Monta Ellis Opts Out
WEDNESDAY, 2:49pm: The deadline passed without an opt-in from Ellis, so he has officially opted out, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (on Twitter).
11:29am: Agent Jeff Fried confirms to MacMahon that Ellis will opt out. Fried expressed that Ellis would be interested in re-signing with Dallas, as MacMahon relays, though the Mavs don’t appear to have strong reciprocal desire for that. The Pacers and Heat are interested, as we passed along in a separate post.
9:59am: Ellis has decided to opt out, a source tells MacMahon (Twitter link).
TUESDAY, 9:00am: A 90% chance exists that Monta Ellis will opt out from the Mavs to hit free agency next week, as has been expected, a source tells Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News. Ellis has until midnight tonight to decide. The news comes in the wake of a Tuesday evening report from Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com indicating that the Mavs would be likely to pursue a trade that would send Ellis away if he were to opt in. Dallas would seek a draft pick in that scenario, as MacMahon writes in a full story, and the team would target Emmanuel Mudiay in particular, according to Sefko, who suggests Dallas would try to bundle its first-round pick, at No. 21, with Ellis in trade proposals.
Trading Ellis for a pick would help the team’s free agency push, clearing the $8.72MM salary that he would receive if he were to opt in. Still, the Mavs would have the cap hold for that pick to contend with if they brought back a first-rounder. Sefko suggests that MacMahon’s report that the Mavs would look to trade him if he opted in is helping sway him to opt out instead. I wouldn’t be surprised if the team advanced the idea of trading him for just that purpose, though that’s just my speculation. If Ellis opts out, the Mavs can renounce his rights and wouldn’t have to bother with any cap hit for him. The team has no intention of giving Ellis the raise he’d seek if he were to opt out, MacMahon hears.
The Mavs have about $32MM in guaranteed salary on the books as it stands against a projected $67.1MM cap. Ellis just compiled his lowest scoring average, 18.9, since 2006/07, though it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Relativity Sports client nonetheless command eight-figure salaries in free agency, if he indeed opts out.
Al-Farouq Aminu Opts Out
JUNE 25TH: Aminu has officially opted out, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (on Twitter).
2:24pm: The Mavs want to re-sign Aminu, as GM Donnie Nelson made clear today, Sneed tweets.
APRIL 29TH, 2:09pm: Mavs forward Al-Farouq Aminu said today that he’ll turn down his minimum-salary player option with the Mavs for next season, according to Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com (Twitter link). Aminu nonetheless expressed his affection for the city of Dallas and the Mavs, Sneed notes, and he said he’d love to re-sign, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com (on Twitter).
The news is no shock, since Aminu proved a valuable part of the Mavs rotation even as he recorded his fewest minutes (18.5) and points (5.6) per game since his rookie season. His 14.4 PER set a new career high, and ESPN ranks him sixth among small forwards this season in its Defensive Real Plus/Minus metric. He saw equal time at small forward and power forward, according to Basketball-Reference, and he’d rank seventh in Defensive Real Plus/Minus among players at the four.
He upped his production in the Mavs’ five-game playoff loss to the Rockets with 11.2 points and 7.2 rebounds in 30.0 minutes per contest, buoyed by uncharacteristic 7 for 11 three-point shooting. Dallas will have Non-Bird rights on the Raymond Brothers client to give him 20% more than the $1,100,602 value of the option, though that isn’t much spending power, meaning the Mavs will likely have to use cap space or the mid-level or biannual exceptions. The Mavs only have about $28MM in commitments for next season, so there’s a strong chance the team opens cap space.
Western Rumors: Lakers, Russell, Warriors
League sources tell Jake Fischer of SI (on Twitter) that the Lakers were always going to select whoever was available between Karl Towns and Jahlil Okafor at No. 2. The guards they worked out, like D’Angelo Russell, were only brought in as a smokescreen, according to those sources. However, with so much talk about Russell being the pick at No. 2 today, it’s hard to say what their intentions are. Here’s more from the West on one of the NBA calendar’s craziest days..
- Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group (on Twitter) heard that one team’s asking price to take David Lee‘s contract off the Warriors‘ hands was Harrison Barnes and the No. 30 pick. As Thompson writes, Warriors management probably laughed that offer off.
- At this stage, the Warriors are not working to move Lee’s contract, Jake Fischer of SI tweets. At this point, their looking to move up in the first round, though it’s not clear who their target is. The Warriors own the No. 30 pick in the draft.
- Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak will have the final say on what the team does with the pick, assuming they keep it, according to Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times, who spoke with a person familiar with the situation. The GM will receive input from team executive Jim Buss, Lakers scouting director Jesse Buss, and other scouts, but the last call will be his.
- The Timberwolves are looking to acquire an additional first-round pick, according to Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (on Twitter).
- The Rockets have had trade discussions with the Timberwolves, Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN tweets. Houston likes Ricky Rubio, but Wolfson says that it’s hard to see a match there. However, if the Wolves do move to No. 18, Tyus Jones is probably atop their target list (link). Meanwhile, there have been no talks yet between the Wolves and Mavs, who own the No. 21 pick (link).
- The Blazers have internally discussed options to grab Kristaps Porzingis since his ASM pro day, Jake Fischer of SI tweets.
Mavs Interested In Danny Green
The Mavericks are targeting soon-to-be free agent Danny Green in the wake of Monta Ellis‘ decision to opt out, reports Shams Charania of RealGM. Green has expressed interest in re-signing with the Spurs, and that’s a strong desire of his, Charania confirms, and while San Antonio would like to make that happen, the Spurs would appear to have more pressing priorities as Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili linger over their decisions about whether or not to play next season.
San Antonio would reportedly like to pursue a marquee free agent before circling back and re-signing Kawhi Leonard to a five-year max deal, a maneuver that would allow the team to temporarily keep Leonard’s relatively cheap cap hold on the books, rather than a max figure. The Spurs are apparently targeting LaMarcus Aldridge and Marc Gasol, among others, though they face competition from the Mavs, among others, for Aldridge, and Dallas appears to be Aldridge’s top choice outside of Portland. Clearing the cap space necessary to sign one of those star targets could require San Antonio to renounce Green’s cap hold of nearly $7.648MM, erasing the team’s ability to exceed the salary cap to re-sign him without the use of an exception or extra cap room.
Green may well be out of San Antonio’s price range in that scenario. An executive who spoke to Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops this season said he wouldn’t mind paying $6MM a year for Green, and Charania speculates that the three-and-D swingman could command $10-12MM annual salaries. The full mid-level exception is just $5.434MM.
Dallas has only about $32MM on the books for next season, leaving enough room against a projected $67.1MM cap to target Aldridge or DeAndre Jordan and sign another free agent to an eight-figure deal. The Mavs would like to re-sign Tyson Chandler if they miss out on Jordan, though a three-and-D wing is just what they’d be looking for in the event they land Jordan, as Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com recently wrote.
Mavs Likely To Shop Monta Ellis If He Opts In
The Mavericks are likely to try and trade Monta Ellis if he exercises his player option for next season, Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com reports (Twitter link). The veteran guard has an option worth $8,720,000 for the 2015/16 campaign, and Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News reported earlier this month that the deadline for Ellis to make a decision was June 24th. The shooting guard is expected to opt out in search of a more lucrative contract. Dallas, without any player options taken into account, has roughly $28MM on the books for next season.
An Ellis opt-out would present the Mavs with a difficult decision. He led the team in scoring but slumped in the second half and shot just 16.9% from three-point range in regular season games after the All-Star break. However, he did make 11 of 30 three-point attempts during the playoffs. Ellis has probably played his way into making eight-figure salaries again after two years of pulling in an average of a little more than $8MM with the Mavs, Hoops Rumors’ Chuck Myron wrote in his offseason outlook for the team.
The benefit of Ellis opting out and becoming an unrestricted free agent is that it would free up additional cap space for the team to pursue free agent LaMarcus Aldridge and retain Tyson Chandler. That potential series of moves would give Dirk Nowitzki a role off the bench, which is something he is willing to consider. Though, if he did opt in and the team were to trade him for a player whose contract packs a lower cap hit, or one who is on a non-guaranteed deal, this could aid Dallas in its free agent dealings this summer.
The 29-year-old appeared in 80 games for the Mavs last season, averaging 18.9 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 4.1 assists in 33.7 minutes per contest. His shooting numbers were .445/.285/.752.
Raymond Felton Opts In With Mavs
JUNE 22ND: The point guard has formally opted in, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. He’s been involved in a couple of trade rumors since the last report.
MAY 18TH: Felton and one of his representatives has told the Mavs that the Wasserman Media Group client will indeed opt in, several sources told Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News today. Neither Felton nor his camp has filed the official paperwork yet, but they have until June 23rd to do so, according to Sefko. That’s six days earlier than the usual June 29th decision date on player options. Sefko also reveals that Monta Ellis has a June 24th deadline on his player option worth $8.72MM. There’s been no indication that Ellis has decided whether to opt in or opt out. Dallas, without any player options taken into account, has about $28MM on the books for next season.
MAY 8TH: Mavericks guard Raymond Felton will file paperwork to exercise his $3.9MM player option for next season, league sources told Shams Charania of RealGM. Felton, 30, saw time in just 29 regular season games last season.
The Mavs’ backcourt was hit hard by injuries in the spring and coach Rick Carlisle offered high praise of the veteran guard’s play during that time.
“He’s a high-integrity guy. He really is,” said Carlisle. “He’s a high-integrity competitor. There hasn’t been one time this year where he’s dropped his head or pouted. When he was hurt, when he came back and there weren’t minutes right away, he’s just remained consistently professional and he kept working extremely hard, which shows now that he’s getting an opportunity to play.”
Thanks to Felton’s ankle injury and the four-game suspension he was issued with after pleading guilty to a gun charge, the guard didn’t make his regular season debut until late December. Felton has averaged 12.7 PPG and 6.3 APG over the course of his career with the Bobcats, Knicks, Blazers, Nuggets, and Mavs.
Clippers Explore Potential Jamal Crawford Trades
MONDAY, 4:33pm: Chandler is indeed an object of the Clippers’ interest, Markazi clarifies via Twitter. He’s on a lengthy list of Clippers small forward targets that includes soon-to-be free agents Pierce, Mike Dunleavy and Al-Farouq Aminu, according to Dan Woike of the Orange County Register (Twitter link).
THURSDAY, 12:10pm: The Clippers are investigating the possibility of trading Jamal Crawford, sources tell Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com, who writes amid a story about the impact of Monday trade acquisition Lance Stephenson. One option would be to trade Crawford and C.J. Wilcox to the Nuggets for Wilson Chandler, according to Markazi, though it’s unclear from the report which side, if either, has interest in such a deal.
Crawford’s salary of $5.675MM is only guaranteed for $1.5MM if he’s waived by the end of June 30th, though he remains a productive player who doesn’t seem like a candidate for a purely salary-clearing move. Still, the arrival of Stephenson, who plays Crawford’s positions, would appear to give L.A. less of a need for the two-time Sixth Man of the Year award winner.
Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers told Fred Roggin of The Beat 980 this week that he’s looking for a starting small forward to replace Matt Barnes, whom the team sent out in the Stephenson trade, as Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times relayed via Twitter. The team is reportedly interested in Paul Pierce should he opt out from the Wizards. Chandler, who’ll make nearly $7.172MM on an expiring contract next season after the Nuggets let his partial guarantee date pass this spring, would probably fit that bill, too, though this past season was only the second in his eight-year NBA career in which he started at least 70 games.
Crawford switched agents recently, joining the Wasserman Media Group, and while his contract runs through next season, it’s perhaps a sign that he anticipated change in the nearer future. Wilcox, last year’s 28th overall pick, saw only 101 total minutes this past season, and while he has a guaranteed salary of nearly $1.16MM coming his way for 2015/16, a decision is due by October 31st on the $1.2MM-plus third-year team option attached to his rookie scale contract.
Mavs Notes: Oden, Villanueva, Ellis
Earlier today, it was reported that Greg Oden will work out for the Mavs as part of a mini-camp the team is conducting. Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com (Twitter link) adds that Oden is on a list with guys like Samuel Dalembert and Jermaine O’Neal for a potential minimum-salary arrangement to be one of the team’s backup big men. Charlie Villanueva, Amar’e Stoudemire and Greg Smith are all free agents this summer, leaving Dwight Powell as the only remaining big man under contract that primarily came off the bench last season.
Here’s more from Dallas:
- The team would welcome back Villanueva if he is willing to play for the veteran’s minimum again, MacMahon writes. The forward enjoyed playing in Dallas last season, which included his first career playoff appearance. “I like my role,” Villanueva said. “I embraced it, I accepted it. I’ve been in the league for 10 years and been coached by nine different coaches. I would love to experience the same coach again next year, but we’ll see.”
- The Mavericks’ entire offseason hinges on Monta Ellis‘ decision to either opt in or out of his contract, Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News opines. The shooting guard is expected to opt out in search of a more lucrative contract. If Ellis leaves in free agency, it would leave a huge void in the team’s backcourt. However, Sefko notes it would free up additional cap space to pursue LaMarcus Aldridge and retain Tyson Chandler. That potential series of moves would give Dirk Nowitzki a role off the bench, which is something he is willing to consider.
Greg Oden Working Out For Hornets, Mavs
5:44pm: Oden also worked out for the Hornets last week, and indeed did so for the Grizzlies earlier this spring, Charania reports as part of a full story.
5:42pm: Greg Oden will work out for the Mavericks this week as part of a mini-camp the team is conducting, reports Shams Charania of RealGM, citing league sources (Twitter link). Mini-camps are usually the domain of players merely trying to latch on for summer league, but it nonetheless represents another small step in the latest comeback effort for the former No. 1 overall pick. The Grizzlies had been thinking about bringing in Oden for a mini-camp of their own, as Charania reported last month.
Oden sat out this past season as he faced multiple charges related to domestic violence. He avoided jail time as part of a plea agreement in February in which he pleaded guilty to a felony battery charge and the three other charges against him were dismissed.
The now 27-year-old Oden, whom the Blazers took first in the 2007 draft, played sparingly for the Heat in 2013/14, averaging 2.9 points and 2.3 rebounds in 9.2 minutes per game across 23 regular season appearances. It was the first NBA action since the 2009/10 season for the oft-injured 7-footer.
Western Notes: Warriors, Mudiay, Hunt
Now that the Warriors have secured the NBA title, the team enters the offseason with the goal of keeping its young core intact while still improving itself, Diamond Leung of The Bay Area News Group writes. “When you have the success that we had, you like to keep it together as much as possible,” Golden State GM Bob Myers said. “It doesn’t mean you don’t open your eyes to see what else is out there, but if it’s a close call, you always want to retain the talent that got you a championship. I think if we’re going to lean in a direction, it’s the continuity, which is something we’ve tried to build here, and certainly at least it worked for this year.” One of the Warriors’ priorities this summer is to re-sign restricted free agent Draymond Green, who is in line for a hefty increase from his 2014/15 salary of $915,243.
Here’s what else is happening around the Western Conference:
- The Kings have been unsuccessful thus far in getting point guard Emmanuel Mudiay to work out for the team, Sean Cunningham of News 10 Sacramento tweets. Mudiay’s representatives believe that he’ll be off the board prior to Sacramento selecting with the No. 6 overall pick, Cunningham adds.
- Arizona defensive whiz Rondae Hollis-Jefferson‘s scheduled workout with the Jazz on Friday was cancelled due to travel issues, Jody Genessy of The Deseret News relays (Twitter link). It’s unclear if the showcase will be rescheduled prior to the draft. Hollis-Jefferson is already expected to work out for the Kings on Monday.
- Mavs coach Rick Carslile has confirmed reports that former Nuggets interim coach Melvin Hunt will be joining his staff as an assistant, Marc Stein of ESPN.com relays (Twitter links). Hunt will replace assistant Monte Mathis, who has been offered the job as head coach of Mavs’ D-League affiliate if he does not obtain another position outside of the organization, Stein adds.