Central Notes: Thompson, D-League, Butler
Despite Rich Paul’s proclamation that his client, Tristan Thompson, would not re-sign with the Cavaliers next summer if he were to sign his qualifying offer, worth nearly $6.778MM, Cleveland should not offer the forward a maximum salary deal, opines Bill Livingston of The Plain Dealer. Livingston points to the exorbitant luxury tax hit that would go along with such a lucrative contract for Thompson, and notes that prior to the 2014/15 campaign the forward had been considered a disappointment by many. The Plain Dealer scribe also adds that despite the threat by Paul that Thompson would depart, the Cavs would still retain the 24-year-old’s Bird rights, meaning that they could outbid other teams for Thompson’s services next offseason.
Here’s more out of the Central Division:
- The Pacers will meet with officials from the Fort Wayne Mad Ants next week to discuss terms of the prospective sale of the D-League franchise to Indiana, Adam Johnson of D-League Digest tweets.
- Bulls swingman Jimmy Butler acknowledges that the chemistry between he and point guard Derrick Rose needs to improve next season, Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com writes. “I think we can,” Butler said during an appearance on “The Waddle and Silvy Show” on ESPN 1000, when asked about his chemistry with Rose. “I think we will. And I think we better, because the way I look at it, I don’t think either one of us is going anywhere anytime soon.”
- Toney Douglas said that the presence of Donnie Walsh as a consultant helped him decide to sign with the Pacers, Scott Agness of VigilantSports.com writes. “I love Donnie,” Douglas said. “Donnie has always been a great guy. I loved him when I was in New York. Him being here was really a great situation. I trust him. He’s not going to lie to you; he’s going to keep it real and tell you what you need to do.” Walsh was president of the Knicks when the team swung a deal with the Lakers to acquire the draft rights to Douglas back in 2009.
Western Notes: Morris, Brase, Arthur
Markieff Morris, who has reportedly cut off contact with the Suns and supposedly wants out of Phoenix in the wake of his twin brother, Marcus Morris, being dealt to the Pistons, is considered a good teammate, according to Phoenix guard Archie Goodwin, Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic writes. In an interview with SiriusXM NBA Radio on Monday, Goodwin said, “I can’t speak too much on that situation but I can say that the last couple years I’ve been with [him], Markieff is a great guy, one of my favorite guys to be around. He’s a really positive guy to me and for everybody else. He’s always been a team-first guy. I love Markieff. I love Marcus. I hope [Markieff] stays with us. I don’t know what’s going to happen with that situation. That’s why I really can’t speak on it. I really enjoy being around him and I wish the best for him whether he is with us or another team.” Coro recently chatted with Hoops Rumors about a number of topics regarding the Suns, and you can read the full interview here.
Here’s more out of the Western Conference:
- Matt Brase is expected to be named head coach of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the Rockets‘ NBA D-League affiliate, sources have informed Adam Johnson of D-League Digest. Brase is currently the director of player personnel for Houston, and was a former assistant coach for the Vipers, Johnson notes. Brase replaces former coach Nevada Smith, who spent two seasons with the Vipers and compiled an overall record of 60-46, including a mark of 27-23 last season, Johnson adds. The Rockets organization cut ties with Smith at the end of 2014/15.
- Samuel Dalembert received a fully guaranteed minimum salary on his one-year deal with the Mavericks, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets. Dallas will pay $947,276 and the league will cover the rest of the $1,499,187 tab for the 14-year vet. The club currently has 15 guaranteed contracts and 19 players overall, Pincus adds.
- The Nuggets used their room exception to re-sign Darrell Arthur to a two-year pact, and the forward’s deal includes a player option worth $2,940,630 for the 2016/17 season, Pincus tweets.
Chuck Myron and Dana Gauruder contributed to this post.
Atlantic Notes: Anthony, Sloan, Vaulet
Carmelo Anthony has been bothered by the perception in the media that he was unhappy with the Knicks‘ offseason moves, Chris Herring of The Wall Street Journal relays in a series of tweets. The forward denied saying anything disparaging about team president Phil Jackson‘s machinations, and though he would have preferred that the team add another star player via free agency, Anthony said that the Knicks made some solid additions, Herring adds. Anthony also acknowledged that New York was put in a difficult spot in this year’s draft by selecting fourth, and that any player picked in that slot would have needed time to develop before being expected to contribute, including Kristaps Porzingis, who he praised for playing with a chip on his shoulder, notes the Wall Street Journal scribe.
Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- The Knicks are close to hiring Mike Miller, a former associate head coach at Kansas State, as coach of their D-League affiliate in Westchester, Frank Isola of The New York Daily News tweets.
- Donald Sloan‘s deal with the Nets will pay him $1,015,421 for the 2015/16 campaign, and includes a partial guarantee of $50k, with another $150k becoming guaranteed if he remains on the roster past November 1st, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders notes (via Twitter).
- Nets 2015 second-rounder Juan Pablo Vaulet will be out of action for four months following surgery to repair a stress fracture in his right ankle, Robert Windrem of NetsDaily relays. There is still no timetable for when Vaulet will make the jump to the NBA, and the 19-year-old is the first to admit that he isn’t ready for the league just yet, Windrem adds.“They [Brooklyn] chose me for later,” Vaulet told La Nueva, an Argentine newspaper. “Everything requires a process. I now do not feel ready to play there. I do not want to rush the process. If one day I can get there, that’s welcome. I have to first recover and then yes. I do not know how long. Maybe I can play in the NBA. Everything depends on me.“
Knicks Notes: D-League, Antetokounmpo, Seraphin
One of the main reasons that the Knicks fired Kevin Whitted as coach of their D-League affiliate, and also did not retain his replacement, Craig Hodges, is because the team’s front office was not pleased with the development of Thanasis Antetokounmpo, Marc Berman of The New York Post relays (on Twitter). Antetokounmpo, who recently inked a partially guaranteed two-year deal with New York, appeared in 47 games for Westchester last season and averaged 13.9 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 1.7 assists.
Here’s more from New York City:
- Antetokounmpo’s deal with the Knicks includes a partial guarantee of $75k for the 2015/16 campaign, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets. Pincus also confirms that Sasha Vujacic‘s one-year pact is fully guaranteed.
- Kevin Seraphin brings with him to New York a solid midrange game, with the big man nailing almost 45% of those attempts, but his true offensive value is that he’s effective playing with his back to the basket, which is a big plus in the triangle offense, Chris Herring of The Wall Street Journal writes. The 25-year-old is also a solid rim-protector, but his propensity to get into foul trouble needs improvement, Herring adds.
- Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com ran down Seraphin’s numbers from last season, as well as analyzed the center’s strengths and areas in need of improvement. One immediate area of concern for the Knicks regarding their recent signee is his lackluster rebounding production from a season ago, Begley notes.
Pacific Notes: Prigioni, Dukan, Lieberman
Pablo Prigioni, who inked a one year deal with the Clippers this offseason, said that Los Angeles was his preferred destination all along, writes Rowan Kavner of NBA.com. “I didn’t even consider to choose another team or to go back to Europe,” Prigioni said. “’I said, I want to go there [to Los Angeles].’ This is a perfect team. This is a team that has a group of guys that are playing together the last four or five years. Now, same coach, add a couple of new guys. This is a perfect team to go to and try to give my best and help with whatever they need to do.”
Here’s more from the NBA’s Pacific Division:
- Grantland’s Zach Lowe figures the range of salaries on a would-be extension for the Warriors‘ Harrison Barnes would fall between those on DeMarre Carroll‘s four-year, $58MM deal with the Raptors and the 2016/17 maximum salary for players with Barnes’ years of experience, projected to come in at $20.4MM.
- Duje Dukan‘s deal with the Kings will see him earn $525,093, which is fully guaranteed, for the 2015/16 campaign, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets. The forward is scheduled to make $874,636 in the second year of the pact, $200k of which becomes guaranteed on August 1st, 2016, Pincus adds.
- New Kings assistant coach Nancy Lieberman, in a Q&A with David Aldridge of NBA.com, said one of her biggest challenges will be in knowing when to chime in with her opinions, since all of her previous experience was as a head coach. “Summer League was really important for me. Summer League helped validate that I’m not a pushy broad,” Lieberman said. “I have been a head coach my whole life. I’ve never been an assistant, to be honest. I’m the one that has to do some of the growing here. I have got to learn when to speak, when my voice is required, and quite frankly, when to just shut the heck up. So that part is new for me. That will be new for me. But George [Karl] is a pretty easy guy to be around.”
- The Los Angeles D-Fenders, the Lakers‘ D-League affiliate, have hired Casey Owens as head coach, Pincus reports (via Twitter).
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
And-Ones: D-League, Kaminsky, Towns
Here’s a look around the Association..
- Adam Johnson of D-League Digest looked at the D-League’s salary structure. As Johnson learned from multiple league sources and agents, the league has a three-tiered salary system for the simplicity of making deals with players. The “A” salary is $25K, “B” salaries are $19K, and “C” salaries are $13K. Interestingly enough, players are sometimes asked to downgrade to accommodate a signing. “If a player is designated an “A” contract but the team wants to bring on an additional “B” player, they might ask the “A” player to reduce their salary to a “B” level to compensate for the difference,” according to a league source. “It’s a balancing act. You can have four “A” contracts at one point in the season, but that team will need to correct that amount of salary at some point with more “C” contracts so they don’t go over the salary cap.”
- The numbers say that rookies Frank Kaminsky and Delon Wright are poised to make a noticeable impact in 2015/16, Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com (Insider sub. req’d) writes. Unsurprisingly, it’s Wolves rookie Karl-Anthony Towns who is projected to have the best year of any first-year player. Lakers rookie D’Angelo Russell and Knicks rook Kristaps Porzingis round out the top five.
- Steve Ilardi and Jeremias Engelmann of ESPN.com ran down the winners and losers in free agency this summer. Of course, the Spurs are among the offseason’s biggest winners after landing ex-Blazers star LaMarcus Aldridge and former Pacers forward David West. The ESPN duo also gave a tip of the cap to the Celtics for their savvy under-the-radar moves.
Spurs Sign Jonathon Simmons
JULY 22ND, 4:35pm: The signing is official, the team announced via a press release.
JULY 10TH, 4:21pm: The Spurs have reached an agreement with unrestricted free agent Jonathon Simmons, Shams Charania of RealGM reports. It will be a two-year pact worth the minimum, and it includes a team option for the second season. Simmons’ 2015/16 salary will be fully guaranteed, Charania adds.
The 25-year-old swingman went undrafted out of the University of Houston in 2012. Simmons made 29 appearances for the Cougars back in 2011/12, averaging 14.7 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 2.2 assists, with a slash line of .512/.386/.721.
Simmons has spent the last two seasons playing for the Austin Spurs in the NBA D-League. His D-League numbers last season were 15.2 PPG, 4.3 RPG, and 3.6 APG. His most recent action came as a member of the Nets’ Summer League squad in Orlando.
Southwest Notes: Lawson, McCallum, Pelicans
Rockets GM Daryl Morey isn’t shy about gambling, and he acknowledges that trading four players for troubled point guard Ty Lawson carries with it some potential pitfalls, Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com writes. “I think when you’re trying to get the best team out of 30, you got to take risk all over the place,” Morey said. “Again, it’s a playing risk, injury risk, character risk. We feel Ty is someone we wanted to add to our team.”
With Houston badly in need of a playmaker at the point, Morey believes he has filled that need with Lawson, Watkins notes. “He’s one of the best playmakers in the league,” Morey continued. “If you look at the leaderboard for assists in the last few years or since he’s been in the league, he’s near the top. I think, as we saw, especially when [Harden] played a couple of teams last year, we struggle against teams that really load on James Harden, and we feel Ty will be a lot more difficult for teams to do that.”
Here’s more out of the Southwest Division:
- Recent Spurs trade acquisition Ray McCallum‘s minimum salary of $947,276 became fully guaranteed when San Antonio didn’t waive him by the end of Monday, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders notes (Twitter link). It had been partially guaranteed for $200K, as the schedule of salary guarantee dates shows.
- The Pelicans are looking into establishing their own D-League franchise, John Reid of The Times Picayune writes. New Orleans GM Dell Demps acknowledged the franchise’s interest in the D-League, but he didn’t know the exact time frame for the process, Reid adds. ”A couple of years ago, we did not do it because our players were so young and growing and we figured we just throw them into the fire,” Demps said. ”But that is the next step for us. We’re looking at some options right now on the Gulf Coast and in the state of Louisiana. So we’re looking into that. We have some plans to add our own D-League team.”
- Danny Green surprised some when he elected to re-sign with the Spurs with a four-year, $45MM deal when numerous teams had expressed interest in his services, and he likely could have earned more elsewhere. But Green believes his annual salary is in line with his production, Dan McCarney of The San Antonio Express-News notes (Twitter links). “People keep saying that I took less. I think I took what I was worth,” said Green. Though, to get his full market value, Green would have likely had to go to a team like the Pistons or the Kings, who certainly don’t offer as good a chance to contend as San Antonio does, McCarney adds. The Pistons, Mavericks, Blazers, Knicks and the Kings, who’d reportedly made Green their top target, all had some degree of interest in the swingman.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Atlantic Notes: Saric, Kaun, Jason Smith, Carroll
The Sixers apparently wanted to bring Dario Saric over for 2015/16, and Saric shared that desire, reports David Pick, writing for Basketball Insiders. However, the No. 12 pick in the 2014 draft doesn’t have a way to escape his contract with Turkey’s Anadolu Efes until next year. Saric was circumspect when Pick asked him about the idea of coming stateside and the situation with his overseas team.
“It’s really hard for me to answer that,” Saric said. “I can’t comment. I think I’m ready to compete in the NBA, against the best players, but we built a great team in Efes and I want to help the club win a championship.”
In any case, it would seem that Saric is anxious to sign with the Sixers as soon as he can, rather than wait until 2017, when he wouldn’t be bound by the rookie scale, though that’s just my observation. Here’s more from around the Atlantic Division:
- The most recent talks the Nets have had with the Cavaliers were about Cleveland draft-and-stash center Sasha Kaun, not Joe Johnson, as Chris Mannix of SI.com reports as part of a larger piece. The Nets and Kaun, a 6’11” 30-year-old, have had mutual interest for some time, tweets Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork.com. The Spurs have also reportedly talked to the Cavs about him. The Johnson discussion is reportedly dormant.
- The Knicks offered their $2.814MM room exception to Jason Smith, but he turned it down for more money from the Magic, writes Marc Berman of the New York Post. New York could have offered as much as $3,933,600 via Non-Bird rights, but agent Mark Bartelstein made it clear there are no hard feelings, as Berman relays. “The Knicks made a great attempt to try to keep him,’’ Bartelstein said.
- Soon-to-be Raptors signee DeMarre Carroll authored an homage to the Hawks, his former team, in The Players’ Tribune, giving credit to a handful of figures, especially former Hawks assistant Quin Snyder, who’s now head coach of the Jazz.
- New Raptors D-League one-to-one affiliate Raptors 905 has named Dan Tolzman as its GM and Jesse Mermuys its head coach and assistant GM, the team announced. Both were already employed within the Raptors organization.
Raptors To Have Own D-League Affiliate This Year
JUNE 29TH, 12:21pm: The deal is official for Toronto’s new Mississauga-based one-to-one D-League affiliate, the team announced. It will be called Raptors 905, a reference to the area code.
JUNE 24TH, 5:03pm: The Raptors will have a D-League expansion team stationed in nearby Mississauga for the 2015/16 season, Smith reports. The startup cost of the one-to-one affiliate is $6MM, Smith adds. A formal announcement is expected as soon as Monday, according to Smith.
2:51pm: A D-League team for this year is the goal, but not yet a certainty, sources tell Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun (Twitter link).
MAY 27TH, 1:35pm: The Raptors will have a one-to-one D-League affiliate stationed in the Toronto area for the 2015/16 season, as Tim Leiweke, the outgoing CEO of the company that controls the Raptors, revealed today to reporters, including Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca and Doug Smith of the Toronto Star (Twitter links). The team and the NBA had been in advanced talks about facilitating a one-to-one D-League club for the Raptors, and while GM Masai Ujiri made it clear it was a high priority for the Raptors, it had appeared as though it would have to wait for 2016/17. D-League president Malcolm Turner said at the beginning of the month that he expected his circuit to remain at 18 teams for this coming season, but unless another NBA team gives up its one-to-one affiliate, it looks like D-League expansion will take place in time for the fall.
It’s not clear exactly where the Raptors D-League affiliate will be situated, though Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun ventures a guess that it will be in Mississauga, Ontario, which is adjacent to Toronto proper (Twitter link). Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which runs the Raptors, recently gave the team the OK to buy an affiliate, so presumably the Raptors will own the D-League club outright rather than simply control the basketball operations in a hybrid partnership with independent ownership.
The Raptors were one of 13 teams to share the Fort Wayne Mad Ants this season, but they only made four assignments to the Mad Ants all year, as Eddie Scarito of Hoops Rumors shows in our D-League Usage Report. Those assignments involved raw Brazilian big men Bruno Caboclo and Lucas Nogueira, both of whom are candidates for much more frequent D-League excursions in 2015/16, with the new affiliate in place.