Pistons, Magic Talk Harris, Jennings, Ilyasova Deal
The Pistons and Magic have spoken about a potential trade that would send Tobias Harris to Detroit for Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova, sources tell Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops (Twitter links). The sides are progressing, USA Today’s Sam Amick hears, adding that while no deal is done, it seems likely to happen (on Twitter). It would represent a nearly even exchange of salaries for this season, with Harris’ $16MM going to the Pistons and $16,244,497 headed to Orlando, but a long-term cost savings for the Magic, since Jennings is on an expiring deal and Ilyasova is guaranteed only $400K for next season. Harris signed a four-year, $64MM deal this past summer.
Cavs Interested In Kosta Koufos
The Cavaliers have pursued Kosta Koufos, sources tell Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). It’s one of many names to which Cleveland has been linked in recent weeks, including fellow King Ben McLemore. Sacramento reportedly rejected the idea of trading for Timofey Mozgov, though It’s unclear if Cleveland’s pitch for Koufos, who’s a native of nearby Canton, Ohio, involved either Mozgov or McLemore. Stein reported last year that the Cavs reached out to the Grizzlies about trading for Koufos while the backup center was still with Memphis.
The Cavs have reportedly sought a 3-and-D wing player, but they’ve also been linked to Omer Asik as they’ve reportedly explored the market for Mozgov. Cleveland has apparently been shopping Kevin Love, but with a high price attached to him. Koufos, a former Ohio State player, is making $7.7MM in the first season of a four-year deal worth about $32.879MM that he signed with the Kings this past summer. That salary would fit within the largest of Cleveland’s three trade exceptions, so the Cavs theoretically wouldn’t have to send matching salary in return.
However, the Kings seem determined to make the playoffs this season, and they’ve sought a “quality young player” or someone whose contract runs past this season in return for Rudy Gay, as Stein reported late last month. Koufos isn’t the most logical fit next to Kings big men DeMarcus Cousins and Willie Cauley-Stein, both of whom are, like Koufos, on long-term deals, but Koufos’ name has largely been absent from trade rumors this season.
What should the Cavs offer in exchange for Koufos? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Pacific Notes: Griffin, Schlenk, Nance
Clippers president of basketball operations Doc Rivers told ESPN’s Chris Broussard that there isn’t truth to the idea that his team offered Blake Griffin and Lance Stephenson to the Nuggets for Danilo Gallinari, Kenneth Faried, Will Barton and Nikola Jokic, as a source who spoke with the reporter had said earlier. Broussard relayed the exchange in an appearance on ESPN Radio’s “Mike & Mike” show (audio link; scroll to 6-minute mark), adding that the source had told him the Nuggets turned down the offer out of concern that Griffin would opt out and leave in free agency after next season. That jibes with an earlier report from Mitch Lawrence of Forbes, who indicated 10 days ago that the Clippers had engaged the Nuggets in talks about Griffin, though Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times reported shortly thereafter that the Clippers had no interest in trading their star power forward, a refrain that Rivers repeated in the days that followed. See more from the Pacific Division:
- Kings owner Vivek Ranadive is known to be high on Warriors assistant GM Travis Schlenk, writes Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee amid a piece that argues the Kings should bring in an experienced front office hand to work beneath GM Vlade Divac. Sacramento reportedly interviewed Schlenk for the lead front office role in 2013, and he was believed to be one of the candidates to fill former GM Pete D’Alessandro‘s chair in Divac’s front office this past summer.
- The Kings anticipate making a minor move at Thursday’s trade deadline, Voisin writes in the same column, speculating that such a trade could involve Marco Belinelli or Ben McLemore going out for draft picks or a wing defender.
- Bobby Marks of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports lists Larry Nance Jr. alongside Jordan Clarkson, Julius Randle and D’Angelo Russell among those the Lakers should refuse to trade and instead make the focal point of their rebuilding efforts.
Atlantic Notes: Patterson, Hinkie, Ainge
The Atlantic Division figures to be among the most interesting corners of the NBA to watch as the trade deadline approaches, with the Celtics stuffed with assets, the Raptors apparently looking for a power forward, the Knicks having just changed coaches, the Sixers a continued mystery, and the Nets in a continued search for a GM. See what’s going on around the Atlantic:
- Many teams are high on Patrick Patterson, writes Bobby Marks of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports in his trade deadline preview for the Raptors. Patterson’s name is one of those linked to the Nets in reported talks regarding Thaddeus Young.
- Marcus Hayes of the Philadelphia Daily News interprets Sixers chairman of basketball operations Jerry Colangelo‘s remarks about perhaps adding to the front office and his intention that the Sixers make noise in the playoffs within three years as further signals that the power of GM Sam Hinkie is significantly reduced.
- Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge must be careful not to offer too many of the team’s draft assets at the trade deadline this week, contends Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald. The C’s nonetheless have an opportunity to further their case for free agents with a strong finish this season, an endeavor that a trade for a short-term upgrade would help, Bulpett also argues.
- The time is now for team president Phil Jackson to start delivering for the Knicks, opines Mike Lupica of the New York Daily News, urging him to help the team make a strong play for this year’s postseason.
Max Contract Scenarios For Kevin Durant
Kevin Durant today denied that he’s given thought to signing a two-year deal with a player option when he hits free agency this summer. It’s a contractual strategy that LeBron James has pursued the last two years to provide for the most flexibility and money possible, and given the rapid escalation in the salary cap that’s about to take place and Durant’s relative youth, it would be an even smarter idea for him than it would be for LeBron.
First, let’s look at what Durant would make if he signs a five-year, maximum-salary contract with the Thunder, based on the NBA’s maximum-salary projections:
- 2016/17: $24,900,000
- 2017/18: $26,767,500
- 2018/19: $28,635,000
- 2019/20: $30,502,500
- 2020/21: $32,370,000
- Total: $143,175,000
He’d see slightly less if he signed a max deal for as many years as he could with another team. Only the Thunder can give him a fifth year, and everyone else is limited to offering 4.5% raises instead of 7.5% raises. Again, the figures here rely on the league’s projection for next year’s maximum salaries.
- 2016/17: $24,900,000
- 2017/18: $26,020,500
- 2018/19: $27,141,000
- 2019/20: $28,261,500
- Total: $106,323,000
Signing a two-year deal with a player option after the first season would take him down a more lucrative path, assuming the NBA and the players union don’t significantly alter maximum salaries or contract parameters when they negotiate the next collective bargaining agreement, which will likely kick in for the 2017/18 season. It’s a distinct possibility that they will indeed make changes, as Bobby Marks of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports notes (Twitter link). So, uncertainty exists, but the existing structure makes the short-term deal an intriguing option.
We haven’t seen maximum-salary projections for 2017 yet, but the salary cap is projected to hit a whopping $108MM that summer, a drastic escalation not just from the $70MM cap for this season but also from next season’s projected $89MM cap. The sizes of maximum salaries are tied, though indirectly, to the size of the cap, so using the $108MM projection, it’s possible to estimate how much Durant’s max will be.
The NBA has three different maximum-salary tiers. Players with six or fewer years of experience see a max of roughly 25% of the cap. Those with seven, eight or nine years of experience are eligible for approximately 30% of the cap. And veterans of 10 or more seasons can get as much as about 35% of the cap. Durant is in his ninth season, so he’ll fall into the 30% tier for his free agency this year. That’s reflected in the $24.9MM figure used in the scenarios above. He’d fall into the 35% category after one more season, taking his starting salary in a contract he’d sign in 2017 even higher. I estimated for an earlier piece that the 35% maximum salary for 2017/18 will be $35.603MM, based on the league’s projections and formula for determining max salaries, which Larry Coon explains at the bottom of question No. 16 in his Salary Cap FAQ.
So, with that number in mind, and assuming the next collective bargaining agreement doesn’t bring about drastic change, here’s what Durant could get if he signs a deal with the Thunder this summer that allows him to opt out next year and re-signs on a five-year max deal in 2017:
- 2016/17: $24,900,000
- 2017/18: $35,603,000
- 2018/19: $38,273,225
- 2019/20: $40,943,450
- 2020/21: $43,613,675
- 2021/22: $46,283,900
- Total: $229,617,250
Durant wouldn’t have the advantage of signing a five-year deal with higher raises with a team other than the Thunder in 2017, even if he signs with that non-OKC team this summer. That’s because he’d need to have been with that team for at least three seasons to accrue full Bird rights. So, here’s what Durant would get if he signs a max deal in 2017 outside of Oklahoma City:
- 2016/17: $24,900,000
- 2017/18: $35,603,000
- 2018/19: $37,205,135
- 2019/20: $38,807,270
- 2020/21: $40,409,405
- Total: $176,924,810
That would give Durant close to $37MM more than he would make over the same five-year period if he simply re-signed for five years at the max with Oklahoma City, even though the Thunder can pay him more than anyone else on a long-term deal this summer. That’s why it would behoove Durant to at least consider the option of signing a short-term deal this year, even given the uncertainty of collective bargaining agreement negotiations ahead. For all we know, the environment for max players could be better under the next labor deal than it is under this one, and with LeBron and Chris Paul, both of whom are currently on max deals, playing prominent roles in the union, that’s certainly not out of question.
Bulls Notes: Front Office, Gasol, Mirotic
All indications are Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf remains confident in the front office duo of GM Gar Forman and executive VP of basketball operations John Paxson, writes Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com, who calls for them to make changes to the roster with the deadline less than a week away. Forman has reportedly signaled that he’s concerned about his future, but it’s instead the immediate situation in Chicago that has others worried.
“We got to find ourselves,” Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said, according to Friedell. “I challenged them, whatever they got to do over the [All-Star] break, look themselves in the mirror, find a way to get committed to this team where we can come out and go on a run. And that’s all we can do right now is look forward. It’s been a bad, bad stretch of basketball. Hopefully we’ll get healthy and move forward.”
Hoiberg’s job is in no danger, Friedell confirms, advocating instead for the Bulls to deal away Pau Gasol. Two executives recently told K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune that they don’t think the Bulls are done testing the trade market for Gasol in spite of injuries to Joakim Noah and Nikola Mirotic. See more from Chicago, where the Bulls are in seventh place and just a game up on the ninth-place Pistons:
- Mirotic will remain out for weeks, not days, as he continues to recover from a follow-up procedure to an appendectomy, tweets K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. The power forward had been targeting a return after the All-Star break.
- The front office set a destructive tone when it undermined coach Tom Thibodeau last season, and it shows in the way the Bulls have responded on the court this season, contends Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times. Forman and Paxson told players last season that they didn’t have to buy in to Thibodeau’s coaching because the team planned to move on from him at season’s end, according to Cowley.
- However, the negative effect Thibodeau had on the work environment in Chicago and the coach’s questionable substitution patterns are some of the reasons why it’s not as if his continued presence would have prevented the team’s problems this year, contends Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune. The Timberwolves are the latest team to emerge with apparent interest in the ex-Bulls coach.
Deadline Deals Involving Recent Signees
Expiring contracts draw more talk this time of year, but while their value wanes in favor of long-term deals that give teams security as the salary cap rises, perhaps more attention should focus on trades involving players with freshly signed pacts. Ten of the 39 players under contract who were involved in deadline-day trades last year were in the first year of their respective deals. Chief among them was Isaiah Thomas, who went from the Suns to the Celtics in a swap that’s given Boston an All-Star under contract at less than $7MM a year through the 2017/18 season.
Such trades also illustrate how quickly the league’s perception of a player can change. The Heat signed Shawne Williams for the minimum salary before last season, and he wound up starting 22 games for them. Miami nonetheless shipped him to the Pelicans in the three-team Goran Dragic trade, one that also saw first-year player Zoran Dragic go to the Heat. New Orleans released Williams a few days after the trade, but the Pistons claimed him, played him fewer than 10 minutes per game and traded him in their offseason deal for Ersan Ilyasova. The Bucks waived him shortly thereafter, and he hasn’t been in the NBA since.
Here are each of the players who were in deadline-day trades last year after just having signed earlier in the season:
- D.J. Augustin (Pistons to Thunder) — two years, $6MM
- Zoran Dragic (Suns to Heat) — two years, $3MM
- Tyler Ennis (Suns to Bucks) — four years, $7.654MM (rookie scale contract)
- Grant Jerrett (Thunder to Jazz) — four years, $3.867MM
- K.J. McDaniels (Sixers to Rockets) — one year, $507K
- John Salmons (Pelicans to Suns) — one year, $2MM
- Ramon Sessions (Kings to Wizards) — two years, $4.247MM
- Ish Smith (Thunder to Pelicans) — one year, $861K
- Isaiah Thomas (Suns to Celtics) — four years, $27MM
- Shawne Williams (Heat to Pelicans) — two years, $2.584MM
Note: Terms listed are those in effect at the time of the signing. Contract values are rounded to the nearest $1K.
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Northwest Notes: Durant, Lauvergne, Rubio
The idea that Kevin Durant will sign a two-year deal with a player option after the first season to align his free agency with that of Thunder teammate Russell Westbrook, whose contract expires after next season, isn’t one that Durant has given much thought, as he said on ESPN Radio today, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (ESPN Now link).
“Actually that’s probably one of the first times I’ve heard that one, but, no, I haven’t really thought about it, man,” Durant said. “I’m just, with [coming back from] injury and just getting back to playing again, I haven’t thought about contracts or free agency or none of that stuff at all. … I really haven’t thought about that one. I guess I have to.”
Durant would stand to benefit financially from the short-term deal, since becoming a free agent in 2017 would allow him to make a starting salary worth roughly 35% of the salary cap, instead of 30%. The cap is also projected to reach $108MM in 2017 and only $89MM this coming summer. Still, the uncertainty surrounding the next collective bargaining agreement, likely to take effect before 2017 free agency, might mean changes to the sort of contract Durant could sign, notes Bobby Marks of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). See more from the Northwest Division:
- Nuggets coach Michael Malone spoke earlier this week of finding a way for Joffrey Lauvergne to see more playing time, as Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post observes. The Nuggets reportedly want a late first-rounder in exchange for the center, but Dempsey believes Lauvergne is staying put.
- The four-year, $55MM extension that kicked in for Ricky Rubio this season is soon to become one of the most team-friendly deals in the league, thanks to the escalation of the salary cap and Rubio’s “electrifying” play, Marks opines. Timberwolves GM Milt Newton denies that he’s received any trade calls on Rubio lately but said he would be obliged to listen if a team did ask about him, as Newton said to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link).
- The Wolves allowed a pair of small trade exceptions, one worth $816,482 and the other $500K, to lapse Wednesday. They were vestiges of the team’s swap that sent Mo Williams and Troy Daniels to the Hornets last year.
Blazers, Suns, Celtics Eye Shabazz Muhammad
FRIDAY, 11:40am: The Celtics aren’t interested in dealing for Muhammad before the deadline, one source told Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe.
THURSDAY, 9:29am: The Blazers, Suns and Celtics and other teams are “kicking the tires” on Shabazz Muhammad, according to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link). The Clippers remain fond of the 23-year-old swingman, Wolfson adds, having first identified the team’s interest in December, though it’s unclear if the Nets and Lakers, two more teams that apparently eyed him earlier this season, still do.
Minnesota was unwilling to trade Muhammad as of December, as Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports reported then, but whether the team has wavered from that stance isn’t known. The 14th overall pick from 2013 has suffered a regression this year, with his minutes down slightly and more significant declines in shooting percentage, shot attempts per game, scoring average and rebounding. He’s seen fewer minutes per game this season than fellow wing players Andrew Wiggins, Zach LaVine, Tayshaun Prince and trade candidate Kevin Martin.
Muhammad is making nearly $2.056MM in the third year of his rookie scale contract, with almost $3.047MM coming next season, the last on the deal. He’s eligible for a rookie scale extension this summer, but given his dearth of playing time, he seems unlikely to receive one.
The Suns would appear to provide the best opportunity for him to see more minutes if he’s traded to Phoenix, especially if P.J. Tucker is no longer there after next week’s trade deadline. The Clippers have been starting Luc Mbah a Moute at small forward, so perhaps an opportunity would exist there. The Celtics and Blazers seem relatively set on the wings.
Contract Status For Every 2016 NBA All-Star
Some of the All-Stars gathered in Toronto this weekend will be making news not for their on-court prowess but for their impending free agency. Eight of the 26 All-Stars, including injury replacements Pau Gasol and Al Horford, are either on expiring deals or have player options they’re likely to use to hit the market this year. One of those, Kobe Bryant, is headed into retirement, but Kevin Durant, LeBron James, DeMar DeRozan, Andre Drummond, Dwyane Wade, Gasol and Horford are all headed for new deals. Five more can hit free agency as soon as next year, including MVP Stephen Curry. However, the Warriors have fellow All-Star Draymond Green tied up until 2020, and the same is true for the Pelicans and Anthony Davis.
Here’s a look at the length of time that each All-Star is under contract:
Eastern Conference
- Carmelo Anthony — signed through 2018/19, can opt out in 2018.
- DeMar DeRozan — signed through 2016/17, can (and likely will) opt out this summer.
- Andre Drummond — contract expires this summer.
- Paul George — signed through 2018/19, can opt out in 2018.
- LeBron James — signed through 2016/17, can (and likely will) opt out this summer.
- Kyle Lowry — signed through 2017/18, can opt out in 2017.
- Paul Millsap — signed through 2017/18, can opt out in 2017.
- Isaiah Thomas — contract expires in 2018.
- Dwyane Wade — contract expires this summer.
- John Wall — contract expires in 2019.
- Chris Bosh (injured) — contract expires in 2019.
- Jimmy Butler (injured) — signed through 2019/20, can opt out in 2019.
- Pau Gasol (injury replacement) — signed through 2016/17, can (and likely will) opt out this summer.
- Al Horford (injury replacement) — contract expires this summer.
Western Conference
- LaMarcus Aldridge — signed through 2018/19, can opt out in 2018.
- Kobe Bryant — contract expires this summer (retiring).
- DeMarcus Cousins — contract expires in 2018.
- Stephen Curry — contract expires in 2017.
- Anthony Davis — signed through 2020/21, can opt out in 2020.
- Kevin Durant — contract expires this summer.
- Draymond Green — contract expires in 2020.
- James Harden — contract expires in 2018.
- Kawhi Leonard — signed through 2019/20, can opt out in 2019.
- Chris Paul — signed through 2017/18, can opt out in 2017.
- Klay Thompson — contract expires in 2019.
- Russell Westbrook — contract expires in 2017.
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.