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Knicks Sign Kevin Seraphin

August 6th, 2015 at 1:01pm CST by Chuck Myron

1:01pm: The deal is official, the team announced (Twitter link).

THURSDAY, 9:44am: Seraphin’s agency, Klutch Sports, tweeted a photo that shows the big man putting pen to paper as he sits next to Knicks GM Steve Mills, so evidently, the contract is signed, though the Knicks have yet to make a formal announcement.

TUESDAY, 10:11am: The Knicks and Kevin Seraphin have reached agreement on a one-year, $2.8MM deal, a league source tells Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops (Twitter link). It would appear New York is using its $2.814MM room exception on the free agent center and Rich Paul client who figures to become the primary backup for Robin Lopez, whom the Knicks signed in July.

The Wizards, for whom Seraphin has played all of his five NBA seasons, and Lakers were still in pursuit as of last week, as Scotto reported then. The Suns and Mavs appeared to be suitors in the early going, while the Spurs and Thunder reportedly saw him as a fallback option. The former 17th overall pick had seemingly been looking for an opportunity to start, but outside of the Mavs, none of the teams in the race for him appear to have openings in the middle. He played this past season as a backup to Marcin Gortat in Washington after signing his qualifying offer last summer.

New York has only been carrying 12 guaranteed deals, as our roster counts show, so there’s certainly room enough for Seraphin, who presumably becomes the 13th. Langston Galloway figures to stick on his partially guaranteed contract, and the team is reportedly expected to sign Thanasis Antetokounmpo, so the addition of Seraphin does make it especially difficult to envision Darion Atkins or Wesley Saunders making it to opening night on their camp deals.

Do you think Seraphin is the right guy for the Knicks to use their room exception on? Leave a comment to let us know.

Cavaliers Sign Richard Jefferson

August 5th, 2015 at 5:15pm CST by Chuck Myron

AUGUST 5TH, 5:15pm: The signing is official, the team announced.

2:56pm: Stein’s full story includes Cuban’s response.

“He called and talked to me,” Cuban said. “RJ said he had an opportunity with an Eastern Conference team. He said he would honor what he [originally agreed to with the Mavs] but thought the other was a better fit. I told him I was OK with it and understood.”

2:43pm: Jefferson called Mavs owner Mark Cuban prior to choosing Cleveland over Dallas, so the Dallas organization was aware of this before it happened, as Cuban tells Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link).

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

JULY 21ST, 2:01pm: Richard Jefferson is breaking off his deal with the Mavericks to sign with the Cavaliers instead, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Jefferson was to sign a one-year deal for the minimum with Dallas, as Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports reported earlier this month. It’s the second time this summer that the Mavs have had a free agent commit to them and later back out, as DeAndre Jordan notoriously did earlier this month. Jefferson won’t see any more money with the Cavs than he would have if he’d stayed on his deal in Dallas, as the Cleveland pact is also for the minimum salary, reports Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group (Twitter link). The Cavs deal is for one year, a league source told Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal.

It appears Dallas was at least somewhat on board with Jefferson’s change of heart, as opposed to Jordan’s, as a source told Lloyd that the Mavs gave the free agents who committed to them the chance to back out in the wake of Jordan’s flip-flop (Twitter link). Wesley Matthews said earlier that Dallas afforded him the same luxury, but he instead recommitted for about $13MM more. The Mavs also bumped the value of J.J. Barea‘s deal significantly higher. It’s unclear if Dallas offered a better deal to Jefferson than the one he originally agreed to.

The minimum for Jefferson, a veteran of 14 NBA seasons, is worth $1,499,187, but, since the deal is only for one season, the Cavs only owe him $947,276, the equivalent of the two-year veteran’s minimum. That’s key, since Cleveland is poised to go deep into the tax. Still, the Jefferson deal will cost Cleveland about $3.6MM in tax penalties on top of his salary, as former Nets executive Bobby Marks points out on Twitter.

It’s the second consecutive summer in which the Cavs are signing a veteran forward who spent the previous season with Dallas. Cleveland did so last year with Shawn Marion, who retired after this past season.

Jefferson ends up with the same salary as he would have made in Dallas, but his switch is not without consequence. He’ll have to pay state income tax for Ohio, as he wouldn’t have had to do in Texas, and his Mavs deal would have given him the power to block trades afforded by rule to players who return to their teams on one-year contracts. Jefferson will also be eligible only for Non-Bird rights with the Cavs next summer, instead of the Early Bird rights the Mavs would have held with him.

Magic Sign Melvin Ejim For Camp

August 4th, 2015 at 7:42pm CST by Chuck Myron

7:42: The signing is official, the team announced via a press release.

11:43am: Ejim still must free himself from a contract he signed earlier this summer with Medi Bayreuth of Germany before he can join Orlando, writes Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel.

8:31am: The Magic have invited summer-leaguer and former Iowa State standout Melvin Ejim to training camp, a source tells David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link), adding that some guaranteed money is involved. Pick confirmed to Hoops Rumors that Ejim has accepted the invitation.

Ejim put up 9.2 points and 6.8 rebounds in 30.1 minutes per game for the Magic’s summer league team last month after spending this past season with Virtus Roma in Italy. The 6’7″ small forward went undrafted in 2014 in spite of a breakout senior year in 2013/14, when he averaged 17.8 PPG and 8.4 RPG in 32.1 MPG for the Cyclones.

Orlando has already been carrying 15 deals, including a partially guaranteed arrangement with Keith Appling and Devyn Marble‘s non-guaranteed pact. The other 13 players have guaranteed salaries, and the Magic have yet to strike a deal with Tyler Harvey, whom they drafted 51st overall this year. Thus, it wouldn’t be surprising if the Magic view Ejim with the D-League chiefly in mind. Orlando can retain the D-League rights to as many as four players it cuts at the end of the preseason.

Do you think Ejim has what it takes to stick on an NBA roster? Leave a comment to tell us.

Clippers Ink Pablo Prigioni

August 4th, 2015 at 3:17pm CST by Eddie Scarito

AUGUST 4TH, 3:17pm: The signing is official, the Clippers announced.

5:41pm: The deal is a one-year, minimum salary arrangement, Ben Bolch of The Los Angeles Times reports (via Twitter).

JULY 22ND, 5:29pm: The Clippers and unrestricted free agent Pablo Prigioni have reached an agreement on a contract, Shams Charania of RealGM reports (Twitter link). The length and terms of the deal are not yet known. The veteran fills the team’s need for a solid backup to starter Chris Paul.

The 38-year-old had been sent to Denver as part of the Ty Lawson deal, and he was waived shortly after so the Nuggets could avoid paying Prigioni’s 2015/16 salary of $1,734,572, which was set to become fully guaranteed if he remained on the roster past Monday. Denver is on the hook for $440K, the amount of Prigioni’s partial guarantee.

In three NBA seasons Prigioni has averaged 3.8 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 3.0 assists to go with a slash line of .437/.398/.872.

Celtics, Corey Walden Agree To Camp Deal

August 4th, 2015 at 3:01pm CST by ChrisCrouse

AUGUST 4TH, 3:01pm: Walden has signed for two years at the minimum salary with a partial guarantee of $25K for this season, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). Boston has yet to make an official announcement.

JULY 26TH, 10:14am: Corey Walden will be added the Celtics’ training camp roster, A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com tweets. Considering the multitude of point guards the Celtics have on their roster, the 6’2” Walden will face very long odds in terms of making the 15-man roster.

It’s likely Walden’s deal will be a minimum salary arrangement. Boston currently has the flexibility to use cap space to sign Walden, although the team will lose that ability once it officially acquires David Lee on Monday as expected.

Walden, who went undrafted out of Eastern Kentucky, appeared in two games with the Celtics’ summer league team in Las Vegas, averaging 2.0 points, 2.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 3.5 steals per game. Walden averaged 18.6 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.8 assists for EKU is his senior season.

Arthur Hill contributed to this post.

McRae, Tokoto Headed To Sixers Camp

August 3rd, 2015 at 10:53pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Jordan McRae and J.P. Tokoto will join the Sixers for training camp, a source told Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. McRae was selected in the second round in 2014 while Tokoto was chosen with the No. 58 overall pick this June. McRae spent part of last season in Australia and played for the Sixers’ summer league team in Salt Lake City. Tokoto has been negotiating a camp deal since he has no desire to play overseas or in the D-League.

McRae was selected with the 58th overall pick in 2014 by the Spurs and was dealt to the Sixers on draft night. He began last season in Australia, then was acquired in March by the Delaware 87ers, Philadelphia’s D-League affiliate. The 6’6” shooting guard averaged 18.4 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.8 assists with the 87ers in 13 games.

Tokoto let the Sixers know he was open to becoming a draft-and-stash pick before Philadelphia selected him, as Jake Fischer of SI Now reported shortly after the draft. The former North Carolina guard wasn’t particularly impressive in summer league action, missing all 10 of his three-point attempts and averaging just 5.7 points in 23.1 minutes per game across seven appearances. Still, he never averaged double-figure points in college, relying instead on elite defense, as Chad Ford’s ESPN Insider profile suggests. Ford ranked him the 52nd-best prospect in the draft, while Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress had him even higher, at No. 46.

Nuggets Renegotiate, Extend Danilo Gallinari’s Deal

August 3rd, 2015 at 6:05pm CST by Chuck Myron

AUGUST 3rd, 6:05pm: The Nuggets have confirmed the signing (Twitter link).

JULY 31ST, 3:00pm: Gallinari posted a photo to Instagram that appears to show him signing the renegotiation-and-extension paperwork. The Nuggets have yet to make a formal announcement.

2:06pm: The sides are finalizing an agreement that would add two years to Gallinari’s contract in a renegotiation and extension deal, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. He’ll see about $2.5MM more the $11.559MM that he was set to see on his contract this season, bringing his salary to about $14MM, with $15.5MM coming in 2016/17 and $16.1MM in 2017/18, Wojnarowski adds. That final year will be a player option, and the deal will include a full trade kicker, Wojnarowski also reports. That presumably means a 15% trade kicker, the maximum size for such a bonus.

JULY 21ST, 1:02pm: The Nuggets are expected to sign Danilo Gallinari to an extension this week, league sources tell Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post. The forward confirmed to Italian media this week that he was in extension talks with the team, shortly after Dempsey reported that the Nuggets intended to begin such discussions.

Denver will use some of the cap flexibility it cleared in Monday’s Ty Lawson trade, according to Dempsey, a hint that Gallinari will receive an extension and renegotiation, which would up his salary of more than $11.559MM for this coming season, in the same sort of deal that Denver did with Wilson Chandler this month. Such a maneuver would allow Gallinari to make more in 2016/17 than the 7.5% of his 2015/16 salary he’d be limited to if he signed a conventional veteran extension, but renegotiations are rare, and Chandler’s deal was the first of its kind since the latest collective bargaining agreement went into place in 2011.

In any case, the Arn Tellem client would only be able to sign for three additional years, whereas he could ink a new contract with the Nuggets next summer that would give him five more years in Denver. The total amount of a conventional extension couldn’t exceed $39,879,326 over a three-year period, but a new contract that the sides could sign next summer would be allowed to be worth as much as the max.

The timing of Denver’s apparent movement with Gallinari is somewhat surprising, since it came on the heels of a report that the Celtics and Nuggets engaged in trade talks involving the veteran shooter. Denver was also apparently shopping Gallinari before the draft, when Memphis seemingly gave chase.

What do you think a fair extension for Gallinari would look like? Leave a comment to let us know.

Wolves Sign Andre Miller

August 3rd, 2015 at 1:50pm CST by Zachary Links

AUGUST 3RD, 1:50pm: The deal is official, the team announced (Twitter link).

6:09pm: Miller will receive a one-year deal for the veteran’s minimum, according to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter). He adds that Miller goes back with T’Wolves assistant Ryan Saunders from their time together with the Wizards.

JULY 29TH, 5:55pm: The Wolves have signed guard Andre Miller, according to Shams Charania of RealGM (on Twitter). The terms of the deal have yet to be reported.

Miller, 39, began the season with the Wizards as a backup for John Wall but a February trade sent him out west to the Kings. Coach George Karl was known to be fond of Miller and pushed the front office to make the deal. Shortly after going from the nation’s capital to California’s capital, Miller indicated that he would be interested in re-signing. Team exec Vlade Divac said recently that the Kings were in touch with Miller, but for one reason or another, that reunion did not take place.

In 81 games last season, Miller averaged 4.4 PPG and 3.5 APG in 15.5 minutes per contest. The well-traveled Miller is now set to join his eighth team as he enters his 17th season in the league.

Heat Sign Josh Richardson

August 3rd, 2015 at 1:44pm CST by ChrisCrouse

AUGUST 3RD, 1:44pm: The deal is official, the team announced.

11:59pm: Richardson will make the minimum salary in at least the first two seasons of the deal, while the sides are still hammering out the terms of year three, according to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald.

JULY 28TH, 5:34pm: The Heat and Josh Richardson have agreed to terms on a three-year $2.5MM deal, Shams Charania of RealGM reports. The deal is fully guaranteed for the first season and partially guaranteed for the second year, Charania adds.

Miami could offer Richardson a contract of three years because the team still possesses the taxpayer mid-level exception, former Nets executive Bobby Marks notes on Twitter. Had the Heat signed someone using that exception, they would only be able to offer a two-year pact.

Richardson was the 40th overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. The 21-year-old averaged 16 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.6 per game last season for the University of Tennessee. The 6’6″ guard likely won’t carry a heavy burden on offense for Miami. If he sees significant minutes, it will most likely be because of his impact on the defensive end.

Mavs Sign Justin Anderson

August 1st, 2015 at 6:37pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Mavericks have signed first-round pick Justin Anderson, according to a team press release. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the value of his deal is expected be slightly under $7.06MM over four seasons as our 2015 First Round Picks Salary Page shows. With the news of Anderson signing, all the first-round picks have signed with their teams except for No. 26 overall pick Nikola Milutinov of the Spurs, who has signed with the Olympiacos of Greece.

Anderson had a good showing at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas. He averaged 17.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.2 steals while shooting 43.4% from the field during his six games of action.

The 21-year-old is a long-armed, stout defender who had the eye of scouts on him during his first couple seasons at Virginia. His improvement on the offensive end during his junior season, in which he averaged 12.2 points and shot 45.2% from behind the arc, vaulted him into the first round. Anderson should get a chance to compete for minutes immediately with Wesley Matthews and Chandler Parsons as the only players whom are presumably locked into the team’s wing rotation.