Western Notes: Curry, Bogut, Snyder, Stotts
The announcement of the MVP award will take place in the next few days, sources told Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The sources confirmed the obvious, telling Stein that Stephen Curry was the voters’ choice, but it remains to be seen if he’ll become the first unanimous MVP winner. It’s also unknown whether Curry will be recovered from his sprained right MCL in time to play in Game 4 tonight in Portland. Warriors coach Steve Kerr on Sunday deemed the point guard doubtful, nonetheless adding that Curry will take part in the team’s shootaround today, as Diamond Leung of The Bay Area News Group relays.
See more from the Western Conference:
- Rumors have linked the Warriors to Kevin Durant for months, but it would take a significant roster overhaul to fit a max contract for Durant onto Golden State’s payroll, and Andrew Bogut, one of those whom the team might have to give up to get the former MVP, believes the front office should think twice before disrupting team chemistry. Tim Kawakami of The Bay Area News Group relays that and more from their interview. “Yeah. Look, you hear certain rumors about certain guys in the offseason. It’s unfortunately not up to us; it’s up to management and the owners,” Bogut said. “But for a franchise that hasn’t had a lot of success, to all of a sudden have a lot of success and then try to, you know, break the atom, it can go both ways, and I’ve seen that. It’ll be interesting to see what they do. Sometimes you don’t want to tinker with things that are going well because, as you know, it can go both ways. Sometimes you can get a guy, hey, this can put us over the top. But we feel like we’re at that point. It’s interesting. But there’s a lot of ego that goes into getting certain guys here and some teams want big names. Not just us. Even with good chemistry and a good program, some teams want that big superstar name to draw.”
- The Jazz‘s decision to sign coach Quin Snyder to an extension was wise, in part because Gordon Hayward is entering the final season of his contract preceding his ability to opt out in 2017, contends Brad Rock of The Deseret News. The players have bought in, and a coaching change between now and next summer would have given Hayward reason to leave, Rock believes.
- The Trail Blazers haven’t had any negotiations about an extension with Terry Stotts, but Game 3 against Golden State served as another reminder why he deserves one and that it won’t be surprising if the extension happens soon after Portland’s postseason is over, posits The Oregonian’s Joe Freeman. “He’s got our trust,” Damian Lillard said. “I think all season long, he’s counted on so many guys, he’s shown his faith in so many guys, and everybody on this team is behind him 100%.”
Grizzlies Notes: Wallace, Joerger, Conley, Gasol
Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace didn’t speak with the Kings about the front office job that ultimately went to Ken Catanella, a Grizzlies source told Geoff Calkins of The Commercial Appeal, who nonetheless heard from a Kings source that Wallace went so far as to engage in contract negotiations with Sacramento. Wallace denied that he spoke with the Kings, as Chris Vernon of WMFS-FM relays (Twitter links), with Wallace telling Vernon he has no reason to leave amid what he calls the best run of his career. “I never interviewed for a job with Kings,” Wallace said. “I’ve been in Memphis 9 years. I’m not interested [in] going anywhere.”
The notion that Wallace would leave the top front office job in Memphis for the No. 2 post under Vlade Divac in Sacramento would be troubling if accurate, Calkins posits. See more from Tennessee:
- Grizzlies management wanted to keep Joerger, but the coach forced the issue, Calkins writes in the same piece. Still, Joerger wasn’t Wallace’s guy, as Calkins points out.
- Key players on the Grizzlies as well as the team’s front office weren’t in Dave Joerger‘s corner, and Marc Gasol and Mike Conley never embraced Joerger’s style in his three seasons as head coach, according to Peter Edmiston of WHBQ-FM and The Commercial Appeal (Twitter links).
- The Grizzlies are in the middle of the pack, NBA’s no-man’s land, and the imperative this summer is that they acquire players who fit with a long-range plan, The Vertical’s Bobby Marks opines.
- To see the latest on the Grizzlies coaching search, click here.
Grizzlies Reach Out To Frank Vogel, Others
The Grizzlies have reached out to representatives for Frank Vogel, who plans to assess his options early this week, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical. The team is talking to other candidates, too, and while it’s unclear just whom Memphis has spoken with at this point, ex-Suns coach Jeff Hornacek, Spurs assistant Ettore Messina, Hornets assistant Patrick Ewing, Blazers assistant Nate Tibbets and Heat assistant David Fizdale are among those on the team’s list of candidates, Wojnarowski hears. The team is also planning to gauge the interest of former NBA head coaches David Blatt, Brian Shaw, Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy, as Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal wrote earlier.
More candidates are expected to emerge, and GM Chris Wallace and assistant GM Ed Stefanski plan to start meeting with them at the draft combine this week, league sources told Wojnarowski. Memphis wants a coach who can foster player development around a core of Marc Gasol and soon-to-be free agent Mike Conley, as Wojnarowski details.
Vogel is in reportedly high on the Kings’ list, though Sacramento is deep in negotiations with ex-Grizzlies coach Dave Joerger. Houston would like to interview the former Pacers head man, and the Knicks have reached out to his representatives, according to reports, making him a candidate for every NBA head coaching vacancy except the Indiana job he just lost.
Hoops Rumors Glossary: Biannual Exception
The most common method over-the-cap teams use to sign free agents from other teams is the mid-level exception, but it’s not the only tool those clubs have to squeeze an extra player onto the payroll. The biannual exception is a way to sign a player who commands more than the minimum salary and less than the mid-level.
As its name suggests, the biannual exception can only be used every other year. Even if a team uses only a portion of the exception, it’s off-limits the following year.
The biannual is available only to limited number of clubs, even among those that didn’t use the biannual the season before. Teams that open cap room forfeit the biannual and all but the smallest version of the mid-level. Additionally, teams lose access to the biannual exception when they go more than $4MM over the tax threshold, exceeding what’s known as the tax apron. So, only teams over the cap but under the tax apron can use the biannual exception.
If a team uses all or part of the biannual exception, it triggers a hard cap for that season. Clubs that sign a player using the biannual can later go under the cap but can’t go over the tax apron at any time during the season once the contract is signed.
The biannual exception provides for a starting salary of $2.203MM in 2016/17. That’s approximately 3% greater than the starting salary in a biannual deal in 2015/16, but with the salary cap projected to rise by more than 30%, the relative value of the biannual will be much lower. The league and the players determined the amount that the biannual exception would be worth each season when they negotiated the collective bargaining agreement in 2011, but the salary cap is tied to year-to-year fluctuations in revenue.
A biannual contract can be for either one or two seasons, with a raise of 4.5% for the second season. Thus, a player who signs in the 2016/17 season can receive a contract worth a total of up to $4,505,135 via the exception. Teams also have the option of splitting the biannual among multiple players, though that happens much less frequently than it does with the mid-level exception, since a split biannual deal wouldn’t entail much more than the minimum salary. The biannual exception starts to prorate on January 10th, decreasing in value by 1/170th each day until the end of the regular season.
Only two teams used the biannual exception in the 2015/16 season, thanks in large measure to the legion of clubs that dipped below the cap. The Hornets signed Jeremy Lin to a two-year deal for the full value of the biannual, with a player option on year two. The Wizards gave their full biannual to Gary Neal, though he signed only a one-year deal. The results couldn’t have been more different, with Lin flourishing as a sixth man while Neal endured injuries, ultimately hitting waivers in March. Lin seems like a cinch to opt out, given the way he upped his market value, and Neal is already off the Wizards roster, but neither team will have access to the biannual this summer.
It’s unlikely that many teams will use the biannual in 2016/17, since so many are once more poised to go under the cap and thus forfeit access to the exception. Still, it could prove a valuable tool for the handful of teams that will be capped out as they seek someone who can do for them what Lin did for the Hornets.
Earlier versions of this post appeared in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Note: This is a Hoops Rumors Glossary entry. Our glossary posts will explain specific rules relating to trades, free agency, or other aspects of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ and the Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Pacific Notes: Bibby, World Peace, Russell, Suns
Kings coaching candidate Henry Bibby believes he can reach DeMarcus Cousins, comparing the star center’s volatile temperament to that of Zach Randolph, another once-mercurial big man who shed his label as a malcontent while playing under a Grizzlies coaching staff that included Bibby, as Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee details. Bibby, who is scheduled to interview for the job Monday, said he’d hire son Mike Bibby for his staff, telling Jones that they’d long ago repaired what had been a troubled relationship. Henry Bibby added that he’d run an offense reminiscent of the one his son directed as the point guard for the Kings in the early 2000s. “What I’m trying to get back is what Vlade [Divac] used to have up there, the old Sacramento Kings,” Bibby told Jones. “I want to get that back again, that excitement. They played as a team. They ran that corner offense, and that’s what I’d run. I’d put DeMarcus where Vlade was [on offense], and you play basketball with [Rajon] Rondo, [Ben] McLemore and guys like that.”
- The video incident involving D’Angelo Russell and Nick Young reportedly drove a wedge between Russell and his teammates, but Metta World Peace said on ESPN’s “The Jump” this week that team chemistry wasn’t as fractured as reports made it seem. Andrew Joseph of For The Win has the transcription. “It wasn’t like that,” World Peace said. “It wasn’t that bad. … I can’t say exactly like what it was. … We gave [Russell] a little talk, because nowadays, it’s like the young players that’s coming into sports, they’re so immature these days. They make a lot of mistakes. So, you have to always be there to pick them up.”
- The Suns have decided not to re-sign assistant coaches Bob Hill and Corey Gaines, as well as player development assistant Irving Roland, reports Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. It’s somewhat surprising to see the team decline to keep Hill, the former Knicks, Spurs, Pacers and SuperSonics head coach who joined the staff in February at the behest of Earl Watson. Phoenix removed Watson’s interim tag last month, formally making him the head coach.
- Former Indiana University point guard Yogi Ferrell have predraft workouts for the Clippers and Lakers, among other teams, a source tells Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv (Twitter link).
- I examined the offseason ahead for the Clippers earlier today.
Lakers Plan Major Trade Push For Paul George?
THURSDAY, 1:09pm: GM Mitch Kupchak denied any plans to trade the first-round pick as he spoke in an appearance on KSPN-AM in Los Angeles, as Serena Winters of Lakers Nation relays (Twitter links).
“I have no idea where that came from,” Kupchak said. “I’m superstitious enough that I’m not going to look to do something or take something for granted before we have it.”
WEDNESDAY, 12:00pm: The Lakers want to make an aggressive run at trading for Paul George this summer, and they’re willing to give up their 2016 first-round pick and more to Indiana, as HBO’s Bill Simmons hears (Twitter link). Such a proposal would be unlikely to sway the Pacers, Simmons concedes, and the Lakers won’t even have a first-rounder to offer if they slip out of the top three in the May 17th lottery, a scenario with a roughly 44% chance of happening.
It would probably require the inclusion of D’Angelo Russell to prompt the Pacers to consider any such offer, Simmons suggests, noting that Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird isn’t sentimental and will make a drastic move if he deems it necessary, as the uncertainty over Frank Vogel‘s job status demonstrates (Twitter links). George, a native of Los Angeles County, is under contract for at least two more years, with a player option worth more than $20.7MM for the 2018/19 season.
The Lakers reportedly offered last year’s No. 2 pick, which they ultimately used on Russell, to the Kings in trade talks about DeMarcus Cousins this past June. Lakers basketball operations chief Jim Buss faces a self-imposed deadline of next spring to have to turned around the franchise’s sagging fortunes, having said he’ll resign if he fails to accomplish that. The team was a franchise-worst 17-65 this past season.
What sort of offer do you think it would take to pry George from the Pacers? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Offseason Salary Cap Digest: Indiana Pacers
Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird already decided to change coaches, and he has the flexibility necessary to make further significant alterations to his team. The Pacers can open roughly $30MM in room against a projected $92MM cap, close to enough for even the highest band of maximum salaries. Indiana has never been a destination spot for elite free agents, but the Pacers nonetheless have the ability to spread their wealth on players who can adopt Bird’s preferred up-tempo offense. Perhaps the only impingement will be the team’s sharp restriction on the offer it can make to Solomon Hill thanks to the decision to decline his option this past fall. See how Indiana’s cap situation looks for 2016/17 as Hoops Rumors continues its offseason salary cap digest series.
Guaranteed salary
- Paul George ($18,314,532)
- Monta Ellis ($10,763,500)
- George Hill ($8,000,000)
- Rodney Stuckey ($7,000,000)
- C.J. Miles ($4,583,450)
- Lavoy Allen ($4,000,000)
- Myles Turner ($2,463,840)
- Joseph Young ($1,052,342)
- Rakeem Christmas ($1,052,342)
- Total: $57,230,006
Player Options
- None
Team Options
- None
Non-Guaranteed Salary
- Glenn Robinson III ($1,050,500)
- Shayne Whittington ($980,431)
- Total: $2,030,931
Restricted Free Agents
- None
Unrestricted Free Agents (Cap Holds)
- Ian Mahinmi ($7,600,000)
- Jordan Hill ($4,800,000)
- Solomon Hill ($2,306,019)1
- Ty Lawson ($980,431)
- Total: $15,686,450
Other Cap Holds
- No. 20 pick ($1,301,900)
Projected Salary Cap: $92,000,000
Footnotes:
- The Pacers can’t re-sign Hill to a contract with a starting salary worth more than the amount listed here because they declined their team option on his rookie scale contract.
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Jazz Sign Quin Snyder To Extension
12:50pm: The Jazz had already picked up Snyder’s option, so he wouldn’t have been a lame-duck without the extension, a member of the front office told Spencer Checketts of KZNS-AM (See all of the Twitter links right here). Jazz president Steve Starks, rather than Lindsey, negotiated the extension, with Lindsey preferring not to let contract talks affect his working relationship with the coach, as Checketts also heard.
“Our relationship with Quin, and this extension, reflect our shared passion for building a championship team,” Starks said in the team statement. “With long-term contracts now in place for Quin, Dennis and other key front office personnel, we are well-positioned for the future.”
It doesn’t appear as though the extension includes any option years, Genessy adds (on Twitter).
12:37pm: The extension runs through the 2020/21 season, as Jody Genessy of The Deseret News hears (Twitter link).
11:19am: The Jazz have signed coach Quin Snyder to an extension, the team announced. Next season had reportedly been the final guaranteed year of the contract he signed when Utah hired him in 2014. It’s unclear how many seasons the extension covers, though the team refers to it as a long-term arrangement.
“With this contract extension, we are declaring our confidence in Coach Snyder’s ability to continue to develop the Utah Jazz into a championship team,” owner Gail Miller said in the team’s statement. “The Miller family recognizes the significant progress made under his leadership and we are excited about the direction we are headed.”
Snyder, 49, has helped the Jazz make strides in their rebuilding effort, inheriting a team that went 25-57 in 2013/14 and winning 38 and 40 games the past two seasons, respectively. The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski recently pointed to the way that Snyder increases Utah’s appeal as a free agent destination through his ability to get the most out of players and inflate their market value. Rudy Gobert is perhaps the most prominent example, as the 27th pick in the 2013 draft has gone from playing 9.6 minutes per game as a rookie to a contender for a max extension when he becomes eligible to sign one this summer.
“We have continued to take significant steps as a team under Quin’s direction,” GM Dennis Lindsey said in the statement. “His work ethic, basketball intelligence and ability to connect with and develop our players make him the ideal head coach of the Jazz.”
Still, the Jazz haven’t landed any marquee free agent from elsewhere and have so far constructed their roster primarily through the draft and trades, including the swap involving Enes Kanter in February 2015 that opened playing time for Gobert. Expectations for this season were high for the Jazz after they went 19-10 following the Kanter trade, but the torn ACL that Dante Exum suffered this past summer dampened hopes and helped keep Utah from the postseason this spring. The Jazz nonetheless came close, and it wasn’t until the final night of the regular season that they were eliminated from contention for a playoff spot. The inability for Snyder to coax more out of Trey Burke loomed large. Burke, the ninth pick from the 2013 draft, was the logical choice to replace Exum as a starter this season, but the former Michigan player didn’t make a single start as Snyder instead favored wing-heavy lineups.
Regardless, the Jazz have shown enough progress for the front office to deem Snyder worthy of continued job security. The position is his first as an NBA head coach. He previously served as an assistant to Mike Budenholzer on the Hawks for one season and as an assistant to Ettore Messina on CSKA Moscow the year before that. Budenholzer was a longtime Spurs assistant and Messina is currently on San Antonio’s staff, giving Snyder multiple connections to the Gregg Popovich tree. Lindsey came to the team after five seasons with the Spurs.
Latest On Kevin Durant
The theory among the teams eager to pursue Kevin Durant this summer is that the Thunder’s second-round series against the Spurs will decide whether he leaves Oklahoma City, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Durant would stay if the Thunder win and leave if they lose, Stein relays, stressing that it’s merely an assumption among the front offices. The Spurs, with the series tied 1-1, indeed have designs on luring Durant to San Antonio, Stein hears, echoing what several rival executives suggested to Chris Mannix of The Vertical in March.
Zach Lowe of ESPN.com recently compared the talk about Durant joining the Spurs as “eerily similar” to the early rumblings that connected LaMarcus Aldridge to San Antonio last year. Still, the Warriors loom as another powerful suitor, and The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported in February at that they would be significant front-runners for Durant if he were to leave the Thunder. Golden State is optimistic about its chances, and chatter has gone on since the Warriors’ record 24-0 start about the kinship Durant formed on Team USA with Stephen Curry and Andre Iguodala, Stein writes. The Wizards, Heat, Celtics, Rockets, Lakers and Clippers are planning hard pushes for Durant, too, according to Stein, who cautions that it’s premature to peg any team aside from the Thunder as the favorite to land him.
Neither the Warriors nor the Spurs have the cap flexibility to sign Durant for his max of an estimated $26MM for next season without making trades, waiving players via the stretch provision, or both. The Vertical’s Bobby Marks illustrated a scenario involving maneuvers that would give the Warriors enough room to sign Durant, and Danny Leroux of The Sporting News laid out San Antonio’s path. The Clippers would have to offload either Chris Paul, Blake Griffin or DeAndre Jordan, as I noted in our offseason outlook for the team earlier today.
The teams who assume Durant will stay with the Thunder if Oklahoma City advances to the next round of the playoffs suggest he’d go for a two-year contract with a player option on year two, the same sort of contract LeBron James favors, according to Stein. That would allow Durant the flexibility for him to hit free agency again next summer, when Russell Westbrook‘s contract expires, and it would represent the most lucrative path for the former MVP, as I examined. Still, Durant told Stein at the All-Star break that he hadn’t considered such a contract structure.
Wizards Poised To Make Offer To Tomas Satoransky
The Wizards have decided to make a multiyear guaranteed offer to draft-and-stash prospect Tomas Satoransky, sources tell Nikos Varlas of Eurohoops.net. Washington can’t formally present a contract to the Czech combo guard until July, but it appears the team is eager to finally bring the 32nd pick from the 2012 draft to the NBA.
The buyout attached to Satoransky’s contract with Barcelona of Spain is $1.5MM, Varlas notes. That exceeds the $650K that the Wizards can pay toward a buyout without it counting against the cap. The rest would go in the form of a signing bonus spread over the life of the contract in proportion to the percentage of salary guaranteed each year. Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post heard earlier this year that the Wizards would likely sign the 24-year-old to a two-year deal with a team option on the second season if they were to bring him stateside this summer, so in that structure, the entire bonus would hit the cap for this coming season. Varlas’ report suggests multiple seasons will be guaranteed, in which case the cap hit for the bonus would come in season-by-season increments.
Regardless, the addition of Satoransky would give Washington another young player to develop behind backcourt mainstays John Wall and, presuming he re-signs, Bradley Beal. The 6’6″ Satoransky averaged 9.5 points in 24.0 minutes per game with 38.8% 3-point shooting for his Spanish team this past season, and the year before he shot 43.5% from behind the arc.