Central Notes: Butler, Cavs, Antetokounmpo
The Bulls are keeping an eye on the Kings this season, since Sacramento owes Chicago its first-round pick if it falls outside the top 10, and for now Chicago’s in line to receive a lottery pick, as our Reverse Standings show. Still, it might be difficult for the Bulls to squeeze even a rookie scale contract onto their ledger for next season, as we detail amid the latest from the Central Division:
- Several executives from around the NBA believe Jimmy Butler will command the maximum salary in restricted free agency this summer if he keeps up his torrid start to the season, reports Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. Butler and agent Happy Walters were asking for $14MM salaries from the Bulls but would have been willing to settle somewhere between $12.5MM and $13MM during extension talks in October, sources tell Deveney. Instead, the team held firm at $11MM over four years, Deveney hears, echoing a report from K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune, but Chicago appears to have passed up a bargain. The Bulls will court luxury tax trouble if they bring Butler back at the max, with the latest projection putting the tax line at $81MM for next season, according to Deveney, and the Bulls on the hook for nearly $63MM already if Kirk Hinrich picks up his player option.
- Cavs GM David Griffin originally planned to shuttle Joe Harris between Cleveland and its D-League affiliate this season, according to Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group. Instead, he’s been part of the rotation, complicating matters for Dion Waiters and a suddenly resurgent Mike Miller, as Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com examines.
- Giannis Antetokounmpo would have been a Mav if owner Mark Cuban had given in to Dallas GM Donnie Nelson‘s desire to draft him 13th overall in 2013, writes Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News. Antetokounmpo fell to the Bucks at No. 15, and the Mavs swung deals that landed them Shane Larkin, whom they eventually traded for Tyson Chandler.
Patric Young Signs To Play In Turkey
11:30am: The deal is official, the team announced (Twitter link; hat tip to Carchia).
8:27am: Former Pelicans big man Patric Young has agreed to sign with Galatasaray of Turkey, reports Ismail Senol of NTV Spor (Twitter links; translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). It’s not clear what Young will make on the deal, but it’s a quick turnaround for the first-year pro, who just cleared waivers Tuesday after New Orleans waived him Sunday.
Young didn’t appear in a regular season game for the Pelicans, who signed him in July, shortly after he turned in an impressive summer league despite going undrafted out of the University of Florida the month before. The 22-year-old averaged 7.4 points and 8.0 rebounds in 25.2 minutes per game for the summer Pelicans coming off a season at Florida in which he was named SEC Defensive Player of the Year.
New Orleans guaranteed the Jim Tanner client‘s rookie minimum salary for $55K, though he had already earned more than $100K by virtue of remaining on the roster through the first month of the season, putting him on a de facto non-guaranteed contract. The Pelicans reportedly worked out free agent Dante Cunningham, but it was nonetheless curious to see them release Young without bringing in someone to fill his roster spot. Young’s quick deal with Galatasaray seems a hint that he might have asked the Pelicans to waive him now so that he could capitalize on interest from the Turkish team, though that’s just my speculation.
Western Notes: Kobe, Love, Baynes, Sessions
The Western Conference is a remarkable 68-27 against the Eastern Conference this year, though only eight Western teams have winning records as of today. The Nuggets, Kings and Pelicans are all outside the playoffs as it stands with .500 records, but those marks are better than only one team in the top eight in the East. While we wait to see how it shakes out with plenty of season left, here’s the latest from the West:
- Kobe Bryant says the idea that he’s impatient with the Lakers is off-base and praises the Buss family in a conversation with Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Bryant doesn’t rule out playing past his current deal, which expires in the summer of 2016, Wojnarowski notes. The Yahoo! columnist also suggests that it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that Kevin Love would bolt the Cavs for the Lakers, in spite of his insistence otherwise, and that Bryant will join the Lakers’ pitch to recruit him. A recent report cast Bryant as a turn-off for such star free agents, but the dispatch, which indicated that Paul George signed his extension with the Pacers last year in part because he didn’t want to join Bryant on the Lakers, left George “mortified,” Wojnarowski writes.
- Aron Baynes is on pace to prove his one-year, $2.077MM deal a bargain for the Spurs as he improves offensively and contributes physical play in the absence of Tiago Splitter, opines Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News.
- Offseason signee Ramon Sessions has had an uneven start to his first season with the Kings and needs to improve or else he’ll risk losing his minutes to Ray McCallum, Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee writes. “He’d [Sessions] be the first one to admit he hoped and wished he was playing better and at a more consistent level,” coach Michael Malone said. “He’s had some games where he’s played very well for us, he’s had some games where he hasn’t played as well, but I still believe in Ramon. I know what he is capable of doing. So I’m going to give him some opportunity to grow into that backup role and feel comfortable and confident in that role.”
Eddie Scarito contributed to this post.
Orlando Johnson To Play In D-League
10:53pm: Johnson has been claimed off waivers by the Austin Toros, the affiliate of the Spurs, Michael Scotto of Sheridan Hoops (Twitter link) reports.
12:13pm: Former Pacers and Kings swingman Orlando Johnson has agreed to play in the D-League, reports Gino Pilato of D-League Digest (Twitter link). Johnson is available on D-League waivers, Pilato hears, so the identity of his D-League team has yet to be determined. He and Spain’s Baskonia parted ways in late October when the club signed Sasha Vujacic. Johnson appeared to have no shortage of European suitors when he chose to ink with Baskonia this past summer, but it appears the 36th overall pick from the 2012 NBA draft will return stateside.
Johnson failed to gain much traction in the NBA and spent much of his time with the then-contending Pacers on the bench. He saw just 10.5 minutes per game during his two seasons in the league, including a seven-game stint with the Kings while on a pair of 10-day contracts last spring. Indiana had cut him loose in a roster crunch at the trade deadline in February.
The 25-year-old will remain free to sign with any NBA team regardless of the D-League club that obtains him. He performed fairly well on the circuit before, putting up 19.3 points and 6.1 rebounds in 34.6 minutes per game during seven contests while on assignment from the Pacers.
Minimum-Salary Players Seeing 20+ MPG
Wesley Johnson seemed destined to be playing 32.4 minutes per game in the 2014/15 season when he went fourth overall in the 2010 draft. It’s just that the salary he’s being paid to do it is not what most at that time would have imagined. Johnson has carved out a sizable role on the Lakers this year after failing to do so early in his career. That failure drove down his value, and a once-intriguing prospect consented to play for just the minimum salary this year.
Johnson is nonetheless averaging only 8.6 points a night, and though he attempts 3.0 three-pointers per outing, he connects on only 29.4% of them, so it’s not as if he’s making a case to continue to see his minutes. His copious playing time is as much a reflection on the last-place Lakers as it is on his progress. It’s no coincidence that five of the 20 minimum-salary players who’ve seen action in at least half of the games their respective teams have played and who’ve been on the floor for at least 20 minutes per night have done so for the Sixers this season. One of them is Chris Johnson, whom the Sixers waived even though he averaged 20.8 MPG in nine appearances for the club.
Still, not everyone on this list is there by dint of playing for a team with few other reliable options. Draymond Green is playing 31.7 MPG for the Warriors, who are 14-2 and whose primary long-term concern at this point might be how to handle the substantial raise that Green will merit in restricted free agency this summer. Other players are on the list largely by their own choice, notably Shawn Marion, who turned down overtures from the Pacers and others with the capacity to give him more money to chase a title with the Cavs on the minimum salary. Injuries have created opportunities for some, like the three Pacers on this list.
Here’s a rundown of all 20 players who make the minimum salary, have appeared in at least half of the games their respective teams have played, and see 20 or more minutes per game this season:
- Wesley Johnson, Lakers: 32.4
- Draymond Green, Warriors: 31.7
- Donald Sloan, Pacers: 31.5
- Hollis Thompson, Sixers: 27.4
- Lance Thomas, Thunder: 25.6
- Henry Sims, Sixers: 24.9
- Shawn Marion, Cavaliers: 24.7
- K.J. McDaniels, Sixers: 24.4
- Quincy Acy, Knicks: 23.3
- Khris Middleton, Bucks: 23.1
- Lavoy Allen, Pacers: 22.6
- Garrett Temple, Wizards: 22.6
- Isaiah Canaan, Rockets: 22.0
- Rodney Stuckey, Pacers: 21.8
- Ed Davis, Lakers: 21.6
- Chris Johnson, Sixers: 20.8 (waived)
- Brandon Davies, Sixers: 20.6
- Sebastian Telfair, Thunder: 20.4 (waived)
- Aaron Brooks, Bulls: 20.3
- Ronnie Price, Lakers: 20.3
The Basketball Insiders Salary Pages were used in the creation of this post.
Eastern Notes: Realignment, Love, Butler, Pistons
The Pacers, for all their woes, would make the playoffs if they began today, as Eastern Conference teams enjoy a much easier path to the postseason, but Mavs owner Mark Cuban isn’t the only one around the league pushing to change that. Discussion about realignment is just in “some infant stage” as it circulates among the NBA’s power brokers, Grantland’s Zach Lowe writes, but commissioner Adam Silver says the league is closely studying the issue. Suns owner Robert Sarver and Thunder brass are among those who’ve advocated the idea of simply taking the 16 best teams for the playoffs, Lowe reports. Those teams would stand to benefit from such a structure this year, and there’s concern around the league that self-interest will drive the debate, as Lowe also notes. While we wait to see whether momentum gathers for change, here’s the latest from the weaker conference:
- Kevin Love indicated his desire to remain in Cleveland for the long term shortly after the trade that brought him to the Cavs, and he reiterated his intention to do so in a radio appearance with Chris Mannix of SI.com and NBC Sports Radio, as “The Chris Mannix Show” Twitter account relays. Love can opt out of his contract at season’s end, but last month he batted down a rumor that he had interest in signing with the Lakers this coming summer.
- Rasual Butler has proven quite a find for the Wizards after having made the team out of camp on a non-guaranteed deal for the minimum salary, as Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post examines after Butler’s game-high 23 points in Monday’s win against the Heat.
- Stan Van Gundy‘s failure to offload either Greg Monroe or Josh Smith in the summer stunted his ability to affect real changes for the Pistons, who are stuck between full-on rebuilding and trying to win now, opines Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News.
Offseason In Review: Los Angeles Lakers
Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team’s offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees, and more will be covered, as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.
Signings
- Nick Young: Four years, $21.326MM. Re-signed via cap space. Fourth year is player option.
- Jordan Hill: Two years, $18MM. Re-signed via Bird rights. Second year is team option.
- Ryan Kelly: Two years, $3.374MM. Re-signed via room exception.
- Ed Davis: Two years, $2.082MM. Signed via minimum-salary exception. Second year is player option.
- Ronnie Price: One year, $1.317MM. Signed via minimum-salary exception. Non-guaranteed.
- Xavier Henry: One year, $1.082MM. Re-signed via room exception.
- Wayne Ellington: One year, $1.063MM. Signed via minimum-salary exception. Non-guaranteed.
- Wesley Johnson: One year, $981K. Re-signed via minimum-salary exception.
Extensions
- None
Trades
- Acquired 2014 pick No. 46 from the Wizards in exchange for $1.8MM cash.
- Acquired Jeremy Lin, Houston’s 2015 first-round pick (lottery-protected), and the Clippers’ 2015 second-round pick if it falls anywhere from 51st through 55th from the Rockets in exchange for the rights to Sergei Lishchuk.
Waiver Claims
- Carlos Boozer: Claimed from the Bulls. Bid $3.251MM for one year.
Draft Picks
- Julius Randle (Round 1, 7th overall). Signed via rookie scale exception to rookie scale contract.
- Jordan Clarkson (Round 2, 46th overall). Signed via minimum-salary exception for two years, $1.352MM. Second year is non-guaranteed.
Camp Invitees
- Keith Appling
- Jabari Brown
- Roscoe Smith
- Jeremy Tyler
Departing Players
Rookie Contract Option Decisions
- None
In October 2012, just as the Lakers were beginning their sudden and shocking descent into also-ran status, Lakers co-owner and executive VP of basketball operations Jim Buss said that he planned for the team to “make a big splash in the free agent market” in 2014. The belly flop that took place this year surely wasn’t what he had in mind. The Lakers never had a realistic shot to land LeBron James, and though they reportedly floated a max offer to Carmelo Anthony after meeting with him, ‘Melo’s top two choices were instead the Knicks, whom he eventually re-signed with, and the Bulls, who would have required him to take a sharp discount. Chris Bosh and Eric Bledsoe, two other marquee free agents to whom the Lakers were linked, never appeared close to wearing purple-and-gold. None of the 10 players in the 2014 Hoops Rumors Free Agent Power Rankings signed with the Lakers, even though they entered July with just four players under contract and loads of cap flexibility.
Julius Randle was poised at that point to become the fifth player on the Lakers roster, and though he’s lost for his rookie season with a broken leg, seemingly fate’s way of rubbing it in for a downtrodden franchise, the power forward nonetheless represents the promise of a brighter future. This year’s No. 7 overall pick was No. 2 behind only eventual top selection Andrew Wiggins in the rankings of both Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress and Chad Ford of ESPN.com when the season began last year. Randle failed to stand out quite as well as expected in his lone year at the University of Kentucky, but on a roster that’s always full of top-flight NBA prospects, that’s not altogether surprising. His size and strength give him a natural advantage on offense, and though his short arms will likely keep him from becoming a strong defender, he has the capacity to become a marquee player.
That won’t be for a while, however. He turned 20 just last week, and because of his injury, he won’t see the floor for the Lakers again until he’s nearing his 21st birthday. There will be a learning curve, to be sure, as well as an adjustment to playing again after such a long absence, so there’s a strong chance that the real Randle won’t emerge until 2016/17 at the earliest. Even the silver lining for the Lakers has gathered tarnish.
The Lakers drafted Randle and entered free agency without a coach, in part because the team wanted to be able to choose a coach to fit the roster, which was still largely a mystery. Still, it appeared unseemly that the job that Pat Riley and Phil Jackson had lifted to iconic status would be left open for so long, even if it was by design. Nevertheless, there was reason for the Lakers to take a deliberate approach to their choice after their hasty and unpopular decision to hire Mike D’Antoni early in the 2012/13 season, just weeks after firing Mike Brown and days after getting Jackson’s hopes up about a return. Jackson was off to the Knicks to serve as team president by the time D’Antoni resigned rather than coach 2014/15 on an expiring contract, so there was no chance at a do-over.
The Lakers interviewed Lionel Hollins, Mike Dunleavy and Alvin Gentry, and perhaps Kurt Rambis, too, though it was unclear whether Rambis, a Lakers assistant coach at the time, was given a formal interview. The team also considered George Karl but settled on Byron Scott, who had spent 13 years as an NBA head coach with the Nets, Pelicans (then Hornets) and Cavs. Scott had long ago forged a relationship with Kobe Bryant, mentoring Bryant when their playing careers overlapped as Lakers teammates in Scott’s final season and Bryant’s first. Scott began conversing with Bryant in coach-player terms even before the Lakers formally hired him on a four-year, $17MM deal with a team option on year four. D’Antoni’s tenure began with Bryant as an admirer of him, too, so there’s no guarantee that Scott and the star of the Lakers will always get along, but the lack of any rift at this point will help the emotional tenor of a team that faces an uphill battle nearly every night.
The Lakers didn’t make Scott’s job any easier when they lavished their most lucrative free agent contract of the summer on Nick Young. Most teams would do well to secure their leading scorer from the year before on a deal worth the rough equivalent of the non-taxpayer’s mid-level exception, but Young’s production last year was one-dimensional. He put up 17.9 points but dished only 1.5 assists and grabbed 2.6 rebounds per game. His 16.0 PER represented the first time that the 16th overall pick from 2007 had put up a better-than-average number in that category. Young’s season was reminiscent of the one he delivered in 2010/11 for the Wizards, when he scored 17.4 PPG for a similarly moribund Washington team. That, too, was a walk year for Young, but the Wizards didn’t tether themselves to a long-term contract that next summer. Young signed the team’s qualifying offer, watched his production plummet after a midseason trade to the Clippers, and didn’t recoup his market value until parlaying a minimum-salary contract with the Lakers last season into this summer’s jackpot.
The outgoing personality of “Swaggy P” was made for Hollywood, and he’ll help the Lakers sell tickets and capture TV ratings as he and Bryant hoist jumpers from all over the floor and pile up inflated point totals, but he seems like a poor fit in any traditional basketball sense. Young has so far taken a back seat to Bryant after returning from a preseason thumb injury that caused him to miss the start of the regular season, and it’s worked to help the Lakers win more games than they had while Young was out. Yet it remains to be seen if he and Bryant can co-exist peacefully even though both prefer the ball in their hands.
The Lakers were otherwise conscious of preserving cap flexibility for next summer. Jordan Hill netted an above-market $9MM for this season, particularly so given that he was only a part-time starter last year, but the second year in his deal is a team option. Jeremy Lin comes in via trade with a nearly $8.375MM cap hit and an actual salary close to $15MM, but he’s on an expiring contract, and the Lakers netted a first-rounder in that transaction, even if it’s destined to come in the 20s, given Houston’s strong play. Ryan Kelly received a two-year deal, but his room exception salary is a pittance to pay for a young player with some degree of upside. The same is true of Ed Davis and his two-year, minimum-salary deal. All of the other Lakers signees are without any guaranteed money or player options past the 2014/15 season, leaving the team with only about $35.1MM in commitments for next season, not counting the player option for Davis.
Still, the acquisition of Carlos Boozer‘s expiring contract came with a high cost. The Lakers put up $3.251MM in an effort to ensure that they’d have the high bid on him in amnesty waivers, a process that functions much like a blind action. That amount meant the Lakers would have to cut salary to reopen the cap room necessary to make a few of their pending agreements official, and Kendall Marshall‘s non-guaranteed salary was the casualty. The Lakers waived the now 23-year-old 13th overall pick from 2012 even though he’d averaged 8.8 assists in 54 games for the team last season. D’Antoni’s up-tempo offense played a part in that assists number, to be sure, but it still seems odd for a rebuilding team to cut ties with a productive player who was just two years removed from having been a lottery pick. That goes double when it happens just so the team can accommodate a declining veteran like Boozer, who plays the same position as Randle, whom the Lakers had drafted just a few weeks prior. Milwaukee wisely picked Marshall off waivers, and the Bucks can match offers for him in the summer of 2015.
Such missteps have not been uncommon the past few years, but the Lakers rewarded GM Mitch Kupchak in large measure for his work during the team’s more decorated past with an extension that runs through at least 2016/17. Buss and Kupchak have promised Jeanie Buss, the ultimate decision-maker for the Lakers, that the team will pick up ground in the win column with each season to come, but that’ll be a tough vow to keep this season, even though the Lakers set the bar rather low with 27 victories in 2013/14. Jim Buss said in April that he’d step down from his role in charge of the team’s basketball operations in a few years if the team doesn’t bounce back, and that clock is ticking. The Lakers will always have inherent advantages, based on their history and geography, but they’ll have to do a better job of putting those to use if Buss and Kupchak are to keep their jobs much longer.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
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Southwest Notes: Leonard, Gasol, Rockets
Kawhi Leonard will hit restricted free agency in the summer, but Gregg Popovich isn’t moving away from his plan to make the small forward the focal point for the Spurs, as he explains to Michael Lee of The Washington Post.
“We’re trying to loosen up a bit and give him more of a green light,” Popovich said. “He’s getting more license. When you’re a young kid, you’re going to defer to Timmy [Duncan] and Manu [Ginobili] and [Tony Parker]. Now it’s like, ‘To heck with those guys. The Big Three, they’re older than dirt. To [expletive] with them. You’re the Big One. You’ve got to go do your deal.’ So, we’re trying to get him to be more demonstrative in that regard.”
Popovich was speaking tongue in cheek about Duncan, Ginobili and Parker, but it’s not hard to see that he continues to view the 23-year-old Leonard as a building block. Here’s more on Leonard amid the latest from the Southwest Division:
- Leonard was non-committal when Lee asked about his upcoming free agency, though it’s the Spurs who can ultimately decide if he returns, since they can match all offers. “I feel like they like me here and I’m going to come back, but we’ll see,” Leonard said, as Lee notes in the same piece. “We’re going to see this summer.”
- Zach Randolph expressed confidence during an ESPN appearance Monday that Marc Gasol will re-sign with the Grizzlies, notes Frank Isola of the New York Daily News (Twitter links), but Randolph admits to USA Today’s Sam Amick that sometimes he worries that Gasol will leave. In any case, Randolph said to Amick that he talks to Gasol a bit about the summer ahead, presumably in an effort to get him to stay.
- The summer front office upheaval in Memphis that nearly saw coach Dave Joerger leave for the Wolves job didn’t prompt worry for Gasol, Amick reports in the same piece. “I was in contact with everybody [during that time],” Gasol said. “I was in contact with [owner] Robert [Pera], and I was in contact with Coach, and they told me that everything was going to be fine, and I believed them. There was no reason for me not to believe them.”
- The Rockets have recalled Clint Capela from the D-League, the team announced. This year’s 25th overall pick put up 9.0 points, 7.2 rebounds and an eye-popping 3.2 blocks in just 14.1 minutes per game across six contests for the D-League Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
D.J. Stephens To Play In Russia
High-flying swingman D.J. Stephens is joining Russia’s Zenit St. Petersburg pending a physical, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). Stephens was with the Bucks last season on a 10-day contract and joined the Pelicans for training camp this fall. The terms of his Russian deal aren’t immediately clear.
Stephens went undrafted out of the University of Memphis in 2013 in spite of a vertical leap that was the highest in the recorded history of the NBA’s predraft combine, as DraftExpress shows. He never averaged double figures in points during his four years at Memphis, but he used his athleticism on the other end of the floor, winning the Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year award in his senior season. The 6’5″ Stephens, who turns 24 this month, split last season between Ilisiakos BC of Greece, Anadolu Efes of Turkey, and the Bucks, with whom he scored seven points and grabbed five rebounds in 15 total minutes across three games on his 10-day deal.
He reportedly auditioned for the Jazz in September before signing a non-guaranteed deal with the Pelicans for camp. Stephens appeared in only three preseason games for New Orleans, with a total of five points and two rebounds, and the Pelicans let go of him shortly before opening night.