Justin Hamilton Signs To Play In Spain
Two-year NBA veteran center Justin Hamilton has signed with Valencia Basket of Spain, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). The Suns were close to making Hamilton a partially guaranteed offer last week, as Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities heard, but by that point it seemed Valencia was already zeroing in, as Paco Garcia Caridad of the Spanish outlet Marca reported 10 days ago that the team was nearing a deal with the 25-year-old.
Hamilton ended this past season with the Timberwolves, who gave him his first opportunity for significant playing time in the NBA. He averaged 9.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in 24.9 minutes per game across 17 appearances for Minnesota, nine of them starts. The Wolves had claimed him off waivers from the Pelicans, who released him a couple of weeks after acquiring him from the Heat in the three-team Goran Dragic trade.
Still, Minnesota elected not to make Hamilton, the 45th overall pick from 2012, a qualifying offer worth only slightly more than $1.147MM. He’ll head back overseas, where he spent the 2012/13 season playing for KK Cibona in Croatia and Latvia’s VEF Riga.
Will Hamilton return to the NBA at some point? Leave a comment to let us know what you think.
Clippers To Bring Yanick Moreira To Camp
The Clippers have an agreement with undrafted center Yanick Moreira for training camp, as Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia first reported and as Fiba.com confirms. Moreira said last week during a press conference in his native Angola that he wouldn’t play for the national team this summer, and Angola’s coach indicated that his decision came because of the opportunity to play in the NBA, as Fiba.com details. It’s a partially guaranteed arrangement, according to Carchia, and it has to be for the minimum salary, since that’s all the Clippers have to give.
Moreira, who attended SMU, was the 95th-best prospect in this year’s draft class, as Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress ranked them, but he was unranked on Chad Ford’s ESPN Insider listings. The Clippers weren’t among a group of teams reported to have worked him out prior to the draft, one that was composed of the Celtics, Jazz, Suns and Nets, but he was a starter on the Clippers summer league team, averaging 9.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.2 blocks in 25.1 minutes per game.
The Clippers have a fairly uncluttered roster, with 13 full guarantees and Jordan Hamilton‘s non-guaranteed salary. That would seemingly give Moreira, who turns 24 this week, a better shot than most camp invitees to make it to opening night, though the team will surely make other signings between now and the start of camp.
Do you think Moreira will see regular season action in the NBA at some point, either with the Clippers or some other team? Leave a comment to let us know.
Cavs Re-Sign James Jones
SATURDAY, 9:44am: The deal is official, the Cavs announce in a press release.
THURSDAY, 6:00pm: The deal is for one-year and $1.45MM, Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com notes (on Twitter). Windhorst is likely rounding down from the minimum salary, which for Jones would be $1,499,187.
MONDAY, 8:22am: The Cavaliers will re-sign James Jones, a league source confirmed to Joe Vardon of the Northeast Ohio Media Group. Jones told Vardon on Sunday that he would “be back in Cleveland for sure.” The 12-year veteran forward who turns 35 in October spent last year with the Cavs on a one-year deal for the minimum salary.
“I’ve made it well-known last year when I told them I was coming to help change the culture and do something special,” Jones said. “It wasn’t a situation where I was looking for a platform to move on. I was looking to be a part of something, to build something. And so I’m still in.”
Jones can receive up to $1,799,024 from the Cavs via Non-Bird rights, but it seems likely that Cleveland will push him to sign for the $1,499,187 minimum salary. If he takes the minimum on another one-year deal, the Cavs would only be responsible for $947,276, the equivalent of the two-year veteran’s minimum, with the league picking up the rest. That savings of $851,748 would allow Cleveland to avoid paying an additional amount of more than three times as much in tax penalties because of the team’s otherwise soaring payroll. So, a roughly $300K sacrifice for Jones would mean much for the Cavs.
The Joel Bell client, a Miami native, followed LeBron James from the Heat to the Cavs last summer. Jones played more total minutes this past season than he had in any of the previous three with Miami, averaging 4.4 points in 11.7 minutes per game with 36.0% three-point percentage across 57 appearances. His role increased in the playoffs, when he saw 15.5 MPG, but he averaged the same 4.4 PPG.
Lucrative Deals For Former Second-Round Picks
Thursday’s Cavs-Pacers trade featured an exchange of second-round picks, with the Cavaliers receiving a 2019 second-rounder while the Pacers acquired the rights to Rakeem Christmas, this year’s 36th overall selection. It’s a swap that caused only a slight ripple in NBA waters, and indeed, most second-round picks don’t enjoy particularly memorable careers in the league, if they ever end up signing at all.
But, enough of them do such that second-rounders indeed have value. Ten free agents who were former second-round picks signed deals this month that totaled, respectively, at least $35MM. None were picked later in the second round than Marc Gasol, the 2007 48th overall pick who wound up re-signing with the Grizzlies on a max deal. DeAndre Jordan, the 35th pick from seven years ago, scored a max deal, too.
Teams like the Sixers and Celtics who’ve loaded up on second-rounders for the years to come have in essence bought up blocks of lottery tickets. The chances of success for any one particular second-round pick are slim. But, put together, picks 31-60 have some impressive credentials. Here are the top 10 deals that former second-round picks have signed this month, ranked by total value and rounded to the nearest $1K:
- Marc Gasol, Grizzlies (five years, $113.212MM) — 48th overall, 2007
- DeAndre Jordan, Clippers (four years, $87.616MM) — 35th overall, 2008
- Goran Dragic, Heat (five years, $85.002MM) — 45th overall, 2008
- Draymond Green, Warriors (five years, $82MM) — 35th overall, 2012
- Khris Middleton, Bucks (five years, $70MM) — 39th overall, 2012
- Paul Millsap, Hawks (three years, $60.216MM) — 47th overall, 2006
- Omer Asik, Pelicans (five years, $52.977MM) — 36th overall, 2008
- Monta Ellis, Pacers (four years, $43.981MM) — 40th overall, 2005
- Danny Green, Spurs (four years, $40MM) — 46th overall, 2009
- Jae Crowder, Celtics (five years, $35MM) — 34th overall, 2012
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Which second-rounder from this year’s class do you think has the best chance to end up on a list like this one someday? Leave a comment to let us know.
Mavs Sign Jarrid Famous
FRIDAY, 2:32pm: The signing is official, the team announced via press release.
10:17pm: It’s now a three-year deal instead of just one, Charania tweets. That means the Mavs are using cap space.
MONDAY, 9:46am: The Mavericks and center Jarrid Famous have agreed to a one-year deal that carries a partial guarantee, league sources tell Shams Charania of RealGM. Just how much money he’ll see is unclear, and while Mavs have cap flexibility, it seems likely that it’s a minimum-salary arrangement. It’ll be the first official NBA contract for the four-year pro since the fall of 2012, when he was on the Grizzlies preseason roster. He was with the Pacers in preseason the year before.
Famous looked strong in summer league with the Wizards this month, putting up 10.2 points and 6.8 rebounds in 20.2 minutes per game. He saw action this past season for the D-League affiliates of the Grizzlies and Mavs and overseas in the Philippines.
The now 27-year-old has played in numerous locales since going undrafted out of South Florida in 2011, but he made the pursuit of an NBA deal a priority in the past year, as he detailed recently to Zach Links of Hoops Rumors. The 6’11” Daniel Hazan client will attempt to prove in camp that he’s worthy of a regular season roster spot in which he could help the Mavs fill their vacancy at center, where the departure of DeAndre Jordan left a major hole.
How Teams Are Using The Room Exception
The NBA’s salary cap is a soft one, and that’s perhaps no better demonstrated than by the existence of the room exception. A form of the mid-level exception, it’s available for teams that have gone under the cap but spent their cap room. In other words, it’s essentially bonus cap room.
This year, the room exception is worth $2.814MM, and teams can use it to give two-year deals that include a 4.5% raise in the second season. So, the greatest total amount a player can receive using the room exception is $5,754,630. That’s not a lot, but it is significantly more than a two-year minimum-salary contract would entail, even for a veteran of 10 or more seasons.
The rising salary cap in the next few years will likely leave more teams under the cap each year, and thus, more teams with access to the room exception instead of the regular mid-level or taxpayer’s mid-level. That’s already the case for the majority of the league this summer. We noted Thursday that 13 teams stayed over the cap, so that leaves 17 teams that could use the room exception in 2015/16.
So far, only four teams have done so. Here’s a look at how they’ve used the room exception:
- Bucks: Chris Copeland — Milwaukee has reportedly agreed to pay the forward $1.1MM this coming season, slightly more than his minimum salary. Thus, the Bucks, who’ve spent their cap space, would have to use part of the room exception for Copeland, leaving $1.714MM still available.
- Pistons: Joel Anthony — The Pistons gave Anthony a two-year deal worth precisely $2.5MM each year, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. That leaves a $314K sliver of the exception that the Pistons can’t use in the offseason, since it’s less than the full season rookie minimum salary.
- Raptors: Bismack Biyombo — Biyombo appears to have received the full value of the mid-level exception over two years, as Pincus indicates (Twitter links). Thus, Toronto is limited to paying no more than the minimum salary to outside free agents.
- Spurs: Manu Ginobili — Ginobili’s contract is the same as Biyombo’s, according to Pincus, but the Spurs arrived at it by an unusual fashion, since they began the offseason with Ginobili’s Bird rights. They renounced those rights to clear cap room for LaMarcus Aldridge and others, circling back to Ginobili with the room exception once they used up their cap space, with Ginobili’s loyalty surely playing a key part. The Heat made a similar move with Udonis Haslem last summer. In any case, the renouncement doesn’t carry over now that Ginobili has re-signed, meaning that if Ginobili uses the player option in his deal to become a free agent next summer, the Spurs will again have his Bird rights, making it possible for him to sign a more lucrative deal with the team a year from now.
These are the other teams that could wind up using the room exception this season. Those with cap space still remaining are noted.
- Celtics (cap space remaining)
- Hawks
- Jazz (cap space remaining)
- Kings
- Knicks
- Lakers
- Magic
- Mavericks (cap space remaining)
- Nuggets (cap space remaining)
- Pacers (cap space remaining)
- Sixers (cap space remaining)
- Suns
- Trail Blazers (cap space remaining)
Which remaining free agent do you think would be the strongest fit for a room exception deal, and which team should give it to him? Leave a comment to let us know.
Pacific Notes: Chandler, Young, Barnes
Most teams chasing top-tier centers thought it better to go after the likes of LaMarcus Aldridge, DeAndre Jordan and Greg Monroe before circling back to Tyson Chandler as something of a fallback option, but the Suns found it wise to chase Chandler before pursuing Aldridge, as Rob Mahoney of SI.com examines. Chandler quickly committed to Phoenix, and he helped them become a finalist in the Aldridge sweepstakes.
“I think when you have a guy like that that you target, you go aggressively after him. And that’s what we decided to do with Tyson,” GM Ryan McDonough said to Mahoney. “It did help us that there were so many free agent big men on the market, especially high-level players — guys who have been All-Stars, All-NBA, and all that stuff. I think a few teams wanted to kind of talk to each of the guys and get a feel for them. Some of the players wanted to do visits with multiple teams, and be wined and dined a bit. Tyson really didn’t want any of that.”
There’s more from Phoenix amid our latest look around the Pacific Division:
- The Suns seemingly made their three-player trade with the Pistons in an effort to clear cap room for Aldridge, but McDonough told Mahoney that the deal that sent out Marcus Morris, Reggie Bullock and Danny Granger is one the team would have done regardless, citing a desire for more roster balance and future flexibility.
- Nick Young feels more confident that he’ll begin the coming season with the Lakers after a recent meeting with GM Mitch Kupchak, reports Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. That jibes with a dispatch last week from Bill Oram of the Orange County Register, who heard that the Lakers had stopped looking for trade partners who’d take Young.
- Harrison Barnes confirmed Thursday that he wants a long-term future with the Warriors, as Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group details. He and the team reportedly share a mutual interest in a rookie scale extension. “I mean, we just won a championship,” Barnes said. “Of course I’d love to keep this group together for many years to come, you know what I’m saying? So that’s obvious.”
Player Movement Between Conferences
The group of veterans moving from the Western Conference to the Eastern Conference this summer outnumber those heading the opposite way, but it would be a stretch to say that the East made any noticeable progress toward correcting the imbalance between the two sides of the NBA. No superstars have changed conferences this summer, though both East and West benefited from several key contributors who made jumps. David West went from the Pacers to the Spurs, but Indiana replaced him with Monta Ellis. The Hornets sent Lance Stephenson to the Clippers, but they brought in Nicolas Batum from the Trail Blazers. The Blazers lost Arron Afflalo and Robin Lopez to the Knicks, but Sixth Man of the Year Lou Williams and Roy Hibbert went from the Raptors and Pacers, respectively, to the Lakers.
Lists of each player shifting from conference to conference are below, categorized by conference:
PLAYERS MOVING EAST TO WEST
Signings
- Quincy Acy, Knicks to Kings
- Cole Aldrich, Knicks to Clippers
- Brandon Bass, Celtics to Lakers
- Caron Butler, Pistons1 to Kings
- John Jenkins, Hawks to Mavericks
- Kendrick Perkins, Cavaliers to Pelicans
- Paul Pierce, Wizards to Clippers
- Mirza Teletovic, Nets to Suns
- David West, Pacers to Spurs
- Deron Williams, Nets to Mavericks
- Lou Williams, Raptors to Lakers
Trades
- Gerald Henderson, Hornets to Trail Blazers
- Maurice Harkless, Magic to Trail Blazers
- Roy Hibbert, Pacers to Lakers
- Zaza Pachulia, Bucks to Mavericks
- Mason Plumlee, Nets to Trail Blazers
- Damjan Rudez, Pacers to Timberwolves
- Lance Stephenson, Hornets to Clippers
- Noah Vonleh, Hornets to Trail Blazers
- Gerald Wallace, Celtics to Warriors2
PLAYERS MOVING WEST TO EAST
Signings
- Arron Afflalo, Trail Blazers to Knicks
- Aron Baynes, Spurs to Pistons
- Wayne Ellington, Lakers to Nets
- Monta Ellis, Mavericks to Pacers
- Gerald Green, Suns to Heat
- Justin Holiday, Warriors to Hawks
- Richard Jefferson, Mavericks to Cavaliers
- Cory Joseph, Spurs to Raptors
- Jeremy Lin, Lakers to Hornets
- Robin Lopez, Trail Blazers to Knicks
- Gary Neal, Timberwolves to Wizards
- Amar’e Stoudemire, Mavericks to Heat
- Derrick Williams, Kings to Knicks
Trades
- Nicolas Batum, Trail Blazers to Hornets
- Steve Blake, Trail Blazers to Pistons (via Nets)
- Chase Budinger, Timberwolves to Pacers
- Reggie Bullock, Suns to Pistons
- Danny Granger, Suns to Pistons
- Spencer Hawes, Clippers to Hornets
- Perry Jones III, Thunder to Celtics
- Jeremy Lamb, Thunder to Hornets
- Carl Landry, Kings to Sixers
- David Lee, Warriors to Celtics2
- Marcus Morris, Suns to Pistons
- Tiago Splitter, Spurs to Hawks
- Nik Stauskas, Kings to Sixers
- Jason Thompson, Kings to Sixers
Notes:
1 — The Pistons traded Butler to the Bucks last month, and Milwaukee waived him not long thereafter.
2 — The David Lee/Gerald Wallace trade has still yet to become official, though it remains on track for completion.
Which conference do you think has received the better end of the movement so far? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Nate Wolters Signs To Play In Turkey
Two-year NBA veteran Nate Wolters has signed with Besiktas of Turkey, the team announced (on Twitter; hat tip to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). Fellow Sportando scribe Orazio Cauchi first reported the team’s interest. Wolters had been playing with the Clippers summer league squad, but he broke the middle finger on his left hand during his third game with the summer Clips. It’s unclear if his new deal includes any sort of NBA out.
Wolters, the 38th overall pick in 2013, played a significant role for the Bucks as a rookie in 2013/14, when he averaged 7.2 points, 3.2 assists and 1.0 turnover in 22.6 minutes per game. He made 31 starts that year, but his playing time evaporated last season, and the Bucks waived him to make room for Kenyon Martin. The Pelicans later inked Wolters to a pair of 10-day contracts, but he didn’t stick for the balance of the season, ending up in the D-League with the Pistons affiliate.
The 24-year-old played a prominent role for the Clippers in the summer league, averaging 14.0 PPG, 3.3 APG and 1.3 TOPG in 30.9 MPG. The Clippers nonetheless turned elsewhere, signing Pablo Prigioni when he cleared waivers this week.
Do you think Wolters will find his way back to the NBA? Leave a comment to let us know.
Timberwolves Eye Kendall Marshall
Chatter is connecting the Timberwolves to former 13th overall pick Kendall Marshall, reports Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link). It’s unclear whether the team or Marshall’s camp initiated the talk, but Minnesota is nonetheless keeping an eye on the Alex Saratsis client, Wolfson adds.
Marshall tore his right ACL in January while playing for the Bucks, who had taken the unusual step of guaranteeing his non-guaranteed salary before the season, more than two months before they had to. Milwaukee sent him to the Suns via trade after the injury, and Phoenix released him, with his contract set to expire before he would be healthy enough to return to the court. It was a hard-luck year for Marshall, who blossomed in a 54-game stint with the Lakers in 2013/14, when he averaged 8.8 assists per game. The Lakers waived him last summer to make room for their amnesty claim of Carlos Boozer, allowing the Bucks to scoop him up.
Wolves coach/executive Flip Saunders recently signaled a willingness to sign a veteran backup point guard. Marshall would bring the combination of three years of experience and youth, as the 2012 lottery pick turns only 24 next month. Minnesota can use the $2.139MM biannual exception or the nearly $1.514MM left on its mid-level exception to offer Marshall more than the minimum, if necessary.
Do you think Marshall will fulfill his potential, or was his season with the Lakers an outlier? Leave a comment to let us know.