The Rockets, who offered a four-year contract worth about the same amount as his deal with the Hawks, were “really, really close” to reaching an agreement with Kent Bazemore, reports Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle (Twitter link). While that may be somewhat encouraging for Houston, the Rockets have yet to lock up one of their top free agent targets. Heading into the weekend, the club remains in the hunt for Al Horford and Ryan Anderson.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the NBA:
- The Nets spent plenty of time on Friday weighing whether or not to sign Trail Blazers RFA Allen Crabbe to an offer sheet, sources tell Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The Nets are big fans of Crabbe, but an offer sheet could tie up the team’s cap for three days after the moratorium ends, which could backfire if Portland matches it. The Blazers are probably less likely to match a big offer for Crabbe now that they have an agreement with Evan Turner, but it’s still not out of the question.
- The Cavaliers and head coach Tyronn Lue have begun discussing a contract extension, per Chris Haynes and Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. As the duo explains, Lue didn’t sign a new deal when he was promoted from his assistant role to replace David Blatt this year, and the gamble paid off. Lue will be in line for a much bigger raise now that he has a championship under his belt than he would have been if he’d signed a new contract earlier this year.
- The Bulls are among the teams showing interest in Dion Waiters, tweets ESPN’s Chris Broussard. Broussard also reiterates something we’ve heard multiple times over the past couple days, writing that the Kings are very interested in Waiters and will meet with him this weekend.
- The Sixers have been making some significant offers to veteran free agents in the hopes of landing one or two of them, says Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). Philadelphia struck a deal on Friday with Jerryd Bayless, but it sounds like the team has made other offers that exceed Bayless’ $9MM per year.
I think Portland probably matches anything that isnt ridiculously exorbitant. I dont know what that number is in this cap, but if Crabbe’s offer sheet is in the range of $12-16 million per, they probably match. Probably means that Harkless and/or Myers Leonard end up elsewhere though.
I wonder if the 76ers go after Mayo. He is a solid veteran who can play point and since he is suspended he will help them lose more games for 2 years while using cap space.
Grant – Mayo is banned for 2 years…happened yesterday…for on-going substance abuse issues….
Pretty sure Grant’s aware of that, it’s implicit in his comment
Mayo is banned from the league for 2 years
Why would the Bulls not go after Crabbe and Harkless instead of Waiters? They would net a starting guard with a better mentality while forcing Portalnd to choose, also making it easier to put Jimmy at his natural position and making McDermott/Snell expendable for future picks.
The Kings need to overpay the guy to land him and I think they should. I don’t know how he does putting the ball on the floor but I know he can shoot and that is what they desperately need. If the Lakers can offer Mozgov 16M annually and not be killed for it, the Kings should be willing to go over that for a productive player.
The Blazers could always match but the need to show an attempt to sign good players. They lost out on Turner and I am wholeheartedly against Waiters joining the team.