And-Ones: Turner, D-League, Rockets
Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel ran down the free agent movements thus far, organized by each team’s comers and goers around the league. Here’s a look at the league’s news and notes from tonight:
- A source tells A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com that the Celtics will officially complete their signing of Evan Turner before training camp starts at the end of the month (Twitter link). Turner reached an agreement with Boston back in July, but the team is still in the process of shuffling the roster to make room for the former No. 2 overall pick. Not counting Turner, the Celtics currently have 20 total contracts on the books for training camp, which is the maximum allowed.
- Flip Bondy of the New York Daily News takes a look at the open tryout process for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. Players truly off the street have a longshot chance at making D-League training camp, and longer odds at an eventual NBA callup.
- The crew at Basketball Insiders previews the Rockets 2014/15 season. They are mostly optimistic about the team, despite GM Daryl Morey‘s misses this offseason.
Western Notes: McCalebb, Ayon, Bledsoe, Mavs
Kobe Bryant may not retire following the last two years on his contract with the Lakers, but he is eyeing an ownership stake in the Italian soccer team Bologna FC 1909, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport (translation via Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times). Here’s more from around the West:
- Bo McCalebb is in discussions with two teams in the Western Conference, a source tells David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). This isn’t the first we’ve heard of interest in the 29-year-old Euroleague star point guard. McCalebb is a free agent and wouldn’t require a buyout to join an NBA team for training camp or beyond.
- The Spurs had offered Gustavo Ayon the veteran’s minimum of $981,084 before the big man chose to sign overseas, Pick tells Hoops Rumors.
- In a reader chat response, Jabari Davis of Basketball Insiders wonders whether the Wolves will seek a third team to facilitate a sign-and-trade for Eric Bledsoe. Minnesota offered a max deal to the Suns restricted free agent, but Phoenix is reportedly uninterested in shipping him out for anyone on Minnesota’s roster.
- Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News takes a look at the Mavericks‘ suddenly crowded backcourt, with incoming veterans in Jameer Nelson and Raymond Felton joining a roster already featuring Monta Ellis and Devin Harris. The team believes the players can coexist without any drama in coach Rick Carlisle‘s system. “A team can never have too many playmakers,” Carlisle said. “They can all play with or without the ball, so in my mind, they aren’t just point guards, they’re basketball players.”
Eastern Rumors: Gibson, Taylor, Knicks
We have notes out of each division from the Eastern Conference this evening. Last year, the Southeast Division sent four teams to the playoffs, while the Atlantic and Central sent two apiece. This season, the Atlantic is in danger of dropping to just one playoff entry, as teams like Cleveland, Charlotte, and Atlanta figure to improve while Brooklyn and New York haven’t made clear upgrades this offseason. Here’s a rundown of the East:
- Taj Gibson insisted that he is comfortable with a bench role in Chicago from his personal Twitter account (H/T Emiliano Carchia of Sportando). The Bulls big was responding to a report that he was privately displeased at the prospect of remaining on the bench for a crowded Bulls frontcourt. Gibson was similarly diplomatic when a potential starting role was fueling rumors regarding Carlos Boozer‘s eventual amnesty.
- Jeff Taylor tells Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer that he is trying to be patient while training following his Achilles surgery this winter, but that his injury is healed and not a concern heading into camp. “It’s the first time I had anything more than a sprained ankle. It’s really hard to hold yourself back,” Taylor said. “I’ve always been that person who thought he could do things others doubted. But in a situation like this, you have to listen.” Hornets coach Steve Clifford had some doubts as to Taylor’s readiness for the season, but the third-year guard is confident that he will be able to compete immediately. “It’s not an injury anymore. It’s healed,” said Taylor. “It’s not weighing on my mind.”
- Jonah Ballow of NYKnicks.com writes that Knicks president Phil Jackson has given coach Derek Fisher plenty room to work so far, despite the temptation Jackson might feel to gravitate back toward the bench.
Kings Sign Omri Casspi
SEPTEMBER 18TH: The deal is finally official, the team announced.
JULY 30TH: It’ll be a guaranteed deal, tweets David Pick of Eurobasket.com.
JULY 25TH: The Kings are finalizing a one-year contract at the league minimum with Omri Casspi, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Casspi somewhat surprisingly cleared waivers earlier today, as the Kings had reportedly planned to put in a claim. It nonetheless appears as though they maintained interest, and the feeling had been mutual for Casspi, who spoke in recent days of his fondness for a return to Sacramento.
Signing the Dan Fegan client for just one year at the minimum, as opposed to claiming his two-year contract off waivers, will save the team enough money to keep it beneath the luxury tax line. The Kings had been at $75,852,705 in team salary, according to the latest estimates from Basketball Insiders, just $976,295 shy of the tax threshold. Casspi will make $1,063,384 as a five-year veteran at the minimum salary, but Sacramento will only be on the hook for the portion equivalent to the two-year veteran’s minimum of $915,243, since it’s a one-year contract. The league will pick up the tab for the rest.
That provision only applies to one-year deals, so if the Kings had claimed Casspi’s two-year contract off waivers, they would have had to pay his full salary, pushing them into tax territory and likely prompting the team to waive or trade Quincy Acy. Sacramento and Acy this week agreed to push back the date upon which his salary would become fully guaranteed so the club could explore its options.
Casspi’s camp is quite pleased with the agreement that will bring him back to the team with which he spent his first two NBA seasons, tweets David Pick of Eurobasket.com. The native of Israel averaged 9.5 points in 24.5 minutes per game with 37.1% shooting as a King, but those numbers dropped precipitously when a trade sent him to Cleveland. He rebounded this past season with the Rockets, but the Pelicans nonetheless saw fit to let him go soon after they acquired him as part of the Omer Asik trade.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Wolves Sign Kyrylo Fesenko
SEPTEMBER 18th, 11:23am: The Wolves announced (via Twitter) that Fesenko has signed with the club on a “training camp” contract.
SEPTEMBER 2nd: The Wolves have signed Kyrylo Fesenko, according to the RealGM transaction log. There is as of yet no report or team announcement on the details for the deal, but it is likely a non-guaranteed contract for the minimum that won’t ensure Fesenko a roster spot beyond training camp.
Fesenko’s improved physique and solid summer league play had reportedly fueled Minnesota’s interest in the center for training camp. The team already has the maximum of 15 guaranteed contracts on the books for 2014/15, so Fesenko would need more than strong play to earn a role extending into the season. The Wolves would either need to waive or trade away a guaranteed salary to create space for Fesenko or any other training camp invite.
Fesenko has played five seasons in the NBA as a big for the Jazz and Pacers, spending recent years overseas and in the D-League. He has career averages of 2.3 PPG and 2.0 RPG from his time in the league.
And-Ones: Rush, Jeter, Terry, Wizards
After a difficult 2013/14 season in which he was granted sporadic playing time while returning from knee surgery in Utah, Brandon Rush tells Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle that he’s feeling positive about his upcoming season with the Warriors. “This is a great situation for me to be able to come back and to be with a winning team,” said Rush. “I’m just going to try to help the team out with little things: rebounding, shooting and playing defense. I’m in a good mood. My head is in on straight. I’m happy with where I’m at…Coming back [to Golden State] was a no-brainer.” Here’s more from around the league:
- Pooh Jeter has no intentions of leaving his Chinese team, despite having a workout lined up with the Lakers, as he tells Hupu (translation via Enea Trapani of Sportando).
- Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders expects the deal in place between the Rockets and Kings, which will send Jason Terry to Houston and Alonzo Gee and Scotty Hopson to Sacramento, will finally transpire within the next 24 hours (Twitter link). Pincus does not expect the Kings to retain either Gee or Hopson, whose contracts are non-guaranteed. The teams initially struck an unofficial agreement on August 31.
- The Wizards are still working out additional players to bring to camp, tweets J. Michael of CSNWashington.com. Washington will have 16 of the maximum 20 contracts on the books for training camp after the new additions of Xavier Silas and Damion James.
- Brett Koremenos of RealGM looks at the careers of Milos Teodosic, Ante Tomic, and Emir Preldzic, three players caught in the “limbo” between European starring roles and NBA backup spots. While these players shine in international play, their advanced age, on-court shortcomings, and comfort level overseas are barriers to their likehood of signing in the NBA.
Contract Details: Barbosa, Turkoglu, Roberts Jr.
Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders is always diligent in keeping us informed of the nitty gritty details for all of the contracts around the league, and after his latest round of updates, he figures there are 493 contracts in place, 400 of which are guaranteed, and at least 43 of which will have to be cut before the regular season begins (Twitter links). We’ll link to his team salary sheets, noting specific player revelations where they apply:
- Leandro Barbosa‘s one-year pact for the minimum with the Warriors is partially guaranteed at $150K.
- Hedo Turkoglu‘s one-year minimum deal with the Clippers is fully guaranteed.
- Ronald Roberts Jr.‘s deal with the Sixers is for four years at the minimum salary, including a team option for the final year. This season is partially guaranteed at $35K.
- Chris Crawford‘s two-year contract with the Cavs is indeed for the minimum, with a partial guarantee of $20K this year, and a fully non-guaranteed 2015/16.
- Jerome Jordan‘s camp deal with the Nets is for the minimum, as expected. The one-year agreement will become partially guaranteed at $150K if he remains with Brooklyn through October 25.
- Dionte Christmas, Vernon Macklin, and Kevin Jones have identical one-year deals with the Pelicans, each of which are non-guaranteed.
Eastern Rumors: James, Chalmers, Nets, Bosh
The Wizards struck a deal with one wing player for training camp, as Xavier Silas has agreed to spend the preseason with Washington for the second year in a row, and the team is nearing a deal with Damion James, another wingman, as Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post confirms, echoing the report we passed along earlier today from J. Michael of CSNWashington.com. Here’s more from the East:
- Heat GM Andy Elisburg called Mario Chalmers before he re-signed with the team this summer to assure him that he was still in their plans and that they just needed to see what LeBron James would decide before circling back to them, as Bleacher Report’s Ethan Skolnick writes. Before that, Chalmers had been full of doubt about his free agency, as he tells Skolnick. “I didn’t think I’d be back,” Chalmers said. “I didn’t think that at all. I didn’t even think the Heat would want me back, to be honest. That’s how I felt like my playoff performance was, that they didn’t want me back, they wanted to go another direction. So that was in my mind, too, but I was, like, if it happens, it happens.”
- Deron Williams told reporters including Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News that he hasn’t spoken with Jason Kidd since the former Nets coach left Brooklyn for Milwaukee. “I think it surprised everybody,” Williams said. “I don’t think anybody saw that coming. It was out of nowhere. I don’t even know enough about the situation. I’ve heard a lot of things, as you guys probably have, so I don’t know exactly what happened, but we’re excited about Lionel Hollins being our next coach and we wish J-Kidd the best of luck in Milwaukee, but we’re excited about Lionel.”
- Hollins told reporters including Tim Bontemps of the New York Post that Kevin Garnett will be the Nets‘ starting power forward this season (Twitter link). All indications have been that the veteran big will play this season, and this should put to bed rumblings of an early retirement for good. The coach said that retirement hasn’t even been a point of discussion with Garnett, tweets Bondy.
- In a mailbag answer, Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel suggests that the Heat will have overpaid for Chris Bosh if he doesn’t return to the player he was in Toronto. Miami inked Bosh to the second-biggest contract of the summer once LeBron decided to head back to Cleveland.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Latest On Klay Thompson
Sam Amick of USA Today interviewed many of the key decision makers in Golden State regarding Klay Thompson‘s extension negotiations, including the shooting guard himself. Thompson’s agent Bill Duffy, who is reportedly seeking the max for the fourth-year sharpshooter, tells Amick that the reason he’s demanding so much for his client in extension talks with the Warriors is that he views Thompson as the best shooting guard in the league.
“I don’t want Kobe Bryant to go crazy, but there’s some uncertainty as to who he is right now [due to injury]” Duffy said. “But I think Klay Thompson right now is the top two-way, two-guard in basketball. I think when you look at his body of work, when you look at what he accomplished guarding point guards on a regular basis [last season], I think it’s pretty clear.”
Warriors owner Joe Lacob declined to get into specifics about Thompson’s potential rookie scale extension, but reiterated the team’s commitment to locking him up long-term. Golden State reportedly budgeted with Thompson’s future in mind, convincing Andrew Bogut to take less in his extension, and Lacob says that the move that first brought Bogut aboard and sent away guard Monta Ellis was made to accommodate Thompson as well.
“We traded an excellent guard freeing up a starting spot for him,” said Lacob. “As is known, despite many requests from other teams over the last few years, we have continued to bet on his continued development. We are very proud that he is a Warrior and also of his major contribution on this year’s USA Basketball team. We are looking forward to a great year for Klay, the Splash Brothers and the Warriors.”
For his part, Thompson tells the USA Today scribe that the trade speculation involving him and Kevin Love earlier in the summer didn’t upset him, and that he has no interest in exploring opportunities elsewhere as a restricted free agent next summer. Thompson believes that the Warriors are capable of competing for a championship.
“I wasn’t really [angry],” Thompson said, countering rumors of his displeasure. “I was more just worried about being traded, just because I’m so comfortable in the Bay. I think that’s natural for anybody [to not want to] just get up and move. I mean it wouldn’t have been the end of the world, but it’s a business, and I’m still playing ball for a living. I was more happy when they showed faith in me that they didn’t want to budge and trade me for a guy [in Love] who’s a multiple all-NBA guy and a proven All-Star. I thought that was really cool that the Warriors believed in my potential…Me and Steph [Curry] have another year together, and we’ve got a proven big man, all-NBA defender [in Bogut]. I really believe we can be a championship team.”
Amick surmises that Golden State’s unwillingness to deal Thompson for Love, along with his strong play in the regular season and for Team USA, has shifted all the leverage to his side of the negotiating table.
Multiple Teams Interested In Ryan Hollins
Free agent Ryan Hollins has had contract talks with the Lakers, Kings, Bulls, and Spurs as a potential signing, the center told SiriusXM NBA Radio (transcription via Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times). The seven-footer has also been in talks with the Heat, the only team previously linked to his services this summer.
Aside from the Kings and Spurs, each of the teams considering Hollins as an addition are limited to offering the minimum salary. It would be shocking for Sacramento to exercise their biannual exception to spend more than the minimum, however, since the team has been working to stay beneath the luxury tax line for 2014/15. Hollins’ name is among a handful of big men drawing interest from many of the same teams looking to fill out their frontcourt depth. Gustavo Ayon and Emeka Okafor are other frontcourt pieces generating interest from overlapping teams, but an overseas commitment and injury concerns make the paths for both to land on an NBA team more complicated than that of Hollins, respectively.
It’s unclear if Hollins is close to reaching an agreement for guaranteed money, or if he’s facing the prospect of competing through training camp on a non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed contract. While unspectacular, Hollins is a proven commodity, playing a very specific and useful role, as Chuck Myron detailed in our Free Agent Stock Watch article on the veteran center. The Stealth Sports client has career averages of 3.8 PPG and 2.2 RPG.