Cavs, Anderson Varejao Discuss Extension
The Cavs are engaged in “serious” talks about an extension with Anderson Varejao, one of the few veterans eligible for one, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. There’s mutual interest, and the conversations between the team and the Dan Fegan client have taken place over the past few weeks, though the sides aren’t on the verge of a deal yet, Wojnarowski writes. There’s no deadline looming at the end of the week as there is with rookie scale extension candidates like fellow Cav Tristan Thompson. Varejao and the Cavs have until June 30th to reach a deal on an extension before the Brazilian big man’s contract expires.
The Varejao talks are cast against the backdrop of the deadline regarding Thompson, and there are conflicting reports about whether Thompson and the Cavs are in talks. There is discussion and the Cavs hope to get a deal done, according to Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio, but Chris Haynes of Northeast Ohio Media Group wrote this weekend that he heard there had been “zero discussion” about an extension for Thompson. Marc Stein of ESPN.com wrote 10 days ago that the Cavs and Thompson were in active negotiations. Varejao beat out Thompson for the a job in the starting lineup for opening night.
The 32-year-old Varejao said recently that he wants to finish his career with the Cavs, and, as Wojnarowski notes, he remains close with LeBron James, with whom he’d been teammates for six years before James bolted for Miami. Those close to Varejao told him when the Cavs were a losing team that he should push for a trade, and the Lakers had interest in a deal that would have taken him to L.A. in exchange for Pau Gasol last year, but Varejao has said he never wavered on his commitment to the Cavs.
The 11th-year veteran nonetheless has financial incentive to wait until he hits free agency to sign a new deal with Cleveland. He can only make 107.5% of this year’s nearly $9.705MM salary in the first season of an extension with the Cavs, with 7.5% raises in subsequent years, and such a deal could only run through 2017/18. He could sign a five-year contract for up to roughly 35% of the salary cap if he became a free agent, though it’s unlikely that he’d command quite so much in salary, and the Cavs would probably have reservations about a deal that long for a player his age. Conversely, Varejao’s salary is only guaranteed for $4MM this year, but Cleveland is highly unlikely to waive him and pocket those savings, short of another in an already long line of injuries to the 30th overall pick from 2004.
Magic Pick Up 2015/16 Options On Four
OCTOBER 26TH: The Magic confirmed that they have exercised the options via press release.
OCTOBER 20TH: The Magic will exercise their team options to keep Victor Oladipo, Evan Fournier, Maurice Harkless and Andrew Nicholson on their rookie scale contracts through 2015/16, tweets Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel. The moves have been widely expected, as Robbins suggests. Oladipo’s nearly $5.2MM salary for that season is the most expensive of the bunch. Harkless will make nearly $2.9MM, Nicholson almost $2.4MM, and Fournier close to $2.3MM, as our Rookie Scale Team Option Tracker shows.
Oladipo, the No. 2 overall pick in 2013, earned an All-Rookie First Team selection last season even as the Magic experimented with having the shooting guard play point guard. Fournier spent the past two seasons with the Nuggets and saw his minutes jump to 19.8 per game last season before Denver shipped him to Orlando in the Arron Afflalo trade. Harkless also came to Orlando via trade as part of the package the team sent out for Dwight Howard, though the production of the small forward took a step back last year. Nicholson also saw a dip in his scoring output as an NBA sophomore in 2013/14, though he, like Harkless, was a rotation mainstay.
Picking up the options on all four will give Orlando nearly $12.755MM on top of the meager $14.87MM in commitments the team already had on the books for 2015/16. That leaves plenty of room for extensions with Nikola Vucevic and Tobias Harris, deals that the team is working toward, though the preponderance of rookie scale contracts on the Magic’s ledger will force GM Rob Hennigan to be cautious as he commits long-term money.
Jeremy Tyler Signs To Play In China
Center Jeremy Tyler has signed with the Shanxi Zhongyu Brave Dragons of the Chinese Basketball Association, his agents at Octagon Sports tell Enea Trapani of Sportando and confirm on their website. Adrian Wojnarowski reported a few days ago that Tyler had reached a deal to play in China and that he’d asked for the Lakers to release him from his non-guaranteed contract, a wish the team granted, but the identity of his Chinese team was unknown. It’s unclear how long Tyler’s contract runs or just how much he’ll earn, but with the short length of the Chinese season, he’ll likely have a chance to hook on with an NBA team for the stretch run of 2014/15.
Tyler spent the past month with the Lakers after the Kings let him go shortly following the trade that brought him to Sacramento from the Knicks. He played in 41 games for New York after signing December 31st, averaging 3.6 points in 9.7 minutes per night. The now 23-year-old has appeared in the NBA in each of the past three seasons after the then-Bobcats made him the 39th overall pick in 2011.
The Dragons signed center Daniel Orton earlier this month, but they also have fellow NBA veteran Von Wafer, and the league’s rules on international players prohibit the team from playing three Americans, as Trapani points out. So, that suggests a corresponding move is in order, though the Dragons’ plans are unclear.
Heat Cut Drew, Johnson, Jones
SATURDAY, 4:56pm: All three players have been officially waived, the team announced.
8:47pm: All three players have been waived, according to the RealGM transactions log. No announcement from the team has been made yet.
THURSDAY, 11:58am: The Heat are waiving Larry Drew II, Tyler Johnson and Shawn Jones, as coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters today, including Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel (Twitter link). The team has yet to make a formal announcement, but Miami hopes that all three will sign with its D-League affiliate, tweets Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post. The Heat has a $75K partial guarantee with Johnson and $25K with Drew, so the team will be on the hook for those amounts assuming they clear waivers. Jones has been on a non-guaranteed pact.
The athletic Johnson appeared in only one preseason game, but he performed well, scoring 17 points and coming up with four steals in more than 36 minutes of action. Jones averaged 3.0 points in 16.5 minutes per game in four preseason contests, while Drew, who signed on Monday, hasn’t played in any of the team’s exhibitions. Johnson and Jones went undrafted this summer, while Drew spent much of last season with the Heat’s D-League affiliate after joining Miami for camp last year.
The moves will leave Miami with 16 players, including 11 with fully guaranteed contracts. Three others have partial guarantees, while Shannon Brown and Andre Dawkins are on non-guaranteed deals.
Magic Waive Batts, Crawford, Curry, Siva
The Magic have waived Kadeem Batts, Drew Crawford, Seth Curry and Peyton Siva, the team announced via press release. The moves bring Orlando’s roster to the regular season maximum of 15 players, so the Magic don’t have to make any more cuts. All four had small partial guarantees that add up to $425K, so that total will stick on the team’s books for the season assuming they go unclaimed on waivers. Orlando’s other 15 contracts are fully guaranteed.
Siva has the most NBA experience of the foursome, having played 24 games last season with the Pistons, who made him the 56th overall pick in 2013. The report of his deal with the team over the summer indicated the Magic brought him on board to secure his D-League rights more so than to have him make a run at a regular season roster spot, and presumably that’s the case with all four of today’s cuts. Siva’s partial guarantee is worth $100K.
Batts has the largest partial guarantee, worth $150K, though he has a low profile, having gone undrafted out of Providence this year. He averaged 9.3 points and 5.3 rebounds in 19.7 minutes per game across four preseason games with the Magic. Curry has brief NBA experience from a short stint with the Grizzlies last season as well as a 10-day contract with the Cavs. He only played in one game at each stop, however. Curry, the brother of Stephen Curry, had a partial guarantee for $100K. Crawford only had $75K guaranteed. The son of NBA referee Danny Crawford went undrafted out of Northwestern this year and didn’t appear in a preseason game for the Magic.
Wizards Cut Lucas, James, Silas
2:13pm: The trio of Silas, James, and Lucas have indeed been waived, the team announced in a press release.
SATURDAY, 1:10pm: The Wizards have waived Silas, James, and John Lucas III, Michael reports (Twitter link). No official word from the team has been made, and their was no mention of Butler also being waived. After these moves the team’s preseason roster count stands at 15, so the Wizards wouldn’t be required to make any further cuts.
8:29pm: Michael has updated his report to reflect that Butler, James and Silas have yet to be released, and could actually still be retained. Though, in a later story, the CSN Washington scribe suggests that the chances the Wizards retain any of the trio is slim.
TUESDAY, 9:38am: The Wizards are set to part ways with Rasual Butler, Damion James and Xavier Silas, reports J. Michael of CSNWashington.com, who writes amid his story on Washington’s deal with John Lucas III. That indicates that the club will place its non-guaranteed contracts with the trio on waivers in advance of Monday’s deadline to set its opening-night roster. The addition of Lucas will give the team 15 players with at least a partial guarantee, which puts the squeeze on Butler, James and Silas.
The three swingmen appeared to have better chances at remaining with the team into the regular season once Bradley Beal went down with injury, but it looks like GM Ernie Grunfeld is going a different direction to bolster his backcourt. James and Silas were reportedly the strongest contenders among the three to remain with the team. Silas went to training camp with the Wizards this fall for the second year in a row, while James was the 24th overall pick in 2010 and showed promise before a series of injuries derailed his career. The 35-year-old Butler was hoping to duplicate what he did with Indiana last year, when he made the Pacers out of camp and wound up contributing in the playoffs.
The subtraction of Butler, James and Silas will drop the Wizards to 15 players, seemingly setting the club’s opening-night roster. Washington released Daniel Orton, Vander Blue and David Stockton earlier in the preseason.
Cavs Waive Shane Edwards
1:56pm: The move is official, the Cavaliers have announced.
SATURDAY, 1:20pm: Cleveland has indeed waived Edwards, Jason Lloyd of The Akron Beacon Journal reports (Twitter link). No official announcement has been made by the team as of yet. This move would leave the Cavs’ preseason roster count at 15.
THURSDAY, 6:44pm: The Cavs are likely to waive small forward Shane Edwards, tweets Bob Finnan of The News-Herald. Cleveland is at 16 players, as our roster counts show, and Edwards is one of three who have non-guaranteed contracts, along with Lou Amundson and A.J. Price. If the Cavs are to make the move, they’d have to do it no later than 4 p.m. Central on Saturday so that he clears waivers in time for the team to have no more than 15 players when opening-night rosters are set at 4 p.m. Central Monday.
Edwards, 27, signed with the Cavs just as training camp began, returning to the team with which he made his NBA debut last season on a 10-day contract. He saw action in two games for just 12 total minutes on that deal, and Cleveland terminated his contract before the 10 days were up to accommodate the signing of Seth Curry. Edwards spent the lion’s share of the season with Cleveland’s D-League affiliate, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he winds up back there again.
The Cavs don’t have to carry 15 players come opening night, but if Edwards goes, it would seemingly put Amundson, Price as well as Alex Kirk, who has a partial guarantee worth $65K, in line to remain with the team into the regular season. Anderson Varejao also has a partially guaranteed contract, but he’s in no jeopardy of being cut loose.
Knicks To Pick Up Option On Shane Larkin?
OCTOBER 25TH, 10:51am: The Knicks may have changed their minds about exercising Larkin’s option, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link). New York might be leaning towards keeping as much cap space free as possible for next summer, Wojnarowski notes.
11:00pm: The Knicks have indeed exercised their team option on Larkin, as is indicated by the RealGM transactions log. The team has not made any formal announcement as of yet.
OCTOBER 16TH, 10:03am: The Knicks have decided to exercise their team option to keep point guard Shane Larkin on his rookie scale contract for 2015/16, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Larkin will make $1,675,320 that season, the third of his four-year contract, as our Rookie Scale Team Option Tracker shows. The deadline is October 31st for the team to make the move official.
The Mavs sent Larkin to New York as part of the Tyson Chandler trade this summer. The 18th pick in the 2013 draft didn’t see much playing time as a rookie, averaging 2.8 points and 1.5 assists in 10.2 minutes per game. He’s seen nearly twice as many minutes in preseason games with the Knicks, averaging 20.9, but he’s still put up just 2.5 PPG and 1.5 APG. Phil Jackson and his staff are nonetheless satisfied with what they’ve seen from him the past few weeks, Wojnarowski writes.
Jackson is trying to keep the team’s cap sheet as clean as possible for 2015/16 as he plans a run at marquee free agents. The Knicks only have about $31.4MM in commitments for that season, so adding Larkin’s salary to that wouldn’t make much of a dent against a projected $66.5MM salary cap. Still, that figure doesn’t include a nearly $6.4MM player option that J.R. Smith possesses and more than $1.4MM in non-guaranteed salary for Pablo Prigioni. It also leaves out the team option on Tim Hardaway Jr., worth more than $1.3MM, that the Knicks will almost assuredly pick up. Iman Shumpert is up for a rookie scale extension this month, but it doesn’t appear as though the sides will come to terms.
Rockets Claim Earl Clark Off Waivers
5:13pm: The transaction is official, the team announced via press release.
4:59pm: The Rockets have claimed Earl Clark off waivers from the Grizzlies, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). Clark had been on a one-year, non-guaranteed deal for the minimum salary with Memphis, so Houston will assume control of it. The Rockets opened a spot on their 20-man preseason roster when they waived Josh Powell on Thursday.
Clark’s free agent stock plummeted after he performed poorly when the Cavs gave him a two-year, $8.5MM contract last season and the starting small forward job on opening night. The second year of the deal was non-guaranteed, helping Cleveland ship him to the Sixers at the deadline, after which Philadelphia promptly waived him. He signed a pair of 10-day contracts with the Knicks, but they didn’t retain him for the rest of the season, and he was out of the league from that point until the Grizzlies brought him to camp. Still, there evidently remains at least some level of NBA interest in the 14th overall pick from 2009, as witnessed by Houston’s move today as well as his workout with the Spurs a couple of months ago.
Houston’s opening-night roster is still shrouded in mystery, since the team is carrying 15 fully guaranteed deals plus a non-guaranteed contract for starting point guard Patrick Beverley. The Rockets are also among the teams linked to trade candidate Chase Budinger.
Rockets Waive Josh Powell
FRIDAY, 5:11pm: The Rockets have followed with a formal announcement of Thursday’s move, via press release.
THURSDAY, 8:55pm: The team has waived Powell, as is indicated by the RealGM transactions log. The Rockets have made no formal announcement as yet.
10:54am: The Rockets are waiving Josh Powell, a source tells Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). Charania indicates the move has already taken place, though the team has yet to make an announcement. The eight-year veteran was on a non-guaranteed deal that he signed with the team shortly before the end of the 2013/14 season.
Powell appeared in just one regular season game with Houston and put up four points in more than 19 minutes of work, but he didn’t make it into any of the Rockets’ playoff games. Houston didn’t give the 31-year-old any run in the preseason, either, so it appeared he was around chiefly so his contract could serve as ballast for a potential trade, though that’s just my speculation. He hadn’t appeared in an NBA regular season game since 2010/11 before the Rockets picked him up.
The move will drop the Rockets to 19 players, leaving much work to do before opening night. Patrick Beverley‘s contract is the only one that’s known to be without any guaranteed money remaining on Houston’s books. The Rockets added Geron Johnson and cut Akil Mitchell earlier today.