Carlos Boozer Unlikely To Sign Before Season Starts
Carlos Boozer is likely to remain unsigned for the rest of the offseason and instead seek a deal with a playoff contender after the season starts, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Thus, it appears as though the 13-year veteran simply isn’t seeing an offer that he likes for now, though it casts doubt on the idea that he would bite on apparent interest from the Chinese league, an option that had reportedly intrigued him earlier this month.
Boozer, who turns 34 in November, made $16.8MM combined last season from the Bulls, who waived him via the amnesty clause in July 2014, and the Lakers, who submitted a partial claim of $3.251MM to snag him off waivers. He’d be hard-pressed to make even the amount of that amnesty claim on an NBA contract this season, simply because most teams have no more than the $2.814MM room exception to spend. The Mavericks, one of the latest three NBA teams reported to have interest in him, have only the room exception to use, while the Knicks, another of those interested parties, are limited to the minimum. The Rockets have more than $2.274MM left of their mid-level exception, but using it would impose a hard cap on them, and they still have yet to sign No. 32 overall pick Montrezl Harrell. The Spurs, Raptors, Pelicans, Nuggets, Nets, Lakers and Heat were reportedly interested in the Rob Pelinka client earlier this summer, but none of them have the capacity to give him as much as the Lakers paid for him last year. The Lakers renounced their Bird rights to him last month.
The two-time All-Star put up 16.2 points and 9.8 rebounds per game in 2012/13, but his numbers have declined in each of the two seasons since, and his 6.8 boards and 23.8 minutes per contest last season were career lows. Former Nets executive Bobby Marks wouldn’t be surprised if Boozer waited until Christmas to sign (Twitter link). I’d speculate that a decent chance exists that he stays on the market even longer. Ray Allen and Jermaine O’Neal, two other aging former All-Stars, chose to carry on as free agents into the season last year but never wound up signing.
What do you think Boozer will end up doing? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Gal Mekel Signs To Play In Serbia
WEDNESDAY, 7:46am: The signing is official, the team announced (on Twitter). “I’m excited to meet the best fans in Europe, win titles,” Mekel said, according to Pick (Twitter link).
TUESDAY, 4:35pm: Former NBA guard Gal Mekel has signed a deal with the Serbian team Crvena Zvezda, international journalist David Pick reports (Twitter link). The pact is for two seasons and includes an NBA out clause, according to Pick.
Mekel appeared in four contests for the Pelicans last season, averaging 1.5 points, 0.3 rebounds, and 3.3 assists in 10.8 minutes per contest before being waived by the team in December. The point guard then signed with Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod, and finished out the 2014/15 campaign playing overseas.
The 27-year-old had reportedly had contract talks with three NBA teams this offseason, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com noted back in July, but no NBA deal apparently materialized from those discussions.
Southwest Notes: Aldridge, Matthews, Williams
A dozen players have struck free agent deals with the Spurs over the past two months, as our Free Agent Tracker shows, and they’re apparently in the market for more. Still, stability remains the hallmark of the San Antonio franchise, as Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan, who’s been with the Spurs longer than any other NBA player has been with his team, remain on board. See more from San Antonio amid the latest from around the Southwest Division:
- The Spurs convinced LaMarcus Aldridge to sign, but, as Aldridge’s recent comments suggest, they may still need to sell him on the team’s egalitarian philosophy as it applies to individual stats, writes Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News. Aldridge told USA Today’s Sam Amick that he pointed to his scoring average when he expressed concern about joining the San Antonio to Spurs assistant Ime Udoka, who prevailed upon him to choose San Antonio anyway.
- The Pelicans brought back largely the same cast that made an 11-win improvement from 2013/14 to 2014/15, but they still have depth issues, and a ceiling still appears to exist for their core despite the strides New Orleans made this past season, opines Cody Taylor of Basketball Insiders.
- The five offseason additions most likely to have a negative impact, wear out their welcomes or otherwise disappoint all joined Western Conference teams this summer, according to ESPN’s Summer Forecast panel, and two of them are Mavericks. Wesley Matthews, who signed a four-year max deal, and Deron Williams, who inked a two-year, $11MM contract after his buyout with the Nets, are Nos. 3 and 4, respectively, on the ESPN list.
Pelicans Finalizing Deal With Jeff Adrien
The Pelicans are close to a one-year deal for the veteran’s minimum with free agent forward Jeff Adrien, a source told Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Adrien appeared in 17 games with the Timberwolves last season, averaging 3.5 points and 4.5 rebounds in 12.6 minutes. The 6’7” forward, who played in China after Minnesota waived him in January, has played for five teams in his five-year career.
The Pelicans are over the cap and hard-capped. They have $768,907 remaining on their mid-level exception after signing Dante Cunningham, Alonzo Gee and Bryce Dejean-Jones with it. They also have their $2.139MM bi-annual exception available.
The Magic, Mavs, Timberwolves, Knicks, Hornets and Sixers also showed interest in Adrien, the source told Spears.
Adrien would join a crowded group of forwards that includes Tyreke Evans, Quincy Pondexter, Luke Babbitt, Ryan Anderson and Cunningham as well as superstar Anthony Davis.
Adrien made his NBA debut with the Warriors in 2010/11. He has also played for the Rockets, Hornets and Bucks. He has averaged 4.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and 14.0 minutes in 153 career games.
Jazz Sign Jeff Withey
4:16pm: The deal is official, the Jazz announced.
2:43pm: The Jazz have agreed to sign former Pelicans center Jeff Withey, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The Darren Matsubara client is getting a two-year, partially guaranteed deal that includes a team option on year two, according to Wojnarowski.
The Pelicans withdrew their qualifying offer, worth $1,147,276, to the former 39th overall pick shortly before news broke that they had struck a deal to re-sign Alexis Ajinca. The Jazz have more than $6MM in cap space, but it’s unclear just how much of that the former Kansas standout will see. He played a limited role with New Orleans, averaging 11.8 minutes per game in 2013/14, his rookie year, and just 7.0 MPG this past season.
Withey has what Wojnarowski deems a strong chance to stick around for opening night, since the Jazz have only 13 fully guaranteed contracts. Still, he’ll compete with Chris Johnson, Elijah Millsap, Bryce Cotton, Jack Cooley and Treveon Graham, all of whom are on the Jazz roster with partially or non-guaranteed salary.
Assuming the Jazz start the season with 15 players, which two players without fully guaranteed deals do you think they’ll keep? Leave a comment to tell us.
Rockets Re-Sign Jason Terry
3:44pm: The Rockets have finally followed up with an official announcement via press release.
AUGUST 24TH, 2:07pm: Terry says via Twitter that he’s officially signed (hat tip to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle). The team has made no formal announcement, though GM Daryl Morey has acknowledged the signing with a tweet of his own.
AUGUST 19TH, 3:50pm: Terry has confirmed that he’ll be returning to Houston for the 2015/16 campaign, Mark Berman of FOX 26 tweets.
10:46pm: Along with Berman, Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle and John Reid of the Times Picayune all hear that Terry has made up his mind to sign with the Rockets for the minimum salary (three Twitter links). Watkins also adds to his earlier report (on Twitter), citing a source who says the Rockets expect Terry to officially sign Wednesday.
9:47pm: Terry will decide between the Rockets and Pelicans on Wednesday morning, Watkins tweets, contradicting Charania’s previous report that Terry has made up his mind to return to Houston next season.
AUGUST 18TH, 9:09pm: Jason Terry has decided to re-sign with the Rockets on a one-year deal, according to Shams Charania of RealGM. The Pelicans made a strong push to ink the veteran guard, as Charania notes and as Mark Berman of FOX 26 passed along in a story last week, but he instead appears poised to re-join Houston for the 2015/16 season. The Jazz were another team that the RealGM scribe reports had strong interest in Terry.
A report shortly after players became eligible to sign new contracts in July indicated that Terry was close to returning to Houston on a one-year deal, but an agreement apparently didn’t come to fruition until recently, just over a week after ESPN’s Calvin Watkins reported the Rockets were unsure if they were still in the mix to land the 37-year-old guard. The move, once official, will give Houston 13 fully guaranteed contracts for the upcoming year, presuming Terry is getting a full guarantee. The Rockets have yet to sign second-round selection Montrezl Harrell.
Charania pegs the value of Terry’s deal to be $1.5MM, although he is potentially rounding up since a minimum-salary contract for a player with 10 or more years of experience is worth slightly less than that at $1,499,187. If the deal is indeed for the minimum salary, it preserves a portion of the mid-level exception for Harrell. Terry’s minimum salary is $1,499,187, but the Rockets would only have to pay $947,276, the equivalent of the two-year veteran’s minimum, since it’s a one-year deal. It’s unclear how much partially guaranteed money Chuck Hayes has, but without him, a fully guaranteed deal for Terry would leave the Rockets about $2.5MM shy of the $88.74MM hard cap they’d trigger if they give Harrell a deal that either runs longer than two years, is worth more than the minimum, or both.
The Rockets renounced Terry’s Bird Rights earlier this month, meaning they couldn’t offer him any more than the approximately $2MM they had remaining on their mid-level exception, although they came to terms on a deal worth the minimum salary. Houston will save more than the difference between the two figures, however, since the Rockets are a taxpaying team.
Although Terry’s most formidable years are behind him, he’s capable of contributing in a limited capacity off the bench. In 77 appearances for Houston last season, Terry averaged 7.0 points and 1.9 assists in 21.3 minutes per contest. He saw an expanded role in the postseason when Patrick Beverley was sidelined with an injury, posting nightly marks of 9.2 points and 2.8 points in 28.6 minutes. With Ty Lawson and Beverley likely atop the depth chart at point guard, Terry seems positioned to play limited minutes and provide another veteran presence for a team hoping to contend for a title in 2015/16.
Hawks, Pelicans To Work Out Sean Kilpatrick
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
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
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, 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.