Suns Trade Caron Butler To Bucks
THURSDAY, 3:37pm: The Bucks have officially announced in a press release that their acquisition of Butler is complete. It looks like it'll just be Smith and Kravtsov for Butler, with no draft picks involved.
WEDNESDAY, 11:37pm: Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic hears the Suns will receive point guard Ish Smith, center Viacheslav Kravtsov, and a draft pick (Twitter link). Even though the Bucks acquired Kravtsov on July 31st as part of the Brandon Jennings sign-and-trade, they're exempt from the two-month moratorium on packaging him in a trade with another player, since they're under the cap.
10:45pm: The Bucks and Suns have reached agreement on a trade that will send Caron Butler to Milwaukee, according to HoopsWorld's Alex Kennedy (Twitter link). Butler has already been told the trade will indeed happen, a source tells Marc Stein of ESPN.com, who adds that the teams are still working on the details of the deal (Twitter link). Butler is a native of Racine, Wisconsin, which is about 30 miles south of Milwaukee, and it appears the Suns are attempting to do a favor for the 33-year-old, who's heavy on community involvement, tweets Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com.
Since the Suns acquired Butler from the Clippers in a three-way swap that became official July 10th, Phoenix can't package Butler with any other players in a trade until September 10th, under the rules of the collective bargaining agreement. However, the club can trade the veteran by himself at any time. It's conceivable that the teams could wait a couple of weeks to officially announce the trade if Milwaukee wants anyone else on the Suns roster, but given the timing of the deal and the speed with which it seems to have come together, I think Butler will be the only Sun going to Milwaukee.
The rebuilding Suns are looking for draft picks and short-term contracts, Stein noted. That jibes with the notion that the Bucks are unlikely to give up any of their key players in the swap, as Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times wrote when he first reported that the teams were in trade talks. I speculated earlier this evening that a big man would likely be headed to Phoenix, since the Bucks have eight of them on their roster. Milwaukee is about $7.5MM below the cap, but Butler's set to make an even $8MM in the last season of his deal this year, so the Bucks can't absorb him in the trade without sending a player to the Suns.
Butler averaged 10.4 points per game last season, his lowest output in nine years, but the two-time All-Star has added the three-point shot to his arsenal in recent years, nailing 38% of his 3.8 long-range attempts per game the past three seasons. He shot just 31.2% on 1.8 three-point tries per contest over the first eight years of his career. That outside threat will help the Bucks make up for the losses of Brandon Jennings, J.J. Redick and Mike Dunleavy, who went to other teams this summer, and Carlos Delfino, who signed with the Bucks but could miss a part of the regular season recovering from a fractured bone in his foot.
Kings Sign Trent Lockett
THURSDAY, 10:33am: Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities reports (via Twitter) that Lockett's deal with the Kings is a two-year pact, and includes a partial guarantee, as we speculated below.
WEDNESDAY, 7:10pm: The Kings have signed Trent Lockett, the team announced on its website. The 6'5" shooting guard played for Sacramento's summer league team after going undrafted in June out of Marquette. The deal likely amounts to just a training camp invitation, but the formal announcement from the club suggests there may be a partial guarantee involved.
Lockett wasn't a highly rated draft prospect, but we heard that he performed predraft workouts for the Bucks and Knicks, and today's release for the Kings says he worked out for them prior to the draft, too. He averaged 7.0 points and 20.2 minutes per game in five summer league contests for Sacramento last month.
That 7.0 PPG is the same number he put up in 26.6 MPG for Marquette last season, little more than half of his 13.0 PPG output as a junior at Arizona State, where he played three seasons before transferring. ESPN's Chad Ford, who rated him the 132nd-best prospect in the draft, pointed to athleticism and rebounding as his strengths (Insider link). He put up more than five rebounds per game in each of his last three seasons in college.
Lockett is the 15th player under contract with the Kings, as our updated roster counts show. The 14 other players all have fully guaranteed contracts. NBA teams are limited to 15 players during the season, but they can carry as many as 20 players into training camp, so Lockett figures to receive more competition for the final spot on the regular season roster.
Odds & Ends: Ellis, Pacers, Wilcox, Williams
- The Pacers' lease at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis doesn't expire until 2019, but the head of the city agency in charge of managing the arena says it's likely that by the end of the year there will be a new deal that will keep the team in Indy even longer. Jon Murray of the Indianapolis Star has the details.
- Veteran center Chris Wilcox remains without a team, and he tells Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe that he's still wearing a cast from surgery this summer to repair torn ligaments in his right thumb that he suffered while playing for the Celtics last season (Twitter link).
- Former Nets center Jordan Williams has signed with Bilbao Basket of Spain, the team announced on Twitter (translation via Emiliano Carchia of Sportando).
- Stan Van Gundy talks Dwight Howard, identifies Mike D'Antoni as the most innovative coach in the league, and provides insight on the roster construction of his best teams with the Magic in a Q&A with Ethan Sherwood Strauss of ESPN.com.
- The Celtics would be well-advised to shop Rajon Rondo in advance of the trade deadline this year, but Rondo can do plenty to up his value if he displays maturity and leadership this season, HoopsWorld's Moke Hamilton opines.
- In an updated version of his story on the Timberwolves' hiring of Milt Newton and Bobby Jackson, Charley Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press notes that the team will promote assistant GM Rob Babcock to vice president of basketball operations.
Bucks, Suns Deep In Talks About Caron Butler
10:35pm: A source confirms the existence of the trade negotiations to Marc Stein of ESPN.com, saying that the deal is still in the works. The Suns are seeking only draft picks and short-term contracts, Stein adds (Twitter links).
9:45pm: The Bucks and Suns are in "serious" negotiations about a trade involving Caron Butler, reports Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times. Woelfel tweeted earlier tonight that Milwaukee made a run at Butler before the Clippers traded him to the Suns last month in the same three-way deal in which the Bucks sent J.J. Redick to L.A. The Suns are barred from trading Butler until September 10th if they include another player in the deal, but they can swap him at any time if they send him out by himself. Woelfel says the deal could be consummated by today.
An injury to free agent acquisition Carlos Delfino is fueling Milwaukee's pursuit of an established small forward, Woelfel writes, adding that he's heard rumors that Delfino could miss part of the regular season after undergoing surgery for a fracture in his right foot. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton are the only other small forwards on the roster.
Butler's $8MM expiring contract would put Milwaukee just above the salary cap, so they'll have to send salary out as part of the deal. The Bucks have eight different players capable of playing either power forward or center, so it figures that they'd try to include one of them in a trade. In any case, it's not likely to be a marquee name heading to Phoenix, according to Woelfel, as the Suns are prioritizing assets that can help them in the future over immediate returns. Draft compensation will probably be the jewel of the swap for Phoenix, though that's just my speculation.
Bucks GM John Hammond and new Suns GM Ryan McDonough have been among the most active executives on the trade market this summer. If they strike a deal involving Butler, it would be Milwaukee's fifth trade since the beginning of July, and Phoenix's third. And while few players would welcome a winter in Milwaukee instead of Phoenix, Butler is a native of nearby Racine, Wisconsin, so presumably he'd be on board.
Update On Declined Rookie-Scale Options
Some NBA teams are spending the waning days of the summer debating contract extensions for players entering the final season of their rookie-scale contracts, but those aren't the only decisions that clubs must make involving recent former first-round picks. The third and fourth seasons of every rookie-scale contract are team options, and the decisions on those options are due early. They must either be exercised or declined before the second and third seasons of those deals, respectively.
Most of the time, clubs pick up those relatively cheap options, but sometimes, players simply haven't met expectations, prompting their teams to take a pass. That's the case with 14 of the 60 players picked in the first round in 2010 and 2011 — guys who would otherwise still be on their rookie deals. Here's an update on each of them.
Signed with NBA teams
- Wesley Johnson (2010 No. 4) — He wound up with a one-year, minimum-salary deal from the Lakers this summer. The Suns turned down Johnson's fourth-year option last fall, shortly after acquiring him via trade.
- Al-Farouq Aminu (2010 No. 8) — No one on this list was affected less by his team's decision not to exercise his option. He re-signed with the Pelicans this summer for a one-year contract worth $3,749,602 — exactly what he would have made in his option year.
- James Anderson (2010 No. 20) — He's bounced around quite a bit since the Spurs decided in 2011 not to exercise is third year option, signing contracts with the Hawks, Spurs again, and Rockets. Houston waived him last month, but the Sixers, with former Rockets executive Sam Hinkie as their new GM, claimed him and assumed his non-guaranteed contract.
- Daniel Orton (2010 No. 29) — The Thunder signed him to a three-year contract right before last season, but the final two seasons are non-guaranteed, and he's expressed a willingness to be released from the deal if he could find more playing time elsewhere.
Signed overseas
- Luke Babbitt (2010 No. 16) — He's signed a one-year deal with Russian club Nizhny Novgorod. The deal doesn't include an out that would allow him to return to the NBA this season.
- Craig Brackins (2010 No. 21) — He'll join 2009 first-rounder Christian Eyenga in Poland this season with Stelmet Zielona Gora.
- Nolan Smith (2011 No. 21) — Last month it appeared that Smith would take part in Celtics training camp, but he wound up signing with Cedevita Zagreb of Croatia instead.
- JaJuan Johnson (2011 No. 27) — He inked a deal with Italy's Giorgio Tesi Pistoia after spending summer league with the Pistons in hopes of finding NBA work.
Free agents
- Cole Aldrich (2010 No. 11) — The big man worked out for the Kings this month, and the Knicks are reportedly interested as well.
- Xavier Henry (2010 No. 12) — The Pelicans, who declined his 2013/14 option, took the additional step of renouncing his rights in July, and there hasn't been much news on the shooting guard since. A Sixers beat writer made reference to Henry as someone who could interest the Sixers, but the only other news we've heard on him this summer involves his exploits in pickup games.
- Elliot Williams (2010 No. 22) — He missed all of 2012/13 after tearing his Achilles tendon last September, and he sat out of summer league after having hopes of using it as a launching pad for a new deal. It doesn't sound like re-signing with the Blazers is an option.
- Damion James (2010 No. 24) — The Nets gave him a 10-day contract a couple months after he and fellow 2010 first-rounder James Anderson failed to make the Hawks on a training camp invitation, but Brooklyn didn't renew his deal after the 10 days were up. He spent summer league with the Heat after attending a Bucks free agent mini-camp in June.
- Dominique Jones (2010 No. 25) — He was linked to the Nets and Bucks, but that was back in June, and no other NBA teams have been reported to have interest since then. If he can't get an NBA deal, he would apparently prefer playing overseas to another stint in the D-League.
- Lazar Hayward (2010 No. 30) — He went to Houston as part of the James Harden trade, but he didn't spent much time with the Rockets, who waived him right after they acquired him. He had a pair of brief tenures with the Timberwolves this past season, but the club didn't pick him up again after his 10-day contract expired, and we haven't heard him linked to another team since.
Bucks Seeking SF, Made Run At Caron Butler
With this week's press conference to announce the Larry Sanders extension, it seemed like the Bucks, like most teams, were done with their significant offseason work. That may not be the case, as sources tell Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times that they're seeking to add an established small forward (Twitter link). Milwaukee attempted to trade for Caron Butler last month, Woelfel adds, but the former All-Star wound up going to the Suns in the same three-way trade that saw the Bucks cut ties with J.J. Redick.
Milwaukee is one of only two teams with significant cap room, with about $7.5MM worth of space, so they may be exploring free agents in addition to trades. There aren't any players of Butler's caliber left on the market, but other veteran options like Mickael Pietrus, Josh Childress and Stephen Jackson are among the unsigned small forwards with extensive NBA experience. Childress has reportedly drawn interest from multiple clubs of late, so perhaps the Bucks are in on him as well. Jackson seems least likely, since it would be tough to envision a reunion after he feuded with former coach Scott Skiles and found himself on the outs with the Spurs this season just as the playoffs were about to start.
Hedo Turkoglu could be another possibility, as he's acknowledged that it's unlikely he'll remain with the Magic for much longer. He's in talks with Orlando about a buyout of his expiring contract, which is worth $12MM but only 50% guaranteed. At least one team from overseas is already poised to make an offer if he becomes a free agent, but it looks like the Magic may try to see what they can get in a trade. The Bucks would have to send some salary out to make such a deal work, but with their glut of big men, they may be willing to make a deal, though that's just my speculation.
With dwindling free agent options and a quiet trade market, the Bucks may extend their search for a small forward into the season, or at least training camp, when other teams are more open to trades and some veterans — as Quentin Richardson was last year — might be cut loose.
The Impact Of Playing Experience On Coaching
There are many ways we can categorize the experience that coaches bring to their jobs: retreads and first-time hires, college guys and NBA lifers, former assistants and those who skipped that step. Perhaps the most important of distinctions is the one that either allows them to tell their players they've been there and done that or not.
In an offseason when we've seen record-high turnover in the coaching ranks, seven of the 13 new hires are without NBA playing experience. That's an unusually high ratio in a league where most coaches were at least bit players in the Association at some point in their lives. In the last five years, teams hired 34 coaches who had played in the NBA, but only half as many who didn't. The records of those 51 total hires suggest a reason why there were more non-players hired this year. Those without playing experience compiled a .495 winning percentage, superior to the .449 winning percentage the ex-players managed. It's also worth noting that neither group of coaches hired within the past five seasons reached .500, but that's a phenomenon that's probably worth its own post.
Here's a list of this offseason's hires, broken down by ex-players and non-players:
Ex-Players
- Jason Kidd, Nets
- Brian Shaw, Nuggets
- Maurice Cheeks, Pistons
- Doc Rivers, Clippers
- Larry Drew, Bucks
- Jeff Hornacek, Suns
Non-Players
- Mike Budenholzer, Hawks
- Brad Stevens, Celtics
- Steve Clifford, Bobcats
- Mike Brown, Cavaliers
- Dave Joerger, Grizzlies
- Brett Brown, Sixers
- Michael Malone, Kings
The chart that follows shows each of the coaching hires since the 2008 offseason, with the exception of coaches who kept their jobs for 10 games or fewer — in other words, placeholder interim choices who kept the seat warm after a coach was fired midseason. Note that some coaches are listed multiple times, like Vinny Del Negro, since they held more than one job over the past five years.
Of course, this doesn't definitively prove coaches without playing experience are better. It merely provides a small window into the issue, and helps explain some of the hires that were made this summer. After a Finals in which both coaches never played in the NBA, we'll see if the trend toward more such coaches continues in years to come.
New York Notes: Dolan, Prokhorov, Free Agents
The Knicks didn't exactly break the bank in free agency this summer, as J.R. Smith's new $17.947MM contract represents more than half of the team's approximately $32MM in free agent spending. Still, that total is enough to qualify as the most money that any Atlantic Division club dished out, as Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors examined today. The crosstown Nets spent only about $12.6MM on free agents, but they absorbed plenty of salary in the blockbuster Kevin Garnett/Paul Pierce trade. Here's more on the Big Apple's teams:
- The Knicks and Nets are poised to co-host All-Star Weekend in 2015 and possibly once more a few years later. Yet tension between Knicks owner James Dolan and Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov was such that David Stern arranged a meeting early last season to clear the air, reports Fred Kerber of the New York Post.
- A source told Jared Zwerling of ESPNNewYork.com that the Knicks may sign someone without NBA experience to be the team's 15th man, but Keith Schlosser of Knicks Journal thinks they'll choose a player with a track record instead.
- Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com rounds up a couple of Knicks items, noting that Beno Udrih and Andrea Bargnani are skipping national team play this summer, and pointing to the oft-overlooked positive impact Tracy McGrady had on the franchise.
Extension Candidate: Gordon Hayward
Over the weekend, I examined the chances that the Jazz and Derrick Favors would reach agreement on an extension. Teammate Gordon Hayward is eligible for one, too, and he may be just as valuable a part of Utah's future. He's certainly played a more prominent role in the team's recent past, showing steady progress and averaging 29.8 minutes per game the past two seasons. He, unlike Favors, has been a full-time starter for the team, but Hayward spent most of last season as a reserve, rejoining the starting lineup for the final month of the season. It seems certain that he'll start for this season's stripped-down Jazz team, but Utah's front office has to determine whether he's likely to continue to do so when there's more talent on the roster.
Hayward was the team's third leading scorer last season, at 14.1 points per game. He's the only one of the team's top-five scorers to return, and without much offensive talent coming in, he has as strong a chance as anyone to lead the Jazz in scoring this year. The former Butler University star's calling card is long-range shooting, and last season he demonstrated for the first time an ability to hit from just about every spot behind the three-point arc, as his Basketball-Reference heat map shows. He made 41.5% of his three-pointers last season, and even though he played slightly fewer minutes than in 2011/12, he upped the number of threes he took per game to 3.4 from 2.4.
He made nearly as many shots at the rim this past season as the year before, so the fact that his overall shooting percentage declined for the second year in a row is simply a reflection of Hayward's willingness to eschew mid-range jumpers. That's a choice that Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin and his staff probably encouraged Hayward to make, as the NBA increasingly values three-pointers and attempts from point-blank range over all other shots.
Hayward is evolving into the modern ideal of an offensive threat, and he's also a markedly better defender than when he came into the league. The Jazz gave up a whopping 110.8 points per 100 possessions with Hayward on the court during his rookie season, a rate worse than the league's worst defensive team that season. That number went down to 104.6 in 2011/12 and 104.0 in 2012/13. It's still a rate that would rank among the bottom half of teams, but Hayward wasn't exactly surrounded by top-flight defenders last season, and more minutes for Favors along with the departure of the sieve-like Al Jefferson figures to help mask any of Hayward's shortcomings.
The Jazz possess two of the top 10 picks in the 2010 draft in Hayward and Favors, but unlike the offensively challenged Favors, the No. 3 overall selection, Hayward is more of a two-way player. That doesn't mean the team doesn't see him as more valuable. There's always been a premium on big men in the NBA, and quality wing players like Hayward are usually in much greater supply. However, the league is experiencing an ebb in shooting guard talent these days, and while the 6'8" Hayward is much better suited as a small forward, he's played enough at the two that I suspect he'd draw interest from a few teams with holes at the two-guard position if he hits restricted free agency next summer. He'd probably be the best option under the age of 30 at that position. The Jazz would have the right to match, of course, but an inflated offer from another team would drive up Hayward's price.
Hayward scored 17.4 points per 36 minutes last season, a number virtually identical to the 17.2 points per 36 minutes that DeMar DeRozan put up in 2011/12, right before he and the Raptors agreed to a four-year, $38MM extension. Hayward was probably a better player overall in his third season than DeRozan was in his third year, as witnessed by Hayward's 16.8 PER, much preferable to DeRozan's 12.8 PER. Few saw DeRozan's extension coming, and though he showed improvement last season, his inclusion in trade rumors this summer suggests Toronto's new regime thinks their predecessors overpaid him. That means such a deal could be just right for a superior player like Hayward.
Agent Mark Bartelstein reps Hayward, and he also helped Taj Gibson get his extension from the Bulls last fall. Bartelstein is the agent for Nick Young, who didn't get a rookie-scale extension, signed his qualifying offer, and is now making the minimum salary. Bartelstein client David Lee didn't get a rookie-scale extension either, but he signed a one-year deal in restricted free agency and cashed in with a six-year, $80MM contract the next summer. So, Bartelstein understands all of the possibilities at play. I imagine he envisions a deal slightly larger than the one DeRozan got — perhaps four years, $40MM.
Doing that kind of deal, along with the $42MM to $44MM four-year extension I figure Favors will get, would tie up about $38MM or $38.5MM worth of Utah's cap space for next summer, leaving plenty of room for a maximum-salary free agent. The Jazz so far have only about $4MM in salary committed for 2015/16, when an extension or new contract for Enes Kanter would kick in, so locking up Favors and Hayward with extensions this fall wouldn't hamstring the team long-term. Paying a little bit more for them as restricted free agents next summer probably wouldn't hurt the Jazz either, but I don't think executive VP of basketball ops Kevin O'Connor and GM Dennis Lindsey want to pay any more than they have to.
Hayward has shown enough promise for the team to expect that he'll continue to blossom, particularly in the expanded role he'll see this year. The Jazz reportedly are comfortable with letting him play out the season and coming to the negotiating table next summer with another year of evidence on Hayward's game, but they've already begun talks with him and Favors, and ultimately I think they'll see the wisdom of an extension for both. In Hayward's case, that four year, $40MM extension, perhaps with some incentives built into that total, would probably get it done.
Odds & Ends: Brewer, Bucks, McGrady, Heat
Ronnie Brewer considered signing with the Bulls, Jazz and Lakers before ultimately choosing the Rockets, the 28-year-old swingman tells Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston. He also reiterated his assertion from June that the Thunder were in play to re-sign him, too, but Houston's up-tempo style of play helped sway him. Despite having only a partially guaranteed deal on a team with a league-high 19 players under contract, he's not worried about getting cut. "If I come in and I do what I'm supposed to do, all of that goes out the window," he said to Berman. As Brewer gets set to officially sign his contract, here's more on the league's comings and goings with about a month to go before training camp:
- The Bucks have hired David Morway as assistant GM and Jim Cleamons as the team's top assistant coach, notes Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel.
- So much of Tracy McGrady's talent vanished long before he announced his retirement today, and he went underappreciated in Orlando during his peak years, as John Denton of Magic.com argues. The Magic, Raptors and Rockets are all left wondering what might have been, the Toronto Sun's Ryan Wolstat writes.
- Toure Murry still hasn't committed to the Knicks nearly a month after the club extended him a training camp invitation, but the 6'5" guard is expected to pick a team later this week, according to Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com (Twitter link).
- In his latest mailbag for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, Ira Winderman discusses the Heat's luxury-tax situation, their mid-level exception, and the possibility of the team signing Richard Hamilton.
- Now that 14 NBA teams have one-on-one relationships with their respective D-League affiliates, the remaining 16 teams are sharing three D-League clubs. Nonetheless, those squads with five or six NBA affiliations can still help young NBA players develop, as Gino Pilato of Ridiculous Upside outlines.
Luke Adams contributed to this post.