Thunder, Reggie Jackson End Extension Talks
11:45pm: Presti acknowledged that the sides broke off negotiations in a statement to reporters, including Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman (Twitter link).
“We are looking forward to re-opening the conversations this coming July and expect Reggie to continue as a core member of the Thunder for many years to come,” Presti said. “At this time, we have to put all of our focus on our team and the season in front of us and Reggie is a big part of that.”
10:06pm: The Thunder and Reggie Jackson have emerged from extension negotiations without a deal, and the fourth-year guard intends to hunt for a starting job in restricted free agency next summer, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Some teams around the league believe there’s a decent chance the 24th overall pick from the 2011 draft will receive offers for between $13MM and $14MM a year, according to Wojnarowski. That’s in part because of Oklahoma City’s high-dollar commitments to Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka that would make it difficult for the Thunder to match such offers without going into luxury tax territory, as Wojnarowski explains. Skepticism surrounds Thunder GM Sam Presti‘s assertion that the Thunder would match any offer sheet, Wojnarowski writes.
News that discussions have broken off is no surprise, since a report Thursday indicated an extension was unlikely. Jackson said in September that he hoped to reach a deal on an extension before tonight’s 11:00pm Central deadline to do so, though the Aaron Mintz client also made it clear he was prepared for that not to happen. He’s made no secret of his desire to start, but Westbrook blocks his path to the starting point guard job, and pairing them, both 6’3″, in the backcourt would make Oklahoma City especially small.
The Thunder have nearly $63.6MM already committed to 10 players for 2015/16 against a projected $66.5MM salary cap. Matching a $14MM offer to Jackson would place the team over the $76.829MM line where the tax sits for this season, and though that figure is expected to rise for next season, it’s unclear by just how much.
Cavs, Tristan Thompson Extension Talks Fail
Tristan Thompson won’t receive a contract extension from the Cavs, reports Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The Cavs offered the former No. 4 overall pick more than $48MM, according to Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio (Twitter link), but even though Thompson appeared to be seeking the salaries of around $12MM a year that such a deal would entail, he’s set to hit restricted free agency next summer. The Cavs were limited to offering no more than four years because they gave Kyrie Irving a five-year extension in July, reserving the team’s Designated Player slot for the point guard.
Negotiations between the Cavs and the Rich Paul client were a back-and-forth affair that went up to the final hour, with a Thursday report of optimism surrounding the talks giving way to pessimism earlier today. Still, it appeared the chances of an extension were a toss-up by this afternoon, and Thompson made his case this evening in Cleveland’s overtime win against the Bulls, scoring 16 points and grabbing 13 rebounds.
Thompson authored that performance coming off the bench, having lost out in a preseason battle for a starting spot against Anderson Varejao, whom the Cavs signed to a three-year, $30MM veteran extension earlier today. A report indicated that Thompson and Varejao would likely have made about the same amount if they’d both signed extensions, but it appears the Cavs were willing to give in excess of $2MM a year more to Thompson. Executives around the league have kept a close eye on the Thompson talks to see just how much power LeBron James has over the Cavs organization, since James and Thompson are both clients of Paul.
Cleveland only has about $31MM in commitments for next season, including Varejao’s extension, but that number is artificially low because it doesn’t account for player options worth more than a combined $38.3MM for James and Kevin Love. Both would likely command greater amounts were they to decline their options, perhaps sending Cleveland’s 2015/16 team salary north of $70MM. A salary of greater than $12MM for Thompson would probably put the team into tax territory, making it harder for the Cavs to upgrade their roster, as Cray Allred of Hoops Rumors pointed out when he examined Thompson’s extension candidacy.
Extension Rumors: Thompson, Cavs, Butler
Tonight’s 11:00pm Central deadline for rookie scale extensions is fast closing in. Here’s the latest on talks around the league, with any additional updates that come in throughout the evening added to the top:
- Final-hour talks are taking place between the Cavs and representatives for Tristan Thompson, reports Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal (Twitter link). The team has offered more than $40MM, according to Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio (on Twitter). A deal was a 50-50 proposition as of this afternoon, as Amico heard (Twitter link).
- Butler struck a somewhat different tone before the Bulls‘ game against the Cavs tonight than his agent did when he indicated that talks were through (below), as Sam Smith of Bulls.com relays. “We still want a deal,” Butler said. “I still want to be here. I still want to have nothing to worry about. So we have until 11:59 [Eastern time] to figure it out. I’m not a personal guy. I don’t take everything to heart. I understand it’s a business. I just have to be a great basketball player. I think this team is really good, championship caliber. I am a part of this team; I am going to produce. I’m going to guard. I will take care of myself. I think there’s not too much I can do right now. I’m done talking about it.”
- Still, Bulls GM Gar Forman said that both sides had agreed to end discussions for now and pick back up again in restricted free agency next summer, Smith notes.
- Butler also said that he believes he’ll remain with the Bulls whether it entails signing an extension or a new deal next summer, tweets K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune.
5:40pm updates:
- Butler has rejected the Bulls‘ “final offer” and plans to enter restricted free agency next summer, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports. Butler’s agent, Happy Walters, said, “All the [rookie extension] deals done so far have shown that teams are building around their stars of the future, and they’re compensating those players as such. I was under the impression Jimmy was also viewed as one of those future building blocks with the Bulls. We tried like heck to get something done, but ultimately, the Bulls wanted a ‘hometown’ discount. While understandable, I doubt their GM or coaches give Mr. Reinsdorf a discount when negotiating their own deals.”
- Butler had told his teammates that he was willing to play out the season unless the team upped their “final” offer, K.C. Johnson tweets.
- The Wolves and Rubio are making progress on a four-year extension, Wojnarowski reports (Twitter link). According to Wojnarowski’s sources, there’s optimism, but no deal in place yet.
3:58pm updates:
- The Wolves are now willing to go higher than $52MM in four-year offers to Ricky Rubio and the team is on board with a deal as long as Rubio is, reports Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link). Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune believes that a deal would have to be for at least $55MM over four seasons (Twitter link).
- The Bucks and Brandon Knight weren’t too far apart in extension talks before ending them today, tweets Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com.
- Conversely, the gap appears wide between the Bulls and Jimmy Butler, and the chances of a compromise don’t appear to be high, as Goodman also hears (Twitter link). Chicago has been willing to consider a player option in his deal, something the franchise doesn’t ordinarily do, according to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune (on Twitter), but talks aren’t progressing, as Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com hears (Twitter link).
Heat, Norris Cole To Pass On Extension
The Heat and Norris Cole will forgo an extension before tonight’s 11:00pm Central deadline, setting up the point guard for restricted free agency next summer, reports Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald (Twitter link). A report from Marc Stein of ESPN.com overnight indicated that an extension was unlikely, and aside from Stein’s dispatch from two weeks ago indicating that the sides were in talks, the rumor mill has been quiet about any extension for the 28th overall pick from the 2011 draft.
That’s no surprise, since Cole has spent almost his entire time with the Heat as a backup to Mario Chalmers, to whom the Heat committed a new two-year, $8.3MM deal this summer. Chalmers nonetheless came off the bench behind Cole in Miami’s opener, signaling a larger role for the 26-year-old as he embarks on what’s now a walk year.
Cole, a native of Dayton Ohio who went to Cleveland State University, dropped agent Joel Bell over the summer in favor of Rich Paul and Klutch Sports, the same agency that represents former teammate LeBron James. Klutch has reportedly been using the prospect of James’ influence with the Cavs to sell potential clients on the idea that they can receive a favorable deal from Cleveland if they join the agency. Still, there have been no reports linking Cole to the Cavs.
The Heat apparently turned away inquiries about Cole at the trade deadline last year, but a report over the summer indicated the team was dangling him in trade talk. In any case, he’ll be playing this season on an expiring contract with a salary of more than $2.038MM. Miami has nearly $42.2MM in commitments for 2015/16, but that doesn’t include more than $18MM in player options for Dwyane Wade, Luol Deng and Danny Granger. Perhaps more importantly, the lack of an extension for Cole also preserves Miami’s flexibility for the summer of 2016, when the Heat are set to be major players in the free agent market.
Latest On Warriors, Klay Thompson
3:28pm: Optimism surrounds the talks, tweets Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com, who indicates that the Warriors continue to receive trade inquiries about Thompson from other teams. Coach Steve Kerr today told reporters, including Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group, that he’s “quietly confident” that the team will reach an extension with the shooting guard by tonight’s deadline (Twitter link).
OCTOBER 31ST, 1:05pm: The sides were $3MM apart on annual salaries three weeks ago, but that gap has since closed to between $1MM and $1.5MM, according to Poole (Twitter links). A report from overnight indicated that negotiations remained open.
OCTOBER 25TH: The Warriors continue to resist making Klay Thompson a maximum-salary extension offer, frustrating the shooting guard and his camp, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. The Warriors have come close to the max, but a source close to Thompson called the notion of the rising star taking a deal worth less than the max “absurd.”
Warriors owner Joe Lacob isn’t comfortable with shelling out the max, Spears writes, echoing a report from Monte Poole of CSNBayArea.com earlier this month that indicated the team was offering annual salaries of about $13MM in its proposals. A maximum offer would come to about $85MM over five years or $66MM over four based on this year’s figures, though those numbers will likely be higher when the league reveals its maximum salaries in July. Until then, the precise amount the Warriors would have to pay Thompson in a max deal is unknown. Maximum salaries go up and down with the cap, and a report from Sean Deveney of The Sporting News this week suggesting that the league’s $66.5MM cap projection is a conservative one, that might be at the root of Lacob’s hesitancy.
Friday is the deadline for the sides to reach a deal, and Thompson has expressed a preference for the security of an extension rather than a one-year deal next summer that would allow him to hit unrestricted free agency when the league’s new high-revenue TV deal kicks in come 2016. It’s most likely that the Warriors would prefer to sign the Bill Duffy client to a long-term deal rather than a one-year pact if he were to become a restricted free agent next summer. Still, Thompson’s desire for security after his name was in Kevin Love trade rumors for much of the summer was one reason I thought the sides would agree to an extension for less than the max, as I wrote when I examined Thompson’s extension candidacy.
Jazz Sign Alec Burks To Extension
3:22pm: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.
“We have great regard for Alec’s work ethic and dynamic athletic ability as well as his growth potential,” Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey said. “Alec is a young player with a unique skillset and true passion for basketball who consistently finds the gym and has displayed the characteristics and desire to continue to improve his game. He is a high-character individual who, throughout his time with the Jazz, has expressed his love for Salt Lake City and Jazz fans, so we are thrilled to know that he will be a core piece of our future as we continue to grow.”
12:42pm: There is no team or player option in the deal, according to Jody Genessy of the Deseret News (Twitter links). Genessy indicates the extension has been finalized, though the Jazz have yet to make any formal announcement.
10:50am: Alec Burks and the Jazz have agreed to a four-year, $42MM extension, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The arrangement includes “reachable” incentives that could push the value to $45MM, Wojnarowski writes, but it’s unclear if those incentives will be deemed likely ones that will count in initial cap calculations. Enes Kanter‘s agent said earlier this week that he, his client and the Jazz had made a mutual decision to call off talks on an extension for the Swiss-born center, but Utah had continued talks with Burks and agent Andy Miller in advance of tonight’s 11:00pm Central deadline. The deal for Burks must become official before that time.
GM Dennis Lindsey indicated a desire about a month ago to keep both Burks and Kanter long-term, whether via extension or in restricted free agency next summer. Today’s deal assures the team of keeping at least one of its 2011 lottery picks. Burks, the 12th overall selection that year, becomes the team’s second swingman on a lucrative long-term deal, joining Gordon Hayward, who signed a four-year max offer sheet with the Hornets this past summer that the Jazz matched.
Burks saw an increased role for the Jazz last year, averaging 28.1 minutes per game, but he still made only 12 starts. He was nonetheless more efficient in his playing time than he had been in the past and continued playing effective defense, as I outlined when I examined the 23-year-old’s extension candidacy. Still, I figured the Jazz would only hand out an extension that wasn’t worth much more than the four-year, $14MM deal that the Grizzlies gave Quincy Pondexter last fall, given Utah’s depth at the wing and guard positions.
It’s unclear whether the salaries for Burks will be evenly distributed across the four years, but adding the deal’s average annual value of $10.5MM gives the team roughly $51MM in commitments for 2015/16, the first season the extension will take effect. That doesn’t account for any new deal with Kanter or most of Trevor Booker‘s $4.775MM salary, which is partially guaranteed for only $250K.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Bucks, Brandon Knight Call Off Extension Talks
The Bucks and Brandon Knight have ended negotiations about an extension, setting up the fourth-year point guard for restricted free agency in the summer, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). An extension had reportedly been unlikely even though the team and agent Arn Tellem planned to keep talking until the deadline. They took discussions close to tonight’s 11:00pm Central cutoff, but it appears there’ll be no deal.
Milwaukee’s brass appeared enthusiastic early this month about reaching an agreement as the sides opened talks, and coach Jason Kidd spoke of his desire to keep the player taken eighth overall in the 2011 draft. Knight nonetheless had seemed an odd candidate for an extension based on his inability to establish himself as a front-line point guard during his first three seasons in the league. He scored 17.9 points per game last season, but they came for a Bucks team that finished with the league’s worst record.
I suggested that Tellem would attempt to capitalize on Milwaukee’s desire to reach an extension with proposals involving eight-figure salaries, though it’s unclear just what sort of numbers were on the table from either side. The Bucks made an unusual commitment this week to Knight’s backup, Kendall Marshall, when they guaranteed what had been a non-guaranteed contract for the former 13th overall pick. Perhaps that’s a sign that Milwaukee decided at some point that it prefers to evaluate his performance against Knight’s, with both poised to hit free agency in the summer, though that’s just my speculation.
Extension Unlikely For Tobias Harris, Magic
OCTOBER 31ST: The Harris camp has tried to revive talks, but the Magic aren’t biting, according to Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link).
OCTOBER 28TH: The Magic made an offer to Harris last month and the two sides haven’t engaged in talks since, according to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (on Twitter). Things can always change, but Kennedy says it’s unlikely that they will and Harris appears headed for restricted free agency (link).
OCTOBER 24TH, 5:31pm: The league doesn’t permit financial incentives in outside endorsement contracts that pertain to playing for specific teams, but it does allow for bonuses tied to the number of national television appearances a player makes, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders clarifies (Twitter link). Large-market teams usually show up more often on national TV than their small-market counterparts, though the quality of the on-court product has recently proven more influential than market size in network programming decisions.
1:19pm: Tobias Harris is eligible for a rookie scale extension with the Magic, but he doesn’t intend to sign one before the deadline to do so a week from today, tweets Chris Broussard of ESPN.com. The forward’s deal with Nike gives him an “upgrade” if he’s playing for a team in Los Angeles, New York or Chicago, according to Broussard. Harris is set for restricted free agency in the summer assuming he doesn’t sign an extension.
Harris nonetheless said recently he wanted to remain in Orlando, and Magic GM Rob Hennigan has indicated his preference to do an extension. The Henry Thomas client and the team were reportedly still in talks as of a week ago, shortly before the Magic struck a deal with fellow extension-eligible Nikola Vucevic. Hennigan said earlier this month that he couldn’t imagine the club not holding on to the 22-year-old, and Orlando will have the right to match all offers should Harris hit restricted free agency.
Vucevic’s extension pushed the Magic’s commitments for 2015/16 to about $26.1MM, though Orlando is about to add nearly $12.755MM in rookie scale team options to that figure. Still, that’s plenty of room beneath a projected $66.5MM salary cap for a Harris extension. The math gets trickier in the future, since the Magic have six players still within the first three seasons of their rookie scale contracts. Orlando’s payroll probably would escalate quite a bit if it were to retain all or most of them, forcing the team to make difficult decisions. Drastic rises in the cap tied to the league’s new $24 billion TV deal that starts in 2016 will help ease that blow, however.
I predicted in July that Harris and the Magic wouldn’t reach an extension, explaining as I looked at his extension candidacy that the team figured to prioritize flexibility and a commitment to Vucevic, who plays at a position of greater scarcity. It appears instead that the primary resistance to a deal is coming from the player rather than the Magic. The Knicks and Lakers are nonetheless the only teams set up for significant cap room next summer among the clubs that would presumably trigger the clauses in Harris’ shoe deal, and he’s not alone among potential targets for those franchises.
Kawhi Leonard, Spurs End Extension Talks
Negotiations on an extension between Kawhi Leonard and the Spurs have met an end with no deal, agent Brian Elfus tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The news is no surprise, since Chris Broussard of ESPN.com reported Wednesday that a deal was unlikely before today’s 11:00pm Central deadline. Leonard is set to hit restricted free agency next summer.
“We feel Kawhi is deserving of a max contract, and we are disappointed that something couldn’t get done,” Elfus said to Wojnarowski. “There’s no debating Kawhi’s value. The market has been set. He’s done everything the Spurs have asked of him, exceeded all of their expectations. Coach [Gregg] Popovich has gone out of his way to call Kawhi the future face of the franchise. We have great respect for the Spurs organization, but here, we simply agree to disagree. There will be no shortage of teams interested in Kawhi’s services next year. There will be a lot of contract scenarios available to us, and we will explore them all.”
Wojnarowski wrote earlier this week that Leonard had been pushing for the max, adding that there had been no progress in discussions with the team even as Elfus and the Spurs spoke several times over the last few weeks. Elfus had been in San Antonio this week to discuss the matter in person, but the Spurs prefer to maintain financial flexibility heading into next summer, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com wrote earlier. Curiosity about next summer’s free agents and the question of whether Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili will retire after the season have led to San Antonio’s desire to hold off on a commitment to Leonard for now, Wojnarowski hears.
Still, Wojnarowski reiterates his earlier report that the Spurs would be expected to match any offer for the 2014 Finals MVP next summer, and the Yahoo! scribe suggests that the Spurs would be more amenable to the max at that point. Several league executives have told Wojnarowski that Leonard will command max offer sheets, but even if he were to sign one, it might turn out to be a money-saving proposition for San Antonio. Leonard can sign a five-year deal with 7.5% raises if he does so directly with the Spurs, but his offer sheets would be limited to no more than four years and 4.5% raises.
Wojnarowski On LeBron, Rich Paul, Jackson
The leverage that LeBron James has with his player option for 2015/16 has been overstated, since his reputation and brand simply couldn’t sustain the negative publicity that leaving Cleveland a second time would engender, opines Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The Cavs’ upset loss to the Knicks in James’ first regular season game in Cleveland since his return this summer was a sobering affair for the wine-and-gold, and Wojnarowski’s column further dampens what had largely been a feel-good narrative for the team. Wojnarowski shares more than just his beliefs in his piece, and we’ll pass along the newsworthy tidbits here:
- At least one executive from a team believes that when clubs met with agent Rich Paul during James’ free agency this summer, the agent was just stringing them along, as the exec tells Wojnarowski.
- Paul doesn’t negotiate contracts for his Klutch Sports clients, instead delegating that task to Mark Termini, according to Wojnarowski. The agency wouldn’t exist if not for the financial support of James, Wojnarowski writes, describing Paul’s role as a “personable frontman” and as a deputy recruiter under James.
- Klutch represents James and extension-eligible teammate Tristan Thompson, and the agents for the rest of the Cavs are on “full alert” as they try to keep their clients away from Klutch, as Wojnarowski details. The Klutch agency is selling the idea that if players join, the Cavs are likely to sign them to a deal, according to Wojnarowski.
- People around the league are closely monitoring Klutch client Mark Jackson, though the general belief is that James wouldn’t want Jackson to coach his team, based on what the Yahoo! columnist describes as Jackson’s penchant for self-promotion, Wojnarowski hears. That same self-promotion nonetheless keeps Jackson on the radar, Wojnarowski believes.