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Kings Close To Signing Andrea Bargnani

July 12th, 2015 at 2:45pm CST by Arthur Hill

JULY 12TH, 2:45pm: The Kings are finalizing the signing today, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.

JULY 11TH, 8:53pm: The Kings are in “advanced discussions” with former Knick Andrea Bargnani, and the two sides are getting close to a deal, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN. The nine-year veteran was the overall number one pick in the 2006 NBA draft. He spent seven years in Toronto before being traded to New York in 2013.

Bargnani earlier indicated that he was considering several options in free agency, including signing with a team in Europe. The Knicks were reportedly interested in keeping him, but only on a minimum-salary deal.

Bargnani earned $10.75MM and $11.5MM during his two seasons in New York. His production with the Knicks never matched his salary, as he appeared in just 71 games during his time there, averaging 13.9 points and 4.9 rebounds.

The Kings are in the market for frontcourt help after this week’s trade that sent Carl Landry and Tristan Thompson to the Sixers along with Nik Stauskas. The move helped Sacramento clear enough cap room to sign Rajon Rondo. Bargnani may fit into the team’s remaining salary cap room or he could have to accept a minimum deal, tweets former NBA Executive Bobby Marks.

Blazers Sign Enes Kanter To Max Offer Sheet

July 12th, 2015 at 2:14pm CST by Chuck Myron

2:14pm: The deadline is today, but Oklahoma City still hasn’t notified Portland about its intentions, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.

JULY 12TH, 1:50pm: The Thunder intend to match the offer to Kanter, tweets David Aldridge of TNT.

JULY 9TH, 4:17pm: Oklahoma City has received Kanter’s signed offer sheet from the Blazers, and have until Sunday to make a decision regarding the player, Wojnarowski tweets.

3:02pm: The offer sheet is worth the max over four years, with a player option on year three, Aldridge reports (on Twitter). It’s expected to include a trade kicker, too, Wojnarowski adds (Twitter link). That means a starting salary of $16,407,500 this season and a total value of around $70MM.

2:22pm: The Trail Blazers are set to sign Thunder restricted free agent Enes Kanter to an offer sheet, as TNT’s David Aldridge reports and as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports confirms (Twitter links). The expectation around the league is that the Thunder will match, according to Royce Young of ESPN.com (on Twitter). Grantland’s Zach Lowe suggests that the Thunder will also intensify their efforts to trade Perry Jones and Steve Novak to clear salary (Twitter link). Lowe also mentions D.J. Augustin along with Jones and Novak, but it’s not clear if that’s just speculation.

USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt reported last week that the Blazers were eyeing the big man. Thunder GM Sam Presti told Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman this spring that he was committed to re-signing his team’s trade deadline acquisition, and while they met to discuss a deal approaching the max, and both sides were reportedly eager to complete a deal, it appears Oklahoma City has let the market dictate his terms. The Knicks were also reportedly in contact with the Max Ergul client.

Oklahoma City has roughly $79MM in salary commitments for this coming season, counting the team’s deal with Kyle Singler. That puts them well above the $70MM cap, and a new deal for Kanter would likely push the team far beyond the $84.74MM tax threshold. The Blazers have nearly $30MM in cap flexibility after the exodus of LaMarcus Aldridge and Wesley Matthews.

Pistons, Aron Baynes Reach Agreement

July 12th, 2015 at 1:07pm CST by Chuck Myron

JULY 12, 1:07pm: The deal is official, the Pistons announced.

JULY 2, 12:23pm: The Pistons and Aron Baynes have a deal on what will be a three-year contract with a player option after year two, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links). It could be worth as much as $20MM, Stein adds. The final number depends on how much cap space the Pistons have to spend on him, tweets Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press.

San Antonio elected not to tender a qualifying offer to Baynes this year after the big man’s protracted restricted free agency in 2014. The Daniel Moldovan client signed a one-year deal for $2.077MM with San Antonio shortly before the start of training camp, and he benefited from injury trouble for Tiago Splitter that opened more playing time, affording Baynes the chance to showcase his bruising inside game and end up with a significant raise.

Pistons coach/executive Stan Van Gundy made signing a pair of backup centers a priority going into free agency, as Keith Langlois of Pistons.com noted, though it didn’t seem as though he’d spend quite so freely to accomplish that end. The market for small forwards, the position Van Gundy had wanted to address first, has been especially player-friendly, so it seems the Pistons have turned to Plan B.

Wolves Deal Chase Budinger To Pacers

July 12th, 2015 at 10:40am CST by Arthur Hill

SUNDAY, 10:40am: The trade is official, both the Wolves and Pacers have announced.

“We’re very glad to have Chase,” Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird said. “He’s a guy we think will fit in our rotation. He can shoot and drive to the basket, which works with how we want to play. Damjan was a special guy. He was great to have as part of our team. He will be missed by all.”

SATURDAY, 3:24pm: The Wolves will send Chase Budinger to the Pacers, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. Minnesota will receive 6’10” foward Damjan Rudez in exchange.

Budinger, 27, has been with the Wolves since being acquired from the Rockets in a 2012 trade. He averaged 6.8 points and 3 rebounds per game this year while playing about 19 minutes off Minnesota’s bench. In April, Budinger exercised a $5MM option for next season.

The 29-year-old Rudez, a member of the Croatian national team, averaged 4.8 points in 68 games with the Pacers last season. He signed a three-year contract with Indiana last summer and is due to make more than $1.149MM next season, with a team option for 2016/17 at $1.199MM.

The salaries aren’t a match, but each team can accommodate the deal via trade exceptions, as former Nets exec Bobby Marks points out (on Twitter). The Pacers can either use the giant, but temporary, $15.5MM-plus trade exception they reaped from the Roy Hibbert deal, or they can renounce their cap holds and use cap space, a move they’ll eventually have to make to sign Monta Ellis. The Timberwolves can use one of three trade exceptions large enough for Rudez.

Wilson Chandler Signs Extension With Nuggets

July 11th, 2015 at 9:39pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Nuggets have signed a multi-year extension with Wilson Chandler, the team announced. The extension will pay him $46MM over four years, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. Before the extension, Chandler was set to make close to $7.172MM next season.

Because the Nuggets were under the cap, they were able to renegotiate Chandler’s contract, according to former NBA executive Bobby Marks (Twitter link). They were able to deal with him like a free agent although he was already under contract with the team. Marks says Chandler and Danilo Gallinari are the only players eligible for renegotiation (Twitter link). He adds that today’s deals with Chandler and Will Barton means there is a “strong chance” that Denver will have to renounce some of its free agents, possibly Darrell Arthur (Twitter link).

Chandler averaged 13.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.8 assists in 78 games with the Nuggets this season. He came to Denver in a 2011 trade after being drafted by the Knicks with the 23rd pick in 2007. He also briefly played for the Zhejiang Guangsha Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association.

Blazers Sign Luis Montero

July 11th, 2015 at 4:10pm CST by Arthur Hill

Luis Montero, a 6’7″ swingman out of the Dominican Republic, has signed with the Trail Blazers, President of Basketball Operations Neil Olshey announced today (hat tip to The Oregonian’s Mike Richman). Montero, 22, worked out for Portland before the draft and is part of the Blazers’ summer league team.

Terms of the agreement were not released. However, RealGM lists Montero as eligible for restricted free agency in 2018, a signal that he’s on a three-year deal.

Montero last played in 2013-14 at Westchester Community College. He averaged 15.6 points, 5.9 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game.

Nets Waive Deron Williams In Buyout

July 11th, 2015 at 2:33pm CST by Chuck Myron

SATURDAY, 2:33pm: The Nets have waived Williams, the team announced in a press release.

5:22pm: It appears that Brooklyn will waive Williams using the stretch provision, and he will receive $27.5MM spread out over five years from the team, Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com tweets. This means that Williams will count as roughly $5.5MM against the salary cap through the 2019/20 season for the Nets.

4:13pm: The point guard’s buyout is expected to drop the value of his contract to the $25-$30MM range, Stein tweets.

4:05pm: Williams is expected to sign a two-year deal with the Mavericks in the $10MM range after he clears waivers, Marc Stein of ESPN.com tweets.

4:01pm: The Nets and Williams have reached an agreement on a buyout arrangement, David Aldridge of TNT reports (on Twitter). The details of the agreement are not yet known.

8:46am: Sources who spoke with Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News this past season believed that he wanted to leave the Nets so much that he would opt out a year from now (Twitter link). The early termination option on Williams’ contract for 2016/17 is worth more than $22.331MM. Meanwhile, the Nets haven’t been pleased with the point guard’s attitude or declining production, notes Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com (on Twitter).

2:44am: The Nets have opened buyout talks with Deron Williams, and the point guard holds a strong mutual interest in signing with the Mavericks if he becomes a free agent this summer, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. One source who spoke to Stein gave it a 60-70% chance that the Jeff Schwartz client ends up with Dallas.

Williams was the prime target of the Mavs three years ago, when he was a free agent, but the Dallas-area native eschewed a homecoming for a more lucrative contract with the Nets. The Mavs aren’t pursuing a trade for Williams because of the expense of the two years and nearly $43.374MM remaining on that deal, sources told Stein.

Brooklyn had been trying to trade Williams, notes Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com (on Twitter), most notably to the Kings, but the Nets didn’t want to give up Mason Plumlee and no deal to came to fruition out of those talks this past season. Plumlee fell out of favor with the Nets later in the season, and Brooklyn traded him last month. The Kings are no longer believed to have interest in Williams now that they’re set to sign Rajon Rondo, Stein writes. As unsuccessful trade efforts persisted, higher-ups in the Nets organization had been giving thought to a buyout, as Mazzeo also writes in his tweet. The Nets don’t want to simply waive Williams and eat the entire contract, and even using the stretch provision to spread the money over five years doesn’t hold appeal, as GM Billy King has said and as Stein notes.

King said Thursday morning that his team would probably make moves designed to bring its payroll, which Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders estimates to have $95MM worth of guaranteed salary, beneath the $84.74MM tax line or to a smaller margin above it. Still, King said this morning that he expects Williams and Joe Johnson will be on the Nets roster when the season begins.

Stein has heard “steady rumblings” in recent weeks that a return to the Jazz is a possibility for Williams, but the 10-year veteran would prefer the Mavs, in part because of the presence of ex-Jazz teammate Wesley Matthews, Stein adds. Williams would fill the need at point guard in Dallas, though he’s not nearly the star that he was when the Mavs chased him three years ago.

Knicks Re-Sign Lance Thomas

July 10th, 2015 at 9:45pm CST by Eddie Scarito

FRIDAY, 9:45pm: The signing is official, the Knicks announced.

8:33pm: New York is likely to ink Thomas using available cap space, and not a trade exception, Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com tweets.

THURSDAY, 7:15pm: The Knicks have reached an agreement with unrestricted free agent Lance Thomas for the forward to return to New York, Shams Charania of RealGM reports (on Twitter). It will be a one-year, $1.6MM deal, Charania adds.

Thomas, 27, appeared in 40 games for New York last season, averaging 8.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in 26.0 minutes per contest, with a slash line of .433/.333/.742. His career numbers through 168 NBA contests are 4.5 PPG, 2.6 RPG, and 0.6 APG.

The forward brought energy and hustle to the Knicks last season, and will factor into the frontcourt mix for the team’s revamped roster, most likely as a reserve. The Spurs and Nets had also expressed interest in Thomas.

Lakers Sign D’Angelo Russell, Larry Nance Jr.

July 10th, 2015 at 7:41pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

The Lakers have signed first round draft picks D’Angelo Russell and Larry Nance Jr. to rookie scale deals, the team announced. Both players were inked in advance of their Summer League debuts this evening.

Russell, the No. 2 overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft, will likely receive a salary of more than $5.103MM this season and a total of approximately $23.017MM over the course of his four-year contract, as our salary chart for 2015 first-rounders shows. These figures presume he’ll get 120% of the scale amount, which is highly likely. The 19-year-old out of Ohio State appeared in 35 contests for the Buckeyes, averaging 19.3 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 5.0 assists, with a shooting line of .449/.411/.756.

It was a bit of a surprise that Los Angeles selected Nance with the No. 27 overall pick this year. The forward has a solid NBA body and a high motor, but there were a number of higher rated players still available when Nance came off the board. The 22-year-old will likely earn $1,155,600 in the first year of the deal, and if he also inks an agreement for 120% of the rookie scale amount, he can expect to pull down $5,895,311 over the course of his pact. Nance averaged 16.1 PPG, 7.2 RPG, and 2.5 APG for Wyoming last season, with a slash line of .514/.333/.786.

Sixers Acquire Stauskas, Landry, Thompson

July 10th, 2015 at 6:35pm CST by Eddie Scarito

6:35pm: The Sixers and Kings have issued press releases announcing the trade is official. Philly gets Stauskas, Landry, Thompson, Sacramento’s 2018 first-round pick and the right to swap first-rounders in 2016 and 2017. Sacramento gets the rights to Gudaitis and Mitrovic.

“Jason, Carl and Nik are all tremendous professionals and we’re grateful for their contributions,” Kings president of basketball and franchise operations Vlade Divac said in Sacramento’s statement. “Jason leaves an indelible mark in Sacramento as the team’s alltime leader in games played, but he was also a champion in the community. Carl and Nik were well regarded as teammates and respected stewards of the organization during their time as Kings. We wish them all great success in the future.”

JULY 10TH, 11:48am: Neither team has made an official announcement, though the RealGM transactions log and salary cap expert Larry Coon (Twitter links) indicate the trade has indeed taken place. Sacramento creates trade exceptions equivalent to the salaries of Stauskas, Landry and Thompson, but those are poised to disappear once the team formalizes its free agent signings.

JULY 3RD, 11:35am: Executives around the league are talking about the notion that the Kings might back out of the deal now that they’ve missed on Ellis and Matthews, though none of those execs truly expect Sacramento to pull out, reports Jake Fischer of SI Now (Twitter link).

JULY 2ND, 8:54am: A future second-round pick is also going to Sacramento, Wojnarowski writes in his full story. The Sixers receive Sacramento’s 2018 first-round pick and the right to swap first-rounders with the Kings in 2016 and 2017, a league source tells USA Today’s Derek Bodner (Twitter link). The overseas assets that the Kings receive are the rights to Arturas Gudaitis and Luka Mitrovic, the 47th and 60th picks, respectively, in last week’s draft, ESPN’s Pablo Torre tweets. Gudaitis just signed a two-year deal with an option for a third year with Lietuvos Rytas of Lithuania, the team announced (translation via Orazio Cauchi of Sportando). The Sixers are interested in keeping Landry, Thompson and Stauskas rather than waiving any of them, a source said to Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News (on Twitter).

10:56pm: The Sixers will receive a protected first round pick from the Kings, and swap rights with Sacramento in the first round of two other drafts, Zach Lowe of Grantland tweets.

JULY 1ST, 10:17pm: The Sixers and Kings have agreed to a deal that would send Jason Thompson, Carl Landry, and Nik Stauskas to Philadelphia, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter links). Philadelphia is expected to send Sacramento the rights to overseas players in return, notes Wojnarowski (on Twitter), though it is unclear which players will be involved.

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

The deal is a salary dump for Sacramento, tweets Wojnarowski, with the Kings clearing room for pursuing free agents. Thompson is set to earn $6,431,250 in 2015/16, Landry $6.5MM, and Stauskas $2,869,440. Sacramento is clearing the decks for a pursuit of point guard Rajon Rondo, swingman Wesley Matthews, and possibly Monta Ellis, the Yahoo! scribe adds (via Twitter ).

Stauskas, 21, is the prize here for the Sixers, who were willing to absorb the contracts of Thompson and Landry to acquire him, Wojnarowski tweets. The young shooting guard failed to impress in Sacramento after being selected with the No. 8 overall pick back in the 2014 NBA Draft. In 73 appearances during his rookie campaign, Stauskas averaged 4.4 points, 1.2 rebounds, and 0.9 assists, with a slash line of .365/.322/.859. He should have every opportunity to develop on a young Sixers team badly in need of shooters.

Thompson still has two years remaining on his deal, though his salary of $6,825,000 for the 2016/17 campaign is partially guaranteed for just $2.65MM. In 81 contests last season, the 28-year-old averaged 6.1 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 1.0 assists in 24.6 minutes per game. Landry, 31, also has two years remaining on his contract, though both seasons are fully guaranteed. He logged 70 appearances last season for the Kings, posting 7.2 PPG, 3.8 RPG, and 0.4 APG in 15.0 minutes per night.