Central Notes: Hill, Pargo, Cavs, Hinrich
The Central Division has been the weakest in the NBA so far this year, as only the Bucks, at 6-4, have a winning record. That's encouraging news for the second-place Bulls, who are hoping to tread water until Derrick Rose returns from injury, and they can nab a high playoff seed by coming away with the division title. Chicago and Milwaukee square off tonight, and as we wait for that one, here's the day's news from the Central Division.
- George Hill admits he's not a true point guard, but HoopsWorld's Joel Brigham argues that he's still played up to his five-year, $40MM contract with the Pacers so far.
- Brigham also looks at the sudden emergence of Cavs offseason trade acquisition Jeremy Pargo, and lends his support to Royce White.
- Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio previews tonight's Cleveland-Miami matchup, and looks much farther ahead to the summer of 2014, when he thinks the Heat may begin to crumble just as the young Cavs start to deliver.
- Bulls offseason signee Kirk Hinrich hasn't put up impressive numbers offensively, but Tom Thibodeau said he evaluates him instead based on how he runs the team's offense, and the coach has been pleased so far, as Scott Powers of ESPNChicago.com observes.
- We wrapped up covering Central Division teams in our Offseason in Review series with a look at the Bucks today.
Lakers Showing Interest In Raja Bell
6:39pm: Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles hears the Lakers haven't had any official discussions with Bell yet (Twitter link).
12:44pm: With Mike D'Antoni now at the helm in Los Angeles, the Lakers are exhibiting interest in a player that used to play for D'Antoni in Phoenix. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports that the Lakers are displaying "renewed interest" in Jazz forward Raja Bell. Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak and Kobe Bryant have also been "strong advocates" of Bell this summer, according to Wojnarowski.
Bell, who is in the final year of his contract, was asked not to report to the Jazz this season, and the two sides have made attempts to negotiate a buyout. While a trade would also be a possibility, Bell's $3.48MM salary makes it difficult to find a taker, particularly given Utah's lack of leverage.
Even if the Jazz were to reach a buyout agreement with Bell, there's no guarantee the Lakers would be willing to add him on a minimum salary, according to Wojnarowski. Los Angeles would have to cut a player to clear a spot, then add more salary and a larger tax hit to a roster that's already worth $100MM. Although Wojnarowski suggests the Lakers would have to pay the salary for whichever player they'd cut, it's worth noting that Robert Sacre and Darius Johnson-Odom are on non-guaranteed deals, so the team could save itself some money by releasing one of them.
Regardless, for now, Bell remains under contract with the Jazz. According to Wojnarowski, the Lakers aren't the only team to show some interest in the 36-year-old either — the Bulls have also kicked the tires.
Offseason In Review: Chicago Bulls
Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team's offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees, and more will be covered, as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.
Signings
- Kirk Hinrich: Two years, $8MM. Signed via mid-level exception.
- Marco Belinelli: One year, $1.96MM. Signed via bi-annual exception.
- Nazr Mohammed: One year, $1.35MM. Signed via minimum salary exception.
- Vladimir Radmanovic: One year, $1.35K. Signed via minimum salary exception.
- Nate Robinson: One year, $1.15MM. Signed via minimum salary exception.
Extensions
Trades and Claims
- Acquired cash from the Hawks in exchange for Kyle Korver.
Draft Picks
- Marquis Teague (Round 1, 29th overall). Signed via rookie exception.
Camp Invitees
- Ryan Allen
- Vance Cooksey
- Andre Emmett
- Kyrylo Fesenko
- Marko Jaric
Departing Players
Rookie Contract Option Decisions
- Jimmy Butler, $1.11MM: Exercised
Few NBA teams have faced more scrutiny for their offseason moves than the Chicago Bulls. After posting the Eastern Conference's best record for back-to-back seasons in large part due to the play of their reserves, the Bulls broke up their "Bench Mob" over the summer. Kyle Korver was dealt to the Hawks, Omer Asik's offer sheet with the Rockets wasn't matched, John Lucas III signed with the Raptors, and Ronnie Brewer and C.J. Watson had their options turned down by Chicago. Both players eventually signed minimum-salary deals to play for New York clubs — Brewer with the Knicks and Watson with the Nets.
On one hand, it's not hard to see the Bulls' case for letting all those bench players walk. Asik would have earned $5MM this season, and a lot more than that by 2014/15, given Houston's backloaded offer. Korver is also earning $5MM, while Brewer's and Watson's non-guaranteed salaries were worth $4.37MM and $3.2MM respectively. Retaining all those players, even if the team could have brought back Brewer and Watson at slightly reduced rates, would've been pricey, and would have pushed the team well into the luxury tax with an extension for Taj Gibson looming.
Could the big-market Bulls have afforded that tax hit? Most likely. But the club has always displayed a reluctance to venture into the tax, and even if that habit changes, this wasn't the year it was going to happen. Not with Derrick Rose still recovering from ACL surgery and out of action until sometime in 2013. With the health of their star player up in the air, it didn't make sense for the Bulls to load up and try to make a run right now.
That also explains in part why the Bulls didn't use their amnesty clause on Carlos Boozer in July. Amnestying Boozer now would have allowed Chicago to bring many of the pieces of that Bench Mob back for this season, but most of those guys would have been in the last year of their contracts anyway. And the flexibility created by eliminating Boozer's deal wouldn't have been significant enough to sign an impact free agent. It's not clear the team would have been much improved with Boozer gone and guys like Korver, Brewer, and Watson around for one more year.
Still, while some of the Bulls' offseason choices are defensible, there's still plenty about the team's summer that doesn't make sense. Notably, Chicago's decision to give Kirk Hinrich nearly $4MM in mid-level exception money ensured that the Bulls would be hard-capped this season, unable to pass $74,307,000 in team salary at any point. While I recognize that the Bulls liked Hinrich and were willing to pay the price it took to get him back, there were ways around the hard cap.
For instance, the Bulls traded Korver to Hinrich's old team, the Hawks, shortly after completing their deal with Hinrich. As Mark Deeks of ShamSports and others have noted, the teams could have reworked the two moves into one, sending Hinrich to Chicago in a sign-and-trade transaction. Had they done that, the Bulls would've retained their mid-level exception and avoided the hard cap, unless they committed more than $3.09MM of that MLE to another player.
The Korver deal did give Chicago a $5MM traded player exception that the team will have until next summer to use, but it came at a cost. First-rounder Marquis Teague had to accept a lesser percentage of the rookie scale amount than the other 29 first-round picks, and the Bulls were unable to carry more than 13 players on their opening-day roster, given how close they were to scraping up against that hard cap. Now that the veteran's minimum amount has pro-rated a little, the Bulls have a tiny bit of breathing room to sign a free agent, but if the club is hit hard by injuries later in the season, there will be virtually no flexibility to bring in additional bodies.
Like the Thunder, the Bulls may have taken a step back this summer in order to maintain a strong long-term core. Oklahoma City will miss James Harden, but the team did what it had to do to maintain cap flexibility, avoid a big tax hit, and add assets for the future. Similarly, Chicago may regret not finding a way to hang on to Asik, but with assets like Nikola Mirotic, the Bobcats' future first-rounder, and a newly-extended Gibson still in the fold along with Rose, Joakim Noah, and Luol Deng, the team isn't in danger of a severe drop-off anytime soon.
Central Notes: Pacers, Villanueva, Bulls, Watson
A pair of Central Division cellar-dwellers have winnable games on their schedules tonight, as the Pistons prepare to host the Raptors while the Cavaliers face the Magic in Orlando. The Pacers will have a tougher time making up ground on the division-leading Bucks, with a matchup against the Spurs on tap. As we look forward to a busy evening around the NBA, let's round up a few notes out of the Central….
- The Pacers are off to a slow start without Danny Granger, but head coach Frank Vogel doesn't feel like major changes are needed, as he tells Paul Flannery of SBNation.com. "I like the guys we have on our team," Vogel said. "Obviously we're missing Danny, there's no question about that, but I think we have the pieces to become a really good team and I think we're close."
- Although Charlie Villanueva has only appeared in three games for the Pistons, shooting 1-of-10 from the field, David Mayo of MLive.com still doesn't believe Detroit should have used its amnesty provision to release the forward in July.
- In his latest mailbag on Bulls.com, Sam Smith weighs in on Tom Thibodeau's extension and early-season performance, Taj Gibson vs. Omer Asik, and plenty more Bulls-related topics.
- Smith also adds that the Bulls would've liked to bring C.J. Watson back for the same minimum-salary contract the point guard received from the Nets.
- We're in the midst of examining Central Division teams in our Offseason In Review series, with recaps of the Cavaliers' and Pistons' summers having been published earlier this week.
Teams With Hard Caps
The Chicago Bulls' cap situation has been under the spotlight since July, with the team's hard cap preventing them from adding another player prior to the season. The Bulls' inflexibility makes them the most-discussed hard-capped club, but Chicago isn't the only team that faces that situation. Any club that committed more than $3.09MM in mid-level money to a player's 2012/13 salary has to deal with a hard cap as well.
In some cases, that hard cap will make no difference. A team like the Hawks, for instance, has more than $7MM in breathing room before they approach the $74,307,000 cap. As such, their flexibility shouldn't be handicapped as the trade deadline nears.
A few contenders though, such as the Celtics, are close enough to the hard cap that it'll be a factor they'll need to consider before making trades or signings later on in the season. While minimum-salary signings are still feasible, trades that involve taking on salary may be a no-go.
Here's the complete list of clubs whose team salary can't exceed $74,307,000 at any time this season, along with their current team salaries (per ShamSports):
- Bulls: $73,548,398
- Celtics: $71,918,029
- Warriors: $71,155,896
- Clippers: $69,866,604
- Spurs: $69,157,865
- Hawks: $66,537,025
Western Rumors: Wolves, Lakers, Lillard, Barnes
Fans in Minnesota will have something extra to be thankful for on the holiday tomorrow, after John Krawczynski of The Associated Press broke the news of Kevin Love's surprise return to the lineup for the Timberwolves tonight, between two and four weeks ahead of schedule (Twitter links). It seemed like the Wolves were close to becoming eligible for a hardship exemption that would allow them to sign a 16th player to their roster, when Brandon Roy joined Love, Ricky Rubio and Chase Budinger on the list of those expected to miss significant time. Now it appears Minnesota will have to make do with the standard 15, a trade-off the team will surely take if it means having Love back in action. Here's more from the West, with 14 of the conference's 15 teams in action.
- Speaking on Jim Rome's program on Showtime, Kobe Bryant defended Lakers executive vice president Jim Buss, saying it's up to the team's players to validate the hiring of coach Mike D'Antoni, notes Sean Deveney of The Sporting News.
- Damian Lillard's instant impact is speeding up the rebuilding process for the Blazers, writes Sam Amick of USA Today.
- Harrison Barnes learned how to win in college at North Carolina, and he's bringing some of those principles to the Warriors, observes HoopsWorld's Bill Ingram.
- It's no shock to Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau that Omer Asik, whose offer sheet with the Rockets wasn't matched by Chicago, has blossomed in a starting role, as Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times documents.
- We rounded up more on the Rockets and their Texas rivals earlier tonight.
Central Notes: Bulls, Asik, Cavs
The latest news and notes from around the Central Division on Tuesday evening:
- The Bulls are now eligible to sign a free agent despite being up against the hard cap. K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune writes that their bench is currently a liability, and there's a chance they will look to the free-agent market for help.
- Bulls forward Taj Gibson tells Nick Freidell of ESPNChicago.com that the Bulls are feeling the loss of Omer Asik, but they are not using it as an excuse for their poor play.
- Bob Finnan of the News-Herald writes that the injury to Kyrie Irving will cause a significant setback for the Cavs this season.
Bulls Eligible To Sign Free Agent
While today's date, November 19th, doesn't mean a lot for most NBA teams, it's important for the Bulls, who are now eligible to sign a free agent for the veteran's minimum. Because they're hard-capped this season, the Bulls had previously been unable to add another player's salary to their roster.
NBA teams face a hard cap when they spend more mid-level exception money than the $3.09MM available to taxpaying clubs. Non-taxpayers were free to spend up to $5MM on a mid-level player this season, an option the Bulls took advantage of when they signed Kirk Hinrich to a two-year deal with a first-year salary of about $3.94MM.
Since they've used the non-taxpayer MLE, the Bulls must ensure their team salary doesn't amount to more than $4MM above the luxury tax threshold at any point this season. Chicago is right up against that line, with $73,548,398 on the books, per ShamSports — $3,241,398 above the tax line. That puts the difference between Chicago's team salary and the hard cap at $758,602.
Because veteran's minimum contracts are charged to the cap for $854,389, the Bulls had been unable to add a player using the minimum salary exception. However, the minimum salary pro-rates over the course of the year, based on the fraction of the season remaining when the contract is signed. The 2012/13 season is 170 days long, and we're 20 days into it, so a minimum salary contract signed today would only be worth 150/170 of $854,389. That amount? $753,873, enough to squeeze inside the Bulls' hard cap.
We heard over the weekend that the Bulls are eyeing Jannero Pargo. Kyrylo Fesenko or other camp invitees that were cut by Chicago last month could also draw renewed interest. Of course, there's no rush for the Bulls to immediately add a player — the team could potentially sign multiple players to minimum-salary or 10-day contracts later in the season when the cost is further reduced.
Jannero Pargo Drawing Interest From Bulls, Others
Since being waived by the Wizards on Thursday, Jannero Pargo has received interest from a handful of clubs, agent Mark Bartelstein tells Shams Charania of RealGM.com. According to Charania, the Bulls are among the teams to express some interest in Pargo, and Bartelstein expects to talk to them and others in the next few days.
Because Pargo was released on Thursday, he's expected to clear waivers today. It's possible that a team simply claims his contract on waivers to avoid negotiations, but that would mean assuming the partial guarantee that was included in his Wizards deal. As such, it's more likely he becomes an unrestricted free agent, free to sign with any club.
After a solid season in Atlanta in 2011/12, Pargo was off to a poor start in Washington this year, resulting in the Wizards' decision to cut him to clear a spot for Shaun Livingston. Despite having a chance to earn playing time while John Wall was sidelined, Pargo averaged just 3.0 PPG in 14.6 MPG, shooting 25% from the floor in seven contests (all losses) for the Wizards.
Any team interested in taking a flier on the 33-year-old point guard would be hoping for a return to 2011/12 form, which saw him post a career-high 13.6 PER. His mark in this year's small sample size is 0.3.
Bulls Notes: Bench, Rose, Asik
The latest news and notes around the Chicago Bulls on Friday afternoon:
- Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com writes that the Bulls' defense is suffering from the loss of key reserves Omer Asik and Ronnie Brewer this summer.
- Jeremy Bauman of Sheridan Hoops calls the Bulls' 5-3 start to the season with Derrick Rose sidelined one of the surprises of the early season.
- Expect to see more poison pill offer sheets in the future like the one Asik received this summer, says Ric Bucher of 95.7 The Game (Sulia link). Since the signing team has the option to spread out the cap hit evenly rather than assuming the "poison pill" part of the deal, it makes sense that teams will continue to make things as hard on the free agent's old club as possible. Of course, as ESPN.com's John Hollinger points out (via Twitter), the ability to include a poison pill in an offer sheet only applies to Arenas Rule players, who aren't all that common.