Golden State Warriors Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Cavaliers Notes: Love, Smith, Iguodala, Bolden

July 14th, 2019 at 11:42am CST by Arthur Hill

The Cavaliers aren’t making an effort to deal Kevin Love, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. On the surface, Love appears to be a prime trade candidate. He’s nearly 31 on a rebuilding team, is coming off toe surgery that limited him to 22 games last season and has a four-year, $120MM extension that’s about to kick in.

However, Cleveland doesn’t view Love’s contract as burdensome. A five-time All-Star, he’s easily the team’s best player if he can stay healthy and provides a positive role model for a young roster. New coach John Beilein wants to keep Love around because he’ll take pressure off his teammates to develop quickly.

Cavs management will listen to offers for Love, but it would take a formidable deal to move him anytime soon. Fedor sees the Heat as a possibility because they are searching for a second star to team with Jimmy Butler and have both young players such as Tyler Herro, Meyers Leonard, Bam Adebayo and Justise Winslow who would interest Cleveland, plus big contracts in James Johnson, Goran Dragic and Dion Waiters to help match Love’s $28.9MM salary. Fedor expects the front office to hold onto Love for a while and reassess its options closer to the trade deadline.

There’s more out of Cleveland, all courtesy of Fedor:

Tomorrow is the new guarantee date for J.R. Smith, but it can be pushed back to August 1 if the Cavs can’t work out a trade. The original date had been June 30, but Smith agreed to an extension last month in exchange for an increase in guaranteed money from $3.9MM to $4.37MM. Smith’s trade value can be counted at the full $15.68MM because he signed his contract before that rule was changed, but Cleveland hasn’t been able to find any takers for the 33-year-old guard. Management has been surprised by the lack of interest in Smith, Fedor adds, believing its offers in salary-dump situations were better than the ones that were accepted. The Cavs have also been “shocked” by some of the bad contracts teams are trying to get them to take.
The Cavaliers tried to obtain Andre Iguodala from the Warriors, and sources tell Fedor they asked for less than the future first-rounder and cash that Memphis received for taking on Iguodala’s $17.1MM contract. However, Golden State wanted to create a large trade exception and saw that as more valuable than the cap relief Smith would have provided. Cleveland was also involved in talks to facilitate the Butler trade by taking Maurice Harkless from the Trail Blazers, but he wound up with the Clippers, who received a 2023 first-rounder from Miami.
Former Duke big man Marques Bolden is receiving strong consideration for a two-way contract. The Cavaliers believe he never got a full chance to display his talents in college and can develop into an effective NBA center. “In college you don’t have space,” said Summer League head coach Antonio Lang. “Here you have space and he can create space if he continues to roll hard. Everything you look for in a big he has, he just has to be more efficient with his footwork and learn the game more. That comes with practice and time. He’s more suited for the NBA game.”

Warriors Notes: Curry, Livingston, Cauley-Stein, Cook

July 12th, 2019 at 10:55pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Warriors All-Star guard Stephen Curry is confident he’ll mesh his skills with D’Angelo Russell, who was acquired from the Nets in a sign-and-trade, according to an ESPN report.

“The chemistry will develop quickly. We’ll be really purposeful about that and trying to set the tone for how we’re going to play this year,” Curry said.

He’s also looking forward to being in an underdog role for a change with Kevin Durant signing with Brooklyn and Klay Thompson expected to miss a large chunk of the season.

“I’m excited, to be honest with you,” he said. “Five straight years in the Finals and we’ve accomplished a lot, and three championships. There’s a lot to be proud of. But everybody wants a new challenge in terms of how do you get back to that level.”

We have more on the Warriors:

The Warriors are likely to offer Shaun Livingston a role in the organization if he opts to retire, Marc Stein of the New York Times tweets. The veteran guard was waived this week before his $7.7MM salary for next season became fully guaranteed.
Willie Cauley-Stein was courted by Curry, Draymond Green and coach Steve Kerr and that made his free agency decision easier, as Anthony Slater of The Athletic relays. Cauley-Stein accepted a salary slightly above the veteran’s minimum in order to join a perennial winner after the Kings rescinded his qualifying offer. “It honestly just came down to situation. I know I had said something about getting paid at the beginning of the year,” he said. “But by the end of it, it was no longer about getting paid. It was about staying secure and building off that security.”
Guard Quinn Cook harbors no ill will toward the organization, though he was surprised it pulled his qualifying offer in order to clear cap space, as he told Mark Medina of the San Jose Mercury News. Cook wound up signing a two-year, $6MM deal with the Lakers. “It was tough for me with how everything went down, but no hard feelings,” Cook said. “We’re family forever and champions forever.”

Timberwolves Sign Jordan Bell To One-Year Deal

July 12th, 2019 at 10:24pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 12, 10:24pm: The signing is official, according to a team press release.

JULY 1, 6:02pm: The Timberwolves have reached an agreement on a guaranteed one-year deal with free agent big man Jordan Bell, agents Aaron Mintz and Michael Tellem of CAA tell Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter).

According to Michael Scotto of The Athletic (via Twitter), it’s a one-year, $1.6MM deal. Bell’s minimum salary for the 2019/20 season will be $1,620,564, so it sounds like that will be the value of his new deal with Minnesota.

Bell is technically a restricted free agent, having received a qualifying offer from the Warriors last week. However, based on the reporting, it sounds like Golden State will probably rescind that QO, freeing Bell up to sign outright with Minnesota. Offer sheets must span at least two seasons, and a sign-and-trade deal must be for at least three years (albeit with just one guaranteed). We’ll wait on additional details to be sure.

A former second-round pick, Bell averaged 3.3 PPG and 2.7 RPG in 68 games (11.6 MPG) for the Warriors in his sophomore season. According to Mark Medina of The Mercury News (via Twitter), the 24-year-old also received interest from the Rockets, Thunder, and Jazz. Medina adds that Bell zeroed in on Minnesota since he felt like it was his best opportunity for a bigger role.

Contract Details For Alen Smailagic

July 12th, 2019 at 2:59pm CST by Luke Adams

Alen Smailagic‘s rookie contract from the Warriors is a four-year, minimum-salary pact with the first two years guaranteed, reports Michael Scotto of The Athletic (via Twitter). Despite being over the tax line, Golden State technically has access to the full mid-level exception, which allowed the club to go up to four years for the No. 39 overall pick.

Alec Burks Signs With Warriors

July 11th, 2019 at 5:46pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 11: Burks has officially put pen to paper on his deal with the Warriors, the team announced on its Twitter feed.

JULY 8: After initially reaching an agreement with the Thunder early in free agency, guard Alec Burks will instead sign a one-year contract with the Warriors, agent JR Hensley tells Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

As Charania explains (via Twitter), since Burks and Mike Muscala agreed to sign with the Thunder before the Paul George trade developed, Oklahoma City allowed both players to re-evaluate their situations, if they so chose. Muscala remains committed to the Thunder, but Burks will head to Golden State instead of OKC.

“Alec was extremely appreciative about how the Thunder handled the situation and he’s looking forward to his new opportunity,” Hensley told Charania.

A former lottery pick, Burks is a career 35.5% three-point shooter and can defend perimeter players, so he figures to become part of Golden State’s wing rotation. Last season, he appeared in a total of 64 games for the Jazz, Cavaliers, and Kings, averaging 8.8 PPG, 3.7 RPG, and 2.0 APG in 21.5 minutes per contest.

While terms of Burks’ deal weren’t reported, it will almost certainly be a minimum-salary deal, given the Warriors’ cap constraints.

Ron Adams To Remain With Warriors Despite Lakers’ Interest

July 11th, 2019 at 3:58pm CST by Luke Adams

Highly regarded Warriors assistant coach Ron Adams will remain in Golden State, according to Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN, who reports that Adams has turned down an opportunity to join Frank Vogel‘s Lakers staff.

Adams, who has been an NBA assistant coach since being hired by San Antonio way back in 1992, is considered one of the league’s top defensive minds. He has been a key member of Steve Kerr‘s staff since 2014, having won three titles with the Warriors. He’ll remain with the franchise in a “revised” role, according to Youngmisuk.

Youngmisuk and ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski had reported in June that the Lakers – who previously hired Jason Kidd and Lionel Hollins as assistants – received permission to speak to Adams.

At that time, the ESPN duo suggested that Adams’ interest level in joining the Lakers was unclear, but speculated that L.A. could make a compelling case by extending a “significant financial offer.” Details of the Lakers’ offer aren’t known.

Warriors Re-Sign Kevon Looney To Three-Year Deal

July 11th, 2019 at 1:15pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 11: The Warriors have officially re-signed Looney, the team confirmed today in a press release.

JULY 2: Looney’s new deal features a third-year player option, tweets Mark Medina of The Mercury News.

JULY 1: The Warriors will bring back free agent big man Kevon Looney, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that the two sides have agreed to a three-year, $15MM deal. As Charania details (via Twitter), the Warriors met with Looney over the weekend and reached an agreement with him and agent Todd Ramasar on Monday.

Looney, the 30th overall pick in the 2015 draft, hasn’t put up huge numbers during his four seasons in Golden State, but he has becoming an increasingly important part of the team’s rotation in recent years.

In 2018/19, the 23-year-old averaged 6.3 PPG and 5.2 RPG on 62.5% shooting in 80 games (18.5 MPG) for the Warriors. While he generally came off the bench, he emerged as the team’s most reliable center in the postseason due to his ability to switch on defense and hold his own against perimeter players.

The Warriors held Looney’s Bird rights this offseason, which gave them the ability to offer him any salary up to the max. However, by acquiring D’Angelo Russell in a sign-and-trade deal with the Nets, Golden State will face a hard cap of $138.9MM, the amount of the tax apron.

It wasn’t clear whether the Warriors would find a way to squeeze Looney – arguably their most important free agent beyond Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant – below that hard cap, since he appeared likely to receive plenty of interest on the open market. However, the Dubs got a good price to bring him back, and will presumably fill most of the rest of their roster with minimum-salary contracts to sneak below that $138.9MM threshold.

Bobby Marks of ESPN.com goes into detail on just how close the Warriors project to come to that hard cap.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Atlantic Notes: Knicks, Ennis, Durant, Nets

July 11th, 2019 at 10:38am CST by Luke Adams

When Kelly Oubre struck a deal with the Suns late on Wednesday night, he represented the last of the players on our list of 2019’s top 50 free agents to reach a contract agreement with a team. However, two of those agreements are in flux.

As we previously relayed, Reggie Bullock and the Knicks are attempting to rework a two-year, $21MM deal that fell apart due to an issue with Bullock’s physical, and Marcus Morris is re-evaluating his two-year, $19MM deal with the Spurs now that New York may have cap room again.

As of Thursday morning, there’s still mutual interest between Bullock and the Knicks in finding a new deal that works, per Ian Begley of SNY.tv. Begley notes that a source told him earlier this week that the Knicks are hopeful of landing Morris, whose veteran presence and toughness intrigues the club. Steve Popper of Newsday adds (via Twitter) that he has heard from people inside and outside the Knicks’ organization who think that Morris will end up in New York.

As we wait for resolution on those two free agents, let’s round up a few more notes from around the Atlantic…

After agreeing to a new deal with the Sixers as a free agent, forward James Ennis expressed major confidence in the team’s outlook for 2019/20, as Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer tweets. “We had a good chance last year. Kawhi (Leonard) is gone. He went to the West,” Ennis said. “So we are going to walk to the Finals in the East.”
Kevin Durant initially “balked” at the idea of being signed-and-traded to the Nets straight up for D’Angelo Russell, sources tell Brian Windhorst of ESPN. As Windhorst explains, Durant didn’t believe it was a fair deal, presumably because he could have signed outright with Brooklyn using the team’s cap room. The Warriors ultimately ended up including a heavily protected first-rounder in the swap not just to satisfy the Nets, but to satisfy KD, says Windhorst.
Sources tell Brian Lewis of The New York Post that the Nets‘ newly-added star power could increase Barclays Center revenues by about $40MM through “increased sponsorships, merchandising, and ticket sales.”

Klay Thompson Signs Five-Year Max Deal With Warriors

July 10th, 2019 at 5:48pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 10: Thompson’s five-year, maximum-salary contract is now official, the Warriors announced in a press release.

JULY 1: Wojnarowski provides another update on Thompson’s new contract, tweeting that it includes a 15% trade bonus. Trade bonuses can’t push a player’s salary beyond his max, so Klay wouldn’t receive it in the unlikely event he’s traded this season. That could change down the road.

JUNE 30: The Warriors and Thompson have a “done deal” in place, three sources confirm to Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter link). A source tells Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link) that it’s a standard five-year deal with no options and no no-trade clause.

JUNE 29: The Warriors and Thompson plan to reach an agreement on a five-year max deal shortly after free agency begins on Sunday, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.

JUNE 28: The Warriors are planning to offer All-Star guard Klay Thompson a five-year, maximum-salary contract when free agency opens on Sunday, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. According to Wojnarowski, that offer will likely accelerate Thompson’s free agency, as the two sides aren’t expected to take long to reach an agreement.

Reports this week have indicated that Thompson had considered meeting with the Lakers and Clippers if the Warriors didn’t put that five-year offer (worth a projected $189.66MM) on the table right away. However, there has been no indication – even after Thompson tore his ACL – that Golden State was wavering on making that commitment.

According to Wojnarowski, several teams that had Thompson on their wish lists have given up hope on that possibility in recent days, becoming convinced that the sharpshooter will remain in the Bay Area.

An ESPN report this morning suggested that Thompson’s camp might have been using those Los Angeles teams to create leverage to ask the Warriors for a fifth-year player option or a no-trade clause. Stephen Curry didn’t get either of those perks in his own five-year, maximum-salary deal, so Golden State may be reluctant to give them to Thompson. At this point, it’s not clear whether or not Klay’s camp intends to push for either one.

If the Warriors can lock up Thompson, they’ll be halfway to keeping their core intact for the 2019/20 season. The team also reportedly plans to offer a five-year maximum-salary (worth a projected $221MM+) to Kevin Durant.

[UPDATE: Durant has committed to the Nets]

Both Thompson and Durant – who is recovering from a ruptured Achilles – are expected to miss most or all of next season, but would be ready to go for 2020/21.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Trade Details: Napier, Graham, Warriors, Pacers, More

July 10th, 2019 at 4:59pm CST by Luke Adams

Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders has provided some additional details on one of the most interesting trade sequences of the offseason, filling in the blanks on the deals that sent Shabazz Napier and Treveon Graham from Brooklyn to Golden State to Minnesota.

As previously outlined by cap guru Albert Nahmad (Twitter link), in order to match salaries in their sign-and-trade deal for Kevin Durant ($38,199,000), the Nets had to send out $30,479,200 in salaries of their own, but D’Angelo Russell‘s maximum salary was only worth $27,285,000.

Brooklyn included Napier’s ($1,845,301) and Graham’s ($1,645,357) non-guaranteed contracts to make up that $3,194,200 difference, but had to partially guarantee those salaries in order for them to count for salary-matching purposes. According to Pincus (via Twitter), the Nets did so by giving each player a guarantee worth $1,597,100.

The hard-capped Warriors, who only took on the duo in order to acquire Russell, didn’t want those contracts on their books, so they flipped them to the Timberwolves in a separate trade. According to Pincus (via Twitter), Golden State paid $3.6MM in cash to Minnesota in that deal, more than enough to cover both players’ full salaries and make it worth the Wolves’ while (Napier’s and Graham’s combined salaries total $3.5MM for 2019/20).

[RELATED: 2019 NBA Offseason Trades]

Interestingly, teams are limited to sending out a total of $5,617,000 in cash in trades during the 2019/20 league year, and the Warriors have now sent out $3.6MM to Minnesota and $2MM to Memphis (in the Andre Iguodala deal). In other words, Golden State won’t have the ability to send out additional cash later in the season in another trade.

Here are more details on recent trades:

In the three-way trade that landed them T.J. Warren from Phoenix and three future second-round picks from Miami, the Pacers sent $1.1MM in cash to the Suns, per Pincus (Twitter link).
The Clippers sent $110K to the Heat in the four-team Jimmy Butler sign-and-trade deal, says Pincus (Twitter link). That small amount of cash – the minimum allowable in a trade – was the only outgoing piece for the Clips in a swap that landed them Maurice Harkless, the Heat’s lottery-protected 2023 first-round pick (later included in the Paul George package), and the draft rights to 2017 second-rounder Mathias Lessort.
In addition to getting $1.1MM from the Wizards in their three-team Anthony Davis trade, the Pelicans also received $1MM in cash from the Lakers, tweets Pincus. Pincus also notes that Washington used its trade exception from February’s Markieff Morris trade to take on Bonga’s $1.42MM salary. That exception was originally worth $8.6MM and was also used to acquire Davis Bertans ($7MM), so it has essentially been all used up.