Extension Candidate Series
Time is running out for teams to sign eligible players to rookie scale extensions this year, as the October 31st deadline looms for players and front offices working to strike a deal and avoid next summer’s restricted free agency. The market for restricted free agents this past summer bore plenty of surprises, and while some players, agents and franchises are willing to gamble, others will surely opt for security. The allure of the known quantity has already led to rookie scale extensions for the Cavs and Kyrie Irving, the Nuggets and Kenneth Faried, and the Suns and twins Marcus and Markieff Morris.
We’ve been taking focused, in-depth looks at some of the most intriguing candidates for extensions over the past few months. We’ll continue to do the same if there’s a compelling case to be made for one of the players eligible for veteran extensions, as we’ve already done with Rudy Gay, though such deals are rare.
This list of our Extension Candidate posts can be found at any time under the “Hoops Rumors Features” menu on the right sidebar. Here, in alphabetical order, are the extension candidates we’ve previewed so far, including those who’ve already signed extensions:
Longest-Tenured Players For Each NBA Team
The Pistons traded their longest-tenured player today when they dealt Will Bynum to the Celtics, just months after they watched the man who held the title before him, Rodney Stuckey, sign with the Pacers. Rapid-fire player movement is a way of life in the NBA, as the shorter contracts stipulated in the latest collective bargaining agreement have led to more players hitting free agency each year, and in turn, more teams with money to spend. That’s a recipe for changing addresses. Still, the CBA made it somewhat easier for teams to retain their superstars, and the financial advantages that incumbent teams have held for many years explain why 22 of the league’s 30 teams have at least one player who’s been with his club for more than five years.
The five players who have the longest tenures for their respective teams are unchanged from a year ago, when we last compiled this list, but the Bulls traded Luol Deng in January, knocking Chicago’s entry to No. 11. The team taking most significant tumble is the Magic, last year’s No. 7. They waived Jameer Nelson, who’s now with the Mavs, and only avoided the bottom spot on this list because they drafted Andrew Nicholson shortly before the Sixers acquired the rights to Arnett Moultrie on the same night.
Like we did last year, we’re counting the beginning of a draftee’s tenure with a team as the moment the club acquired his rights, not the moment he signed a contract. However, we’re limiting this to players currently on NBA rosters, which means we’re not taking “draft-and-stash” players into account. That caveat aside, here’s a look at each team’s longest-tenured player and how they acquired them:
- Los Angeles Lakers: Kobe Bryant. Acquired via trade on July 11th, 1996.
- San Antonio Spurs: Tim Duncan. Drafted on June 25th, 1997.
- Dallas Mavericks: Dirk Nowitzki. Acquired via trade on June 24th, 1998.
- Miami Heat: Dwyane Wade. Drafted on June 26th, 2003.
- Oklahoma City Thunder: Nick Collison. Drafted on June 26th, 2003.
- Cleveland Cavaliers: Anderson Varejao. Acquired via trade on July 23rd, 2004.
- Portland Trail Blazers: LaMarcus Aldridge. Acquired via trade on June 28th, 2006.
- Boston Celtics: Rajon Rondo. Acquired via trade on June 28th, 2006.
- Atlanta Hawks: Al Horford. Drafted on June 28th, 2007.
- Memphis Grizzlies: Mike Conley. Drafted on June 28th, 2007.
- Chicago Bulls: Joakim Noah. Drafted on June 28th, 2007.
- Minnesota Timberwolves: Nikola Pekovic. Drafted on June 26th, 2008.
- Brooklyn Nets: Brook Lopez. Drafted on June 26th, 2008.
- Sacramento Kings: Jason Thompson. Drafted on June 26th, 2008.
- Los Angeles Clippers: DeAndre Jordan. Drafted on June 26th, 2008.
- Indiana Pacers: Roy Hibbert. Acquired via trade on July 9th, 2008.
- Golden State Warriors: Stephen Curry. Drafted on June 25th, 2009.
- Toronto Raptors: DeMar DeRozan. Drafted on June 25th, 2009.
- Charlotte Hornets: Gerald Henderson. Drafted on June 25th, 2009.
- Denver Nuggets: Ty Lawson. Acquired via trade on June 25th, 2009.
- Detroit Pistons: Jonas Jerebko. Drafted on June 25th, 2009.
- Milwaukee Bucks: Ersan Ilyasova. Signed on July 23rd, 2009.
- Washington Wizards: John Wall. Drafted on June 24th, 2010.*
- Utah Jazz: Gordon Hayward. Drafted on June 24th, 2010.*
- New York Knicks: Amar’e Stoudemire. Signed on July 8th, 2010.
- Phoenix Suns: Markieff Morris. Drafted on June 23rd, 2011.
- Houston Rockets: Donatas Motiejunas. Acquired via trade on June 24th, 2011.
- New Orleans Pelicans: Eric Gordon. Acquired via trade on December 14th, 2011.
- Orlando Magic: Andrew Nicholson. Drafted on June 28th, 2012.**
- Philadelphia 76ers: Arnett Moultrie. Acquired via trade on June 28th, 2012.
* — The Wizards and Jazz each landed multiple players on June 24th, 2010 that remain on their respective rosters. Kevin Seraphin (acquired via draft-night trade) joins Wall for Washington, while Utah also added Jeremy Evans after drafting Hayward. Wall and Hayward were the first picks by each club, technically making them the longest-tenured players, if only by a matter of minutes.
** — A similar scenario is at play for the Magic, who drafted Nicholson in the first round on the same night that they selected Kyle O’Quinn in Round 2.
Data from Mark Porcaro was used in the creation of this post
And-Ones: Barron, Revenue, Heat, Marion
The Suns are giving Earl Barron legitimate consideration for a spot on the regular season roster, and while that would force the team to rid itself of a fully guaranteed contract, coach Jeff Hornacek says that’s a move the team would be willing to make. Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic has the details.
“The one guy that sticks out and is really fighting for the team is Earl Barron,” Hornacek said. “He’s still on the roster for a reason. I know our guys are saying, ‘If he’s going to help us and we have to eat a contract somewhere, I think [owner] Robert [Sarver] is willing to do that.’ If it’s going to help us win games and he’s better than another guy, Robert is all for it.”
Hornacek’s comments sound familiar to the ones that Mavs coach Rick Carlisle made recently in which he insisted that owner Mark Cuban would be willing to sacrifice guaranteed salary to keep the non-guaranteed Charlie Villanueva. However, the Mavs are reportedly eager to open up an opening-night roster spot, which would appear to cut Villanueva out of the mix, and Sarver has never been particularly generous in his spending on the Suns. While we wait to see how it plays out in both Dallas and Phoenix, here’s more from around the league:
- Potential changes to the league’s revenue sharing system join the draft lottery among the major topics on the agenda for the NBA’s Board of Governors next week, tweets Grantland’s Zach Lowe. The board appears poised to implement a new lottery system for the 2015 draft.
- Erik Spoeltra this week called Heat signee signee Shawne Williams “one of the great surprises of the offseason” and raved about his shooting, notes Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post. Williams has a fully guaranteed deal with Miami.
- Shawn Marion admits the Mavs reached out to him the instant he became a free agent this summer, as Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram notes (Twitter link). Carlisle, Dirk Nowitzki and other Mavs figures retain a soft spot for the versatile Cavs addition who’ll be a free agent again at season’s end, as Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com details.
Pistons Notes: Bynum, Anthony, Gray, Dinwiddie
Today’s Pistons/Celtics trade allows the Celtics to create a rather diminutive $884,092 trade exception equal to the difference between the salaries for Joel Anthony and Will Bynum, but the Pistons can’t reap an exception, since Anthony has the larger salary of the two. It was difficult to immediately see just why the Pistons pulled off the deal, since it doesn’t alleviate their dilemma of 16 fully guaranteed contracts against a maximum 15 regular season roster spots, but reports in the hours since the swap help explain, as we detail:
- The heart ailment that’s keeping Aaron Gray out indefinitely was a major catalyst for the trade, which gives the team an additional backup center, writes Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. “The decision that we needed to beef up our front line was the driving force behind it,” Pistons GM Jeff Bower said, as Langlois relays. “Joel is a player that we have familiarity with that we feel can and will be able to do what he does best. Those are needs for us.”
- Bower said Spencer Dinwiddie, who’s almost fully recovered from tearing his ACL in January, was a factor in the trade, too, as Langlois observes in the same piece. Pistons coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy views Dinwiddie, whom the team selected 38th overall in this year’s draft, as a “pass-first point guard who can shoot,” Langlois notes, even though the 6’6″ 21-year-old is often listed as a shooting guard.
- The Pistons plan to keep Anthony around for a while, sources indicate to Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News, suggesting that Anthony’s guaranteed contract won’t be one that the Pistons let go when they set their regular season roster (Twitter link).
Pelicans Waive Dionte Christmas
The Pelicans have waived Dionte Christmas, the team announced. The one-year veteran came to training camp on a non-guaranteed contract, so New Orleans isn’t stuck paying him any salary. The move brings the team’s roster to 17, with at least two more subtractions to come in the 10 days before the October 27th deadline to set the opening-night roster.
Christmas appeared in just one preseason game for four minutes this month, and he didn’t see much playing time with the Suns last season, even though the favorite of GM Ryan McDonough stuck on the Phoenix roster for all of 2013/14. The 28-year-old swingman totaled just 198 minutes last year, though he recorded a 11.1 PER that’s not too shabby for a player at the end of a team’s bench.
New Orleans has 12 fully guaranteed deals plus partially guaranteed salary for three more. Darius Miller has the largest partial guarantee at $400K, but neither Luke Babbitt nor Patric Young is assured of more than $100K as they attempt to keep Kevin Jones and D.J. Stephens, who have non-guaranteed contracts, from grabbing their spots.
Celtics, Pistons Swap Joel Anthony, Will Bynum
The Celtics have officially sent Joel Anthony to the Pistons for Will Bynum, the teams announced in separate press releases. Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com originally reported the deal (Twitter link). It’s a money-saving arrangement for Boston, as Forsberg points out (on Twitter), since Bynum’s salary of slightly more than $2.9MM is less than Anthony’s $3.8MM take. Both are in the final seasons of their respective contracts. Detroit and Boston have 16 fully guaranteed contracts apiece, so they make odd trade partners as the October 27th deadline for teams to pare down to 15 players looms, and the salaries for Anthony and Bynum are both fully guaranteed.
The swap helps the Celtics forge some breathing room beneath the $76.829MM tax threshold, as Forsberg alludes to in his full story, since the guaranteed money they have on the books leaves them only about $1.2MM shy of that line. Substituting Bynum for Anthony gives Boston about $2MM in flexibility beneath that threshold. The Pistons are under the cap and are in no danger of paying the tax, but their motivation is less clear. It’s conceivable that the acquisition of Anthony is related to other moves the team is seeking, since Detroit is reportedly interested in trading for Wolves small forward Chase Budinger. Sending Bynum away leaves the Pistons with just two point guards in Brandon Jennings and D.J. Augustin unless they intend to keep Lorenzo Brown‘s non-guaranteed deal.
The 31-year-old Bynum averaged 18.8 minutes per game across 56 appearances last season, but he didn’t figure to receive that much playing time again this season after the Pistons added Augustin in the offseason. Still, the veteran who’s spent the past six seasons in Detroit expressed pleasure with Stan Van Gundy last month, so it doesn’t appear that he’s pushed his way out of the Motor City. Bynum doesn’t figure to find many minutes to go around in Boston, either, with Rajon Rondo, Marcus Smart and Phil Pressey at his position, though he’d probably be in line for significant playing time if the Celtics trade Rondo without bringing in another point guard in return.
Anthony unsurprisingly exercised his player option this past summer to stay under contract after a season in which he played fewer than 200 total minutes. Anthony was an important defender off the bench for the Heat when Miami signed him to his five-year, $18.25MM deal in 2010, and he started the majority of the regular season for the Heat’s 2011/12 championship team, but his role shrank as Miami moved to a small-ball attack. The Heat sought to rid themselves of his salary when they sent him to Boston in a January trade, and Celtics coach Brad Stevens largely kept Anthony planted to the bench. The 32-year-old will be no better than third on the center depth chart behind Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe in Detroit, but he will at least provide some insurance with Aaron Gray out indefinitely with heart trouble.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Extension Rumors: Leonard, Thompson, Cole
The deadline for teams to sign rookie scale extensions with their eligible players is two weeks from today, and while only six players came to deals last time around, that number has the potential to be much larger this year, notes Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Stein has more on many of those extension hopefuls that adds to the storylines we’ve been following throughout the offseason:
- Kawhi Leonard, Tristan Thompson, and Norris Cole are among the players who are in active negotiations with their respective teams about rookie scale extensions, Stein reports. Klay Thompson, Ricky Rubio, Kemba Walker, Jimmy Butler, Reggie Jackson, Brandon Knight, Nikola Vucevic, Tobias Harris, Enes Kanter and Alec Burks are also in active extension talks, according to Stein, who advances earlier reports that all of them had engaged in talks.
- Iman Shumpert and the Knicks are also discussing an extension, Stein writes, countering a report from a few weeks ago that indicated that the sides hadn’t engaged in talks and that New York was content to let the swingman hit restricted free agency next summer.
- Klay Thompson’s camp is considering the idea of going after an offer sheet similar to the one the Mavs gave Chandler Parsons if Thompson and the Warriors don’t come to an extension this month, Stein hears. Parsons’ near-max deal runs three years and includes a player option and a 15% trade kicker. Rival GMs have expressed admiration for its structure and Rockets GM Daryl Morey pointed to the difficulty that trading such a contract would entail shortly after he decided against matching it. The player option would allow Thompson to hit unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2017, which is when Stephen Curry‘s deal is set to end, as Stein points out.
- The Lakers have attempted to trade for Thompson in the past, Stein notes, though he doesn’t make any suggestion that they’re planning an aggressive push for the shooting guard if he becomes a restricted free agent next summer.
Eastern Notes: Bucks, Brown, Pressey
The Pistons have an agreement on a trade with the Celtics, while they join the Pacers and Rockets with interest in taking Chase Budinger off Minnesota’s hands. The trade market is heating up as the start of the regular season draws near, and here’s more on Detroit’s rivals from the Eastern Conference:
- The Bucks quietly added hedge fund manager Jamie Dinan to their ownership team in July, reports Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Dinan is a “substantial investor” in the franchise, though it’s not clear if his stake is equal to that of controlling owners Wesley Edens and Marc Lasry. Seven additional new owners have bought shares of the Bucks, the team announced, and one of them is Jon Hammes, who was rumored to be in the running for a minority share this spring. Just how much of the team Hammes and the other new owners purchased is unknown.
- Shannon Brown is indeed a favorite to make the Heat‘s opening-night roster in spite of his non-guaranteed deal, writes Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. Brown says team president Pat Riley has praised his athleticism, toughness and defense, as Jackson notes.
- Phil Pressey is among a logjam of point guards in Boston with Will Bynum on the way, but Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge calls Pressey one of the team’s best perimeter defenders, as Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald relays.
Mavs Look To Trade Bernard James, Gal Mekel
The Mavs are trying to find trade partners who’ll take center Bernard James and point guard Gal Mekel, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. Both are on fully guaranteed contracts. Dallas wants to carry fewer than 15 players on opening night, Spears adds, and finding another team to take on Mekel, James or both without sending guaranteed salary in return would allow the Mavs to open space on their regular season roster without having to waive guaranteed salaries. Of course, the Mavs can’t trade James until December 15th, since he signed a new contract this summer.
There’s another hurdle to trading James, since he can’t be traded without his consent. Any player who’s traded after re-signing with his team for just one year, as James did this summer, loses his Bird rights. The Mavs could remind James and agent Happy Walters that if they waive him and he clears waivers, his Bird rights would also disappear that way, though that would force Dallas to eat his guaranteed minimum salary for this season. Dallas prioritized re-signing the 29-year-old former 33rd overall pick this summer as GM Donnie Nelson pointed to his shot-blocking as a reason why, but fellow Mavs centers Tyson Chandler, Brandan Wright and Greg Smith all have guaranteed contracts, too.
Mekel’s minimum salaries are guaranteed for this season as well as 2015/16. The 26-year-old didn’t see much playing time as a rookie last year, averaging 9.4 minutes per game over just 31 appearances, and he wouldn’t appear to be in line for significantly more burn this season on a Mavs roster that has no shortage of point guards.
The notion that Dallas is looking to preserve open roster spots for the regular season is an ominous sign for Ivan Johnson and Eric Griffin, who have small partial guarantees with the club, and Charlie Villanueva, who’s impressed while on a non-guaranteed deal this month. Coach Rick Carlisle has suggested that owner Mark Cuban wouldn’t hesitate to waive a guaranteed contract to keep Villanueva if the veteran power forward continues his strong play, but it appears Cuban has other plans. Dallas can keep as few as 13 players on the roster during the regular season. The last time the team opened without the maximum 15 guys was in 2011/12, as I examined last month.
Daniel Orton To Play In China
9:45pm: Orton has signed with Shanxi Zhongyu of the Chinese Basketball Association, Shams Charania of RealGM notes (Twitter link).
3:20pm: Daniel Orton will sign with a Chinese team after the Wizards released him earlier today, reports J. Michael of CSNWashington (on Twitter). The 24-year-old asked the Wizards to release him so that he would be free to head overseas, Michael also hears (Twitter link). It’s unclear which Chinese team he’s set to join. The deal isn’t yet official and can’t be until he clears NBA waivers Saturday, but Orton is traveling to China this weekend, Michael adds.
It’ll be the first overseas venture for the Ara Vartanian client, who’s spent his pro career in the NBA and the D-League since the Magic made him the 29th overall pick in 2010. The 6’10” center failed to find his footing in the NBA, though his six career starts in the league are more than he made in his lone season at the University of Kentucky, where he backed up DeMarcus Cousins.
The length of the arrangement isn’t clear, but most NBA veterans who head to China do so on one-year deals that allow them to hit the market again during the stretch run of the NBA’s regular season, when the Chinese season is already over. That’s also the time of year when NBA teams can sign players to 10-day contracts, which might prove to be Orton’s path back to the Association.