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Offseason In Review: Golden State Warriors

December 1st, 2014 at 1:01pm 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

  • None

Waiver Claims

  • None

Draft Picks

  • None

Camp Invitees

  • Aaron Craft
  • Jason Kapono
  • Sean Kilpatrick
  • James Michael McAdoo
  • Mitchell Watt

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

For a team without draft picks, cap space, or any members of its starting five entering free agency, the Warriors sure made some critical and potentially franchise-altering decisions this past offseason. A controversial coaching change, a steadfast commitment to Klay Thompson in failed trade talks with the Timberwolves about Kevin Love, and a near-maximum extension for Thompson only seemed to dial up the pressure to challenge for the title.

NBA: Golden State Warriors at Detroit PistonsThe Warriors entered the playoffs in 2013 not having been to the postseason in six years and as an underdog in the first round against the 57-win Nuggets. They won that series and put a scare into the Spurs before succumbing in the next round, and since then, co-owner Joe Lacob’s expectations for the team have ratcheted up. Golden State won four more games in the regular season last year than it did the year before, but it didn’t improve its playoff seeding, and though the Warriors took the Clippers to seven games this past spring before falling in the first round without an injured Andrew Bogut, it didn’t save Mark Jackson‘s job. Jackson had presided over a rapid turnaround in his three seasons as Warriors coach, and he had forged a profound trust with his players, but he failed to get along with some of his assistant coaches and other key figures within the Warriors organization. He also reportedly made a play for other NBA head coaching jobs while still with Golden State. His ultimate shortcoming was in failing to convince Lacob that the team’s on-court performance and locker-room morale were strong enough to justify his continued employment, and the Warriors axed him.

That touched off a wide-ranging search for a replacement that at one point seemed to zero in on Stan Van Gundy, but by the time Golden State met with him, the Pistons had already spoken to him about the dual executive/coaching role he ultimately took on in Detroit. The Warriors were instead seeking a coach who would be just that and leave front office decision-making others. Somewhat curiously, they hired former Suns GM Steve Kerr, whose only experience is as an executive and not as a coach, though Kerr made it clear that he wanted to transition into coaching long before he hooked up with the Warriors, and he reiterated that after his hiring this year. Kerr agonized over choosing the Warriors instead of the Knicks, with whom he could have served under mentor Phil Jackson, but Kerr’s West Coast ties, and doubtlessly the vast gulf in talent between the Warriors and Knicks, proved too strong.

Kerr made it a point to win over Jackson supporters like Stephen Curry and others on the Warriors roster, and the team is off to a roaring start this season. Golden State’s 14-2 record also helps validate the team’s decision to keep Klay Thompson for this season and for the foreseeable future. There’s no guarantee that the Warriors would have wound up trading Thompson to the Wolves if they had been more willing to include him in proposals, particularly given how pleased Minnesota was with the package it received from the Cavs. The deal never would have been Love-for-Thompson straight up, since the salaries wouldn’t have matched, and a variety of other factors involving David Lee, Kevin Martin and Harrison Barnes complicated the discussions, as Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group chronicled.

The inertia didn’t itself guarantee a long-term future together for Thompson and the Warriors, since the fast-rising former No. 11 overall pick was extension-eligible and agent Bill Duffy was going after the max. Lacob vowed this past spring to strike a deal with Thompson, though it wasn’t clear whether he was talking about an extension or a new pact in restricted free agency during the summer of 2015. The owner apparently resisted giving Thompson $15MM salaries, amounts that the max will almost certainly entail. Thompson held firm, and other teams reportedly sniffed around as the extension deadline drew near to see if the Warriors were willing to change course and trade the 24-year-old, but the sides ultimately struck agreement on a pact with an unusual structure.

Thompson will get the max for a player of his experience in the first year of his extension next season, as long as that max doesn’t exceed the $15.5MM that it’s projected to hit, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe reported. It’s a compromise of sorts for both sides, though there’s a strong chance it won’t have wound up costing Thompson a penny if the max doesn’t come in higher than thought. The Warriors appear to have made the more significant concession, especially since the Thompson extension gives them nearly $78.8MM in commitments for next season, including Brandon Rush‘s minimum-salary player option. Former second-round pick Draymond Green wasn’t eligible for an extension even though he was entering the final season of his rookie contract, so he’ll hit restricted free agency in the summer. He’s poised to merit a sizable raise that would make it difficult for the Warriors to avoid the luxury tax should they keep him.

The Warriors figure to have little capacity to spend on upgrades next summer, but they took advantage of the full mid-level exception this year, inking Shaun Livingston months after he finished his strongest campaign since his catastrophic knee injury in 2007. He’s not the player he was before he got hurt, when the Clippers made him the fourth overall pick in 2004, but he was a vital part of a revival for the Nets after they started slowly last season, as his unusual combination of 6’7″ height and ball-handling proved troublesome for opponents. The Warriors struggled all of 2013/14 to fill the role that combo guard Jarrett Jack played in 2012/13 before he departed in free agency, so they outmaneuvered the Nets as well as the Heat, Hornets, Spurs, Wolves and Kings in hopes that Livingston would fill that gap. A toe injury slowed him at the start, and he has barely played half as many minutes per game as Jack did in his season by the Bay, but there’s plenty of time left this year, and the Warriors have no need to press him for more, as well as they’ve played as a team.

In any case, the answer at point guard won’t be Nemanja Nedovic, even though Golden State is just a year and change removed from investing the last pick of the first round in him. The Warriors declined his third-year rookie scale option before the season and waived him shortly thereafter, eating only about half of his guaranteed salary for this season thanks to a buyout arrangement. The parting of ways was a somewhat troubling sign for the team, since it gave up $600K in cash and a second-round pick in an odd sequence of trades to acquire Nedovic on draft night in 2013, but, Jimmy Butler aside, late first-rounders often fail to become contributors, much less stars. The Warriors gave a vote of confidence to 2012 30th overall pick Festus Ezeli when they picked up his fourth-year option in October after an injury wiped out his sophomore season, so there’s still a chance that he’ll help the Warriors.

Regardless, this past offseason wasn’t about moves on the margins for Golden State. The Warriors made potentially franchise-altering decisions even though their core remains intact, and the onus is on that core to produce like never before. Lacob has every financial reason to affect significant change and avoid the tax next season, so the Warriors must show they’re close enough to winning a title to ensure that the team as constituted will continue to have chances to do so.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

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Offseason In Review: Oklahoma City Thunder

November 30th, 2014 at 10:09pm CST by Zachary Links

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 2014 pick No. 55 from the Hornets in exchange for cash.
  • Acquired the rights to Sofoklis Schortsanitis from the Hawks in exchange for Thabo Sefolosha (sign-and-trade), the rights to Giorgos Printezis, and cash.
  • Acquired Philadelphia’s 2015 second-round pick (top-55 protected) from the Sixers in exchange for Hasheem Thabeet and $100K cash.

Waiver Claims

  • None

Draft Picks

Camp Invitees

  • Michael Jenkins
  • Richard Solomon
  • Talib Zanna

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

The Thunder may have been disappointed with the conclusion of their 2013/14 campaign, but they were impressive when taking everything in total.  OKC was without star guard Russell Westbrook for nearly half of the season and when the Thunder arrived in the playoffs, they staved off battle-ready teams in the Grizzlies and Clippers before succumbing to the Spurs in six games.  They nearly won 60 games and they were a stone’s throw from the Finals, but after years of being on the cusp, this team isn’t satisfied with moral victories.

Oklahoma City didn’t undergo an offseason overhaul, but that’s not to say that it didn’t make a real run at shaking things up.  The Thunder were one of several teams that went hard after veteran sharpshooter Mike Miller before he landed with LeBron James and the Cavaliers.  They were also hoping to land Pau Gasol, which would have been a monstrous boost to their frontcourt.  Just as the Spurs did, OKC went after the Spaniard with the hope that the allure of winning would help distract from an under-market contract offer.  Ultimately, however, Gasol found a chance to win with better compensation with the Bulls.  Kevin Durant gave it his best shot, but he couldn’t reel in Gasol.  “Obviously [it wasn’t] that close, [but] I did my work. That was my first time recruiting,” Durant said in July.

The Thunder had a few holes to fill over the summer. Backup point guard Derek Fisher left to coach the Knicks, Caron Butler moved on in free agency, and Thabo Sefolosha regressed sharply in 2013/14, ensuring his exit.  The Thunder couldn’t pull off a flashy signing like Gasol or Miller, so they had to dig a little deeper to reload their roster.

Oklahoma City badly needed outside shooting and its signing of the fearless Anthony Morrow made perfect sense.  On a three-year, ~$10MM contract, it’s hard to find fault with the deal given his long-distance acumen and the interest that he had from contenders around the league.  Heading into this season, Morrow had only 129 starts on his resume, but he has shown that he can make an impact with his ability to keep opposing defenses honest.  Unfortunately for the Thunder, he missed the first seven games of the regular season while healing from a sprained left MCL.

With Fisher out of the picture, the Thunder brought Brooklyn’s own Sebastian Telfair aboard to help soak up some of the backup minutes at the one guard.  At the time, the one-year, minimum salary deal seemed like an inexpensive solution to their problem, but things didn’t quite work out.  Just recently, the Thunder bid farewell to Telfair and instead opted to keep fellow point guard Ish Smith.

D-League notable Grant Jerrett was brought back on a four-year, minimum-salary deal with the final two seasons non-guaranteed.  For the time being, it seems like he’s going to remain a D-League staple, but that’s just fine for the Thunder, who aren’t banking on Jerrett to be a key cog this year.  Lance Thomas beat the odds to make OKC’s roster and the Thunder believe that they have found a gem in the former New Jersey high school star.  The Thunder carved out space for guys like Thomas by dumping Sefolosha and Hasheem Thabeet for table scraps, including the rights to Sofoklis “Baby Shaq” Schortsanitis.

The Thunder made moves to try and win a title in the here and now, but they also put a good amount of focus into the draft, where they made two surprising first round selections.  First, with the No. 21 overall pick, the Thunder drafted Michigan big man Mitch McGary. McGary decided to go pro early rather than face a one-year suspension and while there was fear that he wasn’t NBA-ready, the Thunder apparently had no such concerns.  McGary is still waiting to make his NBA debut after a strong performance in the summer league, but the Thunder must be optimistic about the impact he can make this season.

With the No. 29 pick, the Thunder made an even more surprising selection with Stanford forward Josh Huestis.  When Huestis spoke with Hoops Rumors prior to the draft, he projected as a mid-second round pick.  Huestis isn’t a tremendous athlete or a top-notch scorer, but he is a textbook hustle player and a super tough defender.  Huestis’ camp reached agreement on an unusual deal with the Thunder prior to the draft which ticketed him to play for Oklahoma City’s D-League affiliate in his first pro season.

The Thunder didn’t do a whole lot in free agency, but then again, this has never been a team to really build with the open market.  Their quiet offseason may have raised some eyebrows, but the Thunder stand as one of the most fearsome teams in the West, when they’re healthy.  OKC has all of the answers in house. They just need them on the court.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

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Offseason In Review: New Orleans Pelicans

November 29th, 2014 at 1:03pm 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

The Pelicans are a franchise on the rise thanks to the continued development of their centerpiece player, Anthony Davis. Davis showed remarkable improvement in every facet of his game last season, though his strides weren’t able to prevent New Orleans from notching its third straight losing campaign. The sky is the limit for the 21-year-old big man out of Kentucky, and he is posting MVP-like numbers thus far this season. Davis draws mention in debates about the best player in the league, and in a few short seasons he may be the first player who comes up in those conversations. But the Pelicans’ overall growth as a team the next couple of seasons will be limited by a number of questionable contracts that occupy their balance sheet.

NBA: New Orleans Pelicans at San Antonio SpursOne of the Pelicans’ biggest weaknesses as a team is their outside shooting, and the wing is where two of their more questionable contracts happen to reside in the deals the team gave to Eric Gordon and Tyreke Evans. Neither player has come close to justifying his salary cap number, and it will be extremely difficult for New Orleans to take the next step forward until one or both can be removed from its balance sheet. Gordon’s making nearly $14.899MM this season with a player option for more than $15.514MM next year, while the deal for Evans runs through 2016/17 with salaries that range upward from this season’s more than $9.904MM.

The Phoenix front office is thanking its lucky stars that the Pelicans matched the offer sheet the Suns had inked Gordon to back in 2012. At the time it seemed like a wise move, since the then-23-year-old guard certainly appeared to be a star on the rise. But injuries and unhappiness with his surroundings have rendered him a shell of the player who averaged 22.3 points per game back in 2010/11. It is highly likely that New Orleans will be stuck with Gordon for one more season since he’ll almost certainly exercise his player option.

Barring a trade, Evans will also be occupying a healthy chunk of the team’s cap space for two more seasons beyond this one. The four-year, $44MM offer sheet that New Orleans had inked Evans to before working out a sign-and-trade deal with the Kings was ill-advised, seeing as how Evans’ scoring averages had dropped every season since his Rookie Of The Year campaign back in 2009/10. Evans hasn’t lived up to his contract, but there’s an easy argument to be made that he has provided exactly the production that should have been expected given his track record.

The Pelicans reportedly made Gordon and Evans available in trade talk this past summer, though there were some conflicting reports about whether that was the case with Evans. New Orleans won’t be able to surround Davis with the players needed to maximize his talent and to help the franchise break through in the challenging Western Conference while Gordon and Evans occupy roughly $26MM of cap space. Evans can still be a useful piece despite being overpaid, but Gordon’s deal is an albatross. Either of these two wings will be tough to deal thanks to their contracts, and the Pelicans would likely have to package draft picks and assets alongside either player in order to make a trade palatable to the other team, which presents long-term roster building issues of its own.

New Orleans’ most noteworthy offseason move was the deal that netted them Omer Asik from Houston, one that forced the Pelicans to overcome several obstacles to complete. It was a risky deal on the Pelicans’ part because they sent away a protected first-rounder for 2015, and Asik can become an unrestricted free agent next summer. I like the addition of Asik for basketball reasons since he’ll add rebounding and defense to a team that needed both, but with the Pelicans more than likely to convey that pick to the Rockets next spring, it puts added pressure on New Orleans’ front office to re-sign Asik. He’ll likely command an average annual salary in the $12MM to $14MM range, given his status as an elite defensive force, though that’s just my estimate. It would take up a hefty chunk of cap space, and coupled with player-friendly deals for Evans, Gordon, Ryan Anderson and Jrue Holiday, and with Davis eligible to sign an extension next summer, the Pelicans would soon find themselves severely limited in flexibility moving forward. Plus, Asik proved disruptive regarding his playing time last year with the Rockets, and the Pelicans will have to keep that in mind when they think about re-signing him to a long-term deal.

Pelicans GM Dell Demps didn’t have the cap flexibility this offseason to pursue any big-name free agents, but he did manage to add a number of useful pieces on team-friendly deals. I like that New Orleans took low-risk gambles on Jimmer Fredette, Darius Miller, and John Salmons. None of those players are true game-changers, but all can be valuable bench contributors and offer strong work ethics, and in the case of Fredette and Miller, upside. I also like the team picking up the undrafted Patric Young, who was in the running at times to become an early second-round pick. He’s a long-term project who could end up paying dividends in a season or two.

The Pelicans were without a first-round pick in this year’s draft thanks to the trade with Philadelphia that netted them Holiday. In the second round, Demps did well to snag Louisville point guard Russ Smith, who has the ability to become a valuable reserve for this team, and whose intangibles make him worth having around. Smith should be able to develop enough to replace former No. 10 overall pick Austin Rivers, who can depart as a free agent next summer, since the team declined his fourth-year option. Rivers never lived up to his high draft position, and he could benefit from a change of scenery.

New Orleans needs to be active and creative in the trade market this year to try and clear some much-needed cap room they can use to surround Davis with more productive talent. The Pelicans are a team on the rise, though the strength of the Western Conference will probably force them to miss the playoffs once more this spring. The Pelicans need to give Davis a reason to want to re-sign for the long-term, as well as maximize the contention window that his incredible skills will provide them. If Demps is unable to remove one or more of the questionable deals on the team’s books, it will be a few seasons before he’ll be able to alter the roster significantly. The franchise and its fans had better hope that Davis will not have soured on the team’s losing ways before then and decide to take his skills elsewhere.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post. Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

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Offseason In Review: Utah Jazz

November 27th, 2014 at 6:12pm 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

  • Jordan Hamilton: Claimed from the Raptors. One year, $948K remaining. Contract was partially guaranteed for $25K. Waived after opening night.
  • Joe Ingles: Claimed from the Clippers. One year, $507K remaining. Non-guaranteed.

Draft Picks

  • Dante Exum (Round 1, 5th overall). Signed via rookie exception to rookie scale contract.
  • Rodney Hood (Round 1, 23rd overall). Signed via rookie exception to rookie scale contract.

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

Looking back on the Jazz’s offseason, it’s tough to see a franchise that has a definitive and confident rebuilding plan to return to contention. While I like a number of the moves that GM Dennis Lindsey made if analyzed individually, it’s how they fit into the larger picture that doesn’t make much sense. Utah will never be seen as a free agent hot spot in the eyes of NBA players, which does frame and influence much of what the team does in regard to roster moves and contracts. This limitation, courtesy of geography, makes the draft vital to the franchise’s long-term success, and it also makes retaining players that the organization has developed even more important.

NBA: Dallas Mavericks at Utah JazzThat helps explain the motivation behind Utah’s biggest and riskiest offseason move, which was matching the four-year, maximum salary offer sheet the Hornets inked with Gordon Hayward. Lindsey had made it clear that the Jazz were planning to match any offer the restricted free agent would receive on the open market all along, and the GM held true to that promise. Utah needs to fight to attract players, which made retaining the services of Hayward vital. But I question the wisdom of committing max-salary dollars to a player who is more of a complementary piece than a true franchise star. Even omitting his rookie-season numbers, Hayward’s career averages of 15.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 3.9 assists do not scream, “Give this man max money!”

On a team like Charlotte, which made the playoffs last season and was seemingly one shooter away from making some real noise in the Eastern Conference, the deal would have still been risky, but it may have been worth it in the short term. Restricted free agents often end up overpaid, since franchises know they will have to go above market value in order to discourage the player’s original team from matching the offer sheet. Just look to Jeremy Lin‘s and Omer Asik‘s deals with Houston, and Chandler Parsons‘ with Dallas, as examples of this. But Utah had other options since numerous teams had reportedly been offering sign-and-trade deals for Hayward in attempts to work around the possibility that Utah would match their offer sheets.

Hayward has improved every season he’s been in the league, which means the deal could still pay off for Utah. But the 24-year-old isn’t likely ever to be more than a very good player in the league, and it will take more than that to elevate the Jazz’s standing in the brutal Western Conference. I’ll also concede that since there aren’t many max-level free agents aching to live in Salt Lake City, Hayward’s deal isn’t the cap space killer that it would be on many other franchises. But it’s tough to argue that he is worth almost $63MM over four years.

Another questionable signing that Lindsey made is the four-year, $42MM (plus incentives) extension for Alec Burks. I like Burks as a player quite a bit. He’s a hard worker, can play and defend multiple positions, and at only 23 years of age, is likely to continue his upward development. But where exactly does he fit in long-term with the Jazz? Hayward is entrenched at small forward, and the backcourt has two young first-rounders whom the team needs to continue to develop in Trey Burke and Dante Exum. Burke and Exum have the potential to play side-by-side as starters for years to come, so it doesn’t make a lot of sense to pay an average annual salary of $10.5MM for a sixth man, no matter how talented Burks is. Of course, my concern will be negated if Exum, Utah’s first-rounder this year, fails to develop.

Exum was one if the biggest wildcards in this year’s draft lottery. He didn’t play college ball, and his international experience didn’t always come against top-flight competition, so it is hard to gauge what kind of a pro Exum will become. His physical talents are phenomenal. He is a blur on the court, and that coupled with his still growing 6’6″ frame makes him worth the risk on pure potential alone. Exum had been in the conversation as a darkhorse to become the No. 1 overall selection, and I still think the Sixers should have snapped him up with the third overall pick. But Utah snagged a potential superstar in Exum, if he can ever develop a reliable outside shot.

That last point is the key to the Jazz’s future. If Exum cannot develop his outside game, he’ll be limited to playing the point, a position which he apparently prefers. But the Jazz already have a talented young player manning that spot in 2013 lottery pick Trey Burke. Burke doesn’t project to be an All-Star, but he is still a very talented player who has a number of desirable intangibles that will help make his teammates better. It’s nice to have depth, as this year’s cavalcade of injuries around the league has demonstrated. But when you are a non-contending team trying to develop younger players, redundancies can hamper not only the franchise’s growth, but the growth of the players as well.

Lindsey’s excellent draft continued when he came away with one of the night’s biggest steals, selecting Rodney Hood with the 23rd overall pick. Hood was one of the most NBA-ready players in the draft, and his combination of length, athleticism, and outside shooting should make him a fixture in Utah’s rotation for years to come. He’s a player who should have gone much higher in the draft, and though he suffered a foot injury recently and will be out indefinitely, Hood will really help this team.

But here’s where another redundant and questionable move comes into play — the trade of Diante Garrett to the Raptors for Steve Novak. It’s tough to see the need for this deal, which puts the Jazz on the hook for a total of more than $7MM to Novak over this season and next. Novak is an amazing outside shooter, but he contributes little else. With Hayward a starter and Hood on the roster, Novak is an unnecessary piece who will siphon minutes away from younger players like Hood and Joe Ingles, and eat up too much cap space while doing so.

The Jazz claimed Ingles off waivers after the Clippers released him, and he was a shrewd pickup. If you don’t like Ingles, you don’t like what’s right about the game of basketball. He’s a hard worker, he’ll run through a wall if the coaches tell him to, and he’s a great guy to have in the locker room and on the bench. He’s someone I’d much rather see on the court than Novak.

The Jazz also needed to find a new head coach this offseason, after they elected not to renew Tyrone Corbin‘s contract. The man tasked with developing a new identity for the Jazz is former collegiate head coach and NBA assistant Quin Snyder. I’m extremely high on this move for Utah. Snyder is a great basketball mind and his effect on the Jazz’s offense should be fun to watch as the players become comfortable with the new system. His college coaching experience will also come in handy on a young team. The decision to hire Snyder was perhaps my favorite coaching move of the entire offseason.

Utah wasn’t able to come to terms on a contract extension with Enes Kanter, which leaves the 22-year-old from Switzerland poised to hit restricted free agency next summer. Kanter has shown improvement each season that he’s been in the league, and his agent, Max Ergul, is hoping that trend continues this season, which would serve to increase his client’s bargaining position. If Kanter’s salary demands become too great, or if another team swoops in with an offer sheet well out of line with what Kanter is worth, the Jazz should consider working out a sign-and-trade or simply letting Kanter walk. The franchise will have a number of rookie scale extensions to decide on in the next few years, and coupled with Hayward’s deal, any high-dollar payout would put a serious crimp on future moves. Utah does have Rudy Gobert waiting in the wings, and the team exercised his third-year rookie scale option in October. He’ll likely be a much less expensive long-term option than Kanter. Ideally, the team would retain both, but that might not be wise depending on how the market develops for Kanter.

The Jazz also made two under-the-radar free agent deals this past offseason. I like the signing of Toure’ Murry, who has the potential to develop into a useful rotation player. Murry is a high-energy defender who can add a spark off the bench. His partially guaranteed deal is also very team-friendly, and he isn’t the type of player who will gripe about his minutes. He’s drawn mention in trade rumors regarding Andrei Kirilenko, though it’s unclear whether the Jazz are truly thinking about bringing Kirilenko back to Utah. Kirilenko would add yet another redundant piece to the roster with the depth already present at both forward spots, and that would serve to reinforce questions about the team’s direction.

Signing Trevor Booker wasn’t a bad move either, as he is a high-energy rebounder who adds a needed level of toughness to the squad. The second year of his deal is non-guaranteed, so Lindsey limited the team’s risk and allowed some flexibility moving forward in case Kanter departs next summer. Booker can also be a valuable trade chip later in the season as well.

Utah has roughly $49.6MM in guaranteed salary on the books for 2015/16, and depending on the way Kanter’s situation plays out, this will allow the team to make some minor upgrades in the near future. But with deals for Hayward and Burks already on the books, coupled with the extensions the team seems likely to hand out to Gobert and Burke when they’re eligible, Utah’s long-term cap flexibility is set to disappear rather quickly. The Jazz need to reshape their roster and figure out which players to build around. For now, there are too many similar pieces monopolizing the franchise’s cap space. Until that is sorted out, the Jazz are far more likely to spend their springs in the draft lottery instead of the playoffs.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post. Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

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Offseason In Review: Portland Trail Blazers

November 27th, 2014 at 1:40pm 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

  • None

Waiver Claims

  • None

Draft Picks

  • None

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

The Blazers knew their starting lineup wasn’t the issue. Damian Lillard, Wesley Matthews, Nicolas Batum, LaMarcus Aldridge and Robin Lopez were the fifth-best five-man group in the league last season in terms of per-possession point differential among those that played at least 500 minutes together, according to NBA.com. That unit outscored opponents by 8.5 points per 100 possessions, but Portland as a whole was just plus-3.5 in that category. The Blazers entered the summer with no real cap flexibility and no draft picks, but GM Neil Olshey set about to prove just how valuable the mid-level and biannual exceptions can be.

NBA: Portland Trail Blazers at Denver NuggetsOlshey used the mid-level to ink Chris Kaman, a player who two years prior wouldn’t have been obtainable for that sort of money or for the reserve role the Blazers expect him to play. The one-time All-Star was one of the key figures in a fairly strong class of free agent centers in 2012, and he signed a one-year, $8MM deal with the Mavs that gave him the chance to excel in filling the team’s need for a starting center and to net more money over the long-term on his next contract. Instead, Kaman failed to see eye-to-eye with coach Rick Carlisle and played just 20.7 minutes per game that season, deflating his value and prompting him to turn to a one-year, $3.183MM deal for the taxpayer’s mid-level with the Lakers in 2013. Mike D’Antoni had even less use for him, and he appeared in only 39 games last season. Having turned 32 this past April, it seemed unlikely that Kaman would merit a raise, and quite conceivable that he’d have to settle for the minimum salary and a third-string job.

The Landmark Sports Agency client instead came away with $4.8MM this year, almost the full value of the $5.305MM non-taxpayer’s mid-level, plus a $1MM partial guarantee for 2015/16. It was a gamble for Olshey, but so far it’s paid off, as Kaman is putting up 10.9 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 19.0 minutes per game. He’s the NBA’s ninth leading per-minute rebounder among those who’ve played at least 100 total minutes this season, according to Basketball-Reference, and his 20.6 PER is a career high.

Olshey used all of the team’s biannual exception to come up with another player who began last season on the Lakers. It’s a reunion for the Blazers and Steve Blake, though Olshey wasn’t around when Blake played in Portland from 2007 to 2010. Olshey nonetheless had a chance to get an up-close look at the point guard when the GM was with the Clippers and Blake was in his early days with the other Staples Center tenants. Derek Fisher, Steve Nash and even Ramon Sessions had played in front of Blake on the Lakers, for whom he started just 45 games in three and a half years, but the 34-year-old hasn’t averaged fewer than 20.0 minutes per game since the 2004/05 season. That’s a testament to his value as a bench contributor, and so far for Portland he’s been an even more efficient ball-distributor than he had been in recent years. He’s averaging 7.1 assists against just 2.2 turnovers per 36 minutes, a ratio well clear of 3-to-1, and though most of his stats are by no means gaudy, he earns his keep in his time on the floor.

The Blazers as a whole are outscoring opponents at a rate of 8.6 points per 100 possessions so far this season, a rate almost identical to the one their starting five had produced last season, as NBA.com shows. Part of that is because the starting unit has upped its differential in that category to plus-10.7, but Portland’s bench has picked up some of the slack. The Blazers are missing one their top reserves from last season, as Mo Williams fled to the Timberwolves for a one-year, $3.75MM deal that was only slightly greater in value than the approximately $3.18MM that Portland was limited to giving him via Non-Bird rights. Agent Mark Bartelstein said before Williams signed with Minnesota that there was a chance, however slight, that his client would return to Portland even after the Blazers committed their mid-level to Hawes, which wiped out their ability to give Williams more than that $3.18MM. It’s unclear what Portland could have done at that point to woo him back, and perhaps a multiyear offer might have done the trick, but Williams nonetheless departed, leaving Portland to rely more heavily on C.J. McCollum, Allen Crabbe and Will Barton to supplement Blake. Still, that could be a blessing in disguise, since it’ll give the Blazers a chance to evaluate that trio, all of whom are either second- or third-year players, and much is eventually expected of McCollum, the 10th overall pick in 2013.

The Blazers made a tough call on another recent lottery pick, declining their fourth-year rookie scale option on 2012 No. 5 selection Thomas Robinson. The big man had a tough go of it in his first two seasons, rebounding efficiently and running the floor well but otherwise failing to show many glimpses of the promise that made him such a hot prospect coming out of Kansas. The Blazers can still re-sign him next summer, but he’ll be an unrestricted free agent, and they can’t pay him a salary greater than the $4,660,482 option they turned down. Robinson probably won’t merit more than that unless he has a breakout season this year, but teams rarely re-sign players after declining their rookie scale options, so he’s likely in his final days with Portland.

The decision pick up Meyers Leonard‘s somewhat cheaper rookie scale option wasn’t clear-cut, since Leonard has been just as disappointing after having been the No. 11 pick in the same draft that Robinson was a part of. Still, Leonard’s willingness to try to remake himself into a 7’1″ stretch power forward bears watching, and perhaps Portland felt compelled to keep him around for at least another season to see how that experiment turns out.

Such tinkering pales in comparison to the importance of Aldridge’s free agency in the summer to come, though the team’s preeminent star made it clear this past summer that he intends to re-sign with the Blazers. That he was willing at times last season to entertain the idea of signing an extension, which wouldn’t be in his best financial interests, is demonstrative of his commitment to Portland, even though he said in July that an extension was no longer a consideration. It was also quite a switch from the summer of 2013, when it seemed that Aldridge was looking for a way out of town in the wake of consecutive losing seasons. Last year’s revival was clearly a game-changer for the long-term future of the Blazers, and the team’s second consecutive hot start is impressing upon the league, and upon Aldridge, that last season was no fluke.

Olshey hasn’t made any earth-shattering moves in his three offseasons with the Blazers, aside from the shrewd drafting of Lillard at No. 6 in 2012, but adding Lopez in the summer of 2013 and Kaman and Blake this year show his ability to be a consistent singles hitter. Still, he’ll most likely need to display a little more power for the team to become a true title contender, and this coming offseason, when only three Blazers have fully guaranteed contracts, will provide that opportunity.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

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Offseason In Review: Houston Rockets

November 27th, 2014 at 8:59am 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

  • Acquired 2014 pick No. 53 from the Timberwolves in exchange for cash.
  • Acquired the rights to Sergei Lishchuk from the Lakers in exchange for Jeremy Lin, Houston’s 2015 first-round pick (lottery protected), and the Clippers’ 2015 second-round pick if it falls anywhere from 51st through 55th.
  • Acquired Trevor Ariza, Alonzo Gee, Scotty Hopson and New Orleans’ 2015 first-round pick if it falls anywhere from fourth through 19th in a three-way trade with the Pelicans and Wizards in exchange for Omer Asik, Omri Casspi, and $1.5MM cash. Ariza was signed-and-traded for four years, $32MM.
  • Acquired Jason Terry, Sacramento’s 2015 second-round pick if it falls anywhere from 31st through 49th, and New York’s unprotected 2016 second-round pick from the Kings in exchange for Alonzo Gee and Scotty Hopson.

Waiver Claims

  • Earl Clark: Claimed from the Grizzlies. One year, $1.063MM remaining. Contract was non-guaranteed. Subsequently waived.

Draft Picks

Camp Invitees

  • Akil Mitchell
  • Geron Johnson
  • Akeem Richmond

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

It wasn’t too long ago that GM Daryl Morey took just nine months to turn a roster that seemed poised to challenge for last place in the Western Conference into a rising title contender with two superstars. Houston entered this past summer in position to make a third superstar acquisition in less than two years, but the franchise’s positive momentum vanished just as suddenly as it had gathered. Morey and the Rockets once more aimed high, pursuing LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh, the top three free agents in the 2014 Hoops Rumors Free Agent Power Rankings, but he swung and missed on all three pitches. Houston didn’t just come up short on attracting outside talent. The Rockets flubbed the handling of their team option on Chandler Parsons, who bolted for the Mavs, and they traded Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin to clear cap space for the stars that never came, stripping the team of valuable role players. Murphy’s Law had so befallen Houston that Morey felt compelled to defend himself against a storm of criticism, even though the Rockets were appreciably better than they had been two years prior and remain on the verge of contention.

NBA: Sacramento Kings at Houston RocketsStill, the summer was a tough blow to a franchise that almost became a true power. Morey failed to land a face-to-face meeting with LeBron’s agent and though he did meet with ‘Melo, that encounter is more remembered for the giant image of Anthony wearing Lin’s No. 7 Rockets jersey that the Rockets hung than for any sway that Morey held with the high-scoring Knicks forward. Yet the team was agonizingly close to landing Bosh on a four-year deal for the maximum salary before Miami swooped in with a five-year max offer. A Bosh-Howard tandem would have given the Rockets the league’s best big-man pairing to go along with Harden’s slithery scoring prowess, and if Houston had opted in with Parsons, the Rockets could have paid him a mere $960K to play with those three. Still, such a fantasy never became more than just that.

Morey didn’t envision having Parsons at such a cheap rate this season, anyway. The GM instead expected that turning down the option would allow the Rockets to tie him up on a long-term deal in restricted free agency this past summer without exposing him to unrestricted free agency in 2015, which he was poised to hit if Houston had opted in. Leave it to frequent Morey critic and Mavs owner Mark Cuban to throw a curveball, signing Parsons to an above-market offer sheet for nearly the maximum salary. Dan Fegan, the agent for Parsons, reportedly designed the structure of the deal that won plaudits from other league executives for features like a 15% trade kicker, a player option and the contract’s three-year length, all of which made it tricky for the Rockets to match. Fegan’s involvement was a further twist of the knife for Houston, since he represents Howard, who can hit free agency in 2016.

Houston’s offseason was thoroughly disappointing, but it was far from a complete disaster. The Rockets wound up with a top-notch perimeter defender in Trevor Ariza, whose become significantly more valuable since he added accurate three-point marksmanship to his repertoire. Ariza shot 40.7% from long range in 2013/14, setting a career high for a second straight season. That makes him a fit with Houston’s floor-spreading philosophy, but it’s his defense that truly makes him a seamless complement to Harden, whose defensive shortcomings have been well-documented. It’s no coincidence that the Rockets are giving up the fewest points per possession of any NBA team this season after finishing 12th in that category last season, according to NBA.com.

The Ariza acquisition came as part of a sign-and-trade that sent Asik to the Pelicans in exchange for a first-round pick that’s protected in such a way that Houston is likely to end up with a lottery selection. It’s reminiscent of the protection on the pick that the Raptors gave up for Kyle Lowry, and the Rockets swapped that Toronto pick in the package that netted Harden. It’s a stretch to say that the Rockets are in position to once more strike gold with such a pick, but at the very least they wound up with a first-rounder that will probably be more valuable than the one they attached to Lin to entice the Lakers to take him on. Houston also netted a trade exception worth the equivalent of Lin’s nearly $8.375MM cap hit in that deal. The exception is the largest in the league as it stands, and while it doesn’t allow the team to grab a star, Morey seems eager to use it to trade for an intriguing rotation-level player whom he could package with another asset or two at the deadline to acquire a marquee name. Morey’s proven creative and ever willing to trade, so the exception in his hands is a weapon indeed.

He pulled off a trade this summer that serves as some degree of payback for the sting of losing Parsons to the rival Mavericks, bringing on one-time Mavs sixth man Jason Terry. Houston also netted a pair of second-round picks as Morey took advantage of tax-conscious Sacramento’s desire to clear his guaranteed salary of more than $5.85MM and Terry’s wish to play for a team closer to the title picture. Terry’s 37 now, his days as one of the league’s premiere reserves long since behind him, but he’s off to a hot start behind the arc, and he’ll help strengthen a bench that took a hit this summer.

Houston spent much of the summer filling out that bench with familiar faces who were willing to accept the minimum salary, re-signing Francisco Garcia and playoff revelation Troy Daniels, and bringing back former Rockets Joey Dorsey, Jeff Adrien and Ish Smith. Adrien and Smith fell victim to the team’s decision to bring 15 fully guaranteed contracts plus Patrick Beverley on a non-guaranteed contract to camp, which created a crunch for opening-night roster spots. Rookie Tarik Black, on a contract only guaranteed for $50K, furthered that logjam when he played his way into the rotation and earned his way onto the club for the regular season.

Black is one of four rookies on the team, and the size of that group is further indication that Houston’s offseason didn’t go as planned. There was speculation that the Rockets would trade their first-round pick or stash him overseas to avoid the guaranteed money on their cap. Morey instead signed No. 25 overall pick Clint Capela, a center from Switzerland, and for 42nd overall selection Nick Johnson, the Rockets doled out a three-year contract that, in a rarity, is fully guaranteed for each season. Still, the most surprising Rockets rookie deal is the one with Kostas Papanikolaou, who changed his mind after deciding in mid-July to remain overseas. He’ll make more than $4.591MM this season, a hefty sum that took up most of Houston’s mid-level exception, though his nearly $4.798MM salary for next season is both non-guaranteed and a team option. The deal gives Houston protection in case he fails to prove worth that money, but if he does wind up having merited that sum and perhaps more, the Rockets could have trouble retaining him thanks to the very same Gilbert Arenas Provision that helped them sign Lin and Asik two years ago.

Morey has never been afraid to experiment with unconventional moves to build a championship roster, but with experimentation comes the risk of failure. Houston experienced the downside of the GM’s approach this summer, but not every test tube shattered, and the Rockets remain an attractive destination for top-flight free agents as well as a serious player on the trade market. They took a step back, but they remain at least a step or two ahead of most.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

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Offseason In Review: San Antonio Spurs

November 25th, 2014 at 10:56am 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 2014 pick No. 54 from the Sixers in exchange for 2014 pick No. 58 and 2014 pick No. 60.

Waiver Claims

  • None

Draft Picks

  • Kyle Anderson (Round 1, 30th overall). Signed via rookie exception to rookie scale contract.
  • Nemanja Dangubic (Round 2, 54th overall): Playing overseas.

Camp Invitees

  • Bryce Cotton
  • Josh Davis
  • Fuquan Edwin
  • JaMychal Green
  • John Holland
  • Robert Vaden

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

  • None

The NBA has learned not to mess with the team from south Texas, and the team from south Texas has learned not to mess with success. The Spurs have begun 2014/15 with a roster almost identical to the one that steamrolled the Heat in the Finals last season. The only difference is that Damion James, who scored just six points in five regular season games and didn’t appear in the playoffs, is no longer around and Kyle Anderson, the last pick of the first round this year, is in his place. Still, it’s not as if GM R.C. Buford and Gregg Popovich, who carries the dual title of coach and president of Spurs basketball, were without decisions to make in the offseason.

NBA: San Antonio Spurs at Minnesota TimberwolvesBefore Buford and Popovich could make their decisions, Tim Duncan had to make his. The franchise icon had a player option for 2014/15, one that the league adjusted from $10MM to more than $10.361MM, and he briefly considered retirement before ultimately opting in for a chance to win back-to-back titles for the first time. There were also questions surrounding Manu Ginobili‘s willingness to return for another season, but Ginobili had no player option on his contract, which runs through this season, and he said in April that he was “pretty sure” he would be back for this season. He confirmed that in June, saying that he plans to play through 2014/15 and maybe 2015/16.

The future of Duncan and Ginobili reportedly played into extension talks with Kawhi Leonard last month. Leonard had been seeking the max in the months after winning the 2014 Finals MVP, but such a commitment would have compromised San Antonio’s potential to open significant cap space this coming summer. That’s space the Spurs are apparently thinking about using to pursue marquee free agents if Duncan and Ginobili retire. The Spurs have close to $34.2MM in salary commitments against a projected $66.5MM salary cap for 2015/16. That doesn’t count cap holds for the seven players whose contracts expire at season’s end, including Duncan, Ginobili and Leonard. The Spurs could renounce their rights to Duncan and Ginobili if they retire, but because the team decided against an extension for Leonard, his cap hold will only take up slightly more than $7.235MM. San Antonio could spend up to the cap and still give Leonard a new deal, or match another team’s offer sheet, via Bird rights. Several league executives told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports that the Brian Elfus client will command max offer sheets in the summer, but the Spurs would almost certainly match any offer sheets that come his way, Wojnarowski wrote. So, it seems that San Antonio’s decision to pass on an extension for the 23-year-old has more to do with timing and salary cap strategy than doubts about his ability, even though Leonard’s three straight games of 20 or more points in the Finals constituted the first such stretch of his career.

It’s not as if the Spurs are opposed to extensions. They handed out a rare veteran extension to Tony Parker, giving him the maximum amount such an extension would allow. Parker could have signed a new contract with the Spurs or another team next summer for much more in annual salary and either four or five years instead of the three that the veteran extension rules allow. Instead, he again gave San Antonio a discount, just as he did when he signed his last extension. Parker made it clear that he wants to eventually finish his career in San Antonio, underscoring the unusual, if not unique, deference that he, Duncan and Ginobili so often give to the only NBA organization for which they’ve ever played. Parker very well could have commanded a salary in the neighborhood of $20MM for 2015/16, depending on where the maximum salary is set, but with only about $13.438MM coming his way, the Spurs have significantly more spending power to replenish their roster should Duncan and Ginobili retire.

It’s no surprise that the organization decided to recommit itself to the man at the controls of that culture of sacrifice, signing Popovich to a multiyear extension. Popovich has been the NBA’s Coach of the Year two out of the last three seasons, and he’s done so while wielding front office power in tandem with Buford, the reigning NBA Executive of the Year. The 65-year-old Popovich has joked that he’ll walk away from his job when Duncan retires, but he’s reportedly eager to coach four or five more years, and he’s suggested that he promised Parker that he’ll continue for the duration of the point guard’s extension, which runs through 2017/18.

Boris Diaw‘s contract will also keep him in San Antonio for that timeframe, providing the Spurs continue to want him around. San Antonio lavished better than mid-level money on the versatile big man, protecting themselves with non-guaranteed salary at the back end and some creative clauses, including incentives tied to Diaw’s ability to keep his weight in check. The Blazers were the only other team linked to the Doug Neustadt client, so it was a bit surprising to see San Antonio pay a premium on a long-term deal to a 32-year-old who only started 24 regular season games last season. Still, Diaw’s unselfishness on offense, which fits snugly into San Antonio’s philosophy, and his ability to guard multiple positions on defense helped prove his value.

The Spurs balanced their expensive deal for Diaw against a discount for Patrick Mills, whose shoulder injury derailed his free agency. The point guard reportedly had mutual interest in the Knicks, but once he received his diagnosis, it became clear he would re-sign with the Spurs. The Hornets, too, apparently planned to go after Mills but changed their minds when the injury surfaced. The 26-year-old will be making salaries roughly equivalent to the taxpayer’s mid-level exception the next three years, which is a team-friendly arrangement for a point guard who emerged as one of the league’s best backups last season.

San Antonio spent much of the summer with 14 players under fully guaranteed contracts for this season while negotiations dragged on with restricted free agent Aron Baynes, who eventually became the 15th. The Spurs spent time mulling sign-and-trade possibilities and Baynes cast an eye toward signing with a European team. San Antonio reportedly looked at alternatives including NBA veterans Ray Allen, Gustavo Ayon, Michael Beasley, Jamaal Franklin and Hakim Warrick, among others. San Antonio was particularly persistent with Ayon, who wound up heading overseas after a pair of Spanish teams resolved a dispute over his rights. That left the Spurs to circle back to Baynes, though San Antonio reportedly continues to eye Allen.

Change will eventually come to the Spurs, but for now, just about everyone involved has agreed that the chance to a repeat as champions, perhaps the lone accomplishment the Popovich-Duncan era team hasn’t achieved, is enticing enough to stick around for. San Antonio is the rare team that’s been able to maintain its success while keeping plenty of flexibility for the future, thanks in large measure to sacrifice from Parker and others, and while Duncan and Ginobili near the end, San Antonio’s run as an elite team seems poised to continue for the foreseeable future.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

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Offseason In Review: Minnesota Timberwolves

November 22nd, 2014 at 8:42am 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

  • Zach LaVine (Round 1, 13th overall). Signed via rookie exception to rookie scale contract.
  • Glenn Robinson III (Round 2, 40th overall). Signed via minimum-salary exception for one year, $507K. Partially guaranteed for $250K.

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

For the second time in seven years, the Timberwolves were forced to deal away their star player and begin anew. Team president Flip Saunders certainly hopes this time around brings Minnesota better results than when Kevin Garnett was shipped to Boston back in 2007, seeing as the franchise has only averaged 25 wins per season since that trade.

NBA: Minnesota Timberwolves at Miami HeatIn this rebuilding sequel the player being dealt was Kevin Love, and much of the offseason headlines and speculation around the league were focused squarely on where Love was headed, and what kind of package it would take for the Wolves to hit the reset button on the franchise. It turns out that a package of the last two No. 1 overall picks from the Cavs was the answer to that riddle, along with Thaddeus Young, by way of the Sixers, whose talent level makes him much more than just a throw-in.

While I understand how frustrating it must be for fans of the Wolves to see yet another highly talented player leave town, the fact is that the team wasn’t headed to the NBA Finals with Love anytime soon. The franchise hasn’t so much as sniffed the playoffs during his tenure, so this is nowhere near the step back that losing Garnett was. Love was almost assured of leaving the team next summer, when he can opt out the contract that former GM David Kahn designed when he wouldn’t commit to a five-year extension for Love, so Saunders made a tough call, but a correct one.

A deal that sends away a superstar for a package of lesser assets doesn’t usually help the franchise that relinquishes the better player, as is illustrated in my Trade Retrospective Series. This trend might continue with Minnesota, but I applaud Saunders for pulling the trigger on flipping Love for the best possible package available in Wiggins, Bennett, and Young. The Wolves aren’t likely to contend in the brutal Western Conference for a few more seasons, but if and when they do finally break through, this deal could be looked back upon as one that laid the foundation for that achievement.

The primary piece that Saunders acquired is this year’s No. 1 overall draftee, Andrew Wiggins. It will take some time, but Wiggins has superstar potential, and he’s a player whom a franchise can build around, as well as someone the Wolves can use as a marquee attraction to sell season tickets, given his ridiculous athleticism and above-the-rim antics. The only real knock on Wiggins is that he seemingly lacks the killer instinct present in most, if not all, of the true alphas in the NBA. But if that’s true, Minnesota is the perfect place for Wiggins to develop, outside of the spotlight of a major market where he can play for a team not expected to make the playoffs this season. I think Wiggins will end up surprising many in this regard and figure things out sooner than expected. In a few seasons, the Cavs could be ruing the day they traded him.

The other pieces Minnesota acquired are wild cards, however. There is no denying that Young is a talent, and he’ll be counted on for veteran leadership. But the ex-Sixer may be too weary from all those losing seasons in Philadelphia to go through the process again with the Wolves, and with an early termination option for next season in his possession, it’s quite possible he’ll end up having been merely a one-season rental. I’d be surprised if Young didn’t exercise his ETO, as the long-term security of a brand new deal would be the smart play, and he’s almost assured to do better salary-wise than the $9,971,739 that he’s set to earn next year. A strong season by Young should thrust his market value into the neighborhood at least the $12MM per year. That doesn’t necessarily mean he won’t re-sign with the Wolves, but he’d be remiss if he didn’t at least explore the free agent market.

As for Bennett, he’s clearly not going to live up to his status as the top pick in the 2013 NBA draft, though there’s an easy argument to make that he should never have been selected that high to begin with. The Wolves have little to lose by giving him a shot to develop, and he has looked much improved this season, though he’s not likely to be an All-Star anytime soon. Any production they can get from Bennett, whom the Wolves are using almost exclusively at power forward this season after the Cavs tried him at small forward last year, is a bonus.

Minnesota is not viewed as a true free agent destination, as smaller cold-weather cities rarely are in the NBA. So the team is forced to mine the second tier of available free agents. That template certainly applies to the team’s lone free agent acquisition this offseason. The Mo Williams signing was another shrewd move by Saunders, as the team certainly needed veteran leadership, as well as depth at the point guard spot. With the injury to Ricky Rubio, Williams’ presence is even more valuable. At the very least Williams could provide the team with a valuable trade asset later in the season.

The draft is extremely important to the fortunes of the team, given Minnesota’s lack of appeal to marquee free agents. Saunders’ selection of Zach LaVine comes with some intriguing possibilities. LaVine is a stellar athlete who has off-the-charts leaping ability, and his potential is unlimited. But he’s incredibly raw, having played only one season at UCLA, and he wasn’t even a starter during that time. Scouts have compared LaVine favorably to another Bruins alum, Russell Westbrook. That is a tough legacy to live up to, though Westbrook entered the league with many of the same concerns about his game, and he turned out pretty well for the Thunder. It’s going to take some time to be able to accurately gauge what kind of player LaVine will be, but Saunders deserves some credit for gambling on him.

With his second round pick, Saunders selected Glenn Robinson III, another player with intriguing long-term potential. Robinson has the skills to develop into a useful rotation player, though he’ll likely spend more time in the D-League than on the NBA hardwood this season.

Saunders also needed to find a new head coach to replace the retired Rick Adelman. He surveyed a number of marquee college coaches, and at one point owner Glen Taylor was keen on Saunders hiring ex-Raptors coach Sam Mitchell, who had a long career with the Timberwolves as a player. But Saunders’ primary target became Grizzlies head man Dave Joerger, whose job security was tenuous at best since Memphis owner Robert Pera was revamping his entire front office and had been rumored to be considering firing Joerger back in November of 2013. But Joerger and Pera patched up their relationship and Joerger signed an extension to remain in Memphis. This led Saunders to fill the role himself, though his arrangement is “open-ended” in terms of length, meaning Saunders will have the opportunity to revisit a search for someone else to coach the team in the future.

The final move the team made during its active offseason, and perhaps the most important one aside from the Love trade, was to lock up Rubio on a long-term extension. Saunders was obviously determined not to run the risk of losing yet another player to free agency, though $55MM plus incentives over four years may be a bit of an overpay for the 24-year-old from Spain. Prior to his injury, Rubio was enjoying an excellent season, averaging 9.4 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 10.0 assists per game. If Rubio can ever develop a reliable jump shot, something his contract incentives are tied directly to, and resume his early-season production level when he returns, he’ll be worth that chunk of cap space.

Heading into 2015/16, the team currently has more than $49MM committed in guaranteed salaries. That figure doesn’t include Young’s salary, though he’ll likely exercise his ETO, and the player options for Chase Budinger ($5MM) and Corey Brewer ($4.905MM). If the team re-signs Young, and if both Budinger and Brewer opt in, which is likely in Budinger’s case, the team won’t have much room under the cap to play with. Brewer is currently the subject of numerous trade rumors, though Saunders has hinted that he’s too valuable to trade. That is something I believe is posturing on Saunders’ part, designed to try and increase any return the team would receive for Brewer. Budinger, too, found his name in trade rumors prior to the season.

Another contract on his books that Saunders should consider trying to unload is Nikola Pekovic‘s. The team still owes him three more years and $35.8MM after this season, numbers not in line with Pekovic’s production. While talented big men are at a premium in the league, their importance in the guard-oriented NBA world we currently live in has been diminished. And at 28 years of age, Pekovic isn’t likely to provide much more than his career averages of 13.0 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. This contract will hamper the team’s growth similar to how Roy Hibbert‘s deal is hamstringing the Pacers.

With Love gone, the immediate outlook for the Timberwolves’ fortunes hasn’t improved, though they weren’t likely to shine even if Love had remained in Minnesota. For the long term, the team’s outlook has a glimmer of hope in the core of Wiggins, Rubio, and LaVine. The franchise will continue to struggle to attract top-tier free agents, but if the Wolves can maximize their future draft picks and add the right mix of role players, the long-suffering fans in Minnesota just might have something to cheer about.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post. Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

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Offseason In Review: Indiana Pacers

November 20th, 2014 at 8:02pm 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 cash from the Knicks in exchange for 2014 pick No. 57.

Waiver Claims

  • None

Draft Picks

  • None

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

It can be argued that Indiana’s 2014/15 season was effectively scuttled on August 1st, the day that the team’s star, Paul George, broke his leg during a Team USA intrasquad scrimmage. With George likely to miss the entire season and the franchise’s second-best offensive weapon, Lance Stephenson, having defected to the Hornets via free agency, it’s going to be a difficult year for Pacers faithful.

NBA: Indiana Pacers at Washington WizardsWhile it’s hard to fault Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird for the team’s current state, since George’s injury was not an event that could be anticipated, the team’s roster was already flawed before George went down. Indiana nearly played itself out of the top seed in the Eastern Conference during the second half of last season, and though the Pacers made it to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second straight year, it appeared by the end of that series that the Pacers had taken a step back.

Letting Stephenson go was a difficult call and one that Bird likely would have rethought if George’s injury had occurred prior to the start of free agency in July. Stephenson’s talent level has always been weighed against his propensity for odd and sometimes disruptive behavior, but the 24-year-old shooting guard out of Cincinnati had a fan in Bird, and Stephenson himself signaled his desire to return to Indiana. But as John Steinbeck wrote, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”

The Pacers appeared to move on from Stephenson rather quickly after he turned down the team’s initial five-year, $44MM offer when the team inked C.J. Miles, Damjan Rudez, and Rodney Stuckey. These deals largely eliminated any wiggle room the franchise had underneath the luxury tax threshold, a line that the team has been adamant about not crossing.

Miles was the team’s most lucrative expenditure, and while the deal feels like a bit of an overpay for a 27-year-old, one-dimensional role player, he would have been a nice complementary piece to the team’s rotation if Paul wasn’t injured. Indiana needed to add an outside threat to spread the floor for Roy Hibbert and David West, which Miles certainly can do when he’s “on,” but as a player the team is relying upon to carry a heavy offensive load, the flaws in his game will be exposed. I like the idea of a one- or two-year deal for Miles, but four years is stretching the bounds of good sense.

The deals the Pacers gave to Stuckey and Rudez are ones that I am fonder of. The Pacers had a need for more depth and production at the point, and while Stuckey is more of a scorer than a distributor, he certainly can help the team, and there’s a decent chance that his one-year deal will have been a bargain. Indiana brought Rudez from overseas with the hope that he could compete for minutes at small forward, but a guaranteed three-year pact is a risk for an NBA-unproven European talent. Still, his near-minimum salaries are not amounts that will hamstring the team moving forward.

What is hurting the Pacers is the $14,898,938 chunk of cap space that they allocated to Hibbert. Bird must have had a flashback to the NBA of his playing days, an era when teams needed a dominant big man to have a shot at contention, when he signed Hibbert to a four-year, $58.37MM contract in 2012 to keep him from jumping to the Blazers. Hibbert is a staunch rim protector, something that is still quite valuable, but his offensive game hasn’t developed as the team had hoped and his career 6.8 rebounds per game average is shameful for a player of his size. It also doesn’t help that he doesn’t match up well with smaller, athletic centers and the team is forced to sit him for long stretches, as occurred numerous times during last season’s playoffs. Indiana should pray that Hibbert declines his 2015/16 player option, worth more than $15.514MM, though that is highly unlikely.

Indiana doesn’t have much in the way of movable assets it can use to turn around its fortunes this season. David West would be a likely candidate, since his veteran leadership and ample skills could help many a contender, but West has yet to play this season courtesy of an ankle injury he sustained back in October. His $12MM salary would also make a trade difficult, and Indiana would be unlikely to garner any game-changing pieces in such a deal. West also has a player option for next season, when he is slated to make $12.6MM, but he has also hinted at retiring rather than continuing his distinguished career. A change of scenery and a chance to be part of a contending team could motivate him to keep playing, but moving him wouldn’t be advisable for Indiana unless the Pacers could somehow net some combination of an expiring contract, a younger player, and a draft pick.

One rumored deal the Pacers should revisit is the idea of a Chris Copeland–J.R. Smith trade with the Knicks. Copeland is currently Indiana’s leading scorer, but that isn’t saying much on a squad averaging a paltry 91.9 PPG. Smith would bring headaches of his own, though nothing in the realm of Stephenson’s nightly oddities. The Knicks have a glut of shooting guards and would be all too anxious to rid themselves of Smith and his 2015/16 player option for nearly $6.4MM. Smith could offset some of the loss of George, and while he wouldn’t thrust the team into contention this year, he would at least make the Pacers watchable on the offensive side. Smith would also pair nicely alongside George next season, which should be the team’s focus this year anyway since it isn’t moving up in the standings anytime soon. Still, the Pacers would have to add more salary to any such deal to make it legal.

The Pacers are almost assuredly heading toward the NBA draft lottery and will have a chance to nab a valuable young piece for the future. Indiana has about $36MM in guaranteed salaries on the books for 2015/16, but Hibbert’s and West’s player options could inflate that by about another $28.1MM. That will not leave the franchise with much in the way of cap space to make a splash in the free agency market next summer. So unless Bird can work some trade magic this season, it is looking increasingly likely that the Pacers’ window to contend has shut. Indiana must hope that George can return to his pre-injury form, the team can score big in the draft, and both Hibbert and West are off the roster by next season. Otherwise, it will be at least a few years before Indiana becomes relevant again in the Eastern Conference title race.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

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Offseason In Review: Chicago Bulls

November 20th, 2014 at 1:54pm 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 2014 pick No. 11 and Anthony Randolph from the Nuggets in exchange for 2014 pick No. 16, 2014 pick No. 19, and the less favorable of Chicago’s and Portland’s 2015 second-round picks.
  • Acquired the rights to Milovan Rakovic from the Magic in exchange for Anthony Randolph, the more favorable of Chicago’s and Portland’s 2015 second-round picks, the more favorable of Chicago’s and Portland’s 2016 second-round picks, and cash.
  • Acquired the rights to Tadija Dragicevic from the Mavericks in exchange for Greg Smith.

Waiver Claims

  • None

Draft Picks

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

The Bulls didn’t end up with Carmelo Anthony or Kevin Love this year, but they nonetheless made their most significant upgrades since Derrick Rose‘s MVP season in 2010/11. The past calendar year has featured upheaval in Chicago, starting with the January trade of Luol Deng, and the Bulls gave every indication that more changes were on the way heading into the summer. Their pursuit of Anthony was always fraught with pitfalls, thanks mostly to the salary cap chicanery that GM Gar Forman and executive VP of basketball operations John Paxson would have had to pull off to give him a contract anywhere near the max. It was Plan A, to be sure, but Forman and Paxson weren’t without intriguing alternatives that extended beyond what for the most part appeared to be a long shot bid to trade for Love.

NBA: Chicago Bulls at New York KnicksTo affect any of the major changes they sought, the Bulls had to unload Carlos Boozer‘s unwieldy $16.8MM salary. They held the amnesty provision in their quiver, but waiving him meant still having to pay him, even if he would vanish from the team’s cap figure. So, the Bulls sought to trade the power forward who’d never quite lived up to having been the team’s marquee signing from 2010, the last time Chicago made such sweeping changes.

Forman and Paxson kept the notion of a Boozer trade alive even as they neared a deal with Pau Gasol for more than they would have been able to pay if they had kept Boozer and remained over the salary cap. The Bulls had talks with the Lakers about turning the Gasol acquisition into a sign-and-trade that would have allowed Chicago to cobble together matching salaries to send out. Chicago also wound up giving Nikola Mirotic a deal with a starting salary at precisely the amount of the mid-level exception, the most the team could have paid him while remaining over the cap. Ultimately, no palatable trade for Boozer came about, forcing the Bulls to amnesty him. Chicago moved on from the idea of a sign-and-trade for Gasol and simply inked him outright into the cap space that the amnesty had created, using the rest of the cap room on Mirotic and a long-term deal for second-round pick Cameron Bairstow. Still, the Bulls caught a break when the Lakers claimed Boozer off waivers, defraying a $3.251MM portion of the cost of Boozer’s salary.

Gasol gives the Bulls a gifted passer and a player whose game is more multidimensional than Boozer’s, and coach Tom Thibodeau has already taken advantage of the opportunity to pair Gasol with center Joakim Noah in a twin-towers starting lineup. The Spanish center is an odd fit to a degree because of Taj Gibson, whose game continued to grow last season. Still, Gibson is seeing even more minutes per game this year than he did last year, though the maladies that have kept Noah and Gasol out of a few games have no doubt contributed to that. Mirotic plays power forward, too, so the Bulls wouldn’t have been in a bind without either Boozer or Gasol. Still, given the team’s title aspirations, a proven and still capable veteran with two championship rings trumps the intrigue of a rookie, even if that rookie was perhaps the best player who wasn’t in the NBA last season.

Mirotic has nonetheless seen 12.1 minutes per game so far this year, about the same amount of playing time that Thibodeau has given to small forward Doug McDermott, the 11th overall pick in this year’s draft. The Bulls saw fit to consolidate their pair of later first-round picks to move up for McDermott, even if it meant absorbing the guaranteed salary of Anthony Randolph to do so. Randolph complicated Chicago’s pursuit of cap flexibility until the Bulls attached him to a pair of second-round draft picks and cash in a trade that sent him to Orlando. That move, combined with the acquisition of McDermott, meant the Bulls had turned two first-rounders and two second-rounders into a single first-rounder, but the first-rounder the Bulls wound up with was the only lottery pick in the bunch. There are plenty of doubts about McDermott’s ability to translate his high-scoring college game to the NBA, particularly given Thibodeau’s defense-first approach, but contenders like Chicago rarely have a chance to add a player of his talent through the draft. It’s a risk worth taking, and it demonstrates that Forman and Paxson are thinking of the long-term future even as they try to win the title this year.

Still, the Bulls held the line with Jimmy Butler, reportedly offering him somewhat more than $11MM a year in extension proposals that the swingman turned down. The former 30th overall pick is off to a roaring start this season, averaging 21.3 points per game and answering the questions that surrounded his offensive capabilities, which had seemed to lag behind his defense. The Bulls may end up having to shell out much more than $11MM a year if Butler can keep it up, but the Happy Walters client has pledged to remain with the Bulls, and Forman and Paxson would no doubt be willing to pay a premium for a budding two-way star.

Key to preserving success in the near term and the long term is loyalty, and Kirk Hinrich showed his affection for the Bulls organization when he reportedly turned down better offers to accept the room exception from Chicago. The 33-year-old had spent nine of his 11 years in the NBA as a Bull, averaging as many as 16.6 PPG during the 2006/07 season. That scoring average was nearly cut in half two years later, and he’s spent most of his time since as an afterthought on offense. The former Kansas standout is never going to be an elite scoring force, but he might have had a much more significant role than the one he’s played in Chicago if he had signed with either the Hornets or the Jazz, the pair of teams that apparently challenged the Bulls for his services. Neither of those clubs would have given him his best chance at his first championship, however. Given the eternal questions surrounding Rose’s health, Hinrich’s ability to both fill in for the former MVP when necessary and play alongside him when not makes Hinrich more valuable to Chicago than his salary or his statistics reflect.

Yet the Bulls aren’t going to win the title if Hinrich, or fellow offseason signee Aaron Brooks, ends up starting at point guard. The Bulls rise and fall with Rose, and short of the acquisition of a star like ‘Melo or Love, that’s not going to change. Forman and Paxson did their best this summer to keep the Bulls in the title hunt this season and for years to come, but they remain beholden to the knees of the team’s former No. 1 overall pick.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. The Basketball Insiders salary pages were used in the creation of this post.

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