Kevin Durant Re-Signs With Warriors
JULY 7: The Warriors have made it official, announcing that the team has re-signed Durant.
JUNE 30: Kevin Durant will inform the Warriors tonight that he prefers a one-year contract with a player option for 2019/20, tweets Marc Stein of The New York Times.
Durant intends to sign a contract for those terms sometime after the moratorium ends, according to ESPN’s Chris Haynes (Twitter link). It will provide the maximum that Durant can receive on a one-year deal based on his 2017/18 salary, giving him $30MM next season with a $31.5MM option for 2019/20 (Twitter link).
The move saves some money next season for the Warriors, who will be well into the luxury tax, and it sets Durant up for a possible five-year contract with full Bird Rights next summer, when the cap is projected to rise to $109MM.
Golden State currently holds Early Bird rights on Durant, which would permit him to sign for a salary starting at $35,654,150. However, an Early Bird contract can’t span fewer than two guaranteed years, so the team will have to use his Non-Bird rights to honor Durant’s request. That will mean a 20% increase, taking him from $25MM to $30MM.
That savings of about $5.6MM will be huge for the Warriors, who face a significant tax bill for every dollar they spend. They may now be more inclined to use their taxpayer mid-level exception, which starts at $5.337MM.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Mutual Interest Between Jerebko, Warriors
After being waived by the Jazz today, Jonas Jerebko is already being eyed by the Warriors, among other teams, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter). According to Wojnarowski, there’s strong mutual interest between Jerebko and Golden State, one of the teams the forward will consider upon clearing waivers.
There’s a possibility that Jerebko won’t make it to free agency, but in order to claim him, a team must have cap room or a trade exception worth $4.2MM. If Jerebko does become a free agent and wants to join the Warriors, he’ll have to settle for the minimum, since the Dubs already committed their taxpayer mid-level exception to DeMarcus Cousins, and won’t have access to the bi-annual exception.
Warriors Sign DeMarcus Cousins
JULY 6th, 11:10pm: The signing is official, according to a team press release.
JULY 2nd, 7:36pm: The rich are about to get richer, as free agent center DeMarcus Cousins has agreed to a contract with the Warriors, Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports tweets. It’ll be a one-year, $5.3MM deal, with the Dubs using the taxpayer mid-level exception to add Cousins, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
It’s a shocking move for both Cousins and the defending champions, who initially didn’t appear to be locks to use their mid-level exception at all. However, when Kevin Durant agreed to a contract with a starting salary of $30MM rather than his max of $35.65MM, it opened the door for the Warriors to take advantage of the savings by using their MLE, which is worth $5.337MM.
Signing Cousins will cost the Warriors exponentially more than $5.337MM due to their projected luxury tax penalties, but the investment figures to be worth it for one of the NBA’s very best centers. Golden State will now have the opportunity to play an incredible five-man unit consisting of Cousins, Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green.
The club also retains key contributors like Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston, Jordan Bell, and Quinn Cook, with youngsters Damian Jones and Jacob Evans expected to contribute as well.
While others Cousins suitors like the Pelicans and Lakers will undoubtedly be upset about seeing him sign with the Warriors for a salary they could have topped, it didn’t appear that New Orleans, L.A. or any other team was willing to make a huge offer for the big man, with cap space drying up around the league.
Of course, it’s also extremely unlikely that Cousins would have accepted a $5.3MM offer from any other team. No other club gives him as clear a path to his first NBA title, and as one source close to him explains to Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated (Twitter link): “He’s about winning.”
Signing a one-year pact will also allow Cousins to rebuild his value after suffering a torn Achilles during the 2017/18 season. According to Wojnarowski (Twitter link), the Warriors have no intention of rushing their newly-added star back to the court, so a December or January return appears likely. If Cousins returns to form during the second half of the 2018/19 campaign, he’ll be able to reach the free agent market again a year from now and potentially land a more lucrative longer-term deal.
Before going down with that Achilles injury, Cousins was posting the best numbers of his career, filling up the stat sheet with 25.2 PPG, 12.9 RPG, 5.4 APG, 1.6 SPG, and 1.6 BPG. He also made 2.2 three-pointers per game at a 35.4% rate. Achilles tears aren’t easy to come back from, so there’s no guarantee that he’ll ever be the same player he was before the injury, but even if he’s operating at 60-70% capacity in 2018/19, he’ll make the already-stacked Warriors even more dangerous.
The move comes approximately 24 hours after LeBron James‘ agency announced that he’d be heading to the Lakers. While LeBron, Magic Johnson, and the new-look Lakers dominated much of the coverage during the first two days of NBA free agency, the Warriors’ latest splash signals that they have no intention of giving up control of the Pacific Division – or the Western Conference, or the NBA – anytime soon.
Luke Adams contributed to this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Tyreke Evans Signs One-Year Deal With Pacers
JULY 6: Evans’ deal with the Pacers is now official, the team announced in a press release. “With Tyreke, we thought we needed a secondary ball-handler to not only compliment Victor [Oladipo], but he can turn it downhill and make plays for others,” said president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard.
Indiana also made its deal with McDermott official today.
JULY 3: The Pacers are in agreement on a one-year, $12MM deal with Tyreke Evans, according to Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter). ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski had reported (via Twitter) that Evans and the Pacers were closing in on a one-year deal.
Twitter user @SneakerReporter first broke word of a potential $12MM deal between the Pacers and Evans nearly 24 hours ago, though it’s not clear if an agreement was formally in place that early or if the two sides finalized it today. Evans traveled to meet with the Pacers today after having already met with the Thunder, Lakers, Warriors, and Hornets earlier in free agency, and Wojnarowski indicated this morning that Evans and the Pacers were still working toward a deal.
A former fourth overall pick and Rookie of the Year, Evans appeared in 52 games during an injury-shortened season for the Grizzlies. When healthy, he looked as good as he has at any time in his nine-year NBA career, averaging 19.4 PPG, 5.2 APG, and 5.1 RPG with a .452/.399/.785 shooting line.
The lottery-bound Grizzlies held onto Evans at the trade deadline rather than getting what they could for him, and at the time reports suggested that Memphis intended to push hard to re-sign the 28-year-old as a free agent, using their mid-level exception. However, there has been no indication that the Grizzlies made a strong effort to bring back Evans.
While other teams showed interest in Evans, none of them had the ability to make the sort of $12MM offer the Pacers did. Even after committing to Doug McDermott earlier in free agency, Indiana still had about $12-15MM in cap room to work with, and will devote most or all of that room to Evans. He’ll provide another play-maker in the backcourt for the Pacers, who lost Lance Stephenson to the Lakers.
According to Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link), Evans was the Warriors‘ initial target using their taxpayer’s mid-level exception ($5.337MM), but they were turned down by the guard, who was seeking more money and a larger role. He should get both in Indiana, though Golden State is probably happy with its fallback plan for that MLE.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Cousins Represents Intriguing Trade Chip If Fit Isn't Right
- With a Warriors notebook, Anthony Slater of The Athletic writes that Golden State will have an “intriguing escape hatch” if the DeMarcus Cousins experiment doesn’t work out. If Cousins is healthy by the trade deadline but isn’t fitting in with the Warriors, his modest salary and expiring contract would make him a fascinating trade chip, Slater observes.
DeMarcus Cousins Rumors: Lakers, Rockets, More
DeMarcus Cousins‘ free agent decision probably won’t ultimately have the same impact as LeBron James‘ move to the Lakers, but Cousins’ agreement with the Warriors has generated even more discussion over the past couple days based on the shock factor. While many NBA observers expected James to land in L.A., few saw Boogie heading to the reigning champions.
We’ve already relayed several sets of Cousins-related notes, rumors, and other leftovers, but they continue to trickle in today, so we’ve got a few more to round up. Let’s dive in…
- The Lakers are fans of Cousins, but felt like they had to pass on him this year because they want to be as competitive as possible in 2018/19 and couldn’t afford to wait on the big man’s recovery from his torn Achilles, league sources tell Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter links). Cousins is trying to make it back for training camp, but is expected to be sidelined until December or January.
- ESPN’s Zach Lowe echoes Stein’s sentiment, tweeting that the Lakers never had serious interest in acquiring Cousins this summer, even after trade talks for Kawhi Leonard stalled (at least for now). Stein had reported last night that the Lakers had the opportunity to sign Cousins “at a one-year price point similar to the one that landed him in Golden State.”
- According to Sam Amick of USA Today (Twitter link), the Rockets – who also theoretically could have offered Cousins the taxpayer mid-level exception – didn’t consider him a good fit, and had “zero interest.” Amick and Lowe (Twitter links) both point out that not being guaranteed a starting spot may not have appealed to Cousins anyway. Houston remains “all-in” on starting center Clint Capela and plans to match any offer sheet he signs, Amick notes.
- In a full article for USA Today, Amick explores the history of notable NBA players suffering Achilles injuries, examining how Cousins’ career might be impacted going forward.
Warriors Weren't Interested In Signing Dwight Howard
- Dwight Howard is on track to sign with the Wizards when he officially becomes a free agent, but before he reached a deal with Washington, the veteran was said to have interest in the Warriors. In an appearance on Zach Lowe’s ESPN podcast (hat tip to RealGM), Tim Kawkami of The Athletic suggested the idea of adding Howard was internally discussed in Golden State, but he “was a ‘no’ in a lot of precincts of the Warriors.” We previously heard that the Dubs’ interest in Howard was tepid at best.
More On DeMarcus Cousins’ Deal With Warriors
In a conversation with Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated, DeMarcus Cousins explains that he chose to pursue a deal with the Warriors – calling GM Bob Myers himself – because he hadn’t received any offers from other teams, adding that Pelicans GM Dell Demps said New Orleans didn’t plan to re-sign him.
Recognizing that he wasn’t going to get a maximum-salary deal, Cousins opted to play for a title contender for one year, aiming to rebuild his value in advance of 2019’s free agent period. “This was my ace of spades. This was my chess move,” Cousins told Spears.
It’s somewhat hard to believe that no team was willing to offer Cousins a contract before he accepted the Warriors’ $5.3MM offer, and that’s especially true of the Pelicans, who had insisted all along that they wanted to re-sign the star center.
According to Will Guillory of NOLA.com (Twitter link), Cousins never formally met with the Pelicans during free agency and may not have officially made an offer, but general numbers had been discussed and there was an “understanding of what each side was looking for.” It’s not true to say the Pels didn’t want Cousins, Guillory adds.
Still, it’s certainly fair to say that NBA-wide interest in Cousins wasn’t as strong as many observers expected. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (video link), Cousins’ Achilles injury and a lack of cap space around the league were factors, and so was his image. “There were teams with [cap] space who did not want him in their locker room and didn’t want him in their organization,” Wojnarowski said.
Here’s more on free agency’s most shocking contract agreement:
- The Pelicans had a tentative meeting with Cousins scheduled for the coming days, but that meeting obviously won’t happen now, sources tell ESPN’s Zach Lowe.
- Lowe’s piece includes several other tidbits of note — he confirms Woj’s report that a number of teams had a “No Cousins policy,” and hears from sources that Cousins’ people were calling around on Monday and pitching deals to various teams. The big man’s camp proposed a one-year, $15MM deal to one club, but clearly there wasn’t a ton of interest, Lowe adds. For what it’s worth, Lowe is skeptical that Cousins’ deal with the Warriors will merit the kind of “hype” or “anguish” that it’s received so far, since his health and fit are still question marks.
- While a previous report indicated Cousins narrowed his choices to the Warriors and Celtics, Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe (Twitter link) hears from a league source that the Celtics didn’t get a chance to make a formal offer. The C’s heard Cousins might have interest in coming to Boston, but by the time they began looking into it, his deal with Golden State was done, says Himmelsbach.
- Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer takes a look at the NBA system that allowed the Warriors to add Cousins to their super-team, exploring whether the idea of a hard cap could gain momentum or stop this sort of move in the future.
- We rounded up several more Cousins-related notes on Monday night.
DeMarcus Cousins Leftovers: Blazers, Celtics, Warriors’ Recruitment
Before DeMarcus Cousins agreed to join the defending-champion Warriors on a one-year, $5.3MM contract, the Trail Blazers and Pelicans discussed the possibility of a sign-and-trade deal that would have sent the star center to Portland, reports Chris Haynes of ESPN.com (Twitter link). However, according to Haynes, the fact that Cousins and Jusuf Nurkic share the same agent was one roadblock in those talks.
Even if not for that issue, it would have been tricky for the Pelicans and Blazers to reach a deal that worked for both sides. Acquiring a player via sign-and-trade would have hard-capped the Blazers, who were already well over the cap, so they likely would have had to send at least one or two players to New Orleans. It’s not clear if talks progressed to the point where the two sides were discussing specific players.
Here’s more on the free agency decision that has practically made LeBron James‘ move to Los Angeles an afterthought tonight:
- Cousins had narrowed down his choices to Golden State and Boston before opting for the Warriors, according to Haynes (Twitter link). The Celtics could have comfortably matched Golden State’s offer and would have been a fascinating destination for Cousins — with LeBron out of the East, the C’s already look like a favorite to represent the conference in the Finals in 2019, so the team’s status as the frontrunner would have been cemented with Cousins in the mix.
- Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports takes a look at the Warriors‘ recruitment of Cousins, which was led by his USA Basketball teammates Draymond Green and Kevin Durant, along with GM Bob Myers. Cousins also had “positive phone calls” with head coach Steve Kerr, league sources tell Charania.
- The Warriors were initially reluctant to believe in Cousins’ interest, according to Charania, who adds that the big man also received interest from the Pelicans, Mavericks, and Wizards. Golden State’s agreement with Cousins came together so quickly that some members of the organization were “stunned” when word of the deal broke, tweets ESPN’s Zach Lowe.
- Speaking to Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated (Twitter links), Cousins called his decision to join the Warriors the “smartest move ever,” and said he’s still hoping to return from his Achilles injury for training camp. Reports tonight suggested the Dubs may be eyeing a December or January return to action for their latest acquisition.
- Cousins also told Spears that he received no significant contract offers when free agency began, but was prepared for that possibility due to his Achilles injury (Twitter link).
- While it’s not impossible that Cousins could end up hurting the Warriors more than he helps, the addition – combined with the Rockets’ loss of Trevor Ariza – appears to have further widened the gap between Golden State and the rest of the NBA, writes Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com in his breakdown of the deal.
Warriors Sign First-Rounder Jacob Evans
The Warriors have officially signed first-round pick Jacob Evans to his rookie scale contract, the team announced today in a press release. While most transactions can’t be completed until after the July moratorium ends, first-rounders can sign rookie deals this week.
Evans, the 28th pick in this year’s draft, played his college ball at Cincinnati, where he averaged 13.0 PPG, 4.7 RPG, and 3.1 APG in 2017/18. The 6’6″ wing, who made 37.7% of his three-pointers during his college career, projects as a potential three-and-D option at the NBA level.
The NBA’s rookie scale will result in a first-year salary of $1.6MM+ for Evans, who will get a four-year contract with two guaranteed seasons and two team options. Assuming he plays out the full contract, he’d be eligible for an extension during the 2021 offseason and would be on track for restricted free agency in 2022.