Aron Baynes Mulls Signing In Europe
Restricted free agent Aron Baynes is exploring options in Europe even as he maintains a desire to re-sign with the Spurs, reports Ismail Senol of NTV Spor in Turkey (Twitter link; translation via HoopsHype). Senol suggests the center is looking for a better deal than what the Spurs have on the table, though it’s not clear whether San Antonio has proposed an arrangement any more lucrative than his qualifying offer, worth slightly more than $1.115MM.
Heading overseas would give Baynes a chance to control his own destiny, since the Spurs have the right to match any offer he receives from another NBA team. There haven’t been many reports about Baynes in the past few months, in stark contrast to Eric Bledsoe and Greg Monroe, the only other remaining restricted free agents. A dispatch from about a month ago indicated the Spurs maintained hope of re-signing the Marc Fleisher client, so that suggests the two sides have mutual interest but haven’t been able to find agreeable terms.
San Antonio doesn’t lack flexibility, since the Spurs could give Baynes a starting salary of up to $5,631,505 using his Early Bird rights, and doing so wouldn’t put them over the tax threshold. Of course, Baynes wouldn’t command nearly that much, having failed to average 10 minutes per game last season even on a Spurs team that employed one of the most egalitarian minutes distributions of all time. There were 14 Spurs who appeared in at least 10 games and averaged 10 or more minutes per contest last season, and Baynes wasn’t one of them.
Still, the New Zealand native represents one of the many prospects from overseas who’ve helped the Spurs build their lengthy run of success. Baynes was playing in Slovenia when the Spurs signed him in January of 2013, and he had spent the previous season in Greece. He went undrafted in 2009 after playing four seasons at Washington State.
The Spurs are already carrying 16 players, as our roster counts show, but only 14 of them have fully guaranteed deals. Bryce Cotton and JaMychal Green, both of whom have partially guaranteed pacts, would no doubt stand a better shot of making it to opening night if Baynes heads elsewhere.
Toney Douglas Agrees To Play In China
TUESDAY, 8:06am: Douglas is set to ink with the Jiangsu Dragons for $1MM, according to Nick Bedard of Basketballbuddha.com. Presumably, the arrangement is for this season only.
MONDAY, 10:06am: Free agent guard Toney Douglas will play in China this season, reports David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). The move is somewhat surprising, since the five-year NBA veteran and 2009 first-round pick was a contributor down the stretch for the Heat this past season, and he drew NBA interest this summer. The terms aren’t clear, and neither is the identity of the Chinese team that has the deal with Douglas, but most NBA veterans who go to China do so on one-year deals that allow them to return stateside well before the end of the NBA season, thanks to the Chinese Basketball Association’s abbreviated schedule.
The Bulls reportedly pursued the 28-year-old last month before coming to terms with Aaron Brooks. Douglas started 17 games for the Heat last season after a midseason trade brought him from Golden State, though he averaged just 4.2 points and 1.8 assists against 0.7 turnovers in 15.2 minutes per game for Miami. The Heat largely buried him on the bench during the postseason, putting him on the floor for a total of only 29 minutes in 10 playoff contests.
Still, the David Falk client was a regular part of the rotation for the Knicks, Rockets and Kings during the first four years of his career, averaging 20.3 MPG over that span. He’s set to join Al Harrington, Byron Mullens, Metta World Peace and top-notch 2015 draft prospect Emmanuel Mudiay among the noteworthy players who’ll play in China this year.
Eastern Notes: Pacers, Irving, Carter-Williams
Indiana lost out on Shawn Marion this weekend, and the Pacers also let a degree of flexibility lapse when Donald Sloan‘s non-guaranteed minimum salary became fully guaranteed. President of basketball operations Larry Bird said last week that the team had no intention of waiving the point guard before his deal became guaranteed, so it was no shock. It wasn’t surprising to see the Knicks keep Quincy Acy and his minimum salary past his guarantee date on Friday, either, since that was reportedly part of the team’s deal to acquire the power forward via trade from Sacramento. Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:
- The Pacers indeed offered Marion more than the minimum salary that the Cavs are limited to doling out, according to Shams Charania of RealGM. Marion reportedly decided this weekend to sign with the Cleveland.
- Kyrie Irving is the primary focus of Charania’s piece, and while there were plenty of rumors that suggested his extension talks wouldn’t be easy, he acknowledged to the RealGM scribe that the choice to sign a max deal with the Cavs last month was a simple one. Irving also insists that he had no influence on the team’s coaching search this year.
- Michael Carter-Williams is ready to step up and be a leader for the Sixers if Thaddeus Young is traded this coming weekend, writes Tom Moore of Calkins Media.
- Sixers draft-and-stash prospect Furkan Aldemir has officially signed a new three-year deal with Galatasaray of Turkey, the team announced (hat tip to Sportando’s Enea Trapani). The sides came to agreement back in May on the $5.3MM deal that includes an option for the final season. Whether it’s a team or player option and what sort of NBA buyout clauses exist are unclear.
Eddie Scarito contributed to this post.
Pistons Sign Cartier Martin
AUGUST 18TH: The Pistons have finally followed up with an official announcement.
AUGUST 6TH: The team has yet to announce the deal, but the signing has occurred, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link).
JULY 14TH: It’ll be a minimum-salary contract, according to Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News (Twitter link).
JULY 2ND: The deal includes a second season that’s a player option, tweets Shams Charania of RealGM.
JULY 1ST: The Pistons have struck a one-year deal with Cartier Martin, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The 29-year-old swingman spent most of last season with the Hawks, save for a pair of 10-day contracts with Chicago. It’s unclear just how much Martin will receive, but it seems likely to be a minimum-salary arrangement.
The addition of Martin, along with Jodie Meeks, seems like an attempt by new Pistons coach/executive Stan Van Gundy to upgrade the team’s outside shooting. Martin is an above average three-point shooter, knocking down 39.1% of his treys last season and 38.3% for his career.
Martin, like Meeks, is a client of Andrew Vye, so it appears as though negotiations happened simultaneous. There weren’t reports of other suitors for the six-year veteran, who saw 15.5 minutes per game for Atlanta last season.
Pistons Sign Aaron Gray
AUGUST 18TH: The deal is official, the team announced.
JULY 14TH: It’s a minimum-salary arrangement, as Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News tweets.
JULY 7TH: The Pistons and Aaron Gray have reached agreement on a multiyear deal, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). The terms aren’t immediately clear, but it’s presumably a minimum-salary deal for the backup center.
Gray finished last season with the Kings after coming over from Toronto in the Rudy Gay trade, averaging 1.8 points and 3.1 rebounds in 10.2 minutes per game. He started 40 games for the Raptors in the lockout-shortened 2011/12 season, but he’s spent the majority of his career as a backup.
The 7-foot client of ASM Sports will add bulk to the Pistons reserve unit, perhaps serving as an insurance policy for a spot in the rotation should the team be unable to bring back restricted free agent Greg Monroe. The agreement is an ominous sign for incumbent reserve big man Josh Harrellson, whose non-guaranteed contract becomes fully guaranteed if the Pistons don’t waive him by the end of July 20th. It’s a “safe bet” that the team will move on from Harrellson, tweets Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press.
NBA’s Top Spenders In 2014 Free Agency
There’s probably no way the Heat can make up for the loss of LeBron James, but it won’t be for a lack of financial commitment. The Heat spent more than $220MM on players this summer, nearly doubling the team with the next greatest total of expenditures since July 1st.
I looked at each team’s most expensive signing last week, and while Chris Bosh, Miami’s representative, put the Heat second on that list, the full picture of the team’s summer signings shows just how much team president Pat Riley and company shelled out. It helps that Norris Cole was the only player under contract to begin July, but the Sixers have retained plenty of cap space all summer, and they’ve yet to sign anyone for more than the minimum.
As with last week’s list of the most expensive signings by team, there are some ground rules at play. The list below includes non-guaranteed salary and option years, but it doesn’t consider trade acquisitions. It doesn’t take into account rookie scale contracts, either. To help weed out summer contracts and many of the players who won’t be on NBA rosters come opening night, I’ve eliminated deals for the minimum salary. This listing does include non-minimum signings of second-round picks and undrafted players, as well as Nikola Mirotic, a former first-round pick who signed for more than the rookie scale. I’ve also thrown in Carlos Boozer for the Lakers, who claimed him off amnesty waivers. Here’s the complete list, rounded to the nearest $1K, with salary data via our 2014 Free Agent Tracker. The number of years committed and the number of players to whom the money is going are in parentheses.
- Heat: $220.578MM (21 years, eight players)
- Knicks: $127.343MM (six years, two players)
- Mavericks: $96.317MM (14 years, five players)
- Wizards: $93.748MM (14 years, five players)
- Raptors: $84.15MM (11 years, four players)*
- Jazz: $72.74MM (six years, two players)**
- Cavaliers: $50.515MM (seven years, four players)
- Suns: $49.5MM (nine years, three players)
- Magic: $49.21MM (11 years, four players)
- Lakers: $47.033MM (10 years, five players)
- Hornets: $46.905MM (seven years, three players)
- Bulls: $44.564MM (eight years, three players)
- Rockets: $41.398MM (six years, two players)
- Spurs: $38.999MM (seven years, two players)***
- Pistons: $36.335MM (10 years, four players)
- Hawks: $33.3MM (11 years, four players)
- Celtics: $32MM (four years, one player)****
- Clippers: $26.9MM (six years, two players)
- Pacers: $21.404MM (seven years, two players)
- Warriors: $16.631MM (three years, one player)
- Grizzlies: $16.511MM (five years, two players)
- Kings: $15.041MM (three years, one player)
- Trail Blazers: $14.063MM (four years, two players)
- Nets: $12.887MM (five years, two players)
- Thunder: $10.032MM (three years, one player)
- Bucks: $8.425MM (five years, two players)
- Timberwolves: $4.63MM (two years, two players)
- Pelicans: $2MM (one year, one player)
- Nuggets: No qualifying signings
- Sixers: No qualifying signings
* — Jordan Hamilton has agreed to a deal with the Raptors, and while it seems likely that it’s a minimum-salary arrangement, that has yet to be reported. Hamilton isn’t included in the tallies for Toronto.
** — The Jazz and Kevin Murphy have a deal that’s presumably for the minimum salary, though the precise value has not yet been made public. His figures aren’t reflected here.
*** San Antonio’s contract with JaMychal Green is presumably for the minimum, but that point has yet to be reported. It’s not included here.
**** — The Celtics also have a deal with Evan Turner that’s reportedly for a portion of the mid-level exception, but the precise value is not yet publicly known. His numbers aren’t shown in Boston’s totals.
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No. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins becomes eligible to be traded on Saturday, meaning the Kevin Love deal can become official, and with it, there will presumably be clarity on whether the Sixers and Thaddeus Young will be involved in the transaction. Eric Bledsoe and Greg Monroe remain unsigned, as does Ray Allen. There are a handful of ways you can follow us to keep tabs on the latest news and rumors as these storylines develop.
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Tony Mitchell To Play In Italy
Former Bucks small forward Tony Mitchell has signed with Italy’s Aquila Basket Trento, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). The terms aren’t immediately clear, but it appears as though the 25-year-old is electing to head overseas rather than try to make an NBA opening-night roster through training camp.
Mitchell’s NBA experience is brief, having appeared for a total of just 10 minutes over three games in March on a 10-day contract with Milwaukee. The Bucks didn’t re-sign him, though it seemed as though the team had at least some degree of interest in doing so. The former University of Alabama mainstay also saw time in the D-League and China this past season, and he was a prolific scorer with the D-League Select Team in summer league last month, averaging 19.0 points in 30.4 minutes per game across five contests.
The Todd Ramasar client joins more than a dozen others who played in the NBA last season and have agreed to ply their trade overseas for the coming year, as our Free Agent Tracker shows. Mitchell is not to be confused with the Tony Mitchell who has a fully guaranteed contract with the Pistons for this season.
Anthony Randolph Signs With Russian Team
Former NBA lottery pick Anthony Randolph has signed with Russia’s Locomotiv Kuban, the team announced (hat tip to Sportando’s Enea Trapani). It’s a two-year deal that includes an option on the final season, though the team’s statement doesn’t make it entirely clear whether that’s a team option or a player option.
Randolph had been a free agent ever since the Magic quietly waived him following the trade that sent him from Chicago to Orlando about a month ago. The Bulls had acquired him from the Nuggets as part of the draft-night swap that also brought Doug McDermott to Chicago.
The 14th overall pick from the 2008 draft was on the fringes of the rotation in Denver this past season, averaging 4.8 points and 2.8 rebounds in 12.3 minutes per contest. That was nonetheless an upgrade on his role from the previous season, when he saw just 8.4 MPG for the Nuggets. The BDA Sports Management client didn’t appear to draw much NBA interest following his release from Orlando, but his salary for more than $1.8MM this season was guaranteed and remains on the Magic’s books.
Hornets Sign Justin Cobbs For Camp
SEPTEMBER 22ND: The deal is official, the team announced.
AUGUST 18TH: Point guard Justin Cobbs will be on the Hornets roster for training camp, according to David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). Cobbs, who went undrafted out of the University of California in June, will also take part in training camp with Laboral Kuxta of Spain, Pick adds. Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia first reported the unusual dual-camp arrangement, with Pick later filling in the identity of the teams. The arrangement would appear to give Cobbs a European fallback in case he doesn’t make it to opening night with Charlotte.
Cobbs went into the draft as the 92nd-best prospect in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress rankings, while Chad Ford of ESPN.com pegged him 131st. In any case, it was no surprise that he was passed over on draft night, and while he totaled just 12 minutes in two summer league games with the Grizzlies, it looks like Cobbs impressed during his predraft workout with the Hornets. His production in college wasn’t shabby, as he averaged 15.6 points, 5.8 assists and 2.4 turnovers in 34.5 minutes per game as a senior this past year.
It’s presumably a non-guaranteed deal for the minimum salary for the 6’3″ 23-year-old. Charlotte is only carrying 13 other players, all on guaranteed deals, and that number is poised to swell to 14 once 26th overall pick P.J. Hairston signs his rookie scale contract. Cobbs nonetheless faces an uphill battle on a roster that already includes point guards Kemba Walker, Brian Roberts and Jannero Pargo.