Indiana Pacers Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Eastern Notes: Porzingis, Dellavedova, Ellis

July 15th, 2015 at 9:30pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Scout Clarence Gaines believed the Knicks should have taken Kristaps Porzingis first overall if they had won the draft lottery, Knicks GM Steve Mills said Monday on MSG Network, as Marc Berman of the New York Post relays. Mills and team president Phil Jackson weren’t quite ready to do that, Berman notes, but the Knicks dropped to fourth in the lottery and took Porzingis with that selection. Mills said he noticed Guillermo Hernangomez, the 35th overall pick whose rights New York acquired in a deal put together on draft night, on a scouting trip to see Porzingis, as Berman details, adding that the Knicks plan to sign Hernangomez in time for the 2016/17 season.

Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:

There hasn’t been much progress made between restricted free agent Matthew Dellavedova and the Cavaliers, Chris Mannix of SI.com notes. The point guard is seeking a multiyear deal at around $4MM per season, Mannix relays, and Cleveland is reluctant to commit to that amount due to the luxury tax implications. Former Nets executive Bobby Marks (Twitter links) notes that even a $4MM annual commitment for Dellavedova would equate to that of a max salary player due to the approximate $14MM tax hit inking the guard would generate.
Celtics executive Danny Ainge views offseason additions David Lee and Amir Johnson as veterans who can help the team’s younger players grow, Steve Bulpett of The Boston Herald writes. “Veteran players teach young players how to play, how to live, how to make it through the rough times of a season,” Ainge said. “And they make young players better by their presence on the court. So it’s not always just about getting minutes for young players, although minutes are important in the process of development. But it’s also important for veterans to show the young players the way to play. Brandon Bass was a good guy to have on the team. You ask any good player in the NBA about the people who’ve had a positive impact on their careers and most every one of them will say some veteran that they played with as a youngster.”
Monta Ellis was sold on joining the Pacers when team executive Larry Bird told him he was the missing piece in the team’s championship puzzle, Michael Marot of The Associated Press writes. “He said all the right things,” Ellis said after signing his four-year, $44MM deal. “It was an easy choice. It made me feel great because they wanted me.”

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Raptors Sign Luis Scola

July 15th, 2015 at 9:32am CST by Eddie Scarito

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

JULY 15TH, 9:32am: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.

“Luis is an accomplished NBA and international player. We are thrilled to add his experience and leadership to our team and our locker room,” Raptors GM Masai Ujiri said in the team’s statement. “Luis is a winner wherever he goes.”

11:59pm: The agreement is for one year and approximately $3MM, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports (on Twitter).

JULY 8TH, 11:29pm: The Raptors and unrestricted free agent Luis Scola have agreed to a deal, Scola announced via his Twitter account (h/t Ryan Wolstat of The Toronto Sun). The length and terms of the deal have not yet been announced.

Scola spent the 2014/15 campaign with the Pacers, appearing in 81 games, including 16 as a starter, where he averaged 9.4 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 20.5 minutes per contest. His slash line was .467/.250/.699. Through eight NBA seasons, the 35-year-old has notched averages of 12.7 PPG, 7.0 RPG, and 1.7 APG, with a shooting line of .497/.167/.742.

It was reported back in May that there was mutual interest in the forward returning to Indiana, but with the Pacers revamping their roster and aiming for a faster-paced offense, the Argentinian likely fell out of the organization’s plans. Instead he’ll head North to the Raptors where he’ll likely compete for minutes at the four spot with Patrick Patterson.

Pacers Ink Jordan Hill

July 14th, 2015 at 1:25pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

1:25pm: It’s a one-year, $5MM deal, tweets Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star.

JULY 14TH, 1:06pm: The deal is official, the team announced.

“We’re happy to have Jordan as part of our team,” Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird said. “He brings size and energy to our front court and we look forward to see how he plays an up-tempo game. We know he can rebound and score points for us and we look forward to having him.”

JULY 9TH, 6:49pm: The Pacers and unrestricted free agent Jordan Hill have committed to signing a contract, Sean Deveney of The Sporting News reports (Twitter links). The length and amount of the deal is not yet known, as the details are still being worked out, Deveney adds.

This soon-to-be signing likely comes as a blow to the Mavericks, who were reportedly interested in Hill, as well as have a void at the pivot, which the 27-year-old could have helped fill. The Lakers had expressed interest in re-signing Hill, though the acquisition of Roy Hibbert likely ended any chance of Hill returning to Los Angeles next season. The Lakers had declined their $9MM team option on Hill for 2015/16.

Hill, a BDA Sports Management client, is coming off a career year for production. The five-year veteran averaged 12.0 points per game this past season, the first in which he’s put up a double-digit scoring average. His 7.9 rebounds and 26.8 minutes per game, as well as his 57 starts, were also career highs.

Pacers Sign Joseph Young

July 14th, 2015 at 12:25pm CST by Chuck Myron

TUESDAY, 12:25pm: The deal is official, the team announced.

12:20pm: The first two years are guaranteed, Charania adds.

MONDAY, 12:08pm: The Pacers and No. 43 overall pick Joseph Young have reached agreement on a four-year deal worth more than $4MM, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). Indiana appears poised to use a sliver of its cap room on the combo guard from the University of Oregon, who’s getting a deal more lucrative than the two years and nearly $1.4MM that the minimum-salary exception could provide. The most he could make in a four-year minimum-salary deal is $3,502,513, so he’s receiving more than the minimum in at least one of those seasons.

The 23-year-old has looked strong in the summer league, as Charania notes, averaging 22.5 points in 29.8 minutes per game in four appearances. He was a scorer in college, too, having put up 20.7 PPG in 36.7 MPG as a senior this past season. Young shot 39.0% from behind the arc for his college career, and he’s adept a getting to the hoop, too, as Chad Ford of ESPN.com writes in his profile, having ranked him the 30th-best prospect in the draft.

Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress had him lower, at No. 53, so Young’s draft position largely split the difference between his projections. He’s a client of Kevin Bradbury, as Givony notes, and he projects to help fill the need for more perimeter players in Indiana’s new, more fast-paced approach.

Pacers Sign Monta Ellis

July 14th, 2015 at 12:20pm CST by Chuck Myron

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

JULY 14TH, 12:20pm: The signing is official, the team announced.

“He’ll be a great addition to our team,” president of basketball operations Larry Bird said. “And he fits our needs for how we want to play. We’re excited to have him. He adds another veteran in our lineup and we think he’ll be a great fit, complementing George Hill in the backcourt.”

Despite the earlier reports, it’s a straight signing, not a sign-and-trade.

2:06pm: The expectation is that if the Mavs don’t sign DeAndre Jordan, they’ll have talks with the Pacers about turning the Ellis deal into part of a sign-and-trade that would bring Roy Hibbert to Dallas, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com reported earlier that Hibbert is a consideration for the Mavs if Jordan is out of the picture.

JULY 2ND, 12:10pm: The Pacers and Monta Ellis have reached agreement on a four-year deal, reports Chris Broussard of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The contract will be worth $44MM with a player option after year three, Broussard adds (on Twitter). Ken Berger of CBSSports.com has the value of the deal at an estimated $45MM (Twitter link). The Pacers had reportedly offered a deal with similar terms over three years on Wednesday, when the sides met, so it appears the player option season has sprung up since then.

The client of Happy Walters and Jeff Fried turned down a four-year, $48MM offer from the Kings, sources tell Chris Broussard of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The Hawks, Nuggets, and Heat were also reportedly in pursuit, and the interest was seemingly mutual between Ellis and Miami. The Mavs didn’t rule out a return, but they had other priorities, as Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com reported, and they didn’t intend to give him a raise on the roughly $8MM salaries he’d seen with them.

Indiana proved more willing to give the 29-year-old the raises he sought as he turned down his $8.72MM player option to stay in Dallas. The Pacers will use the cap flexibility created when David West decided against picking up his $12.6MM player option to accommodate the shooting guard, who figures to rev up Indiana’s offense, filling the playmaker role that Lance Stephenson used to occupy, as Chris Crouse of Hoops Rumors examined when he looked at Ellis’ free agent stock. The Pacers have wanted a more up-tempo attack, as they made clear this past spring.

Pacers Sign Myles Turner

July 13th, 2015 at 3:40pm CST by Chuck Myron

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

The Pacers have signed this year’s No. 11 overall pick, Myles Turner, to his rookie scale contract, the team announced. The big man from Texas in line for a salary of nearly $2.358MM this season, with almost $10.802MM coming over the four-year span of the contract, presuming he signed for the standard 120% of the rookie scale.

A lack of eye-popping offensive numbers, including a scoring average of 10.1 points per game, and an awkward running style cloud Turner’s future, though his gait is apparently correctable. The 7-footer has shown impressive shooting range and played strong defense in his lone college season, as Eddie Scarito of Hoops Rumors wrote when he examined Turner’s prospect profile.

The Pacers traded Roy Hibbert and David West opted out and committed to the Spurs, so Indiana has room for fresh blood inside even as the team transitions to a more perimeter-oriented attack. Turner figures to compete for minutes with soon-to-be signee Jordan Hill, among others. It’s unclear just how much flexibility Indiana has, with the terms of Hill’s deal still unknown, but Turner’s signing, which raises his cap hit by nearly $400K, signals that the Pacers are done with major free agent deals this summer.

Eastern Rumors: Williams, Knicks, Dragic

July 12th, 2015 at 11:25am CST by Dana Gauruder

Lionel Hollins denies that his sometimes stormy relationship with Deron Williams led to the Nets waiving the veteran guard in a buyout deal, according to Tim Bontemps of the New York Post. Though sources confirmed to Bontemps that the head coach and Williams had a heated meeting in Memphis earlier this year, Hollins said the Nets didn’t part ways with Williams because of their disagreements. “Everything is not peaches and cream, but there’s not one shred of evidence that our relationship is the reason that he had to go,” Hollins told the team’s beat writers. “I would have coached Deron this upcoming year just like I coached him last year, and we would have went forward just like everybody else on the team.” The Nets saved more than $50MM this season in payroll and luxury-tax payments by agreeing to give Williams $27.5MM of the $43.5MM he was owed over the next two years, Bontemps adds. The Nets used the stretch provision on the buyout.

In other news around the Eastern Conference:

Carmelo Anthony‘s decision to take slightly less than the max last summer helped the Knicks to re-sign Lou Amundson and Lance Thomas to more than the league minimum this month, Marc Berman of the New York Post reports. Anthony’s deal opened up $1.4MM in cap space this summer and that, combined with the NBA’s cap increase to $70MM, allowed the Knicks to secure Amundson for $1.65MM and Thomas for $1.63MM instead of the roughly $1MM minimum, Berman continues. If Anthony didn’t take less, the Knicks could have re-signed only one of them above the league minimum, Berman adds.
Goran Dragic‘s deal with the Heat is only worth a total of $85MM and has a starting salary of $14.783MM, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders relays (on Twitter). Earlier reports estimated the deal at $90MM.
Paul George is pleased with the backcourt moves the Pacers have made this offseason, he told Scott Agness of the VigilantSports.com in a Q&A session. The pending addition of Monta Ellis and re-signing of Rodney Stuckey gives the team numerous playmakers, George told Agness. “One of the biggest things we needed to get better at was pushing the tempo and playing a little faster,” George said. “I didn’t know it was going to be a drastic roster change but I knew that was the direction this team needed to go to give ourselves a better chance of winning.”

Wolves Deal Chase Budinger To Pacers

July 12th, 2015 at 10:40am CST by Arthur Hill

SUNDAY, 10:40am: The trade is official, both the Wolves and Pacers have announced.

“We’re very glad to have Chase,” Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird said. “He’s a guy we think will fit in our rotation. He can shoot and drive to the basket, which works with how we want to play. Damjan was a special guy. He was great to have as part of our team. He will be missed by all.”

SATURDAY, 3:24pm: The Wolves will send Chase Budinger to the Pacers, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. Minnesota will receive 6’10” foward Damjan Rudez in exchange.

Budinger, 27, has been with the Wolves since being acquired from the Rockets in a 2012 trade. He averaged 6.8 points and 3 rebounds per game this year while playing about 19 minutes off Minnesota’s bench. In April, Budinger exercised a $5MM option for next season.

The 29-year-old Rudez, a member of the Croatian national team, averaged 4.8 points in 68 games with the Pacers last season. He signed a three-year contract with Indiana last summer and is due to make more than $1.149MM next season, with a team option for 2016/17 at $1.199MM.

The salaries aren’t a match, but each team can accommodate the deal via trade exceptions, as former Nets exec Bobby Marks points out (on Twitter). The Pacers can either use the giant, but temporary, $15.5MM-plus trade exception they reaped from the Roy Hibbert deal, or they can renounce their cap holds and use cap space, a move they’ll eventually have to make to sign Monta Ellis. The Timberwolves can use one of three trade exceptions large enough for Rudez.

Central Rumors: Drummond, Butler, Pacers

July 12th, 2015 at 9:06am CST by Dana Gauruder

The Pistons will begin extension talks with center Andre Drummond this summer with the aim of signing him to a long-term deal, most likely for the max, Terry Foster of the Detroit News reports. The Pistons want to lock up their franchise player even though they could have more flexibility to sign free agents and make trades next summer by waiting to re-sign him when he’s a restricted free agent, Foster continues. The incentive for Drummond is to get the guaranteed money now in case he suffers a significant injury, Foster adds. Money is apparently no object to get an agreement. “We have until the end of October so we will get into those talks in the next couple of weeks,” Pistons president of basketball operations and coach Stan Van Gundy said during a press conference. “What you are talking about there is more timing than anything. It is not like you will be haggling over dollars, so it is a different situation.”

In other news around the Central Division:

Van Gundy admitted he took “a little bit of a gamble” with his commitment to point guard Reggie Jackson, who has never started a full season, John Niyo of the Detroit News writes. Jackson, a restricted free agent, agreed to a five-year, $80MM deal without any options to be the team’s floor leader going forward. Van Gundy wanted to have Jackson for the long haul. “You’ve got to weigh in future years,” Van Gundy told the Detroit media. “Most of the guys who signed free-agent contracts [this July], they’ve got an out after year three or four. We were willing to pay more money to not have the out.”
Jimmy Butler received a $4.6MM signing bonus when he re-signed with the Bulls, Marc Stein of ESPN.com tweets. Butler stayed put with a five-year deal worth approximately $95MM. A 5% trade kicker is another element to the contract, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link).
The Pacers will use cap room to re-sign guard Rodney Stuckey since they renounced his non-Bird rights, Pincus reports. They also renounced their rights to Andrew Bynum, David West and Luis Scola, among others, Pincus adds (Twitter links). Stuckey agreed to a three-year, $21MM deal to remain with Indiana.

Pacific Notes: Hibbert, Young, Brown, Davis

July 10th, 2015 at 9:23pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak said in an appearance on Time Warner Cable SportsNet that he had the Roy Hibbert trade lined up with the Pacers in advance of the start of free agency as a fallback in case the Lakers fell short with their primary free agent targets, notes Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link). LaMarcus Aldridge, DeAndre Jordan and Greg Monroe all passed on the purple-and-gold, so Hibbert it is for the Lakers, who made his acquisition the last of their moves under the cap. That’s key, since it meant that the trade wouldn’t otherwise work unless Hibbert agreed to waive part of his 15% trade kicker. He wouldn’t have been allowed to waive it unless the Lakers were in such a position, but they were, and he gave back all but $78,185 of what otherwise would have been $2.3MM, according to Pincus (Twitter links).

Here’s the latest from the Pacific Division:

The 2018 first-round pick that the Kings owe the Sixers from this month’s three-player trade is protected only for the top 10 picks, according to salary cap expert Larry Coon (Twitter link). It’s unprotected for 2019. It’s possible that it’ll roll over to 2019 even if Sacramento’s pick ends up out of the top 10 in 2018 if the Kings have to send their 2017 first-rounder to the Bulls as part of a previous trade, Coon notes (on Twitter; also see RealGM).
The 2020 second-round pick that the Suns will receive from the Pistons as part of the Marcus Morris trade is Detroit’s own selection, according to RealGM.
Despite Nick Young reportedly being on the trading block, Kupchak said of the forward, “I do see him being a core player this year,” Mike Bresnahan of The Los Angeles Times tweets. The GM did stress that Young would need to show improvement on the defensive side of the game, Bresnahan adds.
Lakers second round pick Anthony Brown‘s contract calls for him to earn $700k for the 2015/16 season, $875k the second year, and $1MM in 2017/18, Pincus relays (Twitter links). The first two years of the deal are fully guaranteed, but the final season is non-guaranteed, Pincus adds.
Kings executive Vlade Divac said that Sacramento has had discussions with unrestricted free agent point guard Andre Miller, but the team is exploring numerous options, Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee relays (Twitter link).
Brandon Bass‘ free agent deal with the Lakers is for two years and $6.135MM, and includes a player option for the second season, note Pincus and Sam Amick of USA Today (Twitter links). Bass was signed using available cap space, which means Los Angeles still retains its $2.8MM room exception, Bresnahan tweets.
Kupchak said that if unrestricted free agent Ed Davis had waited one more day before signing a deal with the Blazers, the Lakers would have been able to re-sign him, Pincus tweets. Instead, Davis inked a three-year, $20MM pact with Portland.
The Warriors are considering promoting assistant Luke Walton to replace Alvin Gentry as the associate head coach on Steve Kerr‘s staff, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports reports (via Twitter).

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.