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Rudy Gay Opts Out Of Contract

June 12th, 2017 at 12:43pm CST by Luke Adams

JUNE 12: Gay’s formal player option deadline has come and gone without him picking up that option, so he’s officially on track to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.

MAY 8: Kings forward Rudy Gay won’t exercise the player option on the final year of his contract, agent Roger Montgomery confirmed today to Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. Gay will opt out of the deal, making him an unrestricted free agent this July.

Gay initially informed the Kings back in September that he intended to opt out of his contract in the summer of 2017, and it sounded at the time like the veteran would likely be leaving Sacramento. However, after going down with an Achilles injury in January, Gay was less certain about the decision on his option, which is worth about $14.26MM.

Montgomery tells Spears that Gay is “ahead of schedule” in his recovery from that Achilles injury, having been cleared to start lifting weights. Gay is expected to be back on the court in mid-June, per Montgomery, so that’s presumably a key factor in his option decision. If Gay was expecting to still be in the earlier stages of his rehabilitation in July, when free agency begins, he’d likely be less inclined to opt out and take his chances on the open market.

According to both Spears and Sean Cunningham of ABC10 (Twitter link), Gay is willing to talk to the Kings in free agency and hasn’t ruled out staying in Sacramento. The Kings certainly have the cap flexibility to make him a competitive offer, but Gay also wants to play for a winning team, and Sacramento remains very much in rebuilding mode. It’s also worth noting that Gay’s stint with the franchise has been a bit of a bumpy ride, making a change of address more likely.

Gay, who will turn 31 in August, averaged 18.7 PPG and 6.3 RPG in 30 games for the Kings this past season before going down with his Achilles injury. Those averages were a little above his career rates, and his .372 3PT% was his best mark since 2010/11.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Raptors Renounce Rights To DeAndre Daniels

June 9th, 2017 at 12:33pm CST by Luke Adams

The Raptors have renounced the NBA rights to former second-round pick DeAndre Daniels, the team announced today (via Twitter). Daniels was selected 37th overall by Toronto in the 2014 draft.

Daniels, 25, was a key member of the 2014 UConn squad that won a national championship, but hasn’t been able to earn a spot on the Raptors’ NBA roster over the last three years. Since being drafted, Daniels has honed his game elsewhere, spending a year in Australia, a year with Toronto’s D-League team, and a year in Italy last season.

A Jones fracture in his right foot derailed Daniels’ 2015/16 season, limiting him to just eight games for the Raptors 905 in the spring, but he bounced back with a solid 2016/17 campaign for Italian club Stings Mantova, averaging 13.0 PPG and a team-high 6.6 RPG in 35 Italian League games.

With his NBA rights no longer held by the Raptors, Daniels would be free to sign with any of the league’s other 29 teams, if there’s interest. While it’s possible he’ll still make his NBA debut at some point, I’d expect Daniels to start the 2017/18 season overseas, or with a D-League team.

Dion Waiters To Decline Player Option

June 2nd, 2017 at 8:31pm CST by Austin Kent

As expected, Dion Waiters intends to opt out of his 2017/18 player option, league sources tell Chris Haynes of ESPN. That means the 25-year-old guard who saw a resurgence this season will forego the guaranteed $3.2MM he had lined up with the Heat in order to test the open market.

Considering that Waiters put forth his most complete season as a professional this year, he is expected to yield a significant pay raise. The fifth-year player posted career highs with 4.3 assists and 3.3 rebounds per game while adding 15.8 points per contest.

Given the role that Pat Riley and the Heat played in the rejuvenation of his career and the stellar run that saw Miami fly from a 11-30 start to a near-playoff berth, Waiters is said to have an interest in returning to South Beach.

Whether or not the Heat prioritize retaining his services, however, is yet to be determined with some acknowledging that the organization could instead pursue an established star with their cap space this summer.

Kings Waive Anthony Tolliver

June 1st, 2017 at 4:55pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Sacramento has waived Anthony Tolliver, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical (Twitter link). Tolliver’s $8MM contract was only guaranteed for $2MM unless he remained on the roster past today, The Vertical’s Bobby Marks tweets. The Kings will save $6MM from the move.

Marks adds that the team could choose to stretch the $2MM cap hit over the next three seasons. In that scenario, the Kings would have approximately $667K on each season’s cap sheet.

Tolliver, who turned 32 today, signed a two-year, $16MM deal with the Kings last offseason. He played in 65 games, scoring 7.1 points per contest during his lone season in Sacramento.

Willie Reed To Decline Player Option With Heat

June 1st, 2017 at 1:36pm CST by Luke Adams

Heat big man Willie Reed will opt out of his contract with the Heat, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical, who reports (via Twitter) that Reed will turn down his player option for 2017/18. Declining that modest $1.577MM option will allow the 27-year-old to reach unrestricted free agency.

Reed, who signed a minimum salary contract with the Heat last summer, appeared in 71 games for the team, averaging 14.5 minutes per contest in a part-time role. For the season, Reed recorded 5.3 PPG and 4.7 RPG with a .568 FG%.

While those numbers don’t jump off the page, Reed was a solid rotation piece for Miami and has likely earned a raise. The Heat only have Non-Bird rights on the 6’10” forward/center, so their ability to offer that raise will be limited, unless they can use cap space or their room exception.

Before he signed with Miami last July, Reed reportedly received interest from the Timberwolves, Spurs, Warriors, Thunder, and Pacers. Many of those teams could circle back to Reed this time around, and several more clubs will probably kick the tires, based on his solid performance in 2016/17.

Reed is one of three Heat veterans making a player option decision this summer. Josh McRoberts is opting into the final year of his contract, while Dion Waiters is considered a virtual lock to opt out.

Danilo Gallinari To Become Unrestricted Free Agent

May 30th, 2017 at 5:46pm CST by Joshua Fischman

Danilo Gallinari of the Nuggets intends to decline his $16.1 MM player option for 2017/18 and become a free agent, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical.

According to Woj’s report, league sources state that the Italian-born forward remains open to the possibility of rejoining the Nuggets. Furthermore, Nuggets GM Tim Connelly has expressed a strong desire to keep Gallo as key contributor on the team. Gallinari is coming off a strong season, in which he averaged 18.2 PPG, 5.2 RPG, and 2.1 APG.

C.J. Miles To Opt Out, Become Free Agent

May 30th, 2017 at 3:20pm CST by Luke Adams

Veteran swingman C.J. Miles will opt out of his contract with the Pacers this summer, becoming an unrestricted free agent, reports Chris Haynes of ESPN.com. Miles has a player option for the 2017/18 season worth approximately $4.77MM, but will decline that option in search of a more lucrative deal.

Miles, who turned 30 last month, was a key rotation piece for the Pacers in 2016/17, making a career-best 41.3% of his attempts from beyond the arc. He also averaged 2.2 made three-pointers per game for the third consecutive season.

Miles was one of two Pacers players who had a mutual option of sorts for ’17/18. The Pacers had the opportunity to waive both Miles and Rodney Stuckey before the end of the regular season to avoid the risk of guaranteeing their salaries for next season. The team cut Stuckey and hung onto Miles, but with Miles opting out, Indiana won’t carry his salary on its books next year anyway.

While Miles’ reps may point to a player like Courtney Lee, who signed a four-year, $48MM contract with the Knicks last summer at age 30, as a logical comparison for their client, I’d be surprised if Miles lands a deal in that range. He should do fairly well in free agency, earning a raise and a multiyear commitment, but teams around the league simply won’t have the same kind of cap room available to overspend on free agents this time around.

Spurs’ Dewayne Dedmon To Decline Player Option

May 30th, 2017 at 11:52am CST by Luke Adams

Spurs center Dewayne Dedmon will head back to the free agent market one year after signing with San Antonio, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical. According to Charania, Dedmon has decided to turn down his 2017/18 player option with the Spurs, and will become an unrestricted free agent in July.

Dedmon, who signed a two-year deal with the Spurs last summer worth the team’s room exception, earned $2.898MM in 2016/17. His option would have been worth about $3.028MM, but after a solid year in San Antonio, the USC product should be in line for a larger payday, perhaps with multiyear security.

Dedmon appeared in a career-high 76 games for the Spurs in his first – and possibly only – season with the franchise. He also established new career bests in PPG (5.1), RPG (6.5), and FG% (.622), emerging as a key piece in the club’s frontcourt rotation.

It’s not out of the realm of possibility that Dedmon could sign a new deal with the Spurs, but San Antonio will likely have a few other contract situations to address this summer that may take priority. Additionally, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the team opt for a cheaper replacement — in recent years, San Antonio has let bigs like Aron Baynes and Boban Marjanovic sign elsewhere, replacing them with players on more modest deals.

Before he signed with the Spurs last July, Dedmon was linked to the Warriors, and Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News wonders (via Twitter) if Golden State could circle back to the veteran center this summer. If the Dubs stay over the cap to re-sign their own free agents, they’d have the mid-level and bi-annual exceptions available to pursue outside help.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Raptors To Receive Second Rounder For Weltman

May 25th, 2017 at 5:05pm CST by Dana Gauruder

5:05 PM: The deal includes a provision that restricts the Raptors and Magic from trading with one another through the end of the 2017/18 season, Shams Charania of The Vertical reports (Twitter feed). This type of provision is common for teams trading executive/coaches, as it the league doesn’t want teams to make side deals. The last trade involved pick compensation for an executive was Boston’s Doc Rivers deal. The Clippers and Celtics were forbidden to trade with one another for the entire 2013/14 campaign once the trade was completed.

1:26 PM: The Raptors will receive a 2018 second-round pick from the Magic as compensation for Orlando’s decision to hire Jeff Weltman as President of Basketball Operations, Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical tweets. The pick will be the lesser of two that the Magic currently control, Wojnarowski adds.

Orlando possesses an extra second-rounder as a result of a 2012 trade with the Lakers. The Raptors had traded away their second-round pick for next season to the Suns as part of the P.J. Tucker deal this February, so this agreement puts them back in the second-round mix.

Weltman reached a five-year agreement with the Magic on Monday. He had been Toronto’s GM, working under Raptors President Masai Ujiri.

Travis Schlenk Named Hawks’ GM

May 25th, 2017 at 10:18am CST by Arthur Hill

May 25, 10:18am: The Hawks have officially named Schlenk as their GM, per a team press release. Schlenk will begin his duties on June 1st, Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweets.

May 24, 10:21am: Atlanta has decided on Schlenk and contract talks are beginning, Wojnarowski tweets.

10:13 am: Travis Schlenk has become the frontrunner for the Hawks’ GM job, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical.

Schlenk, 41, has been the assistant GM with Golden State for the past five years. He has spent 12 seasons in the organization and more than 16 in the NBA. He worked as an assistant coach and a video scout for the Warriors before being promoted to his current position.

Atlanta has been without a GM since reassigning Wes Wilcox in a front-office shakeup earlier this month. Schlenk is among several candidates to interview for the position. Other candidates who have been made public include TV analysts Chauncey Billups and Brent Barry, Knicks Director of Player Personnel Mark Hughes, Rockets VP of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas, current Cavaliers GM David Griffin and former Pistons executive Joe Dumars.