Pacers Re-Sign Rodney Stuckey
JULY 21ST, 2:13pm: The deal is official, the Pacers announced.
“I felt all along it was important to re-sign Rodney,” Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird said in the team’s statement. “He proved to us last year how much he could help. He’s a pro and a good teammate. We’re really happy to have him back. He added a lot to our team, on and off the court.”
JULY 5TH, 1:14pm: The Pacers and Rodney Stuckey have reached an agreement in principle on a deal worth $21MM over three years, reports Shams Charania of RealGM. Year three is a player option, Charania adds.
Stuckey, 29, averaged 12.6 PPG, 3.5 RPG, and 3.1 APG in 26.4 minutes per contest last season for Indiana. He put up a PER of 15.4, which was more or less in line with his career efficiency average (15.3). Stuckey moved on from the Pistons, where he spent the first seven years of his career, when he signed a one-year deal with the Pacers last summer. After earning the veteran’s minimum in 2014/15, Stuckey has gotten a significant raise on his new deal.
This summer, Stuckey has picked up free agent interest from teams including the Cavs, Rockets, and Kings. Right before the official start of free agency, Candace Buckner of the Indy Star reported that at least five teams had their eye on the guard. At the time, an anonymous basketball insider told Buckner that he believed Stuckey had a bad reputation that was not at all accurate.
“Moody, can’t be coached, bad guy, can’t win with him,” said an Eastern Conference official, repeating the circulated gossip. “Anybody that really knows him, would know … he’s one of the most misunderstood guys in the league.”
Stuckey is represented by Leon Rose of Creative Artists Agency, as shown in the Hoops Rumors Agency Database.
Nuggets Expected To Re-Sign Darrell Arthur
The Nuggets are expected to re-sign Darrell Arthur, NBA sources tell Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post. The team and the Jerry Hicks client reportedly engaged in productive talks at the start of free agency, but the Clippers later emerged as a team with which Arthur apparently shared mutual interest. The Pistons and Wizards were interested, too, as Dempsey reported at the beginning of the month.
Denver renounced its Bird rights to Arthur, but Dempsey indicates that the Nuggets are set to use some of the cap flexibility they reaped in the Ty Lawson trade to facilitate a deal with the power forward. The Nuggets can open about $11MM in room if they waive the non-guaranteed contracts of Kostas Papanikolaou and Erick Green and refrain from formally signing Emmanuel Mudiay and from making their reported deal with Will Barton official, so that their cap holds remain low. They won’t need all of that space for Arthur, but the Nuggets are expected to sign Danilo Gallinari to an extension this week, as Dempsey also reports, and if that’s a renegotiation and extension in mold of Denver’s new Wilson Chandler pact, it would take up some of that cap flexibility.
A new deal with Arthur would leave the Nuggets poised to have 15 guaranteed contracts on the books once the Barton and Mudiay signings take place. Arthur has been consistent in his two seasons with Denver, averaging 6.2 points and 3.0 rebounds in 17.1 minutes per game over that time.
Is keeping Arthur the right choice for the Nuggets, or should they seek out another free agent power forward? Let us know in the comments.
Jeff Taylor Close To Deal With Real Madrid
Three-year NBA veteran Jeff Taylor and Real Madrid of Spain are drawing close to agreement, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). The small forward who’s spent the past three seasons with Charlotte turned down an offer this past weekend from an Israeli team. Little chatter about NBA options for the 2012 31st overall pick has emerged since the Hornets decided against making a him qualifying offer.
Taylor served a 24-game NBA suspension last season stemming from his guilty plea to misdemeanor domestic assault and property destruction charges this past fall. He struggled to regain his place in the Hornets rotation after that, appearing in only 29 games. The now 26-year-old started 13 of them, but saw a career-low 14.8 minutes per contest. Taylor also spent time on D-League assignment.
Real Madrid is a European power, and if he closes the deal and excels for the team, it would likely give the former Vanderbilt standout a path back to the NBA. The Nuggets are reportedly trying to lure point guard Sergio Rodriguez from Real Madrid, but it’s unclear if that’s at all related to Taylor’s negotiations.
Largest Pay Declines From 2014/15 To 2015/16
Playing in the NBA is a lucrative proposition in just about any circumstance. However, to several players who signed new deals this summer, the paychecks they’ll see this season won’t look all that impressive. Amar’e Stoudemire is chief among them, even though he’s technically coming off a minimum-salary deal. He signed that contract with the Mavericks shortly after the Knicks waived him in a buyout arrangement, one that still left him with nearly $21MM from New York last season. The Knicks’ obligation to Stoudemire is complete, and in the season ahead he’ll see less than $1.5MM with the Heat.
It’s debatable how much more Stoudemire could have signed for this season, but we know that David West passed up a $12.6MM player option with the Pacers to sign with the Spurs for the minimum salary. It’s quite a statement about his priorities, but it wouldn’t be surprising if he feels a tinge of regret this year as he collects a salary much less than the value of his option or his $12MM pay from last season. Deron Williams was also a willing participant in his own pay reduction, agreeing to a buyout that turned what would have been a raise to nearly $21.042MM on his more than $19.754MM pay from last season into a pay cut in excess of $8.9MM.
We’ve factored in the money that Williams will receive on his new deal with the Mavericks as well as the pay he’s still in line to see from the Nets this season. Brooklyn figures to recoup some of that via set-off rights, meaning Williams’ reduction in pay will likely end up having been even greater when set-off is calculated at season’s end.
Also, we included the amount that Luis Scola was due from the Rockets through the amnesty provision in his total from last season on the list below. Additionally, we counted Jeremy Lin‘s actual salary, and not his much cheaper cap hit, from last season.
Carlos Boozer will probably join this group in the near future, as he’d face a stiff challenge to come close to the $16.8MM he made last season combined between the Bulls and the Lakers. For now, here are the players set to feel the pinch most profoundly this year:
- Amar’e Stoudemire, Heat, $1,499,187 (Last year: $20,910,988 with Knicks and $306,876 with Mavs) — total decrease: $19,718,677
- Jeremy Lin, Hornets, $2,139,000 (Last year: $14,898,938 from Lakers via Gilbert Arenas Provision) — total decrease: $12,759,938
- David West, Spurs, $1,499,187 (Last year: $12MM with Pacers) — total decrease: $10,500,813
- Andrea Bargnani, Nets, $1,362,897 (Last year: $11.5MM with Knicks) — total decrease: $10,137,103
- Deron Williams, Mavs, $5,378,974, plus $5,474,787 on buyout and stretch provision from Nets (Last year: $19,754,465 with Nets) — total decrease: $8,900,704
- Luis Scola, Raptors, approximately $3MM (Last year: $6,172,538 with Rockets via amnesty and $4,868,499 with Pacers) — total decrease: $8,041,037
- Marcus Thornton, Rockets, $1,185,784 (Last year: $8.575MM with Suns) — total decrease: $7,389,216
Aside from West’s minimum-salary deal, which deal gives the team the best bargain? Leave a comment to let us know.
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
DeAndre Jordan On Chris Paul, Mavs, Clippers
DeAndre Jordan is scheduled to address the media today for the first time since he spurned the Mavs for the Clippers, but he got a jump start on explaining his story via The Players’ Tribune. Half of the piece is written and the other half is presented in a video, one in which Jordan’s struggle with his decision is apparent as he reflects on the events of two weeks ago. The entire piece is well worth your time, but we’ll pass along some of the most noteworthy quotes from the big man here:
On Chris Paul, with whom he reportedly had a rift:
“I love Chris, man. Chris is a big brother to me. When you play sports, you’re competitive — especially when you play them at as high a level as we have these last few years. And of course, yeah, we all bump heads during the course of the game. But we know that whatever criticisms or arguments we have on the floor, they’re about one thing: winning.”
On the doubt that crept into his mind following his commitment to Dallas:
“I woke up Monday morning [July 6th] feeling like there was something missing, like something that I didn’t do, something that was not covered. And that’s why, and that’s when I started to begin to have second thoughts. I feel like we’ve all had decisions in our lives where we’ve had second thoughts about things and have gone back and had to revisit a situation, and I definitely feel like that this was one of those times for me.”
On the Mavs:
“Originally, I said yes to the Mavericks because I thought I needed change. I thought I wanted change at that point in time. And they had a great presentation. They have a great owner, great coach, a championship team, but, at the same time, I felt like I didn’t give it all of my thought. At the end of the day, we’re basketball players and these great athletes, but we’re also human, and we make mistakes. We have emotions and feelings, just like everybody else.”
On the Clippers:
“I decided to stay with the Clippers because I’ve been with this team for seven years, and being on one team for my entire career was definitely important to me. I’ve been here since I was 19, so this is what I know. I love the city, I love the fans, I love my teammates and I love this organization.”
On the difficulty of breaking his deal with the Mavs:
“A lot of the guys who I was talking to during the process, they were friends of mine. That’s what made it so tough. Talking to these guys and really wanting to maybe partner up with these guys and play, and then not wanting to, it’s definitely a tough situation it puts you in. It puts you in [it] because you want to make the right decision, but you also don’t want to step on toes.”
Hoops Rumors Community Shootaround 7/20/15
Rockets GM Daryl Morey is no stranger to risks and splashy moves, and Houston’s trade for Ty Lawson represents both. Lawson was arrested last week on suspicion of DUI, his second such arrest in six months. Still, he’s finished third in the NBA in assists per game each of the past two seasons, an accomplishment that comes amid the league’s golden age of point guards. Lawson will make more than $12.404MM this season, but coupled with Patrick Beverley‘s affordable new four-year deal for about $23MM total, Houston gained depth at a key position for a reasonable price.
It’s all part of an effort to win the franchise’s first championship in more than two decades, which prompts the question of the day: Are the Rockets legitimate title contenders now?
It wouldn’t be altogether difficult to support the argument that they were in the championship mix even before the Lawson deal, since they had the second seed in the Western Conference entering the playoffs last season and made it to the conference finals. However, the rest of the Western elite improved this summer. The Spurs landed LaMarcus Aldridge and David West. The Clippers snatched DeAndre Jordan back from the Mavs, signed Paul Pierce and lured Josh Smith away from the Rockets. The Thunder are poised to return to contention with a healthy Kevin Durant and a full season of Enes Kanter. The Warriors kept most of their 67-win championship team together. LeBron James and the Cavs loom even if Houston can escape the West.
Take to the comments section below with your thoughts and opinions. We look forward to what you have to say.
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Rockets Acquire Ty Lawson
JULY 20TH, 4:25pm: The Nuggets have waived Prigioni, and the deal is official, Denver announced in a press release. In a condition of the trade, Lawson has agreed to make the 2016/17 season, the final year of his contract, non-guaranteed, sources tell Grantland’s Zach Lowe (Twitter link). As part of the deal, the Nuggets receive cash considerations, Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston tweets. The press release from the Rockets notes that it’s their own lottery-protected 2016 pick going to Denver.
SUNDAY, 8:16pm: The Rockets have reached a deal with the Nuggets that will send Ty Lawson to Houston, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Marc Stein of ESPN.com had tweeted just moments earlier that the sides were deep in talks. Kostas Papanikolaou, Pablo Prigioni, Joey Dorsey, Nick Johnson and a protected 2016 first-round pick go to Denver, Wojnarowski adds (All Twitter links). Houston will receive a 2017 second-round pick in addition to Lawson, as Wojnarowski also reports (on Twitter). The first-rounder going to Denver is lottery-protected, and the second-rounder headed to Houston is unprotected, tweets Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. The move, when it becomes official, will bring an end to Lawson’s tenure with the Nuggets even though GM Tim Connelly and coach Michael Malone both expressed their support for the troubled point guard in recent days.
Chris Mannix of SI.com last week identified the Rockets as a team with interest in the point guard even in the wake of his latest DUI-related arrest, which came Tuesday morning in Los Angeles. It was his second such arrest in six months. Lawson entered a 30-day residential treatment program on Saturday.
Houston made more sense as a Lawson suitor than the Pistons or the Lakers, the two other teams Mannix identified in his report from last week, since both Detroit and L.A. made major investments in point guards this summer. The Pistons agreed to re-sign Reggie Jackson for $80MM and the Lakers drafted D’Angelo Russell No. 2 overall. The Lakers indeed made a determined push, but the Nuggets preferred what Houston offered, Stein reports (on Twitter). Rockets re-signed Patrick Beverley, but only for $23MM over four years. Beverley and Lawson now figure to compete for minutes.
The Kings and Nuggets reportedly spoke about Lawson prior to the draft, but Sacramento apparently wasn’t willing to give up the No. 6 pick in exchange for him in large measure because of the 27-year-old’s off-court issues. By contrast, Lawson’s talent appears to have convinced Houston it’s worth taking a shot on him, as he’s coming off a career-high 9.6 assists per game.
The trade nonetheless carries financial consequences for the Rockets. Lawson’s contract calls for him make more than $12.404MM this season and in excess of $13.213MM in 2016/17, and the exchange as reported so far will push Houston over the $84.74MM luxury tax threshold by about $500K, according to former Nets executive Bobby Marks (Twitter link). The Rockets have until the end of the regular season to go under that line and avoid paying the tax. Houston faces a hard cap of $4MM above the tax line if it signs No. 32 pick Montrezl Harrell to a contract that covers more than two seasons at the minimum salary, as Marks also points out (on Twitter). The swap also means the Rockets aren’t in line to open cap space next summer, Marks adds (Twitter link).
The Nuggets meanwhile go under the cap with the deal and are set to open an estimated $46MM in cap space next summer, Marks tweets. Papanikolaou’s salary of nearly $4.798MM for this coming season is non-guaranteed, and Prigioni’s salary of almost $1.735MM carries only a $440K partial guarantee. Dorsey’s pay of about $1.015MM and Johnson’s approximately $845K salary are fully guaranteed, but they don’t make much of a dent in the Nuggets payroll.
The most significant on-court effect for Denver is that No. 7 overall pick Emmanuel Mudiay, also a point guard, has a clear shot to lead the team. The Nuggets re-signed Jameer Nelson, who seems to have a decent shot to begin the coming season as a starter, but Mudiay is clearly the team’s future at the position, and Malone had no shortage of enthusiasm about his play during summer league, tweets Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports.
Did the Nuggets get a fair return for Lawson, considering the circumstances? Leave a comment to have your say.
Fallout From/Reaction To Ty Lawson Deal
Ty Lawson‘s drinking habit had concerned teams even when he entered the NBA, according to Grantland’s Zach Lowe, who hears from several sources who say that it helped dissuade the Celtics from trading for him while they were in talks with the Nuggets before the February deadline. The video that depicts him smoking from a hookah and predicting that the Nuggets would trade him to the Kings as he watched Denver select Emmanuel Mudiay in the draft was a turn-off for potential suitors, too, Lowe writes. Lowe and others have more on the trade agreement, as we’ll pass along here:
- The Lakers were the only team other than the Rockets to express interest in Lawson shortly before the deal, according to Lowe, though Chris Mannix of SI.com heard the Pistons also did.
- Nick Johnson, one of the players heading to the Nuggets, didn’t get along with the coaching staff at the Rockets D-League affiliate while on assignment last season, several league sources told Lowe.
- The Nuggets face a scramble to complete the trade before the close of business today so that they can waive Pablo Prigioni, as they reportedly intend to do, before his partial guarantee of $440K becomes a full guarantee of nearly $1.735MM, as former Nets executive Bobby Marks details. Teams can waive physicals and the requirement that the players report, but it would be up to the Rockets to do so with Lawson, Marks notes. Also, players in the final year of their respective contracts must certify a trade before it goes final, so Denver has to get in contact with Prigioni, Kostas Papanikolaou and Joey Dorsey, Marks explains (All four Twitter links).
- Lawson is on board with the trade, agent Happy Walters told Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston. “He’s excited,” Walters said. “I spoke to him once about it. He’s close with James [Harden], tight with Corey [Brewer], knows Trevor [Ariza] and Dwight [Howard] and is real excited. It’s an opportunity for him. He’s been deep in the playoffs before, but this is something he feels really good about.”
- Houston’s new point guard has his baggage, but the Rockets didn’t relinquish much in the deal, making it a risk that the rigors of the Western Conference demand that they take, opines Tim Bontemps of the New York Post.
- Lawson might not be the third star the Rockets have been seeking to complement Harden and Howard, but Michael Lee of The Washington Post points out that he’s the sort of facilitator that Harden has said he’d welcome.
- What’s your reaction to the deal? Leave a comment to let us know.
Rockets, Chuck Hayes Close To Deal
JULY 20TH, 1:29pm: The sides are close to an agreement and working on “fine details,” Andrews told Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle (Twitter link).
JULY 15TH, 8:32am: Free agent Chuck Hayes met with people from the Rockets organization Monday, and agent Calvin Andrews told Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports that the sides have mutual interest (Twitter link). The 10-year veteran big man played his first six NBA seasons with Houston, and GM Daryl Morey has shown a fondness for reunions with his former players.
The market for the 32-year-old has been quiet this month. It’s unclear if he or the Raptors have any interest in a return. Hayes is coming off a season of career lows, as he averaged just 1.7 points and 1.8 rebounds in 8.8 minutes per game across 29 appearances. He was a starter his last two seasons in Houston.
The Rockets have their mid-level exception available, though the team may need it to re-sign either Josh Smith, K.J. McDaniels, or both, as Houston reportedly wants to retain those free agents. Hayes seems like a candidate for the minimum salary, coming off his down year, though he made nearly $5.959MM in 2014/15.
Spurs Re-Sign Manu Ginobili
JULY 20TH, 12:06pm: The deal is official, the team announced via press release. Since it indeed looks like Ginobili is going into the room exception, San Antonio will be limited to giving the minimum salary to outside free agents.
JULY 7TH, 8:24am: Manu Ginobili will come back to the Spurs on a deal worth $5.7MM over two years, with a player option on year two, sources tell Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). Ginobili publicly announced Monday that he would return for 2015/16, and while it was thus expected that he would re-sign with San Antonio, the team and the Herb Rudoy client had yet to work out any terms. That $5.7MM figure would be slightly less than the full $5,754,630 two-year value of the room exception, but it’s quite possible that it’s because of rounding. Using the room exception would allow San Antonio to renounce Ginobili’s Bird rights and clear his $10.5MM cap hold to accommodate the team’s deals for LaMarcus Aldridge and others.
Ginobili wasn’t a safe bet to return, as conflicting reports about San Antonio’s confidence about his continued desire to play painted a cloudy picture. His role has gradually been shrinking, and he’s played fewer than 24 minutes a game each of the past four seasons. His 10.5 points and 22.7 minutes were his lowest per-game averages since he was a rookie, and he saw just 18.7 minutes per game in the playoffs. Still, Ginobili, who turns 38 next month, has no shortage of institutional knowledge, and his 16.2 PER shows he’s still fairly efficient when he’s on the floor.
The move helps San Antonio keep its core together amid a summer of momentous changes. Aldridge and David West are set to join the Spurs, who’ve agreed to trade Tiago Splitter to the Hawks. Still, the majority of the team’s five free agent agreements so far have been internal, as Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green, just like Manu Ginobili, have agreed to re-sign. Tim Duncan, who’s also decided to put off retirement for at least another year, is expected to follow suit.