- Jon Leuer‘s playing time on the Suns this season has been wildly inconsistent, but he’s put up the best numbers of his career, and interim coach Earl Watson is pushing the soon-to-be free agent to fulfill the potential he sees in him, as Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic details. “I’m tough on Jon because I think the world of him.” Watson said. “His skill is unique. Our biggest challenge with Jon, and it was direct, was we need to be tougher, more aggressive in the paint, more aggressive rebounding. Go out in the post and just lose yourself to changing the game defensively.
The Suns are serious about signing draft-and-stash prospect Bogdan Bogdanovic for next season, reports international journalist David Pick (Twitter link). This summer will be the last that NBA’s rookie scale would apply to the shooting guard whom the Suns picked 27th overall in 2014. Delaying a signing until the summer of 2017 or later would give the sides more latitude to work out mutually acceptable terms, but it could be more costly for Phoenix, so it’s no surprise to see the team intent on making a deal happen this year.
The 23-year-old native of Serbia has averaged 10.7 points in 27.3 minutes per game for Turkey’s Fenerbahce Ulker in Euroleague action this season, with 14.8 points in 26.3 minutes per contest in domestic league play. Most encouragingly, he’s hit 45.2% of his 3-point attempts for Fenerbahce overall.
Phoenix already has the sharpshooting Devin Booker in its backcourt along with Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight, but the Suns are just 20-53, in part because of injuries, and they could use an injection of talent in just about any form. The Suns are poised to enter the draft lottery in the third position, as our reverse standings show, giving them a 15.6% shot at the No. 1 pick.
A rookie scale contract for Bogdanovic would pay $1,196,040 next season if the Suns signed him for the standard 120% of scale. However, the buyout in his pact with Fenerbahce is reportedly 1 million euros, the equivalent of about $1.12MM. Phoenix can pay only $650K without the buyout affecting his NBA contract, so the sides will have to get creative. The Suns can structure their deal with Bogdanovic so he gets only $797,360, equal to 80% of scale, and add as much as that same amount on top of the $650K they’re otherwise permitted to pay toward the buyout.
Bogdanovic is not to be confused with Bojan Bogdanovic of the Nets, a 26-year-old from Herzegovina who’s in his second NBA season.
The NBA’s salary cap for 2015/16 is set at $70MM, which is good for an 11% increase from last season, and the luxury tax line is fixed at $84.74MM. With the February 18th cutoff date for trades and the de facto deadline of March 1st for buyouts now past, we at Hoops Rumors are in the process of updating the salary cap commitments for each NBA franchise for the 2015/16 campaign. Here’s the cap breakdown for the Phoenix Suns, whose regular season roster can be viewed here:
- 2015/16 Salary Cap= $70,000,000
- 2015/16 Luxury Tax Line= $84,740,000
- Fully Guaranteed Salary Commitments= $70,546,241*
- Remaining Cap Room= –$546,241
- Amount Below Luxury Tax Line= $14,193,759
*Note: This figure includes the $777,778 due Michael Beasley, who was waived via the stretch provision. It also includes the $3,440,000 due Kris Humphries, the $2,000,000 owed DeJuan Blair, the $372,820 due Cory Jefferson, and the $228,663 owed Bryce Cotton, all of whom were waived by the team.
Cap Exceptions Available:
- Room= $1,539,424
- Trade Exception= $578,651 (Markieff Morris. Expires February 18th, 2017)
Cash Available to Send Out In Trades= $3,400,000
Cash Available to Receive Via Trade= $3,400,000
Note: Despite the trade deadline having passed, the NBA season technically doesn’t end until June 30th. Teams are able to again make trades upon the completion of the regular season or when/if they are eliminated from the playoffs, whichever comes later. So these cash limits still apply.
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
- Suns affiliate player Terrico White has a signed contract to play for Israel’s Nes-Ziona at the end of the D-League season, according to international journalist David Pick (Twitter link), bringing clarity to some conflicting reports about his status. White, the 36th pick in the 2010 draft, was on Phoenix’s NBA roster for the preseason this past fall.
- Suns affiliate player Terrico White hasn’t signed with an international team and intends to remain in the D-League, Chris Reichert of Upside & Motor reports (via Twitter). It was reported earlier that White backed out of an agreement with Israel’s Maccabi Rishon to sign with rival Nes-Ziona.
- Suns affiliate player Terrico White has backed out of an agreement with Israel’s Maccabi Rishon and will play for Israeli rival Nes-Ziona instead, reports international journalist David Pick (Twitter link). White, the 36th overall pick in the 2010 NBA draft, has spent the season with Phoenix’s D-League team since a training camp stint on the NBA roster.
- Alan Williams‘ multiyear deal with the Suns calls for him to earn $875K next season and that amount is non-guaranteed, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders relays (Twitter link). It looks like Pincus is rounding up from the one-year veteran’s minimum salary of $874,636.
It’s an awkward situation for the Morris twins these days, as Markieff Morris tries to lift the Wizards to a playoff spot while Marcus Morris makes the same effort for the Pistons, one of the teams standing in Washington’s path. Still, both agree that the Suns wronged them, as they tell Michael Lee of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports. Markieff Morris told Lee he never would have put pen to paper on the extension he signed in 2014 if he knew they would trade his brother, while Marcus Morris continued his criticism of the Suns for their failure to provide advance warning of the offseason swap. “Personally, I think he did a lot for Phoenix. He took a lot of sacrifices for Phoenix. For them to do such a thing, I feel like they backstabbed him,” Marcus Morris said about his brother. “I think if they had just reached out to him, reached out to both of us and said, ‘Listen, this is our direction. We don’t think this is going to work.’ We would understand, that’s what has to happen but by the fact that they didn’t do that, it made it worse. … He just didn’t want to be there. He didn’t feel the vibe.”
Nuggets center Jusuf Nurkic is trying to pick up the pieces of an injury-plagued second season in the NBA, writes Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post. After earning second-team all-rookie honors in 2014/15, Nurkic has seen his playing time and effectiveness limited by an aching left knee. He had surgery during the offseason to repair a partially torn patellar tendon, but the knee hasn’t responded the way he hoped it would. He is averaging 6.8 points and 4.8 rebounds in just 23 games. “I can’t control this stuff,” Nurkic said. “When I hear my name I go in. I haven’t heard it a lot this season for some reason, but I will be a professional until the end and try to finish the season the right way.” In October, Denver picked up his option for 2016/17 at $1,921,320. He also has a team option for 2017/18 at $2,947,305.
There’s more news today out of Denver:
- Both Emmanuel Mudiay and Nikola Jokic have strong cases to be first-team choices on this season’s all-rookie team, Dempsey contends in a separate story. Mudiay, the seventh player selected in the 2015 draft, leads NBA rookies in assists with 5.7 per game and is fourth in scoring average at 12.3 points per night. His main competition for first-team honors in the backcourt will come from the Lakers’ D’Angelo Russell and the Suns’ Devin Booker, Dempsey believes. Jokic was a second-round pick in 2014 who played in the Adriatic and Serbian leagues before coming to the NBA. He ranks second among rookies behind the Wolves’ Karl-Anthony Towns in player efficiency rating and is fourth in rebounding and eighth in scoring.
- The Nuggets don’t know if Danilo Gallinari will play again this season, but the injured small forward plans to be part of the Italian team in the Summer Olympics, according to Marco “Barzo” Barzizza of Eurosport [hat tip to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando]. Gallinari suffered two torn ligaments in his right ankle during a late February game. The injury was expected to keep him out of action for about a month, but the Nuggets may shut him down for the season even if he does recover. “I don’t know if I’ll be back before the end of the season,” Gallinari said. “I am very happy to be in Denver and before thinking about new teams I hope to win something here and to play for the Denver Nuggets for many years.”
Tyson Chandler doesn’t want any part of a rebuilding team, James Herbert of CBSSports writes. “For me, especially where I am in my career, I want to win,” Chandler said (video link via The Arizona Republic). “I want to win now. I’m not in any kind of rebuilding stage. So if that’s the case, it ain’t where I’m supposed to be.” The Suns signed the 33-year-old to a four-year, $52MM deal last offseason and the team expected to be in the hunt for the playoffs. Phoenix currently owns a record of 19-50, as our Reverse Standings show.