- The Jazz are hosting six more players for pre-draft workouts today, the team announced (via Twitter). The list of participants: Josh Gray (LSU), Rosco Allen (Stanford), Tanner Plomb (West Point), Trey Lewis (Louisville), Brannen Greene (Kansas), and James Webb III (Boise State).
There is growing concern in the Grizzlies‘ front office that point guard Mike Conley might leave the team in free agency this summer, posts Ian Begley on ESPN Now. The 28-year-old will be the top point guard on the market after spending nine years in Memphis. Begley says Grizzlies part-owner Justin Timberlake will appear in a video presentation trying to convince Conley to remain with the team. Begley presents the item as possible good news for the Knicks, but it’s equally positive for all the teams planning to pursue Conley, and very negative for Memphis, which is hoping to keep the core of its perennial playoff team together. The Grizzlies still have the advantage of being able to offer Conley a five-year contract worth about $124MM, while other teams are limited to four years in the neighborhood of $92MM.
There’s more news from the Western Conference:
- The Suns will negotiate with 2014 first-round pick Bogdan Bogdanovic now that his Turkish League season is over, according to Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic. This is the last season that Bogdanovic would be required to sign a rookie contract that would give him a salary of about $5.7MM over four years. If he waits until next offseason, Bogdanovic is free to negotiate any amount, starting with his draft year’s rookie salary scale.
- A request for $22.7MM in public funding for renovations to Utah’s Vivant Arena was approved today by the Redevelopment Agency of Salt Lake City, writes Jasen Lee of The Deseret News. The money, which will be awarded though tax increment financing over the next 25 years, makes up 18% of the total cost of the proposed $125MM project. It will include safety and security improvements, heating and air conditioning upgrades, a new solar panel system and plaza, concession, seating and premium suite improvements.
- The Mavericks are planning a free agent camp June 22nd with Arnett Moultrie, Bobby Brown, Dominic McGuire and Nick Minnerath among the players invited, tweets Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. Thanasis Antetokounmpo, who played two games for the Knicks this season, also received an invitation but has not confirmed that he will attend the camp (Twitter link).
- The Spurs will hold a free agent camp Wednesday, Kennedy tweets, with Chris Copeland, Adonis Thomas, Victor Rudd, Scott Suggs, J.J. O’Brien and Darius Adams among those expected to attend.
- The Timberwolves have had workouts for several veteran free agents, including Jimmer Fredette, Phil Pressey, Marquis Teague, Ryan Boatright, Mike James, Ra’shad James, Mark Lyons and Aaron Craft, tweets international journalist David Pick.
If the Jazz have a little more injury luck and stay healthier in 2016/17, they should be in the mix for a playoff spot, so it will be interesting to see how the team fills out its roster this offseason. Assuming the club drafts a player with the 12th overall pick, Utah will have 12 guaranteed contracts on its books, but only about $58.5MM in guaranteed salary. That leaves plenty of cap flexibility to add a veteran or two, but the Jazz will have to be careful about investing long-term in any free agents. With Gordon Hayward potentially opting out in 2017, and Rudy Gobert and Trey Burke eligible for extensions as of July 1st, some key contributors will get much more expensive a year from now, so the team will likely be wary of adding long-term salary to its books this summer if it intends to keep those players around.
See how Utah’s cap situation looks for 2016/17 as Hoops Rumors continues its offseason salary cap digest series.
Guaranteed Salary
- Gordon Hayward ($16,073,140)
- Derrick Favors ($11,050,000)
- Alec Burks ($10,154,495)
- Dante Exum ($3,940,320)
- Trey Burke ($3,386,598)
- Tibor Pleiss ($3,000,000)
- Trey Lyles ($2,340,600)
- Joe Ingles ($2,150,000)
- Rudy Gobert ($2,121,287)
- Rodney Hood ($1,406,520)
- Raul Neto ($937,800)
- Total: $56,560,760
Player Options
- None
Team Options
- None
Non-Guaranteed Salary
- Shelvin Mack ($2,433,334)
- Chris Johnson ($1,050,961)
- Jeff Withey ($1,015,696)
- Total: $4,499,991
Restricted Free Agents (Qualifying Offers/Cap Holds)
- None
Unrestricted Free Agents (Cap Holds)
- Trevor Booker ($6,207,500)
- Total: $6,207,500
Other Cap Holds
- No. 12 pick ($1,931,900)
Projected Salary Cap: $92,000,000
The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.
Tyrell Corbin, son of former Jazz coach Tyrone Corbin, was among the participants in Utah’s free agent mini-camp this week, writes Jody Genessy of The Deseret News. It’s the fourth year for the camp, which GM Dennis Lindsey brought to the Jazz after experiencing similar sessions when he worked for the Spurs and Rockets. Thirteen players from the last three free agent mini-camps have either landed spots on an NBA roster or earned invitations to training camp. “It’s a chance for them to play in front of an NBA coaching staff and for us to get a look at them,” said Jazz director of pro player personnel David Friedman. “Last year, we had a kid by the name of Jonathon Simmons [in camp] just to give you an idea. He didn’t end up with us, but he ended up with the Spurs.”
The camp has an extra dimension this year because Utah has its own D-League team and will be looking for players to fill the roster. Along with Corbin, other prominent names at this week’s event included Preston Medlin, Spencer Butterfield, Dionte Christmas and Julian Mavunga. Greg Stiemsma, who has played for four NBA teams, was also in attendance, along with Argentinian prospect Nicolas Brussino.
There’s more news from the Northwest Division:
- The Jazz hosted a workout this morning, Genessy notes in the same piece. Attending were LSU’s Tim Quarterman, California-Santa Barbara’s Michael Bryson, Memphis’ Shaq Goodwin, Texas’ Isaiah Taylor, Oral Roberts’ Obi Emegano and French prospect Mathias Lessort.
- Utah is planning a $125MM renovation project at Vivant Arena, Genessy writes in a separate story. Larry H. Miller Sports & Entertainment will cover $102.3MM, and the franchise is hoping for $22.7MM from Salt Lake City’s Redevelopment Agency. The Jazz will submit their proposal to the agency this week.
- Washington’s Dejounte Murray will have a private workout with the Nuggets Monday afternoon, the team announced in a press release. The 6’5″ point guard has been rising on draft boards and is listed ninth on the latest list of 100 best prospects compiled by ESPN’s Chad Ford. Denver will hold a Monday morning workout for Bryson, Joe De Ciman of Colorado State, Patrick McCaw of Nevada-Las Vegas, Egidijus Mockevicius of Evansville, Abdel Nader of Iowa State and Chinanu Onuaku of Louisville.
- Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin is joining the effort to keep Kevin Durant with the Thunder, according to The Tulsa World. She is willing to offer the free agent forward a government job to get him to stay with Oklahoma City. “Oklahoma loves Kevin Durant and Kevin Durant loves Oklahoma,” Fallin said. “But if he’ll stay, I’ll make him a Cabinet person for health and fitness.”
Tyrone Corbin has emerged along with Mike Brown as the top candidates to be the lead assistant in Golden State next season, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Brown has been linked to the position before, but Corbin, a former teammate of Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, is a new name in the mix. (Twitter link).
Corbin is a former head coach with the Kings and Jazz and has been out of coaching since being relieved of his interim position with Sacramento when George Karl was hired in 2015. He has been working as an adviser to the Kings’ front office ever since.
Brown served as head coach of the Cavaliers and Lakers and has been out of coaching since Cleveland fired him after the 2013/14 season. Brown reportedly turned down an assistant’s position in Memphis last week.
The Warriors’ lead assistant job will be open once the NBA Finals are done and Luke Walton leaves to become head coach of the Lakers. He held the position in Golden State for one season, taking over when Alvin Gentry left to take the reins in New Orleans.
- Former Louisville small forward Damion Lee has participated in workouts for the Clippers, Celtics, Suns, Spurs, Wizards, Jazz and Raptors, plus, he has upcoming visits scheduled with the Mavericks and Thunder, Kennedy tweets.
- The Jazz held workouts today for Julian Jacobs (USC), Payton, Kyle Collinsworth (BYU), Dakarai Tucker (Utah), Alpha Kaba (France) and Denzel Valentine (Michigan State), the team announced.
The NBA’s relationship with the D-League continues to grow, and this season a total of 19 NBA teams had one-to-one affiliations with D-League clubs. Those NBA organizations without their own affiliates were required to assign players to D-League clubs associated with other NBA franchises. D-League teams could volunteer to take on the assigned players, and if no volunteers emerged, the players were assigned at random.
This significant change from the 2014/15 season came about after the Pacers purchased the Fort Wayne Mad Ants and turned them into their one-to-one partner for the 2015/16 campaign. Other NBA teams have interest in following suit in the years ahead, and the NBA’s ultimate goal for the D-League is for all 30 NBA franchises to have their own D-League squads. You can view the complete list of D-League affiliates here.
We at Hoops Rumors have been recapping the D-League-related activity for the 2015/16 campaign for each team and we’ll finish up with the Utah Jazz, whose D-League affiliate is the Idaho Stampede:
The Jazz made five assignments for the 2015/16 season, sending one player to the D-League for a total of 79 days. Listed below are all the assignments and recalls made by Utah for the 2015/16 campaign:
- November 30th: Assigned Tibor Pleiss (1st) — Recalled December 16th
- January 28th: Assigned Tibor Pleiss (2nd) — Recalled February 3rd
- February 4th: Assigned Tibor Pleiss (3rd) — Recalled February 7th
- February 18th: Assigned Tibor Pleiss (4th) — Recalled January 22nd
- February 24th: Assigned Tibor Pleiss (5th) — Recalled April 3rd
Here’s how Utah’s player(s) performed while on assignment to the D-League this season:
- Tibor Pleiss: In 28 appearances Pleiss averaged 12.3 points, 10.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 31.5 minutes per outing. His shooting line was .583/.316/.877.
Jazz combo guard Alec Burks underwent successful surgery on Wednesday to clean out debris in his left knee and ankle, the team announced. The 24-year-old is expected to be recovered in time for the start of training camp after averaging 13.3 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists in just 31 appearances this season. Burks, who still has three years and approximately $32.53MM remaining on the extension he inked in 2014, has struggled with injuries during his brief NBA career, also missing 55 games in 2014/15 due to shoulder woes.
- The Jazz released the full roster of participants at the free agent mini-camp they are holding this week and some notable attendees include Adonis Thomas, Greg Stiemsma, C.J. Fair and Jordan Bachynski.
- With Justin Zanik having left for Milwaukee, the Jazz are considering potential options to replace him as the assistant general manager in Utah. Aaron Falk of The Salt Lake Tribune has an update on the search, with quotes from GM Dennis Lindsey.
- Greg Stiemsma is among the participants at today’s Jazz free agent mini-camp, while Dwight Buycks and other free agents will work out at a Trail Blazers mini-camp, per Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter links).