Wizards Sign Toure’ Murry
SEPTEMBER 9TH, 10:57pm: Murry has signed with the Wizards, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (on Twitter).
AUGUST 28TH, 4:18pm: The Wizards have agreed to a deal with unrestricted free agent Toure’ Murry, J. Michael of CSNMid-Atlantic reports. The pact is a non-guaranteed training camp arrangement, Michael notes. The addition of the guard will give the Wizards a roster count of 17 players, 15 of whom possess fully guaranteed contracts, making it a longshot for Murry to make the opening night roster.
Murry had inked a one-year, $1MM contract with Utah last offseason, but it was only partially guaranteed, and he saw just one minute of action with the Jazz prior to his January release, much to the dismay of his agent, Bernie Lee. Murry later resurfaced on a pair of 10-day contracts with the Wizards, for whom he totaled six points in 17 minutes.
The Lakers had reportedly brought in Murry as part of a group workout held in Los Angeles earlier this month, though no contract offer came out of that showcase for the 25-year-old.
Wizards To Bring Ish Smith To Camp
SEPTEMBER 9TH, 10:56pm: The signing is official, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (via Twitter).
SEPTEMBER 8TH, 11:27am: The Wizards have a non-guaranteed pact with Ish Smith for training camp, reports Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post (Twitter link). Castillo also confirms an earlier report from J. Michael of CSNWashington.com that Washington will bring Toure’ Murry to camp on a non-guaranteed contract, too. Smith and Murry have already put pen to paper, according to Castillo, though the team has yet to make a formal announcement.
Washington also agreed to a non-guaranteed camp deal with undrafted UNC-Asheville center Jaleel Roberts, as Shams Charania reported at that point for RealGM, though Castillo refers to Roberts as a “possibility” for the Wizards (Twitter links). In any case, Smith, Murry and Roberts all seem to face long odds to make Washington’s roster, which includes 15 others who have fully guaranteed contracts.
Smith finished last season with the Sixers, and on a roster painfully short on point guard options, the five-year veteran had the most productive stretch of his career, averaging 12.0 points, 6.1 assists and 2.8 turnovers in 27.1 minutes per game across 25 appearances. He expressed interest at season’s end in a return to Philadelphia, but his unrestricted free agency this summer has been surprisingly quiet, with a lack of reports about any teams in pursuit. It’s possible that he was waiting on the Sixers, whose flurry of activity over Labor Day weekend left them with no more wiggle room for their camp roster, though that’s just my speculation.
The Raymond Brothers client signed a fully guaranteed contract for the minimum salary with the Rockets last summer, but Houston waived him before the start of the regular season. The Thunder added him as their 16th man via the hardship provision in November and kept him over Sebastian Telfair when they trimmed back down to 15 players. Oklahoma City nonetheless traded him to the Pelicans at the deadline, and New Orleans immediately released him. That’s when the Sixers jumped into the picture, claiming him off waivers two days later.
Do you think Ish Smith deserves to stick with the Wizards? If so, which of their 15 fully guaranteed contracts should go? Leave a comment to tell us.
Southeast Notes: Hawks, Beal, Frye, Heat
The Hawks have gone through several key changes since Bruce Levenson self-reported racially charged emails he’d sent and announced a year ago today that he was selling the team, as Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution recaps. Tony Ressler took over for Levenson as the principal owner, Mike Budenholzer assumed former GM Danny Ferry‘s responsibilities and received a promotion, and Tiago Splitter and Tim Hardaway Jr. replaced DeMarre Carroll and Pero Antic as key parts of the roster. The team now faces the challenge of improving upon a season that saw “the most remarkable on-court run in franchise history,” as Vivlamore puts it. While we wait to find out where the Hawks go from here, see more from the Southeast Division:
- Some people around the Wizards had questioned Bradley Beal‘s work ethic and whether he could become a great player, but the season that Paul Pierce spent in Washington helped Beal more than anyone else on the team, many Wizards insiders feel, reports Moke Hamilton of Basketball Insiders. Pierce opted out and signed with the Clippers, so it remains to be seen how Beal, whose extension candidacy I examined in depth Friday, will perform without the veteran mentor.
- Channing Frye put up his lowest numbers in five years this past season after signing a four-year, $32MM deal with the Magic, and while he started 51 games, the Magic insisted that they brought him in as more of a complementary player than as a starter, writes Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel. Next month, the 32-year-old Frye will try to hold off Aaron Gordon, who turns 20 in a few weeks, for a starting spot, but Frye would best serve the Magic in a reserve role that would emphasize his floor-stretching abilities, Schmitz believes.
- Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel won’t be surprised if the Heat open the regular season with only 14 players on the roster, though he contends in his mailbag column that the team faces depth issues.
Eastern Notes: Beal, Pacers, Celtics
Bradley Beal is a very talented player with a lot of upside and one who will receive a maximum deal from a different team if the Wizards don’t sign him to a max extension, Moke Hamilton of Basketball Insiders opines. Hamilton takes into account the expected rise in the league’s salary cap and suggests that Beal is likely worth a large contract because of the league’s current market. Our own Chuck Myron recently examined Beal’s extension candidacy. Ken Berger of CBSSports.com reported in May that the Wizards were committed to paying him the max, but talks didn’t really begin until mid-July, and the sides apparently met with conflicting desires.
Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:
- The Pacers, with depth in the frontcourt, don’t appear to be a good potential trade partner with the Suns for Markieff Morris, who issued a trade demand, Scott Agness of VigilantSports.com writes. The four-year, $32MM extension that Morris signed last fall kicks in for this coming season, but a lack of communication between Morris and the team indicates that the relationship will be extremely difficult to repair. For the Pacers, landing Morris would be worth looking into in exchange for a bench player and a second-round pick, Agness adds, but that package would likely not be enough to reel him in.
- The main problem with the Celtics heading into this season, Chris Forsberg of ESPN.com writes, is the team lacks an elite star. Forsberg compares this group of Celtics to last year’s Hawks and adds that although Atlanta had a remarkable season without a star, it ultimately ran out of gas without a big-time player.
Extension Candidate: Bradley Beal
It was somewhat surprising not to see Bradley Beal‘s name pop up alongside Anthony Davis and Damian Lillard when they agreed to max extensions on the first and second nights of free agency, respectively. After all, J. Michael of CSNMidAtlantic.com reported this past fall that Washington was planning a rookie scale extension for the former No. 3 overall pick, and Ken Berger of CBSSports.com reported in May that the Wizards were committed to paying him the max. Still, talks didn’t begin in earnest until mid-July, and the sides apparently met with conflicting desires.
The Wizards want non-guaranteed salary if they sign Beal for the maximum, while the Mark Bartelstein client would want a player option in any deal for less than the max, Michael reported this summer. Washington can’t sign him to a five-year extension, since the team already did so with John Wall, making him its Designated Player. So a player option would mean Beal could leave after three seasons of the deal, setting him up for unrestricted free agency in 2019, when he’d be 26 and the salary cap would be a projected $102MM, giving him the chance to reap more than he could at the back end of an extension that would start in 2016/17, when the cap is projected to be a relatively paltry $89MM. Max salaries rise and fall with the cap, so the higher the cap, the more Beal could earn. Plus, Beal would qualify for a higher maximum salary tier in 2019, when he’d be a seven-year veteran and thus eligible for a max equivalent to 30% of the cap, rather than the roughly 25% he could get now.
That presents an intriguing compromise if Beal would be willing to come off the max number, but it’s unclear just how much the Wizards would want him to sacrifice in that scenario. If they asked him to sign for no more than the current projection for his max salary of $20.4MM, a hedge against an unexpected rise that the Warriors made with Klay Thompson last fall, Beal could end up having made no financial concession at all if the projection is accurate. If Wizards GM Ernie Grunfeld and company want him to commit to a deal closer to the $16MM salaries that Jonas Valanciunas will see in the extension he signed with the Raptors last month, it would be easy to see why the sides haven’t come to an agreement.
Washington’s push for non-guaranteed money apparently stems from a concern over Beal’s history of injuries, though he’s avoided major issues and has missed only 26, 9 and 19 games the last three seasons, respectively. Beal could bet on himself and feel confident about his chances to collect on his full salary. Still, guaranteed contracts are de rigueur with core players, so Bartelstein may well have a desire not to set a precedent in that regard for his other clients.
Casting a shadow on the negotiations is the specter of Kevin Durant‘s free agency next summer. The Wizards certainly won’t be alone among teams seeking the former MVP, but they have a unique geographical advantage of playing in Washington, Durant’s hometown. An associate of Durant’s told Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald this summer that if the four-time scoring champ were to leave the Thunder, he would sign with the Wizards. Washington has clearly been preparing should Durant be so inclined, but an extension for Beal would complicate that effort.
The Wizards have nearly $33.5MM in guaranteed salaries for next season, though that doesn’t include a team option of almost $5.9MM on Otto Porter‘s rookie scale contract that Washington will almost certainly pick up. That accounts for four players, and they’d have to carry cap holds for eight more. At minimum, they could strip down to seven roster charges, which are cap holds that represent empty roster spots and are equal to the rookie minimum salary, plus Beal’s cap hold, which would be about $14.2MM if he doesn’t sign an extension.
Thus, barring trades or stretch provision maneuvers, the Wizards would carry no less than about $54.6MM on a projected $89MM cap for 2016/17. That would be enough to sign Durant to a max contract starting at the projected $24.9MM he’d be eligible for as a nine-year veteran next summer, with about $6.7MM in cap room to spare. Give Beal an extension for the max, which entails a projected starting salary of $20.4MM since he’ll be a four-year vet, and the Wizards would have just enough to squeeze in Durant at his max salary, but essentially no breathing room beyond that. Barring a higher than expected cap, Washington wouldn’t even have room to hang on to its first-round pick next year. The Wizards would have Durant, Beal, Wall, Porter Marcin Gortat, Kelly Oubre, whomever they could sign with the room exception and only minimum-salary additions from there. The Wizards would be able to sell Durant on a strong starting five, but they couldn’t promise any depth.
Instead, the Wizards could forgo an extension with Beal and sign him to a new deal next summer, much in the same way the Spurs put off a deal with Kawhi Leonard last fall to help clear cap space for their successful pursuit of LaMarcus Aldridge this year. The Wizards could spend freely while Beal’s cap hold stays at that $11.4MM figure, wooing Durant and supporting talent, and use Beal’s Bird rights to finally re-sign him once they’re finished scouring the market. Of course, such a strategy would require Beal’s cooperation, but the Wizards would have the ability to match offer from other teams, since he’d be a restricted free agent, and the July Moratorium buys Washington some time to negotiate with Durant and others before Beal could sign an offer sheet. The Wizards would have three days to match even if he signed an offer sheet the moment the moratorium ended, giving them plenty of time.
Beal is no doubt a sterling talent. His scoring average dipped this past season in part because he took fewer shots than the season before, but his shooting percentages, from behind the three-point line and from the floor as whole, improved. He was the ninth-most accurate three-point shooter in the league in 2014/15. His defense was so-so, as he was essentially break-even in Basketball-Reference’s Defensive Box Plus Minus and the 18th-best shooting guard in ESPN’s Defensive Real Plus Minus. Still, at only 22 and already an elite floor-stretcher, he offers enticing value.
It’s merely the context that should prevent the sides from reaching a deal this year. The Wizards have incentive to let this fall’s deadline pass because of Durant and all the other avenues they can pursue in free agency next July. They must be careful not to poison their relationship with Beal if they present too many reasons for not signing him, so it’s somewhat curious to see them bring up the notion of non-guaranteed money. Ultimately, the main reason for the team not to sign Beal is timing, and if Washington makes that clear to him and to Bartelstein, chances seem better that the sides will continue a fruitful partnership for years to come.
Do you think the Wizards should sign Beal to an extension, and if so, what sort of deal should they give him? Leave a comment to tell us.
Eastern Notes: J.R. Smith, Wizards, Contracts
J.R. Smith‘s new two-year contract with the Cavaliers has an unusual structure that includes partial guarantees for both this season and next, sources tell Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com (Twitter links). This year’s salary, worth $5MM, is guaranteed for only $2MM, and next year’s salary, a player option, has a $2.15MM partial guarantee on the full $5.4MM value, reports Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (All four Twitter links). However, this season’s salary becomes fully guaranteed if the team keeps him through Monday, Pincus adds. That’s almost certain to happen, but the reason that clause is in the contract is so that his 2016/17 salary can become fully guaranteed if he sticks on the roster through the same date next year, in a structure similar to the deal that Kostas Papanikolaou signed with the Rockets last year, Pincus explains. The Cavs formally announced Smith’s signing Wednesday, nearly two weeks after Smith revealed that he would be rejoining the team.
See more from around the Eastern Conference:
- Coach Randy Wittman likes the grit that Wizards camp signee Toure’ Murry has shown in the past, but the shooting guard will have to make quite a convincing case for the Wizards to keep him over one of the 15 players on their roster with a fully guaranteed contract, writes J. Michael of CSNMidAtlantic. Jaleel Roberts, the other Wizard with a non-guaranteed deal, won his training camp roster spot more so by his performance at Tim Grgurich’s private camp than through his play with the Wizards summer league squad, Michael hears. Still, Roberts is more likely to make the regular season roster in 2016/17, when the team will ostensibly have greater flexibility, than he is this year, according to Michael.
- Kelly Dwyer, Ben Rohrbach and Eric Freeman of Yahoo! Sports weighed in on which 2015 NBA draftee ended up in the best situation to succeed next season. Dwyer chose the Knicks‘ Kristaps Porzingis, while Rohrbach tabbed Justise Winslow of the Heat, and Freeman’s pick was the Nuggets’ Emmanuel Mudiay.
- The Cavs had possessed one of the most tradeable contracts in the league in Brendan Haywood‘s non-guaranteed pact, which they had dealt to the Blazers at the end of July. Pincus, in a separate post, ran down some of the most desirable trade chip contracts around the NBA , including Amir Johnson and Jonas Jerebko of the Celtics, the Wizards‘ Kris Humphries and Martell Webster, as well as Ersan Ilyasova‘s deal with the Pistons.
Eddie Scarito contributed to this post.
Doc Rivers On Pierce, Allen, Celtics, Magic
Doc Rivers believes Paul Pierce‘s choice in free agency came down to the Clippers and the Celtics, as the Clippers coach/executive said Wednesday and as Jay King of MassLive.com relays. That would mean the Wizards, with whom Pierce spent last season, finished no better than third.
“I think he wanted to go one of two places. He wanted to come back [to Boston] or he wanted to finish his career at home where he grew up, and I think it’s really cool for me that I can be a part of that,” Rivers said.
Those comments came while Rivers was in Boston for a charity function, so location perhaps played a role. Regardless, Rivers had plenty more to say about Pierce, the Clippers, the Celtics, and other topics, as we’ll round up here:
- Pierce, who signed with the Clippers for the full value of the taxpayer’s mid-level exception, was the team’s priciest free agent addition, but Rivers said he’ll use him judiciously, notes Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com. Rivers isn’t guaranteeing a starting spot for the 17-year veteran who turns 38 next month. “Paul will be great. Paul, I don’t want to overuse him. I know that,” Rivers said. “So, I don’t even know how we are going to use him yet. I want to play him at [power forward] a lot. What I want him to be is healthy in the playoffs. So however we can figure that out, that’s what I’m going to try to do.”
- Rivers said he and Ray Allen recently played golf, but the Clippers executive added that he didn’t try to convince Allen to sign with the team, tweets Scott Souza of the MetroWest Daily News. The Clips were one of several teams that reportedly attempted to lure Allen this past season, when the shooting guard instead lingered in free agency.
- Rivers said the collective trust the Celtics players had in coach Brad Stevens was readily apparent after last season’s flurry of trades, Souza also observed (Twitter link). An ESPN panel recently tabbed Stevens as Boston’s No. 1 reason for optimism about the C’s.
- The Magic, another of Rivers’ former teams, have a shot to make the playoffs this year, Rivers said earlier Wednesday in an appearance on Mike Bianchi’s Open Mike radio show on 740 The Game in Orlando, as Bianchi transcribes in the Orlando Sentinel. Rivers praised new coach Scott Skiles. “I think he’s a wonderful coach,” Rivers said. “I think he was a great choice for the franchise. I think people will be surprised with how well they do this year.”
Eastern Notes: Cherry, Pistons, Wittman
Unrestricted free agent Will Cherry has officially signed with the German club Alba Berlin, the team announced (translation by Emiliano Carchia of Sportando). International journalist David Pick first reported the team’s interest and Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports was the first to relay that a signing was imminent. Cherry played in Lithuania last season after he was waived by the Cavaliers. The point guard saw action in eight games while with Cleveland and averaged 1.9 points, 1.0 assist and 0.8 steals in 8.6 minutes per contest.
Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:
- Stan Van Gundy wanted to hire a shooting coach for his first season with the Pistons, but he didn’t get around to it until this summer, when he brought on Dave Hopla, who’s wasted no time getting to work, writes Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. Hopla is working with extension candidate Andre Drummond and others and using analytics to enhance their strokes, as Langlois chronicles.
- Justise Winslow, who was selected No. 10 overall by the Heat in this year’s draft, blew away team executives during the predraft interview process, Zach Lowe of Grantland relays. The swingman was projected by a number of mock drafts to be a potential top five selection, but he surprisingly fell to Miami with the final pick in the top 10 this past June.
- The Wizards will have to make a tough decision regarding whether or not coach Randy Wittman is the right man to continue leading the franchise on the court, J. Michael of CSNMid-Atlantic writes. Wittman, who owns a 137-158 record overall with Washington, is entering the second season of his three-year pact, and his contract is only partially guaranteed for the 2016/17 campaign, Michael notes.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Southeast Notes: Wizards, Harris, Heat
Lang Greene of Basketball Insiders wonders if this is the year that the Wizards reach the Eastern Conference finals and take their seat among the conference elites. Greene believes Otto Porter’s development will be crucial for the success of the team this season. Washington failed to sign Paul Pierce, who opted to sign a three year deal worth approximately $10MM with the Clippers, leaving Porter to take on a bigger role with the team. New acquisition Jared Dudley should help to ease the burden, but the 30-year-old is recovering from offseason back surgery and is expected to miss nearly a month of the regular season. The Wizards also added Alan Anderson and Gary Neal via free agency and the duo should help boost the team’s bench unit.
Here’s more from the Southeast Division:
- The Magic’s new four-year, $64MM deal with Tobias Harris makes him the team’s highest-paid player, and the team will call upon him to score in the clutch, putting him under the microscope like never before, writes Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel. Harris, who cares about the way others perceive him, will have to deal with plenty of criticism based on how he performs, Schmitz adds.
- The Heat shouldn’t need as much from Dwyane Wade on the offensive end as they have in past seasons because of the team’s offseason moves, Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sentinel writes in his weekly mailbag. Miami re-signed starting point guard Goran Dragic to a five-year deal worth $85MM. The team also added Gerald Green and Amar’e Stoudemire in free agency.
Eddie Scarito contributed to this post.
Wizards, Kings, Clippers Interested In Ryan Hollins
2:55pm: The Wizards and Kings have also had conversations with the Hollins camp, Turner clarifies, citing a source (Twitter link).
2:41pm: The Clippers and representatives for Hollins spoke today, though a deal isn’t happening, Turner tweets. Presumably, Turner means that a deal isn’t happening at the moment, rather than that a deal won’t happen at all.
10:36am: The Kings and Clippers maintain interest in signing nine-year veteran Ryan Hollins, and the Wizards are also eyeing him, a source told Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Spears reported Sacramento’s interest in re-signing the Todd Ramasar client in early July, around the time Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times heard that the Clippers had conversations about reuniting with Hollins, who previously spent two seasons with the team.
The Clips didn’t make an offer at that point, Turner said then, and it’s unclear if any team has put a deal on the table for Hollins yet. He’s also reportedly received interest from the Mavericks and Pelicans along the way, though neither team has been connected to him for more than a month.
Hollins, who turns 31 in October, would appear to have an easier path to a regular season roster spot with the Kings or Clippers than he would with the Wizards, barring trade activity. Sacramento and L.A. have 14 full guarantees apiece while Washington has 15 and apparently isn’t offering partially guaranteed money to its camp invitees. Still, he faces competition, as the Kings were reportedly eyeing Hedo Turkoglu late last month while reports continue to show the Clippers have interest in re-signing Glen Davis.
The Kings signed him to a one-year, minimum-salary contract in 2014, and that would seem to be the sort of deal he’d command this time around, too. He averaged 3.0 points and 2.2 rebounds in 9.6 minutes per game this past season.
Where do you think Hollins ends up? Leave a comment to tell us.