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Wolves, Dante Cunningham In Talks
The odd that the Wolves will re-sign Dante Cunningham remain long, but the team and Cunningham’s camp have spoken with in the last two days, reports Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link). Domestic violence charges against Cunningham were dropped Monday, seemingly sparking the renewed dialogue.
The team and agent Joel Bell reportedly spoke at the beginning of free agency in July, but Wolfson characterized the prospect of Cunningham’s return to the Wolves as a long shot when he reported in mid-July that the Rockets had reached out to the power forward. Houston was apparently one of several NBA teams with which Cunningham had talks, but all of them wanted to wait to see how his legal situation played out in the wake of his April arrest, according to Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press.
Now that Cunningham’s name has been cleared, the market figures to open for him, as Charlie Adams of Hoops Rumors wrote Thursday when he examined the 27-year-old’s free agent stock. Still, the Wolves have 15 guaranteed deals, and the Rockets are well-stocked at the power forward position. Minnesota’s roster is in flux, as precise details of the impending Kevin Love trade remain elusive, so it’s conceivable that a spot on the Wolves roster will open for Cunningham once that deal takes place.
Extension Candidate: Kawhi Leonard
The accolades bestowed upon Kawhi Leonard are well-deserved, but there’s no doubting that he’s a beneficiary of impeccable timing. He scored at least 20 points in each of the last three games of the NBA Finals, leading voters to tab him as Finals MVP. That was the first time in Leonard’s three-year NBA career that he had strung together that many 20-plus-point games, and only the second time he’d ever so much as scored that many points in back-to-back games. Part of the reason for that no doubt has to do with the Spurs’ ball-sharing offense and coach Gregg Popovich‘s penchant for strictly limiting the minutes his starters play. Yet It also speaks to the notion that even though Popovich believes Leonard will be the team’s marquee figure some day, that day has yet to come.
Of course, teams base their decisions about whether to hand out extensions based on what they think will happen in the years ahead, and less so because of what’s happened in the past. Popovich, who shares front office duties with GM R.C. Buford, has made it known that he envisions a bright future for the 23-year-old, subtly tipping his hand in a manner that’s atypical for the taciturn Spurs franchise. Of course, Popovich never said just when he thinks Leonard’s time will come, or just how much the Spurs are willing to invest to ensure that when it comes, it comes to San Antonio.
Still, Leonard is confident that agent Brian Elfus and the Spurs will work out an extension by the October 31st deadline, allowing him to avoid restricted free agency next summer. Leonard is in so many ways the quintessential Spur. He’s goes to such great lengths to avoid the spotlight that his reserved demeanor stands out even on a team that’s almost universally reflected the modesty of Tim Duncan for the past 17 years, and teammates are fond of kidding Leonard about his shy streak. Leonard is also a homegrown talent, having only briefly passed through the hands of the Pacers on draft night before the trade that brought him to San Antonio. He’s never played for any other NBA team, just like Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, from whom he is supposed to inherit the mantle of Spurs stardom.
Leonard is a strong three-point shooter and rebounder, two areas that the Spurs pride themselves upon. His three-point percentages haven’t strayed from a range that starts at 37.4% and ends at last season’s mark of 37.9%, which is telling of the sort of yearly consistency that the Spurs also thrive upon. He grabbed the eighth-most rebounds per 100 possessions last season among all players 6’7″ or shorter, according to Basketball-Reference, and his 19.4 PER from this past year was better than all seven of the players in front of him on that list.
The former 15th overall pick is improving, having shot 52.2% from the floor last season after back-to-back sub-50% seasons his first two years. The Spurs gave up nearly 4.8 fewer points per 100 possessions when Leonard was on the floor last season compared to when he wasn’t, as NBA.com shows, while the Spurs defense was worse by 2.6 points per 100 possessions when Leonard was on the court as a rookie. Still, there are doubts about whether he can carry a team, as is the case with just about every player who’s never averaged at least 10 field goal attempts per game, or as many as 13 points per contest.
Inevitable change is coming to the Spurs. Duncan is 38 and Ginobili is 37. Their contracts expire after the coming season, and there’s a decent chance that this will be the last for both of them. Parker is 32, but it remains to be seen whether he can continue to produce at a high level into his late 30s as Duncan and Ginobili have, even amid San Antonio’s best efforts to preserve his body. The Spurs roster is deep, stocked with quite possibly the best collection of role players the league has seen in quite some time. Still, Leonard is the only Spur under the age of 30 who appears capable of playing like a star some day, barring the development of yet another surprise from the latter stages of the draft, like Parker and Ginobili.
Spurs players have long sacrificed for the benefit of the team, with Parker’s extension from earlier this month the latest example. It would fit with Leonard’s personality for him to follow suit, but doing so would break with the practice that others in his position have employed. Klay Thompson and Ricky Rubio have reportedly asked for the max this summer, and the Cavs wasted no time in doling out a max extension to Kyrie Irving in July. It would not be altogether surprising if Elfus were to start negotiations at the same price point.
The Spurs can probably afford to pay Leonard the max more so than they can stomach parting with him, especially since the 25% max for which Leonard is in line is much less than what the max for a veteran star would entail. Of course, San Antonio won’t lose Leonard anytime soon as long as they’re willing to pay him the max, either through extension or restricted free agency, and as long as Leonard doesn’t take the drastic step of accepting his qualifying offer next summer, which would be a shock.
There are no guarantees in restricted free agency, as this summer has proven. Greg Monroe and Eric Bledsoe are staring discount deals in the face while Gordon Hayward and Chandler Parsons, probably less desirable players, wound up with a max deal and a three-year contract for just under the max, respectively. I predicted last month that Leonard would end up signing an extension for four years and $50MM. If the Spurs propose those terms, an improvement on what the Suns reportedly have on the table for Bledsoe, it wouldn’t be a stretch to suggest that it’s the best offer that Leonard will see. It might not be quite the financial reward that passed through his mind when he clutched the Finals MVP trophy, but it would afford him stability within an organization he personifies. That seems like the sort of reward that Leonard would seek most fervently.
And-Ones: Clippers, Diawara, Mavs, Cavs
Interim Clippers CEO Dick Parsons will step down in a few weeks, as he tells the Fox Business Network, according to Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com (Twitter link). The move is no surprise now that Steve Ballmer has officially taken over the franchise, since Parsons said in May shortly after the league installed him as a caretaker for the team that he had no plans of remaining with the club after its ownership situation was resolved. Parsons has been acting as a “proxy owner,” as he put it, with final authority over any decisions president of basketball operations Doc Rivers made. Here’s more from around the league:
- Multiple NBA teams had interest in bringing Yakhouba Diawara back to the league this summer, but he indicated on his Twitter account late Tuesday that he’s signing with Pallacanestro Varese of Italy (hat tip to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). David Pick of Eurobasket.com confirms the news with a tweet of his own. Diawara worked out for the Raptors, Bucks and Nets over the past few months.
- This season’s minimum salary in Ivan Johnson‘s two-year contract with the Mavs is guaranteed for only $25K, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link).
- It appears as though the Cavs guaranteed $65K of the minimum salary for Alex Kirk this season, Pincus also tweets.
Top Three-Point Shooters Still On The Market
Three-point shooting is a commodity now more than ever in the NBA, and teams quickly snapped up most of the best shooters in a free agent market that made few of them available. Mike Miller went to the Cavs, the Thunder signed Anthony Morrow, and an injury to Patty Mills helped short-circuit his free agency and lead him back to the Spurs.
Still, there are several proficient long-range shooters who are still available. Ray Allen, the league’s all-time leader in three-pointers made, might be the most notorious among them, but he had a down season last year, and at 39 years old, his continued effectiveness is questionable. Three-point shooting is among the many skills that made Suns restricted free agent Eric Bledsoe the No. 4 player on the Hoops Rumors Free Agent Power Rankings, but Phoenix will make the final decision over where he’ll play this coming season.
There’s one name that appears on the list below as well as the compilations of the top scorers and top rebounders on the market that I’ve put together in the past week: Michael Beasley. The former No. 2 overall pick carries some baggage from his flameouts earlier in his career, but when he saw playing time for the Eastern Conference champion Heat last season, he was effective.
Here’s the list of the top remaining free agents in descending order of three-point percentage. I’ve limited this to 10 players instead of the 15 available scorers and rebounders I listed, given the paucity of effective veteran long-range shooters who don’t already have NBA deals. Players must have attempted at least 50 three pointers last season to qualify, and that’s precisely the number taken by Hedo Turkoglu, who sits at the top.
- Hedo Turkoglu (44.0%)
- Rasual Butler (41.9%)
- Doron Lamb (40.0%)
- Michael Beasley (38.9%)
- Chris Douglas-Roberts (38.6%)
- Ray Allen (37.5%)
- Francisco Garcia (35.8%)
- Eric Bledsoe (35.7%)
- E’Twaun Moore (35.4%)*
- Rashard Lewis (34.3%)
* — Moore is reportedly expected to sign with the Bulls, but it’s not entirely clear whether the sides have an agreement.
Honorable mention:
- Earl Clark would be next on the list, having made 33.6% of his three-pointers. No other available free agent who took at least 50 attempts from behind the arc made at least 33% of them.
- Derek Fisher met the qualifying criteria and would have been sixth on this list at 38.4%, but he’s now the head coach of the Knicks. Shane Battier made 34.8% of the 210 three-pointers he took, which would put him 10th on the list at 34.8%, but he announced his retirement.
- Byron Mullens (37.1%), Nando De Colo (34.0%) and Al Harrington (34.0%) have all agreed to deals overseas, but if they hadn’t, they’d appear on this list.
Heat Rumors: Douglas-Roberts, Crawford, Okafor
The Heat have far outpaced all other teams in free agent spending this summer, as I chronicled earlier this week. Miami is limited to the minimum salary at this point, which wouldn’t add to the total of more than $220MM that appears on my list, since it didn’t take into account anyone on a minimum-salary deal. Still, Pat Riley and company continue to scour the market, as Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald and Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel detail. We’ll highlight the latest here:
- The Heat worked out Chris Douglas-Roberts, as Jackson writes in his latest dispatch after reporting late last month that the team was interested in the five-year veteran. Miami, which is looking to add a shooting guard, also worked out Jordan Hamilton, according to Jackson, though Hamilton instead wound up signing with the Raptors.
- Miami has reached out to Jordan Crawford, too, and while the Heat like the former first-round pick, as Jackson writes, it doesn’t appear he’s reached the audition stage. Jackson confirms Miami’s interest in Leandro Barbosa.
- There are other teams in the mix for Barbosa, but they, like the Heat, want to see if he can stay healthy as well as how he performs for Brazil in the upcoming FIBA World Cup, Winderman writes. The Sun Sentinel scribe believes the Heat would choose Crawford over Barbosa if it came to that.
- Riley and his staff have been eyeing Emeka Okafor and Ekpe Udoh, as finding a big man has been team’s other focus, Jackson reports. There have been question marks about Okafor’s health, and while he and Udoh have also drawn interest from the Clippers, there hasn’t been much chatter this summer surrounding either former top-10 pick.
- The Heat made preliminary inquiries about Andray Blatche and Jason Maxiell, according to Jackson. Miami has been reluctant to sign Blatche in the past out of concern about his maturity level and behavior, as Jackson wrote a couple of weeks ago, but apparently the team won’t definitively rule him out. The market for Maxiell has been quiet since the Magic let him go on the Fourth of July.
- Agent David Falk spoke with the Heat about Elton Brand, but it’s unlikely that the 35-year-old will join Miami for this season, Jackson says. The Hawks and Knicks reportedly had their sights set on Brand as free agency began, but Brand rumors have otherwise proven scarce.
Upcoming Rookie Scale Option Decisions
We’ll be taking in-depth looks at several players eligible for extensions to their rookie scale contracts this fall, but whether to extend isn’t the only decision that teams face with recent first-round picks. The final two seasons of four-year rookie scale deals are team option years, but unlike other options, the deadline for either exercising or declining them is a full year before the option season begins. In many cases, rookie scale deals are bargains and there’s no thinking required when it comes to picking up the options. The Pelicans, for instance, aren’t going to give up a year of Anthony Davis at less than eight figures.
Of course, few find instant success like Davis. Often, a former first-round pick may be struggling to find playing time or live up to his promise, but the team still has confidence that he can develop, and the front office is willing to assume his relatively small cap hit for another season. Then, there are those who aren’t panning out at all, making even a cheap rookie deal seem like an outsized expense.
Perhaps the facet of rookie scale options that’s least appealing for teams is that they have to decide a year ahead of time. The options that clubs are debating this fall are for 2015/16. Further complicating matters is that if a team declines a player’s rookie scale option, he becomes an unrestricted free agent when the deal is up, instead of a restricted free agent, as would be the case if the team allowed the contract to run to term.
Teams are in an especially difficult position with underperforming players taken near the top of the first round, since the final seasons of their rookie contracts can get pricey. Former No. 5 overall pick Thomas Robinson will be set to make $4,660,482 in 2015/16 if the Trail Blazers pick up his fourth-year option, and that might be too much for Portland to bear.
I’ve listed each player eligible to have his rookie scale option picked up before the October 31st deadline and grouped them into three categories based on the likelihood that their respective teams will exercise the options. I added a blurb for some of the more compelling cases. Feel free to disagree and share your own analysis in the comments.
No-brainers
- Giannis Antetokounmpo, Bucks (third year, $1,953,960)
- Bradley Beal, Wizards (fourth year, $5,694,674)
- Trey Burke, Jazz (third year, $2,658,240)
- Michael Carter-Williams, Sixers (third year, $2,399,040)
- Anthony Davis, Pelicans (fourth year, $7,070,730)
- Andre Drummond, Pistons (fourth year, $3,272,091)
- Tim Hardaway Jr., Knicks (third year, $1,304,520)
- Damian Lillard, Trail Blazers (fourth year, $4,236,287)
- Nerlens Noel, Sixers (third year, $3,457,800) — True, he’s never played a minute in the NBA, but barring a setback, Philadelphia will almost certainly want to see what it has in the one-time favorite to become the top pick in 2013.
- Victor Oladipo, Magic (third year, $5,192,520)
- Miles Plumlee, Suns (fourth year, $2,109,294)
- Mason Plumlee, Nets (third year, $1,415,520) — He figures to be a backup as long as Brook Lopez is around, but if he’s good enough for Team USA, he’s good enough for the Nets.
- Terrence Ross, Raptors (fourth year, $3,553,917) — Last season was something of a breakout year, and while still he has plenty of room for improvement, it seems he’s on a development track similar to the one DeMar DeRozan rode to the All-Star Game last year.
- Jonas Valanciunas, Raptors (fourth year, $4,660,482) — Like teammate Terrence Ross, he’s not a star, at least not yet, but there’s no reason for up-and-coming Toronto to cast aside such a promising big man.
- Dion Waiters, Cavaliers (fourth year, $5,138,430)
Probables
- Steven Adams, Thunder (third year, $2,279,040)
- Harrison Barnes, Warriors (fourth year, $3,873,398) — This isn’t an open-and-shut case after he failed to show progress last season, but his down year shouldn’t be enough to prompt the Warriors to give up so soon on the former No. 7 overall pick.
- Anthony Bennett, Sixers (third year, $5,803,560) — We could list Bennett with any one of three teams. He’s on the Cavs roster for now, but the team is set to ship him out in the Kevin Love trade. It’s not clear whether that transaction will take him to the Wolves or the Sixers, but I’ve listed Philadelphia here, since that’s the most logical outcome of the Love trade, as I’ve explained. In any case, Bennett probably won’t live up to having been a No. 1 overall pick, but it’s probably worth keeping him around another year to see if he can at least play like a lottery pick.
- Reggie Bullock, Clippers (third year, $1,252,440)
- Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Pistons (third year, $2,891,760)
- Gorgui Dieng, Timberwolves (third year, $1,474,440)
- Festus Ezeli, Warriors (fourth year, $2,008,748) — He could easily be listed as “on the bubble,” particularly given the financial constraints on the Warriors, but Golden State has only seen him on the floor for one season, and cheap young big men are tough to come by.
- Evan Fournier, Magic (fourth year, $2,288,205)
- Rudy Gobert, Jazz (third year, $1,175,880)
- Archie Goodwin, Suns (third year, $1,160,160) — The Suns didn’t give Goodwin much playing time as a rookie, and with a well-stocked backcourt, they might give him even less this time around. Still, it shouldn’t be hard for the team to keep him around at less than the cost of the minimum salary for some veterans.
- Maurice Harkless, Magic (fourth year, $2,894,059)
- John Henson, Bucks (fourth year, $2,943,221)
- Solomon Hill, Pacers (third year, $1,358,880) — He rarely saw the floor as a rookie, but with Lance Stephenson gone and Paul George injured, Hill, who plays small forward, will have a chance to shine.
- Perry Jones III, Thunder (fourth year, $2,038,206)
- Terrence Jones, Rockets (fourth year, $2,489,530)
- Sergey Karasev, Nets (third year, $1,599,840) — He rarely played as a rookie, but the investment is cheap. Even amid Mikhail Prokhorov’s apparent austerity pledge, it’s tough to envision the Russian owner turning his back on one of his countrymen.
- Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Hornets (fourth year, $6,331,404)
- Jeremy Lamb, Thunder (fourth year, $3,034,356)
- Shane Larkin, Knicks (third year, $1,675,320)
- Alex Len, Suns (third year, $3,807,120)
- C.J. McCollum, Trail Blazers (third year, $2,525,160)
- Ben McLemore, Kings (third year, $3,156,600)
- Donatas Motiejunas, Rockets (fourth year, $2,288,205)
- Shabazz Muhammad, Timberwolves (third year, $2,056,920) — The No. 1 high school recruit from 2012 finally drew significant playing time in the second half of the season, but his first NBA season couldn’t have gone much worse. It’s probably too soon for Minnesota to cut ties, however.
- Nemanja Nedovic, Warriors (third year, $1,151,760)
- Andrew Nicholson, Magic (fourth year, $2,380,594) — His development stalled last season, but Orlando is still in rebuilding mode and can afford to be patient.
- Kelly Olynyk, Celtics (third year, $2,165,160)
- Otto Porter, Wizards (third year, $4,662,960) — An early season injury helped prevent him from making an impact last season, but there’s no reason for Washington to abandon plans for a long-term future with the No. 3 overall pick from 2013.
- Andre Roberson, Thunder (third year, $1,210,800)
- Dennis Schröder, Hawks (third year, $1,763,400) — The point guard didn’t receive much playing time as a rookie, but the Hawks probably want to see him on the floor in a more significant role this season before junking a mid-first-round pick.
- Tony Snell, Bulls (third year, $1,535,880)
- Jared Sullinger, Celtics (fourth year, $2,269,260)
- Tony Wroten, Sixers (fourth year, $2,179,354)
- Cody Zeller, Hornets (third year, $4,204,200)
- Tyler Zeller, Celtics (fourth year, $2,616,975)
On the bubble
- John Jenkins, Hawks (fourth year, $2,228,025)
- Meyers Leonard, Trail Blazers (fourth year, $3,075,880) — The Blazers probably envisioned Leonard turning into a starting center at some point when they spent a lottery pick on him two years ago, but he was just a third-stringer last year.
- Arnett Moultrie, Sixers (fourth year, $2,049,633) — We could easily create a fourth category for Moultrie, since Injury trouble and a drug suspension make it unlikely that the Sixers will pick up his option.
- Thomas Robinson, Trail Blazers (fourth year, $4,660,482) — The Blazers didn’t trade him within months of acquiring him like the Kings and Rockets did, but he’s yet to show much of the promise that made him the fifth overall pick in 2012. He doesn’t seem worth a salary nearly equivalent to the non-taxpayer’s mid-level.
- Austin Rivers, Pelicans (fourth year, $3,110,796) — Last season was an improvement on his disastrous rookie campaign, but it doesn’t erase doubt about whether Rivers is worth the continued investment.
- Marquis Teague, Nets (fourth year, $2,023,261) — Brooklyn is almost certain to decline its option on Teague, according to a report from earlier this summer.
ShamSports was used in the creation of this post.
And-Ones: Stokes, Drew, Cavs, Lottery
Steve Nash was the oldest player to appear in a game last season, a distinction he’s poised to repeat this year if he’s healthy, but he was 1 year old when the oldest person to go up and down NBA floors last year made his debut. Referee Dick Bavetta had been the dean of his profession for some time, but the 74-year-old has retired, the league announced today. As the NBA readies to go on without Bavetta for the first time since 1975, here’s the latest from around the league:
- Jarnell Stokes will make $725K this season and minimum salaries thereafter in his three-year deal with the Grizzlies, according to Chris Vernon of 92.9 FM ESPN in Memphis (Twitter link). The Grizzlies used part of their mid-level exception to sign Stokes, this year’s 35th overall pick. They used most of the exception on Vince Carter, but there’s still enough left to hand out a three- or four-year deal for the rookie minimum salary for someone else, though that presumes camp invitee Patrick Christopher is on a deal that covers no more than two seasons.
- The Cavs officially hired former Bucks and Hawks head coach Larry Drew as an assistant coach, the team announced. The team also promoted James Posey, who was serving as an assistant coach for Cleveland’s D-League affiliate, to head coach David Blatt‘s staff.
- NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s statements during the 2011 lockout about a desire for competitive balance conflict with his apparent openness to draft lottery reform, as SB Nation’s Tom Ziller argues. Lengthening the odds that the teams with the worst records would come away with the top pick each year does little to further the goal of parity, as Ziller points out.
Largest Expiring Contracts For 2014/15
Expiring contracts aren’t what they used to be in the NBA. Once sought-after trade chips, players who are in the final season of a lucrative deal are no longer as valuable under the current collective bargaining agreement, which mandates shorter contracts that help teams more easily clear cap space each year.
Still, these types of deals remain commodities for some teams. The Warriors last year shipped three expiring contracts, including two with a combined value of more than $20MM for Richard Jefferson and Andris Biedrins, to the Jazz in a three-team deal that netted Andre Iguodala. Golden State had been over the cap and was thus unable to sign Iguodala outright, so the expiring deals, which Utah could write off after just a year, came in quite handy for the Warriors.
The Wizards used Emeka Okafor‘s nearly $14.488MM expiring contract last season to trade with the Suns for Marcin Gortat, who became a key part of Washington’s playoff run. Okafor never played for the Suns, but his contract came off the books at season’s end, and Phoenix netted a first-round pick for its trouble. The Okafor contract is nonetheless also representative of the declining value of such deals, since the Suns were unable to find a palatable swap that would allow them to flip Okafor at the trade deadline in February.
There are currently 10 expiring contracts valued in excess of $10MM, and Amar’e Stoudemire‘s massive deal leads them all. The Knicks have reportedly engaged in discussions with the Sixers, the only team close to enough cap space to take Stoudemire on without giving back salary in return, but no deal has materialized. Stoudemire’s deal would have been difficult to move even in the days when teams coveted expiring contracts.
Others among these 10 aren’t likely to be going anywhere, as LaMarcus Aldridge has pledged allegiance to the Trail Blazers and Tim Duncan almost certainly will never play for a team other than the Spurs. Kevin Garnett possesses one of the NBA’s few no-trade clauses, one that’s still in effect even though he gave his blessing to the Celtics/Nets trade last year. Still, Tyson Chandler has already been traded once this summer, and Rajon Rondo‘s name has been connected to trade rumors for more than a year now. Here are the 10 most lucrative expiring contracts, in descending order of value, with the figures rounded to the nearest $1K.
- Amar’e Stoudemire, Knicks ($23.411MM)
- Rudy Gay, Kings ($19.317MM)
- LaMarcus Aldridge, Trail Blazers ($16.006MM)
- Marc Gasol, Grizzlies ($15.83MM)
- Tyson Chandler, Mavericks ($14.847MM)
- Rajon Rondo, Celtics ($12.909MM)
- Kevin Garnett, Nets ($12MM)
- Andrea Bargnani, Knicks ($11.5MM)
- DeAndre Jordan, Clippers ($11.440MM)
- Tim Duncan, Spurs ($10.361MM)
The 12 next most expensive expiring contracts offer a few more likely trade candidates. Marcus Thornton, Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin have all been traded already this offseason, and there have been rumors about Tayshaun Prince. Steve Nash might be poised to reprise the injured Okafor’s role in a similar trade this year, since it’s unclear whether Nash will be healthy enough to play. This list includes Jordan Hill, whose two-year deal was a de facto expiring contract from the moment he signed it, since the second season is a team option. It also features Anderson Varejao and Amir Johnson, whose partially guaranteed contracts would allow any team that trades for them to pocket immediate savings rather than waiting for next summer.
- Anderson Varejao, Cavaliers ($9.705MM) — partially guaranteed for 2014/15
- Steve Nash, Lakers ($9.701MM)
- Paul Millsap, Hawks ($9.5MM)
- Kendrick Perkins, Thunder ($9.404MM)
- Jordan Hill, Lakers ($9MM) — $9MM team option for 2015/16
- Marcus Thornton, Celtics ($8.575MM)
- Omer Asik, Pelicans ($8.375MM)
- Jeremy Lin, Lakers ($8.375MM)
- Tayshaun Prince, Grizzlies ($7.708MM)
- Wesley Matthews, Trail Blazers ($7.246MM)
- Manu Ginobili, Spurs ($7MM)
- Amir Johnson, Raptors ($7MM) — partially guaranteed for 2014/15
ShamSports was used in the creation of this post.
Top Rebounders Still On The Market
Most of the summer’s marquee free agents have found teams, so clubs still looking for upgrades likely have to turn their attention to bargains and specialists at this point. Few of the players still available can make significant contributions in a wide array of statistical categories, but plenty have carved out a niche and can help a team looking to shore up a particular area of need, be it scoring, rebounding, ball distribution, three-point shooting, or another phase of the game.
Last week, I looked at the top scorers on the free agent market, and the focus today is on the best rebounders available. Pistons restricted free agent Greg Monroe appears on both lists, to no one’s surprise, but so do Michael Beasley, Andray Blatche, Andrew Bynum, Jermaine O’Neal and Antawn Jamison, making them attractive options as well.
The top 15 remaining free agents by rebound rate (a percentage of missed shots they rebounded) are listed below. Their rebound rate for 2013/14 is listed in parentheses. Players who averaged fewer than 10 minutes per game and appeared in fewer than 20 contests this past season aren’t included.
- Gustavo Ayon (16.9%)
- Andrew Bynum (15.8)
- Greg Monroe (15.4%)
- Jermaine O’Neal (15.0%)
- Elton Brand (14.8%)
- Andray Blatche (14.4%)
- Daniel Orton (13.1%)
- Michael Beasley (13.0%)
- Greg Stiemsma (13.0%)
- Chris Singleton (12.8%)
- Hedo Turkoglu (12.6%)
- Kenyon Martin (12.5%)
- Antawn Jamison (12.3%)
- Dante Cunningham (11.0%)
- (tie) Earl Clark (10.5%); Ekpe Udoh (10.5%)
Honorable mention:
- Jason Maxiell (10.0%) would have been next on the list.
- Aron Baynes (16.6%), Greg Oden (16.0%) and Josh Harrellson (13.1%) all would have qualified, but they fell narrowly short of the minimum 10 minutes per game.
- Jan Vesely (13.9%) and Anthony Randolph (12.5%) would have appeared on the list had they not come to terms with teams from overseas.