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Hawks, Pelicans To Work Out Sean Kilpatrick

August 24th, 2015 at 2:30pm CST by Chuck Myron

Former Timberwolves shooting guard Sean Kilpatrick will be a participant in workouts that the Hawks and Pelicans are set to conduct soon, reports Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link). The Lakers and Spurs previously worked him out, as Wolfson notes. The 25-year-old averaged 5.5 points in 17.9 minutes per game across four appearances while on a 10-day contract with Minnesota this past season.

Geography had a significant influence in on Minnesota’s decision to sign the former University of Cincinnati standout, since he was close to New York, where the Wolves were set to play the Knicks without the minimum eight healthy players. Still, he saw plenty of playing time during the 10-day stint and seems to be attracting no shortage of attention from other NBA clubs now. He was on the Bucks summer league squad last month and spent time with the D-League affiliates of the Warriors and Sixers this past season.

The Lakers and Hawks have the $2.814MM room exception to spend, while the Pelicans have their $2.139MM biannual exception and the Spurs are limited to paying no more than the minimum. An all-out bidding war for Kilpatrick seems unlikely, though it wouldn’t be surprising if the interest from multiple teams results in a guaranteed deal of some kind, though that’s just my speculation.

Which team do you think would make the most sense for Kilpatrick? Leave a comment to tell us.

Western Notes: Crawford, Dejean-Jones, Prince

August 22nd, 2015 at 3:00pm CST by Eddie Scarito

There are reportedly multiple teams, including the Knicks, Heat, and Cavaliers, that are interested in swinging a deal with the Clippers to acquire sixth man Jamal Crawford. But Los Angeles isn’t currently motivated to give up Crawford without garnering a useful return, Dan Woike of The Orange County Register relays in a series of tweets. It wouldn’t be a wise move to deal Crawford, who is extremely valuable as a bench piece, for a backup caliber point guard or center, Woike opines. The Orange County Register scribe believes that the smarter move for the Clippers would be to hold onto Crawford and see how the team’s roster shakes out in training camp to better assess what the team’s needs are before making a decision.

Here’s what else is happening around the Western Conference:

The Pelicans dipped into their mid-level exception to sign undrafted shooting guard Bryce Dejean-Jones, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets. The pact includes a partial guarantee of $50K for the 2015/16 campaign, while the other two seasons of the deal are non-guaranteed, Pincus adds.
According to league sources, the Jazz have yet to contact other teams or free agents regarding adding another point guard in the wake of Dante Exum‘s season-ending knee injury, Andy Larsen of KSL.com relays (Twitter links). Utah appears content to begin the season with Trey Burke, Bryce Cotton, and Raul Neto, and will potentially look to acquire additional help later in the season if needed, Larsen adds. There were reports that the Jazz had interest in acquiring Garrett Temple from the Wizards, but Washington reportedly isn’t anxious to to move Temple, and he wouldn’t come cheaply if they were so inclined.
Tayshaun Prince‘s minimum salary arrangement with the Timberwolves for the 2015/16 season is fully guaranteed, Pincus tweets. The addition of Prince gives Minnesota 16 fully guaranteed pacts, according to our roster count for the team.

Latest On Carlos Boozer

August 21st, 2015 at 12:26am CST by Chuck Myron

7:54am: The Shandong Lions, another Chinese team, are also going after Boozer, as Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia indicates via Twitter.

12:26am: The Sichuan Blue Whales and other Chinese teams are expressing interest in Carlos Boozer, and while the Rob Pelinka client is intrigued, he’s still pursuing NBA deals, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links). News regarding the 33-year-old has been scarce since a late-July report indicated that the Knicks, Rockets and Mavericks were eyeing him. The 33-year-old has lingered in free agency since July, when the lucrative five-year deal he signed with the Bulls expired. He made $16.8MM last season as a member of the Lakers, though Chicago paid all but the $3.251MM figure the Lakers bid when they claimed him via amnesty waivers.

Few NBA teams have more than the $2.814MM room exception to spend at this point. The Mavs have that amount available, though they already have deals with 20 players, the offseason maximum. The Knicks spent the room exception on Kevin Seraphin and have only the minimum to offer. The Rockets have about $2.274MM worth of their mid-level that they could spend, though doing so would leave the team hard-capped and without the means to give No. 32 pick Montrezl Harrell a market-value contract. Boozer and the Clippers reportedly had mutual interest in July, but they only have the minimum to spend, and while the Spurs, Raptors, Pelicans, Nuggets, Nets, Lakers and Heat have all apparently had interest over the course of the summer, it’s unclear if that’s the case now. Thus, I’d speculate that Boozer is only receiving minimum-salary offers from NBA teams at this point.

Andray Blatche signed a three-year, $7.5MM deal with China’s Xinjiang Flying Tigers this past spring, and a few weeks ago Shavlik Randolph inked a contract for at least $4.5MM over three years, numbers that suggest that Boozer, if he went to China, stands a decent chance to top the $1,499,187 he’d see on an NBA minimum deal. Still, Metta World Peace wound up with less than that in his deal with Sichuan last summer. A Chinese team would nonetheless offer Boozer a chance to double-dip, since the Chinese Basketball Association ends well in advance of the NBA season, giving players an opportunity to latch on with NBA teams at prorated salaries for the stretch run.

Will Joseph of Hoops Rumors examined Boozer’s free agent stock in depth earlier this month.

Where do you think Boozer ends up? Comment to tell us.

Pelicans Sign Bryce Dejean-Jones

August 20th, 2015 at 3:55pm CST by Chuck Myron

AUGUST 20TH, 3:55pm: The signing is official, the Pelicans announced.

AUGUST 14TH, 3:15pm: The Pelicans have agreed to sign undrafted shooting guard Bryce Dejean-Jones to a partially guaranteed three-year contract, league sources told Shams Charania of RealGM. Dejean-Jones finished out his collegiate career with Iowa State this past season before playing last month for the Pelicans summer league team. New Orleans has been carrying only 12 players, all of whom have full guarantees, so Dejean-Jones appears to have a strong chance to make the regular season roster, depending on the other moves the team might make between now and opening night.

Dejean-Jones averaged 12.8 points in 21.6 minutes per game for the summer Pelicans, nailing 61.9% of his shots from the floor and nine of his 18 three-point attempts, Charania notes. Those were better numbers than he posted in his lone season with the Cyclones after having previously played at USC and UNLV. The 6’5″ Dejean-Jones, who turns 23 in a week, put up 10.6 PPG in 23.0 MPG with 32.9% three-point shooting as a senior at Iowa State.

Neither Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress nor Chad Ford of ESPN.com ranked Dejean-Jones within their top 100 prospects for this year’s draft. He’ll join new Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry after having spent last season under Fred Hoiberg, who’s since left the school to become coach of the Bulls. New Orleans will use some portion of the $1.294MM it has left on its mid-level exception to make the signing official, since neither the minimum-salary exception or the biannual exception would provide for a three-year deal.

And-Ones: Heat, Holmes, Jent

August 15th, 2015 at 1:00pm CST by Eddie Scarito

No team spent more cash in trades during the 2014/15 season than the Heat did, sending a total of $2,539,424, just shy of last season’s $3.3MM limit, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders examines Conversely, the Pelicans raked in $3,299,959, just shy of the $3.3MM cap on the amount of money teams could receive via trade. Both limits have increased to $3.4MM for this season.

Here’s more from around the league:

Jonathan Holmes has a $100K partial guarantee on his minimum-salary deal with the Lakers, agent Zach Kurtin of Priority Sports tells Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter links). The final season on the two-year contract becomes fully guaranteed if he remains on the roster through the fourth day after the conclusion of next year’s summer league, Pincus adds.
The Suns are close to completing a deal to hire Chris Jent as head coach of the Bakersfield Jam, the franchise’s NBA D-League affiliate, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports. Jent had previously been an assistant on former Kings coach Michael Malone‘s staff, and he replaces Nate Bjorkgren, who was promoted to be the Suns’ player development coach, Adam Johnson of D-League Digest tweets.
The National Basketball Referees Association has officially ratified its new seven-year contract with the NBA, the NBRA announced (via Twitter). The new agreement takes effect this season, replacing the final year of the existing contract, and runs through 2022. “The NBA takes great pride in our world-class referee program and we are pleased to extend the league’s partnership with the NBRA for another seven years,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement regarding the new pact

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Western Notes: Cousins, Karl, Davis, Williams

August 12th, 2015 at 2:33pm CST by Chuck Myron

Rumors about turmoil between DeMarcus Cousins and Kings coach George Karl were overblown, Cousins insisted Tuesday, as Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee observes. The snake and grass emojis that the All-Star tweeted earlier this summer, shortly after the report that Karl wanted to trade him, seemed to indicate otherwise, but it appears their relationship has improved since then.

“There were some things that had to be ironed out,” Cousins said, “but at the same time, I wouldn’t make it as big as it was made out to be. Me and him [Karl] are on the same page, working on our relationship, and getting better every day. That’s all that matters. Things are a lot better. We’re trying to understand each other better. We’re going to make things happen, positive things happen.”

See more from the Western Conference:

Former Pelicans coach Monty Williams still won’t express dismay over his firing earlier in the offseason, even though it separated him from Anthony Davis, the New Orleans star with whom he shares an uncanny bond, writes Jimmy Smith of The Times Picayune. Williams, now a Thunder assistant, still talks with Davis but insists that he’s careful to leave most of the tutelage to new Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry, Smith notes. Still, Williams makes it clear that he’ll always be friends with Davis, according to Smith.
The Clippers roster is built to win in the playoffs more so than any other among Western Conference teams, according to metrics that Bradford Doolittle of ESPN.com put together for an Insider-only piece. That’s thanks to the addition of depth to the team’s star core, Doolittle writes. The Lance Stephenson trade and the signings of Paul Pierce, Josh Smith and others bolstered the strong but thin existing group.
Warriors GM Bob Myers may be the reigning Executive of the Year, but Spurs GM R.C. Buford, who won the award in 2014, is still the league’s top front office boss, opines Cody Taylor of Basketball Insiders. That’s not surprising given San Antonio’s free agent haul, which includes LaMarcus Aldridge and a minimum-salary deal for David West.

Pacers Sign Toney Douglas To Camp Deal

August 11th, 2015 at 10:41am CST by Eddie Scarito

AUGUST 11TH, 10:41am: The deal is official, the team announced. Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird nonetheless seems to make it clear that Douglas isn’t assured of a spot on the opening night roster, which would suggest his contract isn’t fully guaranteed.

“We look forward to having him in camp,” Bird said in the team’s statement. “He’s a veteran player who’s a good pro and he can play two positions. He’s the type of player we’re looking for with our new style of play. We look forward to working with him and having him in camp.”

AUGUST 6TH, 5:01pm: The Pacers intend to sign unrestricted free agent Toney Douglas, Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today reports (via Twitter). The 29-year-old is already in Indiana working out with the team, Zillgitt adds. Indiana currently has a roster count of 15 players, including 14 fully guaranteed pacts.

The guard was waived by the Pelicans at the end of July so that the team could avoid being on the hook for his 2015/16 salary of $1,185,784, which would have become fully guaranteed if Douglas remained on New Orleans’ roster through August 1st.

Douglas appeared in 12 games for New Orleans during the 2014/15 season, averaging 4.3 points and 2.0 assists in 14.8 minutes per game. His career numbers through six NBA seasons are 7.6 PPG, 2.2 RPG, and 2.2 APG.

Latest On Jason Terry

August 9th, 2015 at 5:13pm CST by Eddie Scarito

SUNDAY, 5:13pm: Terry is contemplating the Pelicans’ offer, Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com tweets.

SATURDAY, 2:15pm: A team source has informed ESPN’s Calvin Watkins (on Twitter) that the Rockets aren’t sure if they are still in the mix for Terry.

FRIDAY, 5:21pm: Unrestricted free agent Jason Terry has received a contract offer from the Pelicans, Terry’s representatives tell Mark Berman of FOX 26 (Twitter link). The length and terms of the offer are not yet known, nor is Terry’s interest level in joining New Orleans. The Pelicans, who are over the cap, already have $75,617,845 in guaranteed salaries committed for next season to 12 players. That figure doesn’t include restricted free agent Norris Cole, who is reportedly entertaining the notion of signing his qualifying offer worth more than $3.037MM.

The offer from the Pelicans couldn’t be for more than the $2.139MM biannual exception, which is the most the team can give outside free agents after spending most of its mid-level exception on Dante Cunningham and Alonzo Gee. The Rockets would trigger an $88.74MM hard cap if they signed Terry for more than the minimum, and Houston already has a team salary of about $85.2MM, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. Houston still hasn’t signed No. 32 overall pick Montrezl Harrell, adding another layer of complication.

Terry, 37, also has a contract offer on the table from the Rockets, though he considers the amount of Houston’s offer insufficient, Berman notes. Houston has renounced Terry’s Bird rights, according to the RealGM transactions log. This means the team is limited to inking him to a deal with a starting salary of no more than the roughly $2MM slice of the mid-level exception left over from the K.J. McDaniels signing, which also took up a portion of the mid-level. Terry and the Mavs reportedly had conversations about the guard returning to Dallas.

In 77 appearances for the Rockets last season Terry posted averages of 7.0 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 1.9 assists in 21.3 minutes per contest. His slash line was .422/.390/.813.

Western Notes: Williams, Asik, Rondo

August 9th, 2015 at 11:18am CST by Arthur Hill

Devin Harris hopes to have a “rejuvenated” Deron Williams with the Mavericks next season, according to Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com. Williams signed a two-year deal with Dallas last month after being waived by the Nets.

“I know what kind of player he is,” Harris said of Williams, whom he was once traded for. “I know he’s excited to be rejuvenated here, especially coming back home. And you know, hopefully he can kind of rejuvenate what he’s been doing, play at a high level and get us to where we need to be.”

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

The Pelicans signed Omer Asik to a five-year, $58MM contract this offseason and Ben Dowsett of Basketball Insiders believes it is one of the worst contracts handed out this offseason. The writer cites Asik’s age as well as the declining value of the traditional center as reason for the pessimism. Only $44MM of the center’s deal is fully guaranteed, so the team could get out from the contract if needed after only four years.
Dowsett also lists Rajon Rondo‘s new pact with Sacramento as a deal that the team will ultimately regret. Rondo’s deal is for $9.5MM over one season, but Dowsett believes the Kings could have signed the point guard for less due to the lack of suitors, which would have allowed the team to spend elsewhere.

Chris Crouse contributed to this post.

Northwest Notes: Exum, Hanlan, Donovan

August 8th, 2015 at 9:52pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Jazz have several options to replace the injured Dante Exum, according to Zach Lowe of Grantland. Exum tore the ACL in his left knee Tuesday while playing for the Australian National Team and is expected to miss the entire 2015/16 season. Utah currently has about $6.7MM in unused cap room, Lowe notes, along with four nonguaranteed contracts. By opening up some more room, the Jazz could fit Jose Calderon if the Knicks decide to dump his salary or they could make a play for Pelicans free agent Norris Cole. Another option is to target guards on teams seeking luxury tax relief, such as Miami’s Mario Chalmers or Oklahoma City’s D.J. Augustin. Lowe reported in April that Utah was hoping to trade its first-round pick for a point guard, but couldn’t find any takers.

There’s more from the Northwest Division:

The Jazz would have preferred to keep Olivier Hanlan in Idaho for this season, tweets Andy Larsen of KSL.com, but the small D-League salaries made that impractical. Hanlan, the 42nd pick in this year’s draft, signed with Zalgiris Kaunas of Lithuania.
Thunder coach Billy Donovan’s journey to the NBA began in earnest when Rick Pitino became his coach at Providence, writes Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman. Frustrated over a lack of playing time, Donovan was thinking of leaving Providence before prior to his junior year when Pitino took over as coach. As a senior, Donovan averaged more than 20 points per game and played in the Final Four, launching his career, briefly as an NBA player, and ultimately as a coach.