Bucks Sign Jerryd Bayless
JULY 31ST: The deal is official, the Bucks announced (on Twitter).
JULY 17TH: The Bucks and Jerryd Bayless have reached a deal, as the Phoenix native tells Mark McClune of Phoenix CBS affiliate KPHO-TV (Twitter link; hat tip to Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported Tuesday that the sides were nearing an agreement, and they had been discussing a two-year arrangement between $6-7MM with no option clauses, according to Gardner.
Bayless spent the bulk of last season with the Celtics after an early-January trade brought him from Memphis, and he quickly identified Boston as a place he wanted to stay for the long term. The client of Excel Sports Management reiterated that stance on multiple occasions during what appears to have been a brief tenure with the Celtics, and coach Brad Stevens appeared to lobby the front office for his return. The Celtics had Early Bird rights on the combo guard that would have given them the means to make an offer equal to or greater than what he seems to have netted from the Bucks, but ultimately it looks like the sides couldn’t reach a deal.
Milwaukee appears to be technically operating over the cap, though the team has eyed using its flexibility to open up space and make an offer to Eric Bledsoe, among other targets. A competitive offer for Bledsoe would likely require the team to trade some of its guaranteed salary, and there have been conflicting reports about Milwaukee’s willingness to trade Ersan Ilyasova. A two-year deal for Bayless with a starting salary that’s roughly half of the $6-7MM figure that Gardner floated for the total value of the deal could be a fit for part of the $5.305MM mid-level, should the Bucks stay above the cap. Otherwise, Milwaukee would likely have to use cap room.
Wizards Waive Melvin Ely
THURSDAY, 7:42am: There’s been no formal announcement from the team, but the move has indeed taken place, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (on Twitter) and the RealGM transactions log.
WEDNESDAY, 4:26pm: The Wizards are waiving power forward Melvin Ely, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Ely came to Washington from the Pelicans as part of the three-team sign-and-trade that sent Trevor Ariza to the Rockets. His non-guaranteed minimum salary has been scheduled to become fully guaranteed at the end of Friday, but it appears the Wizards are releasing him before that happens.
New Orleans brought the 36-year-old back into the NBA after a three-year absence from the league with a contract signed with just two days to go in the season. The inclusion of the non-guaranteed 2014/15 salary made it plain that the Pelicans intended to use him as trade fodder, and his contract proved key in the team’s ability to acquire Omer Asik, as I explained earlier.
Washington has been less than $200K shy of the tax line, but dropping Ely will allow the team to open up more than $1.3MM of extra space beneath the threshold, room to add another minimum salary or two. The Wizards are also hard-capped, so even if they go over the tax line, they can’t go more than $4MM into the tax at any point this season.
Byron Mullens To Sign With Chinese Team
Byron Mullens has reached an agreement to sign with the Shanxi Brave Dragons of the Chinese Basketball Association, reveals a report from Sina.com (translation via Orazio Cauchi of Sportando). Mullens hit the free agent market in late June after turning down a minimum salary player option that would have kept him with the Sixers for the 2014/15 season.
After a lackluster start to his 2013/14 campaign with the Clippers, Mullens was shipped to Philadelphia and put up respectable numbers, albeit while seeing limited action. Mullens averaged 16.7 minutes per night over the course of 18 games, putting up nightly marks of 6.8 points and 3.3 boards.
The Wasserman Media Group client didn’t seem to draw much attention from NBA teams this offseason, as evidenced by the lack of activity found on his Hoops Rumors rumor page. It remains to be seen if there’s an NBA escape clause in the big man’s contract that could bring him back to the US should a stateside club show interest. The CBA’s regular season ends in February, so Mullens could still be a late season addition to a team if he indeed lacks an NBA-out in his deal. The length of the new pact hasn’t been disclosed.
Warriors Waive Hilton Armstrong
4:56pm: Golden State has officially placed Armstrong on waivers, the team announced via press release.
4:23pm: The Warriors are waiving center Hilton Armstrong, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Armstrong’s minimum-salary deal has been to set to become fully guaranteed if the team doesn’t waive him by the end of Friday, but it appears Golden State will do so.
The 29-year-old signed four different contracts this past season with the Warriors, who first added him in December and later inked him to a pair of 10-day deals. They secured him for the balance of the season with a week to go before the playoffs, tacking on the non-guaranteed 2014/15 salary. It was the first NBA action in three years for the former No. 12 overall pick, but he saw fewer than 100 minutes in the regular season. He made it into all seven games of Golden State’s playoff series against the Clippers, but he only saw 17 total minutes across those appearances.
The move gives the hard-capped Warriors some extra wiggle room, as they had been roughly $4.5MM beneath the tax line and $8.5MM under the tax threshold, the latter of which is the line they can’t cross. That room will come in handy if the team, which has been involved in Kevin Love talks, needs to accommodate salary in a trade. The Warriors can open up nearly another $1MM if they waive Draymond Green by the end of Friday, but they’ll almost certainly not do that.
Heat Re-Sign Chris Bosh
JULY 30TH: The deal is finally official, the team announced, after Bosh spent much of the month traveling overseas.
“Chris Bosh is a two-time NBA champion and one of the most versatile big men in the league,” Heat president Pat Riley said. “His unique skillset makes him one of the best players in the game today. I’ve always felt he was committed to this organization, this staff and this city. I think he’s going to have the opportunity of a lifetime leading this team next season and having the nine-time NBA All-Star back in the fold was a big key for us. We are very blessed to have him.”
JULY 11TH: The Heat and Chris Bosh are finalizing an agreement on a five-year deal for the maximum salary, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). The Rockets believed they would get Bosh to commit to their offer of the maximum, which by rule was only for four years, with lower annual raises, but the Henry Thomas client ultimately spurned Houston to remain with the Heat. The new max deal will include a starting salary of $20,644,400, and total $118,705,300 over the life of the contract.
Bosh and his wife love living Miami, and their affection for South Florida was a strong factor in the decision, tweets Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com. It’s a major victory for the Heat and team president Pat Riley, who’ll know the team will at least keep one of its three stars after LeBron James bolted for the Cavs. The Lakers and Bosh reportedly had mutual interest, too, but ultimately it came down to a decision between the Rockets and Heat.
Before the Rockets made their push, Bosh seemed like a strong bet to return to Miami, having said publicly that he would return. Still, that seemed to hinge on the return of LeBron, and when he left for Cleveland, Bosh seemed destined to follow the four-time MVP out of Miami.
Instead, the Heat will retain the No. 3 player in the Hoops Rumors Free Agent Power Rankings. As Charlie Adams of Hoops Rumors wrote when he examined Bosh’s free agent stock, Bosh had plenty of leverage to secure a lucrative payday in a destination of his choice after establishing himself as an athletic force defensively and a versatile scorer.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Wolves Sign Mo Williams
WEDNESDAY, 4:19pm: The deal is official, the team announced (via Twitter).
MONDAY, 4:10pm: Mo Williams and the Wolves have reached agreement on a one-year, $3.75MM deal, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter).
The free agent guard had chiefly been connected to the Mavs of late, but Dallas instead used the $2.732MM room exception it had earmarked for a potential deal with the ex-Blazer on Jameer Nelson. The Wolves are almost certainly using part of their $5.305MM mid-level exception on this deal, one that will give Williams more than he would have made with the Mavs.
Williams, 31, had made re-signing with Portland his “only goal” at the outset of free agency after he turned down a $2.77MM player option. The capped out Blazers used their exceptions on Chris Kaman and Steve Blake, leaving only the Non-Bird rights they held on Williams to give him no more than a 20% raise, and it became clear within the second week of free agency that the chances for a return were slim.
The Wolves have been looking at the Mark Bartelstein client for a few days now, as John Krawczynski of The Associated Press notes (on Twitter). Team president Flip Saunders & Co. see Williams as a strong fit to play on the second unit alongside rookie dunking machine Zach LaVine. In 74 games for the Blazers last season, Williams averaged 9.7 PPG and 4.3 APG in 24.8 minutes per contest. Williams also turned in a career-low 41.7% field goal percentage and 11.8 PER, numbers that he’ll look to improve on this season.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Maalik Wayns To Play In Lithuania
Former Sixers and Clippers point guard Maalik Wayns has signed to play with Zalgiris Kaunas of Lithuania, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). The terms aren’t immediately clear, and it’s uncertain whether the deal includes an NBA escape clause.
A preseason knee injury helped Wayns make the Clippers opening-night roster last season, as I explained last week when I looked at a special form of non-guaranteed contracts. The Clippers waived him shortly before his contract would have become guaranteed for the season, and they re-signed him to a 10-day deal, but they terminated that 10-day contract before it ran to term so they could sign Hedo Turkoglu instead. He spent most of the rest of the season in the D-League with the Rockets affiliate.
The Andy Miller client will be making his first foray overseas, having remained stateside for two years after going undrafted out of Villanova. He’s averaged 2.7 points and 1.0 assists in 7.3 minutes per game for his NBA career, which has so far encompassed only 29 appearances.
Grizzlies Hire Ed Stefanski For Front Office
3:19pm: The hiring is official, the team announced via press release.
9:25am: The Grizzlies have identified the front office addition they’ll make to assist GM Chris Wallace, reaching agreement with former Nets and Sixers GM Ed Stefanski to become the executive vice president of player personnel in Memphis, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The selection is a surprise, since Stefanski wasn’t among the several executives linked to the Grizzlies in the past few months. A report just three days ago indicated the team’s progress toward a hire had stalled.
Memphis had reportedly been looking for someone to serve as a “GM-in-waiting” of sorts who would train under Wallace until he was ready to assume Wallace’s duties as the team’s top basketball executive. Stefanski, already having served as GM for two NBA franchises, probably wouldn’t need much training if the team envisions him as its future front office leader, but he’ll at least start off beneath Wallace on the organizational chart, as Wojnarowski indicates. Grizzlies owner Robert Pera said recently that he might promote Wallace to president of basketball operations.
Pacers vice president of basketball operations Peter Dinwiddie and former Raptors and Knicks GM Glen Grunwald were the leading candidates that Wojnarowski identified two weeks ago. Chris Makris, the GM of the Grizzlies’ D-League affiliate, also appeared to be in the mix, at least to a degree. Memphis reportedly interviewed Dinwiddie, Grunwald, Nets assistant GM Bobby Marks, and Knicks director of pro personnel Mark Hughes. The team made Thunder assistant GM Michael Winger an early target before he turned them down. Knicks director of player personnel Mark Warkentien was also an apparent candidate.
Stefanski most recently worked under Bryan Colangelo in the Raptors front office from 2011-13. Stefanski helped build two NBA Finals teams while serving as Nets director of scouting from 1999 until his appointment as the team’s GM in 2004.
Mavs Sign Ivan Johnson
The Mavericks have signed free agent power forward Ivan Johnson, the team announced via press release. Johnson, 30, was out of the NBA this past season after making his mark in two years with the Hawks, but he hooked on with the Mavs’ summer league team this year, and there had reportedly been mutual optimism that the sides would get a deal done for training camp, if not more. Dallas GM Donnie Nelson said earlier this month that the organization regarded him as “more than just a summer league guy.”
It’ll have to be a minimum-salary arrangement of some kind for Johnson, since the capped-out Mavs are out of exceptions. It’s not immediately clear whether the deal includes any guaranteed salary, or how long it runs.
The Jeremiah Haylett client had reportedly worked out for the Nets, Blazers and Spurs this summer, and he did the same for multiple teams late last season when he returned from having played in China. Johnson chose a more lucrative deal with Zhejiang Chouzhou last year when NBA teams were offering only the minimum, as he told Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com recently, but it appears he’s willing to take the minimum to come back to the NBA this time around.
Johnson went undrafted out of Cal State San Bernardino in 2008, and it wasn’t until 2011 that he found himself in an NBA preseason training camp. He took full advantage of the opportunity with the Hawks and became a part of the team’s rotation, averaging 6.5 points and 3.9 rebounds in 15.8 minutes per game. The rough-and-tumble inside player was a dominant force in China, where he put up 26.0 PPG and 9.9 RPG in 32.8 MPG this past season.
Grizzlies Sign Chris Wallace To Extension
12:30pm: It’s a three-year deal with a team option on the final season, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com. It appears as though the terms kick in for this coming season, though that’s not entirely clear.
11:16am: The Grizzlies have signed Chris Wallace to a multiyear extension and dropped the interim tag from his GM job, the team announced via press release. The team had applied the interim tag to Wallace’s GM title earlier this offseason when it parted ways with former CEO Jason Levien, although it represented a return to power for Wallace, who had retained the title of GM even during virtual exile from the organization.
“We are very pleased to announce Chris Wallace as our general manager,” owner Robert Pera said in the team’s statement. “Chris has been at the forefront and a stable presence throughout some of the Grizzlies’ greatest successes. His strong bonds and experience, not only within the organization and NBA but also within the Memphis and Mid-South communities, make him the ideal fit to lead our basketball operations. We believe Chris’ skills and expertise to be vital in our continued success of our franchise.”
A report late Monday indicated that Memphis had reached agreement with Ed Stefanski to serve as the team’s executive vice president of player personnel, a role that would make him an assistant to Wallace. The extension seems to confirm that Wallace will remain in charge of the team’s front office, even though the Grizzlies had apparently been seeking a “GM-in-waiting” to eventually take over for him.
Wallace first became the GM of the Grizzlies in 2007, but even though he didn’t lose his job when Levien came aboard with the sale of the team to Pera in 2012, Wallace went nearly a year without stepping foot in Grizzlies offices. Pera nonetheless emerged as an apparent fan of Wallace’s, saying shortly after Levien’s departure that he wanted to retain Wallace in some form or fashion even if he wouldn’t return to his role as head of the club’s basketball department. More recently, Pera said that he might promote Wallace to president of basketball operations, but it appears as though that job will remain vacant and Wallace will head the front office with his familiar job title of GM.