Eastern Notes: Monroe, Rondo, Heat, Sixers
Greg Monroe said it wouldn’t necessarily have taken max money to convince him to sign long-term rather than take the one-year qualifying offer from the Pistons, as Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News observes. The 24-year-old added that he doesn’t feel a need to cash in whenever and wherever possible and expressed that he was apprehensive about doing so with Detroit before he and new coach/executive Stan Van Gundy become more comfortable with each other.
“It’s no disrespect to the people working here but it was just tough for me to agree to another four years with new people,” Monroe said. “Honestly, if you were to ask the average person would they do that in the arena they’re in, they’d say no.”
Monroe hopes Van Gundy won’t decide to start Andre Drummond and Josh Smith over him purely based on their respective contracts, as Goodwill also details. Monroe’s impending unrestricted free agency will be a storyline we’ll follow all season, but for now, here’s more from the Eastern Conference:
- Rajon Rondo and the Celtics still have to convince each other that a long-term future together is the right course of action, president of basketball operations Danny Ainge said today, tweets Ben Rohrbach of WEEI.com. Still, Ainge also said that he and Rondo have spoken about roster moves they’d like to make, Rohrbach adds in a separate tweet.
- Shannon Brown doesn’t have a guarantee on his contract with the Heat, but he’s emerged as the favorite to serve as the primary backup for Dwyane Wade at shooting guard, as Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald notes.
- The deal that Ronald Roberts Jr. broke off with France’s Chalon-Sur-Saone to sign with the Sixers instead was guaranteed for more money than the $35K partial guarantee that Philadelphia gave him, writes Tom Moore of Calkins Media. “My mindset was if I have an NBA team knocking on my door, I’ve got to take it,” Roberts said.
Bucks Eye Extension With Brandon Knight
The Bucks have opened rookie scale extension talks with point guard Brandon Knight, GM John Hammond says, and there’s little doubt that the team would like to come to a long-term deal, writes Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Still, it’s unclear just how much the Bucks would be willing to pay the former eighth overall pick who led the team in scoring last season. Milwaukee has until October 31st to sign the Arn Tellem client to an extension, or he’ll be set for restricted free agency next summer.
Knight saw his scoring average jump to 17.9 points per game this past season after notching just 13.3 PPG in his final year with Detroit, which sent him to Milwaukee in the 2013 trade involving Brandon Jennings. Still, that surge in points was in part because Knight bore a heavier load on offense, attempting 15.2 shots a night, 4.3 more than any other Buck. The 6’3″ former University of Kentucky Wildcat was nonetheless significantly more efficient, with a 16.5 PER, and he set a career high with 4.9 assists per game while his turnovers decreased slightly. The 22-year-old picked up an endorsement from new coach Jason Kidd.
“He’s a piece we want here,” Kidd said, as Gardner notes. “You talk about his work ethic, the way he approaches the game, he’s a professional, on and off the court.”
Milwaukee already has about $42MM in commitments for next season, not counting close to $5MM in team options for Giannis Antetokounmpo and John Henson that the team will almost assuredly pick up, and a $4.25MM player option that Jared Dudley seems likely to exercise, too. Even a reasonably discounted extension for Knight would probably knock the Bucks out of any sort of max-level cap room, and I listed him among those I believed unlikely to receive an extension when I examined the market in late July. Still, Markieff Morris and Marcus Morris are also on that list of longshots, and the Suns signed both to extensions this week.
How 2014’s Top Free Agents Fared
In a vacuum, the Heat had a tremendous offseason. They came away with three members of the top 10 from the final edition of the Hoops Rumors 2014 Free Agent Power Rankings, and no other team signed more than one. Of course, Miami started the summer with three of them, and wound up exchanging LeBron James, No. 1 on this list, for Luol Deng, who occupies the ninth spot. So the Heat took a hit this summer, but team president Pat Riley and company still came away with a fairly impressive haul.
LeBron drove this summer’s free agency, one that included several surprises, particularly on the restricted market. Gordon Hayward quickly scored a max offer sheet while Eric Bledsoe and Greg Monroe, whom I’d listed higher, languished much of the offseason. Hayward, at No. 6, and Chris Bosh, at No. 3, were the only players in this top 10 to sign true max deals, though LeBron will make the maximum salary over the two seasons on his contract.
Here’s a look at what each member of the top 10 in our Free Agent Power Rankings came up with this offseason:
- LeBron James (Cavaliers: two years, $42.218MM) — It appeared the smart money in early June was on the Rich Paul client staying on South Beach, but James was careful never to give any hints, much less make any promises, and, to Paul’s apparent delight, he decided to return to the Cavs. The four-time MVP limited his maximum-salary deal to two years with a player option after year one, though he insists that he did so merely to take advantage of projected increases in the salary cap, and not to leave Cleveland, where he says he intends to stay for the rest of his career.
- Carmelo Anthony (Knicks: five years, $124.065MM) — The high-scoring forward met with the Bulls, Rockets, Mavs and Lakers, but none could convince him to leave the media spotlight in New York. The Knicks even managed to convince Anthony and agent Leon Rose to take less than the maximum, though the discount only amounts to $5.071MM over the life of the deal.
- Chris Bosh (Heat: five years, $118.705MM) — He’ll make the same salary as LeBron will this season, and Anthony will see more money on his deal, but Bosh was the only free agent to sign a five-year contract for the maximum amount allowable under the collective bargaining agreement. The Henry Thomas client appeared on his way to Houston for four years at the max until the Heat took advantage of their exclusive ability to offer a fifth year to reel him back.
- Eric Bledsoe (Suns: five years, $70MM) — None of the negotiations around the league this summer appeared as contentious as the talks between the Suns and Paul, the same agent who helped grind the NBA to a halt while LeBron made his choice. The Bucks were in the discussion early and the Wolves jumped in late, but ultimately it was a staredown between Bledsoe and the Suns, who could match all offers for the restricted free agent. Phoenix made the greater concession, agreeing to a deal closer to the max than to the Suns’ four-year, $48MM offer, demonstrating Paul’s growing power.
- Greg Monroe (Pistons; one-year, $5.48MM) — The cost of converting restricted free agency to unrestricted free agency in a year’s time is steep, but Monroe and agent David Falk are betting that it’s worth it. They rejected offers from the Pistons of five years and $60MM and four years and more than $54MM to make Monroe the most prominent name among the 17 others to sign a qualifying offer since the institution of rookie scale contracts in 1995. Monroe and Falk reportedly sought only sign-and-trades rather than offer sheets out of fear the Pistons would match, but no swap amenable to them, the Pistons and another team ever materialized.
- Gordon Hayward (Jazz; four years, $62.965MM) — Restricted free agency was much more straightforward for the Mark Bartelstein client. A visit with the Cavs didn’t bear fruit, but a trip to Charlotte soon thereafter resulted in a max offer sheet that the Jazz matched. Hayward was the only restricted free agent to come away with a max deal, even though Bledsoe ended up with more money spread out over a longer period of time.
- Dwyane Wade (Heat; two years, $31.125MM) — It was hard to predict just what would happen with Wade, who opted out of the final two years and $41.819MM on his deal in the hopes that re-signing at a discount would help persuade LeBron to stay in Miami. Wade, who shares Thomas as his agent with Bosh, still wound up with a two-year deal that entails significantly lower salaries than he would have made if he’d opted in, but it wasn’t quite as drastic a sacrifice as some reports suggested he’d make.
- Kyle Lowry (Raptors; four years, $48MM) — The Heat, Rockets and Lakers all sought an upgrade at the point with the Andy Miller client, but Lowry instead chose to sign with the team that was prepared trade him to the Knicks in the middle of this past season. The Raptors banked on the notion that his career year last season wasn’t a fluke, and Lowry surely has similar hope that Toronto’s resurgence isn’t a mirage.
- Luol Deng (Heat; two years, $19.86MM) — Deng insists he isn’t replacing LeBron, but it wound up as de facto trade that saw the client of Herb Rudoy and Ron Shade go from Cleveland to Miami while a more decorated small forward took his talents back to Northeast Ohio. The revelations of the Hawks/Danny Ferry scandal cast Deng’s free agency in a new light, but the controversy also showed that Deng almost ended up in Atlanta. The Suns, Mavs, Wizards and Bulls were interested, too, but even though Deng was looking for at least $12MM a year, he wound up taking less.
- Zach Randolph (extension with Grizzlies; two years, $20MM) — The Raymond Brothers client decided not to hit free agency, opting in to his $16.5MM salary for 2014/15 and signing an extension that will reduce his pay starting in 2015/16. It seemed inevitable that he’d have to take a pay cut on his next deal, and while he might have secured more money over the long term if he’d opted out and signed a new deal, opting in and signing the extension gave him the best of both worlds. He’ll receive more in the next three seasons than the $30-35MM over three years that the free agency market appeared ready to bear.
Western Notes: Thunder, Pelicans, Wolves
Two members of the Thunder front office made the list of a dozen potential candidates for future GM openings that SB Nation’s Tom Ziller compiled. Assistant GM Troy Weaver, who excels in scouting and relationships, and Michael Winger, a salary cap expert, have already drawn interest from other teams, as their respective rumors pages show. Many believed that Winger would have been in line for the Cavs GM job if the team had decided against retaining David Griffin this summer, Ziller adds. While we wait to see if the presence of Sam Presti and perhaps two other future GMs gives Oklahoma City the necessary edge to get over the hump and win this year’s title, here’s more from around the Western Conference:
- The Pelicans considered waiving and stretching Austin Rivers in addition to the notion of trading the former No. 10 overall pick as they sought to clear room to acquire Omer Asik this summer, according to Grantland’s Zach Lowe. Still, the Pelicans held on to Rivers, and they demanded “real assets” in any trade that would involve him, Lowe writes, adding that New Orleans regarded waiving him as the least desirable option. The Grantland scribe suggests that ties between coach Monty Williams and the Rivers family complicate the team’s decision about whether to pick up the fourth-year option on Rivers’ contract by the October 31st deadline.
- The Wolves offered 40th overall pick Glenn Robinson III a four-year contract, but he turned it down for his partially guaranteed one-year pact, similar to the dynamic between No. 32 pick K.J. McDaniels and the Sixers, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.
- Alonzo Gee‘s deal with the Nuggets is non-guaranteed for the minimum salary and covers one season, but it becomes guaranteed if he remains on the roster through October 29th, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. The team’s non-guaranteed contract with Pops Mensah-Bonsu is of the identical structure, except his wouldn’t become guaranteed until the leaguewide guarantee date in January, Pincus adds.
- Ronnie Price‘s non-guaranteed deal with the Lakers becomes partially guaranteed on November 15th, Pincus writes for the Los Angeles Times, though he doesn’t say just how much Price would be assured of that day. In any case, the veteran point guard has picked up a key supporter, since Kobe Bryant likes what he sees from his teammate so far, as Pincus details.
Pelicans Sign D.J. Stephens For Camp
WEDNESDAY, 1:14pm: The deal is official, the Pelicans announced via press release.
MONDAY, 8:27am: The Pelicans and former Bucks swingman D.J. Stephens have reached agreement on a deal for training camp, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). It’ll have to be a minimum-salary deal for the one-year veteran, since the sliver of the mid-level exception that New Orleans has left is only enough for the team to exceed the minimum for a rookie. It’s not clear whether there’s any guaranteed money involved.
The 23-year-old was set to work out for Utah earlier this month, but it appears he’ll wind up in New Orleans instead. Stephens appeared in three games for Milwaukee on a 10-day contract last spring, scoring seven points and grabbing five rebounds in a total of 15 minutes. He saw significantly more playing time overseas last season after going undrafted out of Memphis in 2013, averaging 8.4 points and 7.0 rebounds in 23.8 minutes per game in 25 combined games with Ilisiakos BC of Greece and Anadolu Efes of Turkey.
New Orleans had been carrying 18 players, so the addition of Stephens leaves room for one more player to join the team in advance of Tuesday’s start of camp. A dozen Pelicans have fully guaranteed deals and three more are on partially guaranteed arrangements, and the team has Dionte Christmas, Kevin Jones and Vernon Macklin on non-guaranteed pacts, making it tough to see a clear path to opening night for Stephens.
Hoops Rumors Featured Feedback
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Last week, reader Boston2AZ wasn’t high on Phoenix’s decision to budge from their offer of four years and $48MM to Eric Bledsoe and finally grant him a five-year, $70MM deal.
- Not liking this signing. Are they going to resign Goran Dragic after next season and have $28MM+ in their starting backcourt? I’d rather have Dragic. If this deal is so “reasonable”, maybe Bledsoe can be moved if he shows he can stay healthy – a BIG if.
Michael Beasley was another marquee free agent to come off the board just before camps opened, and Z…. believes the Grizzlies picked up a bargain.
- Great fit…I mentioned it a few times previously. I would have liked to see him back in Miami, especially for that type of a contract, but I guess they decided to go in a different direction with Shawne and Reggie Williams instead (ugh)…The Grizzlies could use someone like Beasley who can get his own shot and score, and his defensive deficiencies shouldn’t be as noticeable on a team with that type of defense, and the rim protection they get from Marc Gasol.
Gustavo Ayon was one of the noteworthy figures who didn’t end up with an NBA contract, finally closing on a deal to play for Real Madrid in Spain and passing on a minimum-salary offer from the Spurs, leaving statsnasty wondering why the center didn’t generate more interest stateside.
- Gustavo is good. He should be in the NBA. Hopefully this won’t become a trend, where all good second-string players can’t get good enough offers to stay in the NBA.
Check out what more readers had to say in previous editions of Hoops Rumors Featured Feedback. We appreciate everyone who adds to the dialogue at Hoops Rumors, and we look forward to seeing more responses like these from you!
Eastern Notes: George, West, Heat, Garnett
The Pacers and Heat have met the last two years for the Eastern Conference title, but chances are they’re not going to do so again this coming spring. The Nets, too, seem to have taken a step back, though there’s still a distinct possibility that all three will make the playoffs. We’ll touch on three Eastern mainstays amid our look around the conference:
- Paul George refuses to rule out the notion that he might return this season, even though the Pacers assume he’s out for the year, though he told reporters Monday that he’s “come to peace” with the idea that his broken leg will keep him out. Mark Montieth of Pacers.com has the details.
- David West said he considered retirement last year and suggested that the thought passed through his mind again after George broke his leg this summer, as he tells Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star. The 34-year-old can opt out of his contract at season’s end.
- Shawne Williams made an impression on the Heat during the same workout in which Chris Douglas-Roberts and MarShon Brooks made bids to join the team, notes Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald.
- Kevin Garnett made it clear that he has no intention of coaching after he retires as a player, as Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News observes (Twitter link).
Bucks Sign Micheal Eric For Camp
OCTOBER 1ST: Milwaukee still has yet to make an official annoucement, but it’s a one-year deal, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link).
SEPTEMBER 25TH, 10:52pm: The signing has taken place, as is shown in the RealGM transactions log.
SEPTEMBER 23RD, 6:07pm: Eric’s deal with the Bucks is non-guaranteed, reports Charles Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (via Twitter).
SEPTEMBER 16TH: The Bucks have agreed to a minimum-salary deal with free agent big man Micheal Eric, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (on Twitter). The level of guarantee and the length of the arrangement aren’t immediately clear, but it’ll be the second trip to an NBA training camp in three years for the former Temple mainstay, who was with the Cavs for preseason in 2012.
Eric spent time in the D-League the past two seasons, his most extensive experience coming with Cleveland’s affiliate in 2012/13, when he averaged 8.1 points and 7.6 rebounds in 22.1 minutes per game. The 6’10” 26-year-old has consistently displayed a mastery of the boards, grabbing 8.8 RPG in 25.1 MPG in his final season in college with the Owls.
It’ll be tough for Eric to make the opening-night roster in Milwaukee, where the Bucks have 14 fully guaranteed deals plus a non-guaranteed contract with Kendall Marshall, who figures to play a prominent role. The client of agent Pedro Power will join Elijah Millsap and Chris Wright among those hoping to show enough in training camp to force Milwaukee to think about cutting ties with one of its guaranteed pacts.
Sixers Sign K.J. McDaniels, Jerami Grant
9:47am: McDaniels will make the minimum salary this year, as Wojnarowski reveals in his full story, one that suggests that the small forward simply signed the required tender that teams must make in order to retain the rights to their second-round picks. He rejected a long-term offer with terms similar to what Grant has in his contract, as agent Mark Bartelstein explains to Wojnarowski.
“The 76ers have a philosophy that they’re adhering to, and we totally respect that, but it doesn’t fit for K.J. and us,” Bartelstein said. “I just totally disagree with the idea of doing a four-year deal that includes a structure of two non-guaranteed years. We think K.J. is going to be a good player, and it came down to doing a one-year deal and letting the market determine his value. There’s no hard feelings. The Sixers’ philosophy has worked for them. It just doesn’t work for us.”
WEDNESDAY, 8:51am: McDaniels is getting a one-year, non-guaranteed deal, setting himself up for restricted free agency next summer, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link).
TUESDAY, 9:10pm: McDaniels hasn’t signed his contract as of this afternoon and didn’t report to training camp Tuesday, reports Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Pompey implies that McDaniels isn’t happy with the team’s offer, but adds that the Sixers do expect him to sign it soon.
MONDAY, 4:22pm: The Sixers have signed K.J. McDaniels and Jerami Grant, two of the team’s second-round picks from June, the team acknowledged as it released its training camp roster via press release. The team has plenty of cap space, but it’s not immediately clear how much of it goes to McDaniels and Grant, nor is it known whether their deals are guaranteed. The roster also serves as an official announcement of previously reported deals with No. 3 overall pick Joel Embiid, Ronald Roberts Jr. and JaKarr Sampson. Absent from the roster are Malcolm Lee, Drew Gordon and Pierre Jackson, whom offseason reports indicated the Sixers had agreed to sign, so presumably those deals are off.
McDaniels, the 32nd overall pick, is a small forward who’s a heady player with a strong motor who seems poised to outperform his draft position, as Eddie Scarito of Hoops Rumors wrote when he examined the former Clemson Tiger’s prospect profile. Grant, a combo forward from Syracuse, carries plenty of athleticism but plenty of unknowns, too, though he appears to be a strong value as a second-rounder, as Eddie’s profile of the No. 39 overall pick reads. Vasilije Micic and Jordan McRae, the team’s other second-round picks, are playing overseas, as our list of draft pick signings shows.
Philadelphia is bringing 20 players to camp, though only eight are known to have fully guaranteed salary. Roberts, Sampson and Jarvis Varnado have partially guaranteed deals, but it’s seemingly an otherwise wide-open competition for opening-night roster spots.
Hoops Rumors 2014 Free Agent Tracker
The past week has seen a whirlwind of moves as teams readied for training camp. The period was the coda to an offseason of seismic shifts around the NBA, from the return of LeBron James to Cleveland, to Greg Monroe‘s bold decision to sign his qualifying offer from the Pistons, to Houston’s losing gamble with Chandler Parsons. In last several days, marquee names like Eric Bledsoe and Michael Beasley were sprinkled amid a flurry of signings for the preseason. Our Free Agent Tracker will help you evaluate and make sense of them all. Using the tracker, you can quickly sort through contract agreements and categorize by team, position, free agent type, and a handful of other variables.
A few notes on the tracker:
- Contract years and dollars are based on what’s been reported to date, so in some cases those amounts are approximations rather than official figures. There are a few cases in which details are especially scarce, so some fields are left blank.
- The salaries listed aren’t necessarily fully guaranteed, though fully non-guaranteed deals are marked as summer contracts.
- Separate entries exist for Chris Crawford and Christian Watford, both of whom were signed, waived, and then signed again by the same teams. However, only a single entry exists for Francisco Garcia, since the league never ratified his original contract.
- The tracker doesn’t include signed draft picks, since those players weren’t free agents. We’re keeping on top of 2014 draft pick signings in this post. The tracker also doesn’t include “draft-and-stash” players who’ve signed this summer, but they’re listed here. A list of all the offseason trade acquisitions is right here.
Our 2014 Free Agent Tracker can be found anytime on the right sidebar under “Hoops Rumors Features,” and it’s also under the “Tools” menu atop the site. It will continue to be updated until the offseason is finished, so be sure to check back for the latest info. If you have any corrections, please let us know right here.