James Young Signs With Bucks
Free agent guard James Young has agreed to a training camp contract with the Bucks, the team announced on its website.
The 22-year-old played for the Celtics during his three NBA seasons, but spent much of the first two years in the G League. Young was the 17th pick in the 2014 draft, but never lived up to expectations in Boston, appearing in just 89 games over three years. He won a training camp battle for a roster spot last fall, but was used in only 29 games during the season, averaging 2.6 points in 7.6 minutes.
He joined the Pelicans’ summer league team, but hadn’t found a new NBA opportunity until today. He attended a mini-camp in Milwaukee last week, along with several other veteran free agents.
Latest On Carmelo Anthony
For much of the summer, after 2017’s top free agents came off the board, we waited for resolution on two notable trade candidates, Kyrie Irving and Carmelo Anthony. The Irving saga finally came to an end last week when the Celtics and Cavaliers finalized their blockbuster deal involving the All-Star guard. However, Anthony remains on the Knicks‘ roster, with no recent updates on where things stand with those trade talks.
Ian Begley of ESPN.com has a piece up today rounding up all the latest notes on the Anthony situation, so let’s dive in and pass along the highlights…
- As of last week, the Knicks were “not close” on an Anthony deal. According to Begley, the Knicks have been telling people around the league that the Rockets – Anthony’s trade partner of choice – just don’t have pieces that appeal to them.
- The Bucks emerged at one point as a potential third team to help accommodate a Rockets/Knicks swap, says Begley. However, Milwaukee has been trying to shed salary, so the prospect of taking on Ryan Anderson and the $60MM left on his contract likely isn’t much more appealing to the Bucks than it is to the Knicks.
- In those “very preliminary” talks, Jabari Parker‘s name came up, though it’s not clear if the Bucks or Knicks introduced that idea, Begley writes. In that proposed scenario, Parker would have been part of a larger package that included at least one player on a big contract, such as John Henson or Greg Monroe.
- Begley notes that the Knicks want to land a combination of a young player, a draft pick, and/or an expiring contract in an Anthony trade, so the idea of landing Parker and Monroe probably appealed more to New York than Milwaukee.
- Although a trade seems unlikely to happen before the start of training camp, there has been little contact lately between Carmelo and members of the Knicks‘ organization, sources tell Begley. As the ESPN scribe notes, neither side appears to have much interest in having Anthony on the roster to start the season, but the Knicks’ front office remains unwilling to consider a buyout, so it will be interesting to see how the next several weeks play out.
Extension Candidate: Jabari Parker
It’s been a long three seasons for Bucks forward Jabari Parker, longer still if you consider that there was a brief period in time ahead of the vaunted 2014 NBA Draft that the Chicago native was in the running to be selected with the first overall pick.
Fast forward three seasons and Parker hasn’t exactly had the franchise-altering impact on the organization that fans may have hoped for but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t shown flashes of legitimate value either.
Through three significantly compromised injury-shortened campaigns, it’s been rather difficult to get a handle on what Parker is and what he isn’t. Such uncertainty doesn’t help teams plan for the future in the simplest of times, let alone when there are contract extensions to be negotiated, as is the case now for the forward coming off the third year of his rookie deal.
In 50 2016/17 contests the 21-year-old showed glimpses of the future that draft prognosticators predicted, averaging 20.1 points and 6.2 rebounds per game while shooting .365 from beyond the arc.
This wasn’t empty production either, it came alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo in a Bucks lineup that finished sixth in the Eastern Conference and firmly established itself as a force to be reckoned with for the foreseeable future.
Alas, Parker’s particular role in Milwaukee’s ascension – not to mention future – is a complicated one and the new-age power forward fell by the wayside with a torn ACL in early February, remained out for the duration of the campaign and is now expected to be sidelined until the 2018 All-Star Game.
We wrote last week that Basketball Insiders’ Steve Kyler had heard the Bucks were open to getting a deal done ahead of the Oct. 31 rookie scale extension deadline but sought team-friendly terms. That’s not surprising, all things considered.
Even though the organization believes Parker will ultimately make a full recovery from the latest ACL tear, it’s hard to blame them for being reluctant to commit big money to a player with Parker’s track record.
The February, 2017 ACL tear was actually Parker’s second tear in the same knee. In December, 2014 – his rookie season – he tore the ACL for the first time, missed the remainder of the 2014/15 campaign and didn’t get back into full swing until well into the 2015/16 season.
If history repeats itself, Parker may recover along the previously forecast timeline and take the court following the All-Star Break next February, but it could be months after that before he’s physically capable of playing a full work load at his highest level.
It’s not unreasonable to think that Parker could expand upon his impressive 2016/17 line eventually, but if that’s unlikely to happen prior to the 2018/19 season, then venturing into a long-term commitment in the form of a contract extension due less than two months from now seems unnecessarily risky for a franchise at a critical juncture on its path to contention.
Given the context of Parker’s latest injury and the recovery process that stretched well after he returned to the court the last time, the Bucks would be wise to hold off on earmarking a significant portion of their payroll for him sooner than they absolutely have to – nothing is precluding them from throwing money at him next summer.
That said, if Parker’s camp was interested in a locking in a guaranteed deal at a team-friendly rate rather than gambling on restricted free agency after a fourth-straight injury-impacted campaign, the Bucks would have no reason not to listen.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Spencer Hawes Clears Waivers
Former Bucks center Spencer Hawes officially cleared waivers Saturday, tweets Keith Smith of Real GM. The veteran center was waived Thursday just before the deadline to stretch his salary, allowing Milwaukee to pay the $6MM he’s still owed in $2MM increments over the next three seasons. The 10-year veteran is now free to sign with anyone and has a little more than three weeks to find a team before training camps open. Hawes saw his playing time drop sharply after the Hornets traded him to the Bucks in February. He averaged just 9 minutes per game in Milwaukee, putting up 4.4 points and 2.4 rebounds.
Bucks Waive Spencer Hawes
SEPTEMBER 1, 11:24am: The Bucks have issued a press release confirming that Hawes has officially been waived.
SEPTEMBER 1, 8:21am: While there hasn’t been any official word from the Bucks on Hawes, a report ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski indicates that Milwaukee has waived the veteran center. Presumably, the move was finalized on Thursday in order to stretch Hawes’ 2017/18 salary.
AUGUST 31, 4:25pm: The Bucks are likely to waive and stretch Spencer Hawes, David Aldridge of TNT tweets. Today, of course, marks the deadline for teams to part ways with a player while stretching his 2017/18 salary.
By waiving and stretching Hawes, the Bucks would free up over $4MM in cap space this year which would serve them well as they currently sit just above the tax line.
The stretch provision allows teams to spread a waived player’s contract over twice the number of years remaining on the contract, plus an additional year. In Hawes’ case, owed $6MM through one season, his cap hit would become $2MM annually through three seasons, ending at the culmination of the 2019/20 campaign.
Hawes, a 29-year-old center with three-point range, played half a season for the Bucks after moving alongside Roy Hibbert in the Miles Plumlee trade. Hawes averaged 4.4 points per game in 19 contests for Milwaukee but ultimately saw his role reduced by the emergence of Thon Maker.
Pelicans, Wolves, Bucks In On Dante Cunningham
SEPTEMBER 1, 10:45am: The Bucks are now in the mix for Cunningham as well, per Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News (Twitter link). Milwaukee is in the market for an inexpensive big man with some range after waiving Spencer Hawes.
AUGUST 29, 5:16pm: The Pelicans are intent on re-signing forward Dante Cunningham, but the Timberwolves have been aggressively pursuing his services as well, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (via Twitter).
Over the course of the past three seasons, Cunningham has started 108 games for the Pels, establishing himself as a valued rotation player capable of hustling hard on defense and knocking down threes.
Prior to his stint in New Orleans, however, the forward played in Minnesota. Although Tom Thibodeau was still in Chicago the last time Cunningham called himself a Timberwolf, there’s no denying that he’s the type of gritty forward that would thrive in a Thibodeau system.
In 212 total games for New Orleans, Cunningham has averaged 5.9 points and 3.6 rebounds per game. He earned just under $3MM in 2016/17, the second season of a two-year deal, but figures to be in line for just the minimum should he sign with either the Wolves or the Pelicans.
Bucks Eyeing New Deal For Jason Terry?
With Spencer Hawes‘ contract waived and stretched, the Bucks are once again below the tax line and have a little added flexibility to sign a player or two. According to Gery Woelfel of The Racine Journal Times (Twitter link), a new deal to bring back free agent guard Jason Terry may be the next move for Milwaukee.
Woelfel has written about Terry’s free agency a couple times since the offseason begins, having noted back in June that the veteran had interest in re-signing with the Bucks. In July, Woelfel reported that Terry had received interest from other NBA teams, including a Western Conference club that made him a contract offer. However, a return to Milwaukee still may be in the cards.
Terry, who will turn 40 in two weeks, joined the Bucks for the 2016/17 season and was a solid part-time contributor for the club, averaging 4.1 PPG and 1.3 APG with a .427 3PT%. Terry’s veteran leadership and championship experience also make him appealing to team like the Bucks, whose core players are fairly young.
With Hawes no longer on the roster, the Bucks have 13 guaranteed contracts that total approximately $115.3MM. The tax line is at $119.266MM, so if Milwaukee signs Terry to a minimum salary deal and carries one more player on a minimum contract, the club would remain below that threshold.
Parker Making Progress; Bucks' Interest In Irving Overstated?
- Six months into the recovery process following his latest ACL injury, Jabari Parker still can’t do much more than dribble or shoot, but people in the Bucks organization have been impressed with his “approach, progress, and positivity,” writes Matt Velazquez of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Parker is eligible for a rookie scale extension this offseason, though it would be somewhat surprising if he and the Bucks strike a deal while he’s still on the shelf.
- The Kyrie Irving trade between the Cavaliers and Celtics is now complete, but even if it had been voided, it’s not clear if the Bucks would have been a major player for Irving. A source who spoke to Velazquez downplayed Milwaukee’s involvement in those talks.
Deadline Looms For Teams To Stretch 2017/18 Salary
Thursday, August 31 represents the deadline for teams to exercise the stretch provision on 2017/18 salary, meaning clubs have just over 24 more hours to waive players whose ’17/18 salaries they’re hoping to stretch.
The stretch provision is a CBA rule that allows teams to stretch a waived player’s remaining guaranteed salary across multiple seasons. From July 1 to August 31, the rule dictates that a team can pay out the player’s salary over twice the number of years remaining on his contract, plus one. For instance, a contract with three years left on it could be stretched out over seven years. After August 31, only future years on the contract can be stretched in that manner — so for that three-year contract, the current-season salary would stay as is, while the remaining two seasons could be stretched across five years.
As a point of reference, here’s what Andrew Nicholson‘s contract with the Trail Blazers looks like in its current form, along with the new salary figures based on that deal being stretched before or after August 31:
| Year | Current contract | Stretched by August 31 | Stretched after August 31 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017/18 | $6,362,998 | $2,844,429 | $6,362,998 |
| 2018/19 | $6,637,002 | $2,844,429 | $2,709,601 |
| 2019/20 | $6,911,007 | $2,844,429 | $2,709,602 |
| 2020/21 | – | $2,844,430 | $2,709,602 |
| 2021/22 | – | $2,844,430 | $2,709,602 |
| 2022/23 | – | $2,844,430 | $2,709,602 |
| 2023/24 | – | $2,844,430 |
As our chart shows, if the Blazers wait until September to waive and stretch Nicholson, they would take on a lower annual cap hit after 2017/18 and those cap charges would end a year earlier. However, Portland is widely expected to stretch Nicholson by August 31 in order to reduce his current-year cap hit. The Blazers are currently several million dollars into tax territory, and reducing Nicholson’s 2017/18 cap charge by $3.5MM+ would significantly reduce the club’s projected tax bill, even if it hurts Portland a little more in future seasons.
While Nicholson is a good bet to be waived this week (update: he has been waived), we shouldn’t necessarily expect a flurry of action by Thursday, since most teams aren’t in a situation like the Blazers. Still, we could see a move from clubs that have an expendable player and want to either reduce their tax bill or create more breathing room below the cap or tax line.
The Bucks look like another prime candidate to make a move by Thursday. It doesn’t appear that Spencer Hawes will be a major part of the club’s plans for 2017/18, and Milwaukee is currently slightly over the tax line. Waiving Hawes and stretching the final year of his contract (worth $6,021,175) across the next three years would get the Bucks out of tax territory and would create a little more flexibility to add a player or two, if needed.
Nicholson and Hawes were two of the five players who I identified earlier this month as candidates to be waived and stretched by August 31, and I think they’re easily the strongest candidates on that list. Stay tuned through Thursday to see if they’re cut, and to find out if other players hit the waiver wire before the August 31 deadline.
Bucks Open To Jabari Parker Extension
- There’s a sense that the Bucks are open to getting something done this offseason with Jabari Parker, since they’re confident he’ll make a full recovery from his latest ACL tear, sources tell Kyler. However, Milwaukee would almost certainly ask Parker to accept a team-friendly rate, so he’s more likely to play out his final year and seek out a new deal next summer as a restricted free agent.
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