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Kyler’s Latest: Bradley, Celtics, Barton, Ariza

August 8th, 2017 at 1:43pm CST by Luke Adams

While Kyrie Irving and Carmelo Anthony have generated the most discussion as trade candidates in recent weeks, Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders suggests in his latest piece that there are a number of players entering contract years who could become the subjects of trade rumors over the course of the 2017/18 season. Kyler took a closer look at a few of those players, so let’s dive in and round up the highlights…

  • Sources tell Kyler that the Pistons are aware Avery Bradley will be expensive in unrestricted free agency next summer, but will have no problem paying him if he fits in like they hope. As Kyler notes, the Pistons appear more comfortable at this point with a long-term commitment to Bradley than they were with a similar deal for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
  • While Isaiah Thomas wants to land a maximum salary contract from the Celtics in 2018, Kyler points to Jrue Holiday and Kyle Lowry as point guards who were believed to be max-salary candidates this summer and ultimately settled for a little less. As Kyler observes, with Thomas and Marcus Smart headed for free agency next offseason, and Terry Rozier not far behind, Boston could explore some backcourt trade options before 2018’s trade deadline.
  • There’s a belief that the Nuggets “can and would” pay Will Barton when he reaches unrestricted free agency next summer, but if Denver ends up making a big trade, Barton could be a prime candidate to be included, says Kyler.
  • The Rockets‘ stance this offseason has been that Trevor Ariza isn’t available in trades, including to the Knicks in a potential Carmelo Anthony deal, says Kyler.
  • The Jazz are taking a wait-and-see approach with Derrick Favors, who could become a trade candidate at this season’s deadline, with his free agency looming. Big men with a skill-set like Favors’ haven’t been valued particularly highly in recent years, which is a double-edged sword for Utah — he may not have much trade value, but he also may not be overly expensive if the club wants to re-sign him.
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Poll: Which Southwest Team Had Best Offseason?

August 8th, 2017 at 8:58am CST by Luke Adams

In the days and weeks leading up to free agency, Chris Paul was frequently linked to the Spurs, who were viewed as the most likely landing spot for the star point guard if he left the Clippers. However, the Rockets were the team that swooped in before the free agent period even began to acquire Paul, sending seven players and a draft pick to L.A. in the deal that landed CP3 in Houston.

The Rockets‘ trade for Paul – along with the signing of P.J. Tucker – makes them an obvious pick for the Southwest team that had the best offseason, but the price for CP3 was steep, considering he was about to become an unrestricted free agent. Sixth Man of the Year finalist Lou Williams and All-Defensive First-Teamer Patrick Beverley were among the outgoing pieces in that deal, along with young big men Montrezl Harrell and Sam Dekker. Still, while the Rockets’ depth – particularly in the backcourt – may have taken a hit, pairing Paul with James Harden should make it worthwhile.

As for the Spurs, they ended up not clearing out cap room for a marquee outside free agent, opting instead to re-sign several of their own FAs, including Patty Mills, Pau Gasol, and Manu Ginobili. The club also made use of its exceptions to add Rudy Gay and Joffrey Lauvergne, though Jonathon Simmons and Dewayne Dedmon left for new teams.

Elsewhere in the division, the Pelicans entered the offseason virtually capped out, but made several interesting moves, including re-signing Jrue Holiday and adding Rajon Rondo, Ian Clark, and Frank Jackson to their backcourt.

While the Grizzlies didn’t make major changes to their core, several veterans moved on, with Zach Randolph and Vince Carter heading to Sacramento. Tony Allen – who is still on the open market – also appears unlikely to remain in Memphis. Restricted free agent JaMychal Green is a better bet to re-sign, and if he does, he’ll join new additions like Ben McLemore, Tyreke Evans, and Rade Zagorac.

Meanwhile, the Mavericks sat out of free agency for the first time in several years. However, despite the lack of big splashes, Dallas’ offseason looks like a successful one — the team managed to re-sign Dirk Nowitzki to a very modest contract, landed a very promising rookie point guard Dennis Smith Jr., and don’t appear to have major competition for RFA Nerlens Noel, which should make him a little more affordable than anticipated.

What do you think? Which Southwest team had the best offseason? Does the Rockets’ acquisition of Paul instantly give them the edge, or did another team’s summer moves impress you more?

Vote below, and jump into the comment section to share your thoughts!

Trade Rumors app users, click here to vote.

Previously:

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NBA Teams Projected To Be 2017/18 Taxpayers

August 7th, 2017 at 11:28am CST by Luke Adams

In the wake of 2016’s salary cap spike, the luxury tax line was higher than ever in 2016/17, and only two teams finished the season above it. The Clippers barely crossed over into taxpayer territory, while the Cavaliers blew past that threshold and were on the hook for a big tax bill.

In 2017/18, the salary cap increase was far more modest, and as a result, it appears that several more teams will finish the season as taxpayers, surpassing this year’s $119.266MM tax line. Teams have until the end of the ’17/18 regular season to adjust team salary in an effort to get back under the tax line, but most of those clubs will have little leverage if they try to dump salary, so it won’t be easy to cut costs.

Here’s an early look at the teams likely to finish 2017/18 as taxpayers:

Cleveland Cavaliers
Current guaranteed team salary (approximate): $139.73MM
No team is further over the tax line than the Cavaliers, and Cleveland will also qualify as a repeat taxpayer for the first time this year, making the penalties levied against the franchise more punitive. Currently, the Cavs’ projected tax bill is approaching $70MM, which explains why the team is interested in attaching an extra contract or two to Kyrie Irving in any trade.

Golden State Warriors
Current guaranteed team salary (approximate): $135.36MM
Last year’s dominant Warriors team actually didn’t have one of the more expensive rosters in the league, but that will change this time around, with several players signing lucrative new deals. The biggest raise belongs to Stephen Curry, who played out the final season of a four-year, $44MM deal in 2016/17, and will now start a five-year, $200MM+ pact.

Oklahoma City Thunder
Current guaranteed team salary (approximate): $125.99MM
Years ago, the Thunder decided to move on from James Harden when he and the team couldn’t agree to terms on an extension that would have created luxury-tax issues for the franchise. Now, Oklahoma City has the third-highest team salary in the NBA, and a projected tax bill that will exceed $10MM.

Portland Trail Blazers
Current guaranteed team salary (approximate): $124.25MM
The Trail Blazers managed to slash their projected tax bill significantly a couple weeks ago when they sent Allen Crabbe to the Nets for Andrew Nicholson. Assuming they eventually waive and stretch Nicholson’s contract, as expected, the pair of transactions will save the club upwards of $40MM in tax payments alone.

Washington Wizards
Current guaranteed team salary (approximate): $123.54MM
Going into tax territory was necessary if the Wizards wanted to match Otto Porter‘s offer sheet from the Nets and bring him back. Fortunately for the club, John Wall‘s new super-max extension won’t go into effect until 2019/20 — his current salary is far below the 2017/18 max, which will save the Wizards from paying more exorbitant tax penalties.

Milwaukee Bucks
Current guaranteed team salary (approximate): $119.38MM
The Bucks currently project to be over the tax threshold by a very small amount, and I’d be surprised if the team doesn’t make every effort to trim payroll and sneak below that line before the season is over. Milwaukee isn’t a big-market team, and the opportunity to be on the receiving end of the luxury tax – rather than the paying end – will be tantalizing.

Outside of the six teams listed above, a handful of other clubs are inching dangerously close to tax territory. Among them: The Clippers, whose estimated guaranteed team salary sits about $100K below the tax threshold; the Pelicans, who are less than $1MM below the tax line; and the Rockets, who only have about $114.75MM in guarantees, but are carrying several million more dollars in non-guaranteed contracts.

Salary information from ESPN, Basketball Insiders, and HeatHoops was used in the creation of this post.

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Redick Turned Down Rockets, Nets Before Sixers Deal

August 5th, 2017 at 10:56am CST by marksuleymanov

Sharpshooter J.J. Redick was a highly sought after free agent offseason, garnering interest from several teams before signing a one-year, $23MM deal with the Sixers. Before signing that deal, however, Redick was considering a four-year deal from the Rockets before the length of the deal was shortened.

Speaking to Alex Kennedy of The HoopsHype Podcast, Redick revealed that Rockets ownership — possibly preoccupied with several other ongoing negotiations — altered their initial offer to the 33-year-old guard.

“They offered four [years] and then they went three. Daryl [Morey] always has a million things going on, like in A Beautiful Mind with all of the stuff written on the chalkboard,” Redick said (via HoopsHype). “I’m sure he had four or five deals out there [he was working on]. The day before free agency, I thought it was a four-year deal. Chris Paul and I talked for about 30 minutes the night before free agency started. I wanted to go there.”

However, a deal with Houston never materialized and while he also fielded a “respectable” multi-year deal from the Nets, Redick ended up joining a young Sixers team which features the first overall picks from the last two NBA drafts (Markelle Fultz and Ben Simmons) and a hopefully healthy Joel Embiid.

After four productive seasons as the starting shooting guard for the Clippers, Redick will now provide a needed veteran presence with postseason and NBA Finals experience for Philadelphia. While the prospect of teaming with former Clippers teammate Paul and James Harden in Houston was enticing, Redick noted that playing for a Morey-led franchise may have come with more uncertainty than championship guarantees.

“[It didn’t work out] – some of it was numbers and some of it was other factors like relocating the family and – I hate to say this – but you never know with Daryl and how he operates,” Redick said. “A three-year deal could really be a six-month deal if you get dealt at the trade deadline for a superstar as part of a package of six.”

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Hakeem Olajuwon Interested In Buying In To Rockets

August 4th, 2017 at 4:31pm CST by Austin Kent
  • Count Hakeem Olajuwon among those interested in buying a portion of the Rockets. The franchise Hall of Famer has been approached by several groups that want him involved in a potential purchase, Mark Woods reports for ESPN.
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Patrick Beverley Confirms He Asked Rockets For Trade

August 3rd, 2017 at 1:56pm CST by Luke Adams

Appearing on Adrian Wojnarowski’s ESPN podcast this week, Patrick Beverley confirmed that he asked the Rockets to explore the trade market to find him another opportunity this offseason (link via ESPN.com). Houston ultimately obliged, sending him to the Clippers in part of the package for Chris Paul.

“It comes kind of surprising to people that ask, ‘Why did they trade you?’ I asked for it,” Beverley said. “I asked for a bigger opportunity, a bigger chance to display my skills on a high level and I was fortunate that the Rockets did really good with me and [put] me in a situation where I can thrive and be successful. They could have really dumped me anywhere, but they did right, and I respect them a lot for it.”

Beverley is on one of the NBA’s most team-friendly veteran contracts, and is in line to earn about $10.5MM over the next two years with the Clippers. That affordable salary was one reason it was a little surprising when word broke in June that the Rockets were looking to move him. However, even that initial report from Sean Deveney of The Sporting News indicated that the veteran point guard would welcome a deal.

As I noted at the time, Beverley saw his role in Houston change a little last season as James Harden assumed the point guard reins. Although he reportedly enjoyed playing for Mike D’Antoni, Beverley’s 14.1% usage rate was a career low.

Beverley, 29, averaged 9.5 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 4.2 APG, and 1.5 SPG along with solid three-point shooting (.382 3PT%) for the Rockets in 2016/17. His defensive ability also allowed Houston to have him guard the most dangerous backcourt threat on opposing teams, taking some pressure off Harden.

With Paul no longer running the show in L.A., there should be room for Beverley to take on a larger role with his new team, though the Clippers have no shortage of options at the point. Milos Teodosic figures to see plenty of action, and players like Austin Rivers and Lou Williams may also get a chance to handle the ball. Still, the Clippers don’t have a ball-dominant star like Harden standing in Beverley’s way in the backcourt.

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Kyler’s Latest: Irving, Suns, Wolves, Melo, Rockets

August 3rd, 2017 at 10:27am CST by Luke Adams

As we enter the dog days of the NBA offseason, two All-Star trade candidates remain on the block — the Cavaliers and Knicks continue to explore trades involving Kyrie Irving and Carmelo Anthony, respectively. Nothing appears imminent on either front, but Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders checks in on both situations to see where they stand, so let’s dive in and round up the highlights from Kyler…

  • The Cavaliers aren’t operating with a sense of urgency to find an Irving deal. One source from a team interested in Irving tells Kyler that Cleveland doesn’t seem to be operating with a deadline when it comes to getting something done. The source described the Cavs as still being in “fact-finding mode” at this point.
  • The Suns and Timberwolves are viewed as two strong candidates for Irving, but they’ve been reluctant to include Josh Jackson and Andrew Wiggins, respectively, and are unlikely to win out unless they relent on that stance. While Phoenix doesn’t want to move Jackson or Devin Booker, there’s a sense that anyone else on the roster could be had, says Kyler. That may not be enough for the Cavaliers, however.
  • The “prevailing thought in NBA circles” is that the long-rumored Anthony deal between the Knicks and Rockets isn’t going to happen unless Houston finds a way to improve its offer. As Kyler details, the idea of the Knicks accepting a package made up entirely of players they don’t view as long-term pieces isn’t “appealing or agreeable” to the team’s front office.
  • The Knicks seem as if they’re willing to bring Anthony to training camp if he doesn’t expand his list of preferred landing spots or if the Rockets don’t improve their offer, according to Kyler, who describes the Carmelo situation as “more like a standoff” than the Cavaliers‘ situation with Irving.
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Players Who Can Veto Trades In 2017/18

August 2nd, 2017 at 2:34pm CST by Luke Adams

No-trade clauses are rare in the NBA, but one such provision has been the subject of much discussion so far in 2017, as Carmelo Anthony made use of his NTC to block the Knicks from sending him to an undesirable destination. For much of the offseason, Anthony was focused on joining the Rockets, but he eventually agreed to a deal that sent him to Oklahoma City.

Anthony is one of just two NBA players whose contract includes an explicit no-trade clause, but there are still several players each year who have the ability to veto trades. A player who re-signs with his previous team on a one-year contract – or a two-year deal with an option year – is given no-trade protection, and so is a player who signs an offer sheet and has that offer matched by his previous team. Players who accept qualifying offers after their rookie deals expire can also block deals.

Taking into account that list of criteria, here are the players who must give their consent if their teams want to trade them during the 2017/18 league year:

No-trade clauses

Players whose offer sheets were matched

  • Otto Porter (Wizards)
    • Note: Even with his consent, Porter cannot be traded to the Nets during the 2017/18 league year.

Players accepting qualifying offers

Players re-signing for one year (or two years including an option)

In addition to the players listed above who can veto trades through the 2017/18 league year, there’s another small handful of players who can’t be dealt under any circumstance until at least next July. The following players signed a Designated Veteran Extension this season, which precludes them from being traded for a full calendar year:

Information from Basketball Insiders and ESPN was used in the creation of this post.

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Latest On Carmelo Anthony

August 2nd, 2017 at 12:39pm CST by Luke Adams

Speaking to reporters today for the first time in months, Carmelo Anthony admitted that the last 12 months have been an “emotional roller coaster” for him, writes Ian Begley of ESPN.com. Even though he’s not certain whether or not he’ll be traded by the Knicks before the 2017/18 season begins, Anthony said he’s at “peace” with his current situation.

As Begley details, Anthony was fairly noncommittal during his sitdown with the media today at The Basketball Tournament in Baltimore, declining to comment on his reported interest in joining the Rockets. He also didn’t have much to say about the Knicks’ decision to replace Phil Jackson earlier this summer, calling that a “business” move that owner James Dolan made in the course of running his organization.

Here’s more on Carmelo:

  • Anthony said today that he hasn’t spoken to the new Knicks regime, notes Stefan Bondy of The New York Daily News. According to Bondy, new team president Steve Mills has tried to talk to Anthony about his options, but Carmelo isn’t interested in having that discussion. “For him, there’s nothing to talk about,” one source told The Daily News.
  • Despite his apparent lack of interest in meeting with the front office, Anthony acknowledged that he and Scott Perry have long been acquaintances on good terms. “I’m pretty sure I’ll talk to him when the time comes,” Anthony said of the Knicks‘ new GM, according to Bondy.
  • Sources reiterate to Bondy that Anthony thought he was on the verge of being sent to the Rockets before Mills halted trade discussions in mid-July.
  • After Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum made an effort to recruit Anthony to Portland last month, another Trail Blazers player made a pitch of his own, with Evan Turner suggesting that Carmelo would “love” playing in Portland. “If he waives [his no-trade clause] and wants to come, it would be great,” Turner said, per Marc Berman of The New York Post. “He’ll lock in because he made the decision to come. He’s got all the power in a certain sense. It’s not a guarantee. The positive is if we did get him, that means he wanted to be there and accepted the trade and buckle into what we’re trying to do.”
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And-Ones: Awards, Super Teams, Pelicans, Lawson

August 1st, 2017 at 9:52pm CST by marksuleymanov

After his superstar player, James Harden, fell short of capturing the NBA Most Valuable Player award, Daryl Morey feels the league could do away with awards, the Rockets general manager said to Ben Golliver of The Crossover.

“I don’t know if this is a good process,” Morey said. “The ones that are decided by players or executives or media, they all have their strengths and weaknesses. I honestly don’t think there’s a good process. You could argue for eliminating the awards altogether. I don’t really see a good way to do it that doesn’t have major issues. I like clean answers. If there’s not going to be a set criteria and there’s going to be issues with how it’s structured, for me it might be better to not have it.”

Morey made frequent mention to the “criteria” used to select the NBA MVP. Whether it be personal success, a historically great season, or team performance, Morey believes it doesn’t lead to a uniform result. For instance, Stephen Curry won the MVP over Harden because the Warriors had a better record, and if the same guidelines were used, Harden should have won the award over Russell Westbrook this year.

In any case, Morey’s comments have been received negatively by most of the basketball world and players are still scheduled to be rewarded with hardware for having outstanding seasons.

Below you can find additional news from around the basketball world:

  • Tom Haberstroh of ESPN examines nine different NBA teams that could be future super teams in a lengthy piece that well worth the read. Haberstroh compares super teams from years’ past, including the 2008 Celtics, 2011 Heat, and the 2014 Warriors and explains how teams can follow their blueprints to success.
  • For ESPN Insider (subscription required and recommended), Kevin Pelton hands out grades to Western Conference teams for their transactions and transgressions this offseason.
  • While an expansion with new teams added to the NBA is unlikely, Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders writes that relocation of current teams is more plausible. Kyler specifically mentions the Pelicans and how they could end up moving from New Orleans.
  • Free agent point guard Ty Lawson has signed with veteran agent Larry Fox, per Liz Mullen of SportsBusiness Daily (via Twitter). Hoops Rumors previously noted that Fox was representing Lawson, who seemed bound for China at one point this offseason.
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