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FA Rumors: KCP, Pacers, Mid-Level Usage, Suns, Gillespie, Bullock

June 30th, 2024 at 1:53pm CST by Luke Adams

While teams with cap room have been mentioned most frequently as the top suitors for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Mike Singer of The Denver Post (Twitter link) has continually heard the Pacers mentioned as a team to watch for the veteran swingman.

A previous report suggested that a cap-room club like the Sixers or Magic could make an oversized short-term offer (e.g. two years, $50MM) for Caldwell-Pope, but Singer says he’s heard KCP would prefer a longer-term deal.

As John Hollinger of The Athletic writes, if the Nuggets are willing to negotiate a sign-and-trade deal, a package along the lines of Aaron Nesmith and Jarace Walker might work financially, based on Caldwell-Pope’s projected salary range. However, a sign-and-trade involving Caldwell-Pope would hard-cap the Pacers at the first tax apron and the Nuggets at the second apron, so some financial creativity could be required, especially on Denver’s end.

Here are a few more free agency rumors and notes from around the NBA:

  • Within his latest round-up of rumors, Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports says not many teams around the NBA are expected to use the full mid-level exception to sign a player, since it can now be used as a de facto trade exception, so there’s some value in retaining a portion of it. Of course, even last season, before the mid-level could be used to accommodate trades, only one team used the entire amount on a single player (Toronto on Dennis Schröder).
  • The Suns have been linked to a ton of potential minimum-salary point guards, according to Fischer, who names Kyle Lowry and Monte Morris as two of the players viewed as possible targets for Phoenix. There has even been some chatter about the possibility of a reunion with Chris Paul if he’s waived by Golden State, Fischer adds.
  • After being made an unrestricted free agent by Denver, guard Collin Gillespie is expected to receive interest from the Hawks, Hornets, Suns, and Timberwolves, sources tell Fischer. Gillespie may have to accept a two-way contract and compete for a standard roster spot, Fischer adds. Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News and SKOR North (Twitter link) confirms Minnesota’s interest in Gillespie but says the team doesn’t seem likely to land him.
  • Veteran wing Reggie Bullock is unlikely to re-sign with the Rockets, sources tell Kelly Iko of The Athletic (Twitter link). According to Iko, multiple teams have interest in Bullock, who figures to be a minimum-salary target.
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Fischer’s Latest: Clippers, George, Warriors, Mavs, KCP, Klay, Nuggets, More

June 30th, 2024 at 12:53pm CST by Luke Adams

As they navigate the challenges of the second tax apron for 2024/25 and beyond, the Clippers have been adamant to this point that they don’t want to complete a contract longer than three years for any players, reports Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports. Barring a change of heart, that means Los Angeles will be unwilling to go higher than three years for its own star free agents, Paul George and James Harden.

While Harden seems likely to end up on a new three-year agreement with the Clippers, per Fischer, that three-year limit has been a point of contention in negotiations with George. Both the Sixers and Magic – who are set to meet with George late on Sunday night – are willing to offer the star forward a four-year, maximum-salary contract, Fischer confirms.

Outside of the Clippers, Sixers, and Magic, there’s another team “lingering on the periphery” of the George situation, according to Fischer, who says the Jazz‘s “dreamiest plot” for the offseason would be to use their trade assets to acquire an impact player on the trade market (they pursued Mikal Bridges before Brooklyn agreed to send him to New York) and to use their cap room to land George. However, as Fischer acknowledges, it’s extremely unlikely that George will decide to sign in Utah.

Here’s more from Fischer’s latest rumor round-up, with the official start of free agency just hours away:

  • The trade options the Warriors have considered – using Chris Paul and/or Andrew Wiggins as outgoing pieces – range from giving up draft picks in a deal for Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram to acquiring a pick along with Bulls guard Zach LaVine, sources tell Fischer. If they don’t find a trade they like and lose Klay Thompson via free agency, the Warriors will have the full mid-level exception available. They’re considering possible targets using that MLE, says Fischer.
  • The Mavericks likely would have attempted to make a trade with the Nuggets to acquire Kentavious Caldwell-Pope if he had picked up his $15.4MM player option, Fischer reports. Now that Caldwell-Pope has opted for free agency, Thompson appears to be the free agent wing most likely to end up in Dallas, according to Fischer, who says Thompson also continues to be one of the Sixers‘ secondary targets if they miss out on George.
  • As for Caldwell-Pope, the Nuggets are preparing to lose him, with the Sixers and Magic both holding “strong” interest in the veteran swingman, per Fischer. A deal with one of those cap-room teams in the range of $50MM over two years could be a possibility for KCP, Fischer adds.
  • Having traded away Reggie Jackson, the Nuggets are in the market for a backup point guard. Sources tell Fischer that Russell Westbrook would have been a target using the taxpayer mid-level exception if he had opted out of his contract with the Clippers. Fischer also mentioned Hornets guard Vasilije Micic as a Denver target, noting that Zeke Nnaji – who is on the trade block – could be sent out in a deal for Micic.
  • The Nuggets have also long had interest in big man Dario Saric, who could be a target in free agency, Fischer says.
  • While it won’t be one of their top short-term priorities as free agency begins, the Clippers are expected to eventually work out an extension with center Ivica Zubac, sources tell Yahoo Sports.
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Obi Toppin Signs Four-Year Contract With Pacers

June 30th, 2024 at 12:51pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

JULY 6: Toppin has officially re-signed with the Pacers, the team announced in a press release.

“Obi Toppin embraced our city, our team, and his role from the moment he arrived, and then proved time and again to be an integral part of the success we achieved last season in reaching the Eastern Conference Finals,” president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard said in a statement. “Obi’s style of play, selfless attitude, and work ethic are all consistent with the culture we’ve built here, and we’re confident he will play a key role for us moving forward.”

JUNE 30: Restricted free agent Pacers power forward Obi Toppin intends to sign a four-year, $60MM contract to stay in Indiana, sources inform Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).

As Wojnarowski notes, the 6’9″ Dayton alum emerged as a critical bench contributor for a Pacers club that advanced all the way to the Eastern Conference finals this past spring for the first time in a decade.

The eighth overall pick in the 2020 draft, Toppin was traded from New York to Indiana a year ago in exchange for a pair of second-round picks after he spent his first three professional seasons with the Knicks. In his first year as a Pacer, the 26-year-old set new career highs in points (10.3), rebounds (3.9), and assists (1.6) per game, as well as field goal percentage (57.3%) and three-point percentage (40.3%).

With tentative deals in place for Pascal Siakam (four years, maximum salary) and Toppin, the Pacers’ team salary for 2024/25 projects to be about $6.4MM below the luxury tax line with at least two roster spots still to be filled, tweets cap expert Yossi Gozlan.

While it’s technically possible for the Pacers to use their full mid-level exception and stay below the first tax apron, doing so would make them a taxpayer, so that’s unlikely. It also remains to be seen whether the team will have room under the tax to bring back free agent big man Jalen Smith on a new deal after he opted out of his contract on Saturday. Of course, a cost-cutting move to create additional spending flexibility is always a possibility.

Toppin had been the No. 27 player on our list of this summer’s top 50 free agents.

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2024 NBA Free Agency Primer

June 30th, 2024 at 12:25pm CST by Luke Adams

While teams have been permitted to negotiate with their own free agents since the day after the end of the NBA Finals, the league’s 2024 free agency period officially begins on Sunday at 5:00 pm central time. Several contract agreements have been reported during the last week or two, but that number will significant increase beginning on Sunday evening.

Here are a few links to prepare you for one of the most exciting days on the NBA calendar:

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Alex Len Re-Signs With Kings

June 30th, 2024 at 11:51am CST by Arthur Hill

JULY 9: Len has officially re-signed with the Kings, according to NBA.com’s transaction log.

JUNE 30: Kings center Alex Len will return to the team on a one-year contract, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

It will be the fourth straight season in Sacramento for the 31-year-old Len, who originally joined the team as a free agent in 2021 and then re-signed last summer. Len appeared in 48 games this season, all off the bench, and averaged 2.5 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 9.3 minutes per night.

Len will be back on a veteran’s minimum deal for 2024/25, and although he’s projected to make a little more than $3.3MM, the new contract will only count as $2.1MM for Sacramento’s salary cap and tax purposes.

Len was considered to be a top prospect when he was selected by Phoenix with the fifth pick in the 2013 draft. He never got close to achieving stardom, but he has been able to carve out a long NBA career, mostly as a backup center. He also had brief stays in Atlanta, Toronto and Washington before coming to the Kings.

With Malik Monk agreeing to a new deal last week, Sacramento has taken care of both its unrestricted free agents before they could begin negotiating with other teams.

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Warriors Believed They Were Close To Trading For Paul George

June 30th, 2024 at 10:47am CST by Arthur Hill

The Warriors believed several times on Saturday that they were close to a deal to acquire Paul George from the Clippers, sources tell Tim Kawakami of The Athletic.

Kawakami hears that the teams were involved in “very serious negotiations” right up until the Saturday afternoon deadline for George to decide on his $48.8MM player option for next season. George ultimately declined the option, putting him out of the reach of Golden State, which doesn’t have any cap space to pursue him in free agency.

The Warriors had committed to giving George a four-year maximum-salary contract (ie. a three-year extension on top of his option year) if the deal had gone through, Kawakami adds. That was the main holdup with L.A., which has been unwilling to go beyond three total years in its talks with the 34-year-old forward.

There were several versions of a trade that the Clippers seemed willing to accept, Kawakami states, and Stephen Curry and Draymond Green both endorsed the idea of adding George.

George also provided “strong indications” that he wanted to be traded to the Warriors, according to Kawakami’s sources, but L.A. never gave final approval to the deal and George opted for free agency.

According to Kawakami, Andrew Wiggins, Chris Paul, Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, and a first-round pick were among the Warriors’ potential outgoing trade chips that came up in discussions. If the two sides had agreed to a deal, it would have included some – but not all – of those pieces.

It’s a potentially devastating outcome for Golden State because George would have been an ideal replacement for Klay Thompson, who appears likely to be headed elsewhere. Even though Thompson can’t start talking to rival teams for a few more hours, an NBA source tells Kawakami that he has already said goodbye to several high-ranking members of the front office.

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Southeast Notes: Wizards, Martin, Murray, Bridges

June 30th, 2024 at 9:30am CST by Arthur Hill

The Wizards held a press conference Saturday to introduce their three first-round picks, who are products of an aggressive strategy to add young talent in this year’s draft, writes Sapna Bansil of The Washington Post. Heading into Wednesday night with the second and 26th selections, Washington took Alexandre Sarr at No. 2 as expected, then traded up to No. 14 to grab Carlton Carrington and moved up to No. 24 to add Kyshawn George.

“We walked into [the draft] Wednesday night and had a plan in place,” general manager Will Dawkins told reporters. “We were aligned from top to bottom. We were strategic, [and] we were aggressive and made sure that we accomplished our goals. So with these three young men to my left, we feel like we’re adding a few more bricks to that base-level foundation that we talked about at the end of the season.”

Sarr, a 7’0″ center, becomes the cornerstone of the franchise and an anchor for the defense. Carrington will provide scoring punch in the backcourt, while George is a wing who can handle the ball and shoot threes. All three players are expected to be part of the Wizards’ Summer League team.

Bansil notes that for the second straight year, the front office prioritized athleticism, positional size and the ability to contribute on both ends of the court. They also looked for players who are mentally tough enough to handle rebuilding.

“Not every team [has] three first-round picks, and I think it was just very cool to be able to be with these guys that enjoy the game, are very positive and are easygoing people,” George said. “We’re all in the same boat, and getting to start this rebuild as a young group, young core is very exciting.”

There’s more from the Southeast Division:

  • The Heat are unlikely to be able to re-sign free agent forward Caleb Martin, a source tells Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald. Martin, who declined his $7.13MM player option on Saturday, may get offers for the full $12.9MM non-taxpayer mid-level exception, Chiang adds. Re-signing him would mean second-apron status for Miami, which may now prioritize keeping Haywood Highsmith. They have been talking since teams were allowed to start negotiating with their own free agents, and Chiang hears there’s mutual interest in a new deal. Chiang also reveals that second-round pick Pelle Larsson is expected to sign a standard contract for next season worth between $1-2MM, although a two-way deal remains an option depending on how the rest of the roster comes together.
  • In a SportsCenter appearance (video link), ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said there was “more of a market” to trade Dejounte Murray than fellow Hawks guard Trae Young. Murray is heading to New Orleans in exchange for a package that includes the Lakers’ first-round pick next year, and Wojnarowski said Atlanta was determined to land a selection in what’s projected to be a strong 2025 draft.
  • There’s still no clarity on Miles Bridges‘ future with the Hornets, per Roderick Boone of The Charlotte Observer. Bridges has been able to negotiate with the team for the past week-and-a-half, but Boone states that there hasn’t been “a hint of much traction” and the forward appears ready to test the open market.
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2024 NBA Qualifying Offer Recap

June 30th, 2024 at 8:13am CST by Luke Adams

Players eligible for restricted free agency don’t become restricted free agents by default. In order for a team to make a player a restricted free agent, it must extend a qualifying offer to him. The qualifying offer, which is essentially just a one-year contract offer, varies in amount depending on a player’s previous contract status.

A qualifying offer is designed to give a player’s current team the right of first refusal. Because the qualifying offer acts as the first formal contract offer a free agent receives, his team then has the option to match any offer sheet the player signs with another club. If a player doesn’t receive a qualifying offer, he becomes an unrestricted free agent and is free to sign with any team — his previous club is given no formal opportunity to match.

You can read more about qualifying offers here.

Listed below are the details on which players did and didn’t receive qualifying offers this summer. Our list is based on various reports and team announcements leading up to the June 29 deadline, along with confirmation from RealGM’s official NBA transactions log.

It’s possible that one or two qualifying offers slipped through the cracks and will be reported later today before free agency officially gets underway — if so, we’ll update this list.

For now though, this is what the qualifying offer landscape looks like. The players who received QOs will be restricted free agents, while the players who didn’t will be unrestricted. We’ve updated our free agents lists by position and by team to reflect the changes.

Received qualifying offers:

Players on standard contracts:

Note: Qualifying offers marked with an asterisk (*) are based on a projected $141MM salary cap and would increase or decrease if the cap comes in higher or lower than that.

Players on two-way contracts:

Note: Qualifying offers for two-way players are one-year, two-way contracts with a guarantee of approximately $78K unless otherwise indicated.

Did not receive qualifying offers:

Players on standard contracts:

Players on two-way contracts:

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FA Rumors: Lakers, LeBron, Harden, Klay, George, Magic, DeRozan, More

June 30th, 2024 at 7:31am CST by Luke Adams

Having confirmed on Saturday that LeBron James would be open to accepting less than the maximum salary in certain scenarios, agent Rich Paul tells Dave McMenamin of ESPN that the idea would be for the Lakers to add an “impact player” using that extra flexibility.

James Harden, Klay Thompson, and Jonas Valanciunas are a few of the “impact” players who might fit that criteria, sources tell McMenamin. While it might be difficult to convince Harden or Thompson to settle for the mid-level (worth approximately $12.9MM), a sign-and-trade could also be a possibility to land that sort of player. Acquiring a player via sign-and-trade would hard-cap the Lakers at the first tax apron for 2024/25, but so would using more than the taxpayer portion ($5.2MM) of the mid-level exception.

[RELATED: Lakers, Clippers, Mavericks among Klay Thompson’s suitors]

If the Lakers aren’t able to add a player of that caliber, the plan would be for James to seek a max deal to return to the Lakers, Paul tells McMenamin. If LeBron does accept a pay cut, the most likely scenario would see him accept a two-year deal with a 2025/26 player option so that he’d have the ability to negotiate a raise a year from now, sources tell Jovan Buha of The Athletic.

Elsewhere on the Lakers front, after tendering a qualifying offer to Max Christie to make him a restricted free agent, the team would like to retain the 21-year-old guard, envisioning him as a rotation player next season, sources tell Buha. However, if L.A. hard-caps itself by adding an impact player via sign-and-trade or the MLE, fitting a new deal for Christie under the first apron could be a challenge.

Here are a few more rumors from around the NBA ahead of the official start of free agency on Sunday evening:

  • Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN referred to the Sixers this morning on SportsCenter as a “legitimate threat” to sign Paul George away from the Clippers (hat tip to Adam Zagoria of NJ.com), while Marc Stein writes in his latest Substack story that Philadelphia has a “significant measure of renewed hope” in its ability to land the star forward.
  • Although the Magic are one of three teams to secure a meeting with George, the free agents connected most frequently to Orlando by league insiders are Knicks center Isaiah Hartenstein and Nuggets wing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, per Stein.
  • There’s a belief that DeMar DeRozan may wait to see what happens with George’s free agency before making a decision, according to Stein, since he’d have a better feel for his options outside the Bulls at that point. Multiple reports this offseason have suggested the Clippers could be a suitor for DeRozan (likely via sign-and-trade) if they lose George.
  • While the Lakers have emerged as a legitimate option for Klay Thompson, the Mavericks have made the veteran sharpshooter their top free agent priority, even ahead of starting small forward Derrick Jones, says Stein. Dallas hasn’t ruled out the possibility of signing both players – that would require a sign-and-trade for Thompson and an MLE deal for Jones – which would be the team’s true “Plan A,” Stein writes, adding that Naji Marshall continues to be mentioned as a likely Mavs target if they lose Jones.
  • The Clippers and Spurs are among the teams expected to have interest in Chris Paul if the veteran point guard ends up being waived by Golden State and becoming a free agent, reports Stein.
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Option/QO Notes: Green, Watanabe, Bertans, Barlow, Kings, More

June 30th, 2024 at 6:50am CST by Luke Adams

Saturday represented the deadline for teams and players to exercise 2024/25 contract options and for teams to issue qualifying offers to players eligible for free agency. While there was a flurry of news about those options and QO decisions yesterday, a few players still slipped through the cracks.

We’ll start with Rockets forward Jeff Green. Reporting last week indicated that Houston planned to exercise his $8MM team option for 2024/25 and the team did just that, per RealGM’s transaction log. Green’s salary technically remains non-guaranteed until July 11 even now that his option has been picked up, but the expectation is that he’ll be retained — his expiring deal could be a useful salary-matching piece in a trade, and he also played rotation minutes for Houston last season, averaging 16.8 MPG in 78 appearances.

While there was no official confirmation on Saturday (as far as we could tell), Grizzlies forward Yuta Watanabe had long been expected to decline his $2.65MM player option for the 2024/25 season, since he’s on track to return to his home country of Japan and play for the Chiba Jets. There’s no indication that those plans have changed or that he picked up his option, so we’re assuming it was declined and that he’ll be off the board for NBA teams this offseason.

Finally, Davis Bertans‘ option with the Hornets was technically an early termination option rather than a player option, meaning that instead of needing to actively exercise it if he wanted to opt in, he needed to do nothing to opt in. He did just that, and will remain under contract with Charlotte for the time being, rather than becoming a free agent. However, his $16MM option salary is only partially guaranteed for $5.25MM, so he’s not assured of having the rest of that salary guaranteed, especially if the Hornets are looking to maximize their cap flexibility this offseason.

Here are a few more updates left over from a busy Saturday:

  • Dominick Barlow, a 21-year-old forward who has spent the past two seasons with the Spurs, didn’t receive a qualifying offer to make him a restricted free agent, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). San Antonio isn’t necessarily planning to part ways with Barlow, according to Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News, who tweets that the Spurs still have interest in discussing a new deal. However, he’ll have interest from other teams as well, says Wojnarowski.
  • The Kings didn’t tender qualifying offers to their three players eligible for restricted free agency (Kessler Edwards, Jordan Ford, or Jalen Slawson), confirms Sean Cunningham of FOX 40 Sacramento (Twitter link). All three players will be unrestricted free agents.
  • According to RealGM, players who did receive qualifying offers that weren’t previously reported (that we saw) include no-brainers like Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey and Raptors guard Immanuel Quickley, as well as Mavericks two-way player Brandon Williams.
  • We’ve previously published trackers for this year’s team option decisions and player option decisions, which are now fully up to date. We’ll be posting a full qualifying offer recap later this morning.
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