Rockets Likely To Keep Asik, Lin Through Season
Omer Asik was the hottest trade candidate in the NBA a month ago, but it doesn’t sound like that will be the case again in advance of the trade deadline. It’s likely he and Jeremy Lin will finish the season on the Rockets, according to Sean Deveney of The Sporting News, who hears that the market for them is becoming increasingly worse.
Both are due balloon payments worth nearly $15MM next season, though they’re only seeing about $5MM this year. With each paycheck the Rockets issue Asik and Lin, their trade value slips, since part of the rationale for other teams who would absorb next year’s increased costs had been this year’s bargain prices, as Deveney explains.
Their cap hits are close to $8.4MM each this season and next, but that doesn’t reflect the actual payments they’re receiving because Houston signed them via the Gilbert Arenas Provision, as I pointed out last month in examining the way Asik’s contract affected his trade value.
“It is a tough sell to bring something like that to your owner,” an executive from a rival team told Deveney. “You have got to tell him, ‘We’re getting a pretty good player, an $8MM player. Oh, but we have to pay him $15 million. We will be giving him LeBron (James) money. That’s OK, right?’ That’s not really a conversation you want to have.”
It’s still possible that the Rockets could find a deep-pocketed team willing to trade for Asik, but Houston probably isn’t as motivated to find a new home for Lin, who’s having the best shooting year of his career, Deveney notes.
Warriors Rumors: Dedmon, Barnes, Thompson
The Warriors were interested in re-signing center Dewayne Dedmon before he agreed to his 10-day contract with the Sixers, but they’re keeping their final roster spot open for a backup point guard, USA Today’s Sam Amick tweets. It’s a safe bet the Warriors will acquire a new backup point man in the next month or so, according to Grantland’s Zach Lowe, who has plenty more from Golden State, as we detail:
- Harrison Barnes and Klay Thompson are drawing trade interest from teams across the league, and Barnes hasn’t lived up to the high standard the Warriors set for him this season, Lowe writes. Still, GM Bob Myers seems reluctant to deal either cornerstone player. “We like our core,” Myers said. “We believe in our core, and we believe they will get better.”
- David Lee, in the midst of a $79.5MM contract that runs through 2015/16, is a frequent target of critics, but Myers isn’t one of them. “Our starting lineup is off the charts in terms of points and points allowed per possession,” Myers told Lowe. “And to assume you can replace someone who is a part of that — well, you don’t just replace someone like that. A lot of his detractors have been proven patently wrong, and they should admit they jumped the gun.”
- Lowe suggests that if the Warriors want to find a significant upgrade at the point behind starter Stephen Curry, it might mean parting with Barnes, Thompson or their 2019 first-round draft pick, the earliest first-rounder they can relinquish per the Stepien Rule. Tellingly, Lowe doesn’t mention Toney Douglas, whom the W’s signed this summer to a one-year, $1.6MM deal to fill the role of backup point guard. He appears to have dropped out of the team’s rotation.
Jerryd Bayless Wants To Remain With Celtics
Jerryd Bayless has led an itinerant NBA life, bouncing between five teams in five and a half years in the NBA. He’s a free agent at season’s end, so he could make his stay in Boston a short one after just having arrived via trade from the Grizzlies last week. Instead, he’d prefer to stay in green for a lot longer, as he tells A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com.
“Would l like to find a home? Of course,” Bayless said. “I would love to be here for the rest of my career if I could and find some stability.”
The 25-year-old guard said to Blakely that he’s expressed those sentiments to GM Danny Ainge and coach Brad Stevens. Ainge and the rest of the C’s front office have coveted Bayless for a long time, Blakely notes, so it seems there’s a decent chance the 2008 lottery pick will get to stick around beyond this year.
Bayless is making $3.135MM in the final season of a two-year deal he signed with Memphis in 2012. The Celtics have his Early Bird rights, so they can re-sign him for up to four years with a starting salary in the neighborhood of $5.5MM. The precise starting salary Bayless could receive won’t be known until after the July Moratorium, when the NBA will determine the average salary for the season, but he’ll be eligible for at least $5,486,250, which is 175% of his pay for this year.
Regardless, I’m not sure the Celtics or any other team would be willing to go quite that high, and just how well he meshes in Boston after Rajon Rondo returns from injury will go a long way in determining how much Bayless will command. Still, he’s off to a strong start, if his 15 fourth quarter points last night are any indication.
Odds & Ends: Salaries, Rondo, Hickson
The NBA’s highest paid players used to dominate the list of the top earners in team sports, but no longer. Eight Major League Baseball players have deals that give them average annual salaries within the top 10 among all athletes in North American team sports, according to Liz Mullen and David Broughton of the SportsBusiness Journal (subscription only). Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony are the other two on that list. It’s a reversal from 2000, when eight NBA players were among the top 10 on those rankings, while two baseball players took up the other spots.
“The NBA players union has failed to protect the rights of the top players in the league,” agent Arn Tellem said. “Collective bargaining has proved totally ineffectual.”
It might help matters if the National Basketball Players Association were able to fill its vacant executive director position. They missed out on another target for the post when Blazers president Larry Miller turned them down, as Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com reported this weekend. While we wait to see who they wind up with, here’s more from the NBA:
- Celtics GM Danny Ainge has consistently batted down Rajon Rondo trade rumors, but there’s an “increasing belief” around the league that Ainge will seek to trade the point guard for multiple assets, as Chad Ford writes in his “tank rank” piece for ESPN Insider.
- J.J. Hickson is leaving agent Andy Miller of ASM Sports and will soon hire a new representative, tweets Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post.
- ASVEL Villeurbanne of France has released former Clippers and Jazz point guard Travis Leslie, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia).
- If Jordan Hill plays in 11 more games this year and averages at least 14.1 minutes per contest over the season, he’ll trigger an incentive clause worth $63,600, notes Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times. Hill is averaging 20.2 MPG so far.
10-Day Contract Tracker
NBA teams and players became eligible to sign 10-day contracts a week ago, and five such deals are already on the books. A pair of players signed 10-day deals shortly after having been cut in anticipation of last week’s leaguewide guarantee date, and plenty other newly minted free agents figure to follow suit.
The bulk of the signings that take place in the NBA between now and April will be of the 10-day variety, and we’ll keep on top of all of them. Hoops Rumors has created a database that allows you to track every 10-day signing all season long. It includes information on every 10-day contract signed since the 2006/07 season, giving you a chance to identify trends regarding your favorite teams and players. The search filters in the database make it easy to sort by team, player and year. You can even see whether a player and team signed a second 10-day contract, and if the short-term deals led to an agreement that covered the rest of the season.
For instance, if you want to see how many times the recently released Louis Amundson has signed 10-day deals, you can find that information here. Similarly, if you want to see all the 10-day contracts the Knicks have signed in recent years, you can do so here.
A link to our 10-day contract tracker can be found at any time in the Tools menu at the top of the page, or in the right sidebar. We’ll be keeping it up to date for the rest of the season, so be sure to check back to keep tabs on the latest signings.
Southwest Notes: Gordon, Grizzlies, Bynum
Two reports on Friday indicated New Orleans was shopping Eric Gordon, but the Pelicans were quick to tell the shooting guard and Nakia Hogan of The Times-Picayune that they aren’t pursuing any such deals. Gordon doesn’t appear concerned with the chatter, and even though his field goal attempts and scoring average are down for the third straight season, he’s been uncharacteristically healthy this year, having played in all but three games. Backcourt mate Jrue Holiday is sidelined indefinitely with a stress fracture in his right leg, so I’d be surprised if a Gordon trade happens anytime soon. Here’s more from the Southwest Division:
- James Johnson‘s improved conditioning and maturity has turned him into an asset for the Grizzlies just a month after he signed a minimum-salary deal with the team, as Chris Herrington of the Memphis Commercial Appeal examines. One Western Conference scout tells Herrington that he laments that his team passed on the former 16th overall pick while he languished in free agency.
- Tim McMahon of ESPNDallas.com weighs the chances that Andrew Bynum could be a fit for the Mavericks, pointing to owner Mark Cuban’s comments about Samuel Dalembert and the state of the team’s centers. “Depends on which Sam we have,” Cuban said. “If we have the Sam of [Friday] night, we’re good. If we have the Sam that isn’t as on key as he was [Friday] night, it’s different. Again, we’re always being opportunistic. Wherever we can improve our team, we will.”
- USA Today’s Sam Amick looks at the way NBA teams are connecting with the coaches of their D-League affiliates, noting that Nevada Smith, who beat out 34 other candidates for the head job at Rockets affiliate Rio Grande Valley, has become the “darling” of the D-League coaching circle.
Cavs Rumors: Deng, LeBron, Irving
Luol Deng is open to signing an extension with what he calls an “amazing organization” in Cleveland, as he tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. Talks between the club and Herb Rudoy, Deng’s agent, have yet to begin and might not start up for a while. Still, Deng is impressed with the way the Cavs treat their players, and he’s excited about the team’s up-and-comers, particularly Kyrie Irving, for whom he believes “the sky is the limit.”
“If we sit down and something comes up in time, I’m more than open to it,” Deng said about the possibility of an extension. “I’m not the type of guy who wants to be chased. I’m going to play hard and work hard and look for what the best situation is for me.”
There’s more on Deng and another small forward who could hit free agency this summer, as we detail:
- Sam Smith of Bulls.com has spoken with people close to LeBron James who “pretty much laugh at and dismiss” the notion that the four-time MVP would return to Cleveland this summer. James himself has kept quiet this year on the issue of his potential free agency, and as Smith points out, the Heat were a surprise choice in 2010, so it’s hard to gauge the superstar’s thinking.
- If James does consider the Cavs, it would please Deng, who appears to be recruiting the Heat star in his comments to Spears, even though they play the same position. “I really think for Cleveland that LeBron knows the way he left, and he apologized for it already,” Deng said. “…And at the end of the day, he is a great basketball player and I think for him to come back to Cleveland is not only a great story, but you can’t hold grudges forever.”
- Smith hears the Cavs could have a difficult time re-signing Kyrie Irving, who has interest in returning close to New Jersey, where he grew up. Irving could become a restricted free agent in 2015 if he and the Cavs don’t agree to an extension this year, but Cleveland would have the right to match any team’s offer, so as long as the Cavs view the point guard as a maximum-salary player, they wield control.
Trade Candidate: Thaddeus Young
Thaddeus Young is having a career year, having revived a dormant three-point stroke that’s helping him average a career high 17.8 points a game. He’s also at or near high watermarks in rebounding, assists, steals and blocks. Any team in the NBA would love to have the 25-year-old, as an NBA executive recently told Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News. Still, Young needn’t have his bags packed. A unnamed GM who spoke to ESPN’s Chris Broussard at the start of the season pointed to Young’s contract as an impediment to a swap, saying he didn’t know any team that would relinquish anything of value to trade for him.
The deal runs through 2015/16 with average salaries of $8.6MM. The escalating raises in the deal mean he’ll make more than $9.4MM in 2014/15 and more than $9.9MM in the final season of the pact. Young’s strong performance might have changed a few minds around the league, but it doesn’t sound like it’s going to be easy for GM Sam Hinkie to find a deal that works for the Sixers.
Young’s “soft” trade request last month probably exacerbates that challenge, as do his comments indicating a lack of enthusiasm for playing with inexperienced teammates. Rival executives who sense that Young is putting pressure on the Sixers to deal him probably feel as though their offers for the power forward needn’t be too strong. Hinkie said late this summer that he didn’t find it necessary to deal away Young or any of his other veterans, but a more recent report indicated the Sixers were heavily shopping Young. Even as the former 12th overall pick laughs off the assertion that he’s disgruntled with the Sixers, Young’s attitude could worsen if he remains a part of a long-term rebuilding effort.
The Rockets were linked to Young when they were aggressively shopping Omer Asik last month, and such a one-for-one swap would make some degree of sense from Houston’s perspective. Young, as long as his 39.3% three-point accuracy holds up, could serve as the sort of stretch power forward who fits the Rockets system. But while Young’s cap figure is only slightly higher than Asik’s, Young’s deal lasts a season longer, and that could tie up money Houston may have earmarked for Chandler Parsons once his bargain contract lapses after 2014/15. Plus, the emergence of Terrence Jones of late might dissuade the Rockets from trading for another power forward.
The Bobcats are giving the indication they’ll be buyers at the trade deadline, so perhaps they’ll get into talks for Young. Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors speculated that Philadelphia could be a potential destination for Ben Gordon, and the Sixers, with the most cap space in the league, can accommodate Gordon’s bloated $13.2MM contract in a one-for-one swap for Young. That would amount to salary dump come summer for Philadelphia, and it’s not as if the Sixers don’t have plenty of flexibility already. So, I’d imagine the Bobcats would have to include an attractive draft pick or another intriguing asset for the Sixers to bite.
Maybe the Pistons could get involved if they’re skittish about the offers Greg Monroe might receive in restricted free agency this summer. Detroit would have to give Philadelphia more to meet salary-matching requirements, so talks could bog down over the sort of additional assets the Pistons would relinquish. Young probably represents a cheaper long-term option that re-signing Monroe would entail, so Detroit is one team that might not mind Young’s contract. I’d imagine that would prompt the Sixers to demand a worthwhile extra asset in the trade. Of course, the entire notion is just my speculation.
We’ll probably hear of at least a few teams jumping into discussions for Young in the next few weeks as the February 20th trade deadline approaches. Of course, there’s no real urgency for Hinkie to make a move by that date, as a trade would be just as workable over the summer, from Philly’s perspective. Earlier this season, Young professed a love for Philadelphia, so if he begins to see past his frustration with the club’s rebuilding process, there might not be reason for the Sixers to trade him at all. Still, Young’s contract seems like the sort of deal the team will want to unload sooner or later, and with his play at unprecedented levels, the time might be right for Hinkie to sell high.
Andrew Bynum Rumors: Monday
At this time a week ago, Andrew Bynum was still a member of the Cavaliers, though it was clear he’d never play another game for that team. Since then, he’s been traded and released, and since he cleared waivers, there’s been plenty of chatter about his free agency. His next step won’t come quite as quickly as his previous few have, as a couple of weekend reports demonstrate. Here are the latest details:
- The Heat aren’t expected to pursue Bynum, a source tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports, who includes the tidbit in this morning’s power rankings. The team’s full roster and Greg Oden‘s presence are the reasons why, the source said.
Earlier updates:
- The Knicks are among the teams with interest in Bynum, but most clubs are taking a cautious approach with the former All-Star, and the race for his services is more marathon than sprint, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com. New York, like many of the teams in the running for Bynum, can offer only the minimum salary, and he’s seeking more than that, Stein says.
- The Clippers, at one point considered co-favorites with the Heat to sign Bynum, are leaning against doing so, Stein writes in the same piece, adding that the Thunder are similarly disinterested.
- Count Portland out, too, as Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com reports the Trail Blazers haven’t inquired about the client of agent David Lee. Portland is wary of Bynum’s health as well as how he might affect a seamless locker room culture. Plus, the team already has 15 fully guaranteed contracts, as Haynes points out.
Deng To Ask For $13.5MM+ Salaries?
The Cavs and Herb Rudoy, the agent for Luol Deng, haven’t begun talks on an extension, but Rudoy has already made public reference to Andre Iguodala’s four-year, $48MM contract with the Warriors as the sort of deal he feels his client deserves. Sources tell Bob Finnan of The News-Herald that they believe Rudoy will ask for more than even Josh Smith is receiving each season in his four-year, $54MM deal with the Pistons.
Finnan also hears that if the Cavs don’t sign Deng to an extension, they face much slimmer odds of re-signing him as a free agent this summer. Deng, who’s making $14.275MM this season, could only tack three years onto his existing contract if he were to sign an extension. The maximum amount he could earn over the course of those three seasons is nearly $49.5MM, though the comparisons to Iguodala and Smith are most likely tied to average annual value, with Iguodala making $12MM a year and Smith $13.5MM. Those numbers fall in line with most reports we’ve heard since last offseason that indicate Deng sought $12-13MM salaries in ill-fated extension talks with the Bulls, but Finnan’s report makes it sound like Rudoy intends to ask for more than that.
Deng could sign for a much greater starting salary if he waits until free agency, and he could come away with a deal for as long as five years if he re-signs with the Cavs. Such a lengthy agreement seems unlikely, since Deng, a 10-year veteran, turns 29 in April and led the league in minutes per game the past two seasons.
Finnan compares Deng to Smith and concludes that Deng’s the better player. If executives around the league agree, the Cavs may have to make a hefty financial commitment to keep him away from rival suitors. A majority of Hoops Rumors readers don’t believe the Cavs will be able to convince him to stay.