And-Ones: Gaddy, Heat, Wiggins
With the soon-to-be blockbuster trade that will see Kevin Love head to Cleveland to play alongside LeBron James approaching the date it can be made official, the debate now begins as to who is the team to beat in the Eastern Conference. Jesse Blancarte of Basketball Insiders breaks down the contenders and their chances to reach the NBA Finals.
Here’s more from around the league:
- Abdul Gaddy has signed a one-year deal to play for Virtus Bologna in the Italian Lega A, reports Chris Reichert of SB Nation. Gaddy most recently had played for the Pelicans in the NBA’s summer league, averaging 5.2 PPG and 3.2 APG while logging 15.9 minutes per contest. Last season, Gaddy played for the Maine Red Claws in the NBA D-League, appearing in 46 games, and averaging 9.0 PPG, 3.2 RPG and 5.0 APG in 27 minutes per game.
- Despite losing LeBron to the Cavs this offseason, Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel doesn’t believe it signifies the Heat organization has lost its luster. Winderman believes potential free agents will care more about how the current players are performing, and how well the franchise fares in upcoming drafts, rather than entertaining the perception that Miami isn’t an attractive place to play anymore.
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According to Kansas coach Bill Self, Andrew Wiggins is the best natural athlete who has ever played for him, writes Kent Youngblood of the Star Tribune. While Wiggins has been aware of all the trade talk revolving around him, Self said playing in Minnesota will give his former player plenty of room to grow. Self also added, “That’s the way he [Wiggins] sees it. He’s happy. Don’t anybody feel sorry for him. I’m not saying he hasn’t been in limbo and that it hasn’t, at times, been frustrating. But he told me, ‘Coach, I’m good with this.’ He told me that two weeks ago.’’
And-Ones: Allen, Green, D-League
There are worse ways to spend your time than checking out some of the Hall of Fame speeches that were delivered by the 2014 class this week. Alonzo Mourning, David Stern, and Mitch Richmond highlight the latest group to be enshrined in the hall. Here’s a rundown of notes from around the league:
- Ray Allen‘s agent disputed a report by Chris Broussard of ESPN.com that his client was leaning toward returning to the court for his 19th season, insisting to Jeff Zillgit of USA Today that Allen’s stance hasn’t changed (Twitter link). Broussard passed along the veteran’s statement from a charity event yesterday. “It’s August and I don’t want to rush to judgment,” Allen said. “I want to get to September and see how I really feel.”
- Draymond Green tells Cory Butzin of MLive that he wasn’t bothered by the trade speculation surrounding him when the Warriors were still in the hunt for Kevin Love. “Everybody always looks at it like being traded is a bad thing, but that means somebody else wanted you,” Green said. “At the end of the day, if I live my life worried every day about being traded, I’d be worried every day because no one is safe. You can’t stop it from happening if you don’t want it to, and you can’t make it happen if you do.”
- Chris Reichert, Scott Rafferty, and Adam Johnson of Ridiculous Upside put together a hypothetical Team USA from D-League players, inspired by the ongoing debate over NBA players’ involvement in international play.
Ray Allen Intends To Play Next Season?
9:50pm: Allen’s agent tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports that the shooting guard is still undecided on whether to return for another season (Twitter links), asserting that reports to the contrary are false.
4:57pm: Ray Allen has told those close to him that he intends to play next season, reports Chris Broussard of ESPN.com (on Twitter). Allen had reportedly been mulling retirement, but it appears as if he’s decided he wants to compete for at least one more season.
The Cavs look to be the front-runner to land the sharpshooting guard, says Broussard, who hears that Allen hasn’t definitively made up his mind yet. Reports suggested that Cleveland’s near certain acquisition of Kevin Love would motivate Allen to hook up with the charged-up Cavs after an earlier report suggested Cleveland might not have been his preferred destination.
Hoops Rumors’ Chuck Myron took a look at the free agent stock of Allen, who will be entering his 19th NBA season. Allen is a surefire Hall of Famer, and even though he’s past his prime, he’ll be able to contribute off the bench to whatever team he ends up on.
Western Notes: Clarkson, Thomas, Wolves
With a trade looming that will send Kevin Love to Cleveland, the many Western Conference contenders will have a more daunting team to potentially face in the Finals, and the Bulls are set to improve mightily as well. Still, the West features more proven juggernauts like the Spurs and Thunder at this stage. Here’s a look around the stronger conference:
- Jordan Clarkson is expected to sign with the Lakers before training camp, reports Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times. Clarkson was Los Angeles’ 46th pick in this year’s draft.
- It appears DeShaun Thomas will play another year overseas, as Emiliano Carchia of Sportando reports the Spurs 2013 second-round pick is close to signing with an Italian team.
- John Zitzler of Basketball Insiders says it’s time for Ricky Rubio to take on a leadership role for the Wolves now that Love is departing. Rubio has dazzled as a distributor, but will have to improve as a shooter to help Minnesota recover from the loss of Love, writes Zitzler.
- Meanwhile, expectations will be sky high for Andrew Wiggins, whom the Wolves will acquire in the Love deal. Bill Self, who coached Wiggins at Kansas, tells Kent Youngblood of the Star Tribune that the wing will be great, but still needs to be pushed. “He absolutely was too nice [before arriving at Kansas],” said Self. “And he’s still too nice. [Wolves coach Flip Saunders] will have to get more of that dog in him. He’s just young.’’
Extension Candidate: Tristan Thompson
Perhaps more than any other rookie scale extension candidate, Tristan Thompson‘s fate with the Cavaliers could be decided by variables outside of his play. Both the return of LeBron James and the pending acquisition of Kevin Love should factor heavily into Cleveland’s decision to either extend the power forward or let him hit restricted free agency next summer.
On the court, Thompson has been a solid but unspectacular player, posting career averages of 11.7 PPG and 9.2 RPG in three seasons since being selected No. 4 by the Cavs in the 2011 draft. His production has been very steady in those years, without major spikes in hardly any category. The most significant changes have come in his blocks (down from 1.6 per-36 as a rookie to just 0.5 per-36 last season) and free throw proficiency. Thompson switched shooting hands in 2013/14, a rare shift for a professional to pull off. His free throw shooting benefited, jumping to a respectable .693, but his percentage from the floor dropped. His career slash line is .474/.000/.630.
Averaging a near double-double in the NBA is no small feat, but of the 19 players that scored over 10 points and collected at least 9 rebounds per game in 2013/14, Thompson ranked near the bottom in win shares (16th), PER (19th), effective field goal percentage (16th), and defensive rating (17th). Defense is a particularly concerning area for Thompson, as he gave up a generous 59.1% while defending the rim last year.
Three frontcourt players from Thompson’s draft class received extensions prior to this summer, and the production and/or potential for DeMarcus Cousins, Larry Sanders, and Derrick Favors earned each annual salaries of at least $11MM in those deals. Sanders was on the low-end of those extensions, inking it after a 2012/13 season in which his per-36 numbers were significantly better than Thompson’s were this year. Sanders is also an athletic phenom in an altogether different class than Thompson, who is reportedly looking for salary in the $10MM range for an extension.
In a vacuum, Thompson’s market value would make it debatable he would even get an extension, let alone something in the ballpark of some of the league’s young post players with higher upside. Our own Chuck Myron predicted that Thompson will end up with no extension by the deadline in the Hoops Rumors Rookie Extension Primer, and how other teams would value Thompson as a free agent is unknown. The Warriors did see Thompson as a potential trade piece for a deal involving Harrison Barnes, although those were very preliminary rumblings that wouldn’t necessarily indicate a one-to-one valuation of the players, or any long-term salary considerations.
Thompson’s game doesn’t compare favorably to some fellow extension candidates that Chuck deemed long shots to receive a deal from their respective teams: Enes Kanter is a more effective low-post scorer; Markieff Morris a better all-around offensive force; and Bismack Biyombo a much more intimidating interior presence. Thompson’s agent might argue that it’s more relevant to compare his counting stats to those of Kenneth Faried, whose per-game averages aren’t significantly greater than Thompsons, but Faried was much more efficient, contributing similar numbers in fewer minutes per game. And again, Faried’s athletic prowess dwarfs that of Thompson.
With Love’s arrival, Cleveland has no shortage of offensive firepower, nor will they lack for rebounding ability with one of the game’s premier rebounding talents suiting up in wine and gold. Thompson’s moderate production in those categories is redundant to Love’s, to say the least. The Cavs’ biggest uncertainty is defense, especially after giving up Andrew Wiggins in the Love deal as expected. While LeBron is capable of playing elite defense and guarding every position on the court, center Anderson Varejao is a constant health risk, and if Love is capable of providing average interior defense, he hasn’t shown it in his time with Minnesota. New coach David Blatt is known as an offensive whiz, but whether his transition from Euroleague to the NBA will include effective defensive schematics remains to be seen.
So the presence of Love would appear to weigh heavily against Cleveland’s decision to invest in Thompson, as he is a superfluous cog on offense and a below-average defender on a team with major defensive concerns. However, Love’s arrival also speaks to one factor in Thompson’s favor: the influence of LeBron. James is said to have been instrumental in working between Love and Cleveland’s front office leading up to the trade, and he shares an agent with Thompson in Rich Paul.
Before LeBron’s return, Thompson was a trade candidate. As we noted prior to James’ return, the four-time MVP’s arrival would give Thompson leverage in seeking an extension. Sure enough, Thompson’s name was absent from trade rumblings involving Love following LeBron’s return, despite being a young, frontcourt talent whom the team was open to dealing in prior months. In an appearance on the B.S. Report podcast, Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com speculated that the Cavs will “probably” give Thompson an extension above his market value because of his shared representation with James. He suggests it will have been a “wink-wink” investment that would have been informally agreed upon to go along with LeBron’s signing in Cleveland. Such an agreement would be illegal under the CBA, but this wouldn’t be the first case of a convenient side-deal. Last summer, John Wall‘s agency negotiated a surprisingly lucrative four-year contract for teammate Martell Webster just before wrapping up a max extension for Wall in Washington.
If Thompson does receive an extension, it could be an indicator of just how influential LeBron’s management team is for the Cavs. While James isn’t expected to leave Cleveland anytime soon, his two-year deal, which includes a player option next season, gives him continued leverage with the organization. If James wields far-reaching power in Cleveland, it wouldn’t be the first case of a superstar doing as much. Phil Jackson‘s recent hiring as Knicks president ended an era in New York in which Creative Artists Agency, representing Carmelo Anthony, had its tentacles throughout the franchise, even getting J.R. Smith‘s brother an eyebrow-raising contract last season.
With plans of keeping James, Kyrie Irving, and Love for the long term, a multiyear commitment to Thompson would be a huge gamble. That All-Star trio is already slated to take up around $60MM in cap space in the coming years, and the team also faces a decision on whether to extend Dion Waiters to a rookie scale extension by next fall. On paper, the wise choice seems to be straightforward: don’t tie up most of your remaining long-term money to a player that doesn’t project to bolster your title hopes. Even if James’ camp exerts pressure on the Cavs to extend Thompson, Cleveland brass would do well to remember that the Heat just lost James in part due to cap limitations that prevented them from improving around the world’s best player, and he walked away as their championship window appeared to be closing.
Windhorst, Stein On LeBron, Love, Cavs
It’s still early, but so far our readers remain unswayed by LeBron James‘ assertion that he’s in Cleveland for the long haul, as less than 30 percent of our readers believe that the Cavaliers are the rightful favorites for the 2014/15 NBA season. Of course, we still have more than two weeks until the Kevin Love acquisition becomes official. With the framework of a deal in place, however, we can expect more behind-the-scenes details to trickle out as we wait it out.
Brian Windhorst and Marc Stein of ESPN, citing a variety of league sources, get us started with their version of the anatomy of this unique deal-to-be:
- James had been optimistic of the Cavs’ chances of landing Love, his former teammate with USA basketball, since the moment he signed with Cleveland.
- The Wolves granted the Cavs permission to speak to Love in July during trade negotiations. James and Love have also spoken multiple times over the last month about the possibility of playing together long term. As the report points out, offseason conversations between players are not regulated by the league like other anti-tampering measures.
- While Love could technically exercise his $16.7MM player option for 2015/16 as part of the trade, the UCLA product remains adamant that he wants to hit free agency next summer to maximize his next contract rather than sign an extension, regardless of the team offering it.
- As we noted earlier, Cleveland’s refusal to include Andrew Wiggins in a deal for Love began to evaporate once the team got feedback from discussions between Love and the newly signed James. Ultimately, it was James’ belief that he could convince Love to stay in Cleveland that softened the Cavs’ stance against including Wiggins in the deal.
- The framework for the deal was agreed upon shortly after Wiggins was put on the table, with owners Dan Gilbert and Glen Taylor along with front office execs David Griffin and Flip Saunders all involved in the discussions.
- It appears Love is steadfast in his desire to receive a free agent payday. But even if he wasn’t, any agreement on an extension made in principal before the deal is official could result in the league blocking the trade and punishing both teams.
Poll: Should Cavs Be The 2014/15 Favorite?
LeBron James spoke to the media on Friday night for the first time since announcing he would return to Cleveland. With the arrival of Kevin Love and the potential additions of Shawn Marion and Ray Allen to a roster that already includes the best player on the planet and a budding superstar in Kyrie Irving, the Cavaliers are undoubtedly a title contender in 2014/15. But should they be the favorites?
The Las Vegas oddsmakers say yes, and many of them were firmly in that position long before the addition of Love. However, there are plenty of external variables that go into creating those odds, some of which have nothing to do with what happens on the court. So what about from a basketball standpoint? Remember, it took LeBron’s first super squad two seasons to capture a title and that team, with an in-his-prime version of Dwyane Wade, probably had a bit more star power than this group. After all, neither Love nor Irving have played in a playoff game at this point in their careers.
Speaking of LeBron’s former Miami team, they were just dismantled by a Spurs group that looked unbeatable and remains largely intact. When it comes to things like oddsmaking and public perception, small market San Antonio has never been a sexy selection nationally. While few would doubt their potential to repeat, the idea that they aren’t hands down favorites for next season’s title suggests that their triumph in June didn’t have the impact that it should have.
With the injury to Paul George and the always-uncertain status of Derrick Rose, the Cavs might just have a clear path through the Eastern Conference. But as we saw a few months ago, that might not mean much against the loaded West. So what do you think? Does Love rightfully make the Cavs the NBA favorite in 2014/15 or should the Spurs still be the pick? Or is it someone else? Please let us know the reasoning behind your vote in the comments section.
LeBron James: “I’m Not Going Anywhere”
Speaking at a charity homecoming event in his native Akron, LeBron James insisted to reporters on Friday night that he planned to stay put in Cleveland despite signing only a two-year deal that includes an opt-out clause next summer, writes Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal. The public comments were the first by James since announcing he would return to the Cavaliers via Sports Illustrated’s Lee Jenkins.
“I’m not going anywhere,” James said. “I don’t have the energy to do it again.”
As Lloyd points out, James implied that his decision to opt for a shorter deal with the Cavs had more to do with the impending league television contract rather than a desire to keep his options open destination-wise. Depending on what happens with that TV deal, a shorter contract should put James, and other free agents with fortunate timing, in line for a significant raise should they warrant a maximum salary contract.
“At the end of the day I’m a businessman as well and I know what’s going on in our league,” James added.
James tiptoed around making comments about Kevin Love‘s arrival in Cleveland, since the deal cannot become official until August 23. LeBron did go as far as calling Love a “great piece” that “played a huge role” in Team USA capturing the gold medal in London’s 2012 Summer Olympics. Should Love help him bring Cleveland its first championship in over 50 years, James said it “would be the greatest achievement in my life as far as on the court,” as USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt writes.
As Brian Windhorst and Marc Stein of ESPN remind us, the Cavs were not initially willing to include No. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins in a deal for a Love, a stance that quickly changed after the addition of James became official. Cleveland’s confidence in retaining Love for the long-term has grown, mostly because of James, and it now appears that they’ll also be keeping the NBA’s biggest star for the foreseeable future as well.
How Salary Matching Affects Kevin Love Trade
The Kevin Love trade agreement seemed like a straightforward two-team swap Thursday, when Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported that the Wolves would send Love to the Cavs for Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett and a protected 2015 first-round pick. That structure came as something of a surprise, since rumors had indicated that a third team would be involved. There will indeed be a third team in the mix, according Mark Perner of the Philadelphia Daily News, who wrote that Sixers will jump in the deal to send Thaddeus Young to the Wolves and that Bennett will be rerouted to Philadelphia. Still, fellow Daily News scribe Bob Cooney indicates that the Young-Bennett exchange will take place as a separate transaction after the Love deal is official, a report that leaves the precise structure of the Love trade in flux.
Regardless of where Love, Wiggins, Young and the rest end up, all the moves will have to meet the NBA’s salary-matching requirements. The Sixers are unbound by the rules, since they’re under the cap, but the Wolves and Cavs are over the cap, so they must adhere to them. The stipulations germane to the Love-related moves hold that teams under the tax but over the cap, like the Cavs and Wolves, can receive 150% plus 100K of the salary that they trade away, as long as the salary they part with adds up to no more than $9.8MM. Should the Cavs or Wolves trade away more than that, they can receive up to $5MM more than the salaries they give up. A further rule applies if either the Cavs or Wolves relinquish $19.6MM or more. In that case, they’d only be able to take back 125% plus $100K of what they give up, but this limit is unlikely to come into play.
The two-team deal in the form that Wojnarowski originally reported works because the salaries for Wiggins and Bennett add up to $11,074,560. That’s more than $9.8MM, so it triggers the $5MM rule for Cleveland. Love is set to make $15,719,063 this coming season, which is $4,644,503 more than Wiggins and Bennett will make put together. It’s a tight squeeze beneath $5MM, but it still fits.
The addition of the Sixers and Young would add a layer of complexity, but it would still make for a legal trade. The Wolves would be taking back Wiggins and Young, whose salaries add up to $14,921,509, simply moving them closer in line with the salary for Love that they’re relinquishing. The only salaries the Cavs would be giving up would be those of Wiggins and Bennett, and they’d be acquiring only Love. It doesn’t matter that Bennett would be going to a different team in this scenario, as long as it’s all part of the same transaction. The Cavs would still be taking back less than $5MM more than the amount they’re giving up, which exceeds $9.8MM, so it’s kosher. The Sixers would be reducing their salary with this trade structure, dropping them farther beneath the cap.
What wouldn’t work is if the Wolves and Sixers simply swap Young and Bennett after making the Love trade that Wojnarowski originally outlined. Bennett’s $5,563,920 salary is less than $9.8MM, so Minnesota could only trade for 150% plus $100K of what Bennett makes, which would come to $8,445,880. Young’s $9,410,869 salary exceeds that, so the Wolves and Sixers couldn’t make this deal.
Minnesota is hoping to trade J.J. Barea, Luc Mbah a Moute and Alexey Shved, as Wojnarowski added when he reported the Love agreement Thursday, and Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune said the Wolves would like to unload Barea and Mbah a Moute in a deal for Young. Still, NBA rules would prohibit the Wolves from packaging Bennett along with Barea, Mbah a Moute, Shved or anyone else on the roster for two months after acquiring Bennett from the Cavs. Capped-out teams like the Wolves can flip a player for whom they just traded, but only if they send the player out by himself. Since trading Bennett alone for Young wouldn’t work, either, the Cavs and Sixers would have to wait until the two months pass for Minnesota to add enough salary to the deal to make it work.
Any trade involving Wiggins can’t be complete until August 23rd because of the 30-day waiting period the Cavs must endure after signing him, as has been much publicized. So, a separate deal that sends Young to Minnesota and Bennett to Philadelphia couldn’t be consummated until late October, weeks after the start of training camp. That wouldn’t make it impossible, of course. But it would be less than ideal.
The Sixers and Wolves could try to split the Bennett-Young deal into parts, so that Bennett would go out on his own for a draft pick. If they attempt that, there’s a decent chance the league would object on the grounds that such a maneuver would be an attempt to circumvent the rules, as Tom Moore of Calkins Media explains.
If the Sixers would consent to taking Barea, Mbah a Moute, Shved or some combination of those players back in a deal that sends out Young and nets them Bennett, Minnesota and Philadelphia could more easily accomplish this as part of the Love trade. It wouldn’t muddy the salary-matching waters for the Wolves or Cavs, and the Sixers have enough room to give up Young and take Bennett and the entire trio of Barea, Mbah a Moute and Shved without going over the cap. The Sixers probably wouldn’t agree to taking all of them, but regardless of how many of them, or even if any of them, were involved, it would be much easier for Young to end up in Minnesota and Bennett to wind up with the Sixers if it happened as part of the Love trade. If the Wolves and Sixers have that aim, expect them to accomplish it at the same time Love heads to Cleveland.
ShamSports and Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ were used in the creation of this post.
Cavs Offer First-Round Pick For Timofey Mozgov
The Cavs targeted Timofey Mozgov, offering a first-round pick to the Nuggets to entice them to part with the 7’1″ center, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports said in an appearance Thursday on WFAN Radio in New York, according to Tommy Beer of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). It’s not clear whether that offer remains on the table for Denver, but the Cavs, who are over the cap and without a trade exception, would have to send salary to the Nuggets in order for such an exchange to be feasible under the league’s salary matching rules. The Kevin Love trade agreement, in its current form, wouldn’t change that.
Cleveland has been eyeing big men to supplement Love and Anderson Varejao, as Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio reported Thursday. Mozgov would be a potential starter, having made 30 starts for the Nuggets this past season to go along with career highs in points (9.4), rebounds (6.4) and minutes (21.6) per game. The 28-year-old sealed off the rim, notching 2.0 blocks per 36 minutes, and his 16.7 PER demonstrated above-average efficiency. He’ll make $4.65MM this coming season, and his contract includes a $4.95MM team option for 2015/16.
Still, the Cavs have faith that Brendan Haywood, whom they acquired last month from the Hornets, can contribute this season, as Amico noted in the same report. Haywood’s unusually structured contract will also become an intriguing trade asset next summer, as I explained.
The Nuggets are halfway through a four-year, $44MM deal with center JaVale McGee, and Denver’s management has been anxious for him to get minutes. He’s returning from having missed most of last season because of injury, and the team also has Jusuf Nurkic, this year’s No. 16 overall pick, at center. J.J. Hickson is another option at the position, even though he’s undersized.