Cavaliers Rumors

The Kevin Love Trade: One Year Later

August 20th, 2015 at 11:30am CST by Chuck Myron

The one-year anniversary of the Kevin Love trade is Sunday, but we’ll get the jump today and look back at last year’s foremost blockbuster. The official announcement of the deal, which took place on August 23rd, 2014, was a long time coming, as the Cavs and Timberwolves had been working on the swap for months and had to wait for Andrew Wiggins to become eligible for inclusion in the deal. The Sixers became involved during the process, and they scored a first-rounder and two players in exchange for Thaddeus Young.

The Cavs, who went to the Finals, and the Timberwolves, who finished with the league’s worst record, won the lottery and picked Karl-Anthony Towns No. 1 overall, have predictably taken divergent paths since the swap. The Sixers have continued in their slow rebuilding, with their involvement Love trade just one part of a lengthy process. However, the story for many of the figures involved is more complicated.

Below is a look at each of the six players in the trade and what’s happened to them in the past 12 months. We’ve also broken down the fate of the draft pick promised as part of the deal. See it all here:

Kevin Love (Timberwolves to Cavaliers) — The past season was one to forget for Love, who put up his worst numbers of the past five years. Some of that was to be expected, as he figured to play more of a complementary role on a team with greater talent than he’d ever played with in Minnesota, but Love and new Cavs coach David Blatt struggled to find a role that maximized the power forward’s abilities. A shoulder injury in the first round of the playoffs that knocked him out for the rest of the postseason somehow served as a fitting coda to a frustrating year. Rumors that he’d flee Cleveland for the Lakers or Celtics dogged Love all season, but he just as consistently denied them, and he affirmed his long-term commitment to the Cavs when he re-signed in July on a five-year max deal, one that also made clear Cleveland’s belief in him as a max player.
Andrew Wiggins (Cavaliers to Timberwolves) — The centerpiece of the package going to Minnesota is already well on his way to making this known more prominently as “the Andrew Wiggins trade.” He entered college two years ago with the expectation that he’d become the next NBA superstar, and while he underwhelmed at Kansas, he spent his first pro season regaining a sterling reputation. He didn’t fall too far with the Jayhawks, having done enough to become the No. 1 overall pick in 2014, and he ran away with voting for the Rookie of the Year award this spring.
Thaddeus Young (Sixers to Timberwolves) — The Timberwolves apparently insisted on receiving Young instead of the Heat’s first-round pick that had been Cleveland’s, in the hopes that the veteran forward would help the team compete for a playoff berth last season. Injuries scuttled the idea of a playoff run soon after the season began, and while Young was Minnesota’s third-leading scorer at 14.3 points per game, he reportedly told the Wolves he would opt out at season’s end, helping prompt them to trade him to the Nets at the deadline for Kevin Garnett. That swap completed a circle of sorts for Minnesota, which had drafted Love to replace Garnett a year after the deal that sent KG to Boston in 2007. Young fit in seamlessly with the Nets and re-signed with Brooklyn on a four-year, $50MM deal.
Anthony Bennett (Cavaliers to Timberwolves) — The 2013 No. 1 overall pick showed some improvement last year after his profoundly disappointing rookie season, but he still averaged only 5.2 points and 3.8 rebounds in 15.7 minutes per game. The Wolves reportedly brought up Bennett’s name in trade talk with other teams at the deadline, and they apparently spoke to the Celtics in June about the idea of dealing Bennett to Boston. In a series of polls in which Hoops Rumors readers have been reconstructing the 2013 draft, Bennett has gone undrafted through 13 picks so far.
Alexey Shved (Timberwolves to Sixers) — The shooting guard whose minutes had fallen off in 2013/14 after a strong rookie season in 2012/13 spent this past year bouncing from team to team. The Sixers traded him to the Rockets in December in a deal that essentially netted the Sixers the 58th overall pick in this year’s draft, and Houston flipped Shved to the Knicks at the deadline. New York reportedly failed to offer Shved the $2.814MM salary for the coming season that he had been seeking, so he instead signed with CSKA Moscow on a three-year, $10.2MM deal that makes him Europe’s highest-paid player.
Luc Mbah a Moute (Timberwolves to Sixers) — Mbah a Moute posted the highest points and minutes per game of his seven-year NBA career with the Sixers, whose stripped-down roster allowed him greater opportunity than ever. He also served as a mentor for fellow Cameroon native Joel Embiid as Embiid sat out the season with injury, but with Embiid’s career in limbo following another season-ending problem with his foot, Mbah a Moute signed with the Kings last month for a $1.55MM salary. However, Mbah a Moute’s health also came into question, and Sacramento voided the deal because of a shoulder issue. The union was to have filed a grievance earlier this month.
Miami’s top-10 protected 2015 first-round pick (Cavaliers to Sixers) — The Heat’s debt is still outstanding on the pick that was originally part of Cleveland’s ransom for LeBron James in the sign-and-trade deal that sent him to Miami in 2010. The Sixers nearly wound up with the draft choice this year, but the Heat emerged from the lottery with pick No. 10, the last within the protected range. That pick is again top-10 protected for 2016, but barring another injury-filled season in Miami, the Heat should make playoffs, an outcome that would see the selection finally convey to Philly. A slight possibility exists that the pick will end up going to the Warriors thanks to the Gerald Wallace/Jason Thompson trade. If the pick somehow falls within the top 10 again in 2016, the Heat will keep it but will be forced to send their 2017 first-rounder, with no protection, to the Sixers.

What’s your take on the trade now that a year has passed? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.

Teams With The Most Rookie Scale Contracts

August 19th, 2015 at 2:55pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Cavs will be a popular pick for the NBA title this season, and that’ll probably be the case as long as LeBron James is at or near his peak and wearing a Cleveland uniform. However, once the LeBron era winds down, the future looks murky for the Cavs, who are the only NBA team without a player on a rookie scale contract, the sort of deal that first-round picks sign when they join the NBA.

Conversely, the Celtics and Timberwolves aren’t where they want to be yet, but they have no shortage of young talent. They’re tied atop the league with eight players apiece on rookie scale contracts. The C’s arguably have more “future assets” than anybody, since they also have five extra future first-round picks coming their way.

See how all 30 teams stack up in terms of rookie-scale contracts:

Celtics, 8 (R.J. Hunter, Perry Jones III, Kelly Olynyk, Terry Rozier, Marcus Smart, Jared Sullinger, James Young, Tyler Zeller)
Timberwolves, 8 (Anthony Bennett, Gorgui Dieng, Tyus Jones, Zach LaVine, Shabazz Muhammad, Adreian Payne, Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins)
Bucks, 7 (Giannis Antetokounmpo, Michael Carter-Williams, Tyler Ennis, John Henson, Jabari Parker, Miles Plumlee, Rashad Vaughn)
Magic, 7 (Evan Fournier, Aaron Gordon, Mario Hezonja, Shabazz Napier, Andrew Nicholson, Victor Oladipo, Elfrid Payton)
Thunder, 6 (Steven Adams, Josh Huestis, Mitch McGary, Cameron Payne, Andre Roberson, Dion Waiters)
Trail Blazers, 6 (Maurice Harkless, Meyers Leonard, Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum, Mason Plumlee, Noah Vonleh)*
Hornets, 5 (P.J. Hairston, Frank Kaminsky, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Jeremy Lamb, Cody Zeller)
Jazz, 5 (Trey Burke, Dante Exum, Rudy Gobert, Rodney Hood, Trey Lyles)
Raptors, 5 (Bruno Caboclo, Lucas Nogueira, Terrence Ross, Jonas Valanciunas, Delon Wright)
Sixers, 5 (Joel Embiid, Nerlens Noel, Jahlil Okafor, Nik Stauskas, Tony Wroten)
Pistons, 4 (Reggie Bullock, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Andre Drummond, Stanley Johnson)
Rockets, 4 (Clint Capela, Sam Dekker, Terrence Jones, Donatas Motiejunas)
Suns, 4 (Devin Booker, Archie Goodwin, Alex Len, T.J. Warren)
Bulls, 3 (Doug McDermott, Bobby Portis, Tony Snell)
Lakers, 3 (Larry Nance Jr., Julius Randle, D’Angelo Russell)
Nets, 3 (Sergey Karasev, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Chris McCullough)
Nuggets, 3 (Gary Harris, Emmanuel Mudiay, Jusuf Nurkic)
Warriors, 3 (Harrison Barnes, Festus Ezeli, Kevon Looney)
Wizards, 3 (Bradley Beal, Kelly Oubre, Otto Porter)
Grizzlies, 2 (Jordan Adams, Jarell Martin)
Hawks, 2 (Tim Hardaway Jr., Dennis Schröder)
Knicks, 2 (Jerian Grant, Kristaps Porzingis)
Pacers, 2 (Myles Turner, Solomon Hill)
Clippers, 1 (C.J. Wilcox)
Heat, 1 (Justise Winslow)
Kings, 2 (Willie Cauley-Stein, Ben McLemore)
Mavericks, 1 (Justin Anderson)
Pelicans, 1 (Anthony Davis)*
Spurs, 1 (Kyle Anderson)
Cavaliers, 0

* — The rookie scale contracts for Davis and Lillard run through the coming season, but they’ve already signed a maximum-salary extensions that will kick with the 2016/17 season.

The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

Trade Candidate: Jamal Crawford

August 19th, 2015 at 12:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Jamal Crawford apparently wishes he were a free agent, as he said on Twitter earlier this summer, but he still has one more season left on his contract. However, if he wants to leave the Clippers, he seems to stand a decent chance of having that happen for him before next July. The Clippers aren’t eager to trade the two-time Sixth Man of the Year award winner, but they reportedly explored the idea around draft time, and they’ve spent the summer upgrading on the wing, with newcomers Lance Stephenson, Paul Pierce and Wesley Johnson. The Knicks have expressed interest, as Frank Isola of the New York Daily News reported Tuesday, and the Heat and Cavs were apparently interested as of earlier this summer. Crawford is 35 years old and coming off his fewest minutes per game since the 2002/03 season, but it appears there’s still a market for him.

The Heat called the Clippers about Crawford in early July, as Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com reported then, but as Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel points out, that was before Miami signed Gerald Green. Bringing in Crawford and his $5.675MM salary would likely commit the team to paying repeat-offender tax penalties this season, Winderman also asserts, though that would probably depend on the nature of the trade they’d make. The Clippers, like the Heat and the Cavs, are above the tax threshold for now, and that would complicate any move, since the salary-matching constraints are stricter for tax teams.

The Knicks are well outside of tax territory, for a change, but they face other challenges. The Knicks don’t have any trade exceptions, so they’d have to send players to the Clippers to make a trade work. Only four Knicks players — Carmelo Anthony, Jose Calderon, Langston Galloway and Cleanthony Early — are currently eligible for inclusion in trades. First-round picks Kristaps Porzingis and Jerian Grant join them later this month, but that’s still not much to choose from. Calderon seems like the most logical candidate, given that the Clippers would be somewhat short on backup point guard options if Crawford weren’t there anymore, but the Clips would have to send additional salary to New York to make that a match. Porzingis would be an intriguing option for a Clippers team that doesn’t have much young talent coming up the pipeline, but the Knicks would be ill-advised to trade this year’s No. 4 overall pick for a 35-year-old who’s a year away from free agency. As Isola suggested, the involvement of a third team might be necessary if the Knicks are to somehow end up with Crawford.

The Cavaliers also only have four players eligible to be traded — Kyrie Irving, Anderson Varejao, Timofey Mozgov and Joe Harris — but they have a trade exception worth $10,522,500 that they can use to take in Crawford without giving up a player in return. That trade exception is a vestige of the Brendan Haywood contract that the Cavs were thinking about sending to the Clips when Cleveland looked into trading for Crawford in early July, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported then. The exception makes it easier for the teams to facilitate a deal, since the Clippers would have had to include additional salary along with Crawford to take in Haywood’s contract. Still, it would be difficult for the Clippers to give up Crawford without receiving a player who can help them in their quest for a championship this year. Teams only get so many legitimate cracks at a title, and the Clips would surely be loath to downgrade their talent just as they seem as close as they’ve ever been to the Larry O’Brien trophy.

That’s ostensibly why the Clippers aren’t anxious to trade Crawford in the first place. They’re probably not going to do a deal unless it benefits them on the court, and while Crawford could always pout or become a disruptive force in the locker room, he has yet to air his grievances beyond relatively innocuous social media interaction. The Clippers could nonetheless use some size behind DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin. They added Cole Aldrich through free agency, but Aldrich hasn’t proven to be the sort of player who could fill in as the starter for a championship-level team if Jordan or Griffin is injured for any significant stretch of time. That would make Varejao, despite injury concerns of his own, intriguing for the Clippers. It’s unclear just what sort of role a healthy Varejao would play for the Cavs this season, especially with Tristan Thompson‘s free agency still unresolved, but if Thompson comes back, Varejao would be relatively expendable. Of course, the Brazilian is also tight with LeBron James, and the Cavs would have to question the wisdom of sending one of LeBron’s friends to a contending team in a major market with warm weather. The Clips would also have to send additional salary to Cleveland to make a Varejao deal work.

Josh McRoberts and Chris Andersen offer no such salary-matching concerns, and they, like Varejao, would help deepen the Clippers up front. The Heat have no shortage of big men, with McRoberts, Andersen, Chris Bosh, Hassan Whiteside, Amar’e Stoudemire and Udonis Haslem all on the roster, so it would seem fertile ground for a trade is there. I’d contend that if the Heat were to trade McRoberts or Andersen for Crawford, they’d be no more committed to paying the tax than they otherwise would be, since it would entail an almost even exchange of salaries, and Crawford would appear to be a more intriguing trade chip to offer around the league if the Heat can’t find another way to slip under the tax line before the trade deadline. Crawford would give the Heat a strong alternative at shooting guard on the nights that Dwyane Wade can’t go. The addition of Crawford would make it easier for the team to play more small-ball lineups and for Miami to trade Mario Chalmers, currently Miami’s only proven option at the point behind Goran Dragic.

Regardless, it’s a seller’s market for Crawford. The Clippers wield the power, and if they want to mend fences with him, they can always pursue extension talks, as I pointed out earlier. Teams like the Heat, Cavs and Knicks will have to come to Clips coach/executive Doc Rivers, and not the other way around.

What do you think a good trade idea for Crawford might be? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.

Central Notes: Thompson, Landry, Kukoc

August 18th, 2015 at 2:30pm CST by Chuck Myron

Negotiations between the Cavaliers and Tristan Thompson aren’t as contentious as they may seem, as Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders writes in his NBA AM piece. It simply comes down to Thompson’s desire for a deal approaching the max and the Cavs’ desire to curb their tax bill, as Kyler explains. Indeed, the sides aren’t as far apart financially as it seems, a league source said to Chris Sheridan of SheridanHoops last week, as Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops relays. Thompson doesn’t appear eager to take the team’s qualifying offer and push the possibility of a larger payday back to next year, but insurance policies are available that Thompson could buy if he fears he wouldn’t get the kind of deal he’d be seeking in 2016, Kyler points out. See more from around the Central Division:

Marcus Landry‘s new contract with the Bucks is for one year at the minimum salary and is non-guaranteed, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). It has limited injury protection, Pincus adds, so that would indicate that it’s an Exhibit 9 contract that would hold Milwaukee responsible for no more than $6K should Landry get hurt while playing for the team. “It’s not impossible to make [the regular season roster],’’ Landry told Gery Woelfel of The Journal Times. “Guys get traded, teams make moves. I just have to hold up my end of the deal. I’m what they like to call a gym rat and I’m going to try to be in their gym as much as I can though training camp. I’m excited for this opportunity, very excited.’’
Playing for the Bucks is a “dream come true” for Landry, as the Milwaukee native also told Woelfel for the same piece. Landry made it clear to agent Keith Kreiter that he he wanted to play for his hometown team, and Kreiter worked with the Bucks over several weeks to engineer a deal, Woelfel writes.
The Bulls have hired Toni Kukoc as a special adviser to president and COO Michael Reinsdorf, the team announced. Kukoc’s duties will be wide-ranging and include “relating to the international players on our team.” The native of Croatia joins former teammate Scottie Pippen, who holds the same title for the organization.

Cavs To Sign Jared Cunningham For Camp

August 18th, 2015 at 10:02am CST by Arthur Hill

MONDAY, 10:02am: The deal is non-guaranteed, according to Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com.

SUNDAY, 3:14pm: The Cavaliers have reached a deal with free agent Jared Cunningham, tweets Shams Charania of RealGM. The 6’4″ guard recently committed to join the team in camp, according to Charania. Cunningham would appear to stand a decent chance to remain on the roster come opening night, as the Cavs have deals with only 11 other players so far.

Cunningham appeared in 19 games with the Clippers last season, averaging 1.8 points and 0.5 assists in 4.7 minutes. He was traded to the Sixers on January 7th, but was waived the same day. Cunningham has also been with the Mavericks, Hawks and Kings in his three-year NBA career.

Cunningham was drafted by Cleveland with the 24th pick in 2012, but was shipped to Dallas in a draft-day deal. He was part of the Utah Jazz team during this year’s summer league.

Eastern Notes: Smith, Thompson, Benson

August 16th, 2015 at 9:30pm CST by Arthur Hill

With few options remaining, J.R. Smith will probably re-sign with the Cavaliers for next season, writes Terry Pluto of The Plain Dealer. Smith realizes he made a mistake by declining a $6.4MM option, Pluto asserts, but he’s unlikely to get the offer he wants at this stage of free agency. Only the Sixers and Blazers have enough cap room remaining to give Smith a raise, and neither is likely to come calling. Smith’s best option, according to Pluto, is to take the Cavs’ offer and try to get a better deal when the salary cap soars next summer.

Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference …

As Tristan Thompson and the Cavs continue to wait each other out, it becomes increasingly likely that the power forward will remain on Cleveland’s roster next season, Pluto notes in the same story. The restricted free agent hasn’t received an offer from another team, and no one has contacted the Cavs about a sign-and-trade deal. If Thompson accepts the team’s qualifying offer, he can’t be traded without his permission. Pluto estimates the sides are at least $10MM apart.
The Heat are reportedly set to sign unrestricted free agent center Keith Benson and the move has more to do with stocking the team’s D-League than bolstering the rotation at power forward and center, Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel reports. Benson is expected to be signed to a non-guaranteed contract for training camp, Winderman adds.
Carmelo Anthony is exhibiting a Phil Jackson-like calm when it comes to accepting all the changes in New York, writes Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report. Anthony has watched Jackson replace all of his teammates and his coach over the past 18 months. Still, the Knicks‘ star accepts the turnover, confident that something better is being built. “The guys that we brought in are great pieces to have on the team,” Anthony said. “They all know their roles. They know what they have to do,” Anthony continued. “It’s just a matter of us coming together.” Anthony also denied rumors that he opposed the drafting of Kristaps Porzingis.

Will Joseph contributed to this post.

Central Notes: Allen, Morris, Thompson

August 14th, 2015 at 9:15pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Lavoy Allen received incentive clauses on his three-year deal with the Pacers instead of the $1.5MM signing bonus that was originally reported, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). It appears that those incentives call for Allen to get an extra $500K each year if he keeps his weight down, Pincus also tweets. Allen is considered likely to make weight, so the cap hits of $4.05MM this season and $4MM each of the next two years remain the same, unless he fails to hit the target at preseason weigh-ins.

Here’s more out of the Central Division:

One of the reasons that the Pistons acquired Marcus Morris was to prevent 2015 first round draftee Stanley Johnson from being pressured to start and produce for the team immediately, David Mayo of MLive.com opines. Mayo also notes that Morris’ $5MM salary this season, and the $4.625MM he will earn for the 2016/17 campaign, will make him a bargain as a reserve player once Johnson assumes a starting role.
The Cavaliers need to be careful that whatever the outcome of their contract negotiations with restricted free agent Tristan Thompson, they don’t alienate LeBron James, who is on record as being a big supporter of the forward, Tom Ziller of SBNation writes. Though Ziller doesn’t necessarily believe that James would leave Cleveland again, he doesn’t think it wise for the franchise to roll the dice and risk losing the superstar next summer. Also complicating matters is the fact that Thompson’s agent, Rich Paul, also represents LeBron.
Earlier this evening we broke down the 2015/16 salary cap figures for the Pistons, and previously had done the same for the Bulls and Cavaliers, which can be viewed here and here.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Central Notes: Thompson, Love, Bulls, Douglas

August 14th, 2015 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

LeBron James believes the Cavs front office has “done a great job” this summer, but the next step, he added, is to re-sign Tristan Thompson, as Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com chronicles. James and Thompson share Rich Paul as an agent.

“Our No. 1 objective right now is to sign Tristan,” James said Thursday at Cedar Point amusement park. “He’s a huge part of our team. Short term and long term he makes our team more dangerous.”

Keeping him for this season doesn’t appear to be the issue. Paul raised the specter of Thompson signing his one-year, approximately $6.778MM qualifying offer earlier this week, but the agent said that if that happened, Thompson wouldn’t re-sign with the Cavs in unrestricted free agency next season. The Cavs are offering less than the near-max that Thompson seeks, Windhorst notes. See more from Cleveland amid the latest from the Central Division:

James also expressed confidence that Kevin Love, who re-signed on a five-year deal earlier this summer, will function better this season than last, as Joe Vardon of the Northeast Ohio Media Group writes. Love arranged a meeting with James earlier this summer. “He wanted to talk about the season, what could happen with the team going forward,” James said. “I was absolutely open to it. I was one of the people that wanted him there when we made the trade last summer. The fact that he committed to us let me know the type of guy we have. I think he’s going to be great for us. I think he’ll be an All-Star this year and a much more vocal part of the team this season.”
Jimmy Butler knows much hinges on the Bulls‘ coaching change and their ability to take advantage of opportunities, as Vincent Goodwill of CSNChicago.com relays (Twitter links). “We got the same team. Is it enough? We’ll find out. It wasn’t enough last year. Only thing we changed was coach,” Butler said. “We got the same exact team. We had a chance. We were right there. If we’re healthy…we’ll be right in the same position.”
Toney Douglas understands he faces a challenge to make the opening night roster for the Pacers, a team that already has 15 fully guaranteed salaries to go along with his partially guaranteed deal, writes Manny Randhawa of the Indianapolis Star. President of basketball operations Larry Bird used the phrase “having him in camp” twice in the press release to announce the signing of Douglas, but the point guard isn’t discouraged. “We really haven’t gotten into detail about me being here, but I know I’m here for a reason,” Douglas said this week to reporters, including Randhawa. His contract covers one season, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.

Central Notes: Thompson, D-League, Butler

August 13th, 2015 at 6:30pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Despite Rich Paul’s proclamation that his client, Tristan Thompson, would not re-sign with the Cavaliers next summer if he were to sign his qualifying offer, worth nearly $6.778MM, Cleveland should not offer the forward a maximum salary deal, opines Bill Livingston of The Plain Dealer. Livingston points to the exorbitant luxury tax hit that would go along with such a lucrative contract for Thompson, and notes that prior to the 2014/15 campaign the forward had been considered a disappointment by many. The Plain Dealer scribe also adds that despite the threat by Paul that Thompson would depart, the Cavs would still retain the 24-year-old’s Bird rights, meaning that they could outbid other teams for Thompson’s services next offseason.

Here’s more out of the Central Division:

The Pacers will meet with officials from the Fort Wayne Mad Ants next week to discuss terms of the prospective sale of the D-League franchise to Indiana, Adam Johnson of D-League Digest tweets.
Bulls swingman Jimmy Butler acknowledges that the chemistry between he and point guard Derrick Rose needs to improve next season, Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com writes. “I think we can,” Butler said during an appearance on “The Waddle and Silvy Show” on ESPN 1000, when asked about his chemistry with Rose. “I think we will. And I think we better, because the way I look at it, I don’t think either one of us is going anywhere anytime soon.”
Toney Douglas said that the presence of Donnie Walsh as a consultant helped him decide to sign with the Pacers, Scott Agness of VigilantSports.com writes. “I love Donnie,” Douglas said. “Donnie has always been a great guy. I loved him when I was in New York. Him being here was really a great situation. I trust him. He’s not going to lie to you; he’s going to keep it real and tell you what you need to do.” Walsh was president of the Knicks when the team swung a deal with the Lakers to acquire the draft rights to Douglas back in 2009.

International Moves: Dragic, Oden, Kirk

August 13th, 2015 at 3:03pm CST by Chuck Myron

NBA free agent deals are still getting done, as today’s agreements between the Wolves and Tayshaun Prince and the Mavs and JaVale McGee show, but plenty of action is going on overseas, where players are latching on as NBA roster spots grow scarce. Here’s the latest on familiar figures hitting the international market:

Zoran Dragic‘s contract with Khimki of Russia will pay him 1 million euros this coming season and 1.1 million euros next year, reports overseas journalist David Pick (Twitter link). That means he’ll make the equivalent of about $1.114MM this year, so the Celtics, who waived him this week, will be eligible for about $269K via set off rights.
Greg Oden will make $1.2MM after taxes on his new deal with Jiangsu of China, the Altius Culture agency says (Twitter link), citing a Sports Weekly report. However, Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia indicates that the oft-injured former No. 1 overall pick still must go through a weeklong workout at the end of the month for the deal to take effect (Twitter link).
Former Cavaliers big man Alex Kirk will join Italy’s Giorgio Tesi Pistoia, the Sports ProMotion agency tweets. Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders reported earlier this week that Kirk, who spent the first part of last season with the Cavs, was expected to sign with a team from Italy, though it wasn’t clear which club he’d end up with.

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