Pelicans Sign Jonas Valanciunas To Two-Year Extension
6:54pm: The Pelicans have officially announced their new deal with Valanciunas, confirming the extension in a press release.
“We’re delighted to be able to continue our relationship with Jonas,” executive VP of basketball operations David Griffin said in a statement. “His deep desire to remain here and his connection to his team, his coaches and the organization represents everything we want to build towards.”
11:19am: The Pelicans and center Jonas Valanciunas have reached an agreement on an extension that will lock him up through the 2023/24 season, agents Aaron Mintz, Mitch Nathan and Drew Morrison of CAA tell Andrew Lopez of ESPN (Twitter link).
According to Lopez, Valanciunas’ two-year extension will be worth $30.1MM. The big man is under contract for $14MM in 2021/22, so he’s now on track to earn $44.1MM over the next three seasons. Because he had been on an expiring deal, Valanciunas was extension-eligible beyond the October 18 deadline that applied to certain other veterans.
Valanciunas averaged a double-double in each of his last two seasons in Memphis, establishing new career highs in 2020/21 with 17.1 PPG and 12.5 RPG in 62 games (28.3 MPG). The 29-year-old isn’t an elite rim protector and doesn’t shoot many three-pointers, but holds his own on defense and can knock down mid-range jumpers.
The Grizzlies dealt Valanciunas to New Orleans in an offseason trade that sent Eric Bledsoe and Steven Adams to Memphis. Having recently acquired Valanciunas, the Pelicans faced extend-and-trade limits in their contract negotiations, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks. They couldn’t offer the former No. 5 overall pick more than a 5% raise on this year’s $14MM salary and couldn’t tack more than two years onto his expiring contract.
Those limits would’ve lifted by the end of the year, but Valanciunas opted for security now rather than waiting to see if he could get a more lucrative deal later in the season or as a free agent in 2022.
This is the second consecutive year in which the Pelicans have traded for a veteran center and then signed him to an extension before seeing him take the court alongside star forward Zion Williamson. The organization will be hoping its commitment to Valanciunas works out better than last year’s deal with Adams did.
As Marks observes (via Twitter), Tomas Satoransky is now the only Pelicans (besides two-way players) who isn’t under contract through at least the 2022/23 season.
Beal Says Opposing Players Constantly Try To Recruit Him
The trade rumors that have swirled around Bradley Beal in recent years have quieted down to some extent in 2021, but the Wizards star tells Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer that in “almost every game we play,” an opposing player tries to recruit him to leave D.C.
“It brings you back to college. Which school is the right school? Which team is the right team?” Beal said. “You love the fact that people see your game and would love to play with you. But it’s also tough on the back end, because you have no idea what you want to do.”
Beal is eligible to sign a contract extension anytime, but he’d be able to earn more money if he waits until 2022, turns down his player option, and signs a new contract with the Wizards. Of course, he could also choose to leave the team as a free agent at that point.
As O’Connor writes, Beal remains committed to the Wizards for the time being, but hasn’t made any decision yet about his long-term future. While Beal likes the moves that general manager Tommy Sheppard and his front office made during the offseason, the team knows it needs to do more to convince the three-time All-Star he should remain in Washington for years to come. The goal, according to Sheppard, isn’t to turn into a contender overnight but to continue steadily improving each season.
“We’re going into year three of a plan to be more competitive every year,” Sheppard said. “It’s not a win now. It’s win more.
“… We have all year to keep showing him, ‘Hey, this is a place you’re going to win,'” the Wizards’ GM added. “Then, of course, the championship’s the next thing. But we can’t skip steps. I can’t sit here and look our guys straight in the face and say, ‘We should win a championship this year.’ Not at all. But the more pieces you’ve got, the longer you can hang around. That’s what I really, really believe.”
The Wizards committed to one of the league’s bigger roster shakeups this offseason when they traded Russell Westbrook to the Lakers in a five-team blockbuster. Washington folded its Spencer Dinwiddie sign-and-trade acquisition into that deal and acquired five other players, including Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Montrezl Harrell.
Sheppard, who referred to Beal as a “shareholder” in the Wizards, said he bounces major roster moves off of the 28-year-old, so we can safely assume Beal wasn’t caught off guard by the team’s mega-deal. In fact, he told O’Connor that he was “definitely impressed” with the way Sheppard revamped the roster and upgraded the Wizards’ depth without giving up “crazy picks” or other assets.
“It was just me and Russ before. Now we have so many guys who can be versatile with the game. I can play off ball, and take more challenges on the defensive end,” Beal said. “We have probably the best depth we’ve had in a long time, maybe since 2017. To be able to look at the roster on paper, and see we’re three-deep at every position, is pretty good.”
As O’Connor points out, even if Beal is undecided about his future, his safest play might be to lock in a five-year deal with the Wizards for the sake of financial security — if he’s unhappy in two or three years, he could always push for a trade, like many of his contemporaries have. However, Beal is wary of taking that approach, suggesting that if he signs a long-term deal, he wants to be fully bought in.
“That’s kind of a dangerous game to play because you’re not in ultimate control,” Beal said. “Once you sign a five-year deal, you’re pretty much hooked.”
Rival teams – and players – will be keeping a close eye this season on Beal, who could emerge as one of the NBA’s biggest-name candidates to change teams in 2022 if things go south in Washington.
Harden: Lack Of Contract Extension “Nothing To Worry About”
Nets guard James Harden was eligible for a contract extension this offseason, but had to get something done by October 18. Since Monday’s deadline passed without a new deal, Harden’s next opportunity to sign a new contract will come during the 2022 offseason. At that point, he could either pick up his player option for 2022/23 and potentially negotiate a extension, or turn down that option in order to become a free agent.
Although the Nets had hoped to extend Harden this offseason and won’t be able to complete a long-term deal with him during the season, the nine-time All-Star says the club has “nothing to worry about,” as Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN details.
“I love it here, myself and (team owners) Joe (Tsai) and Clara (Wu Tsai) and (general manager) Sean (Marks) and the front office and (alternate governor Oliver Weisberg) and (head coach) Steve (Nash),” Harden said. “From top to bottom, the communication has been unbelievable, it’s been amazing. I feel at home. It’s nothing to worry about. For me individually, I just want to focus on this year and that’s it.”
Nets fans may take Harden’s comments with a grain of salt, given that he’s less than a year removed from forcing his last team to trade him. However, there’s reason to believe the 32-year-old is being genuine — it will be more favorable financially to wait until next year to sign a new contract than it would have been to extend his deal this year.
If Harden had agreed to an extension with the Nets by Monday’s deadline, he could’ve tacked on three years and $161.1MM to the two years and $91.7MM left on his current contract, for a total of $252.8MM over five years, taking him through the 2025/26 season.
If Harden waits until next year and picks up his 2022/23 player option, he’ll be able to tack on four years and $222.8MM to his $47.4MM option salary, taking him through ’26/27. Combined with his 2021/22 salary ($44.3MM), that would work out to $314.5MM over the next six years, increasing his overall payday and giving him an extra year of security. That would be Harden’s best path to maximizing his earnings, even moreso than opting out next summer and signing a brand-new five-year contract with the Nets.
While Harden may not publicly cite those financial considerations as a primary factor in his decision, it’s probably safe to assume he’s thinking about them. If Brooklyn has a disappointing 2021/22 season, maybe he’ll reconsider his long-term commitment to the franchise, but for now, Harden’s decision to put off an extension shouldn’t be a cause for any concern.
“I don’t plan on leaving this organization and the situation that we have,” he said on Tuesday, per Youngmisuk. “So my focus, honestly, is just focus on the season and then winning the championship. The contract and all that stuff will bear itself out, but my focus is going to be locked on this season.”
Billups Played Key Role In Lillard’s Renewed Commitment To Blazers
Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard acknowledged this week that he considered the possibility of leaving Portland this offseason after a disappointing playoff loss to Denver in the spring, writes Jason Quick of The Athletic. However, after deciding not to ask for a trade, Lillard remains committed to the franchise and has no intention of wavering even if the team gets off to a slow start this season.
“Everybody is saying what they think I’m thinking, and what they think I’m going to do, but like, I’m not leaving Portland, you know?” Lillard said.
As Quick details, a series of conversations over the summer with new head coach Chauncey Billups helped renew Lillard’s enthusiasm for remaining with the Blazers. Besides discussing basketball strategies and philosophies, the two men also talked about “family, life after basketball, and the qualities found in a winner,” according to Quick.
“I think a big part of (my change in mindset) was me and Chauncey’s conversations, and where we see things the same,” Lillard told The Athletic. “I’m not going to share details of our conversations, but it’s not often when I speak to people that they see what I see. Watching a game, observing people … there’s not many people who see what I see. But a lot of what I see, he sees. So that was very important to me. Like, that was a big deal.”
When Billups was hired by the team in June, he was aware Lillard was frustrated by how the 2020/21 season was played out and was weighing whether he wanted to remain in Portland for the long term. However, the first-time head coach didn’t feel pressure to push the six-time All-Star to stay with the team.
“I’ve never told Dame, or asked him, to stay. Nothing. I’ve never done that,” Billups said. “I felt like the biggest thing I wanted to do was share the things that were important to me. This is what I am. This is what I’m about. Then, it’s on him to decide: Is it worth it? Or should I punt?
“… It was all organic,” he added. “It wasn’t me putting pressure, not me asking this or that. It was a lot about family, about life, and about life after hoop was done. It was more than basketball. We have a great connection, and those healthy conversations are the type that allow one to make a conscious decision.”
Lillard has three more guaranteed years left on his contract with the Blazers, plus a player option for 2024/25, so it’s possible he’ll have a change of heart at some point before that deal expires. However, it sounds like the teams hoping he’ll ask for a trade shouldn’t count on that happening anytime soon. Lillard has bought into Billups’ vision for the franchise and is comfortable sticking with Portland for the foreseeable future.
“I don’t expect all times to be great times. Adversity is going to hit. There’s going to be some tough times,” Lillard said. “So if (this season) starts off rocky, or if it starts off in a struggle, I wouldn’t be happy about it. Nobody would. But I’m not going to jump ship or bail out when that happens. That’s an easy thing and popular thing to say, but it’s not going to happen.”
Jabari Parker Re-Signs With Celtics
8:02pm: The Celtics confirmed the return of Parker in a press release.
6:05pm: After being cut by the Celtics earlier this week, backup power forward Jabari Parker has cleared waivers and will ink a new deal with Boston, per Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Parker had been signed to a multiyear agreement with the Celtics last year, but his 2021/22 season salary was only partially guaranteed for $100K. It had been scheduled to be fully guaranteed by the club’s first game of the season. Terms of Parker’s new deal have yet to be disclosed, but presumably it won’t become fully guaranteed until the leaguewide deadline in January.
Parker began the 2020/21 season as a little-used Kings reserve. Sacramento eventually waived him after the former 2014 No. 2 lottery pick failed to crack the club’s rotation. In three games with the Kings, Parker averaged 2.7 PPG and 2.0 RPG in 9.0 MPG.
He then signed with Boston ahead of the Celtics’ postseason push. The 6’8″ power forward appeared in 10 contests last year for Boston, averaging 6.4 PPG and 3.5 RPG in 13.8 MPG.
John Hollinger of The Athletic (Twitter link) notes that, in cutting Parker and adding him back, the Celtics will save significant cash toward his cap and tax impact, since the second year of his previous minimum-salary deal had a higher cap hit than his new one-year deal.
Agent Blasts Kings For Benching Marvin Bagley
Excel Sports agent Jeff Schwartz, who represents Kings big man Marvin Bagley III, released an explosive reprimand of Sacramento (via Twitter), revealing that the team has decided to hold Bagley out of their rotation completely to start the 2021/22 season. Schwartz called the decision to keep his client out of the club’s lineup “completely baffling.”
“It’s clear they have no plans for him in the future, and yet, passed on potential deals at last year’s deadline and this summer based on ‘value,'” Schwartz said. “Instead they chose to bring him back but not play him, a move completely contradictory to their ‘value’ argument. This is a case study in mismanagement by the Kings organization.”
The relatively new Sacramento front office regime, led by second-year team president Monte McNair, is clearly not too invested in the former No. 2 overall pick out of Duke. The current club is prioritizing more switchable, smaller lineups around its exciting young backcourt, looking to build around maximum-salaried point guard De’Aaron Fox and intriguing recent lottery selections Tyrese Haliburton and Davion Mitchell.
At the power forward slot, Harrison Barnes and and Maurice Harkless are expected to soak up the majority of rotation minutes. At center, the recently-extended Richaun Holmes has emerged as the team’s apparent preference to start, while newly-added vets Tristan Thompson and Alex Len will back him up.
The 6’11” Bagley showed plenty of promise during his 2018/19 rookie season, with his output that year (14.9 PPG and 7.6 RPG in 25.3 MPG, across 62 games) meriting inclusion on the 2019 All-Rookie First Team alongside future All-Stars Luka Doncic and Trae Young. Since then, the 22-year-old’s numbers have stagnated and he has missed significant time with injury issues. Last year, he averaged 14.1 PPG and 7.4 RPG across 25.9 MPG, while missing 29 games.
Where this leaves Bagley is unclear, as the big man and his agent surely are hoping for a trade, but his value to other teams appears to be trending in the wrong direction if he has been deemed unworthy of making the opening night rotation for a probable lottery-bound team. The Kings are scheduled to make their 2021/22 regular season debut Wednesday night against the Trail Blazers.
Bagley is on an expiring contract and is eligible for restricted free agency in 2022. As Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (Twitter link), if Bagley doesn’t meet the NBA’s starter criteria, his potential qualifying offer for next season would be worth $7.3MM instead of $14.8MM.
Sixers Suspend Ben Simmons For Season Opener
1:22pm: The Sixers have fined Simmons about $1.4MM for missing the team’s four preseason games and have also fined him for the various practices, workouts, and meetings he missed, according to Wojnarowski (Twitter links), who says the 25-year-old hasn’t earned any money since he returned last week.
Wojnarowski adds that Philadelphia hasn’t changed its stance about not wanting to trade Simmons for role players. Even after today’s incident, no one should expect a quick resolution, says Woj.
11:13am: The Sixers have suspended Ben Simmons for one game due to conduct detrimental to the team, the club announced today in a press release. As a result, Simmons will miss Philadelphia’s regular season opener in New Orleans on Wednesday night.
The 76ers’ announcement was light on details, but according to reports from Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer and ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter links), the team handed out the suspension after Simmons was kicked out of Tuesday’s practice by head coach Doc Rivers for not being engaged. He was thrown out early in the practice when he essentially refused to participate in the next session, Woj adds (via Twitter).
“He was a distraction today,” Rivers said of Simmons, per Serena Winters (Twitter link). “I didn’t think he wanted to do what everybody else was doing. It was early, it wasn’t a big deal. I just told him, he should leave then, and we went on with practice.”
The plan had been for the 25-year-old to speak to reporters for the first time following today’s practice, but that won’t happen now, tweets Kyle Neubeck of PhillyVoice.com.
Simmons, who sought a trade this offseason, was a holdout this fall and missed the first two weeks of training camp and the preseason before reporting to the Sixers last Monday. He was cleared to join the team for practices on Friday, but we still don’t know with any certainty if or when he’ll play in games. The belief is that he reported to the 76ers in order to stop losing money for missing practices and games, not because his desire to be traded has wavered in the slightest.
Tuesday’s incident certainly doesn’t bode well for the odds of the three-time All-Star suiting up anytime soon. Sources tell Wojnarowski (Twitter link) that Simmons’ reluctance to “physically and mentally engage” has been a consistent theme since he resumed practicing with the club.
Joel Embiid told reporters today that he hasn’t spoken to Simmons since he returned, according to Neubeck (Twitter links).
“At the end of the day, our job is not to babysit somebody,” Embiid said. “… I’d be willing to babysit if someone wants to listen, but that’s not my my job.”
Warriors Re-Sign Gary Payton II
Gary Payton II, who was waived by the Warriors over the weekend, has been re-signed, the team announced (via Twitter). It’s a non-guaranteed deal, tweets Anthony Slater of The Athletic.
Golden State had a roster spot open after cutting Payton – along with guards Avery Bradley and Mychal Mulder and big man Jordan Bell – on Friday. The team now has a full roster, with 15 players on standard contracts and a pair on two-way deals.
Payton’s former contract would have paid him a $659K guarantee if he had remained on the roster for opening night. Every bit of salary is significant for the Warriors, who are well into tax territory, so bringing back Payton after he cleared waivers allows them to have him on the team and essentially pay him by the day.
The 28-year-old guard joined Golden State in April on a pair of two-way contracts, then was signed for the remainder of the season. He got into 10 games, averaging 2.5 points and 1.1 rebounds in 4.0 minutes per night. He is valued for his defensive skills and could be useful for the Warriors off the bench in certain situations.
Wizards Extend Daniel Gafford Through 2025/26
10:40am: The Wizards have officially announced Gafford’s extension, confirming the move in a press release.
“We’re very excited to extend Daniel’s contract and continue to see him develop within our system after his athleticism on both ends of the floor made such an immediate impact for us last season,” GM Tommy Sheppard said in a statement. “We are confident that he has the character and drive to keep working hard to improve his overall game and become an even bigger part of what we are building with our team.”
5:49am: The Wizards and big man Daniel Gafford agreed to a three-year contract extension late on Monday night, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link), who reports that Gafford’s new contract will be worth $40.2MM.
Gafford, the 38th overall pick in the 2019 draft, spent the first year-and-a-half of his NBA career with the Bulls and played a modest role for the club, averaging 5.0 PPG, 2.8 RPG, and 1.2 BPG in 74 contests (13.4 MPG). He was sent to the Wizards in a three-team deal at the 2021 trade deadline.
In D.C., Gafford enjoyed a mini-breakout in 23 games down the stretch, putting up 10.1 PPG, 5.6 RPG, and 1.8 BPG in just 17.7 minutes per contest. Although the Wizards acquired Montrezl Harrell in the offseason and will be getting Thomas Bryant back from his ACL tear this winter, the team envisions the athletic Gafford playing a key rotation role at the five.
Gafford’s minimum-salary contract pays him approximately $1.78MM this season and includes a $1.93MM team option for the 2022/23 season. According to Charania (Twitter link), the new deal will run through the ’25/26 season, which suggests Gafford’s option for next season is being exercised as part of the agreement, with the new deal going into effect in ’23/24.
Monday was the last day for extension-eligible players with multiple years left on their current deals to sign new contracts. Since Gafford’s option is being picked up, he fits that bill, which is why he and the Wizards had to beat the clock late last night. If they hadn’t finalized an extension on Monday, Gafford wouldn’t have been eligible to sign a new contract until the 2022 offseason.
A player signing a veteran contract extension is typically eligible to receive up to a 20% raise on the salary in the final year of his current contract. However, someone like Gafford, who is earning a smaller salary, can sign an extension that starts at up to 20% of the NBA’s “estimated average salary” in the year which the extension is signed. This year’s estimated average salary is $10.335MM, so a 20% bump to that figure would get Gafford a starting salary of about $12.4MM and a three-year total in excess of $40MM, assuming 8% annual raises.
Hawks, Kevin Huerter Complete Four-Year Extension
5:54pm: Huerter has officially signed his extension, per NBA.com’s transactions log.
4:31pm: The Hawks and Kevin Huerter have agreed to terms on a four-year rookie scale extension worth $65MM, agents Mark Bartelstein and Andy Shiffman tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). The deal is fully guaranteed, according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press (Twitter link).
This continues Atlanta’s trend of locking up its young core. Trae Young signed a five-year max extension in August. John Collins inked a five-year extension this summer and Clint Capela received a two-year extension.
Overall, as ESPN’s Bobby Marks notes (Twitter link), the franchise has handed out more than $400MM in contracts this offseason — Young’s $172.5MM, John Collins’ $125MM, Huerter’s deal and Capela’s $46MM. Atlanta could certainly be confronted with luxury tax issues in future years but the ownership group appears willing to do whatever it takes to keep their top players in the fold.
Huerter, 23, is one of the team’s key wing pieces. He’s a 37.6% 3-point shooter over the first three years of his career. He averaged 11.9 PPG, 3.3 RPG and 3.5 APG last season in 69 regular season games, including 49 starts. During the Hawks’ run to the Eastern Conference Finals, he started 10 of 18 games and averaged 11.1 PPG, 3.8 RPG and 2.8 APG.
Huerter’s extension is similar to the one the Clippers wing Luke Kennard received last winter.