New York Notes: Prokhorov, Teletovic, Fredette
Nets majority owner Mikhail Prokhorov and real estate developer Bruce Ratner’s Forest City Enterprises have reached an agreement that will give Prokhorov sole ownership of the team and the Barclays Center, Scott Soshnick of Bloomberg.com reports. The terms of the potential sale have not been disclosed, and the NBA is in the process of reviewing the proposal, Soshnick notes. Gaining full ownership of the Nets and Barclays Center would make it easier for Prokhorov to sell all or part of either asset if he desired down the line, the Bloomberg scribe adds. The franchise is still undergoing a valuation to assess its worth, but sources have informed NetsDaily (via Twitter) that the team itself, minus the arena, will be second to only the Clippers, which sold to Steve Ballmer for $2 billion.
Here’s more from the Big Apple:
- Mirza Teletovic, whom the Suns signed to one-year, $5.5MM deal this past offseason, didn’t shut the door on a potential return to the Nets in the future, Michael Scotto of Sheridan Hoops relays (via Twitter). When asked if he’d consider playing in Brooklyn again, Teletovic said, “Yeah, why not? I enjoyed the time here. Like I said before, I love the city, I love the atmosphere, I love the way people treat basketball and they show respect to it. I really wouldn’t mind.“
- Jimmer Fredette, who recently returned to the Knicks‘ D-League affiliate after the Pelicans waived him, hopes he can catch the eye of an NBA team and return to the league this season, Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com writes. “I know I can play in the NBA, and I can be a very good player in the NBA. I’m excited to be able to start here,” Fredette told Begley. “Sometimes you’ve got to be able to go backwards in order to get back up to where you want to be.“
- The Knicks have recalled Cleanthony Early from their D-League affiliate, the team announced, just hours after sending him down. This was Early’s second trip of the season to Westchester.
Atlantic Notes: Winslow, Johnson, Early
Heat rookie Justise Winslow is aware of the Celtics‘ reported push to move up in the 2015 NBA in order to select him, but the swingman noted that because Boston’s pick fell in the middle of the first round he had minimal pre-draft interaction with the team, Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe relays. Celtics coach Brad Stevens sang the rookie’s praises when asked about Winslow’s potential, Himmelsbach adds. “He’s a super-mature kid who’s just going to get better and better,” Stevens said. “Winning’s the most important thing to him, and he’s got a high ceiling. I think he’ll do well. He’s shown that. I think you can see that whenever you have an organization like this that’s at the caliber that they have been, and they’re playing him at the end of games pretty consistently. That just tells you where he is emotionally.”
Here’s more from the Atlantic:
- The criteria that Joe Johnson finds most important as he thinks about choosing a team in free agency this coming summer is an ominous one for the woe-begotten Nets, as Andy Vasquez of The Record reveals. “Winning. Winning is going to be important to me,” Johnson told Vasquez. “I’ve made enough money, man, throughout my career. So, yeah, winning will definitely be top priority for me.”
- The Knicks have recalled Cleanthony Early from their D-League affiliate in Westchester, the team announced. This was Early’s first trip to the D-League this season.
- The Sixers anticipate point guard Tony Wroten will return to action within 8 to 10 days, but Kendall Marshall‘s rehab is going “much slower,” Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer tweets.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Nets Start Bojan Bogdanovic Trade Talk?
3:47pm: A league source who spoke with NetsDaily disputes the idea that the Nets are exploring trades involving Bogdanovic (Twitter link).
2:31pm: The Nets have begun to gauge the interest that other teams have in trading for Bojan Bogdanovic, sources tell Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com (Twitter link). It’s unclear just how motivated Brooklyn is to move the second-year small forward, but he’s eligible for inclusion in a trade immediately, unlike offseason signees who aren’t trade-eligible until December 15th, and the Nets have two trade exceptions that expire December 11th.
Brooklyn is only about $2MM shy of the luxury tax threshold, and the team will almost certainly avoid slipping above the line, especially since the Nets would have to pay repeat-offender tax penalties if they’re over the threshold on the final day of the regular season. That makes a deal that would offload Bogdanovic and his salary of more than $3.426MM theoretically more likely than one that would see the Nets use one of their exceptions to absorb salary from another team. Still, the exceptions, worth $3,326,235 and $816,482, could help the Nets facilitate a deal that cuts salary in a more complicated arrangement.
Conflicting reports emerged over the summer about whether the Nets spoke to teams about trades involving Bogdanovic before the draft, but GM Billy King said as the offseason began that he explored trades involving every player on the roster at some point last year. Bogdanovic was an instant part of the Nets rotation as a rookie last season, when he averaged 9.0 points in 23.8 minutes per game with 35.5% 3-point shooting. His long-range touch has been off this season, as he’s nailed only 26% of his 3-point attempts, but he’s otherwise logged similar numbers with a slight uptick in minutes, to 24.3 per contest.
The native of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina joined the Nets as a draft-and-stash signee in the summer of 2014, three years after he became the 31st overall pick of the 2011 draft. He inked a three-year deal for the equivalent of the taxpayer’s mid-level exception, and that contract expires after the 2016/17 season.
What do you think the Nets could get for Bogdanovic? Leave a comment to let us know.
Trade Exceptions Set To Expire For Three Teams
Trade activity should perk up around the league as December 15th, the date when most (but not all) offseason signees become eligible to be traded. Three teams have extra motivation to make a trade within the next three weeks.
That’s because they have trade exceptions that are about to expire. The Nets have the most sizable among those exceptions, and they face the most urgent deadline. Their exception worth more than $3.3MM, a vestige of the trade that sent Andrei Kirilenko to the Sixers last year, expires December 11th, four days before dozens of players will become trade-eligible. That puts Brooklyn in a tough spot, and the team’s position within $2MM of the $84.74MM tax line makes it even harder to envision the Nets using the exception. Still, it’s a tool the team has to facilitate more complicated trades that would add a negligible amount of salary or even reduce the payroll, and as the Grizzlies and Heat showed this month, it’s not impossible to work a multiplayer trade before December 15th.
It’s more conceivable that the Timberwolves will use the exception they have left over from trading Corey Brewer to the Rockets last year, in part because they have until December 19th to do so. Minnesota already used it once, to absorb Adreian Payne‘s salary from the Hawks, so what once was an exception of nearly $4.703MM is now worth only about $2.847MM. It’s still sizable enough to give the Timberwolves an enticing mechanism to add another piece to their sizable collection of recent former first-round picks or to supplement that group with a veteran who can help them maintain their strong early-season play. Minnesota is 8-9 and tied with the Suns for eighth place in the Western Conference. The team also has a $350K trade exception left over from shipping an injured Ronny Turiaf to the Sixers in the Brewer trade, but it’s so small that it’s virtually unusable.
Brooklyn has a smaller exception available, too, though the $816,482 exception the Nets have for sending Jorge Gutierrez to the Sixers in the Kirilenko trade is somewhat more valuable than Minnesota’s Turiaf exception. It’s worth less than this season’s one-year veteran’s minimum salary, but teams are allowed to trade for players making up to $100K more than the value of an exception, so a deal for a player making the one-year veteran’s minimum of $845,059 would work. Of course, the Nets could simply use the minimum salary exception for a player making that amount, but the trade exception is valuable in case the player they want to trade for is on a contract that extends beyond two seasons, as is often the case with players signed as second-round picks. The minimum salary exception only accommodates one- and two-year deals, while trade exceptions carry no such restriction. Just this month, the Grizzlies used a trade exception of similar size left over from the Jon Leuer deal to take on James Ennis, who’s making the minimum on a three-year contract.
The Rockets are in much the same position with the $816,482 exception they created as part of the Brewer trade with Minnesota. Struggling 7-10 Houston could use a shakeup, but with less than $2MM left against the team’s $88.74MM hard cap, the Rockets must tread carefully. Still, the addition of a player making less than $1MM would work, and the Rockets have an open roster spot to play with.
Here’s a look at each of the trade exceptions set to expire in December:
Nets
Amount: $3,326,235
Obtained: Andrei Kirilenko (Sixers)
Expires: 12/11/15
Amount: $816,482
Obtained: Jorge Gutierrez (Sixers)
Expires: 12/11/15
Rockets
Amount: $816,482
Obtained: Troy Daniels (Timberwolves)
Expires: 12/19/15
Timberwolves
Amount: $2,847,180
Obtained: Corey Brewer (Rockets)
Initial amount: $4,702,500
Used: Adreian Payne ($1,855,320)
Expires: 12/19/15
Amount: $350,500
Obtained: Ronny Turiaf (Sixers)
Initial amount: $1,500,000
Used: Damjan Rudez ($1,149,500)
Expires: 12/19/15
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Atlantic Notes: Porzingis, Okafor, Sixers, Hollins
Knicks‘ rookie Kristaps Porzingis believes he has the best possible mentor in team president Phil Jackson, writes Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com. Jackson gambled the No. 4 pick on the 20-year-old Latvian and has offered a few coaching tips to help him along. Porzingis said Jackson “lets Coach [Derek] Fisher do all the work, but then he comes up to guys and tells little details about the offense, something maybe that all the other coaches didn’t see. Phil’s always there and he sees other things, and he’s very helpful for me. He’s always telling me little details and helping me with the game.”
There’s more news from the Atlantic Division:
- The Sixers need to do a better job of protecting Jahlil Okafor off the court, contends Jason Lloyd of The Akron Beacon Journal. The rookie center has already been part of two dangerous altercations, allegedly getting in a street fight in Boston on Thanksgiving and having a gun pointed at his head in Philadelphia in October. Lloyd notes that when LeBron James returned to Cleveland last year, the Cavaliers quickly increased their security staff, which is made up of former law enforcement officials who can accompany players when they go out at night. Lloyd encourages the Sixers to do the same.
- The Sixers have an abundance of young talent, but could use a stronger veteran presence, argues Moke Hamilton of Basketball Insiders. In a discussion of whether the franchise’s long-term plan is working, Hamilton said he likes the team’s youthful core, but worries that there are no veterans to teach good work habits and the ins and outs of being a pro. That need could be filled through free agency next summer, as Philadelphia has just $24.5MM committed for 2016/17. In the same piece, Ben Dowsett notes that the Sixers have 18 additional picks on top of their own in the drafts from 2016 through 2021.
- Tonight’s pre-game comments from Nets‘ coach Lionel Hollins show that he still won’t take responsibility for the poor state of the team, according to NetsDaily.com. “I don’t try to analyze everything,” Hollins said. “I see it and I know what it is. But what good does it do for me to stay up all night and analyze it and try to figure it out and try to make it different when we don’t have Kevin Durant and we don’t have [Russell] Westbrook, we don’t have LeBron James.”
Eastern Notes: Okafor, Johnson, Williams
Nets small forward Joe Johnson is struggling mightily with his shot, connecting on just 33.5% of his attempts, but the veteran is doing his best to contribute in other ways, writes Fred Kerber of The New York Post. “Just trying to do my job to the best of my ability, which I don’t think is necessarily about trying to score more,” Johnson said. “I think it’s all around, whatever it is to try to help this team win. We all have a role on this team and we have to play it to the best of our ability. I’m just trying to do my job. Some nights it’s pretty good, some nights it’s not so good.” Johnson is earning a whopping $24.895MM this season, and will become an unrestricted free agent next summer.
Here’s more from out of the East:
- Sixers rookie Jahlil Okafor expressed regret over the altercation he was involved in with a heckler while outside a Boston nightclub earlier this week, John Finger of CSNPhilly.com relays. “It was definitely dumb on my part and something I’m embarrassed about,” Okafor said. “We’re still dealing with the league and with the team, but I’m not happy about it at all. We’re going through the whole process of what we’re going to do.”
- Combo forward Derrick Williams has not had his number called regularly by Knicks coach Derek Fisher, and notes that he and the coach have not discussed his changing role, which is becoming a source of frustration, Marc Berman of The New York Post writes. “Yeah man, I feel that’s the reason I’m here, bring that spark off the bench,’’ Williams said. “You can’t control that. It’s up to the coaching staff. At the same time, it does get frustrating. I know I can help. But we have more games.’’
- The Cavaliers assigned Joe Harris to the Canton Charge, their D-League affiliate, the team announced. This will be Harris’ third sojourn of the season to the D-League, as our tracker shows.
2016/17 Salary Cap Projection: Brooklyn Nets
The NBA’s salary cap for 2015/16 has been set at $70MM, which is an 11% increase from last season, and the luxury tax line is fixed at $84.74MM. The last cap projection from the league prior to the official numbers being announced had been $67.1MM, and the projection for the tax line had been $81.6MM. Many league executives and agents believe that the salary cap will escalate to a whopping $95MM for 2016/17, a higher figure than the league’s last projection of $89MM. This significant bump is a result of the league’s new $24 billion TV deal that kicks in just in time for next season.
The increase in the salary cap will almost assuredly set off a flurry of activity in the free agent market next summer, and it will also make it easier than ever for teams to deal away their higher-priced stars. Prudent executives are acutely aware of exactly how much cap room they have to play with, not just for the current campaign, but for next season and beyond as well. While the exact amount of 2016/17’s salary cap won’t be announced until next summer, it always pays to know just how much salary is on the books for each franchise. With this in mind, we at Hoops Rumors will be breaking down the projected 2016/17 financial commitments for each franchise, and we’ll continue onward with a look at the Brooklyn Nets:
- Fully Guaranteed Salary Commitments: $50,549,334*
- Partially Guaranteed Salary Commitments: $500,000
- Non Guaranteed Salary Commitments: $5,800,000
- Total Projected Salary Cap Commitments: $56,849,334
*Note: This amount includes the player options for Shane Larkin ($1.5MM), Wayne Ellington ($1,567,500), Andrea Bargnani ($1,551,659) and Thomas Robinson ($1,050,961). It also includes the $5,474,787 due Deron Williams, who was waived via the stretch provision.
If the salary cap were to fall in line with the projection of $89MM, Brooklyn would have approximately $32,150,666 in cap space, or $38,150,666 if the cap were to be set at the higher mark of $95MM. Again, these are merely predictions until the exact cap amounts are announced, and they are not meant to illustrate the exact amount that the team will have available to spend this coming offseason.
Brooklyn will also need to make decisions regarding Willie Reed and Markel Brown, both of whom are eligible to become restricted free agents next summer. If the Nets wish to retain the right to match any offer sheets the two players were to receive, the team would need to submit qualifying offers to both, with Reed’s being worth $1,215,696 and $1,180,431 for Brown. This would increase the team’s projected cap commitments by a total of $2,396,127, though that number would merely be a place holder until the players either inked new deals or signed their qualifying offers, which would then set them up for unrestricted free agency the following offseason.
Trades and long-term free agent signings made during the season will also have a significant impact on the figures above, and we’ll be updating these posts to reflect the new numbers after any signings and trades have been made official.
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Declined Rookie Options Cast Players Into Limbo
It’s difficult to say any player move is likely until it’s imminent, but the notion that Sergey Karasev won’t be on the Nets for much longer isn’t far-fetched, even though Karasev denied reports that he wants Brooklyn to trade him. No such rumors have surfaced about P.J. Hairston and the Hornets or Solomon Hill and the Pacers, but neither is a strong bet to stick with his team. They were the only three players this fall with pending rookie scale options for 2016/17 whose teams declined to pick them up. There were four players last year whose 2015/16 options went unexercised, and none of the four is still with the team that declined the option. Three of them wound up changing teams before the end of last season.
All players with rookie scale options on their contracts are former first-round picks who carried significant promise at some point. Rookie scale option decisions are due a year in advance, and when those options are declined, it puts the team and the player in an awkward situation, since it signals that the team has essentially abandoned hope that the player will develop into a worthwhile contributor. The team can’t re-sign the player the following offseason to a starting salary greater than the value of the option, further limiting the chances of a continued relationship.
Here’s a look at what happened to each of the four players whose rookie scale team options were declined last year:
- Shane Larkin, Knicks — Larkin signed with the Nets this past summer on a two-year, $3MM deal. He’s scoring more points in fewer minutes per game this season, an improvement he attributes to no longer playing in the triangle offense.
- Nemanja Nedovic, Warriors — The partnership between Nedovic and Golden State didn’t last even two weeks after the Warriors declined his option, as the shooting guard asked for and received his release from the team in an early November 2014 buyout so that he could sign with an overseas team willing to give him more playing time. That turned out to be Valencia of Spain, which signed him shortly thereafter to a two-year deal. Still, Nedovic only saw 15.9 minutes per game for Valencia, and they parted ways last summer. Nedovic moved on to Spain’s Unicaja Malaga for this season, though he’s seen only 13.5 minutes per game there.
- Austin Rivers, Pelicans — New Orleans traded Rivers to the Celtics in January, and Boston relayed him to the Clippers three days later in another trade. The Clippers re-signed Rivers to a two-year deal worth nearly $6.455MM with a starting salary of precisely the amount of his declined option, which was the most they could pay him this season — $3,110,796.
- Thomas Robinson, Trail Blazers — The Blazers traded Robinson to the Nuggets at the deadline in the Arron Afflalo deal, and Denver waived Robinson shortly thereafter. He reportedly agreed to sign a 10-day deal with the Nets contingent upon him clearing waivers, but the Sixers swooped in and claimed him, foiling that plan. Still, that only delayed Robinson’s trek to Brooklyn, since he signed with the Nets over the offseason on a two-year, minimum-salary deal.
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Atlantic Notes: Lopez, Summers, Grant
While it may appear that Knicks coach Derek Fisher has begun to replace rookie Jerian Grant in the team’s rotation with Sasha Vujacic, the coach insists it is more about keeping the veteran ready rather than the coaching staff losing faith in the struggling Grant, Marc Berman of The New York Post writes. “I’m trying to give us a spark, see if he can make a shot or two, bring some energy and tenacity to the game,’’ Fisher said. “We’re going to need Sasha through the course of the season. It’s important not to have guys have a down vibe by sitting and watching too much. You got to get some action.’’
Fisher did acknowledge that teams have figured out how to defend Grant, who will need to figure out a way to counter the adjustments teams have made against him, Berman adds. “People watch us play, the same way we watch them play,” Fisher continued. “Some guys have made adjustments to how they’re defending him. He’ll learn how to still do what he does best in terms of getting penetration.’’
Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- The Raptors assigned rookie Delon Wright to the Raptors 905, their D-League affiliate, the team announced. This is Wright’s first D-League trip of the season.
- Nets center Brook Lopez was mentioned in numerous trade rumors connecting him to the Thunder last season. When asked what it would be like playing in Oklahoma City with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, Lopez said, “It would have been interesting. You can ask them about it tomorrow and report back to me,” Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com relays (ESPN Now link). The big man did note that he was happy in Brooklyn, Mazzeo adds.
- Knicks camp cut DaJuan Summers, who plays for the team’ D-League affiliate, has suffered an injury to his left Achilles tendon and will miss the remainder of the season, the Westchester Knicks announced (Twitter link). The 27-year-old appeared in three D-League contests this season and was averaging 25.3 points and 10.3 rebounds per game.
Atlantic Notes: Larkin, Sullinger, Brown
Shane Larkin spoke of his displeasure with the triangle offense this summer after leaving the Knicks to sign with the Nets, and he feels the results so far this season, in which he’s scored more points in fewer minutes per game than he did last year, prove his point, as Brian Lewis of the New York Post chronicles.
“Yeah, it’s a much better fit for me in a lot of ways,” Larkin said. “You can see my numbers have been better. I’m just playing better overall, because I’m more comfortable in a pick-and-roll system or an up-and-down system, doing different things rather than coming down and setting in the triangle.’’
Still, Brooklyn’s reserves have been one of the NBA’s least effective bench units statistically, Lewis points out. Sunday’s win over the Celtics, which also saw a strong contribution from fellow former Knick Andrea Bargnani, was an exception, as Lewis details. See more from the Atlantic Division:
- The best is yet to come for soon-to-be restricted free agent Jared Sullinger, Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge told Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com in a Q&A. Ainge criticized the fitness level that offseason trade acquisition David Lee had at the start of camp but praised Lee’s work since then, and the exec cited his team’s depth for its strong defensive play thus far, as Forsberg relays. Ainge also referred to coach Brad Stevens as “a keeper.” “Jared has played really well,” Ainge said to Forsberg. “I know what he’s capable of doing. I think Jared is still so young. I think that his best basketball is still ahead of him. But I do see a lot of great progress from Jared.”
- Sixers coach Brett Brown wishes he sometimes had more of a veteran presence on the team, but he accepts much of the responsibility that would usually fall to experienced players for himself, observes Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Carl Landry is the only Sixer with more than three years of service. “It’s on me,” said Brown, a former Spurs assistant. “I’m privileged to have seen five NBA [Finals] and won four of them. … I like sharing stories like that with my players.”
- The radical rebuilding plan the Sixers have undertaken comes with no guarantees and requires plenty of patience, but the team has largely controlled what it can as it’s stockpiled the assets necessary to pounce on a superstar when the opportunity arises, argues Derek Bodner of Philadelphia magazine. Still, it’s possible the team erred when it selected Jahlil Okafor instead of Kristaps Porzingis with the No. 3 overall pick, as Bodner examines.