San Antonio Spurs Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Southwest Notes: Grizzlies, Rockets, Baynes

September 27th, 2014 at 7:34pm CST by Chuck Myron

The absence of Nick Calathes for the first 13 games because of his suspension will leave the Grizzlies thin at the point, and there’s a decent chance it’ll have an effect on how many players the team carries out of camp, coach Dave Joerger admits. Joerger shared his thoughts in a subscription-only Q&A with Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal.

“We might need an insurance policy,” Joerger said. “But you’ve got some guys that come in and one area affects the other because we have 14 spots [filled]. We can only keep one. If one guy wows you in an area, then you’re dealing with risk/reward. You might be kind of naked with two point guards. Can Courtney [Lee] swing over there? I don’t know. Being at the [luxury] tax and having 14 roster spots, it’ll be interesting.”

Here’s more from around the Southwest Division:

The Rockets granted Akil Mitchell a partial guarantee worth $150K on his deal, which runs two seasons at the minimum salary, as Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports. The guarantee, fairly sizable for a player of his caliber, might be an enticement for Mitchell to end up playing for the team’s D-League affiliate, Pincus speculates.
John Holland has a $20K partial guarantee on his minimum-salary contract with the Spurs, which runs for two seasons, Pincus reports (Twitter link).
In the same tweet, Pincus confirms his earlier report that the Spurs used part of their $5.035MM mid-level exception rather than Early Bird rights to sign Aron Baynes. That’s even though he’ll make precisely $2.077MM, the amount of the biannual exception, on his one-year deal. It’s curious, since using Early Bird rights would have allowed the Spurs to preserve their mid-level, and thus greater flexibility for signing free agent target Ray Allen or someone else, so perhaps there are more details at play that have yet to be reported.
Mavs owner Mark Cuban believes his team has been the beneficiary of the unwillingness of other NBA clubs to show patience with young talent that’s yet to blossom, as he told reporters, including Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News. “I think one of the things we’ve been really good at is finding what I call fallen angels, guys who other teams had a lot of aspirations for but for whatever reason couldn’t fit,” Cuban said. “Al [Al-Farouq Aminu] was the first call I made when free agency hit. These are guys that I think, even though they don’t have big names and not everybody knows who they are, are going to have big impacts, and I think that’s one way you get younger.”

Spurs Notes: Ginobili, Duncan, Baynes

September 26th, 2014 at 10:35pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Manu Ginobili understood their reasons, but was still hurt by the Spurs banning him from playing for Argentina in this year’s FIBA World Cup, Dan McCarney of the San Antonio Express-News writes. San Antonio wanted Ginobili to rest in order to recover from the leg injury he suffered during this year’s playoffs. Ginobili had a meeting with the front office about his feelings, and he said, “I was hurt, probably still I’m hurt. Of course, I understand why they did it. I just didn’t like it, and I disagreed with it. That’s why I was thinking (about) all those scenarios. But the bottom line is, when I started practicing I was not feeling well. I didn’t think I was ready to compete at a high level, so I had to step down.”

Here’s more from San Antonio:

Set to begin his 18th season in the NBA, Tim Duncan says the chance to compete for back-to-back NBA Championships is what drove him to return for another season with the Spurs, McCarney writes. Duncan said, “There was some hesitation there. But it came back to maybe being able to do (win the title) again. As long as I’m feeling I can, and I feel good about it, this is where I want to be.”
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich says the next stage in the development of Kawhi Leonard is mental, McCarney relays in a separate piece. “I’m probably going to talk to him more about consistency now,” Popovich said. “He’s reached a certain level and if you look at those last three games he played they were pretty special. But to be in that top echelon of players in our league it’s a huge responsibility to have to come and do that every night. The Duncans, the Durants, the James-es and all those kinds of guys do it night after night after night and it’s a huge responsibility.”
The Spurs signed Aron Baynes using their mid-level exception, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter link).

Spurs Sign Josh Davis

September 26th, 2014 at 3:07pm CST by Eddie Scarito

SEPTEMBER 26TH: The deal is official, the team announced in a press release that set the training camp roster.

AUGUST 28TH: It’s a two-year deal for the minimum salary that’s partially guaranteed for $20K this season, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.

AUGUST 26TH: The Spurs have signed free agent Josh Davis, according to the RealGM.com transactions log. The 6’8″ power forward out of San Diego State wasn’t selected in this June’s NBA Draft, but he was projected to be a possible late second round pick. Though terms of the agreement weren’t released, it is a non-guaranteed, multi-year deal, most likely for the rookie minimum, and similar to the deals that Bryce Cotton and JaMychal Green signed with the team.

Davis’ signing would raise the current Spurs preseason roster count to 17. Davis will most likely be competing for the 15th and final regular season roster spot.

The 23-year-old played for three colleges, beginning with North Carolina State as a freshman, when he put up 2.6 points and 1.7 rebounds in 10.4 minutes per game. During his sophomore and junior seasons spent at Tulane, Davis averaged 17.6 PPG and 10.7 RPG. During his senior year with the Aztecs, his numbers slipped to 7.7 PPG and 10.1 RPG. His slash line for this past season was .455/.000/.472.

Spurs Sign John Holland For Camp

September 26th, 2014 at 2:58pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Spurs have signed former Boston University shooting guard John Holland, the team announced in a press release that set the training camp roster. San Antonio has plenty of flexibility to exceed the minimum salary, but it’s almost certain the team hasn’t done so here, and the deal is most likely only partially guaranteed, if that.

Holland has spent his three years as a pro playing in Europe after NBA teams passed on him in the 2011 draft, bouncing from France to Spain and back to France again for last season. He’s nonetheless been a member of three NBA summer league teams in the past two years, joining the Thunder and Heat in 2012 and the Timberwolves last summer. The 25-year-old scored 10.6 points in 27.4 minutes per game for Gravelines in France this past season, making 33.3% of his three-point attempts.

The signing gives San Antonio 19 players for camp, but 15 of them have fully guaranteed contracts. That means it’ll be an uphill battle for Holland to stick, and he’ll have to compete against Bryce Cotton, Josh Davis and JaMychal Green, all of whom have diminutive partial guarantees.

Spurs Re-Sign Aron Baynes

September 26th, 2014 at 2:13pm CST by Chuck Myron

2:13pm: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.

1:35pm: The contract will be worth $2.1MM, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link), so he didn’t sign the qualifying offer. San Antonio likely used its Early Bird rights with Baynes to facilitate the deal and preserve its mid-level and biannual exceptions.

FRIDAY, 1:25pm: It’s a fully guaranteed deal for one year, tweets Shams Charania of RealGM. That leaves open the possibility that Baynes signed his qualifying offer, worth about $1.115MM, but it remains unclear whether that’s the case.

THURSDAY, 8:26am: Not long after the most prominent of the two lingering restricted free agents re-signed with his team, it appears the other one will follow suit. Aron Baynes is in San Antonio for a physical and is expected to put pen to paper on a new deal with the Spurs, reports Buck Harvey of the San Antonio Express-News (Twitter link). Both he and Eric Bledsoe had remained in restricted free agency for almost the entire offseason before Bledsoe re-signed with the Suns Wednesday. The terms of the deal for Baynes are unclear.

The Spurs appeared to maintain a consistent interest in re-signing the Entersport client even as they eyed others, and Baynes also appeared to want to continue to play in San Antonio even as he considered overseas options. San Antonio was reportedly open to a sign-and-trade with another NBA team, and China’s Shanghai Sharks jumped into the running for the 27-year-old center, but neither possibility appeared to gain much traction.

Baynes played a limited role for the Spurs after originally signing with the club midway through the 2012/13 season. He averaged 3.0 points and 2.7 rebounds in 9.3 minutes per game last season, and he only made it into 14 of San Antonio’s 23 playoff games en route to the title this spring, hitting the floor for 7.2 MPG in the postseason.

If Baynes has a fully guaranteed deal, it will presumably mean San Antonio’s regular season roster is set, since the team has been carrying 14 fully guaranteed pacts. The Spurs had been among the teams in pursuit of Ray Allen, while they’d also reportedly worked out veteran free agents Jamaal Franklin, Hakim Warrick, and a host of others, including Michael Beasley, who wound up committing to sign with the Grizzlies. A guaranteed deal for Baynes would likely forestall a deal with any other free agent deserving of guaranteed money, and it would make it more difficult for JaMychal Green, Bryce Cotton or Josh Davis to remain with the team come opening night on their partially guaranteed contracts.

Southwest Notes: Chandler, Pelicans, Blue

September 24th, 2014 at 9:42pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Tyson Chandler said Tuesday that he feels “indebted” to the Mavs for bringing him back to the team, observes Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Mavs owner Mark Cuban hinted that he intends to keep Chandler around after his contract expires at season’s end, as Tim MacMahon of ESPNDallas.com notes.

Here’s the latest out of the Southwest Division:

The Spurs worked out Vander Blue last week before Blue committed to a camp deal with the Wizards, reports Shams Charania of RealGM. Blue was a part of San Antonio’s summer league team in July.
Cuban is excited about the Mavericks 2014/15 campaign, Price writes in the same piece linked above. Cuban said, “I am so fired up, you have no idea. You know how important I think chemistry is, so just being able to get a feel for how all the guys get together and how they get along [is important]. Everybody’s fired up, everybody pushing each other. Dirk Nowitzki has got a big old smile on his face, so it’s exciting.”
The small forward position looks to be the Pelicans‘ weakest link heading into training camp, John Reid of the Times-Picayune opines. That’s why newly signed John Salmons has a chance to make an impact this season, and he’ll compete for a starting job with Darius Miller and Luke Babbitt, notes Reid.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

And-Ones: Union, Ariza, Wizards, O’Neal, Nets

September 24th, 2014 at 10:04am CST by Chuck Myron

Players union executive director Michele Roberts is making $1.2MM this year, the first of a four-year contract, reports Scott Soshnick of Bloomberg.com. Roberts, who officially began the job this week, tells Soshnick that she can earn an additional $600K each year of the pact via bonuses. Either way, it’s significantly less than the $3MM that predecessor Billy Hunter was making per year. Still, Roberts’ salary is on par with what first-year executive directors for the NFL and Major League Baseball players unions have made of late, as Soshnick points out. There’s more on Roberts amid the latest from around the league, as we pass along:

Roberts didn’t mince words with Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News in declaring her intention to establish credibility with players and not follow the path of Hunter, whose tenure ended amid allegations of corruption. “I’m sure there are people thinking, ‘Ahh, another politician-like person coming in trying to sell us a bunch of bull,’” Roberts said. “And that’s my job to win them over, to tell them, ‘No, this time it will be different or fire me. I want you to if I even dare replicate my predecessor.’”
Trevor Ariza was asking for $10MM salaries from the Wizards, but GM Ernie Grunfeld wouldn’t go that high in part because he was pursuing Paul Pierce, writes J. Michael of CSNWashington.com.
Rasual Butler‘s similarities to Pierce helped him earn a spot on the Wizards preseason roster, but Xavier Silas and Damion James each has a better shot at making it to opening night, as Michael adds in the same piece.
Warriors GM Bob Myers spoke with veteran center Jermaine O’Neal on Monday, but Myers tells Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle that he still doesn’t have much clarity about whether O’Neal will retire or re-sign with Golden State.
Jerome Jordan‘s deal with the Nets becomes partially guaranteed for $100K should he remain on the roster through October 25th, not $150K as previously reported, a source tells Robert Windrem of Nets Daily (Twitter link).
Spurs assistant coach Sean Marks is moving off the bench and returning to the front office in a new role as assistant GM, the team announced. Marks spent two years as an executive before San Antonio made him an assistant coach last season.

Cray Allred contributed to this post.

Hawks Sign Kent Bazemore

September 23rd, 2014 at 3:33pm CST by Eddie Scarito

SEPTEMBER 23RD: The deal is at last official, the team announced via press release.

SEPTEMBER 11TH: The Hawks and Bazemore finally put pen to paper Wednesday, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). The team has yet to make an official announcement. It’s likely that the signing took so long to complete because Atlanta wanted to preserve cap space, though that’s just my speculation. The Hawks could have used cap space to acquire other players and circled back to sign Bazemore using the room exception. As it stands, they’re using cap space to ink Bazemore.

JULY 11TH: 9:50pm: Bazemore’s agent, Austin Walton, confirmed the deal and that it is fully guaranteed, tweets Michael Scotto of Sheridan Hoops.

9:31pm: Kent Bazemore has reached an agreement to join the Hawks, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The deal is for two years and $4MM, according to Stein. Shams Charania of RealGM tweets that the deal is fully guaranteed, and contains no options.

The shooting guard was traded along with MarShon Brooks from the Warriors to the Lakers in the Steve Blake deal on February 19th of this year. Bazemore’s career numbers are 4.1 PPG, 1.1 RPG, and 0.9 APG.

The 25 year old who originally went undrafted out of Old Dominion also received interest from the Hornets, Lakers, Rockets, Spurs, Warriors and Celtics.

Southwest Rumors: Leonard, Mohammed, Asik

September 22nd, 2014 at 9:32pm CST by Charlie Adams

Kawhi Leonard isn’t making any promises about signing an extension with the Spurs before the October 31st deadline for him to do so, but he tells Jabari Young of the San Antonio News-Express that he’s pleased with the other moves the team made this summer. He expressed particular satisfaction with new deals for Boris Diaw and Patty Mills, as well as Tony Parker‘s extension. “I’m happy about that just in case the Spurs do extend me and if I am a Spur for life,” Leonard said. “That’s a great thing to know that Tony will be there.” Let’s have a look at the latest from the Southwest:

Nazr Mohammed had expressed interest in returning to the Spurs for the 2014/15 season, but San Antonio clearly didn’t reciprocate the feeling, Young tweets. Mohammed, who won a championship with the Spurs in 2005, re-signed with the Bulls on minimum-salary contract this afternoon.
While taking on Omer Asik‘s bloated contract is definitely a risk for the Pelicans, Jimmy Smith of the Times-Picayune thinks New Orleans potentially stands to reap some major benefits from the decision. Specifically, Smith thinks Asik’s presence will help alleviate the pressure placed on Anthony Davis, who otherwise received the brunt of opposing teams’ attention last year in a less-than-stellar frontcourt.
Some of the advice that helped Kostas Papanikolaou decide to sign with Houston came from former Rockets shooting guard and fellow Greek native Vassilis Spanoulis, an unlikely source given the frustration Spanoulis felt upon his exit from the team. Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle has the details.
The Mavericks had a busy offseason, and it’s one that Jae Crowder believes will push Dallas to the next level of competition, as Dwain Price of the Star-Telegram transcribes. “I feel like we picked up some championship-level pieces,” Crowder said. “I’m not just blowing gas… “One thing Cuban was talking about was just having a good mix of older guys and younger guys, and I feel like that’s exactly what they did this summer with bringing in a good group of guys.”

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Franklin, Blue Work Out For Wizards

September 22nd, 2014 at 2:42pm CST by Chuck Myron

Free agent shooting guards Jamaal Franklin and Vander Blue are working out today at the Verizon Center in Washington, the home court of the Wizards, as Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post observes (Twitter link). It’s not entirely clear whether the Wizards are putting Franklin and Blue through their paces or if they’re working out on their own, but it nonetheless seems as though they’re auditioning for the club one way or another.

Franklin was reportedly in San Antonio last week to work out for the Spurs, with whom he presumably has an in thanks to his connection with former San Diego State teammate Kawhi Leonard. Rumors have been sparse surrounding Blue since the Celtics elected not to re-sign the former Marquette standout following the expiration of his 10-day contract with the team this past season. Blue was in camp last fall with the Sixers, who cut him before opening night, while Franklin spent the season on the Grizzlies roster after Memphis made him the 41st overall pick in 2013. Franklin saw only 165 total minutes in the regular season and playoffs combined, and the Grizzlies waived him in August, using the stretch provision to defray the immediate cost of his guaranteed salary.

The Wizards struck camp deals with Xavier Silas and Damion James last week, bringing their roster to 16. Washington has fully guaranteed deals with 13 players and a partially guaranteed arrangement with Glen Rice Jr., but J. Michael of CSNWashington.com wrote last week that there’s a strong chance that Washington will open the regular season with fewer than 15 players. Even so, Silas told Michael that the Wizards are giving him a “legitimate chance” to make it to opening night, so GM Ernie Grunfeld is apparently in no rush to make decisions.