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Offseason In Review

Offseason In Review: Portland Trail Blazers

November 16th, 2013 at 4:19pm 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

Trades

  • Acquired the No. 31 pick in the 2013 from the Cavaliers in exchange for a 2015 second-round pick and a 2016 second-round pick.
  • Acquired cash from the Thunder in exchange for the No. 40 pick in 2013.
  • Acquired Thomas Robinson from the Rockets in exchange for the rights to Kostas Papanikolaou, the rights to Marko Todorovic, the Timberwolves’ 2015 second-round pick, and a 2017 second-round pick.
  • Acquired Robin Lopez and Terrel Harris from the Pelicans in exchange for the rights to Jeff Withey (to Pelicans), the Knicks’ 2016 second-round pick (31-37 protected, to Kings), and the rights to swap 2018 second-round picks (to Kings). Harris was subsequently waived.

Draft Picks

Camp Invitees

  • Dee Bost
  • Richard Howell
  • E.J. Singler

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

The summer of 2012 was about the arrival of star rookie Damian Lillard for the Blazers, while the headlines of 2013’s offseason were more about whether another star would stay. LaMarcus Aldridge gave conflicting statements to reporters about whether he asked GM Neil Olshey for a trade. The power forward entered the summer frustrated with the team after it finished its fourth straight season with a record worse than the one that preceded it. There were no shortage of potential suitors for Aldridge, who’s made the last two Western Conference All-Star teams, but Olshey wasn’t about to move him. Aldridge wants to play on a competitive team, but his remarks as camp began this fall indicated that he’s optimistic the Blazers can fit the bill after seeing the moves Olshey made in the offseason.

The Blazers again pounced on a team willing to give up a chance to strike gold with a young talent. Olshey had acquired the pick that turned into Lillard from the Nets at the 2012 trade deadline, and this summer he landed the player drafted immediately before Lillard, taking on Thomas Robinson from the Rockets in Houston’s rush to clear cap room for Dwight Howard. The price was a relative bargain for a player with such promise, with the draft rights to a pair of overseas players and two future second-round picks going to the Rockets in the swap. Robinson had a trying and tumultuous rookie campaign, having been traded from the Kings to Houston at the deadline, but it’s premature to assume he can’t produce. Robinson’s rate of 4.5 rebounds in 15.1 minutes per game last season is an auspicious indicator, and if he develops, he may even be a capable replacement should Aldridge force a trade or bolt in free agency.

Robinson’s acquisition was part of Olshey’s retooling of last year’s subpar bench. The Blazers gave up 1.8 more points per 100 possessions than they scored with Lillard, Aldridge, Wesley Matthews, Nicolas Batum and J.J. Hickson on the floor, per NBA.com. Portland surrendered 4.2 more points per 100 possessions overall, demonstrating that the reserves lagged far behind most other second units.

The Blazers used their lottery pick to help with backcourt depth, drafting combo guard C.J. McCollum, who’d drawn comparisons to Lillard. They brought in another player capable of playing both backcourt spots in veteran Mo Williams, who’s come in handy with McCollum out with a broken foot to begin the season. Olshey snagged Williams for about half of what I figured the Mark Bartelstein client would make when I examined his free agent stock in April. Williams had spent six of the previous seven seasons as a starter, and the 30-year-old even made an All-Star team as LeBron James‘ sidekick in Cleveland, so he’ll be the most significant weapon Portland brings off its revamped bench.

That’s in spite of having spent slightly more money to pry forward Dorell Wright from a handful of other free agent suitors. He led the NBA in both three-pointers attempted and made in 2010/11. A year later the Warriors felt they needed an upgrade at small forward, where he’d been the starter, so they traded him to the Sixers, who put him in a more fitting role as a bench piece. His 37.3% rate of success from behind the arc the past four seasons will help the Blazers, who finished 20th in the NBA in three-point accuracy in 2012/13.

Still, it wasn’t all about the bench for Portland this summer, as Olshey acquired a new starting center with a trade for Robin Lopez. The Blazers didn’t send anything other than second-rounders out in the deal, so the move amounted to an absorption of Lopez’s $5.9MM salary. Olshey used the largest chunk of the team’s roughly $15.5MM in cap flexibility to bring in a traditional 7’0″ center while allowing undersized J.J. Hickson to leave in free agency. Lopez isn’t nearly the rebounder that Hickson is, despite the three-inch height difference, but he’s better at rim protection, as Lopez blocked nearly three times as many shots per minute as Hickson did last season.

The offseason also entailed a purge of three former first-round picks whom Olshey inherited when he took the job. Nolan Smith, Elliot Williams and Luke Babbitt seemed destined to head elsewhere when Olshey declined to pick up their 2013/14 options in the fall of 2012, and while they managed to remain on Portland’s roster throughout last season, the team elected not to re-sign them. The league essentially validated Olshey’s decision not to wait any longer for them to develop, as none of the three made an NBA opening-night roster this season.

The Blazers are off to a hot start, and all appears well in Portland. Aldridge seems as upbeat as he’s been in at least four years, as Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com tweets, and while the 28-year-old remains non-committal about his long-term future, there aren’t any alarm bells ringing. Aldridge is under contract for this year and next, and short of the unlikely prospect that he’ll consider an extension, it’s not yet time for the team and the Arn Tellem client to negotiate. Olshey has a window of this season and next to show that the team is headed in the right direction, and it looks like he’s well on his way to doing so. The real test will be in how the Blazers can craft not just a playoff team, but a squad capable of competing for a championship. Aldridge probably won’t be satisfied with losing in the first or second rounds of the playoffs, and neither should Olshey.

Luke Adams contributed to this post.

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Offseason In Review: Denver Nuggets

November 15th, 2013 at 9:23pm 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

Trades

  • Acquired the No. 46 pick in 2013 from the Jazz in exchange for the No. 27 pick in 2013 and cash.
  • Acquired Darrell Arthur and the No. 55 pick in 2013 from the Grizzlies in exchange for Kosta Koufos.
  • Acquired Randy Foye from the Jazz and a 2018 second-round pick from the Warriors in exchange for Andre Iguodala (signed-and-traded to Warriors) and a 2018 second-round pick (to Jazz). Foye was signed-and-traded for three years, $9.14MM.

Draft Picks

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

All was right in Denver after the first game of the playoffs last season. The Nuggets were coming off a regular season in which they’d won 57 times, the most since their ABA days, and they’d added another win in the opener of their first-round series against the underdog Warriors. In a few weeks, George Karl would be named Coach of the Year and GM Masai Ujiri would clutch the Executive of the Year trophy. Yet by the time the league announced those awards, Denver’s fortune had turned. The Nuggets only managed one more win in that series, and they suddenly had to deal with their ninth first-round elimination in 10 years.

More tough breaks followed. Ujiri departed for the Raptors, and Pete D’Alessandro, Ujiri’s top aide in Denver, became the new Kings GM. Other Nuggets executives fled as well, but the changes weren’t limited to the front office. The team parted ways with Karl, who had guided the team to three of its four best regular seasons since the merger but was responsible for seven of the first-round flame-outs. The shocking decision was tempered only by a wild offseason of coaching changes in which Lionel Hollins and Vinny Del Negro, who’d both won 56 regular season games in 2012/13, also lost their jobs. Still, Nuggets president Josh Kroenke reeled in capable replacements before the draft, hiring well-regarded Pelicans exec Tim Connelly as the new GM and Brian Shaw, a fast-rising assistant on the Pacers bench, as the new coach.

There was upheaval galore in Denver, but perhaps the most significant figure to leave was Andre Iguodala, who rejected Connelly’s four-year, $52MM offer and even more money from the Kings to sign with Golden State on a four-year, $48MM pact. The Nuggets, Jazz and Warriors turned it into a three-way sign-and-trade that facilitated Denver’s acquisition of Randy Foye, but the arrangement had more to do with Golden State and Utah than it did with the Nuggets. Foye can provide some of the outside shooting that Denver sorely lacked in 2012/13, and while Iguodala hardly looked like the Gold Medal winner he is last season, Foye doesn’t figure to come close to Iggy’s impact. It’s somewhat surprising that Connelly didn’t add a fifth year to Iguodala’s offer, a sweetener no other team could match. Still, the nine-year vet was clearly willing to take less to play with a team that has more star power and, as this spring’s results suggested, a better chance to advance deep into the playoffs. The loss to Golden State clearly continues to cast a shadow on the Nuggets.

Connelly affected plenty of other changes, swinging a draft-night trade with the Grizzlies that sent Kosta Koufos to Memphis in return for Darrell Arthur. The intentions of the deal were clear. Nuggets brass wanted to give JaVale McGee more playing time after he came off the bench behind Koufos while Karl was coach. There’d otherwise be little motivation for the Nuggets to give up a starter for Arthur, who hadn’t started as many as 10 games in a season since his rookie year in 2008/09. That’s especially true since Koufos is cheaper and has a partially guaranteed 2014/15 season, while Arthur has a player option for next year. The desire to maximize their four-year, $44MM investment in McGee surely fuels their interest in seeing him play, and with McGee out indefinitely with a stress fracture in his leg, Denver may have overplayed its hand with a trade it could regret.

The deal put the onus on Connelly to re-sign restricted free agent center Timofey Mozgov to provide depth. Ujiri had made it clear long before he skipped town that Mozgov was a priority, rebuffing trade interest in the Russian seven-footer last season. The deal seems like a fair market price for an intriguing 7’1″ center, even though he rarely played last season. He’ll be a couple weeks shy of his 30th birthday when the contract is up, but early returns, with Mozgov averaging career highs of 10.3 points and 4.6 boards per game, suggest the team’s decision on Mozgov was more sound than what its done with its other centers.

Denver made its most significant expenditure of the offseason on another player capable of manning the five spot. J.J. Hickson is more of a power forward, but he’s played plenty of center, including his role as the starting pivot for the Blazers last season. Portland GM Neil Olshey said publicly that he wanted an upgrade at the position this summer, irking Hickson, who’d resurrected his career while with the Blazers. He went from signing a one-year, $4MM deal in 2012/13 to a three-year pact with the Nuggets that will pay him more than four times last year’s contract. Hickson averaged 10.4 rebounds last season playing out of position, so his new deal is priced reasonably, though it was odd to see the Nuggets, with Kenneth Faried and Arthur at power forward and McGee and Mozgov at center, spend to acquire another big man. That’s led to rumors that Connelly could trade Faried this season.

The Nuggets didn’t just focus on the frontcourt this summer, acquiring Foye and Nate Robinson to play shooting guard. Robinson is a dangerous scorer, as he proved with a 34-point performance in the first round of the playoffs for the Bulls last season, but he’s also an inconsistent one, as witnessed by a zero-point, 0-for-12 effort during the second round. The 5’9″ Robinson nonetheless outperformed expectations that he would run afoul of defensive guru Tom Thibodeau, proving he was capable enough on defense to at least garner playing time. He’s inexpensive on a deal that pays him a little more than $2MM a year, but that slight raise on the minimum salary cost Denver its biannual exception, a tool it won’t be able to use next summer.

Denver is off to a slow start in 2013/14, which isn’t a major surprise given all of its movement. Once the Nuggets find their rhythm, they still probably won’t approach last season’s win total, especially with the absence of Iguodala and the injured Danilo Gallinari, as well as the potential for yet more significant changes to the roster. Connelly clearly isn’t of the belief that last year’s playoff loss was a fluke, so the Nuggets are a work in progress at this point. It’s hard to see exactly what Connelly’s vision for the franchise is, but Kroenke and company are probably more willing to tolerate regression this year than they were another banner regular season that led to a playoff defeat. Connelly will have time.

Luke Adams contributed to this post.

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Offseason In Review: Minnesota Timberwolves

November 15th, 2013 at 10:32am 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

Trades

  • Acquired the No. 14 pick and the No. 21 pick in 2013 from the Jazz in exchange for the No. 9 pick in 2013.
  • Acquired a 2014 second-round pick and $1.6MM in cash from the Warriors in exchange for Malcolm Lee and the No. 26 pick in 2013.
  • Acquired Kevin Martin and cash from the Thunder in exchange for Luke Ridnour (sent to Bucks) and the Lakers’ 2014 second-round pick (sent to Bucks). Martin was signed-and-traded for four years, $27.76MM (fourth year is player option).

Draft Picks

  • Shabazz Muhammad (Round 1, 14th overall). Signed via rookie exception.
  • Gorgui Dieng (Round 1, 21st overall). Signed via rookie exception.
  • Lorenzo Brown (Round 2, 52nd overall). Signed a non-guaranteed contract and was subsequently waived.
  • Bojan Dubljevic (Round 2, 59th overall). Playing overseas.

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

In late March, it was reported that Wolves fans would be subjected to the Wrath of Kahn for at least one more season.  Owner Glen Taylor was allegedly set to exercise the GM’s option for 2013/14, but there was apparently a change of heart along the way.  Former coach Flip Saunders came back into the picture as the face of an ownership group looking to buy the T’Wolves and when that venture didn’t pan out, Taylor broached him with the idea of taking over the club’s basketball operations.  Saunders took the opportunity in May, ousting one of the less popular GMs in the league and kickstarting a new era in Minnesota.

The biggest storyline of the T’Wolves offseason, once Saunders was installed as President of Basketball Operations, was the future of restricted free agent Nikola Pekovic.  Even though the Wolves had the opportunity to match any offer, there was some concern that Pekovic could be pulled away by a club willing to overpay for a promising center on the right side of 30.  The talks with Pekovic dragged on for quite some time, putting his return into further question, but the Wolves finally shook hands on a five-year, $60MM deal in mid-August that will allow the big man to earn another $8MM through incentives.  The two sides were at something of an impasse, but the compromise made sense.  The Wolves offered a four-year, $48MM contract and wouldn’t go beyond $12MM per season while Pekovic’s camp wanted a five-year agreement.  Pekovic and the T’Wolves met in the middle, agreeing to a five-year deal with an average annual value of $12MM.  That may sound like a lofty number on the outside, but Pekovic offers bruising physical play on the inside and gives the Wolves an edge that most teams lack in today’s NBA.  He’s not Hakeem Olajuwon in the post, but he has shown that he can be a very efficient scorer.  Pekovic gave the Wolves a career-high 16.3 PPG and 8.8 RPG last season and if he can build on that, he’ll be one of the league’s best centers in due time.

While they were busy exchanging emails with Pekovic’s agent, they swung a three-way deal to land a signed-and-traded Kevin Martin from the Thunder.  Martin, a heavy scorer in a thin body, gives point guard Ricky Rubio a deep threat who can keep up in transition.  So far, so good for Martin and the T’Wolves as the 30-year-old has been looking extremely sharp over the first few weeks of the season.  While opposing coaches devise plans to contain Kevin Love, they leave Martin less-than-blanketed on the outside, making the Wolves offense highly potent.  They paid a hefty price for Martin – probably more than we all expected – but the T’Wolves couldn’t afford to shoot 30.5% from beyond the arc again in 2013/14 and expect to continue their season into late April.

The Wolves also wrapped up their other big free agent, Chase Budinger.  Budinger had a number of interested suitors, but he says that his heart was in Minnesota all along.  “It was a fairly easy decision.” Budinger said of re-signing with the Wolves. “I just fit perfectly in Rick Adelman‘s system. He trusts me. I know the coaching staff. I know what they expect of me. Just all in all, I was very comfortable here, and that was the main reason why I came back.”  Now, Minnesota just wants to see the Arizona product back on the hardwood.  Budinger underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee over the offseason, a procedure that still has him sidelined.  The Wolves announced that he’s finally back in the state of Minnesota to continue his rehab, but he has yet to resume basketball activities.

There are only so many shots to go around with this bunch and new bench addition Corey Brewer is a good fit since he won’t be calling for the rock on every play.  Brewer offers a decidedly different skillset from Andrei Kirilenko, but he does help fill a need for this Minnesota team.  If the Wolves had a choice in the matter, they most definitely would have liked AK47 to return on a $3.18MM deal (that’s what he signed for in Brooklyn) rather than give a three-year, $14MM deal to the offensively-deficient Brewer, but that obviously wasn’t in the cards for them.  The only real way to keep Kirilenko probably would have been through his $10MM+ player option and Saunders is probably glad that he got the chance to spend that cash elsewhere.

Joining Brewer on the bench is No. 14 overall pick Shabazz Muhammad, one of the most polarizing players to come out of the 2013 draft.  At one point in time, Muhammad was regarded as the top prospect in the class.  However, Muhammad couldn’t stay out of trouble during his freshman campaign at UCLA and was pretty flat on the hardwood, falling well short of the hype that accompanied him to the Westwood campus.  It certainly didn’t help matters when the Los Angeles Times revealed that he had been shaving a year off of his real age and was actually 20 at the time of the draft, not 19.  Despite the numerous question marks, Saunders decided to roll the dice on a player who many would have estimated to be the No. 1 overall pick this time a year ago.  Saunders & Co. must be real believers – they gave up the No. 9 selection to trade down and snag Muhammad at 14 and Gorgui Dieng at No. 21. Muhammad has yet to see real burn with the T’Wolves early on in the 2013/14 campaign and his best bet for seasoning may be a stint or two in the D-League.

The Wolves spent a ton – about $117MM – to upgrade their roster in an effort to end a nine-year playoff drought.  Frankly, all four of their major signings feel inflated when evaluated on the surface.  However, the Wolves organization desperately needs to turn their fortunes around and we all know that there are more challenges in building a winner in Minnesota than New York or Los Angeles.  While the Wolves will need sharp shooting from Martin and another step or two forward from Pekovic, they need good health more than anything else.  Having Rubio and Love at full-strength can be the difference between a significant playoff run and a tenth-straight trip to the lottery.

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Offseason In Review: Boston Celtics

November 14th, 2013 at 12:13pm 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

Trades

  • Acquired an unprotected 2015 first-round pick from the Clippers in exchange for coach Doc Rivers.
  • Acquired the No. 13 pick in 2013 from the Mavericks in exchange for the No. 16 pick in 2013, the Celtics’ own 2014 second-round pick, and the Nets’ 2014 second-round pick.
  • Acquired the No. 53 pick in 2013 from the Pacers in exchange for cash.
  • Acquired Kris Humphries, Gerald Wallace, MarShon Brooks, Kris Joseph, Keith Bogans, three first-round picks, and the ability to swap 2017 first-round picks from the Nets in exchange for Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Jason Terry, and D.J. White. The three first-round picks acquired are for 2014 (lesser of Nets’ and Hawks’ picks), 2016 (unprotected), and 2018 (unprotected). Bogans was signed-and-traded for three years, $15.86MM (final two years non-guaranteed). Joseph was subsequently waived.
  • Acquired Donte Greene from the Grizzlies in exchange for Fab Melo and cash. Greene was subsequently waived.

Draft Picks

Camp Invitees

  • Chris Babb
  • Damen Bell-Holter
  • DeShawn Sims
  • Kammron Taylor

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

If the Red Sox can do it, why not the Celtics? This summer, the C’s pressed the reset button on their aging core and loaded themselves up with draft picks that should put them in position to contend again in the near future. Seeing Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce move on – to divisional rivals, no less – will sting for Boston fans for quite some time, but it was an opportunity too good to pass up for team president Danny Ainge.

Garnett and Pierce were at the center of Boston’s best teams in the modern era, leading the green and white to championship gold in 2008. In the summer of 2012, the C’s decided to bring the band back together even as the pricey stars were showing their age. This time around, they really would have been pushing their luck if they decided to hang on to the duo. Sure, the Celtics could have rolled the dice one more time, but in an Eastern Conference where the Heat show no signs of slowing down, the Pacers have taken a quantum leap forward, and the Bulls have Derrick Rose back, it’s hard to imagine that Boston could have found their way to the FInals (especially with their own star guard sidelined until Christmas or later).

In the medium-to-long term, it looks like the Celtics have positioned themselves to return to prominence. In the short-term, it’s anyone’s guess. Gerald Wallace looked like a shell of himself during his tenure with the Nets, but he says that he’s healthy once again and a healthy Crash is a problem for any opponent. Kris Humphries regressed majorly in 2012/13, but he shined for the Nets in the two seasons prior to that. And even though MarShon Brooks is effectively auditioning for the Celtics after having his fourth-year option declined, the Providence product is a devastating scorer and he should have a future in Boston if he’s given enough burn to prove himself.

Garnett, Pierce, and Jason Terry weren’t the only big names to ship up out of Boston. Coach Doc Rivers did what every Northeast resident wishes they could do this time of year and bolted for the West Coast. The C’s did a good job of playing their hand and raising the price on Rivers (an unprotected 2015 first-rounder is a pretty solid haul) and it only made sense for the club to drop his top-tier salary after kickstarting the rebuilding process. In Rivers’ place, the Celtics went outside of the box and hired Butler’s Brad Stevens. Stevens may look like he’s 20 years old, but he comes with plenty of experience and, perhaps more importantly for Boston, a willingness to implement advanced analytics into his decision-making.

Stevens takes over a club that will almost certainly take a step back but still has a decent amount of talent. The C’s believed in Gonzaga forward Kelly Olynyk enough to trade up for him and aside from Victor Oladipo, no one has had more Rookie of the Year buzz. The C’s also went out and signed Italian big man Vitor Faverani to a reasonable three-year, $6.27MM pact. Faverani isn’t the smoothest offensive weapon, but he offers physical play and can run the pick-and-roll for Celtics guards for 15-20 minutes a night. Boston also rounded out the bench with undrafted guard Phil Pressey – a guy who had enough talent by some estimations to get taken late in the first round.

The Celtics won’t be in the championship mix this season, but Ainge has made it clear that the team won’t go Riggin’ For Wiggins. While they’re not a popular pick, it’s clear that there’s enough talent on this Celtics squad for them to possibly fight for one of the final seeds in the Eastern Conference. Sure, the East is deeper than it has been in years past, but are the other contenders for the No. 8 seed (think Cavs, Wizards, Pistons, etc.) locks for winning records? There’s a difference between renovating a house and leveling it and starting from scratch and the Celtics did the former. If Rondo can come back healthy before the New Year, then the Celts have a puncher’s chance at seeing the postseason.

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Offseason In Review: Philadelphia 76ers

November 13th, 2013 at 9:04pm CST by Luke Adams

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

Trades

  • Acquired the No. 6 pick in 2013 and a 2014 first-round pick (top-5 protected) from the Pelicans in exchange for Jrue Holiday and the No. 42 pick in 2013.
  • Acquired the No. 38 pick and the No. 54 pick in 2013 from the Wizards in exchange for the No. 35 pick in 2013.
  • Acquired the No. 43 pick in 2013 and the Rockets’ 2014 second-round pick from the Bucks in exchange for the No. 38 pick.
  • Acquired the Nets’ 2014 second-round pick from the Mavericks in exchange for the No. 43 pick in 2013.
  • Acquired Royce White, Furkan Aldemir and cash from the Rockets in exchange for a 2014 second-round pick (31-55 protected). White was subsequently waived.
  • Acquired Tony Wroten from the Grizzlies in exchange for a 2014 second-round pick (31-50 and 56-60 protected).

Waiver Claims

Draft Picks

  • Nerlens Noel (Round 1, 6th overall). Signed via rookie exception.
  • Michael Carter-Williams (Round 1, 11th overall). Signed via rookie exception.
  • Arsalan Kazemi (Round 2, 54th overall). Playing overseas.

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

For a team not expected to be remotely involved in the championship discussion in 2013/14, the Sixers have drawn a ton of attention over the last several months. That attention can be attributed to an offseason strategy that seemed to involve little effort to improve the roster for the short term or to pursue wins in the ’13/14 season.

Still, Philadelphia is far from the first team to undertake a full-scale rebuild. You could argue that perhaps no other club has so deliberately and egregiously put together such an underwhelming roster. But to me, the more interesting aspect of the Sixers’ offseason hasn’t been what they’ve done — it’s been how they’ve done it. I’ve already written extensively about the Sixers’ proximity to the minimum salary floor (they’re still well below it), and about their ability to remain an over-the-cap team despite a lack of team salary (they’ve since claimed that cap room). There are a few other factors related to the club’s summer moves that are worth unpacking though.

New GM Sam Hinkie and the Sixers made their first major strike of the offseason on draft night, sending Jrue Holiday to the Pelicans not only for a 2013 pick, which turned into Nerlens Noel, but for a 2014 first-rounder as well. Heading into the draft, Noel represented a logical target for a team that wasn’t ready to contend immediately. There’d be no pressure to rush him back, and failing to receive any short-term production from that top-five pick would likely ensure another high lottery pick in 2014.

Essentially, the Sixers achieved three things necessary for the rebuild in the blockbuster deal: Moving a veteran capable of helping the team in the short term (Holiday), acquiring a prospect with perhaps the highest upside in the 2013 class (Noel), and securing another potential lottery pick in a loaded 2014 draft (the Pelicans’ pick is top-five protected).

From that point on, the Sixers’ overall strategy was clear, but watching Hinkie and his staff make additional moves was still intriguing. The club made three more trades on draft night, ultimately turning the No. 35 pick this year into the No. 54 pick and two future second-rounders. Considering most of the players drafted in the 30s were college veterans expected to contribute immediately, it made sense for the Sixers to move down, allowing them to snag a player they could stash overseas while picking up a couple extra draft picks for their trouble.

When July got underway, the Sixers stayed out of free agency, but found other ways to add under-the-radar talent. In trades with the Rockets and Grizzlies, Philadelphia acquired young assets with upside (Royce White, Furkan Aldemir, and Tony Wroten) in exchanged for future second-round picks that will likely never change hands due to their heavy protection. Not all of those gambles will work out — White, for example, has already been released. But the cost was virtually nil, so if someone like Aldemir (who remains overseas) or Wroten develops into a reliable rotation player or more valuable chip, they’re essentially found money.

The Sixers were also one of the only teams to take advantage of waivers this summer. In total, four players were claimed off waivers, and Philadelphia grabbed half of them: James Anderson and Tim Ohblrecht. Again, the team’s success rate wasn’t 100%, since Ohlbrecht was cut before opening night. But Anderson is playing significant minutes for the club so far, and essentially cost nothing to acquire.

By the time the Sixers finally got around to free agency, the remaining players on the market had very little leverage. Most NBA jobs had been snatched up, so the chance to fight for a roster spot was the best opportunity many free agents would see. Hinkie and the Sixers took advantage of the buyers’ market by snatching up young players with upside, offering them small guarantees in exchange for signing team-friendly deals. As you can see in our summary above, the four free agent signings who remain on the roster – Daniel Orton, Darius Morris, Brandon Davies, and Hollis Thompson – all inked four-year non-guaranteed contracts. It’s unlikely that one of those guys turns into the next Chandler Parsons, but if even one of them becomes a productive NBA player, he’ll be a tremendous bargain, locked up to a minimum salary contract through 2017.

Other summer signings like Vander Blue, Khalif Wyatt, Gani Lawal, and Rodney Williams didn’t ultimately make Philadelphia’s regular season roster, but as our Free Agent Tracker shows, those four players all initially agreed to long-term contracts as well. They all walked away with partial guarantees despite not making the team, but that was a price the Sixers were happy to pay for the opportunity to strike gold on a player on the minimum salary for the next four years. A more cost-conscious club may not have been able to offer those partial guarantees to attract talented young players, but the fact that the Sixers are spending so little on their current roster allowed them to roll the dice.

It’s easy to criticize the Sixers for not giving themselves a chance to compete in the 2013/14 season, but at the same time, it’s hard not to appreciate the creative ways in which the team is attempting to accumulate cheap young talent. Hinkie’s old team in Houston was able to trade for James Harden and sign Dwight Howard in large part because the Rockets stockpiled assets and locked up inexpensive contributors like Parsons, Patrick Beverley, and Greg Smith to team-friendly contracts. The Sixers may need another year or two to put themselves in a position to acquire a star, but Hinkie’s first summer in Philadelphia was an fascinating one, and I’m looking forward to following his next few moves.

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Offseason In Review: Atlanta Hawks

November 12th, 2013 at 9:28pm 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

Trades

  • Acquired Jared Cunningham, the No. 16 pick in 2013, and the No. 44 pick in 2013 from the Mavericks in exchange for the No. 18 pick in 2013.
  • Acquired the Nets’ 2015 second-round pick from the Jazz in exchange for the No. 47 pick in 2013.
  • Acquired a 2017 second-round pick (31-40 protected) from the Heat in exchange for the No. 50 pick in 2013.

Waiver Claims

Draft Picks

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

Atlanta native Dwight Howard was a free agent this summer, and the Hawks had plenty of cap flexibility to accommodate his inflated maximum salary. It made sense for GM Danny Ferry to make a run at the star center, even though Howard never seemed keen on returning to his hometown. There was even chatter that Howard and Chris Paul could team up in Atlanta, which could clear enough space to fit max contracts for both. Neither marquee free agent wound up with the Hawks, who also let go of Josh Smith. Instead of Howard, Paul and Smith, who signed the three most lucrative deals among all unrestricted free agents this summer, Ferry spent the team’s ample available cash on a mostly underwhelming, if perhaps underrated, haul of players.

Ferry’s best move of the summer involved his greatest expenditure, as he inked Paul Millsap for two seasons at $9.5MM per. When I examined Millsap’s free agent stock in the spring, I figured the 28-year-old power forward could command a deal similar to the $13.5MM a season former Jazz teammate Al Jefferson signed for with the Bobcats, or at least the $12MM David West is seeing from the Pacers this year. Millsap figured to be a Plan B for teams that missed out on Howard, so it was a shock to see him sign for a yearly salary south of $10MM. Still, there wasn’t much reported interest in the overachieving former second-round pick in the days leading up to his signing with the Hawks, as only the Jazz and Celtics appeared to be in the mix. Millsap gives the Hawks a craftier, less athletic replacement for Smith at power forward.

It seemed for a time that Atlanta might be switching out its starting point guard as well. Jeff Teague signed an offer sheet to join ex-Hawks coach Larry Drew in Milwaukee, taking advantage of the Bucks’ standoff with fellow restricted free agent point guard Brandon Jennings. Multiple reports indicated that Teague was quite ready to leave Atlanta behind. That may have been posturing from the ASM Sports Client, similar to the sort of negative messages that came out from Eric Gordon‘s camp about New Orleans when he signed his offer sheet with the Suns in 2012. The Hawks didn’t fulfill Teague’s stated desire to play for a new team, and they matched Milwaukee’s offer sheet, ready to once more turn the reigns of their offense to the former 19th overall pick.

Another Hawks free agent also wound up back in Atlanta after appearing ready to head elsewhere. A rival GM told Marc Stein of ESPN.com on the first night of free agency that a deal between Kyle Korver and the Nets was “in the bag,” but Korver ultimately turned down the idea of a three-year, $10MM contract with Brooklyn for significantly more money with the Hawks. The three-point marksman had been a sought-after commodity, with the Spurs and Bucks also in the mix and interest from the Nuggets that dated all the way back to early March. Still, he represents something of a risk for Ferry, since Korver is 32 years old and signed a four-year contract. His shooting touch probably won’t disappear anytime soon, but his ability to stay in front of opponents on defense figures to erode as time goes by, turning him into an expensive role player by the end of the deal.

The rest of Ferry’s free agent pursuits were more low-key, and included the additions of DeMarre Carroll, another ex-Jazz forward, and former Maverick Elton Brand, who joined a team that fell short of grandiose free agent goals for the second straight summer. Ferry also took a swing on Macedonian center Pero Antic, a move that was one of several that will test just how much the GM learned from his time with the Spurs, the league’s foremost experts at international scouting.

The Hawks used back-to-back first round picks on players from overseas. Point guard Dennis Schröder has jumped immediately into the Atlanta’s rotation as the backup to Teague, while center Lucas Nogueira will spend this season, and perhaps longer, refining his game in Spain. Both are the sort of hit-or-miss gambles that populate the middle of the first round, and time will tell if Ferry can hit the jackpot with one or both of them, just as Ferry did while he was with the Spurs in 2011, the year San Antonio nabbed 15th overall pick Kawhi Leonard.

Ferry took on another foreign-born player this summer when he claimed Gustavo Ayon off waivers from the Bucks, another Milwaukee-Atlanta offseason connection. Still, the influx of players from outside the U.S. to the Hawks roster represents a greater philosophical tie to the Spurs, who have a record 10 international players this season. Ferry hired longtime San Antonio assistant Mike Budenholzer to replace Drew as coach, and it’s clear that the GM is copying as much of the Spurs’ model as possible without the benefit of the fortuitous bounce of lottery balls that put Tim Duncan in black-and-silver.

The Hawks roster is “built to trade,” as Grantland’s Zach Lowe has written, so the team Ferry put together this summer might look different after the February trade deadline passes. That makes sense, given that the Hawks are no closer to contention than they were last season. Ferry aggressively engineered a chance for the cap space to go after this past summer’s marquee names, and his backup plan involved sacrificing much of the team’s flexibility for the next two seasons on less-than-stellar options. Atlanta would have to dump salary to be able to go after 2014’s class of max-level free agents, though the team could have enough money to chase a top-tier restricted free agent. In any case, the Hawks are unlikely to land the superstar needed for a traditional run at a title, requiring Ferry to make the most of whatever creativity he picked up in San Antonio to bring even a fraction of the success of the Spurs to Atlanta.

Luke Adams contributed to this post.

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Offseason In Review: Milwaukee Bucks

November 12th, 2013 at 3:58pm CST by Luke Adams

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 the No. 38 pick in 2013 from the 76ers in exchange for the No. 43 pick in 2013 and the Rockets’ 2014 second-round pick.
  • Acquired a 2014 second-round pick (less favorable of Raptors’ and Sixers’ picks) from the Suns and a 2015 second-round pick from the Clippers (51-60 protected) in exchange for J.J. Redick (signed-and-traded).
  • Acquired Luke Ridnour and the Lakers’ 2014 second-round pick from the Timberwolves in exchange for the rights to Szymon Szewczyk (sent to Thunder).
  • Acquired a 2016 second-round pick (more favorable of Pelicans’ and Kings’ picks) and the right to swap 2019 second-round picks from the Kings in exchange for Luc Mbah a Moute.
  • Acquired Brandon Knight, Viacheslav Kravtsov and Khris Middleton from the Pistons in exchange for Brandon Jennings (signed-and-traded).
  • Acquired Caron Butler from the Suns in exchange for Viacheslav Kravtsov and Ish Smith.

Draft Picks

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

The Bucks’ roster was expected to undergo some turnover this summer, considering four of the team’s top five scorers were on expiring contracts. But I’m not sure even the Bucks themselves anticipated the extent to which they’d be overhauling the roster. None of those four notable free agents – Monta Ellis, Brandon Jennings, J.J. Redick, and Mike Dunleavy – re-signed with Milwaukee, and a handful of other trades and free agent moves ensured they weren’t the only guys on the way out. While each of the East’s other 14 teams brought back at least seven players from last year’s roster, the Bucks only have four returning players: Ersan Ilyasova, Larry Sanders, Ekpe Udoh, and John Henson.

For a team like the Lakers or Knicks, having a ton of expiring contracts and the opportunity to clear a big chunk of cap space would likely result in the pursuit of many of the top free agents on the market. For the Bucks though, signing free agents means convincing them to play in Milwaukee, which could result in above-market prices. As such, the Bucks were more active on the trade market than in free agency, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise — reports suggested that Ellis and Jennings likely would have received more years and more dollars had they been willing to re-sign with Milwaukee. However, their desire to play elsewhere meant the Bucks were able to avoid being locked into pricey, long-term contracts for low-efficiency scorers who led the team to a No. 8 seed in 2012/13.

The Bucks didn’t entirely sit out the free agent period. Rather than re-signing their own players, they landed other team’s unrestricted free agents, such as O.J. Mayo and Zaza Pachulia. I didn’t love the price for either player (3/$24MM for Mayo and 3/$15.6MM for Pachulia), but Mayo at least represented a solid alternative to high-volume offensive players like Ellis and Jennings. Milwaukee’s most impressive summer signing may have been Gary Neal, who came to terms with the club on a two-year, $6.5MM contract shortly after the Spurs withdrew his qualifying offer. Neal has the ability to create his own shot, but may be more valuable as a three-pointer shooter, filling a role vacated by Dunleavy when he signed with the Bulls.

While they made a handful of free agent signings, the Bucks also filled out their roster by completing six offseason trades, more than any other team besides the Sixers. In some cases, Milwaukee was simply attempting to recoup some value on assets that were on their way out anyway. That was certainly the case in the sign-and-trade deal that sent Redick to the Clippers — Redick had a number of free agent options that didn’t require Milwaukee to facilitate a sign-and-trade, so the Bucks opted to pick up a couple future draft picks by getting involved. The club received any even more substantial haul by accommodating Jennings’ sign-and-trade to Detroit, acquiring point guard Brandon Knight, among others. Knight may not be Milwaukee’s long-term solution at the point, but he showed signs of improvement during his two seasons with the Pistons, and is still just 21 years old.

The other most active teams on the trade market this summer – Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Boston – seemed to be intentionally weakening their rosters in the short term, with an eye toward the long-term payoff. But that wasn’t the case for the Bucks, whose owner Herb Kohl doesn’t believe in tanking. For Kohl, a postseason berth is always the goal, so rather than shopping veterans in search of draft picks, the Bucks acquired a few players capable of helping the team contend immediately. A deal with the Timberwolves landed Luke Ridnour in Milwaukee, while the Bucks also traded for Caron Butler, who had been merely a salary throw-in for the Suns when they acquired Eric Bledsoe. Both Ridnour and Butler are on expiring contracts, so they’ll allow the Bucks to retain some flexibility in addition to helping the team on the court.

The Bucks’ final major offseason move involved locking up cornerstone big man Larry Sanders to a long-term deal. Sanders’ four-year extension, worth at least $44MM, will take effect in 2014/15, and looked like a reasonable (and necessary) gamble when it was signed. The 24-year-old’s slow start and off-court trouble early in the 2013/14 season is a little worrisome, but there’s still plenty of time for him to turn things around, so it’s premature to conclude that the signing was a mistake for the team.

Despite the arrival of 11 new faces on the roster for ’13/14, the Bucks’ expectations and projections for the new season remain mostly unchanged. As it did a year ago, this team still looks like a middle-of-the-pack club in the Eastern Conference — it wouldn’t be a real surprise to see Milwaukee finish anywhere between seventh to 13th in the East.

I liked many of the team’s offseason moves, and think this is a more balanced roster than the one led by Ellis and Jennings a year ago. But it’s worth questioning whether the new pieces are the right ones for Milwaukee in the long term. With so many players on the way out over the summer, the club had the opportunity to rebuild more aggressively, perhaps trading Ilyasova in an effort to get younger and more cap-flexible. Instead, it’s more of the same in Milwaukee, where the best the Bucks can hope for next spring is winning a game or two in a playoff series against a more talented Eastern Conference contender.

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Offseason In Review: New York Knicks

November 11th, 2013 at 5:47pm 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

Trades

Draft Picks

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

The Knicks won the Atlantic Division by a healthy margin last season, but they’ll have a tougher road to guaranteed home-court advantage this time around.  That’s exactly why the Knicks didn’t stand pat while their cross-borough rivals overhauled their roster.  This year, the Knicks are rolling out a different squad but one that is still chock full of familiar faces and veteran players.

The Knicks’ biggest acquisition of the summer came in late June when they agreed to send Marcus Camby, Steve Novak, Quentin Richardson, a 2014 second-round draft pick, a 2016 first-round draft pick, and a 2017 second-round draft pick north of the border for Andrea Bargnani.  The former No. 1 overall pick has struggled to stay healthy and give consistent production over the course of his career in Toronto and the Raptors’ new regime, led by GM Masai Ujiri, was very willing to cut bait with him.  The Raptors’ loss might be the Knicks’ gain as the big man looks pretty comfortable so far in blue-and-orange.  The biggest knock on Bargnani over the last seven years has been his aggressiveness and toughness and only time will tell if he can turn over a new (non-maple) leaf with his new club.  However, the offensive acumen has always been there with Bargnani and he’ll be given opportunities to score in bunches as he did on Friday night against the Bobcats (25 points off of 11-of-25 shooting).

The other headline grabbing out-of-house move to come out of MSG was the Knicks’ signing of Metta World Peace in July.  The tenacious rebounder formerly known as Ron Artest was amnestied by the Lakers over the summer, not necessarily because he’s finished, but because he’s no longer worth the $7.73MM cap hit he would have put on Los Angeles.  However, for a piece of the mini mid-level exception, World Peace is absolutely a worthwhile pickup for the Knicks.  While the forward has a reputation around the league for being a little, um, uneven, he has leveled off in recent years and Lakers star Kobe Bryant says that he’ll miss having the veteran in L.A.  World Peace more-or-less handpicked the Knicks after discouraging clubs from claiming him off of amnesty waivers (MWP’s camp told anyone that would listen that he was headed to China in 2013/14) so there’s every reason to believe that he’s on board with making this union work.  Players can sometimes get in trouble when they return to their hometown and are surrounded by the friends they grew up with, but World Peace, who celebrates his 34th birthday on Wednesday, should be able to keep any distractions at bay.

J.R. Smith returning to New York was hardly a surprise, but the mini-circus that led up to it certainly was.  Shortly after it was reported that Smith agreed to a three-year, $17.95MM deal (player option on year three) with the Knicks, the club announced that the guard would require patellar tendon surgery and an arthroscopy for a tear in the lateral meniscus of his left knee.  Conveniently, the announcement was made just as the Knicks PR staff was packing up for summer vacation.  Most Knicks fans were on board with having the reigning Sixth Man of the Year back in NYC at the time of the signing, but after the news, opinions were split on whether the deal was a good call for the club.  The strangest part of it all is that agent Leon Rose claims that the two sides originally agreed to a four-year pact before Rose had it amended to a three-year deal with a player option for the final season.  After learning that Smith would need to go under the knife, one would imagine that the Knicks would be the party looking to shorten the deal and minimize their risk.  It also doesn’t help matters that Smith was slapped with a five game suspension for a positive marijuana test.  The guard has long had a reputation for partying hard and after spending equal time on the New York Post’s backpage and Page Six thanks to his dalliances with Rihanna, the Knicks couldn’t have been thrilled about that piece of news.

Think the Smith saga was weird?  Knicks owner James Dolan, a man with a penchant for raising the ire of sports radio callers, saved his strangest move for the very end of the offseason.  After putting the finishing touches on the Knicks’ roster for 2013/14, General Manager Glen Grunwald was shown the door in favor of former MSG exec Steve Mills.  Six weeks later, the move is still a head-scratcher.  If you feel bad for Grunwald, you should save some empathy for Mills as well.  When the Knicks were trailing in the third game of the season (at home vs. Minnesota), Dolan reportedly left his seat after the first quarter to give his new GM a verbal lashing over the team’s effort.  Of course, Mills isn’t the man responsible for the Knicks’ roster as currently constructed, that would be Grunwald.

In addition to re-signing Smith, the Knicks also re-upped point guard Pablo Prigioni and forward Kenyon Martin.  Martin was out of a job for quite a while thanks in part to a perception that he wasn’t a model teammate, but he has been nothing but a positive for the Knicks since coming aboard.  The aging Prigioni earned his contract after a solid 2012/13 campaign and he’ll be helped by the tremendous addition of Beno Udrih.  The 31-year-old has taken a step back since his days in Sacramento, but he was a very solid pickup for the Knicks at the low, low price of $1.27MM.

The Knicks also rounded out the end of their roster with Cole Aldrich, Toure’ Murry, and Chris Smith – a signing that has absolutely nothing to do with the new contract given to older brother J.R.  Coach Mike Woodson & Co. haven’t stopped praising rookie shooting guard Tim Hardaway Jr. since drafting him in June and he figures to see significant minutes throughout the year.

Ultimately, the Knicks’ success will depend largely on another banner year from star Carmelo Anthony and their overall defensive effort.  A team featuring the likes of Melo, Smith, and Bargnani should have no trouble filling a statsheet, but getting it done on the other end will be another story, especially with Tyson Chandler sidelined for the next four-to-six weeks.  How the season plays out is anyone’s guess, but it’s probably safe to assume that the Knicks won’t finish the year in the cellar of the Atlantic alongside the Nets while the Sixers occupy the No. 1 spot.

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Offseason In Review: Brooklyn Nets

November 10th, 2013 at 2:16pm 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

Trades

Draft Picks

  • Mason Plumlee (Round 1, 22nd overall). Signed via rookie exception.

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

  • None

Don’t let the classic black and white color scheme fool you – the Nets aren’t into being understated.  This summer, after being upset in seven games by the Derrick Rose-less Bulls in the first round, the Nets completely turned things upside-down on the sidelines and on the floor.  P. J. Carlesimo, who took over for Avery Johnson midway through the 2012/13 season, was handed his walking papers less than 24 hours after the Nets’ season came to an abrupt end.  Phil Jackson‘s name was mentioned frequently in the backend of the New York tabloids and on the sports radio airwaves, but the club turned to a future Hall of Famer and absolute coaching neophyte in Jason Kidd.  Despite the raised eyebrows (and the personal frustration that we imagine Patrick Ewing felt), the Nets’ wild offseason didn’t stop there.

Weeks later, on draft night, the Nets shook hands with the Celtics on the most shocking trade in modern NBA history.  Brooklyn landed Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Jason Terry for Kris Humphries, Gerald Wallace, Kris Joseph, MarShon Brooks, Keith Bogans (sign-and-trade), and future first-round picks in 2014, 2016, and 2018.  The Nets may have mortgaged their future, but the deal catapulted them from Eastern Conference also-rans to one of the most feared teams in the league.

Pierce, who gave the Nets fits as a member of the Celtics, gives the Nets a proven scorer alongside shooting machine Joe Johnson.  He may not be the superstar that he was for the C’s 2008 championship squad, but he’s still a productive scorer and underrated rebounder.  Garnett will require lots of rest at this stage of his career but he figures to give the Nets the kind of inside toughness that Brook Lopez has been unwilling or unable to provide.  Reggie Evans won fans over last season with his general disregard for his well-being, but KG is an obvious upgrade at the starting four spot.  Like Pierce, Garnett is no spring chicken, but he’s still one of the toughest defensive big men in the game thanks to his tireless work ethic.  Terry may be the forgotten piece of the swap, but he can serve as one of many dangerous weapons off of the Brooklyn bench.

The biggest challenge for the new-look Nets might be sharing the basketball and keeping egos in check.  If they can exhibit the ball movement that they showed in their home opener against the Heat, they’ll be giving opposing defenses a whole lot of trouble.  GM Billy King and cap guru Bobby Marks will have to work hard in the years to come to infuse the roster with young talent after losing three future first-rounders, but it’s hard to find fault with the trade for the here and now.

Wallace seemed lost under two different coaches last season and with 13 years in the league, his body was showing definite signs of breaking down.  Humphries was a hard-nosed rebounding presence and an efficient scorer for the Nets in 2010/11 and 2011/12, but fell flat last season and found himself 86’d from the rotation for much of the year.  Brooks, who will earn less than $1.3MM in the final season of his rookie deal, has serious upside, but it’s debatable whether he could ever realize his potential in Brooklyn if he had to fight for minutes on their ultra-deep bench.

That intimidating second unit will be led by Andrei Kirilenko, who signed a one-year, $3.18MM deal with a player option for the following year.  The Russian forward turned down a $10MM+ option with T’Wolves to sign on with Mikhail Prokhorov & Co. and the conspiracy theories immediately started flying.  However, as far as we know, the agreement is kosher, and AK47 told me in early August that he’s not fazed by the whispers that he took money under the table from the Nets.  The 32-year-old should provide the Nets with athleticism and scoring in bunches off of the bench, something the 36-year-old Pierce will certainly appreciate.

Kirilenko and Terry weren’t the only notable bench upgrades to come to Brooklyn this offseason.  Shaun Livingston was brought aboard to spell star point guard Deron Williams – a role that will be even more crucial if Williams’ ankle acts up again.  Alan Anderson was signed almost as an afterthought in late July, taking the league minimum to hook on with a winner.  That’s a pretty decent bargain for a player who averaged 10.7 PPG in 2012/13.  The Nets also tabbed Duke big man Mason Plumlee with their late first-round pick, but he’ll probably spend more time in Springfield, Massachusetts than Brooklyn, New York.  Losing C.J. Watson to the Pacers hurts a bit, but overall the Nets’ new bench is the envy of the Eastern Conference.

While Watson bolted for a pay bump, the Nets managed to retain athletic big man Andray Blatche with a one-year, $1.4MM deal.  If it weren’t for Kirilenko’s presence, Blatche’s contract would be the most shocking bargain on the Brooklyn roster.  The 27-year-old signed a minimum salary deal with the Nets last season and while there were question marks about his attitude and work ethic, Blatche averaged 10.3 points and 5.1 rebounds with a career high 51.2% field goal percentage.  I expected the 6’11” center to fetch a more lucrative deal, but it’s possible that he chose comfort and a chance to win over money, especially since he’s still cashing checks from the Wizards.

The last time the Nets were championship contenders, they had Kidd as their floor general against a less-than-stellar Eastern Conference.  Ten years later, they have Kidd (and Lawrence Frank) back, but they’re dealing with a much tougher road to the Finals.  The Pacers and Bulls both look formidable, but the Nets have as good of a chance as them or anyone else of dethroning the two-time NBA champs.

Luke Adams contributed to this post.

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Offseason In Review: Indiana Pacers

November 10th, 2013 at 10:24am 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

Draft Picks

  • Solomon Hill (Round 1, 23rd overall). Signed via rookie exception.

Camp Invitees

Departing Players

Rookie Contract Option Decisions

  • None

The Pacers made plenty of upgrades this summer, but the most important one might have happened the day before the draft. That’s when Larry Bird came back from a year away from the game to return to his role as the team’s president of basketball operations. Bird had been Executive of the Year in 2011/12 before stepping away, and he was a sought-after commodity, as witnessed by the Kings’ attempt to woo him out of retirement and into their front office. There were rumors that discord between Bird and ownership helped prompt him to walk away from the club, but ultimately, Larry Legend chose to come back to his native state.

Veteran executive Donnie Walsh, who oversaw the Pacers front office in Bird’s absence, is no slouch, but the bench he assembled lagged far behind the starting unit. Bird aggressively attacked that weakness, acquiring Luis Scola from the Suns. The cost was relatively cheap, even though Gerald Green, one of the underachievers on Indiana’s bench last season, and Miles Plumlee have performed well so far for Phoenix. The 2014 first-rounder the Pacers gave up is likely to be no higher than the mid-20s. Scola addresses two deficiencies that were perhaps the team’s most profound last season, as he provides much-needed depth while boosting an offense that finished 19th in points per possession last season.

Scola has been a starting power forward for the vast majority of his six seasons in the league, but he’ll be a backup for Indiana because the Pacers re-signed David West. There was no drama to the negotiations, as both team and player made it clear before free agency that there was mutual determination to get a deal done. They reached an agreement on the second day of free agency, and West wound up with a contract that pays him an annual salary similar to what Kevin Garnett, Serge Ibaka and Tim Duncan make. All are power forwards who might not be the best players on their respective teams, but play integral roles on squads that are eyeing a championship.

Even before West returned to the fold, the Pacers made an upgrade at backup point guard, a role in which D.J. Augustin flopped last season. They signed C.J. Watson on the first day of free agency, giving him a raise from the minimum-salary contract he’d signed with the Nets a year earlier. Watson seemingly had an off year in Brooklyn, as his per-minute scoring and assist production fell off from his time with a renowned Bulls bench. Still, Watson posted higher PER and win-shares-per-minute figures in Brooklyn than he had in Chicago. Indiana’s front office isn’t too concerned with advanced statistics, and yet the Pacers saw value in a player who fit so well with the Bulls, a defensive-minded team with plenty of similarities to Indiana.

Bird spent more money on another free agent pickup, rewarding Chris Copeland for an out-of-nowhere season for the Knicks with a part of the Pacers’ mid-level exception money. The 6’9″ Copeland was a 28-year-old training camp invitee with no NBA experience when he arrived in New York last year, and he combined his 6’9″ frame with a 42.1% clip from three-point range to give the Knicks a dangerous floor-stretching forward. The Knicks had only Non-Bird rights at their disposal if they wanted to re-sign Copeland, and chose to retain fellow Non-Bird free agent Pablo Prigioni instead, declining to make Copeland a formal offer. Still, the Pacers won out over a half-dozen other teams interested in the John Spencer client. Copeland hasn’t been a part of the rotation to begin the season, but he, like Scola, gives the Pacers another offensive weapon along the front line. His ability to find playing time may come down to his improvement on defense, since coach Frank Vogel may be hesitant to play Copeland together with Scola, another defensive liability.

Even before Scola and Copeland came aboard, the Pacers cut ties with former first-round pick Tyler Hansbrough, rescinding his qualifying offer and allowing him to become a unrestricted free agent. West’s presence had contributed to declining minutes for Hansbrough in each of the past two seasons, and Psycho-T wound up signing with the Raptors for slightly more money than the Pacers gave Copeland. Toronto also wound up with Augustin, apparently hoping he and Hansbrough will perform better on the Raptors bench than they did in Indiana.

Bird’s final major move of the offseason was his richest expenditure, as the Pacers anointed Paul George as the team’s designated player with a five-year max extension. That means Indiana can’t give a five-year rookie scale extension to any other player until 2019 as long as George remains on the roster. Of course, it’s unlikely they’ll want to make a similar commitment to Solomon Hill or any of the players they’ll draft in the next two years, so that part of their deal with George probably means little. The financial outlay of at least $80MM is of greater importance for a franchise unwilling to pay the luxury tax. There’s a strong chance George will make an All-NBA team this season and trigger a higher maximum salary via the Derrick Rose Rule, which would mean a difference of roughly $10MM over the life of the deal. The presence of George’s lucrative extension on the team’s books could have a profound effect as soon as next summer, when Lance Stephenson and Danny Granger will both be free agents.

Granger’s ability to bounce back from a season lost because of injury will be critical to Indiana’s title hopes, and Bird’s decision to hold on to perhaps his best trade chip is a gamble that leverages the present against the future. Bird could have dealt for a younger, cheaper asset or perhaps a first-round pick while Granger’s value was still relatively high this summer. The former All-Star remains plagued by injuries as the season begins, and it could be difficult to find takers for him until he proves he can regain his health. The Pacers are off to a fast start without him, and if Granger can return and contribute, Bird may again revisit the notion of trading the 30-year-old.

Still, Granger’s continued presence on the roster signals that the Pacers are going all-in for a championship this season. There’s plenty of reason for that approach following strong performances in the playoffs against the Heat during Miami’s title runs the past two seasons. It’s clear that the Pacers think they can overcome the Heat and come away with the franchise’s first Larry O’Brien trophy. Of course, LeBron and company aren’t the only threat Indiana will face among a strong field of Eastern Conference contenders. That’s why Bird must keep the future in mind even as he focuses on this season. The Pacers have a pair of All-Stars less than 27 years old in George and Roy Hibbert, along with the fast-rising Stephenson, who’s still just 23. Indiana can remain in championship contention for years to come, but Bird must wisely handle the team’s limited finances. That’s why his decision on Granger is so important, and why the roster Indiana put together in the offseason might look different by the time the playoffs begin.

Luke Adams contributed to this post.

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