Utah Jazz Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Nets Waive Deron Williams In Buyout

July 11th, 2015 at 2:33pm CST by Chuck Myron

SATURDAY, 2:33pm: The Nets have waived Williams, the team announced in a press release.

5:22pm: It appears that Brooklyn will waive Williams using the stretch provision, and he will receive $27.5MM spread out over five years from the team, Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com tweets. This means that Williams will count as roughly $5.5MM against the salary cap through the 2019/20 season for the Nets.

4:13pm: The point guard’s buyout is expected to drop the value of his contract to the $25-$30MM range, Stein tweets.

4:05pm: Williams is expected to sign a two-year deal with the Mavericks in the $10MM range after he clears waivers, Marc Stein of ESPN.com tweets.

4:01pm: The Nets and Williams have reached an agreement on a buyout arrangement, David Aldridge of TNT reports (on Twitter). The details of the agreement are not yet known.

8:46am: Sources who spoke with Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News this past season believed that he wanted to leave the Nets so much that he would opt out a year from now (Twitter link). The early termination option on Williams’ contract for 2016/17 is worth more than $22.331MM. Meanwhile, the Nets haven’t been pleased with the point guard’s attitude or declining production, notes Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com (on Twitter).

2:44am: The Nets have opened buyout talks with Deron Williams, and the point guard holds a strong mutual interest in signing with the Mavericks if he becomes a free agent this summer, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. One source who spoke to Stein gave it a 60-70% chance that the Jeff Schwartz client ends up with Dallas.

Williams was the prime target of the Mavs three years ago, when he was a free agent, but the Dallas-area native eschewed a homecoming for a more lucrative contract with the Nets. The Mavs aren’t pursuing a trade for Williams because of the expense of the two years and nearly $43.374MM remaining on that deal, sources told Stein.

Brooklyn had been trying to trade Williams, notes Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com (on Twitter), most notably to the Kings, but the Nets didn’t want to give up Mason Plumlee and no deal to came to fruition out of those talks this past season. Plumlee fell out of favor with the Nets later in the season, and Brooklyn traded him last month. The Kings are no longer believed to have interest in Williams now that they’re set to sign Rajon Rondo, Stein writes. As unsuccessful trade efforts persisted, higher-ups in the Nets organization had been giving thought to a buyout, as Mazzeo also writes in his tweet. The Nets don’t want to simply waive Williams and eat the entire contract, and even using the stretch provision to spread the money over five years doesn’t hold appeal, as GM Billy King has said and as Stein notes.

King said Thursday morning that his team would probably make moves designed to bring its payroll, which Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders estimates to have $95MM worth of guaranteed salary, beneath the $84.74MM tax line or to a smaller margin above it. Still, King said this morning that he expects Williams and Joe Johnson will be on the Nets roster when the season begins.

Stein has heard “steady rumblings” in recent weeks that a return to the Jazz is a possibility for Williams, but the 10-year veteran would prefer the Mavs, in part because of the presence of ex-Jazz teammate Wesley Matthews, Stein adds. Williams would fill the need at point guard in Dallas, though he’s not nearly the star that he was when the Mavs chased him three years ago.

Northwest Notes: Connaughton, Huestis, Singler

July 10th, 2015 at 11:34pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Josh Huestis has no regrets about making a D-League arrangement with the Thunder last season, Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman writes. “I think it was a great decision,” Huestis told Mayberry. “I think it was the best decision that I could make in terms of my own career. I think having an opportunity to play in the D-League for a year has really taught me a lot and has prepared me to move forward in my career. And I think if I had to make the decision again I would make the exact same one.”

The forward’s verbal arrangement with the Thunder should have him in line for a roster spot this season, but OKC currently doesn’t have an opening for Huestis, Mayberry notes. Also complicating matters is the torn right pectoral muscle the player suffered eight weeks ago while working out, the Oklahoman scribe adds.

Here’s more out of the NBA’s Northwest Division:

The Trail Blazers gave Pat Connaughton, the 41st overall pick in this year’s draft, a three-year, $2.5MM deal. It’s worth $625,100 this season, about $100K more than the rookie minimum. The third season is non-guaranteed at the minimum, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders relays (Twitter link). Pincus doesn’t say if it’s worth more than the minimum in year two, but if it’s like most contracts for second-round picks, it’s not.
The 2016 second-rounder headed to the Thunder in the Jeremy Lamb trade is bottom-five protected, and it would be unprotected for 2017, RealGM shows.
Kyle Singler‘s five-year deal with the Thunder is worth $24.3MM, though the fifth year is non-guaranteed, Pincus tweets.
The Jazz are giving Raul Neto $840K this season, about $315K more than the minimum, as a part of three-year deal. He’s in line for slightly more than the minimum in year two and a non-guaranteed minimum salary in year three, for a total of $2.7MM, as Pincus relays (on Twitter).

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Jazz Re-Sign Joe Ingles

July 10th, 2015 at 2:34pm CST by Chuck Myron

FRIDAY, 2:34pm: The deal is official, the team announced.

MONDAY, 6:17pm: The Jazz are finalizing a deal with Joe Ingles, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (on Twitter). The sides have reached agreement on a pact worth $4.5MM over two years, Wojnarowski adds (Twitter link), a raise on the minimum salary he made this past season as a rookie. The move can’t become official until Thursday at the earliest, since the July Moratorium still holds.

It’s no surprise to see the sides agree to terms, since they had mutual interest in a continued partnership as the regular season ended, according to Gordon Monson of The Salt Lake Tribune. Utah made a qualifying offer to make him a restricted free agent and reached out to him as soon as the free agent negotiating period began July 1st.

Ingles will see more than his Non-Bird rights would have provided him, so Utah will either have to use cap space or the $2.814MM room exception to accommodate his deal. The two-year length of the contract means he’ll again be eligible for restricted free agency in 2017.

The Jazz nabbed the Bradley Ames client off waivers from the Clippers at the start of this past season. Clippers president Doc Rivers said he’d wanted to re-sign Ingles after he cleared waivers, but he never got a chance to do so. Instead, the 27-year-old Australian, who’ll turn 28 in October, spent his first NBA season in Utah after several years playing in Europe.

Northwest Rumors: Kanter, Aldridge, Matthews

July 10th, 2015 at 9:58am CST by Chuck Myron

Thunder GM Sam Presti said shortly before receiving official notice of Portland’s max offer sheet to Enes Kanter that he intended to match any offer for him and had planned in advance for the sort of offer sheet to which the Trail Blazers signed the big man, as Presti told The Oklahoman’s Anthony Slater. Presti added that Kanter, during a meeting with the Thunder on Tuesday, had expressed a desire to remain in Oklahoma City. The Thunder have until Sunday to follow through and exercise their right to pull their prize trade deadline acquisition back to OKC. Here’s more from around the Northwest Division:

Other teams simply weren’t interested in doing sign-and-trades for LaMarcus Aldridge and Wesley Matthews, according to Blazers GM Neil Olshey, as Mike Tokito of The Oregonian relays (on Twitter). Aldridge and Matthews have officially signed outright with the Spurs and Mavericks, respectively.
Olshey also said that an extension for Meyers Leonard was a subject of discussion but made it clear that he wants the former lottery pick around for the long term, Tokito tweets. It’s unclear if the Blazers are having internal conversations about an extension or have begun talks with Leonard’s reps at the Creative Artists Agency. The sides have until October 31st to sign a rookie scale extension or Leonard will be set for restricted free agency next summer.
The Blazers renounced their Non-Bird rights to Alonzo Gee, among other players who’ve since signed elsewhere or have already retired, notes Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link).
The Jazz have arranged to pay the maximum $625K toward the buyout of draft-and-stash prospect Tibor Pleiss from his contract with Barcelona of Spain, as José Ignacio Huguet of Mundo Deportivo reports (translation via Rick Saldaña; hat tip to Aaron Falk of The Salt Lake Tribune). Pleiss traveled to Utah and engaged in contract talks with the Jazz, though his trip ended before a deal could be struck, notes Jody Genessy of the Deseret News (Twitter link). Still, Pleiss and the Jazz maintain mutual interest, according to Genessy (on Twitter).

Western Notes: Aldridge, Chandler, Booker

July 9th, 2015 at 11:27pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Blazers executive Neil Olshey said the team found out LaMarcus Aldridge was signing with the Spurs after his second meeting with San Antonio on July 3rd, Mike Tokito of The Oregonian writes. Olshey also took offense to the suggestion that he and the Blazers were trying to hide Aldridge’s pending departure from fans and the media, calling it “patently false,” Tokito adds. “More than anything, what was the upside to lying? What? What did we buy? Five days of peace? I can guarantee you there was no peace,” Olshey said. “What was our motivation to lie for 96 hours? It wasn’t like there was some big season ticket holder push during that 96 hours. There wasn’t some sponsorship that was up, it wasn’t that we were recruiting some other free agents that were only going to come if LaMarcus was going to be here.”

Here’s more out of the Western Conference:

Olshey also fielded questions regarding whether or not the team considered trading Aldridge last season, Tokito tweets. The GM relayed that it would have been extremely difficult to trade Aldridge in final year of his contract, and that teams wouldn’t be willing to deal for the forward without knowing if he’d re-sign with them, Tokito adds.
The Mavericks have expressed interest in former Wizards big man Kevin Seraphin, Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops reports (Twitter link).
The Suns are thrilled with their signing of center Tyson Chandler to a free agent deal, Matt Petersen of NBA.com writes. “The first thing I think of when I think of Tyson Chandler is a winner and winning,” GM Ryan McDonough said. “His teams in New York won a lot. His teams in Dallas won a lot, including a championship. The World Championship [with USA Basketball] in Istanbul when I was there five years ago won the gold. He’s always won everywhere he’s gone.”
The Blazers have promoted Jim Moran to assistant coach to replace the recently fired Kim Hughes, Joe Freeman of The Oregonian tweets.
The Jazz are likely to keep Trevor Booker on the roster for next season, Tony Jones of The Salt Lake Tribune relays (on Twitter). Only $250k of the $4,775,000 Booker is set to earn in 2015/16 is guaranteed.

Jazz Sign Raul Neto

July 9th, 2015 at 8:47pm CST by Chuck Myron

8:47pm: The deal is for three years and $2.8MM, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports tweets.

THURSDAY, 8:18pm: The Jazz have officially signed Neto to a multiyear contract, the team announced. The exact length and amount of the agreement were not released.

TUESDAY, 11:04am: Jazz draft-and-stash prospect Raul Neto isn’t expected to return to Murcia of Spain and will instead sign with Utah, his coach told David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). It’s unclear if the Jazz and the 23-year-old have agreed to terms, but Neto traveled to Utah this weekend and he and the team were to discuss their future, as Jody Genessy of the Deseret News details, and he was already wearing team gear as of last night, Genessy tweets.

The 6’1″ Neto is speedy, with a high basketball IQ, but his outside shooting is poor, according to Pick (Twitter link). The native of Brazil nailed just 20.5% of his three-pointers this past season in Spain, and he averaged 8.9 points, 3.9 assists and 2.7 turnovers in 22.4 minutes per game.

The Jazz originally acquired his rights via trade in 2013, the day after the Hawks drafted him 47th overall. His contract with Murcia was to run though 2017, but it would appear as though the deal includes NBA out clauses. It’s unclear how much cost, if any, would be involved in a buyout from the Spanish team.

Utah has plenty of cap flexibility, even if the wake of its two-year, $4.5MM deal with Joe Ingles. The Jazz entered July with only about $49MM in guaranteed salary. They’ve also reportedly been in talks with draft-and-stash center Tibor Pleiss.

Atlantic Notes: Saric, Kaun, Jason Smith, Carroll

July 8th, 2015 at 10:58am CST by Chuck Myron

The Sixers apparently wanted to bring Dario Saric over for 2015/16, and Saric shared that desire, reports David Pick, writing for Basketball Insiders. However, the No. 12 pick in the 2014 draft doesn’t have a way to escape his contract with Turkey’s Anadolu Efes until next year. Saric was circumspect when Pick asked him about the idea of coming stateside and the situation with his overseas team.

“It’s really hard for me to answer that,” Saric said. “I can’t comment. I think I’m ready to compete in the NBA, against the best players, but we built a great team in Efes and I want to help the club win a championship.”

In any case, it would seem that Saric is anxious to sign with the Sixers as soon as he can, rather than wait until 2017, when he wouldn’t be bound by the rookie scale, though that’s just my observation. Here’s more from around the Atlantic Division:

The most recent talks the Nets have had with the Cavaliers were about Cleveland draft-and-stash center Sasha Kaun, not Joe Johnson, as Chris Mannix of SI.com reports as part of a larger piece. The Nets and Kaun, a 6’11” 30-year-old, have had mutual interest for some time, tweets Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork.com. The Spurs have also reportedly talked to the Cavs about him. The Johnson discussion is reportedly dormant.
The Knicks offered their $2.814MM room exception to Jason Smith, but he turned it down for more money from the Magic, writes Marc Berman of the New York Post. New York could have offered as much as $3,933,600 via Non-Bird rights, but agent Mark Bartelstein made it clear there are no hard feelings, as Berman relays. “The Knicks made a great attempt to try to keep him,’’ Bartelstein said.
Soon-to-be Raptors signee DeMarre Carroll authored an homage to the Hawks, his former team, in The Players’ Tribune, giving credit to a handful of figures, especially former Hawks assistant Quin Snyder, who’s now head coach of the Jazz.
New Raptors D-League one-to-one affiliate Raptors 905 has named Dan Tolzman as its GM and Jesse Mermuys its head coach and assistant GM, the team announced. Both were already employed within the Raptors organization.

Western Rumors: Durant, Cauley-Stein, Lee, Suns

July 8th, 2015 at 10:02am CST by Chuck Myron

The Mavericks believe they’re legitimate contenders for Kevin Durant next summer, buoyed as they are by their agreements to sign DeAndre Jordan and Wesley Matthews, reports Chris Mannix of SI.com. Of course, they’ll have plenty of competition, as many teams will no doubt line up for a chance at the player atop the 2016 free agent class. The Wizards have reportedly loomed as the top threat to the Thunder for the former MVP. Here’s more from around the Western Conference:

One lottery team took Willie Cauley-Stein off its board completely over concerns about his surgically repaired left ankle, while another two teams cleared him, but “just barely,” according to Mannix, who writes in the same piece. The Kings drafted Cauley-Stein sixth overall.
The Warriors didn’t have any option of moving David Lee for no salary in return when they agreed to take on Gerald Wallace from the Celtics, according to Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group. The trade agreement nonetheless shrinks Golden State’s projected outlay from nearly $150MM in combined payroll and tax payments to about $128MM, Kawakami writes.
Suns coach Jeff Hornacek knows and likes Derrick Favors from his time as a Jazz assistant coach, but Utah is firm in its position to keep the power forward, writes Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic, suggesting that Phoenix is more likely to make a major addition via trade than free agency at this point. Speculation linking the Suns to Ryan Anderson doesn’t seem likely to bear fruit, Coro adds.
The Thunder met with free agent Keith Appling on Tuesday, a visit that could lead to a training camp invitation, according to Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press. The former Michigan State point guard was with the Lakers for preseason this past fall.

Jazz Sign Trey Lyles

July 7th, 2015 at 6:50pm CST by Chuck Myron

6:50pm: The Jazz have officially signed Lyles, the team announced.

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

4:06pm: Trey Lyles, this year’s No. 12 overall pick, has agreed to sign his rookie scale contract with the Jazz, reports TNT’s David Aldridge (Twitter link). That a first-round pick would do so is not usually news, as the existence of the rookie scale usually resolves all meaningful negotiation, but the sides had been struggling to hash out details, as GM Dennis Lindsey acknowledged. The Jazz still haven’t made any formal announcement. The Jazz are giving him four years at $10.4MM, according to Aldridge, who appears to be rounding up from $10,386,049, which is 120% of his scale amount and the most Utah can pay.

Utah could have paid the Rich Paul client as little as 80% of rookie scale, but that would be highly unusual for a lottery pick. Lindsey suggested that the hangup had to do with cap holds, and indeed, many teams with the flexibility to open cap room wait to sign their first-round picks. The Jazz entered July with about $49MM in guaranteed salary and have since reportedly struck a two-year, $4.5MM deal with Joe Ingles, and apparently are poised to sign draft-and-stash point guard Raul Neto, too. The cap hold for Lyles will jump from $1,866,500 to $2,239,800 when he signs for 120% of the rookie scale, so the Jazz would retain a touch of financial flexibility if they wait.

Lyles hasn’t participated in any summer league games or practices for the Jazz so far, likely a matter of consternation as Utah revives its in-house summer league this year. It’s not uncommon for draftees to appear in summer league games even before they sign.

Just how the combo forward’s game will translate to the NBA remains a mystery, as Arthur Hill of Hoops Rumors wrote in his prospect profile of one of the many University of Kentucky players in this year’s draft. Still, he has an intriguing mid-range game and was the ninth-best prospect this year, according to Chad Ford of ESPN.com. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress ranked him 18th. Eddie Scarito of Hoops Rumors had him going 13th in his last mock draft.

Jazz, Tibor Pleiss In Contract Talks

July 7th, 2015 at 3:50pm CST by Eddie Scarito

JULY 7TH, 3:50pm: The discussion appears to be moving in a positive direction, according to Aaron Falk of The Salt Lake Tribune, who’d be surprised if the sides don’t reach a deal (Twitter link).

JULY 1ST, 12:37am: The Jazz are engaged in contract talks with German draft-and-stash center Tibor Pleiss, Jody Genessy of The Deseret News reports (Twitter link). The two sides are discussing contract structure, and Utah’s intent is for the big man to play in the NBA during the 2015/16 campaign. Utah acquired the rights to the 25-year-old from the Thunder in the trade for Enes Kanter.

Pleiss wasn’t satisfied with his role for Barcelona this past season, as David Pick of Eurobasket.com relayed, and his discontent there appeared to be a factor when Pleiss and the Jazz were reportedly in talks about a deal this past season. Utah is in need of frontcourt depth behind Rudy Gobert, and Pleiss could fit the bill on that front.

The 7’2″ center appeared in 58 contests split between the Euroleague and Liga ACB this past season. Pleiss notched averages of 5.9 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 0.6 blocks in 13.8 minutes per game. His career stats are 7.8 PPG, 5.0 RPG, and 0.8 BPG, with a slash line of .574/.381/.811.