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Top Distributors Still On The Market

August 7th, 2013 at 4:57pm CST by Luke Adams

Over the last week, we've been focusing on free agents who specialize in a particular aspect of the game, whether that's scoring, rebounding, defense, or something else. Already, we've examined the top scorers, the top three-point shooters, and the top rebounders still available in free agency. Now, let's turn our attention to the top distributors on the market.

These guys aren't exactly Chris Paul, or even Mo Williams, who reached an agreement to sign with the Trail Blazers earlier today. But for a team looking for an inexpensive addition who can share the ball well, these guys are worth checking out.

Listed below are the top 15 remaining free agents by assist rate (a percentage of their team's baskets they assisted while on the floor). Their assist rate for 2012/13 is listed in parentheses. To qualify, these players must have averaged at least 10 minutes per game and appeared in at least 20 contests in '12/13.

  1. Dominique Jones (36.2%)
  2. Jamaal Tinsley (34.1%)
  3. Beno Udrih (32.3%)
  4. Luke Walton (28.7%)
  5. A.J. Price (26.4%)
  6. Mike James (23.7%)
  7. Jeremy Pargo (23.0%)
  8. Chris Duhon (22.8%)
  9. Jannero Pargo (22.8%)
  10. Rodrigue Beaubois (22.6%)
  11. Richard Hamilton (19.9%)
  12. Terrence Williams (19.7%)
  13. Leandro Barbosa (19.0%)
  14. Darius Morris (16.8%)
  15. Daniel Gibson (13.4%)

Honorable mention:

  • Diante Garrett (31.3%) and Nolan Smith (19.9%) would have made the above list had they earned more playing time. Garrett only averaged 7.8 minutes per game in 19 contests, while Smith played 7.2 MPG for the season.
  • Damien Wilkins (12.9%) and James Johnson (10.2%) were among the players who missed the cut, while guys like Delonte West and Keyon Dooling have solid career assist rates, but weren't on NBA rosters for most of 2012/13.
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Sean May, Others Worked Out For Knicks

August 7th, 2013 at 4:41pm CST by Luke Adams

4:41pm: The workout list just keeps on growing, as Jared Zwerling of ESPNNewYork.com tweets that a Lithuanian big man participated as well. It's not clear who exactly the player was.

12:37pm: Wojnarowski adds one more name to the list of players working out for the Knicks today, tweeting that Lester Hudson was also in attendance.

11:18am: D.J. White is the third member of the group working out for the Knicks today, tweets Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com.

11:02am: Former lottery pick Sean May is working out for the Knicks today, a source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). A report yesterday suggested that Bobby Brown and two other players would work out for the Knicks this week, so May appears to be one of those players. The third is also a big man, according to Jared Zwerling of ESPNNewYork.com (via Twitter).

May, 29, was selected 13th overall by the Bobcats in the 2005 draft. However, the UNC product ended up only playing a total of 119 NBA games with Charlotte and Sacramento, most recently in 2009/10, before heading overseas. In 2012/13, May played for Paris-Levallois, averaging 18.4 PPG and 7.8 RPG in 29 French League contests.

The Knicks recently added another big man to their frontcourt by signing Jeremy Tyler to a partially-guaranteed two-year contract. The team still has a pair of open roster spots though, and also has plenty of room to bring in players on training-camp invites.

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Mavericks Sign DeJuan Blair

August 7th, 2013 at 3:52pm CST by Luke Adams

AUGUST 7TH, 3:52pm: The Mavericks have officially signed Blair, the team announced today in a press release.

JULY 31ST, 9:15pm: For the second time in as many days, Blair has taken to Twitter to announce he has signed with the Mavs.  While Blair's tweet indicates that it is official this time around, neither the team nor its beat writers have confirmed the deal. 

JULY 30TH, 10:04pm: ESPNNY.com's Jared Zwerling is reporting that a deal between Blair and the Mavericks has yet to happen. 

6:45pm: The Mavericks and DeJuan Blair have reached an agreement on a new deal. After ESPN.com's Marc Stein reported earlier today that the two sides were in serious talks, Blair himself broke the news via his Twitter account. Dwain Price from the Star-Telegram tweeted that the contract will be a one-year deal at $1.4MM, though if it's a minimum-salary deal, as expected, its value will be closer to $948K.

Blair's deal with the Mavs is the latest move in a busy offseason for the club. Although Dallas missed out on its top target, Dwight Howard, the team has used its cap space to add several free agents, including Jose Calderon, Monta Ellis, Samuel Dalembert, Gal Mekel, and Wayne Ellington. The Mavericks also re-signed Brandan Wright and Bernard James, and are on track to finalize a contract with ex-Mav Devin Harris.

Blair, 24, has spent the first four seasons of his NBA career with the Spurs, but saw his role reduced as Tiago Splitter emerged as a productive rotation player for the team. After he averaged 8.5 PPG, 6.4 RPG, and a 17.5 PER in his first three years, Blair's rates fell to 5.4 PPG, 3.8 RPG, and a 14.6 PER in 2012/13. As Kennedy tweets, the Happy Walters client looks poised to see a boost in playing time in Dallas, as part of a frontcourt that also features Dirk Nowitzki, Wright, James, and Jae Crowder.

The signing of Blair likely means the Mavs won't end up landing Greg Oden, who is drawing interest from several teams, most of whom can offer a larger salary than Dallas can.

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Eastern Notes: Knicks, Pistons, Bucks, Heat

August 7th, 2013 at 2:51pm CST by Luke Adams

Let's round up some Wednesday links from around the Eastern Conference….

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Mo Williams Close To Making Decision

August 7th, 2013 at 12:55pm CST by Luke Adams

More than half of you voted Mo Williams the best unrestricted free agent still on the market over the weekend, and it appears the veteran guard is close to coming off the board. ESPN.com's Jeff Goodman reports (via Twitter) that Williams could decide on where he'll sign as soon as today.

The Grizzlies are among the teams in the mix for Williams, having met with him in Memphis last week. Memphis could offer the 30-year-old part of its mid-level exception, but Goodman tweets that he doesn't believe Williams is leaning toward choosing the Grizz.

Eastern Conference teams like the Heat and Knicks have also been cited as suitors, even though they have limited financial flexibility. Miami could offer all or some of its mini mid-level exception (worth $3.18MM), while New York could only offer the veteran's minimum. Williams is reportedly open to taking a discount to join a contender though.

When Chuck Myron of Hoops Rumors examined Williams' free agent stock back in April, he predicted that the former Jazz point guard could receive a deal worth about $5MM annually, but it appears Williams will be hard-pressed to find a starting salary that high, wherever he decides to sign.

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Greg Oden Signs With Heat

August 7th, 2013 at 12:40pm CST by Chuck Myron

AUGUST 7TH: The Heat have officially signed Oden, the team announced today (Twitter link).

AUGUST 2ND: Greg Oden will sign with the Heat, tweets Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com. It's a two-year deal with a player option for the final season, Goodman adds. The two sides agreed on a minimum-salary contract, according to fellow ESPN.com scribe Marc Stein, who adds that Oden will officially sign the pact on Monday (Twitter links).

The deal is a coup for Heat president Pat Riley, not only because Oden chose Miami over five other finalists, but because he consented to the minimum salary, tweets Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. That allows the Heat to preserve their mini mid-level exception should an enticing player come available at some point this season.

The Spurs and Mavs appeared as of last night to be Miami's primary competition, with the Pelicans next in line, followed by the Kings and the Hawks. Sources from three Western Conference teams among those spurned finalists told Stein minutes before news broke of Oden's decision that they were informed that they wouldn't be landing the former No. 1 overall pick, and that they believed he was headed to Miami (Twitter link).

Oden tells former Ohio State teammate Mark Titus of Grantland.com that the Heat became the front-runners for him when he visited Miami during the NBA Finals. Three months ago, Oden told Titus that he wanted to play in Cleveland because he liked playing in Ohio. About a year ago, Oden let Titus know that the plan was to reunite in Memphis with Mike Conley, another of their Buckeye teammates. Conley's father, Mike Conley Sr., is one of Oden's agents.

The 7'0" center has only played 82 games in his NBA career, but he was on the Blazers roster for five seasons, meaning he qualifies for a minimum salary of $1,027,424 this season, as Mark Deeks of ShamSports confirms (Twitter link).

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Knicks, 76ers Interested In Chris Duhon

August 7th, 2013 at 12:24pm CST by Luke Adams

Two Atlantic Division teams in search of a point guard, the Knicks and 76ers, are showing interest in Chris Duhon, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter). Duhon was released earlier in the offseason by the Lakers before his salary for 2013/14 became fully guaranteed.

As we heard yesterday, the Knicks remain in the market for a third point guard to complement Raymond Felton and Pablo Prigioni, and Beno Udrih continues to be the team's top target. It looks as if Duhon is also among New York's possible options, along with others like Mo Williams and Bobby Brown.

Meanwhile, the Sixers are several million dollars below the minimum salary floor required by the Collective Barganing Agreement, so it may benefit the team to sign a veteran free agent or two. Since Michael Carter-Williams currently projects to be Philadelphia's only real point guard, the club figures, at the very least, to bring in two or three players to compete for a roster spot and minutes at the point. A veteran point guard would make sense, to relieve some of the pressure on the 21-year-old Carter-Williams.

Duhon, 30, has seen his numbers decline in recent years with the Magic and Lakers. The nine-year veteran has recorded 3.1 PPG, 2.5 APG, and a PER of just 7.5 in 160 games for those two teams over the last three seasons.

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Top Rebounders Still On The Market

August 7th, 2013 at 10:18am CST by Luke Adams

With most of free agency's big names off the board, teams scouring the market now figure to focus on finding bargains or adding specialists. Not many of the players still available will be able to contribute a little bit of everything, but there are plenty that excel in one specific area, whether that area is three-point shooting, rebounding, defending, or something else.

In recent days, we've examined the top scorers and the top three-point shooters still available in free agency. Today, we'll turn our attention to the best free agent rebounders.

Listed below are the top 15 remaining free agents by rebound rate (a percentage of missed shots they rebounded). Their rebound rate for 2012/13 is listed in parentheses. To qualify, these players must have averaged at least 10 minutes per game and appeared in at least 20 contests in '12/13.

  1. Hamed Haddadi (19.8%)
  2. Johan Petro (18.2%)
  3. Lamar Odom (17.7%)
  4. Nikola Pekovic (15.9%) (R)
  5. DeJuan Blair (15.6%)
  6. Ivan Johnson (14.7%)
  7. Kevin Jones (13.5%)
  8. Kurt Thomas (13.3%)
  9. DeSagana Diop (12.9%)
  10. Chris Wilcox (12.8%)
  11. Antawn Jamison (12.2%)
  12. Dominic McGuire (12.0%)
  13. Luke Babbitt (10.9%)
  14. Lance Thomas (10.6%)
  15. Hakim Warrick (10.4%)

Honorable mention:

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Latest On Sixers’ Coaching Search

August 7th, 2013 at 8:48am CST by Luke Adams

If it seems like we've been following the Sixers' coaching search for most of the year, that's probably because, technically, we have. It's been 111 days since the team officially confirmed Doug Collins wouldn't return as the head coach, but the search for his replacement may finally be coming to an end. A source tells Baxter Holmes of the Boston Globe that things will "all play out [this] week" (Twitter link).

A Monday report indicated that at least four candidates – Kenny Atkinson, Brett Brown, Adrian Griffin, and Jay Larranaga – would receive second interviews with the 76ers. Griffin, at least, has sat down for his second meeting with the team, according to ESPN.com's Marc Stein, who tweets that the Bulls assistant interviewed with Philadelphia for three hours on Tuesday.

It's not clear whether any of those other candidates have been interviewed for a second time yet, or whether their meetings are scheduled for later this week. However, Stein adds in a second tweet that while Brown and Michael Curry have long been considered the frontrunners for the job, Griffin and Larranaga aren't going down without a fight.

Trail Blazers assistant David Vanterpool is still rumored to be in the mix for the Sixers' opening, along with those five aforementioned contenders. I'd imagine that if he receives a second interview as well, the team would delay its decision until at least next week, rather than accelerating the process and announcing a hire this week.

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Odds & Ends: Jennings, Knight, Knicks, Tyler

August 6th, 2013 at 10:16pm CST by Zachary Links

The 2013/14 NBA season isn't too far away and we got a wonderful reminder of that today when the NBA released the schedule for the upcoming campaign.  The season kicks off with Derrick Rose's expected return to the hardwood when the Bulls take on the Heat.  Then, the battle of Los Angeles gets underway when the Lakers and, hopefully, Kobe Bryant, welcome Doc Rivers to the West Coast.  Here's tonight's look around the Association..

  • Brandon Jennings and Brandon Knight have switched places, and both guards seem happy with their new clubs, writes Charles F. Gardner of the Journal Sentinel.  "Well, for one, it was out of my control," Jennings said of the trade that brought him from the Bucks to the Pistons. "For two, Detroit has more championships, the Bad Boys. If you go back in the '80s when Joe Dumars (current Pistons general manager) and Isiah Thomas were playing, the best two-guard backcourt to play the game, (they were) just real feisty. It's actually a great sports town. They have a lot of tradition here."
  • Within his introductory presser with the Pistons, Jennings also vowed to be more mindful of his shot selection, writes Keith Langlois of NBA.com.
  • There's a certain point next summer where the second year of Jeremy Tyler's new deal with the Knicks can become fully guaranteed, a source tells Jared Zwerling of ESPNNewYork.com (via Twitter).  A source close to the big man told Zwerling (link) that his camp feels good about his future in New York.
  • One scout compared the 6-foot-1 Bobby Brown to a taller Nate Robinson because of his innate ability to score and quick moves, writes Marc Berman of the New York Post.  Brown is being targeted by the Knicks and could wind up being their third point guard.
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