Teams will begin training camps at the end of the month, meaning there are only a few weeks left before offseason becomes preseason in the NBA. Traditionally, that's led to more player movement in September than in August, and some significant deals have gone down in Septembers past. That wasn't the case in 2011 because of the lockout, but here are some of the transactions from years past that can give you an idea of what to expect over the next 30 days.
2010
- September 30th: Joakim Noah agrees to a five-year, $60MM extension with the Bulls — Chicago ended an active offseason by locking up their young defensive stalwart at center long-term and keeping him from restricted free agency in 2011. The deal likely saved the Bulls quite a bit, considering Marc Gasol signed for four years and $57.5MM and DeAndre Jordan got four years and $43.04MM as restricted free agents last year.
- September 24th: Andray Blatche signs a five-year, $35.73MM extension with the Wizards — Career highs of 16.8 points and 8.2 rebounds seemed to justify the move in 2010/11, but last year's drastic regression to 8.5 PPG and 5.8 RPG led the Wizards to use the amnesty clause to waive Blatche this summer, less than halfway into the extension. Blatche seems likely to be a part of another September transaction this year, as he's drawing interest from a handful of teams, including the Nets, as we heard today.
2009
- September 22nd: Raymond Felton signs a one-year, $5.5MM qualifying offer from the Bobcats — Felton helped the Bobcats to the only playoff appearance in franchise history that year, but the team's inability to get him to sign long-term allowed him to bolt to the Knicks the following summer for a two-year, $14.56MM deal.
- September 4th: Ramon Sessions signs a four-year, $16.445MM offer sheet from the Timberwolves. The Bucks decline to match — His departure cleared the way for Brandon Jennings in Milwaukee, while the Timberwolves seemed to quickly develop buyer's remorse, shipping Sessions to the Cavs after just one season. The final year of the contract was a player option worth $4.552MM, though Sessions might regret his decision not to opt in and stay with the contending Lakers this summer, as he'll wind up making only slightly more money this season with the woeful Bobcats.
2008
- September 29th: Francisco Garcia signs a five-year, $29.6MM extension with the Kings — Sacramento shackled itself long-term to a player whose scoring, rebounding and assists-per-game averages have declined each season of the extension, which kicked in with the 2009/10 season. He's put up only 7.5 PPG, 2.3 RPG and 1.1 APG in 20.9 MPG over the life of the extension, which still has one more season left on it plus a $6.4MM team option that the Kings will almost certainly not exercise.
- September 22nd: Goran Dragic signs a four year, $7.616MM deal with the Suns — The Suns brought aboard the Slovenian point guard whose rights they had acquired from the Spurs after San Antonio took him 45th overall in the 2008 draft. Dragic quickly established himself as a solid backup to Steve Nash, and when the Suns withdrew their qualifying offer to Aaron Brooks this summer to clear the way for Dragic to return, they more or less acknowledged the mistake they made when they traded Dragic for Brooks in 2011.