Grizzlies Want To Keep Zach Randolph Long-Term
Zach Randolph said in November that he’d like to retire with the Grizzlies, though he’s undecided on his nearly $17MM player option for next season. Whatever he chooses to do, it appears the Grizzlies would like to keep him around for 2014/15 and beyond, given the comments of Grizzlies CEO Jason Levien on Sports 56 WHBQ radio in Memphis (transcription via Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal, on Twitter).
“We’re hopeful we’ll have Zach for a very long time to come,” Levien said. “We have to figure out what’s the right way to do that for the organization.”
Randolph has notched 17.3 points per game this year, his highest scoring average since pouring in 20.1 PPG in 2010/11. The Grizzlies rewarded the power forward with a four-year, $66MM extension near the end of that season, and while Randolph, who turns 33 in July, probably won’t merit a package quite that lucrative again, he’d still be a sought-after free agent if he hits the market this summer.
The team adamantly denied trade rumors surrounding Randolph in December, but the Raymond Brothers client nonetheless expressed annoyance over a perceived lack of loyalty from the club, pointing to the success the Spurs, Lakers and Heat have had standing by their players. Trade rumors continued to persist until last week’s deadline, but Randolph said last month that he wants to continue playing alongside Marc Gasol, who’s under contract through next season. In the same interview, Randolph reiterated that he’s undecided about his player option for next year, in spite of sources who told Ken Berger of CBSSports.com in December that they expect Randolph to opt out.
Odds & Ends: Monroe, Humphries, Williams
Five teams, most of them in the Eastern Conference, are planning to pursue Greg Monroe when he becomes a restricted free agent this summer, a source tells Bleacher Report’s Jared Zwerling. The source predicts Monroe will sign early in July, which often isn’t the case with restricted free agents. There’s more from Zwerling amid our latest look around the league:
- The Celtics have interest in signing-and-trading Kris Humphries this summer, Zwerling writes in the same piece. Danny Ainge is reportedly high on the 10th-year veteran who’s expressed a desire to stay in Boston, so it seems there’s no guarantee Humphries will go elsewhere this summer, even as the C’s appear to be preparing for that possibility.
- Marvin Williams is comfortable in Utah and wants to remain with the Jazz, observes Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders, who figures that was one of the reasons the team reportedly turned down at least one offer for a late first-round pick in exchange for Williams.
- Pelicans GM Dell Demps expressed confidence in his core earlier this week, but Bradford Doolittle of ESPN.com, in an Insider-only piece, urges Demps to shake up the team in the offseason.
- Justin Barrasso of WEEI.com examines the transition Brad Stevens is making from college to the NBA game, noting that most college coaches who’ve entered the pros have done so with franchises far less stable than the Celtics are.
Buyout Market Guidelines
Player movement in the NBA certainly doesn’t cease following the passage of the trade deadline. This year’s robust buyout market is testament to that, with names like Danny Granger, Glen Davis, Metta World Peace, Jimmer Fredette and Ben Gordon either having already reached buyout agreements or having engaged in talks with their teams about doing so. All of it leads up to yet another deadline.
No player waived after March 1st is eligible to play for another team in the postseason. That means anyone who wants off his team must find a way to make it happen no later than Saturday. Such players can remain free agents right up until the playoffs, but as long as they’re on waivers no later than Saturday, they’re postseason-eligible. Playoff-bound teams have made late-season signings in the past, as the Spurs did with Tracy McGrady last year, though most of the notable names generally land on new teams soon after they become free agents.
When a player and a team reach a buyout agreement, it’s the player, not the team, who gives up money. It’s common for reports to suggest that Team X bought out Player Y, but such wording is inaccurate. Commonly, players agree to relinquish a portion or the entirety of whatever the team still owes them. Often, the player is a veteran on a non-contender who wants a shot at a title, like Granger and Caron Butler. Sometimes, the buyout candidate is simply dissatisfied with his playing time, like Fredette, who’s nearing release from his rookie scale contract. It’s a calculated risk, since there’s no guarantee a player can find a new team and recoup the money he’s giving up, but most of the time agents won’t push for a buyout unless they’re certain another NBA offer is forthcoming.
Teams get to deduct the amount of the buyout from their books, and removing a player who doesn’t want to be around can help locker room dynamics. Still, teams are often reluctant to give a player up, particularly when it’s someone who’s still productive, as is the case with Granger. The Sixers have reportedly held interest in seeking a sign-and-trade that would allow them to collect assets for Granger this summer, when he’d become a free agent if he plays out the rest of his contract. Philadelphia can’t sign-and-trade Granger if there’s a buyout, so that’s probably slowed negotiations. Teams and players may also haggle over the amount of the buyout, further delaying an agreement.
Another point of negotiation may be over set-off rights, which allow teams to recoup a portion of the money they owe a player when he signs his next contract. Teams can withhold the amount of the new deal a player signs minus the one-year veteran’s minimum, divided by two. So, if a team owes a player $4MM and he signs a new deal for $2MM, the set-off amount is $2MM minus $788,872, or $1,211,128, divided by two, which comes to $605,564. The team would then subtract that amount from $4MM and owe the player $3,394,436.
In this scenario, the player collects $5,394,436, which is still more than he would have received if he hadn’t found a new deal. The amount the team could collect via set-off would be higher if the player signed a new contract for $3MM, and the player would also earn more in that case. So, there’s still financial advantage for the player to seek as lucrative a deal as possible. There have been reports suggesting that a club with extra money to spend on free agents has no financial advantage when it comes to signing buyout players, on the premise that set-off rights would force those guys to forfeit whatever they get in a new deal, but that’s not accurate. A larger new contract means the old team indeed collects more, but the player collects more, too.
Of course, if a player agrees to forgo all of the money he’s owed as part of the buyout, set-off isn’t a factor, and teams can give up their set-off rights as part of the buyout agreement.
Players can re-sign with teams that they’ve just bought their way off, but it’s highly unlikely that anyone would elect to do so. It used to be fairly common for players to be traded at the deadline, buy out their contracts with their new teams, and re-sign with their original teams, but the current collective bargaining agreement curbed that practice. Once a team trades a player, it can’t re-sign him or claim him off waivers for one year or until his contract was due to expire, whichever is earlier. So, even if a team trades a player on an expiring contract, it can’t re-sign him until July.
All players who agree to a buyout must go through waivers first, and usually the buyout agreement hinges on the player clearing waivers. Should a team put in a waiver claim, that typically means the buyout is null and void, and the new team is on the hook for the player’s entire guaranteed salary. There’s no rule against a player negotiating a buyout with a team that claims him off waivers, but that would be an unusual practice, and waiver claims are rare to begin with.
Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.
Pacific Notes: Suns, Smith, Gasol, Kings
The Suns have what it takes to attract top-level free agents, as team president of basketball operations Lon Babby tells Bob Young of The Arizona Republic.
“I don’t think we ever lost our status as a destination, because of the history of the franchise, the weather, the medical and training staff,” Babby said. “Those are constants that make it an attractive place. I wouldn’t deny that we have enhanced our position. I think we were always above average. Now I think we’re in the upper echelon because there’s an excitement and a spirit about the atmosphere and the culture here that is palpable.”
Young thinks Kevin Love should be the team’s next free agent target, though that would require waiting until the summer of 2015. In the meantime, here’s more on the Suns and their Pacific Division rivals:
- Ish Smith is poised to spend an entire season with a single NBA team for the first time in his four-year career, and he’s been an important contributor for the Suns, as fellow Republic scribe Paul Coro examines. Smith’s deal is non-guaranteed for next season.
- Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times interprets Pau Gasol‘s postgame comments Tuesday as veiled criticism of Mike D’Antoni, but Gasol didn’t hide his thoughts about whether all the expiring contracts the Lakers have are creating a negative atmosphere. “Probably. That’s part of it,” Gasol said. “But that’s why you have to be disciplined and implement discipline. That’s how you kind of make that better or make that not a factor. I don’t think there’s a lot of discipline right now.”
- It’s as if Kings executives think that they should keep making moves until they get it right, opines Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee, who examines the team’s decision to let go of Jimmer Fredette and audition others on 10-day contracts. Sacramento is set to sign Orlando Johnson and reportedly worked out Royce White.
Pelicans GM On Jackson, Deadline, Free Agency
Pelicans GM Dell Demps says Pierre Jackson plans to play with the club during summer league, and that the team will continue to monitor the diminutive guard as he plays in Turkey on a deal that covers the rest of the season. New Orleans is in a tough position, sitting 10 and a half games out of the playoffs but four games up on the Lakers, the team with the fifth-worst record in the league. If the Pelicans don’t end up with a top-five pick this year, their first-rounder goes to the Sixers. Demps had more to say about Jackson and covered an array of other topics Monday with Pelicans broadcaster Sean Kelley, and Pelicans.com provides the transcript. We’ll hit the highlights here:
On the trade deadline:
“I think for us at this trade deadline we were only looking to add to our core. We weren’t really looking to make any adjustments. We were looking to add. We didn’t want to give up any more assets to acquire any more players at this point. We did that last summer. We gave up a draft pick in this upcoming draft to acquire Jrue Holiday. We feel like Jrue Holiday is going to be our point guard for the future. We have him under contract for four years and we hope that he grows old here and his kids graduate from high school in New Orleans. We didn’t feel comfortable giving up any more assets for players at this time.”
On the team’s midseason signings of Luke Babbitt and Alexis Ajinca:
“Well, a guy like Babbitt, he was playing great in Europe and I really believe if he would have become a free agent this summer, a number of teams would have tried to get him. The reason why he was available, I thought we were able to get him out of his contract early and he didn’t hit the free agency market. I think the same thing for Ajinca. Ajinca was actually leading the Euro league in scoring, which is considered the best league outside the NBA, considered a higher level than college basketball. I think if he goes through the free agent market this summer a number of teams would have tried to acquire him. We thought that we were able to get in early and get those two guys into the program and really get a good understanding of if they can help us or if they cannot help us ahead of the curve. Next year is going to be a big year for us and you don’t want to go into next year with guys on the roster that we are still wondering about.”
On the team’s core:
“I still want to see this group play together. I believe in this group and we still want to add more pieces to this group. I think we are a fun group to watch. We are explosive. We can score a lot of points and I think moving forward we want to add a couple more pieces on the perimeter and interior and improve our defense. I think we will be able to score with anyone in the league.”
On whether he’s high on this summer’s crop of free agents:
“Of course. We are not into max games so we are not going to be looking for players with contracts more $10MM, but we have a number of exceptions that we can use and we have a couple of ways we can get creative as well.”
On Pierre Jackson
“The kid had some bad luck to start with. When we acquired him, we were stacked at the point guard position. Before we drafted him, we had conversations with him asking, ‘If we did draft you, we don’t know where you would fit on this year’s roster. Would you want to go overseas?’ He said yes. When we drafted him, we asked him to play summer league, but because of the trade he wasn’t cleared to play summer league until the third game. He didn’t get to come to the practices. Some guys had practiced for four or five days and they had a couple of games. We kind of just threw him into the fire. Then he catches pink eye, so he misses the next two days recovering from that and he comes back for the last game. He didn’t get a good opportunity to show what he could do.”
Knicks Pursuing Earl Clark
3:44pm: Knicks coach Mike Woodson and GM Steve Mills have spoken with Clark, sources tell Frank Isola of the New York Daily News, who says there’s a “strong possibility” that Clark signs with the team (Twitter link).
2:18pm: The Knicks are going after the recently waived Earl Clark, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. It’s the latest of a string of reports connecting the Knicks to free agents. The Knicks have considered signing Ike Diogu, have been monitoring Lester Hudson, and they’re interested in Tiny Gallon. Today they auditioned Dahntay Jones. The Knicks won’t rule out a pursuit of Jimmer Fredette, either, and while the team would like to add shooting, its primary focus appears to be strengthening its defense, which isn’t Fredette’s strong suit.
Clark became a free agent this weekend after the Sixers waived him Friday, less than 24 hours after acquiring him via trade from the Cavaliers. He averaged 5.2 points and 2.8 rebounds in 15.5 minutes per game this season in the first of a two-year, $8.5MM deal he signed with Cleveland this past summer. The Cavs are on the hook for only half of that money, since the second season was non-guaranteed. The former 14th overall pick had a strong midseason stretch for the Lakers last year, but he’s otherwise failed to live up to expectations.
The Knicks created two roster openings Monday when they waived Metta World Peace and Beno Udrih in buyout arrangements. They can offer only the minimum salary, and since they’re about $17MM into the tax, they’re set to pay $3.25 in tax for each dollar they spend on filling their two open spots.
Knicks Work Out Dahntay Jones
3:05pm: Bartelstein says he’s been in contact with multiple teams about Jones, as Fred Kerber of the New York Post notes.
1:12pm: Ten-year NBA veteran Dahntay Jones is working out for the Knicks today, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The team is seeking a perimeter defender to fill one of its two open roster spots, according to Stein. The Knicks also reportedly have their eyes on Tiny Gallon, a power forward from the D-League.
Jones, 33, was in camp with the Bulls this fall, but there hasn’t been much NBA interest in him since. He split last season between the Mavs and Hawks, starting 19 games but averaging just 3.4 points in 13.0 minutes per contest. The former 20th overall pick’s most productive season was in 2009/10 with the Pacers, when he notched 10.2 PPG in 24.9 MPG.
That year was the first of a four-year, $10.6MM deal for the Mark Bartelstein client, who’s never gone a season without playing in the NBA since entering the league out of Duke in 2003. The Knicks have only the minimum salary to offer Jones or any other free agent.
Central Notes: Irving, Billups, Bucks
Kyrie Irving denies that he wants out of Cleveland, but those close to him have long made it known that he’d like to play elsewhere, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com. Some members of the Cavs organization aren’t sure that he’s deserving of a maximum-salary contract, though it’s likely that Cleveland will seek to extend Irving this summer and make him its Designated Player, Windhorst writes. The starting salary in such a deal would have to be for the max. Irving may prefer to sign a shorter deal that gives him the ability to opt out and hit unrestricted free agency more quickly, as Windhorst examines in a piece that looks forward to what promises to be one of the offseason’s marquee story lines. Here’s more from the Central Division:
- Chauncey Billups hopes to make it back from a torn left meniscus this season, but he acknowledges the injury may prompt him to retire, MLive’s David Mayo observes. The Pistons hold a team option worth $2.5MM for the final season of their contract with Billups next year.
- Former Bucks swingman Junior Bridgeman is interested in buying a minority stake in the team, reports Don Walker of the Journal Sentinel, who adds that the Bucks are high on the idea, too. Owner Herb Kohl has been seeking investors willing to buy minority shares of the team. Bridgeman owns a share of the Kings that he would have to divest before buying into the Bucks.
- Mike D’Antoni spoke to Pacers assistant coach Nate McMillan about a gig on the Lakers staff before he took his job with Indiana, as McMillan tells Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News.
Knicks Interested In Tiny Gallon
The Knicks are taking a “hard look” at D-Leaguer Tiny Gallon, tweets Shams Charania of RealGM. There’s no workout scheduled, but it appears there’s a decent chance Gallon will receive an audition soon, Charania’s report indicates. The Knicks, with a pair of open roster spots after waiving Metta World Peace and Beno Udrih, are reportedly seeking defensive upgrades.
Gallon is a 6’9″ power forward for the Delaware 87ers, the D-League affiliate of the Sixers. The Bucks drafted him out of Oklahoma in the second round in 2010 and brought him to camp, but they waived him. The Celtics picked him up soon thereafter, but he failed to make the opening-night roster with Boston, either. He’s otherwise been out of the NBA ever since, but he’s impressed with Delaware this season, averaging 18.4 points and 9.4 rebounds in 26.4 minutes per game.
The Sixers have maintained a dialogue with Gallon all season, so perhaps the Knicks will face competition for his services, though that’s just my speculation. The 23-year-old turned down an offer from China recently so he could remain in close range of NBA scouts.
Knicks Rumors: Fredette, ‘Melo, World Peace
It’s a “no-brainer” that Carmelo Anthony will re-sign with the Knicks, Metta World Peace believes. Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com and Frank Isola of the New York Daily News have more from the former Ron Artest, whom the Knicks waived Monday in a buyout arrangement, and there’s news about Anthony’s future as well as we look at the latest on the struggling Knicks:
- The Knicks haven’t ruled out pursuing Fredette, but the team will focus on upgrading its defense as it looks to fill its pair of open roster spots, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.
Earlier updates:
- No one with ties to the Knicks believes Anthony will leave the team this summer, writes Ken Berger of CBSSports.com, who notes that Anthony’s agent, Leon Rose, spoke with Knicks GM Steve Mills and assistant GM Allan Houston on Monday night.
- World Peace says the Knicks never gave him a fair chance to play, but he adds that he never demanded more minutes. “My thing was I want to play two more seasons,” World Peace explained to Isola. “If I’m not playing this year I’m definitely not going to play next year, so I should probably go somewhere else. I wanted to win here. When you’re married to a city like New York City, just because (people don’t agree) doesn’t mean you turn your back on the city. My agent told me Steve Mills said that he understands why being moved would be a good thing.” World Peace, who was on a two-year contract with the Knicks, has previously said he wants to play five more seasons.
- The Knicks are seeking three-point shooting, as we noted earlier today when a report linked them to Jimmer Fredette, who’s close to a buyout from the Kings. The team may also be in need of a point guard stemming from Raymond Felton‘s arrest on gun charges Monday night. Acting union executive director Ron Klempner is nonetheless already indicating that the Knicks would face resistance if they tried to discipline Felton at this point, as Marc Berman of the New York Post reports.