Latest On Rajon Rondo
Celtics GM Danny Ainge isn’t shopping Rajon Rondo, but he isn’t turning away calls, either, sources tell Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. Still, Ainge has consistently rejected offers for the All-Star point guard, according to Berger. The only time the Celtics came close to trading Rondo was in a deal that would have landed them Chris Paul, Berger writes, presumably referring to a 2011 proposal.
Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders gets the sense from his time around the C’s that they want to keep Rondo around and gauge how well he can become a leader. It’s a role they envisioned for their newly appointed captain before the departures of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, so it appears they’re invested in him for at least the foreseeable future. A weekend report from Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News nonetheless indicated that executives around the league believe the C’s will try to trade Rondo at the deadline or before the draft in June. That echoes what Chad Ford of ESPN.com wrote last week.
Rondo has been at the center of several rumors since the Garnett/Pierce trade this summer, but most of the recent suggestions that he’s on the block appear to be coming from outside the Celtics organization. Ainge has been steadfast that Rondo isn’t a trade candidate, so perhaps the idea that he could be on the move is just wishful thinking from other teams.
Rondo’s contract runs through next season, when he’ll make a little more than $12.9MM, a bargain for a top point guard. It’s unlikely he’ll sign an extension, Berger writes, noting the limitations in the latest collective bargaining agreement that make it unappealing for most star players to do so. Berger says that Rondo can only add two years to his deal if he signs an extension this summer, and while he can actually add up to three years via extension come July, it would nonetheless be to Rondo’s advantage to wait until he becomes a free agent in the summer of 2015. Then, he could re-sign with the C’s for up to five seasons, or ink a deal for as many as four years with another team.
Bulls Sign Mike James To 10-Day Contract
WEDNESDAY, 9:50am: James has officially signed his deal with Chicago, and it’s a 10-day contract, the team announced.
TUESDAY, 4:34pm: The Bulls will re-sign point guard Mike James, tweets K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. The 38-year-old made the team out of training camp, but the Bulls waived him last month after signing D.J. Augustin. Chicago traded Marquis Teague to the Nets today for big man Tornike Shengelia, so the return of James replenishes the Bulls’ point guard depth. USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt wrote last month that the team might bring James back if it traded Teague.
It’s unclear if the agreement is for a 10-day contract or a deal that covers a rest of the season. Cartier Martin is on his second 10-day with the Bulls, who hope to re-sign him for the season once it expires. That would still leave Chicago with a pair of open roster spots, leaving plenty of room for James. The Bulls are within $1MM of the luxury tax line, so it seems the timing of the decision to bring James aboard in the wake of today’s trade, which sheared $285,848 from Chicago’s payroll, is financially motivated.
The Bernie Lee client saw just 38 minutes total in his first stint with the Bulls this season, but he started 23 games for the Mavericks last year, averaging 8.2 points, 4.4 assists and 25.8 minutes per game in those starts. He also played with the Bulls during the 2011/12 season.
Bulls Unsure If They’ll Amnesty Carlos Boozer
Bulls power forward Carlos Boozer has long seemed like an amnesty candidate, but there appears to be only a 50-50 chance that Chicago will use the amnesty clause to remove Boozer’s cap hit from its books this summer, according to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders (Sulia link). The Bulls aren’t certain that a top-tier free agent will become available to them this summer, and if that doesn’t happen, they’d be content to keep Boozer and let him play out the final season of his contract next year.
There’s been increasing chatter that the 2015 free agent class will turn out to be more star-laden than this summer’s crop, and it sounds like Chicago is thinking about focusing on 2015 rather than amnestying Boozer and signing second-tier free agents this summer, Kyler writes. Boozer is set to make $16.8MM in 2014/15. He’ll receive that money even if the Bulls use the amnesty clause, since the amnesty only erases a contract from a team’s ledger, rather than its actual payroll. It would make sense if cost-conscious Chicago owner Jerry Reinsdorf decides against setting himself up to pay a player who’ll no longer be on his roster.
The Bulls slipped beneath the luxury tax line with their trade of Luol Deng earlier this month, and that could make it less likely the team will amnesty Boozer, according to Kyler. Had Chicago not escaped the tax for this season, there would have been pressure to avoid what might have been a third straight taxpaying season next year. That would have triggered repeat-offender penalties for subsequent seasons. Now that it doesn’t appear the Bulls will pay the tax this year, there’s not as much motivation to avoid it in 2014/15. Including Boozer’s salary, their commitments already bring them within $13MM of the projected tax line for next season, so it will be hard for them to avoid becoming 2014/15 taxpayers without amnestying Boozer.
Hawks Re-Sign James Nunnally
WEDNESDAY, 9:06am: The deal is now official, the team announced.
TUESDAY, 9:30am: The Hawks will sign James Nunnally to a second 10-day contract on Wednesday, reports Shams Charania of RealGM.com. His first deal with the team expired last night, when it appeared Atlanta was still debating whether to keep the 23-year-old forward, according to Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Twitter link). The Hawks will have to decide whether to keep Nunnally for the rest of the season when his second 10-day contract ends.
Nunnally hasn’t had a chance to make much of an impression during his time with the Hawks, who’ve put him on the court for a single eight-minute appearance so far. He’s done most of his work this season with the Bakersfield Jam of the D-League, averaging 18.2 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game. The Suns had him in training camp this fall, and he averaged 3.0 PPG in 10.5 minutes per game during the preseason.
Atlanta has 14 guaranteed contracts, so keeping Nunnally around for the rest of the season would make that 15, limiting the team’s flexibility. Even if the Hawks decide against keeping him, it sounds like he has plenty of other opportunities for NBA work. He was one of the most sought-after camp invitees, and he met with the Cavs, Bulls and Thunder before signing his first 10-day deal with the Hawks.
International Rumors: Andersen, Jenkins, Leslie
A lot of former NBA players looking to find their way back into the league do so via 10-day contracts this time of year, but others have decided their best options are overseas. Here’s the latest on a few noteworthy deals overseas:
- David Andersen has signed with SIG Strasbourg of France, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). The former Rockets, Raptors and Pelicans center has drawn mild NBA interest of late, but he said last week that he thought it more likely he’d head to Europe. L’Equipe first reported Andersen’s deal.
- Charles Jenkins has signed a one-year extension with Red Star Belgrade in Serbia, tweets Djordje Matic. The 24-year-old guard spent the past two seasons in the NBA with the Warriors and Sixers before joining Red Star this past summer. It’s unclear what kind of escape clause, if any, the deal would provide for Jenkins if another NBA team comes calling.
- Former Clippers and Jazz guard Travis Leslie has signed with BC Siauliai of Lithuania, according to the team (translation via Carchia). French club ASVEL Villeurbanne released the 23-year-old last week.
Daniel Orton To Join Celtics D-League Team
Free agent center Daniel Orton will sign with the D-League and play for the Maine Red Claws, the affiliate of the Celtics, USA Today’s Sam Amick reports (Twitter links). The Red Claws are acquiring his D-League rights via trade from the Tulsa 66ers, according to Amick. Orton had offers from Chinese teams, Amick adds, but he will instead showcase his skills within the range of most NBA observers.
The Sixers waived Orton earlier this month, just before his contract would have become guaranteed for the rest of the season. Philadelphia had picked him up during the preseason a few days after the Thunder cut him loose. The 6’10” Orton was the 29th overall pick of the 2010 draft out of the University of Kentucky, but he missed the 2010/11 season with injury and has yet to blossom. He’s appeared in a total of 51 NBA games so far, with career numbers of 3.0 points and 2.8 rebounds per game with a 10.6 PER.
He hasn’t fared too much better when his NBA teams have assigned him to the D-League, putting up 12.4 PPG and 7.8 RPG in 27.8 minutes per game over 31 contests. If he impresses this time around, the Celtics will have the flexibility to sign him to the big club, since they have only 13 guaranteed contracts. Orton will nonetheless remain eligible to sign with any NBA team.
Pacific Notes: Plumlee, Len, Young, Kings
Eight teams have given out at least one 10-day contract so far this season, and three of those clubs are from the Pacific Division, as our 10-Day Tracker shows. The Clippers have struck three such deals, the most of any team in the NBA, and all of them have gone to point guards as they look to make up for the absence of Chris Paul. Here’s the latest from the Pacific:
- The Suns insisted that the Pacers include Miles Plumlee in the Luis Scola trade after scouting the 25-year-old center in summer league action, and the result is what Plumlee believes is a “perfect” trade, as he tells Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. Phoenix’s starting center says he’s grateful for his newfound playing time and harbors no ill will toward the Pacers for burying him on the bench.
- One of Plumlee’s backups is Alex Len, the fifth overall pick in the draft this past June. Len has played fewer minutes than 45 other NBA rookies, notes Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. Still, the Suns are no less optimistic about his future, as Coro explains.
- Nick Young‘s strong performance for the Lakers in place of the injured Kobe Bryant suggests he’ll command much more as a free agent than he’d make if he exercises his minimum-salary player option for next season, as Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com examines. Young took a discount to play in his native Southern California this season, but he’s expressed a desire for more financial stability on his next deal.
- Ray McCallum has rejoined the Kings after a stint in the D-League, the team announced. The point guard, whom Sacramento took 36th overall this past June, has notched 20.0 points and 4.3 assists per game in seven D-League appearances.
Danilo Gallinari To Miss Season
Danilo Gallinari will miss the rest of the season after undergoing surgery on his ACL today, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Gallinari didn’t have ACL surgery this past spring, instead having a procedure done to repair his meniscus, according to Wojnarowski (Twitter link). The Nuggets announced in April that he had torn the ACL in his left knee, and he hasn’t played in a game since. The doctor who performed the initial surgery believed Gallinari could strengthen the ACL enough to play on it without the traditional operation, but the knee didn’t respond, as Wojnarowski explains in his full story.
Gallinari said last week that the thought of missing the entire season had crossed his mind, a change from earlier, when he indicated he didn’t consider that a possibility. The Nuggets haven’t been the same without him, compiling a 20-20 record so far compared to last season’s 57-25 mark. The Warriors upset the Nuggets when they were without Gallinari in last year’s playoffs.
The 25-year-old is in the midst of a four-year, $42MM extension that runs through 2015/16 and pays him more than $10.1MM this season. The deadline to apply for a disabled player exception was January 15th, so the capped-out Nuggets can only sign a minimum-salary player to replace him. Today’s announcement strengthens the chance that Denver will look to make changes that favor the future over the present come the trade deadline.
The Nuggets will recoup some of their obligation to Gallinari this season through their insurance policy, which pays 80% of his salary for any games he misses over the latter part of the season. That’ll work out to a savings of about $4.5MM, tweets Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post.
‘Serious Suitors’ Interested In Buying Bucks
Four “serious suitors” would be willing to negotiate with Bucks owner Herb Kohl about buying the team, reports Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times. Kohl said last month that he’s seeking partners to share the ownership of the club, but the 78-year-old insisted then that he “isn’t going anywhere,” in spite of years of rumors that he’d give up the team.
One of the suitors is a group of five or six investors with Wisconsin ties, according to Woelfel, who notes that Kohl would appear to prefer to make sure the club remains in the hands of locals. Another potential owner is someone from Chicago who’s had an offer on the table for years, Woelfel writes without identifying who it is. Reading between the lines, it seems like that’s Michael Heisley, the former Grizzlies owner who lives in Chicago and has been connected with the Bucks in the past, though that’s just speculation on my part.
If Kohl sells the team sometime soon, the price could come in anywhere from $380MM to almost $500MM, according to Woelfel. That wouldn’t include the cost of a new arena, a project Kohl has been pushing civic leaders to support. Two of Woelfel’s sources believe there’s a strong chance the arena will be built. Kohl, a former Wisconsin senator, is “obsessed” with making the arena a part of his legacy, Woelfel writes, having heard from a source who says Kohl is considering footing more than $100MM worth of the construction bill.
Atlantic Rumors: Carmelo, Nets, Rondo
Players and coaches around the league share the general feeling that Carmelo Anthony will leave the Knicks in free agency, according to Frank Isola of the New York Daily News, who believes the star is weary of the team’s losing. Anthony and other Knicks embraced Nets coach Jason Kidd after Brooklyn’s blowout win over their crosstown rivals yesterday, and Isola sees it as evidence that the club misses Kidd and other veterans on last year’s roster who are no longer around. Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- The Nets created trade a small trade exception as part of their swap with the Pelicans today, worth $788,872, equivalent to Tyshawn Taylor‘s salary. They don’t get one as part of their deal with the Bulls, since Marquis Teague is making more than Tornike Shengelia.
- Boston anticipated Rajon Rondo would someday become the leader of the team, and so the Celtics have groomed him for that role, one GM Danny Ainge believes he’s better prepared to embrace now that he’s adopted a calmer demeanor, observes Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald.
- The Celtics appear high on Zeke Marshall, as the team’s front office pushed to acquire his D-League rights via trade earlier this year, according to Mike Taylor, Marshall’s coach with Boston’s D-League affiliate. Marla Ridenour of the Akron Beacon Journal has more on the already well-traveled prospect who went undrafted out of the University of Akron this summer.
- SB Nation’s Tom Ziller names the Knicks and Nets as two of the league’s most desperate teams, suggesting much is at stake for the New York City franchises between now and the trade deadline.