Bulls Amnesty Carlos Boozer
4:15pm: The Bulls have officially announced the move, via press release.
3:49pm: The Bulls have used the amnesty provision to waive Carlos Boozer, reports Sam Smith of Bulls.com (Twitter link). His $16.8MM salary will no longer count toward the salary cap for Chicago, which has needed room to accommodate its deals for Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic, as I explained earlier this week. Boozer will nonetheless continue to receive paychecks from the Bulls, though Chicago’s financial obligation will be reduced if a team puts in a partial bid for Boozer as allowed in the amnesty waiver process.
Chicago had preferred to work out a trade for the 32-year-old power forward. Even though his name came up in conjunction with the Knicks if Carmelo Anthony were to decide to play for Chicago, ‘Melo remains in New York and no serious trade market for Boozer appeared to develop. Bulls GM Gar Forman and company were also working against a deadline, since Wednesday is the final day of the amnesty period.
The Rob Pelinka client remains a productive player, if not a star, and he would attract plenty of interest on the free agent market were he to clear waivers. That’s not a given, since teams with cap room figure to register bids. He’d go to the highest bidder if multiple teams do so, and if multiple bidders submit equivalent amounts in the blind bidding process, he’ll go to the team among them that posted the worst record last season.
Hornets, Hawks Likely To Bid On Carlos Boozer
The Hornets and the Hawks are early favorites to register a bid for Carlos Boozer while he’s on amnesty waivers, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter links). The Bulls used the amnesty provision to waive Boozer this afternoon.
Teams are required to have cap space to submit a bid, unlike with regular waivers, which allow teams to use trade exceptions. It’ll take at least enough cap room to register a bid for Boozer’s $1,448,490 minimum salary, a GM confirms to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link), though it’ll probably take significantly more than that, given the interest. Boozer will go to the team that makes the highest bid, if there are multiple bids, and if there are two or more bids for the same amount — a possibility, since it’s a blind bidding process — Boozer would go to the team with the worst record from last season. The team that makes the winning bid will pay that amount for Boozer next season, while the rest of his $16.8MM salary will be covered by the Bulls. The bidder’s portion will count against the salary cap, but Chicago’s won’t.
Charlotte has about $52.652MM in guaranteed salary for this coming season, giving it slightly less than $10MM in cap flexibility to make a bid. The Hawks are technically operating over the cap, but they could open about $12MM.
Mavs Re-Sign Dirk Nowitzki
JULY 15TH: The deal is official, the team announced via press release, and it’s for less than previously reported so that Dallas could accommodate its deal for Chandler Parsons, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). It’s a three-year, $25MM contract, Stein tweets. Nowitzki turned down max offers from the Rockets and the Lakers to remain with the Mavs, Stein reports (on Twitter).
JULY 3RD: 3:52pm: The deal includes a player option after the second season and a no-trade clause, Stein writes in his full story.
3:33pm: The Mavericks and Dirk Nowitzki have come to terms on a three-year deal, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). No free agent has seemed more certain to re-sign with his team than Nowitzki, with only the length of the contract and the financial terms in any doubt. The value of the deal is believed to be around $30MM, Stein adds via Twitter.
Nowitzki and the team had agreed to hold off on finalizing a deal until after the club’s Wednesday meeting with Carmelo Anthony so as to retain maximum cap flexibility, but with ‘Melo’s visit through, the team has locked up its own star. It’s not clear whether the deal is an indication that the team is more or less likely to sign ‘Melo than it had been before the meeting, but the terms of Nowitzki’s agreement fall in line with what Tim McMahon of ESPNDallas.com suggested he would likely end up with.
The money is a steep decline from Nowitzki’s salary of more than $22.7MM this past season, and he could have signed a deal worth as much as nearly $23.9MM for next season alone. The 36-year-old’s age is the chief reason he’ll wind up with less, but his loyalty to the Mavs also comes into play. Dallas has been attempting to find another star to go alongside Nowitzki in recent years, and that will be easier now that Nowitzki won’t be making nearly as much.
Nowitzki made the All-Star game this past season, and his performance this year justified the selection, as the 7-footer averaged 21.7 points and 6.2 rebounds with 39.8% three-point shooting and a 23.6 PER. He spoke in May of wanting the club to respect his continued ability when it put together his deal, even as he acknowledged there was no realistic chance he’d sign elsewhere. To that end, it appears he’ll continue to make an eight-figure salary, or close to it, as he nears age 40.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Heat Re-Sign Dwyane Wade
3:39pm: The deal is official, the Heat announced via press release.
“Dwyane has been the franchise cornerstone for this team since the day he arrived 11 years ago,” team president Pat Riley said in the club’s statement. “He has shown his commitment to the Heat many times over the course of his career and has always been willing to sacrifice in order to help build this team into a champion. This time is no different. I am ecstatic to have him back in the fold and I am confident that Dwyane, as always, will be leading this team as we look to contend for NBA Championships.”
1:54pm: It’s a two-year deal with player option in the final season, sources tell Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press, who expects Wade’s salary for this season to come in between $16-17MM (Twitter link).
1:08pm: Dwyane Wade is indeed set to re-sign with the Heat, reports Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today (on Twitter), confiming Wade’s Instagram post suggesting that a deal is done. There was little doubt that Miami and the Henry Thomas client would strike an agreement, and the Heat made a strong push to retain its longtime star in the hours after LeBron James returned to Cleveland.
Wade opted out of the final two years and $41.819MM remaining on his deal last month in an apparent effort to squeeze more talent on the roster and convince James to re-sign, but it’s unclear just how much Wade will receive on his new contract. Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com estimated that he’d receive a salary of $15MM for the coming season.
Wade, 32, appeared in only 54 games during the regular season this year as knee injuries took a larger toll. He was still an all-around force when on the court, averaging 19.0 points, 4.7 assists and 4.5 rebounds and compiling a 22.0 PER. He was seventh in the latest edition of the Hoops Rumors Free Agent Power Rankings.
The Bulls reportedly gauged Wade’s interest in a deal that would allow him to play in his native Chicago, but he rebuffed them. Miami has become in many ways a second home for the perennial All-Star who’s played only for the Heat during his 11-year NBA career.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Grizzlies Re-Sign Beno Udrih
JULY 15TH: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.
JULY 10TH: 3:31pm: The sides have reached agreement, tweets Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal. The second year is partially guaranteed, Tillery adds.
3:07pm: Point guard Beno Udrih has given his commitment to stay in Memphis, and a deal is set to be complete today, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. It’ll be a two-year contract for the biannual exception, Stein adds (Twitter link). The full value of the biannual is $2.077MM for 2014/15 and a total of $4,247,465 over two years.
The 32-year-old Marc Cornstein client will end up with a raise from the minimum-salary contract he signed last summer with the Knicks. New York waived him along with Metta World Peace shortly after the trade deadline, but Memphis claimed him off waivers, a move that paid dividends when the NBA suspended backup point guard Nick Calathes for the playoffs. Udrih, who played only 55 regular season minutes for the Grizzlies, stepped into the rotation for the postseason and averaged 7.9 points and 1.7 assists in 16.4 minutes per game.
The move seems to cast doubt on the future of Calathes, who’s on a non-guaranteed deal that becomes fully guaranteed if Memphis doesn’t waive him by the end of this coming Tuesday. Calathes has a pair of lucrative overseas offers waiting for him if the Grizzlies cut him loose. Still, Grizzlies coach Dave Joerger has signaled that the team intends to keep Calathes.
Pelicans Sign Russ Smith
JULY 15TH: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.
JULY 9TH: The Pelicans have agreed to sign former Louisville point guard Russ Smith, the 47th overall pick in this year’s draft, to a guaranteed contract, as Louisville coach Rick Pitino told reporters, including Jeff Greer of The Courier-Journal (Twitter link). The length of the contract and the amount of guaranteed money aren’t immediately clear. The Pelicans acquired the rights to Smith in a draft-night trade that sent the rights to last year’s second-rounder Pierre Jackson to Philadelphia.
Smith was a consensus All-American this past season as a senior for the Cardinals, averaging 18.2 points and 4.6 assists in 29.3 minutes per game. He also shot 38.7% from behind the three-point line. That percentage along with his assists average were significant increases from 2012/13, when he helped lead Louisville to the national championship.
The 6’1″ 23-year-old appears to be the first 2014 second-round pick who’s agreed to a deal, as our list of 2014 Draft Pick signings shows.
Heat Notes: LeBron, Bosh, Chalmers, Wade
The Bulls were among the teams with which agent Rich Paul took meetings to discuss LeBron James during the first week of free agency, as Ramona Shelburne and Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com reveal in a behind-the-scenes look at LeBron’s choice. Regardless, James was no longer willing to accept being underpaid, as Windhorst examines in a separate piece. James decided before free agency began that he’d take a max contract, and no matter where he would end up, he would demand a deal with a player option after year one, Windhorst writes. James wants to continue to sign short-term deals for the foreseeable future to maintain flexibility in case the maximum salary jumps or is eliminated in the next collective bargaining agreement, as Windhorst explains. He also wants to keep the pressure on Cavs brass to improve the team around him, the ESPN scribe adds. Here’s more on the Heat as they pick up the pieces after LeBron’s departure:
- It wasn’t merely a two-team race between the Rockets and Heat for Chris Bosh, as the Nuggets, Suns and Lakers all made offers to the No. 3 player in the Hoops Rumors Free Agent Power Rankings, reports Tom Haberstroh of ESPN.com.
- The Heat’s contract with Mario Chalmers calls for him to make $4MM for this coming season and $4.3MM in 2015/16, Windhorst tweets. The ESPN scribe pegs the likely salary for Dwyane Wade at $15MM based on the Heat’s other moves this summer and the cap space the team still has available (Twitter link).
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Miami renounced its rights to Ray Allen, Udonis Haslem Michael Beasley, Toney Douglas, James Jones, Rashard Lewis, Greg Oden and the retired Shane Battier and Juwan Howard, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. That’ll make it difficult to re-sign Allen, but the team continues moving toward a new deal with Haslem, according to Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel. The Heat would likely use either cap space or the $2.732MM room exception on Haslem.
Pacific Rumors: Warriors, Lakers, Clippers, Pierce
The Warriors have been closely linked to Kevin Love trade talk for several weeks, but Golden State GM Bob Myers doesn’t think his team needs a drastic upgrade, as he told Bob Fitzgerald Monday on KNBR radio. Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group has the transcription.
“What I think people often do and maybe sometimes make the mistake doing is pull the trigger quickly on your roster without giving it time to develop,” Myers said. “And we think we’ve got a lot of youth, and we do think we’ve got a higher ceiling than 51 [wins last season]. We like our roster. Obviously if you’re not good enough, you’ve got to make changes, but we think we’re good.”
Here’s more from the Pacific Division:
- Perceived Lakers coaching front-runner Byron Scott has already interviewed for the job three times, but he’d likely need to go through another interview before he could be named coach, a source tells Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com. GM Mitch Kupchak said in an appearance Monday on NBA TV that he believes the team will make a hire in the next couple of weeks, as McMenamin notes.
- Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers believes the franchise’s muddied ownership situation is taking its toll during free agency, as Sean Deveney of The Sporting News details. “It has hurt us some this summer,” Rivers said. “You go in to talk to a free agent and most guys, teams will bring their owner. I go in, looking like this, by myself. I don’t know what effect that has had but that’s not been great for us.”
- The Clippers fell short in their pursuit of a sign-and-trade for Paul Pierce, and while previous reports indicated that the Nets had no interest, Brooklyn would have been on board if a third team were involved to absorb players from the Clippers, tweets Chris Mannix of SI.com.
- Darren Collison indeed received slightly less than the $5.305MM mid-level exception from the Kings, and his salary will be $4,797,664 for the coming season, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.
Thunder Sign Sebastian Telfair
JULY 15TH: The Thunder have officially signed Telfair, the team announced in a press release.
“His competitiveness and work ethic have complimented his on-court leadership skills throughout his career, and we are excited to be able to integrate these qualities into our team,” GM Sam Presti said as part of the team’s statement.
JULY 3RD: The Thunder and Sebastian Telfair have reached agreement on a one-year, minimum salary deal, reports Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com. The nine-year NBA veteran is returning to the league after spending last season playing in China.
The Grizzlies, Nets and Spurs had also expressed interest in the ASM Sports client. Memphis in particular seemed keen on the 29-year-old, as coach Dave Joerger acknowledged a few weeks ago that the team was eyeing Telfair.
The former 13th overall pick last played in the NBA for the Raptors in 2012/13, averaging 4.3 points and 3.0 assists in just 14.2 minutes per game across 13 appearances after coming via midseason trade with the Suns. He’s never averaged double figures in points and has only topped five assists per game in one NBA season, but while he hasn’t exactly lived up to the pedigree of a lottery pick, he’s proven a capable backup. That’s apparently the role for which the Thunder envision him, with Reggie Jackson having asked to start, as Haynes notes, and Derek Fisher off to coach the Knicks.
The contract won’t put much of a dent in the Thunder’s flexibility beneath the projected $77MM tax line, and that’s especially true since it’s a one-year arrangement. It’ll only cost roughly $915K to OKC even though he’ll make nearly $1.317MM. The league pays the difference, as I explained earlier.
Ricky Rubio Seeks Five-Year Max Deal
Dan Fegan is aiming high for client Ricky Rubio in rookie scale extension talks with the Timberwolves, asking for a five-year, maximum-salary deal, reports Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link). It’s unclear how steadfastly Fegan will stick to that price, but it seems an indication that he and Rubio are in no mood to accept a discount after a season in which the point guard failed to crack 10 points per game in spite of career-best averages in assists (8.6) and turnovers (2.7).
The sides opened extension talks on July 1st, the first day such negotiations could begin. Rubio is eligible to sign an extension anytime before October 31st, and he’d be set for restricted free agency next summer if no extension happens by that date. A five-year deal would make him the team’s Designated Player, meaning no other player coming off a rookie scale contract would be eligible for an extension of that length as long as Rubio’s extension is on Minnesota’s books.
Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune wrote in April that he expected Fegan to ask for a deal closer to the max than to Stephen Curry‘s bargain four-year, $44MM deal, so the Wolves likely expected tough negotiations, even if they weren’t quite prepared for Fegan to go for the max. The precise value of a maximum-salary extension for Rubio wouldn’t be known until next July, after he already would have signed it, but John Wall‘s five-year max extension with the Wizards, which kicks in for this coming season, will total $84,789,500.