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Thunder Sign Ish Smith

November 7th, 2014 at 10:04am CST by Chuck Myron

FRIDAY, 10:04am: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.

THURSDAY, 11:27am: The deal will be non-guaranteed, Mayberry writes.

WEDNESDAY, 11:58am: The Thunder have decided on Ish Smith as the player they’d like to sign once the league gives the go-ahead to add a 16th man, reports Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman (Twitter link). Smith took a physical for the team today and could be ready to play as soon as Friday presuming the physical turns up OK, Mayberry adds. The Thunder have been waiting for the league to approve their request for a hardship provision that would allow them to temporarily add another healthy body amid a rash of injuries. They finished last night’s game against the Raptors with six healthy players. The terms of the deal are unclear and the Thunder have the capacity to exceed the minimum salary, but it’s most likely for the minimum without a guarantee, since Oklahoma City would have to drop back to 15 players once they regain their health.

Smith will fill a void at point guard, where the Thunder are without Russell Westbrook, who’s out at least another month or so after undergoing surgery on his broken right hand. The 26-year-old Smith has spent his four seasons in the NBA on the fringe of his team’s rotation, at best, but he’s coming off a career year with the Suns that netted him a fully guaranteed minimum-salary contract with the Rockets this summer. Houston let him go before opening night amid a numbers crunch and strong play from Isaiah Canaan. A report earlier this week indicated that the Thunder had reached out to Smith, and Oklahoma City also apparently had interest in Gal Mekel that predated Westbrook’s injury.

The league provides for teams to sign an extra player if four or more players have missed at least three games and are expected to continue to miss time, according to Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ. The Pelicans received a 16th roster spot late last season, and the same benefit was accorded the Timberwolves in 2012/13. The Thunder have run up against difficulty in securing that provision because they first had to put three regular season games behind them, and because an independent physician reportedly believed Anthony Morrow would return sooner than expected. Once other players accrued their third missed game last night, it appeared the Thunder had satisfied the requirements to claim the hardship.

Pacers Sign A.J. Price

November 6th, 2014 at 4:40pm CST by Chuck Myron

4:40pm: The deal is official, the team announced.

4:17pm: The Pacers have signed Price, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link), though the team has yet to make any public announcement.

11:06am: Price is expected to sign with Indiana, according to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link), so it appears the deal with Mekel is likely off.

10:22am: The Pacers would be likely to sign A.J. Price if the visa issues holding up the team’s deal with Gal Mekel derail that signing, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links). Indiana is “determined” to have a point guard on the roster in time for Friday’s game against the Celtics, as George Hill, C.J. Watson and Rodney Stuckey all deal with injuries. The NBA has given the Pacers a hardship provision to add a 16th player because of their injuries, but that provision expires after today, and it appears there’s a decent chance that Mekel’s visa won’t be ready until Friday, as Stein wrote earlier.

Price became a free agent earlier this week after the Cavs waived him over the weekend. The sixth-year veteran was on Cleveland’s roster for opening night after making the team on a non-guaranteed contract, but the Cavs opted to quickly replace him with Raptors camp cut Will Cherry. Price, who was as a member of the Pacers for the first three years of his NBA career, spent last season with the Timberwolves and saw just 3.5 minutes per game across 28 appearances. That was the first time that he didn’t average at least 12.9 MPG since the Pacers plucked him out of the University of Connecticut with the 52nd overall pick in 2009.

Indiana has the ability to sign a 16th player thanks to the injuries to Hill, Watson, Stuckey, Paul George and David West, though Stuckey’s sore left foot doesn’t seem likely to keep him out of action for long. To qualify for the hardship provision, teams must have at least four players who have missed three games already, and an independent physician must determine that they’re going to continue to miss time. The Pacers also have a $5.305MM disabled player exception at their disposal because George is expected to miss the entire season, but it’s unlikely they’ll need any more than the minimum salary to secure Price.

Jazz Waive Jordan Hamilton

November 6th, 2014 at 11:38am CST by Chuck Myron

The Jazz have waived swingman Jordan Hamilton, the team announced. Hamilton secured a partial guarantee of $25K when he signed his contract with the Raptors in the offseason, and that carried over when the Jazz claimed him off waivers before opening night. However, Hamilton has already earned more than $25K of his minimum salary by virtue of sticking on the roster for more than five days, so the Jazz aren’t eating any additional guaranteed salary with today’s move. Utah drops to 14 players with Hamilton off the roster.

The 24-year-old had been on the inactive list for each of the team’s first five games, so it seemed Utah simply didn’t have room for him on a roster that has no shortage of wing players. Hamilton was the 26th overall pick in 2011, but the Nuggets declined their fourth-year team option on his rookie scale contract last fall, setting him up for free agency this summer. He finished out last season with the Rockets after a deadline trade, and he made a strong push for a roster spot this fall in Toronto, averaging 9.5 points and 3.0 rebounds in 18.3 minutes per game across six preseason appearances.

The Heat worked out Hamilton over the summer, and the Timberwolves were among those in attendance for a work out Hamilton staged for multiple teams during the offseason, but it’s unclear if the interest from either Miami or Minnesota lingers. His release saves Utah from continuing to pay a player it wasn’t using and frees up a roster spot, though there’s no immediate indication as to whether or not the Jazz have plans to fill that opening in the near future. Coach Quin Snyder‘s comfort with Joe Ingles, whom the team claimed off waivers at the same time it did so with Hamilton, empowered the Jazz to make today’s move, tweets Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports.

Pacers To Sign Gal Mekel?

November 6th, 2014 at 9:10am CST by Chuck Myron

THURSDAY, 9:10am: Visa issues surrounding the Israeli native have thrown the deal into question, Stein reports. The Pacers brought Mekel to Boston, where they play Friday, with the plan of signing him today. Indiana’s hardship provision to sign a 16th player expires today, but Mekel’s visa might not be ready until Friday, according to Stein (All Twitter links). That raises the possibility that the Pacers will sign a different player instead, as Stein notes, though the plan is still to sign Mekel, Buckner tweets.

WEDNESDAY, 2:53pm: The Pacers will indeed sign Mekel, as Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star confirms (Twitter link).

2:43pm: It’s likely that the Pacers will obtain a hardship provision because of their injuries that will allow them to sign Mekel without waiving anyone else, Stein writes in a full piece. The absences of George, Hill, Watson and Rodney Stuckey would give Indiana the four players required for the league to grant the 16th roster spot, Stein notes. All three have to have missed three regular games, and an independent physician must declare that they’re likely to continue to miss time before the NBA will OK the provision.

2:29pm: Indiana is “in the process of” signing former Mavs point guard Gal Mekel, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The Pacers have been carrying 15 players, so they’d have to make a corresponding move, though it’s unclear whom the team plans to drop. The team has a $5.305MM disabled player exception thanks to Paul George‘s injury that it can use to give Mekel more than the minimum salary, though it seems unlikely the Pacers would use that in this case. Stein suggests the move is an effort to compensate for injuries in the backcourt, where point guard George Hill and C.J. Watson are nursing injuries, but neither is expected to miss more than a few weeks.

Indiana has 13 fully guaranteed contracts plus partially guaranteed arrangements with Luis Scola and rookie Shayne Whittington. Scola has been starting for the Pacers, and his guarantee is much greater than the mere $25K promised to Whittington.

Mekel was on the Mavs opening-night roster, but Dallas let go of him soon thereafter to sign J.J. Barea. The Thunder reportedly had the 26-year-old native of Israel on their radar, but they are instead poised to add Ish Smith to offset their own rash of injuries.

Grizzlies Re-Sign Kalin Lucas

November 4th, 2014 at 12:27pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Grizzlies have signed point guard Kalin Lucas, the team announced. The move is intended to fortify the team’s depth as Mike Conley nurses a tender ankle, according to Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal, who originally reported the deal (Twitter link). Memphis has been carrying only 14 players, as our roster counts show, so the team has room to accommodate Lucas without letting anyone go. Lucas was with the Grizzlies during the summer league and in preseason before Memphis cut him a few days shy of opening night, as Tillery points out. Terms of the deal aren’t immediately clear, and while GM Chris Wallace has slightly more than the rookie minimum salary left on the team’s mid-level exception to float Lucas extra cash, make the deal a long-term arrangement, or both, it seems unlikely he would do so.

The 25-year-old Lucas went undrafted out of Michigan State in 2011, but he’s clearly made a strong impression on the Grizzlies in his time with the club. He played in all eight of the team’s preseason games, averaging 3.1 points and 1.0 assists in 8.0 minutes per contest. He put up 17.0 PPG and 3.4 APG in 33.4 MPG in his senior year with the Spartans in 2010/11 before spending time in Turkey, Greece and the D-League over the first three years of his pro career.

Memphis already had three point guards on its roster before adding Lucas, but Nick Calathes still has nine games to go on his 20-game drug-related suspension, which left Beno Udrih as the only available point guard if Conley had been unable to play. The Grizzlies haven’t felt any ill effects so far, having sprinted to a 4-0 start.

Cavs Waive A.J. Price, Sign Will Cherry

November 2nd, 2014 at 12:20pm CST by Eddie Scarito

SUNDAY, 12:20pm: The Cavs have officially signed Cherry, the team announced.

4:54pm: Cherry’s deal will be for two years, Chris Haynes of The Plain Dealer reports (Twitter link), though it’s still unknown if any portion of his salary will be guaranteed.

SATURDAY, 4:28pm: The Cavaliers have waived A.J. Price, the team has announced. Price’s salary was non-guaranteed, so the move won’t cost Cleveland any cash. This reduces the Cavs’ roster count to 14, one player below the regular season maximum. Cleveland intends to use the open roster spot to sign guard Will Cherry, Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports is reporting (Twitter link). No contract details were made available, but Cleveland is limited to offering Cherry no more than the minimum salary.

The big shocker here is that the team isn’t signing Ray Allen, who would seem like a perfect fit for a Cavs squad looking to contend in the Eastern Conference. Allen still hasn’t decided on whether or not he is going to play this season, though he has been mentioned as a target for the Spurs as well as the Cavs.

The 6’1″, 23-year-old Cherry averaged 12.8 PPG and 4.0 RPG while logging 25.3 minutes per contest in five games for the Cavs Summer League team in Las Vegas. Cherry also played for the Cavs’ D-League affiliate last season, when he provided 11.6 PPG, 3.7 RPG, and 4.5 APG in 30.4 MPG. He was waived by the Raptors at the end of training camp last month.

Price hasn’t appeared in either of Cleveland’s regular season games this season. His career numbers are 5.9 PPG, 1.5 RPG, and 2.2 APG. His slash line is .381/.321/.749.

Nuggets To Pick Up Mozgov’s Team Option

November 2nd, 2014 at 9:34am CST by ChrisCrouse

The Nuggets are expected to pick up their team option on Timofey Mozgov‘s contract for the 2015/16 season, Christopher Dempsey of the Denver Post reports. The option will pay him nearly $5MM, which is the final year of his current deal. With Mozgov’s contract on the books Denver will have approximately $61.2MM in guaranteed salary commitments for the 2015/16 season. This figure does not include Arron Afflalo‘s player option, which is worth $7.5MM. With Denver picking up Mozgov’s option, he will now become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2016.

The Nuggets’ decision to pick up Mozgov’s option isn’t necessarily a sign that they won’t trade him. Denver has shown willingness to trade players right after they have signed with the team, as is evidenced by their 2012 trade that sent Nene to the Wizards the same season that the Nuggets re-signed him. The Nuggets also have JaVale McGee, who is set to be paid $12MM in 2015/16, and 2014 draftee Jusuf Nurkic on the roster at center, making Mozgov potentially expendable.

The Cavs were one of the teams with interest in acquiring Mozgov either this season by trade or next through free agency. Cleveland coach David Blatt is familiar with Mozgov, having coached the player on the Russian National team. And with Mozgov off to a good start to the season averaging 11.5 PPG in just 21.5 MPG in his first two starts for the Nuggets, his trade value is upped accordingly. Mozgov’s career numbers over 214 games are 6.1 PPG, 4.4 RPG, and 0.9 BPG. His career slash line is .515/.143/.739.

Wolves Sign Ricky Rubio To Extension

October 31st, 2014 at 9:28pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Timberwolves have officially signed Ricky Rubio to a contract extension, the team announced (on Twitter). Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports first reported the four-year, $55MM deal, which includes $1MM in incentives, as Jerry Zgoda of The Star Tribune adds (Twitter link). There are no team or player options in the arrangement, according to Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press (Twitter link).

“We are excited to sign Ricky to a contract extension and keep him as a foundation for years to come,” Timberwolves president of basketball operations/coach Flip Saunders said in the team’s statement. “He is annually among the league leaders in assists and steals, and his intangibles make him a very valuable player to our team. Ricky is only in his fourth season and because of his work ethic and determination, we are confident that he will continue to grow as a player and as a team leader. We look forward to many great years ahead of Ricky in a Timberwolves uniform.”

Agent Dan Fegan had reportedly been seeking the maximum salary for his client, which likely would have been at least $85MM over five years, so the Wolves achieved some level of success in negotiating Rubio’s camp down from that amount. The Wolves had initially talked about four years and $44MM, and upped the offer to $48MM, then to $52MM and beyond for the 24-year-old.

Rubio’s extension matches the average annual salary that fellow point guard Eric Bledsoe netted in his new five-year contract with the Suns, at least with Rubio’s $1MM in incentives factored in, notes Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The dollar figure represents the sort of high-leverage negotiations that had been taking place for a franchise that lost Kevin Love via trade this summer, as Charlie Adams of Hoops Rumors examined when he looked at Rubio’s extension candidacy. The Wolves ultimately saw the prospect of increased revenues from the league’s recent $24 billion TV deal as motivation to come up in their offers, tweets Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press, who adds that the team wanted to show faith in the former No. 5 overall pick.

The deal gives Minnesota approximately $50.2MM in guaranteed salary commitments for the 2015/16 season, though that figure doesn’t account for Thaddeus Young‘s $9,971,739, Chase Budinger‘s $5MM, or Corey Brewer‘s $4,905,000 player options.

In his three years in the league, Rubio has averaged 10.2 PPG, 4.1 RPG, and 8.1 APG. His slash line is .369/.323/.799.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Warriors Sign Thompson To Max Extension

October 31st, 2014 at 6:20pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Warriors have agreed to an extension with Klay Thompson, the team has announced. Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link) was the first to report the agreement. The deal is a four-year max extension, and it contains no options, tweets Sam Amick of USA Today. The estimated value is in the $70MM range, but the exact figure won’t be known until the league sets the new maximum salary amount in July.

The two sides beat tonight’s deadline to ink a deal while fielding trade offers from the Kings, who reportedly offered anyone on their roster aside from DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay, Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports notes. There were also concerns that Golden State owner Joe Lacob wouldn’t be comfortable shelling out the max for a player, especially when comparing it to the team-friendly deal that Stephen Curry is signed to. According to a report from Monte Poole of CSNBayArea.com earlier this month, the Warriors were offering Thompson annual salaries of about $13MM in its proposals, though the sides had been getting closer in recent weeks.

Thompson had expressed a preference for the security of an extension rather than a one-year deal next summer that would allow him to hit unrestricted free agency when the league’s new $24 billion TV deal kicks in and player salaries are expected to increase markedly. He is a potential two-way superstar, and in 230 career games he has averages of 16.1 PPG, 3.1 RPG, and 2.2 APG. His career slash line is .435/.409/.828.

The Warriors had approximately $62MM in guaranteed salary committed for the 2015/16 season before coming to terms with Thompson, and that doesn’t account for Brandon Rush‘s $1,270,964 player option, or any money needed to re-sign Draymond Green. By adding Thompson’s max-level salary to the equation the team might seek to unload David Lee, who is set to make $15,012,000 this season, and $15,493,680 in 2015/16. If the Warriors wait until next summer they could try to flip Lee’s expiring contract for some cap relief, though that is purely my speculation.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Cavs Sign Anderson Varejao To Extension

October 31st, 2014 at 5:00pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Cavaliers and Anderson Varejao have officially signed a contract extension, the team announced. The extension is believed to be for three years, and approximately $30MM, as Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported Thursday (Twitter link). Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group added that the plan was for the sides to sign the extension today, though the October 31st deadline that applies for rookie-scale extensions didn’t matter with Varejao. The 32-year-old becomes just the fifth player to sign a veteran extension under the current collective bargaining agreement, joining Andrew Bogut, Kobe Bryant, Tony Parker and Zach Randolph.

“Anderson represents how this franchise wants to approach the game of basketball, both on the court and off,” Cavs GM David Griffin said in the team’s statement. “He has been a key part of our foundation for years and we are very happy that he will continue to be part of our Cavs family as we work towards our goals at the highest level. Andy is, and has been, a tireless worker, an incredible teammate and a great competitor that plays with a rare combination of energy and intensity that makes him truly special.”

This news doesn’t come as a surprise since it was reported earlier that both sides had a mutual interest in keeping Varejao in Cleveland for the foreseeable future. The Brazilian-born center said recently that he wants to finish his career with the Cavs, and he has a close relationship with LeBron James, with whom he’d been teammates for six years before James took his talents to South Beach.

Varejao nonetheless had some incentive to wait until he became a free agent to sign a new deal with the Cavs. The starting salary in a veteran extension can be no more than 107.5% of the salary in the final season of the existing deal, and in Varejao’s case the extension could only have run through the 2017/18 season. If Varejao were to have waited to become a free agent, he could sign up to a five-year contract for nearly 35% of the salary cap, though he wasn’t a candidate for max money, nor a deal of that length. With his history of injuries and advancing age, signing an extension to stay in Cleveland and gaining some level of financial security was clearly appealing for Varejao, and it comes with the benefit of allowing him to continue to play for a team that’s shaping up to be an annual title contender.

This news also casts some doubt as to the future of Tristan Thompson in wine-and-gold. A report earlier today indicated that there was pessimism surrounding Cleveland’s extension talks with Thompson, who is subject to today’s 11:00pm Central deadline for rookie scale extensions. Thompson is seeking a new deal in the $12MM per year range, which is a bit pricey for a backup center.

The Cavs had only about $21.5MM in commitments for 2015/16 before signing the Varejao deal, but that doesn’t include James’ player option for $21,573,398 or Kevin Love‘s for $16,744,218. Varejao’s extension doesn’t leave the Cavs front office much flexibility to ink Thompson and continue to surround the core of James, Love, and Kyrie Irving with the role players needed to contend.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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