Free Agency Notes: Deng, Augustin, Mavs
The Pacers organization is presenting a united in front in their attempts to convince Lance Stephenson to re-sign with Indiana, reports Michael Marot of The Associated Press. Indy brass, coaches, and players are hopeful they can challenge again in the East with Stephenson back aboard now that LeBron James has fled Miami. Here are more of the night’s free agency rumblings:
- The Suns are now trying to break into the Luol Deng sweepstakes, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com.
- Both the Hornets and Mavs are interested in free agent point guard D.J. Augustin, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.
- The Mavs have also shown interest in Mo Williams and Mike Miller in their ongoing attempts to recover three-point shooting now that Jose Calderon and Vince Carter are gone, reports Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News.
- The Mavs are likely to re-sign backup center Bernard James, a source tells Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com.
- MacMahon tweets that Dallas’ acquisition of Greg Smith indicates the team has moved on from DeJuan Blair, who is presumably after a more lucrative deal than the minimum contract the Mavs were willing to offer.
Eastern Rumors: Knicks, Miller, Deng, Ariza
With Carmelo Anthony set to re-sign with the Knicks, New York can now focus on setting up a supporting cast to play alongside him. One name they’re interested in re-signing is Toure’ Murry, tweets Chris Herring of the Wall Street Journal. Here’s more from around the East:
- Phil Jackson is said to be willing to include Iman Shumpert as part of a deal to dump the contracts of Amar’e Stoudemire, Andrea Bargnani, or J.R. Smith, writes Sean Deveney of The Sporting News.
- There is a gap between what the Cavs can offer and what Mike Miller is seeking, but not enough to end their talks, tweets Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today.
- In contrast to an earlier report of the Hornets interest in Lance Stephenson, Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer tweets that Charlotte has shown no such signs.
- The Heat are now open to bringing free agent Mario Chalmers back at the right price, writes Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinal. Miami drafted point guard Shabazz Napier, and was reportedly looking to sign-and-trade Chalmers before LeBron James elected to take his talents away from South Beach.
- The Hawks have re-engaged talks with Luol Deng, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. We heard earlier that the two sides had reached an impasse on salary for the veteran small forward.
- Kent Bazemore was in contract discussions with the Lakers when he agreed to join the Hawks, but Atlanta’s urgency precluded Los Angeles from re-signing the guard on their time table, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com.
- Trevor Ariza received the same offer from the Wizards as he agreed to with the Rockets, but the difference in taxes between Washington and Houston will save him approximately $3MM, tweets Michael Lee of The Washington Post.
- Ariza asked for an annual salary of $10MM to stay with the Wizards, sources tell J. Michael of CSNWashington.com. Michael says that Washington declined to meet Ariza’s demands in order to maintain cap space in 2016, when Kevin Durant will become a free agent.
Charlie Adams contributed to this post.
Southeast Rumors: Stephenson, Deng, Wade
Lance Stephenson will be targeted by multiple teams in the coming days, reports Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. The Hornets had their offer sheet for Gordon Hayward matched by the Jazz, and a league source tells Deveney that Charlotte’s secondary plans of upgrading their roster will bring a Stephenson pursuit to the forefront of the free agency landscape. Here’s more out of the Southeast..
- The Heat are making progress in their pursuit of Luol Deng, writes Marc Stein of ESPN.com (on Twitter). Deng doesn’t have an offer from Miami yet but expects to talk with the team today, tweets Sam Amick of USA Today.
- Meanwhile, the Hawks, who were rumored to have interest in Deng, likely won’t be making a deal with the small forward, since the two sides are a ways apart on the dollar amount of a potential contract, reveals Amick (on Twitter)
- Both Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem are negotiating the length and salary of deals to return to the Heat, tweets Ethan J. Skolnick of Bleacher Report. The pair are expected to remain in Miami on multi-year contracts after opting out to restructure around LeBron James, who left for Cleveland.
- The Hornets pursuit of Marvin Williams was put on hold while Charlotte waited for the Jazz to officially match their offer sheet for Hayward, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Presumably, those negotiations will resume now that Utah has matched the Hayward deal.
Cray Allred contributed to this post.
Jazz Match Gordon Hayward Offer Sheet
The Jazz have matched the Hornets maximum-salary offer sheet to Gordon Hayward, league sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter links). Hayward will sign with Utah today. The move was expected, as the Jazz had been planning to match any offer the restricted free agent would receive on the market.
Hayward will receive a total of $62,965,420 over the course of the deal, with a starting salary of $14.746MM. It’s the most that Charlotte or any team other than the Jazz could have given him in an offer sheet. He was eligible for as much as $84,789,500 over five seasons if he’d signed directly with Utah, which helps explain why the Jazz all along seemed content to let him negotiate with other teams, only to swoop in and match.
The 24-year-old secured the max offer from Charlotte amid interest from several teams. The Jazz were unable to sign Hayward to a rookie-scale extension last fall, which put in motion the process leading to him becoming a max player this offseason. Utah offered significantly less during extension negotiations, so Hayward’s choice to decline their offer and hit free agency has paid off for the small forward.
The Priority Sports & Entertainment client will look to lead an improved youth movement in Utah alongside new addition Dante Exum, whom the Jazz selected with the No. 5 pick in this year’s draft. Hayward turned in career-best averages in points, steals, assists, and rebounds per game in the 2013/14 season, but did so in the most inefficient year of his career on a Jazz team that struggled in only winning 25 games.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Eastern Notes: Hairston, Bazemore, Heat
First-round draft pick P.J. Hairston told Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer that he had no idea his agent, Juan Morrow, wasn’t union-certified, as Kami Mattioli of The Sporting News reported Thursday. It’s unclear if the Hornets, who acquired Hairston in a draft-night trade with the Heat, engaged in negotiations with Morrow, but they’d be subject to a $50K fine if they did, as Mattioli notes.
More from out of the east:
- The Cavaliers pursuit of free agents Ray Allen and Mike Miller has intensified over the last few hours, reports Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio (Twitter link).
- Miller has a serious interest in joining the Cavaliers, reports Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today (Twitter link).
- The Bulls and Hornets are in pursuit of Kirk Hinrich, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link).
- The Heat are engaged in discussions with free agents Trevor Ariza and Luol Deng for their job opening at small forward, tweets Wojnarowski.
- Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders tweets that the Hawks and the Hornets are showing serious interest in Kent Bazemore.
- There is a strong market for Heat free agent Chris Andersen, but he remains “very loyal” to the Miami organization, and hasn’t made a decision about where he’ll sign, reports David Aldridge of NBA.com (Twitter link).
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Cavs Trade Alonzo Gee To Pelicans
4:46pm: The deal is official, the Cavs announce. Gee goes to the Pelicans, and Cleveland will get the Clippers’ 2016 second-round pick, which New Orleans acquired in a previous trade, protected through pick No. 55. If it doesn’t fall within the final five selections in 2016, the Pelicans don’t owe the Cavs anything.
4:36pm: The Cavs will still acquire No. 45 overall pick Dwight Powell from Charlotte as part of a reworked Haywood deal, reports Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer (Twitter link).
3:09pm: The Pelicans will waive Gee upon receiving him from the Cavs, according to Ken Berger of CBSSports.com (Twitter link).
2:57pm: The Cavs and Pelicans have struck agreement on a deal that sends Alonzo Gee to New Orleans, reports Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Marc Stein of ESPN.com first reported the teams were close to a deal, which nullifies the agreement that Cleveland had to send Gee to the Hornets for Brendan Haywood. Cleveland apparently still plans to acquire Haywood from Charlotte via other means, as Stein reported. A source also told Stein that Gee could wind up as part of the Pelicans’ deal with the Rockets to acquire Omer Asik,
Gee’s $3MM salary for this season is non-guaranteed, so it’s conceivable that the Pelicans envision waiving him to create the necessary cap flexibility to accommodate their deal for Asik, though that assumes New Orleans is giving up salary as part of the trade. The Cavs are reportedly still trying to clear room for a max contract for LeBron James, as Stein wrote earlier, and losing Gee, whose salary can be taken off the books, wouldn’t advance Cleveland toward that end unless other deals are in the works.
The 27-year-old Gee has been a part of the rotation for Cleveland for the better part of the last two seasons, and he started all 82 games in 2012/13. He mostly came off the bench this past season, averaging 4.0 points in 15.7 minutes per game.
Cavs, Pelicans Close To Alonzo Gee Deal
2:48pm: The Cavaliers have other means to acquire Haywood from the Hornets as planned, and it’s also possible that Gee winds up in the Pelicans’ deal with the Rockets for Asik, according to Stein (Twitter links).
2:13pm: The Cavs and Pelicans are close to a deal that would send Alonzo Gee to the Pelicans, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Stein casts it as part of an effort from Cleveland to clear max cap room for LeBron James, but it was believed that Cleveland already had max cap room for James, and that the Cavs had agreed to a deal that would send Gee to the Hornets. Additionally, sending Gee away wouldn’t create any extra cap flexibility, because his $3MM is non-guaranteed. Gee indeed isn’t part of the Haywood deal, Stein adds (Twitter link).
Gee makes sense as an acquisition for the Pelicans, who are also trying to clear cap room to facilitate their deal to acquire Omer Asik from the Rockets. Ostensibly, it seems they would be sending salary to Cleveland, so perhaps the Cavs are in other talks to clear salary, though that’s just my speculation.
New Orleans has reportedly considered waiving former No. 10 overall pick Austin Rivers to make room for Asik, but if the Pelicans acquire Gee and give up salary, they might be able to create the requisite cap room by waiving Gee instead.
Renounced Players: Thursday
Many of the agreements signed during the July moratorium were contingent on teams clearing cap space to accommodate them, and to do so, teams must sometimes renounce their Non-Bird, Early Bird or full Bird rights to their own free agents to erase their cap holds from the books. Teams that renounce those rights no longer have the ability to exceed the cap to re-sign those players unless they use an exception like the mid-level or the biannual. The end of the moratorium usually brings about a fair number of renouncements, so we’ll track today’s here, with the latest on top:
- The Mavs have renounced Dirk Nowitzki, Shawn Marion and Vince Carter, according to Mark Deeks of ShamSports (Twitter link). That doesn’t mean the Mavs don’t intend to re-sign Nowitzki, as they already agreed to do. Teams that sign players to offer sheets are permitted to rescind their renouncements if the original club matches the offer sheet. In this case, the Mavs will rescind their renouncement of Nowitzki if the Rockets match the offer sheet for Chandler Parsons, and they’ll use cap space to re-sign Nowitzki if Houston doesn’t match.
- The Jazz renounced their rights to Richard Jefferson and Brandon Rush, according to Deeks tweets.
- The Hornets renounced Jannero Pargo, Anthony Tolliver, DJ White, Luke Ridnour, Josh McRoberts and Chris Douglas-Roberts, Deeks notes in the same tweet. Just like the Mavs, the Hornets may rescind these renouncement if the Jazz, as they reportedly intend to do, match Charlotte’s offer sheet for Gordon Hayward.
Hornets Sign Gordon Hayward To Offer Sheet
THURSDAY, 7:58am: Hayward has officially signed the offer sheet, the Hornets announced via press release, starting the three-day matching period. The Jazz will likely wait all three days to match, tweets Jody Genessy of the Deseret News (Twitter link).
WEDNESDAY, 7:05am: It’ll be an offer sheet for the max that runs four years with a player option for the final season, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. It’ll also include a 15% trade kicker, Wojnarowski adds. The option and the trade kicker appear to be designed to dissuade the Jazz from matching, but the Jazz have been adamant that they will match, according to Wojnarowski.
Indeed, Utah has been so intent on matching any such deal that the Jazz consider the offer sheet a “non-issue,” a source tells Jody Genessy of the Deseret News (Twitter link). Several teams called the Jazz about a sign-and-trade for Hayward to see if there was some way of preventing them from matching, but the Hornets never did, Wojnarowski writes, and there’s no chance Charlotte and Utah will arrange a sign-and-trade at this point, Genessy tweets.
TUESDAY, 11:36pm: Gordon Hayward has agreed to a major offer sheet with the Hornets, tweets Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer. Terms of the agreement haven’t been disclosed, although it’s highly likely that Charlotte is offering more than the four-year, $48MM deal that Hayward turned down from the Jazz last fall. As we noted earlier, the Hornets were content with their meeting with Hayward; however, Utah is expected to match any offer for the 6’8 forward.
Aaron Falk of the Salt Lake Tribune (via Twitter) notes that Hayward can’t officially sign anything until July 10th; at that point, the Jazz would have three days to match the offer, and Falk maintains that all indications so far is that they will.
And-Ones: Dragic, Tolliver, Bogdanovic, Aldridge
Dahntay Jones has met with the Clippers, and has received interest from the Knicks, tweets Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. Here’s more from around the league:
- Zoran Dragic has signed a two-year contract extension with his Spanish League team, the Euroleague announced (H/T Emiliano Carchia of Sportando). NBA teams including the Rockets had shown interest in the brother of Goran Dragic. The original deal had a $500K NBA buyout clause for the upcoming season, although it is unclear if the extra years will feature the same flexibility.
- Free agent Anthony Tolliver has been in serious discussions with six teams, including the Clippers, Cavs, Pistons, Spurs, Wizards, and Hornets, reports Shams Charania of RealGM.
- Bogdan Bogdanovic and the Suns signed a declaration that the 2014 draft pick will not play in the NBA this season, a formality that clears his rookie scale cap hold from the team’s books, tweets Mark Deeks of ShamSports. Bogdanovic is signed overseas and can’t opt out until at least 2016.
- LaMarcus Aldridge‘s choice to seek a new deal with the Blazers as a free agent next summer was one of two options presented him by Portland owner Paul Allen and GM Neil Olshey last month, reports Joe Freeman of The Oregonian. The Blazers brass suggested the All-Star consider a three-year, $55MM extension he could sign immediately, or wait to become eligible for a five-year, $108MM max deal as an unrestricted free agent. “I don’t want it to be perceived that I’m not happy or I’m not staying on because I’m not signing a three-year deal,” Aldridge said. “It’s just financially smarter to wait … and I’m looking forward to signing the five-year deal when the chance comes.”
- Considering the recent max offers extended to Gordon Hayward and Chandler Parsons, it seems certain that Klay Thompson will also merit a max deal when he becomes a free agent. Tim Kawakami of Bay Area News Group hears that the Warriors have budgeted measures to find room for the shooting guard, should he not be traded away in a deal for Kevin Love.