Cavs May Make Run At Andrei Kirilenko
The Cavs struck a deal with Andrew Bynum earlier this evening, but they might not be done with significant additions yet, as a source tells Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio the team may turn its sights to Andrei Kirilenko (Twitter link). The veteran turned down a $10,219,420 player option to return to the Wolves next season, and he'd fill a hole at small forward for the team.
Bob Finnan tweets that the Bynum deal exhausted the Cavs' cap room, though I believe they'll still have about $3MM left once Bynum signs his contract. If the Cavs are out of cap space, they could use their $2.652MM room exception, so either way, they don't have much room to give Kirilenko a salary that comes close to what he turned down from Minnesota. The Wolves don't appear interested in a sign-and-trade, Finnan also notes, via Twitter.
The Spurs made a run at a sign-and-trade deal for Kirilenko and came up short, and the Wolves appear to be in the mix to re-sign the veteran as well. With a dwindling number of teams that have cap space and Minnesota seemingly unwilling to accomodate a sign-and-trade, re-signing with the Wolves may be Kirilenko's most lucrative option left.
Wolves To Deal Luke Ridnour To Bucks
10:54pm: Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times tweets that a Ridnour-Ekpe Udoh swap, which had been rumored around draft time, could once again materialize. I'd assume that would happen within the framework of this deal, though I'm not sure what that would accomplish for Minnesota, since Udoh's $4,469,548 salary is larger than Ridnour's.
7:41pm: The Wolves have reached an agreement with the Bucks to deal point guard Luke Ridnour to Milwaukee in an arrangement that will allow Minnesota the room it needs to finalize its pact with Corey Brewer, reports Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune. No salary will head from the Bucks to the Wolves in the trade, so presumably there will be draft picks and/or cash headed to Minnesota.
Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported earlier today that the teams were discussing the swap, as the Wolves sought to clear room to bring aboard Brewer along with the rest of their free agent haul. Ridnour, like J.J. Barea, was frequently mentioned in trade rumors over the past few weeks as Minnesota sought to clear its logjam at point guard.
Milwaukee's acquisition of Ridnour gives the team a backup for either incumbent point guard Brandon Jennings, or Jeff Teague, whom the Bucks have coveted. Ridnour is set to make $4.32MM in 2013/14, the final season of his contract.
Kings Form D-League Alliance With Reno Bighorns
The Kings will take over the basketball operations of the D-League's Reno Bighorns for the next two seasons, tweets Tony Bizjak of the Sacramento Bee. The Kings attempted to buy the Bighorns outright, and though owner Vivek Ranadive fell short of that goal, Sacramento will have the option to purchase the club at a later point, according to Bizjak (Twitter link).
The deal forms the latest hybrid partnership between an NBA club and its D-League affiliate. The Kings will run the basketball operations for the Bighorns, while local ownership in Reno will have control over the business side. The Kings will be the only NBA team affiliated with the Bighorns, after having to share the club with the Grizzlies and Jazz last year.
The Kings join the Heat (Sioux Falls Skyforce), Nets (Springfield Armor), Celtics (Maine Red Claws), Rockets (Rio Grande Valley Vipers), Knicks (Erie BayHawks) and Trail Blazers (Idaho Stampede) as the seventh NBA team to engage in a hybrid partnership. A handful of other NBA teams own their D-League affiliates outright.
NBA To Replace Stu Jackson With Rod Thorn
Sixers executive Rod Thorn will replace Stu Jackson as the NBA's executive VP of basketball operations, the league has announced. Jackson is stepping aside at the end of the month. Thorn's new title will be president of basketball operations, and presumably he'll take over Jackson's duties, which include handed out fines and suspensions.
Jackson has been looking for work within a team's front office for months, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, who reports that he wasn't seen as part of the league's future once Adam Silver takes over as commissioner in February. Wojnarowski noted Jackson's pursuit of other jobs earlier this spring.
Thorn is leaving Philadelphia, where he'd been transitioning into more of an advisory role for the Sixers for the past year or so as the team's president of basketball ops. During the 1980s and '90s, he spent 14 years with the league in a similar role to the one he's taking on.
Nets Eyeing Alan Anderson
After failing to wrangle a buyout of Bojan Bogdanovic from his overseas club, the Nets have turned their attention to Alan Anderson, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Anderson has been with the Raptors since late in the 2011/12, initially inking a pair of 10-day contracts.
The Mark Bartelstein client told Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors this spring that he'd prefer to re-sign with the Raptors, but Anderson also said that he wants a chance to play significant minutes wherever he winds up. He averaged 10.7 points in 23.o minutes per game this past year, making the most of his time with a career-high 12.6 PER. Still, he saw nearly five fewer minutes per game after the All-Star break, which was about the time the Raptors acquired Rudy Gay.
Anderson would figure to back up Paul Pierce and Joe Johnson in Brooklyn, but he's also drawn steady interest from Minnesota. He made the minimum salary last season, but he could wind up with slightly more if the Nets decide to give him part of the mini mid-level they had ticketed for Bogdanovic. Brooklyn GM Billy King said today that it's possible the team could split the exception between multiple players, or use less than the full $3.183MM amount, as Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News observes (Twitter link).
Clippers Re-Sign Ryan Hollins
JULY 10TH: The Clippers have officially re-signed Hollins, according to a team release.
JULY 7TH: The Clippers will re-sign backup center Ryan Hollins, who's agreed to a one-year deal, tweets Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. The California native is represented by BDA Sports Management, according to the Hoops Rumors Agency Database.
Hollins, 28, averaged 3.4 PPG with 2.3 RPG for the Clippers last season in 11.1 minutes per contest. The big man is extremely well-traveled but his new deal with the Clippers means that he won't have to seek out a seventh NBA destination this year.
Zach Links contributed to this post.
Pelicans Re-Sign Al-Farouq Aminu
JULY 10TH: The Pelicans have officially re-signed Aminu, the team confirmed today in a press release.
JULY 5TH: The Pelicans and Al-Farouq Aminu have agreed to a one-year, $3.7MM deal that will keep the small forward in New Orleans, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The team had prioritized an upgrade at small forward in the offseason, but with other major moves, including the acquisitions of Jrue Holiday and Tyreke Evans, it appears the Pelicans are content to bring back their incumbent starter at the three.
There hadn't been much talk about other teams interested in Aminu, a client of Raymond Brothers at IAM Sports & Entertainment. Still, the three-year veteran showed steady progress over his time in the league, averaging 7.3 points and 7.7 rebounds in his first year as a full-time starter in 2011/12. The Pelicans declined their fourth-year option on his rookie contract before this past season began, and they wound up agreeing to re-sign him at an amount roughly equivalent to his cap hold.
Pistons Sign Josh Smith To Four-Year Deal
JULY 10TH, 12:11pm: The Pistons have officially signed Smith, the team announced today (Twitter link).
JULY 6TH, 3:47pm: Smith's deal includes $54MM in base salary, but the value could rise to $56MM if he reaches performance incentives, writes Vincent Goodwill of the Detroit News.
2:54pm: No sign-and-trade is planned at the moment between the Pistons and Hawks, so the Smith acquisition figures to be an outright signing, notes Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Windhorst also says the Rockets never engaged in sign-and-trade discussions about Smith with the Hawks.
2:34pm: Vincent Ellis of the Detroit Free Press hears the deal totals just $54MM (Twitter links).
2:01pm: Josh Smith and the Pistons have agreed to terms on a four-year, $56MM deal, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Detroit lands perhaps the most enticing name on the free agent market now that Dwight Howard and Chris Paul are locked up, using its cap space to reel in the athletic forward. The Rockets appeared to be pursuing a sign-and-trade for Smith as recently as last night, but couldn't get any traction on a move that would have reunited Howard with his AAU teammate.
The deal falls short of the maximum contract Smith was looking for, and gives him just a slight bump from the $13.2MM he made last season with the Hawks. The Warriors and Hawks also had interest, and the Celtics reportedly were set to target Smith in the wake of having traded Paul Pierce, but no team pursued him with as much vigor as Detroit, as Wojnarowski writes. The Pistons met with the client of Wallace Prather and Brian Dyke in the first hours of free agency, and though an offer didn't come out of that encounter, it was clear the team regarded him as more than the "Plan B" he appeared to be for other suitors who were waiting to hear from Howard.
The Pistons also had their sights on Andre Iguodala, and would like to have re-signed Jose Calderon, but with both of them agreeing on deals with other teams, it looks like president of basketball operations Joe Dumars and company circled back to their No. 1 option. The team should still have close to $10MM in cap room to complement an impressive front line of Smith, Greg Monroe and Andre Drummond.
The 27-year-old Smith saw his numbers dip a bit from his career year in 2011/12, averaging 17.5 points, 8.4 rebounds and 4.2 assists this past season. Though Smith is multitalented, the hole in his game is three-point shooting. He took more shots from behind the arc than ever in 2012/13, but he connected on just 30.3% of his 2.6 long-range attempts per game.
Wizards Sign Eric Maynor
JULY 10TH, 11:58am: The Wizards have officially signed Maynor, according to the team (Twitter link).
JULY 1ST, 7:15pm: The deal will likely be a two-year pact for the bi-annual exception, with a player option in the final season, TNT's David Aldridge tweets. That would entail a starting salary of $2.016MM if Maynor gets the full value of the exception.
7:00pm: Eric Maynor and the Wizards have agreed to a multiyear deal, tweets Michael Lee of The Washington Post. The Wizards had been reaching out to reserve point guards, sources told HoopsWorld's Alex Kennedy earlier today (Twitter link), and they had interest in Beno Udrih, Darren Collison and John Lucas III in addition to Maynor, according to Lee. They contacted the representatives for Maynor, Collison and Lucas, according to Lee's sources, and they've also reached out to Garrett Temple while keeping A.J. Price on their radar.
The Andy Miller client hit the unrestricted free agent market when the Blazers decided against making him a qualifying offer, but over the course of the spring both Maynor and Portland had expressed interest in a return. It was the drafting of C.J. McCollum seemed to signal the end for Maynor with the Blazers, The Oregonian's Joe Freeman noted.
Maynor's best days were as a backup to Russell Westbrook in Oklahoma City, but he had trouble getting back on track after a torn ACL caused him to miss much of 2011/12. The Thunder shipped him to the Blazers at the deadline this past season, and now Maynor will serve as a backup for John Wall in Washington.
Bulls Sign Mike Dunleavy
JULY 10TH: The Bulls have officially signed Dunleavy, according to a press release from the team.
JULY 1ST: The Bulls and Mike Dunleavy have a verbal agreement on their rumored deal, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Chicago will likely bring the 32-year-old swingman aboard using their mini mid-level exception, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports pegged two years and $6MM as the terms of the agreement.
Dunleavy, who spent the past two seasons with the Bucks, spurns the Rockets, Mavs, Lakers Wolves and Knicks to head to Chicago, where he's reportedly intrigued with the idea of playing with Derrick Rose. He'll provide size, shooting and scoring punch off the bench for the Bulls, as the 6'9" Dunleavy has averaged double-figure scoring for nine of his 11 years in the league.
I looked at his free agent stock in the spring, figuring he and agent Arn Tellem might go for the mini mid-level with a contending team if his father didn't wind up with a coaching job somewhere. There are still a couple of head coaching vacancies, but it doesn't appear as though Mike Dunleavy Sr. will be getting back in the league this season.