Mavs, Knicks Close To Chandler, Calderon Deal
4:04pm: The 51st overall pick in Thursday’s draft would go to the Knicks, too, Wojnarowski tweets.
4:01pm: The Mavs would also send the 34th overall pick in Thursday’s draft to New York, Wojnarowski adds (on Twitter).
3:58pm: The deal will be finalized today, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link).
3:36pm: The teams are on the verge of an agreement, Stein writes in his full story. Wayne Ellington and future second-round draft considerations would also go to New York, Stein adds. The deal could be finalized before July 1st with the inclusion of Ellington, who allows it to meet salary-matching requirements.
3:19pm: The Mavs and Knicks are in advanced discussions on a trade that would send Raymond Felton and Tyson Chandler to Dallas in exchange for Jose Calderon, Samuel Dalembert and Shane Larkin, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links). Dallas would have to give up additional players in order for the trade to become official before July 1st, though it seems likely the teams envision completing the trade after the July moratorium, when it wouldn’t send the Mavs over the luxury tax line and trigger stiffer salary-matching constraints.
Such a proposal in its current form would allow the Knicks to clear a significant amount of salary, though it probably wouldn’t be enough to clear cap room if Carmelo Anthony re-signs. It would similarly crimp the Mavs’ pursuit of Anthony and other top-tier free agents, though it seems reasonable to suspect there may be other players involved.
Dallas has coveted Chandler, whom the team gave up in 2011 after he helped the Mavs to their only NBA title. Knicks president Phil Jackson denied a report that he told Felton to expect a trade this summer, but the point guard is coming off a subpar season and agreed this week to plead guilty to a felony gun charge in a plea agreement that will allow him to avoid jail time. Other reports have linked the Knicks to soon-to-be free agent point guards.
The deal would remove some of New York’s flexibility for the summer of 2015, since Calderon’s deal has him making more than $7.4MM in 2015/16 and more than $7.7MM in 2016/17. Still, it would be the only guaranteed salary on the books for New York past this season, though J.R. Smith has a player option worth nearly $6.4MM. Similarly, the move would allow Dallas more cap flexibility for that summer, since Chandler’s contract is up after next season and Felton’s player option for 2015/16 is about $3.95MM.
Dalembert’s approximately $3.867MM salary is partially guaranteed for $1.8MM next season. He also has a 15% trade kicker on his deal that the Mavs would be responsible for paying. Chandler would receive $500K from the Knicks thanks to a trade kicker in his deal.
Broussard’s Latest: LeBron, Griffin, Harden
The Clippers aren’t among the top choices for LeBron James, according to Chris Broussard of ESPN.com, who nonetheless wouldn’t rule them out completely. Broussard doubts that James would head there until Donald Sterling is formally ousted as owner of the club, and there’s also concern about how well James would fit on the court with friend Chris Paul, though Broussard doesn’t specify if that’s a concern of James’. Still, Heat president Pat Riley believes acquiring Blake Griffin via sign-and-trade would be the best outcome if James decides to leave Miami, Broussard reports. The ESPN scribe identifies the Heat, Cavs, Rockets, Knicks and Nets as having better chances than the Clippers do of landing James, given the four-time MVP’s preferences, and he has a few bombshells in his report, as we detail.
- If the Rockets clear enough cap room to sign one of LeBron and Carmelo Anthony, their next step would be to dangle James Harden to acquire the other via sign-and-trade. The Knicks and the Heat would be receptive to trading for Harden in that scenario, Broussard adds.
- Chris Bosh appears sold on Miami, but it’s questionable whether he’d want to stay if James leaves, Broussard writes.
- Riley is planning a run at Thunder center Kendrick Perkins, according to Broussard. I’d assume it would involve pursuing him via free agency in the event that Oklahoma City amnesties him, rather than pursuing him via trade, though that’s just my speculation.
- Broussard hears there’s a decent chance that the Warriors would be willing to acquire Jeremy Lin if he’s part of a package with Chandler Parsons.
- The Nets would prefer trading Deron Williams rather than Joe Johnson in an effort to clear room for James, Broussard says.
Nets Seeking New Deal With Alan Anderson
GM Billy King told reporters, including Tim Bontemps of the New York Post, that he’d like to re-sign Alan Anderson (Twitter link). King confirmed earlier today that Anderson will opt out of his minimum-salary deal for next season, and the GM added that he was expecting the move.
Bringing Anderson back will be a tall order, since the Nets only have his Non-Bird rights. Those will allow Brooklyn to give him no more than a 20% raise without dipping into the mid-level exception, which the team likely has set aside for fellow Non-Bird free agent Shaun Livingston, whom King has identified as the team’s top priority.
Anderson started a career-high 26 games this past season and averaged 7.2 points in 22.7 minutes per contest. The Mark Bartelstein client is a year removed from notching 10.7 PPG for Toronto and figures to draw interest at more than the minimum this summer.
Cavs Make Lue Highest-Paid Assistant Ever
The agreement that the Cavs struck with one-time head coaching candidate Tyronn Lue to convince him to join the team as an assistant coach is the most lucrative ever given to an assistant in NBA history, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. It’s a four-year, $6.5MM deal that includes a $2MM team option for the fourth season, according to Wojnarowski.
Lue is leaving his job as a Clippers assistant to join the staff of David Blatt, who beat out Lue for the head coaching job in Cleveland. Clippers coach and president of basketball operations Doc Rivers was reluctant to let Lue go, but Cleveland’s money proved overwhelming, Wojnarowski writes.
The 37-year-old spent the past five seasons as an assistant coach under Rivers with the Celtics and Clippers following an 11-year playing career. He’ll be the lead assistant, with the title of associate head coach, under Blatt in Cleveland.
Dario Saric To Stay Out Of NBA For 2 More Years
WEDNESDAY, 11:52am: Saric said today that he’s definitely opting out of his deal in 2016 and coming to the NBA at that point, Sportando tweets.
10:05pm: The NBA buyout on Saric’s new contract is $800K, reports Aris Barkas of Eurohoops.net, who confirms that the third year is an option. That amount is larger than the amount NBA teams are allowed to pay without the money counting against the cap. The deal also nets him the equivalent of only roughly $2.72MM over the course of the three seasons, much less than the $8.27MM figure cited when he and the team were rumored to have a deal in March.
TUESDAY: 9:39am: Saric has officially signed his deal in Turkey, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia).
MONDAY, 9:42am: The Nuggets are hesitant to draft him, Ford writes in his full story, as are the Sixers and Magic, who hold picks Nos. 10 and 12, respectively. Conversely, the Hawks, Celtics, Suns and Bulls, who all hold picks in the 15-19 range, are comfortable with drafting him and waiting for him, according to Ford. The ESPN scribe also says the deal includes a player option for the third season of the deal, so it’s not entirely clear if there would be a buyout involved if an NBA team wanted to bring him over for the 2016/17 season.
9:21am: Dario Saric has an agreement in principle with Anadolu Efes Pilson of Turkey on a three-year deal that would keep him out of the NBA for at least the next two seasons, according to Chad Ford of ESPN.com (Twitter links). Ford echoes his report from March indicating the same, though later dispatches put the brakes on that idea. Agent Misko Raznatovic also denied that initial report was true, but it appears as though he and Saric have indeed decided to keep the talented forward out of the NBA for now.
There’s a strong chance that the Nuggets will take Saric anyway with the No. 11 pick, according to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia, who notes that Efes will pay a $1.2MM buyout to pry Saric from KK Cibona, his current team. Saric will likely end up in the NBA in 2016, but the NBA club that selects him in this year’s draft would have to pay a buyout to extract him from his deal with Efes, Carchia tweets. The terms of that buyout for 2016 are unclear.
The notion of whether Saric would declare for this year’s draft was the subject of much back-and-forth, fueled in part by his father and a former agent. Still, Saric entered the draft, and he remained in past Monday’s deadline to withdraw. The 6’10” 20-year-old is the eighth-ranked prospect in Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress listings, while Ford has him at No. 9.
Kings Extend Qualifying Offer To Isaiah Thomas
The Kings have extended a qualifying offer to Isaiah Thomas, meaning he’ll enter next month as a restricted free agent, the team announced. The offer is for one year at $2,875,131, as I explained this spring, but it will likely serve only as a placeholder for Thomas, who can command a long-term deal for significantly more money on the market.
The news is no surprise, as GM Pete D’Alessandro told reporters this spring that he planned on extending the QO. It’ll allow Sacramento to match offers for the 25-year-old. D’Alessandro has publicly praised Thomas, but the team would like to bring aboard a pass-first point guard this summer, as Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee notes via Twitter.
An Eastern Conference executive in March pegged the market value of the ASM Sports client at $4-5MM per year. That would fit within the non-taxpayer’s mid-level exception, though the Kings, in addition to having the right of first refusal, have full Bird rights on Thomas.
Jonas Jerebko Opts In, Will Remain With Pistons
JUNE 25TH: Jerebko has officially opted in, reports Mark Deeks of ShamSports (Twitter link).
MAY 28TH: Jonas Jerebko will exercise his $4.5MM player option to remain with the Pistons next season, as he tells Oskar Pålsson of the Swedish newspaper Borås Tidning (translation via Vincent Goodwill of The Detroit News). The news is no real surprise, given the forward’s lack of playing time this past season, but it appeared as though the identity of the team’s next coach would weigh heavily on Jerebko’s decision regarding the option. He expressed pleasure with Detroit’s hiring of Stan Van Gundy, Goodwill notes, and perhaps Jerebko’s comfort with him was the determining factor for the former second-round pick.
The Bill Duffy client‘s choice to opt in pushes Detroit’s commitments to about $38MM for nine players next season, though that still leaves plenty of room for the team to strike new deals with Greg Monroe and Rodney Stuckey or pursue free agents from other clubs. Van Gundy nonetheless would probably prefer not to have to shell out significant money to the 27-year-old Jerebko, whose playing time and production have tumbled each year he’s played since his rookie campaign. He averaged just 4.2 points in 11.6 minutes per game this past season.
Still, Jerebko shot 41.9% from behind the arc this year for a team that otherwise suffered from a lack of outside shooting, and he started 73 games for the Pistons as a rookie before tearing his right Achilles tendon and missing all of 2010/11. Former Pistons president of basketball operations Joe Dumars signed him to a four-year, $18MM contract after that missed season, but Jerebko never returned to the role he had as a rookie, and he clashed with then-coaches Lawrence Frank and Maurice Cheeks.
Heat Trying To Trade Up, Land Shabazz Napier
The Heat are attempting to trade up from the 26th overall pick to land Shabazz Napier, reports Chad Ford of ESPN.com (Twitter link). LeBron James believes the former Connecticut Huskie is the best point guard in the draft, according to Ford, suggesting the soon-to-be free agent is heavily influencing Miami’s thinking on this front. The Heat, with little available trade assets given that Norris Cole is the team’s only player on a guaranteed contract for next season, will try to package Cole and the 26th pick to move into the late teens, Ford tweets. The Heat are open to a number of scenarios, including trading their pick for a veteran, Grantland’s Zach Lowe reports (on Twitter).
Heat president Pat Riley is, like James, a fan of Napier’s, Ford writes in his full piece. He flew to meet Napier and work him out right after the Finals and tried to convince him to halt his workouts with other clubs to enhance the chances of him falling to No. 26, according to Ford. That almost certainly won’t happen, as the Magic, who hold the 12th pick, as well as the Hawks (15th), Bulls (16th and 19th), and Celtics (17th) are giving serious consideration to drafting Napier, Ford hears, adding that it’s unlikely he slides past the Raptors at No. 21.
The Heat have the non-guaranteed contract of Justin Hamilton to throw into their proposal, but every other player is ineligible, since they all either have pending options or are entering free agency. They wouldn’t be able to officially give up the No. 26 pick in a trade until they use it to select a player on Thursday, since they’ve already traded away next year’s first-rounder.
Talks Stall Between Grizzlies, Zach Randolph
11:08am: The impasse came about when negotiations “went beyond” Wallace from the Grizzlies side, Tillery writes in a subscription-only piece. That indicates that owner Robert Pera is hesitant to spend too freely on Randolph, but that’s just my speculation. In any case, Randolph is leaning toward opting out, according to Tillery.
10:38am: Two others Western Conference teams are paying close attention to the talks and preparing strong pursuits of Randolph should he hit free agency, according to Tillery (on Twitter).
9:58am: The number of years involved in the deal aren’t the stumbling block, but the two sides are split over money, TNT’s David Aldridge tweets.
JUNE 25TH, 9:35am: Randolph and the team have hit a snag over money and the length of a new deal, and he’s giving serious thought to turning down his player option and hitting free agency next month, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Memphis wants a three-year deal while Randolph is pushing for a four-year arrangement. Since extensions can only add three years onto an existing deal, that presumably means Randolph prefers to opt out and ink a new deal with the team in free agency.
JUNE 20TH: The Grizzlies and Zach Randolph seem close to a deal that would keep the power forward in Memphis for the next several seasons, as Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal writes in a subscription-only piece. A report last month indicated that the Grizzlies and the Raymond Brothers client were in talks on an extension, but it’s not clear whether the deal would involve an extension or a scenario in which Randolph opts out and signs a new long-term contract. The 32-year-old has a player option worth more than $16.9MM for next season.
Tillery also casts a degree of doubt on this week’s report that indicated that GM Chris Wallace would remain in charge of the team, though he describes him as the front-runner for that role. Wallace is “ardent” about coming to terms with Randolph, and he’s had frequent discussions with Brothers, according to Tillery.
“It’s going forward,” Wallace said of the talks. “We’re very excited about what Zach’s done in the past and hope to have him here in the future. This has really been a terrific boon for both sides. He’s obviously meant a great deal to us on and off the court. And Memphis has worked for him. This has been, by far, the best stop for him since he’s been in the NBA. So we’re working towards that goal.”
Brothers also sounds optimistic about reaching a deal, Tillery notes. It’s a change of pace from the Grizzlies’ stance under ousted CEO Jason Levien, who, as Tillery reveals, attempted to trade Randolph for Eric Gordon before the start of the season until the Pelicans rebuffed his efforts. It was one of at least two attempts Levien made at trading Randolph, as the then-CEO was high on Ed Davis, believing in him as a replacement for Randolph at power forward, Tillery says.
It appears that market value for Randolph is akin to a deal worth $30-35MM over three years, which would represent a significant dip in annual salaries over what he would earn on his option next season. Still, both sides are liable to make concessions given their mutual admiration, as Randolph has spoken on multiple occasions of his affection for Memphis. There’s chatter regarding a role within the Grizzlies organization for Randolph after he retires as a player, Tillery adds.
Schedule Of Contract Guarantee Dates
In April, we listed the dates prior to July 1st on which the contracts of certain players will become guaranteed. Today, with the help of ShamSports’ contract database and the Basketball Insiders salary pages, we’ll go one step further, creating a timeline of guarantee dates for everyone who currently has a non-guaranteed deal for 2014/15.
Using the following list, we can track various cap commitments as they arise starting now and continuing until next January. Unless otherwise indicated, these players are on minimum-salary contracts. Their contracts will become guaranteed for the given amounts if they’re not waived on or before the dates indicated.
For instance, in the first example on the list, Andre Miller‘s contract with the Wizards is currently guaranteed for $2MM. If he’s not waived on or before Saturday, it becomes fully guaranteed for $4.625MM. If Washington releases him by that deadline, the team would still pay the $2MM he’s already owed, but it would save the other $2.625MM.
Players listed multiple times will have their guarantee amounts increased the longer they remain on a roster. For example, Erik Murphy will earn $100K if he remains on his contract beyond August 1st. That amount will increase to $200K if he’s still under contract past opening day. Murphy’s contract would eventually become fully guaranteed if he’s still hasn’t been cut by the leaguewide contract guarantee date.
The only caveat to these dates is that the players will earn the relevant salary guarantees listed below if a team claims them on waivers. So, if Murphy is waived August 1st and another team claims him on August 3rd, he still pockets the $100K.
Here’s the complete list:
(Updated 10-30-14 at 8:50am)
November
- 15th: Wayne Elliington (Lakers): $315,646.
- 15th: Ronnie Price (Lakers): $329,202
December
- 1st: Wayne Ellington (Lakers): $581,692. Already $315,646 guaranteed.
- 1st: Justin Hamilton (Heat): $612,362. Already $408,241 guaranteed.
- 15th: Ronnie Price (Lakers): $658,405. Already $329,202 guaranteed.
Players with no specific guarantee date written into their contracts will have their deals for 2014/15 fully guaranteed if they’re not waived on or before January 7th, 2015. Here are those players, in alphabetical order:
- Lou Amundson (Cavaliers)
- Luke Babbitt (Pelicans): Already $100K guaranteed.
- Leandro Barbosa (Warriors): Already $150K guaranteed.
- Patrick Beverley (Rockets)
- Tarik Black (Lakers) Already $50K guaranteed.
- Shannon Brown (Heat)
- Rasual Butler (Wizards)
- Will Cherry (Cavaliers)
- Jared Cunningham (Clippers)
- Andre Dawkins (Heat)
- Dewayne Dedmon (Magic): Already $250K guaranteed.
- Wayne Ellington (Lakers): Already $581,692 guaranteed.
- Erick Green (Nuggets): Already $50K guaranteed.
- Jorge Gutierrez (Sixers): Already $25K guaranteed.
- Justin Hamilton (Heat): Already $612,362 guaranteed.
- Justin Holiday (Warriors): Already $35K guaranteed.
- Joe Ingles (Jazz)
- Cory Jefferson (Nets): Already $75K guaranteed.
- Amir Johnson (Raptors): Fully guaranteed for $7MM. Already $5MM guaranteed.
- Jerome Jordan (Nets): Already $100K guaranteed.
- Alex Kirk (Cavaliers): Already $65K guaranteed.
- K.J. McDaniels (Sixers)
- Jason Maxiell (Hornets)
- Darius Miller (Pelicans): Already $400K guaranteed.
- Nazr Mohammed (Bulls)
- Eric Moreland (Kings): Already $200K guaranteed.
- E’Twaun Moore (Bulls): Already $425K guaranteed
- Darius Morris (Trail Blazers)
- Mike Muscala (Hawks): Already $408,241 guaranteed.
- Hamady Ndiaye (Nets): Already $25K guaranteed.
- Arinze Onuaku (Pacers)
- A.J. Price (Pacers)
- Ronnie Price (Lakers): Already $658,405 guaranteed.
- Glen Rice Jr. (Wizards): Already $400K guaranteed.
- Glenn Robinson III (Timberwolves): Already $250K guaranteed.
- JaKarr Sampson (Sixers): Already $50K guaranteed.
- Luis Scola (Pacers): Fully guaranteed for $4,868,499. Already guaranteed for approximately $250K.
- Henry Sims (Sixers)
- Chris Singleton (Pacers)
- Ish Smith (Thunder)
- Greg Stiemsma (Raptors): Already $25K guaranteed.
- Adonis Thomas (Pacers)
- Lance Thomas (Thunder)
- Hollis Thompson (Sixers)
- Anderson Varejao (Cavaliers): Fully guaranteed for $9,704,545. Already $4MM guaranteed.
- Charlie Villanueva (Mavericks)
- Travis Wear (Knicks): Already $62K guaranteed.
- Shayne Whittington (Pacers): Already $25K guaranteed.