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And-Ones: Parker, Brewer, Melo

August 2nd, 2014 at 12:16pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The minimum salaries for Khris Middleton and Draymond Green became fully guaranteed at the end of Friday when they remained on the rosters of the Bucks and Warriors, respectively, according to the salary data that Mark Deeks of ShamSports compiles. Justin Hamilton of the Heat earned a partial guarantee of $408,241 when Miami kept him through Friday, while Cavs power forward Erik Murphy wound up with a partial guarantee of $100K.

Here’s more from around the league:

This has been a whirlwind offseason with numerous players changing teams. Jessica Camerato of Basketball Insiders looks at five players who will benefit most from their change of scenery.
Brazilian big man Fab Melo is returning home to sign with Paulistano of his native country, the team announced Friday (hat tip to Sportando). The Celtics selected Melo with the 22nd pick in 2012, but the seven footer only played six games in the NBA in 2012/13 and bounced around the D-League last season after failing the make the Mavs roster in training camp.
Former NBA player Darius Johnson-Odom has signed with Acqua Vitasnella Cantù of the Italian League, reports Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. Johnson-Odom appeared in three games for the Sixers as well as seeing stints in China and the NBA D-League last season.
Spurs GM R.C. Buford indicated that the team and newly-extended point guard Tony Parker had a mutual interest in an agreement, according to Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News (Twitter links here). “His play warranted the commitment of the organization,” Buford said. “He made a commitment to our organization, too, by doing this now and taking himself out of a free agency opportunity a year from now. It was important to him and us to capitalize off the momentum this year creates and not have to worry about it at a later date.”
The Timberwolves aren’t willing to move Corey Brewer in any deal involving Kevin Love, reports Jon Krawczynski of the Associated Press (Twitter link). Brewer is staying in Minnesota, writes Krawczynski.

Chuck Myron and Alex Lee contributed to this post.

Contract Details: Parker, Fredette, Johnson

August 1st, 2014 at 6:05pm CST by Chuck Myron

It’s a month into free agency, and while the pace has slowed, details are still coming in from July’s rush of signings. There’s also new information on moves that happened just this afternoon, as we detail:

The second year in the deal between the Heat and Williams is non-guaranteed rather than a team option, clarifies Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (via Twitter).

Earlier updates:

Tony Parker‘s extension with the Spurs is without option clauses, USA Today’s Sam Amick reports, and is indeed for the max, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links).
Jimmer Fredette‘s minimum salary with the Pelicans this year is fully guaranteed, Hoops Rumors has learned.
The one-year deal the Lakers gave Wesley Johnson is fully guaranteed, a source tells Hoops Rumors.
Kings signee Eric Moreland‘s salary for this year is partially guaranteed, Hoops Rumors has learned.
Shawne Williams‘s contract with the Heat is a two-year arrangement that’s fully guaranteed for this season and features a team option for next year, agent Happy Walters tells Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald (Twitter link).

Spurs Sign Tony Parker To Extension

August 1st, 2014 at 1:49pm CST by Chuck Myron

1:49pm: Wojnarowski, in his full story, pegs the value of the three-year extension at nearly $45MM, so it appears as though Parker is getting the max of $43,335,938.

1:21pm: The extension covers three seasons, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). That takes it through 2017/18.

12:55pm: The Spurs have signed Tony Parker to a multiyear extension, the team announced via press release. It’s the third extension that Parker has signed with San Antonio over the course of his career. He’s set to make $12.5MM this year in the final season under the terms of his most recent extension. It’s not immediately clear just how long or lucrative Parker’s latest deal is.

There’d been no public talk that the extension had been in the works, as is typical with the San Antonio organization. The news of Gregg Popovich‘s extension earlier this month was similarly sudden. Still, the notion that Parker intends to stick around the Spurs for a while longer is certainly no shock, and the same was the case with Popovich. Parker has been confident that he would remain in San Antonio and told close associates that he had no desire to relocate his family, tweets Jabari Young of the San Antonio Express-News.

Parker’s salary for this season had been only partially guaranteed for $3.5MM, according to Mark Deeks of ShamSports, but as expected the Spurs kept him past June 30th, when the salary became fully guaranteed. The maximum value of an extension that the Creative Artists Agency client could have signed would be $43,335,938 over three years, as Deeks points out via Twitter. That’s much less than Parker could have received if he signed a new contract as a free agent next summer. Just how much a new contract could have given him won’t be known until the NBA sets its maximum salaries next summer, but based on this year’s max for a player of Parker’s experience, he likely would have been eligible for five years and much more than $100MM.

That helps explain why most veterans don’t sign extensions, but Parker and his Spurs teammates have a long history of hometown discounts. Parker lowered his annual pay with his last extension instead of going for the significant raises for which he was eligible.

The 32-year-old point guard is the youngest of a star trio also composed of Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, but even Parker is beginning to advance out of his prime years. He, like the other Spurs mainstays, remains a strong producer, even though his 29.4 minutes per game this season were his fewest since he was a rookie. He averaged 16.7 points and 5.7 assists this past year, another All-Star season that culminated in San Antonio’s fifth championship in franchise history and fourth with Parker in tow.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

And-Ones: Sterling, Parker, Crawford

July 1st, 2014 at 9:44am CST by Chuck Myron

Attorneys for Donald Sterling will argue that wife Shelly Sterling exerted undue influence on one of the two doctors who examined Donald and declared him mentally incompetent, as Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com details. Donald’s mental competency is no longer on trial. Instead, the probate trial between the Sterlings will center on whether Shelly followed the rules of the Sterling family trust, according to Shelburne. Those rules required that two mental health experts submit letters to the effect that Donald was mentally incompetent before allowing Shelly to take full control of the trust, Shelburne writes. Shelly agreed to sell the Clippers in May to Steve Ballmer, claiming that she fully controlled the trust, but Donald is fighting the sale. Here’s more from around the league:

The Spurs kept Tony Parker through Monday, unsurprisingly, but doing so means his $3.5MM partial guarantee is now a fully guaranteed $12.5MM salary for 2014/15.
Jamal Crawford of the Clippers had his $1.5MM partial guarantee bumped to a full guarantee of $5.45MM when he remained on the roster through Monday.
Kosta Koufos remains on the Grizzlies, so his $500K partial guarantee is now a $3MM full guarantee.
Parker’s teammate Austin Daye is also still with the Spurs, so his $250K partial guarantee is a fully guaranteed minimum salary.
The Hornets kept Jeffery Taylor around, so his minimum salary went from non-guaranteed to fully guaranteed.
It appears as though the Magic are officially under the cap, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). That means Orlando loses access to a $6,077,280 trade exception it could have reaped from last week’s Arron Afflalo deal.
The Hawks didn’t give big man Gustavo Ayon a qualifying offer by Monday’s deadline, making him an unrestricted free agent, notes Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Twitter link). There weren’t reports of qualifying offers to James Southerland of the Pelicans, Adonis Thomas of the Sixers and Bernard James of the Mavs, so presumably they’re all unrestricted free agents as well.
The Wolves hired Ryan Saunders as an assistant coach, the team announced (on Twitter). Saunders, the son of Wolves head coach/executive Flip Saunders, had served the last five seasons as a Wizards assistant.

Tony Parker Buys Majority Stake In French Club

June 30th, 2014 at 8:48am CST by Chuck Myron

JUNE 30TH: Parker has become president of Asvel Villeurbanne, the team announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). Carchia confirms that this means he’s now the majority owner of the team (Twitter link). Former NBA players Michael Finley and Corey Maggette will become minority owners, Parker said as part of the team’s release.

MARCH 21ST: Tony Parker will purchase a controlling interest in Asvel Villeurbanne, the French team that he’s owned in part since 2009, as Le Progres reports on its website (hat tip to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando; translation via Jeff Garcia of Project Spurs). Parker said he plans to play five or six more seasons in the NBA and round out his playing career by suiting up for his own team.

Parker’s contract with San Antonio runs through next season, though only $3.5MM of his $12.5MM salary in 2014/15 is guaranteed. The Spurs will almost certainly retain him and pay out his full salary next season, making him a part of a marquee free agent class in the summer of 2015, when he’ll be 33 years old. Parker’s timeline would have him leaving the NBA when he’s 37 or 38.

Parker is a native of Belgium, but he identifies as a French national, having played in France prior to his arrival in San Antonio for the 2001/02 season. The Spurs also have French native Boris Diaw on their roster, and they employed Nando De Colo, another French native, until they traded him to Toronto at the deadline. The Spurs have a greater number of players from overseas than any other NBA team, and they’ve long been innovators in mining the international market for talent.

The Spurs took Asvel Villeurbanne’s Livio Jean-Charles with the 28th pick in the draft last summer, although San Antonio has yet to sign him. I wouldn’t be surprised if San Antonio envisions using its partnership with Parker to funnel more prospects through Asvel Villeurbanne and utilize the team as though it were an international farm club of sorts, though that’s just my speculation. Parker’s plan to buy the French team could also draw scrutiny from the NBA, which may see it as a conflict of interest or an arrangement that could give the Spurs an unfair competitive advantage.

Western Notes: Ellington, Ellis, Warriors

February 12th, 2014 at 12:03am CST by Ryan Raroque

Here are some miscellaneous tidbits to share out of the Western Conference tonight:

It doesn’t seem likely that the Mavericks would part with any of their rotation players in a deal right now, according to Eddie Sefko of SportsDayDFW. One player who does appear to be available is Wayne Ellington, who hasn’t been able to find significant playing time and is owed $2.5MM next season.
Sefko also doesn’t believe there’s any chance that Dallas would consider trading Monta Ellis, adding that the team thinks Ellis and Dirk Nowitzki will make a good recruiting tandem this summer for prospective free agents.
Earlier today, the Warriors announced that they assigned Kent Bazemore, MarShon Brooks, and Ognjen Kuzmic to their D-League affiliate in Santa Cruz.
The out-of-town owners of the property needed for the new Kings arena are seeking a change of venue in the city’s eminent domain lawsuit, reports Dale Kasler of the Sacramento Bee. City officials recognize that the Kings need swift access to the property and will fight the attempt to move the suit. Kasler adds that the new arena is expected to be completed in 2016; if the building doesn’t open by 2017, the NBA has the right to buy the team and move them out of Sacramento.
Spurs guard Tony Parker told French website BMFT that he’d like to continue playing in the NBA for another six or seven years (hat tip to Michael Rehome of Project Spurs).

Tony Parker Hoping For Extension With Spurs

December 30th, 2013 at 10:35am CST by Luke Adams

Earlier in December, I listed Tony Parker among the players on de facto expiring contracts, meaning their deals are only partially guaranteed or non-guaranteed beyond this season. While that’s technically true in Parker’s case, there’s virtually no chance the Spurs release him rather than guaranteeing his 2014/15 salary. Still, the veteran point guard tells Jabari Young of the San Antonio Express-News that he’s hoping to stick around in San Antonio even beyond 2015.

“The history here, they always take care of the guys,” Parker said. “They did it with [Tim Duncan] and Manu [Ginobili], so hopefully they take care of me…. I just don’t want a guarantee, I want an extension, too.”

Parker became extension-eligible two months ago, so the Spurs could ink him to a new deal at any point between now and June 2015, when his current deal expires. However, it may make more sense for the team to wait until at least next July. Veteran contract extensions can only span four total years, which includes the seasons remaining on a player’s existing deal. So if Parker were to re-up this season, he could only tack two new years onto his current contract.

It’s also worth noting that there’s no guarantee the Spurs’ current core will still be in place by the time Parker’s current deal expires, which could affect both his and the team’s plans. For now, Tiago Splitter is the only Spur under contract beyond 2015, so if San Antonio enters a retooling period, Parker, who turns 32 this May, would have to carefully consider whether he wants to stick around long-term.

“My wish is to stay here and play my whole career here,” Parker said. “But if there is no more Pop or Timmy or Manu, I’m not against going somewhere. I’m not against that.”

Parker is in line to make $12.5MM in each of the next two seasons, though only $3.5MM of his 2014/15 salary is guaranteed for now.

Free Agency Notes: Hayward, Billups, Parker

December 27th, 2013 at 12:34pm CST by Jonathan Nehring

Although a report came out this morning that Mike Woodson’s job is currently safe it hasn’t stopped anyone from speculating otherwise. Another person to come to Woodson’s defense is former University of Indiana teammate, and former Knicks head coach, Isiah Thomas. Thomas told Marc Berman of the New York Post that he expects Woodson to hold up well and succeed once he gets all his players back from injury.

A few notes regarding players who could join Woodson in looking for jobs soon.

Since Gordon Hayward and the Jazz were unable to reach an agreement on an extension this offseason, Hayward will be headed to restricted free agency next summer. Hayward expressed to Lang Greene of HoopsWorld that the Jazz remain his preferred option because he loves the way the franchise is headed. Of particular interest to Hayward is the Jazz’s core group of players, a bunch of young players whom he thinks will be successful in the near future. As Greene points out, the Jazz only have $27MM in guaranteed salaries next season which will allow them to be a competitor in free agency next summer.
David Mayo of MLive Media Group passed along in a Q&A session that he doesn’t think either the Pistons or Chauncey Billups will want Detroit to exercise their team option on Billups $2.5MM contract next year.
Although the Knicks have been promised no trades for the near future, their moves in free agency are still a major focal point of discussion around the league. One upcoming free agent that has been linked with the Knicks is the Spurs‘ Tony Parker. Dan McCarney broke down the likelihood of Parker signing with the Knicks in 2015. McCarney believes Parker’s past loyalty to the Spurs will continue through his next round of free agency and doesn’t imagine we will ever see Parker in any jersey other than San Antonio’s.

Knicks Want To Trade For Rajon Rondo

December 26th, 2013 at 8:41am CST by Chuck Myron

Knicks management is confident it can attract the stars necessary to pull the team out of its malaise, and its first target will be Rajon Rondo, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com. The Knicks hope Rondo will become discontent with the Celtics and attempt to force them to trade him to New York sometime between now and 2015, when his contract ends. If they come up short on trading for Rondo, the Knicks think they’ll sign him in free agency or land one or two of the following potential 2015 free agents: LaMarcus Aldridge, Marc Gasol, Roy Hibbert, Kevin Love and Tony Parker.

The notion of Rondo joining the Knicks isn’t new, since the point guard’s high school coach claimed earlier this month that fellow former pupil Carmelo Anthony has been trying to recruit Rondo. Anthony pointed out that any such talk could constitute tampering, and both he and Rondo denied that they were discussing the idea of teaming up. It’s not clear how the Knicks could sell Rondo on the notion of pushing for a trade to New York, as Anthony did in 2011, without violating tampering rules. Still, much of the Knicks’ confidence in their future comes from the built-in lure of star-making capital New York, Windhorst writes.

Anthony could leave in free agency himself this summer, and there’s talk that the Knicks may attempt to trade him by the upcoming February 20th deadline if they don’t feel as though they can retain him. Windhorst seems to suggest there’s little chance of that happening, given how certain the Knicks seem about the road ahead. An executive from another team says the Knicks expect to re-sign Anthony and have another star player with him in a year’s time, adding that, “They’re so sure about it you’d think they already know what will happen.”

The same attitude explains why Mike Woodson is still coaching the team, according to Windhorst. The Knicks don’t feel there’s an adequate replacement available during the season, but plenty of intriguing candidates may exist in the summer, Windhorst writes. Having traded their potential lottery pick for 2014, the Knicks may be better off trying to make the playoffs this year with Woodson as coach, the ESPN scribe opines.

Southwest Notes: Parker, Ohlbrecht, Grizzlies

November 29th, 2013 at 1:20pm CST by Luke Adams

The Spurs saw their 11-game winning streak come to an end in Oklahoma City on Wednesday night, but they’ll look to begin a new streak tonight when they visit the Magic in Orlando. As we look forward to that matchup, here are some items on the Spurs and their Southwest rivals:

Assuming Kobe Bryant plays out his new contract, he’ll have spent 20 years with the Lakers, and that’s a feat Tony Parker would like to accomplish with the Spurs, as he tells Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News. “Why not?” Parker said. “The way I play, I think I can definitely play that long…. I take care of my body, and I’ve already told Coach Pop that after 2016 I will be done with the (French) national team. So I think I can play a long time.”
Tim Ohlbrecht‘s agency announced today that the big man has returned to the D-League’s Rio Grande Valley Vipers. Ohlbrecht was claimed off waivers from the Rockets by the Sixers over the summer, but he was subsequently waived by Philadlphia, and his D-League rights remained with Houston’s affiliate.
In his latest piece for USA Today, Sam Amick explains why the Grizzlies should have no regrets about the Rudy Gay trade and talks to Mike Miller about his move from Miami to Memphis.