- The Rockets‘ deal with P.J. Hairston is non-guaranteed and will pay him $980,431 for 2016/17, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders relays (via Twitter).
The Rockets and restricted free agent Donatas Motiejunas have previously exchanged contract proposals, but the two sides remain far apart and are not close to reaching an accord, Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com reports. The forward is seeker a larger payout than Houston is offering and Motiejunas and the team haven’t engaged in serious discussions in over a month, league sources inform Watkins. This info jibes with what Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reported on Friday.
Motiejunas has until midnight on Sunday to accept the team’s qualifying offer worth $4,433,683. By submitting a qualifying offer, Houston has the right of first refusal on any offer sheet Motiejunas were to ink, which prevents him from signing outright with another club. The Lithuanian big man, who turned 26 in September, could sign that one-year qualifying offer and become an unrestricted free agent next summer, but he obviously prefers longer-term security and a bigger payday. It could also lead to a tense situation between himself and the front office if he were to have to accept the QO against his wishes, which isn’t an ideal situation for either party heading into the new season.
The forward’s agent, B.J. Armstrong, told Watkins that he gave the Rockets a deadline of today to work out a deal for his client. If no deal is agreed upon prior to the deadline and Motiejunas chooses not to sign the qualifying offer, or if he allows it to expire, he can eventually sign a one-year deal with the Rockets that could end up being for less money. If that is the route the forward takes, the Rockets would not be able to trade him unless he grants them permission. For what it’s worth, the Rockets have kept an open roster spot for Motiejunas, with the team currently having 19 players under contract, which is one under the preseason limit.
Motiejunas could also seek to sign a contract with another team, but there are only three franchises — the Sixers, Nuggets and Nets — who have the cap space needed to sign him, according to Watkins. If no NBA opportunity presented itself, Motiejunas could seek a deal overseas or choose to sit out the 2016/17 season. Neither of which is as palatable as remaining in the league and earning an NBA paycheck. It is doubtful that Motiejunas could snag a one-year deal overseas that would exceed the amount of his qualifying offer in Houston.
SEPTEMBER 30th: The signing is official, the team announced.
SEPTEMBER 29th: P.J. Hairston will join the Rockets on a training camp deal, Adrian Wojnarowksi of The Vertical tweets. Houston will hold his D-League rights, Wojnarowski adds.
A 2014 first-round pick, the 6’6” small forward played for both the Grizzlies and Hornets last season. He was acquired by the Grizzlies in a deadline deal in which guard Courtney Lee landed in Charlotte.
He started half of the 18 games he played for Memphis last season, averaging 6.9 points and 2.6 rebounds in 20.8 minutes. He started 43 of the 48 games he played for Charlotte, averaging 6.0 points and 2.7 rebounds in 19.5 minutes. Hairston has shot just 34.3% from the field in 111 career game.
Hairston recently worked out for the Nets and Pacers before the Rockets offered him a deal. He also attended the Lakers’ mini-camp for free agents in August.
With an October 1 deadline looming for Donatas Motiejunas and the Rockets, it doesn’t appear the two sides are closing in on a long-term deal. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical (via Twitter), Motiejunas the Rockets aren’t currently negotiating, though Wojnarowski cautions there’s still time for the two sides to re-engage.
[RELATED: Rockets’ depth chart at RosterResource.com]
Motiejunas received a qualifying offer worth $4,433,683 from the Rockets this summer, which gives Houston the right of first refusal, preventing the forward from signing outright with another club. The Lithuanian big man, who turned 26 this month, could sign that one-year qualifying offer and become an unrestricted free agent next summer, but he would likely prefer some longer-term security and a bigger payday.
Earlier in September, Motiejunas’ agent B.J. Armstrong publicly expressed some concern with the situation, telling Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com that the Rockets have yet to make a serious contract offer for his client. According to Armstrong, October 1 will be the moment of truth for the Rockets and Motiejunas, with resolution expected to come by that point.
October 1 is the deadline for Motiejunas to accept his qualifying offer. After that point, he remains a restricted free agent, but he’s no longer able to sign that $4.434MM QO that was on the table for the previous three months. So if the Rockets don’t offer him a deal he likes in the very near future, Motiejunas will likely take the QO and focus on unrestricted free agency in 2017. If he signs the QO, he’d also gain the ability to veto any trades involving him this season, which could come in handy, considering the Rockets nearly moved him at the 2016 trade deadline.
With training camps underway, teams have now officially finalized the contract agreements with various camp invitees that had been reported over the past several weeks, meaning we have plenty of contract details to round up. As usual, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders has been busy reporting those details, updating his salary pages for teams around the NBA.
Because we have so many updates to pass along from Pincus, we’ll divide them up by players who received some guaranteed money from their teams, and those who didn’t. All of the links below point to the Basketball Insiders team salary pages, so be sure to click through for additional information.
Here are the latest salary updates from across the league, via Pincus:
Players receiving guaranteed money:
These players aren’t necessarily assured of regular-season roster spots. In fact, many of them likely received guarantees as an incentive to accept a D-League assignment. Still, for some players, larger guarantees should increase their odds of making 15-man rosters.
- Thomas Walkup (Bulls): One year, minimum salary. $69.5K guaranteed.
- Keith Benson (Heat): Two years, minimum salary. $75K guaranteed.
- Henry Sims (Jazz): One year, minimum salary. $75K guaranteed.
- Alex Poythress (Pacers): One year, minimum salary. $35,381 guaranteed.
- Kevin Seraphin (Pacers): Two years, $3.681MM. First year ($1.8MM) guaranteed.
- Julyan Stone (Pacers): One year, minimum salary. $50K guaranteed.
- Gary Payton II (Rockets): Two years, minimum salary. First year ($543,471) guaranteed.
- Isaiah Taylor (Rockets): Two years, minimum salary. $50K guaranteed.
- Kyle Wiltjer (Rockets): Two years, minimum salary. $275K guaranteed.
- Cat Barber (Sixers): One year, minimum salary. $50K guaranteed.
- Elton Brand (Sixers): One year, minimum salary. $1MM guaranteed.
- Derrick Jones (Suns): Three years, minimum salary. $42.5K guaranteed.
- Alex Caruso (Thunder): One year, minimum salary. $50K guaranteed.
- Kaleb Tarczewski (Thunder): One year, minimum salary. $75K guaranteed.
- Chris Wright (Thunder): One year, minimum salary. $100K guaranteed.
Players receiving no guaranteed money:
The following players all signed one-year, minimum salary contracts with no guaranteed money. Many of these deals are “summer contracts,” which won’t count against a team’s cap unless the player earns a spot on the 15-man roster.
- Jabari Brown and Jaleel Roberts (Bucks)
- Markel Brown, Dahntay Jones, Cory Jefferson, Eric Moreland, John Holland, and Jonathan Holmes (Cavaliers)
- Dorell Wright (Clippers)
- Chris Crawford (Grizzlies)
- Ryan Kelly, Will Bynum, and Richard Solomon (Hawks)
- Perry Ellis (Hornets)
- Eric Dawson (Jazz)
- Julian Jacobs and Travis Wear (Lakers)
- Quinn Cook (Pelicans)
- Joel Anthony and Nicolas Laprovittola (Spurs)
- Gracin Bakumanya, Derek Cooke, and Shaquille Harrison (Suns)
- Rasual Butler (Timberwolves)
- The Rockets have high expectations for center Clint Capela as Dwight Howard‘s replacement, Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com writes. The team signed Nene Hilario to back up and mentor Capela, who is expected to move into the starting lineup, Watkins continues. GM Daryl Morey told Watkins that Capela must become an impact player. “Clint is someone for us, to have the season we want to have — to get home court in the Western Conference and to make a deep playoff run and hopefully to go deeper than we’ve ever been in my career — Clint is going to have to take a big step forward,” Morey said. “It’s not an easy step, from playing 15 to 20 minutes against … often, but not always, the starting center to playing 25-plus minutes against front-line guys.”
- New Rockets power forward Ryan Anderson is happy to leave behind the Pelicans‘ offense, writes Ben Rohrbach of Yahoo Sports. Anderson, one of the league’s best shooting stretch fours, saw his average of 3-point shots dip to 5.6 per game over the last two years after being close to 7.0 the three previous seasons. That number should rise dramatically now that he is playing for coach Mike D’Antoni in Houston. “I’ve had more wide-open looks in our pickup games here than I’ve had in the past four years, probably,” Anderson said.
At this time of year, most players who sign contracts with the NBA teams will settle for non-guaranteed or partially-guaranteed deals, unless they’re notable free agents like J.R. Smith or Donatas Motiejunas, who simply haven’t reached common ground with their current teams yet. However, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link), undrafted free agent Gary Payton II got a fully guaranteed salary from the Rockets on his new deal with the team.
Payton’s contract is believed to be for two years, and it’s not clear whether both years are guaranteed or just his 2016/17 salary. Either way, it gives the Rockets a 15th guaranteed salary for this season, even before taking into account Motiejunas, who remains a restricted free agent and is expected to return to the Rockets eventually.
Of course, Payton’s guaranteed salary doesn’t preclude the team from re-signing Motiejunas. But if that happens, it will leave the club with 16 fully guaranteed players, with at least one of them needing to be traded or waived before the regular season gets underway. That should make training camp and the preseason more interesting in Houston, even for players whose roster spots had appeared reasonably secure.
More on the Rockets:
- In a follow-up tweet, Pincus notes that Kyle Wiltjer, another undrafted rookie who was signed along with Payton, got a “nice partial guarantee” on his contract. The Rockets may have included that partial guarantee in order to convince Wiltjer to accept an assignment to the D-League if and when he’s cut by Houston.
- As expected, Bobby Brown‘s deal with the Rockets is a non-guaranteed summer contract, tweets Pincus.
- Head coach Mike D’Antoni has been impressed by recently acquired point guard Tyler Ennis, suggesting he’s “expecting good things out of him,” per Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. Houston acquired Ennis from the Bucks last week in exchange for Michael Beasley.
There is a more positive feeling in the Rockets locker room this year, something that team owner Leslie Alexander chalks up to the teams new additions, Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com relays. When asked if he sensed a different vibe as the team begins training camp, Alexander told Watkins, “100% — they seem happier. James Harden especially seems happier, and I think they’re all together this year. They’re all in it to win, and the guys we brought over, Nene, Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon, they didn’t win last year, and they have this tense desire to win.”
- Mavericks center Andrew Bogut said that he would have asked for a buyout if he was traded to a team other than Dallas this summer, Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com relays. The Warriors reportedly gave Bogut the choice of being traded to the Mavs and the Rockets, with the big man ultimately deciding to go to Dallas. The Sixers had also reportedly expressed interest, but Golden State wanted to deal the veteran big man to a team with more realistic playoff hopes than Philly.
1:12pm: Responding today to Noel’s comments, Colangelo reiterated that he’s not shopping any specific players, suggesting that – as a new GM – he was simply gauging league-wide interest in his players (Twitter link via Derek Bodner of PhillyMag.com). Colangelo added that the situation shouldn’t be affected by Noel’s comments, and that Embiid’s health will be a major factor in the Sixers’ plans (Twitter links via Bodner and Pompey). The team isn’t in a rush to make any moves, per Colangelo (Twitter link via Jessica Camerato of CSNPhilly.com).
Meanwhile, Noel doubled down on his earlier comments this afternoon. While he stressed he isn’t unhappy in Philadelphia, the big man said he doesn’t see “any way of it working” when asked again about the center logjam (Twitter link via Bodner).
8:37am: With Joel Embiid poised to make his NBA debut this season, the Sixers are stacked at the center position, as Embiid joins Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor in the rotation. The logjam at the position has resulted in plenty of trade rumors involving Noel and Okafor this offseason, but the team has yet to make a move. And as Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Noel is starting to publicly question when a move will happen.
“I think it’s just silly… this situation that we are in now with three starting centers,” Noel said. “With the departure of [former GM] Sam Hinkie, I would have figured that management would be able to get something done this summer. … I think something needs to happen.”
According to Noel, he’s not asking to be traded himself, or demanding that the Sixers make a move immediately. However, it sounds as if he views a deal as inevitable, since it doesn’t make sense for the club to play out the season with all three players, assuming they all stay healthy. According to Noel, it’s the equivalent of having “three starting quarterbacks.”
“I feel like it definitely needs to be figured out,” Noel said. “I think at the end of the day, again, you have three starting-caliber centers. And it’s just not going to work to anybody’s advantage having that on the same team. That’s how I’m looking at it. I’m not opposed to anything, but things need to be situated.”
Although GM Bryan Colangelo has suggested in the past that heading into the season with Okafor, Noel, and Embiid all on the roster isn’t necessarily ideal, the Sixers also like all three players and don’t want to sell one of them for below market value. Appearing on Adrian Wojnarowski’s podcast last week, Colangelo denied aggressively shopping Okafor and Noel, adding that the team’s desire to make a deal has been overstated and calling it a “high-class problem” to have three promising young centers.
Noel tells Pompey that he knows he “was shopped,” though that could be a question of semantics — it’s not clear whether the Sixers were instigating trade discussions or simply talking to teams that called to ask about their bigs. According to Pompey, Noel’s name has come up in trade talks with the Celtics, Suns, Hawks, and Rockets, but Philadelphia turned down multiple offers for the 22-year-old. Another source tells Pompey that the Sixers have also spoken to the Raptors and Spurs.
While it remains possible that the Sixers will make a move prior to the regular season, the club had been hoping to make it until at least December 15, per Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders (Twitter links). That would give Okafor and Embiid time to prove they’re fully healthy, and it would allow players who signed new deals this offseason to become trade-eligible, opening the door for more possible scenarios.