The Thunder will be over the league’s luxury tax line this season for the first time in team history, and will likely do so again next season if the team wishes to retain restricted free agent Enes Kanter, Tom Moore of Calkins Media writes. If OKC decides it wants to avoid the extra cost associated with paying the luxury tax, the Sixers could end up being the beneficiaries, Moore opines. Philadelphia will have enough cap room to add three OKC players who have fallen out of the team’s rotation — forwards Steve Novak and Perry Jones III, and guard Jeremy Lamb, which would in turn lower OKC’s 2015/16 payroll by approximately $8.82MM, though it would likely cost GM Sam Presti the team’s 2015 first-rounder to get the Sixers to bite on such a trade, Moore adds.
Here’s more from around the league:
- Stiff opposition has arisen against the Warriors‘ plan to construct a new arena in San Francisco’s Mission Bay area, Phil Matier and Andy Ross of The San Francisco Chronicle write. “This arena is going to essentially ruin decades of good work and planning in Mission Bay and make it impossible for people to access the hospital there,” said public relations expert Sam Singer, who has been hired by the group opposing the project, the scribes relay. This opposition comes just a month before the final environmental impact report for the proposed arena is due to be released, which could suggest that the effort is largely aimed at trying to force the team to scale back its ambitious plan for developing 12 acres next to the University of California, San Francisco, the Chronicle duo adds.
- Knicks unrestricted free agent Andrea Bargnani spoke with La Gazzetta dello Sport about his future (translation by Emiliano Carchia of Sportando), and indicated he intends to remain in the NBA next season, and favors a return to New York. “I am happy with the Knicks. I love the city and the organization. There is an important project here,” Bargnani told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “I will consider all the offers I receive from July. I want to remain in the NBA. And I will. I am at the peak of my basketball career and I want to win in the NBA.” The Knicks are reportedly open to re-signing Bargnani to a minimum salary deal.