Blazers Rumors: Aldridge, Batum, Hibbert, Canales
It was a busy day for the Blazers, who officially welcomed Nicolas Batum back after matching his offer sheet from the Timberwolves. They also were involved in a three-team trade, picking up Sasha Pavlovic, the cash to cover his salary, and two second-round picks in exchange for 2011 second-round pick Jon Diebler. There's also encouraging news from LaMarcus Aldridge, who says he's "98 percent" healed from hip surgery and expects to be playing five-on-five again in a week, tweets Joe Freeman of The Oregonian. There's plenty more going on in the Rose City, and we've got it here:
- Batum addressed some of the comments he and others made during his contentious restricted free agency. In a video on CSNNW.com and transcribed by Ray Richardson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Batum said it was true that he wanted to go to Minnesota, but never ruled the Blazers out. "Minnesota was a good situation for me, but I never said it was better than Portland," he said. "I told Portland, 'If you really want me, match. If you don't want me, I'll go.'"
- Aldridge told reporters, including Chris B. Haynes of CSNNW.com, that he was communicating with Roy Hibbert throughout the Blazers' courtship of the restricted free agent center who ultimately chose to re-sign with the Pacers (Twitter links). "I was disappointed," Aldridge said of Hibbert's decision. "I definitely felt like he would put us over that hump of being on the next level."
- Aldridge said he hasn't been paying attention to the team's head coaching search, but reiterated his endorsement of interim coach Kaleb Canales, as Freeman notes, via Twitter.
Contract Details: Novak, Green, Miller, Thompson
While most players' contracts include annual raises, or at the very least, identical annual salaries, Steve Novak's new contract with the Knicks is a little different, as Mark Deeks of ShamSports explains (Twitter link). Novak's deal starts at a little over $4MM, dips to below $3.5MM by 2014/15, then rises back up to $3.75MM for 2015/16. The unusual structure of the deal provides the Knicks a small amount of savings in the years when the rest of the team's roster will get extremely expensive.
Deeks shared a number of other contract details from around the league, via Twitter, so let's round them up….
- The Spurs' deal with Danny Green is for three fully-guaranteed years and $11,287,500, with no options.
- Andre Miller will earn $5MM in each of the next two seasons with the Nuggets. The third year of his deal is partially guaranteed for $2MM of $4.625MM.
Earlier updates:
Odds & Ends: Fields, Scola, Blazers, Gordon
The Knicks’ deadline to match Landry Fields’ 3-year, $18.7MM offer sheet from the Raptors is tonight at 11pm CDT. If they match Lin and Fields, the Knicks will have roughly $86MM committed to those two plus Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire, and Tyson Chandler for the 2014-15 season, tweets Al Iannazzone of Newsday. Include Jason Kidd and Steve Novak and it’s more than $92MM committed to seven players. The luxury tax penalties really start to get stiff in 2013/14 and that could make the Knicks' decision on Fields a difficult one. Here's more from around the Association..
Pacers Re-Sign George Hill To Five-Year Deal
JULY 13TH, 2:03pm: The Pacers have officially re-signed Hill, the team announced today in a press release.
JULY 4TH, 11:49am: Hill's contract will be for five years and $40MM, reports Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld (via Twitter).
Pacers Re-Sign Roy Hibbert
FRIDAY, 2:01pm: The Pacers have officially re-signed Hibbert, the team announced in a press release. Since the Blazers never signed Hibbert to an offer sheet, Indiana may have added an extra year or a little more money to its offer, but for now we'll assume the big man's deal is for four years and about $58.37MM.
MONDAY, 2:21pm: It sounds as if the Pacers will sign Hibbert outright to the same terms he would've received from Portland, rather than matching an offer sheet, tweets TNT's David Aldridge. If Hibbert doesn't officially sign the Blazers' offer sheet, that could give the Pacers more than three days to keep Hibbert's smaller cap hold on their books before making his new deal official.
Pacers Sign D.J. Augustin
FRIDAY, 10:46am: The Pacers have officially signed Augustin, the team announced in a press release.
THURSDAY, 3:44pm: The Pacers have reached an agreement with D.J. Augustin on a one-year contract, according to Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star (via Twitter). The deal will pay Augustin $3.5MM, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The move not only comes on the heels of Augustin becoming an unrestricted free agent, but also a day after the Pacers agreed to send point guard Darren Collison to the Mavericks.
Pacers Sign Gerald Green
The Pacers officially announced that they have signed guard/forward Gerald Green today. The former 18th overall pick of the 2005 draft averaged 12.9 PPG in 31 games with the Nets last season, shooting an exceptional 48.1% from the field and 39.1% from deep. Although terms of the deal were not disclosed, we relayed a report yesterday that the team was expected to make an offer worth $10MM over three years.
Bobcats Rumors: Humphries, Sessions, Haywood
Antawn Jamison talked last week about the possibility of finishing his career with his hometown Bobcats, but it appears there's no shortage of options for the veteran forward. We learned last night that the Nets are discussing a sign-and-trade deal that would send Jamison to Brooklyn, and that the Lakers are in the mix too. As Jamison weighs his options, here are a few more Bobcats-related updates, courtesy of Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer….
- Charlotte appears re-engaged in trying to acquire Kris Humphries to upgrade their power forward spot (Twitter link). ESPN's John Hollinger tweets that DeSagana Diop would have to first be amnestied before Charlotte could offer Humphries a plausible salary.
Pacers Trade Collison, Jones To Mavs For Mahinmi
THURSDAY, 4:51pm: Indiana announced the deal through an official press release.
WEDNESDAY: The Pacers have traded Darren Collison and Dahntay Jones to the Mavs for Ian Mahinmi, who will sign a four-year, $16MM contract as part of the deal, reports Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com (Twitter links). Jones is due $2.9MM next season and Collison about $2.3MM, so, as John Hollinger of ESPN.com points out, that eats into the amnesty bid the team could make for Elton Brand (Twitter link). Presumably, this also takes Dallas out of the running for Aaron Brooks.
The Pacers are expected to either match Roy Hibbert's offer sheet from the Blazers or sign him outright, so Mahinmi will likely be the backup center for the team. Indiana also has 7'0" Miles Plumlee, the team's first-round draft pick.
Kyler On Calderon, Howard, Blair, Augustin
Jose Calderon's name has surfaced as a possible amnesty candidate a few times this offseason, but according to Raptors president Bryan Colangelo, the team doesn't expect to amnesty Calderon or anyone else this week. While Colangelo acknowledged that Calderon wasn't "thrilled" about the trade that brought Kyle Lowry to Toronto, he still views him as a valuable piece on the roster, as Eric Koreen of the National Post writes. Colangelo confirmed that a few teams have inquired on Calderon, and Steve Kyler of HoopsWorld writes that a trade is much more likely than an amnesty. Here are a few more notes from Kyler's HoopsWorld piece: