Timberwolves Amnesty Darko Milicic
5:08pm: Count the Celtics, Nets and Clippers among the frontrunners to acquire Milicic, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter).
SATURDAY, 4:15pm: Milicic has cleared waivers and is now an unrestricted free agent, ESPN.com's Marc Stein reports (Twitter link).
THURSDAY, 11:55pm: The Timberwolves have officially waived Milicic and designated him as their amnestied player, the team announced (via Twitter). Teams with cap space can place bids on Darko, starting at a minimum of about $2.5MM, according to SI.com's Zach Lowe (via Twitter). If he goes unclaimed, he'll become an unrestricted free agent.
Joel Freeland Signs Deal With Trail Blazers
SATURDAY, 3:44pm: The team has announced the signing is official (hat tip to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando).
WEDNESDAY, 9:30pm: Freeland is expected to sign his deal Thursday or Friday, according to Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune (Twitter link).
Blazers Sign Will Barton
The Blazers have signed 40th overall pick Will Barton, reports Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com (Twitter link). Monday we heard the team had reportedly agreed to ink him to a guaranteed contract, a rarity for a second-round pick. My guess would be the deal is for the rookie minimum of $473,604, if not slightly higher. The contract may also include a second non-guaranteed year, but that's just my speculation.
Barton averaged 18.0 points, 8.0 rebounds and 2.9 assists for the University of Memphis as a sophomore this past season, prompting him to declare himself the best wing player in the draft.
Northwest Rumors: Batum, Tolliver, Randolph, Roy
The Wolves' courtship of Nicolas Batum took another unusual turn last night, when Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com reported that the league has ruled the offer sheet he signed with the team is invalid, since the Wolves don't have enough cap space to accommodate the four-year, $46.5MM deal. Minnesota moved to clear cap space Friday by waiving Martell Webster and trading Brad Miller to the Hawks. They also renounced the rights to free agents Anthony Tolliver and Anthony Randolph, as fellow CSNNW.com scribe Dwight Jaynes reported. But, as Jaynes noted, Webster won't clear waivers until Sunday at 4:00pm Central, at which time the Wolves can finally submit a new signed offer sheet from Batum. That's not the only news from the Northwest, and we've got the rest here:
Odds & Ends: Fields, Scola, Blazers, Gordon
The Knicks’ deadline to match Landry Fields’ 3-year, $18.7MM offer sheet from the Raptors is tonight at 11pm CDT. If they match Lin and Fields, the Knicks will have roughly $86MM committed to those two plus Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire, and Tyson Chandler for the 2014-15 season, tweets Al Iannazzone of Newsday. Include Jason Kidd and Steve Novak and it’s more than $92MM committed to seven players. The luxury tax penalties really start to get stiff in 2013/14 and that could make the Knicks' decision on Fields a difficult one. Here's more from around the Association..
Odds & Ends: Humphries, Pistons, Warriors, Celtics
Rick Bonnell from the Charlotte Observer tweets that the Nets may have offered Kris Humphries either a two-year, $20MM or a three-year, $26MM contract.
As summer league kicks off tonight in Las Vegas, here's some more news from around the league.
Blazers Notes: Sloan, Joerger, Griffin, Batum
We heard yesterday that Jerry Sloan withdrew his name from consideration for the Trail Blazers' head coach opening. Today, GM Neil Olshey revealed that Sloan was more seriously considered than we originally thought. Olshey told reporters, including Mike Tokito of the Oregonian, that he offered Sloan the job, but the former Jazz coach declined the offer after sleeping on it (Twitter links). Here are a few more Blazers updates, primarily involving the team's coaching search….
Trail Blazers Sign J.J. Hickson
FRIDAY, 2:53pm: The Trail Blazers have officially signed Hickson, the team announced today (Twitter link).
WEDNESDAY, 8:48pm: A source tells Sam Amick of SI.com that Hickson's deal is worth about $4MM, which is pretty close to what he would have made with his qualifying offer (Twitter link). That would be something of an about-face for the Blazers, possibly triggered by Indiana's apparent willingness to either match an offer sheet or re-sign Roy Hibbert.
8:03pm: J.J. Hickson and the Blazers have agreed to a one-year deal, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). The team elected not to give Hickson a qualifying offer which would have been close to $4.4MM, making him an unrestricted free agent, so presumably the deal is for less than that amount.
Pacers Re-Sign Roy Hibbert
FRIDAY, 2:01pm: The Pacers have officially re-signed Hibbert, the team announced in a press release. Since the Blazers never signed Hibbert to an offer sheet, Indiana may have added an extra year or a little more money to its offer, but for now we'll assume the big man's deal is for four years and about $58.37MM.
MONDAY, 2:21pm: It sounds as if the Pacers will sign Hibbert outright to the same terms he would've received from Portland, rather than matching an offer sheet, tweets TNT's David Aldridge. If Hibbert doesn't officially sign the Blazers' offer sheet, that could give the Pacers more than three days to keep Hibbert's smaller cap hold on their books before making his new deal official.
Free Agent Rumors: Humphries, Stiemsma, Lin
As NBA teams continue to agree to contracts and officially sign this year's free agents, you can keep tabs on all the activity by checking out Hoops Rumors' 2012 Free Agent Tracker. We're continuously updating our database to reflect the latest contract agreements, adding details on years and salaries as they become available. But there are still plenty of unsigned players left on the market, so we'll track today's rumors on those guys right here:
- TNT's David Aldridge (via Twitter) cites league sources that believe Kris Humphries would be more inclined to remain with the Nets than leave for the Bobcats. Marc Stein tweeted that the Nets could be involved no matter what Humphries decides to do, and could end up offering to negotiate a sign-and-trade if he chose Charlotte.
- The Timberwolves are waiting for Portland to make a decision on Nicolas Batum before they extend an offer sheet to Greg Stiemsma, according to A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com.
Earlier updates: