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Mason Plumlee, JaMychal Green Receive Qualifying Offers

June 21st, 2017 at 11:32pm CST by Luke Adams

Mason Plumlee and JaMychal Green have formally received qualifying offers from the Nuggets and Grizzlies, respectively, making them restricted free agents, according to RealGM’s official transactions log.

Plumlee, who was traded from the Trail Blazers to the Nuggets in February, averaged a career-high 10.4 PPG in 2016/17 to go along with 7.5 RPG and 3.5 APG. He was in the final year of his four-year rookie contract, making him eligible for restricted free agency. Because the former 22nd overall pick met the starter criteria, the value of his qualifying offer from Denver increased to $4,588,840.

Plumlee could sign a one-year deal worth that amount and reach the unrestricted market in 2018, but he’s more likely to sign a long-term contract this summer. He could negotiate directly with the Nuggets or sign an offer sheet with another team, giving Denver the opportunity to match it.

As for Green, he wasn’t a first-round pick and isn’t coming off his rookie contract, but only has three NBA seasons under his belt, making him eligible for restricted free agency as well. Like Plumlee, Green met the starter criteria, bumping the value of his qualifying offer to $2,820,497.

The 27-year-old entered Memphis’ starting lineup on a full-time basis last season in place of Zach Randolph, averaging 8.9 PPG and 7.1 RPG in 77 contests (75 starts). With Randolph also eligible for free agency this offseason, the Grizzlies may have to make a decision between keeping their longtime stalwart at power forward, or their younger starter.

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Southwest Notes: Green, Gentry, Harden

May 12th, 2017 at 6:05pm CST by Austin Kent

The Grizzlies may have to choose between Zach Randolph and JaMychal Green, Michael Wallace of Grind City Media writes. The scribe details Green’s first season as a starter in Memphis and what could come next as the offseason nears.

Given that Green is a restricted free agent this summer, the Grizzlies will have the option to match any offers he can scrounge up on the market. This, of course, means that teams like the Nets, Magic and Sixers with plenty of cap space can sign the forward to a lofty deal in hopes that Memphis doesn’t match.

Green’s defensive versatility, coupled with his three-ball make him a particularly appealing asset for a Grizzlies team with an aging core but foul trouble and a quick temper limited his impact.

If, as Wallace suggests, the team truly has an either/or situation on their hands, general manager Chris Wallace will need to choose between the intriguing 26-year-old hybrid forward and a Grizzlies legend.

There’s more from the Southwest:

  • Although the Pelicans never quite turned their season around with DeMarcus Cousins and Anthony Davis like many expected, head coach Alvin Gentry believes he’ll be back with the club to give it another shot in 2017/18. Scott Kushner of the New Orleans Advocate relays the comments from a podcast at The Vertical.
  • The Spurs may have achieved sporting immortality, J.A. Adande of ESPN writes. The feature highlights what Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford have built in San Antonio and how it transcends any individual player or players.
  • After their season ended Thursday, Rockets head coach Mike D’Antoni told ESPN’s Tim MacMahon that one way he could look to improve upon Houston’s 55-win season is to better understand James Harden‘s limitations. “All great players think they can do everything,” D’Antoni said. “Maybe he does need to take a game off here and there. ‘Hey, you’re nicked up a little bit, don’t play, maybe.’ Something to talk about, but that’s also his greatness, too. So it’s hard. It’s very delicate.“
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Tony Allen Not Looking To “Break The Bank” In Free Agency

April 28th, 2017 at 1:08pm CST by Luke Adams

While cornerstone pieces like Mike Conley and Marc Gasol remain under contract for multiple years, the Grizzlies will see some key players hit the open market this summer, including Tony Allen. Speaking today to the media after Memphis was eliminated from the postseason, Allen said he’s “not trying to break the bank” in free agency and is “confident” he’ll return to the Grizzlies, per Ronald Tillery of The Memphis Commercial Appeal (Twitter link).

Allen had previously expressed a desire to stay in Memphis, likening the possibility of leaving to a “divorce” and suggesting that he didn’t want to think about that scenario. At the time, the veteran guard said that he’ll always be a Memphian even if he doesn’t re-sign with the club.

Allen, 35, is coming off his 13th NBA season, and has spent the last seven of those years in Memphis. His production has remained remarkably consistent during that seven-year stretch — he has never averaged fewer than 8.4 PPG or more than 9.8 PPG, and continues to provide the club with solid defense on the wing, though he missed the end of this season – and the playoffs – due to a calf injury.

Allen’s salaries during that stretch have also been fairly consistent. He earned $3MM in his first season with the Grizzlies back in 2010/11, and has seen that figure rise a little each year — he made about $5.5MM in 2016/17.

With nearly $93MM in guaranteed salary already on their books for 2017/18, the Grizzlies won’t have the flexibility to use cap room if they intend to re-sign Allen and/or Zach Randolph. Still, they hold Allen’s Bird rights, allowing them to offer him anything up to the max. Despite Allen’s assertion that he’d not looking to “break the bank,” another modest raise seems fair if he intends to remain in Memphis.

JaMychal Green, who is eligible for restricted free agency this summer, also said today that he hopes to return to the Grizzlies, indicating that Memphis “feels like home” for him (Twitter link via Tillery).

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Potential 2017 RFAs Whose Qualifying Offers Will Be Impacted By Starter Criteria

April 7th, 2017 at 11:22am CST by Luke Adams

The NBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement, which will go into effect on July 1, 2017, includes a number of changes to the free agent process, including some that apply specifically to restricted free agents. However, one aspect of restricted free agency unaffected by the new CBA is what’s referred to as the “starter criteria,” which can affect how much an RFA’s qualifying offer will be worth.

Here’s how the starter criteria works: A player who is eligible for restricted free agency is considered to have met the starter criteria if he plays at least 2,000 minutes or starts 41 games in the season before he reaches free agency. A player can also meet the criteria if he averages either of those marks in the two seasons prior to his restricted free agency. For instance, if a player started 50 games in 2015/16 and 35 in 2016/17, he’d meet the starter criteria, since his average number of starts over the last two seasons exceeds 41.

A player’s ability or inability to meet the starter criteria can affect the value of the qualifying offer he receives as a restricted free agent, as follows:

  • A top-14 pick who does not meet the starter criteria will receive a qualifying offer equal to the amount the 15th overall pick would receive if he signed for 120% of the rookie scale.
  • A player picked between 10th and 30th who meets the criteria will receive a qualifying offer equal to the amount the ninth overall pick would receive if he signed for 120% of the rookie scale.
  • A second-round pick or undrafted player who meets the criteria will receive a qualifying offer equal to the amount the 21st overall pick would receive if he signed for 100% of the rookie scale.
  • For all other RFAs, the standard criteria determine the amounts of their qualifying offers.

Extending a qualifying offer to a player ensures that a team has the right of first refusal if he signs an offer sheet, and gives the player the option of signing that one-year QO. Generally, the value of a restricted free agent’s qualifying offer isn’t hugely important, since very few RFAs accept those offers outright. Still, those QOs can have an impact on a team’s salary cap outlook during July’s free agent period, so it’s worth checking in to see which potential RFAs will be eligible for higher or lower qualifying offers this summer.

Listed below are the top-14 picks on track for restricted free agency who have not met the starter criteria. These players will be eligible for qualifying offers worth $4,187,598.

Len and Noel had the worst QO luck this season. As the fifth and sixth overall picks in 2013, they would have been in line for qualifying offers worth about $6.4MM and $5.85MM, respectively. Instead, their QOs will be worth less than $4.2MM. Both players were very close to meeting the starter criteria too — they’ve started 77 games apiece in the past two years, so they’ll fall just short of the 82 required.

The players listed below are non-lottery first-round picks who will meet the starter criteria. That will make each of them eligible for a qualifying offer worth $4,588,840.

All four of these players were selected in the 20-26 range in the 2013 draft, and their QOs would’ve ranged from about $3.39MM to $3.22MM if they hadn’t met the starter criteria.

Here are the rest of the RFAs whose qualifying offers won’t necessarily be determined by the standard criteria:

  • Undrafted power forward JaMychal Green (Grizzlies) has met the starter criteria, putting him in line for a QO worth $2,820,497 instead of the more modest amount he would’ve received as a minimum-salary player.
  • Two players – Joe Ingles (Jazz) and Ben McLemore (Kings) – still have a chance to meet the starter criteria depending on how the season’s last four days play out. Ingles has played 1,848 minutes this season, meaning he would have to average about 38 MPG in Utah’s last four contests to reach 2,000, which is a tall order. McLemore may fall just short as well, as he currently sits at 79 starts over the last two seasons. He’ll need to start three of the Kings’ last four games in order to average 41 starts per year, but he has only been in Sacramento’s starting lineup twice since the start of March. (End-of-season update: Neither Ingles nor McLemore met the starter criteria.)
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Celtics Rumors: Butler, George, Bogut, Fultz

February 23rd, 2017 at 11:16am CST by Dana Gauruder

The Celtics remain hopeful of acquiring either Jimmy Butler or Paul George before the trade deadline but it’s more likely they’ll hold onto their main assets, Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald reports.

One sticking point is that GM Danny Ainge is reluctant to part with the first-round pick the Net owe them this summer via a swap of positions, Bulpett continues. An agent with connections to the potential deal between the Bulls and Boston informed Bulpett that Ainge’s unwillingness to deal the pick scuttled preliminary discussions. The Pacers would likely want that same pick as part of any deal involving George, Bulpett speculates.

Unless a blockbuster deal is worked out that would give them a serious chance of supplanting the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference, the Celtics have no real incentive to move their most prized assets, the thinking goes in the Boston front office. According to another league executive, teams have offered solid veterans to Boston but Ainge only wants to a “real star” for those assets, Bulpett writes in a separate column.

Other nuggets involving the Celtics possible moves:

  • Andrew Bogut, whom the Mavs agreed to trade to the Sixers today, could be re-routed to the Celtics, David Aldridge of NBA.com tweets. However, ESPN’s Chris Haynes tweets that Philadelphia is expected to engage in buyout talks with the veteran center.
  • Ainge wants to remain a player in this summer’s free agent market unless he can obtain a franchise cornerstone today or via the draft, according to Bulpett. If the Celtics end up holding onto the Nets pick, Washington freshman Markelle Fultz could be the player they’re coveting.
  • A lesser trade involving a forward such as the Grizzlies’ JaMychal Green or Suns’ P.J. Tucker remains a possibility, Bulpett adds.
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Southwest Notes: Anderson, Parsons, Green

January 3rd, 2017 at 4:51pm CST by ChrisCrouse

GM Daryl Morey said the Rockets tried to trade for Ryan Anderson multiple times over the past few years, adding that the team was “obsessed” with his game, as Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer writes. Houston signed the power forward to a four-year, $80MM deal during the offseason.

Here’s more from the Southwest Division:

  • Chandler Parsons, who signed a max contract with the Grizzlies over the summer, missed 25 games this season because of injuries and he’s shooting a career low 34.7% from the field in the 11 games he has been able to play. However, Parsons remains optimistic that he can turn the season around, as he tells Sam Amick of USA Today. “I’m obviously not hitting at a high rate, and I’ve been an efficient player my entire career,” Parsons said. “But it’s the law of averages, man. Let me keep playing. I ain’t gonna shoot this bad for the rest of the year.”
  • JaMychal Green has played well for the Grizzlies this season, but Joe Mullinax of SB Nation wonders if Green should be part of the team’s long-term plans. Green will be a restricted free agent this offseason and Mullinax speculates that the power forward will command an annual salary of at least $10MM, a figure that could be too pricey for Memphis.
  • Andrew Bogut acknowledges that coming off the bench can be a “little disparaging,” but he’s willing to try new things if it helps the Mavericks win more games, as Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com passes along. “If that’s the way things are going to go to try to get us wins, I’m all for it. If it doesn’t get us wins, then we have a conversation in five or six games,” Bogut said. “It’s no secret that that lineup just doesn’t work. [Harrison Barnes] at the 4 with Dirk at the 5 or myself at the 5 is way more effective. You don’t have to look at analytics to see that. You can see that with the way the floor spacing is and all of that. We’ll give it a shot and see how it goes.”
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Western Notes: M. Gasol, Carter, Green, Richardson

January 1st, 2017 at 9:59pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Grizzlies need Marc Gasol‘s injured ankle to heal as quickly as possible, writes Sam Amick of USA Today. Gasol rolled his left ankle in Saturday’s game, providing a scare for the team’s top player this season. The 32-year-old center is averaging a career high in points and rebounds, while anchoring the NBA’s top defense. X-rays were negative and Gasol was listed as day-to-day with a sprained ankle, according to ESPN. “It hurts, but it’s not broken,” Gasol said. “It’s tender right now, so we will take it day-to-day, just like always.”

There’s more out of the Western Conference:

  • The contracts for Grizzlies Vince Carter and JaMychal Green both became guaranteed today, tweets Bobby Marks of The Vertical. Carter will make $4,264,057 this season, while Green will collect $980,431. Both players will become free agents when the season ends.
  • The Kings are planning to give more playing time to rookie guard Malachi Richardson, writes James Ham of CSNBayArea. Richardson has gotten into just five games with Sacramento, averaging 6.4 minutes. But he has played well in the D-League, with 21 points per night in 11 games, and coach Dave Joerger is ready to give him a chance at the NBA level. “I think that it’s time for Malachi to get into the rotation, especially with Rudy [Gay] out,” Joerger said. “That’s something that you’ll see, probably, going forward.”
  • Agent Rich Kleiman will leave Roc Nation to become the manager and business partner for the Warriors‘ Kevin Durant, according to Mark J. Burns of SportTechie (Twitter links). The agency will continue to represent Durant.
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And-Ones: Motiejunas, Neal, Jerrett, 2017 FAs

December 18th, 2016 at 3:48pm CST by Luke Adams

Now an unrestricted free agent, Donatas Motiejunas has more freedom than ever to decide the next step in his basketball career, even if he can no longer sign with the Nets. As he looks for a new NBA home, Motiejunas released a statement today on Twitter, announcing that he has “a lot more to give to the game of basketball, and can’t wait to get back on the court.”

“I invest so much into my craft and have worked extremely hard to stay healthy and prove myself on the basketball court, which was evident last season,” Motiejunas said. “I look forward to immediately contributing to a new team and ultimately winning championships.

“I want to thank the great fans in Houston for all of their support. I really enjoyed my time in the community. The city and people will always hold a special place in my heart as the place where my NBA career began.”

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

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Zach Randolph Transitioning To Bench Role

October 6th, 2016 at 8:57am CST by ChrisCrouse

JaMychal Green will start at the power forward position for the Grizzlies, nudging Zach Randolph to the bench, Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal reports (Twitter links). Green’s placement into the starting lineup almost surely indicates he will make the team. His contract is only partially guaranteed for $200K this season, but his whole salary worth roughly $980K will become guaranteed on January 1, according to Bobby Marks of The Vertical (Twitter link).

Randolph has been a regular starter for Memphis since coming to the team in 2009. The 35-year-old understands the change and is putting the team first, as Tillery passes along (Twitter links). “I’m fine with it. You know how I am. Whatever is best for the team,” Randolph said.

New Grizzlies head coach David Fizdale reportedly told Z-Bo that he’s not going to be paid to be a starter anymore, Tillery relays (Twitter link). “Let’s audition you for what you can be for the rest of your career,” Fizdale said. The power forward will make roughly $10.36MM in the last year of his deal before becoming eligible for free agency next summer. That figure is currently fourth on the team.

Randolph had a nice season last year, but the move is more about the evolving NBA than it is with the level of his play. Having two traditional big men on the floor for long stretches isn’t a recipe for success anymore.

The move is also about the Grizzlies trying to manufacture some offense out of their thin bench unit. Without plucking Randolph from the starting lineup, Memphis’ second unit could have been the worst of any team in the league with serious playoff aspirations. Rookie Wade Baldwin may not be ready to play meaningful minutes. New addition Troy Daniels should be solid, but can he be the team’s sixth man?  Can a 39-year-old Vince Carter still make plays? How consistent will James Ennis be on a night-to-night basis? The team surely hopes a few contributors emerge in its second unit, but it doesn’t look all that dangerous on paper.

Moving Randolph to the second unit ensures the team will have a least one player on the court who can create some offense once the starters hit the pine. Randolph is willing to do whatever is takes to win. He’s a fan favorite in Memphis and part of the reason is his dedication to the team. “If Coach [Fizdale] wants me to play 10 minutes, I’ll come in and play the hardest 10 minutes,” Randolph said.

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Southwest Notes: Morey, Durant, Pelicans, Grizzlies

June 12th, 2016 at 10:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Rockets already have several players on their roster who fit new coach Mike D’Antoni’s style, GM Daryl Morey told Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical. Appearing as a guest on Wojnarowski’s podcast, Morey said D’Antoni has a very positive reputation with players and agents around the league because they know players can put up good offensive numbers in his system. “I think a lot of what we went through last year is guys weren’t as engaged on defense,” Morey said. “That’s because we were struggling from A to Z, and that impacted our defense overall.”

There’s more from the Southwest Division:

  • The Rockets are still hoping to meet with free agent Kevin Durant next month, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Stein reported this week that Houston isn’t among the teams that Durant is considering.
  • The Pelicans have workouts scheduled for 12 players Monday, according to John Reid of The Times-Picayune. On the list are French stars Isaia Cordinier and Guerschon Yabusele, along with Troy Williams of Indiana, Michael Gbinije of Syracuse, Jake Layman of Maryland, Wayne Seldon Jr. of Kansas, Gary Payton II of Oregon State, Yogi Ferrell of Indiana, Thomas Walkup of Stephen F. Austin, Kaleb Tarczewski of Arizona, Prince Ibeh of Texas and Perry Ellis of Kansas. New Orleans has the sixth pick in the first round and the 39th and 40th selections in the second round.
  • The Grizzlies held a workout today for Ben Bentil of Providence, Isaiah Cousins of Oklahoma, Brice Johnson of North Carolina, Payton, Malachi Richardson of Syracuse and Selden, according to Grizzlies.com. Memphis holds picks No. 17 and 57.
  • Johnson could be the young power forward the Grizzlies need, speculates Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal. Zach Randolph will turn 35 this summer, and Jarell Martin and JaMychal Green haven’t shown they can handle the position, Tillery writes. At 6’10” and 210 pounds, Johnson has a mixture of size and skills that makes him an intriguing prospect.
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