Unusual Timing Marks Jonas Valanciunas Deal
That the Raptors signed Jonas Valanciunas to an extension was no surprise, and the deal’s $16MM average annual value, while high compared to the salaries that other, similarly skilled centers are making, isn’t causing too much of a stir in an increasingly lucrative market for player salaries. Perhaps the most eye-catching element of the extension is its timing.
The Valanciunas deal, while pricey, is for far less than the projected $20.4MM maximum for players with his level of experience next season, when the extension would kick in. That puts it in the minority among rookie scale extensions signed prior to October, the last month of the annual window for these extensions that opens at the end of the July Moratorium and closes on Halloween. This year, October 31st falls on a Saturday, so the deadline is November 2nd.
Seven of the 12 rookie scale extensions signed in July, August or September since the 2011 collective bargaining agreement went into place have been for the maximum salary. Serge Ibaka was the first to sign an early extension for less than the max, taking about $49MM over four years when he inked his extension in August 2012. Trouble has befallen the others to follow in his footsteps, however. Larry Sanders was out of the league less than a season into the four-year, $44MM extension he signed with the Bucks in August 2013, and the Morris twins, who signed their extensions with the Suns last September, have become disgruntled over the trade that sent Marcus Morris to the Pistons.
The Raptors no doubt envision a better outcome with Valanciunas, but the more significant aspect of the timing of their deal is Toronto’s forfeiture of the chance to see if the center would take less with the deadline bearing down on him. The pressure of final-hour negotiations may well have caused the Raptors to blink instead, but it’s clear from the willingness of the sides to act now that both team and player are satisfied with the $64MM figure.
Here’s a look at the max extensions signed in July, August or September under the current collective bargaining agreement. Note that these include extensions in which players made concessions pursuant to the Derrick Rose rule that prevented them from seeing the 30% max, as was the case with the Pacers and Paul George. As long as the deal was worth at least the 25% max, it’s listed here:
- Anthony Davis, Pelicans — July 9th, 2015
- Damian Lillard, Trail Blazers — July 9th, 2015
- Kyrie Irving, Cavaliers — July 10th, 2014
- DeMarcus Cousins, Kings — September 30th, 2013
- Paul George, Pacers — September 25th, 2013
- John Wall, Wizards — July 31st, 2013
- Blake Griffin, Clippers — July 11th, 2012
Here are the non-max early rookie scale extensions over that same timeframe:
- Jonas Valanciunas, Raptors — August 20th, 2015 (four years, $64MM)
- Marcus Morris, Suns — September 28th, 2014 (four years, $20MM)
- Markieff Morris, Suns — September 28th, 2014 (four years, $32MM)
- Larry Sanders, Bucks — August 20th, 2013 (four years, $44MM)
- Serge Ibaka, Thunder — August 18th, 2012 (four years, $49.2MM)
The RealGM transactions log was used in the creation of this post.
Do you think the terms of the Valanciunas extension would have been different if he and the Raptors had waited until the deadline in the fall? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Celtics Sign Coty Clarke For Camp
AUGUST 21ST, 1:00pm: Clarke has signed a contract that’s worth the rookie minimum for one year and is non-guaranteed, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). It contains limited injury protection, Pincus adds, indicating that it’s an Exhibit 9 contract. The Celtics have yet to make a formal announcement.
AUGUST 7TH, 11:02am: The Celtics will sign former University of Arkansas forward Coty Clarke for training camp, a source told Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia. A person with knowledge of the situation confirmed to Hoops Rumors that the 6’7″ 23-year-old will indeed be in Celtics camp. The sides are still working out details, the person said, but the one-year pro is Boston-bound.
Clarke will be a surprise addition to the Celtics preseason roster. He didn’t attend an NBA training camp last fall after going undrafted in June 2014, and he didn’t play NBA summer league ball this year or last. He spent this past season playing for Hapoel Kazrin in Israel, where he put up 19.4 points and 9.4 rebounds in 30.7 minutes per game. He averaged 9.4 PPG and 5.6 RPG in 22.3 MPG as a senior at Arkansas during the 2013/14 season.
The addition of Clarke will bring Boston to 20 players with either a signed contract or a verbal agreement. Teams can carry no more than 20 contracts in the offseason before cutting down to the 15-man regular season limit. The Celtics have 17 fully guaranteed deals, including Zoran Dragic, whom they reportedly intend to either waive or trade. Such a move would still leave the team with one more guaranteed contract than it can carry for opening night, so Clarke faces long odds to stick with the Celtics beyond the preseason. Still, Boston has the ability to retain the D-League rights to as many as four of the players it waives, so Clarke would appear to have a much stronger chance to end up with the Maine Red Claws, the D-League affiliate of the Celtics.
And-Ones: Ross, Bucks, Max Salaries
The Raptors, who on Thursday signed Jonas Valanciunas to a four-year, $64MM extension, have had talks with representatives for Terrence Ross about an extension of his own, GM Masai Ujiri said, according to Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun (Twitter link). Wolstat reported last month that the team would seek extensions for both, though it’s clear that Valanciunas was the first priority. Still, the Raptors and the Aaron Mintz client have plenty of time in advance of the deadline, which would be November 2nd this year instead of the traditional October 31st, since Halloween falls on a Saturday. See more from around the NBA:
- The Bucks see a half-dozen of their players as long-term building blocks, and while that’s a broader view of a nucleus than many teams take, it’s one that can give all six the feeling that the team values them, as Frank Madden of SB Nation’s Brew Hoop examines. “We’re trying to build around some kind of consistency with the nucleus of Michael Carter-Williams, Khris Middleton, Jabari Parker, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Greg Monroe and John Henson,” GM John Hammond said on The Baseline with Warren Shaw and Cal Lee (audio link), as Madden transcribes. “Those six guys are the young core that we look and say that’s kind of the future of this organization, and that’s not discounting anyone else. Other players have to step [up] and become a part of that group with us. But those guys are the group we hope we can build some kind of continuity with.”
- John Wall pointed earlier this summer to Reggie Jackson‘s new five-year, $80MM contract with the Pistons as proof that the Wizards didn’t pay too much when they inked Wall to a deal for a similar amount in 2013, and Wall said recently to Ken Berger of CBSSports.com that some signings are out of line. “But I know when I got my $80MM, they said I didn’t deserve it. Now guys are getting it and they’re not saying anything about it,” Wall said in part. “I’m never knocking those guys because they’re doing what they’re supposed to do. You’re supposed to get that money and take care of your family and get better. I just [criticized max deals] because they made a big deal about me getting $80MM, and now people are getting $80MM, $95MM and they don’t deserve it.”
- Blake Griffin was the only one of the five stars Berger spoke to for his piece who lent much support to the idea of shortening the regular season. “Money is an object, though,” said Griffin’s teammate Chris Paul, who serves as president of the players association. “When we were kids playing AAU, we’d play five games in a day and wouldn’t think twice about it. I don’t know what the right number is. We’ve been playing 82 for a while though, huh? As far as I can remember. That’d be tough [to change].”
Rockets Face Tough Choice With Montrezl Harrell
Jason Terry helped the Rockets make a key step toward completing their roster for the season ahead, agreeing this week to return on what appears to be a one-year, minimum salary deal. That leaves Houston with wiggle room to sign No. 32 overall pick Montrezl Harrell, but the Rockets still face a dilemma as they attempt to do so. Signing Harrell, a Rich Paul client, would almost certainly impose a hard cap on the team, and Harrell’s contract would leave the Rockets so close to that cap that they’d have almost no room to maneuver the rest of the season, barring some kind of other move to clear salary.
The collective bargaining agreement calls for a hard cap of $4MM above the tax threshold on teams that use the $5.464MM non-taxpayer’s mid-level exception instead of the $3.376MM taxpayer’s mid-level. The Rockets have already re-signed K.J. McDaniels for nearly $3.19MM. That’s close enough to $3.376MM that any use of the mid-level for a full-season salary for Harrell would push the Rockets above that figure and trigger the hard cap.
Houston couldn’t have paid McDaniels nearly as much had they not used the mid-level, because they didn’t have cap space and because their Non-Bird rights with McDaniels would provide no more than about $1.014MM, which is 20% greater than the minimum. They were hemmed in with McDaniels because he took his one-year required tender from the Sixers last year, the very sort of scenario Houston is seemingly trying to avoid with Harrell.
High second-round picks almost always end up with more than the minimum salary. That’s the case with each of the five second-round picks from No. 31 through 39 who have signed with their NBA teams so far this summer. Thus, the Rockets probably wouldn’t be able to convince Harrell and Paul to take a deal via the minimum-salary exception, unless it’s his required tender. That tender functions like a miniature version of a qualifying offer. Teams have to submit required tenders to their second-round picks no later than September 5th, or they lose the draft rights to them and they become free agents. The tender is for a one-year, non-guaranteed contract at the minimum salary. Some second-rounders wouldn’t sign the tender out of fear that their teams would cut them in training camp, leaving them with no salary for the season ahead. That’s assuredly not the case for Harrell, who was just two picks shy of becoming a first-rounder and who had been a lottery prospect at times during his college career at Louisville.
Harrell could seek a lucrative deal overseas, but if he signs his required tender, he’d become an NBA free agent next summer. That proved a lucrative path for McDaniels, last year’s No. 32 overall pick, who took his required tender from the Sixers a few months before they traded him to the Rockets. No second-round pick from last year will make a salary this season that comes close to the nearly $3.19MM that McDaniels will see.
Harrell’s association with Paul adds another wrinkle. Paul recently declared that Tristan Thompson, another of his clients, wouldn’t re-sign with the Cavs next year if he took his qualifying offer this summer. The Rockets would have the right to match offers for Harrell next year if he signs his required tender this year, a privilege the Cavs wouldn’t have with Thompson if he takes his qualifying offer, but Houston wouldn’t have Harrell’s Bird rights. The Rockets would probably have to use cap space or their mid-level to keep him, just as with McDaniels. The Gilbert Arenas provision would be around to protect the Rockets from having to commit more than the non-taxpayer’s mid-level, but the Rockets would surely prefer to avoid a bidding war for a player with whom they currently have exclusive NBA negotiating rights.
Averting that scenario may prove just as thorny for GM Daryl Morey and company, however. Any deal that Houston gives Harrell this season that’s worth more than the minimum salary or runs for more than two years would result in a hard cap. The Rockets have a payroll of $85,233,113, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders, not counting the minimum salaries for Terry and Chuck Hayes, whom the Rockets have also agreed to sign. Both Terry and Hayes reportedly have one-year deals for the minimum salary. Since their pacts only cover one year, the Rockets would have to pay them no more than $947,276, the two-year veteran’s minimum. The Hayes deal apparently carries only a partial guarantee, though it’s unclear just how much guaranteed money is involved. Assuming Terry’s deal is fully guaranteed, and assuming Harrell would take a first-year salary equivalent to the $1,170,960 that No. 33 overall pick Jordan Mickey will make this season, according to Pincus, Houston’s payroll would be $87,351,349 absent of Hayes. The hard cap would be $88.74MM, so depending on the amount of the partial guarantee for Hayes, the Rockets would only have about $1MM to play with the rest of the season.
That would handicap the team if it wants to make a trade, since the Rockets wouldn’t be able to do a deal that brings their salary above the hard cap. Houston would have to be especially choosy with midseason signees, since their salaries couldn’t add up to more than the $1MM or so that the team would have left to spend. Claiming an intriguing player off waivers would be nearly impossible. Houston could create more flexibility with a salary-clearing trade, but the Rockets, who are title contenders, must be careful not to trim too much talent from the roster, especially after injuries left the team thin at critical times last season. Waiving a player via the stretch provision before September 1st would represent another path to increased flexibility beneath the hard cap, but that, too, would reduce talent, since no obvious waiver candidate exists.
The constraints of that hard cap nonetheless seem more palatable than allowing Harrell to hit the open market next year. The Rockets could match competing bids for him, since he’d be eligible for restricted free agency, but they wouldn’t truly hold sway over his price point. A hard cap would provide Morey with a measure of control, since he’d have several months to find a trade that reduced salary without draining talent. That’s a difficult task, but Morey has proven among the most canny and creative dealers in his eight-plus years in charge of Houston’s front office. No one stands a better chance of wriggling free from the chains of the hard cap than he does.
Regardless, we’ll soon find out just which less-than-appealing option the Rockets choose. For now, we know simply that the Harrell dilemma proves that negotiations between teams and their second-round picks are infinitely more fascinating than the straightforward rookie scale signings of their more celebrated first-round counterparts.
What do you think the Rockets should do with Harrell? Leave a comment to tell us.
Latest On Carlos Boozer
7:54am: The Shandong Lions, another Chinese team, are also going after Boozer, as Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia indicates via Twitter.
12:26am: The Sichuan Blue Whales and other Chinese teams are expressing interest in Carlos Boozer, and while the Rob Pelinka client is intrigued, he’s still pursuing NBA deals, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links). News regarding the 33-year-old has been scarce since a late-July report indicated that the Knicks, Rockets and Mavericks were eyeing him. The 33-year-old has lingered in free agency since July, when the lucrative five-year deal he signed with the Bulls expired. He made $16.8MM last season as a member of the Lakers, though Chicago paid all but the $3.251MM figure the Lakers bid when they claimed him via amnesty waivers.
Few NBA teams have more than the $2.814MM room exception to spend at this point. The Mavs have that amount available, though they already have deals with 20 players, the offseason maximum. The Knicks spent the room exception on Kevin Seraphin and have only the minimum to offer. The Rockets have about $2.274MM worth of their mid-level that they could spend, though doing so would leave the team hard-capped and without the means to give No. 32 pick Montrezl Harrell a market-value contract. Boozer and the Clippers reportedly had mutual interest in July, but they only have the minimum to spend, and while the Spurs, Raptors, Pelicans, Nuggets, Nets, Lakers and Heat have all apparently had interest over the course of the summer, it’s unclear if that’s the case now. Thus, I’d speculate that Boozer is only receiving minimum-salary offers from NBA teams at this point.
Andray Blatche signed a three-year, $7.5MM deal with China’s Xinjiang Flying Tigers this past spring, and a few weeks ago Shavlik Randolph inked a contract for at least $4.5MM over three years, numbers that suggest that Boozer, if he went to China, stands a decent chance to top the $1,499,187 he’d see on an NBA minimum deal. Still, Metta World Peace wound up with less than that in his deal with Sichuan last summer. A Chinese team would nonetheless offer Boozer a chance to double-dip, since the Chinese Basketball Association ends well in advance of the NBA season, giving players an opportunity to latch on with NBA teams at prorated salaries for the stretch run.
Will Joseph of Hoops Rumors examined Boozer’s free agent stock in depth earlier this month.
Where do you think Boozer ends up? Comment to tell us.
Pelicans Sign Bryce Dejean-Jones
AUGUST 20TH, 3:55pm: The signing is official, the Pelicans announced.
AUGUST 14TH, 3:15pm: The Pelicans have agreed to sign undrafted shooting guard Bryce Dejean-Jones to a partially guaranteed three-year contract, league sources told Shams Charania of RealGM. Dejean-Jones finished out his collegiate career with Iowa State this past season before playing last month for the Pelicans summer league team. New Orleans has been carrying only 12 players, all of whom have full guarantees, so Dejean-Jones appears to have a strong chance to make the regular season roster, depending on the other moves the team might make between now and opening night.
Dejean-Jones averaged 12.8 points in 21.6 minutes per game for the summer Pelicans, nailing 61.9% of his shots from the floor and nine of his 18 three-point attempts, Charania notes. Those were better numbers than he posted in his lone season with the Cyclones after having previously played at USC and UNLV. The 6’5″ Dejean-Jones, who turns 23 in a week, put up 10.6 PPG in 23.0 MPG with 32.9% three-point shooting as a senior at Iowa State.
Neither Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress nor Chad Ford of ESPN.com ranked Dejean-Jones within their top 100 prospects for this year’s draft. He’ll join new Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry after having spent last season under Fred Hoiberg, who’s since left the school to become coach of the Bulls. New Orleans will use some portion of the $1.294MM it has left on its mid-level exception to make the signing official, since neither the minimum-salary exception or the biannual exception would provide for a three-year deal.
LaMarcus Aldridge, Marcus Morris Change Agents
Spurs marquee free agent signee LaMarcus Aldridge has departed the Wasserman Media Group to join Excel Sports Management, while the recently traded Marcus Morris has left the Creative Artists Agency, reports international journalist David Pick (Twitter links). Aldridge had previously been with Arn Tellem, who’s leaving for a job with the Pistons organization, though RealGM lists his most recent primary agent with Wasserman as having been Michael Tellem, Arn’s son. Morris, who’s been a client of Leon Rose, has expressed displeasure with swap that sent him to Detroit and separated him from twin brother Markieff Morris, who’s demanded that the Suns trade him, too. Coincidentally, the Suns made the trade in an effort to clear cap room for Aldridge, who strongly considered signing with Phoenix before choosing San Antonio instead.
Aldridge signed a maximum-salary deal with the Spurs last month after dogged pursuit from the Suns and several other teams. He was the most high-profile free agent to change teams last summer and had the power to essentially dictate his own terms and location. The 30-year-old would seemingly have little reason for discontent with Wasserman, so I’d speculate that the move is tied to Arn Tellem’s departure. Aldridge won’t be able to elect free agency again until 2018, when he can turn down a player option, so his new relationship with Excel will probably focus on business ventures outside of basketball for the time being.
Marcus Morris has little to negotiate contractually either, having signed a four-year, $20MM extension last fall that kicks in for the coming season. It’s unclear who his next representative will be, but he could seek out agents who would pressure the Pistons to engineer a deal that would reunite him with his brother, though that would be a difficult pursuit. Marcus indicated that he believes he took less than he was worth on his extension, so that may also be a factor in his decision to change agents. It’s unclear whether Markieff, a fellow Rose client, will follow suit. It’s been a mixed summer for Rose. Client J.R. Smith has languished in free agency after he turned down a player option worth nearly $6.4MM, but Jonas Valanciunas, another Rose client, just signed a four-year, $64MM extension, and Rose also represents No. 1 overall pick Karl-Anthony Towns.
The former agents for both Aldridge and Morris will continue to receive the fees based on the deals that the players signed with their respective teams this year, notes former Nets executive Bobby Marks (Twitter link).
Raptors Sign Jonas Valanciunas To Extension
2:51pm: Valanciunas will simply see $64MM on the deal, as there are no bonuses involved, Wojnarowski clarifies (on Twitter).
2:15pm: The deal is official, the Raptors announced (Twitter link). It’s worth $64MM over four years with a player option on the fourth year, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter links). Bonuses could bring the total value to $70MM, Wojnarowski also indicates.
“Jonas’ contributions continue to improve with each season and we view him as a significant part of what we are building in Toronto,” Ujiri said in the team’s press release.
12:41pm: The Raptors and Jonas Valanciunas have reached agreement on an extension, reports Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca (Twitter link). The team and the Leon Rose client had reportedly been close to a four-year, deal worth more than $60MM earlier this week as they were deeply engaged in negotiations. Valanciunas left training with the Lithuanian national team to travel to Toronto this week and undergo a medical exam, national team coach Jonas Kazlauskas said, strongly hinting that Valanciunas intended to sign a deal.
The extension comes as no surprise after GM Masai Ujiri said this past spring that Valanciunas was “a huge part of our team” for the future. Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun reported in early July that the Raptors planned to work toward extensions with both Valanciunas and Terrence Ross, though the team’s brass has seemed especially high on Valanciunas, as they seemed to blame the coaching staff for slow development in the center’s game. The Raptors and head coach Dwane Casey overhauled the team’s group of assistant coaches, bringing in Rex Kalamian, Andy Greer and Jerry Stackhouse.
A figure in excess of $60MM over four years would make Valanciunas one of the league’s most highly paid big men, far eclipsing the $12MM a year that Nikola Vucevic, a center with greater scoring production and similar defensive issues, will see on the extension he signed with the Magic this past fall. Still, Enes Kanter, another interior scorer who’s proven a liability on defense, came away with a max deal of about $70MM this summer as the economics of the NBA change in advance of the projected leaps in the salary cap. An extension for Valanciunas would take effect starting with the 2016/17 season, the first covered under the league’s $24 billion TV deal.
Sportsnet’s Michael Grange speculated that even $60MM over four years would be low, pegging a $64-66MM arrangement as fair value for the team (Twitter links). Grange compared Valanciunas, the fifth overall pick in the 2011 draft, to Tristan Thompson, the No. 4 pick that year who’s apparently been negotiating north of $80MM over five years with the Cavs. Valanciunas, unlike Thompson, isn’t a restricted free agent this summer because he remained overseas for a year after having been drafted.
I’d gone in the other direction, predicting that Valanciunas would end up with $13-14MM a year when I looked at his extension candidacy earlier this month. The timing of the deal is perhaps the most surprising element, since the sides had until November 2nd to sign an extension, and most extensions for less than the maximum salary don’t come until mere days or even hours before that deadline.
The Raptors have been carrying about $45.5MM on the books for 2016/17, a figure that presumes the team will pick up the rookie scale team options on Lucas Nogueira and Bruno Caboclo. That doesn’t include any money for DeMar DeRozan, who has a $10.05MM player option that early indications show he’s likely to decline. Presuming that new deals for Valanciunas and DeRozan would add up to around $30MM, Toronto would have less than $14MM against a projected $89MM cap to use on Ross or on outside free agents.
Do you think Valanciunas is worth more than $15MM a year in this market? Leave a comment to tell us.
The Kevin Love Trade: One Year Later
The one-year anniversary of the Kevin Love trade is Sunday, but we’ll get the jump today and look back at last year’s foremost blockbuster. The official announcement of the deal, which took place on August 23rd, 2014, was a long time coming, as the Cavs and Timberwolves had been working on the swap for months and had to wait for Andrew Wiggins to become eligible for inclusion in the deal. The Sixers became involved during the process, and they scored a first-rounder and two players in exchange for Thaddeus Young.
The Cavs, who went to the Finals, and the Timberwolves, who finished with the league’s worst record, won the lottery and picked Karl-Anthony Towns No. 1 overall, have predictably taken divergent paths since the swap. The Sixers have continued in their slow rebuilding, with their involvement Love trade just one part of a lengthy process. However, the story for many of the figures involved is more complicated.
Below is a look at each of the six players in the trade and what’s happened to them in the past 12 months. We’ve also broken down the fate of the draft pick promised as part of the deal. See it all here:
- Kevin Love (Timberwolves to Cavaliers) — The past season was one to forget for Love, who put up his worst numbers of the past five years. Some of that was to be expected, as he figured to play more of a complementary role on a team with greater talent than he’d ever played with in Minnesota, but Love and new Cavs coach David Blatt struggled to find a role that maximized the power forward’s abilities. A shoulder injury in the first round of the playoffs that knocked him out for the rest of the postseason somehow served as a fitting coda to a frustrating year. Rumors that he’d flee Cleveland for the Lakers or Celtics dogged Love all season, but he just as consistently denied them, and he affirmed his long-term commitment to the Cavs when he re-signed in July on a five-year max deal, one that also made clear Cleveland’s belief in him as a max player.
- Andrew Wiggins (Cavaliers to Timberwolves) — The centerpiece of the package going to Minnesota is already well on his way to making this known more prominently as “the Andrew Wiggins trade.” He entered college two years ago with the expectation that he’d become the next NBA superstar, and while he underwhelmed at Kansas, he spent his first pro season regaining a sterling reputation. He didn’t fall too far with the Jayhawks, having done enough to become the No. 1 overall pick in 2014, and he ran away with voting for the Rookie of the Year award this spring.
- Thaddeus Young (Sixers to Timberwolves) — The Timberwolves apparently insisted on receiving Young instead of the Heat’s first-round pick that had been Cleveland’s, in the hopes that the veteran forward would help the team compete for a playoff berth last season. Injuries scuttled the idea of a playoff run soon after the season began, and while Young was Minnesota’s third-leading scorer at 14.3 points per game, he reportedly told the Wolves he would opt out at season’s end, helping prompt them to trade him to the Nets at the deadline for Kevin Garnett. That swap completed a circle of sorts for Minnesota, which had drafted Love to replace Garnett a year after the deal that sent KG to Boston in 2007. Young fit in seamlessly with the Nets and re-signed with Brooklyn on a four-year, $50MM deal.
- Anthony Bennett (Cavaliers to Timberwolves) — The 2013 No. 1 overall pick showed some improvement last year after his profoundly disappointing rookie season, but he still averaged only 5.2 points and 3.8 rebounds in 15.7 minutes per game. The Wolves reportedly brought up Bennett’s name in trade talk with other teams at the deadline, and they apparently spoke to the Celtics in June about the idea of dealing Bennett to Boston. In a series of polls in which Hoops Rumors readers have been reconstructing the 2013 draft, Bennett has gone undrafted through 13 picks so far.
- Alexey Shved (Timberwolves to Sixers) — The shooting guard whose minutes had fallen off in 2013/14 after a strong rookie season in 2012/13 spent this past year bouncing from team to team. The Sixers traded him to the Rockets in December in a deal that essentially netted the Sixers the 58th overall pick in this year’s draft, and Houston flipped Shved to the Knicks at the deadline. New York reportedly failed to offer Shved the $2.814MM salary for the coming season that he had been seeking, so he instead signed with CSKA Moscow on a three-year, $10.2MM deal that makes him Europe’s highest-paid player.
- Luc Mbah a Moute (Timberwolves to Sixers) — Mbah a Moute posted the highest points and minutes per game of his seven-year NBA career with the Sixers, whose stripped-down roster allowed him greater opportunity than ever. He also served as a mentor for fellow Cameroon native Joel Embiid as Embiid sat out the season with injury, but with Embiid’s career in limbo following another season-ending problem with his foot, Mbah a Moute signed with the Kings last month for a $1.55MM salary. However, Mbah a Moute’s health also came into question, and Sacramento voided the deal because of a shoulder issue. The union was to have filed a grievance earlier this month.
- Miami’s top-10 protected 2015 first-round pick (Cavaliers to Sixers) — The Heat’s debt is still outstanding on the pick that was originally part of Cleveland’s ransom for LeBron James in the sign-and-trade deal that sent him to Miami in 2010. The Sixers nearly wound up with the draft choice this year, but the Heat emerged from the lottery with pick No. 10, the last within the protected range. That pick is again top-10 protected for 2016, but barring another injury-filled season in Miami, the Heat should make playoffs, an outcome that would see the selection finally convey to Philly. A slight possibility exists that the pick will end up going to the Warriors thanks to the Gerald Wallace/Jason Thompson trade. If the pick somehow falls within the top 10 again in 2016, the Heat will keep it but will be forced to send their 2017 first-rounder, with no protection, to the Sixers.
What’s your take on the trade now that a year has passed? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Timberwolves Sign Tayshaun Prince
AUGUST 20TH, 10:59am: The deal is official, the team announced (Twitter link).
“We’re excited to add a veteran like Tayshaun,” Timberwolves coach/executive Flip Saunders said in the team’s statement. “Having coached Tayshaun for three seasons in Detroit, I know that his experience and defensive mindset will benefit our younger players. He also has shown that he can shoot from long distance, which will help our ability to stretch the floor.”
AUGUST 13TH, 12:54pm: The Timberwolves have reached agreement on a one-year deal with Tayshaun Prince for the minimum salary, a source told Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). The move is somewhat surprising, since Minnesota already has 15 fully guaranteed deals. He’ll join Kevin Garnett and the newly signed Andre Miller among the long-tenured veterans supplementing a youthful Wolves core. Prince is “super close” with longtime Pistons trainer Arnie Kander, who also recently joined Minnesota, notes Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link).
Prince finished up this past season in Detroit as a coda to the 10 and a half seasons he spent there at the start of his career. His production bounced back to a degree this past season after a dropoff in 2013/14. The Cavs and Spurs reportedly reached out to the Bill Duffy client at the start of free agency last month, and the Blazers apparently had more recent interest before the Wolves snagged him. Prince spent 2014/15 on the move, as the Grizzlies traded him to the Celtics in the Jeff Green deal and Boston later flipped him to the Pistons at the deadline.
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Since it’s only for one year, the deal with Prince will cost the Wolves just $947,276 while the league picks up the tab for the rest of his $1,499,187 salary. It’s not much of a financial burden for Minnesota, which had been carrying about $72.7MM in guaranteed salary, well shy of the $84.74MM tax threshold, but it puts pressure on the team to make a trade before opening night to get down to no more than 15 fully guaranteed deals. Prince’s arrival also seemingly makes it tougher for Lorenzo Brown to stick past the preseason. His salary is partially guaranteed for only $75K.
Prince had hoped to sign with a contender, but the Wolves, who finished with the league’s worst record this past season, don’t fit that bill, notes Keith Langlois of Pistons.com (Twitter link). The small forward signed his last contract while he was still in his prime, so this pact will represent a significant decline in pay from the more than $7.7MM he made in 2014/15. Our Dana Gauruder correctly predicted in Prince’s Free Agent Stock Watch this week that he would end up with a one-year deal, even though the 35-year-old said this spring that he felt he could play for another two or three years.
Do you think Prince is the right fit for the Timberwolves? Leave a comment to let us know.