DeAndre Daniels Signs With Australian Team
AUGUST 14th: The deal is now official, according to an announcement on the Wildcats’ website.
AUGUST 9th, 6:05pm: Daniels confirmed that he was headed to Australia to reporters including Chris Robinson of Australian paper the Herald Sun. Daniels said he would play overseas for four months and then return to the Raptors, although in what capacity he would rejoin Toronto is unclear. The Wildcats managing director told Robinson that the deal still isn’t finalized.
AUGUST 7th, 9:52am: The 37th overall pick in June’s draft is believed to be nearing agreement with the Perth Wildcats of Australia, reports Shayne Hope of The West Australian (hat tip to Orazio Cauchi of Sportando). DeAndre Daniels would head down under in lieu of joining the Raptors this year. It’ll likely be a one-year deal, Hope writes.
Toronto GM Masai Ujiri signaled a month ago that his team probably wouldn’t sign Daniels for the upcoming season, and the Raptors had reportedly been helping the small forward find overseas work. Daniels would head to the same Australian team that last year employed James Ennis, the 50th pick in the 2013 draft, but it’s unclear if the Wildcats will give Daniels the same NBA escape clause that they afforded Ennis. Perth would have been on the hook for its salary to Ennis had he signed with the Heat, who owned his NBA rights, at any point last season.
Daniels would be the most highly drafted 2014 second-rounder to head overseas for this coming season, though a pair of first-round picks have done so, as our list of draft pick signings shows. The 22-year-old from Connecticut was a somewhat surprising selection at No. 37, since he was just the 59th-best prospect in the rankings that Chad Ford of ESPN.com compiled, and Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress rated him 64th. The 6’8″ Daniels averaged 13.1 points and 6.0 rebounds in 29.0 minutes per game with 41.7% three-point shooting for the national champion Huskies this past season.
Fallout From Clippers Ownership Transfer
Donald Sterling had been the NBA’s longest-tenured owner, but when Steve Ballmer closed on his purchase of the Clippers today, Sterling’s reign came to an end. We’ll round up the fallout from the ownership change here, with any additional updates on top:
- As expected, a court of appeals has denied Donald Sterling’s final maneuver to prevent the sale of the Clippers, tweets Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com.
- While Sterling has previously vowed to sue the league for the rest of his life, Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com tweets that the Clippers are in no danger of ever returning to the hands of their disgraced former owner.
Earlier updates:
- Attorneys for Donald Sterling asked an appellate court for an immediate stay and an order that would halt or unwind the sale, report Nathan Fenno and James Rainey of the Los Angeles Times. Still, other lawyers familiar with petitions like that believe there’s little chance the effort will bear fruit, Fenno and Rainey add.
- Donald Sterling didn’t consent to the sale, so that’s why 10% of the team won’t be spun off into a charitable foundation in which Shelly Sterling would be heavily involved, as Fenno and Rainey write in the same piece.
- Ballmer is purchasing 100% of the team, so that means Shelly Sterling didn’t exercise her option to spin a stake of up to 10% of the franchise into a charitable foundation, tweets Dan Woike of the Orange County Register.
- The NBA has filed a countersuit in federal court against Sterling and the Sterling family trust in response to his antitrust suit against the league and commissioner Adam Silver, reports Nathan Fenno of the Los Angeles Times. The league is seeking compensation for damages and enforcement of an agreement it claims Sterling signed in 2005 indemnifying the league against litigation and monetary loss, as Fenno explains. Shelly Sterling agreed this May to indemnify the NBA for costs and litigation relating to the sale of the team to Ballmer.
- Ballmer said he feels his record $2 billion investment in the Clippers carries much less risk than he took on in his business dealings, making him comfortable with the purchase, as he tells Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com (Twitlonger link).
- Ballmer, who was a part of Seattle’s bid to wrest the Kings from Sacramento last year, also reiterated his long-held stance against moving the Clippers out of Los Angeles, as Shelburne notes in another Twitlonger dispatch.
Late Signees Who Made It To Opening Night
The heavy rush of free agency is over, but many teams have plenty of work left before their rosters are finalized. More than two dozen players signed between this time last year and the end of September, when training camps begin, made it to opening night in 2013. That doesn’t count all the signees whom teams released before the preseason was over, nor does it count those who made it to opening night with another team if they were released in October. Draft picks from 2013 don’t figure into the calculation, either.
The list of signings that do fit the criteria is below. It includes sought-after players, like Nikola Pekovic, just as such a list for this year’s late signees would have Eric Bledsoe and Greg Monroe on it. There are also names, like Toure’ Murry and Michael Beasley, who figure to repeat as late-season signees this year, too. The date listed is when the team formally announced the signing or the transaction otherwise became official, according to the RealGM transactions log.
- Al Harrington, Wizards (August 13th)
- Elias Harris, Lakers (August 14th)
- Nikola Pekovic, Timberwolves (August 15th)
- Anthony Tolliver, Bobcats (August 19th)
- Josh Harrellson, Pistons (August 21st)
- Arinze Onuaku, Pelicans (August 21st)
- Lance Thomas, Pelicans (August 21st)
- Ronnie Brewer, Rockets (August 27th)
- Antawn Jamison, Clippers (August 28th)
- Shawne Williams, Lakers (September 3rd)
- Xavier Henry, Lakers (September 5th)
- James Southerland, Bobcats (September 5th)
- Chris Smith, Knicks (September 10th)
- Toure’ Murry, Knicks (September 9th)
- Michael Beasley, Heat (September 11th)
- Dionte Christmas, Suns (September 13th)
- Darius Morris, Sixers (September 13th)
- Hamady N’Diaye, Kings (September 13th)
- Julyan Stone, Raptors (September 18th)
- Cole Aldrich, Knicks (September 23rd)
- Robbie Hummel, Timberwolves (September 23rd)
- Mike James, Bulls (September 23rd)
- Hollis Thompson, Sixers (September 24th)
- Rasual Butler, Pacers (September 25th)
- Solomon Jones, Magic (September 27th)
- Ognjen Kuzmic, Warriors (September 27th)
- Roger Mason Jr., Heat (September 27th)
- Mike Harris, Jazz (September 30th)
- A.J. Price, Timberwolves (September 30th)
- Henry Sims, Cavaliers (September 30th)
The RealGM transactions log was used in the creation of this post.
Each Team’s Most Expensive Signing
Teams take vastly different approaches when it comes to signing players. The Knicks made it a priority to re-sign Carmelo Anthony, even if it took the maximum salary to do so, as it nearly did. The Sixers are laying back in rebuilding mode, and they haven’t signed a single free agent so far. Their only addition has been draft-and-stash signee Pierre Jackson, whose rights they acquired via trade from the Pelicans. He inked for the rookie minimum salary.
The other 28 teams fall in between, and the methods each club used to make its most lucrative signing of the summer are almost as varied as the amounts of money all the teams spent. Some teams made their most significant expenditure by re-signing one of their own free agents, while others signed outside free agents, signed offer sheets, matched offer sheets, completed sign-and-trades, signed first-round picks to rookie scale contracts, and, like the Sixers, signed players drafted in previous years. The only avenues of player acquisition not accounted for here are waiver claims, since no team made its most lucrative addition this way, and trades, since trades generally involve an exchange of salaries already on the books (sign-and-trades are counted here, however). The list also includes Tony Parker‘s veteran extension, which outpaces San Antonio’s four-year, $28MM re-signing of Boris Diaw.
The complete list of each team’s most lucrative signing of the summer is below, in descending order of expense, with the amount of the payout in parentheses. These amounts, rounded to the nearest $1K, include all options and non-guaranteed salary, where applicable:
- Knicks: Carmelo Anthony (five years, $124.065MM — re-signing)
- Heat: Chris Bosh (five years, $118.705MM — re-signing)
- Jazz: Gordon Hayward (four years, $62.965MM — matched offer sheet)
- Wizards: Marcin Gortat (five years, $60MM — re-signing)
- Raptors: Kyle Lowry (four years, $48MM — re-signing)
- Mavericks: Chandler Parsons (three years, $46.085MM — unmatched offer sheet signing)
- Spurs: Tony Parker (three years, $43.336MM — veteran extension)
- Cavaliers: LeBron James (two years, $42.218MM — free agent signing)
- Rockets: Trevor Ariza (four years, $32MM — sign-and-trade)
- Celtics: Avery Bradley (four years, $32MM — re-signing)
- Magic: Channing Frye (four years, $32MM — free agent signing)
- Hornets: Lance Stephenson (three years, $27.405MM — free agent signing)
- Suns: Isaiah Thomas (four years, $27MM — sign-and-trade)
- Clippers: Spencer Hawes (four years, $22.652MM — free agent signing)
- Bulls: Pau Gasol (three years, $22.346MM — free agent signing)
- Bucks: Jabari Parker (four years, $22.24MM — rookie scale contract signing)
- Lakers: Nick Young (four years, $21.326MM — re-signing)
- Pistons: Jodie Meeks (three years, $18.81MM — free agent signing)
- Pacers: C.J. Miles (four years, $18MM — free agent signing)
- Warriors: Shaun Livingston (three years, $16.631MM — free agent signing)
- Kings: Darren Collison (three years, $15.041MM — free agent signing)
- Grizzlies: Vince Carter (three years, $12.264MM — free agent signing)
- Hawks: Thabo Sefolosha (three years, $12MM — sign-and-trade)
- Nets: Bojan Bogdanovic (three years, $10.277MM — draft-and-stash signing)
- Thunder: Anthony Morrow (three years, $10.032MM — free agent signing)
- Timberwolves: Zach LaVine (four years, $9,647MM — rookie scale contract signing)
- Trail Blazers: Chris Kaman (two years, $9.816MM — free agent signing)
- Nuggets: Jusuf Nurkic (four years, $8,473,305 — rookie scale contract signing)
- Pelicans: John Salmons (one year, $2MM — free agent signing)
- Sixers: Pierre Jackson (one year, $507K — draft-and-stash signing)
ShamSports was used in the creation of this post
Extension Candidate Series
Eric Bledsoe and Greg Monroe have yet to sign, and the Kevin Love trade agreement will remain unofficial for another 10 days or so, but the first part of the NBA’s offseason has largely come to a close. The main feature of the back end of the offseason involves players signing extensions, with rookie scale extensions chief among them. I took a look at the rookie scale extension market as a whole last month, and I also listed those eligible for veteran extensions. We’ll be taking focused, in-depth looks at some of the most intriguing candidates on each list as part of our Extension Candidate series in the months to come.
This list of our Extension Candidate posts can be found at any time under the “Hoops Rumors Features” menu on the right sidebar. We’ll continue to update it as we examine more players who might be in line for long-term commitments to their current teams in the near future. Here are the extension candidates we’ve previewed so far, in alphabetical order:
Orlando Johnson To Play In Spain
WEDNESDAY, 1:06pm: Johnson has switched gears and has agreed to play for Laboral Kuxta of Spain, reports David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia confirms the news (on Twitter). The team is presumably the Spanish club that made the lucrative offer that Pick identified earlier.
5:45pm: David Pick of Eurobasket.com suggests (on Twitter) that Johnson had a more lucrative opportunity from a Spanish team, but that the wing’s representatives pushed him toward Enel Brindisi.
SATURDAY, 8:40am: Johnson and Enel Brindisi are finalizing the deal, reports Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. Carchia notes that it’s a one-year pact.
FRIDAY, 12:30pm: Former Pacers and Kings swingman Orlando Johnson is leaning toward taking a deal with Enel Brindisi of Italy, Sportando’s Orazio Cauchi reports (Twitter link). The terms of a would-be deal aren’t immediately clear, but it would likely offer him more security than an NBA training camp invitation would.
Johnson spent a year and a half with the Pacers, who drafted him 36th overall in 2012, but Indiana waived him at the trade deadline when the acquisition of Evan Turner and Lavoy Allen for Danny Granger created a numbers crunch. The BDA Sports Management client latched on with Sacramento on a pair of 10-day contracts, and while it appeared as though the Kings were likely to keep him for the rest of the season once the second of those 10-day deals expired, the Kings went with Jared Cunningham instead.
There hasn’t been much NBA interest in Johnson since, as our rumors page for the 25-year-old shows, though Brose Baskets Bamberg of Germany eyed him in July, as Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia reported. Should he take the deal with Enel Brindisi, Johnson would join a group of 10 others who are heading overseas after appearing in the NBA last season, according to the Hoops Rumors Free Agent Tracker.
Deonte Burton To Join Kings For Camp
WEDNESDAY, 12:52pm: The deal is official, the team announced via Twitter. The Kings refer to Burton as a camp invitee, suggesting his deal is non-guaranteed.
TUESDAY, 5:46pm: Burton signed his deal yesterday, reports Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter links). Pincus confirms it’s a one-year agreement.
4:13pm: The Kings and undrafted point guard Deonte Burton have reached an agreement, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). It’s not immediately clear whether the deal is a summer contract or carries some kind of guarantee. It’ll likely be a minimum-salary arrangement.
Burton appeared to have a strong chance of becoming a second-round pick heading into the draft, as Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress ranked him as the 52nd-best prospect while Chad Ford of ESPN.com listed him at No. 62. The 23-year-old spent summer league with the Wizards, averaging just 1.8 points in 17.3 minutes per contest, but he put up much better numbers as a senior with the Wolf Pack this past season, springing for 20.1 PPG and 4.4 assists against 2.0 turnovers in 38.6 MPG. He also chipped in 4.3 rebounds per contest, impressive considering his 6’1″ size.
The Kings have 15 others already in the fold, as our roster counts show, though that includes a partially guaranteed deal with Eric Moreland and Jeremy Tyler‘s non-guaranteed contract. The team is also thinking about waiving the newly acquired Wayne Ellington, so Burton appears well-positioned for a decent shot at making the opening-night roster.
Burton is not to be confused with the Marquette shooting guard of the same name.
Top Scorers Still On The Market
Many NBA teams are largely finished with their free agent shopping, but most clubs probably wouldn’t mind adding a scorer or two to supplement their benches. Taking a flier on a summer league standout or an undrafted rookie can pay dividends, but there are plenty of proven veteran scorers still on the market as well.
Below is a list of the top 15 remaining free agents by points per 36 minutes. It’s no surprise that Eric Bledsoe, the No. 4 player in the Hoops Rumors Free Agent Power Rankings, is at the top as his restricted free agency drags on. Fellow sought-after restricted free agent Greg Monroe is on this list amid conflicting reports about whether he’s going to sign his qualifying offer. Ray Allen has been the subject of plenty of chatter even though he trails Mike Harris, a much less ballyhooed free agent, in this category.
Each player’s rate of points per 36 minutes during the 2013/14 campaign is listed in parentheses. To qualify, these free agents must have averaged at least 10 minutes per game and appeared in at least 20 contests this past season.
- Eric Bledsoe (19.4)
- Michael Beasley (18.9)
- Andray Blatche (18.3)
- Jordan Crawford (17.2)
- Greg Monroe (16.7)
- Ramon Sessions (16.6)
- Andrew Bynum (15.7)
- Leandro Barbosa (14.7)
- Jordan Hamilton (14.3)
- Jermaine O’Neal (14.2)
- Anthony Randolph (14.1)
- Mike Harris (13.4)
- Ray Allen (13.0)
- Darius Morris (12.3)
- Antawn Jamison (12.2)
Honorable mention:
- Earl Clark and Chris Douglas-Roberts would have been next on the list, as both averaged 12.0 points per 36 minutes.
- The No. 3 position would have gone to Charlie Villanueva, who notched 18.4 points per 36 minutes, but he was 20 total minutes shy of meeting the qualifying criteria.
- MarShon Brooks (18.1), Byron Mullens (16.4) and Al Harrington (15.9) scored at rates that would have put them in the top 15, but they’ve all agreed to deals with overseas teams.
Hoops Rumors Features
Hoops Rumors passes along the latest news and rumors on NBA player movement 365 days a year, but those aren’t the only updates you’ll see on the site. On our right sidebar, you’ll find a number of additional features and featured posts. Here’s a rundown of a few of them:
- Two of the top 10 free agents as listed in our Free Agent Power Rankings remain unsigned, and other notables are a part of our full list of 2014 free agents. We’ve profiled several of them with our Free Agent Stock Watch series.
- We’re also keeping track of the 2015 free agents as the ability for LeBron James, Kevin Love, Rajon Rondo, Marc Gasol and others to hit the market next year begins to affect the landscape of the league.
- Our agency database is a handy reference point for determining the representation for virtually every NBA player.
- Several NBA teams can pay no more than the minimum salary to any free agent signee for the coming season. Our updated list identifies these clubs.
- See how far each team has come toward accomplishing the goals we outlined in our Offseason Outlook series, which provides a detailed look at where all 30 NBA teams stood going into the summer.
- Our list of outstanding traded player exceptions is updated whenever a trade exception is created, used or expires.
- Eddie Scarito recapped and graded the draft from the perspective of every team. He broke it down into divisions (Atlantic, Central, Southeast, Southwest, Northwest, Pacific).
- Eddie’s also looking back on notable trades from the past several years to see how they’ve panned out over time. He recently examined the deals that sent Dwight Howard to the Lakers, Deron Williams to the Nets, and Kevin Garnett to the Celtics.
- Using our 10-day contract tracker, you can find any 10-day contract signed this year or in any season since the 2006/07. You can sort by player, team, year and other variables.
- We give you a turn in the spotlight when we showcase the best reader comments with our Hoops Rumors Featured Feedback posts.
- On Mondays at 4:00pm CT, I answer reader questions in a live chat. You can check out transcripts of our past discussions here.
- We’re tracking each team’s use of the amnesty clause. Our complete table shows which clubs have used the provision and which still have it available.
- The Hoops Rumors glossary helps explain some of the more complex concepts in the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement. Recently, I added entries on summer contracts and Exhibit 9 contracts, the sorts of deals that teams will hand out with frequency in the next couple of months.
- Zach Links rounds up the best of the blogosphere with Hoops Links on Sundays.
- If you’re looking to catch up, our Week in Review posts compile the top news and rumors from the past seven days, while our Hoops Rumors Originals posts recap the site’s original content for the week. Both roundups are published every Sunday.
- Be sure to check out the Featured Posts section on the right sidebar for more original pieces from the Hoops Rumors writing team. Recently, we looked at how salary matching rules affect the structure of the Kevin Love deal, detailed the many moves required for the Pelicans to acquire Omer Asik, and explored why Brendan Haywood‘s oddly structured contract represents a valuable trade chip for the Cavs.
Pacers Receive Disabled Player Exception
The NBA has granted Indiana’s request for a disabled player exception in the wake of the Paul George injury, reports Bob Kravitz of the Indianapolis Star (Twitter link). It’s worth $5.305MM, meaning Indiana can use that amount to sign a player to a one-year deal or acquire a player on an expiring contract via waiver claim. The Pacers may alternatively use the amount plus $100K to trade for a player, as long as the player’s contract doesn’t extend past this coming season. Still, it’s unlikely the team would use the full amount of the exception, given its tight squeeze against the luxury tax line, one which Larry Bird reiterated today that the club will not cross.
The Pacers had been among the teams limited to signing players for no more than the minimum salary, so the exception will at least give Indiana the power to exceed that amount. Indiana has a team salary of $74,810,552, according to Mark Deeks of ShamSports, which puts the club $2,018,448 shy of the tax threshold. The Pacers can afford themselves some breathing room if they release the partially guaranteed contracts of Luis Scola or Shayne Whittington, though Whittington seems a much stronger candidate to go. Donald Sloan has a non-guaranteed minimum salary, but Bird said today that the team intends to keep him beyond Friday, when his contract becomes fully guaranteed, so that’s one fewer avenue to salary flexibility.
Whittington’s rookie minimum salary is only guaranteed for $25K, so the Pacers could increase their room beneath the tax to $2,500,784 if they waive him. That would be more than $1MM in excess of what the Cavs can offer Shawn Marion for this season, since Cleveland can hand out only the veteran’s minimum. The Pacers have continued to make a push to sign Marion, who’s reportedly leaning toward inking with the Cavs instead. Bird said today that he believes Marion wants to sign with a title-contending team. Indiana’s hopes probably vanished when George went down, but Bird also indicated today that he doesn’t intend to make moves that would further weaken the team this year and will instead try to win as many games as possible, as the Star’s Michael Pointer chronicles (Twitter link).
Bird didn’t rule out the chance that George returns to play this season after suffering a compound leg fracture in a Team USA scrimmage earlier this month, but the executive acknowledged that the club expects George to remain out for the year. The league grants a disabled player exception based on a medical prognosis that would put a player out for the balance of the season, but there’s no penalty if the player surprises and returns to action. Any player acquired via the exception may continue to play for the team in that scenario.