Brendan Haywood

LeBron James Increasingly Mulling Cavs Return

LeBron James is thinking more and more about the Cavs as he decides where to sign, sources tell Brian Windhorst and Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Cleveland’s brass is confident that James is receptive to the pitch they made to agent Rich Paul last week, as the ESPN scribes detail. Still, the player atop our 2014 Free Agent Power Rankings harbors lingering ill feelings over Cavs owner Dan Gilbert’s reaction to his 2010 departure, despite a degree of reconciliation between the two as time has passed, according to Windhorst and Stein.

The Cavs are centering their case for LeBron on their capability for growth and improvement not just this summer but in years to come, with as many as three first-round picks in 2015 and young, team-controlled talent, like Kyrie Irving and Andrew Wiggins, Windhorst and Stein write. Cleveland is planning to point to Brendan Haywood‘s contract as another of their weapons, as the ESPN duo explains. Haywood, who’s headed to Cleveland via trade, has a salary of more than $2.2MM for 2014/15, but the final season of his contract is a non-guaranteed salary of more than $10.5MM, a vestige of Haywood having been claimed off amnesty waivers in 2012. That bloated non-guaranteed salary makes Haywood’s deal a valuable expiring contract this coming season or, as Windhorst and Stein point out, a weapon for a sign-and-trade next summer.

The Cavs don’t possess the cap flexibility to give James a max contract as their books currently stand. Rather than waiving Anderson Varejao‘s partially guaranteed contract to create the necessary cap space, they prefer to deal Jarrett Jack, as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported Sunday. They have a deal in place to trade Jack to the Nets provided the teams can find a third club willing to absorb Marcus Thornton, according to other reports.

Heat president Pat Riley will reportedly meet this week with James in an effort to keep him in Miami. The Heat have eyed significant free agents along the lines of Marcin Gortat, Kyle Lowry, Luol Deng and even Carmelo Anthony, but they don’t think they need to add a star to convince James, Wade and Bosh to re-sign, according to Sean Deveney of The Sporting News. Instead, they’re merely looking for upgrades in the roles that Mario Chalmers, Udonis Haslem and Shane Battier have played in the past few years, Deveney writes.

Hornets, Cavs To Swap Haywood, Gee

FRIDAY, 1:54am: The Hornets will acquire Alonzo Gee as part of the trade, according to Tom Withers of The Associated Press (hat tip to the Plain Dealer).

THURSDAY, 11:28pm: Brendan Haywood is headed to Cleveland in the deal, Bonnell reports (on Twitter).

11:09pm: The Hornets have struck a deal to send 45th overall pick Dwight Powell to the Cavs in a deal that will give Charlotte some cap relief, tweets Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer.

Southeast Notes: Clifford, Haywood, Hamilton

In an interview with Jeff Zillgitt of USA TodayBobcats coach Steve Clifford discusses player development, culture change, defensive difficulties, and more in Charlotte. Here’s more from the Southeast Division:

  • Clifford assumes that Bobcats backup center Brendan Haywood will miss the rest of the season, he tells The Charlotte Observer“I just think it will be difficult,” for him to play this season, Clifford said. “Even if he progressed to the point where he could get on the floor, it’s been a long time and he’s a big man. It’s hard to be out that long and get your rhythm to play.”
  • Heat coach Erik Spoelstra says Miami moved quickly to sign Justin Hamilton as soon as he became available in order to add some balance that was lost when they traded away Joel Anthony, per Joseph Goodman of The Miami Herald (Twitter links). Hamilton agreed to a two-year contract with the Heat earlier today.
  • The Heat were impressed with Hamilton this past summer, and considered him for their 15-day roster before the big man broke his nose in the preseason, Goodman writes.

Bobcats Release Abdul Gaddy, Troy Daniels

The Bobcats released a pair of camp invitees today, according to Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer, who tweets that Abdul Gaddy and Troy Daniels have been waived. The pair of cuts reduces Charlotte’s roster count to 16 players.

Both Gaddy and Daniels went undrafted in June before playing for the Bobcats’ Summer League squad in July. Gaddy, out of Washington, and Daniels, a VCU product, were both believed to be on fully non-guaranteed contracts, so Charlotte won’t be on the hook for their salaries.

Assuming the Bobcats’ 12 fully guaranteed players and Jannero Pargo ($300K guaranteed) make the roster, that leaves up to two potential openings for Patrick O’Bryant, James Southerland, and Jeff Adrien. O’Bryant, a 7’0″ center, may have seen his chances at a roster spot increase today when the team announced Brendan Haywood would be sidelined for the next 12 weeks after being diagnosed with a stress fracture in his left foot that will require surgery.

Players Still Ineligible To Be Traded

Today is January 15th, which means that a number of players who had been ineligible to be traded until this point are now free to be moved by their respective teams. As Chuck Myron of Hoops Rumors outlined last month, Eric Gordon, Brook Lopez, Kris Humphries, Ersan Ilyasova, and Jeff Green are among the players who weren't eligible to be dealt until today.

However, in addition to rules that keeps players from being traded until December 15th or January 15th, the CBA also includes a stipulation that a team must have a player on its roster for three months before being able to trade him. That means guys who have signed contracts since October 15th are still ineligible to be dealt.

Here are the players who can't be traded quite yet, along with the dates they'll become trade-eligible:

Leandro Barbosa (Celtics): January 18th
Daniel Orton (Thunder): January 31st
Shaun Livingston (Cavaliers): February 15th

Because the trade deadline arrives on February 21st, players signed after November 21st won't become trade-eligible until after the season. Here are the guys who fit that description:

Jeff Adrien (Bobcats)
James Anderson (Rockets)
Patrick Beverley (Rockets)
Daequan Cook (Bulls)
Kevin Jones (Cavaliers)
Mickael Pietrus (Raptors)
Garrett Temple (Wizards)

In addition to recent signees, players who were claimed off amnesty waivers last July are also ineligible to be traded until July 2013. Some amnesty victims, like Andray Blatche, cleared waivers without being claimed and signed new contracts, so they're trade-eligible now, but the following players can't be moved this season:

Elton Brand (Mavericks)
Brendan Haywood (Bobcats)
Luis Scola (Suns)

Finally, players on 10-day contracts, such as Dominic McGuire, Maalik Wayns, and Josh Harrellson, also won't be trade-eligible at any point this season, even if they eventually receive rest-of-season contracts.

Bobcats Claim Brendan Haywood

4:55pm: Aldridge confirms, via Twitter, that the 'Cats will pay Haywood $2.05MM a year for the next four seasons. The Mavs will pay the rest of the money on his deal, but it won't count against Dallas' salary cap.

4:37pm: The winning bid was for $2.05MM, tweets TNT's David Aldridge. Though the tweet is unclear, I'd assume that's the per-season salary.  

4:11pm: The Bobcats have claimed Brendan Haywood off amnesty waivers, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link). The Mavericks used the amnesty clause Wednesday to erase the final four seasons and $37.7MM left on his deal. It's unknown how much the winning bid was for, but since the 'Cats were the only team we heard about with a possible interest in the big man, it probably wasn't for too much.

Bobcats Rumors: Humphries, Sessions, Haywood

Antawn Jamison talked last week about the possibility of finishing his career with his hometown Bobcats, but it appears there's no shortage of options for the veteran forward. We learned last night that the Nets are discussing a sign-and-trade deal that would send Jamison to Brooklyn, and that the Lakers are in the mix too. As Jamison weighs his options, here are a few more Bobcats-related updates, courtesy of Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer….

  • Charlotte appears re-engaged in trying to acquire Kris Humphries to upgrade their power forward spot (Twitter link). ESPN's John Hollinger tweets that DeSagana Diop would have to first be amnestied before Charlotte could offer Humphries a plausible salary. 

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Mavericks Officially Amnesty Haywood

4:11pm: Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com tweets that the team has officially amnestied Haywood. 

THURSDAY, 1:14pm: The Mavericks have notified the league office that they're releasing Haywood using the amnesty clause, tweets ESPN.com's Marc Stein.

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Mavs Rumors: Draft, Amnesty, Terry, D-Will

We're not expecting to hear a ton of Mavericks rumors until free agency gets underway and Dallas' pursuit of Deron Williams officially begins in earnest. But that doesn't mean the Mavs won't be active today. According to Mike Fisher of DallasBasketball.com (via Twitter), the club is exploring ways to get into the top 11 of the draft. Any deal would be contingent on one of a handful of desired players being available. Here are a few more draft-day notes out of Dallas:

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Odds & Ends: Mavs, Haywood, Pacers, Pistons

When the Thunder bench starts firing in the NBA Finals, it will be a case of what could have been for the Heat, writes Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel.  For the Heat, Derek Fisher is the one that got away while Daequan Cook was given away.  In order to create cap space in the summer of 2010, Miami sent Cook and the No. 18 pick to the Thunder for the No. 32 pick.  Fisher, meanwhile, rejected the Heat that summer in order to re-up with the Lakers.  More items from around the Association..

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