Pau Gasol Signs With Bulls
JULY 18TH: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.
“We are really excited to add such a versatile player to our roster who has been both an All-Star and an NBA Champion,” Bulls GM Gar Forman said in the team’s statement. “Pau is a skilled player with a high basketball IQ and is a true pro and a proven winner.”
JULY 13TH, 10:46pm: It’ll be a three-year, $22MM+ deal, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter).
JULY 12TH, 4:35pm: Pau Gasol will be leaving Los Angeles to play for the Bulls next season, the big man announced on Twitter (hat tip to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News). Terms of the contract haven’t been released, but the Spaniard won’t be heading to Chicago via sign-and-trade, as Brian Windhorst of ESPN had noted earlier.
A hot name in the free agent market, the Arn Tellem client reportedly drew interest from the Spurs, Knicks, Thunder, and Heat, among others. The Lakers surely would have liked to work out a sign-and-trade for Gasol, but apparently the two sides couldn’t come to an agreement, and Gasol walks away from LA with the Lakers having nothing to show for it.
An earlier report from Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports indicated the Bulls would give Gasol a starting salary in the neighborhood of $6MM if they couldn’t come to terms with Lakers on a sign-and-trade. Given that Chicago is over the cap, they’d actually only be able to offer Gasol a maximum salary of $5.305MM using the non-taxpayers mid-level exception.
If the team uses the amnesty provision to shed Carlos Boozer‘s contract before signing Gasol, they’ll be able to give him a higher payday, and it would give them greater flexibility to sign Nikola Mirotic. There have been conflicting reports on whether or not the club intends to use their amnesty, but owner Jerry Reinsdorf has a reputation as being cost-conscious, and he might not be willing to pay a player who’s not going to be playing on his team.
At 34 years old, Gasol is beyond his prime playing days, but he’s still able to put up more than respectable numbers. He was able to average 17.4 points and 9.7 rebounds per game last season over 60 games.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Hornets Sign Lance Stephenson
FRIDAY, 12:09pm: The deal is official, the team announced via press release:
“We are extremely excited to add Lance to our team,” Hornets GM Rich Cho said. “He is a great up-and-coming player with an incredibly high ceiling. He is an exceptional athlete who has the versatility and skill to play multiple positions on both offense and defense. We believe he will be an outstanding addition to our roster.”
WEDNESDAY, 8:07am: The Hornets will sign Lance Stephenson to a three-year deal, reports Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer. It’s worth $27.5MM, according to Shams Charania of RealGM. The value of the deal is $9MM in the first two seasons and $9.5MM in the final year. Both Bonnell and Charania refer to that third season as a team option, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a non-guaranteed year instead, since few veteran free agent deals include team options.
The agreement is for fewer years and less money than the five year, $44MM offer the Pacers made, but the average annual value is slightly greater. There were conflicting reports about Charlotte’s interest in Stephenson immediately after talks between thee Pacers and the Alberto Ebanks client hit a snag. In any case, the Hornets made a push late Tuesday, as owner Michael Jordan, GM Rich Cho, coach Steve Clifford and other Hornets officials met with Stephenson in Las Vegas, and the sides quickly came to a deal, as Charania details.
Stephenson came close to signing with the Mavs, and he was finalizing a deal with them before the Rockets decided against matching the Dallas offer sheet for Chandler Parsons, Charania reports. The Pistons, Bucks, Lakers and Bulls all made contact with Stephenson, too, according to Charania.
The news is a blow to the Pacers, and president of basketball operations Larry Bird in particular, who had reportedly been fond of the temperamental 23-year-old shooting guard. Bird hinted during the season that re-signing Stephenson was a priority for the club, and Stephenson made plenty of indications that he intended to come back. Still, the Pacers set a price ceiling that they steadfastly wouldn’t exceed, and once talks with Stephenson came to an impasse, they made a series of agreements that largely eliminated their space beneath the luxury tax threshold, a line the team has refused to cross in recent years.
The Hornets are using cap room to come to the agreement. They had reportedly been likely to make an amnesty waiver claim on Carlos Boozer using their cap space. The Stephenson deal probably takes them out of the running for Boozer, though that’s just my speculation.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Bulls Sign Nikola Mirotic
JULY 18TH: Mirotic’s contract is official, the team announced in a press release.
“We feel Nikola will be a great addition to our frontcourt where he he’ll be able to space the floor with his outstanding shooting ability,” Bulls GM Gar Forman said. “We’ve known Nikola for several years and we are confident he will be a great fit for our team both on and off the court. He’s a player with great potential.”
JULY 13TH: 5:48pm: Mirotic’s deal will be for $17MM+ over three years, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.
5:33pm: The Bulls and Nikola Mirotic have reached agreement on a multi-year deal, tweets Shams Charania of RealGM. The terms of the deal are not yet known. Aggrey Sam of CSNChicago.com reported last week that the two sides were nearing agreement.
The 6’10” forward has to make good on his buyout of Real Madrid, but that’ll be easier than once thought since the $3MM+ can be paid out over the course of multiple years. Mirotic is the most intriguing of the NBA’s draft-and-stash prospects, with interest only growing since he became the 23rd overall pick in the 2011 draft. He put up modest numbers of 12.1 points and 4.9 rebounds in 23.4 minutes per game for Real Madrid this past season, but he shot 40.9% from behind the three-point line.
The Bulls aren’t bound by the rookie scale, since it’s been three years since Mirotic was drafted, but they can only pay $600K of his buyout this season, meaning the rest would have to come out of Mirotic’s salary. Still, since Real Madrid is willing to spread the buyout payments, it might not require a salary larger than the $5.305MM mid-level exception to bring him stateside. Estimates have varied from well above that amount to only $3MM.
Renounced Players: Thursday
We may be no longer in the early stages of free agency, but teams continue to clear cap space by renouncing their Non-Bird, Early Bird or full Bird rights to their own free agents to remove their cap holds from the books. Teams that renounce those rights no longer have the ability to exceed the cap to re-sign those players unless they use an exception like the mid-level or the biannual. Some of those decisions are more notable than others, but for completion’s sake, we’ll track the latest of these cap-clearing moves right here:
- The Bulls have renounced their rights to Daequan Cook, Vladimir Radmanovic, Nazr Mohammed, Brian Scalabrine and Jimmer Fredette, reports Mark Deeks of Sham Sports (via Twitter).
- The Mavericks have expunged the cap hold of Petteri Koponen and renounced their rights to Bernard James, reports Deeks (via Twitter).
- The Lakers have renounced their rights to MarShon Brooks and Andrew Goudelock, according to Deeks (via Twitter).
- The Lakers have also renounced the rights to John Salley, Karl Malone, Brian Shaw and other players not on the team last season, according to ESPN salary cap guru Larry Coon (via Twitter).
- As Coon explains, the old CBA allowed Bird rights of players not on a team the previous year to be used in sign-and-trades. With that no longer the case under the current CBA, the rights to players like Salley, Malone and Shaw are no longer useful. The teams must still go through the formality of renouncing the rights, but tend not to do so until they actually need the cap space which, like in this case, could be years later (Twitter links are here).
- With Salley’s rights renounced, Coon believes the oldest Bird rights still on the books might be Roshown McLeod with the Celtics (Twitter link).
Lakers Claim Carlos Boozer Off Waivers
10:52pm: The Lakers have officially announced the addition of Boozer via a team release.
“Carlos is an established veteran and a proven all-star, who will be a welcome addition to our team,” said GM Mitch Kupchak. “We’re very pleased to have won the bidding process and to have gained his rights, and look forward to his contributions next season.”
5:29pm: The Lakers secured Boozer with a winning bid of $3.25MM, reports Stein (via Twitter). Consequently, the Bulls will owe Boozer the difference of $13.55MM.
4:08pm: The Lakers submitted the winning bid to secure Carlos Boozer off amnesty waivers, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). It’s not immediately clear how much the Lakers bid, but it is a partial claim of his $16.8MM salary, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The Lakers will be on the hook for the amount of their bid and the Bulls will have to pay the rest, though L.A.’s amount will count against the cap and Chicago’s won’t.
The Bulls had tried to fold Boozer into what would have been a sign-and-trade for Pau Gasol, but the Lakers turned Chicago away, as K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune notes (on Twitter), only to secure Boozer at a lower cost. Chicago wound up amnestying Boozer to clear the cap space necessary to sign Gasol and Nikola Mirotic.
The Hornets and Hawks appeared to be the early favorites to submit partial waiver claims for Boozer, but Charlotte took itself out of the running after agreeing to a deal with Lance Stephenson. Teams with cap room were the only ones eligible to submit a bid, encompassing about a third of the league. The Lakers could have opened up as much roughly $3MM for Boozer while still retaining Kendall Marshall‘s non-guaranteed contract and the rights to restricted free agent Ryan Kelly.
The specter of a Boozer amnesty hung over the Bulls all season, particularly once Carmelo Anthony reportedly identified the team among his top choices in free agency. Amnestying Boozer appeared to be the easiest path toward clearing the necessary cap room for a splashy upgrade. Chicago made a pitch to Anthony and also reportedly met with Rich Paul, the agent for LeBron James. The Bulls apparently gauged Chicago native Dwyane Wade‘s interest in a homecoming, too, but all the while, they seemed to prefer trading Boozer rather than amnestying him.
Chicago wound up with neither a superstar free agent nor a willing trade partner for Boozer, so notoriously thrifty owner Jerry Reinsdorf will be stuck paying him even though he’ll be playing elsewhere. Still, the robust market that developed for the 32-year-old power forward as soon as he hit waivers meant he wasn’t likely to hit free agency, and the Lakers end up relieving some of Reinsdorf’s obligation with their bid.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Suns Guarantee Shavlik Randolph’s Contract
9:08pm: Randolph’s deal for 2014/15 is for $1.23MM, the minimum for a seven-year veteran, reports Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic.
7:02pm: The Suns will fully guarantee the 2014/15 contract of Shavlik Randolph, writes Shams Charania of RealGM, citing Randolph’s agent Joel Bell in the report. The terms of the now-guaranteed contract are not yet known, though Randolph is likely on a minimum-salary deal as our schedule of contract guarantee dates indicates. Charania adds that today was the final day the Suns could guarantee Randolph’s deal before releasing him.
The Suns signed the 30-year-old power forward last March after the former Dukie put up some impressive numbers in China. The deal covered the remainder of last season and included a non-guaranteed year in 2014/15, which the team has now guaranteed. Randolph averaged 6.8 minutes in 14 contests in Phoenix, contributing 1.4 points and 1.8 rebounds per game.
The Suns are the fifth team Randolph has played for in seven seasons in the NBA. He spent a few years overseas before latching on with the Celtics in 2012/13, where he averaged 4.2 points and 4.4 rebounds in 16 games. He will likely provide depth inside in Phoenix behind fellow Duke product Miles Plumlee and Markieff Morris.
Mavs Re-Sign Devin Harris
JULY 17TH, 6:35pm: The deal is official, the Mavericks announced via a team release.
JULY 5TH, 8:50pm: Dwain Price of The Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Twitter link) is reporting that Harris’ deal is the same as the 3-year, $12MM that Patty Mills received from the Spurs.
2:16pm: A source tells Jody Genessy of the Deseret News (on Twitter) that the deal is actually four years in length and worth $16MM.
1:42pm: Harris’ deal will be worth roughly $9MM over three seasons, hears Tim McMahon of ESPNDallas.com (Twitter link).
1:15pm: The Mavericks and Devin Harris are finalizing a three-year deal, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (via Twitter). Re-signing Harris became the team’s top priority after they traded Jose Calderon to the Knicks, Stein mentions.
Harris joined the Mavs on a one-year, minimum salary pact last season and performed well for Dallas coming off the bench. He averaged 7.9 points and 4.5 assists in 20.5 minutes per contest. Although those numbers are a far cry from the figures he was able to put up in his All-Star 2008/09 campaign, he proved himself as a still-capable contributor.
Stein doesn’t mention how much the contract will be worth, but it’s likely more than the minimum Harris agreed to last season. Of course, no deal can become official until July 10, when the league-wide moratorium on signings and trades expires.
Greivis Vasquez Re-Signs With Raptors
JULY 17TH: Vasquez has officially signed his new deal, the team announced in a press release.
“Greivis’ passion for the Raptors and Toronto is wonderful,” GM Masai Ujiri said in the team’s statement. “He is a versatile player who provides us with energy and depth.”
JULY 9TH: Greivis Vasquez has agreed to a deal with the Raptors, a league source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter links). The point guard will sign the two-year, $13MM contract with Toronto once the league moratorium has passed. The deal includes no options, tweets Sam Amick of USA Today.
The move will end Vasquez’s restricted free agency following Toronto’s choice to extend a qualifying offer over a week ago. Vasquez was being sought after by the Bucks, but was reportedly close to re-signing with the Raptors before Milwaukee’s efforts could gain steam. Ryan Wolstat of The Toronto Suns speculates that the agreement could have been delayed by a failed attempt on the part of the 27-year-old’s agent, Arn Tellem, to gain a third year on the contract (on Twitter).
Vasquez will return to back up Kyle Lowry, whom Toronto reached a four-year agreement with already. An average salary of $6.5MM is high for a second string guard, but the length of the contract gives the team flexibility and a reliable insurance option should the oft-injured Lowry run into any health trouble. Vasquez excelled as a backup last season, posting a career-high per-36-minute scoring average while maintaining a solid 6.2 assists-per-36-minute rate.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Raptors Sign James Johnson
JULY 17TH: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.
JULY 10TH: 10:10am: The deal is fully guaranteed, according to Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link).
8:40am: The Raptors and James Johnson have reached agreement on a two-year deal, reports Doug Smith of the Toronto Star. The value of the contract will be $5MM, according to Smith, though Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun believes it might be for slightly more (Twitter link). The Raptors are using part of their mid-level exception on the Mark Bartelstein client, Wolstat adds in the same tweet.
Johnson revived his NBA career after signing with the Grizzlies in December, proving a useful reserve as he averaged 7.4 points in 18.4 minutes per game. The five-year NBA veteran previously spent parts of two seasons with the Raptors, though that was during the regime of former GM Bryan Colangelo. The 27-year-old spurns the Rockets, who were reportedly set to meet with him earlier this month, as well as the Jazz, who also had interest, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports. The Grizzlies had apparently been split on whether to bring him back.
The move largely brings a close to Toronto’s major free agent expenditures, as Smith writes, after previous agreements with Kyle Lowry, Patrick Patterson and Greivis Vasquez. The Raptors wouldn’t mind trying to find a trade partner willing to take on Chuck Hayes or Landry Fields if they could net younger versions of those players in return, but the club probably won’t make any trades until the leaguewide free agency rush passes, Smith writes. The move also likely squeezes out Dwight Buycks, who’s on a non-guaranteed contract, and probably ends any chance that the Raptors would sign Andray Blatche or Ed Davis, according to Smith.
Wizards Acquire DeJuan Blair Via Sign-And-Trade
9:23pm: The deal has been completed, the Wizards announced. Washington will receive Blair from the Mavs in exchange for the rights to Emir Preldzic, a 2009 second-round pick.
5:55pm: Blair’s contract will be for three years and $6MM, with a team option on the final year, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.
WEDNESDAY, 12:51pm: The teams are on track to finalize the deal today, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). It remains unclear what Dallas would receive in the transaction, but presumably it wouldn’t involve any guaranteed salary.
SUNDAY, 10:25pm: The Wizards and Mavs are in advanced discussions on a potential sign-and-trade that would send DeJuan Blair to Washington, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (on Twitter). The Wizards have strong interest in the big man and are in talks to see if a sign-and-trade is possible before the Mavs are forced to renounce him (link).
Blair, who was used inconsistently by the Spurs and hardly at all in the postseason, signed with the Mavericks last summer on a one-year deal. In 15.6 minutes per contest, Blair averaged 6.4 PPG and 4.7 RPG for Dallas last season. For his career, Blair has averaged 7.5 PPG and 5.6 RPG in 18.2 minutes per night.