Nuggets Re-Sign Will Barton
AUGUST 7TH, 3:26pm: The signing is official, the team announced.
JULY 25TH, 4:50pm: Denver still has yet to make an official announcement, but the signing took place Thursday, according to the RealGM transactions log.
JULY 11TH, 10:59am: The Nuggets are finalizing a deal to re-sign Will Barton, Chris Haynes of The Northeast Ohio Media Group reports. The agreement will be for three years and worth approximately $10MM, Haynes notes.
After being selected in the second round of the 2012 draft, Barton saw limited playing time in two and a half seasons with the Blazers. He flourished after being traded to Denver at the deadline, averaging 11.0 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.8 assists in 28 games after the deal.
Denver and the Brian Elfus client had reportedly shared interest in a new deal, so today’s news is no surprise. Last month, the Nuggets tendered a qualifying offer to Barton worth more than $1.18MM to make him a restricted free agent.
Nuggets Re-Sign Jameer Nelson
AUGUST 7TH, 3:24pm: The deal is official, the team announced.
JULY 14TH, 8:37am: Denver hasn’t made any formal announcement, but the signing has taken place, as the RealGM transactions log shows.
11:15am: It’s worth $13.5MM over the three years, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links). Grantland’s Zach Lowe suggests that a partial guarantee is on the final season (Twitter link). Stein also indicates that Nelson has already put pen to paper, though the team has made no official announcement . That, combined with Nikola Jokic‘s pact, would leave less room for the starting salary in Wilson Chandler‘s new deal. We discussed some of the numbers involved for Chandler right here.
JULY 13TH, 10:39am: The Nuggets and Jameer Nelson have an agreement in principle on a new three-year deal, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). The point guard last month turned down a player option worth nearly $2.855MM that would have kept him under contract with the Nuggets through this coming season, but his new arrangement appears to tie him to Denver for a longer period of time. Several contenders also expressed interest in the 33-year-old, but new coach Michael Malone said Sunday that a deal would get done, Charania writes.
The general expectation was that Denver would re-sign the Steve Mountain client, as Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post reported when free agency began. Earlier, Dempsey had identified the Nuggets’ choice of coaches as one of the determining factors Nelson would use to decide whether to return, and while Nelson was fond of interim coach Melvin Hunt, as many Nuggets were, the team’s hiring of Malone apparently wasn’t a turn-off.
Keeping Nelson around long-term provides a measure of insurance for the Nuggets in case they deal trade candidate Ty Lawson, whose contract runs through 2016/17. It provides a degree of stability for Nelson, who twice found himself in trades after signing with the Mavericks last summer. Dallas sent him to the Celtics in the Rajon Rondo swap, and Boston flipped him to Denver in exchange for Nate Robinson. Denver could still trade Nelson as soon as December 15th, but the team appears committed to him.
Knicks Sign Thanasis Antetokounmpo
FRIDAY, 1:34pm: The deal is official, the team announced (Twitter link).
WEDNESDAY, 2:58pm: The Knicks and 2014 No. 51 pick Thanasis Antetokounmpo are putting the finishing touches on what will be a two-season deal with partial guarantees, a source tells David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). Marc Berman of the New York Post reported last week that the Knicks were expected to sign the draft-and-stash prospect before training camp. It appears he’ll see the minimum salary, since the Knicks look like they’re using their $2.814MM room exception on Kevin Seraphin.
Antetokounmpo appeared in 47 contests last season for the Westchester Knicks of the NBA’s D-League. The 23-year-old averaged 13.9 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 1.7 assists to go along with a shooting line of .459/.232/.618.
The addition of Antetokounmpo will give the Knicks a roster count of 17 players, including 13 players with fully guaranteed pacts. The forward will have his work cut out for him in his attempt to make the opening night roster with New York’s current depth at the three spot.
Knicks Sign Sasha Vujacic
AUGUST 7TH, 1:31pm: The deal is official, the team announced (Twitter link).
AUGUST 1ST, 4:31pm: Agent Herb Rudoy told Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News that the contract is fully guaranteed (Twitter link).
JULY 31ST, 3:39pm: The contract will be guaranteed, Charania indicates on Twitter, running counter to previous reports (below).
2:41pm: It’s mostly non-guaranteed, according to Marc Berman and Jonathan Lehman of the New York Post.
2:34pm: It’ll be for the minimum salary, Charania writes in a full story. So, he’d make the $1,356,146 eight-year veteran’s minimum if he remains under contract through the season, but since it’s a one-year deal, the Knicks would only have to pay the two-year veteran’s minimum of $947,276, with the league footing the rest of the bill.
1:55pm: The arrangement is believed to be a training camp deal, tweets Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com, which suggests that it is no more than partially guaranteed.
1:11pm: The Knicks and Sasha Vujacic have agreed to a one-year deal, league sources tell Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). David Pick of Eurobasket.com reported Thursday that the sides had engaged in talks. The 31-year-old has appeared in only two NBA games since the 2011 lockout, but it appears his connection with Knicks team president Phil Jackson, Vujacic’s coach when they were with the Lakers, has drawn him back to the Association.
New York is also reportedly expected to sign draft-and-stash prospect Thanasis Antetokounmpo, and adding him and Vujacic would give the Knicks deals with 16 players. New York, at present, has only 11 fully guaranteed contracts, presuming that’s the case for the newly re-signed Lou Amundson, and Wesley Saunders and Darion Atkins seem like longshots to make the regular season roster, so Vujacic seems to stand a decent chance of sticking around for opening night.
Vujacic played parts of seven seasons with the Lakers, mostly with Jackson as his coach, picking up a pair of championship rings in a reserve role. He was a much more prominent figure for the Nets after a trade sent him to New Jersey early in the 2010/11 season, averaging 11.4 points in 28.5 minutes per game, but just as his NBA career seemed to be heating up, he headed overseas. The native of Slovenia has played in Turkey, Italy and Spain since his last full NBA season, stopping back in the NBA only for a single 10-day contract with the Clippers in 2013/14.
Mavs Re-Sign Charlie Villanueva
AUGUST 6TH, 3:35pm: The signing is official, the Mavs announced via a press release.
AUGUST 4TH, 10:04pm: Villanueva announced via his personal Twitter account that the signing was completed, though no official announcement has been made by the Mavericks as of yet.
JULY 7TH, 1:04pm: The Mavs and Charlie Villanueva have agreed to a deal for the minimum salary, reports Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com (Twitter link). It’s a one-year arrangement, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com adds (on Twitter). It’s fully guaranteed, according to MacMahon (Twitter link).
MacMahon had anticipated the deal. Villanueva made the opening night roster for the Mavs on a non-guaranteed deal last year, and he stuck all season as he helped preserve an NBA career that had been flagging during his time with the Pistons. Dallas had apparently wanted to keep him around at the minimum, and Villanueva expressed his wish to keep playing for coach Rick Carlisle.
The Jeff Schwartz client will make $1,499,187 as a 10-year veteran, a raise on the $1,316,809 he saw on last season’s minimum. Still, Dallas will pay only $947,276, which is the two-year veteran’s minimum, and the league will cover the rest, since he’s on a one-year minimum deal. The Mavs can’t trade him without his consent since he re-signed for only one year, and thus would lose his Early Bird rights if Dallas were to trade him, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders points out (Twitter link).
Mavs Sign Samuel Dalembert
AUGUST 6TH, 1:27pm: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.
JULY 25TH, 1:19pm: The Mavericks have reached a one-year agreement with veteran center Samuel Dalembert, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports tweets. According to ESPNDallas.com’s Tim MacMahon, Dalembert will receive the veteran’s minimum (Twitter link).
This comes as no surprise, as ESPN’s Marc Stein reported nearly two weeks ago that the parties had mutual interest. Stein tweeted on Saturday that the Mavs are still looking at other center options, as they are in advanced talks with Tunisian center Salah Mejri and have not ruled out JaVale McGee if he’s healthy.
Dalembert was the Mavs’ No. 1 center as recently as 2013-14, when he started 68 games for them. He was then included in the Tyson Chandler swap with the Knicks. The 34-year-old only played 32 games for New York, including 21 starts, and averaged 4.0 points and 5.3 rebounds.
He gives the club additional depth behind Zaza Pachulia, who wound up with Dallas in a trade with the Bucks after top free agent target DeAndre Jordan decommitted and re-signed with the Clippers.
Knicks Sign Kevin Seraphin
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, 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).
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
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, 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.