Zoran Dragic Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Western Notes: Dragic, Silver, Nash, Johnson

November 24th, 2014 at 7:59pm CST by Arthur Hill

Goran Dragic may have a lot of influence in Phoenix, but he tells Joel Brigham of Basketball Insiders that he didn’t use that power to get the Suns to sign his brother. Zoran Dragic inked a two-year guaranteed deal in September.

“To be honest I never mentioned my brother (to GM Ryan McDonough),” Goran said. “This summer when we played the World Cup, Ryan was in Barcelona and he called me. He wanted to take me to dinner and asked if I could bring my brother, so I didn’t know anything. I thought he was being polite. When we went to the restaurant he started asking questions to Zoran and I was like, what is going on? Then I heard all the rumors coming out on the Internet, and I started thinking maybe this could happen.”

There’s more news from the Western Conference:

Commissioner Adam Silver discussed his decision-making regarding former Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s ouster and identified a harder salary cap as the first change he would make happen if he could do so unilaterally as he spoke with Chuck Klosterman for GQ.com. “I still think it’s unhealthy for the league when a team like Brooklyn goes out and pays an exorbitant luxury tax in order to give themselves a better chance to win,” Silver said. “From a league-office standpoint, the ideal league would be for all thirty teams to compete based on the skill of their management and players, as opposed to one team paying more to get better talent. So creating a more even system would be at the top of my list.”
Steve Nash may be out for the season, but the Lakers are hoping he can help them in another way, writes Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report. He says L.A. is hoping future free agents — specifically the Thunder’s Kevin Durant — notice the loyalty the Lakers displayed by not stretching Nash’s contract or trying to get him to accept a reduced buyout.
The Rockets recalled Nick Johnson from Rio Grand Valley of the D-League, the team announced. Johnson, the 42nd pick in this year’s NBA draft, has seen little action for Houston, with just two points and one rebound in 11 minutes of court time.

Contract Details: Papanikolaou, Suns, Sixers

September 30th, 2014 at 11:00am CST by Chuck Myron

Teams have made several roster moves in the past few days as they’ve prepared for camp, leaving a few loose ends to resolve contractually. Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders provides a few answers to the questions left unresolved, so we’ll pass along his revelations here:

The Rockets essentially reversed the salaries in each year of Kostas Papanikolaou‘s deal after the league forced the team to sign him to a new contract. He’ll make slighly more than $4.591MM this year and nearly $4.798MM next season, Pincus reports (Twitter link). It’s unclear whether the contract has guarantee dates, like the original pact, but it does include a signing bonus of almost $207K, according to Pincus (Twitter links).
The extensions that Markieff Morris and Marcus Morris signed with the Suns include salaries that go down in year two before rising again in years three and four, Pincus reveals (Twitter links). An earlier report had indicated that they were all escalating salaries.
Zoran Dragic will only make $1.5MM this year and the same amount in 2015/16, so his Suns contract is slightly less lucrative than thought, as Pincus details (Twitter link). Those figures include a signing bonus of about $413K.
The Sixers used some of their cap space to give Jerami Grant, this year’s No. 39 overall pick, a four-year contract that’s fully guaranteed for the first two seasons and non-guaranteed thereafter, according to Pincus (Twitter link). The final season also features a team option, Pincus adds. The salary of nearly $885K in the first year is more than the rookie minimum, but it’s otherwise a minimum-salary arrangement.
Christian Watford‘s new deal with the Celtics covers one year at the minimum salary and is non-guaranteed, Pincus shows (Twitter link). That makes him eligible to have signed an Exhibit 9 Contract that would keep the C’s from paying him if he were to suffer an injury in preseason, though it’s not clear whether it is indeed one of those sorts of pacts.

Suns Rumors: Morrises, Bledsoe, Zoran Dragic

September 29th, 2014 at 1:38pm CST by Chuck Myron

Suns president of basketball operations Lon Babby negotiated a total figure for Markieff Morris and Marcus Morris with agent Leon Rose, letting the twins decide how to split what turned out to be a $52MM pot, as Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic chronicles.

“They’re very close and we didn’t want to suggest anything that would be a disconnect to what they thought their value was,” Babby said. “I didn’t delegate the whole project to them but I did ask, ‘How would you divide it up?’ They’re so close and in it together that it was better to negotiate the total amount and then go to them for how to divide it. They desperately wanted to be together and they play better together. They motivate each other and it’s been fun for me to watch their maturation.”

There’s more from Coro’s piece amid the latest from the Valley of the Sun:

It would have been harder for the Morris brothers to stay together if they had hit restricted free agency next summer, GM Ryan McDonough said today, according to Coro, who writes in the same piece. That suggests the team pressured the twins to sign their extensions rather than let the October 31st deadline pass.
There are no option clauses or trade kickers in the deals for the Morrises, whose salaries will escalate each year, Coro adds.
Bledsoe largely repeated to reporters, including Coro, his assertion from the team’s statement on his new deal that he preferred to return to the Suns all summer, in spite of tense public negotiations (Twitter link).
Zoran Dragic was just a part-timer starter for his Spanish team the past two seasons, but McDonough is confident the new Suns signee’s game is on the upswing, as the exec tells Matt Petersen of Suns.com. “Guys mature and develop at different rates,” McDonough said. “Zoran is a bit of a late-bloomer, but I’ve seen rapid improvement lately. He was better when I saw him last year in Slovenia than what I’d ever seen before. He took another step and was even better this year in Spain than what I’d seen before.”
Suns owner Robert Sarver is calling for a new arena to replace the existing building, which opened in 1992, as Coro relays in a separate piece.

Suns Sign Zoran Dragic

September 29th, 2014 at 12:37pm CST by Chuck Myron

MONDAY, 12:36pm: The deal is official, the team announced.

“Zoran’s will to win and intensity stand out every time he steps on to the court,” GM Ryan McDonough said in the team’s statement. “He has been a very productive player in Euroleague, ACB and FIBA competitions. He excels defensively and in transition and I think our fans will quickly recognize his passion for the game.”

FRIDAY, 7:55am: Coro clarifies that a total of only $3.4MM will count against the cap for the Suns over the two seasons of the deal (Twitter link), so it appears as though the $4,012,500 figure that was reported earlier includes the $600K that Phoenix is allowed to contribute toward the buyout without it counting against the cap. That would mean the precise cap hits for Phoenix in 2014/15 and 2015/16 combined would come to $3,412,500, close to the figure that Amick reported, as we noted below.

Dragic confirmed the deal to Gal Zbačnik of Kosarki.si, while Unicaja Malaga formally announced Dragic’s departure from the team (on Twitter; translations via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia)

3:36pm: The total value of Dragic’s deal is $4,012,500, Shams Charania of RealGM reports (Twitter link).

12:26pm: The amount buyout for the BDA Sports Management client was negotiated down to $1MM, reports Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic. It’s not entirely clear whether it was Dragic’s camp, the Suns, or both who pushed the Spanish team to lower its demand.

THURSDAY, 11:01am: The Suns are set to sign Spanish league shooting guard Zoran Dragic to a two-year guaranteed deal, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. It’ll be worth a total of $3.5MM, according to Sam Amick of USA Today (on Twitter). Multiple reports from earlier indicated that Dragic had informed Spain’s Unicaja Malaga that he was leaving the team and would pay a buyout of about $1.1MM, with the Suns having placed a two-year offer on the table. Phoenix appears to be using some of its approximately $5.7MM in cap space remaining after Wednesday’s re-signing of Eric Bledsoe.

The 25-year-old will join older brother Goran Dragic on the Suns, and the addition will ostensibly aid Phoenix in its efforts to retain Goran long-term. The Suns beat out the Pacers, Kings, Heat, Magic, Spurs and Mavs, all of whom appeared to show interest in signing Zoran Dragic within the past month. Houston, too, was in the mix earlier this year, and the Rockets were reportedly the leading contender for him as of May. The Rockets have also eyed Goran Dragic, who played a season and a half for Houston earlier in his career.

Zoran Dragic has longed to play in the NBA, though he appeared prepared to begin the season overseas. His buyout costs more than the $600K Excluded International Player Payment Amount that an NBA team can dole out without it counting against the salary cap and without the money essentially coming out of Dragic’s paycheck. Still, a report indicated that Goran Dragic, who’ll make $7.5MM from the Suns this season, would likely pay part of the buyout for his brother.

The recent FIBA World Cup helped the 6’5″ Zoran Dragic make his case for a spot on an NBA roster, as he averaged 12.9 points and 4.0 rebounds in more than 26 minutes per game and made 13 of 30 three-point attempts playing alongside his brother on the Slovenian national team. His numbers had been less impressive last season for Unicaja Malaga, when he put up 10.6 PPG and 2.7 RPG in 20.3 MPG while shooting just 32.7% from behind the arc.

The deal gives the Suns 15 fully guaranteed pacts, as our roster counts show, likely setting the roster for opening night. It further diminishes the chances that Earl Barron and Casey Prather, who’d been with the club on non-guaranteed arrangements, will make it to opening night.

Zoran Dragic, Suns Nearing Deal

September 24th, 2014 at 9:32am CST by Cray Allred

9:32am: Dragic’s agents have informed the Spanish team that the Suns have a two-year offer on the table and that the guard will buy out his contract, freeing him to head to Phoenix, Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia reports (Twitter link).

THURSDAY, 9:11am: Dragic has told Unicaja Malaga that the Suns have made him an offer, Guerra tweets.

TUESDAY, 7:55am: There’s no October 5th deadline in Dragic’s contract with Unicaja Malaga, so he can leave the team to come to the NBA after that date should he choose to do so, reports Rafael M. Guerra of La Opinión de Málaga (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). Goran Dragic would likely pick up part of the tab for the buyout necessary to bring his brother to the Suns, Guerra adds.

SUNDAY, 1:30pm: The Suns have emerged as the frontrunners to sign Dragic, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports (Twitter links). The guard is likely to land a two year deal, notes Stein.

SATURDAY, 9:21 pm: Zoran Dragic is in advanced discussions with Unicaja Malaga to leave the team and come to the NBA, tweets Shams Charania of RealGM. The Slovenian point guard has a buyout clause of $1.1MM to leave the Euroleague team, so presumably he has an agreement in place with an NBA squad. It’s possible that the team could have relinquished its buyout requirement, or that Dragic is paying for it himself, but it is much more likely that an NBA team is set to foot the bill.

The Suns, Pacers, and Kings have been named as the most aggressive suitors for the younger brother of Goran Dragic, although the Cavs, Heat, Magic, Spurs, Mavs, and Rockets have also registered interest. If Phoenix has struck a deal with the 25-year-old, it could have massive ripple effects around the league. The Suns are at a negotiating standoff with restricted free agent Eric Bledsoe, and adding another Dragic to the already-stacked Phoenix backcourt could signal their willingness to move on from Bledsoe, who Minnesota would bring on with a max contract if they had the room to do so.

Momentum has been building all summer for the younger Dragic, who has until October 5th to exercise the escape clause before becoming locked into another season overseas. At one point, it seemed like a long shot that the point guard would be coming stateside before next season, but he repeatedly stated his desire to find his way to the NBA amid a strong performance in the FIBA tournament spotlight. The hefty buyout payment, which exceeds the $600K max to not count against the cap, could mean that at least one team believes in him as a player who can contribute immediately. If Dragic fetches more than the minimum from a team willing to invest in his services, the Cavs, Heat, and Mavs are unlikely candidates to have snagged him.

Pacific Notes: Boozer, Kings, Dragic

September 18th, 2014 at 10:35am CST by Zachary Links

Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News continued his look at the Lakers‘ depth chart today with a breakdown of offseason acquisition Carlos Boozer. The Lakers have Boozer for a bargain – just $3.25MM – but there are looming questions about his intensity on defense and whether he can handle a possibly fluctuating role. Here’s more out of the Pacific Division..

Even after an offseason of tinkering, the Kings probably aren’t done making moves, writes Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee. Between Reggie Evans, Jason Thompson, and Carl Landry, the Kings are paying nearly $14MM for players who don’t fit in their long-range plans. Instead, the Kings would like to find a player who can come in, hold down the power forward position, and allow the team to cut salary.
If the Suns give a max contract to anyone, it should be to Goran Dragic, not Eric Bledsoe, opines Bob Young of The Arizona Republic. In Young’s view, the Suns’ four-year, $48MM offer to Bledsoe is reasonable and that kind of contract would give them enough breathing room to retain Dragic long-term. If Bledsoe opts to instead sign the qualifying offer, Young wouldn’t mind seeing a future with Dragic as the team leader alongside Isaiah Thomas with Archie Goodwin and draft pick Tyler Ennis in reserve.
Guard Zoran Dragic likes his current situation overseas but still pines to play in the NBA, where he is being targeted by the Suns and other clubs. “I am here preparing the season with Malaga. But if I have the chance to go the NBA my desire is to go,” said Dragic to La Opinion de Malaga (translation courtesy of Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). “I think that the best option for me is to go the NBA now because I don’t want to lose one year. I think I am ready to play in the NBA but the truth is that I don’t know anything about the NBA at the moment. My heart is with Unicaja.”

Latest On Zoran Dragic

September 12th, 2014 at 8:36pm CST by Chuck Myron

FRIDAY, 8:36pm: Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic adds the Cavs to the list of teams interested in Dragic, and reports that Dragic’s current salary is approximately $1.4MM. It would take upwards of $2MM in annual salary to pry the younger Dragic guard from his current club in Coro’s estimation, considering the earnings and covered living expenses provided by his current team. The Arizona Republic scribe pegs Dragic’s NBA escape clause at $1.1MM, which lines up with an earlier report that the buyout exceeds $971K.

WEDNESDAY, 7:49am: The Suns, Pacers and Kings are the teams most aggressively going after Dragic, Stein tweets, expanding on his report about Phoenix’s heavy pursuit from a few days ago. Talks are expected to intensity now that Dragic’s World Cup obligations are over, Stein adds (Twitter links). Phoenix, Indiana and Sacramento all have the capacity to exceed the minimum salary.

TUESDAY, 4:51pm: The Heat, Magic, Spurs and Mavs are maintaining dialogues with Spanish-league shooting guard Zoran Dragic, reports Shams Charania of RealGM. Marc Stein of ESPN.com wrote earlier this week that the Suns were one of the three teams with the most interest in signing the 25-year-old, but it’s not clear if they remain in the running. The Pacers, too, have appeared to be in pursuit of Dragic of late, while the Rockets were reportedly the leading contender for him in May.

Several NBA teams scouted Dragic in the World Cup the past couple of weeks, Charania writes, a run that ended when his Slovenian team lost this afternoon to Team USA. New teams are inquiring about him with each passing day, the RealGM scribe adds. Dragic is the younger brother of Goran Dragic, who appears poised to opt out his deal next summer and hit free agency, and teams are already lining up to try to poach Goran from the Suns.

Zoran Dragic averaged 10.6 points in 20.3 minutes per game for Unicaja Malaga this past season but he reportedly possesses a strong desire to come to the NBA. He’d have to sign with an NBA team by Oct. 5th, according to Charania, and cover a buyout greater than the equivalent of $971K to break free from Unicaja Malaga this year, as Stein wrote in his report this week. That would appear to give the Spurs and Magic an edge on the Heat and Mavs, since Miami and Dallas can’t exceed the minimum salary and thus can’t give him more than the Excluded International Player Payment Amount of $600K toward his buyout.

And-Ones: Deng, Knicks, Dragic, West

September 12th, 2014 at 6:02pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Luol Deng report from the RealGM scouting service that was the source of the racially charged statements that Hawks GM Danny Ferry said aloud in a June conference call contains several tidbits of collateral information on storylines surrounding Deng the past couple of years. One of the anonymous sources quoted in the report points to hard feelings Deng had toward the Bulls as they allegedly pushed him to play through injury and played hardball with an extension offer. The same source cites “major locker room issues” that existed between two Cavaliers during Deng’s tenure there, and while the names are redacted, many accounts have pointed to tension between Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters. The report also pointed to interest in Deng from the Hornets, Suns, Mavs and Lakers around last year’s trade deadline. Aside from the most explosive racial comments, the report contains a few mild criticisms of Deng’s ability on the court and his persona off of it, but mostly serves to paint Deng as a valuable player and an upstanding character. While the fallout from the Hawks saga continues, here’s more from other corners of the league:

Knicks president Phil Jackson tells Scott Cacciola of The New York Times that he and owner James Dolan didn’t speak in August and have otherwise been having only a couple conversations a month as Dolan keeps his promise not to interfere. An agent said to Cacciola that when he appealed to Dolan when Jackson wouldn’t budge in negotiations, he found the owner unwilling to provide recourse behind Jackson’s back, and Dolan insists to the Times scribe that he won’t change his ways if the team starts losing this season.
Zoran Dragic acknowledged that playing in the NBA appeals to him but said he’s on his way to training camp with Spain’s Unicaja Malaga, as he told Gal Zbačnik of Kosarka.si (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). Dragic’s contract with the team reportedly gives him until October 5th to find an NBA deal, and several teams appear to be in pursuit.
Delonte West has agreed to return to China on a one-year deal with the Shanghai Sharks, reports Chris Haynes of the Plain Dealer (on Twitter). West, who hasn’t played in the NBA since the 2012/13 preseason, spent last year with China’s Fujian Sturgeons.

Suns Interested In Zoran Dragic

September 8th, 2014 at 10:56am CST by Chuck Myron

The Suns are among a group of three NBA teams with keener interest than others in Spanish-league shooting guard Zoran Dragic, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Dragic would have to sign with an NBA team before the start of the Spanish season and pay a buyout greater than the equivalent of $971K to escape from his contract with Unicaja Malaga, Stein adds.

Such a buyout would exceed the NBA’s $600K Excluded International Player Payment Amount, so the overflow amount would count against the cap for any NBA team that signs Dragic. However, the Suns have plenty of cap flexibility, and it appears that they would still be able to retain cap room even if they re-sign Eric Bledsoe to a max contract, which doesn’t appear likely at this point.

The 25-year-old Dragic “badly wants” to play in the NBA, as Stein wrote last month, and joining Phoenix would mean pairing with his brother, Goran Dragic, whom teams are already eyeing as a potential 2015 free agent should he opt out of his contract next summer. Inking Zoran Dragic would ostensibly help the Suns keep his brother, as Stein points out, though the Rockets, who were reportedly at the head of the pack for Zoran Dragic as of May, are one of the teams considering a run at Goran Dragic a year from now. Orazio Cauchi of Sportando more recently identified the Pacers as another suitor for Zoran Dragic.

And-Ones: ‘Melo, Pelicans, Rockets, Dragic

September 4th, 2014 at 12:44pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Bulls brought up the idea of a two-year deal for Carmelo Anthony that would allow him to cash in on projected growth in the league’s maximum salaries, but the Knicks star said today that it didn’t appeal to him, as Chris Herring of The Wall Street Journal observes (Twitter link). Anthony, who re-signed with the Knicks on a five-year deal, cast his experience as a free agent this summer as stressful, explaining that he doesn’t want to go through it again, Herring tweets. Thanks to the raises he’s earned on his high-dollar contracts through the years, his salary for this season already exceeds the NBA’s maximum, so absent a truly dramatic increase to the max in the next few years, Anthony wouldn’t have stood to benefit from hitting free agency again in the near future. There’s more on Anthony amid the latest from around the league:

Anthony cited his New York-based business interests, his family, and the presence of Phil Jackson as reasons he chose to re-sign with the Knicks, Herring also notes (Twitter link).
Austin Rivers was in trade rumors earlier this summer as the Pelicans sought to make room to acquire Omer Asik, and while they listened to pitches from other teams, their continued faith in the former No. 10 overall pick led them to hang on to him, according to John Reid of The Times Picayune.
The pending Jason Terry trade will give the Rockets a weapon to use in a subsequent deal, should they choose, since they were otherwise short on mid-tier salaries to assist with salary matching, as Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle details.
The NBA buyout clause in Zoran Dragic‘s contract with Spain Unicaja Malaga isn’t prohibitive, and it would allow the shooting guard to come stateside for this season, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Previous reports have identified the Rockets and, more recently, the Pacers as suitors for Dragic, who apparently “badly wants” to play in the NBA.
Lorenzo Brown‘s deal with Reyer Venezia of Italy is on shaky ground, as Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia hears. Brown appeared in 26 games this past season for the Sixers, and it seems there’s a chance he’ll go back on the free agent market in advance of NBA training camps.