Chuck Hayes

L.A. Notes: Hibbert, Hayes, Bass

The last spot on the Clippers15-man roster will be a training camp battle between Chuck Hayes, Luc Mbah a Moute and Nikoloz Tskitishvili, Arash Markazi of ESPN.com relays (on Twitter). Markazi believes Hayes is the favorite because the Clippers are looking for someone with the versatility to play both power forward and center.

Here’s more from around Los Angeles:

  • Roy Hibbert will resurrect his career after the center agreed to waive part of his 15% trade kicker to join the Lakers, opines Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times in a list of questions and answers about the team. Hibbert’s scoring average of 10.6 points per game last year was the lowest since his rookie season. He will be a free agent next summer.
  • Brandon Bass should help the Lakers improve their defensive efficiency that ranked 29th out of 30 teams this season, Mark Medina of The Los Angeles Daily News writes. It is unclear if Bass or Julius Randle will be the team’s starting power forward, Medina adds.
  • The Lakers attempted to hire Steve Nash to a similar position in which he joined the Warriors following his acceptance of Golden State’s offer, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports tweets.

Western Notes: Exum, Williams, Hayes

Jazz point guard Dante Exum underwent successful surgery today to repair damage to the ACL in his left knee, the team announced. The 20-year-old, who was the No. 5 overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, was injured in early August while playing for the Australian National Team, and he is out indefinitely as a result. Exum appeared in 82 contests as a rookie, including 41 starts. His numbers for the 2014/15 campaign were 4.8 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 2.4 assists in 22.2 minutes per contest to accompany a slash line of .349/.314/.625.

Here’s more out of the West:

  • New Mavericks point guard Deron Williams doesn’t like that he has been labeled as a “coach killer,” Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com relays (Twitter links). Williams played for four different head coaches during his three seasons in Brooklyn, Mazzeo notes. Lionel Hollins, who was Williams’ final coach while with the Nets, recently said that the 31-year-old is no longer a franchise player.
  • J.J. O’Brien‘s deal with the Jazz is a three-year, minimum salary arrangement that includes a partial guarantee of $75K for the 2015/16 season, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets.
  • The one year pact that Chuck Hayes signed with the Clippers is non-guaranteed, and includes limited injury protection, meaning that it is likely an Exhibit 9 contract, Pincus relays (Twitter link).
  • The Timberwolves intend to add one or two more players to their roster prior to training camp commencing, Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN relays (on Twitter). Minnesota currently has a roster count of 17, which is three below the preseason maximum.

Western Notes: Allen, Hayes, Majok

Despite having already proven his versatility to the team, Tony Allen knows that he’ll have to fight for minutes this season on a deep Grizzlies squad, Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal (subscription required) writes. For his part, Allen indicated that he’d willingly accept any role the team asked him to play, Tillery adds. “I don’t get into that. It is what it is. It’s not how you start. It’s how you finish,” Allen said. “I just want to come in, go to work and when I leave [the coaches] will be like, ‘He put his all out there on the line.’ Starting doesn’t mean anything to me. I’ve already shown that.” The 33-year-old appeared in 63 games for Memphis in 2014/15, including 41 starts, and averaged 8.6 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 1.4 assists in 26.2 minutes per contest.

Here’s more from out West:

  • Chuck Hayes‘ one year, minimum salary deal with the Clippers is non-guaranteed, former NBA executive Bobby Marks confirms (via Twitter). Dan Woike of the Orange County Register first reported that no guaranteed salary would be a part of the agreement. That means his salary wouldn’t have bearing on any would-be hard cap unless he makes the opening night roster, as Marks points out (Twitter link).
  • Lakers draft-and-stash power forward Ater Majok has signed with the Polish club Trefl Sopot, the team announced (translation courtesy of Emiliano Carchia of Sportando). Majok was selected by Los Angeles with the No. 58 overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft.
  • Timberwolves combo forward Anthony Bennett hopes to use his strong play for Team Canada this Summer as a springboard to a strong NBA season, Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca writes. Former NBA player and current GM of the Canadian senior men’s team, Steve Nash, is a firm believer in Bennett’s potential, Lewenberg notes, with Nash saying of the young forward, “For me, just to be around him and to see how seriously he’s taking it and how hard he’s worked and how hard he’s trying to pick up the details, like I said, those are the ingredients that are going to make him a great NBA player and a guy that plays in the league for a long time. So I’m [incredibly] proud of Anthony and the work he’s put in this summer.” Minnesota would reportedly be willing to deal Bennett for the right price, though the team isn’t actively shopping the 2013 No. 1 overall pick.

Clippers Sign Chuck Hayes To One-Year Deal

7:37pm: The signing is official, according to the team’s website.

5:00pm: The deal is not fully guaranteed, reports Dan Woike of the Orange County Register (on Twitter).

4:39pm: The Clippers and Chuck Hayes have reached agreement on a one-year deal, a source told Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Hayes was set to sign with the Rockets, but that deal fell apart last week. It’ll have to be for the minimum salary, since that’s all the Clippers can give. The deal between Houston and Hayes was reportedly for the minimum with a partial guarantee, though the level of the guarantee on the latest deal for the Calvin Andrews client is unclear. Andrews has nonetheless confirmed the existence of the Clippers deal to Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston (Twitter link).

Several teams had expressed interest in Hayes for coaching or front office jobs, but still only 32, he was focused on continuing his career as a player, as Andrews said last week. Hayes has a chance to keep playing with the Clippers after putting up career lows across the board, including in minutes per game, with the Raptors this past season. Still, at only 6’6″, the undersized center has performed well on the boards during his 10-year career, pulling down 8.1 rebounds in 28.1 minutes per game for the Rockets in 2010/11.

The deal with Hayes would appear to complicate the team’s reported talks with Glen Davis and Ryan Hollins, and perhaps its apparent interest in Chris Singleton, too. The Clippers have been carrying 14 fully guaranteed contracts, as our roster count shows, so that leaves room for only one more player on the regular season roster.

Whom should the Clippers carry as their 15th man? Hayes, Davis, Hollins, Singleton or somebody else? Leave a comment to chime in.

Deal Between Rockets, Chuck Hayes Falls Apart

11:18am: Andrews expressed surprise at how the deal came undone, Berman also tweets. The Rockets are one of the teams that wants Hayes in a non-playing capacity, as Andrews reveals to Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle.

“I think when we came up with the agreement, after that point, they had some other activity, the Ty Lawson trade, the Jason Terry signing,” Andrews said. “That put Chuck in a precarious situation. The result of that squeezed him out of the equation. They had some cap stuff they were concerned with. We didn’t get into a lot of details. It’s a tough situation. It’s very disappointing. This is the business. These things happen. I commend them for telling us now as opposed to dragging us through camp. We’ll explore if there are other teams interested. He wants to continue to play. There’s multiple teams that want him to join his staff, including the Rockets, if that’s what he wants to do. He wants to continue to play.”

10:59am: The dissolution of the agreement appears to have rankled the Hayes camp, as comments Andrews made to Mark Berman of Fox 26 Houston indicate (Twitter link). “We are extremely upset and disappointed. We know this is a business,” Andrews said.

AUGUST 27TH, 10:46am: The center won’t be signing with the Rockets after all, agent Calvin Andrews tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Andrews cited “limited roster flexibility” and “other financial considerations,” a hint that the unraveling of the deal had to do with the dilemma the Rockets face with No. 32 overall pick Montrezl Harrell. Hayes, 32, has received multiple offers for coaching and front office positions, and while he has interest in going that route eventually, he remains focused on continuing his playing career for now, Andrews said.

JULY 30TH, 11:33am: Hayes’ deal includes a partial guarantee, according to Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com (on Twitter).

JULY 29TH, 9:18pm: The Rockets have agreed to terms with free agent center Chuck Hayes on a contract, sources told Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter).  It’ll be a one-year veteran’s minimum deal.

The 10-year veteran big man played his first six NBA seasons with Houston, and GM Daryl Morey has shown a fondness for reunions with his former players.  The market for the 32-year-old was been quiet this month after coming off a season of career lows – Hayes averaged just 1.7 points and 1.8 rebounds in 8.8 minutes per game across 29 appearances. He was a starter his last two seasons in Houston.

Hayes made nearly $5.959MM in 2014/15, so he’ll be taking a significant pay cut this season.

Rockets, Chuck Hayes Close To Deal

JULY 20TH, 1:29pm: The sides are close to an agreement and working on “fine details,” Andrews told Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle (Twitter link).

JULY 15TH, 8:32am: Free agent Chuck Hayes met with people from the Rockets organization Monday, and agent Calvin Andrews told Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports that the sides have mutual interest (Twitter link). The 10-year veteran big man played his first six NBA seasons with Houston, and GM Daryl Morey has shown a fondness for reunions with his former players.

The market for the 32-year-old has been quiet this month. It’s unclear if he or the Raptors have any interest in a return. Hayes is coming off a season of career lows, as he averaged just 1.7 points and 1.8 rebounds in 8.8 minutes per game across 29 appearances. He was a starter his last two seasons in Houston.

The Rockets have their mid-level exception available, though the team may need it to re-sign either Josh Smith, K.J. McDaniels, or both, as Houston reportedly wants to retain those free agents. Hayes seems like a candidate for the minimum salary, coming off his down year, though he made nearly $5.959MM in 2014/15.

Raptors Sign James Johnson

JULY 17TH: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.

JULY 10TH: 10:10am: The deal is fully guaranteed, according to Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link).

8:40am: The Raptors and James Johnson have reached agreement on a two-year deal, reports Doug Smith of the Toronto Star. The value of the contract will be $5MM, according to Smith, though Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun believes it might be for slightly more (Twitter link). The Raptors are using part of their mid-level exception on the Mark Bartelstein client, Wolstat adds in the same tweet.

Johnson revived his NBA career after signing with the Grizzlies in December, proving a useful reserve as he averaged 7.4 points in 18.4 minutes per game. The five-year NBA veteran previously spent parts of two seasons with the Raptors, though that was during the regime of former GM Bryan Colangelo. The 27-year-old spurns the Rockets, who were reportedly set to meet with him earlier this month, as well as the Jazz, who also had interest, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports. The Grizzlies had apparently been split on whether to bring him back.

The move largely brings a close to Toronto’s major free agent expenditures, as Smith writes, after previous agreements with Kyle Lowry, Patrick Patterson and Greivis Vasquez. The Raptors wouldn’t mind trying to find a trade partner willing to take on Chuck Hayes or Landry Fields if they could net younger versions of those players in return, but the club probably won’t make any trades until the leaguewide free agency rush passes, Smith writes. The move also likely squeezes out Dwight Buycks, who’s on a non-guaranteed contract, and probably ends any chance that the Raptors would sign Andray Blatche or Ed Davis, according to Smith.

Masai Ujiri On Lowry, Casey, Hayes

Raptors GM Masai Ujiri‘s phone isn’t making much noise, but he’s not turning it off, either. Ujiri tells Mike Ganter of the Toronto Sun that he’ll be listening to trade offers that come in between now and Thursday’s deadline. The Raptors are 28-24, good for third place in the Eastern Conference, but the team’s performance hasn’t altered Ujiri’s timetable for putting the club in title contention, Ganter notes. Ujiri also spoke with Doug Smith of the Toronto Star, and we’ll pass along the best of both pieces here:

On whether he’s open to trading Kyle Lowry or any other player:

“I hate to comment about any player in that way, but I think we are not good enough so you have to keep it open. That’s the honest answer. These guys have done pretty good. I know we’ve won a couple of games but we haven’t done anything yet. We’ll keep trying to grow.”

On coach Dwane Casey, whom Ujiri says has done “an excellent job”:

“When we talked about it with Casey when I came on, it was something like where I said we are going to assess the whole season and for me, my evaluation was not wins and losses at all. For me, you almost put a coach under pressure where he’s trying to do things. It wasn’t only the growth of the players. It was the growth of the coaches and the growth of us working together as a front office … I don’t just mean, ‘How did Terrence (Ross) grow or Jonas (Valanciunas) grow?’. How did we all grow working together? How are we all growing together? How do we interact, how do we communicate with front office, coaches, players? That’s our job here. We’re not always going to agree but we have to find a way to communicate and make a decision on things.”

On whether he sensed the December trade that shipped Rudy Gay to the Kings would be so beneficial to the Raptors:

“When we did the trade, we honestly didn’t know which way it would go so we were preparing for either way. Obviously, you do background, you check on attitude, you check on good teammate, you check on off-the-court habits and that stuff. Even some of that information, you can only get so much that’s accurate and so much that’s not but we tried to just do our homework, due diligence like everyone does. You bring in someone like (Greivis) Vasquez who can maybe (play) as a starter in the pinch. I think (Patrick) Patterson is a young big in the league and you’re intrigued by some of the little things he does. I think (John) Salmons is older but brings a steady calm and, you know what? Chuck Hayes? I didn’t know what Chuck Hayes had left but (as) a post-defender and leader and anchor type in pinch minutes on defense, I think he’s shown us he can be (of) some help.”

Eastern Notes: MKG/CDR, Teague, Kidd, Raptors

According to Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer, Bobcats forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist is ecstatic about the team’s recent addition of Chris Douglas-Roberts, a player who Kidd-Gilchrist idolized while growing up: “It’s so good to have (Douglas-Roberts) here, a dream-come-true for me and him to be on the same team…I never would have thought that in a million years. He’s my favorite player.”

Bonnell also relays what Douglas-Roberts is sharing with the former Kentucky Wildcat:

“(Kidd-Gilchrist) always been a student of the game since he was a little kid…(But) one thing you can’t prepare for is the business of this. I tell him, ‘You’re a basketball player – a good basketball player. Just have a thicker skin…“I told him you have to embrace all the pressure (of being the No. 2 overall pick). Never shy away from it…You want people criticizing you. You want the media talking about you, positively or negatively.” 

With that aside, here are some more noteworthy links to pass along out of the Eastern Conference tonight:

Kings Acquire Rudy Gay

The Kings have officially acquired Rudy Gay from the Raptors along with Aaron Gray and Quincy Acy, Toronto announced via press release. Greivis Vasquez, John Salmons, Patrick Patterson and Chuck Hayes are headed north of the border. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports originally reported last night that the swap would take place (Twitter links).

“We thank Rudy, Aaron and Quincy for their time here. They were great professionals and strong community ambassadors of the Raptors,” Toronto GM Masai Ujiri said in a statement. “The trade gives us good flexibility and more certainty as we plan for our future.”

The Kings plan on using Gay as a stretch-four and see Gay and the recently-acquired Derrick Williams as being capable of guarding either forward position, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports tweets.  With Williams and Gay, the Kings are buying low on two notable names that have depreciated in the eyes of many evaluators.

“We’re excited to welcome these additions to our team,” Sacramento GM Pete D’Alessandro said, according to a release from the Kings. “In Rudy we’ve acquired one of the league’s proven scorers while Aaron and Quincy provide size and depth in our frontcourt. We also appreciate the contributions and efforts that John, Chuck, Greivis and Patrick made to the Kings organization. We all wish them the very best moving forward.”

Gay, 27, boasts career averages of 18.0 PPG and 5.9 RPG, but newer metrics such as PER have shown that his efficiency leaves much to be desired.  It’s not just fans and front office execs that have taken notice, either.  After a November game in which the small forward took 37 shots and scored 29 points, LeBron James remarked that he would put up 60 points “easy” if he attempted such a gaudy number of shots.

While the Kings gain at athletic wing in Gay, the Raptors free up a good amount of money for 2015 and gain a couple of interesting pieces along the way as well.  As for the financial part of things, the only guaranteed 2015 money that came back in the deal is Hayes’ $5.9MM contract.  Beyond that, they can clear $14.5MM by declining options/qualifying offers for Vasquez, Salmons, and Patterson.

Last month, it was reported that Ujiri waexploring trade options for Gay and others with Jonas Valanciunas, 2011′s fifth overall pick, the only real untouchable of the bunch.  Gay was the team’s most obvious chip since he’s still capable of being a top scorer for a team and could be a rental since he has a player option for 2014/15 that he could turn down in favor of a longer deal.  With a $17.89MM salary, however, finding a home for Gay hasn’t been easy.  Gay’s player option for 2014/15 is worth $19.2MM.

Vasquez, 27 in January, took a major step forward with the Pelicans last season when he put up career best averages of 13.9 PPG and 9 APG.  Today’s news means that Vasquez has now worn three different jerseys in this calendar year – the guard came to Sacramento in July as a part of the three-way Tyreke Evans deal.  While Vasquez has fans in the Kings front office, they clearly felt that this was a trade they had to make to get a dominant wing.  It also has the added benefit of clearing up the Kings’ backcourt logjam.

Patterson, 24, is also in his third career trade with today’s deal.  The power forward has had an up-and-down career through Houston and Sacramento and hasn’t been off to a blazing start this season.  Patterson is putting up just 6.9 PPG and 5.8 RPG while shooting 41% from the floor.

Salmons, 33, has been seeing almost 25 minutes per contest with the Kings this season but is putting up some of his weakest per 36 minutes averages of his career.  Only $1MM of Salmons’ $7MM salary in 2014/15 is guaranteed and it’s a safe bet that he’ll be let go.  Acy, 23, hasn’t seen much burn this season, playing 8.7 minutes per contest across seven games.

More than three-quarters of Hoops Rumors readers said that they expected Gay to be traded before the deadline.  It certainly helped that Ujiri and D’Alessandro have a history after working together in Denver.  By trading Andrea Bargnani and Gay, Ujiri has cleared ~$20MM off of the books next season.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.