And-Ones: Heat, Holmes, Jent
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
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, 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
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
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
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.
Knicks Among Teams Interested In Norris Cole
The Knicks have joined the Sixers and incumbent Pelicans as teams interested in restricted free agent Norris Cole, but New Orleans seems likely to either re-sign him or match another team’s offer sheet, according to Hoops Rumors contributor Sam Amico of AmicoHoops.net (Twitter link). However, New York has reportedly agreed to a deal with fellow Rich Paul client Kevin Seraphin for the apparent cost of the $2.814MM room exception, limiting the Knicks to the minimum salary if they can’t engineer a sign-and-trade.
Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops identified the Sixers as a suitor in mid-July, around the same time that John Reid of The Times Picayune heard that the Pelicans remained interested. New Orleans has only been willing to go so far, as Reid reported about a month ago, and the most recent dispatch from Scotto indicated that Cole saw the prospect of signing his $3.037MM qualifying offer as a viable option.
New York is relatively thin in the backcourt, with Langston Galloway and Jerian Grant poised to become the primary backups for Jose Calderon and Arron Afflalo. Galloway and Grant have just a half-season of NBA experience between them, while Cole was in the rotation for back-to-back champs as a member of the Heat. The Wizards, Thunder, Bucks and Cavs all reportedly had interest in trading for Cole while he was still with the Heat as the February trade deadline approached, but as a restricted free agent months after Miami sent him to the Pelicans in the three-team Goran Dragic trade, the market for him has seemed cooler.
Do you think Cole will sign an offer sheet with the Knicks, Sixers or another team, or do you think he and the Pelicans will work something out? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Western Notes: McDaniels, Barton, Babbitt
Here’s a look at the latest contract news from the Western Conference:
- The three-year contract that K.J. McDaniels signed with the Rockets is worth exactly $10MM, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders shows (Twitter link).
- Will Barton will make $3,533,333 in each season with no options in his new three-year deal with the Nuggets, according to Pincus.
- Luke Babbitt‘s two year deal with the Pelicans is for the minimum salary, reports Pincus (Twitter link).
- Salah Mejri is receiving a guaranteed rookie minimum of $525,093 this season, the first on his three-year deal with the Mavs, tweets Pincus.
Will Joseph contributed to this post.
Pelicans Waive Toney Douglas
The Pelicans have waived guard Toney Douglas, the team announced. The release of Douglas reduces the Pelicans’ current roster count to 12 players.
The player’s 2015/16 salary of $1,185,784 would have become fully guaranteed if he remained on New Orleans’ roster through Saturday, as is shown by our schedule of guarantee dates. Douglas was originally signed by the Pelicans on February 4th, then was released on February 19th before subsequently re-signing with the team for the remainder of the season back on March 24th.
Douglas, 29, 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.
Western Notes: Davis, Blazers, Warriors, Warren
Anthony Davis seems to be completely on board with the Pelicans’ decision to bring aboard Alvin Gentry as head coach next season, John Reid of the Times Picayune suggests. After winning the championship as an assistant with the Warriors last season, Gentry looked into the national TV’s cameras while holding the Larry O’Brien Trophy and exclaimed to Davis that a title was in the duo’s future in New Orleans. Davis said he was impressed with the conviction shown by Gentry, according to Reid, and Davis also added that he’s excited about the mix of old and new assistant coaches that Gentry will be working with next season.
Given the brutal nature of the Western Conference, it might be a stretch to suggest the Pelicans will be in the same spot next year that the Warriors are in now, but with Davis locked in as the franchise’s cornerstone for at least five more seasons, New Orleans will have a shot to be great if they can continue to build around the 22-year-old phenom. We’ll look at more from out West below..
- The Blazers didn’t have to trade any players over to the Cavs in the deal that netted them Brendan Haywood’s $10.5MM, non-guaranteed deal since they sent the minimum $75K in cash Cleveland’s way, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders points out in a tweet.
- Portland renounced Joel Freeland‘s Bird Rights, Pincus also tweets. Freeland spent the last three seasons with the Blazers before deciding to sign overseas in Russia on a two-year deal with CSKA Moscow.
- The Warriors should have a trade exception worth $5.4MM as a result of the trade that sent David Lee to the Celtics, Pincus observes in another tweet.
- Jonathan Tjarks of RealGM concludes that given the Suns’ roster situation, they’ll need to see improvement from players they already have on the team, like second-year wing T.J. Warren, rather than bringing in new faces. It’s still not totally clear how Warren’s unorthodox game will translate to the NBA however, as Tjarks surmises.