Mavericks Waive Bernard James
The Mavericks have waived Bernard James, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (via Twitter). Dallas tried hard to avoid losing James but were forced to in order to create enough cap room to sign guard Monta Ellis.
Dallas hopes to re-sign James, but that could prove to be difficult as he is an athletic, blossoming big man who earns less than $1MM per season. The left-handed center saw just 9.9 minutes per contest last season and averaged 2.8 PPG. Despite his limited burn, rival teams see decent potential in the Florida State product.
Texas Notes: Mavs, Dalembert, Rockets, Camby
Here’s a look at the latest from the Lone Star State..
- Tim Cowlishaw of the Dallas Morning News isn’t impressed by the Mavericks‘ aging starting five of Shawn Marion, Dirk Nowitzki, and new additions Samuel Dalembert, Jose Calderon, and Monta Ellis. Four of the five are older than 32 and Ellis has seen his field goal percentage drop from inside the arc and from long range.
- Mavericks rookie Ricky Ledo is ready to prove himself in Dallas, writes ESPNDallas.com’s Bryan Gutierrez. The Mavs traded for the No. 43 pick to land Ledo, who techically came out of Providence but never suited up for a game due to academic issues. “Ledo is a very good prospect at the guard position. He’s a very young kid and this is the beginning of a process for him,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “We know he has NBA ability and we like him as a person. We’re going to work hard with him.“
- The Rockets are a leading candidate for center Marcus Camby, but they’ll need a better backup center option if they trade Omer Asik, opines Matt Moore of CBSSports.com. Camby is 39-years-old and even though he can rebound and defend a bit, they’ll need something more reliable given his age.
Odds & Ends: World Peace, Jennings, Barbosa
- Brandon Jennings is no lock to return to the Bucks, tweets Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times, who says the team is still looking at other point guards.
- The Mavs won't comment on a Brazilian report that the team has been in contact with free agent Leandro Barbosa, notes Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News.
- The Rockets have drawn mention as one of the front-runners for Marcus Camby this week, and agent Rick Kaplan confirms to Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston that the team is a leading candidate, referring to Houston as Camby's "adopted hometown" (All Twitter links).
- Patrick O'Bryant, the ninth overall pick in the 2006 draft, is hoping to return to the NBA, but he's only drawn interest from foreign clubs so far the summer, reports Shams Charania of RealGM.com. O'Bryant last appeared in the Association with the Raptors in 2008/09.
- Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov will likely lose upwards of $50MM this year as he presides over an NBA-record expenditure on the team's roster, writes Kurt Badenhausen of Forbes.com (hat tip to Nets Daily).
- Shaun Powell of Sports on Earth previews next year's star-laden free agent class, arguing that no team has greater stakes on the outcome of the summer of 2014 than the Lakers do.
- Mark Madsen earned a quick promotion after the Lakers hired him in May to coach their D-League team. The Lakers today officially named Madsen and Larry Lewis as assistants on coach Mike D'Antoni's staff.
Southwest Rumors: Oden, Pelicans, Mavs, Miller
The Spurs made a valiant run in the NBA Finals, and the Rockets made the most impressive splash of the summer when they signed Dwight Howard. The other three teams in the Southwest Division have a lot of catching up to do, and there's news tonight on each of them:
- The Pelicans have been expected to make an offer to Greg Oden, but they haven't done so yet, according to John Reid of the The Times Picayune, who hears that the team will meet with the former No. 1 overall pick next week in Indianapolis. The Pelicans are willing to offer a one-year deal with incentives that could lift the value to $3MM, Reid hears, which jibes with a similar report earlier this week from Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports.
- Dallas announced the signing of Samuel Dalembert tonight, but as expected, the Mavs are still in the market for Oden, tweets Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
- The Grizzlies have reached out to Mike Miller in an attempt to meet with the free agent sharpshooter, report Ron Higgins and Marlon W. Morgan of the Memphis Commercial Appeal. The Thunder appear to be in the lead for Miller.
- Austin Daye became an unrestricted free agent when the Grizzlies declined to make him a qualifying offer last month, and he tells Shams Charania of RealGM.com that he's been in talks with several teams. Daye says he hasn't worked out for any teams, but Jared Zwerling of ESPNNewYork.com reported yesterday that he'd worked out for the Knicks.
Mavs Sign Samuel Dalembert
FRIDAY, 7:01pm: The Mavs have officially signed Dalembert, the team announced in a press release.
THURSDAY, 2:03pm: Dalembert will ink a two-year, $7.5MM deal with the Mavs, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. According to Wojnarowski, the second year will only be partially guaranteed.
WEDNESDAY, 6:58pm: The Mavs have reached a verbal agreement on a deal with Samuel Dalembert, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Stein reported earlier this evening that the two sides were close to an accord. Dallas and Dalembert's representatives from Pinnacle Management are continuing to hammer out the final details of his contract, and presumably that includes the financial specifics. The Mavs appear to have about $3.3MM of cap space available, and they can also use their $2.652MM room exception.
GM Donnie Nelson and company have thought about adding Dalembert for years, believing him to be an ideal fit with power forward Dirk Nowitzki. Dalembert is best on the defensive end, where he's averaged 2.6 blocks per 36 minutes for his career. His rate last season was virtually the same, even though he saw spotty playing time in Milwaukee.
The Mavs made Dalembert their primary target after missing out on Dwight Howard and Andrew Bynum, but he's not the only free agent they've been eyeing. Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News wrote earlier today that the team was expected to reach an agreement to re-sign Brandan Wright once it struck a deal with Dalembert. The team would like to sign Greg Oden as well, and Dallas remains high on Bernard James, who agreed to postpone the deadline for the Mavs to decide whether to guarantee his contract for this coming season. The Mavs are also discussing a new deal with Devin Harris, who consented to call off his initial three-year, $9MM deal with the team after suffering a toe injury.
Mark Cuban Talks Howard, Offseason, Calderon
For the second straight offseason, the Mavericks missed out on their top target in free agency, and like he did a year ago when he discussed Deron Williams, owner Mark Cuban suggests his team will be better off without Dwight Howard. Pointing to the club's ability to sign "five good players or more" rather than just adding one max-salary player, Cuban suggested that the roster would have more flexibility going forward, as Bryan Gutierrez and Tim MacMahon detail at ESPNDallas.com.
Cuban also addressed a number of other Mavs-related topics, so let's round up the noteworthy quotes from Gutierrez's separate piece at ESPNDallas.com.
On having to move on to Plans B or C this offseason:
"You guys like to make a big deal about it. Obviously, we were disappointed we didn’t get Dwight, but we pretty much got everything else we wanted to get and then some. Much more. We never thought we’d be able to get Monta [Ellis]. It turned into a good summer. Now, the key is to get everybody playing together, get everyone healthy, keep them healthy and go."
On whether the team will explore trades:
"We’re open. Given that all of these are new signings, it’s going to be tough for us to do a trade. We can do anything until December. We didn’t sign these guys to trade them. We signed them to keep them. Our goal is to have everyone here, play together and move on. We still have a lot cap room for next year, so we’ll see."
On how the signing of Jose Calderon improves the team:
"We just have a great compliment of people. He’s great in the pick-and-roll, which will be great for Dirk [Nowitzki] a whole bunch. He’s a pass-first point guard, which will help with Monta. It’ll help with Sam [Dalembert], Vince [Carter] and Shawn [Marion]. We’re going to have guys who can get Shawn the ball, which we couldn’t do last year. Vince won’t have to work as hard as he did last year. We can block shots between Sam and Brandan [Wright]. I think we’ll be in good shape."
On a new agreement with Devin Harris:
"I think we’ve got something worked out. We just restructured the deal. When we have something to announce, we’ll announce it…. I think we'll get him back, but I don't want to jinx us. We'll let him rehab with us and all that kind of stuff."
Mavs Reach New Agreement With Devin Harris?
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban indicated that the team has a new deal with point guard Devin Harris, whose initial three-year, $9MM agreement with the team was scrubbed when he suffered a toe injury.
"He's coming back. We just restructured the deal,'' Cuban said, according to Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Twitter link).
A new deal between Dallas and the Excel Sports Management Client would come as no surprise, since the team still had interest in bringing him aboard even as the two sides mutually agreed to call off the initial arrangement. The financial terms of the latest agreement are unclear, but I'd imagine he'll take a paycut of some kind. Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors speculated this week that Harris could be in line for a two-year minimum salary contract with a player option for the second season.
The Mavs have a lot of balls in the air with regard to free agency at the moment, having struck a deal with Samuel Dalembert earlier this evening. The team is expected to reach agreement with Brandan Wright soon, and Dallas continues to eye Greg Oden. Cuban confirmed the team is still in the market for the No. 1 overall pick, but the owner says his team and Oden's representatives haven't engaged in contract talks, Price notes (on Twitter).
Dallas also has a decision to make regarding Bernard James, whose contract for this season was supposed to have become fully guaranteed if he wasn't waived on or before this past Monday. James and the team agreed to put off that deadline.
Mavs Close To Deal With Samuel Dalembert
The Mavs have made Samuel Dalembert a target for the past couple of weeks, and now it appears they're nearing an agreement with the veteran center, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com tweets. Dallas is one of several teams looking at Greg Oden, but Stein adds that the Mavs feel compelled to add Dalembert after missing out on Dwight Howard and Andrew Bynum (Twitter link).
Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning news wrote over the weekend that Dallas and the Pinnacle Management client were "inching toward" a deal, so it looks like they're finally approaching the end of that process. Stein identified Dalembert as the Mavs' prime target a week ago.
As for Oden, the Mavs are aware they can be outbid, but they've met face-to-face with the Mike Conley Sr. client and continue to try to sell him on the idea of making his comeback in Dallas, Stein tweets. The Mavs would like to sign both Dalembert and Oden, and with the prospect of a crowded frontcourt, the team convinced Bernard James to postpone the date when his contract for this season goes from non-guaranteed from fully guaranteed, as Stein also reports via Twitter. That date was originally this past Monday, but James' salary remains non-guaranteed. Dallas wants to let its pursuit of the other big men play out before committing to James, though the team is still high on him, according to Stein (Twitter link).
The team is also likely to re-sign Brandan Wright, one of its own free agents. None of the big men the Mavs appear to be going after have the cachet of Howard or even the oft-injured Bynum, so it's odd to see them place such a priority on Dalembert, who played only a bit part with Milwaukee this past season. Dalembert would seem to be a lateral move, at best, from Chris Kaman and Elton Brand, who've signed with other teams after spending 2012/13 with the Mavs.
Contract Details: Bulls, Cavs, Mavs, Nuggets
In addition to new contracts being finalized and signed, there are a few more cap details worth keeping an eye on throughout July. We won't be updating our traded player exceptions list to reflect all the latest deals until the dust has settled a little and each move has been officially completed, but as our list shows, the Bulls had their $5MM Kyle Korver TPE expire overnight.
There are also a number of 2013/14 salaries becoming guaranteed this month, including Kyle Lowry and Lance Stephenson earlier this week. Mavericks second-year big man Bernard James also appears to be guaranteed for the coming year, since he wasn't waived by July 15th, per Mark Deeks of ShamSports.com.
Here are a few more of the latest contract and cap details worth noting, courtesy of Eric Pincus of HoopsWorld:
- Mike Dunleavy's two-year deal with the Bulls is worth the team's full mini mid-level exception, for a total of about $6.51MM. Meanwhile, Chicago second-round pick Erik Murphy gets a two-year, minimum-salary that's not fully guaranteed for either season.
- The Bulls also used the stretch provision on Richard Hamilton, allowing the team to spread his guaranteed $1MM over the next three seasons (Twitter link).
- The Cavaliers signed Jarrett Jack for a flat $6.3MM per season, while Earl Clark received a flat $4.25MM per year (Twitter links).
- Jose Calderon's starting salary with the Mavericks is $6,791,570 (Twitter link). With annual 4.5% raises, that works out to exactly $29MM over four years. Additionally, Gal Mekel's three-year contract with the team is for the minimum and is fully guaranteed.
- J.J. Hickson gets the full mid-level for three years from the Nuggets, which works out to about $16.15MM overall.
- Two players who were involved in the same sign-and-trade transaction have had their numbers confirmed. Randy Foye receives $3MM from the Nuggets in each of his first two seasons before a $3.135MM 2015/16 salary, which isn't fully guaranteed. Andre Iguodala, meanwhile, signed with the Warriors for exactly $48MM over four years, but his salaries will decrease from $12.87MM this season to $11.13MM in the fourth season (Twitter link).
- For the record, that gap between Iguodala's and Foye's first-year salaries should represent the value of the trade exception created by Denver: $9,868,632. I wonder if Iguodala's salary starts so high in part to help the Nuggets create a larger TPE.
Western Notes: Larkin, Kings, Miller, Robinson
The Mavericks announced, via press release, that first-round pick Shane Larkin underwent surgery today to repair a broken ankle he suffered last week in summer league action. The recovery time for the surgery is approximately three months, putting Larkin's return right around the beginning of the regular season. The team is reportedly in talks with Devin Harris again after nixing their original agreement with the point guard last week.
Here's more out of the Western Conference:
- The Kings will not use the amnesty provision before tonight's deadline, tweets Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee. Sacramento, one of seven teams that can still use the clause, will apparently retain the amnesty eligible John Salmons. The team holds a player option on Salmons for the 2014/15 season.
- In a separate tweet, Jones adds that the Kings are unlikely to make any additions that necessitate guaranteed money unless they're first able to unload money.
- Should Mike Miller clear the amnesty waiver process, the Clippers should have interest in the veteran sharpshooter, tweets Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe. Washburn cites Miller's time in Orlando under new Clips head coach Doc Rivers as the main reason for the match. Miller was waived by the Heat today, and teams with cap space now have 48 hours to claim him on waivers.
- The Nuggets have named Arturas Karnisovas as their assistant GM, according to a press release from the team issued earlier today. Karnisovas, a native Lithuanian, was most recently the director of scouting for the Rockets under Houston GM Daryl Morey.
- It's only been about a year since Thomas Robinson was selected No. 5 by the Kings, but the Blazers forward has already been traded twice. Robinson, drafted into a bad situation in Sacramento and then a casualty of the Dwight Howard signing in Houston, says he feels disrespected as a result of the trades and is determined to get his career on track in Portland, writes Ben Golliver of Blazer's Edge, who itemizes some quotes from Robinson from a couple of publications.