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And-Ones: Marion, Rockets, Spurs

August 11th, 2014 at 10:19pm CST by Zachary Links

With NBA training camp approaching, Keith Schlosser of Ridiculous Upside wonders if D-League prospects should sign camp invites or take advantage of offers for guaranteed money overseas.  The bigger names, he writes, can probably afford to go through training camp and take a stab at making an NBA team.  The lesser-known ones, however, might want to think about going overseas. Here’s more from around the league..

  • Free agent forward Shawn Marion had a face-to-face meeting earlier today with Pacers president Larry Bird, sources tell Marc Stein of ESPN.com (on Twitter).  Last week it was reported that Marion was leaning heavily towards the Cavs but the Pacers are hoping that they can sway him.
  • Kostas Papanikolaou‘s nearly $4.8MM first-year salary with the Rockets is believed to be the greatest amount any NBA team has ever handed out for the rookie season of a second-round pick, USA Today’s Sam Amick tweets.
  • In the wake of Mark Davis’ whirlwind tour of San Antonio, sources with knowledge of the visit said Spurs Sports & Entertainment would be against the Raiders, as they are currently structured, relocating to South Texas, write Tom Orsborn and Josh Baugh of the San Antonio Express-News.  Spurs shareholder Charlie Amato says that the solution would be for the Spurs’ ownership group to have a controlling interest in the Raiders or perhaps any other franchise that wanted to move to San Antonio.
  • The recent ruling against the NCAA could help the NBA in its efforts to raise the age limit, writes Tom Ziller of SBNation.com.  The Ed O’Bannon ruling grants colleges the right to pay players up to $5K per year and one of the big arguments against an age minimum was that would force prospects to play for free in the NCAA.  Now, that’s no longer the case, even if the $5K figure is chump change compared to what many of the top collegiate stars should rightfully earning in relation to the revenue that they draw.
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Greg Monroe Denies Five-Year, ~$60MM Offer

August 10th, 2014 at 5:31pm CST by Zachary Links

Last week it was reported that the Pistons increased their offer to Greg Monroe from a five-year, $60MM package to one that’s slightly more lucrative.  However, the restricted free agent took to Twitter today to deny that he has received any proposal of that nature.

“[I] can’t reject anything that was not offered to me…carry on,” Monroe said in response to a Twitter follower who asked how he could turn down a five-year, $60MM offer.

The report last week indicated that Detroit’s latest offer was slightly more lucrative than the four-year, $54MM contract that Josh Smith signed with the team last summer.  The David Falk client has been widely expected to seek a max contract this summer, though many execs, scouts, and agents have balked at that idea. 

The Pistons have looked into the sign-and-trade market and talked shop with the Blazers, Hawks and Pelicans but so far that hasn’t yielded a trade.  Even though Monroe would be a valuable asset for a number of teams, one has to imagine that the Pistons’ match power scared off prospective suitors, much in the way that the Suns’ right to match has warded off teams with an eye on guard Eric Bledsoe.

So, for now, Monroe continues to stand without a team.  If Monroe wants to enter free agency unencumbered next summer, he could take the risky and unlikely route of signing his one-year qualifying offer for less than $5.5MM.

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NBA Middle Class Deals

August 7th, 2014 at 3:56pm CST by Chuck Myron

The NBA’s middle class might not be vanishing, but it is not robust. There has been no evidence of drastic change in the willingness of teams to hand out middle class deals over the past few years, as team sources and former interim players union executive director Ron Klempner told Grantland’s Zach Lowe for a piece published in April. Lowe defined a middle class deal as one with annual salaries that fell between $5MM and $10MM. There have been 108 signings or agreements between free agents and NBA teams so far this summer, according to our Free Agent Tracker, and 20 of them fall with Lowe’s range. But the equation changes with a slight alteration to the definition of middle class.

The NBA’s non-taxpayer mid-level exception this season calls for a deal with a starting salary of up to $5.305MM. The most a player could receive through this exception is slightly more than $22.652MM over four years. That works out to an average annual value of about $5.663MM. That’s strikingly close to the league’s $5.632MM estimated average salary for 2014/15 season. The average annual value of a four-year mid-level deal would nonetheless likely end up beneath the NBA average salary over the full span of the contract, since average salaries have risen each season since the first one under the latest collective bargaining agreement. That equation isn’t different even for a player who signs a shorter mid-level contract, since the 4.5% annual raises involved in a mid-level deal boost the average annual value of longer such contracts. The average annual value of a two-year mid-level deal, for instance, is only about $5.425MM, beneath this year’s estimated average salary.

The exception is a tool that teams can use without opening cap space. If we remove the deals that would have fit within the parameters of the mid-level and instead define middle class deals as those that come in above the mid-level amount, only 12 of this year’s signings and agreements fit the middle class criteria. That means teams have been largely unwilling to commit cap space to players making more than the mid-level but less than eight-figure salaries.

There’s an even more profound dearth of pacts in the next bracket. Teams have handed out only three contracts with starting salaries of at least $10MM but less than $14.746MM, the maximum salary for a player with fewer than seven years of experience. This sort of “upper middle class” deal has been exceedingly difficult for players to find this year.

I’ve listed this year’s middle class deals here, grouped by tier and listed in descending order of average annual value. The salaries are rounded to the nearest $1K.

Upper middle class ($10MM or more but less than $14.746MM)

Above mid-level deals (More than mid-level exception, less than $10MM)

Mid-level and near-mid-level ($5MM to mid-level exception)

* — The salaries in Tucker’s deal descend over the life of the contract, so his first-year salary exceeds the amount of the mid-level, while the average annual value comes in at less than the mid-level.

ShamSports and Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ were used in the creation of this post.

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Free Agent Stock Watch: Ray Allen

August 6th, 2014 at 10:58am CST by Chuck Myron

Ray Allen‘s offseason stands as a reminder that probable outcomes don’t always come true. A report in June indicated that he was leaning toward returning for another season and that he wanted to continue playing alongside LeBron James. That pointed to a return to the Heat, who kept the NBA’s all-time leading three-point maker in their plans. Once James bolted to the Cavs, it sent the league for a spin, and perhaps no player felt the dizzying effects as much as Allen did.

The Cavaliers reportedly began their pursuit of the 18-year veteran even before James made his choice to return to Cleveland. Mike Miller started recruiting Allen to come north as the Heat renounced their rights to Allen and used their cap space on others, leaving Miami only the minimum salary to offer. Multiple reports indicated that Allen had begun to lean toward the Cavs, but he put the brakes on that idea, dismissing not only the idea that he preferred Cleveland but raising doubt about whether he’d play at all this coming season.

That sort of back-and-forth suggests that Allen is torn about his next course of action. As he told Don Amore of the Hartford Courant this weekend, he has nothing left to prove after breaking the all-time record for three-pointers made and winning two NBA championships. He’s headed for the Hall-of-Fame sooner or later. He nonetheless remained a productive player this past season even as he stared down his 39th birthday, which took place last month. Returning for another season would allow Allen to put his three-point record further out of reach and chase one more ring, alluring draws for any competitor.

Allen’s 37.5% three-point accuracy fell below his career mark of 40% for the first time in four years this past season, but he shot just 36.3% from long range in 2009/10 and bounced back with new career highs in three-point percentage in each of the next two seasons. A more disconcerting stat from last season is his 12.8 PER, the sort of number that’s usually the domain of below-average NBA players. It was the worst PER that Allen had ever recorded, and teams considering him for more than the minimum salary might worry that his efficiency will suffer another decline.

The Jim Tanner client seemingly rebuffed the idea that he’s only worth the minimum at this point in his career during a conversation a few days ago with Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald. The Cavs and Heat can offer only the minimum, and Cleveland, with rookie head coach David Blatt, doesn’t appear to fit Allen’s preference for a veteran coach, unless he’s willing to count Blatt’s experience overseas.

A dozen NBA teams can give Allen no more than the minimum, as the Lakers have since joined those ranks since I compiled this list last month. The only teams that employ a coach with more than a season of NBA head coaching experience and have more than the minimum salary to spend are the Pistons, Rockets, Pelicans, Magic, Spurs, Raptors, Thunder and Timberwolves. Minnesota can offer just about $100K more than the minimum with the partial amount of its mid-level left over from its deal with Mo Williams, and the Thunder would be unlikely to spend more than the minimum on Allen since they’re bumping up against the luxury tax. The Raptors are flirting with the tax line, too, so they might be similarly hesitant.

That leaves just five teams capable of meeting Allen’s preferences, and only Houston and San Antonio among them are within hailing distance of a title. The Spurs could throw their entire $5.305MM mid-level exception at him if they see fit, while the Rockets could come within about $500K of matching that. Both teams have made three-point shooting a premium over the years, so Allen would fit that bill.

The Rockets would seemingly make more sense, stung as they are from an offseason that didn’t go as hoped and without a logical backup to James Harden. The Spurs have plenty of depth, but they’re closer to the title, a factor that Allen surely wouldn’t dismiss. The team-oriented culture of San Antonio might hold appeal as well, but Houston appears to be in a position of greater need and perhaps greater willingness to make a more lucrative offer, though that’s just my speculation.

Allen said to Murphy that it would take a “perfect storm scenario” for him to play this season, and while the conditions in Texas seem ripe for clouding his thoughts of retirement, the most likely outcome at the moment suggests that Allen has played his final game. But, as we’ve learned from following him this summer, there’s no safe bet.

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And-Ones: Bledsoe, Sixers, Seattle

August 5th, 2014 at 5:01pm CST by Chuck Myron

The relationship between the Suns and Eric Bledsoe continues to sour, and as it does, it’s looking like he’ll end up taking Phoenix’s one-year qualifying offer, worth about $3.7MM, tweets Chris Broussard of ESPN.com. That route would allow him to hit unrestricted free agency by next summer, but it would also represent a severe discount, not only on the maximum salary that Bledsoe has been seeking, but also from the four-year, $48MM offer the Suns have reportedly made. It’d be a surprising move if he ends up taking the QO, but it doesn’t seem as though the Rich Paul client is any closer to another deal. There’s more on Bledsoe amid the latest from around the league:

  • Four NBA executives and two agents who spoke with Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic believe that the four-year, $48MM offer the Suns reportedly made to Bledsoe is fair and don’t think that the 24-year-old point guard has merited the maximum salary. “I’m surprised that they would offer him that much,” one of the executives said. “They don’t need to. It is really fair and, in fact, generous. He is talented, but he has never put it together very long, and he hasn’t been healthy. It’s hard to turn your team over to him.”
  • The possibility that the Sixers could acquire Anthony Bennett and give up Thaddeus Young as the third team in a Kevin Love trade, one that Brian Windhorst of ESPN raised in a radio interview Monday, would be difficult to comprehend, argues Dei Lynam of CSNPhilly.com. Philadelphia’s purge of existing talent has been so profound that such a swap would seem like piling on, Lynam posits.
  • Coming up short in bids for the Bucks and Kings prompted Steve Ballmer to pounce on the chance to strike a deal to buy the Clippers and abandon his dream of bringing the NBA back to Seattle, as he tells Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times. The former Microsoft CEO said he hopes Seattle ends up with a team eventually, though he reiterated that he has no intention of moving the Clippers.
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And-Ones: McGrady, Barea, George, Bledsoe

August 4th, 2014 at 10:36pm CST by Zachary Links

Tracy McGrady, 35, is at peace with his decision to retire from professional basketball, writes Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. While he says that he could still play in the NBA or an overseas league, and admits that he sometimes gets the itch, he’s no longer interested in putting in the necessary work. “At times I get…the urge to go back and play.  I still can, I’m young enough to still play.  My body feels good; I haven’t played in a couple of years so my body feels great.  It’s just the mental part of [not] having that drive to get back in that type of shape and to put that type of time and focus into it,” McGrady said. More from around the Association..

  • Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN (on Twitter) gets the sense that J.J Barea wouldn’t be involved in a two-team deal involving Kevin Love and maybe not even in a three-team deal.  Because his contract could be difficult to move, Wolfson wonders aloud if the stretch provision could be back in play for the Wolves when it comes to the guard.
  • None of the 19 players remaining on Team USA’s roster are planning to pull out of international competition following Paul George‘s catastrophic injury, report Brian Windhorst and Marc Stein of ESPN.com.
  • Is Suns restricted free agent Eric Bledsoe a true No. 1 player?  David Nurse of HoopsHype looks at both sides of the argument.  On one hand, the guard has been the “other guy” everywhere he’s been from Kentucky (John Wall) to the Clippers (Chris Paul) to the Suns (Goran Dragic).  On the other hand, Bledsoe has looked like a mini-LeBron at times and is a major impact player on both sides of the court.  Ultimately, while a max contract may be tough to swallow, Nurse feels he’s worth it.
  • Mavs guard Monta Ellis could be the next NBA notable looking for a change of scenery, writes Jonathan Tjarks of RealGM.  The 29-year-old has a player option in his contract and could hit free agency next summer.  He’ll be looking for one last long-term deal and the Mavs might not want to lock themselves into a core with a number of defensive issues.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

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And-Ones: Wiggins, Cavs, Murry, George

August 3rd, 2014 at 10:44pm CST by Zachary Links

The No. 1 overall pick in June’s draft is in a weird spot, writes Tim Bontemps of the New York Post.  Andrew Wiggins has been heavily connected to a possible Kevin Love deal between the Wolves and Cavs and on top of that, it turns out that he hasn’t even chatted with LeBron James since the game’s top player announced in Sports Illustrated that he was going back to Cleveland.  “No. I’m sure he’s busy,” Wiggins said. “I feel like I’m busy, so I am sure he’s busy.”   More from around the NBA..

  • Toure’ Murry still has interest from the Heat, Jazz, and Clippers and a return to the Knicks remains a possibility, writes Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com.
  • Paul George‘s injury isn’t just a loss for the Pacers, it’s a loss for all of basketball, writes Candace Buckner of the Indy Star. It has been noted that in 1985, when quarterback Joe Theismann suffered a similar horrific fracture, the injury forced him into retirement at age 36. However, Buckner notes that George has the advancements of modern medicine on his side as well as his youth.
  • Italian team Ferentino is eyeing former D-League guard Chris Roberts, sources tell Paolo DePersis of Sportando.  The swingman spent last season in Serie A with Caserta averaging 11.6 PPG and 3.1 RPG.
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And-Ones: Wade, Warren, Smith, Woodbury

July 27th, 2014 at 6:41pm CST by Zachary Links

Dwyane Wade has a new favorite opponent to square off against in LeBron James, write Brandon Di Perno and Surya Fernandez of SB Nation. Wade said, “Well, it used to be Kobe Bryant…the second best all-time…now, I have a new favorite player to play against…my former teammate, LeBron.” The 2014/15 NBA schedule won’t be released until next month, but one of the highlights is sure to be the first contest between the Cavaliers and James’ former team, the Heat.  Here’s more from around the league..

  • Rookie T.J. Warren‘s game is well-suited for the Suns, writes Jesse Biancarte of Basketball Insiders.   Warren played in five games in summer league for Phoenix and averaged 17.8 points and 4.8 rebounds in 24.8 minutes.  His only noticeable weakness during this stretch was his outside shooting, something he’ll have to work on.
  • Former Duke guard Nolan Smith is working towards a two-year deal with Turkish club Galatasaray, according to David Pick of Eurobasket.com (on Twitter).  Smith was reportedly entertaining partially guaranteed offers from the Bulls and Thunder in late April.
  • Former Georgia and D-League swingman Terrance Woodbury worked out for the Nets, but he’ll instead be heading to Nicaragua to join up with Raptors de Matagalpa, a source tells Enea Trapani of Sportando (on Twitter).  In his senior year at Georgia (2008/09), Woodbury averaged 14.0 PPG and 4.6 RPG while shooting 43.1% from downtown, but he went undrafted the following summer.
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Contract Details: Brooks, Bairstow, Brown

July 23rd, 2014 at 7:55pm CST by Alex Lee

As free agent transactions around the league become official, so do the monetary specifics of their contract agreements. Here’s a round up of the latest contract details to come to light this evening:

  • The minimum salary contract Aaron Brooks signed with the Bulls is for one year, as Mark Deeks of ShamSports reveals on his updated Bulls salary page.
  • Cameron Bairstow‘s three-year contract with the Bulls is guaranteed for $425K in year two and otherwise non-guaranteed past the first season, Deeks also reports.
  • Markel Brown‘s two-year deal with the Nets is fully guaranteed in year one, with a series of guarantee dates for the second season, as Deeks shows.
  • The two-year deal the Nets gave Cory Jefferson is similar, except it’s only guaranteed for $75K this year, Deeks also notes.
  • The Nets gave Bojan Bogdanovic a 15% trade kicker on his three-year deal rather than the player option that he initially appeared to be getting, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports on his Nets salary page.
  • Robbie Hummel‘s deal with the Timberwolves is fully-guaranteed for $880K for the upcoming season, reports Pincus. It was originally reported to be worth $900K. Pincus adds that the deal allows Hummel to block any trade Minnesota may try to include him in (Twitter links).

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

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Pacific Rumors: Bledsoe, Thomas, Clippers

July 23rd, 2014 at 1:01pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Suns have little interest in sending restricted free agent Eric Bledsoe away in a sign-and-trade, and Suns president of basketball operations Lon Babby is confident in the team’s two-point guard look, writes Bob Young of the Arizona Republic. The four-year, $48MM offer the Suns reportedly have out to Bledsoe is for significantly more than what the team and agent Rich Paul spoke about last fall in extension talks, Young adds. There’s more from Young’s piece amid the latest on the Suns and the rest of the Pacific Division:

  • New Suns acquisition Isaiah Thomas told Young that he felt as though the Kings were looking to replace him at every turn. “I felt very disrespected,” Thomas said. “Every year it was somebody new. I felt I did a good enough job to show them I was a starting point guard or a guy who could play a big role with their team. But they thought differently.
  • Differing opinions on the relative values of David Lee and Kevin Love, a reluctance to take on Kevin Martin, and a reticence to give up Harrison Barnes on top of it all have the Warriors holding out in talks with Minnesota, as Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group explains. That’s in addition to Golden State’s decision to keep Klay Thompson‘s name out of the discussion.
  • Attorneys for Donald Sterling made it clear Tuesday that he wants the NBA to vote to terminate his ownership of the Clippers so he can move forward with his antitrust suit against the league, tweets Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com. The judge in the probate trial between Sterling and his wife can rule that Shelly Sterling’s sale of the team to Steve Ballmer would go forward even if Donald Sterling appeals, but such a ruling would be difficult to come by, Shelburne adds (on Twitter).
  • The Kings are among several teams that Dan Fegan, the agent for Omri Casspi, has spoken to, as Casspi tells Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee. Casspi, whom the Pelicans are likely to waive this month, added that he has interest in returning to Sacramento, where he played his first two NBA seasons.
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