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Offseason In Review

Offseason In Review: Washington Wizards

November 13th, 2015 at 6:40pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team’s offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees and more will be covered as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.

Signings

Extensions

  • None

Trades

  • Acquired the draft rights to Kelly Oubre Jr. (No. 15 overall) from the Hawks in exchange for the draft rights to Jerian Grant (No. 19 overall) and Washington’s 2016 and 2019 second round picks.
  • Acquired Jared Dudley from the Bucks in exchange for Washington’s 2020 second round pick (top-55 protected).

Waiver Claims

  • None

Draft Picks

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

The last two seasons for the Wizards have ended with the team ousted in the second round of the playoffs, which raises legitimate concerns about the current state of their roster as well as the overall direction of the franchise. The window of contention can be fleeting in the NBA, and Washington is in danger of remaining stuck in the difficult position of being good enough to make the playoffs, but not necessarily talented enough to advance to the Conference Finals and beyond.

After what was a rather low-key offseason, the team returns the bulk of its core from 2014/15, with the most significant change being the departure of Paul Pierce, who opted to sign a three year deal worth approximately $10MM with the Clippers. While Pierce is no longer the player that he was in his heyday with Boston, he certainly provided the team with a strong veteran presence, and he was a reliable clutch performer. For that, he will surely be missed. But now that Pierce has departed, it opens the door for Otto Porter, the No. 3 overall selection in the 2013 NBA draft, to step up and prove his value to the club. The Wizards predictably exercised Porter’s fourth-year rookie option, giving him two seasons to establish himself as a player in the league, and as a part of the Wizards’ rotation, in advance of his next contract.

The franchise spent the bulk of the summer looking ahead, not to the 2015/16 season, but rather the summer of 2016, which is when Washington, D.C., native Kevin Durant is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent. While this tactic may end up making this season seem like a bit of an afterthought for the team, it will certainly be looked back on as an extremely wise plan if Durant does indeed end up with the Wizards. A trio of John Wall, Bradley Beal, and Durant would instantly become one of the most electric offensive units in the league, and that dream is certainly worth chasing for the team and its fans.

A key facet of the Wizards’ plan to snare Durant is the timing of when the team inks Beal to a new contract. The 22-year-old was eligible to sign a rookie scale extension prior to this year’s November 2nd deadline, but no deal was worked out, and the franchise opted for cap flexibility rather than the security of knowing the up-and-coming shooting guard was locked down for the long-term. The shooting guard believes he is worth the maximum salary, and Washington fully intends to re-sign Beal for the max next summer, as Sean Deveney of The Sporting News wrote.

With Beal not signing an extension, the Mark Bartelstein client will be able to negotiate with other teams next summer when he becomes a restricted free agent, but the Wizards can match any offer sheet he might agree to. Beal could also take the drastic, and unlikely, step of signing his qualifying offer, which would be worth approximately $7.471MM, but that would represent a significant discount from his projected maximum salary of $20.4MM. Beal had gone on record saying that he was confident about working out a deal with the Wizards before the extension deadline but would be OK with either outcome, and he has no desire to play for another team, as he told Michael Lee of Yahoo Sports.

The Wizards are apparently using the same strategy that the Spurs employed with Kawhi Leonard that allowed them to sign LaMarcus Aldridge this past offseason, and one that the Pistons and Andre Drummond are also pursuing. Both franchises had decided against extensions for their young stars in an effort to preserve cap flexibility for next summer. Beal’s cap hold for the coming offseason will be $14.2MM, and that number will remain on the team’s books until the two sides sign a new contract. If the team had signed Beal to a max extension prior to the deadline, it would have added roughly an additional $6MM to Washington’s cap figure, a significant impediment if the team hopes to land Durant and supplement its roster with a respectable supporting cast. Now, thanks to Beal remaining unsigned, the Wizards could sign other free agents next summer via cap space and then use Bird rights to re-sign Beal or to match an offer sheet for him.

The franchise didn’t completely ignore this year’s squad, signing combo guard Gary Neal and swingman Alan Anderson to one-year, team friendly deals. While both players are solid veterans who provide the team with depth, neither are game-changers for the Wizards. Anderson has yet to play during the regular season, thanks to undergoing a procedure late in training camp to address a nagging issue in his left ankle. The swingman is expected to be out until December and may have already lost his expected spot in the rotation thanks to the strong early play of Porter, though Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post told us that it’s more likely Anderson takes over the minutes that Garrett Temple and Kelly Oubre Jr. are seeing.

Washington also attempted to compensate for the loss of Pierce with the acquisition of Jared Dudley from the Bucks in exchange for a heavily protected 2020 second-round pick, and with Oubre, the No. 15 overall pick in this year’s NBA draft. Dudley was a wise addition, with the veteran certainly capable of providing solid minutes if he can remain healthy. Wizards GM Ernie Grunfeld also made a solid move in acquiring Oubre’s draft rights from the Hawks in exchange for two future second-rounders and the No. 19 overall pick. Oubre is a project who will take some time to develop, but he also possesses lottery-level talent, and he could evolve into a two-way force if the front office and the coaching staff show proper patience.

Washington is a franchise with enough talent to be a factor in the Eastern Conference this season, though the team likely doesn’t have enough firepower to beat the Cavaliers without a generous amount of good fortune coming its way. That’s a major reason why the franchise is anxiously awaiting its shot at luring Durant, whose presence alongside Wall and Beal would instantly make the Wizards a force to be reckoned with. The danger is in focusing too much on Durant, who isn’t necessarily going to depart Oklahoma City, and not doing all that it can to upgrade the roster this season.

The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

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Offseason In Review: New Orleans Pelicans

November 13th, 2015 at 12:44pm CST by Chuck Myron

Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team’s offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees and more will be covered as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.

Signings

Extensions

Trades

  • Acquired $630K from the Clippers in exchange for the rights to Branden Dawson, the No. 56 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft.

Waiver Claims

  • Ish Smith: Claimed from the Wizards. One year, $1.101MM remaining. Contract is non-guaranteed.

Draft Picks

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

  • None
Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

The Pelicans roster was a jumble to start the season, though it’s difficult to pin blame on executive VP of basketball operations Mickey Loomis or GM Dell Demps. Injuries either knocked out or limited six Pelicans during the preseason, not including offseason signee Kendrick Perkins, who recently went down with a right pectoral injury that’s expected to cost him three months. The other injured Pelicans should be back by then, if they’re not already, but the spate of injuries nonetheless altered the composition of the team and has seemingly had much to do with a disappointing 1-7 start.

This was to be the season that New Orleans solidified itself as a postseason certainty for the present and years into the future. No longer were the Pelicans to sneak into the playoffs on the final night of the regular season, as they did this past spring. The continued improvement of Anthony Davis and the offensive bona fides of new coach Alvin Gentry were supposed to lift the team into the Western Conference elite, and though it’s early, it takes only a few losses to exceed the thin margin for error in the West. Still, the team is in a better spot than it was at the end of last season thanks largely to a move that eases the consequences of any shortcomings this year.

Davis is firmly entrenched as a Pelican in the wake of his new five-year extension, and the swiftness with which he agreed to sign it, in the first hour of his extension-eligibility window, speaks to his satisfaction with the direction of the franchise. Of course, the extension was the sensible financial play for the Wasserman Media Group client, since it’s a five-year max deal. Still, if Davis yearned to play elsewhere, the second jump in the salary cap, from a projected $89MM in 2016/17 to a $108MM projection for 2017/18, would have given Davis a chance to offset a significant portion of the financial sacrifice he’d undertake if he signed his qualifying offer next summer. Davis could also have pursued that strategy to stay in New Orleans but only on a series of two-year contracts with player options, a la LeBron James with the Cavs, a leverage play that Davis’ vast talent would probably have granted him if he wanted it.

Instead, he’s tied up for the long haul, and so too is Gentry, though the coach is just on a four-year deal with a team option on the final season. Gentry nonetheless seems well-positioned, given his role in Golden State’s 67-win championship team last season and the possibilities that abound with Davis and the team’s other offensive talents. The Pelicans reportedly interviewed Jeff Van Gundy, and Tom Thibodeau was frequently mentioned in connection to the job, though Demps was apparently in no mood to knock heads with such a hard-charging personality as the ex-Bulls coach. The Pelicans were instead reportedly looking for an exciting, up-tempo approach, and even before his tenure with the Warriors was over, Gentry got the New Orleans job.

The Pelicans clearly felt as though the switch from ousted former coach Monty Williams to Gentry, along with continued improvement from Davis, was the jolt the team needed to take the next step, since New Orleans made retaining the bulk of its roster a priority over the summer. The team’s only trade involved the divestment of second-round pick Branden Dawson in exchange for cash, and the Pelicans re-signed five out of their seven free agents. Chief among them was Omer Asik, whose presence allows Davis to play power forward. Asik has sharp limitations offensively, and while he has a strong reputation as a stout defender, he ranked only 38th among centers in ESPN’s Defensive Real Plus Minus metric. He’s nonetheless on a deal that’s fairly cheap for a starting-caliber center, with an average of little more than $10MM per season, only about $2MM more per year than top-flight backup Kosta Koufos will make on his deal with the Kings.

New Orleans also invested in Asik’s backup, Alexis Ajinca, further underscoring their commitment to using Davis at the four. A salary of about $5MM a year to a player who saw just 14.1 minutes per game last season, and only 10 minutes total in the playoffs, is a steep price. His playing time has declined in both of his full seasons in New Orleans since the Pelicans signed him in the middle of the 2012/13 season and gave him his first NBA action in nearly three years.

The Pelicans wound up with a relative bargain to back up at another position, as point guard Norris Cole signed his qualifying offer after lingering in restricted free agency until September. It wasn’t entirely surprising to see the Rich Paul client stay on the market so long, nor was it a shock that he took the qualifying offer, a tool that will allow him to reach to unrestricted free agency in 2016 and the rising salary cap that comes with it. The Sixers, Knicks and Lakers were reportedly interested suitors, but it appears no long-term proposals came about either from them or from the Pelicans that Cole deemed strong enough to dissuade him from going the short-term route. Comments from Gentry and Davis and the team’s lengthy deals with Asik, Ajinca and Dante Cunningham suggest the Pelicans would have preferred to sign him to a longer contract, though, as John Reid of The Times Picayune wrote, the team was only willing to go so far to re-sign him.

Cole’s decision to take the one-year qualifying offer may turn out to help the Pelicans more than they would have figured, as waiver claim Ish Smith has stepped in more than admirably while Cole is out with a high left ankle sprain. Smith is fourth in the league in assists per game so far, with 8.4, a continuance of his strong late-season performance with the Sixers last year. It’s early, and Smith is also on a one-year deal, but the Pelicans may well have picked a gem out of the dust they kicked up amid their many preseason moves.

Their fellow Western Conference heavies in Memphis have already swung a trade this season and appear to have quickly grown concerned about their poor start, but the Pelicans can afford to be patient. They have a 22-year-old superstar and a new coach with championship credentials. It probably won’t all come together for the Pelicans this year, but that’s OK after an offseason in which they bought some time.

Eddie Scarito contributed to this post. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of it.

What do you think of the offseason the Pelicans had? Leave a comment to tell us.

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Offseason In Review: Charlotte Hornets

November 11th, 2015 at 4:35pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team’s offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees and more will be covered as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.

Signings

Extensions

Trades

Waiver Claims

  • None

Draft Picks

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

The Hornets slipped back into the draft lottery with a disappointing 33 wins last season after earning a surprising playoff berth during the 2013/14 campaign. The signing of Lance Stephenson, who was purported to be the missing piece for the team, was a failure on every level, though all the blame for the team’s woes cannot be placed upon one player. Injuries and reality also took their toll, leaving the franchise at a crossroads once again, caught between trying to contend or hitting the reset button and undertaking yet another rebuilding effort.

One of the first orders of business that GM Rich Cho and owner Michael Jordan undertook this summer was to cut their losses on Stephenson and find a trade partner for the swingman’s services. Despite Stephenson’s subpar 2013/14, as well as his reputation of being unpredictable and difficult, the Hornets were able to extract some value from the trade that sent him to the Clippers, and they didn’t just dump his contract. Though Spencer Hawes didn’t produce as hoped for the Clippers during his lone season with the team, it can be argued that he was a poor fit in Los Angeles from the start. But he does fill a need in Charlotte, with the team having missed the production of Josh McRoberts, who departed to the Heat as a free agent in 2014. While I like the addition of Hawes and consider it a low-risk proposition given his reasonable salary of $6.11MM for 2015/16, it makes Charlotte’s 2015 NBA draft even more puzzling and disappointing that it otherwise would have been.

The Celtics reportedly offered the Hornets a package that included four first-round picks in an effort to entice Charlotte to give up the No. 9 overall pick, but Jordan apparently preferred to draft Frank Kaminsky, more of a known commodity, over stocking up on future picks, a decision I disagree with on almost every front. With Charlotte not likely to contend this season, stockpiling future assets would have been a wise move for the team, but I can also see the value in selecting a player who may be able to contribute immediately. But I don’t think Kaminsky is that player, and still find it a mild shock that Jordan turned down the bundle of picks to instead select someone with limited athleticism and upside, not to mention his decision to pass over Duke swingman Justise Winslow, who ranked more highly than Kaminsky on virtually every mock draft published for 2015. Kaminsky and Hawes also have very similar skillsets, and adding both seems a bit redundant to me, especially given the team’s other options.

The trade of Stephenson left Charlotte with a hole at the wing position, and the team still in need of a shooter who could stretch defenses from the perimeter. The Hornets addressed this rather well with the acquisition of Nicolas Batum from the Trail Blazers in exchange for 2014 lottery pick Noah Vonleh and Gerald Henderson. While I applaud the addition of Batum, who could shine in his new environment, it’s a bit alarming that the team essentially gave up on a promising young player in Vonleh after a sample size of just 25 regular season contests. There’s no guarantee that Vonleh will develop into a star at any point, but it does paint a picture of a front office without a rock solid idea of where the team is heading. Batum is certain to be a more valuable piece than Vonleh would have been this season, but he’s also eligible to become an unrestricted free agent in July, and the Hornets could be left with nothing to show for their trouble if he were to depart.

The last major addition via trade that the Hornets made may turn out to be their best move of the offseason. That was the deal that sent Luke Ridnour, who was swapped four times in one week this summer, and a protected 2016 second-rounder to the Thunder for shooting guard Jeremy Lamb. Lamb, a former No. 12 overall pick, didn’t see much court time while a member of the Thunder thanks to that squad’s depth. However, since arriving in Charlotte, Lamb has been a bit of a revelation, and his play as a reserve is providing strong early returns for the Hornets. Lamb apparently made a solid early impression on the team’s front office, seeing as they inked him to a three-year contract extension worth approximately $21MM earlier this month. That was a wise gamble for Charlotte, given his youth and upside.

Charlotte locked down another player for the future over the summer, inking defensive ace Michael Kidd-Gilchrist to a four-year, $52MM contract extension. This deal, which includes a fourth-year player option, allows Kidd-Gilchrist to hit unrestricted free agency when he’s only 25 years old, and when the salary cap will be a projected $102MM. Cho cited Kidd-Gilchrist’s age and upside as part of the reason for tying him up for at least three more seasons after this one. Of course, with Kidd-Gilchrist’s injury history, including the torn labrum in his right shoulder he suffered during the preseason this year that is expected to knock him out for the season, this deal doesn’t come without its risks for the team.

Cho told Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer that the contract extensions the team has handed out to Kidd-Gilchrist, Lamb, and Kemba Walker were partially about avoiding the free agent market that could become overheated during the next two summers thanks to the expected rise in the salary cap. That’s a wise strategy for a team not viewed as an attractive free agent destination around the league. Hornets vice chairman Curtis Polk told Bonnell this past spring that the surge in the cap would create a more competitive marketplace, perhaps hinting at the reasoning behind the organization’s philosophical shift from years past, when it allowed Emeka Okafor, Gerald Wallace and Gerald Henderson to hit restricted free agency rather than signing them to extensions. This change also coincided with the departure of former president of basketball operations Rod Higgins, as the Observer scribe noted.

The franchise also had decisions to make regarding the rookie scale options for Cody Zeller and P.J. Hairston. The Hornets were reportedly shopping Zeller prior to this year’s draft in an effort to improve the team’s offense, but the addition of Batum and Lamb likely satisfied that need, which in turn led to the team exercising Zeller’s fourth-year option. However, the team doesn’t appear to be that enamored with Hairston after declining his third-year option and setting him up for unrestricted free agency next summer. Cho told Bonnell that the decision to turn down Hairston’s option was related to the player’s lack of consistency and focus. “I spoke with P.J. and his agent [Jonathan Stahler]. We just feel like P.J. has got to get more consistent and focused on and off the court,” Cho said. “He knows what he has to do. P.J. has still got a bright future if he continues to work hard.”

The Hornets added Jeremy Lin, Aaron Harrison and Tyler Hansbrough on team-friendly deals via free agency, though only Lin, who has a player option for 2016/17 worth $2.235MM, is likely to remain with the team past this season. Charlotte should receive good value on these additions, since each player has something to prove if he hopes to remain in the NBA.

Charlotte also jumped on the D-League bandwagon, and announced plans to add a one-to-one affiliate in Greensboro, North Carolina, in time for the 2016/17 season. Though the Hornets used the D-League sparingly in 2014/15, making only two assignments, this is a wise move for the franchise that will allow them to perhaps be more patient with players like Hairston and Vonleh in the future, though that is merely my speculation.

This will be a challenging season for Charlotte as the team integrates a number of new players in key roles, and that will happen without the services of Kidd-Gilchrist. There will be a number of important storylines to watch, including coach Steve Clifford‘s long-term status with the team, as he is in the final year of his contract, as well the future of center Al Jefferson, who is set to become an unrestricted free agent next offseason. At 30 years of age, Jefferson may look to take the David West route and ink a team-friendly deal with a contender in an effort to chase a title prior to the end of his career. Regardless of whether or not Jefferson departs, Charlotte is a franchise in need of a new direction, and unfortunately, the team’s moves this offseason aren’t likely to show the way to that brighter path.

The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

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Offseason In Review: Boston Celtics

November 11th, 2015 at 10:30am CST by Chuck Myron

Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team’s offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees and more will be covered as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.

Signings

Extensions

  • None

Trades

Waiver Claims

  • None

Draft Picks

  • Terry Rozier (Round 1, 16th overall). Signed via rookie exception to rookie scale contract.
  • R.J. Hunter (Round 1, 28th overall). Signed via rookie exception to rookie scale contract.
  • Jordan Mickey (Round 2, 33rd overall). Signed via cap room to a four-year, $5MM deal. The first two years are fully guaranteed, while the final two years are non-guaranteed. The final season is also a team option.
  • Marcus Thornton (Round 2, 45th overall). Signed one-year pact with the Sydney Kings of Australia’s National Basketball League.

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Going into the summer, the Celtics might have been delighted to know that they would trade for a two-time All-Star who’d twice averaged more than 20 points per game and eclipsed 10 rebounds per game on four occasions. The revelation that the player is David Lee, who hasn’t accomplished any of those feats since the 2012/13 season, would temper that feeling. Lee has been a consistently productive player over an extended period of time in the NBA, make no mistake. He averaged 18.2 points and 10.7 rebounds per game over a six-season span from 2008/09 to 2013/14. Still, his performance in last year’s Finals notwithstanding, his game is a poor stylistic fit for the modern NBA, as he’s neither a floor-stretcher nor a rim-protector, and he suddenly found himself dropped from the starting lineup and the rotation entirely with the Warriors last season.

The early results of his Celtics tenure are telling, as the team appears to regard him as just one of five big men jockeying for playing time in an overcrowded frontcourt. He’s started in only half of the Celtics games and is averaging 18.5 minutes per contest. Only his contract, which pays him nearly $15.5MM this season, would suggest that he’s still a featured player.

Yet it’s Lee’s contract that’s part of his appeal for Boston. His pay doesn’t match his production, undoubtedly, but he represents an extra cost of only $4.4MM over Gerald Wallace, whom the Celtics offloaded in the Lee trade and who was decidedly less productive last season than even a diminished Lee has been so far this year, as Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe pointed out to us. Lee’s also in the final year of contract, meaning the team has a season to evaluate his value within its system and set his price accordingly when he hits free agency in 2016. At worst, he departs, and the Celtics pocket the cap space.

President of basketball operations Danny Ainge pursued the same idea with the free agent signings of Amir Johnson and Jonas Jerebko, neither of whom has guaranteed salary beyond this season despite contracts that call for them to make $12MM and $5MM this year, respectively. Boston opened cap space for the first time since 1997, but with no marquee acquisition in the cards, the Celtics essentially rolled it over to next year, retaining their copious flexibility and at least some of their trade assets.

Still, the Celtics elected to sacrifice a bundle of trade exceptions when they dipped beneath the cap, including an exception worth about $12.9MM from the Rajon Rondo deal and another of about $7.7MM that was a vestige of the trade that sent Tayshaun Prince to the Pistons. They could have executed the Lee trade as an over-the-cap team, since the salaries were within the allowed matching range. It would have been much more difficult, if not impossible, to acquire Johnson without burning the Rondo exception one way or another, but if they simply absorbed Johnson using the Rondo exception in a sign-and-trade, they probably could have kept the Prince exception to use during the season.

Regardless, the Celtics still have as many as three extra first-round picks coming their way in 2016, the right to swap first-rounders with the Nets in 2017, and two additional extra first-round picks beyond that. It’s a haul that represents trade fodder, and Ainge already reportedly tried to deal some of them as part of offers that would have sent a whopping four first-round picks to either the Hornets or the Heat. Ainge was evidently targeting Justise Winslow in this year’s draft, but with those offers rejected, the Celtics pulled a surprise at pick No. 16, taking Terry Rozier. Boston went with more conventional choices at picks Nos. 28 and 33, drafting R.J. Hunter and Jordan Mickey, respectively.

Hunter appears the most likely of the three to receive significant playing time this season, as Brian Robb of ESPN TrueHoop’s Celtics Hub suggested to us and as Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com has written, though none have cracked the rotation yet, and Mickey is in the D-League on his second assignment of the year. Mickey’s D-League time seems partly a product of the frontcourt overcrowding, while Rozier plays at the same position as Marcus Smart and Isaiah Thomas. This year’s draft additions seem to underscore the idea that the Celtics are still stockpiling talent to bolster their chances for a trade and not giving too much thought to how that talent fits in with the existing roster construction.

Jae Crowder appears to be the exception to that rule. He was one of 13 free agents around the NBA to sign a five-year deal this past offseason, and while his $35MM take was the second least lucrative among them, it’s clear the Celtics see him as a complementary player who can fit with the team as it moves into what it hopes is a future in which it returns to title contention. It’s a testament to what Ainge was able to reap in the Rondo trade last year, since Rondo has already moved on from the Mavericks and clearly looked like he had gone into decline once he arrived in Dallas.

Ainge continued to make swaps this past summer, though not quite at the dizzying pace that saw him pull off 11 deals during the 2014/15 season. The Lee trade was the most prominent among this summer’s Celtics trade, but Boston picked up second-rounders in swaps that brought in Zoran Dragic and Perry Jones III, both of whom subsequently hit waivers. The Celtics couldn’t find a taker for Jones before he became a casualty of preseason cuts, but they received $1.5MM cash from the Thunder to largely offset his salary of more than $2.038MM.

The Celtics remain in flux even as they have a shot at back-to-back playoff berths. They still don’t have the sort of star that’s almost always necessary for title contention, but they have a skilled coach, lots of trade assets and a front office chief not afraid to take risks. Boston’s offseason was far from perfect, and Ainge may well have been better served staying above the cap and holding on to the team’s trade exceptions, but the Celtics still have loads of cap flexibility for next season. They have only about $34MM in guaranteed salary against a salary cap many around the league think will surge to $95MM, thanks in part to their decision not to do extensions with either Tyler Zeller or Jared Sullinger. They also remain in play to make a game-changing trade. That’s ultimately the point of just about every move Boston is making.

Eddie Scarito contributed to this post. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of it.

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Offseason In Review: Cleveland Cavaliers

November 10th, 2015 at 10:29am CST by Chuck Myron

Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team’s offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees and more will be covered as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.

Signings

Extensions

  • None

Trades

  • Acquired cash from the Trail Blazers in exchange for Mike Miller, Brendan Haywood, Cleveland’s 2020 second-round pick and the better of the 2019 second-round picks that Cleveland owns from the Lakers and Timberwolves.
  • Acquired the rights to 2015 draftees Cedi Osman and Rakeem Christmas, as well Minnesota’s 2019 second round pick, in exchange for the rights to Tyus Jones, the No. 24 overall pick in this year’s draft.
  • Acquired the Lakers’ 2019 second-round pick in exchange for the rights to Christmas.

Waiver Claims

  • None

Draft Picks

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

  • None
Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

The homecoming of LeBron James brought about cataclysmic change to a team that was already in flux, as GM David Griffin, just a few months into the job, spent several months transforming a roster midway through a rebuild into one designed to contend immediately. It was a process not without hiccups, with the Rookie of the Year award of Andrew Wiggins standing in sharp contrast to the disappointing, injury-marred campaign of Kevin Love, for whom the Cavs surrendered the 2014 No. 1 overall pick. Still, as the team entered the 2015 offseason, it was clear that Griffin and company had found the pieces necessary for the team to win the championship that has eluded Cleveland for decades, so long as the team could get through a postseason with better health than the Cavs had this past spring. The task this summer was to retain those players.

Nine Cavs became free agents July 1st, and none more prominent than James. Love, Tristan Thompson, J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert and Matthew Dellavedova were the other rotation players from last season who hit the market. It wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t cheap, but the Cavs re-signed every one of them. The first of the deals came with the player whose future in Cleveland appeared most in doubt.

Love always insisted that he was committed to the Cavs for the long term from the time he arrived via trade, but rumors persisted all season. The Lakers and, at times, the Celtics were the teams most prominently mentioned in connection with the power forward from UCLA whose performance fell off in his first season with Cleveland. Doubts even surfaced about Cleveland’s own willingness to re-sign Love for the max. James and Love didn’t immediately hit it off on the court or off, with James going so far as to send social media messages, like his “fit-out”/”fit-in” tweet, that spoke to the issues between them. The two nonetheless resolved whatever differences they had in an offseason meeting, and on July 1st, the opening day of free agency, Love and the Cavs reached agreement on a five-year max deal.

The same day, the Cavs were reportedly close to a deal with another talented power forward, but the team’s back-and-forth with Thompson proved to be the most persistent offseason storyline in the NBA. Love’s five-year deal gave the Cavs more leverage than they otherwise would have had, and their power to match all offers also loomed large. Initial reports indicated that James wouldn’t talk about re-signing until Thompson did, but James quietly re-signed shortly after the July Moratorium on another two-year max deal with a player option — giving him the continued opportunity to influence the Cavs’ decision-making and catch the wave of the rising salary cap.

Thompson’s options dwindled along with the number of teams with cap room to give him the max offer he sought, but with agent Rich Paul reportedly having heard that he would have multiple max offers to choose from if Thompson were to hit unrestricted free agency next season, it seemed like Thompson would sign his qualifying offer to go that route, particularly given the rise in the salary cap that made it less of a sacrifice than such a move normally is. However, Thompson and Paul stunned the NBA when they let the qualifying offer expire on October 1st, and while Thompson said he was prepared to hold out all season, it seemingly took only a slight concession from the Cavs to reel him in shortly before opening night.

Thompson’s negotiation wasn’t the only one that took an unusually long time. Smith languished in free agency until striking a deal in late August that will give him a salary of about $1.4MM less than what he would have made if he’d picked up his player option. Again, the Cavs had more leverage the longer Smith waited, as the pool of suitors with cap flexibility shrunk, and the team’s deals with Shumpert, in particular, along with Dellavedova, Mo Williams and Richard Jefferson gave Cleveland plenty of other options on the wing. Smith did guarantee himself about $800K more over the life of his two-year deal than he would have seen in one season had he exercised his option, but that did little to help him save face, and the Cavs wound up with some much-needed tax relief as Smith signed for less than what he surely intended.

The Cavs wisely back-loaded their deal with Shumpert, so even though he’s making $40MM over four years, his salary is slightly less than $9MM this season. Cleveland is in line to pay more than $170MM combined in taxes and payroll, a figure that the team’s decision to keep camp invitee Jared Cunningham into the regular season exacerbates. It explains why the Cavs essentially punted on Brendan Haywood‘s unusually valuable contract, flipping it to Portland for little more than the power to create a trade exception. That exception still allows the Cavs to acquire an eight-figure salary at some point between now and the end of next July, though it’s not quite as powerful a trade chip as the Haywood contract was. The Cavs, with their soaring tax penalties in mind, would prefer not to use the exception until the summer, when a higher salary cap and tax line kick in, but it remains an insurance policy should the team hit a bumpy patch, as Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer explained to us.

The Cavs explored bargain options to fill out the roster, as the lure of playing with LeBron and competing for a championship proved attractive to free agents. Williams suggested that he essentially allowed the Cavs to name their price for his return, ultimately signing for the majority of the taxpayer’s mid-level exception. The rest of that exception went to longtime draft-and-stash prospect Sasha Kaun, the only rookie on this year’s Cavs. Cleveland, with near-term success the top priority, traded out of the first round, shipped the rights to second-rounder Rakeem Christmas to the Pacers, and decided against signing second-rounders Cedi Osman or Sir’Dominic Pointer.

Still, the team’s core is young enough that essentially skipping a draft shouldn’t be a problem, as David Zavac of SB Nation’s Fear the Sword suggested to us. One recent draft pick, Dellavedova, impressed in the Finals, but he came back at the value of his qualifying offer, with the Cavs again benefiting from the power of restricted free agency, a power they won’t have if they continue to focus almost exclusively on the present.

Minimum-salary veterans Jefferson and James Jones help populate a bench that coach David Blatt was reluctant to turn to in the playoffs last season, but depth will be a key as LeBron ages and with Shumpert and Kyrie Irving still out with injury. A revamped bench won’t make up for major injuries come postseason time, like the ones to Irving and Love last spring, but as the Spurs have shown in recent years, minutes management can help limit the risk of injury and exhaustion for top players. Proper management of the well-stocked roster is seemingly the last hurdle for these Cavs, and for as much as Griffin has done in the past year and a half, it falls on Blatt and the players to deliver a title.

Eddie Scarito contributed to this post. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of it.

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Offseason In Review: Detroit Pistons

November 9th, 2015 at 8:43pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team’s offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees and more will be covered as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.

Signings

Extensions

  • None

Trades

Waiver Claims

  • None

Draft Picks

  • Stanley Johnson (Round 1, 8th overall). Signed via rookie exception to rookie scale contract.
  • Darrun Hilliard (Round 2, 38th overall). Signed via cap room for three years and $2.49MM. Second year is partially guaranteed for $500K, third year is non-guaranteed.

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Stan Van Gundy knew had to make a major roster overhaul when he took over as the Pistons’ head coach and president of basketball operations in May 2014. He realized that a team top heavy in big men and lacking shooters was not going to work in the current NBA landscape. It wasn’t tough to figure out that he needed to build the team around a budding superstar in center Andre Drummond by giving him space to operate, surrounding him with long-distance marksmen and finding a long-term pick-and-roll partner to get him the ball.

Detroit’s makeover began prior to last summer with two major moves. Van Gundy stunned the basketball world by eating the remaining 2 1/2 seasons on Josh Smith‘s contract via the stretch provision and waiving him last December, breaking up the jumbo frontcourt of Drummond, Greg Monroe and Smith that delivered just five wins by the holidays.

Van Gundy then added a major piece at the trade deadline with a blockbuster deal that netted point guard Reggie Jackson. The trade was partly motivated by a season-ending Achilles’ tendon tear suffered by Brandon Jennings the previous month, but moreso because Van Gundy and his staff believed Jackson was a better fit to run his offensive scheme.

When the Pistons’ season ended without a postseason berth for the sixth straight season, Van Gundy was ready to strike. He found the stretch four he was seeking within the division, trading for Ersan Ilyasova from the Bucks while only giving up two players who had no future with the team, aging forward Caron Butler and Shawne Williams. Not only did the Pistons view Ilyasova as a better frontcourt partner with Drummond, they also saw it as a low-risk move. Virtually all of Ilyasova’s contract next season is not guaranteed, allowing them to easily cut ties with him if they find a better option in the near future. Ilyasova has jumped right into the Pistons’ starting five, though Van Gundy has limited his minutes in the early going.

The next order of business was to improve the small forward spot that was manned during the second half last season by another player nearing the end of his career, Tayshaun Prince. They secured the player they had targeted in the draft when Stanley Johnson was still available with the No. 8 pick. While the Pistons took some heat for passing over Duke’s Justise Winslow — who slid to the Heat two spots later — they were enamored with Johnson’s versatility and winning pedigree. Johnson won four big-school championships in California during his high school career, then led a veteran Arizona team in scoring during his lone college season.

Johnson’s ability to both power his way to the rim and drain 3-pointers fits seamlessly into Van Gundy’s scheme, though he has gotten off to a slow start offensively. But he’s already become a valuable member of the second unit because of his defensive tenacity. Van Gundy believes Johnson can develop into an elite defensive stopper.

They secured another shooter in the second round of the draft in Darrun Hilliard, adding depth to the shooting guard spot. Hilliard made the opening-day roster, though he probably won’t crack the rotation and will likely get sent on assignment to the team’s D-League affiliate in Grand Rapids to improve his overall game.

Free agency didn’t go quite as the Pistons had planned. They were intent on signing a starting small forward, with DeMarre Carroll and Danny Green topping the list. They quickly struck out in their pursuit of both players, with Carroll signing with the Raptors and Green staying put in San Antonio. Detroit then immediately shifted gears and took advantage of a Suns front office looking to create cap space to sign free agent LaMarcus Aldridge. Phoenix forwarded the contracts of Marcus Morris, Reggie Bullock and Danny Granger to Detroit in a salary dump.

The Pistons had no use for Granger and his balky knee but were thrilled to acquire Morris, whom they felt would establish himself as a consistent offensive threat if they gave him the green light to shoot. They also liked Morris’ toughness and defensive intensity, two qualities the Pistons were lacking last season. The early returns have been impressive, with Morris delivering big dividends at both ends of the floor.

Bullock was so impressive in preseason action that the club exercised its fourth-year option on him. He has a chance to be a rotation player with Jodie Meeks sidelined for approximately half the season with a foot fracture.

There was little doubt that restricted free agent Jackson would get the big contract and major role he craved, and that was realized when the Pistons signed him for five years and $80MM. The team’s success over the next few seasons will rest on whether Jackson, who had no chance of being a featured player with the Thunder, becomes an All-Star caliber floor and locker room leader.

The other big development in free agency was the player the Pistons chose not to pursue. They let Monroe walk, then filled the backup center spot with a mid-range shooter and rebounder by signing Aron Baynes. While the Pistons valued Monroe’s scoring and rebounding, the emergence of Drummond made him a poor roster fit. In contrast, Baynes was happy to gain some long-term security and become a second-unit anchor.

All that was left was to acquire some veteran insurance policies to fill out the roster. Uncomfortable with the notion of Spencer Dinwiddie serving as Jackson’s backup in the early going, the Pistons traded for Steve Blake. They also brought back Joel Anthony as the No. 3 center.

Detroit’s busy offseason didn’t yield the veteran small forward it coveted in free agency, though Morris’ play has erased any disappointment over failing to land Carroll or Green. Otherwise, the Pistons checked all the boxes on their shopping list. They overhauled the forward positions without breaking the bank and fortified the bench with proven players. Van Gundy’s vision of what the Pistons’ roster should look like when he was handed the keys to the franchise has come to fruition.

Eddie Scarito contributed to this post. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of it.

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Offseason In Review: Phoenix Suns

November 9th, 2015 at 9:59am CST by Chuck Myron

Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team’s offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees and more will be covered as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.

Signings

Extensions

  • None

Trades

Waiver Claims

  • None

Draft Picks

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

The Suns didn’t land LaMarcus Aldridge, but they did pull off a surprise that helped put them in play for Aldridge in the first place. They convinced Tyson Chandler to head to Phoenix, enticing him with a four-year deal that will pay him $13.585MM in 2018/19, when he’ll be 36. It’s a risky financial commitment to a center whose health made the Thunder skittish enough to void a trade for him more than six years ago, but he’s been relatively injury-free since. Last season he averaged a double-double for just the third time in his career, a sign that he’s not yet in decline. He also comes in as a respected leader, and former No. 5 overall pick Alex Len, whom Chandler displaced from the starting lineup, has expressed on multiple occasions that he’s on board with the move and eager to learn from Chandler’s mentorship. Chandler’s presence helped Phoenix’s case for Aldridge, who admires the 14-year veteran.

The Chandler signing nonetheless presents a conundrum for the team going forward, with Len becoming eligible for a rookie scale extension next summer and the end of his contract coinciding with the midpoint of Chandler’s. Big men with promise have always been well-compensated when they’ve hit NBA free agency, and unless Len is particularly disappointing over the next year or two, the Suns will probably have to give him at least as much as they’re giving Chandler. Dave King of SB Nation’s Bright Side of the Sun suggested to us that the best-case scenario involves Len eventually taking over the starting job from Chandler, and King points out that the projected rises in the salary cap will make Chandler’s contract count for a lower percentage of the cap than it does now. Still, the Suns could end up with a hefty amount of money committed to non-stars at the center position.

A more immediate concern is at power forward, where the true feelings of Markieff Morris are hard to discern. He said in early September that “My future will not be in Phoenix,” a few weeks after publicly demanding to be traded. When training camp began at end of September, his rhetoric had turned 180 degrees, and he’s continued along that tack ever since, seemingly ready to continue with the Suns and without his brother. However, Marcus Morris, whose trade to the Pistons touched off the controversy, raised serious questions Friday about whether his brother truly does want to remain in Phoenix.

It seems as though the Suns could have averted all of this had they not pulled the trigger on the move before receiving any commitment from Aldridge that he would sign into the resulting cap space. However, GM Ryan McDonough said he would have executed the trade, which shipped out Morris along with Reggie Bullock and Danny Granger, even if he knew Aldridge wasn’t going to come to Phoenix. Indeed, the move didn’t create enough room by itself for the team to accommodate the max deal it clearly would have taken to sign Aldridge. It opens playing time at small forward for T.J. Warren, the 14th overall pick from 2014, as Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic pointed out to us, and it freed the Suns of their obligation to Granger, whom the Pistons waived. Still, it cost the team Bullock, the 25th overall pick from 2013 who had an impressive preseason in Detroit, and it angered, if only temporarily, a key player under contract through 2018/19. Time will tell, but a strong chance exists that the cost of the trade will ultimately outweigh the benefit.

Likewise, it’s too early to judge Phoenix’s decision in February to offload a package that included a protected first-rounder from the Lakers and 2014 18th overall pick Tyler Ennis in exchange for Brandon Knight, but the Suns did what they had to do this summer to protect that investment, coming to terms with Knight on a five-year, $70MM deal as soon as they were allowed, and perhaps even sooner. Knight only played 11 games for the Suns the trade, but the Suns nonetheless saw fit to secure him for the long term at the same rate they committed to Bledsoe last year. Bledsoe’s name emerged in trade rumors amid conflicting reports, but it never appeared as though any move was ever close, and the Suns seem eager to duplicate the success they had with Bledsoe and Goran Dragic as dual point guards in 2013/14. Knight’s game can fit with Bledsoe’s, as Troy Tauscher of Fansided’s Valley of the Suns examined in an interview with Hoops Rumors, so it would appear to be Jeff Hornacek‘s responsibility to make that happen.

Hornacek must do so without the benefit of contractual security beyond this season, since the Suns didn’t pick up his 2016/17 team option or sign him to an extension. Steve Kauffman, Hornacek’s agent, reportedly engaged in an odd dialogue on an Iowa State fan message board denying that Hornacek turned down an opportunity to interview for the school’s coaching job, though Hornacek, who played at Iowa State, had made it seem as though he remains committed to the Suns. Regardless, the future is in doubt for Hornacek, who burst onto the scene with a 48-win season in 2013/14, his first as an NBA head coach.

The pressure is also on Mirza Teletovic, who’s started slowly on his one-year deal, a contract he chose over reported multiyear offers from the Nets, Kings and Bucks. The 30-year-old entered the season as the team’s second-best power forward, making his difficulties especially troublesome for Phoenix, given the question marks about whether Morris, the starter at the position, truly wants to stick around. Sonny Weems, another offseason signee, isn’t delivering either, at least offensively. Weems has pointed to his defense and decision-making as qualities that make up for that, but Hornacek elected not to take him off the bench in Sunday’s game. Teletovic only saw six minutes in that contest.

Devin Booker isn’t seeing much playing time, either, but that’s not a surprise for the still-developing shooting guard who just turned 19 two weeks ago. This year’s 13th overall pick can shoot as well as just about anyone, having nailed 41.1% of his 3-pointers at Kentucky last season and 40% during summer league play this past July. It’s the rest of his game, particularly his ability to drive to the basket and play defense, that needs attention, as Charlie Adams of Hoops Rumors wrote, and a fair chance exists that he’ll be honing those skills on D-League assignment this season.

Booker, unlike Hornacek, Teletovic and Weems, isn’t under immediate contractual pressure to perform, and that’s the case for many in Phoenix, where expectations beyond simply grabbing the eighth playoff spot are low. The Aldridge chase shows the Suns have long-term goals that transcend what they’ll reasonably be able to accomplish this season, so McDonough, with three extra first-round picks set to come to Phoenix between now and 2021, is surely eyeing the future. Owner Robert Sarver, seemingly more willing to spend than in the past, is nonetheless itching to return to the postseason, and, if Aldridge’s interest is any indication, maintaining a strong supporting cast will be critical if the team is to succeed in landing a marquee free agent. This season’s Suns need not contend, but they have to compete.

Eddie Scarito contributed to this post. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of it.

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Offseason In Review: Miami Heat

November 8th, 2015 at 9:15pm CST by Will Joseph

Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team’s offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees and more will be covered as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.

Signings

Extensions

  • None

Trades

  • Acquired Boston’s 2019 second round pick (top-55 protected) from the Celtics in exchange for Zoran Dragic, Miami’s 2020 second round pick and $1.6MM in cash.
  • Acquired Orlando’s 2016 second round pick (top-55 protected) from the Magic in exchange for Shabazz Napier and $1.1MM in cash.

Waiver Claims

  • None

Draft Picks

  • Justise Winslow (Round 1, 10th overall). Signed via rookie exception to rookie scale contract.
  • Josh Richardson (Round 2, 40th overall). Signed via taxpayer mid-level exception for three years, $2.4MM. First year is fully guaranteed; second and third years are non-guaranteed.

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

  • None
Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

The Heat are a popular sleeper pick for a deep postseason run this year in the Eastern Conference despite losing 45 games last season. That’s because they still have one of the top coaches in the league in Erik Spoelstra and they have an improved roster. The Heat chose to remain in win-now mode instead of going through a rebuilding phase. Therefore, with two aging stars in Dwyane Wade (33) and Chris Bosh (30), there is a lot riding on this season.

There is also reason for all the optimism (albeit, even if it is under-the-radar) surrounding the team this season. The team had a sensible offseason. Miami snagged former Duke star Justise Winslow with the 10th overall pick of the draft in June, and the small forward is immensely talented. The best part for the Heat is that they don’t need Winslow to carry them this season at all. Winslow is only 19 and can use this season to grow and learn behind Wade and a batch of other veterans.

The Heat are relying on a strong starting five that features three former All-Stars in Bosh, Wade and Deng. It’s the two other players, however, that are arguably more important: Goran Dragic and Hassan Whiteside. Re-signing Dragic was the Heat’s most significant move of the offseason. Dragic, who came at midseason in a trade with the Suns, is a solid point guard with above-average court vision and the deal will look like less of an investment from Miami’s standpoint once the salary cap skyrockets, as expected, in the next few years. In other words, it was a win-win for Miami.

The deal with Wade was similar in that sense. By re-signing its longtime star to a one-year, $20MM arrangement, the Heat didn’t do much to compromise their ability to build in the future. Of course, the Heat would have preferred Wade to opt in on his old contract for 2015/16, which would given Wade a salary of $16.125MM. Wade has been limited by injuries the past few seasons, and he appeared in 62 games for Miami last season, averaging 21.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 4.8 assists in 31.8 minutes per contest. The X-factor for the Heat this season is whether Wade can stay healthy. Spoelstra will offer Wade rest whenever possible to preserve his body.

With the exception of drafting Winslow and re-signing Dragic, the Heat’s offseason was rather quiet. Miami reportedly met with LaMarcus Aldridge, but the Heat were never viewed as major players in obtaining the All-Star’s services. Miami did not want added luxury tax issues, for that matter. On the flip side, the Heat didn’t have to replace much, either. Michael Beasley, Zoran Dragic, Shabazz Napier and Henry Walker are gone from last year’s team, but none of those players were part of the big picture for Miami. Goran Dragic said he understood the team’s decision of not keeping his brother. The Heat cut ties with Zoran Dragic and Napier in salary-clearing trades.

Miami made some changes to its bench that should help. For one, Josh McRoberts, who was expected to start last year but missed time most of the season with injuries, is part of the veteran reserve group. McRoberts can stretch the floor and knock down jumpers. The Heat’s two other additions were done cheaply with the bench in mind. Gerald Green and Amar’e Stoudemire were added on one-year deals that feature very low-risk and moderate upside. From Miami’s perspective, that the way they had to be. When the Heat signed Stoudemire, they were limited to only their $3.376MM taxpayer’s mid-level exception, and they didn’t even use that with tax penalties looming. Spoelstra was high on both acquisitions when the team made them.

“If you had told me a year ago we would have an opportunity to sign both those players, I would have said that’s not realistic,” Spoelstra said, according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald. “We recruited Amar’e in 2010 and were fans of his game back then. His game has evolved and he has found a niche and a role the last couple of years we definitely can take advantage of. Gerald Green is an explosive player. Those type of game changing players are tough to find in this league.”

The Heat took a flyer on Green hoping they get the 2013/14 version (15.8 points per game with the Suns) instead of last year’s version (11.9 points per game with a poor shooting percentage). So far, Green hasn’t been able to provide much. He was released from the hospital Saturday after a four-day stay for an undisclosed reason. The Heat have not elaborated on Green’s condition.

The presence of Dragic was a major draw for Stoudemire to join Miami as a free agent, according to a recent report. Stoudemire is another injury-prone player on a team that seems to have many, however. The power forward did play well last year, though, in limited time. He had played in only one game so far this season.

Health isn’t the only issue for the Heat this season, though. Mario Chalmers, now the backup point guard to Dragic at the point, has been known for his inconsistency. Chalmers was involved in trade rumors for a good portion of the summer and those whispers have continued into the season. Ramona Shelburne and Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com first reported in June that the Heat were shopping Chalmers, as well as Chris Andersen, in an effort to clear the way for a new deal with Wade, though team president Pat Riley denied it. The Heat and Grizzlies have reportedly talked about a potential trade that wound send Chalmers to Memphis. The Heat are in line to pay repeat-offender tax penalties if they finish the season above the $84.74MM tax line, and they’re at about $91.9MM now. Chalmers makes $4.3MM on an expiring contract.

An interesting argument exists that whether or not the Heat had a positive offseason depends largely on their ability to ship out Chalmers and make the other moves necessary to avoid the tax. Regardless, the Heat have positioned themselves to win now with a roster dotted with veteran All-Star-caliber talent. The presence of Winslow also indicates that the Heat have an eye toward the future as well as the present.

Eddie Scarito contributed to this post. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of it.

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Offseason In Review: Indiana Pacers

November 7th, 2015 at 1:11pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team’s offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees and more will be covered as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.

Signings

Extensions

  • None

Trades

Waiver Claims

  • None

Draft Picks

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

After a campaign that saw their win total decrease from 56 in 2013/14 to 38 last season, the Pacers entered the offseason with the goal of assembling a younger, faster team, which resulted in a number of major changes for the franchise. While Indiana’s struggles of a season ago were certainly influenced by Paul George missing all but five contests courtesy of a leg injury suffered during a Team USA scrimmage, the team’s roster was aging and not meshing together as well as team president Larry Bird had hoped, and it was looking more and more like the franchise had passed its window to contend.

Phase one of Bird’s roster revamp was to find a taker for lumbering big man Roy Hibbert, whose decision to exercise his player option for 2015/16 worth in excess of $15.514MM could have spelled doom for any chance the team had at making significant offseason changes. Bird found a willing trade partner in the Lakers, whose interest convinced Hibbert to waive part of the 15% trade kicker included in his contract. “In the long run, it was a no-brainer,” Hibbert said to Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times. “If I were to say I wanted my $2MM and the trade couldn’t get done, I would have been back in Indy and wouldn’t have gotten that $2MM anyway. I would have had to basically fight an uphill battle just to try and get on the court. Hopefully I can make that [money] up in the long run if I do well.” The center gave back all but $78,185 of what otherwise would have been a $2.3MM payout.

The departure of Hibbert may have cost the team its chance of retaining veteran power forward David West, who cited the Pacers’ handling of Hibbert as one of the reasons he opted out of his deal to become an unrestricted free agent. “That’s one thing where I wish they would have handled better was the situation with Roy,” West had said to Bob Kravitz of WTHR-TV in Indianapolis after joining the Spurs. “I’ll be honest with you, that bothered me a little bit, and I told Roy that. I’m the type of guy who feels like we’re all in this fight together and I’m not designed in that way to put it all on one guy. That did rub me the wrong way. That threw me off. I started reading some of that stuff, I started thinking, ‘Whoaa.’ I just didn’t feel good about that. I told Roy that it bothered me, that he’s still my teammate.”
With the departures of two key pieces of their previous season’s rotation, the Pacers moved on and signed veteran shooting guard Monta Ellis, who at the age of 30, became the oldest player on Indiana’s newly revamped roster. This signing is a bit risky from Indiana’s standpoint. A four-year deal, including a player option for the final season, is longer than I’d be comfortable agreeing to, seeing as Ellis is essentially a one-dimensional player whose skills likely won’t hold up as each subsequent birthday passes. The average annual value of $10.995MM for Ellis’ deal is certainly reasonable, especially considering the expected spike in player salaries beginning in 2016/17, but it’s a contract that has the potential to become an overpay by years three and four if the guard’s athleticism and skills are sapped by Father Time, who to this day remains undefeated. The addition of Ellis feels like a stopgap from my perspective, and though talented, Ellis is now with his third team in four years. That’s not necessarily a ringing endorsement of his value as a roster asset in my book.
The franchise’s other moves in free agency were relatively solid, with Indiana re-signing Lavoy Allen, Rodney Stuckey and Shayne Whittington to reasonable contracts, though a three-year deal for Stuckey is a year too long in my opinion. The Pacers also went outside the organization and nabbed former Lakers big man Jordan Hill on a one-year, $4MM deal, which is an excellent value for the club that carries little to no risk thanks to the pact’s short length. The offseason move that Bird appeared to be the most excited about though was the addition of free agent Glenn Robinson III, a player the executive said he had been trying to acquire for over a year.
The Pacers’ goal of getting younger, smaller and more athletic was also on display during the 2015 draft, when the team used its first round pick to select Texas big man Myles Turner. He had a difficult freshman season at the University of Texas, where he was a poor fit for the Longhorns’ system, and his draft stock took a hit as a result. Turner is an athletic big who can light it up from deep when he’s on, and he has the potential to be a solid stretch-four in the league for years to come. Indiana’s draft day would have been a success if Turner were the only takeaway, but the addition of Oregon combo guard Joe Young was the best pick in the entire second round of the draft. Young is a versatile scorer who will contribute immediately, with his strong preseason showing earning him the nod as the team’s backup point guard. It was an excellent draft for the Pacers all around, as the team nabbed two long-term rotation players plus Rakeem Christmas through a trade with the Cavs.
Indiana also demonstrated its commitment to player development this offseason with the purchase of the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the D-League, finally giving the team its own affiliate. Owning the Mad Ants will give the Pacers a notable advantage because the affiliate is only about two hours away, opined Scott Agness of VigilantSports.com, a stance I agree with. The franchise took into account the rising salaries of NBA players, as Candace Buckner of The Indianapolis Star noted. Owner Herb Simon said that the Pacers will need young players to go along with the higher-paid players on the roster in the future, and that those young players would need development, which the purchase of the Mad Ants will help facilitate.
The other significant storyline of the offseason involved player movement, but not of the free agent or trade variety. Instead, it’s the position switch for George, whom the Pacers asked to move from the wing into the power forward slot to aid in the team’s new small-ball philosophy. George had voiced some displeasure with the the team’s plan, though he did say that he’s willing to stick with it. “I don’t know if I’m cut out for a four spot,” George said after Indiana’s preseason opener, according to Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star (All Twitter links). “I don’t know if this is my position.” George also implied that he wasn’t the only Pacer unhappy with the strategy. “It’s not just myself,” he said. “The four other guys out there, it’s an adjustment for them. We’re all talking. … A couple other guys are uncomfortable with how we’re going to run it. It’s new to everyone.” While the early returns from the position switch have been mixed, it’s a situation that certainly bears watching as the team moves forward. It’s never a positive when a team’s best player is unhappy, and if George continually feels overmatched at the four spot, it could spell trouble on the horizon for the front office and coaching staff. That said, George isn’t as apprehensive as he initially was and won’t be guarding traditional power forwards, as Buckner told us in Friday’s edition of The Beat.
Indiana is a franchise in the midst of a transitional period, and it’s quite possible that the Pacers will need to bottom out before returning to prominence in the East. With $57.230MM in guaranteed salary on the books for 2016/17, Indiana will have the ability to add at least one impact free agent to the mix, though the franchise is still not viewed around the league as an attractive free agent destination, making it difficult to gauge just whom the Pacers will set their sights on next offseason. But for now, the team is certainly younger, smaller and faster. From that perspective, the offseason can be called a success, but the team isn’t likely to be better than the squad that went to two straight Conference Finals.

The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

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Offseason In Review: Toronto Raptors

November 6th, 2015 at 2:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

Hoops Rumors is in the process of looking back at each team’s offseason, from the end of the playoffs in June right up until opening night. Trades, free agent signings, draft picks, contract extensions, option decisions, camp invitees and more will be covered as we examine the moves each franchise made over the last several months.

Signings

Extensions

Trades

Waiver Claims

  • None

Draft Picks

  • Delon Wright (Round 1, 20th overall). Signed via rookie exception to rookie scale contract.

Camp Invitees

  • None

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

The last vestiges of the post-Rudy Gay-trade honeymoon were unmistakably gone when the Wizards walked off the floor with a first-round sweep of the Raptors last spring. The plucky group from Toronto, which GM Masai Ujiri nearly broke apart before he realized what he had, finally made it clear that it had a definitive ceiling. The Raptors had somehow lost their way defensively, in spite of the presence of Dwane Casey, who made his reputation as a defensive coach. Change was inevitable, and the only question was just how drastic it would be. Casey wasn’t assured of keeping his job until two weeks after the team’s playoff ouster, and two of his assistants weren’t as lucky. A draft night deal that sent Greivis Vasquez to the Bucks for no salary in return opened cap space and portended a major foray into free agency.

Ujiri aimed high, and the Raptors were among the teams to meet with LaMarcus Aldridge. They also met with Wesley Matthews and were apparently still chasing both even after they made what turned out to be their most significant offseason signing. The Raptors sat down with DeMarre Carroll and blew away the competition, offering him a four-year deal so lucrative that he canceled meetings with the Pistons, Suns and Knicks. The former Hawks small forward will see $58MM, not the widely reported $60MM, over the life of his contract, but it’s still a tremendous raise on the two-year, $5MM deal he signed in 2013 with Atlanta. Carroll had quickly become one of the league’s foremost “three-and-D players” while with the Hawks.

Carroll’s skills complement DeMar DeRozan, a gifted scorer off the dribble who’s shot less than 30% from behind the arc for his career and who was only the league’s 34th-best defensive shooting guard last season, according to ESPN’s Real Plus/Minus metric. The question about Carroll is whether a player who’d never averaged more than 12.6 points per game for a season and had only recently become more than a fringe player would prove worthy of such an investment. So far, the results are positive, as Carroll is pouring 13.0 points a night and the Raptors are 5-0.

Time will tell if that holds up, but we may never know how the Raptors would have created the cap space to sign Aldridge or Matthews, both of whom wound up inking for the max. Presumably, the Raptors would have traded one of their core players to make it happen. Instead, Toronto spent the latter part of the offseason investing in the two youngest members of last season’s starting lineup, including the player whom Carroll displaced from the starting five.

The extension for Terrence Ross, a deal that happened in the final hour of the four-month window in which he was eligible for it, was a bet that the former eighth overall pick will become at least somewhat more valuable than he is now. The defensive regression that he showed last season contributed to the team’s disappointing performance on that end of the floor, and consistency on both offense and defense is “a huge question with him,” as Casey said the weekend before the extension took place. That’s why it’s hard to put much stock into his strong start this season, one in which he’s averaging a career-best 18.0 points per game and is also playing better defense than ever, according to his Basketball-Reference Defensive Box Plus/Minus number. A deal with an average annual value of slightly more than $10MM a year doesn’t present as much of a risk for teams as it used to, given the rapid rise of the salary cap, but it’s still a significant outlay for someone who just lost his starting job.

The extension the Raptors gave Jonas Valanciunas also required the team to show some faith. The development of the former No. 5 overall pick largely stagnated last season, and Ujiri seemed to pin the blame on the team’s assistant coaches, ostensibly the catalyst for the changes to Casey’s bench. The Lithuanian center often sat during crunch time last season, but that’s not happening this year, and like so many other Raptors, he’s off to a strong start. He’s averaging 15.8 points and 10.4 rebounds per game, both numbers that would be career bests if he keeps them up. He’s also assumed a somewhat larger role in the offense, a point that Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun told us would be key.

Right behind Valanciunas and tied with Ross for the most field goal attempts on the Raptors this season is 35-year-old offseason signee Luis Scola, who won the starting power forward job. His addition ran counter to the defensive focus the team had with most of its significant additions, since even though Scola spent the last two seasons with a Pacers team that played a grind-it-out style, he’ll never be mistaken for a stopper. It underscores the team’s lack of an obvious answer at the four in the wake of Amir Johnson‘s departure in free agency for the Celtics. Johnson had begun to lose his grip on his starting gig even before that, and while the Raptors addressed the position with the signings of Scola and Anthony Bennett, it remains to be seen if that’ll be enough to fill the hole.

Indeed, more uncertainty surrounds Bennett than perhaps any of the new Raptors, considering the gulf between the expectations thrust upon him when he became the No. 1 overall pick in 2013 and his decidedly underwhelming performances since then. Yet as far as the Raptors are concerned, Bennett should forget about having been the top pick and simply focus on what’s ahead of him, as Casey has said. It would appear, from Ujiri’s comments, that what’s ahead of him is more than just one season with the Raptors, even though he’s only on a one-year deal.

Bennett and Cory Joseph fulfill Ujiri’s desire for more Canadians on the roster, and Joseph and Bismack combine to give the second unit the added defense that Carroll gives to the starting five. Biyombo, at just 6’9″, also gives the Raptors help on the boards, as he’s the team’s third leading per-game rebounder even though he’s seeing just 16.8 minutes per game so far. Joseph has inherited part of the offensive responsibilities left over from the departure of Lou Williams, who told Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders that the Raptors didn’t make him an offer despite the fact he won the Sixth Man of the Year award last season.

Perhaps no decision defined Toronto’s offseason as much as that one. Casey acknowledged the Raptors were simply looking for other kinds of production, and it’s obvious that defense was the team’s aim. The early returns are a positive sign for the Raptors, who are sixth in defensive efficiency compared to 23rd last year, according to NBA.com. Still, as the Raptors must know after watching the promise of the immediate wake of the Rudy Gay trade dissipate, they have to keep moving in the right direction.

Eddie Scarito contributed to this post. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of it.

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