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Marc Gasol To Try To Recruit Pau Gasol To Grizzlies

October 1st, 2015 at 8:55am CST by Chuck Myron

Marc Gasol will be part of an effort to convince Pau Gasol to sign with the Grizzlies, as Marc tells the Spanish outlet Europa Press (translation via HoopsHype). Marc signed a new five-year max deal with Memphis in July, but Pau can opt out of his contract with the Bulls next summer. Marc suggests it would be difficult to convince his brother to leave the Bulls, the team he joined just last year, but Marc says that he and the Grizzlies will try.

Pau’s contract with Chicago is team-friendly, particularly in light of his 18.5 points and 11.8 rebounds per game this past season, a bounceback year for him and one in which he and his brother started at center for their respective conferences in the All-Star Game. The 2016/17 player option in Pau’s deal is worth slightly less than $7.77MM, and though he turns 36 next July, the free agent market will be flooded with cash as the salary cap jumps to a projected $89MM. The Grizzlies have about $46MM in commitments for 2016/17, though that doesn’t include money for Mike Conley, who’s No. 3 on our 2016 Free Agent Power Rankings and whose max salary is a projected $24.9MM.

Power forward Zach Randolph is under contract with the Grizzlies through 2016/17, so the addition of Pau this coming summer would give Memphis a crowded frontcourt. However, Randolph is only one year younger than Pau, and Marc will be 31 by then, so it’s a distinct possibility that age will limit the ability of all three to play heavy minutes anyway. Pau is already in the midst of a frontcourt logjam in Chicago, where he, Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, Nikola Mirotic and recent first-round picks Doug McDermott and Bobby Portis are all candidates for playing time at the power forward and center positions.

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Atlantic Notes: Calderon, Okafor, Celtics

September 9th, 2015 at 12:30pm CST by Chuck Myron
Jose Calderon says the strained left Achilles tendon that prematurely ended his 2014/15 season is fully healthy, and the Spanish point guard is a fan of the moves the Knicks made this summer, even though he tried and failed to lure countryman Marc Gasol to the team, reports Marc Berman of the New York Post. Two seasons still remain on Calderon’s deal, but the 34-year-old added that he hasn’t been concerned that the Knicks might look to unload him this year, in spite of speculation, as Berman relays.
“I was never worried,” Calderon said to Berman. “It doesn’t mean I know for sure, but I was told I wasn’t involved in those trades and people I trust tell me that. And I talked to [coach] Derek [Fisher] during their free-agent meetings so they were keeping me always in the loop.’’
See more from around the Atlantic Division:
  • No. 3 overall pick Jahlil Okafor isn’t just the first Sixers top-10 pick of the past three years who’s healthy entering training camp, he’s also arguably the first truly foundational player that GM Sam Hinkie has added, writes Tim Bontemps of the New York Post (Facebook link).
  • The majority of ESPN’s Summer Forecast panel believes it’s likely the Celtics will pull off a splashy move this season, but Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com finds it tough to envision the team making a major acquisition, given the difficulty of finding a trade partner and the cap constraints on midseason swaps.
  • President of basketball operations Danny Ainge has done his due diligence to put the Celtics in position to acquire major talent, but the luck necessary to ultimately snag a marquee name just hasn’t been present, argues Sean Deveney of The Sporting News.
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Atlantic Notes: Porzingis, Jackson, Embiid

August 3rd, 2015 at 11:47am CST by Chuck Myron

Knicks team president Phil Jackson mentioned six draft prospects that he liked in a late-March interview with confidant Charlie Rosen, posted today on ESPN.com, but none of them were Kristaps Porzingis, the Latvian power forward whom the Knicks selected No. 4 overall. Scout Clarence Gaines was perhaps the most influential advocate for Porzingis within the organization, though dropping to the fourth spot in the order because of poor lottery luck no doubt played a major role in New York’s choice. Jackson signaled to Rosen that he preferred the more NBA-ready Jahlil Okafor to Karl-Anthony Towns, but both were off the board by the time the Knicks picked. See more from Jackson amid the latest Atlantic Division news here:

  • Jackson had praise for Alexey Shved, Lance Thomas and Andrea Bargnani but lost affection for Quincy Acy‘s play, as Rosen details. The Knicks boss also had criticism for Jason Smith‘s reaction to coming off the bench. All five were free agents this summer, but only Thomas re-signed with the Knicks.
  • The Zen Master indicated that he saw Marc Gasol and DeAndre Jordan as the prime movers of free agency this summer as far as the Knicks were concerned, but he didn’t mention LaMarcus Aldridge. Of course, Aldridge at that point seemed like a safe bet to re-sign with the Trail Blazers. He instead signed with the Spurs after he and the Knicks mutually decided to cancel a meeting. Jordan met with the Knicks but re-signed with the Clippers, and Gasol didn’t meet with any other teams before signing his new deal with the Grizzlies.
  • The Sixers said on July 11th that Joel Embiid would have a bone graft surgery within seven to 10 days, but the Philadelphia organization has since made no mention of any surgery for the big man and a team source tells Jake Fischer of SI Now that the Sixers don’t plan any statement this week (Twitter link). The No. 3 pick from 2014 is likely to miss a second consecutive season this year, and an October 31st deadline looms for a decision on his team option of more than $4.826MM for 2016/17.
  • Amin Elhassan and Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com, in an Insider-only piece, debate the paths by which the Celtics can acquire championship-level talent. Boston will have cap flexibility to go after a maximum-salary free agent next summer, but even though the trade market for stars isn’t hot now, that can change and offer the C’s an easier route than free agency would.
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Western Notes: Clippers, Gasol, Lawson

July 17th, 2015 at 10:28pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Mavs owner Mark Cuban, during an appearance on “The Afternoon Show with Cowlishaw and Mosley” (h/t Dallas Morning News), said that he did everything possible to land free agent DeAndre Jordan, who spurned Dallas to re-sign with the Clippers. “Well no initially you do [look back on it], ‘What could we have done differently?’ and you go through the whole process and unless we just held him hostage, there’s nothing we could have done,” Cuban said.

“I mean literally Monday night I was texting him back and forth talking about players. He was asking for Mavs gear. Monday night everything was fine,” Cuban continued. “Tuesday morning everything wasn’t. And then we flew to — I flew to Houston, and then the next day I was with his agent the whole time. And in my mind, I’m like, ‘of course the guy’s going to want to see his agent and is going to meet with him face-to-face and if he changes his mind, that’s great, but at least he’ll have the counsel of his agent to guide him through it.’ And so if I’m standing there talking to his agent, at least I’ll have a sense of what’s going on. He would text his agent, I don’t know if he actually called him, but he definitely texted him while he was sitting next to me, but he never saw him at all the entire night. I don’t know what else I could have done.”

Here’s more from around the Western Conference:

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

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Grizzlies Re-Sign Marc Gasol

July 13th, 2015 at 4:36pm CST by Chuck Myron
NBA: Playoffs-Memphis Grizzlies at Golden State Warriors

Courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

JULY 13TH, 4:36pm: The deal is official, the team announced.

“Re-signing Marc Gasol was the No. 1 priority for our organization this offseason,” GM Chris Wallace said. “For many years, Marc has been a pillar of our franchise and in a Memphis community that has watched him become one of the best basketball players in the world, so this is a great day for our team, our city and our fans across the Mid-South and worldwide.”

JULY 6TH, 3:21pm: The Grizzlies will re-sign Marc Gasol to a five-year deal worth more than $100MM, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). That’s presumably the max coming Gasol’s way. The deal includes a player option after year four, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link).

Gasol kept a degree of mystery in the proceedings, but this outcome has seemed the most likely one for months as the Spanish big man who went to high in Memphis time and again expressed his affection for the city. He was reportedly to have committed to the team a week ago, but the wait was simply a function of the big man’s methodical nature, a source tells Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link).

The Spurs were the team that Memphis reportedly feared the most when it came to Gasol’s free agency,  and Gasol referred to San Antonio as a model franchise and expressed his admiration of Tim Duncan. Still, at about the same time, Gasol once more alluded to his strong connection to Memphis. The Arn Tellem client had no shortage of interested teams, including the Mavs, Spurs and Lakers, but he decided against meeting anyone aside from the Grizzlies.

Memphis assumes some risk as it commits to a deal that runs past Gasol’s 35th birthday, but this year’s All-NBA First Team center doesn’t show signs of slowing down yet. He focused more on offense this year than in the past, averaging career highs in points per game, with 17.4, and shots per game, with 13.2. He and fellow soon-to-be Memphis signee Brandan Wright are poised to become the first players to whom the Grizzlies have committed any salary past 2016/17, so the team will have the capacity to build a new cast around Gasol. However, Gasol’s deal essentially closes off any chance Memphis had to open cap room this summer, meaning Wright will likely stand as the Grizzlies’ most significant free agent pickup from outside the team.

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Southwest Notes: Gasol, Simmons, Ginobili, Wright

July 11th, 2015 at 10:45pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Spurs tried to lure Marc Gasol away from Memphis, but he was committed to the Grizzlies, tweets Dan McCarney of The San Antonio Express-News. Once GM R.C. Buford realized that, he turned his full attention to LaMarcus Aldridge.

There’s more from the Southwest Division:

  • Jonathon Simmons‘ deal with the Spurs is fully guaranteed for next season, according to Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News (Twitter link). On Friday, Simmons signed a two-year contract for the minimum with a team option for the second season. Simmons was on Brooklyn’s bus headed to a summer league game when his agent told him of the Spurs’ offer (Twitter link).
  • In a procedural move, the Spurs renounced their rights to free agent Manu Ginobili, tweets Eric Pincus of The Los Angeles Times. San Antonio will re-sign Ginobili with its $2.814MM room exception, rather than Bird Rights.
  • “Love at first sight” is how Brandan Wright described his reaction to being pursued by the Grizzlies, writes Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal. The free agent signed a three-year deal with the team worth about $17.1MM. “Even though we’ve had a strong frontcourt, we haven’t had a great deal of athleticism and length,” said GM Chris Wallace. “He’s a shot blocker and can score on lob passes. He provides defense, athleticism and experience.”
  • The Mavericks are hoping to sign another center, tweets Earl K. Sneed of Mavs.com. “It’d be nice to have someone that can play above the rim,” said owner Mark Cuban.
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Southwest Rumors: Villanueva, Gasol, Conley

July 8th, 2015 at 1:06pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Southwest Division free agent bounty might take a hit if DeAndre Jordan indeed reverses course on his decision to sign with the Mavericks, as the Clippers are trying to convince him to do, but he’s not the only free agent the Mavs and Clippers have fought over. There’s more on that amid the latest from around the Southwest:

  • Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers put in a recruiting call to Charlie Villanueva, who also spoke with Wizards GM Ernie Grunfeld, as Villanueva reveals on his own website (hat tip to TNT’s David Aldridge). The forward also indicates that the Kings were in the mix, too, but Villanueva made it clear that he’s pleased to have agreed to a deal with the Mavs.
  • Marc Gasol hinted that Mike Conley assured him he’ll be just as committed to re-signing with the Grizzlies next summer, when he’s a free agent, as Gasol was this year, as Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal writes in a subscription-only piece. Gasol said it never got to a point where he could envision himself playing outside of Memphis. “I was just sitting on it. I wanted to talk to Mike Conley,” Gasol said to Tillery. “Once I knew Mike Conley was on board, that sealed the deal. We both talked about the future. Once I knew he was on board it was a done deal.”
  • Some people within the Spurs wondered in retrospect if the team would have been better off giving some of Manu Ginobili‘s minutes to Marco Belinelli, but Ginobili remains valuable to the team and around the league, as Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News chronicles. Someone from another NBA team told Harvey that if he thought Ginobili would ever sign with a franchise other than the Spurs, his team would have pursued him. The veteran swingman has reportedly agreed to re-sign with the Spurs for what appears to be the $2.814MM room exception. Belinelli committed to the Kings.
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Western Notes: Gasol, Durant, Kings

July 6th, 2015 at 10:58pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Marc Gasol‘s commitment means the Grizzlies can stay relevant and contend for titles for another four or five seasons, Geoff Calkins of the Memphis Commercial Appeal opines. Gasol did not seriously consider signing with another team before reaching an agreement on a five-year deal worth more than $100MM on Monday. Gasol showed unusual faith in the franchise and took the high road by accepting a long-term deal, Calkins continues. He could have signed a shorter-term contract and taken advantage of the major salary cap increase next season, or put the onus on the front office to keep making moves to stay competitive, but instead chose to stay long term with a team that is not in a major market, Calkins adds.

In other news around the Western Conference:

  • The Warriors would like to get in on the Kevin Durant sweepstakes as a potential sign-and-trade option next summer, according to Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News. If they could somehow land Durant, it would not hinder the club’s desire to lock up Stephen Curry when his contract expires in 2017, Kawakami adds.
  • The Jazz were interested in re-signing Jeremy Evans but he couldn’t pass up the offer he received from the Mavericks, Jody Genessy of the Deseret News tweets. Evans, who spent his first five seasons with Utah and appeared in 38 games last season, agreed to a two-year contract with Dallas for the league minimum.
  • The Kings were prepared to give Tobias Harris a max offer sheet before the restricted free agent opted to stay with the Magic, Marc Berman of the New York Post tweets. Harris agreed to a four-year, $64MM contract on Friday. Considering that Florida does not have a state income tax, Harris didn’t take less to remain in Orlando, Berman adds.
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Grizzlies, Marc Gasol Progress Toward Deal

July 2nd, 2015 at 11:28am CST by Chuck Myron

Marc Gasol‘s preference is to sign a five-year deal for the max with the Grizzlies, and as the Arn Tellem client and the Grizzlies continue to hammer out the structure of a would-be deal, other teams have given up pursuit, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. The Spurs, who appeared to have the best shot to lure him from the Grizzlies, as well as the Lakers, Knicks and Bucks all scuttled plans to chase him before free agency began, convinced he would stay in Memphis, as Stein details.

It’s likely that Gasol will re-sign with the Grizzlies today, as TNT’s David Aldridge reported Wednesday, and Stein wrote earlier this week that the 30-year-old center didn’t plan to meet with other teams. Grizzlies owner Robert Pera was among a contingent of Grizzlies higher-ups who traveled to Spain to ensure Gasol is formally on board with staying.

The seven-year veteran is No. 4 in our Free Agent Power Rankings. He’s eligible for a starting salary worth about 30% of the salary cap, or roughly $19MM, with 7.5% raises from the Grizzlies.

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Free Agent Rumors: Gasol, Carroll, Green, Lin

July 1st, 2015 at 10:21am CST by Chuck Myron

The Grizzlies and Marc Gasol are likely to reach a deal, as long expected, today or Thursday, as TNT’s David Aldridge hears (Twitter link). Gasol and Grizzlies owner Robert Pera are both in Spain today, working out the details on a new deal, a source tells TNT’s David Aldridge (Twitter link). While we wait for what appears to be an inevitable conclusion for the Arn Tellem client, here’s more from the first day of free agency:

  • The Pistons are believed to have spoken to DeMarre Carroll overnight, according to Terry Foster of the Detroit News.
  • New York would reportedly like to meet with Danny Green, and that interest appears mutual, as “anybody turning down a meeting with them would be crazy,” Green said to Marc Berman of the New York Post. “I don’t think people are scared of the Knicks,’’ Green said. “They’re rebuilding. … Some guys want to go where they’re already winning. They get a couple of good pieces this summer, I’m sure it’ll attact more guys.’’
  • Jeremy Lin heard from the Lakers overnight, and the Mavericks, Grizzlies, Pacers, Bulls and Clippers, a league source told Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. Still, Lin appears unlikely to re-sign with the Lakers, Media opines on Twitter.
  • The Lakers reached out to Wayne Ellington overnight, and the Cavaliers, Warriors, Wizards, Spurs and Hawks also showed interest, Medina reports in a separate piece.
  • Willie Green and the Knicks have engaged in preliminary discussions, speaking twice since free agency began overnight, tweets Shams Charania of RealGM.
  • Mike Dunleavy had no shortage of interest from others, but he’s quite pleased about his new deal with the Bulls, as he expressed to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune (Twitter link). “I’m thrilled to be back,” Dunleavy said. “It’s a really fair deal. I’m looking forward to playing for [coach Fred Hoiberg] and love our team.”
  • The Magic‘s apparent four-year, $80MM offer to Paul Millsap has executives more optimistic that Orlando won’t match offers for restricted free agent Tobias Harris, reports Chris Mannix of SI.com (Twitter link). Marc Stein of ESPN.com had speculated as much earlier.
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