Kings point guard Darren Collison‘s court date regarding allegations of domestic violence has been pushed back to August 18th, James Ham of CSNBayArea.com relays (via Twitter). Collison was arrested in May after local deputies responded to a report from a woman who said she was being assaulted inside a Northern California home. It remains to be seen if the guard will face discipline from the league for the reported incident. The previous precedent established for what Collison and Sacramento could be facing was when Jeff Taylor pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor domestic assault charge back in 2014 and received a 24-game suspension from the NBA as a result.
Former Mavericks and Knicks shooting guard Ricky Ledo, who spent last season in the D-League, will play in Turkey next season, according to Orazio Cauchi of Sportando. The announcement that he will join the Yesilgiresun franchise was made on social media this morning by Ledo’s agent, Misko Raznatovic (Twitter link).
The 23-year-old was waived by New York in July of 2015 and was picked up by the Reno Bighorns, Sacramento’s D-League affiliate. Ledo, who averaged 21.2 points per game, was a late addition to last season’s D-League All-Star Game. After the season ended, Ledo signed with Santeros de Aguada in Puerto Rico, where he spent two months before being waived.
Ledo was taken by the Bucks with the 43rd pick in the 2013 draft, but was traded to the Sixers and later the Mavericks. He played just 16 NBA games in nearly two seasons with Dallas, making frequent trips back and forth to the D-League. After the Mavericks waived him in February of 2015, he signed two 10-day contracts with the Knicks before inking a deal for the rest of the season. Ledo averaged 7.4 points in 12 games with New York.
- The Kings have been active in exploring the trade market as they attempt to move players who may not be fit into the plan going forward, per Kyler. Rudy Gay has long been available, but despite receiving several inquires on the veteran forward – most notably from the Rockets, says Kyler – Sacramento has been having a hard time finding anything of real value in a trade. There’s a belief among some sources that the Kings won’t ask for a whole lot for Gay, and could move him before training camp, according to Kyler.
- Kyler adds that the Kings are also believed to be looking into possible deals involving center Kosta Koufos, who signed with the team a year ago. Sacramento used several draft picks on frontcourt players, and wouldn’t mind turning Koufos into another piece, such as a backup point guard.
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- Former Kings big man Donte Greene, a 2008 first-rounder who last played in 2012, is still hoping to get one more shot at an NBA roster, writes Brian Rzeppa of D-League Digest. Greene describes himself as “hungry as ever” as he attempts to get back on the radar of NBA teams. “I’m just older, more mature and smarter,” Greene said. “I was young in Sacramento and I was kind of in college mode with partying and it hurt me, it hurt my reputation in the NBA and I haven’t had the chance to show that I’m older now and more focused and know what it takes to succeed not only in basketball but in life.”
The Heat are among the preferred destinations for Kings small forward Rudy Gay, writes Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. Gay, who can opt out of his current deal next summer, denies asking Sacramento to trade him, but he made comments last month that show a clear unhappiness with the direction the team is taking. While it’s understandable why he might prefer Miami, the Heat are low on tradable assets after a flurry of moves this summer. The free agents the team added this summer are not eligible to be traded until December 15th.
- Anthony Tolliver, who inked a two-year deal with the Kings this offseason, hopes he can help mentor DeMarcus Cousins as well as produce on the court this season, Dan Lovi of NBA.com relays. “He has all the talent in the world,” Tolliver said of Cousins. “He’s phenomenal, especially on the offensive end, but I really feel like he can improve. Hopefully I help him become better.”
Over the course of the last week, we’ve been breaking down 2016 NBA free agent spending by division, examining which teams – and divisions – were the most active this summer.
These divisional breakdowns won’t present a full picture of teams’ offseason spending. Some notable free agents, including LeBron James, remain unsigned, so there’s still money out there to be spent. Our lists also don’t include money spent on this year’s first- and second-round picks or draft-and-stash signings. There are a few free agent names missing in some instances as well, since those deals aren’t yet official or terms haven’t been reported.
Still, these closer looks at divisional spending should generally reveal how teams invested their money in free agency this summer, identifying which clubs went all-out and which ones played it safe.
With the help of our Free Agent Tracker and contract info from Basketball Insiders, we’ll focus today on the Pacific division. Let’s dive in…
1. Los Angeles Lakers
- Total money committed: $186,000,000
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $186,000,000
- Largest expenditure: Luol Deng (four years, $72,000,000)
- Other notable signings:
- Timofey Mozgov (four years, $64,000,000)
- Jordan Clarkson (four years, $50,000,000)
- Notes:
- The Lakers have yet to finalize long-ago reported deals for Tarik Black and Marcelo Huertas. Based on estimated values for those contracts, they’ll likely total about $16MM+ combined, but we haven’t included them in the team’s totals for now.
2. Los Angeles Clippers
- Total money committed: $105,428,788
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $93,928,788
- Largest expenditure: Jamal Crawford (three years, $42,000,000)
- Other notable signings:
- Austin Rivers (three years, $35,475,000)
- Wesley Johnson (three years, $17,643,780)
- Luc Mbah a Moute (two years, $4,505,135)
- Marreese Speights (two years, minimum salary)
- Notes:
- Raymond Felton ($1,551,659), Brandon Bass ($1,551,659), and Alan Anderson ($1,315,448) will be paid $980,431 apiece by the Clippers, with the NBA on the hook for the rest of their minimum salaries.
- Crawford’s $14.5MM third-year salary is only guaranteed for $3MM, creating the gap between the Clippers’ total money and guaranteed money committed.
3. Sacramento Kings
- Total money committed: $77,525,625
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $60,525,625
- Largest expenditure: Arron Afflalo (two years, $25,000,000)
- Other notable signings:
- Garrett Temple (three years, $24,000,000)
- Anthony Tolliver (two years, $16,000,000)
- Matt Barnes (two years, $12,525,625)
- Notes:
- Afflalo and Tolliver only have small partial guarantees in the second years of their respective contracts. $1.5MM of Afflalo’s $12.5MM second-year salary is guaranteed, while $2MM of Tolliver’s $8MM second-year salary is guaranteed.
4. Golden State Warriors
- Total money committed: $61,094,229
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $61,094,229
- Largest expenditure: Kevin Durant (two years, $54,274,505)
- Other notable signings:
- Zaza Pachulia (one year, $2,898,000)
- David West (one year, minimum salary)
- Anderson Varejao (one year, minimum salary)
- Notes:
- The reported deals for JaVale McGee and Elliot Williams aren’t yet official and exact details on those contracts aren’t known, so they haven’t been included here.
- West ($1,551,659), Varejao ($1,551,659), and Ian Clark ($1,015,696) will be paid $980,431 apiece by the Warriors, with the NBA on the hook for the rest of their minimum salaries.
5. Phoenix Suns
- Total money committed: $38,000,000
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $34,500,000
- Largest expenditure: Jared Dudley (three years, $30,000,000)
- Other notable signings:
- Leandro Barbosa (two years, $8,000,000)
- Notes:
- The second year of Barbosa’s deal, worth $4MM, is only guaranteed for $500K, creating the gap between the Suns’ total money and guaranteed money committed.
Rudy Gay made some comments earlier this week that made NBA observers raise an eyebrow, as he complained about the lack of stability and consistency in Sacramento and admitted that he hadn’t even been following the Kings‘ offseason moves. Gay has since followed up on those comments, so let’s dive into a Friday morning round-up of Pacific notes for the latest on Gay and a couple other players…
- According to Sean Cunningham of ABC10, Gay said that he spoke to Kings GM Vlade Divac this week. And while Gay acknowledged that things haven’t necessarily changed since Monday, he expressed some optimism about his situation going forward, whether that’s in Sacramento or somewhere else. “At this point in my career I just want to be happy,” Gay said. “I talked to Vlade and we’re trying to make that happen.”
- Disgruntled Kings swingman Rudy Gay underwent shock wave treatment to alleviate pain in his Achilles, not surgery as was initially relayed, James Ham of CSNBayArea.com notes. “I actually had surgery,” Gay had previously told Sactown Royalty, “I had Achilles tendonitis, basically micro tears in my Achilles and for the past two seasons it’s been bothering me so I’ve been trying to play through it and I got to a point where I needed to have it fixed so I got it fixed.”
After Rudy Gay made some interesting comments that conveyed his dissatisfaction with his situation in Sacramento, Kings general manager Vlade Divac was asked about the disgruntled forward. As James Ham of CSN California details, Divac downplayed Gay’s comments about a lack of communication between him and the Kings as trade rumors swirl.
“He has my number,” the Kings GM said. “If I do something, I will call him. Obviously, if I didn’t call him, we didn’t do anything. … I was a player, 16-17 years in the league, nobody called me everyday and tell me what management is doing. Management was doing their job. If something big happened, they called and told me. Obviously, nothing big happened (so) I’m not going to call anybody.”
- As we heard earlier this week, the Kings made an effort to land Nick Calathes, but the former Grizzlies guard is “bound to return” to Panathinakos in Greece, according to international journalist David Pick.