Celtics Sign Evan Turner
SEPTEMBER 29TH: The deal is finally official, the team announced via press release. Boston cleared room under the preseason limit of 20 players with a series of moves in the past few days to accommodate Turner.
JULY 21ST: The Celtics and Evan Turner are finalizing a deal for a portion of the mid-level exception, reports Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald (on Twitter). The Pacers made the former No. 2 overall pick an unrestricted free agent when they declined to tender his qualifying offer last month.
The Wolves appeared to be Boston’s primary competition for Turner, who was reportedly Minnesota’s top priority even though the team apparently envisioned signing him to only a one-year deal. The length of his arrangment with the Celtics is unclear.
Boston has more than $78.7MM in commitments on the roster for the coming season, a figure that puts them above the tax line but below the tax apron. The Celtics can waive close to $7.018MM in non-guaranteed salary, but in any case, the team won’t be able to sign Turner to a starting salary exceeding $3.278MM without triggering a hard cap of $80.829MM for this season.
Magic Sign Curry, Batts, Crawford For Camp
SEPTEMBER 29TH: All three deals are official, the team announced via press release.
SEPTEMBER 16TH: The Magic are bringing one-year veteran Seth Curry and the undrafted Kadeem Batts and Drew Crawford to camp, according to Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link). They’ll join fellow camp invitee Peyton Siva, who reportedly agreed to his deal in July. Orlando still has cap space available, but while it could give one or all of Curry, Batts and Crawford more than the minimum, it seems unlikely the team would do that. Siva received a partial guarantee in his pact, so it’s a distinct possibility that the other three will see at least nominal guarantees as part of their contracts.
Curry had reportedly been weighing overseas opportunities earlier this summer, but he’ll be in an NBA camp for the second straight autumn after joining his brother, Stephen Curry with the Warriors for the 2013 preseason. Seth Curry later resurfaced briefly with the Grizzlies and on a 10-day contract with the Cavs, but he saw action in just two NBA regular season games and spent most of the season in the D-League.
Batts, a 6’9″ power forward, spent the past four seasons playing at Providence, where he put up 12.3 points and 7.4 rebounds in 30.6 minutes per game as a senior before joining the Magic’s summer league team in July. He put up 9.3 PPG and 5.3 RPG in 19.8 MPG for the summer Magic.
Crawford, like Curry, has NBA bloodlines, since he’s the son of NBA referee Danny Crawford. The younger Crawford comes from Northwestern, where he put up 15.7 PPG and 6.4 RPG in 36.6 MPG as a senior. The 6’5″ shooting guard spent summer league with the Pelicans, averaging just 2.0 PPG and 1.8 RPG in 11.8 MPG.
The Magic had been carrying 16 deals, including 14 fully guaranteed pacts. That leaves Siva’s partially guaranteed arrangement and a non-guaranteed contract for Dewayne Dedmon that becomes partially guaranteed for $250K if he makes it to opening night.
Morey: Rockets Will ‘Never Trade’ Dwight, Harden
Rockets GM Daryl Morey said his team would “never trade” Dwight Howard and James Harden amid comments to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports that deride Mavs owner Mark Cuban for, among other moves, breaking up the core of his 2011 title team. Morey told Wojnarowski that he thought Cuban, who’s lobbed incendiary statements of his own at the Rockets from time to time, is angry at him for targeting Dirk Nowitzki in free agency. That longshot bid that didn’t derail the Mavs from re-signing the power forward to a discounted three-year deal.
“We’re no different than other teams,” Morey said. “We have a core of two players – Dwight Howard and James Harden – who we are going to build around and never trade. San Antonio has had three core guys who they’ve done an unbelievable job of building around, making a lot of changes around that core. We had Tracy McGrady and Yao [Ming] and we made changes around them. And Mark’s had a core of one [Nowitzki], who was there since before he bought the team.”
The case of Nowitzki, to whom the Rockets reportedly made a max offer, runs contrary to Morey’s assertion that if free agents are presented with equal offers from Houston and Dallas, they’ll choose the Rockets “every time,” since Nowitzki took less money to return to the Mavs. Still, the point of Morey’s remarks seemed to be chiefly to jab the outspoken Dallas owner, as Morey said the Rockets are in a fight “for the hearts and minds of free agents.”
There haven’t been any trade rumors surrounding Harden or Howard in recent months, as it’s seemed that the Rockets are indeed trying to build around them as pillars of the franchise. Still, Morey’s comments seem to preclude the notion that the team will look to reboot any time soon if this summer’s disappointments in free agency translate into regression in the standings. Howard is signed through the summer of 2017, though he can opt out in the summer of 2016. Harden’s deal runs through the 2017/18 season with no option clauses.
Wizards Officially Announce Six Camp Deals
The Wizards have officially announced the signings of Vander Blue, Xavier Silas, David Stockton, Rasual Butler, Damion James and Daniel Orton. The team statement is an acknowledgement of reports regarding all six, all of whom had already agreed to join the team for training camp.
They’re all non-guaranteed arrangements for the minimum salary. The length of Orton’s deal is unclear, but the rest are on one-year contracts, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders, so that makes them eligible for Exhibit 9 Contracts that limit the team’s liability if they’re injured during training camp.
The group of six joins 13 Wizards with fully guaranteed pacts, along with Glen Rice Jr., whose minimum salary pact is partially guaranteed for $400K, roughly half its value. A report from J. Michael of CSNWashington last week seemed to indicate that James and Silas had an edge for the team’s 15th regular season roster spot, though Michael wrote earlier that there’s a decent chance the team won’t carry a full complement of players for opening night.
Suns Sign Morris Twins To Extensions
The Suns have signed twins Markieff Morris and Marcus Morris to four-year extensions, the team announced. Markieff’s deal is worth a total of $32MM, while Marcus will see $20MM, according to Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic, who reported that the agreements had been struck (Twitter link). Marc Stein of ESPN.com first reported that the team was close to a pair of deals totaling $52MM (All Twitter links).
Both 25-year-old forwards will spend the coming season on rookie scale contracts that pay them nearly $6MM combined, split almost evenly, and the extensions will kick in for 2015/16. GM Ryan McDonough, in the team’s statement, expressed belief that both will continue to improve, pointing out that they’re just entering their primes, while president of basketball operations Lon Babby spoke to their unusual brotherly connection.
“We are particularly pleased to have reached extension agreements with Marcus and Markieff before the start of training camp,” Babby said. “There is an extraordinary bond between these twin brothers; they make each other better players and better men. We take pride in their growth and look forward to their bright futures.”
Markieff earned the larger deal, having been more productive in his playing time last season. He averaged 13.8 points and 6.0 rebounds in 26.6 minutes per game, all career highs. Marcus put up 9.7 PPG and 3.9 RPG in 22.0 MPG, though he was significantly better from behind the arc, shooting 38.1% compared to Markieff’s 31.5%.
The deals for the Leon Rose clients are somewhat surprising, since most players who ink rookie scale extensions do so for eight-figure salaries, or close to it. Still, there are occasional examples of teams and players who’ve come to terms on extensions for even smaller amounts, including Quincy Pondexter‘s four-year, $14MM deal with Memphis last year and the three-year, $9MM extension that Kosta Koufos signed with the Nuggets in 2012.
The past week has seen the Suns invest heavily in their future. They struck a new five-year, $70MM deal with Eric Bledsoe, but even so, they still had only about $32.5MM in commitments for next season, leaving plenty of room for reasonable deals with both Morrises.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Earl Watson To Retire
Point guard Earl Watson is retiring as a player and will become a coach for the D-League affiliate of the Spurs, reports Chris Haynes of the Plain Dealer. The 35-year-old spent 13 seasons in the NBA after the SuperSonics drafted him 39th overall in 2001, and the Mark Bartelstein client played out a one-year guaranteed contract for the minimum salary with the Trail Blazers last season.
The former UCLA Bruin mounted a darkhorse campaign to fill the Jazz’s head coaching vacancy this offseason, picking up an endorsement from Gordon Hayward, but it’s unclear if Watson received an interview for the job that went to Quin Snyder. In any case, Watson will join the reigning champs despite never having played for San Antonio. He instead appeared with the Grizzlies, Nuggets, Thunder, Pacers and Jazz in addition to his time with the Sonics and Blazers. His best performance came with the Sonics in 2007/08, Seattle’s final year of NBA basketball, when he averaged 10.7 points and 6.8 assists against 2.2 turnovers in 29.1 minutes per game while shooting 37.1% from behind the arc.
That was the only season in which he had a double-digit scoring average, and one of just two years in which he started more than half of his team’s games. Still, Watson racked up nearly $42.8MM over his playing career, according to Basketball-Reference.
Cavs Sign Chris Crawford, Shane Edwards
SUNDAY, 11:00am: The signings are official, the team announced.
SATURDAY, 6:22pm: The Cavs are set to sign Chris Crawford and Shane Edwards for training camp, reports Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal. Lloyd also confirms an earlier report that team will ink Stephen Holt. It’s a non-guaranteed one-year deal for Crawford, tweets Shams Charania of RealGM. Crawford had a partial guarantee of $20K on his original two-year deal that Cleveland waived on Thursday amid the team’s acquisition of Keith Bogans, one that threatened to push the team into tax territory. With Bogans off to Philadelphia, it appears Cleveland is circling back to the undrafted guard from the University of Memphis. The team is limited to giving out only the minimum salary to any of its signees, but it’s unclear if there are any guarantees involved for Edwards and Holt.
Crawford, who’ll turn 22 next week, was with the Rockets in summer league after experiencing a dip in scoring in his senior year this season. He put up 10.4 points per game as a junior but just 8.7 PPG as a senior, despite seeing more minutes in his last year with Memphis. Edwards, 27, was briefly with the Cavs last season on a 10-day contract, and he made it into two games for about 12 minutes total. He spent most of last season with Cleveland’s D-League team, averaging 14.2 points and 5.4 rebounds in 28.9 minutes per game.
The Cavs had been carrying 15 players, so the additions of Holt, Crawford and Edwards will put them over the regular season roster limit. Each will face an uphill battle to make it to opening night, though Cleveland only has guaranteed money on the books with 13 players, not including the partial guarantee in Crawford’s old contract.
Hornets Sign Jason Maxiell
SUNDAY, 10:02am: The signing is official, the team announced via a press release.
FRIDAY, 7:55pm: The signing has been completed, as is shown in the RealGM transactions log.
THURSDAY, 2:13pm: The Hornets will sign big man Jason Maxiell to a non-guaranteed contract, reports Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer (Twitter links). Charlotte has the capacity to give more than the minimum salary, though that seems unlikely if the nine-year vet isn’t receiving any guaranteed money.
The 31-year-old Andy Miller client has been a free agent since shortly after the Magic waived him in July rather than assure him of the $2.5MM non-guaranteed salary that was in his deal for the coming season. Maxiell saw significantly less playing time in Orlando than he had during most of his eight seasons with Detroit, and he didn’t seem to garner much attention on the market this summer, aside from a preliminary inquiry from the Heat.
I figured there was a decent chance that Maxiell would wind up looking overseas in search of guaranteed salary when I examined his free agent stock, but it looks like he’ll try to make the Hornets instead. Charlotte only has guaranteed money on the books for 14 players, so Maxiell appears to have a fairly clear path to opening night if he can beat out fellow camp invitees Justin Cobbs, Dallas Lauderdale and Brian Qvale.
Cavs Notes: LeBron, Irving, Deng, Crawford
LeBron James reiterated his intentions to stay in Cleveland beyond his current contract during an interview that ran Friday on CNN’s “Unguarded with Rachel Nichols. “I plan on finishing my career back home,” James said, as Joe Vardon of the Northeast Ohio Media Group transcribes.
James called the two-year length of his contract a “business decision.” There’s more on the four-time MVP amid the latest on his new team:
- James based 95% of his decision to return to Cleveland on his desire to return to his Northeast Ohio roots, but the chance to play with Kyrie Irving was “a huge part” of the other 5%, James said to reporters, including Michael Lee of The Washington Post (Twitter link).
- James and Luol Deng traded places this summer, but Deng knows the Cavs got the better end of the de facto swap, as he told reporters, including Joseph Goodman of the Miami Herald. “I’ve been in the league 11 years and I’m still improving,” Deng said. “I would never try to replace anybody no matter if they’re better than me or I’m better than somebody. We all bring different things. The biggest mistake I would make is try to be LeBron. I’m not LeBron.”
- The Cavs intended to re-sign Chris Crawford even as they waived him Thursday, according to Chris Haynes of the Plain Dealer. That suggests the Cavs also intended from the time they traded for Bogans that they would flip him to the Sixers or another club, and indeed, a league source told Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal that Cleveland was never keen on keeping the veteran guard.
- Cleveland’s brass had wanted to use Kevin Murphy, John Lucas III and Malcolm Thomas to create a trade exception ever since acquiring the trio, even though it took two moves for the Cavs to come up with the $5,285,817 trade exception they extracted from today’s Bogans trade, as Lloyd writes in the same piece.
Arthur Hill contributed to this post.
Nuggets Pursuing Alonzo Gee
The Nuggets are in active pursuit of small forward Alonzo Gee, writes Shams Charania of RealGM. Gee cleared waivers today, two days after the Kings waived his non-guaranteed deal. Gee was set to make $3MM this season, and while the Cavs and three other teams unloaded him in trades this offseason before the Kings cut him loose, it appears there’s still interest in him, at least at a cheaper price.
The Happy Walters client started all 82 games for the Cavs in 2012/13, but coach Mike Brown, in a one-season return to Cleveland, cut Gee’s minutes per game nearly in half this past year. The 27-year-old averaged career highs with 10.6 points and 5.1 rebounds per game in 29.0 minutes per game as a part-time starter for Cleveland in 2011/12.
Denver has close to $4.8MM left on its mid-level exception, so the Nuggets have the capacity to exceed the minimum for Gee should they desire, even though it seems a minimum deal would be the most likely outcome. The team only has 13 fully guaranteed pacts, with a total of just $235K in partial guarantees to Quincy Miller, Jerrelle Benimon and Erick Green, so it wouldn’t be surprising if the Nuggets laid out a full guarantee in their offer to Gee.