Pacers Sign Rodney Stuckey
JULY 21ST: The Pacers and Stuckey have made the deal official, the team announced via press release.
“Rodney is a very talented player who can create and score in a variety of ways,” Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird said in the team’s statement. “We’re very happy to get a player with his experience and who has made it very clear of his desire to win.”
JULY 16TH: 8:49pm: The contract will be for the veteran’s minimum, tweets Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star.
7:09pm: The Pacers and Rodney Stuckey have reached agreement on a one-year contract, reports Sam Amick of USA Today (on Twitter). Indiana quickly targeted Stuckey after incumbent shooting guard Lance Stephenson departed for the Hornets earlier today. Terms of the deal aren’t known yet. Indiana cannot offer more than the veteran’s minimum unless a sign-and-trade can be worked out with Detroit.
Stuckey will move on from the Pistons, where he spent the first seven years of his career. His per-game scoring average of 13.9 in 2013/14 is comparable to that of Stephenson, but the latter’s playmaking ability far exceeds Stuckey’s, who racked up considerably fewer assists and rebounds in Detroit. Still, the Creative Artists Agency client will look to carve out a significant role within the Pacers offense, where they have been short on scoring firepower during a dominant defensive run.
Mavs Sign Richard Jefferson
JULY 21ST: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.
JULY 13TH: Free agent Richard Jefferson is finalizing a one-year deal with the Mavericks, a league source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter). RJ’s deal is for the veteran’s minimum, according to ESPN.com’s Marc Stein (on Twitter).
Jefferson, 34, spent last season with the Jazz and averaged 10.1 PPG and 2.7 RPG in 27 minutes per contest. Jefferson isn’t quite the player that he was during his Nets heyday, but the Mavs are getting a solid veteran piece for next to nothing.
While he won’t be making big bucks this season, RJ has plenty of money already in the bank. According to Basketball-Reference, Jefferson has earned nearly $107MM over the course of his career.
Bucks Claim Kendall Marshall
SUNDAY, 6:17pm: Marshall to the Bucks is now official, according to Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel (on Twitter).
SATURDAY, 6:03pm: The Bucks intend to put in a waiver claim for Kendall Marshall, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twittter link). Milwaukee is looking to add passers and backcourt upgrades, tweets Stein, and Marshall will join newly acquired Jerryd Bayless in filling those needs.
Marshall was waived by the Lakers on Friday as the team attempted to clear cap space. Los Angeles had hoped to re-sign the 22 year-old point guard out of North Carolina, but it appears that Milwaukee will put a damper on those plans if they do in fact place a waiver claim on Marshall during the two-day waiver period.
After being considered a bust by the Suns, Marshall revived his career last season when he averaged 8.0 PPG, 2.9 RPG, and 8.8 APG while playing 29 minutes per game. His slash line was .396/.372/.540.
Clippers Re-Sign Glen Davis
SATURDAY: The signing is official, the team announced.
THURSDAY: Glen Davis is on his way back to the Clippers, a source tells Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link). It’s a minimum-salary deal, Turner adds in a second tweet, which is somewhat surprising, since he turned down that same amount from the Clippers when he declined his player option last month. L.A. already committed its mid-level and biannual exceptions, but they could have given Davis 20% more than the minimum through his Non-Bird rights.
Davis joined the Clippers in February shortly after securing his release from the Magic, but he saw just 13.4 minutes per game, which would have represented a career low if extrapolated over an entire season. He wasn’t particularly efficient in those minutes, either, compiling a 10.3 PER, which also would have been a career-worst mark. He had a more prominent role with the Magic, where he put up 12.1 points and 6.3 rebounds in 30.1 minutes per contest with a 13.7 PER in the first half of the season.
The 28-year-old John Hamilton client might have looked for a place where he could return to a larger role, and Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers might have opted against re-signing a player who fell flat for the team last season. Still, their relationship seems to have proven too much of a draw. Rivers coached Davis to a championship on the Celtics in 2008, serving as coach and mentor for the first four years of Big Baby’s career. The Clippers appeared to be the only team with which Davis had serious talks.
Davis, a seven-year veteran, will receive $1,227,985 in the deal, but only $915,243 will count against the cap. That leaves just $1,149,228 of breathing room against the hard cap created when the Clippers used their mid-level and biannual exceptions on Spencer Hawes and Jordan Farmar, respectively. The only way the Clippers can fit multiple additional signees on the roster is if they’re both making the minimum salary. The crunch helps explain why they didn’t give Davis 20% more than the minimum as his Non-Bird rights would have allowed.
Raptors Release Diante Garrett
The Raptors have requested waivers on Diante Garrett with intention of releasing him from their roster, the team announced via Twitter. Garrett, the 25 year-old point guard out of Iowa State was acquired by the Raptors in the trade that sent Steve Novak and a second-round pick to the Jazz back on July 10th. Toronto had made the trade with the intent to waive Garrett and his non-guaranteed 2014/15 salary of $915,243 after the moratorium on trades and signings was lifted and the Novak deal became official. Garrett’s deal would have become fully guaranteed if he had remained on the roster past January 7th, 2015.
Toronto had also decided to release Dwight Buycks earlier today rather than have his salary of $816,482 become fully guaranteed for the 2014/15 season, which would have occurred if Buycks was still on the roster come July 22nd.
In 71 games for the Jazz last season, Garrett averaged 3.5 PPG, 1.4 RPG, and 1.7 APG while logging 14.8 minutes per game. His slash line was .381/.375/.833.
Raptors Release Dwight Buycks
5:46pm: The Raptors have confirmed that they have placed Buycks on waivers via the team’s Twitter account.
4:01pm: Buycks tells David Pick of Eurobasket.com that he’s Europe bound if he’s eventually waived by Toronto (Twitter link).
10:44am: The Raptors have decided to release Dwight Buycks, reports Shams Charania of RealGM. The team will make the move before July 22nd, when his fully non-guaranteed $816,482 salary would have become fully guaranteed for 2014/15. The move has been expected since Toronto signed James Johnson on Thursday.
Toronto has three experienced point guards on the roster ahead of Buycks in Kyle Lowry, Greivis Vasquez, and Lou Williams. Buycks joins Nando De Colo and Diante Garrett as backcourt players to be moving on from Toronto this summer. Several teams are expected to pursue Buycks as a free agent, the RealGM scribe writes.
The point guard appeared in 24 games with the Raptors last season, his only time spent in the NBA. The Relativity Sports client struggled with his shot as a rookie, turning in a slash line of .313/.294/.889 in 10.4 MPG. Buycks has averaged 15.2 PPG and 2.8 APG in parts of two seasons in the D-League.
Mavericks Sign Rashard Lewis
SATURDAY, 3:35pm: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.
TUESDAY, 9:50pm: Rashard Lewis has agreed to a one-year deal with the Mavericks, according to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Colin Bryant, Lewis’ agent, confirmed the news. According to Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas, the deal will be worth the veteran’s minimum (Twitter link).
In 60 games last season, Lewis averaged 4.5 PPG in 16.2 MPG while shooting 41.5% from the field and 34.3% from long distance. In 18 playoff games, the 34-year-old forward scored 5.3 PPG and raised his three point accuracy to 37.3%.
With Lewis on board, the Mavericks have found a capable veteran backup for Dirk Nowitzki who can spread the floor with his ability to knock down shots from the perimeter. Although his overall shooting percentages from the field over the last two seasons seem far from ideal, Lewis displayed noticeable proficiency as a catch-and-shoot player in this year’s playoffs, as he knocked down 40.0% of his 3.1 three-point attempts on those type of shots.
Wizards Acquire Kris Humphries From Celtics
3:07pm: The protected second-round pick going to the Celtics is for the 2015 draft, the Wizards announced. It’ll be Washington’s own second-rounder, since that’s the only one the Wizards had.
SATURDAY, 12:42pm: The sign-and-trade trade has been officially executed, per a team release from the Celtics.
6:08pm: Michael passes along (via Twitter) that the year in which the Wizards will send that protected second-round pick to the Celtics is yet to be determined.
5:14pm: Boston is receiving a future protected second-round pick in the deal, Wojnarowski reports. It’s so heavily protected that the Wizards are unlikely to ever have to convey it to the Celtics, tweets Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald.
4:25pm: The Celtics and Wizards have reached agreement on the sign-and-trade arrangement, Michael reports. It’s still unclear what Boston is receiving, however.
4:10pm: The first-year salary for Humphries will be $4.3MM, tweets J. Michael of CSNWashington.com, so assuming there are no other players involved, that’s the amount of the trade exception the Celtics will receive.
2:14pm: Boston has had only preliminary discussion with the Wizards about a sign-and-trade involving Humphries, but the Celtics nonetheless appear willing to take part, Wojnarowski reports (on Twitter).
TUESDAY, 1:30pm: Kris Humphries has agreed to join the Wizards on a three-year, $13MM deal, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). The Celtics and Wizards are working to make it a sign-and-trade that would allow the capped-out Wizards, who’ve already used their mid-level exception on Paul Pierce, to give Humphries a deal that large, according to Bleacher Report’s Jared Zwerling (Twitter links). Washington would use a trade exception from its deal to send Trevor Ariza to the Rockets to accommodate the trade for Humphries, as Zwerling explains. The final season of Humphries’ contract will be a team option, according to Wojnarowski, though it’s possible that it will simply be non-guaranteed.
Houston’s sign-and-trade for Ariza has yet to become finalized, but it’ll allow Washington to create a trade exception worth approximately $8.5MM, depending on the value of the salary in the first year of Ariza’s new deal. That’s more than enough room for Humphries, who’ll replace Trevor Booker after he agreed to join the Jazz earlier today.
It’s unclear what the Celtics would receive in the deal, though it appears they’ll net a trade exception of their own. Humphries recently reiterated his openness to a deal that would keep him in Boston, a stance he took for much of the second half of the season after rumors earlier in the year that he wanted out. The Celtics had interest, as did the Heat, Hornets, Clippers, Mavs and Timberwolves at various points this month, but ultimately Washington won out.
The Arn Tellem client averaged 8.4 points and 5.9 rebounds in 19.9 minutes per game for the Celtics this past season, but he’s only two seasons removed from back-to-back double-digit averages in scoring and rebounding for the Nets. Zach Links of Hoops Rumors pointed to Humphries’ track record in predicting that he would end up with a tidy payday, and while he won’t sock away $12MM as he did last season, he still remains well above the minimum salary.
Heat Re-Sign Chris Andersen
JULY 19TH, 12:38pm: The Heat have announced that the signing is official.
“Chris Andersen has had two great seasons with us and without him, we would not have been able to win the 2013 NBA Championship,” said president Pat Riley. “I’m happy he decided to come back and we’re looking forward to a great season from him in the power rotation.”
10:13pm: Andersen’s deal is a two-year pact in the neighborhood of $10MM, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com.
JULY 13TH, 7:46pm: The Heat have reached agreement with Chris Andersen on a multi-year deal, a league source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter). Exact terms of the deal are not yet known.
The Cavs and Mavericks were among the teams known to have interest in Andersen. Andersen likely had interest in a reunion with LeBron, but he’ll stay put with a Heat squad that is expected to feature Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade, Udonis Haslem, and Mario Chalmers. Jason Lieser of the Palm Beach Post (on Twitter) adds that the Knicks made a late run at the big man.
Andersen, 36, scored 6.6 points per game this past season, the second-highest total of his 12-year career. He also averaged 5.3 rebounds in 19.4 minutes per contest with an 18.5 PER as Miami’s first big man off the bench.
Alessandro Gentile Re-Signs Overseas
Alessandro Gentile has re-signed with his Italian team for three years, Olimpia Milano’s team website announced (transcription via Luca Consolati of Sportando). Gentile’s rights are owned by the Rockets, who acquired the No. 53 pick in this year’s draft to snatch him. The salary, and potential NBA buyout clause, for his deal have not been reported at this time.
There have been no rumblings on Houston’s immediate plans for the small forward, but presumably a draft-and-stash was always their course of action. At the time of the draft, the 21-year-old scoring wing was ranked as the 68th best prospect by Jonathan Givony of Draft Express and the 57th best by Chad Ford of ESPN.com (Insider-only).
At the time of the draft, the Rockets were still preparing to chase premier free agents that they would later fail to sign. First-round pick Clint Capela was at odds with the team for insisting he stay overseas for a year, but since has come close to signing in Houston, and Houston also plans to sign their 42nd pick, Nick Johnson.