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Clippers, Knicks, Others Renounce UFAs

July 8th, 2017 at 9:45am CST by Luke Adams

Several NBA teams have renounced their unrestricted free agents, eliminating any form of Bird rights the team had on those players, per RealGM’s transactions log. Here’s a breakdown of which teams renounced their UFAs and what those moves might mean:

Los Angeles Clippers

Players renounced: Alan Anderson, Jeff Ayres, Brandon Bass, Glen Davis, J.J. Redick, Hedo Turkoglu, and Ekpe Udoh.
The thinking: Redick has a new deal in place elsewhere and the other players probably aren’t candidates to return. With a hard cap in place after signing-and-trading for Danilo Gallinari, the Clips will have to keep team salary below $125.266MM for the rest of the 2017/18 league year.

New York Knicks

Players renounced: Ron Baker, Justin Holiday, Derrick Rose, and Sasha Vujacic.
The thinking: The Knicks needed to clear cap room to fit in Tim Hardaway Jr.‘s offer sheet, so these moves aren’t really a surprise. The one interesting name is Baker — the club also withdrew its qualifying offer to him. He has reportedly agreed to a deal with New York already, but if the team doesn’t need his QO or FA rights to complete that signing, it may just end up being a two-year, minimum salary contract that could be finalized once the Knicks use up their cap room on other players.

Atlanta Hawks

Players renounced: Jose Calderon, Kris Humphries, Ersan Ilyasova, Paul Millsap, and Thabo Sefolosha.
The thinking: The Hawks kept cap holds for Hardaway and Mike Muscala on their books, but it appears none of the players noted above are in their plans going forward. Atlanta needed to clear its cap room to take on Jamal Crawford and Diamond Stone in a trade with the Clippers, so the Hawks also had to renounce their five trade exceptions as well.

Detroit Pistons

Players renounced: Aron Baynes and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
The thinking: With a $125.266MM hard cap now in place, the Pistons will have to keep team salary below that figure for the rest of the league year.

Brooklyn Nets

Players renounced: K.J. McDaniels
The thinking: McDaniels’ cap hold likely had to be eliminated from the books in order to fit Otto Porter‘s offer sheet.

Phoenix Suns

Players renounced: Ronnie Price
The thinking: I don’t see any obvious reason that the Suns needed to renounce Price’s minimum salary cap hold, but there’s no reason to keep it on the books either — if the team wants to eventually re-sign Price, it can use cap room or the minimum salary exception to do so.

Davon Reed Contract Details

July 8th, 2017 at 8:48am CST by Luke Adams

The Suns‘ new four-year contract for second-rounder Davon Reed is fully guaranteed for the first year, half guaranteed in the second year, and non-guaranteed in years three and four (Twitter link).

Suns Sign Second-Rounder Davon Reed

July 6th, 2017 at 3:48pm CST by Luke Adams

The Suns have made it official with one of their second-round picks, announcing today in a press release that they’ve signed rookie guard Davon Reed to his first NBA contract. Reed’s deal was reported by Tony Jones of The Salt Lake Tribune (Twitter link).

An ACC All-Defensive player for Miami in 2016/17, Reed averaged 14.9 PPG, 4.8 RPG, and 2.4 APG in his senior season, making 39.7% of his three-point attempts. Reed was one of three players selected in last month’s draft by the Suns, who also nabbed Josh Jackson with the fourth overall pick and selected Alec Peters at No. 54.

Terms of Reed’s new deal aren’t yet known. As the No. 32 overall pick, he won’t be subject to the NBA’s rookie scale. However, he’s still a good bet to earn more than the minimum — last year, before the NBA’s minimum salaries jumped, the Suns drafted Tyler Ulis with the 34th overall pick and signed him to a four-year, $4MM contract with two fully guaranteed years.

Suns Sign Mike James To Two-Way Contract

July 6th, 2017 at 11:42am CST by Arthur Hill

JULY 6: The Suns’ deal with James will be a two-way contract, tweets Chris Reichert of The Step Back. Our primer on two-way contracts can be found right here.

JULY 4: Combo guard Mike James has signed with the Suns, the team announced on its website.

James, 26, has spent the past five seasons in Europe and played this year for Panathinaikos in Greece. He has also spent time in Croatia, Israel, Italy and Spain.

The 6’1″ James played 25 games this season, averaging 13.1 points, 3.0 assists and 0.9 steals per night. He is part of the Suns’ summer league team this year and played summer ball for Phoenix in 2015. He scored 32 points in the 2015 championship game in Las Vegas.

James played collegiately at Lamar, where he was named first-team All-Southland Conference in 2011/12 and scored 52 points in a 2010/11 game. He went undrafted in 2012.

Josh Jackson Signs Rookie Contract With Suns

July 4th, 2017 at 10:53am CST by Arthur Hill

The Suns have signed first-round pick Josh Jackson, according to the Associated Press. As with all rookie deals for first-rounders, Jackson received two guaranteed years with team options for the following two seasons.

As the fourth overall selection, Jackson will make a little more than $5.09MM in his first season. The full deal would give him more than $27.12MM, assuming he stays with the Suns for four years, as our rookie-scale chart shows. Jackson will become eligible for an extension in 2020 or could be a restricted free agent in 2021.

A 6’8″ forward out of Kansas, Jackson averaged 16.3 points, 7.4 rebounds and 3.0 assists in his only season as a Jayhawk. Scouts raved about his versatility, athleticism and defensive prowess heading into the draft.

Fans can get their first look at him in a Phoenix uniform starting this weekend as part of the Suns’ summer league team in Las Vegas.

Suns Waive Leandro Barbosa

July 3rd, 2017 at 1:22pm CST by Luke Adams

The Suns are waiving veteran guard Leandro Barbosa, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (via Twitter). The timing of the move doesn’t come as a surprise — Barbosa’s salary for 2017/18 would have become fully guaranteed if he remained under contract beyond today.

Barbosa, 34, joined the Suns on a two-year contract last summer, but the second year was only partially guaranteed for $500K. By cutting Barbosa, Phoenix will save $3.5MM on his $4MM total salary.

The Brazilian guard played a part-time role for the Suns last season, rejoining the franchise with which he started his career. In 67 games (14.4 MPG), Barbosa averaged 6.3 PPG, 1.6 RPG, and 1.2 APG, with a shooting line of .439/.357/.889.

Phoenix entered the offseason with aspirations of landing an impact player like Blake Griffin or Paul Millsap. However, after seeing several Western Conference teams – including the Rockets, Thunder, Timberwolves, and Nuggets – make impact moves to load up their rosters, the Suns opted to stay out of the fray. They’ll focus instead on developing their young players and plan to use their cap room to accommodate other teams’ salary dumps, acquiring draft picks or young players in the process.

Suns Offer Alan Williams Four-Year Deal

July 2nd, 2017 at 7:07am CST by Luke Adams

The Suns have made a contract offer to restricted free agent Alan Williams, according to John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7, who reports (via Twitter) that Phoenix’s offer is a four-year deal in the range of $5-6MM per year.

Williams, 24, took on a bigger role in his second season with the Suns in 2016/17, though he only averaged 15.1 minutes per contest in 47 games overall. Still, he was very productive when he played, recording 17.6 points and 14.8 rebounds per 36 minutes.

Since free agency began, Williams has been linked repeatedly to the Knicks, with at least one Saturday report suggesting that New York may be preparing an offer sheet for him. Because the 6’8″ forward/center is a restricted free agent, Phoenix would have the opportunity to match any offer, but the team would clearly prefer to negotiate its own contract with Williams rather than risk having to match a more exorbitant deal from the Knicks or another club.

As Gambadoro adds (via Twitter), the Suns had originally planned on pursuing top-tier free agents, but with several Western Conference teams further loading up their roster this week, the franchise has decided to stay patient with its rebuilding plan. That means Phoenix is no longer in the hunt for Paul Millsap, as we heard on Saturday night.

In addition to Williams, Alex Len also remains a restricted free agent for the Suns.

Western FA Rumors: Gay, Wolves, Rondo, Kings

July 2nd, 2017 at 12:16am CST by Luke Adams

Thunder big man Enes Kanter created a stir on Twitter earlier tonight when he published a photo that showed neighboring lockers featuring Russell Westbrook‘s and Rudy Gay‘s nameplates. While Gay was in Oklahoma City meeting with the Thunder today, Kanter’s tweet doesn’t mean the two sides have an agreement in place, according to Royce Young of ESPN.com (Twitter links). Young says that league sources were confident as of Friday night that OKC was in a strong position with Gay, adding that the Thunder made a “strong impression” during Saturday’s meeting (Twitter link).

With no deal in place yet, Gay continues to draw interest from other teams. Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News tweets that the Timberwolves remain on the lookout for a free agent who can play power forward and shoot, and gave Gay a call today. Wolfson classifies the contact as “just a check-in call,” however.

Here are more free agent rumors from around the Western Conference:

Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link) has heard that Rajon Rondo would have interest in joining the Clippers. As Kennedy notes, Rondo has friends on the team and has a history with Doc Rivers from their Boston days.
In a separate tweet, Alex Kennedy passes along an update on free agent big man Thomas Robinson, reporting that the Timberwolves have expressed some interest in the former lottery pick.
The Kings are “very interested” in signing Zach Randolph, league sources tell Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee. Sacramento saw a pair of its free agent targets land elsewhere late on Saturday night, as Andre Iguodala committed to the Warriors and P.J. Tucker agreed to sign in Houston. The Kings had offered Iguodala a two-year deal in the range of $16MM annually, tweets Sam Amick of USA Today.
With other restricted free agents set to receive larger offers, Suns center Alex Len may be a more attainable target for teams, and is discussing scenarios with a few potential suitors, tweets Shams Charania of The Vertical.

Suns No Longer Pursuing Millsap; Nuggets May Be Favorites

July 1st, 2017 at 5:25pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Suns will no longer pursue Hawks power forward Paul Millsap, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com.

Phoenix has opted to use its available cap to take on salary dumps paired with assets, Wojnarowski adds. The Suns are committing to a youth movement are open to dealing any of the veterans on their roster.

The Nuggets, who have a meeting tonight with Millsap, may now be the favorites to sign him, tweets David Aldridge of TNT. The Timberwolves, who reportedly met or will meet with Millsap, may have also pulled out of the running, Aldridge suggests.

Gary Harris will be joining team president Josh Kroenke, president of basketball operations Tim Connelly and coach Michael Malone in their appeal to Millsap, according to Wojnarowski (Twitter link). Denver is still open to re-signing Danilo Gallinari if its pursuit of Millsap doesn’t work out, according to Sam Amick of USA Today (Twitter link).

The Kings are another possibility, although Amick says they remain a long shot, at least for now (Twitter link).

Free Agent Rumors: Durant, Hayward, Gay, Kings

July 1st, 2017 at 11:27am CST by marksuleymanov

The defending NBA champion Warriors started free agency off with a bang, agreeing to terms with two-time Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry to the richest pact in league history. The team will reportedly sign Curry to a five-year deal worth $201MM+ and now the focus turns to retaining the remainder of Golden State’s championship-winning roster.

Last year’s prized acquisition, Kevin Durant, led the team to a championship and is now a free agent. However, Chris Haynes of ESPN (via Twitter) reports that teams have not reached out to Durant’s camp to gauge his interest in leaving because they see it as a “waste of time.” Earlier this week, it was reported that Durant will wait to re-sign with the Warriors to allow the team to finish other offseason business, and he will not meet with other teams during that stretch.

Below are additional rumors surrounding this year’s free agency period:

If the Heat’s pursuit of Gordon Hayward falls through, the team may turn its attention to fellow free agent Rudy Gay, according to Chris Mannix of The Vertical (via Twitter). Mannix adds that Gay told the outlet he should be ready for the start of the season as he recovers from a torn Achilles.
The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor (via Twitter) cites three league sources who believe the Heat are the frontrunners for Hayward. The sunny beaches and warm weather of Miami, a popular coach in Erik Spoelstra, and a prominent role in which he can be the team’s primary scorer are all lucrative incentives, O’Connor notes. However, O’Connor acknowledges that it’s a fluid situation, and a lot could change based on Hayward’s meetings.
Restricted free agent Alan Williams is a “serious” candidate to sign with the Knicks, a source tells Marc Berman of The New York Post (Twitter link). While the Suns could match any offer for Williams, their willingness to do so may hinge on who else they’re able to land in free agency.
The Kings are intent on landing a power forward in free agency, according to Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated, who tweets that Zach Randolph, Patrick Patterson, and Taj Gibson are all on Sacramento’s radar. We had previously heard about the team’s interest in Randolph and Patterson.
According to Vincent Ellis of the Detroit Free Press (via Twitter), the Pistons have been in contact with Reggie Bullock, Aron Baynes, and restricted free agent Kentavious Caldwell-Pope since free agency opened late on Friday night.