Eastern Notes: Knicks, Ariza, LeBron
Grant Hill says he understands what Kyrie Irving is going through, telling Sean Deveney of The Sporting News that the criticism and speculation surrounding the Cavs former No. 1 pick is par for the course. “In the NBA, that’s the epitome of it, but also what makes it difficult. The sport we are in, you constantly have to meet and surpass expectations, because you are constantly being evaluated by people. If you don’t succeed, you get traded, you get fired, you get criticized. That is what we sign up for,” said Hill. “After 19 years, you realize that’s part of the job, you are going to be evaluated and you are going to be criticized — it is not all glamour.” More from the East:
- President Phil Jackson is looking to add one or more additions to the Knicks front office, and he’s targeting a young salary cap expert to assist him and GM Steve Mills, a source tells Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The only candidate for such a position within Jackson’s inner circle would be Steve Kerr, who only appears interested in a return to coaching.
- Stein says it’s possible that Kerr could wind up coaching and bringing along a front office executive of his own, with one potential name being David Griffin, the Cavs interim GM at the moment.
- J. Michael of CSNWashington.com thinks the latest defensive performance by Trevor Ariza against Carmelo Anthony is a reminder that the Wizards should do what it takes to retain the small forward when he becomes an unrestricted free agent this summer. Ariza is shooting a career best from three this season, and has helped Washington reach the playoffs after a long drought.
- Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel thinks the Heat should pay whatever it takes in tax penalties to keep LeBron James. Since James’ salary is limited by the CBA to a value much below his practical worth for Miami, Winderman says exceeding the tax to provide him with a quality supporting cast is one way they can make up the virtual salary gap to him.
- Cody Taylor at Basketball Insiders looks at what it will take for the Magic to turnaround their franchise as they continue the rebuilding process.
- Ed Rendell of The Philadelphia Daily News thinks that the Sixers rebuilding strategy is brilliant, and sees it paying off with a competitive team next season.
Central Notes: Irving, Sanders, Siva
Larry Sanders apologized to Bucks fans for his recently announced drug suspension, but was defensive about his use of marijuana, telling Charles F. Gardner of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he disagrees with its status as a banned substance. “It’s a banned substance in my league. But I believe in marijuana and the medical side of it.” said Sanders. “The stigma is that it’s illegal. I hate that. Once this becomes legal, this all will go away. But I understand for my work it’s a banned substance. I will deal with the consequences and I apologize again to my fans for that.” Here’s more from the Central Division:
- Sanders added that he’s excited to work this summer, and believes he can put this year’s troubles behind him next season, when the first year of his four-year, $44MM extension kicks in. “I’ll be better from this. I’ve learned a lot already from this year. I’m going to continue to learn. I hate that this is a negative impact on my fans and my family or the organization,” Sanders said.
- In a series of tweets, Cavs star Kyrie Irving made it known that he’s upset with with the ongoing rumors about his desire to leave Cleveland (H/T Jodie Valade of The Plain Dealer). Irving says that he’s tired of the negative attention, and denied that any speculation about his thought process attributed to his camp has any merit.
- The Pistons have given increased playing time to rookie Peyton Siva, who tells Vincent Ellis of The Detroit Free Press he’s better adjusted to the speed of the game than he was early in the season. “I feel a lot more comfortable out there. I feel more confident in my skills and within myself to go out there and play,” said Siva. “I’m definitely looking forward to playing more and transitioning from what I’ve been showing in practice to the game. I just want to go out there and prove my worth. Continue to play hard and try to help my team win.”
And-Ones: Pacers, Lowry, Raptors, Magic
The Pacers started the season 41-13, but since the trade that brought Evan Turner to Indiana, the team has gone 12-11, and not looked at all like a championship contender, writes Michael Kaskey-Blomain of Philly.com. It’s not all Turner’s fault, opines Kaskey-Blomain, and in the article he breaks down what has gone wrong for the team.
More from the east:
- Tommy Beer of Basketball Insiders breaks down the true cost of guaranteed contracts in the NBA.
- The news that the Raptors plan to re-sign Kyle Lowry doesn’t surprise Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun (Twitter link). Wolstat mentions that there aren’t many eastern teams that have cap space and are in need of a point guard, which would limit Lowry’s options should he want to depart after the season.
- Wolstat also tweeted that while it’s always possible Lowry could depart, the player just built a home, which would make the Lakers a long shot because of the distance. Another team that has expressed interest in Lowry, the Knicks, don’t have the cap space to sign him, notes Wolstat.
- Jazz player development coach Alex Jensen has a bright coaching future in the NBA, writes Mike Sorensen of The Deseret News.
- It wasn’t that long ago when the Magic were a contender in the Eastern Conference, writes Cody Taylor of Basketball Insiders. Taylor lays out the steps the team needs to take in order for the organization to rebuild quickly.
Windhorst On Cavs: Thompson, Hawes, Griffin
Robert Attenweiler of Cavs:The Blog.com chatted with ESPN’s Brian WIndhorst about the Cavs. The entire article is worth a read, but here are some of the highlights from their Q & A session:
- Windhorst believes re-signing Tristan Thompson is very dangerous. He thinks the team shouldn’t extend him this summer and let him test his market in free agency. Thompson is looking for a salary in the $10MM range, and Windhorst doesn’t think the team should pay more than $8MM.
- He believes Spencer Hawes has a future with the Cavs, but only at a salary similar to his current $6.5MM. Windhorst mentions that Cleveland will need to overpay to attract unrestricted free agents, but long-term deals to players like Hawes and Luol Deng carry big risks.
- The team most likely won’t keep David Griffin as GM beyond this season, Windhorst opines. He believes that team owner Dan Gilbert will “swing for the moon” and go out and make a big name hire.
- One of those names might be Isiah Thomas. Windhorst says that, “Thomas wants the job really bad. He’s pretty much out in New York. His influence is over. He’s met with Gilbert a couple of times – they had lunch or dinner together – and he really wants it. I think Gilbert is charmed by him, as everyone else is.“
- Windhorst believes that Kyrie Irving wants out of Cleveland. He says, “The truth is [Kyrie’s] camp has been putting out there for years – years – that he doesn’t want to be in Cleveland. That they don’t want him in Cleveland. He doesn’t like Mike Brown. He didn’t like Chris Grant. He doesn’t like Dion Waiters. He’s already gotten a General Manager fired. He might get Mike Brown fired. This is the last time – once he signs he loses all of his leverage – so this is the last time he gets to enact leverage. I know he’s said all the right things so, fine, on July 1, when they offer a max contract – which they will – and I don’t even know if he’s a max player, but you have to sign him – sign a five-year, no out. That’s what a max contract is. A max contract is five years, no out. If you want out or you want three years, that’s not a max contract. You want three years? Okay, we’ll give you $12MM a year. We’re not giving you the full thing.”
- He doesn’t think Irving leaving would have a negative effect on their chances to lure LeBron James back to town. Windhorst believes the team would have to trade Irving to accommodate LeBron, and said, “LeBron and Kyrie have drifted apart in the last few years, even to the point that if the Cavs wanted to get LeBron they would maybe trade Kyrie for someone who would fit better with LeBron.”
Kennedy Notes: Draft, Gasol, Sixers
Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders held his weekly chat. He touched on a number of topics, and some of the highlights are listed below:
- Kennedy believes the biggest sleeper pick in the upcoming NBA Draft is Wichita State’s Cleanthony Early. He also believes the player most likely to be taken too high is Kentucky’s Willie Cauley-Stein.
- Pau Gasol is most likely done with the Lakers after this season, opines Kennedy. He cites the Lakers’ desire to have cap flexibility heading into the summer of 2015, as well as Gasol’s reluctance to be part of a rebuild.
- On who the Sixers will take in the draft, Kennedy believes the team will simply select the best two players available. His draft scenario has the team selecting Andrew Wiggins and Dario Saric.
- He doesn’t believe that Victor Oladipo is the long term answer for the Magic at point guard. Kennedy believes the team should look at drafting Dante Exum and keeping Oladipo at shooting guard.
- Kennedy also believes the rumors that Kyrie Irving wants out of Cleveland. He opines that Irving might sign an extension and then demand a trade from the Cavs.
Bulls, Cavs, Bobcats Likely To Target Pau Gasol
The Bulls, Cavaliers and Bobcats will likely court Pau Gasol in free agency this summer, executives from around the league tell Chris Mannix of SI.com. The executives add that the Grizzlies will be in the mix, too, if Zach Randolph opts out, echoing a report from last month. The Arn Tellem client, who’ll turn 34 in July, has a decent chance to receive an offer worth $10MM a year, a front office official from an Eastern Conference team says to Mannix.
That Eastern exec suggests that there are two schools of thought regarding Gasol, with his most aggressive suitors believing that the environment in Los Angeles and the Lakers’ style of play have hindered Gasol the past two seasons, and that an escape could revive his career. Others insist that Gasol is past his prime, the unnamed exec tells Mannix.
Gasol has said he won’t rule out a return to the Lakers, and according to Mannix, the Lakers feel the same away about re-signing the 7-footer. Teammate and friend Kobe Bryant has said he believes there’s an 80% chance the Lakers will bring back Gasol, but Bryant and Gasol reportedly would like to see coach Mike D’Antoni replaced, and the Lakers appear to be leaning toward keeping D’Antoni. Gasol, who appears likely to miss the rest of the season with vertigo, tells Mannix that a team’s chances of winning will be paramount as he makes his decision.
“I want to be in a team that is going to be built to win a championship,” Gasol said. “That’s my top priority. Money won’t be the main priority. Length and money are factors, but we’ll see. Until I know all the options, I won’t be able to measure them. But we’re getting close to the end of my career. I want to be in a good situation. It’s an important decision to make.”
The Bulls and Grizzlies appear to be closest to winning a championship among the suitors that Mannix lists. Executives have doubts about Charlotte’s ability to defend with Gasol and Al Jefferson as their primary rim protectors, as the SI.com scribe notes. The Cavs were deep in talks with the Lakers about acquiring Gasol via trade when Cleveland was shopping Andrew Bynum in January.
Team Options And Restricted Free Agency
Every rookie scale contract in the league, by rule, includes a pair of team options. Otherwise, team options are rare. NBA clubs prefer the flexibility of non-guaranteed seasons instead, since they allow the team to cut ties with the player at any point before the leaguewide guarantee date of January 7th. Team options must either be exercised or declined before the NBA’s calendar flips over on July 1st. (Rookie scale options must be exercised or declined on October 31st the year before the option season would begin.) Players, too, can benefit from the greater flexibility of a non-guaranteed contract, since they can earn a portion of their salary if they remain on the roster for a partial season.
Still, a growing number of free agents are signing contracts with team options. Of the 13 existing NBA contracts that include team options for future seasons and aren’t rookie scale deals, 11 have been signed since this past July. A handful of those contracts last four seasons, and there’s a compelling reason for teams to structure deals that way for second-round picks and undrafted players.
Chandler Parsons is Exhibit A. The Rockets haven’t informed Parsons about whether they intend to decline his option, worth about $965K, for next season, as Parsons tells Grantland’s Zach Lowe. Under most circumstances, Houston’s decision would be a no-brainer. Parsons has far outperformed his deal, signed after the Rockets took him in the second round of the 2011 draft, and having him for an additional season at a cost of less than $1MM would give the team one of the league’s best bargains. What makes his case so intriguing is that undrafted players and second-round picks, like Parsons, can be restricted free agents if their contracts end before their fourth seasons. So, the Rockets could decline their option and have the right to match other teams’ offers for their small forward. Houston wouldn’t have that right in 2015 if the team exercised its option on Parsons, who’d become an unrestricted free agent when his contract ends after 2014/15.
The team option gives Houston a choice that a non-guaranteed season wouldn’t. If 2014/15 were a non-guaranteed year for Parsons, rather than an option year, the Rockets could only make him a free agent this summer if they waived him, and he’d be an unrestricted free agent, and not a restricted one, if he cleared waivers.
Three other teams did deals this year that mimic the Parsons contract, and it’s not surprising that the Sixers are one of them. GM Sam Hinkie was the executive vice president of basketball operations for the Rockets when they signed Parsons. Philadelphia signed two undrafted rookies this season to four-year contracts with a team option in the fourth year. The contracts for Brandon Davies and Hollis Thompson, just like the one for Parsons, aren’t fully guaranteed in the seasons leading up to the option. Davies signed his deal without any guarantee at all, while Thompson received a tiny partial guarantee of $35K for this season.
Neither Davies nor Thompson has guaranteed salary on his respective option year. That means that the Sixers could pick up their options and still cut ties with them before opening night without owing them any money that year, just as with a regular non-guaranteed season. Parsons has a partial guarantee on his salary next season. If the Rockets and Sixers exercise their options, those contracts will become just like any other deal that isn’t fully guaranteed. The only difference will be that their teams will have had a chance to make them restricted free agents, a valuable resource in case the player, as Parsons did, blossoms into a sought-after commodity.
Rockets GM Daryl Morey and his disciple aren’t the only ones who’ve caught on. Former Cavs GM Chris Grant signed Carrick Felix, the 33rd overall pick in the 2013 draft, to a four-year deal with a team option in the final season. In Felix’s case, the only non-guaranteed money is in the third year, and the fourth year is fully guaranteed providing the Cavs exercise their option. Hawks GM Danny Ferry, Grant’s former boss in Cleveland, produced the latest iteration of this trend when he pried 2013 second-rounder Mike Muscala from his Spanish league contract in February to bring him stateside. Muscala’s four-year deal is 50% guaranteed next season but henceforth completely non-guaranteed, and that includes the fourth-year option season.
Not every team has the flexibility to make four-year offers. Teams need either cap space or a portion of the non-taxpayer’s mid-level exception to sign rookies for four years. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more contracts like these in the future, especially if the Rockets use their team option on Parsons this summer and other teams hesitate to give him an offer. Teams may become more hesistant to use their full mid-level on veteran free agents so they can leave room to sign one or two intriguing young players to four-year deals.
It’s unlikely that Thompson, Davies, Felix or Muscala will ever become as valuable as Parsons is, and there’s a decent chance that their teams will waive them long before the option year comes around. Still, the Rockets, Sixers, Cavs and Hawks had nothing to lose, and neither would any team that does a similar deal. It’s a smart play that can look even smarter over time.
ShamSports and Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ were used in the creation of this post.
And-Ones: Ujiri, Coaches, Gibson
Raptors GM Masai Ujiri tells Bruce Arthur of The National Post that Toronto was very close to a drastic roster overhaul following the Rudy Gay trade earlier this year, but that the decision to give Kyle Lowry and his teammates a chance to perform has paid off. “[We came] very, very close [to a different path],” Ujiri said. “I think it was clear for us that after the Rudy Gay trade we were going to see how this whole thing was going to play out … but one thing that really encouraged me was that Kyle, I think Kyle really grew up. We had some honest discussions, and some honest challenges.” Here’s a rundown of the rest of the league’s notes:
- In a video spot, Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders discusses which NBA coaches are on the hot seat, and which available coaches are the hottest candidates for next season.
- Daniel Gibson drew interest from NBA teams prior to the deadline, but the former Cavs guard remains unsigned and is focusing on returning to the league next season instead, as he tells Rodney “Mehka” King of Baller Mind Frame.
- Jessica Camerato of Basketball Insiders takes a look at what it will take to move the Celtics rebuild along and deliver a winning team. Boston will look to work some magic in the draft and trade market, while making long-term decisions about Rajon Rondo and Jeff Green.
Southeast Rumors: Zeller, Oladipo, Harris
While the Heat are the only team in the Southeast Division more than three games above .500, the division is full of relative successes in a down year for the Eastern Conference. If the Hawks can hang on to the eighth seed, the division should send four teams to the postseason, and even the last-place Magic have improved upon their record from last year. More from the relatively strong division:
- After shooting just 38% and struggling to stay on the floor without fouling in his first 55 games with the Bobcats, Cody Zeller has had more success in recent games. The fourth pick from the 2013 draft tells Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer that he is adjusting to the speed of the game. “You’ve got to be really into the details. There was stuff I could get away with in college on athleticism or being stronger than the other guy. Here everybody is just that athletic and just that strong,” said Zeller.
- Victor Oladipo tells John Denton of Magic.com that while he often wonders what might have been had the Cavs selected him first-overall in last year’s draft, he’s happy he landed with the Magic. “First off, I was happy for (Anthony Bennett) because that’s a great accomplishment for someone to say that they were picked No. 1,’’ Oladipo said. “At the same time, I was just wondering where I was going. Then, I ended up going here, so I didn’t have to wait too long. It was a pretty amazing feeling.”
- In a separate Denton feature, Oladipo cautions incoming draftees that the NBA is tougher than they might think. “I don’t want to say that it was a rude awakening for me, but it definitely gave me a different perspective on the league. You have to be on your A-game in this league because you’re going against the best,” said Oladipo, who only gives his rookie season with the Magic a “D” grade.
- After a frustratingly slow start to the season due to injury, Magic forward Tobias Harris is adjusting to his role off the bench, telling Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel he’s happy with his improved consistency. “That was my goal going into the year: just to be consistent game-in and game-out and just to get better every game,” Harris said. “I think that’s probably one of the biggest improvements I’ve made.”
Eastern Notes: Hopson, Augustin, Heat
The Cavs used the room exception to sign Scotty Hopson on Monday, but because the maximum 4.5% raise permitted via the exception is tied to what he actually makes, rather than the exception’s full value, Hopson isn’t a particularly intriguing trade chip. Mark Deeks of ShamSportsexplains the matter in his latest piece for the Score, noting that Hopson’s salary of about $1.37MM this season and $1.44MM next season is roughly equivalent to what a veteran of 10 seasons or more would make on a minimum-salary deal. Hopson is ineligible to be traded until July 10th, meaning he’s of no use for a draft-night trade.
More news from around the east:
- Since being picked up by the Bulls after Toronto waived him in December, D.J. Augustin has averaged 14.3 PPG on nearly 42 percent shooting, including 41 percent from 3-point range, in 30.4 minutes per contest. He’s set to become an unrestricted free agent after the season, but would love to return to Chicago, writes Cody Westerlund of CBSChicago.com.
- The Heat‘s “Big Three” of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh can all become free-agents after the season. There has been speculation that one or all three would consider leaving Miami, but before making any decision, the trio plan to sit down together to discuss their options, writes Darren Rovell of ESPN.com.
- Phil Jackson has been to only two of the eight games the Knicks have played since he took over their basketball department. Some say Jackson should be with the team as much as possible to get to know the players and staff and help them in any way he can as they try to make their playoff push, but Carmelo Anthony is not one of them, writes Al Iannazzone of Newsday. Anthony said, “He’s smart. He knows what he’s doing. He’s been in this situation before with fighting for spots and trying to win basketball games. So he knows what to expect, and now he’s on the outside looking in. I guess he’s giving us our space. We’re not really concerned about that.”
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.