Nets Sign Bojan Bogdanovic
The Nets have signed draft-and-stash prospect Bojan Bogdanovic, the team announced via press release. It’s a three-year, $10.1MM deal, a source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link), so it’s likely the team is signing him for the full value of the taxpayer’s mid-level exception. That’s the framework that Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.com outlined when it appeared, as Tim Bontemps of the New York Post reported, that the sides were close to a deal. Youngmisuk also said the deal would include a player option, though it’s not entirely clear if that’s indeed a part of the arrangement.
Bogdanovic has spent the past three seasons playing for Fenerbahce Ulker in Turkey after he became the 31st overall pick of the 2011 draft. The Nets acquired his rights on draft night, and struck a deal to sign him a year ago. Complications regarding his buyout from Fenerbahce caused that agreement to come apart, but this time, the Nets were able to make it official.
The 25-year-old Bogdanovic averaged 13.4 points and 35.0% three-point shooting this past season in Turkey. He’s not to be confused with Bogdan Bogdanovic, whom the Suns drafted 27th overall in June, and who signed with the same Turkish team earlier this month.
Atlantic Links: Nets, Lin, Williams, Celtics
Here’s this Saturday’s quick overview of all the latest chatter coming out of the NBA’s Atlantic Division:
- Daniel O’Leary of the New York Daily News thinks the Nets missed a perfect opportunity to strike a deal for the now-LA bound Jeremy Lin. O’Leary suggests it would have been keen of Brooklyn to craft a deal for Lin that would have dumped Deron Williams‘ lengthy and expensive contract in favor of Lin’s expiring pact.
- Lou Williams is excited to get a fresh start with the Raptors after an injury-riddled stint with the Hawks, as he tells Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun. Thanks to an ACL-tear, Williams played in just 99 games for Atlanta over the course of two seasons,
- Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com tracks all of the pieces from last year’s Celtics/Nets trade that send Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to Brooklyn in exchange for assets. Forsberg opines that although it’s been just one season since the deal, it isn’t too early to declare Boston the winner of the trade.
Cray Allred contributed to this post.
And-Ones: Draft, Jackson, J.R. Smith, Blair
The league office proposed a new lottery system for as soon as next season that would more evenly distribute the odds that non-playoff teams would have of ending up with the No. 1 overall pick, Grantland’s Zach Lowe reports. The proposal to the competition committee, which would cut the worst team’s chance from 25% to 11%, was the dominant subject of talk about lottery reform at league meetings this week, but it’s nonetheless one of many the NBA has considered, Lowe cautions. There’s more draft-related fodder among the latest from around the league:
- Chad Ford of ESPN.com unveiled his top 100 top prospects list and mock draft for 2015 in a pair of subscription-only pieces. His top three players are Jahlil Okafor, Emmanuel Mudiay, and Karl Towns, Jr. Mudiay’s recent decision to withdraw from college basketball and play overseas shouldn’t much affect his draft stock, according to Ford.
- Phil Jackson doubts that Jerry Buss, as has been reported, made the final decision to pass Jackson over to hire Mike D’Antoni as Lakers coach in 2012, as the Zen Master writes in an update to his latest book with Hugh Delehanty, as excerpted in the New York Daily News. Jackson also says that he spoke to the Nets, Raptors and Suns about jobs in the wake of Lakers’ choice.
- J.R. Smith appeared on ESPN’s First Take Thursday, telling the hosts that he wouldn’t blame the Knicks if they traded him (transcription via Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com). “No. Absolutely not,” Smith said. “The way I was playing, I was playing like a person who didn’t want to be there. Not looking as focused as a person should be in that situation that we were, in the trenches. I wouldn’t blame them at all.”
- DeJuan Blair went into Washington’s $2,016,000 trade exception left over from when the team traded Eric Maynor at the deadline, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. Previous reports had indicated that the Wizards would absorb Blair into their new $8,579,089 trade exception created through Trevor Ariza‘s sign-and-trade to Houston, but it appears the team will instead preserve that exception. Just how much of the Maynor exception Blair will take up remains to be seen, since the precise amount of Blair first-year salary has yet to be reported.
Cray Allred contributed to this post.
Nets Re-Sign Alan Anderson
WEDNESDAY, 4:37pm: Anderson’s deal is official, the team announced via press release.
“Alan’s versatility was a big part of our success last season,” Nets GM Billy King said. “We look forward to Alan’s continued leadership on and off the court this season.”
TUESDAY, 6:30pm: The exact terms of the deal are two-years, $2.6MM, with a player option for 2015/16, tweets Michael Scotto of Sheridan Hoops. Those figures suggest the team is using its Non-Bird rights on Anderson, preserving its taxpayer’s mid-level exception for Bojan Bogdanovic.
5:58 pm: The Nets have reached an agreement to re-sign swingman Alan Anderson. The news was first announced by Anderson’s agent, Mark Bartlestein and his Priority Sports Agency (hat tip to Tim Bontemps of The New York Post). The deal is worth a little less than $3MM over two years, and the second year is a player option, tweets Bontemps.
Anderson started a career-high 26 games this past season and averaged 7.2 PPG, 2.2 RPG, and 1.0 APG in 22.7 minutes per contest.His slash line was .400/.339/.780.
The 31 year-old signed a two-year deal with Brooklyn as a free agent last summer, coming over from the Raptors where he appeared in 65 games and scored a career-high 10.7 PPG, but with a shooting percentage of just 38.3%. Anderson chose to opt out of the second year of his deal with the Nets with the hopes of scoring a raise over the $1.06MM he was originally scheduled to make.
Pacific Rumors: Warriors, Lakers, Clippers, Pierce
The Warriors have been closely linked to Kevin Love trade talk for several weeks, but Golden State GM Bob Myers doesn’t think his team needs a drastic upgrade, as he told Bob Fitzgerald Monday on KNBR radio. Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group has the transcription.
“What I think people often do and maybe sometimes make the mistake doing is pull the trigger quickly on your roster without giving it time to develop,” Myers said. “And we think we’ve got a lot of youth, and we do think we’ve got a higher ceiling than 51 [wins last season]. We like our roster. Obviously if you’re not good enough, you’ve got to make changes, but we think we’re good.”
Here’s more from the Pacific Division:
- Perceived Lakers coaching front-runner Byron Scott has already interviewed for the job three times, but he’d likely need to go through another interview before he could be named coach, a source tells Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com. GM Mitch Kupchak said in an appearance Monday on NBA TV that he believes the team will make a hire in the next couple of weeks, as McMenamin notes.
- Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers believes the franchise’s muddied ownership situation is taking its toll during free agency, as Sean Deveney of The Sporting News details. “It has hurt us some this summer,” Rivers said. “You go in to talk to a free agent and most guys, teams will bring their owner. I go in, looking like this, by myself. I don’t know what effect that has had but that’s not been great for us.”
- The Clippers fell short in their pursuit of a sign-and-trade for Paul Pierce, and while previous reports indicated that the Nets had no interest, Brooklyn would have been on board if a third team were involved to absorb players from the Clippers, tweets Chris Mannix of SI.com.
- Darren Collison indeed received slightly less than the $5.305MM mid-level exception from the Kings, and his salary will be $4,797,664 for the coming season, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.
Eastern Notes: 76ers, KG, Knicks, Pacers
The 76ers are wise to try and emulate the Spurs, writes Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Like the Spurs, the Sixers are putting emphasis on continuity, as evidenced by their commitment to reigning Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams amidst trade speculation. Of course, they also have a Gregg Popovich disciple in coach Brett Brown. Here’s tonight’s look at the Eastern Conference..
- Despite the loss of Paul Pierce, Chris Broussard of ESPN.com (on Twitter) hears that Kevin Garnett likes the direction of the Nets and is “excited” about joining them for the upcoming season. That would indicate that Garnett, who is under contract for $12MM this season, won’t be retiring. That jibes with a report from Tim Bontemps of the New York Post earlier today.
- Knicks president Phil Jackson indicated to reporters today that he won’t be spending much more this summer after re-signing Carmelo Anthony, writes Al Iannazzone of Newsday.
- Despite all of his idiosyncrasies, Paul George believes the Pacers will be a stronger title contender with Lance Stephenson back in the fold, writes Michael Marot of The Associated Press. “It’s all on Lance’s plate,” George said. “I didn’t have to deal with this because I was a restricted free agent. It’s really up to Lance, but I will say I do want him to come back.”
Nets Close To Deal With Bojan Bogdanovic
SUNDAY, 9:54am: Sources say that the Nets intend to sign Bogdanovic sometime this coming week, tweets Youngmisuk, who also notes that the departure of Paul Pierce could open up minutes for Bogdanovic and Sergey Karasev.
TUESDAY, 9:03am: The Nets are almost certain to sign draft-and-stash prospect Bojan Bogdanovic, writes Tim Bontemps of the New York Post. A source told Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPNNewYork.com that the 25-year-old forward would agree to an three-year arrangement for the taxpayer’s mid-level exception, with a player option in the final season (Twitter link), a framework that Bontemps pointed to earlier. Such a deal would be worth $3.278MM this year and total nearly $10.277MM over the three seasons.
The 6’6″ Bogdanovic and the Nets agreed to a deal for slightly less last season, but his buyout from Turkey’s Fenerbahce Ulker caused the pact to unravel, and he remained overseas. The former 31st overall pick’s production was down in most categories this past season, as he averaged 13.4 points and 35.0% three-point shooting after putting up 14.3 PPG and 38.7% three-point shooting in 2012/13. Still, his assists per game went from 1.7 to 2.2, indicating that he took on a larger role as a facilitator.
The Nets seemed to originally have their mid-level earmarked for Shaun Livingston, but with his departure for the Warriors, it looks like Bogdanovic has emerged as the club’s next biggest target. Once the mid-level’s gone, the Nets will only have the minimum salary to use on free agents from other teams, so it appears as though much will be riding on Bogdanovic’s ability to contribute next season. Bogdanovic is not to be confused with Bogdan Bogdanovic, whom the Suns drafted 27th overall last month.
Eastern Notes: Boozer, Garnett, Bradley
With the reported agreement to sign Pau Gasol and the potential stateside arrival of their 2011 draft pick Nikola Mirotic, the Bulls will likely amnesty Carlos Boozer, writes K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. Chicago has until the July 16th amnesty deadline to decide on Boozer’s fate. Johnson also notes that the team is still in talks to re-sign veteran point guard Kirk Hinrich.
More from the east:
- Paul Pierce‘s agreement to sign with the Wizards won’t affect Kevin Garnett‘s decision on whether or not to return for his 20th season, and the Nets are expecting Garnett to play for them next year, tweets Tim Bontemps of The New York Post.
- With the Nets trying to cut back on payroll, it would be surprising to see the franchise release Marquis Teague, tweets Bontemps. Teague’s salary of $1,120,920 for next season is fully guaranteed, and the Nets have a team option of $2,023,261 for the 2015/16 season.
- Avery Bradley‘s four-year, $32MM deal with the Celtics is expected to be finalized shortly, reports Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe (Twitter link).
And-Ones: LeBron, Novak, Hibbert, Butler
The Heat and Cavs expect LeBron James to make his decision on where to sign before he gets on his flight to Brazil this weekend, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. It’s likely that any decision James makes will impact where Chris Bosh, Kevin Love, and Chandler Parsons find themselves next season as well. While much is seemingly tied to the four-time MVP’s choice, odds are low anything is decided tonight. Let’s catch up on the rest of the league while we wait on LeBron and the 2014 edition of “The Decision”:
- The Raptors are finalizing a buyout with Lucas Nogueira‘s team in Spain, writes Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca (on Twitter). We had heard earlier this week that Toronto was likely to bring over Nogueira and Bruno Caboclo prior to the start of 2014/15.
- The $9.8MM trade exception that the Warriors had created from the Richard Jefferson deal with the Jazz expired tonight, as David Aldridge of NBA.com observes (via Twitter).
- The Steve Novak trade, which became official today, allows the Raptors to create a $3,445,947 trade exception equivalent to Novak’s salary. The three-teamer between the Nets, Cavs and Celtics that was also formalized today allows the Nets to create a diminutive $741,160 trade exception equal to the difference between Marcus Thornton’s salary and the sum of the salaries for Jarrett Jack and Sergey Karasev. The Cavs could end up with trade exceptions out of the deal, too, but they’re poised to open cap room, so those exceptions would disappear when they officially dip below the cap.
- The Bucks and Pacers have had discussions for a trade including Roy Hibbert, writes Gery Woefel of the Racine Journal Times. Milwaukee is interested in acquiring Hibbert, says Woelfel, but it isn’t clear if Indiana is interested in any packages the Bucks could put together.
- Nikola Vucevic and Tobias Harris‘ rookie deals expire after 2014/15, and as a result, the duo became extension eligible this summer. Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel hears discussions about new contracts between the Magic and the young big men will pick up some time around Labor Day.
- Caron Butler is being pursued by the Clippers and Thunder, tweets Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated. Butler, of course, has spent time with both organizations.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Free Agent Rumors: ‘Melo, LeBron, Morrow, Blake
Phil Jackson might be expecting Carmelo Anthony to rejoin the Knicks, but ‘Melo hasn’t ruled out the Bulls just quite yet, tweets Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. Meanwhile, the Heat expected to have had an answer from LeBron James by this point, according to Bleacher Report’s Ethan Skolnick. James was frustrated with some of coach Erik Spoelstra‘s strategy during the Finals this year and wasn’t impressed with team president Pat Riley‘s end-of-season press conference last month, Skolnick adds.
While the NBA world waits on the decisions of superstars like Anthony and James, let’s round up the latest from free agents all around the league..
- Anthony Morrow has received interest from several teams, but it appears he’s deciding between joining the Clippers, Heat, Wizards, Raptors and Suns, reports David Aldridge of NBA.com, who adds that each of the teams Morrow is considering would be willing to use some or all of their mid-level exception to sign him (Twitter links). Given that the Clippers and Heat have both used up the full amount of their mid-level exceptions, signing Morrow would likely require a sign-and-trade to complete.
- The Warriors took “another” look at DJ White today, notes Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group (on Twitter), thereby implying it’s at least the second time Golden State has looked at the big man. White had his rights renounced by Charlotte earlier today.
- Other teams submitted much stronger bids for Steve Blake but he “desperately” wanted to play for the Blazers, as he agreed to do today, a source tells Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com (Twitter link). The Lakers weren’t among the teams making an aggressive play for the point guard, as they offered only the minimum salary, tweets Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times hears.
- The Jazz, Pelicans, Rockets, and Nets are interested in Francisco Garcia, a source tells Haynes (Twitter link).
- The Wolves are making an effort to sign Evan Turner to one-year deal, a source tells tells Darren Wolfson of 1500ESPN.com. Turner played poorly last season after being shipped to Indiana at the trade deadline.
- The matter of whether Mike Miller will re-sign with the Grizzlies will likely come down to contract length rather than salary, according to Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal, who writes in subscription-only piece. Memphis wants him back on a two-year deal, but Miller is pushing for three or four seasons.
- Rockets GM Daryl Morey has been in contact with Paul Pierce‘s representatives at Excel Sports Management, but it’s unlikely the veteran forward ends up in Houston, tweets Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle.
Alex Lee and Chuck Myron contributed to this post.