1:53pm: In addition to the Rockets, Clippers, and Mavericks, the Nuggets and Lakers also have interest in Iguodala, tweets Stein.
Stein first mentioned Denver’s interest in Iguodala in his newsletter last week, though Amick tweets that the Nuggets view Memphis’ asking price as too high. If they do make a play for Iggy, Mason Plumlee‘s expiring $14MM contract would be their best salary-matching piece.
As for the Lakers, they have no clear path to matching Iguodala’s salary until after December 15, so they’re an unlikely suitor unless he’s bought out.
11:32am: After acquiring Russell Westbrook from Oklahoma City, the Rockets‘ top priority will be to find a way to land veteran forward Andre Iguodala, writes Sam Amick of The Athletic.
According to Amick, Houston continues to push to acquire Iguodala from the Grizzlies via trade. The Clippers are also known to be among the most serious suitors for the former Warrior, Amick adds.
In order to match Iguodala’s $17,185,185 salary, the Rockets or Clippers would have to send out at least $12,185,185 in salary of their own, which will be difficult, but not impossible.
Los Angeles could use Maurice Harkless‘ $11,511,234 expiring contract, but would have to include at least one more piece — likely either Jerome Robinson or one of their 2019 draftees. Those two 2019 draft picks (Mfiondu Kabengele and Terance Mann) can’t be dealt until at least August 9 after signing on Tuesday.
The Rockets, meanwhile, probably wouldn’t want to move Clint Capela, P.J. Tucker, or Eric Gordon for Iguodala, so a sign-and-trade involving Iman Shumpert could be their most viable path for matching salaries. Shumpert would have to sign a three-year contract in that scenario, but only the first year would need to be fully guaranteed. He could sign for exactly $12,185,185, and presumably he’d be open to the idea, since he won’t receive that kind of money from any other team as a free agent.
Although Amick doesn’t name any other suitors for Iguodala, Mike Fisher of DallasBasketball.com suggests that the Mavericks are interested in the former Finals MVP too, and are willing to offer Courtney Lee‘s expiring contract and a second-round pick. Lee has a $12,759,670 cap hit, so no additional players would need to be added to such an offer for matching purposes. However, the Grizzlies don’t appear to have interest in taking on Lee, according to Fisher.
The Grizzlies acquired Iguodala as a salary dump, receiving a future first-round pick and cash from the Warriors for their troubles, so if they’re able to flip him and acquire positive assets, they’ll be coming out ahead.
Still, Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter link) says there’s a belief in league circles that Memphis may be leaning toward keeping Iggy on their roster into the season unless they receive a trade offer that includes a first-round pick.
Luke — wasn’t Harkless taken into cap room by LAC? If so, then he should be able to be aggregated, correct?
Good catch. I just finished writing something (to be published shortly) about how much I loved that Harkless acquisition too, hah.
It seems that the move could *almost* potentially push LAC over the tax line too, especially if more minimum signings are forthcoming. That would mean they’d need to send out 80% + 100k of salary, rendering Kabengele or Mann insufficient alone when combined with Harkless’ salary for matching.
If LAC has to send out a first anyway to win Iguodala, then they def want to send out Robinson not Kabengele or Mann, and give themselves a bit of breathing room besides.
Kabengele esp is a good catch.
hark fits really well with the LAC way better then IGGY…. me personally I think the Rox should give up Gordon for Iggy and then sign Livingston on a vet min deal.
Mem can then Flip Gordon and his 14 mil a bit easier then Iggys deal IMO.
Every indication is Livingston is retiring because of his knees. I doubt the minimum would persuade him to sign anywhere.
Houston gave up a 1st last year to get rid of Knight’s contract, taking Shumpert in the deal. Saved less than 4 mm last season, but Shump was expiring. So, yeah, next logical step is to sign Shump to a bloated deal to do a S&T.
Shump and a 2021 first, and “Houston we have ignition. 5 4 3 2 1”
(Great series just finished on PBS, “Race to the Moon”)
I think they still have 2020, but Grizz already got a real 1st from GS, so it might be one of those lotto protected get it or lose picks. Morey will want to save 2022 for another deal. Last he can trade I believe. Trading 2021 means he can’t trade 2020 or 2022.
Okay the Stepien rule only applies to future picks so not drafting in 2019 does not matter… In that case, all the more likely to win Iguodala with the 2020.
He’s still a good playoff player if nothing else. Great for assists & would help in mending.
And Shump can bring confidence to a struggling team.
He was talking about future picks. If the 2021 pick has already been traded and you don’t have another in 2021, you can’t trade a 2020 pick right now without having another one.
2021 is subject to a swap. It can be traded, but they won’t trade it. It will be 2020, so if they need to trade another at some point they can trade 2022.
id love the mavs to give up lee and even our rookie roby and even another small contributor (maybe finney-smith) for iggy.
i think Finney-smith just signed an extension/new contract so he cant be traded until December. unless they redo his contract so its a sign and trade?
Iggy isn’t worth a 1st because of his contract. Grizz will be lucky to find a suitable trade partner.
IGGy is done being a productive player.. he flat out sucks now..
Cavs really need to wake up and be the faciliator to make this deal happen.
Iggy’s salary matches really nicely with J.R. Smith’s mostly non-guaranteed $15.68M deal. Add Zizic, and you’ve got a perfect salary matching deal.
Then, Memphis can waive J.R. and get back below the cap, or just flip him somewhere else.
Should be a nice opportunity for both Memphis and CLE to pick up an asset to facilitate getting Iggy to where he’s going.
If done correctly, the best deal would be the sign and trade with the Rockets. They could set up Shumpert’s contract much like JR Smith’s deal. Except Memphis would have to be smart enough to actually use the deal in a trade unlike the Cavs. You could trade Iggy for Shumpert and a future 2nd rounder. Then, you could easily get another couple of picks with a Shumpert trade around draft day next year from a cash strapped team.
The only problem with that is that the new CBA doesn’t allow non-guaranteed salary to be traded in the same way (Smith’s contract plays by the old rules since it was signed under the previous CBA). If Shumpert has a non-guaranteed second year, he’d count for $0 for salary-matching purposes in a trade after his first season.
Ah I see. So that just make Cleveland even more foolish for not extracting a lot of value for the last contract to be eligible for that perk.
Their tax situation is making it tricky for them to do anything good with it. I think they could have gotten a first-round pick if they were willing to take back a guaranteed $14-17MM salary, but doing that would have put them way into the tax and would have made it hard to get out without adding a bunch of dead money cap hits for future seasons by stretching one or two players.
There are still some options (a deal with OKC to help them get out of the tax?), but they’re a lot scarcer than they were a few weeks ago.
This trade works for salary matching purposes:
To CLE: Courtney Lee, 1st RD pick;
To MEM: J.R. Smith (to be waived for salary cap relief);
to DAL: Iggy
I think the Grizzlies would prefer to cut the Cavs out of that deal and just take Lee and the first-rounder themselves, but I could be wrong (I know in this post I cited Mike Fisher as saying the Grizzlies don’t want Lee, but I interpreted that more as them wanting more than a second-rounder to take Lee).
Denver could use him the most. Plumlee’s been effective with Jokic, and he’s their only true rim protector, but Grant can replace that. They’re two, or more, deep everywhere else, but could use a real SF, even if only for defense.
Really like Iggy but the Lakers are really good as is. We are ready to roll.
Lakers should just add Korver and be done with it
I think that’s the play. Obviously Iggy brings more versatility and more defensively, but he also probably wants a nice role in the rotation. Korver I believe would be more content as a 3 point specialist that may not even play each night and is almost certainly a buyout candidate
any chance the rockets go after korver for their open SF spot ?
Now is the perfect time for Iggy to go back to Philly & help the Sixers win the East & go back to the NBA Finals.