Atlantic Notes: Prokhorov, Sixers, Friisdahl
Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov is close to acquiring majority control of the Nassau Coliseum, sources have informed Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The plan is for Brooklyn’s future D-League team to eventually be situated at the refurbished arena, Mazzeo notes. The Nets hope their future D-League team begins play in time for the 2016/17 campaign, but for now they are one of the 11 NBA teams without an affiliate to call their own this season.
Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- It’s difficult to know for sure, given GM Sam Hinkie‘s unpredictability, but the pairing of No. 3 overall pick Jahlil Okafor with Nerlens Noel appears to give the Sixers a glimpse at what their team will look like in the future, writes Sean Deveney of The Sporting News.
- Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, the Raptors‘ parent company, went in a different direction with their hire of Michael Friisdahl as the new president and CEO, Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca writes. “Quite frankly they [MLSE] looked at it in totality and said what we need is an overall executive to lead the whole organization,” said Friisdahl. “And then we’re going to rely on the very strong leadership in each of the sports organizations and have them focus on that. You will not see me heavily involved in any kind of sports decisions, which is fairly obvious from my background.”
- Knicks coach Derek Fisher, speaking about the draft day trade of Tim Hardaway Jr. to the Hawks in return for the draft rights to Jerian Grant, said that Grant has more skills as a guard than Hardaway, which is why the deal was made, Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv tweets.
- Point guard Scottie Wilbekin, who was waived by the Sixers on Monday, has signed a two-year, $780K deal with the Turkish club Darussafaka, international journalist David Pick reports (Twitter links). The contract does include an NBA out clause, Pick adds.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Atlantic Notes: Celtics, Carroll, Nets, Railey
Draft picks, cap space, and “Trader Danny” Ainge, the team’s president of basketball operations, leave the Celtics in fine shape as they seek to add marquee players, co-owner Wyc Grousbeck believes, as he explained Wednesday in a radio appearance on the Felger & Mazz show on 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston. Jimmy Toscano of CSNNE.com has the details and transcription that shows Grousbeck defending the team’s approach to rebuilding and indicating that a major free agent run isn’t the team’s preferred path.
“Free agency is the last choice and it’s when you haven’t made a trade that locks up your cap, or you haven’t developed guys enough who then are max guys to re-sign them,” Grousbeck said. “We’re not saving for free agents. It’s not like we’re saying no to expensive people. We brought in [David] Lee and [Amir] Johnson but on one year. We’re going to take a look at those guys. Two good players. We have the option to probably re-sign them next summer. We can extend some of the guys on the roster or we can make a trade in February and take on a bunch of money. So all those things. At the end of it all if there’s free agency dollars left then you can go the free agency route.”
See more from the Atlantic Division:
- DeMarre Carroll took a hard fall in Toronto’s opener Wednesday, but it turned out just to be a bruised elbow, and his ability to shrug off that and play his usual hard-nosed defense underscored why the Raptors signed him to a four-year, $58MM deal, DeMar DeRozan said, notes Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca.
- The playoffs are still the goal for the Nets, GM Billy King told reporters this week, but he acknowledged that the team still must develop its young players, as The Record’s Andy Vasquez relays. Brooklyn owes its unprotected first-round pick to the Celtics this year.
- The contract that Jordan Railey was briefly on with the Sixers was a non-guaranteed deal for one year at the minimum, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. Philadelphia announced Monday that it had signed and quickly waived the former Washington State center for the purpose of securing his D-League rights. The Sixers incurred a small cap hit for doing so, since the deal came after Saturday’s deadline for teams to remove non-guaranteed salary without it counting against the cap.
2015/16 Salary Cap: Brooklyn Nets
The NBA’s salary cap for 2015/16 has been set at $70MM, which is an 11% increase from this past season, and the luxury tax line will be $84.74MM. The last cap projection from the league had been $67.1MM, and the projection for the tax line had been $81.6MM.
With the October 26th cutoff date to set regular season rosters now past, we at Hoops Rumors are in the process of running down the current salary cap commitments for each NBA franchise for the 2015/16 campaign. Here’s the cap breakdown for the Brooklyn Nets, whose regular season roster can be viewed here:
- 2015/16 Salary Cap= $70,000,000
- 2015/16 Luxury Tax Line= $84,740,000
- Fully Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $82,232,255*
- Partially Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $202,580**
- Non-Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $3,136,887
- Total Salary Cap Commitments= $83,332,111
- Remaining Cap Room= -$13,332,111
- Amount Below Luxury Tax Line= $1,407,889
*Note: This amount includes the $5,474,487 owed to Deron Williams, who was waived via the stretch provision.
**Note: This amount includes the $75K owed to Ryan Boatright and the $50K owed to Quincy Miller, who were waived, as well as the $17,638 paid to Dahntay Jones, and the $9,942 paid to Justin Harper, both of whom were waived after earning two days salary.
Cap Exceptions Available:
- Non-Taxpayer’s Mid-Level Exception= $2,464,000
Cash Available to Send Out In Trades= $3,400,000
Cash Available to Receive Via Trade= $3,400,000
Last update: 10/28/15 @9:35pm
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Atlantic Notes: Jackson, Joseph, Nets
Talk about a scenario in which Knicks team president Phil Jackson would return to work for the Lakers and fiancee Jeanie Buss has resurfaced in NBA circles over recent weeks, according to Frank Isola of the New York Daily News. Jackson can reportedly opt out of his five-year deal with the Knicks after this season, Isola notes. Speculation emerged earlier this year that Jackson won’t finish out his contract, though he said in June that he wanted to stay around long enough to help the Knicks turn around their fortunes. While we wait to see what the Zen Master does, see more from around the Atlantic Division:
- Raptors offseason signee Cory Joseph is planning to play a role for Toronto that’s similar in some ways to the one his former Spurs teammate Manu Ginobili has long embodied for San Antonio, as Sportsnet’s Donnovan Bennett details. “There was no big exchange when that first and second group switched off the court because of him,” Joseph said of Ginobili. “That’s what I want to do here. I want to bring energy with that second unit and uplift because that’s what we are going to need. Manu brought energy, but also a sense of calmness to the second group and managed time and score.”
- Nets GM Billy King didn’t factor Andrea Bargnani‘s long history of injuries into his decision about whom to keep for the opening night roster, observes Tim Bontemps of the New York Post (Twitter links). Bargnani is healthy for now, as is shooting guard Markel Brown, so King didn’t feel the need to keep power forward Justin Harper and swingman Dahntay Jones, whom the Nets waived, as Bontemps explains.
- Fellow Nets power forward Willie Reed‘s partial guarantee of $500K increased to a fully guaranteed $947,276 when he stuck on the Nets roster for opening night, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders notes (Twitter link) and as our leaguewide schedule of salary guarantee dates shows. Reed is about two weeks into a six-to-eight-week timetable for recovery from thumb surgery.
And-Ones: Paul, Agent Changes, Leonard
Chris Paul rejects the notion that he’s a poor teammate, an idea that rumors of a rift between Paul and DeAndre Jordan helped fuel this summer, writes Dan Woike of the Orange County Register. Jordan has downplayed any tension, citing a mutual desire to win, and that’s just what Paul is thinking about as he envisions playing the rest of his career with the Clippers, as Woike details.
“Hell, I never imagined I’d leave New Orleans, but there’s no question this is where I want to be,” Paul said to Woike. “I want to win. Here.”
The earliest Paul can elect free agency is the summer of 2017. See more from around the NBA:
- Agent Michael Tellem, the son of former agent turned Pistons organization executive Arn Tellem, is leaving the Wasserman Media Group for the Creative Artists Agency and taking high-profile client Danilo Gallinari with him, reports international journalist David Pick (Twitter link). Mario Hezonja, Bojan Bogdanovic and Nemanja Bjelica have dropped Tellem and will continue with Wasserman, Pick adds (on Twitter). The loss of Arn Tellem has proven tough for Wasserman, which also lost Al Horford, LaMarcus Aldridge and Joe Johnson over the offseason. Gallinari, Hezonja and Bjelica all signed new deals earlier this summer, while Bogdanovic remains on a deal with the Nets that runs through 2016/17.
- Extension talks between the Trail Blazers and Meyers Leonard are off to a late start, but Leonard’s preference is to stay in Portland, observes Joe Freeman of The Oregonian. The deadline for the sides to reach a deal is Monday. “I really, really like and love this city,” Leonard said. “I love the organization and now that a greater opportunity has presented itself, I think a lot more people are embracing me. I’d love to be here. That’s my hope. But I don’t know if I’ll get an extension. I don’t know what will happen after this year. We’ll have to wait and see.”
- Al Harrington said in March that he was retiring, but instead the 16-year NBA veteran is joining the Sydney Kings of Australia on a four-week deal, league sources told Olgun Uluc of Fox Sports Australia.
Central Notes: Lopez, Pistons, Bulls, Petteway
Bucks coach Jason Kidd confirmed reports that the team had interest in Robin Lopez and Brook Lopez in free agency this summer, notes Marc Berman of the New York Post. Neither ended up in Milwaukee, with Robin going to the Knicks and Brook re-signing with the Nets, though the Bucks did well enough, landing Greg Monroe.
“We liked both of those guys,’’ Kidd said. “They both do something and they’re very productive. I think both teams got maybe the guy they wanted. Looking at the Lopezes, I’ve coached one of them and recruited another. They’ve always played the game the right way. The Knicks ended up with [Robin] Lopez, which is a good pickup for them.”
See more from the Central Division:
- The Pistons have no shortage of players with contractual motivation to prove their worth this season, making “the disease of more” and the potential for selfishness a concern in Detroit, as Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press details.
- Other Eastern Conference teams improved their rosters in the offseason, but short of adding Bobby Portis and Cristiano Felicio, the Bulls stood pat, making it fair to wonder about Chicago’s apparent determination that the most pressing need for change was at head coach, opines David Haugh of the Chicago Tribune.
- The contract that Terran Petteway was briefly on with the Pacers was non-guaranteed for the minimum salary and covered one season, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). Indiana absorbed a small cap hit for signing him after Saturday’s deadline to remove non-guaranteed salary without it counting against the cap. The Pacers inked Petteway on Sunday and waived him on Monday to secure his D-League rights.
Atlantic Notes: Nets, Wilbekin, Stackhouse
Count GM Billy King among those curious to see how the retooled Nets roster will fare this season, writes Andy Vasquez of NorthJersey.com. “We know we’re not a finished product at this point, and the goal is to get better,” King said. “We’ve revamped, got some youth, and now I want to see how we play, see how some of the pieces we acquired fit, how they go. We’ve got some young guys and it’s going to take time. They have to play and they’re going to make mistakes and we’ve got to live with them because the only way we’re going to get better is applying it on the court. We have the ability to get better as a team because we do have some inexperience with some guys. But we need our main guys, our veteran guys to carry us, to do their part to allow the young guys to sort of blend in and help.”
Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- Point guard Scottie Wilbekin, who was waived by the Sixers on Monday, has lucrative overseas offers lined up, Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer relays.
- Despite being a rookie assistant coach this season, Jerry Stackhouse is fitting in well with the Raptors and notes that he doesn’t feel like a newcomer to the coaching ranks, writes Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca. “Man, it’s nothing new to me,” Stackhouse told Lewenberg. “I’ve been coaching for the last 10 years and I don’t feel any different. It’s just about trying to get guys better, better prepared for what they’re going to see during game action. The best way to do that is to build more repetition, more repetition. And that’s the key, being creative to come up with ideas everyday so things don’t get stagnant and guys [don’t] get bored.“
- Coby Karl and Derrick Alston were officially hired by the Knicks‘ D-League affiliate in Westchester as assistant coaches, the team announced.
- You can view the opening night regular season rosters for the Celtics, Nets, Knicks, Sixers, and Raptors by clicking on the link beneath each team name.
Knicks, Nets Lead East In Newcomers
The Knicks and Nets might not have made any particularly splashy acquisitions, but they certainly engineered their share of changes. The two New York teams lead the Eastern Conference with eight newcomers apiece for the 2015/16 season, meaning that the majority of the players on their respective rosters weren’t there at the end of 2014/15. Some will be familiar to fans in the Big Apple, as the Nets signed Andrea Bargnani and Shane Larkin away from the Knicks. Still, both teams in the NBA’s largest market will feature decidedly different-looking teams as the season begins.
By contrast, the roster in the East’s second largest market is nearly intact from the end of last season. Rookies Bobby Portis and Cristiano Felicio are the only players who weren’t around for the team’s playoff exit last spring, though new coach Fred Hoiberg will bring a fresh approach.
See the newcomers in the Eastern Conference and how the teams stack up in terms of roster turnover:
Knicks (8) — Arron Afflalo, Jerian Grant, Robin Lopez, Kyle O’Quinn, Kristaps Porzingis, Kevin Seraphin, Sasha Vujacic, Derrick Williams.
Nets (8) — Andrea Bargnani, Wayne Ellington, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Shane Larkin, Chris McCullough, Willie Reed, Thomas Robinson, Donald Sloan.
Hornets (7) — Nicolas Batum, Tyler Hansbrough, Aaron Harrison, Spencer Hawes, Frank Kaminsky, Jeremy Lamb, Jeremy Lin.
Pistons (7) — Aron Baynes, Steve Blake, Reggie Bullock, Darrun Hilliard, Ersan Ilyasova, Stanley Johnson, Marcus Morris.
Pacers (7) — Chase Budinger, Rakeem Christmas, Monta Ellis, Jordan Hill, Glenn Robinson III, Myles Turner, Joe Young.
Raptors (7) — Anthony Bennett, Bismack Biyombo, DeMarre Carroll, Cory Joseph, Norman Powell, Luis Scola, Delon Wright.
Sixers (7) Richaun Holmes, Carl Landry, Kendall Marshall, T.J. McConnell, Jahlil Okafor, Nik Stauskas, Christian Wood.
Celtics (5) — R.J. Hunter, Amir Johnson, David Lee, Jordan Mickey, Terry Rozier.
Hawks (5) — Tim Hardaway Jr., Justin Holiday, Lamar Patterson, Tiago Splitter, Edy Tavares.
Bucks (4) — Chris Copeland, Greg Monroe, Greivis Vasquez, Rashad Vaughn.
Cavaliers (4) — Jared Cunningham, Richard Jefferson, Sasha Kaun, Mo Williams.
Heat (4) — Gerald Green, Josh Richardson, Amar’e Stoudemire, Justise Winslow.
Magic (4) — Mario Hezonja, Shabazz Napier, Jason Smith, C.J. Watson.
Wizards (4) — Alan Anderson, Jared Dudley, Gary Neal, Kelly Oubre.
Bulls (2) — Cristiano Felicio, Bobby Portis.
Atlantic Notes: Raptors, ‘Melo, Ndour, Nets
The Raptors made a concerted effort to upgrade their defense during the offseason, though the offense is now showing holes, as Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun details. In any case, new free agent arrival DeMarre Carroll believes the Raptors can indeed show the sort of defensive improvement this season that the franchise was going for, as Ganter relays.
“A lot of guys aren’t capable of playing defense,” Carroll said. “Sometimes you’re a guy that just can’t play defense. They just don’t have the effort to play defence. All of these guys are capable of playing defense. Kyle Lowry, I think he’s a great defender. He’s underrated. Just bringing me in and bringing more guys in like Bismack [Biyombo] and Cory [Joseph], we can kind of help guys. We can kind of feed off them, and they can feed off us.”
See more from the Atlantic Division:
- Carmelo Anthony admits in no uncertain terms that living in New York comes with some degree of frustration, as a Vice Sports video makes clear (objectionable language warning), but ‘Melo isn’t backing away from his enthusiasm about the Knicks, notes Marc Berman of the New York Post.
- The Knicks aren’t expected to reunite with summer-leaguer Maurice Ndour, even though they have an open roster spot and Ndour is on waivers from the Mavs, Berman writes in the same story. New York reportedly tried to convince Ndour to break his deal with Dallas this summer. In any case, New York is ineligible to claim Ndour off waivers, since his Mavs deal was for three years and the Knicks can’t claim anyone on more than a two-year contract.
- The YES Network and the Nets reached a new local television rights deal, the team announced. The agreement, which will kick in for the 2017/18 season, will give the team “substantially more” than $40MM a year and repair a revenue stream that lagged far behind local TV deals for other large-market teams, reports NetsDaily. The deal carries well into the 2020s, NetsDaily adds.
- The Nets allowed a trade exception worth $1,120,920 to expire when they failed to use it by the end of Saturday, notes Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). It was a vestige of the deal that sent Marquis Teague to the Sixers.
Nets Waive Dahntay Jones, Justin Harper
The Nets have waived Justin Harper and Dahntay Jones, the team announced via press release. The moves take Brooklyn to the 15-man regular season roster maximum. Neither had any guaranteed money. Their subtractions appear to indicate that Donald Sloan and Willie Reed have made the opening night roster on their partially guaranteed salaries. The other 13 Nets have full guarantees.
Jones, 34, was attempting to make the Nets after averaging less than a point in 3.7 minutes per game for the Clippers last season. That’s the only regular season NBA action the former 20th overall pick has seen since 2012/13. He performed relatively well for the Nets during the preseason this month, notching 7.5 points in 24.5 minutes per game over four appearances, but it wasn’t enough to secure his place on the roster.
Harper joined the Nets after having been out of the NBA since 2012. The 26-year-old former 32nd overall pick averaged 9.0 points and 4.7 rebounds in 19.1 minutes per game over six preseason contests, including one start.
Sloan’s place on the roster has appeared safe since the Nets waived Ryan Boatright last week, leaving them with only two other point guards aside from Sloan. Reed is likely out until at least the start of December with a right thumb injury, but it appears his $500K partial guarantee played a key role in helping him stick on the roster. The team is out two days’ worth of salary to Jones and Harper, though much of that is offset by their training camp compensation, as former Nets executive Bobby Marks explained (All Twitter links).