In an interesting piece on the Hawks, Zach Lowe of ESPN.com explains that Atlanta’s original offseason plan was to re-sign Al Horford to pair him with Dwight Howard, and to move Paul Millsap in exchange for young players and/or draft assets. That plan ultimately fell apart, but before it did, the Hawks spoke to the Nuggets, Suns, Raptors, and Rockets about a Millsap deal, according to Lowe, who adds that Denver had been ready to move a “players-and-picks package” led by Kenneth Faried.
JULY 7: The Hawks have sent out a formal press release announcing their new deal with Bazemore.
JULY 1: The Hawks have secured one of their own free agents, according to Michael Scotto of The Associated Press, who reports (via Twitter) that Atlanta and Kent Bazemore have agreed to terms on a four-year, $70MM contract, which will feature a player option on the final year.
It’s the second big-money deal the team has struck today — the Hawks also reached an agreement with Dwight Howard on a three-year contract worth $70.5MM. The two deals for Bazemore and Howard will almost certainly take Atlanta out of the running for Al Horford, meaning he’ll likely find a new home within the next few days.
Bazemore, who went undrafted out of Old Dominion, emerged as a reliable three-and-D player for the Hawks last season, averaging 11.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 1.3 steals per game, while shooting 35.7% from beyond the arc.
We heard early in free agency that it might take an offer in the $19-20MM-per-year range to land Bazemore, and the Hawks will ultimately pay a little less than that — his reported deal averages $17.5MM annually. According to David Aldridge of NBA.com (via Twitter), Bazemore turned down four-year, $72MM offers from the Lakers and Rockets to return to Atlanta.
In addition to Los Angeles and Houston, the Bucks, Grizzlies, Nets, and Pelicans were among the rival suitors for Bazemore, and were in touch with him before he made his decision, according to Shams Charania of The Vertical. There had been speculation that Bazemore would take a few days before deciding on his team — instead, he agreed to a contract with the Hawks on the day of his 27th birthday. Not a bad gift.
The value of Bazemore’s new deal is right in line with the four-year, $70MM deal agreed to by Evan Turner and the Trail Blazers earlier today.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
The Timberwolves offered veteran small forward Luol Deng a three-year contract at $12MM per season, according to Darren Wolfson of KSTP Radio (Twitter link). Head coach and president of basketball operations Tim Thobideau refused to fully guarantee the third year, Wolfson adds. In the end, the Timberwolves didn’t come close to signing Deng, as the former Heat starter agreed to a four-year, $72MM contract with the Lakers.
In other news regarding free agency:
- The Wizards have interest in re-signing shooting guard Alan Anderson and will meet with him this weekend, league sources told J. Michael of CSNmidlatlantic.com (Twitter links). The meeting is expected to take place in Las Vegas, Michael adds. Anderson, who made $4MM last season, appeared in just 13 games with the Wizards after undergoing a second surgery on his left ankle. The previous season, he played in 74 games with the Nets and averaged 7.4 points in 23.6 minutes.
- Shooting guard Brandon Paul is drawing major interest around the league after some strong performances for the Hornets’ summer-league team, Sportando tweets. He’s averaging 15.3 points and 7.3 rebounds through four games in the Orlando Summer League. The 6’4” Paul went undrafted in 2013 out of the University of Illinois and has been playing for a Spanish league team, FIATC Joventut.
- Forward Anthony Randolph will remain in Europe and sign a one-year deal with Spain’s Real Madrid, a source told Marc J. Spears of ESPN.com (Twitter links). Randolph received interest from the Mavericks this summer, Spears adds. The contract will be the $1.5MM-$2MM range, international journalist David Pick tweets. The 6’11” Randolph hasn’t played in the NBA since the 2013/14 season, when he appeared in 43 games with the Nuggets.
- Power forward Willie Reed has drawn interest from the Warriors, Spurs, Heat, Thunder, Timberwolves and Pacers, Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders tweets. Reed, an unrestricted free agent, averaged 4.7 points and 3.1 rebounds in 10.9 minutes over 39 games with the Nets last season.
- Free agent center Robert Sacre, who played the last four seasons with the Lakers, has drawn interest from the Timberwolves and Rockets, Wolfson reports in a separate tweet.
Unlike a year ago, the Mavericks don’t anticipate any snags before the moratorium is lifted on Thursday, writes Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News. Last summer, Dallas looked like a huge winner in free agency before DeAndre Jordan changed his mind and re-signed with the Clippers. This year should feature a lot less drama, as Dallas is expected to finalize a trade sending Jeremy Evans to Indiana before moving on to its committed free agents. The Mavericks will complete deals with Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut and re-sign Deron Williams and Dwight Powell. The team may decide to shed some more salary, with Sefko mentioning backup center JaVale McGee as a possibility.
There’s more from the Southwest Division:
- Former Maverick Rodrigue Beaubois will be given a chance to make the roster next season, posts Tim McMahon on ESPN Now. The 28-year-old point guard spent four years in Dallas at the start of the decade, but hasn’t played in the NBA since 2013. He spent this season with Strasbourg in France.
- Tim Duncan hasn’t made an official announcement about his future, but Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News notes that his career could end with him being waived by the Spurs. Waiving Duncan and stretching his $6.4MM salary over the next three seasons would not only help San Antonio’s cap situation, it would make sure Duncan gets all the money owed to him. All signs point toward Duncan retiring, but McDonald says if he comes back the Spurs will be able to fit him and new free agent signee Pau Gasol under their cap.
- Today’s deal with Nene makes the Rockets‘ battle for roster spots more interesting, tweets Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle. Houston now has 13 players under contract for 2016/17, and must decide by August 1st whether to pick up a $1,015,696 option on reserve point guard Andrew Goudelock. The 27-year-old appeared in just eight games after signing with the Rockets in March when he completed his season in China. Combo forward Michael Beasley is in the same position, but a source told Feigen that Houston intends to keep him. The 13 roster spots don’t include restricted free agent Donatas Motiejunas or second-round draft pick Chinanu Onuaku (Twitter link).
- There is “growing skepticism” that Alessandro Gentile will join the Rockets next season, tweets international journalist David Pick. It was reported last month that the Italian wing player, whose rights belong to Houston, was interested in playing for new coach Mike D’Antoni.
The Cavaliers are on track to lose a pair of contributors when the July moratorium ends tomorrow, with Timofey Mozgov headed to the Lakers and Matthew Dellavedova ticketed for Milwaukee. Still, while the Cavs haven’t agreed to deals with any free agents of their own yet, the team is scouring the trade and free agent market looking for ways to fortify its roster. According to Chris Broussard of ESPN.com (via Twitter), Cleveland is looking to add at least one athletic, shooting wing player.
While there may still be a few players on the free agent market who fit that bill, the Cavs don’t have much spending flexibility, and would likely only be able offer their $2.9MM room exception or a minimum-salary contract. The trade market may make more sense for Cleveland, and according to Broussard, the club had interest in acquiring Trevor Ariza. However, the Rockets weren’t looking to move Ariza at this time.
As our list of outstanding trade exceptions shows, the Cavaliers still hold a handful of TPEs that could be used to accommodate deals. The most intriguing one is the $9,638,554 exception Cleveland created at the 2016 trade deadline. Using that trade exception, the Cavs could acquire a player whose salary fits into that amount without sending out any salary of their own. Ariza, for instance, could be absorbed into that TPE, since he’s making just $7,806,971 this season.
The Cavaliers could also send out their own players to make a trade work, but the franchise isn’t all that interested in significantly shaking up a roster that’s coming off a championship. If Cleveland did need to send out salary to accommodate a larger acquisition, Iman Shumpert ($9,662,922) and Channing Frye ($7,806,971) would probably be candidates to be moved.
With the salary cap set for the new league year, the NBA has finalized its luxury-tax calculations for the 2015/16 season, and the champion Cavaliers will be on the hook for a hefty bill. According to ESPN’s Marc Stein, owner Dan Gilbert and the Cavs, having spent well beyond the luxury-tax threshold last season, owe a tax payment of $54MM.
Here’s the complete list of taxpaying teams for the 2015/16 season, per Stein:
- Cleveland Cavaliers: $54MM
- Los Angeles Clippers: $19.9MM
- Golden State Warriors: $14.8MM
- Oklahoma City Thunder $14.5MM
- Houston Rockets: $4.9MM
- San Antonio Spurs: $4.9MM
- Chicago Bulls: $4.2MM
The tax payments owed by those seven teams total nearly $120MM, and according to Stein, half of that money will be used to fund the NBA’s revenue-sharing program. The other half will be split up equally among the league’s 23 non-taxpaying teams, with each franchise receiving about $2.5MM.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Trail Blazers and Magic were the only teams to fall short of the $63MM floor, per Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). They’ll have to make up the difference by cutting checks to the players who finished the season on their respective rosters.
The Rockets and Eric Gordon have reached an agreement, Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reports. The deal, which can be finalized next week, is worth $53MM over four years, Wojnarowski adds.
Gordon, 27, is a talented scorer when he’s healthy, having averaged 16.6 PPG with a .383 3PT% over the course of his eight-year NBA career. However, in those eight seasons, he has played just 417 total games, or about 52 per year. During his five seasons in New Orleans, Gordon never played more than 64 games in a season, having dealt with multiple injuries. Gordon averaged 15.2 points in 45 games for the Pelicans last season.
It’s quite clear that the Rockets are building around James Harden as an offensive-minded team under new coach Mike D’Antoni. Houston agreed to a deal with stretch four Ryan Anderson earlier on Saturday. Gordon and Anderson had been teammates with the Pelicans.
The lack of state income tax in Texas may have been an added incentive for Gordon, who also received interest from the Knicks and Grizzlies. New York ultimately reached a deal with Courtney Lee to fill the club’s opening at the two.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Ed Szczepanski/USA TODAY Sports Images
The Rockets and Ryan Anderson have agreed to terms on a deal that will bring the forward to Houston, Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reports (via Twitter). Anderson’s pact is for four years and $80MM, the scribe adds.
Houston beat out a number of other suitors for the services of the sweet-shooting stretch four. The Kings and Wizards were among the teams vying to ink the 28-year-old, but the opportunity to play alongside James Harden in Houston, and of course, $80MM, snagged Anderson.
Anderson, a former 21st overall pick, has only played more than 66 games once in a season, but is coming off a solid year for the Pelicans. He averaged 17.0 points and 6.0 rebounds per game, to go along with a shooting line of .427/.366/.873. Anderson’s career numbers through eight NBA seasons are 13.1 PPG, 5.6 RPG and 0.9 APG.
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.
10:52pm: While the Hawks remain involved in the Horford sweepstakes, they have yet to offer him the full max, according to Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com.
10:30pm: The Hawks committed more than $140MM to Kent Bazemore and Dwight Howard on Friday, greatly reducing the odds of Al Horford returning to Atlanta. For his part, Horford also had a busy July 1st, having held free agent meetings with four teams, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical (via Twitter).
Earlier in the day, we heard that the Celtics were among the teams to meet with Horford in Atlanta today, and Boston was expected to put a maximum-salary offer on the table for the free agent big man. Wojnarowski adds the Rockets and Wizards to the list of teams to meet with Horford today, though the identity of the fourth team isn’t known — it’s possible it was the Hawks, though the Thunder and several other teams are also believed to be in the hunt.
According to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com (via Twitter), the Hawks haven’t backed out of the Horford sweepstakes quite yet, even after striking $70MM deals with Bazemore and Howard. Windhorst reports that Atlanta has been involved in trade talks that would help the team clear the space necessary to bring back Horford, if he wants to return, and Wojnarowski confirms (via Twitter) that the Hawks’ contract negotiations with Horford have been ongoing.
Windhorst didn’t name any specific players as trade candidates for Atlanta, but I would think Tiago Splitter and his $8.55MM cap hit would be at or near the top of the list. A Paul Millsap deal is a possibility as well. Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com reports (via Twitter) that a trade involving Millsap and Suns draft picks has been “pondered” in recent days.
Per Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link), the Celtics had apparently hoped to secure an agreement with Horford and then bring him to their meeting with Kevin Durant on Saturday. However, it doesn’t appear Horford will decide on his destination tonight — Wojnarowski says that decision will likely happen over the weekend sometime.