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Pacific Notes: Chandler, Young, Barnes

July 24th, 2015 at 12:51pm CST by Chuck Myron

Most teams chasing top-tier centers thought it better to go after the likes of LaMarcus Aldridge, DeAndre Jordan and Greg Monroe before circling back to Tyson Chandler as something of a fallback option, but the Suns found it wise to chase Chandler before pursuing Aldridge, as Rob Mahoney of SI.com examines. Chandler quickly committed to Phoenix, and he helped them become a finalist in the Aldridge sweepstakes.

“I think when you have a guy like that that you target, you go aggressively after him. And that’s what we decided to do with Tyson,” GM Ryan McDonough said to Mahoney. “It did help us that there were so many free agent big men on the market, especially high-level players — guys who have been All-Stars, All-NBA, and all that stuff. I think a few teams wanted to kind of talk to each of the guys and get a feel for them. Some of the players wanted to do visits with multiple teams, and be wined and dined a bit. Tyson really didn’t want any of that.”

There’s more from Phoenix amid our latest look around the Pacific Division:

  • The Suns seemingly made their three-player trade with the Pistons in an effort to clear cap room for Aldridge, but McDonough told Mahoney that the deal that sent out Marcus Morris, Reggie Bullock and Danny Granger is one the team would have done regardless, citing a desire for more roster balance and future flexibility.
  • Nick Young feels more confident that he’ll begin the coming season with the Lakers after a recent meeting with GM Mitch Kupchak, reports Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. That jibes with a dispatch last week from Bill Oram of the Orange County Register, who heard that the Lakers had stopped looking for trade partners who’d take Young.
  • Harrison Barnes confirmed Thursday that he wants a long-term future with the Warriors, as Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group details. He and the team reportedly share a mutual interest in a rookie scale extension. “I mean, we just won a championship,” Barnes said. “Of course I’d love to keep this group together for many years to come, you know what I’m saying? So that’s obvious.”
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Central Notes: Monroe, Blake, Thompson

July 14th, 2015 at 6:50pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Greg Monroe said former Pistons teammate Khris Middleton was a key recruiter in Milwaukee’s pursuit and made it clear that the Bucks roster seemed appealing as a strong fit, as Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel chronicles. “While a lot of people will say, ‘Is this a statement about big cities?’ No. It’s just about a statement that this is a good fit for Greg Monroe,” agent David Falk said in part.

Here’s more out of the Central Division:

  • The Pistons view newly acquired Steve Blake as an inexpensive option off the bench at point guard, Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press writes. “Just insurance,” coach/executive Stan Van Gundy told Ellis when asked how Blake fit with the team. “We’re very hopeful that Brandon Jennings will play at a high level. And can develop Spencer Dinwiddie, but not have pressure on him.“
  • The Cavaliers and Tristan Thompson are reportedly making progress toward a new deal, and with the two sides now roughly $5MM apart on total value, GM David Griffin is confident the situation will be resolved amicably, Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com tweets. “I feel good about the situation where it’s at overall,” Griffin said about the negotiations during an appearance on NBA TV.
  • Van Gundy indicated that the Pistons would have passed on chasing free agent small forwards if the trade for Marcus Morris had materialized prior to the NBA Draft, David Mayo of MLive.com writes. “So we were chasing the small forwards on the free-agent market, but there were only a couple of guys that we really liked,” Van Gundy said. “When those guys, we didn’t get, and the trade came available, we jumped at it. We thought it was something that would have been at the top of our list if it had been available at the very beginning.“

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

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Pacific Notes: Hibbert, Young, Brown, Davis

July 10th, 2015 at 9:23pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak said in an appearance on Time Warner Cable SportsNet that he had the Roy Hibbert trade lined up with the Pacers in advance of the start of free agency as a fallback in case the Lakers fell short with their primary free agent targets, notes Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link). LaMarcus Aldridge, DeAndre Jordan and Greg Monroe all passed on the purple-and-gold, so Hibbert it is for the Lakers, who made his acquisition the last of their moves under the cap. That’s key, since it meant that the trade wouldn’t otherwise work unless Hibbert agreed to waive part of his 15% trade kicker. He wouldn’t have been allowed to waive it unless the Lakers were in such a position, but they were, and he gave back all but $78,185 of what otherwise would have been $2.3MM, according to Pincus (Twitter links).

Here’s the latest from the Pacific Division:

  • The 2018 first-round pick that the Kings owe the Sixers from this month’s three-player trade is protected only for the top 10 picks, according to salary cap expert Larry Coon (Twitter link). It’s unprotected for 2019. It’s possible that it’ll roll over to 2019 even if Sacramento’s pick ends up out of the top 10 in 2018 if the Kings have to send their 2017 first-rounder to the Bulls as part of a previous trade, Coon notes (on Twitter; also see RealGM).
  • The 2020 second-round pick that the Suns will receive from the Pistons as part of the Marcus Morris trade is Detroit’s own selection, according to RealGM.
  • Despite Nick Young reportedly being on the trading block, Kupchak said of the forward, “I do see him being a core player this year,” Mike Bresnahan of The Los Angeles Times tweets. The GM did stress that Young would need to show improvement on the defensive side of the game, Bresnahan adds.
  • Lakers second round pick Anthony Brown‘s contract calls for him to earn $700k for the 2015/16 season, $875k the second year, and $1MM in 2017/18, Pincus relays (Twitter links). The first two years of the deal are fully guaranteed, but the final season is non-guaranteed, Pincus adds.
  • Kings executive Vlade Divac said that Sacramento has had discussions with unrestricted free agent point guard Andre Miller, but the team is exploring numerous options, Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee relays (Twitter link).
  • Brandon Bass‘ free agent deal with the Lakers is for two years and $6.135MM, and includes a player option for the second season, note Pincus and Sam Amick of USA Today (Twitter links). Bass was signed using available cap space, which means Los Angeles still retains its $2.8MM room exception, Bresnahan tweets.
  • Kupchak said that if unrestricted free agent Ed Davis had waited one more day before signing a deal with the Blazers, the Lakers would have been able to re-sign him, Pincus tweets. Instead, Davis inked a three-year, $20MM pact with Portland.
  • The Warriors are considering promoting assistant Luke Walton to replace Alvin Gentry as the associate head coach on Steve Kerr‘s staff, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports reports (via Twitter).

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

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Central Notes: Love, Bucks, Morris

July 10th, 2015 at 8:15pm CST by Eddie Scarito

New Pistons forward Marcus Morris wasn’t initially thrilled with the Suns for dealing him to Detroit, Perry A. Farrell of The Detroit Free Press writes. “I wouldn’t say stunning, but in Phoenix, I would say I didn’t have a great opportunity,” Morris said today. “I kind of wanted to play with my brother [twin Markieff Morris] so much that I kind of took away from myself. I didn’t think I had an opportunity to get better. I don’t think I had the chance to grow as a player over there. I think the opportunity is here for me. Everybody knew how bad I wanted to play with my brother. Phoenix knew. For them to trade me without consent or telling me was like a slap in the face, because of the contract I took from those guys and the money I took from them. I’m happy to be here. I’m a Piston. I’m a Bad Boy. I’m ready to get started.”

Here’s the latest from the Central Division:

  • The future second-rounder going to Indiana in the Roy Hibbert trade is the Lakers’ 2019 pick, tweets salary cap expert Larry Coon. The Pacers also net a trade exception equivalent to Hibbert’s salary of more than $15.5MM, Coon points out, but that will vanish when Indiana’s deal with Monta Ellis becomes official, unless the Pacers can somehow turn the Ellis transaction into a sign-and-trade.
  • The second-round pick heading from the Mavs to the Bucks in the Zaza Pachulia trade is Dallas’ 2018 selection, and it’s top-55 protected, according to RealGM. The same level of protection is on the 2020 second-rounder Milwaukee gets from the Wizards in the Jared Dudley deal, as RealGM also reveals. Both swaps produced trade exceptions, notes Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Twitter link). The Bucks get one worth $5.2MM from Pachulia and another for $4.25MM from Dudley.
  • The salaries in Khris Middleton‘s five-year, $70MM deal with the Bucks fluctuate up and down from year to year, but the starting salary is $14.7MM, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders tweets.
  • Kevin Love indicated that he and LeBron James had what Love termed, “an honest talk,” prior to Love deciding to re-sign with the Cavaliers, Tom Withers of The Associated Press writes. “He happened to be in Los Angeles the same time I was,” Love said of James. “So, we just talked everything out and a lot of stuff was very honest and we came to a really good place and we agreed on a lot of things, so I think that was also a very big deal when you’re talking to the best player in the world.“

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

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Pistons Acquire Marcus Morris, Bullock, Granger

July 9th, 2015 at 11:35am CST by Chuck Myron

JULY 9TH, 11:35am: The deal is official, both teams announced. It’s Morris, Bullock and Granger to Detroit for a 2020 second-rounder.

3:31pm: Detroit hasn’t made a final decision on Granger yet, but he’ll most likely be waived, Vince Ellis of The Detroit Free Press tweets.

JULY 2ND: 2:34 pm: The Suns and Pistons have agreed to a trade that sends Marcus Morris, Reggie Bullock and Danny Granger to Detroit in exchange for a 2020 second-round pick, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter links). The deal would clear nearly $8.423MM in additional cap flexibility for Phoenix as it chases LaMarcus Aldridge.

Courtesy of USA Today Sports images

Courtesy of USA Today Sports images

However, the Suns still have about $57MM in commitments against a cap projected between $67.1MM and $69.1MM, and with Aldridge, for whom Phoenix reportedly emerged as a strong contender, in line to make some $19MM on a max deal next season, it appears as though Phoenix still has more cap clearing to do, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe and Wojnarowski point out (Twitter link). Wojnarowski mentions Markieff Morris, who’ll make $8MM next season, and P.J. Tucker, who’s set for $5.5MM, as possible targets for other cap-clearing moves.

The trade with the Pistons by itself breaks up the Morris twins just months after they signed rookie scale extensions with designs on staying together. Marcus Morris instead ends up in Detroit’s frontcourt, as the Pistons use more of their cap space on complementary players after reaching agreement with Aron Baynes earlier today. The deal was made by Detroit to land Morris, who is expected to be the starting small forward next season, Ellis tweets. Morris appeared in 81 games last season for the Suns, including 35 as a starter, averaging 10.4 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 1.6 assists. His slash line was .434/.358/.628.

Bullock will compete for a roster spot with Cartier Martin, Quincy Miller, and Adonis Thomas, relays Ellis (Twitter link). He has never made more than 43 appearances in a season since entering the league with the Clippers, who selected him with the No. 25 overall pick back in 2013. Bullock appeared in 11 games for Phoenix after arriving via trade from Los Angeles, averaging 0.4 points and 0.9 rebounds in 6.8 minutes per contest.

Granger may not be thrilled with the trade, especially since it takes him away from the Suns’ vaunted training staff, who have been working 16.8 to get the veteran healthy and back on the court. The 32-year-old managed 30 appearances for the Heat last season, and zero with Phoenix after it had acquired him via trade. Granger’s career numbers are 16.8 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 1.9 assists, with a shooting line of .434/.380/.848.

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Mannix’s Latest: Allen, Lopez, Nuggets, Thunder

January 30th, 2015 at 11:17am CST by Chuck Myron

People around the league increasingly believe that Ray Allen already knows the team he would like to play for this season, and that he’s simply deciding whether he wants to play at all, Chris Mannix of SI.com writes. Allen has hinted within the past two weeks that he’s coming back to the NBA, but another more recent report indicated that he’s enjoying time with his family. Mannix has a ton of noteworthy items in his latest weekly column, many of them with a Thunder-centric theme, and we’ll hit the highlights here.

  • The Nuggets are still trying to pry Brook Lopez from the Nets with a package centered on JaVale McGee, according to Mannix. Still, Denver doesn’t want to put Ty Lawson, Kenneth Faried, Jusuf Nurkic or Wilson Chandler into any deal, Mannix cautions.
  • The Thunder are willing to go deep into the luxury tax this season to acquire Lopez, the SI.com scribe writes. Oklahoma City is unwilling to give up any of its top present-day talent, nor will the team make a move that damages its future as the Thunder look for trade partners who are “desperate,” an opposing GM tells Mannix.
  • Reggie Jackson turned down an extension offer from Oklahoma City that would have made him the most highly paid backup in the NBA, a source tells Mannix. Just what sort of salary that would have meant is unclear, since Amar’e Stoudemire has made more appearances off the bench than he has starts on a deal that gives him in excess of $23.4MM this season. Some teams believed at the beginning of the season that there was a decent chance that Jackson would command offers of between $13MM and $14MM in restricted free agency this summer, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports wrote in October.
  • Several executives from around the NBA believe it’s conceivable that a five-year max deal for Kevin Durant will be worth some $200MM when he hits free agency in 2016, according to Mannix. Durant will be eligible for a max worth about 35% of the salary cap as a 10-year veteran that summer. Those execs also believe that Durant likes playing in Oklahoma City, as he’s said, Mannix writes.
  • Markieff Morris believes he and brother Marcus Morris might have made more money in restricted free agency this summer if they hadn’t signed extensions with the Suns, but Markieff can’t envision ever playing without his twin again, as he tells Mannix.
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Pacific Notes: Morris Twins, Thomas, Thompson

December 17th, 2014 at 10:01am CST by Chuck Myron

The Suns gave Markieff Morris and Marcus Morris the chance to decide how to split $52MM in extension cash this fall, and Marcus tells Rolling Stone’s Jeff Allen that has no qualms about the uneven split that sets him up to make $5MM per year while his twin brother gets $8MM.

“Keef played really well last year. Coming off the bench he was a potential Sixth Man of the Year candidate. So I think he deserved for his number to be higher than mine,” Marcus said. “He’s one of the great power forwards in the league. If he was by himself he would’ve gotten way more than that. I just wanted personally for his number to be higher. We look at it as a number for the household, you know? $13MM a year for our family. Whatever it broke it down to, we didn’t really care.”

The brothers took the long-term deals rather than go for a chance to hit free agency in 2016, when the salary cap is expected to shoot up, to give themselves a better chance to continue to play together, Allen writes. There’s more on the Suns amid the latest from the Pacific Division:

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Pacific Rumors: Morrises, Liggins, Gay, Kobe

September 30th, 2014 at 12:39pm CST by Chuck Myron

Marcus Morris says he thinks Markieff Morris should have received a greater share of the four-year, $52MM combined total of the extensions that agent Leon Rose negotiated for the twins, as he told reporters, including Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. Markieff said it would be OK if he and his brother ended up on different teams, but he added that there was no reason for them to walk away from what the Suns had to offer.

“It’s a dream come true,” Markieff said. “We feel like we’re home together. When they offer us great money to stay together, why not take it instead of going through free agency? We’re both going to have great seasons. … The game is more fun together. It means more. We’re definitely past that point of not being able to play apart, but another four years definitely won’t hurt anything.”

Here’s more from around the Pacific:

  • DeAndre Liggins doesn’t appear on the training camp roster the Clippers released today, so it looks like he won’t be joining the team after all. There were conflicting reports about whether he had a deal to do so.
  • Rudy Gay said he briefly began extension talks with the Kings over the summer, but he put them on hold when he joined Team USA, notes Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee. Still, Gay’s not opposed to having his agents at Octagon Sports resume talks, Jones adds.
  • Kobe Bryant isn’t ruling out the idea of playing beyond his contract, which ends in the summer of 2016, shortly before his 38th birthday, observes Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. “Whether I do or not, we’ll have to see that two years from now,” Bryant said. “I don’t know, but I could [play longer]. Physically, I don’t see an end to the tunnel.”
  • Confidence in the continued development of the team’s young players made the Warriors hesitate to trade for Kevin Love, as GM Bob Myers told NBA TV, while Klay Thompson, in his NBA TV appearance, expressed appreciation for Steve Kerr‘s role in forestalling a swap. Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group provides a transcription. “If it is the truth, it’s awesome,” Thompson said of Kerr’s opposition to a move. “I appreciate Steve for that. It just makes me want to play even harder for him if he really did believe that, so it gives me a new sense of confidence, really.”
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Contract Details: Papanikolaou, Suns, Sixers

September 30th, 2014 at 11:00am CST by Chuck Myron

Teams have made several roster moves in the past few days as they’ve prepared for camp, leaving a few loose ends to resolve contractually. Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders provides a few answers to the questions left unresolved, so we’ll pass along his revelations here:

  • The Rockets essentially reversed the salaries in each year of Kostas Papanikolaou‘s deal after the league forced the team to sign him to a new contract. He’ll make slighly more than $4.591MM this year and nearly $4.798MM next season, Pincus reports (Twitter link). It’s unclear whether the contract has guarantee dates, like the original pact, but it does include a signing bonus of almost $207K, according to Pincus (Twitter links).
  • The extensions that Markieff Morris and Marcus Morris signed with the Suns include salaries that go down in year two before rising again in years three and four, Pincus reveals (Twitter links). An earlier report had indicated that they were all escalating salaries.
  • Zoran Dragic will only make $1.5MM this year and the same amount in 2015/16, so his Suns contract is slightly less lucrative than thought, as Pincus details (Twitter link). Those figures include a signing bonus of about $413K.
  • The Sixers used some of their cap space to give Jerami Grant, this year’s No. 39 overall pick, a four-year contract that’s fully guaranteed for the first two seasons and non-guaranteed thereafter, according to Pincus (Twitter link). The final season also features a team option, Pincus adds. The salary of nearly $885K in the first year is more than the rookie minimum, but it’s otherwise a minimum-salary arrangement.
  • Christian Watford‘s new deal with the Celtics covers one year at the minimum salary and is non-guaranteed, Pincus shows (Twitter link). That makes him eligible to have signed an Exhibit 9 Contract that would keep the C’s from paying him if he were to suffer an injury in preseason, though it’s not clear whether it is indeed one of those sorts of pacts.
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Suns Rumors: Morrises, Bledsoe, Zoran Dragic

September 29th, 2014 at 1:38pm CST by Chuck Myron

Suns president of basketball operations Lon Babby negotiated a total figure for Markieff Morris and Marcus Morris with agent Leon Rose, letting the twins decide how to split what turned out to be a $52MM pot, as Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic chronicles.

“They’re very close and we didn’t want to suggest anything that would be a disconnect to what they thought their value was,” Babby said. “I didn’t delegate the whole project to them but I did ask, ‘How would you divide it up?’ They’re so close and in it together that it was better to negotiate the total amount and then go to them for how to divide it. They desperately wanted to be together and they play better together. They motivate each other and it’s been fun for me to watch their maturation.”

There’s more from Coro’s piece amid the latest from the Valley of the Sun:

  • It would have been harder for the Morris brothers to stay together if they had hit restricted free agency next summer, GM Ryan McDonough said today, according to Coro, who writes in the same piece. That suggests the team pressured the twins to sign their extensions rather than let the October 31st deadline pass.
  • There are no option clauses or trade kickers in the deals for the Morrises, whose salaries will escalate each year, Coro adds.
  • Bledsoe largely repeated to reporters, including Coro, his assertion from the team’s statement on his new deal that he preferred to return to the Suns all summer, in spite of tense public negotiations (Twitter link).
  • Zoran Dragic was just a part-timer starter for his Spanish team the past two seasons, but McDonough is confident the new Suns signee’s game is on the upswing, as the exec tells Matt Petersen of Suns.com. “Guys mature and develop at different rates,” McDonough said. “Zoran is a bit of a late-bloomer, but I’ve seen rapid improvement lately. He was better when I saw him last year in Slovenia than what I’d ever seen before. He took another step and was even better this year in Spain than what I’d seen before.”
  • Suns owner Robert Sarver is calling for a new arena to replace the existing building, which opened in 1992, as Coro relays in a separate piece.
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