Atlantic Notes: Knicks, Anthony, Scott
The Knicks need to show that the team has some forward momentum this season if the franchise wants to have a shot at landing premier free agents next offseason, Bradford Doolittle of ESPN.com (Insider subscription required) writes. Doolittle points to the Bucks as an example, who despite their small market, managed to sign Greg Monroe this Summer, a player who the major market Knicks had their sights on. If the Knicks are unable to show improvement in the win column over last year’s squad, then no amount of available cap space will be able to convince stars like Kevin Durant that New York is a preferred free agent destination, Doolittle concludes.
Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- There’s an excellent chance that the Knicks will explore trading Carmelo Anthony this season, Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report opines (video link). New York will likely wait to see how the roster performs at the start of the season, and if the team doesn’t look to be headed toward the playoffs, then it could look to deal Melo, possibly to the Bulls, Bucher notes. Anthony’s contract does include a no-trade clause, so the forward would have to be on board with any potential swap.
- The Raptors gave recent training camp signee Shannon Scott a partial guarantee of $25K on his minimum salary deal, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders relays (Twitter link).
- Despite some skeptics saying that the Nets have the worst starting point guard in the league in Jarrett Jack, forward Thaddeus Young said during an interview on SiriusXM NBA Radio, that the team has full confidence in Jack’s ability to lead them, Tom Lorenzo of NetsDaily writes.
Carlos Boozer Unlikely To Sign Before Season Starts
Carlos Boozer is likely to remain unsigned for the rest of the offseason and instead seek a deal with a playoff contender after the season starts, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Thus, it appears as though the 13-year veteran simply isn’t seeing an offer that he likes for now, though it casts doubt on the idea that he would bite on apparent interest from the Chinese league, an option that had reportedly intrigued him earlier this month.
Boozer, who turns 34 in November, made $16.8MM combined last season from the Bulls, who waived him via the amnesty clause in July 2014, and the Lakers, who submitted a partial claim of $3.251MM to snag him off waivers. He’d be hard-pressed to make even the amount of that amnesty claim on an NBA contract this season, simply because most teams have no more than the $2.814MM room exception to spend. The Mavericks, one of the latest three NBA teams reported to have interest in him, have only the room exception to use, while the Knicks, another of those interested parties, are limited to the minimum. The Rockets have more than $2.274MM left of their mid-level exception, but using it would impose a hard cap on them, and they still have yet to sign No. 32 overall pick Montrezl Harrell. The Spurs, Raptors, Pelicans, Nuggets, Nets, Lakers and Heat were reportedly interested in the Rob Pelinka client earlier this summer, but none of them have the capacity to give him as much as the Lakers paid for him last year. The Lakers renounced their Bird rights to him last month.
The two-time All-Star put up 16.2 points and 9.8 rebounds per game in 2012/13, but his numbers have declined in each of the two seasons since, and his 6.8 boards and 23.8 minutes per contest last season were career lows. Former Nets executive Bobby Marks wouldn’t be surprised if Boozer waited until Christmas to sign (Twitter link). I’d speculate that a decent chance exists that he stays on the market even longer. Ray Allen and Jermaine O’Neal, two other aging former All-Stars, chose to carry on as free agents into the season last year but never wound up signing.
What do you think Boozer will end up doing? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.
Atlantic Notes: Bargnani, Scott, Smart
Former Knicks forward Andrea Bargnani indicated that he will “gladly” respond to team president Phil Jackson‘s criticism of his work ethic, but now is not the time, Robert Windrem of NetsDaily relays. “There is a right time for everything,” Bargnani told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “I have the answers, but it would be selfish to trigger controversy. Today, the only important thing is the national team. Later, gladly.” In an interview earlier this month Jackson had told ESPN’s Charlie Rosen that Bargnani “was and still is a big tease who seemed like a malingerer,” and that the Zen Master didn’t like the way Bargnani refused to engage in non-contact activities while he was recovering from an injury, nor his on-court intensity. Bargnani, 29, inked a two year deal with the rival Nets this offseason.
Here’s more out of the Atlantic Division:
- The minimum salary training camp deal that undrafted Ohio State point guard Shannon Scott inked with the Raptors is partially guaranteed for $25K, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders relays (on Twitter).
- In a look ahead toward 2015/16 the ESPN Summer Forecast Panel was asked to name which member of the Celtics would have a breakout season, and the majority predicted that player would be second year guard Marcus Smart. A number of the panel members pointed to Smart’s increased confidence and leadership that he demonstrated during summer league play as a positive sign of things to come.
- You can see our full roster counts for the Celtics, Knicks, Nets, Raptors, and Sixers by clicking on the link over the desired team’s name.
Atlantic Notes: Valanciunas, Zeller, Rozier, Hunter
Grantland’s Zach Lowe finds the four-year, $64MM extension that Jonas Valanciunas received from the Raptors more surprising than fellow Leon Rose client’s Michael Kidd-Gilchrist‘s apparent agreement to sign for $52MM over that same span of years, given the center’s potential earnings (Twitter links). Valanciunas could have come away with a four-year deal worth closer to $75MM if he’d waited until the extension deadline in the fall, and the max if he’d passed on an extension in favor of restricted free agency, Lowe opines. Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- Chances are 50-50 that Tyler Zeller will sign an extension with the Celtics before the deadline this fall, sources tell Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders. The sides have talked about the idea, Kyler writes. Grantland’s Zach Lowe speculated earlier this summer that the C’s might agree to a deal as long as it was for less than $12MM a year.
- The Celtics took Terry Rozier with the 16th overall pick, a dozen spots in front of R.J. Hunter, but Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com and the majority of ESPN’s Summer Forecast panel argue that Hunter will make the more significant impact this season.
- Knicks president Phil Jackson shared his thoughts about the team’s offseason additions, but Marc Berman of the New York Post believes the Zen Master’s outlook is far too positive. New York didn’t add a single All-Star caliber player despite its bevy of cap room, Berman writes.
Raptors Notes: Carroll, DeRozan, Valanciunas
DeMarre Carroll, who inked a four-year deal with the Raptors for $58MM in July, intends to remain focused on playing stout defense and said his large contract and big role with the team will not effect his mindset in terms of scoring, Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun writes. Still, if not for the emergence of Carroll’s outside shooting, Wolstat contends that the small forward likely would not have been the Raptors’ prized free agent signing this summer. As Wolstat points out, Carroll hit 27 3-pointers over his first four seasons before making 97 and then 120 as a member of the Hawks.
Here’s more on the Raptors:
- Speaking of shooting from beyond the arc, Carroll believes star Raptors shooting guard DeMar DeRozan‘s growth as a better shooter will be instrumental in the team’s success, Wolstat writes in the same piece. “I’m pretty sure there’s a lot of other things he worked on in his game and he’s a dominant offensive player [already],” Carroll said. “So I think if he adds that three-point to his game it’ll take us over the top.”
- In his weekly mailbag post, Doug Smith of The Toronto Star writes that the Raptors hope to see Jonas Valanciunas have a better anticipation and faster reaction to situations in games this upcoming season. The team recently extended Valanciunas to a deal worth $64MM over four years with a player option on the fourth year.
And-Ones: Williams, Thomas, Nunnally
Alan Williams, who starred at UC Santa Barbara and made an impact during summer league, was surprised that no NBA team was willing to give him a guaranteed contract, according to Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic. Instead, Williams signed with the Double Star Eagles in Qingdao, China, grabbing an overseas spot that usually isn’t available once NBA training camps end in October. “It gave me financial stability, which is something a lot of people don’t get in their first year,” Williams said. “It gives me an opportunity to go out there and develop my game more and play for a pretty good team. Culturally, I get to go to a whole different continent and see how they play.” Williams thought he might get more interest from NBA teams after an impressive performance with the Rockets‘ summer league squad. He averaged 20.5 points and 11.8 rebounds in four games and was named to the all-NBA Summer League second team. Williams is hoping for another shot at the NBA once his CBA season ends in February or March.
There’s more news tonight from around the basketball world:
- Tyrus Thomas, the fourth pick in the 2006 draft, still dreams of returning to the NBA, writes Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. Thomas missed the entire 2013/14 season after undergoing an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion for an arachnoid cyst. He signed a 10-day contract with the Grizzlies in January, but only appeared in two games. At 29, he is training for another shot at the league and hopes to be in someone’s camp next month.
- James Nunnally has signed with Sidigas Avellino of the Italian Serie A, according to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. Nunnally, another UC Santa Barbara product, appeared in a combined 13 games with the Hawks and Sixers during the 2013/14 season. He spent last season with teams in Spain and Israel, and played for the Pacers‘ entry in this year’s summer league.
- Several teams took risks this summer, and Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders evaluates the best and worst of them, including the Lakers‘ and Knicks‘ draft picks, the Rockets‘ deal for Ty Lawson, the Raptors giving big money to DeMarre Carroll and Cory Joseph and the Kings‘ gamble on Rajon Rondo.
Atlantic Notes: Valanciunas, Porzingis, Rozier
The four-year, $64MM extension that Jonas Valanciunas signed this week is a good deal for both him and the Raptors, writes Ryan Wolstat of The Toronto Sun. If the 23-year-old center has an outstanding year in 2015/16, he may have cost himself some money by not waiting to negotiate, Wolstat notes, especially with the salary cap expected to rise into the neighborhood of $90MM next summer. However, Valanciunas opted for security and the satisfaction of making more than four times more than his previous salary. “That’s why we’re doing the deal, because I feel the trust in me,” Valanciunas said. “I’m ready to go out and compete on the court. Now it’s my time to do something.”
There’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- The deal that netted Valanciunas his extension came together quickly, according to Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca. Last week, Valanciunas was preparing for Eurobasket 2015 with his national team in Lithuania. He arrived in Toronto on Monday and stayed until the extension was finalized. “There’s a great opportunity for me to stay in a good city,” Valanciunas said. “I love Toronto, I love to play here, it’s my second home. They take me as if I’m from here. It’s great. I just feel for the Raptors. I feel good about it. A contract is just a contract.”
- Knicks associate head coach Kurt Rambis is the right choice to mentor Kristaps Porzingis, writes Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com. League sources have told Begley that most of the responsibility for developing the 7’0″ rookie will fall on Rambis, who spent 14 years in the NBA as a power forward.
- Celtics rookie Terry Rozier thinks his summer league experience will help get him ready for the pace of the NBA game, according to Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. Many were surprised when Boston tabbed Rozier with the 16th pick, but the toughness, competitiveness and defensive prowess that attracted the Celtics was on display this summer. “I think I grew a lot out there, just seeing the spacing and learning to play with a different pace at this level,” Rozier said. “I’m a fast learner, so to meet people and be in that environment was special, because I learned a lot and got better.”
Atlantic Notes: Embiid, Johnson, Crawford
Sixers center Joel Embiid underwent a second surgical procedure on his injured right foot this week, and he is expected to miss the entire 2015/16 campaign as a result. While the news that the 2014 No. 3 overall pick will miss his second consecutive campaign is bad enough, there’s also a strong chance that Embiid will also miss the beginning of the 2016/17 season, according to Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer (video link), with a hat tip to Chris Walder of TheScore.com.
“Talking to my sources, they want to see him return around October – not this October, but the next October, for that season,” Pompey said. “And he may not even return for the start of that season. He may miss a couple games. But that’s their goal.”
Here’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- The Raptors will miss Amir Johnson ‘s intangibles and hustle this season, with the forward having signed a two-year, $24MM pact with the Celtics this offseason, writes A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com. “He went from a role player to a very big piece of what we were doing,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said of his former player. “He became the core of what we were doing in Toronto. We went from a young, up and coming team to grow. We’ll miss his leadership, his toughness. He has a quiet toughness about him that we will miss with our team.”
- The Knicks reportedly have interest in acquiring Jamal Crawford from the Clippers, and Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders believes that landing Crawford would take additional pressure off of Carmelo Anthony on the perimeter and also provide good spacing for the entire Knicks offense overall. Greene also notes that trading for the guard wouldn’t have a negative impact on the Knicks’ salary cap since Crawford is in the final season of his current deal.
Raptors Sign Shannon Scott For Camp
AUGUST 21ST, 3:07pm: The deal is official, the team announced (Twitter link).
AUGUST 6TH, 10:54am: The Raptors and undrafted Ohio State point guard Shannon Scott have agreed to a partially guaranteed deal, a league source tells Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). It’ll have to be for the minimum salary, since that’s all Toronto has left to give to outside free agents. The level of the guarantee isn’t immediately clear, but the Raptors gave camp invitees Michale Kyser and Axel Toupane matching $25K guarantees on their deals earlier this summer, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.
Scott played for the Spurs summer league team that won the title in Las Vegas, and he also saw action for San Antonio’s squad at the Salt Lake City summer league, averaging 5.3 points and 2.4 assists in 22.6 minutes per game over nine total appearances. The 6’2″ 22-year-old was a full-time starter only in his senior season at Ohio State, averaging 8.5 PPG, 5.9 APG and 2.4 turnovers in 30.5 MPG this past season.
The Raptors are setting up a battle for their final regular season roster spot, as they’ve been carrying 14 fully guaranteed salaries plus partial guarantees for Kyser, Toupane and Ronald Roberts. Scott joins that group, one in which Roberts would seem to have a slight financial edge with a $75K partial guarantee. Point guards Kyle Lowry, Cory Joseph and Delon Wright are among those 14 Raptors with full guarantees, so Scott faces an uphill battle, notes former Nets executive Bobby Marks (Twitter link). Toronto isn’t obligated to carry more than 13 players into the regular season, so it would seem Scott, Kyser, Toupane and Roberts are all strong candidates to end up with Raptors 905, Toronto’s new one-to-one D-League affiliate. The Raptors organization can claim the D-League rights to as many as four of the players it cuts at the end of the preseason.
If the Raptors carry a 15th man on opening night, who do you think should get the nod? Leave a comment to let us know.
Unusual Timing Marks Jonas Valanciunas Deal
That the Raptors signed Jonas Valanciunas to an extension was no surprise, and the deal’s $16MM average annual value, while high compared to the salaries that other, similarly skilled centers are making, isn’t causing too much of a stir in an increasingly lucrative market for player salaries. Perhaps the most eye-catching element of the extension is its timing.
The Valanciunas deal, while pricey, is for far less than the projected $20.4MM maximum for players with his level of experience next season, when the extension would kick in. That puts it in the minority among rookie scale extensions signed prior to October, the last month of the annual window for these extensions that opens at the end of the July Moratorium and closes on Halloween. This year, October 31st falls on a Saturday, so the deadline is November 2nd.
Seven of the 12 rookie scale extensions signed in July, August or September since the 2011 collective bargaining agreement went into place have been for the maximum salary. Serge Ibaka was the first to sign an early extension for less than the max, taking about $49MM over four years when he inked his extension in August 2012. Trouble has befallen the others to follow in his footsteps, however. Larry Sanders was out of the league less than a season into the four-year, $44MM extension he signed with the Bucks in August 2013, and the Morris twins, who signed their extensions with the Suns last September, have become disgruntled over the trade that sent Marcus Morris to the Pistons.
The Raptors no doubt envision a better outcome with Valanciunas, but the more significant aspect of the timing of their deal is Toronto’s forfeiture of the chance to see if the center would take less with the deadline bearing down on him. The pressure of final-hour negotiations may well have caused the Raptors to blink instead, but it’s clear from the willingness of the sides to act now that both team and player are satisfied with the $64MM figure.
Here’s a look at the max extensions signed in July, August or September under the current collective bargaining agreement. Note that these include extensions in which players made concessions pursuant to the Derrick Rose rule that prevented them from seeing the 30% max, as was the case with the Pacers and Paul George. As long as the deal was worth at least the 25% max, it’s listed here:
- Anthony Davis, Pelicans — July 9th, 2015
- Damian Lillard, Trail Blazers — July 9th, 2015
- Kyrie Irving, Cavaliers — July 10th, 2014
- DeMarcus Cousins, Kings — September 30th, 2013
- Paul George, Pacers — September 25th, 2013
- John Wall, Wizards — July 31st, 2013
- Blake Griffin, Clippers — July 11th, 2012
Here are the non-max early rookie scale extensions over that same timeframe:
- Jonas Valanciunas, Raptors — August 20th, 2015 (four years, $64MM)
- Marcus Morris, Suns — September 28th, 2014 (four years, $20MM)
- Markieff Morris, Suns — September 28th, 2014 (four years, $32MM)
- Larry Sanders, Bucks — August 20th, 2013 (four years, $44MM)
- Serge Ibaka, Thunder — August 18th, 2012 (four years, $49.2MM)
The RealGM transactions log was used in the creation of this post.
Do you think the terms of the Valanciunas extension would have been different if he and the Raptors had waited until the deadline in the fall? Leave a comment to share your thoughts.