With July less than 10 hours away, free agent rumors around the NBA are heating up. Let’s dive right in and round up the latest…
- With a Chandler Parsons departure appearing increasingly likely, the Mavericks are expected to meet with Nicolas Batum once free agency begins, according to Tim MacMahon and Marc J. Spears of ESPN.com. Dallas’ ideal outcome in free agency would be to land Mike Conley and Hassan Whiteside, which wouldn’t leave cap room for Batum. But the team is doing its homework and is prepared to quickly move on to Plan B if Conley and/or Whiteside decide not to sign with Dallas.
- The Rockets, Heat, Warriors, and Spurs are among the teams with interest in Timofey Mozgov, joining the Cavaliers and Knicks, tweets Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com. Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today Sports adds (via Twitter) that the Lakers also could be in play for Mozgov, depending on how free agency plays out.
- We can add the Magic to the list of teams that will express interest in Eric Gordon, per Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders, who clarifies that Orlando still remains very invested in re-signing Evan Fournier (Twitter links). Earlier today, a report indicated that Houston, Memphis, New York, and New Orleans are eyeing Gordon.
- There are increasing indications that coveted free agent wing Kent Bazemore won’t begin holding meetings for interested teams until after July 4th, according to ESPN.com’s Marc Stein (via Twitter).
- The Knicks have some level of interest in pending free agent Courtney Lee, according to Stein and Ian Begley of ESPN.com. New York appears to be focusing its efforts on adding a big man – possibly Joakim Noah – and a wing in free agency.
- According to Mark Medina of InsideSoCal.com, Evan Turner has expressed interest in about six NBA teams, including the Lakers and Celtics. It’s not clear whether Turner’s interest is reciprocated in each of those instances.
Why would Dallas be after Conley? I see that they are taking a meeting with him but it makes no sense. They essentially have the same player but slightly older in Deron Williams. Both are a little above 40% from the field and about 36% from 3 while dishing out about 6 assists a game. If the goal is to get better from where they currently stand, they should be going after Whiteside and Batum. Landing Conley would be nice but then they are paying two starting PGs.
Williams opted out of his deal. So Conley would be first choice and if he goes, Deron would be back up
I thought Deron Williams option was declined? Anyway, Conley is a much better defender, and they could use help defensively at that position and on the perimeter. I would agree that they would still probably need a wing if they added a rim protector like Whiteside as well
The Knicks are better off with a backup rim protector they can get cheaply than paying Noah exorbitant amounts…don’t know exactly how much cap room they have, but if they can add something like Bazemore and Courtney lee, while also keeping galloway and thomas, and also signing that backup rim protector, that would be a pretty competitive roster this season, assuming they stay healthy.
Rose, lee, thomas, melo, porzingis
Bazemore, galloway, rim protector, etc isn’t a bad 8 man rotation
Have more would start over thomas
I only put Bazemore on the bench b/c I like what he would give them with the 2nd unit as another playmaker. He would get more minutes, obviously
I agree that would be the best scenario, but I don’t see Bazemore agreeing to take $10 million plus to come off the bench (even at 6th man minutes) and/or the Knicks giving Bazemore $10 million plus to come off the bench (as in, they’re not paying a guy that much to come off the bench in his first season).
Why? If he plays starter minutes, who cares? If it matters, start him. And it would cost a lot more than 10 million for bazemore. I would estimate he could get somewhere between 14-16 million per, with the cap rise…maybe 9-11 for lee