Offseason In Review: Brooklyn Nets
Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team’s offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees, and more will be covered, as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.
Signings
- Bojan Bogdanovic: Three years, $10.277MM. Signed via mid-level exception. Includes 15% trade kicker.
- Alan Anderson: Two years, $2.61MM. Signed via Non-Bird rights. Second year is player option
- Jerome Jordan: One year, $816K. Signed via minimum-salary exception. Partially guaranteed for $100K.
Extensions
- None
Trades
- Acquired 2014 pick No. 44 from the Timberwolves in exchange for cash.
- Acquired 2014 pick No. 59 from the Raptors in exchange for cash.
- Acquired 2014 pick No. 60 from the Sixers in exchange for cash.
- Acquired Jarrett Jack and Sergey Karasev in a three-way trade with the Cavaliers and Celtics for Marcus Thornton and the rights to Ilkan Karaman and Edin Bavcic.
- Acquired Casper Ware and the more favorable of Milwaukee’s and Sacramento’s 2019 second-round picks from the Sixers in exchange for Marquis Teague. Ware was subsequently waived.
Waiver Claims
- None
Draft Picks
- Markel Brown (Round 2, 44th overall). Signed via minimum-salary exception for two years. Second year is non-guaranteed.
- Xavier Thames (Round 2, 59th overall). Playing in Spain.
- Cory Jefferson (Round 2, 60th overall). Signed via minimum-salary exception for two years. First year is $75K guaranteed. Second year is non-guaranteed.
Camp Invitees
- Willie Reed
Departing Players
Rookie Contract Option Decisions
- Sergey Karasev (third year, $1,599,840) — Exercised
- Mason Plumlee (third year, $1,415,520) — Exercised
When the Nets hired Jason Kidd as head coach in the summer of 2013, many wondered how quickly he could make himself comfortable in his new role immediately after finishing his playing career. One year later, Kidd made a power play and when ownership wouldn’t give him control over basketball operations, he forced a trade to Milwaukee. His attempted coup came soon after he tried to convince Billy King & Co. to trade Brook Lopez and Mirza Teletovic to the Bucks for Larry Sanders and Ersan Ilyasova. It’s safe to say that he figured out this coaching thing pretty quickly.
Kidd has since been replaced with savvy veteran coach Lionel Hollins, and that was far from the only major change for Brooklyn this summer. The Kidd saga may have been the most shocking storyline of the offseason, but Brooklyn’s biggest loss on the court was the departure of Paul Pierce. Losing the 37-year-old stings not just because of the sticker price the Nets paid for him (and Kevin Garnett) in June of 2013, but because of what he brought to the court, even at his advanced age. The Nets, as you’ll recall, actually took off after Lopez’s unfortunate season-ending injury and that was thanks to their small-ball lineup with Pierce at the four. Pierce was in the midst of a wonderful second act to his career in black-and-white, but he was as surprised as the rest of us to see it all abruptly come to an end.
“It just happened so fast,” Pierce told reporters about a month ago. “I had a chance to talk to [Kidd] and he has his reasons, the way things went down. But like I said, the business — you’ve got to understand the business aspect of it. He moved on. The Nets moved on and people went their different directions. You see that a lot in this business.”
Pierce wound up signing with the Wizards on a two-year, $10.849MM contract and The Truth swears that the Nets let him go without a real fight or even an offer. Pierce says the Nets conveyed to him that they didn’t feel that they could contend in 2014/15 and wanted to cut costs. That’s a sad reality for Nets fans who expected that the money would never stop flowing from their free-spending, heli-skiing billionaire owner. Looking back on the way the rest of the offseason played out, it’s hard to doubt the veracity of Pierce’s claims.
Shaun Livingston was another wonderful revelation for the Nets in 2013/14. There’s simply no way the Nets could have survived missing Deron Williams for a quarter of the season (he really wasn’t all that sharp when he was on the floor, either) without the brilliant play of the former No. 4 overall pick. Teams circled the wagons around Livingston as he was poised to hit the open market and while the Nets considered the guard to be their No. 1 priority heading into the summer, they were too outmatched and fiscally handcuffed to retain him. Holding only Livingston’s Non-Bird rights, the Nets couldn’t do better than using their taxpayer’s mid-level exception, which would allow for a starting salary of $3.278MM and a total of nearly $10.3MM over the course of a three-year deal. Instead, Livingston returned to California by signing a three-year deal with a starting salary at the full $5.305MM mid-level exception with the Warriors. When considering the considerable pay difference, the Nets’ outlook for this season, and the blustery weather in Brooklyn, it’s hard to blame him.
Andray Blatche, who looked to be having a resurgence with the Nets not long ago, will also be out of the picture this season. Despite his size, athleticism, and metrics that still cast him as an eminently worthwhile reserve player, there was little interest from the Nets or the NBA’s other 29 teams. Blatche will take his talents (and his poor conditioning and his off-court issues) overseas this year to China. We can expect to see him back after the CBA season is finished, but it would be a surprise to see him pull a Colin Quinn and go back to Brooklyn.
So, who’s replacing these guys? This year, the Nets are finally welcoming draft-and-stash prospect Bojan Bogdanovic. Brooklyn inked the swingman to a three-year, $10.1MM pact a year after they failed to shake him loose from his Turkish team, Fenerbahce Ulker, for a similar deal. It’s (very) early in the season, but Bogdanovic has been one of the most impressive rookies so far in 2014/15, and that’s saying a lot given the hype surrounding this year’s class.
Meanwhile, to fill the void left by Livingston’s departure, the Nets completed a three-team deal with the Cavs and the Celtics to land guard Jarrett Jack. It wasn’t easy to give up Marcus Thornton, who had some strong performances for the Nets after his midseason arrival, but Livingston’s play from last season underscored the importance of having a strong backcourt option both alongside and in support of Williams. The swap also brought forward Sergey Karasev to the Nets’ second unit. Of course, the C’s picked up some nice assets from the deal and the trade gave the Cavs enough cap flexibility to bring LeBron James back home.
Andrei Kirilenko, who raised suspicions with his bargain signing last season, exercised his player option for $3.3MM this season. The Nets rounded out their roster with a few other moves, like re-signing Alan Anderson to a two-year, $2.61MM deal, adding big man Jerome Jordan on a minimum salary pact, and buying their way into the later part of the draft. The Nets had no picks heading into draft night, but they wound up acquiring three second-round choices that became Markel Brown (No. 44), Xavier Thames (No. 59), and Cory Jefferson (No. 60). Thames will get some seasoning in Europe, but both Brown and Jefferson are with the team for 2014/15.
Reporters spent a great deal of ink discussing whether Garnett would return to the Nets for the final season of his deal or retire, but the 38-year-old confirmed the general assumption that he would be back when he showed up at camp for his 20th NBA season. While KG’s best years are behind him, it always seemed as though KG was the key to retaining Pierce. As it turns out, the Nets let Pierce walk and wound up on the hook for Garnett’s $12MM this season. The Nets insist that Garnett can still be a contributor on limited minutes, but it remains to be seen how he’ll hold up between now and April, or possibly beyond.
Ultimately, much of the Nets’ success this season will come down to the health of stars Williams and Lopez. Williams spent a large chunk of the offseason recovering from double ankle surgery and Lopez had to bounce back from the fracture in his foot that cost him all but 17 games last year. The Nets played well despite Williams much of the time last season and as a whole were at their best without the services of Lopez, but the play of these two high-priced assets will dictate how far the Nets can go. They won’t be in the contender conversation this season, but there’s no reason why they can’t be in the playoff mix.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Poll: Rudy Gay’s Extension With Kings
Earlier today, we learned that the Kings and Rudy Gay agreed to a three-year, $40MM extension that includes a player option after year two. On the surface, it’s significant money to be spent on a player whose game has endured sharp criticism from the analytics community over the last few years. However, when considering Gay’s age, the short length of the pact, and Sacramento’s position as a free agent destination, one could argue that the deal is something of a good value for the Kings.
As Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated writes, the deal actually appears to be something of a head-scratcher from Gay’s perspective. The forward was set to hit the open market this upcoming summer and would have had a good amount of leverage behind him. No, Gay isn’t regarded as the type of guy that can be a No. 1 player for a contending team, but he’s still on the right side of 30 and the incumbent Kings likely would have been just as hungry to retain him then, if not more so. Meanwhile, the $13.3MM average annual value won’t leave Gay starving, but it’s a step back from the $16.4MM AAV on his previous deal.
On the flipside, the Kings have signed on for at least two additional seasons for a player who has been widely panned for his offensive inefficiency in recent seasons. In 75 games for the Grizzlies and Raptors in 2012-13, Gay recorded a combined PER of 15.6, putting him in the same range as guys like Ivan Johnson, DeMarre Carroll, and Matt Barnes. Since then, Gay has set new career highs in PER in each of the last two seasons (18.3 and 22.0, respectively), but the forward is not far removed from his pattern of dreadful offensive decisions and ill-advised long-range shots. The Grizzlies didn’t fade after trading Gay to Toronto and the Raptors actually improved after dealing Gay to the Kings, so it’s certainly fair for one to wonder exactly how valuable the 28-year-old really is.
Gay traded in the chance to earn a bit more this summer for the security of a new deal with the Kings, albeit with an escape hatch that can allow him to collect some of that sweet, sweet TV money in the summer of 2017. Putting aside the wisdom (or lack thereof) of the deal from Gay’s perspective, what do you think of the extension from the Kings’ side of things?
Hoops Links: Rockets, Joseph, Knicks
On this date in 1957, Celtics center Bill Russell pulled down 32 rebounds in one half of action against the Philadelphia Warriors. That total still stands as an NBA record and he finished the game with 49, which was the high watermark at that time. In February of 1960, Russell grabbed 51 rebounds in a game against Syracuse, a new full game record, but Wilt Chamberlain later eclipsed him with 55 in November of that year.
Got a great basketball blog post that you want to see featured on Hoops Rumors? Send it to Zach at HoopsLinks@gmail.com. Here’s this week’s look around the basketball blogosphere…
- Fantasy Basketball Money Leagues wonders how far the Rockets will go.
- Air Alamo wonders if Cory Joseph could be a trade chip.
- New York Sports Guys looks at the state of the Knicks.
- Brew Hoop is worried about Larry Sanders and Brandon Knight.
- Blazer’s Edge is optimistic about Portland’s bench.
- Denver Stiffs broke down Brian Shaw‘s recent presser.
Please send submissions for Hoops Links to Zach at HoopsLinks@gmail.com.
Hoops Rumors Originals
Here’s a look back at the original analysis generated by the Hoops Rumors staff this week…
- If the Wizards can reach the Eastern Conference Finals this year, they could establish themselves as a real contender for Kevin Durant in 2016, writes Chuck Myron.
- The Channing Frye overpay didn’t make a ton of sense, but the Magic do have an exciting young core to build around, Eddie Scarito writes.
- Alex Lee asked you to predict how many games the 76ers will win. Only a small percentage of Hoops Rumors readers see them clearing 20 wins.
- Here’s a list of every entry in Eddie’s Trade Retrospective series.
- Chuck reflected on the Cavs’ wild offseason.
- Chuck looked at the 76ers’ strange situation.
- The 2015 Free Agent Power Rankings have a pair of Cavs at the top.
- Roughly 41% of you say that Greg Monroe is the most likely 2015 free agent to sign elsewhere.
- Eddie looked back on the Bucks’ offseason, including the surprise hiring of Jason Kidd.
- Read up on how D-League assignments work here. We’ll also be keeping track of this year’s assignments and recalls in this running post.
- Eddie recapped the Pistons’ offseason.
- If you missed out on this week’s chat, check out the transcript here.
- Here’s how you can follow specific players on Hoops Rumors.
Week In Review: 11/10/14 – 11/16/14
A look back at the week that was..
- A report indicated that Kevin Love still has interest in playing for the Lakers, but Love issued a denial soon after.
- The Clippers are keeping an eye on Metta World Peace, though Doc Rivers seems to be publicly downplaying a connection.
- Kevin Garnett has interest in buying the Wolves.
- NBPA executive director Michele Roberts made some waves.
- Tobias Harris is interested in joining the Knicks.
- The Grizzlies are looking at Kenyon Martin, but it’s not clear if it’s as a coach or a player.
- The Lakers were set to work out Quincy Miller.
- The Lakers have been granted a disabled player exception after losing Julius Randle on opening night.
- The 76ers re-signed Drew Gordon and waived Malcolm Thomas.
- Nemanja Nedovic had lots of overseas interest after being waived by the Warriors and landed with Valencia.
- The Sixers signed Robert Covington to a four-year deal. To make room, the 76ers dropped Chris Johnson.
- The Sixers have been in contact with free agent Arinze Onuaku.
- The Grizzlies and Lakers auditioned Tyrus Thomas.
- Former Suns guard Dionte Christmas has signed with Paris-Levallois of France.
- Multiple teams are talking with Dwight Buycks, though there’s a strong chance he lands in China.
- The Lakers are bringing in Ater Majok for a series of workouts to see if he might be a fit for their D-League affiliate.
Offseason In Review: Memphis Grizzlies
Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team’s offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees, and more will be covered, as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.
Signings
- Vince Carter: Three years, $12.264MM. Signed via mid-level exception. Third year is partially guaranteed for $2MM. Contains 15% trade kicker.
- Beno Udrih: Two years, $4.247MM. Signed via biannual exception. Second year is partially guaranteed for $923K.
Extensions
Trades
- Acquired 2014 pick No. 35 from the Jazz in exchange for the more favorable of Toronto’s and Boston’s 2016 second-round picks.
Waiver Claims
- None
Draft Picks
- Jordan Adams (Round 1, 22nd overall). Signed via rookie scale exception to rookie scale contract.
- Jarnell Stokes (Round 2, 35th overall). Signed via mid-level exception for three years, $2.55MM. Third season is non-guaranteed.
Camp Invitees
- Michael Beasley
- Patrick Christopher
- Earl Clark
- Luke Hancock
- Kalin Lucas
- Hassan Whiteside
Departing Players
Rookie Contract Option Decisions
- None
After a rough start to the 2013/14 season, the Grizzlies got Marc Gasol back into the lineup and got back to the kind of basketball that we’re accustomed to. From January on, they fired on all cylinders and managed to make the playoffs as the No. 7 seed in the brutally tough West. The Grizzlies pushed the Thunder to a seven game series in the first round and coach Dave Joerger was, well, nearly fired. You read that right.
After owner Robert Pera fired assistant GM Stu Lash, CEO Jason Levien followed him out the door, putting the futures of Joerger, front office exec John Hollinger, and others in question. The Wolves came calling for Joerger but, ultimately, he wound up staying put while GM Chris Wallace saw his power restored.
The biggest question surrounding the Grizzlies offseason was whether they would keep Zach Randolph in place. Randolph had a $16.5MM option on 2014/15 but was pushing hard for an extension. Right after the draft, Z-Bo picked up his option and the two sides shook hands on a two-year, $20MM deal, which would seem to be a pretty fair deal for both sides. Randolph, 33, gets a nice payday on what could be his last big deal. The Grizzlies, meanwhile, get to keep their star forward at a reasonable price.
Randolph might not be a top flight player in his age 35 season, but the additional two years on his contract is preferable to the three that he was seeking. And, it’s hard to say how things would have played out for Z-Bo in free agency, but he was one of the top players available on the open market and ranked 10th in our free agent power rankings at the time. The new deal wasn’t cheap, but Randolph was bound to find other lucrative offers elsewhere.
While one big name vet was retained, Memphis lost another. The Grizzlies were discussing a new deal with Mike Miller for some time over the summer but eventually they informed him that they’d be going in a different direction.
That direction, it turns out, was vertical: the Grizzlies replaced the sharpshooting Miller with prolific high flyer Vince Carter. VC can’t get up like he used to, but he averaged a solid 11.9 PPG, 4.9 RPG, and 3.7 APG in 24.4 minutes per night for Dallas last season. He’s also a pretty solid outside shooter, even if he’s not on Miller’s level in that regard. The eight-time All-Star came aboard on a three-year, $12.264MM deal, though the final year of the pact is only partially guaranteed. As Carter later explained, Dallas had him on the backburner while they waited to see how the Chandler Parsons situation would turn out. Memphis gave him something of a take-it-or-leave-it offer, and he had little choice.
“I kind of understood how it goes from there. It’s a business. I get it, so there’s no hard feelings or anything like that. I understand how it goes. It was a great situation, a great offer from Memphis. It was kind of like, ‘If I pass on this now, what would be left here [in Dallas] for me?’ Obviously not much. Had to move on,” Carter said in October.
The Grizzlies’ other signing was a move to keep one of their own – guard Beno Udrih. Beno didn’t see a lot of burn for Memphis during the regular season – just 55 minutes, in fact – but he played a key role for them in the playoffs when Nick Calathes was suspended. Udrih averaged 7.9 points and 1.7 assists in 16.4 minutes per game in that first round series and was rewarded with a two-year, $4.247MM deal.
With Ed Davis and James Johnson moving on, the Grizzlies got reinforcements in the draft. With the No. 22 overall pick, Memphis selected UCLA shooting guard Jordan Adams, a player widely regarded as one of the draft’s best scorers but also one of the worst athletes in the class. Some people aren’t crazy about the pick, especially since Duke guard Rodney Hood was still on the board, but time will tell if the advanced stats tell the real story when it comes to Adams. In the second round, the Grizzlies plucked blue collar rebounder Jarnell Stokes out of Tennessee. Stokes doesn’t have world class athleticism or size (he’s only 6’6″), but he has tons of grit and is deceptively strong.
All in all, it was a rather quiet offseason in Memphis. But, given the chaos of the spring, that’s just fine for the Grizzlies.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Q&A With Former Bulls Guard Craig Hodges
Last week, Phil Jackson hired old friend Craig Hodges to serve as an assistant coach for the Knicks’ D-League affiliate in Westchester. A two-time champion as a player under the Zen Master, Hodges later reunited with Jackson as an assistant coach for the Lakers and added two more rings to his collection. During his playing days, the guard led the league in three-point shooting percentage twice over the course of his ten-year career and established himself as one of the most consistent long-range threats of his time.
When the Bulls visited the White House after winning the 1992 NBA Championship, Hodges handed President George H.W. Bush a letter outlining his dissatisfaction with the administration’s treatment of disadvantaged black Americans. That summer, he was waived by the Bulls and, surprisingly, was not picked up by another team, prompting him to later file a lawsuit against the NBA alleging that he was blackballed from the game. He was unsuccessful in court but the experience hasn’t hardened Hodges and he is still very much an activist for the downtrodden.
When he’s not busy with the Westchester Knicks this season, Hodges will be working on his forthcoming book, which he expects to be released in January. The NBA champion and the newest member of the Knicks D-League operation was kind enough to take some time and chat with Hoops Rumors on Tuesday.
Zach Links: How did the opportunity to join the Westchester Knicks coaching staff come about? It was reported that you were initially among the head coaching candidates.
Craig Hodges: It actually was one of those things where it was a basic interview and they didn’t really tell me which job was available. Initially they talked to me in May and asked if I would be interested in working with the D-League team. I got a call again in August to actually come and interview we’ve been going back and forth since then. 
ZL: How often do you and Phil Jackson talk?
CH: Well, with him, even when you don’t talk to him you know you’re still cool with him and I have a cool relationship with him. He’s a great manager of people and his management style is that he understands what you do well, and if he sees something that you need help with, he’ll help you or find a person to help you. I’ve never felt uncomfortable around him, and I’ve been blessed to be one of the first players to win a championship [with him], and I was a coach on his staff when he won his last one, so hopefully we can make something happen here.
ZL: I know you just joined the staff, but do you have a sense of how closely the Westchester Knicks will work with the main organization?
CH: We’re going to function as their minor league team and we’re going to operate the way that they operate so that they can gauge the pulse of our players. It’s a great situation and I’m looking forward to it. We’ll also have an emphasis on getting guys accustomed to the triangle and ready to play in that system.
ZL: The D-League is very youth-centric, but what do you think of it as a tool for veterans to find their way back into the NBA?
CH: I think it’s good for both young guys and vets. I don’t know how many vets look at it as an opportunity, but they should. One drawback would be the money, but I think the opportunities that come from it would be worthwhile for guys trying to get back into the NBA and get their games back to that level. I think we have a great thing going in Westchester and, hopefully, guys will see it as a destination location.
ZL: In 1992, you brought a lawsuit against the league when you felt that you were blackballed from playing for expressing your beliefs. Do you feel like in 2014 a player can take up a cause without repercussions, or do you think that could still be problematic career-wise?
CH: You’re always going to be sacrificing something if you speak out, but I think it’s important for people to do so when it comes to issues that are near and dear to their hearts. If someone [takes a stand], they need to know that they’ve done critical studies on what they want to speak about. I was the baby of the movement and my mission then [was], and it continues to be, ‘How can I help people who are less fortunate than me and help them move upward?’ Many people saw that as a militant stand to take, but I look at it as a cultural imperative. Mentors in my life have always told me that you’re only as strong as the weakest of your people, and when I look at the condition of my people, especially in Chicago where the young people are killing each other and getting killed at a horrible rate, you just have to say something. We have the opportunity as a nation to take the lead role in getting people to realize how important it is to teach young people.
ZL: Could you tell me a bit about your upcoming book?
CH: It’s not a book to bash anybody, but it’s a book to clear the air as far as the stuff that happened in my career and also what I see going on. God blesses me and he blesses you with teachings, but not everyone is taught the same way and not everyone is passionate about the same things. I think God has blessed us with a garden where we can have a lot of good people do a lot of good things and we can change the face of the Earth by doing so.
ZL: Now that you’re actively working for the NBA again, will you be pulling any punches in the book when it comes to how your career ended, or are you putting it all out there?
CH: I think it’ll be somewhat cathartic when I put it all on paper. I’m just putting the facts out there and letting people study things for what they are, it’s not up to me to make judgement calls. Everyone has their own reasoning and logic. … For me, I just want to make sure that I put it out there as a written history for my sons and my grandbabies, but I also want it out there for the overall legacy of it, man. I think that it’s important that I took the stand that I did. My mantra has been to help others ever since I was 8 years old. My mom was a civil rights organizer who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and those ideals have been on my heart. They haven’t diminished.
ZL: Do you have a publisher yet?
CH: We’re still shopping it and we have a few meetings over the next few weeks with publishers. It’s been a cool experience and I’m looking forward to getting the book out there. It’s something I should have done a long time ago. Having Daniel [Hazan, of Hazan Sports Management] to help me has been great. I never had an agent for off-the-court matters [before], and looking back on my life, I wish I had an agent for that type of stuff. It would have made things a lot easier.
ZL: Do you have your eye on becoming a head coach in the NBA?
CH: [laughs] Not at all! That’s the thing, I love what I do as an assistant coach. The purity of the game is what I love. I get to help make guys better and do as much as possible with their talent. That’s what I like doing, so I haven’t thought about moving up the ladder. I think in general if you do a good job, then opportunities open up, and then you can assess and go from there. I’ve been trying to live more in the spiritual realm. I’m not looking forward or behind.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Hornets Sign Kemba Walker To Extension
Kemba Walker and the Hornets have officially signed a rookie-scale extension, the team acknowledged in a formal announcement. Marc Stein of ESPN.com first reported on Tuesday that the sides had agreed to terms on what is a four-year, $48MM deal. It contains no options or incentive clauses, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link) confirms. Earlier Tuesday, Hornets owner Michael Jordan made it known that he intended to work out a new deal with Walker.
“Today is a great day for the Charlotte Hornets,” Hornets GM Rich Cho said in the team’s statement. “To be able to retain such an important piece of the core we are building here in Charlotte is exciting. Kemba is an integral part of the culture we’re trying to create within our organization and we are excited that he will continue to be a part of our team for years to come.”
Walker, a Jeff Schwartz client, averaged 17.7 PPG, 6.1 APG, and 4.2 RPG in a career-high 35.8 minutes per contest last season. Walker’s scoring average was identical to his 2012/13 mark and he’s accustomed to being a leading scorer for Charlotte. However, not everyone sees him as a go-to player and his $12MM average annual salary is sure to draw some criticism. About a month ago, Zach Lowe of Grantland wrote that he has heard from executives around the league that the the UConn product is not a “championship point guard.” Walker got his first taste of NBA postseason basketball last season and Charlotte has a good shot at a return trip this year.
As Chuck Myron of Hoops Rumors pointed out earlier, the Hornets had about $22.7MM in guaranteed salary on the books for 2015/16 prior to the Walker agreement, though that number increases when factoring in a $13.5MM player option for Al Jefferson, $10MM+ in rookie scale team options that the team has since exercised, and a $6MM player option for Gerald Henderson. With that in mind, the new deal for Walker doesn’t leave the Hornets much room to add an impact free agent next summer. However, if the Hornets didn’t lock up Walker to a new deal before then, they would have risked seeing two top players — Jefferson and Walker — potentially hit the open market.
Even though Walker’s scoring average stayed the same from 2012/13 to 2013/14, his shooting percentage dipped from 42.3% to 39.3% as his uptick in long two-point attempts cost him some accuracy. That slide was also reflected in his PER as it declined from 18.8 in 2012/13 to 16.8 this past season. Walker’s PER score in 2013/14 put him 17th amongst all qualified point guards.
Kyrie Irving, Kenneth Faried, Markieff Morris, and Marcus Morris have also taken advantage of the extension window that opened on July 1st.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
And-Ones: Nets, Kidd, Gray, Gomes
A year after the blockbuster trade that sent Kevin Garnett, Jason Terry, and Paul Pierce to the Nets, the deal doesn’t look so good for Brooklyn, writes Tim Bontemps of the New York Post. Bontemps points out many of the key players in that deal are no longer on the team. Pierce left the team this offseason to sign with Wizards, while Terry was traded during the middle of last season for Marcus Thornton. More from around basketball..
- If he’ll sign one, Wolves guard Ricky Rubio will top the four-year, $48MM extension that Kemba Walker agreed to earlier today, Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN tweets.
- Jason Kidd admits it’s a completely different situation coaching the young, inexperienced Bucks this season compared to the veteran driven Nets, writes Andrew Wagner of the Star Tribune. “Here, we can show them but we also have to teach them and show them again exactly the different options because it’s all new to them,” Kidd said. “It takes time, but it’s been fun to see their growth.”
- The decision to waive Aaron Gray was both clear-cut and wrenching for the Pistons, writes Keith Langlois of NBA.com. Gray’s medical situation coupled with the presence of Joel Anthony made him an obvious choice to go, but he was in the best shape of his career this offseason and Stan Van Gundy was excited to see what he could do.
- Ryan Gomes has decided to leave Spanish club Baskonia, also known as Laboral Kuxta, over a lack of playing time, according to David Pick of Basketball Insiders. Gomes, 32, made the Thunder’s opening night roster last season. Former Pacers guard Orlando Johnson could be the next to bolt and DJ White‘s one-month contract with the club will expire next week.
Chris Crouse contributed to this post.
Texas Notes: Cuban, Mekel, Rockets
Earlier tonight, the Spurs hoisted their newest championship banner and tried on their shiny new championship rings. Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News was on hand for the Spurs ring ceremony, which he says was shorter than most. I guess you don’t feel compelled to have an over-the-top celebration when you’ve won five titles since 1999. More from the Lone Star State..
- Mavs owner Mark Cuban says he talked to Gal Mekel for over an hour about the possibility of J.J. Barea joining the team, tweets Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “He’s improved more than anybody on the team and he deserves a lot of respect. He’s earned it,” Cuban said (link). Earlier tonight, Cuban confirmed that Mekel would be the odd man out if Barea was signed, though it sounds like he wishes he had an extra roster spot.
- The Mavs‘ decision to keep Charlie Villanueva‘s non-guaranteed contract over Bernard James shows that they are willing to move on from a player with a guaranteed deal if it helps the team, writes Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. Of course, Mekel is the latest guaranteed contract player to find himself on the bubble.
- The Rockets’ new reserve center, Tarik Black, is ecstatic to have made the final 15 player regular season roster, Feigen writes. “It feels awesome,” Black said. “It feels great. I put it out of my mind as far as pressure. Obviously, I knew I was on the chopping block and I was on a non-guaranteed contract. Now that it’s official that I’m actually on the team and I’ll spend the season here and I’ll have the opportunity, it feels great. It’s a dream come true.”
Chris Crouse contributed to this post.