How The Corey Brewer Trade Worked Financially
The Rockets, Wolves and Sixers appear to have pulled off a rare feat with their trade Friday night. Most NBA teams spend the majority of the season over the cap, so swaps that involve as many as three teams, as Friday’s trade did, usually need to have at least part of the transaction fall within the matching guidelines the NBA sets forth for “simultaneous” trades. Occasionally, as with the Rajon Rondo trade, some elements of deals are “non-simultaneous,” allowing teams to use and create trade exceptions, as the Celtics did last week. But ordinarily at least some salary matching has to come into play. Not so with the Corey Brewer trade.
Friday’s trade allowed the teams to use trade exceptions, the minimum-salary exception, and cap space to avoid salary matching. The trade exception that gained the most notoriety was the one the Rockets used to absorb Brewer. Houston had reportedly been targeting Brewer for several weeks as a player that it wanted to absorb into that exception, which GM Daryl Morey and his staff appeared eager to use. It was an asset left over from the Jeremy Lin trade that allowed the team to trade for a player, or players, who made up to $100K more than Lin’s $8,374,646 cap hit this season. The Rockets had until the one-year anniversary of the Lin trade to use it, but they chose not to hesitate quite so long.
Brewer’s $4,702,500 salary fit within that exception, but it left a sizable chunk. The deadline for the remainder of the exception didn’t change; Houston could have saved it up until the Lin trade anniversary. However, using the rest of it before the end of December 19th meant the team could flip not just Brewer, but another player in a trade at the league’s February 19th deadline that aggregates their salaries, since there’s a two-month window following a trade in which teams may not aggregate the salaries of the newly acquired players in a subsequent trade. Aggregating player salaries is similar to but not quite the same as packaging players in a trade, and there are ways to package players without aggregating their salaries. However, it’s complicated and often difficult to do so, so Morey and company decided to avert that potential stumbling block.
The Sixers under GM Sam Hinkie have proven willing participants when other teams need help making a transaction, as long as Hinkie and company can reap at least one second-round pick from the affair, as they did in this trade. Morey, Hinkie’s former boss, found a player on his protege’s roster who both fit within the remainder of the Lin exception and gives the Rockets another option at backup point guard, the role Lin had played for the team prior to the trade that allowed the Rockets to create the exception in the first place. Hinkie allowed Morey to fold Alexey Shved‘s $3,282,057 salary into the exception along with Brewer, leaving but a $390,089 stub that’s worth less than the rookie minimum-salary, meaning the Rockets have, for all practical purposes, used up the exception.
In so doing, Hinkie also helped facilitate another three-way trade that involved the Timberwolves, just as he did when Minnesota sent Kevin Love to Cleveland, which happened to have been the deal that brought Shved to Philadelphia. This time, the Sixers took in Ronny Turiaf, who’s out for the season and whom the team reportedly intends to waive. His $1.5MM salary represented a sunk cost for the Timberwolves, since he’s on an expiring contract and isn’t expected to be healthy enough to play until his contract expires at season’s end. However, he comes as a savings to Philadelphia, since he makes less than half of what Shved does. So, the deal represents a net gain of cap space for the Sixers, even though that might be a wash if Philadelphia falls short of the league’s $56.759MM team salary floor and has to distribute the difference among the players on its roster at season’s end. It matters not for salary matching purposes that Shved’s pay is so much greater than Turiaf’s, nor that the Sixers didn’t have any trade exceptions. Salary matching and trade exceptions are the concern of teams over the cap, a threshold that Philadelphia is nowhere near.
The Timberwolves wound up the beneficiary of Philadelphia’s cap space and Houston’s trade exceptions in that they allowed Minnesota to create new trade exceptions for Brewer and Turiaf, each one equivalent to their respective salaries. Wolves coach/president of basketball operations Flip Saunders couldn’t otherwise have shed so much salary while taking in only the $816,482 one-year veteran’s minimum salary of Troy Daniels, whom Minnesota can accommodate via the minimum-salary exception. Conversely, the Rockets created a new trade exception equal to the salary for Daniels. It’s not nearly as valuable as the Lin exception that Houston employed, but it’s an asset nonetheless.
Saunders also accomplished another order of business in this trade. The team had been carrying 16 players based on a hardship exception to the 15-man regular season roster limit that the league granted because of the prolonged absences of Ricky Rubio, Nikola Pekovic, Kevin Martin and Turiaf. The Wolves had used the ability to add a 16th player to sign Jeff Adrien. Relinquishing Turiaf meant that the team would no longer be eligible for that extra roster spot, which requires that no fewer than four players be expected to miss a significant amount of time. So the trade, in which the Wolves gave up two players and acquired one, allowed Saunders to remove Turiaf’s contract, which he was otherwise prepared to waive, without Turiaf’s salary sticking on Minnesota’s books and without having to relinquish Adrien, who rebounded at an impressive rate in nine games prior to the trade, racking up 4.6 boards in just 11.6 minutes per game. That translates to 14.2 rebounds per 36 minutes.
The deal didn’t work perfectly for the Rockets, who wound up having to release Francisco Garcia to satisfy the 15-man limit. Garcia apparently refused to go to the Wolves, as was his right, since he held a de facto no-trade clause by virtue of having re-signed with the Rockets to a one-year contract in the offseason. Agreeing to the trade would have nixed his Bird rights, but those are gone anyway, since the right to veto a trade didn’t give him the right to block Houston from waiving him. His departure completes a trifecta of sorts for the Rockets, who handed out three fully guaranteed one-year contracts for the minimum salary in the offseason only to waive all three. Those deals were with Ish Smith, who’s now a member of the Thunder, Adrien, whom Houston let go at the end of the preseason, and Garcia.
Plenty was familiar about the Brewer trade, which involved former Rockets cohorts Morey and Hinkie, and Saunders, who’s twice involved the Sixers in three-team deals in the space of four months. Yet this was an unusual trade that required flexibility and creativity on all sides. Now, it’s up to Morey to see whether Brewer and Shved work better as complements to Houston’s rotation or as fodder for the acquisition of a third star player, Saunders to use his new trade exceptions in a way that furthers Minnesota’s rebuilding efforts, and Hinkie to continue to seek ways to maximize Philly’s league-leading cap space and turn his stockpile of second-round picks into better than second-rate assets.
Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ and the Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Cavs Eye Brook Lopez, Robin Lopez
The Cavs have interest in twins Brook Lopez and Robin Lopez, but their respective salaries mean the acquisition of either is unlikely, reports Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio. Brook Lopez makes more than $15.719MM and has a player option worth in excess of $16.744MM for 2015/16. Robin Lopez is set for free agency this summer after he earns nearly $6.124MM this season. The Nets are reportedly willing to trade Brook Lopez, who’s also drawn interest from the Hornets, but there are no such rumors surrounding Robin Lopez, who’s set to miss several more weeks with a broken hand. Robin Lopez also recently indicated a contentment with playing in Portland.
Cleveland continues to search for help at center, as the Cavs are one of the teams in the mix for Kosta Koufos, and they tried over a period of months to pry Timofey Mozgov from the Nuggets. However, the Cavs and Nuggets haven’t spoken about Mozgov recently, a source tells Amico. Cavs GM David Griffin and company have reportedly made several passes at the Blazers for Wesley Matthews, Robin Lopez’s teammate, but Cleveland doesn’t have as much interest in the shooting guard as previously indicated, Amico writes. The Cavs have used 35-year-old backup center Brendan Haywood sparingly this season, but Amico hears that other teams have expressed their interest in him because of his contract, an unusually valuable asset, as I explained earlier.
The Cavs also had talks about acquiring Corey Brewer, though they never became serious, league sources tell Amico. Minnesota wanted draft picks and likely a player in return, Amico adds, which falls in line with what the Wolves received when they shipped Brewer to Houston instead.
Pistons Waive Josh Smith
The Pistons have waived Josh Smith, the team announced via press release. A source tipped Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press to the news shortly before it happened (Twitter link). The team will use the stretch provision, tweets Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News. The stretch provision will spread Smith’s $13.5MM salaries for 2015/16 and 2016/17 in equal $5.4MM amounts each season through 2019/20, but his full $13.5MM for this season is stuck on the payroll, assuming he clears waivers and assuming Smith and the team didn’t agree to a buyout.
“Our team has not performed the way we had expected throughout the first third of the season and adjustments need to be made in terms of our focus and direction,” Pistons president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy said in the team’s statement. “We are shifting priorities to aggressively develop our younger players while also expanding the roles of other players in the current rotation to improve performance and build for our future. As we expand certain roles, others will be reduced. In fairness to Josh, being a highly versatile 10-year veteran in this league, we feel it’s best to give him his freedom to move forward. We have full respect for Josh as a player and a person.”
It’s a shocking move, but the team was had been “desperately” seeking to trade Smith and rival teams were insisting that the Pistons attach a first-round pick to him, according to Ellis (Twitter link). The Kings had maintained interest in trading for Smith, though recent reports made it unclear just how warm Sacramento has been to the idea recently after the team appeared to make a strong push for Smith over the summer, when Van Gundy rejected the Kings’ entreaties. Sacramento offered Jason Thompson and Carl Landry, but Detroit said no, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The Kings have interest in signing him as a free agent, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (on Twitter), though they only have the minimum salary to offer.
Smith will surely be a sought-after commodity on the free agent market once he, as expected, clears waivers in two days. The high cost of his contract makes him an unlikely candidate to be claimed off waivers. The Clippers are among the teams with interest, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The forward is close with with new Maverick Rajon Rondo, Chris Mannix of SI.com points out (on Twitter), and the two have spoken many times about playing together, according to Smith. Still, early indications are that the Mavs won’t pursue him and that Rondo won’t press the team to do so, as USA Today’s Sam Amick tweets, though Stein hears that Dallas is interested (Twitter link). The 29-year-old Smith is also close with former AAU teammate Dwight Howard, and the Rockets have had interest in the past, according to Spears (Twitter link). Still, Houston hasn’t decided whether to pursue him at this point, Stein reports (on Twitter). The Rockets would have a financial edge on the Mavs, since they have the $2.077MM biannual exception to offer, while the Mavs, like the Kings and Clippers, are limited to the minimum salary.
The Pistons enticed Smith, a Wallace Prather client, to sign a four-year, $54MM deal in the summer of 2013, but he never worked out in Detroit, and the contract quickly became an albatross as he struggled to fit in with Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond. His subtraction ostensibly allows the Pistons to move forward with Monroe and Drummond as their lone marquee big men, but Monroe is an unrestricted free agent at season’s end after signing his qualifying offer this past summer, and he seems to have soured on Detroit. Perhaps letting go of Smith is an appeal of sorts to Monroe, letting him know that he won’t be crowded out of playing time, but that’s just my speculation.
Sixers Consider Re-Signing Malcolm Thomas
Power forward Malcolm Thomas is one of the candidates the Sixers are considering to replace the injured Ronny Turiaf on the roster, a team source tells Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia acquired Turiaf in Friday’s three-team trade with the Wolves and Rockets, and, as Pompey reported earlier, the Sixers intend to waive the 10th-year big man who’s expected to miss the rest of the season as he recovers from right hip surgery. The Inquirer scribe’s latest dispatch indicates that the Sixers have already released Turiaf, though the team has yet to make such a move official.
Thomas was with the Sixers for a couple of weeks at the beginning of the season after signing shortly before opening night. He was proficient on the boards, averaging 4.6 rebounds in 14.3 minutes per game over five appearances, but Philadelphia waived him November 10th, eating a relatively sizable partial guarantee of $474K, to ink Drew Gordon at his position instead. The 26-year-old who went undrafted out of San Diego State in 2011 has appeared in the NBA with the Spurs, Bulls, Warriors and Jazz in addition to the Sixers over the past four seasons.
Philadelphia has made a habit this season of re-signing players who were previously on the roster, as Gordon, Malcolm Lee and Ronald Roberts Jr. have all had multiple stints with the team. The Sixers continue to have undoubtedly the league’s most flexible roster, with only 10 players in possession of fully guaranteed contracts, as our roster counts show, and a team salary of about $42.5MM, far beneath the league’s $63.065MM salary cap.
Rockets Acquire Corey Brewer
8:15pm: The trade is official, the Rockets have announced in a press release. Houston received Alexey Shved from the Sixers and Corey Brewer from the Wolves. Minnesota received Troy Daniels, along with the Kings’ 2015 second round pick (protected for picks 50-60), Houston’s 2016 second round pick (protected for picks 31-45) and cash considerations from the Rockets. Philadelphia received Houston’s 2015 second round pick and the rights to Serhiy Lishchuk from the Rockets, and Ronny Turiaf from Minnesota. The Rockets have also officially waived Francisco Garcia to reduce their roster count to 15.
5:52pm: The Sixers will also receive the rights to Serhiy Lishchuk from the Rockets, Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle reports (Twitter link). Lishouk was the No. 49 overall pick in the 2004 NBA draft.
5:24pm: Alexey Shved is likely to head to the Rockets as part of the deal, and Turiaf will go to the Sixers, Wojnarowski reports (Twitter links). Houston intends to release Garcia rather than include him in the trade, Wojnarowski also notes.
2:58pm: The Wolves receive Sacramento’s 2015 second-round pick, which the Kings previously sent to the Rockets, as long as it’s within the top 49 selections, reports Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune (Twitter link). The 2016 second-rounder going Minnesota’s way is Houston’s own, Zgoda adds.
2:48pm: Minnesota and Houston discussed Rockets swingman Francisco Garcia, Wolfson hears (Twitter link), though it’s unclear if he’ll be part of the final arrangement.
2:22pm: The Rockets are also sending cash to Minnesota in the deal, Feigen tweets.
1:36pm: The Wolves and Rockets have struck a deal that will send Corey Brewer to Houston, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Troy Daniels heads to Minnesota as part of the deal, Wojnarowski also tweets. Ronny Turiaf, who’s likely out for the season, is headed to the Rockets, though there’s a decent chance that he’ll wind up on a third team, Wojnarowski adds (on Twitter). Minnesota-Houston deal itself is liable to involve another team, too, a source tells Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle (Twitter link). As the deal stands, two future second-round picks are also heading from the Rockets to Minnesota, one of which is the 2015 second-rounder that Houston had acquired from the Kings, though the draft considerations are still being hammered out, according to Wojnarowski (Twitter links).
Houston GM Daryl Morey and his staff had been pushing to use a trade exception worth nearly $8.375MM by no later than today so that the Rockets could flip whomever they acquired in another trade that aggregates that player’s salary prior to the trade deadline. It’s not immediately clear what the other elements of the Brewer deal are, but the Rockets are indeed taking Brewer’s salary of nearly $4.703MM into the exception, as Wojnarowski writes in a full story and Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities tweets.
The teams first discussed a Brewer deal last month before Minnesota appeared to take him off the table amid injury woes. At the time it seemed as though Brewer’s suitors were pushing for him to waive his $4.905MM player option for next season, but it’s unclear if Houston was hung up on that notion or whether Brewer has indeed done so. The Cavs were also keen on acquiring Brewer both in November and this week, when Wolves coach/executive Flip Saunders reignited the talks. Reports indicated that the Clippers had interest at both points, too, and the Heat were apparently eyeing Brewer at least during the initial round of talks.
Houston’s coaching staff is reportedly enamored with Brewer, and, as Wojnarowski writes, it’s primarily his defense at the small forward position that’s driven the Rockets to make the deal. Still, that’s somewhat odd, since the Rockets have given up the second fewest points per 100 possessions in the league so far, per NBA.com, even without Brewer. His game seems an awkward fit for Houston, as I examined when I looked at Brewer’s trade candidacy. A November report from Feigen that first revealed Houston’s eagerness to use the trade exception, a vestige of this summer’s Jeremy Lin trade that doesn’t expire until this coming July, suggested that the Rockets were merely trying to bolster their rotation, regardless of fit. Thus, Houston could put together a more attractive trade offer in pursuit of a star at the deadline, when the Rockets would be able to aggregate the salary of whomever they used the exception on with other salaries.
The Wolves, who are in a rebuilding stage, as Saunders recently admitted, announced earlier this week that Turiaf is expected to miss the rest of the season after undergoing hip surgery. He’d appeared in only two games so far this season because of the lingering hip injury, and his contract, which pays him a guaranteed $1.5MM this year, is up at season’s end. Saunders indicated this week that Minnesota would waive Turiaf if an intriguing free agent came available, but instead the 10th-year veteran is departing the Wolves via trade.
Daniels is heading to Minnesota after re-signing with the Rockets this past summer on a two-year deal that’s fully guaranteed for the minimum salary. The 23-year-old swingman was surprising playoff hero for Houston last spring, but he’s seen just 6.4 minutes per game across 17 appearances for the Rockets this season.
Southwest Notes: Rockets, Rondo, Mekel, Conley
The Rockets were runners-up in the Rajon Rondo sweepstakes, but they’re set to land Corey Brewer, whom they’d reportedly been targeting for a while. Brewer is excited to reunite with Rockets coach Kevin McHale, who was behind Minnesota’s decision to draft Brewer seventh overall in 2007, as the swingman tells Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune. Still, Brewer made it clear wasn’t anxious to leave the Wolves and never asked for or wanted a trade, Zgoda tweets, which seems to conflict with an ESPN.com report indicating that he had requested that the Wolves send him to a contending team.
“Kind of mixed emotions just because I really love Minnesota,” Brewer said to Zgoda. “People don’t understand how much I love Minnesota. I wanted to end my career here. That’s why I signed back here. I thought it’d be possible, but I understand we’re going young. It’s going to be a few years, but the Wolves have great, young talent.”
Brewer, who has a $4.905MM player option for next season, can hit free agency this summer. Here’s more from the Southwest Division:
- New Mavs point guard Rajon Rondo wanted out of Boston, friend and former teammate Kendrick Perkins says, as Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports notes via Twitter. Rondo made several public statements indicating his fondness for the Celtics prior to the trade.
- It’s unclear whether Brewer waived his player option as part of the Rockets deal, but Chase Budinger indicated that he wouldn’t do so with his $5MM player option when the Rockets gauged whether he would, as Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities hears (Twitter link).
- Troy Daniels is disappointed that he’s leaving the Rockets as part of the Brewer trade agreement, he tells Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston, though he added that he’s hopeful that he’ll see more playing time in Minnesota than he has in Houston.
- Pelicans coach Monty Williams confirmed that the team isn’t ruling out a new deal with Gal Mekel, whom New Orleans waived earlier today, observes Nakia Hogan of The Times-Picayune (Twitter link). That jibes with this morning’s report from David Pick of Eurobasket.com that the Pelicans hope Mekel clears waivers.
- Mike Conley is a bargain for the Grizzlies, making just slightly more than $8.694MM this year on a contract that expires after next season, and an Eastern Conference executive tells Chris Mannix of SI.com that the point guard would garner at least $14MM annually on the open market.
How The Rajon Rondo Trade Worked Financially
The Celtics, at least on the surface, didn’t reap a package for Rajon Rondo that at all resembles what the Timberwolves received for Kevin Love this past summer. Rondo, who’s two and a half years older and nine inches shorter than Love and is averaging only 8.3 points per game, isn’t quite the sort of player that Love had proven to be when Minnesota relinquished him, but the Celtics surely wanted more for him than Dallas gave up. Boston was reportedly seeking as many as three first-round picks for Rondo at times over the past year or so, but the C’s reaped only one, and the deal weakened their cap flexibility for next season, since Jameer Nelson holds a player option worth $2.855MM for 2015/16.
Still, Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge deftly crafted a trade that allowed him to use as many as three trade exceptions to create a new $12,909,090 trade exception that instantly becomes the league’s largest. Ainge and his staff took Brandan Wright‘s $5MM salary into the $5,285,816 trade exception that they created in their Keith Bogans trade and Nelson’s $2.732MM salary for this season into the trade exception left over from the deal that sent Joel Anthony away, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders points out. They folded Jae Crowder‘s $915,243 salary into either the remainder of the Anthony exception or the $1,334,092 that was left over from the original $4.25MM exception they created when they gave up Kris Humphries in a sign-and-trade with the Wizards this past summer, Pincus also notes.
Its unclear which path they took with Crowder, since there are benefits to both. Using the Anthony exception for Crowder preserves the $1,334,092 still on the Humphries exception, a larger amount than they’d have if they used the Humphries exception and left the Anthony exception at $1.068MM. But that’s not much of a difference, and the Anthony exception expires nearly three months later than the Humphries one does. Whichever exception Crowder’s salary went into would be reduced to an amount that’s less than the full-season minimum salary for a rookie, making it largely unusable.
The Rondo trade also allows the Celtics to create a $507,336 exception for Dwight Powell. That exception, equivalent to the rookie minimum salary, is only slightly more useful than whatever remains of the exception that Crowder’s salary went into. It’s nonetheless difficult to rule out much when it comes to Ainge and the use of trade exceptions, as this deal demonstrates. The trades that created the Humphries, Anthony and Bogans exceptions all took place within the last five months. Those transactions seemed to matter little at the time, since none of them netted the Celtics a player who remains on the roster, but collectively they gave Ainge the ammunition needed to enhance the Rondo deal. By contrast, the Mavs didn’t possess any trade exceptions entering the deal, and they needed to use all of their outgoing salaries to make the matching math work so they could absorb Rondo’s salary.
The first-round pick headed from Dallas to Boston, which will probably end up coming in the latter half of the 2016 first-round, given the protections attached to it and the Mavs’ prospects for success, isn’t necessarily the best asset that the Celtics acquired in the deal. Instead, the Celtics can use their trade exception to acquire a player or group of players who make as much as $13,009,090, or $100K more than Rondo’s salary for this season, anytime between now and next December, without sending out matching salary in return. It’d be difficult for Boston to pull that off now, since the team is still about $7MM shy of the luxury tax line, but the Celtics will have more leeway come the offseason. Indeed, the Rondo trade gives the C’s a little more breathing room beneath the tax threshold for now, since they were only about $2MM shy of it prior to the deal.
There are no guarantees that teams will be able to use trade exceptions at all, much less to use them to net star players. Still, they give teams power to make maneuvers they otherwise couldn’t. For now, that’s the greatest benefit the Celtics have reaped from parting with their point guard.
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Southeast Notes: Stephenson, Hawks, Wizards
The Heat are slumping, and they’re without Chris Bosh for the time being, but they’re still holding down a would-be playoff spot as they sit in seventh place in the Eastern Conference. They’ll play host to the division-leading Wizards tonight, and while we wait for that, here’s more from around the Southeast Division:
- The Hornets believe that a groin injury is behind Lance Stephenson‘s decreased production this season, and that’s has helped motivate the team to back off trade talk regarding him, report Ramona Shelburne and Chris Broussard of ESPN.com. That’s even though Stephenson has had a negative effect on team chemistry, as sources tell the ESPN scribes.
- The Hawks have sent Mike Muscala on D-League assignment, the team announced. Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution originally reported the news (Twitter link). Muscala spent a two-day stint in the D-League earlier this season, and he’s averaged 4.9 points in 10.0 minutes per game across eight appearances with the big club so far this year.
- The frequent D-League assignments for Jordan Clarkson help prove the Wizards were wise on draft night when they acquired $1.8MM in cash in a trade that sent out the pick that the Lakers used on him, argues J. Michael of CSNWashington.com. Rasual Butler‘s play since taking the roster spot that otherwise ostensibly would have gone to Clarkson is further evidence, Michael believes.
- Versatility has been a key asset for Evan Fournier, who’s helping the Magic reap much greater benefit than expected from this summer’s Arron Afflalo trade, which brought Fournier from the Nuggets, as Andrew Perna of RealGM examines.
Pelicans Waive Gal Mekel
11:04am: The move is official, the team announced via press release. The statement didn’t make any mention of a corresponding transaction.
9:39am: The Pelicans are releasing Gal Mekel, sources tell David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). Pick indicates that the team has already waived the Israeli point guard, though New Orleans has yet to make an official announcement. The team is hoping that Mekel clears waivers, according to Pick. That would seem to suggest that the club intends to re-sign him should he become a free agent, though that’s just my speculation, and it’s not clear if Mekel’s release would be related to any other transaction. He’d signed a non-guaranteed two-year deal for the minimum salary earlier this month. His subtraction would leave the Pelicans with 14 players, one shy of the maximum.
New Orleans reportedly inquired about Jeff Green lately, and there are conflicting reports about whether the team is ready to move some of its core players, though another dispatch from a few weeks ago pitted them as having been aggressive in trade talks. Dispensing with Mekel would give the team a measure of flexibility to make an unbalanced swap, but unless a move is imminent, it wouldn’t make sense for the Pelicans to part ways with Mekel if they still found him a worthwhile part of the club.
There would seemingly be a decent chance that another team would claim him off waivers, since visa issues were apparently the only stumbling block that kept him from signing with the Pacers earlier this season, he worked out for the Lakers, and the Thunder have reportedly held interest in him, too. The Mavs, Mekel’s original team, have an open roster spot following the Rajon Rondo trade.
The 26-year-old has seen 10.8 minutes per game in four appearances with New Orleans, averaging 1.5 points, 3.3 assists and 0.5 turnovers per contest. The Pelicans are relatively thin at the point behind Jrue Holiday, as rookie Russ Smith is the only other pure point guard on the team. They also possess combo guards Tyreke Evans, Jimmer Fredette and Austin Rivers.
Rajon Rondo Trade Fallout/Reaction
The Rajon Rondo trade stands to have an immediate effect on the Western Conference playoff race as well as the long-term future of the Celtics, who for many years were an Eastern Conference contender with Rondo. We’ll be rounding up the news still trickling out about the blockbuster trade throughout the day, with any new items added to the top:
- There’s no shortage of confidence among Mavs officials that they can re-sign Rondo, a source tells Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com, who adds that obtaining Rondo will make it easier for the club to reach a new deal with soon-to-be free agent Tyson Chandler (Twitter link).
- The Lakers planned a final offer of Steve Nash, the protected 2015 first-rounder that the Rockets owe the Lakers, and a second-round pick, Grantland’s Zach Lowe reports.
- The Celtics were asking for as many as three first-rounders for Rondo at times in the past year or so, multiple league sources tell Lowe for the same piece.
- Brooklyn was also in the mix for Rondo, but the Nets simply couldn’t make a deal work, a league source tells Robert Windrem of NetsDaily (Twitter link).
8:59am update:
- Rondo spoke publicly about his fondness for Boston even in the hours before the trade, but privately the soon-to-be free agent was torn between remaining with the Celtics and joining a contender, a source tells Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald (Twitter link). Still, Rondo didn’t tell the Celtics about the way he felt, Murphy adds in a second tweet.
- The Celtics had decided that it would have been nearly impossible to compete this coming summer with other teams that could offer Rondo a better chance to win, sources tell Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald. The C’s weren’t sure they wanted to engage in a bidding war for a player who turns 30 in the middle of next season, Bulpett adds.
- The desire to complete a deal in advance of two months prior to the trade deadline, giving the teams the power to flip their incoming players in a deal that aggregates their salaries this season, wasn’t a major factor in the timing of the deal, Bulpett also hears. The Celtics were convinced that the offers would get no better and might worsen if they waited, and they didn’t see any better offers earlier in the process, either, sources tell Bulpett.
- The Knicks couldn’t have relinquished a first-round pick that would have gone to the Celtics any sooner than 2018, and that’s largely what torpedoed any chance New York might have had of trading for Rondo, as Mark Berman of the New York Post hears. Still, Knicks brass is divided on how well Rondo would fit within the triangle offense, Berman adds.