GM David Griffin isn’t concerned about the possibility of losing J.R. Smith, writes Sam Amico of Amicohoops. There reportedly has been little interest outside of Cleveland in the 30-year-old free agent shooting guard, who started 77 games during the regular season and was an important contributor to the Cavaliers’ championship run. “These things sometimes take time,” Griffin said. “When the time is right, something will get done. I’m very confident about that.” The team has remained in contact with with Smith, tweets Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com, who adds that Smith’s situation is not related to LeBron James‘ contract talks. Haynes says James is “no rush” to wrap up his new deal.
JULY 15, 8:56pm: The Bulls have issued a press release officially announcing their deal with Wade.
“We are thrilled that Dwyane has decided to come to Chicago,” Bulls GM Gar Forman said in a statement. “It’s not often you get the opportunity to add a three-time champion and 12-time All Star to your roster. We are delighted he has decided to become a Bull, as he provides a great veteran perspective on the court and in the locker room. He will be a tremendous fit with our team.”
JULY 6, 9:50pm: The deal includes a player option for the second year, Wojnarowski tweets.
8:30pm: Dwyane Wade has informed the Bulls that he plans to sign with the team, Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reports. Wade’s deal will be for $47MM over two seasons. Chicago was the only place Wade could see himself playing outside of Miami, as people close to the shooting guard told Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The deal is pending, as Chicago will need to clear cap space to accommodate a significant contract for the 34-year-old.
The Bulls are working to trade Jose Calderon and Mike Dunleavy in an attempt to clear space. The team has a trade in place for Calderon, according to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune, and Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports via Twitter that the Nets could be a potential trade partner. The Bulls remain confident that they will be able to move Dunleavy before the night is over, Johnson adds on Twitter.
Wade felt the team no longer appreciated him and that, coupled with bitterness over contract talks, led to his departure, sources tell Wojnarowski. The Heat were unwilling to offer a third year, which also factored into Wade not re-signing. Wade is a Chicago native who grew up idolizing Michael Jordan, as Wojnarowski writes.
The Bulls believe having Wade on the roster will not only offer a more competitive team during the 2016/17 season, but it will also help them land a marquee free agent next summer, Johnson tweets. Johnson tweeted earlier in the day that Wade could choose the Bulls without a face-to-face meeting since he met with the team twice back in 2010.
The Heat selected Wade with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2003 draft. He led the team to three NBA titles and five Eastern Conference crowns. The 12-time All-Star will head to Chicago and join Jimmy Butler and newly signed point guard Rajon Rondo in the backcourt.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
JULY 15, 3:19pm: The Bulls have formally announced in a press release that they’ve signed Zipser.
JULY 13, 2:11pm: The Bulls have reached an agreement with second-round pick Paul Zipser, according to agent Misko Raznatovic, who tweets that his client will sign a two-year contract with Chicago. The terms of the deal aren’t yet known, but Raznatovic refers to the agreement as being for two “granted years” — it’s possible that was meant to read “guaranteed years.”
[RELATED: 2016 Draft Pick Signings]
Zipser, the 48th overall pick in last month’s draft, was rated this year’s 26th-best prospect by Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com. The German forward has spent the last several season playing for Bayern Muenchen. Zipser didn’t see a whole lot of action in Euroleague play, but in 40 German League games, he averaged 7.1 PPG and 3.6 RPG to go along with a .539/.436/.807 shooting line, in 18.1 minutes per contest.
Shortly after the Bulls drafted Zipser, we learned that the team shouldn’t have major issues bringing the 22-year-old stateside. Givony reported at that time that Zipser had just one year remaining on his contract with his German club, with a buyout worth $600K.
Former Knicks point guard Jose Calderon believes he would have been better off as a backup in New York, according to Marc Berman of The New York Post. Calderon, who will turn 35 in September, was shipped to the Bulls last month in the trade that brought back Derrick Rose. Calderon says team president Phil Jackson made the right move in acquiring Rose and thinks he would have performed better with fewer minutes. “Like I said, I was ready for a different role and I was ready for a different role the last couple of years,” Calderon said. “Maybe there wasn’t the player to put ahead of me. I always said I wasn’t the one putting me in the starting role or playing me 35 minutes. It could’ve been a guy like a Derrick Rose and I would’ve been the backup point guard. It’s a tough position to play. You have to know your strengths and weaknesses. I’ve been in the league 12 years and I know what I do best or not do as well. It’s nothing personal. It’s what the team needed. Hopefully it will work better.’’
Calderon, who was later traded from the Bulls to the Lakers, will get his wish to be a reserve in L.A., where he will back up second-year point guard D’Angelo Russell. Currently training for the Olympics with the Spanish National Team, Calderon has one year left on his contract at $7.6MM, and said he hopes to play three more seasons in the NBA.
The Spurs‘ initial offer to unrestricted free agent Manu Ginobili was in the range of one-year, $3MM, but the team was forced to significantly increase its offer because of the Sixers, Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reports (video link). Philadelphia offered Ginobili a two-year, fully guaranteed deal worth $16-$17MM in the first season, Wojnarowski notes. Sixers coach Brett Brown has an excellent relationship with the shooting guard dating back to his days as a Spurs assistant, the scribe adds.
Here’s more from around the league:
- The Mavericks and unrestricted free agent point guard Rodrigue Beaubois continue to discuss a potential deal that would bring the former No. 25 overall pick back to Dallas, Marc Stein of ESPN.com relays (on Twitter). The 28-year-old last appeared in the NBA during the 2012/13 season when he played in 45 games for Dallas and averaged 4.0 points and 1.9 assists.
- Ryan Arcidiacono‘s multiyear deal with the Spurs includes a partial guarantee for $75K this season, plus includes a number of trigger dates for further guarantees, Michael Scotto of Sheridan Hoops relays (Twitter link).
- The Bulls and Mavericks have expressed interest in unrestricted free agent Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders relays (on Twitter). The forward appeared in two games for the Knicks this past season.
- Isaiah Canaan, who agreed to a two-year deal with the Bulls, is thrilled to be joining the team and the opportunity it will provide, Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer relays. “I’m just looking forward to another great opportunity,” Canaan said. “They got good veterans on the team with D-Wade [Dwyane Wade], Rajon Rondo and Jimmy Butler. So I’m looking forward to getting into the gym with them guys. It’s an up-and-coming team. They got Wade. Everybody knows how he is, a great all-star, been around the league for a while. And he’s back home with an up-and-coming talent like Jimmy Butler. It can’t get no better than that.”
This past spring, the Bulls, Wizards, Magic, Bucks, Knicks, Nets, and 76ers all failed to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference, finishing in the lottery. All seven of those teams have been very active so far this offseason, signing free agents and adding players to their roster via trades and/or the draft.
The Bulls and Knicks have perhaps been the most visible of the Eastern lottery teams in recent weeks, beginning with the five-player trade they completed that sent Derrick Rose to New York and Robin Lopez to Chicago. Since then, the Bulls have added Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo in free agency, while the Knicks have signed Joakim Noah, Courtney Lee, and Brandon Jennings, among others.
The two lottery teams from the Southeast – the Wizards and Magic – have also undergone some roster upheaval this summer. Washington re-upped restricted free agent Bradley Beal and made changes elsewhere, bringing in Ian Mahinmi, Andrew Nicholson, and Jason Smith, while letting go of Nene, Jared Dudley, and Ramon Sessions. Orlando was even more active, re-signing Evan Fournier, trading for Serge Ibaka, and adding D.J. Augustin, Jeff Green, and Bismack Biyombo.
The Bucks have been a little quieter, but they secured a pair of solid role players in free agency, signing Matthew Dellavedova and Mirza Teletovic. They also drafted Thon Maker, adding another athletic prospect with upside to a promising young core.
Like Milwaukee, the Sixers didn’t make a huge splash, but with Gerald Henderson, Jerryd Bayless, and Sergio Rodriguez entering the mix, the rebuilding franchise has more of a veteran presence. And if Dario Saric finalizes a deal with Philadelphia, the club feels it has three players – Saric, Joel Embiid, and No. 1 pick Ben Simmons – capable of competing for the Rookie of the Year award.
Finally, the Nets missed out on two RFA targets, when their offer sheets for Tyler Johnson and Allen Crabbe were matched. Their other free agent signings, including Jeremy Lin, Greivis Vasquez, Trevor Booker, Luis Scola, and Justin Hamilton – have been modest.
Today’s discussion question focuses on these seven teams, and their offseason transactions. Which team do you think improved the most? Which series of moves do you like best? Which of these non-playoff teams do you think is most likely to end up qualifying for the postseason next spring?
Take to the comments section below to share your thoughts and opinions on the Bulls, Wizards, Magic, Bucks, Knicks, Nets, and Sixers. We look forward to hearing what you have to say.
Although there was some speculation on draft night that teams like the Celtics and Timberwolves could eventually revisit their trade negotiations for Jimmy Butler, the Bulls’ All-Star is off the market “for now,” writes ESPN’s Zach Lowe in his round-up of free agency’s winners and losers.
Given the way Bulls general manager Gar Forman emphatically denied the Butler trade rumors in the wake of this year’s draft, Forman and company may argue that the standout wing was never on the trade block. However, multiple reports indicated that the Bulls were involved in trade discussions involving Butler and various top-five picks — the team was said to have been very high on Kris Dunn, who was ultimately selected fifth overall by the Wolves.
While the deal that sent Derrick Rose to the Knicks signaled that rebuilding efforts may be underway in Chicago, the club ultimately surrounded Butler with other veteran talent. Robin Lopez was one of the pieces the Bulls received in the Rose trade, and the team subsequently added Rajon Rondo and Dwyane Wade in free agency.
A lineup that features Rondo, Wade, and Butler looks somewhat unusual on paper, since all three players are at their best with the ball in their hands, and none are particularly strong outside shooters. So it’s possible that by the time the 2017 trade deadline rolls around, the Bulls will be more open to dealing Butler or one of those other veterans. For now though, it appears that the club wants to see what the current group can do under head coach Fred Hoiberg.
- Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg is looking forward to working with Rajon Rondo and believes that he and the point guard will have a solid relationship, Nick Friedell of ESPN.com relays (ESPN Now link). “The big thing with Rondo is I anticipate having a very good relationship with Rajon,” Hoiberg said. “He’s going to be a guy that’s going to be another extension of me and a coach on the floor. And again, I think he’s a guy who can survey the floor and read the situation and get us into our offense in a very efficient manner. He’s a guy who can get to the hole, he’s obviously an excellent passer, has great vision. I think he’ll fit very well with what we’re trying to do.”
Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg is excited to have Rajon Rondo as the point guard on his new-look team, writes Nick Friedell of ESPN.com. Rondo is part of a new era in Chicago, along with Dwyane Wade and Robin Lopez. Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, two longtime pillars of the organization, are both with the Knicks now, and Pau Gasol has signed with the Spurs. With all the turnover, Hoiberg thinks it will be helpful to have an intelligent player like Rondo leading the team. “What I’m excited about is how smart and cerebral a player he is,” Hoiberg said, “how he can survey the floor and make the right read coming down. The more playmakers you have and the more guys who can get into the paint, the better off you are.”