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Knicks Rumors: Aldridge, Porzingis, Carmelo

August 12th, 2015 at 8:59am CST by Chuck Myron

The Knicks cited the presence of Kristaps Porzingis when they let LaMarcus Aldridge know they wanted him to play center, an idea that nixed the scheduled meeting between New York and the marquee free agent, as Aldridge said Tuesday, according to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News.

“If they’re going to tell me that I have to play center and I don’t want to play center, then of course it’s mutual after that. But before that I was excited to meet with them. I was interested,” Aldridge said. “But they wanted to have their draft pick play and I get it.”

Aldridge also said he spoke with other players to see if they would have interest in joining him if he were to sign with the Knicks, adding that he also chatted with Carmelo Anthony before the Knicks idea went poof, as Bondy relays. Here’s more on the blue-and-orange:

Carmelo Anthony on Tuesday praised the additions of Robin Lopez, Arron Afflalo, Kyle O’Quinn, Derrick Williams and Porzingis but didn’t mention No. 19 overall pick Jerian Grant, for whom the Knicks traded Tim Hardaway Jr., notes Marc Berman of the New York Post. Berman reported in June that Anthony was more upset about losing Hardaway than with the team’s decision to draft Porzingis. However, Anthony strongly denied Tuesday that he was upset with team president Phil Jackson‘s offseason moves.
Before his Tuesday remarks, Anthony took to Instagram to defend the Knicks and make it clear that he has no intention of demanding a trade, as had been speculated, observes Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com. In one comment, Anthony responded to a fan by saying in part, “You are stuck with me buddy.”
Porzingis might have indirectly turned Aldridge away from the Knicks, but another free agent who jumped from the Trail Blazers to New York is impressed with this year’s No. 4 overall pick. “He’s good,” Arron Afflalo said, as Jonah Ballow of Knicks.com relays. “He’s obviously got a lot of talent, some God-given gifts being that tall and that athletic. What I love most about him was his mentality and his humbleness. I really feel like he wants to get better, he wants to be the best player he can be and with that mentality and those tools, it’s just a matter of time.”

Northwest Notes: Waiters, Saunders, Connaughton

August 11th, 2015 at 1:38pm CST by Chuck Myron

Dion Waiters doesn’t see any holes on the Thunder‘s roster, and he’s particularly impressed with new coach Billy Donovan and his staff, as he tells Nick Gallo of Thunder.com. Former NBA head coaches Monty Williams and Maurice Cheeks are among the assistants.

“I think they did a hell of a job as far as coaches, bringing in guys with experience who have been there before,” Waiters said. “They know what they’re doing. For a guy like myself, a young guy, I need those type of people around me so I can pick their brain.”

Waiters would become a restricted free agent next summer if he doesn’t sign an extension by October 31st. Here’s more from around the Northwest Division:

Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor conveyed optimism as he spoke about coach/executive Flip Saunders in the wake of the team’s revelation of his cancer diagnosis, as Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune relays (All Twitter links). The team will work around Saunders’ treatment schedule, Taylor said. “Something like this goes beyond basketball, that’s real life,” he said. “We all take care of each other.”
The Baltimore Orioles drafted and signed Pat Connaughton a year before he joined the Trail Blazers, but basketball comes first for the former Notre Dame standout, as Ian Thomsen of NBA.com details. GM Neil Olshey is adamant that Connaughton, whom Portland took with the 41st overall pick in the NBA draft this year, won’t be playing professional baseball while he’s on his three-year deal with the Blazers, but Olshey won’t close the door on a long-term two-sport future for the shooting guard/right-handed pitcher. “Now, look,” Olshey said, “if he gets into a second contract down the road and that is something he wants to pursue, then that can be a discussion point …”
Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge, himself a two-sport athlete, said the C’s almost drafted Connaughton, Thomsen notes in the same piece. Boston had the 33rd and 45th overall picks.

Latest On Tristan Thompson

August 10th, 2015 at 2:21pm CST by Chuck Myron

Tristan Thompson wouldn’t re-sign with the Cavaliers as an unrestricted free agent next year if he were to take sign his qualifying offer, worth nearly $6.778MM, this summer, as agent Rich Paul tells Michael Grange of SportsNet (Twitter links). That would appear to indicate that the Canadian native is adamant about signing a lucrative, long-term deal before the start of this coming season rather than trying his luck next summer, even though the cap is expected to surge. The former No. 4 overall pick is believed to be seeking maximum-level salaries, writes Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com, but a starting salary of the $16,407,500 max for a player of his experience would cost the Cavs more than $35MM in tax penalties on top of that amount this year, Windhorst estimates.

The Cavs probably haven’t seen the qualifying offer as their preferred route, Windhorst speculates, and given Paul’s statement today, Cleveland has further reason to strike a long-term deal. Still, the Cavs have been offering significantly less than the max, according to Windhorst, and shelling out the max over the long term for a player who chiefly came off the bench behind the newly re-signed Kevin Love might be reason for pause. Thompson averaged only 8.5 points per game in the regular season this past year, though his strength is rebounding and off-the-ball work.

Paul is no stranger to tough negotiations with restricted free agents after last season’s tense back-and-forth with the Suns that resulted in Eric Bledsoe signing a five-year, $70MM deal. Kevin Seraphin, another Paul client, signed his qualifying offer from the Wizards last summer and wound up inking with the Knicks last week. Still, it’s surprising to see Paul and Thompson take such a hard line against the qualifying offer, even though it would entail a playing for a discount this season, since signing it would set up Thompson to become a member of a fairly thin crop of 2016 free agents, outside of Kevin Durant and a few other notables, just as the salary cap is projected to spike to $89MM.

The Cavs are in a tough spot, since LeBron James, Paul’s marquee client, has expressed that he wants Thompson in Cleveland, and James can opt out of his new contract in a year. Thompson and the Cavs were reportedly close to a deal worth more than $80MM on the first day of free agency, but progress stalled. Thompson reportedly asked for $85MM over five years, after initial reports indicated that Draymond Green received that much from the Warriors, but Green wound up with $82MM instead.

In any case, Cavs GM David Griffin said in mid-July that he remained confident the sides would strike a deal. The Trail Blazers and Sixers are the only teams left with enough cap flexibility to approach the max for Thompson, and Windhorst identified the Blazers as the one team remaining that’s a “remote option” for Thompson this year, aside from the Cavs, who hold his Bird rights.

Do you think Thompson and Paul are wise to dismiss the qualifying offer, or do you think it would be advantageous for him to sign it? Leave a comment to let us know.

Western Notes: Nuggets, Lawson, Davis

August 9th, 2015 at 8:42pm CST by Will Joseph

Though it may not be obvious because the Nuggets did not add free agents from outside the organization, the moves Denver GM Tim Connelly made this summer have the franchise pointed in the right direction, Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post writes. The Nuggets had a busy and productive summer, as Dempsey points out, because they committed to more than $100MM on extensions and re-signings of of Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Will Barton and Jameer Nelson. Dempsey writes that Denver made these moves, not only because it did not have the cap space to reel in big-name free agents, but also because it wanted to retain these players.

From a financial standpoint, the Nuggets, like many other teams, should be in position to offer a max contract next summer with the help of the salary cap rise, Dempsey writes. Furthermore, Dempsey adds, the return of Pete D’Alessandro to the front office bolsters the Nuggets in terms of a salary cap and business knowledge standpoint, improving any deficiencies the organization thought it may have had there.

Here’s more from the Western Conference:

Ty Lawson, whom Houston acquired in a trade with the Nuggets, improves the Rockets despite not being a perfect fit, Tim Cato of SB Nation writes. Lawson does not exactly complement star James Harden because Lawson is a ball-dominant player and is not a great defender, Cato adds.
Ed Davis, who signed a three-year contract with the Blazers, told Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders that he really wanted to stay with Lakers, but they could not agree on a deal (Twitter link).

Pistons Rumors: Baynes, Blake, Jackson

August 8th, 2015 at 6:30pm CST by Arthur Hill

Aron Baynes was Detroit’s top offseason target for its frontcourt, according to Keith Langlois of Pistons.com. The Australian center signed with the Pistons in July after San Antonio chose not to extend a qualifying offer, and coach/executive Stan Van Gundy is confident that Baynes has talents he was never able to show with the Spurs because he was surrounded by so many good players. “What we saw was a real physical guy at both ends of the floor – a good, solid rebounder and an offensively skilled guy who can shoot the ball, who can post, who’s comfortable putting the ball on the floor and going to dribble handoffs and playing that way,” Van Gundy said. He added that team scouts were especially impressed with what they saw from Baynes in international play.

There’s more tonight out of Detroit:

Newly acquired Steve Blake won’t have a defined role if Brandon Jennings is fully recovered from an Achilles injury, Langlois writes in a separate story. Blake, who ended last season with Blazers, has been traded to Brooklyn and then to Detroit during the summer. Even if Jennings returns, Blake may be able to earn playing time, based on the assessment of Van Gundy’s brother, former NBA coach and current broadcaster Jeff Van Gundy. “That’s one of the things my brother said when we talked about the trade,” Stan Van Gundy said. “He said, ‘If I had to bet, I’d say he finds a way to get on the floor no matter what.’ That’s sort of what he’s always done. He’s found a way to play.” Blake is entering the final season of the two-year contract he signed with Portland.
Even if Jennings hadn’t gotten hurt last season, Van Gundy likely would have made the deal that brought Reggie Jackson from Oklahoma City to Detroit, contends David Mayo of MLive. Jackson offers more size at point guard, Mayo notes, and Van Gundy likes having bigger players on the perimeter. Although the Pistons may not have pursued the three-team trade without Jennings’ injury, Mayo argues that they would have accepted it, assuming it had been proposed. Jennings will become a free agent next summer when his three-year, $24MM contract expires.

Northwest Notes: Alexander, Gallinari, Thunder

August 3rd, 2015 at 5:33pm CST by Chuck Myron

Cliff Alexander‘s camp deal with the Trail Blazers covers three years and has a $100K partial guarantee, according to former Nets executive Bobby Marks, writing for HoopsHype. Alexander was one of 441 players who took part in at least one of the three summer leagues without having signed a guaranteed contract, and that $100K means he wound up with a lot more than many summer leaguers, who left only with the $127 per diems they received while taking part in the Orlando, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City leagues, as Marks details. There’s more on Alexander amid the latest from around the Northwest Division:

Alexander told SB Nation’s Ricky O’Donnell that it “blindsided” him when he went undrafted in June, but agent Reggie Brown of Priority Sports said to O’Donnell that going undrafted was a better fate than having become a draft-and-stash pick (hat tip to TNT’s David Aldridge). “We knew the draft-and-stash would not be of benefit to him,” Brown said. “Cliff was not mature enough at 19 years old to go overseas for the first time. He didn’t have an older brother to help guide him like Emmanuel Mudiay did. I thought that would have been disastrous for his career so I made the decision not to do it. I could have took a lot of pressure off myself and in the media it looks great to have one of those teams take him, but I had to look him in the eye and tell him that we can’t do this. This is not best for your career. I felt he had the heart big enough to climb out of this.”
Danilo Gallinari will see precisely $14MM this season, $15.05MM next season and $16.1MM in 2017/18 as part of his renegotiation-and-extension with the Nuggets, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders shows (Twitter link).
The Thunder made a cost-cutting move in July, trading Perry Jones III to the Celtics, but the Oklahoma City organization isn’t anxious to move any more contracts and feels an urgency to win, sources close to the Thunder tell Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders, who writes in an NBA AM piece.

Cavaliers Rumors: Varejao, Dellavedova, Jones

August 2nd, 2015 at 12:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

In two years, the Cavaliers’ Anderson Varejao could be a trading chip similar to Brendan Haywood, according to Terry Pluto of The Plain Dealer. The frequently injured Varejao received a contract extension last summer partially for that purpose, Pluto reports. His salaries of $9.6MM for next season and $9.3MM for 2016/17 are fully guaranteed, but the $10MM he is scheduled to receive in 2017/18 is not guaranteed, making him an attractive pickup for a team looking to shed salary. Haywood, who had a non-guaranteed salary of $10,522,500 next season was dealt to the Blazers along with Mike Miller for trade exceptions worth $10.5MM and $2.85MM and was subsequently waived by Portland.

There’s more news out of Cleveland:

With the trade exceptions in hand, Greg Swartz of Bleacher Report identifies five players who could be useful pickups between now and February’s trading deadline. They are the Pistons’ Danny Granger, the Nets’ newly signed Andrea Bargnani, the Wolves’ Kevin Martin, the Magic’s Channing Frye and the Lakers’ Nick Young.
The one-year deal between the Cavs and Matthew Dellavedova is equivalent in value to his qualifying offer, but it also includes a 15% trade kicker that he’d receive if he waived his de facto no-trade clause, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders shows (Twitter link).
James Jones is indeed making the minimum on his one-year deal with the Cavs, according to Pincus.

Blazers To Guarantee Allen Crabbe’s Salary

July 31st, 2015 at 11:19am CST by Chuck Myron

The Trail Blazers have let Allen Crabbe know they won’t be waiving him today, the last day the team can let him go before a full guarantee kicks in on his two-year veteran’s minimum salary of $947,276, sources tell Jabari Young of CSNNW.com. Crabbe is on the mend from a severe left ankle sprain he suffered during summer league, but the team expects he’ll be ready for training camp, Young writes. The season is the last on his deal, and he’ll be eligible for restricted free agency next summer.

The decision isn’t altogether surprising, since the 23-year-old is just two years removed from having been the first pick of the second round of the draft, and Portland is retooling this summer following the exodus of four-fifths of its starting lineup. Crabbe saw an increased role last season after sparse playing time in his rookie year, even starting one game in the playoffs in place of the injured Wesley Matthews and Arron Afflalo. The proficient outside shooter from the University of California averaged 15.5 points in 23.8 minutes per game during four summer league appearances.

The guarantee will have little impact on Portland’s financial flexibility. The team is still some $20MM beneath the cap. It will be the 14th fully guaranteed contract on the books for the Blazers, though they appear likely to let go of Mike Miller.

Trail Blazers Waive Brendan Haywood

July 30th, 2015 at 5:22pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Trail Blazers have waived Brendan Haywood just days after acquiring him from the Cavaliers, the team announced (Twitter link). The move is no great shock, since Haywood’s non-guaranteed salary of $10,522,500 for this coming season would have been fully guaranteed if Portland kept him through Saturday. Thus ends the odyssey of one of the most unusual contracts the league has seen in quite some time.

Haywood averaged only 1.6 points in 5.4 minutes per game last season across 22 appearances, but his contract made him a valuable trade chip. The Mavs signed him to a six-year deal worth more than $52MM in 2010, but two years later, they amnestied him, with Charlotte claiming him off waivers shortly thereafter. The then-Bobcats submitted a partial bid, so they were only on the hook for a fraction of the Haywood contract, with Dallas paying the rest. However, the final season of his original Mavs deal was non-guaranteed. Thus, the cap figure for that year, unlike the years in which Charlotte and Dallas split the cost, remained as it was when Haywood signed the contract.

The center, who’s now 35, has seen his game decline over the past few seasons, but the final year of his contract was motivation for his team to keep him on an NBA roster, since this summer, the deal served as a de facto trade exception. A team could use his contract to acquire a player who makes as much as $15,522,500 without giving up any guaranteed salary in return.

Curiously, the Cavs acquired him cheaply last summer, giving up only Scotty Hopson and cash to Charlotte in a trade. Cleveland’s payroll has ventured into tax territory this summer, so the maximum amount of salary the Cavs could have brought back in a Haywood trade was $13,253,125. Still, Cleveland never found a deal to its liking, and simply rolled over the benefit into an actual trade exception in the deal with Portland. That exception is slightly less valuable, since the Cavs could only use it to bring in $10,622,500.

The utility of Haywood’s contract for Portland wasn’t that great, since the Blazers already possess cap space. They had this week to see if they could flip Haywood to an over-the-cap team that might then trade the contract again to reap its benefit, but no such series of deals materialized. Haywood faces a challenge to hook on with another team at this point, though he apparently doesn’t intend to retire.

Are you surprised that more a market didn’t develop for the Haywood contract when the Cavs had it? Leave a comment to let us know.

Northwest Notes: Durant, Thunder, Blazers

July 29th, 2015 at 3:59pm CST by Zachary Links

The Blazers acquired Mike Miller from the Cavs earlier this week but he’s probably not sticking around for long. The veteran is a “strong candidate” to negotiate a buyout with Portland, Marc Stein of ESPN.com hears, and the Grizzlies, Thunder, and Mavs already appear to be interested. While we wait for more on that, here’s more from the Northwest Division..

The Thunder remain the front-runners for Kevin Durant‘s 2016 free agency, but Sean Deveney of The Sporting News sizes up the chances that the Wizards, Warriors, Rockets, Heat, Clippers, Mavericks, Celtics, Knicks and Lakers all of have of convincing the former MVP to leave OKC.
The Thunder viewed Kevin Seraphin as a possible fall-back option if they did not re-sign Enes Kanter, a person with knowledge of the situation tells Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post. At this point, a one-year deal is more likely for Seraphin than a long-term pact, Castillo writes. OKC, of course, has retained Kanter. The Knicks, Lakers, and Wizards are showing interest in Seraphin at this time.
The SI.com staff debated which team took the biggest step back this summer and multiple writers cast their ballots for the Trail Blazers. The Blazers, of course, have watched Wesley Matthews, Nicolas Batum, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Robin Lopez wind up elsewhere this summer. Damian Lillard has been surrounded with some promising young talent, but they seem likely to take a big step back in 2015/16.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.