Western Notes: Green, Bryant, Rondo
Draymond Green‘s representation switch to the Wasserman Media Group could help the Warriors re-sign the forward, who is set to become a restricted free agent next summer, Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group writes. GM Bob Myers is a former player agent who worked with and was mentored by Arn Tellem, the head of Wasserman, notes Leung. In an interview with 95.7 The Game, Myers said, “So if Arn says, ‘Hey, I got this much money (from another offer),’ he’s not going to lie to me, so there’s value in that. And here’s the other thing I do know. If it’s a tie, we’ll win. Not only just because he’s restricted, but Arn, we’ve known other a long time, so he’s not going to hurt us. If he can help, that’s great.”
Here’s more from way out west:
- With the Lakers season seemingly over before it began, talk has turned to the possibility of Kobe Bryant potentially waiving his no-trade clause and being dealt. Chris Mannix of SI.com believes this would be the smart move from a basketball standpoint for both the team and Bryant, but Los Angeles has plenty of business and economic reasons to hold onto their star. Mannix cites the franchise’s high ticket prices and fanbase that isn’t keen on rooting for a team without a marquee attraction as the main reasons the Lakers would keep Bryant.
- Despite the Lakers‘ potential interest in signing Rajon Rondo, the point guard will likely realize that the Celtics’ outlook seems rosier, Ben Rohrbach of WEEI 93.7 writes. Boston’s roster has more talent the Los Angeles’, and the Lakers are more likely to deal Bryant than to acquire Rondo, Rohrbach opines.
- Not every player who signs to play in Los Angeles and ends up in Salt Lake City would appreciate the move, but Joe Ingles is content after the Jazz claimed him off waivers from the Clippers and paired him with Dante Exum, his teammate from the Australian national squad. Jody Genessy of the Deseret News has the details. “I don’t regret anything about what happened or what I did or anything,” Ingles said. “I did all I can to make the team and wasn’t what they [the Clippers] wanted or good enough or whatever it was, so it worked out perfectly. I’m very happy here (with Utah). It’s been great.”
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Northwest Notes: Thunder, Jackson, Jazz, Ingles
The league has proposed setting the 2016/17 salary cap between $78MM and $82MM in discussions with the union about phasing in the increases that the league’s new TV revenue will bring about, Grantland’s Zach Lowe reports. Those figures would still be quite a leap from next season’s projected $66.5MM cap, and they’d set up lots of teams with flexibility for the summer of 2016, when Kevin Durant is poised to hit free agency. Some teams are optimistic that Durant will consider a wide array of suitors, while others have heard that he’s already down to the Thunder and the Wizards, according to Lowe. In any case, there’s much on the line on Oklahoma City in the next 19 months or so left before Durant’s contract expires, as Lowe examines. Here’s more on the Thunder and their Northwest Division rivals:
- The Thunder are confident that they’ll be able to match other clubs’ offer sheets for restricted free agent-to-be Reggie Jackson next summer, sources tell Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated (Twitter link). Given the roughly $63.57MM of guaranteed salary the Thunder already have on their books for the 2015/16 season, retaining Jackson might require exceeding the luxury tax threshold, something they’ve been reluctant to do in the past.
- Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey isn’t planning simply to let his team’s young core grow on its own, and he says he’ll use it as a draw to attract free agents, as he tells Jody Genessy of the Deseret News, promising to be “very aggressive” in free agency next year. Still, Alec Burks tells Genessy that the team’s commitment to youth is one reason why he was eager to sign his extension with Utah.
- The Clippers weren’t pleased when the Jazz claimed Joe Ingles off waivers, as coach/executive Doc Rivers admits his club had designs on re-signing the 27-year-old rookie, Genessy tweets.
- Thaddeus Young, who can become a free agent in the summer, sees a bright future ahead for the Timberwolves, as he tells Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders.
Charlie Adams contributed to this post.
Jazz Claim Hamilton, Ingles, Waive Felix
The Jazz have waived Carrick Felix, and they’ve claimed Jordan Hamilton and Joe Ingles off waivers, the team announced in a pair of releases. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports first reported the waiver claims and tweeted the news that the team would release Felix. Utah had been carrying 14 players, so at least one had to go to accommodate the pair of claims. Hamilton, whose minimum-salary deal is partially guaranteed for $25K, comes from the Raptors, so Toronto is no longer on the hook for that money. The Clippers had placed their non-guaranteed contract with Ingles on waivers.
Hamilton made it tough on the Raptors this month, though they ultimately decided to go with Greg Stiemsma over both Hamilton and Will Cherry as they all battled for one open regular season roster spot with matching $25K guarantees. Hamilton averaged 9.5 points and 3.0 rebounds in 18.3 minutes per game in the preseason, more playing time than he had seen in any of his three regular seasons since becoming the 26th overall pick in 2011.
Ingles was a hot commodity after his showing for the Australian national team in the World Cup. The Jazz were among a host of teams that were eyeing the swingman as early as this past spring, and he ultimately decided on the Clippers, though it was surprising to see him fail to garner any guaranteed salary. He’ll make the minimum this year.
Felix’s minimum salary was fully guaranteed, so Utah is on the hook for that money unless he clears waivers. The 33rd overall pick from last year played nine D-League games and seven NBA contests last year with the Cavs, who sent him out primarily for financial reasons in the July trade that brought him to Utah. He has a non-guaranteed salary for 2015/16 that will disappear if he clears waivers.
Utah creeps closer to this year’s $63.065MM cap with today’s pickups, but the Jazz still have less than $60MM in committed salary for this season.
Clippers Waive Joe Ingles
Guard Joe Ingles has been waived by the Clippers, according to a team release. Dan Woike of the Orange County Register was the first to tweet news that Ingles would be let go. The move cuts the Clippers’ roster to the league maximum of 15. It isn’t clear if the team intends to sign Ingles to their D-League affiliate, but they do have the inside track if so, as teams can retain the rights for up to four players waived before the regular season.
The Clippers won’t be on the hook for any money because Ingles’ minimum-salary contract was non-guaranteed. Ingles was reportedly in a battle for the final roster sport with guard Jared Cunningham.
The 6’8″ Australian boosted his NBA chances with a strong performance during this year’s FIBA World Cup. The 26-year-old played last season at Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel, where he averaged 6.4 points and 2.9 rebounds per game.
And-Ones: Maxiell, Clippers, Thunder, Brooks
Jason Maxiell agreed to join the Hornets knowing that the team envisions him in a capacity more similar to the reduced role he played for the Magic last year than to the 71-start campaign he had with the Pistons in 2012/13, as Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer examines.
“It’s both maturing in life and maturing in basketball,” Maxiell said. “Respect your coach, your owner and your teammates, and help the other guys to understand this is a career. It’s not just playing basketball, it’s getting to a place where you can do other things after basketball.”
The pressure’s on the 31-year-old to make an impression this month, since he has a non-guaranteed deal. Here’s more from around the league:
- Doc Rivers admits that the Clippers have a greater need at point guard, a position that Jared Cunningham can play, than at the forwards, Joe Ingles‘ positions, but Rivers insists that he won’t necessarily make a decision on the final regular season roster based on that. Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times has the details.
- The contracts of Thunder camp invitees Lance Thomas, Michael Jenkins, Richard Solomon and Talib Zanna are all non-guaranteed for the minimum salary and cover just one season, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). All four fit the criteria for Exhibit 9 Contracts that would keep the Thunder from paying them if they’re injured during camp, but it’s unclear whether any of them agreed to such a deal.
- Championship dreams led Aaron Brooks to sign for just the minimum salary when he joined the Bulls, as he tells Joel Brigham of Basketball Insiders. Former Bulls and fellow Seattle natives Nate Robinson and Jamal Crawford gave Brooks full-throated endorsements of the organization, as Brooks says to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune (Twitter link).
- Agent Charles Briscoe is joining forces with NFL agent Joby Branion to form Vanguard Sports Group, tweets Shams Charania of RealGM. Our Agency Database shows that Briscoe, who formerly operated through Briscoe Sports Management, represents Archie Goodwin and Joe Jackson of the Suns, Xavier Silas of the Wizards, and Junior Cadougan, who was briefly with the Bucks last fall.
Western Notes: Beasley, Allen, Kings
Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace says Michael Beasley is one of six guys in training camp with a chance to show the team they deserve to snag the last regular-season roster spot, Teresa M. Walker of The Associated Press writes. “It’s up to him to show us, make the case for himself then we’ll see where this goes,” Wallace said. “We’re just at the beginning of it with training camp started, and obviously he’s someone that’s very talented … His career hasn’t gone the way he would’ve liked but this is the perfect place for him to rebound.”
Here’s more from out west:
- Clippers coach Doc Rivers said that free agent Ray Allen was not a candidate to take the team’s final roster spot since Los Angeles has a glut of shooting guards already, Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times reports (Twitter link). Allen hasn’t announced if he will play this season or retire despite numerous teams having interest in his services.
- Rivers also added that Joe Ingles and Jared Cunningham are candidates for the team’s final regular-season roster spot, tweets Bolch. Both players are in training camp on non-guaranteed deals.
- In his season preview for the Kings, Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio predicts a 40-win season and Sacramento missing out on the playoffs. Amico believes that the Kings are still one star player away from becoming a factor in the west.
Clippers Sign Joe Ingles
SEPTEMBER 30TH: The deal is official, the team announced, listing Ingles on the preseason roster.
SEPTEMBER 25TH, 10:47pm: The signing has taken place, according to the RealGM transactions log.
2:32pm: Dan Woike of the Orange County Register hears the deal is non-guaranteed, contradicting the earlier report (Twitter link). Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times also has it as a non-guaranteed deal, and he confirms it’s for the minimum (on Twitter).
12:16pm: Ingles’ representatives at Priority Sports confirmed the deal, via Twitter.
11:35am: The deal is guaranteed, Pick tweets.
SEPTEMBER 16TH, 8:45pm: The Clippers and Australian swingman Joe Ingles have agreed to a one-year deal, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. It’s almost certainly for the minimum, since that’s all the Clippers can hand out. It’s unclear whether the pact is guaranteed, as Stein wrote earlier this month that Ingles would likely land a guaranteed deal with an NBA team, while Ingles told Boty Nagy of The Courier Mail, a Queensland-based newspaper in Australia, that he wouldn’t be receiving any guaranteed money.
Stein referred to Ingles a couple of weeks ago as a “virtual lock” to sign in the NBA, with seven or eight teams in pursuit as he put on a strong showing in the FIBA World Cup. The Grizzlies and Sixers were among those clubs, though Stein said Ingles was unlikely to end up in Philadelphia, even given his ties to former Australian national team coach and current Sixers bench boss Brett Brown. The guaranteed salaries on the books for Memphis put them only about $1.2MM shy of the luxury tax line, and Stein cites that as reason why the Grizzlies didn’t make as hard a push for Ingles this season as they did last year, when he rejected a two-year offer from the team. Still, the minimum salary that Ingles is in line to receive from the Clippers wouldn’t have put the Grizzlies into the tax, and Marc Gasol, who can become a free agent next summer, supported the idea of bringing his former Spanish-league teammate to Memphis. The Hawks, Jazz, Pacers and Bucks are the other NBA clubs to have been linked to Ingles over the past two offseasons.
The 6’8″ Ingles, who turns 27 next month, spent last season playing for new Cavs coach David Blatt with Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel, averaging 6.0 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 21.2 minutes per game as a part-time starter. His numbers were better in the World Cup, as he put up 11.4 PPG, 3.2 RPG and 3.4 APG in nearly 31.0 MPG. Ingles had a tough time generating interest on the European professional circuit before his World Cup performance, according to David Pick of Eurobasket.com, yet he turned down private workout invitations from NBA teams during summer league in July, Pick tweets.
The Clippers have been carrying 14 fully guaranteed pacts plus a deal with DeAndre Liggins that’s presumably no more than partially guaranteed. The team has kept fewer than 15 players on the opening-night roster in recent years, but perhaps new owner Steve Ballmer is willing to change that.
Grizzlies Among Teams Eyeing Joe Ingles
3:23pm: Ingles is likely to receive a guaranteed salary from the NBA team that ends up with him, Stein writes in his full story. Marc Gasol, a marquee name among potential 2015 free agents, is widely known to admire Ingles, Stein notes.
2:59pm: The Grizzlies are again in the hunt for Ingles, Stein reports (Twitter link). Ingles turned down a two-year offer from Memphis last year, as we noted below.
TUESDAY, 2:13pm: Ingles is a “virtual lock” to sign with an NBA team for the coming season, as seven or eight teams are in pursuit, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The Sixers still appear to be one of them, but Ingles is unlikely to sign with Philadelphia, Stein adds (on Twitter).
MONDAY, 1:26pm: Australian small forward Joe Ingles has fielded interest from the Sixers, sources tell Sporando’s Orazio Cauchi (Twitter link). David Pick of Eurobasket.com reported this weekend that multiple NBA teams were eyeing the 26-year-old, so it looks like Philadelphia has some competition.
The Grizzlies, Hawks and Jazz were reportedly interested in Ingles as of March, when Pick wrote that he was thinking about making the jump to the NBA this summer. Ingles rejected a two-year offer from Memphis last year, around the same time that the Pacers, Bucks and Clippers also seemingly had their eyes on the veteran of international play. NBA teams passed on him in the 2009 draft, and his pro numbers haven’t been impressive. Ingles averaged just 6.0 points in 21.2 minutes per game for Maccabi Tel Aviv this past season, but he’s been a more significant part of the offense for the Australian national team in the FIBA World Cup this week, notching 14.5 PPG in 26.5 MPG.
The Sixers have no shortage of cap flexibility to outbid other NBA suitors and float an offer large enough to pry Ingles from overseas. They also have plenty of roster space. They’re carrying only eight guaranteed deals, as our roster counts show. Philadelphia can also provide Ingles with a familiar presence in coach Brett Brown, who coached him on the Australian national team in the 2012 Olympics, as Paul Garcia of Project Spurs notes (on Twitter).
And-Ones: Allen, Thabeet, Arroyo, Ingles
Only a half dozen second-round picks from this June are without deals to play in the NBA, overseas or the D-League, as our log of this year’s draft pick signings shows, and Friday looms as a key date for them. That’s the last day their NBA teams have to make a required one-year tender for the minimum salary without losing their rights to them. Such glorified training camp invitations might not be ideal for draftees who’d hoped to establish more solid footing in the NBA, but if any are at an impasse in negotiations, the deadline could be a tipping point. While we wait to see how that plays out, here’s the latest from around the league:
- Ray Allen has fielded recruiting calls from LeBron James and others, as the sharpshooter tells Don Amore of The Hartford Courant, but Allen cites a desire to stay around his family as he continues to insist that there’s a strong chance he’s played his last game. “I don’t want to go into a situation where I don’t understand the coaching, don’t understand the direction of the team,” Allen said. “My family is very important in making the decision. Right now, there is nothing that I need to do. If I ultimately decide this will be it for me, I’m content with that.”
- Hasheem Thabeet remains on the Sixers roster, so it appears they’ve guaranteed his salary for the coming season. Monday was the last day they could waive him without owing him his $1.25MM pay for 2014/15, as Anthony Slater of The Oklahoman confirmed. Philadelphia was reportedly likely to waive him in advance of that deadline.
- NBA teams would have to buy Carlos Arroyo out of his deal with Galatasaray in Turkey to bring him stateside for this season, and while he’d consider returning to the Association, no one from the NBA has shown serious interest, as he tells HoopsHype’s David Alarcon.
- The widespread NBA interest in Joe Ingles is surprising, observes David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). The Australian small forward was having a tough time generating interest from European teams before this week’s strong FIBA World Cup showing, according to Pick.
And-Ones: Wiggins, Dragic, Ingles
While a dark cloud hung over the Wolves franchise from the moment Kevin Love made it known he was prepared to move on, Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press reports that the team’s fan base has been energized by the package Minnesota received in the Love trade. The Wolves just set a team record for most season-ticket packages sold in a week, after netting Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett, and Thaddeus Young in the franchise-altering move. Here’s more from Minnesota and the rest of the league:
- Wiggins tells Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune that he is happy to have been traded to the Wolves, where he will be thrust into a much bigger role than he would have carved out with the superstar-heavy Cavs.“I wanted to go to a place where I’m pushed to do a lot and become a special piece for the team. It’ll help me reach my potential,” said Wiggins. “I said I wanted to play for a team that wanted me, and now I’m here and I feel nothing but love.”
- The Pacers are one of the teams interested in Zoran Dragic, reports Orazio Cauchi of Sportando. The younger brother of Goran Dragic is under contract in Spain. It is unclear if the guard is poised to exercise any sort of escape clause that would allow him to come stateside, although he’s reportedly eager to someday play in the Association.
- Joe Ingles is generating interest from multiple NBA teams, tweets David Pick of Eurobasket.com. Pick says the Australian wing, who spent last season with Maccabi Tel Aviv, will need to perform well at the FIBA World Cup to get a shot.