Celtics, Corey Walden Agree To Camp Deal
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
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, 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, 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, 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
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.
Clippers Waive Jordan Hamilton
11:01pm: The team has indeed placed Hamilton on waivers, according to fellow Times scribe Eric Pincus (Twitter link).
5:23pm: The Clippers are in process of waiving Jordan Hamilton, Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times tweets. There are no other accompanying moves, Bolch adds.
The 6’7” shooting guard appeared in 14 games last season, averaging 2.7 points, 1.1 rebounds and 0.5 assists in 8.7 minutes per game. The 24-year-old played his first two-plus seasons with the Nuggets, then was dealt to the Rockets for Aaron Brooks midway through the 2013/14 season. Hamilton was taken in the first round of the 2011 draft by the Mavericks, who shipped him that night to Denver.
He signed two 10-day contracts with the Clippers last season and then was signed for the remainder of the season in March. He did not appear in any postseason games with the Clippers. He had a non-guaranteed salary of just over $1MM for the upcoming season.
Pelicans Waive Toney Douglas
The Pelicans have waived guard Toney Douglas, the team announced. The release of Douglas reduces the Pelicans’ current roster count to 12 players.
The player’s 2015/16 salary of $1,185,784 would have become fully guaranteed if he remained on New Orleans’ roster through Saturday, as is shown by our schedule of guarantee dates. Douglas was originally signed by the Pelicans on February 4th, then was released on February 19th before subsequently re-signing with the team for the remainder of the season back on March 24th.
Douglas, 29, appeared in 12 games for New Orleans during the 2014/15 season, averaging 4.3 points and 2.0 assists in 14.8 minutes per game. His career numbers through six NBA seasons are 7.6 PPG, 2.2 RPG, and 2.2 APG.
Warriors, Sixers Swap Thompson, Wallace
4:36pm: Philadelphia receives the right to swap the lesser of the 2016 first-round picks coming their way from the Heat and the Thunder for Golden State’s 2016 first-round pick, tweets Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
4:05pm: The Warriors have acquired Jason Thompson from the Sixers in exchange for Gerald Wallace, both teams announced via press release. Cash and draft considerations are also going to Philadelphia in the move. It’s a money-saving deal for Golden State, which sends Wallace’s $10,105,855 salary into Philadelphia’s cap space, with Thompson’s $6,908,685 salary going back in return, and with the Warriors poised to pay the luxury tax this season, the move saves the Warriors from tax penalties of as much as two and a half times the difference between their salaries. It also creates a trade exception worth $3,197,170 for Golden State.
“We’re very happy to add Jason to our roster,” Warriors GM Bob Myers said. “He has a proven track record in this league and adds considerably to our team’s depth, which was a big key to our success last season and will be moving forward.”
Thompson will ostensibly fill the reserve power forward role that David Lee played last year for the champs, who sent Lee to the Celtics in the deal that brought in Wallace. The 29-year-old Thompson has chiefly been a starter during his seven years in the NBA, all of which came with Sacramento before the trade earlier this month that sent him to Philly, but he probably won’t mind a reduced role on a team with a legitimate shot to win another title. Thompson has never appeared in a playoff game.
It was somewhat surprising when reports emerged following Golden State’s agreement on the Lee trade that the Warriors intended to keep Wallace rather than release him and use the stretch provision to spread his salary and lower their tax bill. Thus, it makes sense to see them make another deal that sends Wallace away and takes a chunk out of their team salary. The Warriors were scheduled to pay Lee $15,493,680 this coming season, so they’ve reduced their obligation by more than 50% with the pair of trades. The estimated tax bill for the Warriors drops from $24MM to $16MM with today’s trade, according to former Nets executive Bobby Marks (Twitter link). It had been $38.1MM before the Lee trade, Marks adds. Lee signed his deal prior to the adoption of the current collective bargaining agreement, so he’s ineligible for the stretch provision.
Thompson’s contract runs through 2016/17 with $2.6MM partially guaranteed on a salary of $7,010,378 that season, Marks points out (Twitter link). That salary becomes fully guaranteed if he doesn’t hit waivers by June 26th, 2016, as Marks also notes.
The Sixers receive yet more draft assets and draw closer to the $63MM salary floor. They held more than $20MM in cap flexibility prior to the trade, and they still have about $17.5MM they can spend, not counting their non-guaranteed deals, giving them flexibility to absorb other contracts via trade. They could also float a bloated offer sheet to Norris Cole, in whom they reportedly have interest, or to Tristan Thompson. Philadelphia clears salary from its 2016/17 books, since Wallace is on an expiring contract.
Who do you think got the better end of this trade? Leave a comment to weigh in.
Mavs Sign Jeremy Evans
JULY 31ST, 2:13pm: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.
JULY 5TH, 4:06pm: The Mavs have agreed to sign Jeremy Evans to a two-year deal, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (on Twitter). It’ll be for the league minimum.
Evans, 27, didn’t see a ton of burn last season with Utah, averaging 7.0 minutes per contest. In 2014/15, Evans put up 2.4 PPG with 1.9 RPG. For his career, the entirety of which has been spent with the Jazz, Evans has put up 3.7 PPG and 2.7 RPG in 10.8 minutes per night. Evans made it known that he wanted to return to Utah this summer, but a reunion just wasn’t in the cards.
“I feel like they have the confidence in me and I trust them that they’re going to make the right decision. That’s what they’re here for,” Evans said about Utah’s front office. “If I’m here, I’m gonna be so happy; I feel like this is my home. If not, I know it’s still going to be a bright future and I wish everybody the best.”
Evans is represented by Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports & Entertainment, as the Hoops Rumors Agency Database shows. His greatest claim to fame in the NBA might be having won the slam dunk contest at the 2012 All-Star Game.