Renounced Players: Thursday
Many of the agreements signed during the July moratorium were contingent on teams clearing cap space to accommodate them, and to do so, teams must sometimes renounce their Non-Bird, Early Bird or full Bird rights to their own free agents to erase 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. The end of the moratorium usually brings about a fair number of renouncements, so we’ll track today’s here, with the latest on top:
- The Mavs have renounced Dirk Nowitzki, Shawn Marion and Vince Carter, according to Mark Deeks of ShamSports (Twitter link). That doesn’t mean the Mavs don’t intend to re-sign Nowitzki, as they already agreed to do. Teams that sign players to offer sheets are permitted to rescind their renouncements if the original club matches the offer sheet. In this case, the Mavs will rescind their renouncement of Nowitzki if the Rockets match the offer sheet for Chandler Parsons, and they’ll use cap space to re-sign Nowitzki if Houston doesn’t match.
- The Jazz renounced their rights to Richard Jefferson and Brandon Rush, according to Deeks tweets.
- The Hornets renounced Jannero Pargo, Anthony Tolliver, DJ White, Luke Ridnour, Josh McRoberts and Chris Douglas-Roberts, Deeks notes in the same tweet. Just like the Mavs, the Hornets may rescind these renouncement if the Jazz, as they reportedly intend to do, match Charlotte’s offer sheet for Gordon Hayward.
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.
Nets Acquire Jarrett Jack In Deal With Cavs, Celts
10:06am: The second-rounder going from the Celtics to the Cavs is for 2015, according to Cleveland’s official announcement on the trade. It’s top-55 protected, and if it doesn’t fall within the final five picks of the second round, Boston’s obligation regarding the pick will be extinguished.
THURSDAY, 9:21am: The trade is official, the Nets announce.
“Jarrett is a proven NBA veteran who will add versatility to our backcourt,” Nets GM Billy King said in the team’s statement. “The team had a need in that area and we are excited that we were able to secure Jarrett to fill that role. Sergey is a player who we have followed closely for several years. He is a versatile forward and will be a welcome addition to our roster.”
WEDNESDAY, 10:02am: The Cavs will receive the draft rights to Ilkan Karaman, Christian Drejer and Edin Bavcic from the Nets, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. They were second-round picks in 2012, 2004 and 2006, respectively. The first-rounder going from Cleveland to Boston is top-10 protected in 2016, 2017 and 2018 and becomes unprotected for 2019, Wojnarowski adds (Twitter link).
9:46am: The Cavs, Nets and Celtics will complete a three-team trade that sends Jarrett Jack to the Nets and opens up the cap flexibility necessary for Cleveland to give LeBron James a max contract, as Baxter Holmes of The Boston Globe confirms (Twitter link). Marc Stein of ESPN.com first reported that the clubs were on the verge of a deal. Sergey Karasev will go to the Nets as well, while Marcus Thornton, Tyler Zeller, and a first-round pick are headed to Boston. The first-rounder the Celtics are getting is for 2016, as Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com reported, and Holmes says that pick is coming from the Cavs (Twitter link). The Celtics send a future second-round pick to the Cavs, Holmes tweets.
It appears as though the Celtics will slip Thornton, who’s set to make $8.575MM next season, and Zeller, set for slightly more than $1.5MM, into the nearly $10.3MM trade exception left over from last year’s Paul Pierce trade, as Goodman pointed out. The Cavs No. 1 option is using the max-level cap flexibility the deal creates to chase LeBron, but if not, they’ll reportedly go after second-tier free agents, with Trevor Ariza apparently among their targets.
Cleveland and the Nets were reportedly working for weeks on a trade involving Jack and Thornton, but with the Cavs uninterested in taking back Thornton’s salary, the involvement of a third team became necessary. The Hawks were among the teams the Cavs were reaching out to, but the idea of acquiring Thornton was apparently a turn-off for them. Enter the Celtics, who’ve been looking to acquire assets necessary to enhance their standing for a Kevin Love trade.
The Nets end up with a backup point guard to replace Shaun Livingston, who signed with the Warriors. They also receive Karasev, just a year removed from having been the 19th overall pick in the 2013 draft, to help inject youth into a veteran-laded team. The Nets believe Jack could even start next to Deron Williams, as Livingston did for much of last season, while they were eyeing Karasev during the draft last year, TNT’s David Aldridge tweets.
Hornets Sign Gordon Hayward To Offer Sheet
THURSDAY, 7:58am: Hayward has officially signed the offer sheet, the Hornets announced via press release, starting the three-day matching period. The Jazz will likely wait all three days to match, tweets Jody Genessy of the Deseret News (Twitter link).
WEDNESDAY, 7:05am: It’ll be an offer sheet for the max that runs four years with a player option for the final season, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. It’ll also include a 15% trade kicker, Wojnarowski adds. The option and the trade kicker appear to be designed to dissuade the Jazz from matching, but the Jazz have been adamant that they will match, according to Wojnarowski.
Indeed, Utah has been so intent on matching any such deal that the Jazz consider the offer sheet a “non-issue,” a source tells Jody Genessy of the Deseret News (Twitter link). Several teams called the Jazz about a sign-and-trade for Hayward to see if there was some way of preventing them from matching, but the Hornets never did, Wojnarowski writes, and there’s no chance Charlotte and Utah will arrange a sign-and-trade at this point, Genessy tweets.
TUESDAY, 11:36pm: Gordon Hayward has agreed to a major offer sheet with the Hornets, tweets Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer. Terms of the agreement haven’t been disclosed, although it’s highly likely that Charlotte is offering more than the four-year, $48MM deal that Hayward turned down from the Jazz last fall. As we noted earlier, the Hornets were content with their meeting with Hayward; however, Utah is expected to match any offer for the 6’8 forward.
Aaron Falk of the Salt Lake Tribune (via Twitter) notes that Hayward can’t officially sign anything until July 10th; at that point, the Jazz would have three days to match the offer, and Falk maintains that all indications so far is that they will.
Clippers Sign Jordan Farmar
WEDNESDAY, 11:28pm: Farmar has signed the deal, per a team release.
SUNDAY, 5:40pm: The Clippers and free agent Jordan Farmar have agreed to a two-year, $4.2MM deal, according to Brad Turner of the Los Angeles Times (on Twitter). The Clippers will likely be using their biannual exception in the deal, according to Turner. The biannual only provides for a maximum of $4.154MM over two seasons, so presumably Turner is rounding up.
The former Lakers guard will be changing hallways in the Staples Center to help replace the departed Darren Collison. The Clippers have been cited as the frontrunners for Farmar’s services and long viewed as a viable Plan B in the event that Collison took his services elsewhere.
At the conclusion of the Lakers’ season, Farmer made it known that he wanted to stay in purple and gold, despite all of the uncertainty surrounding the club.
“I want to be a Laker,” Farmar said. “I like playing for Mike. Whether it’s Phil Jackson, Mike D’Antoni or whoever else coaches this team, that won’t deter me from wanting to be a Laker.”
Things didn’t work out with Farmar and the Lakers, but with today’s agreement, he at least knows he won’t have to go house hunting. And, unless the Lakers make major upgrades this summer, he’ll have a better chance at winning a championship.
Hawes Signs With Clippers
JULY 9th, 11:26pm: The team announced that Hawes has officially signed the contract. No mention of a sign-and-trade was mentioned in the release.
7:27pm: Doc Rivers is trying to arrange a sign-and-trade with the Cavaliers for Hawes, which would preserve the Clippers midlevel exception which the team would then use to target Paul Pierce, tweets Wojnarowski.
JULY 4th, 6:26pm: Free agent Spencer Hawes has reached agreement with the Los Angeles Clippers, league 
sources have told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). The deal is for four-years, $23MM, according to Wojnarowski’s tweet. Hawes was one of the more desirable big men on the market after a season that saw him average 13.2 PPG, 8.3 RPG, and 1.2 BPG while splitting time between the Cavaliers and the Sixers.
According to Wojnarowski’s article, Hawes was determined to sign with a contender, and he had visited seriously with the Suns and Trail Blazers before settling on the Clippers offer.
The Clippers had recruited Hawes hard for the full midlevel exception and worked with his agent, Greg Lawrence of Wasserman Media Group, on a deal that includes a player option for the fourth year and a 15 percent trade kicker, sources told Wojnarowski.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Thunder Decline Grant Jerrett’s Option, Make QO
JULY 9th: Oklahoma City is indeed interested in locking up Jerrett with a multiyear deal, tweets Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman.
JUNE 30th: The Thunder have made the unusual decision to decline Grant Jerrett‘s option while also extending him the qualifying offer, tweets Mark Deeks of ShamSports.com. The team option would have been worth $816K while the QO is worth ~$1.16MM and is guaranteed.
Oklahoma City could be seeking to lock up Jerrett to a long-term deal while his value is fairly low. The same thing probably could have been accomplished for less money without the qualifying offer, but going with the QO gives OKC the maximum amount of control over him this summer. If the Thunder pitch Jerrett on a new deal, it would probably be largely non-guaranteed.
Our own Chuck Myron predicts that Jerrett will re-sign on a multiyear deal for the amount of his qualifying offer that includes at least a partial guarantee in year two to entice him to take a multiyear deal rather than just signing the QO. Or, Jerrett could wind up back with the Thunder on a deal similar to the one Robert Sacre signed with the Lakers last summer, when he was in virtually the same position. Sacre took a deal for the minimum salary from the Lakers instead of the value of his qualifying offer, but the first two years of his contract are guaranteed, assuring him of more money in the end than his QO would have given him.
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.
Spurs, Gregg Popovich Agree To Extension
The Spurs have reached agreement on a multiyear extension with Gregg Popovich, the team announced. The league’s reigning Coach of the Year also carries a strong front office presence, and decisions are made in tandem with GM R.C. Buford, who won this year’s Executive of the Year honor. The length of the extension is unclear, but Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports hears that Popovich, 65, is eager to coach another four or five years (Twitter link).
Popovich is fresh off having won his fifth championship for San Antonio, and this past season was the second time in three years and third time overall that he won Coach of the Year. He’s poised next season to win his 1,000th game as an NBA head coach, all of them having come with the Spurs.
The fiery sideline boss is 967-443 since taking over the coaching duties for the Spurs in 1996/97. He preceded Buford as GM, having begun in that role in 1994, and he held both the GM and head coaching titles for several years until Buford took over the day-to-day business of running the team.
In a market where coaches with no prior experience are receiving five-year, $25MM deals, Popovich’s value is seemingly several times more lucrative. It’s unclear how much Popovich is receiving on the deal, but it seems likely that, as many of his players have done, he’s working for less than he’s worth.