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Hasheem Thabeet

And-Ones: Allen, Thabeet, Arroyo, Ingles

September 2nd, 2014 at 3:15pm CST by Chuck Myron

Only a half dozen second-round picks from this June are without deals to play in the NBA, overseas or the D-League, as our log of this year’s draft pick signings shows, and Friday looms as a key date for them. That’s the last day their NBA teams have to make a required one-year tender for the minimum salary without losing their rights to them. Such glorified training camp invitations might not be ideal for draftees who’d hoped to establish more solid footing in the NBA, but if any are at an impasse in negotiations, the deadline could be a tipping point. While we wait to see how that plays out, here’s the latest from around the league:

  • Ray Allen has fielded recruiting calls from LeBron James and others, as the sharpshooter tells Don Amore of The Hartford Courant, but Allen cites a desire to stay around his family as he continues to insist that there’s a strong chance he’s played his last game. “I don’t want to go into a situation where I don’t understand the coaching, don’t understand the direction of the team,” Allen said. “My family is very important in making the decision. Right now, there is nothing that I need to do. If I ultimately decide this will be it for me, I’m content with that.”
  • Hasheem Thabeet remains on the Sixers roster, so it appears they’ve guaranteed his salary for the coming season. Monday was the last day they could waive him without owing him his $1.25MM pay for 2014/15, as Anthony Slater of The Oklahoman confirmed. Philadelphia was reportedly likely to waive him in advance of that deadline.
  • NBA teams would have to buy Carlos Arroyo out of his deal with Galatasaray in Turkey to bring him stateside for this season, and while he’d consider returning to the Association, no one from the NBA has shown serious interest, as he tells HoopsHype’s David Alarcon.
  • The widespread NBA interest in Joe Ingles is surprising, observes David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). The Australian small forward was having a tough time generating interest from European teams before this week’s strong FIBA World Cup showing, according to Pick.
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Trade Details: Love, Thabeet, Sefolosha, Dudley

August 27th, 2014 at 9:41pm CST by Alex Lee

Here is the latest on a handful of recent trades from cap guru Eric Pincus of the Los Angeles Times and Basketball Insiders:

  • Pincus reports that the Wolves received a $6.3MM trade exception in the Kevin Love deal, which is the difference between the salaries of Love and Thaddeus Young ($6,308,194 to be exact). It was originally thought to be worth $4,644,503 — the difference between Love’s salary and the combined salaries of Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett — but Pincus indicates that, for Minnesota’s purposes, Love was traded for Young while Wiggins and Bennett were traded for Luc Mbah a Moute and Alexey Shved (Twitter links).
  • The Thunder have sent $100K along with Hasheem Thabeet to the Sixers in exchange for a top-55 protected second round draft pick, according to Pincus, who confirms that the deal will award Oklahoma City a $1.25MM trade exception. With Thabeet likely to be cut and Philly nearly certain not to finish as a top-five team next season, the Thunder essentially paid $100K for a $1.25MM trade exception that they’ll hold until August 26th, 2015 (Twitter links here).
  • Pincus reminds us that the Thunder also pulled off a similar maneuver when they dealt Thabo Sefolosha to the Hawks last month. In that deal, Oklahoma City sent $550K to Atlanta which netted them a trade exception worth $4.15MM. (Twitter links).
  • The Sixers are a likely candidate to take on salary this season via their cap room with cash and draft picks as compensation, Pincus believes. Each team is permitted to send out and receive up to $3.3MM in cash per season, so Philly can still receive up to $3.2MM (Twitter links here).
  • The 2017 first-round pick headed from the Clippers to the Bucks in the Jared Dudley deal is lottery protected through 2019, at which time it will become two second-round picks, one for 2020 and the other for 2021, Pincus reports. Of course, as Pincus points out, the Clippers are likely to be a playoff team for the foreseeable future so the pick should be with Milwaukee come 2017 (Twitter links).
  • While both deals were officially announced by at least one of the participating teams, Pincus tweets that Dudley still has to pass a physical to go to the Bucks while Thabeet is not required to do so to head to the Sixers.
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Thunder Trade Hasheem Thabeet To Sixers

August 26th, 2014 at 5:07pm CST by Chuck Myron

5:07pm: The trade is official, the Thunder have announced via press release. It’s Thabeet and cash headed to Philadelphia with a protected 2015 second-rounder going to Oklahoma City. That pick will probably never change hands, as Slater reported.

4:57pm: Oklahoma City is receiving a second-round pick, but it’s conditional and so heavily protected that Philadelphia is unlikely to ever have to convey it, reports Anthony Slater of The Oklahoman.

3:55pm: The Thunder will deal Hasheem Thabeet to the Sixers, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (on Twitter). The Sixers will likely waive Thabeet after the trade becomes official, Stein also hears (Twitter link). Philadelphia will also receive cash, and the Thunder won’t be taking back any salary, so they can create a trade exception worth Thabeet’s $1.25MM salary, Stein adds (via Twitter).

Thabeet’s salary is non-guaranteed, but it’s set to become fully guaranteed by the end of this coming Monday, which helps explain the timing of the move. Thabeet, the No. 2 pick in the 2009 draft, fell out of Oklahoma City’s rotation this past season amid the emergence of rookie Steven Adams. The 27-year-old Thabeet saw action in just 23 games with an average of 8.3 minutes per appearance.

It’d be a little surprising to see Philadelphia wind up with only cash from the transaction, especially given how much Sixers GM Sam Hinkie covets draft picks, so perhaps there’s more to the transaction than is being reported, though that’s just my speculation. Oklahoma City will have to net an asset of some sort in the trade, too. In any case, the move is set to take Oklahoma City down to 15 players, including 14 guaranteed deals and Lance Thomas, who has a non-guaranteed pact.

The 7’3″ Thabeet has never found solid footing in the league after spending three years at the University of Connecticut. The Grizzlies sent him on D-League assignment in his rookie season, a rarity for a player taken so highly in the draft, and they traded him to the Rockets midway through his second season. Houston swapped him to the Blazers a year later, and he signed with the Thunder the following summer. He spent his first season with Oklahoma City as the primary backup center behind Kendrick Perkins, but he lost that job in 2013/14.

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Non-Guaranteed Players On Non-Minimum Deals

September 3rd, 2013 at 8:51am CST by Luke Adams

In many cases, players on non-guaranteed or partially guaranteed contracts are slated to earn minimum salaries if they remain on NBA rosters. That's especially true at this time of year, when most players who had been on non-guaranteed contracts worth more than the minimum have already seen their deals become fully guaranteed — Kyle Lowry, for instance, was only owed $1MM of his $6.21MM salary for 2013/14, but that full $6.21MM became guaranteed when he wasn't waived on or before July 15th.

There are still a handful of players though who are on non-guaranteed deals worth more than the minimum, and still aren't entirely safe. Last night, we passed along our complete list of non-guaranteed contracts for '13/14, but this morning we'll highlight a few specific cases, weighing the likelihood of these guys earning their full salaries.

Listed below are the players believed to still be on non-guaranteed contracts worth more than the minimum salary for the coming season. These deals will become fully guaranteed if the players aren't released on or before January 7th.

  • Andrew Bynum, Cavaliers ($6MM of $12.25MM currently guaranteed). Bynum's health figures to play a role in determining whether or not he earns the additional $6.25MM on his contract this year. Still, I think the Cavs will probably keep Bynum around barring anything short of a season-ending injury. Even if he has only appeared in a handful of games by the time decision day rolls around in January, it's hard to imagine Cleveland releasing Bynum if the team believes he could be healthy in the second half, considering the potential upside.
  • C.J. Miles, Cavaliers (none of $2.225MM currently guaranteed). If the Cavaliers were going to cut Miles, I think they would have done it by now, to maximize their summer cap space. At $2.225MM, the eight-year veteran, who averaged 11.2 PPG and a .384 3PT% in his first year as a Cav, is a relative bargain, and figures to remain in Cleveland beyond January 7th.
  • Hasheem Thabeet, Thunder ($500K of $1.2MM currently guaranteed). Thabeet may never live up to the expectations placed on him when he was drafted second overall in 2009, but if you're looking for a big man capable of playing 10-15 minutes per game off the bench, you could do worse. Oklahoma City is flirting with the luxury tax line, and has a few non-guaranteed deals on the books, so at least one or two of those guys will likely be waived. Still, I'd be a little surprised if Thabeet was one of those cuts, particularly since OKC holds a cheap 2014/15 option on him.
  • Hedo Turkoglu, Magic ($6MM of $12MM currently guaranteed). The Magic continue to work on a buyout for Turkoglu, and it sounds like he'll probably be off the roster well before January. One report suggested that Turkoglu's big expiring contract could become a decent trade chip at the February deadline, but that would mean guaranteeing him another $6MM, which seems like bad business.
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Odds & Ends: Shaw, Lakers, Sloan, Thabeet

November 6th, 2012 at 10:58pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA’s evening schedule only features three contests, but all three should be interesting to watch — the Magic will look to stay undefeated in Chicago, the Thunder will try to bounce back from a home loss to Portland, and in Denver, both the Nuggets and Pistons will be seeking their first win. As we await tonight’s games, let’s check out a few odds and ends from around the Association:

  • Pacers assistant Brian Shaw is arguably the most qualified assistant in the league, but Mark Montieth of Pacers.com doesn’t expect him to hold that title for much longer.  Shaw turned down the Bobcats head coaching job this summer because he didn’t like the fit, but figures to receive a stronger offer in his next try.
  • Speaking to Alex Kennedy of HoopsWorld, one league source predicted that Jerry Sloan will replace Mike Brown as the Lakers‘ head coach within the next month.
  • Although James Harden was upset that the Thunder rushed his decision on a contract extension before they traded him to the Rockets, LeBron James tells Chris Tomasson of FOX Sports Florida (Sulia link) that he thinks Harden is welcoming the opportunity to “have his [own] team and showcase what he’s able to do.”
  • Kevin Martin, who played with Hasheem Thabeet in Houston, says Thabeet seems to be an entirely different player with the Thunder. “Whatever they did to him, it definitely worked in his favor,” Martin tells Susan Bible of HoopsWorld.
  • Andrei Kirilenko talks to Michael Scotto of RealGM.com about his decision to play in Russia during the 2011/12 season before returning to the NBA with the Timberwolves this year.
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Western Notes: Morris, Murphy, Thunder, Thabeet

November 3rd, 2012 at 5:40pm CST by Ryan Raroque

With news of Steve Nash's leg fracture keeping him out for another week, Dave McMenamin of ESPN Los Angeles thinks that this will be a good opportunity for Darius Morris to prove himself, noting that that his potential is what helped the Lakers decide to keep him over recently-cut guard Andrew Goudelock. McMenamin also cited Mike Brown's postgame comments last night about Morris, who also appeared to be encouraged about the second year point guard's ability to change the tempo of the game and apply good defensive pressure (Sulia link). Here are more of this evening's links out of the Western Conference:

  • Dwain Price of the Star-Telegram writes that Troy Murphy's familiarity with Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle's system made the 6'11 forward an ideal fit with the team. Although Murphy is not yet in 'great' shape, Price says that he will be expected to help stretch the floor with his shooting ability. 
  • Darnell Mayberry of NewsOK shared a handful of notes from Thunder practice today, mentioning that Kendrick Perkins should be ready to play the Hawks on Sunday after spraining his ankle last night, discussing the growing confidence of Hasheem Thabeet amidst concerns about the team's depth at center, Serge Ibaka's early shooting struggles, and coach Scott Brooks' effort to get minutes for Jeremy Lamb, among other topics. 
  • Nick Gallo of NBA.com looks at the Thunder's emphasis on protecting the paint this season and how center Hasheem Thabeet can be used effectively in that role against bigger lineups. 
  • K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune tweeted that Hornets coach Monty Williams credits Knicks center Tyson Chandler for Anthony Davis' development during the London Olympics this past summer. Williams also weighed in on the league's concussion policy, addressing the notion that Davis could miss several games because of league protocol after suffering a mild concussion yesterday: "It's just that now you treat everybody like they have on white gloves and pink draws. It's just getting old, but it's just the way the league is now…I'm not saying I don't like it; we've got to protect our players…but as a coach I’m a baby about it. I want my guys ready to play.'' (John Reid of NOLA.com reports). 
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Odds & Ends: Curry, Gibson, Warriors, Thabeet

October 30th, 2012 at 10:59pm CST by Chuck Myron

Stephen Curry didn't want extension talks to go down to the wire, but it appears that's the case, as Curry's comments to Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle lead Simmons to conclude that agent Jeff Austin and Warriors GM Bob Myers continue to try to work out a deal (Sulia link). Since Curry left a preseason game after tweaking his ankle ten days ago, we've heard multiple reports suggesting a deal was unlikely. Nothing's final until tomorrow's 11:00pm Central time deadline, and with about 24 hours to go, there's news on another extension-eligible player among notes from the first night of the 2012/13 regular season.

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Thunder Notes: Orton, Harden, Perkins, Thabeet

September 26th, 2012 at 1:27pm CST by Luke Adams

Thunder GM Sam Presti addressed the media in Oklahoma City earlier today at his preseason press conference. While the Thunder GM was typically evasive on issues like James Harden's contract negotiations, he shared a few notable nuggets. Here are some of the highlights, from The Oklahoman's coverage of the presser:

  • After making the Finals this spring, the Thunder will look to continue with the mentality and approach that got them there — thinking big and building small.
  • Presti on the possibility of biting the bullet and going into the luxury tax to keep the team's core together: "There are certain realities that we face, and there are some inherent challenges that we face. I don't feel comfortable talking about limitations and things that we ultimately have to decide on, but we're making a commitment to try to put a competitive team on the floor. But we have to do that right thing for the organization."
  • The new CBA "is what it is," and the Thunder will have to work within its confines, says Presti.
  • The Thunder like Daniel Orton, who signed with the team this summer. He's got a "nice edge to him," according to Presti.
  • Asked about Kendrick Perkins' prediction that Harden will want to sign an extension once he gets to camp, Presti stressed that he doesn't want to place expectations on specific people and predict how they're going to react.
  • The Thunder hope to have Perkins healthy for the first game of the regular season, but Orton, Hasheem Thabeet, and Cole Aldrich should receive plenty of preseason action while Perkins recovers from wrist and groin injuries.
  • Thabeet's conditioning is much improved, according to Presti.
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Odds & Ends: Bucks, Thabeet, Redd

September 17th, 2012 at 4:02pm CST by Luke Adams

A few Monday afternoon odds and ends from around the NBA:

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Contract Details: Novak, Green, Miller, Thompson

July 16th, 2012 at 4:19pm CST by Luke Adams

While most players' contracts include annual raises, or at the very least, identical annual salaries, Steve Novak's new contract with the Knicks is a little different, as Mark Deeks of ShamSports explains (Twitter link). Novak's deal starts at a little over $4MM, dips to below $3.5MM by 2014/15, then rises back up to $3.75MM for 2015/16. The unusual structure of the deal provides the Knicks a small amount of savings in the years when the rest of the team's roster will get extremely expensive.

Deeks shared a number of other contract details from around the league, via Twitter, so let's round them up….

  • The Spurs' deal with Danny Green is for three fully-guaranteed years and $11,287,500, with no options.
  • Andre Miller will earn $5MM in each of the next two seasons with the Nuggets. The third year of his deal is partially guaranteed for $2MM of $4.625MM.

Earlier updates:

Read more

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