists to go along with a shooting line of .468/.406/.802.
Raptors Sign Shannon Scott For Camp
AUGUST 21ST, 3:07pm: The deal is official, the team announced (Twitter link).
AUGUST 6TH, 10:54am: The Raptors and undrafted Ohio State point guard Shannon Scott have agreed to a partially guaranteed deal, a league source tells Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). It’ll have to be for the minimum salary, since that’s all Toronto has left to give to outside free agents. The level of the guarantee isn’t immediately clear, but the Raptors gave camp invitees Michale Kyser and Axel Toupane matching $25K guarantees on their deals earlier this summer, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.
Scott played for the Spurs summer league team that won the title in Las Vegas, and he also saw action for San Antonio’s squad at the Salt Lake City summer league, averaging 5.3 points and 2.4 assists in 22.6 minutes per game over nine total appearances. The 6’2″ 22-year-old was a full-time starter only in his senior season at Ohio State, averaging 8.5 PPG, 5.9 APG and 2.4 turnovers in 30.5 MPG this past season.
The Raptors are setting up a battle for their final regular season roster spot, as they’ve been carrying 14 fully guaranteed salaries plus partial guarantees for Kyser, Toupane and Ronald Roberts. Scott joins that group, one in which Roberts would seem to have a slight financial edge with a $75K partial guarantee. Point guards Kyle Lowry, Cory Joseph and Delon Wright are among those 14 Raptors with full guarantees, so Scott faces an uphill battle, notes former Nets executive Bobby Marks (Twitter link). Toronto isn’t obligated to carry more than 13 players into the regular season, so it would seem Scott, Kyser, Toupane and Roberts are all strong candidates to end up with Raptors 905, Toronto’s new one-to-one D-League affiliate. The Raptors organization can claim the D-League rights to as many as four of the players it cuts at the end of the preseason.
If the Raptors carry a 15th man on opening night, who do you think should get the nod? Leave a comment to let us know.
Wizards Notes: Temple, Oubre, Camp Deals
The summer has been relatively quiet for the Wizards, with the trade for Jared Dudley and the Alan Anderson signing perhaps the team’s most significant moves. Washington is hoping it’s a different story a year from now, with native son Kevin Durant poised to hit free agency. While we wait to see how that storyline develops, see the latest from the nation’s capital:
- Jazz coach Quin Snyder, and not the Utah front office, is the party that expressed interest in Wizards guard Garrett Temple, according to a source who spoke with J. Michael of CSNMidAtlantic (Twitter link). The Wizards don’t appear eager to trade Temple, and it seems unlikely he’ll be changing teams, Michael tweets.
- Kelly Oubre intrigued the Hornets and the Heat, who had this year’s ninth and 10th picks, respectively, and the Celtics and Rockets tried to move up to draft him, reports Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. Ulimately, the Wizards came up with the package the Hawks accepted for the No. 15 overall pick, allowing Washington to come away with the small forward from Kansas. Deveney chronicles the struggle Oubre’s family faced in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which forced them from their home in New Orleans 10 years ago.
- The Wizards aren’t offering partial guarantees with their training camp invitations, Michael writes in a separate piece, and that was a factor in the decision undrafted Maryland shooting guard Dez Wells made to turn down an offer from the Wizards for a deal with the Thunder instead, Michael adds.