And-Ones: Love, Wiggins, Sterlings, Durant
The Cavs aren’t dangling Andrew Wiggins in trade talks with the Wolves about Kevin Love, at least for the time being, a source tells Bob Finnan of The News-Herald, who was the first to report last week that Cleveland was open to the idea of parting with Wiggins. So, while no one involved would guarantee Finnan that Wiggins wouldn’t wind up in a Love deal, it sounds like that idea is on the backburner for now. Here’s more from around the Association:
- Testimony has resumed today in the probate trial between Clippers owners Donald and Shelly Sterling after the judge made a pair of decisions Friday that appear to help Shelly Sterling’s case, as USA Today’s David Leon Moore details. The judge has the power to allow Shelly Sterling to go forward with her sale of the Clippers to Steve Ballmer, if he rules in her favor, even if Donald Sterling decides to appeal, according to Moore.
- A member of the players association’s executive committee told TNT’s David Aldridge that the union will discuss the idea of taking action should the Sterlings continue to own the Clippers at the start of next season, as Aldridge writes in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com.
- Thunder assistant coach Brian Keefe, whom Knicks head coach Derek Fisher has reportedly lured to serve as a Knicks assistant, was the member of the Oklahoma City staff whom Kevin Durant trusted the most, Aldridge notes in the same piece.
- A source tells Frank Isola of the New York Daily News that Knicks GM Steve Mills recently pulled his name from contention for the union’s executive director vacancy. Mills re-emerged as a candidate this spring after having been the apparent front-runner last summer prior to taking the Knicks job.
- The final two seasons of the four-year contract between Devin Harris and the Mavs are a little more lucrative than previously reported. He’ll make nearly $4.728MM in year three and nearly $4.903MM in the final season, which is partially guaranteed for almost $1.34MM, as Mark Deeks of ShamSports details on his Mavs salary page.
Bulls Sign Cameron Bairstow
The Bulls have signed Cameron Bairstow, whom they selected with the 49th overall pick in last month’s draft, the team announced via press release. The terms of his contract are unclear, but a report last week indicated that the team had made a three-year offer to the former New Mexico big man.
“We like Cameron’s combination as a player with his size, energy and physicality,” Bulls GM Gar Forman said in the team’s statement. “He is a hard worker who will only get better with time.”
The 6’10” Bairstow saw a vastly enhanced role with New Mexico in his senior year this past season, averaging 20.4 points and 7.4 rebounds in 32.9 minutes per game. It was the first time he’d posted a double-digit scoring average in his four years with the Lobos, who fed him nearly twice as many shot attempts during his senior season as they did when he was a junior.
It’ll almost certainly be a minimum-salary contract, since the Bulls have very nearly exhausted their cap room.
Suns Sign Anthony Tolliver
JULY 21ST: The deal is official, the team announced on its website.
“Anthony is a great fit for our style of play,” GM Ryan McDonough said. “His shooting, professionalism and leadership will help us as we try to continue to build a strong foundation going forward.”
JULY 16TH: 10:03am: Each season is worth $3MM, but only $400K of Tolliver’s salary is guaranteed in the second season, according to Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. In any case, a full $3MM salary for 2014/15 means the club will have to use cap space on him, rather than the room exception.
8:34am: The Suns and forward Anthony Tolliver have agreed on a two-year, $6MM deal, agent Larry Fox confirmed to Shams Charania of RealGM. Phoenix beats the Clippers, Cavs, Pistons, Spurs, Wizards and the incumbent Hornets, all of whom apparently had serious discussions with the 29-year-old who was coming off career-high 41.3% accuracy from three-point range last season.
Tolliver averaged 6.1 points in 20.3 minutes per game for Charlotte in 2013/14, though he wasn’t much of a factor in the team’s four-game ouster in the first-round of the playoffs, totaling just 21 minutes for the entire series. The Hornets renounced his Bird rights last week, but they still had the means to re-sign him using cap space, at least until they came to their deal with Lance Stephenson.
Phoenix is likely using cap space on Tolliver, though it’s possible that the Suns could squeeze him into the $2.732MM room exception, depending on the timing of the official signing, if the precise figures in his contract add up to slighly less than $6MM. In any case, Tolliver, who went undrafted in 2007, is in line for the highest salary of his career, per Basketball-Reference.
Heat, Pacers Interested In Chris Singleton
The Heat and Pacers are among the teams who’ve shown interest in free agent combo forward Chris Singleton, a source tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). The Wizards declined their fourth-year option last fall on their rookie scale contract with the former 18th overall pick, setting him up for unrestricted free agency this summer.
The 24-year-old has seen his minutes decline sharply each year following his rookie season, from a high of 21.7 per game when he started 51 games in the lockout-shortened 2011/12 campaign to just 10.0 per contest this past season. He notched 3.0 points, 2.2 rebounds and shot 36.8 from three-point range when he did see the court in 2013/14, and his 8.8 PER, while unimpressive, was a career high.
Neither Miami nor Indiana can shell out more than the minimum salary for the client of BDA Sports Management, though by the looks of Spears’ report, it seems there are other NBA clubs with interest who haven’t been identified. It’s nonetheless doubtful that they’d go above the minimum even if they could for the one-time heralded prospect who’s yet to find his way in the NBA.
D-League President Dan Reed Resigns
D-League president Dan Reed has stepped down from his post to take a job with Facebook, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The Harvard Business School grad had been with the NBA or the D-League in some form or fashion since 2004, and had overseen the D-League for the past seven years. It’s unclear if the NBA has plans to immediately name a replacement or an interim chief for the 18-team minor league.
Only one team in the D-League had a one-to-one affiliation with an NBA franchise when Reed took over in 2007, and now there’s only one club without such an arrangement for 2014/15. Figuring out how to have the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, the lone team without a direct partnership, serve 13 NBA clubs this coming season will be an immediate challenge for whomever assumes the job in Reed’s place.
Reed served as the NBA’s Senior Director of Team Marketing and Business Operations before he moved into the role of D-League president. He succeeded Phil Evans, who had held the D-League presidency since 2002, a year after the league’s inception.
Update On Restricted Free Agents
The only two unsigned players remaining from the latest edition of the Hoops Rumors Free Agent Power Rankings are restricted free agents Eric Bledsoe and Greg Monroe, and that’s not altogether surprising. Negotiations with restricted free agents often drag on, as rival suitors fear the team holding the power to match offers will exercise that right. Still, this year’s market for restricted free agents has been fairly robust, and only five remain without deals, as our Free Agent Tracker shows. Here’s the latest on each of them:
There’s reportedly a wide gulf between Bledsoe, who’s seeking a max deal that would be worth $84,789,500 over five years, and the Suns, who’ve offered four years and $48MM. The Bucks have been in pursuit and apparently discussed an offer sheet with the point guard, but they don’t possess the cap flexibility necessary to make an offer substantially more than what the Suns have on the table, unless they can clear salary via trade. There were some around the NBA who thought agent Rich Paul tried to sell clubs on Bledsoe as they came to make pitches for fellow Paul client LeBron James earlier this month. Still, aside from the Suns, none of the teams who spoke with Paul about LeBron have subsequently been linked to Bledsoe. The Jazz had reportedly been prepared to make an offer to Bledsoe as free agency began, but they used most of their cap room to retain Gordon Hayward, their own restricted free agent.
The Pistons apparently had serious talks with the Blazers about a sign-and-trade that ended when the Blazers came to terms with Chris Kaman. The reported interest from the Magic is “lukewarm at best,” as Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press wrote earlier this month. Monroe visited the Verizon Center in Washington, home of the Wizards, whose interest was identified as early as January, but the Wizards are over the cap now. The Pistons and Pelicans reportedly had talks about a sign-and-trade involving Ryan Anderson, but there’s been little movement on that front since the report emerged on the first day of free agency. The Hawks made contact soon after free agency began, and the Cavs mulled a run too, though that was before Cleveland signed LeBron James.
The Spurs hope to retain the center and will reportedly match any reasonable offer.
No reports since the start of free agency. The combo guard expressed a desire in May to re-sign with the Hawks.
Rival suitors were apparently confident as free agency began that they could snatch him away from the Hawks, though like Mack, he said in May that he would like to return to Atlanta.
Clippers Re-Sign Glen Davis
SATURDAY: The signing is official, the team announced.
THURSDAY: Glen Davis is on his way back to the Clippers, a source tells Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link). It’s a minimum-salary deal, Turner adds in a second tweet, which is somewhat surprising, since he turned down that same amount from the Clippers when he declined his player option last month. L.A. already committed its mid-level and biannual exceptions, but they could have given Davis 20% more than the minimum through his Non-Bird rights.
Davis joined the Clippers in February shortly after securing his release from the Magic, but he saw just 13.4 minutes per game, which would have represented a career low if extrapolated over an entire season. He wasn’t particularly efficient in those minutes, either, compiling a 10.3 PER, which also would have been a career-worst mark. He had a more prominent role with the Magic, where he put up 12.1 points and 6.3 rebounds in 30.1 minutes per contest with a 13.7 PER in the first half of the season.
The 28-year-old John Hamilton client might have looked for a place where he could return to a larger role, and Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers might have opted against re-signing a player who fell flat for the team last season. Still, their relationship seems to have proven too much of a draw. Rivers coached Davis to a championship on the Celtics in 2008, serving as coach and mentor for the first four years of Big Baby’s career. The Clippers appeared to be the only team with which Davis had serious talks.
Davis, a seven-year veteran, will receive $1,227,985 in the deal, but only $915,243 will count against the cap. That leaves just $1,149,228 of breathing room against the hard cap created when the Clippers used their mid-level and biannual exceptions on Spencer Hawes and Jordan Farmar, respectively. The only way the Clippers can fit multiple additional signees on the roster is if they’re both making the minimum salary. The crunch helps explain why they didn’t give Davis 20% more than the minimum as his Non-Bird rights would have allowed.
Wizards Acquire Kris Humphries From Celtics
3:07pm: The protected second-round pick going to the Celtics is for the 2015 draft, the Wizards announced. It’ll be Washington’s own second-rounder, since that’s the only one the Wizards had.
SATURDAY, 12:42pm: The sign-and-trade trade has been officially executed, per a team release from the Celtics.
6:08pm: Michael passes along (via Twitter) that the year in which the Wizards will send that protected second-round pick to the Celtics is yet to be determined.
5:14pm: Boston is receiving a future protected second-round pick in the deal, Wojnarowski reports. It’s so heavily protected that the Wizards are unlikely to ever have to convey it to the Celtics, tweets Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald.
4:25pm: The Celtics and Wizards have reached agreement on the sign-and-trade arrangement, Michael reports. It’s still unclear what Boston is receiving, however.
4:10pm: The first-year salary for Humphries will be $4.3MM, tweets J. Michael of CSNWashington.com, so assuming there are no other players involved, that’s the amount of the trade exception the Celtics will receive.
2:14pm: Boston has had only preliminary discussion with the Wizards about a sign-and-trade involving Humphries, but the Celtics nonetheless appear willing to take part, Wojnarowski reports (on Twitter).
TUESDAY, 1:30pm: Kris Humphries has agreed to join the Wizards on a three-year, $13MM deal, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). The Celtics and Wizards are working to make it a sign-and-trade that would allow the capped-out Wizards, who’ve already used their mid-level exception on Paul Pierce, to give Humphries a deal that large, according to Bleacher Report’s Jared Zwerling (Twitter links). Washington would use a trade exception from its deal to send Trevor Ariza to the Rockets to accommodate the trade for Humphries, as Zwerling explains. The final season of Humphries’ contract will be a team option, according to Wojnarowski, though it’s possible that it will simply be non-guaranteed.
Houston’s sign-and-trade for Ariza has yet to become finalized, but it’ll allow Washington to create a trade exception worth approximately $8.5MM, depending on the value of the salary in the first year of Ariza’s new deal. That’s more than enough room for Humphries, who’ll replace Trevor Booker after he agreed to join the Jazz earlier today.
It’s unclear what the Celtics would receive in the deal, though it appears they’ll net a trade exception of their own. Humphries recently reiterated his openness to a deal that would keep him in Boston, a stance he took for much of the second half of the season after rumors earlier in the year that he wanted out. The Celtics had interest, as did the Heat, Hornets, Clippers, Mavs and Timberwolves at various points this month, but ultimately Washington won out.
The Arn Tellem client averaged 8.4 points and 5.9 rebounds in 19.9 minutes per game for the Celtics this past season, but he’s only two seasons removed from back-to-back double-digit averages in scoring and rebounding for the Nets. Zach Links of Hoops Rumors pointed to Humphries’ track record in predicting that he would end up with a tidy payday, and while he won’t sock away $12MM as he did last season, he still remains well above the minimum salary.
Latest On Kevin Love
10:24pm: Multiple league sources are again refuting the notion that Wiggins has been made available in trade talks, telling Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com that the Cavs still aren’t budging (Twitter link).
8:25pm: Both Love’s camp and a Minnesota source tell Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities that it’s unlikely a deal happens this weekend (Twitter link).
6:00pm: While the Warriors are denying the report of their willingness to trade Thompson in a package for Love, Yannis Koutroupis of Basketball Insiders (video) suggests that Golden State is bluffing in case the Wolves wind up picking the Cavs package above theirs. Koutroupis reiterates that Love’s willingness to opt in for the 2015/16 season gives Minnesota more leverage in asking for Thompson in a trade, and increases the likelihood that the power forward is dealt before the season.
3:27pm: Chris Broussard of ESPN.com is the latest to contend that the Cavs are indeed willing to part with Wiggins in exchange for Love. Cleveland would also part with Anthony Bennett and a 2015 first-round pick, Broussard writes, though the Cavs would have to add more to make a deal work under the league’s salary-matching rules. A trade between the clubs was close at one point, but Minnesota’s demands exceed what the Cavs are offering, according to Broussard. The feeling around the league is that the Wolves are trying to pit the Cavs and Warriors against each other in a bidding war, just the sort of competition Golden State reportedly wants no part of, as we noted below.
11:28am: The Cavs haven’t offered Wiggins for Love, just as the Warriors haven’t offered Thompson for the Minnesota power forward, according to Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press, seconding earlier reports that put the brakes on the idea that one or both were in play (Twitter link). The Warriors want no part of a would-be bidding war against the Cavs for Love, so it appears they’ve decided to set aside Love talks for now, writes Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group.
8:31am: The Warriors aren’t willing to trade Klay Thompson to the Wolves in a deal for Kevin Love, a source insists to Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group, insisting that a report from late Thursday that said Golden State was on board with giving up Thompson was untrue (Twitter links). Kawakami had heard from multiple sources throughout Thursday that the Warriors had considered the idea of including Thompson in packages but decided against doing so (Twitter link).
Rumors surrounding Love perked up when a dispatch Thursday afternoon indicated that the Cavs would be willing to part with Andrew Wiggins for love, but another report denied that this year’s No. 1 overall pick is available for a trade. Still, a source who spoke with Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal before the return of LeBron James to the Cavs said that aside from Kyrie Irving, no one on the Cleveland roster was off-limits for a potential trade that would net Love.
Wolves owner Glen Taylor and Cavs owner Dan Gilbert spoke at length this week about a trade, just as Taylor did last month with Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob, writes Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune. The talks between Taylor and Lacob produced a framework of a deal that included Thompson, but Lacob ultimately spiked the idea on the advice of consultant Jerry West, a source tells Zgoda. West is reportedly an opponent of trading Thompson.
Rockets Sign Ish Smith
FRIDAY, 8:46pm: The signing is official, the team has announced (H/T Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle).
THURSDAY, 4:50pm: The Rockets and guard Ishmael Smith have agreement on a one-year deal, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). The Suns waived Smith two days ago just before his non-guaranteed contract was to become fully guaranteed. Presumably, he’s cleared waivers, allowing the Rockets the chance to sign him. Smith’s new deal is fully guaranteed for the minimum salary, according to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle (on Twitter).
Smith played 28 games for the Rockets in 2010/11, making him the latest former Rocket to sign with the team this summer. All four free agents with whom the team has come to agreements this month have already played for the Rockets at some time during their careers. Since debuting with Houston, Smith bounced between four other NBA franchises (Memphis, Golden State, Orlando and Milwaukee) before finding a home in Phoenix last season. He played 70 games for the Suns, averaging 3.7 points and 2.6 assists in 14.4 minutes per game.
The 26-year-old Wake Forest product figures to compete with Isaiah Canaan and Troy Daniels next season in Houston for backup point guard duties. The Rockets, of course, traded Jeremy Lin to the Lakers last week in hopes that they could reach an agreement with then-free agent Chris Bosh. Without Lin (or Bosh, as it turned out), adding depth behind Patrick Beverley became a priority.