Rockets Sign Troy Daniels
While most NBA teams are paring down their preseason rosters, the Rockets have increased theirs by one today, officially signing free agent guard Troy Daniels, according to the team (Twitter link). Daniels had been in camp with the Bobcats before being released last week.
Daniels, 22, averaged 12.3 PPG and shot 40.3% on three-pointers in his final season at VCU, then auditioned for the Jazz and Pacers in June before going undrafted. He joined Charlotte’s Summer League squad in July, then eventually agreed to participate in camp with the club.
With the addition of Daniels, the Rockets’ roster count is back up to 18, including 13 players on fully guaranteed deals. Daniels is unlikely to make the team’s regular-season roster, so perhaps he’ll end up with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, Houston’s D-League affiliate.
Western Notes: Turner, Nuggets, Asik
Richard Hamilton was one name linked to the Timberwolves as they consider adding a wing, but he’s far from the team’s only potential target. Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities tweets that Evan Turner has fans among the Wolves front office, and that the 76ers would be open to moving him. In a piece for the Star Tribune, Jerry Zgoda also mentions Turner and identifies a few other possible options.
With that aside, let’s take a look at what else is going on around the Western Conference:
- Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports takes a look at the Nuggets’ offseason, starting with Josh Kroenke’s agonizing decision to fire Coach of the Year George Karl.
- ESPN’s David Thorpe examines Omer Asik‘s trade value and explores a few potential trades involving the Rockets’ center (Insiders only).
- Earlier this week, we noted that there has been mutual interest between the Jazz and free agent guard Jamaal Tinsley, although nothing appeared to be imminent. Steve Luhm of The Salt Lake Tribune was able to relay some of head coach Tyrone Corbin‘s comments today regarding the 35-year-old point guard: “He’s a guy that’s on the list…We haven’t decided what we’re going to do yet. He’s a guy we’re comfortable with. I really respect what he brings to the team. We’ll look and see if it’s the right fit going forward.”
- Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News (via Twitter) doesn’t expect the Spurs to make any roster cuts until after the team’s road trip ends in Miami on Saturday. McDonald also points out that although San Antonio only has to make one more roster cut, they could possibly opt for two.
- Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich drew a parallel between Manu Ginobili and new addition Marco Belinelli: “I consider him to have the same mindset as Manu, which means I’m going to have to be patient as I’ve learned with Manu. Manu taught me to shut up and just watch him play a little more, which is a good thing. And Marco is going to be the same way. They both have the same passion for the game. They have no fear, which most of the time is good, but sometimes it can bite you. But I would rather have that than somebody who is timid” (NBA.com via the Associated Press).
Luke Adams contributed to this post.
Odds & Ends: Oden, Jordan, Rockets
A few more random notes from around the league.
- ESPN.com’s Brian Windhorst reported today that Heat center Greg Oden has suffered another setback in his long road back to the NBA.
- The Rockets are interviewing NCAA Division II and III coaches for the head coach position of their D-League affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, tweets Yahoo! NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski.
- In an interview with Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer, Bobcats owner Michael Jordan speaks about his team’s new head coach, lottery pick, and more.
- According to a tweet from Jody Genessy, Jamaal Tinsley‘s agent confirmed that his client and the Jazz have mutual interest in one another, but said there’s nothing happening on that front at the moment.
- The Denver Post’s Christopher Dempsey writes about a roster dilemma the Nuggets have between Damion James and Jordan Hamilton. James is on a non-guaranteed deal, while Hamilton is owed $1.1MM this season.
Southwest Links: Melo, Mavs, Rockets, Leuer
Let’s round up a few Wednesday notes out of the Southwest Division….
- Fab Melo‘s size should give him a chance to make the Mavericks‘ opening night roster, though the fact that Dallas is carrying 15 guaranteed contracts will make it an uphill battle, writes Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News. According to Sefko, if Melo were to displace a player with a guaranteed deal, Bernard James would likely be the odd man out.
- While the Mavs will have to cut at least five players from their current 20-man roster eventually, head coach Rick Carlisle tells Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he’s in no rush to do so.
- Most NBA players are happy to land multiyear contracts rather than annually revisiting the free agent process. But as Mark Deeks explains in a piece for HoopsWorld, longer-term deals that are heavily non-guaranteed are far more advantageous to teams than players. Deeks points to the Rockets as a team that frequently takes advantage of the benefits of non-guaranteed deals, using Omri Casspi‘s two-year pact as an example.
- When the Grizzlies first acquired Jon Leuer from the Cavaliers, he looked like a throw-in in a cost-cutting deal. However, Memphis re-signed Leuer to a three-year contract with two guaranteed seasons this summer, and as he tells Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the former Wisconsin Badger is “really happy” with his situation.
Odds & Ends: Jazz, Odom, Howard, Nelson, Brooks
With seven preseason games on the schedule for Tuesday night, let’s take a look at some odds and ends from around the NBA:
- Aaron Falk of the Salt Lake Tribune spoke to Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin and some of the team’s camp invitees — including Justin Holiday, Scott Machado and Brian Cook — about the roster cuts the team will have to make within the next couple of weeks to get down to 15 players.
- We haven’t heard too much about Lamar Odom since the strange reports about his off-the-court issues surfaced in August. Ramona Shelburne of ESPN LA tweets that the Lakers reached out to Odom recently, but that the contact was strictly for personal reasons.
- With the Magic in town to face the Rockets on Wednesday, Dwight Howard spoke to Orlando-area reporters, including Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel, about what has been a whirlwind of a two years for the Houston center. While Howard expressed regret about how things ended in Orlando, he implied that the situation in Los Angeles was different, and that Houston simply represented the best place for him to be.
- Meanwhile in post-Dwight Orlando, 31-year-old Jameer Nelson is happy to play the role of elder statesman on a young and improving Magic team, writes Jeff Caplan of NBA.com. Caplan writes that Nelson, a veteran in the second year of a three-year deal, is aware that he will probably be shopped this winter unless the Magic surprise everyone and contend.
- We heard earlier tonight from Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News that MarShon Brooks had expressed a desire to be traded from the Nets before he was part of the blockbuster with the Celtics. Bondy provides several quotes from Brooks, now in Boston, in his complete story: “I wasn’t really sure with [Jason Kidd becoming coach]. I didn’t know what to expect. Last year obviously we knew what was going on, it was so rocky, I didn’t know if I was playing. There just wasn’t any structure to any of my minutes.. So it was kind of hard for me to perform under those circumstances and obviously I didn’t want to be in that situation next year.”
How Teams Are Using Minimum Salary Deals
As Chuck Myron of Hoops Rumors outlined in a piece over the summer, when we say a player is earning the maximum salary, that doesn’t necessarily tell us how much he’ll make in a given season. Based on service time and the previous year’s salary, a player’s maximum will vary, meaning Kobe Bryant‘s 2013/14 salary will more than double James Harden‘s, even though they’re both technically max players.
The same can be said of minimum salaries, which vary from player to player, albeit not quite as drastically as max salaries. Depending on how many years of NBA experience a player has, his minimum salary for the 2013/14 season could be worth as little as $490,180 (for a rookie), or as much as $1,399,507 (for a player with 10+ years of experience). You can find all the specific figures for ’13/14 in our glossary entry on the minimum salary exception.
That minimum salary exception, which allows teams over the cap to sign players for the minimum, comes with a few more quirks. For example, it can only be used to sign players for one or two years — a longer contract requires a different exception or cap space. Additionally, if a team signs a veteran to a one-year contract using the minimum salary exception, the team is only on the hook for the two-year-veteran’s minimum ($884,293), with the league picking up the rest of the tab.
Taking into account these rules, it’s not hard to see why the Heat, a team in the luxury tax, signed veterans like Michael Beasley and Roger Mason Jr. to one-year deals. Including a second-year team option on Mason’s contract, for instance, would allow the Heat to bring back the veteran shooter next year if he thrives this season. But a two-year minimum salary would mean Mason would be on the team’s books for his full $1,399,507 salary in 2013/14, rather than just $884,293. In other words, adding an extra year to his deal would have cost the Heat an extra $500K+ in salary, plus additional tax payments, even before that second year arrived.
On the other side of the spectrum, the Sixers, the team with the most cap space in the NBA, doesn’t need to use the minimum salary exception to sign anyone. As HoopsWorld’s salary page for Philadelphia shows, the team has taken full advantage of that flexibility this offseason, inking an incredible seven players (Darius Morris, Gani Lawal, Mac Koshwal, Vander Blue, Rodney Williams, Khalif Wyatt, and Hollis Thompson) to non-guaranteed four-year contracts worth the minimum.
Not all of those seven players will make the Sixers’ regular season roster, and those that do may not last four full years with the team. But if there’s even one gem in the group, Philadelphia has locked that player up through 2017 for a total salary that barely exceeds what Nerlens Noel will earn this year. It’s one of the benefits of having cap space, and it’s an opportunity that the CBA doesn’t afford to teams like the Heat.
The Rockets are another team that has taken full advantage of the flexibility of minimum salary contracts, having locked up players like Patrick Beverley and Greg Smith to long-term deals for the minimum. And even when Houston went over the cap this summer, the club didn’t have to worry about the tax implications of two-year minimum salary contracts, meaning guys like Reggie Williams, Ronnie Brewer, and Omri Casspi received multiyear non-guaranteed deals rather than one-year pacts. Assuming those players make the team, the Rockets will pay each of them more than the $884,293 the Heat owe their minimum salary guys, but Houston won’t have to pay extra tax penalties, and will have the flexibility to bring those players back cheaply next season.
Whenever another new name joins the ranks of the NBA’s maximum salary players, we’re reminded that not all maximum salaries are created equal. It’s worth remembering that the same can be said about minimum salaries, and teams can create savings, gain flexibility, or land bargains depending on what sort of minimum contracts they’re handing out.
Western Notes: Rockets, Kaman, Jazz, Goodwin
The Rockets head into the 2013/14 season considered one of the legit contenders to come out of the Western Conference, but according to GM Daryl Morey, the Houston roster is still a work in progress.
“We’re not all the way there, we’re not a finished team,” Morey told Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com. “We’re going to be experimenting. We want to be a great team by mid-April.”
In his piece, Windhorst points to Omer Asik as the Rockets’ most significant trade chip, suggesting that it wouldn’t be surprising if the club worked out a deal involving the big center prior to the trade deadline. Here are a few more items from out of the Western Conference:
- Chris Kaman was the Lakers‘ “unheralded consolation prize” after they lost out on Dwight Howard in free agency. But Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com explains why the veteran center could play a crucial role in the team’s season.
- After his seeing his role and his production decline during the last several seasons in Golden State, Andris Biedrins says he’s happy to get a “fresh start” with the Jazz, tweets Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle.
- The Jazz are one of eight NBA teams carrying the maximum 20 players, meaning they’ll need to make at least five cuts before the regular season begins. However, coach Tyrone Corbin says no roster moves are imminent at this point, according to Steve Luhm of the Salt Lake Tribune (via Twitter).
- Paola Boivin of the Arizona Republic takes an extensive look at rookie guard Archie Goodwin, who the Suns hope will become a part of the team’s long-term core.
Lowe On Spurs, Randolph, Rockets, Raps, Cavs
Zach Lowe’s latest piece for Grantland is a lengthy one, as he breaks down all 30 NBA teams by tiers heading into the 2013/14 season. Amidst his evaluations of each club, Lowe also includes several tidbits related to teams’ trade options and cap situations. The entire piece is worth checking out, if only to see where your favorite team lands, but we’ll round up a few of the more interesting notes right here:
- While the Spurs didn’t shake up the roster much this offseason, they’re in good position to make an in-season trade if need be, says Lowe. San Antonio has a couple movable expiring contracts (Boris Diaw, Matt Bonner), as well as a number of prospects stashed overseas.
- Lowe believes Zach Randolph will finish the year with the Grizzlies, but notes that Memphis’ front office is willing to make bold moves and probably recognizes that Randolph’s trade value will be highest this season.
- The Rockets are a a “very strong bet” to make a trade or two during the season.
- Both the Wizards and Pistons are among the candidates to make an in-season panic trade, due to increasing pressure to make the playoffs. However, Detroit may not have a ton of appealing trade bait unless the club is willing to dangle Greg Monroe, according to Lowe.
- With Kyle Lowry and Rudy Gay both potentially entering contract years, the Raptors could end up being deadline sellers if they get reasonable offers and aren’t in position to reach the postseason.
- Although they have plenty of assets of value, the Cavaliers‘ trade options will be somewhat limited if they intend to keep their books clean in the hopes of landing LeBron James next summer.
- Moving even one mid-tier salary during the season could create “serious cap flexibility” for the Kings.
- The Sixers figure to gauge the market value for veterans Evan Turner and Thaddeus Young before the deadline.
- While a Rajon Rondo trade isn’t entirely out of the question, it’s much more likely that the Celtics attempt to move players like Courtney Lee, Brandon Bass, and Kris Humphries, writes Lowe.
- In Lowe’s view, “everyone is available” on the Suns, except for perhaps Eric Bledsoe and the team’s rookies.
Amico On Heat, Cole, Bulls, Howard, Casspi
Sam Amico of FOX Sports has tons of info in today's column, let's dive in and check out some of the highlights..
- The Heat certainly aren't desperate to shake up the roster, but word is they’ve explored what backup point guard Norris Cole may bring in a trade. While Cole is rather inconsistent on offense, he's a very strong on-ball defender.
- Amico cautions against reading too much into the reported friction between Bulls GM Gar Forman and coach Tom Thibodeau. Phil Jackson and exec Jerry West didn’t get along in L.A. but they co-existed well enough to see the club win three straight titles. Jackson and GM Jerry Krause got along even worse than that in Chicago, so it shouldn't affect the on-court product at all.
- Ron Howard, currently in camp with the Pacers, is someone to keep an eye on. He might not be a fit in Indiana, but execs from around the league feel that he'd be a nice locker room addition to a young squad.
- It's early, but Amico came away impressed by Omri Casspi in the Rockets-Pelicans preseason opener. Casspi has languished on the Cavs' bench for the last two years but will look to start anew in Houston.
Rockets Waive Jordan Henriquez
The Rockets have cut center Jordan Henriquez, tweets Jason Friedman of Rockets.com. The 6'11" former Kansas State Wildcat signed a three-year deal with the team in July, but it was entirely non-guaranteed, so Houston isn't on the hook for any of his salary. The move drops the team to 17 players, down from the 19 who began October with the team. The Rockets waived B.J. Young on Wednesday.
Henriquez went undrafted this past June, but he worked out with the Knicks prior to the draft, and saw some run with the Rockets summer league team. He showed enough to earn a brief training camp stint, but presuming another NBA team doesn't claim him off waivers or show interest soon, Henriquez appears destined for the D-League or international ball this year. The Rockets have the option of protecting the D-League rights of up to three of their camp cuts, so perhaps they'll do so with Henriquez in an effort to get him to stay stateside, where they can more easily scout him.
Since Henriquez's deal was for three years, rather than one or two, the Rockets couldn't use the minimum-salary exception on him and instead spent some of their cap room. Still, it was a small investment, since he was only set to make the $490K rookie minimum, and because the deal was non-guaranteed, the money goes back toward Houston's cap space.
Patrick Beverley, Ronnie Brewer, Greg Smith and Reggie Williams, all NBA veterans, are the only remaining Rockets without fully guaranteed deals. Houston has 13 players with full guarantees on their contracts, so two of the four vets are in danger of finding themselves without an NBA job on opening night.