Thaddeus Young Opts Out From Nets
10:29am: Young has indeed opted out, King confirmed today to reporters, including Andy Vasquez of The Record (Twitter link), saying that he has his sights set on re-signing him. King added that the team has extended a qualifying offer to Mirza Teletovic, as the GM said the Nets would.
10:10am: Thaddeus Young has opted out from the Nets, a league source tells Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com (Twitter link). Haynes indicates that the move has already taken place, and while the Nets have made no official announcement, there won’t necessarily be formal acknowledgement, since players don’t have to declare when they’re turning down player options; they only have to say when they’re opting in. Young was in line to make nearly $10.222MM had he picked up the option.
The news is no shock, since Young was reportedly leaning toward opting out as of late last month, though that came a few weeks after Young said agent Jim Tanner had suggested that he instead opt in and hit free agency next summer, when the salary cap is projected to surge. Young also said in early May that he wanted to see what Brook Lopez would do with his player option, so perhaps today’s news is an indication that Lopez has made up his mind, too. Nets GM Billy King has made it clear that it’s a priority for the club to retain both Young and Lopez regardless of whether they opt out. That’s in spite of the looming luxury tax threshold that would make it difficult for the Nets, who have nearly $59MM in guaranteed salary already on the books for next season, to keep both without passing the projected $81.6MM tax line. The Nets would pay repeat-offender tax penalties if they’re again in the tax at the end of next season. King has indicated a willingness to trade every player on the roster, including the bloated contracts of Deron Williams and Joe Johnson.
The 29-year-old Young averaged 14.1 points and 5.4 rebounds in 32.0 minutes per game this season, his first away from the Sixers, and his numbers during the second half of the season in Brooklyn were similar to those that he put up before a midseason trade that sent him away from Minnesota.
Draft Notes: Lakers, Johnson, Berzins, Payne
The Lakers would prefer Karl-Anthony Towns to Jahlil Okafor, but Towns appears to be the player that the Timberwolves are targeting with the top pick, as Chris Mannix of SI.com hears (Twitter link). L.A. has swung and missed on attempts to have Towns in for a workout, while Mark Heisler of Forbes.com heard recently that Wolves coach/executive Flip Saunders has become enamored with the Kentucky big man. The Lakers have zeroed in on Okafor if Towns is off the board, as Mannix reported earlier. Here’s more on the rapidly approaching draft:
- Stanley Johnson is refusing to work out with the Hornets, who pick ninth, in hopes that either the Pistons, at No. 8, or the Heat, with the 10th pick, will draft him, tweets Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.
- Latvian small forward Janis Berzins is working out for the Spurs and Celtics in addition to his audition with the Jazz this past Friday, as VEF Riga, his Latvian team, revealed via Twitter (translation via HoopsHype).
- Cameron Payne has worked out for the Lakers, Kings, Nuggets, Pacers and Thunder, writes Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports. In addition, Payne held a meeting with the Celtics.
- Rondae Hollis-Jefferson said earlier this week that he has workouts left with the Jazz, Kings and Hawks, tweets Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post.
- Justin Anderson recently completed his eighth workout, Castillo tweets. He has the Cavaliers and Thunder remaining.
- Larry Nance Jr. tells the Associated Press he has worked out for “about a dozen” teams, including the Spurs, Sixers, Celtics, Suns, Heat, Pacers and Knicks. The last workout on his schedule will be Wednesday with the Cavaliers.
- Pat Connaughton has managed to fit more than a dozen teams into his workout schedule, according to Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. The Notre Dame product has received positive reviews at most of the workouts and has a chance to be a second round pick, Himmelsbach writes.
- Kevon Looney has worked out for “nine or 10 teams,” tweets A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com. One of those sessions was with the Celtics on June 17th, writes Josh Slavin of WEEI.com.
Arthur Hill contributed to this post.
Mutual Interest Between Lakers, Dwyane Wade
The Lakers and Dwyane Wade have mutual interest, reports Chris Mannix of SI.com, citing league sources (Twitter link). Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald previously reported that associates of Wade had identified the Lakers as a strong alternative if the Heat and its long-tenured shooting guard can’t come to terms (Twitter link), and it appears that the Lakers would like to take Wade up on the idea. Many execs nonetheless see Wade’s push for more than the Heat are willing to give as saber rattling, Mannix hears, pointing out in a second tweet that it’s difficult to envision the Lakers providing Wade with a better chance to win than he has in Miami. However, the Lakers have the cap flexibility necessary to give the Henry Thomas client the $20MM salaries that he’s apparently eyeing on a three-year deal.
Wade, who has a $16.125MM player option for next season and has hinted that he’ll opt out, is open to leaving the Heat, who’d prefer he opt in, as Jackson reported last month. A friend of Wade’s told Jackson that the Heat, if he won’t opt in, would like him to sign a deal worth $16MM next season and $10MM in each of the next two.
The Lakers have only about $35MM in guaranteed salary for next season against a projected $67.1MM cap. They wouldn’t have enough left over to sign Wade to the sort of salary he’s looking for if they land another marquee target, like LaMarcus Aldridge or Kevin Love, without making some sort of salary-clearing trade. Presumably Wade, at 33 and with persistent knee concerns, is farther down the list of would-be targets, though the Lakers are also reportedly likely to chase Heat backcourt mate Goran Dragic, who’d be more likely to leave Miami if Wade does, as Jackson reported. The Heat are planning a five-year offer worth more than $80MM that’s less than the max for Dragic.
Wade’s father, who went as far as to appear in public wearing a Cavs T-shirt, has dropped vague hints that the Heat star is ready to leave Miami, as Ananth Pandian of CBSSports.com observes, though Wade himself, at least at the time of Jackson’s initial report last month, prefers to stay in Miami, all things being equal. We invited Hoops Rumors readers to discuss the issue as part of a recent Hoops Rumors Community Shootaround.
Greg Oden Working Out For Hornets, Mavs
5:44pm: Oden also worked out for the Hornets last week, and indeed did so for the Grizzlies earlier this spring, Charania reports as part of a full story.
5:42pm: Greg Oden will work out for the Mavericks this week as part of a mini-camp the team is conducting, reports Shams Charania of RealGM, citing league sources (Twitter link). Mini-camps are usually the domain of players merely trying to latch on for summer league, but it nonetheless represents another small step in the latest comeback effort for the former No. 1 overall pick. The Grizzlies had been thinking about bringing in Oden for a mini-camp of their own, as Charania reported last month.
Oden sat out this past season as he faced multiple charges related to domestic violence. He avoided jail time as part of a plea agreement in February in which he pleaded guilty to a felony battery charge and the three other charges against him were dismissed.
The now 27-year-old Oden, whom the Blazers took first in the 2007 draft, played sparingly for the Heat in 2013/14, averaging 2.9 points and 2.3 rebounds in 9.2 minutes per game across 23 regular season appearances. It was the first NBA action since the 2009/10 season for the oft-injured 7-footer.
Aaron Gray Retires
Aaron Gray is retiring because of the heart ailment that knocked him out of action this past season, the 30-year-old center tells Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press (Twitter link). He’ll join coach/executive Stan Van Gundy‘s staff, Ellis adds, and while it’s unclear whether that means he’ll be an assistant coach, that’s the role in which he served in an unofficial capacity this year. The Pistons released his playing rights in October soon after signing him to a two-year deal for the minimum last summer, using the stretch provision to spread the salary for the second year of that contract over the next three seasons.
This past season was the first in which the 49th overall pick from the 2007 draft didn’t play in the NBA since his days at the University of Pittsburgh. Gray spent time with the Bulls, Pelicans, Raptors and Kings before signing with the Pistons last summer, peaking with 40 starts for Toronto during the 66-game lockout-shortened 2011/12 season. He nonetheless averaged only 3.9 points and 5.7 rebounds in 16.6 minutes per game that year. The 7-footer put up 3.4 PPG and 3.7 RPG in 12.1 MPG across 318 games in his seven-year NBA career.
The Andy Miller client was a more noteworthy contributor on defense, compiling a positive number in Basketball-Reference’s Defensive Box Plus/Minus metric for each season of his NBA career. Gray earned more than $13.518MM in his NBA career, according to Basketball-Reference and Basketball Insiders data.
Southwest Notes: Green, Villanueva, Hunt
Jeff Green, who picked up his player option with the Grizzlies, will represent a cap hold of $9.45MM rather than $9.2MM for 2015/16 because he triggered a $250K bonus this season, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter links). The incentive clause kicked in when Memphis picked up its 55th win, and he was in line for an additional $200K if the Grizzlies, who finished 55-27, had won 56 games, Pincus explains. The cap hit applies for next season because the league now considers it likely that Memphis will again win 55 games, though he won’t get the money if they don’t again hit that threshold. Here’s more from around the Southwest Division.
- Charlie Villanueva would like to re-sign with the Mavericks, and while the team would welcome that, Dallas isn’t willing to pay more than the minimum, writes Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com.
- The Mavs are close to a deal with former Nuggets interim coach Melvin Hunt that would make him the top assistant in Dallas to head coach Rick Carlisle, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The Pelicans have also been interested in Hunt as an assistant, Stein reported earlier.
- Shooting guards Norman Powell of UCLA, Josh Richardson of Tennessee and Tyler Harvey of Eastern Washington are working out for the Mavs today, reports Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops (on Twitter).
- The Grizzlies will work out Southeast Missouri State forward Nino Johnson on Monday, sources tell Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia.
Knicks Rumors: Jackson, Isiah, Free Agency
Knicks president Phil Jackson mentioned the need to add big men multiple times within an interview with Scott Cacciola of The New York Times, leading Tim Bontemps of the New York Post to speculate that the team is zeroing in on reported target Greg Monroe (Twitter link). Jackson suggested to Cacciola that the team would have drafted a big man, likely either Karl-Anthony Towns or Jahlil Okafor, if it had landed one of the top two picks in the draft. The Zen Master admitted the lottery setback that gave the team only the No. 4 pick resulted in a change of plans that figures to have a ripple effect on the rest of the summer.
“We know there are a limited number of guys we can bring in this year,” Jackson said about free agency. “We think we’ll get competitive guys to play. I think we’ll complement the guys we have here, and we’re going to move forward. We do know we’re going to have big guys in that group. We’re going to have to search out some big men.”
We’ll pass along more revelations from Jackson’s interview with Cacciola here:
- Jackson told Cacciola that he and GM Steve Mills expressed their concerns to owner James Dolan when he presented them with the idea of hiring of former Knicks executive Isiah Thomas as president of the New York Liberty, a move with which Jackson was reportedly uncomfortable. “Jim Dolan had talked to us about it over dinner, maybe a month before it happened,” Jackson said. “We said, ‘Are you cognizant of the fact that this at least has the look of putting the fox in the henhouse?’ Is that a good term? In reviewing the history of it, we were told what the approach was by the Garden and how it went down. Jim said, ‘If you have any suggestions that you want to come back with, I’m open.’ And not being in that field, I didn’t have any information. It’s not where my head is at. So we’re not giving them any advice, and it’s going both ways.
- Mills is “the future of this franchise,” Jackson told Cacciola, making it clear that he envisions a longer tenure for the GM than for himself.
- All of the Knicks players expressed in their exit interviews that they’d like to return to the team, Mills said to Cacciola. The team only has fully guaranteed contracts with Carmelo Anthony, Jose Calderon, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Cleanthony Early.
- Jackson once more touted the triangle and expressed full confidence in his abilities as an executive after subpar results in his first full season in charge of the roster. “Without a doubt,” Jackson said in response to Cacciola’s question about whether he still would have taken the job last year, knowing what he knows now. “I knew it was going to be a challenge. We just didn’t have any room to work last year. We knew that we were going to have to make big changes with the limitations that we had, being in a locked-in situation as far as the salary cap goes. That’s why when I said recently that I didn’t know why I wasn’t given some votes for Executive of the Year, I wasn’t kidding. I was really serious. We had a yeoman’s job of having to get rid of a lot of fat on our roster to get to where we are. I saw Mitch Kupchak got a vote, so I know some people valued what the Lakers were doing obviously.”
Cavs Notes: Blatt, Thompson, Love, Free Agency
David Blatt and LeBron James might not always see eye-to-eye, but Blatt sought to dispel the notion that they can’t get along, as USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt details.
“People sometimes judge things on a game or on a period of time and they forget that we’re in there working together and striving to make the utmost of our team and of our situation day to day,” Blatt said. “And a bond develops over time that is a lot more than what meets the eye. … I can just tell you it’s been a fantastic experience, and I’m looking forward to continuing it.”
Blatt said he’s excited about the chance to begin next season with all or most of the roster intact, and while all 15 Cavs assuredly won’t return, it seems like the team would like to keep its core together. Here’s more on the Eastern Conference champs:
- The Cavs “fully intend” to re-sign Tristan Thompson, GM David Griffin said, as Zillgitt tweets. James last month appeared to lobby for the the team to keep the former No. 4 overall pick who’s entering restricted free agency.
- The deadline for J.R. Smith to decide on his player option is Wednesday, Kevin Love‘s option deadline is Thursday and the deadline for James is June 29th, reports Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group (Twitter link). All three appear likely to opt out and elect free agency, though it appears the trio would nonetheless like to remain with the Cavs.
- Numerous executives from around the league believe it’s obvious that the Cavs will offer a max deal to Love, reports Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com. Some executives had begun to doubt that notion during the season, as fellow ESPN reporter Chris Broussard said then, so perhaps Cleveland has warmed to the idea, or it could be a case of some executives having different opinions than others do.
- Several veterans at the end of Cleveland’s bench didn’t contribute much during the playoffs, and Griffin made it clear that he’ll seek to remedy that, as Chris Fedor of the Northeast Ohio Media Group relays. “I think from my perspective relative to the bench, yeah, we’d like to add some younger pieces,” Griffin said. “We’ll have some roster spots that we can change a little bit, and we’d like to get guys that are more in a 26 to 30 [age] range perhaps. Maybe finding the peak of their career.”
Pacers, Bulls, Mavs, Magic Eye Aaron Jackson
JUNE 19TH, 7:56am: The deal between Jackson and CSKA Moscow is official, the team announced (Twitter link). It’s a two-year arrangement, and while it’s unclear whether an NBA out exists, it wouldn’t appear as though he’s returning stateside anytime soon.
JUNE 16TH, 12:44pm: Jackson is set to re-sign with CSKA Moscow, as David Pick of Eurobasket.com hears (Twitter link). That would seemingly put the NBA on hold for now.
2:47pm: The Bulls, Mavericks and Magic have also registered some level of interest in Jackson, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders hears (Twitter link).
JUNE 12TH, 1:04pm: The Pacers are interested in point guard Aaron Jackson, who plays for Russia’s CSKA Moscow, report Chema De Lucas of Gigantes del Basket (translation via HoopsHype). At least three NBA teams are eyeing Jackson, a source tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports, adding that the 29-year-old who played collegiately at Duquesne will explore his possibilities to return to North America as a free agent this summer.
Jackson posted 7.4 points, 3.7 assists and 1.1 turnovers in 22.1 minutes per game for his Russian team this season, his third year with CSKA Moscow. He’s played overseas each season since going undrafted in 2009, making stops in Spain and Italy before heading to Russia, though he was with the Pacers for summer league in 2009. The Cavs had him for summer league the next year.
Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird expressed pessimism that his team would retain backup point guard C.J. Watson in free agency this summer, so it makes sense that Indiana would be in the market for a replacement. Still, the Pacers would likely be bereft of cap room if Roy Hibbert and David West opt in, as I noted when I examined the offseason ahead for the team, so Indiana will probably focus on point guards who might come cheaply.
Tom Benson Wins Trial, Will Stay Pelicans Owner
A judge has ruled Pelicans owner Tom Benson mentally competent, stymieing an effort from one side of his divided family to strip him of control of the team and the NFL’s New Orleans Saints, reports Jeff Duncan of The Times-Picayune (Twitter link). Daughter Renee Benson and grandchildren Rita and Ryan LeBlanc had asked a civil court to declare Tom Benson mentally unfit to run his sports holdings, as Katherine Sayre and Andy Grimm detail in a full story for The Times-Picayune. The maneuver was similar to the one that allowed Shelley Sterling to seize control of the Clippers from husband Donald Sterling and sell the team to Steve Ballmer, though in this case, the effort was unsuccessful. It’s not immediately clear whether an appeal is forthcoming, Sayre and Grimm write.
Duncan reported in January that the family members had filed suit against the owner, shortly after Benson restructured his succession plan for the teams so that wife Gayle Benson would take control upon his death. Rita Benson LeBlanc had previously been in line to inherit control.
The Pelicans have moved forward despite the controversy, hiring coach Alvin Gentry after making the playoffs under former bench boss Monty Williams. The ruling will ostensibly remove some of the question marks hanging around the franchise, and the timing is fortuitous for the Pelicans, as Anthony Davis becomes eligible for a rookie scale extension on July 1st.
For more on how the judge’s decision affects the Saints, see this story at Pro Football Rumors, our sister site.