Notable January Trades
Most of this season’s deals will go down within 24 hours of the February 20th trade deadline. That doesn’t mean January won’t feature at least one intriguing swap. Last season there were two trades, and while the Grizzlies helped their ledger with a three-for-one swap with the Cavs on the 22nd, the deal that really made waves came eight days later, when Memphis shipped Rudy Gay out of town. The Raptors put Gay into yet another trade last month, so there’s certainly precedent for big names changing teams at or before this point in the season.
Here’s a look back at the most significant January trade from each of the past four years, deals in which the Grizzlies and Mavericks figured prominently:
January 30th, 2013: In a three-team deal, the Grizzlies traded Rudy Gay and Hamed Haddadi to the Raptors, the Pistons traded Austin Daye and Tayshaun Prince to the Grizzlies, and the Raptors traded Jose Calderon to the Pistons and Ed Davis and a 2013 second-round pick (Jamaal Franklin) to the Grizzlies.
- The only player from this trade still with Toronto less than a year later is Daye, and he wasn’t even sent to the Raptors in this deal; he signed with the Raptors in the offseason after playing out the rest of 2012/13 with the Mavericks. The Pistons are similarly empty-handed, though they used the cap flexibility created when they sent out Prince’s long-term deal to help them sign Josh Smith this past summer.
January 4th, 2012: In a three team deal, the Grizzlies traded Xavier Henry to the Pelicans and a 2012 second-round pick (Tornike Shengelia) to the Sixers, the Pelicans traded a second-round pick (Glen Rice Jr.) to the Sixers, and the Sixers traded Marreese Speights to the Grizzlies.
- The Pelicans (then Hornets) wound up with a player picked 12th overall just 18 months prior for the cost of a mere second-round pick, though Henry didn’t display his promise until he wound up with the Lakers this season. The Grizzlies dealt Henry away for frontcourt depth in the wake of an injury to Darrell Arthur, and Memphis would shed Speights a little more than a year later in last year’s three-for-one trade. The Sixers sent out both of the second-rounders they acquired in later trades.
January 24th, 2011: The Mavericks traded Alexis Ajinca, cash, and a 2013 second-round draft pick (Jamaal Franklin) to the Raptors for Georgios Printezis.
- Recent Pelicans signee Ajinca endured his second trade in a little more than six months and was on his way out of the league for two years until New Orleans brought him back two weeks ago.
January 11th, 2010: The Mavericks traded Kris Humphries and Shawne Williams to the Nets for Eduardo Najera.
- Humphries was a lightly regarded backup before he got to the Nets, but the then-sixth-year power forward assumed his most significant role to date in New Jersey, and the Nets re-signed him to a one-year, $8MM deal after the lockout. He made even more on his next contract, a two-year, $24MM pact that expires at the end of this season.
Atlantic Rumors: Knicks, Teletovic, Blue
Thaddeus Young is playing at an All-Star level this season, writes Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. ”I think Thaddeus’ last [four] games are off the charts,” Sixers coach Brett Brown said. “It’s at an all-star type of level. He’s playing with versatility and a toughness and a leadership. It’s just a real strong package that he’s showing us. I really feel, the last [four games] if that’s what he is, he’s something special.” Meanwhile, the 25-year-old continues to hear his name in trade talk. Try not to get teary-eyed on us, because this is the final Atlantic Rumors post of 2013..
- J.R. Smith, who took to Instagram to express his frustrations with the Knicks’ decision to waive his brother, didn’t speak to reporters today, but coach Mike Woodson doesn’t expect Smith to have hard feelings against Jeremy Tyler, who replaced the younger Smith on the roster. Marc Berman of the New York Post has the details. Chris Smith isn’t sure whether he’ll sign to play in the D-League and he may wait awhile before making his next move, Berman notes.
- Tyler could play a significant role for the Knicks, as Keith Schlosser of Knicks Journal examines.
- Mirza Teletovic doesn’t answer a question about whether he’s asked for a trade, but he tells Emir Jesenković of the Bosnian newspaper Avaz that he’s not thinking about the possibility of a trade and that his focus remains on the Nets. Teletovic also lends his support to coach Jason Kidd (translation via NetsDaily).
- Sixers camp invitee Vander Blue is once more a free agent, as Maccabi Rishon LeZion of Israel has waived the former Marquette shooting guard, according to David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter links).
Zach Links contributed to this post.
Pelicans Waive Lou Amundson
The Pelicans have waived big man Lou Amundson, the team announced. The move frees up a roster spot, since New Orleans had been at the 15-man limit. His contract was non-guaranteed, so the Pelicans won’t be on the hook for the remainder of his minimum salary.
The move wasn’t unexpected, especially given comments coach Monty Williams made shortly after Amundson signed along with Josh Childress in mid-November. Williams deemed the moves “nothing to write home about” and said, “We’re just taking a look” at the veterans. New Orleans released Childress earlier this month.
It’s the third time Amundson has hit waivers in the past 11 months. He had stints with the Timberwolves, Bulls and then-Hornets last season, and spent camp with the Clippers this fall.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Dominic McGuire To Play In D-League
Six-year NBA veteran Dominic McGuire is set to join the D-League, according to Gino Pilato of D-League Digest. The 28-year-old swingman was in camp with the Jazz this fall. He’s still free to sign with any NBA team.
It’s not clear which D-League team McGuire will play for, since he’ll first have to go through the D-League’s waiver process before he lands with a club. It’ll be the first D-League stint for the former second-round pick who’s managed to play in the NBA every season since the Wizards made him the 47th overall selection in 2007. He’s averaged 2.7 points and 3.4 rebounds in 15.6 minutes per game over his career, and his most significant action came back in 2008/09 with Washington, when he started 57 games.
McGuire last appeared in the NBA with the Pacers in 2012/13 on a pair of 10-day contracts. A 10-day deal could be McGuire’s path back to the Association, since teams will once more be allowed to give out those short-term deals beginning Monday. The timing of McGuire’s move may also be tied to the D-League showcase, a five-day gathering of the league’s teams in front of scouts in Reno, Nevada, starting Sunday.
Horford Injury May Prod Hawks To Make Move
The Hawks are planning their next move in the wake of Al Horford‘s surgery today on a torn pectoral muscle that will keep him out for the season. The front office is evaluating its options to upgrade its depth and talent with the big man out, tweets Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That suggests the club could be looking at a roster move.
The Hawks are under the cap, so they couldn’t apply for a disabled player exception that would help them acquire a player via free agency or trade. They can only clear about $2MM worth of cap room, and while they have the $2.652MM room exception at their disposal if they want to sign a player, it probably wouldn’t take more than the minimum salary to bring in a free agent at this point. They’re at the 15-man roster limit, but they have three players on non-guaranteed deals (Mike Scott, Cartier Martin, and Shelvin Mack) whom they could waive to clear a spot.
GM Danny Ferry‘s roster is “built to trade,” as Grantland’s Zach Lowe wrote earlier in the season, so it’s reasonable to expect the team to explore a swap of some kind. Lowe wrote in the same piece that Ferry had been turning down offers for Horford, and even though the big man is injured, I’d be surprised if Ferry changed his stance, since Horford is under contract for the relative bargain price of $12MM a season through 2015/16.
Players Who Could See Time In D-League
As the 2013 part of the 2013/14 season draws to a close, 16 of the 30 NBA teams have made at least one D-League assignment, as our log shows. At this point, it’s apparent how (or if) most clubs intend to use the D-League, but there’s still plenty of time for more teams to get involved. The Celtics haven’t sent anyone to the D-League this season, but they’re reportedly considering doing so with Rajon Rondo.
All-Stars like Rondo don’t make the likeliest candidates for a D-League assignment, of course. Since he has more than two years of experience, he’d have to sign off on the move, and so would the players union. Usually, guys who are sent down are in their first, second or third years, since teams can unilaterally assign those players, and there’s more to be gained from a development standpoint.
I’ve compiled a list of each player with less than three years of experience seeing fewer than 12 minutes a game on the 14 teams that have yet to make a D-League move. No players fit those criteria for the Bobcats and Heat, but the Trail Blazers have five such players, perhaps reflecting an organizational unwillingness in Portland to use the D-League. The same may be true for the Suns and Timberwolves, who have four such players apiece. Some of the candidates here have been seeing more minutes of late, but we’ll include them nonetheless:
Celtics
- MarShon Brooks — third year, 6.8 MPG
Bobcats
- No players fit the criteria
Nuggets
- Quincy Miller — second year, 6.1 MPG
- Evan Fournier — second year, 11.5 MPG
Clippers
- Reggie Bullock — rookie, 10.3 MPG
Grizzlies
- Jamaal Franklin — rookie, 9.1 MPG
Heat
- No players fit the criteria
Bucks
- Miroslav Raduljica — rookie, 10.6 MPG
Timberwolves
- Shabazz Muhammad — rookie, 3.9 MPG
- Gorgui Dieng — rookie, 5.5 MPG
- Alexey Shved — second year, 10.6 MPG
- Robbie Hummel — rookie, 11.2 MPG
Pelicans
- Darius Miller — second year, 10.4 MPG
- Jeff Withey — rookie, 5.7 MPG
Magic
- Doron Lamb — second year, 7.7 MPG
- Kyle O’Quinn — second year, 10.1 MPG
Suns
- Viacheslav Kravtsov — second year, 3.4 MPG
- Dionte Christmas — rookie, 7.3 MPG
- Alex Len — rookie, 7.8 MPG
- Archie Goodwin — rookie, 11.1 MPG
Trail Blazers
- Victor Claver — second year, 1.3 MPG
- Allen Crabbe — rookie, 4.9 MPG
- Will Barton — second year, 5.1 MPG
- Meyers Leonard — second year, 8.2 MPG
- Thomas Robinson — second year, 11.1 MPG
Raptors
- Julyan Stone — third year, 7.3 MPG
- Dwight Buycks — rookie, 10.1 MPG
Wizards
- Otto Porter — rookie, 11.7 MPG
- Glen Rice Jr. — rookie, 9.9 MPG
Central Notes: Pistons, Copeland, Hill
The failure of Cleveland’s Andrew Bynum experiment has dominated headlines this weekend across the NBA, but while the Cavs have their share of problems, so do most of their rivals in the Central Division. Only the Pacers, with a 24-5 record that’s tied for the league’s best, are any better than four games beneath .500. We’ll pass along a couple of takes on Bynum here amid a larger look at the Central:
- The tension between Josh Smith and Pistons coach Maurice Cheeks that led to Smith’s benching for the second half last night is an ominous sign for the team, as Vincent Goodwill of the Detroit News examines.
- Chris Copeland sought the counsel of his then-Knicks teammates as he contemplated his free agency last summer, and Jason Kidd was particularly helpful, Copeland tells Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star. The Pacers forward is confident that Kidd, who’s struggling in his first year as coach of the Nets, has the leadership ability to do the job.
- The Pacers have assigned Solomon Hill to the D-League, the team announced. Hill says via Twitter that he asked for the assignment (hat tip to Buckner). Coach Frank Vogel has said that the team didn’t have plans to send Hill down, but the rookie guard has been on the inactive list since Danny Granger returned from injury, Buckner notes (All Twitter links).
- None of the moves the Cavaliers made this past offseason have worked out, including the Bynum signing, and that doesn’t bode well for the franchise after one of the most important summers in its history, opines Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal.
- Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding argues that Bynum’s free-spirited personality will keep him from once more overcoming his creaky knees and becoming the All-Star he once was, and Ding imparts some of the blame on coach Mike Brown.
Andrew Bynum Rumors: Sunday Morning
Cavs coaches and players grew angry during practice Friday as they watched a disinterested Andrew Bynum hurl wild shots at the basket, and that was apparently the tipping point that led the team to suspend him indefinitely, as Mary Schmitt Boyer of the Plain Dealer explains. The Cavs are seeking to trade Bynum as time ticks away toward January 7th, the last day Bynum can be waived before the $6MM partial guarantee on his contract turns into a full assurance of his $12.25MM salary. We rounded up yesterday’s Bynum rumors in a pair of posts, and we’ll keep track of at least the first several dispatches on the former All-Star center here:
- Bynum was technically suspended only for yesterday’s game against the Celtics, and he’s now simply excused from all team activities, as Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com clarifies. The suspension cost Bynum his salary for one game, worth about $111K, and he’ll now be away from the team until the Cavs release him or trade him, neither of which may happen until July, according to Windhorst (Twitter links).
Earlier updates:
- Bynum has no desire to play on a non-guaranteed deal for the Cavs, since they’re rebuilding, and wants to wind up with a contender, a source tells Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe.
- The Cavs organization had seen Bynum’s suspension as a possibility for a while, perhaps as early as the first week of the season, according to Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio.
- The Clippers and Heat are reportedly Bynum’s favored destinations, and those teams would indeed have mutual interest if Bynum were to become a free agent, as Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times confirms.
- If the Heat were to add Bynum, it would put the team’s commitment to Greg Oden into question, suggests Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
- Bynum’s attitude has worsened in recent weeks, and the Cavs decided they didn’t want that adding to off-the-court drama that’s included a players-only meeting and trade rumors surrounding Dion Waiters so far this season, writes Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal. Lloyd’s piece analyzes the organization’s emphasis on locker room culture that dates back to its decision to amnesty Baron Davis in 2011.
- Phil Jackson, Bynum’s former coach with the Lakers, took to Twitter to dispute the notion that Bynum has never been committed to the game. “I am reluctant to judge ABynum’s [basketball] intent. He is a man of many interests and has a life outside of [basketball], but he does like to compete,” Jackson wrote.
- Most Hoops Rumors readers don’t think the Cavs will find a trade partner, and a plurality believe he’ll end up becoming a free agent and signing with a team other than the Clippers and the Heat. Bynum’s also rumored to be open to joining the Celtics.
Players Out For Season Worth Total Of $54.2MM
News that another former All-Star will probably miss the season broke Friday, as Al Horford went down with a torn pectoral muscle. He joins a group of seven players who are either definitively out for the year or appear to have a strong chance of missing the rest of the season. Derrick Rose‘s more than $17.6MM salary leads the bunch, and put together, those injured players will make $54,200,765 in 2013/14. All of that money is guaranteed salary.
It’s a figure that’s just a few million dollars shy of the $58.679MM salary cap, and it’s greater than the entire payroll of the Sixers, who have a player of their own on the list in Nerlens Noel. That total doesn’t include the salaries of recovering stars like Kobe Bryant, Russell Westbrook and Marc Gasol, who are all missing significant time but should return later this season. It also doesn’t account for players like Danilo Gallinari and Carl Landry, who’ve yet to play this season because of injury but are slated to come back at some point before 2013/14 is over.
Some of the teams with players who are out for the season may wind up with some additional flexibility via the disabled player exception, but even that wouldn’t make an injured player’s salary stop counting against the salary cap or toward luxury tax penalties. When a player with a fully guaranteed contract goes down for the season, it’s a sunk cost.
Here are the seven players lost for 2013/14, in descending order of their salaries:
- Derrick Rose, Bulls ($17,632,688)
- Brook Lopez, Nets ($14,693,906)
- Emeka Okafor, Suns ($14,487,500)
- Al Horford, Hawks ($12MM)
- Nerlens Noel, Sixers ($3,172,320)
- Quincy Pondexter, Grizzlies ($2,225,479)
- Jeff Taylor, Bobcats ($788,872)
ShamSports was used in the creation of this post.
Knicks Consider Adding Jeremy Tyler This Week
Knicks management has engaged in a “serious” discussion about signing Jeremy Tyler this week, when a four-day layoff in the schedule would allow the big man to get acclimated in practice, reports Marc Berman of the New York Post. The Knicks have long been expected to sign the 6’10” center at some point after waiving him during the preseason, when he was on the shelf with a stress fracture in his foot. The Knicks might also wait until January 6th, when 10-day contracts may be signed, to buy a little more time for Tyler’s foot to fully heal.
Tyler, a two-year NBA veteran, has been playing for the Knicks’ D-League affiliate, averaging 18.0 points and 10.2 rebounds in six games so far. He’s improved his efficiency over his past few outings, cutting his turnovers and raising his field goal percentage to 47.8%. The Knicks had reportedly been waiting to sign Tyler until they figured out what to do about potential trades for other players, but with owner James Dolan having told the team that no trades are forthcoming, perhaps that’s cleared the way for Tyler to come aboard. A conflicting report indicates that Knicks management is still working on trades in spite of what Dolan said, so it’s not clear if the notion of signing Tyler is still tied to trade discussions.
The Knicks would have to clear a roster spot before adding Tyler. Toure’ Murry and Cole Aldrich are on non-guaranteed contracts and have played sparingly, though Murry’s longest outing of the season came last night, and cutting Aldrich to make room for Tyler would do nothing to supplement the team’s frontcourt depth. Chris Smith‘s contract is fully guaranteed for the rookie minimum salary, but he’s played just two minutes so far this season, making him a candidate to go, Berman writes.
Signing Tyler this week would mean his contract would become fully guaranteed if the team doesn’t waive him on or before January 7th. Waiting until January 6th to sign him to a 10-day contract would mean the Knicks wouldn’t have to decide whether to pay him for the rest of the season until January 26th, since Tyler could sign a pair of 10-day deals, so such a maneuver would give the Knicks more flexibility, as Berman explains.