And-Ones: Wizards, Trade Exceptions, Booker
The NBA issued a memo this week establishing that teams that trade coaches or other non-playing personnel are not allowed to make any other trades for one calendar year or until the coach or executive’s contract would have expired, whichever is earlier, notes Mark Deeks of ShamSports. The memo also issues guidelines that make it more difficult for teams to dump salary in trades, as Deeks explains.
More from around the league:
- Trade exceptions for four teams expired at the end of Thursday, the largest of which was one the Warriors held that was worth more than $9.8MM, as we noted earlier. The Clippers watched one worth more than $2.6MM expire, the Nuggets lost one worth nearly $2.4MM, and the Raptors saw one worth more than $1.2MM extinguished.
- The Wizards are waiting on Houston’s move in regards to Chandler Parsons offer sheet which will impact the Rockets‘ pursuit of free agent Trevor Ariza, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link).
- The Wizards continue to push for a deal with Trevor Ariza, but he wants to hear from the Mavs before moving forward with Washington, TNT’s David Aldridge tweets.
- The Knicks have continued to show interest in Wizards free agent power forward Trevor Booker, tweets Marc Berman of the New York Post.
- The Cavaliers are in talks with free agent center Chris Andersen, tweets Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
And-Ones: LeBron, Novak, Hibbert, Butler
The Heat and Cavs expect LeBron James to make his decision on where to sign before he gets on his flight to Brazil this weekend, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. It’s likely that any decision James makes will impact where Chris Bosh, Kevin Love, and Chandler Parsons find themselves next season as well. While much is seemingly tied to the four-time MVP’s choice, odds are low anything is decided tonight. Let’s catch up on the rest of the league while we wait on LeBron and the 2014 edition of “The Decision”:
- The Raptors are finalizing a buyout with Lucas Nogueira‘s team in Spain, writes Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca (on Twitter). We had heard earlier this week that Toronto was likely to bring over Nogueira and Bruno Caboclo prior to the start of 2014/15.
- The $9.8MM trade exception that the Warriors had created from the Richard Jefferson deal with the Jazz expired tonight, as David Aldridge of NBA.com observes (via Twitter).
- The Steve Novak trade, which became official today, allows the Raptors to create a $3,445,947 trade exception equivalent to Novak’s salary. The three-teamer between the Nets, Cavs and Celtics that was also formalized today allows the Nets to create a diminutive $741,160 trade exception equal to the difference between Marcus Thornton’s salary and the sum of the salaries for Jarrett Jack and Sergey Karasev. The Cavs could end up with trade exceptions out of the deal, too, but they’re poised to open cap room, so those exceptions would disappear when they officially dip below the cap.
- The Bucks and Pacers have had discussions for a trade including Roy Hibbert, writes Gery Woefel of the Racine Journal Times. Milwaukee is interested in acquiring Hibbert, says Woelfel, but it isn’t clear if Indiana is interested in any packages the Bucks could put together.
- Nikola Vucevic and Tobias Harris‘ rookie deals expire after 2014/15, and as a result, the duo became extension eligible this summer. Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel hears discussions about new contracts between the Magic and the young big men will pick up some time around Labor Day.
- Caron Butler is being pursued by the Clippers and Thunder, tweets Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated. Butler, of course, has spent time with both organizations.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Free Agent Rumors: ‘Melo, LeBron, Morrow, Blake
Phil Jackson might be expecting Carmelo Anthony to rejoin the Knicks, but ‘Melo hasn’t ruled out the Bulls just quite yet, tweets Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. Meanwhile, the Heat expected to have had an answer from LeBron James by this point, according to Bleacher Report’s Ethan Skolnick. James was frustrated with some of coach Erik Spoelstra‘s strategy during the Finals this year and wasn’t impressed with team president Pat Riley‘s end-of-season press conference last month, Skolnick adds.
While the NBA world waits on the decisions of superstars like Anthony and James, let’s round up the latest from free agents all around the league..
- Anthony Morrow has received interest from several teams, but it appears he’s deciding between joining the Clippers, Heat, Wizards, Raptors and Suns, reports David Aldridge of NBA.com, who adds that each of the teams Morrow is considering would be willing to use some or all of their mid-level exception to sign him (Twitter links). Given that the Clippers and Heat have both used up the full amount of their mid-level exceptions, signing Morrow would likely require a sign-and-trade to complete.
- The Warriors took “another” look at DJ White today, notes Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group (on Twitter), thereby implying it’s at least the second time Golden State has looked at the big man. White had his rights renounced by Charlotte earlier today.
- Other teams submitted much stronger bids for Steve Blake but he “desperately” wanted to play for the Blazers, as he agreed to do today, a source tells Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com (Twitter link). The Lakers weren’t among the teams making an aggressive play for the point guard, as they offered only the minimum salary, tweets Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times hears.
- The Jazz, Pelicans, Rockets, and Nets are interested in Francisco Garcia, a source tells Haynes (Twitter link).
- The Wolves are making an effort to sign Evan Turner to one-year deal, a source tells tells Darren Wolfson of 1500ESPN.com. Turner played poorly last season after being shipped to Indiana at the trade deadline.
- The matter of whether Mike Miller will re-sign with the Grizzlies will likely come down to contract length rather than salary, according to Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal, who writes in subscription-only piece. Memphis wants him back on a two-year deal, but Miller is pushing for three or four seasons.
- Rockets GM Daryl Morey has been in contact with Paul Pierce‘s representatives at Excel Sports Management, but it’s unlikely the veteran forward ends up in Houston, tweets Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle.
Alex Lee and Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Jazz Acquire Steve Novak
JULY 10TH: The trade is official, the Jazz announce via press release. The second-round pick going to Utah is New York’s 2017 selection that the Raptors acquired in a previous trade.
JULY 4TH: The Raptors and Jazz have struck an agreement on a trade that sends Steve Novak and a second-round pick to Utah, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Utah is giving up Diante Garrett, but Toronto plans to waive Garrett and his non-guaranteed minimum salary after the trade is official following the July moratorium, which runs through Wednesday, Wojnarowski adds.
Toronto appears to be making the move to clear room beneath the projected $77MM luxury tax line to accommodate a deal for Greivis Vasquez and perhaps other signings, with space tight following the team’s agreements with Kyle Lowry and Patrick Patterson. The team is reportedly closing in on a deal with Vasquez, but it only has roughly $7.5MM in flexibility beneath the tax threshold.
Novak was little-used in Toronto this past season after having been an integral part of the Knicks rotation the previous two years. He averaged just 10.0 minutes per game, but as usual, he was stellar from behind the arc, nailing 42.6% of his three-point attempts. He led the league with a 47.2% three-point percentage in 2011/12, and that summer he signed a four-year, $15MM deal that made him a pricey luxury at the end of the bench this past season for the Raptors.
Utah uses its ample cap flexibility to pick up one of the league’s premier three-point shooting specialists. Novak will make nearly $3.446MM this coming season and $3.75MM in 2015/16, but it seems like Utah is OK with the commitment as it slowly rebuilds.
Raptors Waive Julyan Stone
8:22pm: In addition to the new teams mentioned, the Raptors remain a possibility to sign Stone, per Charania.
WEDNESDAY, 5:53pm: Stone has cleared waivers and is now discussing a possible deal with the Sixers, Bucks, and Kings, a league source tells Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). Presumably, any deal would slot Stone on a team’s training camp roster and be partially or non-guaranteed, although that’s just my speculation at this point.
MONDAY, 2:49pm: The Raptors have waived point guard Julyan Stone, the team announced (on Twitter). Stone’s non-guaranteed minimum-salary contract was to have become fully guaranteed if he remained on the roster through today, so Toronto saves some cash and some room under the tax line with the move.
Stone’s relationship with Raptors GM Masai Ujiri dates to their time together with the Nuggets, with whom the 25-year-old spent the first two seasons of his career. Still, even news that fellow reserve guard Nando De Colo had turned down Toronto’s offer to accept a deal to play in Russia wasn’t enough to keep Stone on the roster as the Raptors seek to re-sign Greivis Vasquez and stay below the tax threshold.
Raptors Sign Bruno Caboclo
6:50pm: Toronto has made the signing official in a team release. Whether Caboclo received the full 120% rookie scale salary has yet to be revealed, but presumably that’s the case.
11:13am: The Raptors have signed surprise No. 20 overall pick Bruno Caboclo, as Caboclo revealed on his verified Twitter account (hat tip to Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun). He’s likely in line for a salary worth $1.458MM this season, assuming he signs for the standard 120% of the rookie scale, as our chart of salaries for 2014 first-round picks shows.
Wolstat wrote last week that the 18-year-old Caboclo was likely to join the team for the coming season, even though there seemed to be a strong chance the unheralded small forward would remain out of the NBA for another year or two. The 6’8″ Brazilian wasn’t on Jonathan Givony’s DraftExpress final rankings of the top 100 prospects in the 2014 draft. Still, the Jazz and Suns were reportedly interested in him as well, and though the Raptors had promised to draft him 37th overall, they did so at No. 20 to get the jump on Phoenix and Utah.
The Raptors are also likely to add another recent first-round pick from Brazil for next season after acquiring the rights to 7-footer Lucas Nogueira from the Hawks late last month.
Nando De Colo To Play In Russia
WEDNESDAY, 7:27am: The deal is official, the team announced. CSKA’s statement indicates that the contract includes an option for a third season, but it’s unclear whether that’s a team or a player option.
MONDAY, 1:23pm: Wojnarowski’s full story indicates that De Colo turned down a two-year offer from Toronto, though just how much money was a part of it remains unknown.
12:54pm: Guard Nando De Colo has turned down an offer from the Raptors and will sign with Russia’s CSKA Moscow, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). De Colo was reportedly offered a two-year deal for the equivalent of $4.08MM, according to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia (Twitter link).
De Colo is a restricted free agent, giving the Raptors the opportunity to match offers from other NBA teams, but the international market isn’t bound by that. The Raptors, who agreed to trade Steve Novak to the Jazz last week to free up room beneath the luxury tax line, are trying to secure a deal with Greivis Vasquez, and there was a strong chance they wouldn’t have been able to give De Colo what the Russian team apparently offered.
And-Ones: Union, Celtics, Blatche, Diawara
The players union is worried that teams like the Heat are trying to strong-arm players into making financial sacrifices by triggering hard caps with the use of the non-taxpayer’s mid-level and bi-annual exceptions, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe explains. Clubs can’t exceed the tax apron, the line $4MM above the tax threshold, if they use either the larger mid-level or the bi-annual. Ron Klempner, the interim executive director for the union, argues that such teams can eschew those exceptions and find ways that don’t trigger a hard cap to accommodate contracts for the players they want.
“Teams are being exposed for what they are doing,” Klempner told Lowe. “It has been laid bare. They are hiding behind the rules. Teams like the Heat have the ability to bring back all their players, and give them raises, but they are choosing to go in another direction.”
Here’s more from around the league:
- The Celtics remain on the lookout for players who will appeal to the Wolves in hopes that Minnesota will agree to a deal that sends Kevin Love to Boston, as Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe details.
- The Raptors will meet Wednesday with free agent Andray Blatche, tweets Chris Broussard of ESPN.com.
- Former NBA swingman Yakhouba Diawara is working out for the Raptors today in hopes of a comeback, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link).
- Sixers second-round pick Vasilije Micic is staying overseas and won’t sign with Philadelphia for this season, reports Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Micic went 52nd overall last month.
- Janis Timma, the 60th pick in last year’s draft, will also stay overseas this coming season rather than sign with the Grizzlies, who hold his rights, as Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal writes in a subscription-only piece.
- The Jazz, Rockets and Warriors all recently auditioned Tyler Honeycutt, but the former Kings small forward has signed a two-year deal with Russia’s Khimki Moscow, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia).
Raptors CEO On Carter, Nash, Title Aspirations
Tim Leiweke, CEO of the Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment group that owns the Raptors, believes the franchise is poised for a “growth spurt” with the unique advantage of having an entire country behind it, as he tells USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt. Leiweke points to the team’s willingness to spend, the acumen of GM Masai Ujiri, and the organization’s commitment to competing for championships as selling points for free agents. He also speaks about the effect that former Raptors star Vince Carter had on Canadian basketball, remarks made all the more interesting by Carter’s status as a free agent and reports indicating that the team is in the mix to sign him. Zillgitt’s entire piece is a must read for Raptors fans, but we’ll share a few particularly relevant snippets here:
On Vince Carter and his influence on back-to-back No. 1 overall picks Anthony Bennett and Andrew Wiggins, both of whom are Canadians:
“That is Vince Carter. I give him an enormous amount of credit. That [Raptors] team and that era is the era that is beginning to produce the Wigginses, the Bennetts. He inspired those kids to play basketball at the highest level. Now we get a chance to do that with our era, but we won’t see the results of that for another 10 years.”
On Steve Nash:
“There are probably few people who admire and like Steve Nash like I do. I had the privilege of getting to know him when he came to the Lakers. I love Steve Nash. I hope whenever his career ends, and I hope it’s not today, I hope a great player like that gets to go out on a high. That said, I definitely would hope there’s day in time where Steve Nash is playing a role here somehow.”
On the team’s Atlantic Division title this season, which it celebrated with the hanging of a banner:
“Personally, I wouldn’t have done the banner. They didn’t ask me, but if they did I would’ve told them that doesn’t mean anything. I don’t go in the locker room and congratulate the guys because we haven’t done anything yet. Our guys know that. It’s not that I don’t love our guys and I won’t fight for them. But we haven’t done anything yet. I don’t understand why everyone’s happy. We have work to do here. For me, are we on the right path? Yes. Do we have a chance to do something great? Yes. Talk to me when we do it. I’m not happy. Masai’s not happy.”
Eastern Notes: Ariza, Stephenson, Humphries
Marcin Gortat badly wants to see Trevor Ariza return to the Wizards, writes Michael Lee of the Washington Post. “Trevor is a big part of our success, and we’d like to have him back,” Gortat said. “I understand at the end of the day, it’s a business and he has to make the right decision for him and for his family. But we love him, we want him back and I believe that [GM] Ernie [Grunfeld] and [senior VP of basketball operations] Tommy Sheppard is going to do the right thing.” More from the East..
- Some Pacers fans are nervous about the impasse in discussions between Lance Stephenson and Indiana, but Candace Buckner of the Indy Star implores fans to be patient and not panic.
- In addition to the previously reported Heat and Celtics, the Wizards and Hornets are also interested in big man Kris Humphries, tweets Jared Zwerling of Bleacher Report.
- There’s no denying that he’s talented, but there’s a lot to consider when weighing Stephenson. David Nurse of HoopsHype looks at the pros and cons of the frustrating Pacers talent.
- Re-signing Kyle Lowry was one of the final pieces of the puzzle for the Raptors, opines Jonathan Tjarks of RealGM. With Lowry under contract for the next four years, Toronto has every member of their starting five locked up for the forseeable future.