Mobile Menu
HEADLINES

Dan Fegan

Eastern Notes: Baynes, Heat, Sixers, Humphries

November 16th, 2016 at 11:57am CST by Dana Gauruder

Aron Baynes is a “starting-caliber center” and Pistons coach and president of basketball operations Stan Van Gundy knows it will be difficult to retain him beyond this season, he acknowledged to the assembled media. Baynes, who can opt out of the final year of his three-year, $20MM contract after the season, racked up 20 points and eight rebounds against the Thunder on Monday with Andre Drummond sidelined by ankle injury. “As the president, I’m not supposed to say this because the guy can be a free agent,” Van Gundy said. “You’re not supposed to promote him but he’s a starting center in the NBA. He’s just playing behind an All-Star. You look around at all the starting centers and Aron’s a starting-caliber center in the league, so it’s not surprising he played as well as he did.” The Pistons signed restricted free agent Boban Marjanovic this summer to a three-year contract in part to protect themselves if they’re unable to re-sign Baynes.

In other news around the Eastern Conference:

  • Heat second-year forward Justise Winslow is out indefinitely with a left wrist injury, according to Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. Winslow, who is shooting 33.1% from the field, has been nagged by the injury for a few weeks, though X-rays were negative, Jackson adds. “I don’t want to come back too soon and then I take three steps forward and 10 steps backward,” Winslow told Jackson. “I want to get it to where it’s feeling 100 percent, where if I do hit against something, it doesn’t hurt. … I was doing my best to play through it. I could play through it, but it’s a long season.”
  • Gerald Henderson says the Sixers cannot use injuries as a crutch for another poor start, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Ben Simmons, Nerlens Noel and Jerryd Bayless have been sidelined but the veteran shooting guard is alarmed by the team’s lack of energy. “We do have some good, talented guys and good young guys, and we have enough to be able to compete better than we are,” Henderson told Pompey. “So, we just need to give better effort.” Henderson joined the Sixers on a two-year, $18MM contract this summer, though the second year is not guaranteed.
  • Hawks power forward Kris Humphries has re-signed with veteran agent Dan Fegan, Liz Mullen of the Sports Business Journal tweets. Humphries, who signed a one-year, $4MM contract with Atlanta this offseason, was being represented by Jason Renne and Josh Ketroser. Humphries fired Fegan, who works under the agency Independent Sports & Entertainment, in 2011. Fegan represents a number of NBA players, including DeMarcus Cousins and Chandler Parsons.
Retweet 9 Share 0 Send via email0

J.R. Smith To Drop CAA, Hire Klutch Sports

March 24th, 2016 at 10:00am CST by Chuck Myron

J.R. Smith is in the midst of parting with agent Leon Rose and the Creative Artists Agency and plans to sign with Rich Paul of the LeBron James-backed Klutch Sports Group, reports Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. It’s the latest step in the growing bond between Smith and James, who’ve strengthened their connection on the court and off since Smith arrived in Cleveland via trade in January 2015, Haynes writes. Smith is on an unusual two-year contract that includes a player option and partially guaranteed salary for next season.

That deal came at the end of a frustrating summer for Smith, who turned down a player option worth nearly $6.4MM and lingered on the market for about two months before agreeing to a $5MM salary for this season. The partial guarantee on next season’s $5.375MM salary is worth only $2.2MM, though it increases to a full guarantee if he remains under contract through September 7th.

Smith will join James and fellow Cavs teammate Tristan Thompson as clients of Paul. The swingman represents the latest score for Klutch, which also landed Ben Simmons, a prime contender for the No. 1 overall pick who announced his selection of Klutch on Wednesday. John Wall left Dan Fegan of Relativity Sports to sign with Paul earlier this season.  CAA has also otherwise had a strong year so far, landing Joel Embiid as well as soon-to-be free agent Pau Gasol.

The 30-year-old Smith has had a reputation for inconsistent play and stirred controversy in the past, but he was recently cleared of any wrongdoing in a case involving an incident outside a New York nightclub. Coach Tyronn Lue is impressed with Smith’s growth, as Haynes relays.

“Just talking to him the other day after the game, just hearing his maturity. I think him taking that step he took this summer, I think that’s helped him off the court,” Lue said. “And then on the court, every night, he’s giving us effort every single night. He’s playing hard. He’s competing and that’s all we can ask of J.R. It’s been good because I’ve known him since he was 18 years old, just to see the growth and how he’s matured over the years.”

Retweet 6 Share 3 Send via email0

Nets Sign Donald Sloan

August 10th, 2015 at 1:01pm CST by Chuck Myron

1:01am: The deal is for the minimum salary and includes a small guarantee, NetsDaily tweets, citing a league source.

11:50am: The Nets have signed point guard Donald Sloan, the team announced via press release. The new client of Byron Irvin and Dan Fegan became a free agent when his deal with the Pacers expired at the end of June.

Sloan is coming off a career-high 21 starts for an injury-riddled Indiana team this past season. The four-year veteran spent the past two seasons with the Pacers after having played for three teams in his first couple of years in the league. He’s a strong distributor, averaging 3.6 assists against 1.2 turnovers per game in 2014/15, and he was the fourth most efficient assist producer left in free agency, as I noted last week. He was in talks with the Spurs, Bulls and Mavericks last month, as Shams Charania of RealGM reported then, so the Nets appear to have been a more recent suitor.

Brooklyn is hanging around the $84.74MM tax threshold, with less than that figure in guaranteed salary but more than that if non-guaranteed salary is factored in. Sloan made the minimum this past season, and it would be somewhat surprising to see him make more this time around. Still, the Nets do have $2.464MM left on their mid-level exception that they could use if they’re on board with triggering a hard cap of $4MM above the tax line.

The Nets have only 12 fully guaranteed contracts, but Markel Brown, Quincy Miller, Willie Reed and rookie Ryan Boatright all have partially guaranteed pacts, as our roster counts show. Sloan figures to compete with Boatright for the job as Brooklyn’s third point guard behind Jarrett Jack and Shane Larkin.

Retweet 22 Share 6 Send via email0

Dan Fegan To Join Relativity Sports

February 11th, 2013 at 5:00pm CST by Zachary Links

Powerful agent Dan Fegan is set to join Relativity Sports and serve as president of the firm's basketball division, according to Liz Mullen of Sports Business Journal.   Fegan will bring his 40 NBA clients, including Dwight Howard, Shawn Marion, and John Wall while reporting to the company’s COO head many in charge of sports, Happy Walters.

Fegan's 40 clients in addition to Walters' twelve means that Relativity is now one of the largest basketball practices in the United States.  The partnership comes just five months after Fegan left Lagardère Unlimited, and sources said Fegan and Lagardère have settled all of the issues between them, including future fees.  Walters already represents notable NBA players such as Amare Stoudemire, Ty Lawson, and Corey Brewer.

A few agencies represent the majority of the NBA's 450 players, and this move solidifies that trend.  Relativity now joins agencies like CAA Sports, Wasserman Media Group, Priority Sports & Entertainment, BDA Sports, and Excel Sports Management in the exclusive club of NBA power agencies.

We first heard word of a partnership between Fegan and Walters back in September.

Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Western Notes: Thunder, Lin, Dwight

December 29th, 2012 at 6:22pm CST by Ryan Raroque

HoopsWorld's Susan Bible wonders whether Thunder sophomore Reggie Jackson, with an assist from extra playing time in the D-League, has surpassed Eric Maynor to become the primary backup to Russell Westbrook. Maynor will be a restricted free agent this summer, while Jackson's rookie deal isn't up until 2015. Jackson and Maynor's respective playing time over the last three games have definitely been worth noting, as the former Boston College product has averaged 16.3 MPG to Maynor's 1.3 (including two DNP-CDs). We have more tidbits to share from the Western Conference, and you can find them below:

  • Jeremy Lin is becoming a better fit next to James Harden, as Royce Young of CBSSports.com observes. The Rockets have gone 7-2 in their last nine games, with Lin averaging 14.1 PPG and 6.7 APG. 
  • The Mavericks are hoping that Dwight Howard will leave the Lakers in free agency next summer, tweets Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. As Chuck Myron outlined over the summer, signing Howard appears to be a risky strategy from a salary cap perspective, even if it's possible. 
  • Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune provides a fuller picture of Rockets coach Kevin McHale's recent comments about Royce White.
  • While former Kings second round draft pick Hassan Whiteside isn't currently under contract with an NBA team, Ryan Ripley of Ridiculous Upside highlights how the 7-footer's recent performances with the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the D-League has helped quell some past concerns about his play. 
  • Vincent Goodwill of the Detroit News thinks that Dan Fegan (the newly hired agent of DeMarcus Cousins) could be instrumental in forcing a trade out of Sacramento with Cousins' chance at a contract extension looming (Twitter link).

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Richardson Expected Trade From Magic

October 11th, 2012 at 5:40pm CST by Chuck Myron

Jason Richardson has cut ties with agent Dan Fegan, but he says he fully expected the Magic to trade him over the summer when he was still represented by the man who also serves as the agent for Dwight Howard, reports John Denton of Magic.com (Twitter link). The Magic sent Richardson to the Sixers as part of Howard's trade to the Lakers this summer.

"Anybody associated with Dan Fegan was going to get traded," Richardson told reporters, including Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link). 

The Magic franchise was seemingly on hold last season as Howard waffled on whether he wanted to remain in Orlando. He wound up waiving the early termination option on his contract for 2012/13 right before the trade deadline this past March, but regretted the move. Chris Broussard of ESPN.com reported on the eve of the deadline that the Magic were "incensed" with Fegan, believing he was trying to convince the star center to leave. Fegan also leaked information from a meeting Magic executives held with Howard in July, a couple weeks before the blockbuster trade that sent Howard and Richardson out of Orlando.

Richardson said he wished he could have done more during his time in Orlando, Schmitz tweets. The Magic acquired him from the Suns in December of 2010, and his numbers took an immediate hit. He averaged 11.6 points and 3.6 rebounds with a 13.3 PER last year, all of which were career lows. His numbers of 13.9 PPG, 4.0 RPG and 13.2 PER in a partial season with Orlando in 2010/11 weren't much better. 

Fegan recently made a move of his own, leaving Lagardère Unlimited to join Happy Walters at the newly created Relativity Sports agency. Walters represents Earl Clark, another of the players involved in the Howard trade. The other player the Magic unloaded in that deal, Chris Duhon, is represented by Kevin Bradbury and Bill Duffy. Al Harrington, whom the Magic got from Denver in the deal, is believed to be the only Fegan client on the Magic roster, according to RealGM.com.

Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Odds & Ends: Harden, Spurs, Richardson, Nuggets

October 11th, 2012 at 12:09pm CST by Luke Adams

Of today's slate of preseason NBA games, three are scheduled for tonight, with one already in the books — the Heat defeated the Clippers 94-80 in Beijing in a contest that got underway at 6:30 CST this morning. As we await the rest of today's action, let's round up a few odds and ends from around the league….

Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Odds & Ends: Blake, Seattle, Fegan, Millsap, Uzoh

September 24th, 2012 at 5:19pm CST by Luke Adams

According to the team's official website, Lakers guard Steve Blake suffered a puncture wound after stepping on a spike strip in a parking lot. The statement says Blake will be restricted from team activities for at least three weeks. Despite not being one of the bigger names on Los Angeles' roster, Blake's role as the team's veteran backup point guard is quite important, especially considering incoming starter Steve Nash's inability to log major minutes. 

Here are a few more Monday odds and ends from around the NBA:

Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0

Odds & Ends: Fegan, Childress, Anthony, Gee

September 10th, 2012 at 3:20pm CST by Luke Adams

Prominent NBA agent Dan Fegan has confirmed that he's no longer with Lagardère Unlimited, according to Liz Mullen of the Sports Business Journal (via Twitter). Fegan, who had been serving as the president of basketball at the agency, represents a number of NBA players, including big names like Dwight Howard and Nene. It will be interesting to see how many of those clients he takes with him.

Here are a few more Monday odds and ends from around the NBA:

  • Josh Childress will meet with Nets GM Billy King and coach Avery Johnson and work out for the team on Tuesday, according to Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork.com. We heard last week that Childress and Dominic McGuire would work out for the Nets, but McGuire has since reached an agreement with the Raptors.
  • Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel thinks the Heat could be angling to find a way to move Joel Anthony's contract. Anthony has three years remaining on his deal (including a third-year player option) for about $3.8MM annually.
  • Sean Williams remains on the Timberwolves' radar, tweets Darren Wolfson of ESPN 1500. Wolfson had reported late last month that the T-Wolves were eyeing the big man.
  • Alonzo Gee's new deal with the Cavaliers, which was finally completed earlier today, was held up because Gee switched agents during the negotiations, says Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal (Sulia link). The Cavs wing is now represented by Happy Walters.
  • After the Kings, Cavaliers, Wizards, Bobcats, and Hornets drafted in the top five in June, Steve Kyler of HoopsWorld examines whether any of last year's NBA bottom-dwellers are ready to contend for the postseason in 2012/13.
Retweet 0 Share 0 Send via email0