Latest On Glen Davis
JULY 31ST: 10:35am: Davis and the Clippers spoke this week, and there’s optimism a deal will get done between them, a source tells Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link). The Bucks have signed Copeland since the initial report of interest in Davis from Milwaukee (below), so it’s unclear if the Bucks are still in the mix for Big Baby.
JULY 22ND: 2:44pm: The Clippers maintain “high interest” in re-signing Glen Davis, but no deal is close, and the Bucks loom as another interested team, reports Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link). The Clips reportedly expected to re-sign Big Baby as of two weeks ago, but there hasn’t been much chatter surrounding the John Hamilton client since.
Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers reached out to Davis on the opening day of free agency, and they share a lengthy history dating back to their time with the Celtics. The Bucks appeared close to a deal with Chris Copeland on Tuesday, but the Spurs and Thunder are still competing for the former Pacers forward, so perhaps Milwaukee sees Davis as an alternative.
Davis has Early Bird rights with the Clippers to sign for up to $5.739MM, giving the Clips a financial edge over the Bucks, who are limited to the $2.814MM room exception. Still, Davis made the minimum salary last year, so it would be surprising to see him end up with a significant raise, even though he was one of only eight players to average more than 10 minutes per game in the playoffs for the Clippers this past season.
Which team do you think is the best fit for Davis? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Jerel McNeal Signs To Play In Greece
Jerel McNeal has signed to play for Aris Thessaloniki following his release from the Suns earlier this month, the Greek team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). The former Marquette standout who went undrafted in 2009 is a three-year NBA veteran, though his only official action came this past season with Phoenix.
The Pelicans and Jazz have carried McNeal on their respective rosters during the regular season in the past, but he didn’t appear in a game for either of them. The shooting guard scored nine points in a total of 36 minutes for the Suns this spring after signing a 10-day contract and later a deal for the rest of 2014/15 with a non-guaranteed 2015/16 salary tacked on. That minimum salary was to have become fully guaranteed earlier this month, prompting Phoenix to let him go.
McNeal, 28, has remained stateside in recent years, playing in the D-League in each of the past three seasons, so it would appear that at this point that he’s switched gears and is prioritizing superior money in Europe over a better chance to stay on the NBA radar. It’s unclear just how much McNeal will make with his new Greek team, however.
Shavlik Randolph To Play In China
Eight-year NBA veteran Shavlik Randolph has signed with the Liaoning Flying Leopards of the Chinese Basketball Association, according to Sportando’s Enea Trapani. Randolph played this past season with the Suns, Celtics and Nuggets but spent parts of the previous three seasons in China.
The 31-year-old power forward, who’ll turn 32 in November, saw little action in his three NBA stops during 2014/15. He averaged 1.1 points and 1.8 rebounds in 6.0 minutes per game across 21 appearances, none of which came during his brief Nuggets stint. Denver claimed him off waivers from the Celtics in April in large measure to defray the shortfall payment that the Nuggets had to make to their players for failing to reach the minimum team salary. Boston had acquired him as part of the trade that sent Austin Rivers to the Clippers, and the Celtics let Randolph go to sign Chris Babb, who later wound up in the David Lee trade.
Randolph never averaged as many as 20 minutes per game in college at Duke, but he’s nonetheless continued to hang on the fringe of the NBA picture since going undrafted in 2005. His numbers in China have helped his cause, as he averaged a whopping 32.0 PPG and 14.5 RPG in 36.9 MPG for Guangdong Foshan in 2012/13, his last full season there.
Do you think we’ll see Randolph in the NBA again? Leave a comment to give your opinion.
Knicks Expected To Sign Thanasis Antetokounmpo
The Knicks are expected to sign 2014 No. 51 pick Thanasis Antetokounmpo, sources tell Marc Berman of the New York Post. Thursday’s release of Ricky Ledo opened the door for the move, according to Berman. The team told Antetokoumpo’s camp this spring that it would likely sign him to the NBA roster after he spent this past season playing for New York’s D-League affiliate, but agent Tim Lotsos later raised the specter of the small forward playing overseas this year if the Knicks didn’t follow through.
Antetokounmpo, now 23, had an up-and-down performance for the Knicks summer league squad, but his final game, in which he went 7 for 7 and scored 17 points, sent him out on a high note, as Berman details. The brother of Giannis Antetokounmpo averaged 13.9 points and 6.2 rebounds in 33.0 minutes per game in the D-League this past season.
The Knicks have also reportedly spoken with former Phil Jackson pupil Sasha Vujacic. New York has 11 fully guaranteed contracts, presuming that the team’s deal with Louis Amundson is one of them, and three partially guaranteed arrangements. That leaves room for Antetokoumpo, Vujacic, and a big man like Kevin Seraphin and Carlos Boozer, whom the Knicks are reportedly targeting. Teams can carry as many as 20 players during the offseason before cutting down to the 15-man regular season limit.
Hoops Rumors Community Shootaround 7/30/15
The identity of the best remaining free agent, restricted or unrestricted, is pretty clear. Tristan Thompson‘s value was on full display after Kevin Love went down with a shoulder injury in the playoffs. The 2011 No. 4 overall pick gave the Cavs size, muscle and skill that helped them topple the Bulls and a 60-win Hawks team on the way to the Finals. Thompson averaged a whopping 4.4 offensive rebounds per game in postseason play. Still, no one will mistake the ambidextrous Canadian for a true NBA superstar.
The Rich Paul client has spent the past month as a restricted free agent, much of it in a stalemate after he and the Cavs were reportedly close to a deal on July 1st. Thompson was apparently ready to settle for $80MM over five years, but he reportedly asked for $85MM after it seemed that fellow restricted free agent forward Draymond Green would get that much in his deal with the Warriors. Green wound up with $82MM instead. In any case, Cavs GM David Griffin expressed confidence two weeks ago that he and Thompson would reach a deal.
Not much progress appears to have taken place since. So, we ask: What do you think will happen with Thompson, and how much will he see on his next deal? The Cavs have leverage, since they can match any offer, and only the Sixers and Trail Blazers have the cap room necessary to tender a max offer sheet. Still, Thompson has the nuclear option of signing his qualifying offer of nearly $6.778MM to hit unrestricted free agency next summer, just when the salary cap is set to vault, giving teams loads of cash to burn. Thompson and LeBron James share Paul as an agent, and James wants Thompson to return to Cleveland, so the Cavs face pressure.
So, tell us what you think happens and how much Thompson will make next season. To comment, simply enter your name and email address, write what you want to say, and submit it; there’s no need to become a registered user. Just make sure you comply with our commenting policy.
Trades Of Large Contracts Scarce This Summer
The Hawks and Nets proved three years ago that just about any contract is liable to be traded. Brooklyn agreed in the summer of 2012 to take Joe Johnson and the remaining four years and $89,295,016 on his contract from the Hawks. The Nets paid a record amount of luxury tax in 2013/14 in large measure because of Johnson’s bloated deal, while the Hawks deftly reconstructed their roster, paying only about $57.8MM last season, less than the $63.065MM salary cap, for a 60-win team. The Nets, since the trade, have topped out at 49 wins, and last season they won only 38 times in the regular season before losing a first-round series to top-seeded Atlanta.
It’s perhaps with the wisdom of that deal in mind that teams have seemed hesitant to take on large contracts this summer. The greatest chunk of guaranteed salary changing hands was only $20MM, and that’s spread over the four years of the extension the Suns gave Marcus Morris months before trading him to the Pistons. Spencer Hawes, who possesses the contract traded this summer with the next greatest amount of guaranteed money left on it, signed for the mid-level exception last year. Teams showed willingness to take on large expiring contracts, with Roy Hibbert and David Lee on the move, but no team committed to taking on consecutive seasons of eight-figure guarantees. Ty Lawson is on this list, and he would have topped it but for the sacrifice of the guarantee on his salary of more than $13.213MM for 2016/17.
Here are the nine players traded so far in the 2015 offseason with at least $10MM in guaranteed money left on their respective deals. Note that the figures reflect their post-trade cap hits, so any trade bonus money is included. All figures are rounded to the nearest $1K.
- Marcus Morris, Suns to Pistons (four years, $20MM)
- Spencer Hawes, Clippers to Hornets (three years, $18.48MM)
- Tiago Splitter, Spurs to Hawks (two years, $17.35MM)
- Roy Hibbert, Pacers to Lakers (one year, $15.592MM)
- David Lee, Warriors to Celtics (one year, $15.494MM)
- Nicolas Batum, Trail Blazers to Hornets (one year, $13.125MM)
- Carl Landry, Kings to Sixers (two years, $13MM)
- Ty Lawson, Nuggets to Rockets (one year, $12.404MM)
- Gerald Wallace, Celtics to Warriors (one year, $10.106MM)
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Which of these contracts would you least want your team to be on the hook for? Leave a comment to let us know.
Pacific Notes: Lieberman, Moreland, Durant
- The Kings decided one-year veteran Eric Moreland‘s playing style was too similar to that of No. 6 pick Willie Cauley-Stein, helping prompt Sacramento to waive Moreland on Thursday rather than guarantee his salary, as Shams Charania of RealGM writes. Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee wouldn’t be shocked to see Moreland end up with Denver, where former Sacramento GM Pete D’Alessandro, who signed him to the Kings last year, works in the Nuggets front office, but Bill Herenda of CSN California heard early word suggesting that won’t happen (Twitter links).
- The Warriors will surely chase Kevin Durant next summer, when he’s set for free agency, but realistically, they’d have to sign-and-trade for him, and such a deal would probably have to include Harrison Barnes plus more, as Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group posits in a look at Golden State’s chances for the former MVP.
- Golden State has promoted Luke Walton to lead assistant to replace Alvin Gentry, the team announced. Gentry became the head coach of the Pelicans earlier this summer. Walton joined the Warriors coaching staff last year.
- The Suns have officially added Earl Watson, Nate Bjorkgren and Jason Fraser to their coaching staff, the team announced. Watson and Fraser come from the Spurs D-League team while Bjorkgren had coached Phoenix’s D-League affiliate. Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group first reported the addition of Watson, who helped with the Suns’ pitch to LaMarcus Aldridge, his former teammate with the Trail Blazers.
Southeast Notes: Scott, Ennis, Napier
- James Ennis feels confident that he’ll earn his way onto the Heat‘s regular season roster, agent Scott Nichols told Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, explaining why he and the Heat decided to nix the clause in Ennis’ contract that would have triggered a 50% partial guarantee on his minimum salary if he remained on the team through Saturday. The move keeps the Heat from having to decide on a $422,530 chunk of salary this weekend, a prospect that may well have spurred the team to cut him, and it also moves up the date on which Ennis’ salary becomes fully guaranteed from December 1st to opening night, Jackson notes.
- Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel still doesn’t see Miami’s 2014 draft-night acquisition of Shabazz Napier as a mistake, even after the Heat traded Napier to the Magic following a so-so rookie year, as Winderman writes in his mailbag column. He heard from one scout that Napier nearly was one of the first 15 picks in the draft. This summer, the Heat had luxury tax concerns and better options at point guard, and that’s what led to the trade with Orlando, Winderman argues. That casts a different light on Napier than that from when an NBA GM told Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald that the Heat had simply concluded prior to the trade that the point guard “was not good enough”
- Michael Kidd-Gilchrist leads a list of intriguing second-tier 2016 free agents that Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com compiles in an Insider-only piece. The elite defense of the 21-year-old Hornets small forward makes it such that he’ll be a valuable starter for years to come if he can merely become an average offensive player, Pelton argues.
Players Who’ve Survived Salary Guarantee Dates
Contract guarantee dates are often the reason why players end up on waivers. Eric Moreland, Brendan Haywood and Ricky Ledo have all met the end of their time with their respective teams in the past two days, largely because those teams didn’t want to guarantee their salaries, or at least a portion of them. More figure to join that trio soon, with Saturday the key day for a handful, as the schedule of contract guarantee dates shows.
Players and teams are free to negotiate dates on which a salary may become fully or partially guaranteed should the player remain under contract. If a player has non-guaranteed salary and no date is specified in the contract, his salary would become guaranteed if he hasn’t cleared waivers by January 10th. Thus, January 7th is the de facto leaguewide guarantee date, since players waived that day would clear waivers January 9th.
The Nuggets and Wilson Chandler got a head start on all that this offseason, as Chandler’s $2MM partial guarantee had already become a full guarantee of nearly $7.172MM by early May. The sides later upped his salary to more than $10.449MM in a renegotiation. The rest of the players to have had their full salaries guaranteed have seen those dates come and pass over the last month. They’re listed below, with their respective salary figures rounded to the nearest $1K. Note that this doesn’t include players who’ve earned partial guarantees, since they still have a ways to go:
- Jamal Crawford (Clippers), $5,675MM (had been partially guaranteed for $1.5MM)
- Chris Kaman (Trail Blazers), $5.016MM (had been partially guaranteed for $1MM)
- Trevor Booker (Jazz) $4.775MM (had been partially guaranteed for $250K)
- Matt Barnes (Grizzlies) $3.543MM (had been partially guaranteed for $1MM)
- Randy Foye (Nuggets) $3.135MM
- Anthony Tolliver (Pistons), $3MM (had been partially guaranteed for $400K)
- Beno Udrih (Grizzlies) $2.17MM (had been partially guaranteed for $923K)
- Jon Leuer (Suns), $1.035MM
- Isaiah Canaan (Sixers), minimum (had been partially guaranteed for $758K)
- Ray McCallum (Spurs), minimum (had been partially guaranteed for $200K)
- E’Twaun Moore (Bulls), minimum
- Robert Sacre (Lakers), minimum
- Russ Smith (Grizzlies) minimum (had been partially guaranteed for $150K)
Note: The Lakers have decided to keep Jordan Clarkson through his guarantee date on Saturday.
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Thunder Sign Josh Huestis
5:33pm: The signing is official, the Thunder announce via press release.
“We are excited to add Josh to our roster as he allows us to continue to increase our depth through his athleticism and versatility,” GM Sam Presti said. “Josh knows our culture and our organization as a result of his time with the Blue [Oklahoma City’s D-League affiliate] and we look forward to his continued development with the Thunder.”
JULY 30TH, 5:00pm: Huestis has signed his rookie scale contract, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link), though the Thunder have yet to make an official announcement. The addition of Huestis gives Oklahoma City 15 fully guaranteed contracts.
JULY 14TH, 2:12pm: The Thunder are expected to fill the roster spot that their agreement to trade Perry Jones III will open up with Josh Huestis, last year’s No. 29 overall pick, reports Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman (Twitter link). Huestis spent the past year in the D-League as part of unique arrangement in which he promised to play for Oklahoma City’s affiliate in exchange for having been drafted in the first round.
Huestis wasn’t a likely first-round prospect coming into the draft, but it appears he’s headed for a rookie scale contract. Such deals are given out only to first-rounders, and they include two seasons of guaranteed salary. His contract, should indeed he sign this year, would be based off the 2015 rookie scale, so he’d get a salary worth more than $1.140MM for this season, with another guaranteed year of more than $1.191MM coming his way if he signs for the standard 120% of the rookie scale. Assuming such, the full amount of his rookie scale contract would be nearly $5.818MM, as our table of first-round salaries shows.
The Toby Bailey client nonetheless seemed willing as of this spring to play another year in the D-League. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him make frequent appearances with OKC’s D-League team again this year, though if he’s on an NBA contract, he’d continue to draw his NBA salary while doing so. The small forward’s stats weren’t eye-popping this past season for the Thunder affiliate, as he averaged 10.3 points and 5.7 rebounds in 33.1 minutes per game.