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Celtics Rumors: Ainge, Smart, Young, Jerebko

July 19th, 2015 at 4:59pm CST by Arthur Hill

Danny Ainge‘s quest to find hidden gems explains some of the Celtics’ offseason moves, writes A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com. On a team without superstars, the executive is constantly searching for untapped potential. That’s why he picked up Amir Johnson, David Lee and Perry Jones III and took a calculated draft risk with Terry Rozier. Ainge is hoping at least one of his acquisitions will duplicate the success of DeMarre Carroll in Atlanta or Khris Middleton in Milwaukee.

There’s more news from Boston:

Two dislocated fingers on his right hand will prevent Marcus Smart from making a trip to Africa for an August 1st exhibition game, according to Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald. Smart suffered the injury during summer league play and had to miss the final two games for the Celtics’ entry. There is no timetable for his recovery, but Smart is relieved that they weren’t broken. There is no speculation so far that the injury will linger into training camp.
Paul Pierce is an admirer of the moves the Celtics have made, Bulpett writes in a separate story. “They asked Danny to get good pieces, good tradable pieces, good foundation pieces, and that’s what he’s been doing,” Pierce said. “Over time you have to figure out who you’re going to keep and who you’re going to move to get better until you find that piece.”
James Young will spend part of the summer working out with former MVP Kevin Durant, according to Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. The players share the same agent, Rick Kleiman, and Young is excited about the opportunity. “He’s going to be able to start being able to play soon,” Young said of Durant. “I can’t wait. He’s a great guy, a great offensive player, one of the best players in the league, one of my favorite players growing up.”
The Celtics were always the first choice for Jonas Jerebko, who re-signed with the team last week, writes Marc D’Amico of Celtics.com. “I had some offers, but my first choice was always coming back here and we worked it out and I’m happy to be back,” Jerebko said. “There were teams that were knocking on the door, but I just liked being in Boston and what we had going on.”

Latest On Talks Between Celtics, Jordan Mickey

July 17th, 2015 at 9:30am CST by Chuck Myron

The Celtics and No. 33 pick Jordan Mickey reached an impasse early Thursday, but by afternoon, their talks seemed back on track, reports Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald, who indicates that Mickey will be on Boston’s roster for this coming season one way or another. The Celtics offered a four-year deal with two guaranteed seasons, but Mickey sought a shorter deal, Bulpett hears. The Matt Babcock client was prepared to sign the required tender, a one-year, non-guaranteed contract at the minimum salary, when Boston wouldn’t make concessions, as Bulpett details. However, Mickey’s camp was again talking about a long-term arrangement with the Celtics by Thursday afternoon, according to Bulpett.

The C’s first offer represented the most lucrative given to a second-round pick, Bulpett writes. It’s unclear if that would have been the richest for a second-round pick this year or in any year, though because the minimum salary goes up each season, it’s not difficult to envision second-rounders receiving deals of ever-increasing size. Players picked in the first half of the second round, like Mickey, commonly receive a few hundred thousand more than the minimum in year one. An exception was K.J. McDaniels, last year’s No. 32 pick, who chose the required tender rather than a four-year deal with the Sixers, a move that appeared to pay off.

Mickey and the Celtics began negotiations just this week with apparent confidence that a deal would get done. The big man from LSU told Zach Links of Hoops Rumors before the draft that he was drawing strong first-round interest. He’s put up 11.2 points and 7.8 rebounds in 26.9 minutes per game across six summer league appearances.

Eastern Notes: Porzingis, Dellavedova, Ellis

July 15th, 2015 at 9:30pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Scout Clarence Gaines believed the Knicks should have taken Kristaps Porzingis first overall if they had won the draft lottery, Knicks GM Steve Mills said Monday on MSG Network, as Marc Berman of the New York Post relays. Mills and team president Phil Jackson weren’t quite ready to do that, Berman notes, but the Knicks dropped to fourth in the lottery and took Porzingis with that selection. Mills said he noticed Guillermo Hernangomez, the 35th overall pick whose rights New York acquired in a deal put together on draft night, on a scouting trip to see Porzingis, as Berman details, adding that the Knicks plan to sign Hernangomez in time for the 2016/17 season.

Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:

There hasn’t been much progress made between restricted free agent Matthew Dellavedova and the Cavaliers, Chris Mannix of SI.com notes. The point guard is seeking a multiyear deal at around $4MM per season, Mannix relays, and Cleveland is reluctant to commit to that amount due to the luxury tax implications. Former Nets executive Bobby Marks (Twitter links) notes that even a $4MM annual commitment for Dellavedova would equate to that of a max salary player due to the approximate $14MM tax hit inking the guard would generate.
Celtics executive Danny Ainge views offseason additions David Lee and Amir Johnson as veterans who can help the team’s younger players grow, Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald writes. “Veteran players teach young players how to play, how to live, how to make it through the rough times of a season,” Ainge said. “And they make young players better by their presence on the court. So it’s not always just about getting minutes for young players, although minutes are important in the process of development. But it’s also important for veterans to show the young players the way to play. Brandon Bass was a good guy to have on the team. You ask any good player in the NBA about the people who’ve had a positive impact on their careers and most every one of them will say some veteran that they played with as a youngster.”
Monta Ellis was sold on joining the Pacers when team executive Larry Bird told him he was the missing piece in the team’s championship puzzle, Michael Marot of The Associated Press writes. “He said all the right things,” Ellis said after signing his four-year, $44MM deal. “It was an easy choice. It made me feel great because they wanted me.”

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Atlantic Notes: Pressey, Prokhorov, Williams

July 15th, 2015 at 2:32pm CST by Chuck Myron

Phil Pressey, whom the Celtics waived today, is already drawing interest from other teams, according to agent Aaron Mintz, as Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe reports, though he’d have to clear waivers before he could sign. In any case, Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge had no shortage of praise for the point guard, as Himmelsbach relays.

“Phil may be my favorite player I’ve ever been around in the NBA, as a player, a coach or as an executive,” Ainge said. “It was a very difficult morning for me today. He’s a player I’d want on my team all the time. Unfortunately, we just have an abundance of small guards already. It’s unfortunate. He’s helped us a lot in the last two years, and he’s a classy and hardworking player.”

Here’s more from around the Atlantic Division:

An announcement could come within the next two weeks that Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov has bought Bruce Ratner’s 20% stake in the Nets, a move that would give Prokhorov 100% of the team, Bleacher Report’s Ric Bucher says (video link). The possibility still exists that Prokhorov will move in the other direction and sell off his majority interest, but the indications are strong that he’ll indeed buy the remaining shares of the team, Bucher says. Such a deal would also see Prokhorov’s interest in the Barclays Center rise from 45% to 100%, according to Bucher. Still, the move may well have more to do with debt that Ratner’s company owes Prokhorov and his partners than Prokhorov’s desire to own all of the team and the arena, since according to NetsDaily, Ratner faces a deadline to resolve that debt.
The precise amount of money the Nets will have on their cap each of the next five years as a result of the buyout and stretch of Deron Williams‘ contract is $5,474,787, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (All Twitter links). That means he gave up exactly $16MM in the buyout. His new contract with the Mavericks is worth $5.4MM this year and $5.6MM next season, according to Pincus, so assuming he remains on that contract through the end of 2015/16, and assuming he and the Nets didn’t waive set off rights, Brooklyn’s obligation for 2015/16 will be further reduced to about $3.197MM.
Shooting guard Daniel Hackett, who worked out for the Knicks, has a verbal agreement to sign with Olympiacos of Greece, sources tell Sportando Emiliano Carchia. New York was willing to sign Hackett for training camp, Carchia adds, but it looks like he’ll stay overseas.
Fenerbahce Ulker said the contract that former Celtics forward Gigi Datome signed with them covered two years, but it includes a player option for a third, according to Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald.

Celtics Waive Phil Pressey

July 15th, 2015 at 12:22pm CST by Chuck Myron

12:22pm: The move is official, the team announced.

11:39am: Ainge confirmed that he’s about to put Pressey on waivers, tweets Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald, though the executive doesn’t sound excited about it. “It’s really tough for us to waive Phil,” Ainge said.

11:00am: The Celtics have chosen to waive Phil Pressey rather than guarantee the minimum salary for the two-year veteran, reports Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe (Twitter link). Today is the last day the team can release Pressey before his $947,276 salary, currently non-guaranteed, locks in. Pressey was also reportedly a candidate to go to the Warriors in the David Lee trade, which has still yet to become official, so it would appear more likely that Boston will include Chris Babb in that swap.

Pressey saw 11 starts as a rookie, averaging 15.1 minutes per game that season, but he saw less playing time this year even though he was a more efficient scorer. President of basketball operations Danny Ainge liked his perimeter defense, but the point guard position is crowded in Boston, with Marcus Smart, Isaiah Thomas, Evan Turner and this year’s No. 16 overall pick, Terry Rozier, among the team’s options.

Boston’s acquisition of Perry Jones III from the Thunder on Tuesday spelled further trouble for Pressey, since it added another already-guaranteed deal to the roster. The Celtics seemingly remain a work in progress, and while teams don’t have to cut down to 15 players until the end of training camp, it appears that Boston doesn’t want to commit to Pressey at this point. He’d be eligible to re-sign with the Celtics if he clears waivers.

And-Ones: Labor, Moratorium, Max Salaries

July 15th, 2015 at 10:16am CST by Chuck Myron

Commissioner Adam Silver struck an optimistic tone about labor negotiations with a December 15th, 2016 deadline looming for owners and players to opt out of the collective bargaining agreement, writes Sam Amick of USA Today.

“You know, I’m not sure if the players association is going to opt out,” Silver said as he addressed media Tuesday. “[Union executive director] Michele [Roberts] made some early remarks suggesting maybe they were leaning that direction, but she hasn’t told me that she plans to opt out. And I know that in discussions that she and I have had and I’ve had with players association representatives, it’s clear the goal on both sides is to avoid any sort of work stoppage whatsoever and maybe even to avoid the opt out.”

Still, Silver claims a “significant number of teams” are losing money, Amick notes. The commissioner said the league projects that it’ll need to issue a $500MM check to the players after the 2016/17 season because total salaries aren’t expected to add up to the required 50-51% of basketball related income, even as the salary cap surges, as Ken Berger of CBSSports.com observes. Berger sees a strong chance that the owners opt out, in spite of Silver’s seeming confidence that such can be avoided. Here’s more from around the league:

Owners discussed the idea of changing the July Moratorium to avoid sagas like the one that surrounded DeAndre Jordan as he decommitted to the Mavs to return to the Clippers, but none of the owners could come up with an appealing solution, Silver said, according to Berger.
The projected maximum salaries for next season are $20.4MM for players with fewer than seven years of experience, $24.9MM for those with seven to nine years in the league, and $29.3MM for veterans of 10 or more years, tweets former Nets executive Bobby Marks. See this year’s max salaries right here.
The union continues to consider a get-tough stance on agencies that represent both players and coaches, but the most likely outcome is a continuance of the same policies, despite the conflict of interest, Grantland’s Zach Lowe reports. Agencies are allowed to represent both as long as they create separate divisions, with separate agents, to handle player and management clients, as Lowe explains. Still, not all are pleased with arrangement, and when the Bucks, who have close ties to Excel, drafted Excel client Rashad Vaughn last month, some people around the league found it untoward, Lowe writes.
The Nets once more led luxury taxpayers for this past season, though it wasn’t the record amount of some $90MM from a year ago. This time, they paid $19.98MM, followed by the Cavs with $6.96MM, the Clippers at $4.8MM, and the Thunder at $2.79MM, salary cap expert Larry Coon tweets. Teams that didn’t pay the tax saw $830K each as a result.
The second-round pick that the Celtics are sending to the Thunder as part of the Perry Jones III trade is Boston’s own 2018 second-rounder, but if it falls within the top 55 picks that year, the Celtics’ debt to Oklahoma City is extinguished, according to RealGM.

Celtics Acquire Perry Jones III

July 14th, 2015 at 2:42pm CST by Chuck Myron

NBA: Oklahoma City Thunder at Dallas Mavericks

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

2:42pm: The deal is official, the Thunder and Celtics announced. The second-rounder headed to the Thunder is a protected 2018 selection, according to Oklahoma City. Boston’s announcement calls it a conditional 2018 pick, so the protection is probably such that it may not ever end up conveying to the Thunder.

To recap, the Thunder get that pick, while the Celtics get Jones, Detroit’s 2019 second-round pick and cash.

2:03pm: The pick going to the Celtics is Detroit’s 2019 second-rounder, which Oklahoma City picked up in the Reggie Jackson trade, Mayberry reports (on Twitter).

1:51pm: The second-rounder headed Boston’s way isn’t one of OKC’s own picks, a source Himmelsbach (Twitter link).

1:47pm: A protected second-round pick is going to Oklahoma City in the move, according to Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman (on Twitter). That’ll allow the Thunder to create a trade exception equivalent to Jones’ salary, Mayberry notes. The Celtics will absorb Jones into cap space, tweets former Nets executive Bobby Marks.

1:30pm: The Thunder will trade Perry Jones III to the Celtics, along with a second-round pick and cash, reports Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald (Twitter link). It’s not entirely clear what’s going back to Oklahoma City, but it doesn’t amount to much, Bulpett says, indicating that it’s a move the Thunder are making with luxury tax savings in mind. Indeed, the deal stands to save the Thunder some $7MM in combined salary and tax payments, tweets Royce Young of ESPN.com.

Oklahoma City had been carrying a payroll of about $98MM, well above the $84.74MM tax threshold, and moving off of Jones’ salary, worth more than $2.038MM, has reportedly been a priority. Chris Mannix of SI.com reported before the draft that the Thunder were shopping the former 28th overall pick, among others, adding after the draft that Oklahoma City was holding out for a first-round pick. That sort of return for Jones wasn’t to be, but it appears as though the Thunder have at least unloaded his rookie scale contract, which is entering its final season.

It’s unclear if the Celtics envision Jones as part of their long-term plan, and indeed much is in flux for the Celtics, as a source tells Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe that the team is active on many fronts (Twitter link). Jones, who turns 24 in September, is eligible for a rookie scale extension, though that seems unlikely. The forward is coming off a career year for the Thunder, who thrust him into more minutes than before amid injuries to much of their usual rotation players, but he still put up only 4.3 points in 14.7 minutes per game.

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Atlantic Notes: Sixers, Miller, Ellington, Mickey

July 14th, 2015 at 1:01pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Sixers, for all their losing on the court, continue to turn a profit, and the value of the franchise has at least tripled since owner Josh Harris and his partners bought the team in 2011, Grantland’s Zach Lowe reports. Thus, Harris continues to appear patient with a slow, draft-focused rebuild, and even as last month’s draft was going on, the Sixers were in talks with teams in the bottom half of the lottery, seeking to acquire their picks, Lowe hears. Philadelphia is reportedly interested in Norris Cole, but it remains to be seen if that manifests into the first free agent signing of much significance in the tenure of GM Sam Hinkie. Here’s more from around the Atlantic Division:

The Nets appeared likely to waive Quincy Miller shortly after acquiring him from the Pistons on Monday, but a source tells Marc Stein of ESPN.com that Brooklyn plans to keep him at least through the start of training camp in the fall (Twitter links). It’ll cost the Nets a $50K partial guarantee if they keep him through Wednesday.
Wayne Ellington‘s two-year deal with the Nets is worth $3,067,500, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.
The Celtics and No. 33 overall pick Jordan Mickey began negotiations on Monday, reports Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald (on Twitter), and confidence about the ability to reach a deal surrounded the opening of the talks, MassLive’s Jay King hears. Still, neither side is in a hurry, Bulpett tweets. Mickey, a client of Matt Babcock, is expected to seek guaranteed money, King writes.
Gigi Datome spoke with the Mavericks, Clippers and Wizards, but those teams wouldn’t promise him that he’d be a part of their rotations, tweets Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald. The former Celtics forward just signed with Turkey’s Fenerbahce Ulker.
Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge doesn’t see deals for veterans like David Lee and Amir Johnson as antithetical to a youth-focused approach, believing that vets can serve important mentorship roles, as Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald details.

Gigi Datome To Play In Turkey

July 14th, 2015 at 9:35am CST by Chuck Myron

Gigi Datome is leaving the NBA and has signed a two-year deal with Turkey’s Fenerbahce Ulker, the team announced. Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia first reported the sides were finalizing a deal (Twitter link). It’s worth 1.7 million euros a year, reports David Pick of Eurobasket.com (on Twitter), and that’s the equivalent of more than $1.876MM. The Celtics last month elected not to make a qualifying offer to Datome that would have been worth $2,187,500.

It’s no surprise to see the Italian forward head back overseas, as Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe reported early this month that he was torn as he considered whether or not to stay in the NBA. The most recent rumors connected him to European teams, and clubs from overseas began lining up for him months ago.

The two-year NBA veteran made playing time a priority as he pondered his future, Himmelsbach wrote. Datome saw much more burn with the Celtics than he did this season in Detroit, where he made it into only three games before the midseason trade that took him to Boston. Still, he averaged only 10.7 minutes per contest for the C’s, and while coach Brad Stevens was a fan, president of basketball operations Danny Ainge had only measured interest.

Latest On Danilo Gallinari

July 13th, 2015 at 3:44pm CST by Chuck Myron

3:44pm: Multiple sources who spoke with Bulpett raised the possibility that the Celtics and Nuggets will revive the talks, and the sense among many executives from around the league is that teams are more willing to talk trade now that most top-tier free agents have committed to teams, as Bulpett writes.

2:53pm: The Celtics and Nuggets had talks about a Danilo Gallinari deal, but that discussion is no longer active, tweets Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald, who cautions that conflicting information is swirling around the seven-year veteran. Some say that the Nuggets aren’t looking to trade him, while others insist that Denver is at least open to the idea, Bulpett adds (on Twitter). It’s unclear just how recently the Celtics and Nuggets talked.

The Nuggets were reportedly shopping Gallinari shortly before the draft, and while it’s seemed as though Gallinari has been among the least likely Nuggets to be subject to trade, little is certain in Denver. The Grizzlies were apparently one of the teams in pursuit of the sharpshooting small forward in advance of the draft. Gallinari is entering the final season of his contract with a salary worth more than $11.559MM.

Boston doesn’t have the cap flexibility to absorb him into cap space or any of the trade exceptions that the Celtics forfeited when they dipped under the cap for the first time in several years, so the Celtics would almost certainly have to send salary back to Denver. The Nuggets have been active in recent days after a slow start to free agency, reaching agreements with Will Barton and Jameer Nelson and pulling off a rare renegotiation/extension of Wilson Chandler‘s contract. Nelson’s deal, and the one for draft-and-stash prospect Nikola Jokic, will make it a tight squeeze to fit Chandler’s new deal under the cap without some more salary clearing moves, even in the wake of the team’s release of Jamaal Franklin.