Longtime NBA Vets Vying For Roster Spots
This week might have signaled the end of Corey Maggette‘s playing career, as the Spurs released him two days after he indicated he’d retire if San Antonio cut him. Training camp invitations are usually reserved for younger players, but the 33-year-old Maggette wasn’t alone among veterans with plenty of NBA experience on non-guaranteed deals. A half-dozen players who’ve played at least nine NBA seasons have fully non-guaranteed contracts with teams around the league. Here’s a look at how each of them stands with a week and a day left before the last camp cuts must go on waivers.
- Rasual Butler, Pacers: NBA teams didn’t appear to have much interest in Butler before the Pacers signed him in early September, but he’s survived the first round of cuts and is one of 15 players currently on the Indiana roster. Coach Frank Vogel has made it sound like the team only wants to carry 13 players to start the regular season, and with 13 players on fully guaranteed contracts, Butler’s place on the team remains precarious.
- Brian Cook, Jazz: Cook spent what would have been his 10th NBA season last year playing in Puerto Rico, but he wound up with Utah after changing agents this summer. He’s probably battling five other guys for two spots, but his chances got a boost this week when the Jazz waived fellow big man Dwayne Jones.
- DeSagana Diop, Cavaliers: A report last week categorized Diop as a favorite to win a regular season roster spot, though another Cavs beat writer suggested others were more likely to get the nod. In any case, it’s a wide open camp in Cleveland, where 20 players have contracts, but only 11 of those deals are fully guaranteed.
- Royal Ivey, Hawks: The Spurs, Suns and Bucks also had interest in Ivey over the summer, but the 31-year-old guard wound up with the Hawks, a team with only a dozen fully guaranteed deals and 18 total players in camp. Ivey outlasted fellow nine-year veteran Damien Wilkins, whom the Hawks waived on Monday.
- Mike James, Bulls: James has a history with Chicago, which signed him to a pair of 10-day contracts and a deal for the rest of the season in 2011/12. He traveled a similar path with the Mavericks last year, as our 10-day tracker shows, but despite a strong showing in Dallas and negotiations with the Mavs about a new deal this summer, the 38-year-old wound up back in Chicago. He has a strong chance of making the Bulls, since he’s one of only 15 players on the roster and is reportedly the front-runner to become the team’s 13th man on opening night.
- Roger Mason, Heat: Coach Erik Spoelstra has given Mason plenty of playing time in exhibitions and he’s performed remarkably well, averaging 10.3 points and 5.0 rebounds on 53.8% three-point shooting in 28.7 minutes per game. Still, the Heat have been planning to carry just 13 players to start the regular season, and they already have 13 fully guaranteed deals. Mason is one of seven guys on non-guaranteed deals with the Heat, a list that includes Michael Beasley, so Mason’s strong preseason showing may not be enough to keep him in Miami.
Evan Turner, Sixers Haven’t Talked Extension
A former No. 2 overall pick who started all 82 games during his third NBA season would normally be an extension candidate, but Evan Turner has instead drawn mention as a possible trade candidate as the Sixers and new GM Sam Hinkie overhaul the team. Turner tells Jason Wolf of The News Journal that agent David Falk and the Sixers haven’t discussed adding extra years to his rookie scale contract.
“We haven’t spoke on it and there’s nothing really to talk on it. Right now, what do you really say?” Turner said. “ … I’m not upset about anything. I’m not upset about it. I know what type of player I’m going to be. I know who I am and I know what I’ve done. Obviously, we’ve got a different situation. We’ve switched GMs, we’ve switched (team) presidents, things are going different ways, but I’m not going to sit here and be upset.”
Former GM Tony DiLeo was reportedly in favor of keeping Turner around, but Turner acknowledged the uncertainty that Hinkie’s arrival brought to the roster, and the 6’7″ swingman said when camp began that he had been preparing himself for the possibility of a trade over the summer. If the Sixers pull off a swap between now and October 31st, the deadline for rookie scale extensions, it’s possible that Turner could sign an extension with his new team, as James Harden did last year with the Rockets. Falk has made his reluctance to do rookie scale extensions clear, so It seems more likely that wherever Turner ends up by the end of 2013/14, he’ll go into next summer as a restricted free agent.
“I’m going to get money and everything like that,” Turner told Wolf. “Whether I get it now or later, I’ve been blessed enough to be financially stable, but … I think it’s going to be something good in the bigger picture. If you just worry about winning everything is going to work out.”
Western Notes: Ginobili, Gasol, Kings
A Spurs intern lost Manu Ginobili‘s signed contract while traveling home from Buenos Aires, where the Argentinian swingman had inked the deal this summer, but Ginobili later signed a replacement copy when another Spurs staffer met up with him, as Jeré Longman of The New York Times reveals in a piece that examines San Antonio’s long history with international players. The Spurs may have suffered ill fortune in the Finals, but at least they don’t have to worry about what might have happened if the intern’s mistake had manifested into a change of heart for Ginobili. Here’s more from the West:
- A report today indicated that Pau Gasol isn’t off-limits as the Lakers explore trade possibilities, but the team remains committed to the 33-year-old big man and views him as key figure this season, according to Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com (Twitter link).
- Kings coach Michael Malone expects the team to make its first round of camp cuts within the next couple of days, notes Bryan May of News 10 Sacramento (on Twitter). The team has 14 fully guaranteed contracts, as our roster counts show, meaning its remaining four players are likely battling for one opening-night roster spot.
- The Lakers added a pair of assistants to their D-League coaching staff today, hiring Casey Owens and Thomas Scott, tweets Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times.
Sebastian Telfair To Sign With Chinese Team
9:25pm: Telfair’s deal covers only one season, Wojnarowski confirms.
8:32pm: Sebastian Telfair will sign with the Tianjin Ronggang Gold Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association, agent Andy Miller tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Several NBA teams were monitoring the 28-year-old point guard prior to camp, and just this morning he appeared to be among the veterans likely to draw interest around the league. Telfair will instead play overseas until at least February, when the Chinese regular season ends, which leaves open the possibility that he winds up back in the NBA before 2013/14 is over.
Telfair also considered playing in Europe, though that option probably wouldn’t have allowed him to become available to NBA teams again so soon. The former lottery pick began last season as the backup point guard with the Suns, but he finished the year third on the depth chart in Toronto after a midseason trade. He averaged 5.6 points and 2.6 assists in 16.6 minutes per game for the season, some of the lowest numbers of his nine-year career.
China has become a popular Plan B for NBA free agents in recent years, and Telfair is one of several players who spent last season in the NBA to reach an agreement with a team in China’s top-flight league this offseason, as our International Player Movement Tracker shows. He’ll join fellow former lottery pick Shelden Williams, who also reached a deal with the Gold Lions this month.
Waiver Claims Part Of Camp Strategy
Waiver claims represent a tiny fraction of player acquisitions in the NBA, but with close to 100 players set to hit waivers in the next two weeks, chances are we’ll see a few of them get claimed. Three of the eight players claimed off waivers since last October were camp cuts, although that trio combined to appear in just two regular season games last season for the teams that claimed them. That’s in part because this time of year the motivation to claim a player may be about more than just his NBA rights.
The Blazers waived Justin Holiday shortly after claiming him last year, but they protected his D-League rights, meaning Holiday wound up with Portland’s affiliate when he signed to play in the D-League. NBA teams are allowed to keep three camp cuts out of the D-League draft. As Blazers GM Neil Olshey has explained, many teams, including Portland, wait until the last moment to release their camp invitees so that other teams don’t grab their NBA rights, cut them, and protect them for their own D-League teams.
Holiday remained at Idaho most of the year without the Blazers signing him to an NBA deal, and the Sixers scooped up Holiday’s rights when they brought him to Philadelphia near the end of the season. Still, if an NBA team is interested in keeping tabs on one of the players who’s waived by another club this month, the waiver claim may well come into play.
Here’s a look at each of the players claimed off waivers since last October, with an asterisk by the name of anyone who is still with the team that claimed him.
- *Gustavo Ayon — The Hawks claimed him from the Bucks on July 28th.
- Josh Akognon — The Grizzlies claimed him from the Mavericks on July 23rd.
- *James Anderson — The Sixers claimed him from the Rockets on July 13th.
- *Tim Ohlbrecht — The Sixers claimed him from the Rockets on July 13th.
- Shaun Livingston — The Cavaliers claimed him from the Wizards on December 25th, 2012.
- Eddy Curry — The Mavericks claimed him from the Spurs on October 25th, 2012.
- Reeves Nelson — The Rockets claimed him from Lakers on October 22nd, 2012.
- Justin Holiday — The Blazers claimed him from the Cavaliers on October 12th, 2012.
The RealGM transaction log was used in the creation of this post.
Atlantic Rumors: Knicks, Evans, Celtics
Knicks GM Steve Mills tells Grantland’s Zach Lowe that one of the reasons the team hired him was because he believed the team should preserve its cap room for the summer of 2015 and focus on developing young players rather than pursue Glen Grunwald‘s strategy of inking aging veterans. Lowe cautions that waiting around for free agents to come calling in two years is a risky strategy, and advocates for the Knicks to gauge the trade market for Carmelo Anthony. Mills has nonetheless made it clear that keeping Anthony is a priority, so it’s unlikely he’ll heed the Grantland scribe’s advice. Here’s more from around the Atlantic:
- One of the deciding factors that led Kevin Garnett to waive his no-trade clause and OK his move to the Nets was Reggie Evans‘ continued presence in Brooklyn, tweets Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News. Evans initially appeared headed for Boston, but the final version of the deal included MarShon Brooks instead.
- The Celtics expressed interest in bringing swingman Omar Reed to camp, as he recently told Bob Redd of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph, but the team got in touch with Reed two days after he’d signed to play in Japan. The Celtics will nonetheless keep tabs on the 26-year-old who spent last season with Boston’s D-League affiliate, as Ridiculous Upside’s Keith Schlosser details.
- Sixers coach Brett Brown says shooting guards Vander Blue and Khalif Wyatt could be in a head-to-head battle for a roster spot, tweets Tom Moore of Calkins Media.
- Julyan Stone might be the favorite to win the final spot on the Raptors roster, but the competition between him, Chris Wright and Carlos Morais will be a tight one, observes Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun (All Twitter links).
Odds & Ends: Wolves, Teague, Sims, O’Quinn
The Timberwolves, like the Jazz, have shown interest at one point or another in Bulls point guard Marquis Teague, a league source tells K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. Johnson doesn’t make it sound as though the Wolves are currently pursuing Teague, but if the Bulls aren’t sold on him, that bodes well for the chances that 38-year-old point guard Mike James makes Chicago’s opening night roster on his non-guaranteed deal. The Tribune scribe checks in with James, who would be the league’s fourth oldest player if he makes the squad, and we’ve got more from around the NBA:
- Injuries have created an opportunity for Henry Sims, who’s more or less functioning as the Cavs backup center for now, writes Jodie Valade of The Plain Dealer, who examines the 23-year-old’s thrust to make the opening night roster on a non-guaranteed contract.
- Kyle O’Quinn‘s contract is non-guaranteed, but he’s been starting preseason games for the Magic. Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel examines Jacque Vaughn‘s curious decision to start O’Quinn over Tobias Harris.
- Knicks coach Mike Woodson says no decision is imminent regarding which of the team’s big men in camp will stick around for the regular season, hinting that it will take most or all of the preseason for the club to make its call, Newsday’s Al Iannazzone notes.
- Spencer Hawes is entering the final year of his contract with the Sixers, just as he was in the autumns of 2010 and 2011, but he says he’s learned from experience and isn’t “psyching” himself out the way he feels he did before, notes Tom Moore of The Intelligencer.
- Renaldo Balkman believes some coaches and GMs hold his troubled past against him, but Mavs coach Rick Carlisle isn’t among them, and Balkman is determined to use his non-guaranteed deal with Dallas to prove that he belongs in the NBA. Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram has the details.
Pelicans Waive Lazar Hayward
The Pelicans have waived small forward Lazar Hayward, the team announced. He appeared for a total of just 15 minutes in two preseason contests for New Orleans, the team with which he signed a non-guaranteed deal shortly before camp. The move drops the Pelicans roster count to 15 players.
Hayward was the last pick of the first round in 2010, and he’s been traded and waived three times apiece since then. He spent a pair of brief stints with the Timberwolves last season, but he only managed to appear in four games. The 6’6″ former Marquette Golden Eagle also played 14 games with the Los Angeles D-Fenders of the D-League in 2012/13. Reggio Emilia of Italy appeared to have interest in Hayward this summer before he signed with the Pelicans, so perhaps the 26-year-old will head overseas.
Pelicans GM Dell Demps could carry his roster as is into the season, allowing Arinze Onuaku, on a non-guaranteed contract, and Lance Thomas, whose deal is guaranteed for $15K, to remain with the team. Still, NBA clubs are only obligated to have 13 players on their roster, and the Pelicans could always sign someone else, so Onuaku and Thomas are no locks for opening night.
Few Signees Locked Up Long-Term
Shorter contracts are one of the aims of the current collective bargaining agreement, which dropped the limit on most free agent pacts from five seasons to four. Contracts signed via Bird rights are kept to five years after the previous CBA allowed them to run six. The new rules have only been in place since 2011, but as more contracts signed since then reach their conclusion, the likely result will be more players hitting the market each summer. Options and non-guaranteed money effectively shorten many contracts even further, providing less stability around the league.
The Wolves and Nikola Pekovic are in an unusual position, essentially wedded to each other until the summer of 2018, barring a trade. Pekovic and Chris Paul were the only free agents receive five-year contracts this summer, and unlike Paul, who has an early termination option for 2017/18, Pekovic has no such stipulation in his deal.
Only 10 of this summer’s free agent contracts cover four years without an option or non-guaranteed money. Seven of those 10 are on Western Conference payrolls, and together with Pekovic and Paul, who are also on Western clubs, nine of the 12 contracts that will cover no less than four seasons are contained on one side of the league.
Here’s the complete list. Bear in mind that these are free agent contracts, so extensions, like the five-year pacts John Wall and Paul George have signed, aren’t included.
- Tony Allen, Grizzlies: four years, $20MM
- Jose Calderon, Mavericks: four years, $29MM
- Tyreke Evans, Pelicans: four years, $44MM
- Andre Iguodala, Warriors: four years, $48MM
- Kyle Korver, Hawks: four years, $24MM
- Carl Landry, Kings: four years, $26.047MM
- Chris Paul, Clippers (fifth-year ETO): five years, $107.343MM
- Nikola Pekovic, Timberwolves: five years, $60MM
- J.J. Redick, Clippers: four years, $27.755MM
- Josh Smith, Pistons: four years, $54MM
- Tiago Splitter, Spurs: four years, $36MM
- Jeff Teague, Hawks: four years, $32MM
ShamSports and the Hoops Rumors Free Agent Tracker was used in the creation of this post.
Corey Maggette To Retire If Waived
Corey Maggette is with the Spurs on a non-guaranteed camp deal, trying for what appears to be one open roster spot. If he doesn’t make it, his NBA career will end with this preseason, as he says he will retire if the Spurs cut him, tweets Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express News.
“If I could get an opportunity here, it would be great. If not, this game has been good to me,” Maggette said, according to McDonald (on Twitter).
Maggette says the Spurs were the only club to offer him a deal, and he acknowledged that his chances of making the opening night roster are slim, McDonald tweets. San Antonio has 19 players in camp and 14 of them are on fully guaranteed deals, leaving Maggette to battle Marcus Cousin, Courtney Fells, Myck Kabongo, and Daniel Nwaelele for the final spot, providing the Spurs elect to carry a full complement of 15 players.
Maggette has made more than $89MM in his career, according to Basketball-Reference, and even if he makes the Spurs, he wouldn’t add much to that on his minimum salary deal this season. The 33-year-old had considered retiring after last season to pursue a front office job, but he decided to make one more attempt at continuing his playing career. It appeared last spring that the Pistons, the team with which he spent 2012/13, had interest in bringing him back, but no deal with Detroit ever materialized.