Mavs Interested In Reunion With Samuel Dalembert
5:08pm: Dalembert and the Mavs will meet in person Tuesday, sources tell Stein (Twitter link).
1:49pm: The Mavericks again have interest in Samuel Dalembert as they look far and wide for a rim protector, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Dallas signed the Haitian-born center two years ago and he spent much of the season as the team’s starting center, but the Mavs dealt him to the Knicks in the Tyson Chandler trade, and Dalembert has been a free agent ever since New York waived him as part of a three-team trade in January.
The reacquisition of Dalembert would represent a step back of sorts for the Mavs, who seemed eager to replace him with Chandler last year. Chandler, who at one point was reportedly the Mavs’ top fallback at the position to DeAndre Jordan as they planned this summer’s free agency, quickly committed to the Suns, leaving Dallas scrambling when Jordan pulled his about-face to return to the Clips. Still, the Mavs reportedly saw Dalembert heading into free agency as one of an assortment on minimum-salary options for them. The trade Dallas made for Zaza Pachulia has already given the team a potential starter, but the Mavs’ continued search, which also encompasses JaVale McGee, indicates that Dallas, with plenty of cap room left to burn, isn’t prepared to simply sit tight.
Dalembert, 34, put up numbers this year that were his lowest since his rookie season of 2001/02. He started 21 games for the Knicks, but quickly fell out of favor.
Grizzlies Re-Sign Marc Gasol
JULY 13TH, 4:36pm: The deal is official, the team announced.
“Re-signing Marc Gasol was the No. 1 priority for our organization this offseason,” GM Chris Wallace said. “For many years, Marc has been a pillar of our franchise and in a Memphis community that has watched him become one of the best basketball players in the world, so this is a great day for our team, our city and our fans across the Mid-South and worldwide.”
JULY 6TH, 3:21pm: The Grizzlies will re-sign Marc Gasol to a five-year deal worth more than $100MM, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). That’s presumably the max coming Gasol’s way. The deal includes a player option after year four, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
Gasol kept a degree of mystery in the proceedings, but this outcome has seemed the most likely one for months as the Spanish big man who went to high in Memphis time and again expressed his affection for the city. He was reportedly to have committed to the team a week ago, but the wait was simply a function of the big man’s methodical nature, a source tells Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
The Spurs were the team that Memphis reportedly feared the most when it came to Gasol’s free agency, and Gasol referred to San Antonio as a model franchise and expressed his admiration of Tim Duncan. Still, at about the same time, Gasol once more alluded to his strong connection to Memphis. The Arn Tellem client had no shortage of interested teams, including the Mavs, Spurs and Lakers, but he decided against meeting anyone aside from the Grizzlies.
Memphis assumes some risk as it commits to a deal that runs past Gasol’s 35th birthday, but this year’s All-NBA First Team center doesn’t show signs of slowing down yet. He focused more on offense this year than in the past, averaging career highs in points per game, with 17.4, and shots per game, with 13.2. He and fellow soon-to-be Memphis signee Brandan Wright are poised to become the first players to whom the Grizzlies have committed any salary past 2016/17, so the team will have the capacity to build a new cast around Gasol. However, Gasol’s deal essentially closes off any chance Memphis had to open cap room this summer, meaning Wright will likely stand as the Grizzlies’ most significant free agent pickup from outside the team.
Heat Intent On Trading Mario Chalmers
The Heat seems anxious to move Mario Chalmers as soon as they can find an amenable deal, a source who’s spoken to the Heat tells Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. The news is no shock, given that a reports both before the draft and just last week indicated that the point guard was on the block, though Heat team president Pat Riley denied the initial report that the team was shopping Chalmers and Chris Andersen.
Grantland’s Zach Lowe wrote last week that Chalmers and Andersen were available for virtually nothing as the Heat sought to reduce their tax bill. Only the team’s roster at the end of the regular season counts for luxury tax purposes, as Jackson notes, but Miami apparently isn’t in a mood to wait around as it faces the prospect of paying repeat-offender tax penalties should it still exceed the $84.74MM tax threshold at season’s end. The Heat have $92MM on the books as it stands.
Chalmers is set to make $4.3MM this season, the last on a two-year deal he signed with Miami last summer. The 29-year-old has experience as the starting point guard on back-to-back championship teams, though he’s in line to back up Goran Dragic now, and the glut of quality point guards around the league makes him a tougher sell than he might otherwise be. It’s unclear if the Heat are just as anxious to unload Andersen’s $5MM salary, though the focus of Jackson’s piece is on point guards, rather than big men like Andersen, so his omission doesn’t necessarily mean Miami is less willing to trade him.
Nets Waive Cory Jefferson
4:20pm: The release is official, the team announced via press release.
4:01pm: The Nets are releasing Cory Jefferson, a source tells Tim Bontemps of the New York Post (Twitter link). The team hasn’t made any announcement, but Bontemps indicates that the move has already taken place. An earlier report showed that Brooklyn had until Wednesday to release him without his non-guaranteed salary becoming partially guaranteed for $150K, but Bontemps says that the effective deadline is today, since his contract has to clear waivers no later than Wednesday if the Nets want to avoid the guaranteed money (on Twitter).
Jefferson, the last pick of the 2014 draft, made it into 50 games this past season, even making a start as he averaged 3.7 points in 10.6 minutes per game. Still, the 24-year-old power forward didn’t appear in any of Brooklyn’s playoff games, and the Nets are well-stocked at his position, with Thaddeus Young Andrea Bargnani, Thomas Robinson and Willie Reed.
The Nets paid cash to the Sixers for Jefferson’s rights on a draft-night trade. That followed Philadelphia’s acquisition of Jefferson from the Spurs, who originally drafted him.
Latest On Danilo Gallinari
3:44pm: Multiple sources who spoke with Bulpett raised the possibility that the Celtics and Nuggets will revive the talks, and the sense among many executives from around the league is that teams are more willing to talk trade now that most top-tier free agents have committed to teams, as Bulpett writes.
2:53pm: The Celtics and Nuggets had talks about a Danilo Gallinari deal, but that discussion is no longer active, tweets Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald, who cautions that conflicting information is swirling around the seven-year veteran. Some say that the Nuggets aren’t looking to trade him, while others insist that Denver is at least open to the idea, Bulpett adds (on Twitter). It’s unclear just how recently the Celtics and Nuggets talked.
The Nuggets were reportedly shopping Gallinari shortly before the draft, and while it’s seemed as though Gallinari has been among the least likely Nuggets to be subject to trade, little is certain in Denver. The Grizzlies were apparently one of the teams in pursuit of the sharpshooting small forward in advance of the draft. Gallinari is entering the final season of his contract with a salary worth more than $11.559MM.
Boston doesn’t have the cap flexibility to absorb him into cap space or any of the trade exceptions that the Celtics forfeited when they dipped under the cap for the first time in several years, so the Celtics would almost certainly have to send salary back to Denver. The Nuggets have been active in recent days after a slow start to free agency, reaching agreements with Will Barton and Jameer Nelson and pulling off a rare renegotiation/extension of Wilson Chandler‘s contract. Nelson’s deal, and the one for draft-and-stash prospect Nikola Jokic, will make it a tight squeeze to fit Chandler’s new deal under the cap without some more salary clearing moves, even in the wake of the team’s release of Jamaal Franklin.
Pacers Sign Myles Turner
The Pacers have signed this year’s No. 11 overall pick, Myles Turner, to his rookie scale contract, the team announced. The big man from Texas in line for a salary of nearly $2.358MM this season, with almost $10.802MM coming over the four-year span of the contract, presuming he signed for the standard 120% of the rookie scale.
A lack of eye-popping offensive numbers, including a scoring average of 10.1 points per game, and an awkward running style cloud Turner’s future, though his gait is apparently correctable. The 7-footer has shown impressive shooting range and played strong defense in his lone college season, as Eddie Scarito of Hoops Rumors wrote when he examined Turner’s prospect profile.
The Pacers traded Roy Hibbert and David West opted out and committed to the Spurs, so Indiana has room for fresh blood inside even as the team transitions to a more perimeter-oriented attack. Turner figures to compete for minutes with soon-to-be signee Jordan Hill, among others. It’s unclear just how much flexibility Indiana has, with the terms of Hill’s deal still unknown, but Turner’s signing, which raises his cap hit by nearly $400K, signals that the Pacers are done with major free agent deals this summer.
Clippers Sign Cole Aldrich
3:20pm: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.
MONDAY, 2:23pm: It’ll indeed be for the minimum, tweets Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times.
11:59am: Aldrich and the Clippers are still talking, but the expectation is that he’ll indeed sign soon, tweets Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com. A league source tells Dan Woike of the Orange County Register that the sides are close to agreement (Twitter link).
FRIDAY, 11:11am: The Clippers will sign Cole Aldrich to a two-year deal that includes a player option, reports Derek Wetmore of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (on Twitter; hat tip to 1500 ESPN Twin Cities colleague Darren Wolfson). Aldrich, a Minnesota native, departs the Knicks, with whom he spent 2014/15. He’ll give the Clippers the true backup center they’ve lacked. The contract, once he signs it, will almost certainly be for the minimum salary, since the Clips have no cap room and committed their taxpayer’s mid-level exception to Paul Pierce.
The team had been discussing the idea of adding the big man, as Dan Woike of the Orange County Register reported earlier this week, and apparently the return of DeAndre Jordan didn’t dissuade them from the idea. Amar’e Stoudemire has been another big man the team has eyed, but he’s reportedly close to a deal with the Heat.
New York had reportedly remained in contact with Aldrich’s reps, and the Jeff Schwartz client had expressed his affection for the triangle offense. Aldrich, who turns 27 in October, saw more playing time this past season than in any other during his five-year NBA career, making 16 starts and averaging 16.0 minutes per game.
Suns Sign Devin Booker
The Suns have signed Devin Booker, this year’s No. 13 overall pick, to his rookie scale contract, the team announced. He’ll make nearly $2.128MM this coming season and a total of more than $9.985MM over the four-year contract if he signed for 120% of the rookie scale, as almost all first-round picks do.
The two-guard from Kentucky is an elite outside shooter, and his high basketball IQ will also help him, but a lack of an ability to consistently drive to the hoop and less than impressive defense figure to hold him back, as Charlie Adams of Hoops Rumors wrote in his prospect profile. He was nonetheless the 10th-best prospect in Chad Ford’s ESPN Insider rankings and came in No. 12 with Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.
His official signing was a question of “when,” not “if,” but it indicates that the Suns may well be finished with significant free agent spending this summer, since formally bringing Booker onto the roster ups his cap hold by more than $300K. That’s not a significant amount of flexibility to sacrifice, but it’s nonetheless a move that many teams under the cap don’t make until their other major business of the summer is done, and that’s especially true once summer league is already well underway. Booker has been playing with Phoenix’s summer league team despite the lack of a signed deal.
Spurs To Work Out John Jenkins
The Spurs have a workout set with former No. 23 overall pick John Jenkins, reports Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link). Atlanta renounced its rights to the Relativity Sports client, but the close ties between the Spurs and Hawks make it no surprise that San Antonio is apparently showing interest. The Timberwolves called on Jenkins, too, but they didn’t express any interest for the time being, Wolfson adds.
Jenkins struggled for playing time in each of his three seasons in Atlanta, never averaging more than the 14.8 minutes per game he saw as a rookie in 2012/13. The Hawks declined their fourth-year option on his rookie scale contract this past fall, setting him up for unrestricted free agency this summer. He’s nonetheless shown proficiency from behind the arc, nailing 37.5% of his 208 career attempts.
San Antonio appears to be limited to the minimum salary, with the room exception earmarked for Manu Ginobili, but the Spurs probably wouldn’t need more than the minimum to sign Jenkins. Still, several teams, including the Knicks, have reportedly expressed interest in the 24-year-old.
Central Notes: Shumpert, LeBron, Monroe
Six teams offered a first-round pick to the Cavaliers for Iman Shumpert at the trade deadline this past February, and three of them had max-level cap flexibility this summer, reports Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group. That made Cleveland’s front office “incredibly nervous” as it sought to re-sign the swingman in restricted free agency, despite its ability to match competing offers for him. The Kings were one of the teams that thought about an offer before Shumpert, who’d made it a priority to remain with the Cavs, did just that and signed a new deal.
“We were thinking about it,” Kings Vice President of Basketball Operations Vlade Divac told Haynes, “but we had some other options that came up better for us.”
Haynes wonders just what those better options could have been, but the upshot is that Shumpert is staying put. Here’s more from around the Central Division:
- The Cavaliers certainly aren’t trading LeBron James, but if they did, they’d have to pay a 15% trade kicker as part of his new contract, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter link). The bonus would only take effect if he were to opt in for next season.
- The precise value of Mo Williams‘ two-year deal with the Cavs is $4,294,500, with $2.1MM coming this season and the rest set aside for the player option year in 2016/17, as Pincus shows on Basketball Insiders (Twitter link).
- The Bucks had been trying to trade Zaza Pachulia in the days after they struck a deal with Greg Monroe, sources told Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Milwaukee swapped Pachulia to the Mavs last week.
- Monroe told Scoop Jackson of ESPN.com that if the Pistons had put on the same sort of hard push that the Clippers made to convince DeAndre Jordan to renege on his deal with the Mavs, he might have stuck with Detroit. “I can’t lie, it probably would have made me think, maybe affected my decision a bit,” said Monroe, whose deal with the Bucks is official, so there’s no going back now. “I mean, I was there for five years, my whole NBA career to this point. I knew the people in the organization, I loved my teammates, so I mean, I can’t lie. I’m not saying if that had happened, I would have changed my mind, but I know that would have affected me, and I probably would have had to ponder a little bit more.”