Cavs To Make Contract Offer To Kyle Korver
12:30pm: The Spurs, Lakers, and Clippers are also expected to have interest in Korver, per Sam Amico of AmicoHoops.net. We can add those potential suitors to the Pelicans and Bucks, who are noted below.
11:57am: The Cavaliers are expected to make a contract offer to Kyle Korver when free agency opens early on Saturday morning, according to Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. While details of that offer aren’t yet known, it will likely come at 12:01 am ET on Saturday, per Vardon.
Because the Cavaliers traded for Korver during the season, they acquired the veteran’s Bird rights along with him, which will allow them to make him a contract offer without any restrictions. However, the team will have to seriously consider the tax implications of an offer to Korver. Cleveland projects to be well over the tax line already, and repeater tax penalties will be significant.
There are also several other teams believed to have interest in Korver. Vardon names the Pelicans and Bucks as two clubs likely to be among the suitors for the veteran sharpshooter, though it remains to be seen how aggressive those teams – or others – will be.
In addition to eyeing a new deal for Korver, the Cavaliers have also had discussions with Turkish forward Cedi Osman, a draft-and-stash prospect who was the 31st overall pick in the 2015 draft. However, with no cap room and only the taxpayer mid-level exception ($5.192MM) at their disposal, the Cavs’ ability to offer a significant contract will be limited, especially if they intend to use that MLE on someone else. As Vardon notes, Carmelo Anthony remains on the club’s radar as a probable target if he’s bought out, though there’s no indication that the Knicks are leaning toward that option.
The Cavaliers continue to operate without a full-time president of basketball operations or GM in place. We heard earlier this week from ESPN’s Jeff Goodman that Chauncey Billups and the Cavs remained in talks after Billups issued a counter-offer to the team, but there is still no resolution. Assistant general manager Koby Altman has essentially been Cleveland’s acting GM.
Western FA Rumors: Hayward, Gallinari, Clippers
Jazz general manager Dennis Lindsey remains confident about his team’s chances to re-sign Gordon Hayward, George Hill, and Joe Ingles, writes Jody Genessy of The Deseret News. The team’s ability to bring back Hill and/or Ingles may be key to retaining Hayward.
Genessy reiterates (via Twitter) that Hayward really wants the Jazz to re-sign Hill, adding that his decision could hinge on that, while Sam Amick of USA Today notes (via Twitter) that Hayward and Ingles share an agent. Utah has been seeking a trade for a cheaper point guard to replace Hill, but may be hesitant to make such a move if it would make Hayward more likely to leave.
Here’s more on free agency from around the Western Conference, including another Hayward-related note:
- Having previously said that he wouldn’t prioritize the Nuggets over any other suitor in free agency, Danilo Gallinari tells Italian outlet La Gazzetta dello Sport that his goal is to remain with Denver, and will have one of his first meetings with the Nuggets. Emiliano Carchia of Sportando provides the English translation on the quotes from Gallinari, who also acknowledged that he won’t receive a maximum salary contract.
- The Clippers want to hang onto Blake Griffin in free agency, but it’s not clear whether the team is prepared to put a five-year, maximum salary offer on the table for him, tweets Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com.
- Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times (Twitter link) identifies Jonathon Simmons, Rudy Gay, Danilo Gallinari, P.J. Tucker, James Johnson, Joe Ingles, and Andre Iguodala as additional free agents of interest for the Clippers.
- The Gordon Hayward sweepstakes are creating a battle amidst the Ainge family, as Chris Forsberg of ESPN.com details. Tanner Ainge, the son of Celtics president Danny Ainge, is running for Congress in Utah and has pushed for Hayward to remain with the Jazz.
Blake Griffin To Meet With Suns
All-Star forward Blake Griffin is scheduled to meet with the Suns this Saturday, a league source tells Brad Turner of the Los Angeles Times. After exercising his early termination option last week, Griffin will hit the open market as an unrestricted free agent.
Although the Clippers remain optimistic about signing Griffin even after the Chris Paul trade, the 28-year-old forward could very well bring a formal end to Lob City by signing a deal elsewhere.
The Suns boast an intriguing young core with Devin Booker and Josh Jackson and could look to climb out of the lottery with the addition of an established star like Griffin. Griffin averaged 21.6 points and 8.1 rebounds per game last season in a third consecutive injury-plagued campaign.
Clippers Waive Darrun Hilliard
Darrun Hilliard, part of the package the Clippers received from Houston in Wednesday’s Chris Paul trade, has been waived, tweets Brad Turner of The Los Angeles Times.
Hilliard began Wednesday in Detroit, where he had spent the past two seasons with the Pistons. His non-guaranteed $1,471,382 salary for next season made him a target for the Rockets, who were looking for easily waived players to help match Paul’s salary. Houston acquired Hilliard for cash considerations and sent him to L.A.
The 38th pick in the 2015 draft, Hilliard spent much of the past two years in the G League. He got into 39 games with the Pistons this season, averaging 3.3 points in 9.8 minutes per night.
Clippers Like Beverley, Plan To Keep Him
- The Cavaliers have been eyeing Patrick Beverley for “quite some time,” but a source familiar with the team’s thinking tells Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com that the veteran point guard probably isn’t going anywhere now that he’s a member of the Clippers. According to McMenamin, L.A. likes Beverley and might not be willing to deal him after landing him in Wednesday’s Chris Paul blockbuster, even if Cleveland could offer a solid package.
- Executives around the NBA have questions about the way the Paul deal between the Rockets and Clippers went down, though an Eastern Conference exec says that no one’s going to “rat anybody out” when it comes to tampering. Broderick Turner of The Los Angeles Times has the details and the quotes.
Clippers’ Luc Mbah A Moute To Opt Out
Clippers forward Luc Mbah a Moute has decided to turn down his player option for 2017/18 and opt out of his contract, reports Chris Haynes of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The move will ensure that Mbah a Moute becomes an unrestricted free agent on Saturday.
[RELATED: NBA Player Option Decisions For 2017/18]
Mbah a Moute, 30, averaged 6.1 PPG and 2.1 RPG with a .505/.391/.678 shooting line for the Clippers in 2016/17, appearing in 80 regular season games (22.3 MPG). While Mbah a Moute’s offensive production is modest, his defensive abilities kept him in the Clippers’ starting lineup for nearly the entire season.
The 2017/18 player option turned down by Mbah a Moute would have been worth $2,302,135. With the NBA’s minimum salaries on the rise, his lowest possible NBA salary for ’17/18 will be $2,116,955, so even if he’s unable to find a team willing to give him more than the minimum, he won’t have to accept much of a pay cut. In all likelihood, Mbah a Moute will be able to top that number, perhaps on a multiyear deal.
The Clippers signed Mbah a Moute last summer using the bi-annual exception, making L.A. the only team ineligible to use the BAE this offseason.
Los Angeles Notes: Rivers, Jordan, Lopez, Simon
Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers is denying a report that an ongoing feud between his son, Austin, and Chris Paul led to Paul’s trade to Houston today, according to Brad Turner of The Los Angeles Times. In a series of tweets, Doc Rivers thanked Paul for his years of service and called his departure a “big loss” for the team. He also said there have been rumors floating around that Paul was clashing with Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan as well as Austin Rivers.
“We’ve heard all the stories about Blake and DJ and Austin,” Doc Rivers said (Twitter link). “I can’t comment just on Austin because it’s just not right. We’ve heard he left because of all three today (Twitter link). There is a lot of speculation on why he left. The one thing I know is he didn’t leave because of any of those three guys (Twitter link). He left because he felt like he would have a better chance to win somewhere else.” (Twitter link)
There’s more today out of Los Angeles:
- The Clippers may re-examine the idea of trading Jordan now that Paul is gone, according to Zach Lowe of ESPN.com. Jordan and Griffin are something of an awkward pairing with both preferring to play near the basket, and Lowe suggests that the problem will worsen without an elite point guard on the floor. L.A.’s front office took several calls about Jordan last week and may decide to move him if the organization is headed toward a rebuilding project. Jordan has a player option worth a little more than $24MM for 2018/19.
- The Lakers‘ trade for Brook Lopez last week was about more than just cap relief, relays Mark Medina of The Orange County Register. Lopez, who grew up in North Hollywood, was acquired from the Nets along with the 27th pick in the draft in exchange for D’Angelo Russell and the three years and $48MM left on Timofey Mozgov‘s contract. “A lot of those emotions turned into general excitement with this opportunity to come back home and chance to lead the franchise back to success,” Lopez said today as he met the L.A. media. “I want to be out there teaching the young guys and being a guy that [coach] Luke [Walton] can rely on and do whatever he asks.”
- Despite talk that the Lakers will save their big free agency moves for next summer, new GM Rob Pelinka told Medina that he wants to contend right away (Twitter link). “We don’t see next year at all as a rebuilding year,” Pelinka said. “We see next year as a Lakers year.”
- Miles Simon has been added to the Lakers‘ coaching staff, the team announced on its website. The Most Outstanding Player of the 1997 NCAA Tournament, Simon has recent coaching experience with USA Basketball, capturing gold medals at several junior levels.
Latest On The Chris Paul Trade
Chris Paul‘s departure from the Clippers today severed a relationship that began to fall apart when the team acquired Austin Rivers in 2015, according to a Facebook post from Michael Eaves of ESPN. Several Clippers believed Rivers brought an entitled attitude to the team because he is the son of coach and president of basketball operations Doc Rivers. Veterans didn’t think Austin Rivers tried hard enough to fit in, which created dissension in the locker room. Paul, in particular, thought that Austin Rivers got preferential treatment from his father.
The situation reportedly reached a breaking point prior to the trade deadline when the Knicks offered Carmelo Anthony and Sasha Vujacic to L.A. in exchange for Jamal Crawford, Paul Pierce and Austin Rivers. Doc Rivers blocked the deal, which led Paul to believe that coaching his son was more important than winning, with an unidentified league executive saying, “Chris despises Doc.”
There’s more fallout from today’s blockbuster trade:
- The decision to opt in for the final year of his contract gives Paul more flexibility if he wants to team up with LeBron James next summer, Eaves notes in the same post. He mentions the Rockets, Lakers and possibly the Clippers, if Doc Rivers is gone, as potential destinations for that to happen. In the meantime, Paul can see how well his game meshes with James Harden‘s and gets a financial windfall because Texas doesn’t have a state income tax.
- Austin Rivers denied on Twitter that he had anything to do with Paul’s desire to leave. “These false rumors are comedy…so fictional it’s actually amusing! People will say or do anything to get attention,” he posted. He concluded the message with “A lot of clowns out there,” using two clown emoji symbols.
- The Clippers were concerned about the later years of Paul’s next contract, tweets David Aldridge of TNT. A five-year deal in excess of $200MM would have paid Paul nearly $45MM at age 37, and L.A. wasn’t willing to make that commitment.
- Newly hired Clippers consultant Jerry West didn’t attend Tuesday’s meeting with Paul, according to Chris Broussard of Fox Sports 1 (Twitter link).
- The Rockets would have preferred to clear cap space by trading Ryan Anderson, but there wasn’t much of a market available, reports Zach Lowe of ESPN.com. Two teams that were interested asked for two first-round picks in exchange for taking the three years and $60MM left on Anderson’s contract.
- Trading for Paul before July 1st will allow the Rockets to enter free agency over the salary cap, Lowe adds, giving them access to a full midlevel exception worth more than $8MM and a biannual exception topping $3MM.
- The Rockets will continue to pursue other stars, but probably can’t offer Trevor Ariza in any deal, according to Lowe. Paul remains close with his former teammate in New Orleans, and the chance to reunite played a decision in Paul’s decision to pick Houston. The Clippers, Lowe relays, had made several attempts to obtain Ariza.
- Rockets GM Daryl Morey credits Harden for making today’s trade happen. In a video posted by Mark Berman of Fox 26 in Houston, Morey says the Rockets now have the two best playmakers in the league.
Clippers Trade Chris Paul To Rockets
Reversing his decision to head to the free agent market, Chris Paul has opted into the final year of his contract as part of a trade. The Clippers have sent Paul to the Rockets in exchange for a massive trade package, Houston confirmed today in a press release. The Clippers will receive the following pieces in the deal:
- Lou Williams
- Patrick Beverley
- Sam Dekker
- Montrezl Harrell
- DeAndre Liggins
- Darrun Hilliard
- Kyle Wiltjer
- Rockets’ 2018 first-round pick (top-three protected)
- $661K in cash (the amount Paul agreed to reduce his trade bonus to, per Bobby Marks)
“Since winning back-to-back championships, the pursuit of a third title has remained the ultimate goal for our franchise,” Rockets owner Leslie Alexander said in a statement. “We feel that combining two of the league’s greatest players in James Harden and Chris Paul, operating in Coach [Mike] D’Antoni’s system, gives us a championship caliber team that will compete at the highest level for years to come.”
The move is a bombshell, particularly since Paul had been expected to reach free agency this weekend — a report last week indicated that he had made the decision to opt out of his contract. However, CP3 had yet to formally file the paperwork to exercise that early termination option. Instead, he’ll waive the ETO, which will allow him to play out the final year of his deal and become eligible for unrestricted free agency in 2018, unless he signs an extension with Houston before next July. Paul is currently set to earn $24,268,959 in 2017/18.
According to Wojnarowski, the Clippers and Rockets reached an agreement after Paul informed L.A. that he intended to sign with Houston in free agency. From the Clippers’ perspective, the trade with Houston is a way to recoup some value for the star point guard and avoid losing him for nothing. Meanwhile, the Rockets will no longer have to worry about trying to dump a salary or two in order to create enough room for a maximum salary slot for Paul.
The Rockets, who were reported on Tuesday to be a “serious” threat in the Paul sweepstakes, have now secured their man before the free agent period even gets underway. The club’s star-studded backcourt will create an intriguing dynamic, since Harden is coming off an MVP-caliber season in which he served as Houston’s primary ball-handler. According to Wojnarowski (via Twitter), Paul and Harden were “determined” to play together, so the duo is presumably unconcerned about how the ball-handling duties will be shared going forward.
It will be interesting to see if Rockets president of basketball operations Daryl Morey has anything else up his sleeve for the team in July. According to ESPN’s Jeff Goodman, the club is still on the lookout for a third star to complement Paul and Harden. Houston was reportedly involved in Paul George trade talks, though the club surrendered some valuable assets in today’s move, so it’s not clear whether Morey still has enough pieces to interest the Pacers.
With Paul now headed to Houston, the Spurs – who were rumored to be a contender for Paul – will have to look elsewhere if they intend to sign a marquee free agent point guard. Teams around the NBA hoping to re-sign their own star point guards, such as the Pelicans (Jrue Holiday) and Raptors (Kyle Lowry), may also be breathing a little easier, since the Rockets were viewed as a team capable of shaking up the point guard market.
As for the Clippers, it’s not clear yet if today’s deal will be the first domino to fall in a full-fledged rebuilding process for the club, or merely a retooling of the roster. In Beverley and Williams, the Clips will acquire a pair of effective and affordable veteran guards who figure to step into key roles right away. Dekker is more of a wild card, but the 23-year-old big man flashed some upside in a rotational role for the Rockets last season, as did Harrell.
Paul’s departure also figures to be a factor in Blake Griffin‘s impending free agency. Unlike Paul, Griffin has formally exercised his ETO with the Clippers, so he’s on track to become an unrestricted free agent on Saturday. Given the reported tension between Paul and Griffin over the years, it’s possible that the trade of CP3 makes Griffin more likely to re-sign — Sam Amico of AmicoHoops.net (Twitter link) spoke to several league executives who speculated as much.
[RELATED: Clippers confident about re-signing Blake Griffin]
Because the combined salaries of Beverley, Dekker, and Williams – the package reported initially for the Clippers – weren’t enough for the Rockets to land Paul, Houston spent most of the day acquiring players with non-guaranteed salaries from other teams to include in the deal. Liggins and Hilliard will be flipped to the Clippers, but Tim Quarterman, Shawn Long, and Ryan Kelly, who were all traded to Houston earlier today, won’t be part of this transactions — Houston instead included Harrell and Wiltjer.
I explained the math from the Rockets’ perspective earlier today. By structuring the deal as they did, the Rockets will remain over the cap and will have the mid-level exception ($8.4MM) and bi-annual exception ($3.3MM) available to pursue free agents when the new league year begins.
The Clippers waived retiring forward Paul Pierce in order to adhere to the NBA’s offseason roster limit of 20 players.
Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical (Twitter links) broke news of the trade. Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle and Brad Turner of The Los Angeles Times were among those who reported key details along the way.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Clippers Waive Paul Pierce
The Clippers have created room on their roster to accommodate their imminent Chris Paul trade by waiving Paul Pierce, tweets Shams Charania of The Vertical.
Pierce, a 19-year NBA veteran, has already announced his retirement from the NBA, making today’s roster move a formality. Pierce’s contract extended through the 2017/18 season, so the Clippers had long been expected to either trade or waive him. Approximately $1MM of Pierce’s $3.58MM salary for next season is guaranteed — L.A. can either carry that entire amount on the ’17/18 cap, or stretch it across three seasons.
Pierce’s salary for 2017/18 had initially been set to fully guarantee if he remained under contract beyond June 30. Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com reported earlier today that Pierce and the Clippers had agreed to extend that guarantee date in order to give the team a chance to use him in a trade in July. However, it seems the club won’t get that opportunity.
[RELATED: Clippers to trade Chris Paul to Rockets]
The Clippers’ agreement with the Rockets on the deal that will send Paul to Houston features seven players heading to Los Angeles for salary-matching purposes. The roster limit for NBA teams increases from 15 to 20 in the offseason, but by taking on six extra players in the swap, the Clips still would have been one over the 20-man limit if they had hung onto Pierce.