Mavs Sign Jameer Nelson
5:27pm: The deal is official, as the Mavs announced in a team release.
3:50pm: Nelson has completed the paperwork on his deal, tweets Shams Charania of RealGM, so presumably all that’s left is for the Mavs to receive it and make an official announcement.
THURSDAY, 2:05pm: The deal will run two years and include a player option for the final season, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com.
TUESDAY, 11:04pm: Jameer Nelson will sign with the Mavericks on Thurday, sources tell Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. As expected, Dallas will use their $2.732MM room exception on the veteran point guard, who has spent all 10 of his seasons in the NBA with the Magic before being waived by the team in June. While all signs have pointed towards the sides nearing a deal for a few days now, there were some conflicting reports that Nelson’s camp was speaking with other teams earlier today. The Pelicans, Nets and Pistons were also reported to have interest in the Saint Joseph’s product.
Nelson, a Steve Mountain client, averaged 12.1 points and 7 assists in 32 minutes per game last season on a rebuilding Magic team. As Spears notes, he is expected to compete with Raymond Felton and Devin Harris for the starting point guard position in Dallas, who has now added Nelson, Felton, Al-Farouq Aminu, Tyson Chandler and Chandler Parsons to a team that won 49 games last year. The team also expressed interest in free agent point guard Mo Williams, though this agreement makes that an unlikely possibility.
Now 32, Nelson will be joining a veteran-laden team in Dallas that might just have title aspirations next season despite striking out on all the big-time free agents they’ve reportedly coveted over the past few offseasons. After a handful of losing seasons in Orlando, joining a contender could inject life into Nelson, who earned his lone All-Star nod in 2009 for a Magic team en route to the NBA Finals. As Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News points out, the additions of Nelson and Aminu leave the Mavs with one roster spot remaining and only a minimum salary deal to offer for it.
Suns Waive Dionte Christmas
The Suns have waived guard Dionte Christmas, the team announced (on Twitter). His non-guaranteed minimum salary was to have become fully guaranteed if Phoenix hadn’t waived him by the end of the month.
Christmas was a favorite of Suns GM Ryan McDonough, who’d worked with the 27-year-old when they were together with the Celtics. Phoenix signed to a deal that included a partial guarantee for last season even though the team had an abundance of other guaranteed deals, and the unbalanced Marcin Gortat trade helped create an opportunity for him to stick around for the regular season.
The former Temple Owl saw limited playing time this past season, the first in which he saw any regular season NBA action. He averaged 2.3 points in 6.4 minutes per game across 31 appearances.
Cavs Sign Andrew Wiggins
The Cavaliers have signed No. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins, the team announced. The move triggers a 30-day period in which Cleveland can’t officially complete a trade involving him. The Timberwolves have demanded Wiggins be a part of any package involving Kevin Love, and while there are conflicting reports, many of them indicate Cleveland is willing to include him.
It’s a virtual certainty that Wiggins will receive a salary of slightly more than $5.5MM this season, as our table of salaries for 2014 first-round picks shows. That amount would help salaries match in a trade should the Cavs decide to pull one off after the 30 days are up. Still, the Cavs could have traded his rights immediately had they held off on signing him, using other players to help balance the salaries.
The 6’8″ swingman entered his freshman season at Kansas last year as far and away the top prospect for the 2014 NBA draft, but an underwhelming performance allowed others, including teammate Joel Embiid, to contend for the top spot. Embiid seemed the odds-on favorite until he broke his foot, and Wiggins prevailed over Jabari Parker of Duke, to whom the Cavs also reportedly gave strong consideration.
Wiggins averaged 17.1 points and 5.9 rebounds along with 34.1% three-point shooting in 32.8 minutes per game for Kansas this past season, earning consensus All-American honors. The 19-year-old chose agent Bill Duffy of BDA Sports as his representative.
Cavaliers Sign Joe Harris
THURSDAY, 2:56pm: The contract is official, the team announced.
TUESDAY, 7:20pm: The deal will reportedly be for $2.7MM over three seasons, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.
6:55pm: The Cavaliers will sign second-round pick Joe Harris to a three-year rookie deal, a source tells Shams Charania of RealGM.com (Twitter link). The deal will be guaranteed over two seasons with a team option in the third year, Charania adds. Since the arrangement stretches over three years, the Cavs will use cap space to complete the transaction, as neither the minimum-salary exception nor the room exception allows for a contract that long.
The small forward from the University of Virginia was the 38th best prospect in the rankings that Chad Ford of ESPN.com compiles but just 49th with Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress. He had a slightly reduced role this past season as a senior after notching 16.3 points per game in his junior year. He put up just 12.0 PPG this time around, but he maintained 40.0% three-point shooting, so he shapes up as a long-distance threat for Cleveland.
Harris spoke to Zach Links of Hoops Rumors prior to the draft, crediting Virginia coach and highly touted NBA coaching prospect Tony Bennett for helping him improve defensively.
Magic Sign Devyn Marble
11:12am: The deal is official, the Magic announced via press release.
10:59pm: The sides have an agreement in principle on a three-year deal that’s fully guaranteed for the first season, Robbins writes in his full story. Since it’s for three years, that means the Magic are indeed using cap space.
10:52am: The Magic are on track to sign No. 56 overall pick Devyn Marble as soon as later today, reports Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link). The rights to the former Iowa shooting guard went from Denver to Orlando as part of last month’s Arron Afflalo trade.
Marble, the son of former NBA player Roy Marble, showed steady improvement over his final three seasons with the Hawkeyes, averaging 17.0 points in 30.2 minutes per game with 34.9% three-point shooting as a senior. He aligned himself with another former NBA player when he chose B.J. Armstrong as his agent.
Orlando will likely use some of its ample cap space on what’s probably a deal for the minimum salary. It would be somewhat surprising if it were fully guaranteed, as such deals aren’t too common for late second-round picks. The Magic appear to be coming to a much quicker resolution with their second-rounder this year than they did last summer, when they didn’t officially have a contract with No. 51 overall pick Romero Osby until September 27th.
Suns Re-Sign P.J. Tucker
JULY 23RD: The deal is official, the team announced. The Suns used cap space to complete the transaction.
7:22pm: The third year of Tucker’s deal includes about $3.8MM of non-guaranteed money, writes Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic. Coro also indicates that Tucker has yet to sign the contract.
JULY 10TH, 6:35pm: The Suns will re-sign restricted free agent P.J. Tucker to a three year deal worth $16.5MM, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter). Tucker met with Suns owner Robert Sarver and head coach Jeff Hornacek yesterday and it was believed that talks would spill over to today. The terms of the deal would allow Phoenix to utilize Tucker’s Early Bird Rights, their Mid-level exception or their available cap room to bring back the forward, though there have yet to be reports of which option they’ll choose.
The 29-year-old Texas product has carved out a nice role the past two seasons in Phoenix as a solid defender and a positive influence in the locker room. Tucker, who is represented by the Arete Sports Agency, averaged 9.4 points and 6.5 rebounds in 30.7 minutes per game last season for a Suns team that nearly made the playoffs. While Phoenix has been mentioned as suitors for some of the NBA’s top free agents, it has mostly been on the periphery. However, they’ve had a busy Thursday after reportedly hosting restricted free agent Isaiah Thomas and now locking up Tucker.
There was talk last week that several teams had inquired about the possibility of acquiring Tucker from Phoenix via sign and trade but they came away convinced that the Suns were determined to keep him. The Wizards and Raptors were specifically reported to have had interest.
Lakers Re-Sign Jordan Hill
JULY 23RD: The team has officially re-signed Hill, according to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News (via Twitter), who reports that GM Mitch Kupchak called Hill a “consistent contributor” in a team release.
JULY 11TH: Free agent forward Jordan Hill has agreed to a two-year, $18MM deal to return to the Lakers, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Hill joins Nick Young, who agreed to re-sign earlier, in returning to the team, and new acquisition Jeremy Lin, whose trade was agreed upon earlier, too.
In 72 games last season, Hill averaged 9.7 PPG, 7.4 RPG, and 0.8 APG while playing an average of 20.8 minutes a night. His slash line was .549/.000/.685. His career numbers over five seasons are 6.7 PPG, 5.3 RPG, and 0.5 APG.
With all the deals signed today, the Lakers have all but taken themselves out of the running for Carmelo Anthony, and seems to indicate the team will focus on next summer to try to lure a big name to Los Angles. The franchise now only has their $3.27MM taxpayer mid level exception with which to pursue players unless more moves are made.
Kings Plan To Submit Claim For Omri Casspi
The Kings plan on making a waiver claim on Omri Casspi, whom the Pelicans released today, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Casspi would go to the team with the worst record from last season if multiple teams submit claims, so the Bucks, Sixers, Magic, Celtics, Jazz and Lakers could all prevent him from ending up in Sacramento. Casspi’s contract is for only the minimum salary, so teams could use the minimum-salary exception to accommodate their claims.
Casspi has expressed interest in a return to Sacramento, where he spent his first two, and most productive two, years of his NBA career. Stein reported that the Pelicans were likely to waive the 26-year-old even before the trade that brought him from Houston became official, and agent Dan Fegan had already begun reaching out to other teams, as Casspi told Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee.
Any team that claims Casspi would have until the end of August 5th to turn around and waive him again before his non-guaranteed salary became fully guaranteed. It’s unlikely any team would make such a move, but the option of doing so would nonetheless provide a degree of flexibility. That might be enough to persuade another team to submit a claim and keep him from Sacramento.
Pelicans Waive Omri Casspi
4:32pm: The team has officially announced the move on its website.
4:16pm: The Pelicans have waived Omri Casspi, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link), a move that Stein reported the team was likely to make in the wake of its three-way trade to acquire him from the Rockets. The team has yet to make an official announcement.
Casspi’s minimum salary was to have become fully guaranteed if the Pelicans hadn’t waived him by the end of the day on August 5th. However, that guarantee date will still apply if a team claims him off waivers. It seems he’d be a decent candidate for a waiver claim, since he was a part of Houston’s rotation this past season and would come cheaply. The 26-year-old averaged 6.9 points in 18.1 minutes with 34.7% three-point shooting for the Rockets, reversing a steady decline in production that had taken place since his rookie year.
Casspi told Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee that agent Dan Fegan has spoken with several teams about a deal should he hit free agency, as we noted earlier. The Kings are among those clubs, Casspi said, expressing a desire to return to Sacramento, where he played his first two seasons in the league.
Rockets To Sign Clint Capela
JULY 23RD: Capela has signed his contract, a source tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Houston will have to receive the signed contract before it becomes official.
JULY 14TH: The Rockets have been working with No. 25 pick Clint Capela to secure his buyout from Chalon-Sur-Saone of France and a FIBA letter of clearance, and they intend to sign him to a rookie scale contract this summer, reports Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle. The outcome is the result that Capela’s camp had been pushing for after the Rockets apparently asked him to remain overseas for next season. Feigen’s piece doesn’t refer to the request, which Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com had reported over the weekend, but he does cast the Rockets as having been ambivalent about the notion of Capela playing for the team this season. Now, it appears the team and Capela are in lockstep toward a contract.
“We are planning out roster for next season. We expect him to be a part of it,” Rockets executive vice president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas said. “We’re in the process of working toward that.”
Capela is likely to receive a salary worth more than $1.189MM for next season, as our table of salaries for 2014 first-rounders shows. The Rockets had been attempting to preserve cap flexibility as they chased LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh, and Houston shopped the pick before the draft. There was also reportedly interest from other teams in trading for Capela’s rights once the Rockets made the selection, but Houston never showed mutual interest in such a swap. Now that the team’s marquee free agent targets are headed elsewhere and Chandler Parsons is off to Dallas, there’s room for Capela, a raw talent who averaged 9.8 points and 6.9 rebounds in 21.4 minutes per game for his French team this past season.