Free Agent Roundup: Thompson, Sloan, Datome
Cavaliers GM David Griffin remains optimistic the team will retain restricted free agent Tristan Thompson, Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio reports. “I think we’ll wind up getting something done,” Griffin told the Cleveland media. Amico opines that Thompson should take the reported five-year, $80MM contract that Cleveland has offered him, given that the club already has three max-level players in LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. It may come down to the Cavs having to match an offer sheet for the power forward, Amico adds.
In other free agent news:
- Donald Sloan is discussing a contract with the Spurs, Bulls and Mavericks, league sources told RealGM’s Shams Charania (Twitter link). Sloan spent the past two seasons with the Pacers and averaged 7.4 points, 3.6 assists and 2.7 rebounds in 53 games last season, including 21 starts.
- The Pistons are looking to re-sign point guard John Lucas III, Marc Stein of ESPN.com tweets. The Magic, Spurs, Mavericks and Clippers are also interested, Stein adds. Lucas would give the Pistons four point guards along with Reggie Jackson, Brandon Jennings and Spencer Dinwiddie.
- Luigi Datome‘s Eurobasket profile has the free agent forward signing with Khimki Moscow but Eurobasket.com’s David Pick is skeptical, adding that Datome might wind up with CSKA Moscow if he plays overseas (Twitter links). Datome played for the Pistons and Celtics last season.
- Fuquan Edwin drew interest from three NBA teams after he scored 16 points and made two steals for the Pelicans’ summer league team, Adam Zagoria of SNY.TV tweets. The former Seton Hall shooting guard played for Guaros de Lara in the Venezuelan league last season.
Southwest Notes: Gasol, Simmons, Ginobili, Wright
The Spurs tried to lure Marc Gasol away from Memphis, but he was committed to the Grizzlies, tweets Dan McCarney of The San Antonio Express-News. Once GM R.C. Buford realized that, he turned his full attention to LaMarcus Aldridge.
There’s more from the Southwest Division:
- Jonathon Simmons‘ deal with the Spurs is fully guaranteed for next season, according to Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News (Twitter link). On Friday, Simmons signed a two-year contract for the minimum with a team option for the second season. Simmons was on Brooklyn’s bus headed to a summer league game when his agent told him of the Spurs’ offer (Twitter link).
- In a procedural move, the Spurs renounced their rights to free agent Manu Ginobili, tweets Eric Pincus of The Los Angeles Times. San Antonio will re-sign Ginobili with its $2.814MM room exception, rather than Bird Rights.
- “Love at first sight” is how Brandan Wright described his reaction to being pursued by the Grizzlies, writes Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal. The free agent signed a three-year deal with the team worth about $17.1MM. “Even though we’ve had a strong frontcourt, we haven’t had a great deal of athleticism and length,” said GM Chris Wallace. “He’s a shot blocker and can score on lob passes. He provides defense, athleticism and experience.”
- The Mavericks are hoping to sign another center, tweets Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com. “It’d be nice to have someone that can play above the rim,” said owner Mark Cuban.
Southwest Notes: Parsons, Asik, Aldridge
In a candid Q&A session with Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com, Mavs forward Chandler Parsons detailed the team’s recruitment of DeAndre Jordan, and expressed his disappointment with the center re-signing with the Clippers. When asked about his reaction to Jordan spurning Dallas, Parsons told MacMahon, “I’m shocked, very disappointed, frustrated, disrespected. This is something that I’ve never seen in my career, and I know that it doesn’t happen very often. When a man gives you his word and an organization his word, especially when that organization put in so much effort and I walked him through this process and was very, very open and willing to work with him, it’s just very unethical and disrespectful.”
Here’s more from the Southwest Division:
- It’s the Spurs‘ own 2016 second-rounder headed to Sacramento in the Ray McCallum trade, according to RealGM.
- The protection on the 2017 second-round pick headed from the Hawks to the Spurs in the Tiago Splitter trade is for the top 55 picks, as RealGM details.
- The four-year max deal that Wesley Matthews signed with the Mavs includes a player option after year three, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders relays (Twitter link).
- The final season in Omer Asik‘s five-year deal with the Pelicans is an early termination option. That season is partially guaranteed for $3MM, though he can end up with a larger partial guarantee if he triggers incentives, Pincus notes (Twitter links).
- The Grizzlies used the mid-level exception for their deal with Brandan Wright. Pincus pegs its value at $17.1MM, though he’s probably rounding down from $17,129,640, the full value of the mid-level over three years. Wright also has a 15% trade kicker.
- Alexis Ajinca‘s four-year deal with the Pelicans is worth $19.2MM, tweets Pincus.
- The starting salary in Patrick Beverley‘s deal with the Rockets is $6,486,486, but that’s a function of front-loading. It’s worth a total of $23MM over four years, Pincus relays (on Twitter).
- LaMarcus Aldridge has a 15% trade kicker in his max deal with the Spurs, notes Pincus (via Twitter).
- The Mavs considered trying to swing a trade for Nuggets point guard Ty Lawson before Deron Williams reached a buyout arrangement with the Nets, MacMahon tweets. Williams is expected to sign with Dallas if he clears waivers, which is highly likely given the point guard’s player-friendly contract.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Heat Sign Amar’e Stoudemire
FRIDAY, 4:41pm: The Heat have officially signed Stoudemire, the team announced. It will be a one-year deal worth $1.5MM, Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today tweets. “We are very fortunate that a proven All-Star like Amar’e has chosen the Miami Heat,” said team president Pat Riley. “He is going to bring gravitas, leadership and a hardworking mentality to our team as we look to win another Championship in Miami.”
THURSDAY, 10:53pm: The Heat are believed to be close to a deal with Amar’e Stoudemire, reports Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com, who cites sources (Twitter link). Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald confirmed through an associate of Stoudemire’s that it is indeed the case and that the 13-year veteran would like to play for the Heat, though that associate cautioned that a deal is not yet a given. The Happy Walters client won’t base his decision on money, Jackson hears, a plus for the Heat, who are limited to only their $3.376MM taxpayer’s mid-level exception and are poised to pay repeat-offender tax penalties this season unless they clear some of their salary commitments.
Stoudemire will meet with the Heat on Friday, as Frank Isola of the New York Daily News reported (on Twitter), and team president Pat Riley will take part, Jackson notes. Several other teams have apparently been in the mix for the big man, as the Clippers, Rockets, Mavericks, Lakers and Suns all reportedly expressed interest in him as someone who could shore up their respective benches.
Stoudemire didn’t want to go to the Clippers unless he could start, as Chris Broussard of ESPN.com reported, and it seems unlikely he’d start over Chris Bosh or Hassan Whiteside in Miami. Still, Stoudemire apparently had at least some level of mutual interest in the Clippers, as well as the Mavs, Lakers, Suns and Spurs. He was expected to speak with Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers this past weekend, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, who added the Pacers to the list of teams that Stoudemire was eyeing.
Western Notes: Aldridge, Chandler, Booker
Blazers executive Neil Olshey said the team found out LaMarcus Aldridge was signing with the Spurs after his second meeting with San Antonio on July 3rd, Mike Tokito of The Oregonian writes. Olshey also took offense to the suggestion that he and the Blazers were trying to hide Aldridge’s pending departure from fans and the media, calling it “patently false,” Tokito adds. “More than anything, what was the upside to lying? What? What did we buy? Five days of peace? I can guarantee you there was no peace,” Olshey said. “What was our motivation to lie for 96 hours? It wasn’t like there was some big season ticket holder push during that 96 hours. There wasn’t some sponsorship that was up, it wasn’t that we were recruiting some other free agents that were only going to come if LaMarcus was going to be here.”
Here’s more out of the Western Conference:
- Olshey also fielded questions regarding whether or not the team considered trading Aldridge last season, Tokito tweets. The GM relayed that it would have been extremely difficult to trade Aldridge in final year of his contract, and that teams wouldn’t be willing to deal for the forward without knowing if he’d re-sign with them, Tokito adds.
- The Mavericks have expressed interest in former Wizards big man Kevin Seraphin, Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops reports (Twitter link).
- The Suns are thrilled with their signing of center Tyson Chandler to a free agent deal, Matt Petersen of NBA.com writes. “The first thing I think of when I think of Tyson Chandler is a winner and winning,” GM Ryan McDonough said. “His teams in New York won a lot. His teams in Dallas won a lot, including a championship. The World Championship [with USA Basketball] in Istanbul when I was there five years ago won the gold. He’s always won everywhere he’s gone.”
- The Blazers have promoted Jim Moran to assistant coach to replace the recently fired Kim Hughes, Joe Freeman of The Oregonian tweets.
- The Jazz are likely to keep Trevor Booker on the roster for next season, Tony Jones of The Salt Lake Tribune relays (on Twitter). Only $250k of the $4,775,000 Booker is set to earn in 2015/16 is guaranteed.
Celtics Sign Amir Johnson
JULY 9TH, 7:58pm: The signing is official, the Celtics announced. Since it’s not a sign-and-trade, and the amount is too large to fit within the mid-level exception, that means Boston is using cap space and has lost its long list of trade exceptions, including one worth $12,909,090 left over from the Rajon Rondo trade.
3:47pm: The second year is non-guaranteed, according to Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald (Twitter link).
JULY 1ST, 2:36pm: The Celtics and Amir Johnson have agreed to a deal, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter links). It’ll be worth $24MM over two years, a fairly significant outlay. The incumbent Raptors, as well as the Knicks, Celtics, Mavericks, Pacers, Lakers and Spurs also expressed interest in the Kevin Bradbury client, as Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com reported earlier (on Twitter).
Chris Mannix of SI.com reported Tuesday that Boston was expected to show interest. Johnson said in 2013 that he wanted to play for Toronto the rest of his career, but declining numbers this past season seemed to make that proposition less likely.
Nets Rescind Qualifying Offer To Mirza Teletovic
The Nets have withdrawn their more than $4.21MM qualifying offer to Mirza Teletovic, the team announced (hat tip to Tim Bontemps of the New York Post). He’s now an unrestricted free agent, as Brooklyn has forfeited its right to match offers for him. The move is somewhat surprising, since GM Billy King said this morning that the sides had been in talks and that he was hopeful that the client of Jeff Schwartz and Mike Lindeman would sign, as Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork.com passed along (Twitter link).
They can still strike a deal, but the Nets can’t stop him from joining another NBA team. King had said this spring that he would let the market dictate the terms of the forward’s next contract. Teletovic, who’s expressed a desire to return, has received plenty of interest from overseas, but it doesn’t appear as though other NBA teams are biting just yet. Still, Grantland’s Zach Lowe, as he did in April, mentions the Spurs in connection to him (Twitter link), though it’s not clear in either case whether that’s simply an educated guess or if San Antonio indeed has interest.
The Nets are poised to once more exceed the tax threshold, set at $84.74MM for this season, though King said today that the team will probably make moves designed to bring the team under that line or at least lessen the amount by which it is over, notes Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News (on Twitter). Drawing a hard line on Teletovic, who could have simply accepted his qualifying offer, falls in line with that philosophy.
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Spurs Acquire Ray McCallum
3:27pm: The deal is official, the Kings and Spurs announced via press releases. Sacramento will receive a 2016 second round pick in return for the guard.
10:01am: The Spurs and Kings have agreed to a deal that sends Ray McCallum to San Antonio and a future second-round pick to Sacramento, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). McCallum is making the minimum, but he’s on a three-year deal, so the Spurs can’t take on his salary without using cap space or a trade exception unless they end up sending salary to the Kings when the deal is finalized. That doesn’t appear to be happening, and the Spurs don’t have any trade exceptions. San Antonio is poised to go under the cap to sign LaMarcus Aldridge and others, so the use of cap space seems most likely for this McCallum deal.
The point guard, whose salary is non-guaranteed, ostensibly replaces free agent Cory Joseph, who’s agreed to join the Raptors, as Stein notes. McCallum is set for restricted free agency a year from now, but he at least provides temporary depth. The 24-year-old started 30 games for the Kings last season.
Sacramento has agreed to sign Rajon Rondo, and Darren Collison‘s still on the roster, so McCallum wouldn’t have been in line to do that again this year. The Kings picked the former Detroit Mercy standout 36th overall in 2013.
Spurs Sign LaMarcus Aldridge
JULY 9TH, 2:39pm: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.
JULY 4TH, 11:21am: The Spurs and unrestricted free agent LaMarcus Aldridge have reached an agreement that will bring the talented forward to San Antonio, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter links). The arrangement will be for four years, and approximately $80MM, Wojnarowski notes, almost assuredly a max deal. The pact also includes a player option for the final season, the Yahoo! scribe relays.
The deal between San Antonio and Aldridge brings his nine year career with the Trail Blazers to a close. The 29-year-old appeared in 71 games for Portland during the 2014/15 campaign, averaging 23.4 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 1.7 assists in 35.4 minutes of action per contest. His shooting numbers last season were .466/.352/.845. Aldridge’s career numbers through 648 games, all with the Blazers, are 19.4 PPG, 8.4 RPG, and 1.9 APG, with a slash line of .485/.276/.796.
The departure of Aldridge doesn’t come as surprise to the Blazers, who were informed by the forward on Friday night that he had narrowed his choices down to either the Spurs or the Suns, Wojnarowski tweets. A source told David Pick of Eurobasket.com as early as Wednesday that Aldridge would sign with the Spurs and turn down the hard-charging Suns (Twitter links), though he continued to take meetings in the days that followed. Aldridge had two sit-downs with the Lakers, and also met with the Heat, Rockets, Raptors, and Mavs during the free agent process. He cancelled a scheduled meeting with the Knicks, who never appeared to be serious contenders to land the big man.
Aldridge’s signing will have an impact outside of lining the forward’s pockets and giving the Spurs a new star to pair alongside Kawhi Leonard, who reached an agreement on a five year, estimated $90MM contract of his own with the team on Wednesday. Popovich, who has mulled calling it quits when Tim Duncan decides to hang up his sneakers and retire, is now looking to coach for the four remaining years on his contract, Marc Stein of ESPN.com tweets. San Antonio is now aggressively pursuing unrestricted free agent David West as it reloads for 2015/16, tweets Wojnarowski.
Phoenix is likely heartbroken over missing out on the star forward, as it had reportedly made a strong impression on Aldridge, and he would have been the star the team so desperately seeks to acquire. The Suns would have instead focused on trying to convince Kevin Love to come to Arizona if Aldridge had simply stuck to his pledge of a year ago to re-sign with the Blazers, Jake Fischer of SI Now relays (via Twitter). Love has reportedly agreed to a five-year deal for about $110MM with Cleveland. While the agreement cannot be finalized until July 9th, it would indeed have been a shocking turn of events for Love to spurn the Cavs for the Suns, so Phoenix will have to settle for Tyson Chandler as its lone coup on the big man market.
Spurs Re-Sign Tim Duncan
The Spurs have formally re-signed Tim Duncan, the team announced. The sides had been working toward a two-year deal that would pay him $5MM this season with a player option for year two, as TNT’s David Aldridge reported.
Duncan last week confirmed his return for this coming season, which was reportedly in line with San Antonio’s expectation throughout the spring. Little, if any, doubt existed that he would re-sign with the Spurs as long as he indeed decided to play a 19th season in the NBA, but the question has been just how much of a discount the still-productive 39-year-old would give the team.
The Jim Tanner client made nearly $10.362MM this past season, but Aldridge’s report would indicate that his pay has been cut in half. The Spurs will open cap room to sign LaMarcus Aldridge and others, so a $5MM salary for Duncan would give him a lower cap hold and facilitate the addition of San Antonio’s newest star power forward. The $70MM salary cap, nearly $3MM higher than expected, will help, and it could mean Duncan gets a larger salary this season than he otherwise would have.