- After a breakout 2013/14 campaign in which he filled in admirably for an injured Kobe Bryant, Jodie Meeks has posted three forgettable, injury-plagued seasons. Now a member of the Wizards, the soon-to-be 30-year-old is ready to reset and start anew. “I came back from my thumb at the end of the season,” he told Chase Hughes of CSN Mid-Atlantic. “I played okay and finished out the season healthy. This summer I got some rest. Now I’m working out again and I feel fine.“
- After riding the pine for the Wizards in 2016/17, Sheldon Mac and Daniel Ochefu have taken noticeable steps forward, Chase Hughes of CSN Mid-Atlantic writes.
JULY 14: Ten days after Hayward made his decision, he has formally signed his new maximum salary contract with the Celtics, the team confirmed today in a press release. Boston cleared the necessary cap room earlier today by waiving Jordan Mickey.
JULY 4: Gordon Hayward has made it official. In a piece for The Players’ Tribune, Hayward has announced that he has decided to join the Celtics as a free agent. Hayward will receive a four-year maximum salary contract from Boston with a player option on the final year, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical (Twitter links).
“After seven years in Utah, I have decided to join the Boston Celtics,” Hayward writes. “I know that will be tough to hear for Jazz fans — and I really want you all to know that you mean the world to me and my family. Over the past few days, I’ve been genuinely torn. And I know that this process isn’t easy on the fans, either. So I just want to be as straight-up as possible about why I’m coming to Boston.
“There were so many great things pulling me in that direction,” Hayward continued. “There was the winning culture of Boston, as a city — from the Sox, to the Pats, to the Bruins. There was the special history of the Celtics, as a franchise — from Russell, to Bird, to Pierce, and it goes on. There was the amazing potential of this current Celtics roster, as a team — from ownership, to the front office, to a talented roster with Isaiah, and Al, and everyone else. And of course, there was Coach [Brad] Stevens: Not just for the relationship that we’ve built off the court — but also for the one that we started building on the court, all of those years ago, in Indiana.”
It has been an eventful day for Hayward, as a report from Chris Haynes of ESPN indicating that Hayward planned to sign with the Celtics was shot down by other outlets, with Hayward’s agent Mark Bartelstein issuing a statement confirming that his client hadn’t finalized his decision. However, Haynes’ scoop proved accurate, with Hayward formally announcing his new team a few hours later.
By joining the Celtics, Hayward will be in line for a four-year contract worth $127,829,970, though he may end up not opting into that fourth year. By that point, he’ll have 10 years of NBA experience, which would put him in line for a new max deal worth 35% of the cap instead of his current 30%. That potential desire to opt out after year three reduced the importance of Utah’s ability to offer a fifth year.
Before they finalize the signing of Hayward, the Celtics will have to make a series of salary cap moves to create the necessary cap room for his lucrative new deal. In addition to renouncing their free agents, the C’s figure to pull Kelly Olynyk‘s qualifying offer, making him an unrestricted free agent. Jordan Mickey and Demetrius Jackson are candidates to be waived, and Boston will likely have to make at least one trade — Marcus Smart, Avery Bradley, Terry Rozier, and Jae Crowder are among the candidates to be moved. Teams are already engaging the Celtics on possible deals, tweets Chris Mannix of The Vertical.
By adding Hayward, the Celtics made a big free agent splash for the second straight summer, having signed Al Horford a year ago. The team wasn’t able to land a second star like Jimmy Butler or Paul George via trade, but the reigning No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference has added an All-Star forward in Hayward and the No. 3 overall pick in Jayson Tatum, and still has a collection of future draft picks at its disposal, setting the franchise up very well for the future.
Hayward’s move to the Eastern Conference also comes at a time when most of the league’s stars who are changing teams are heading west. Butler is now in Minnesota, George is headed to Oklahoma City, and Paul Millsap will land in Denver. The talent drain in the East should give Hayward a clearer path to a spot in the NBA Finals, though Boston will still have to overcome LeBron James and the Cavaliers.
As for the other two teams involved in the Hayward sweepstakes, the Jazz are hit the hardest, having lost both Hayward and George Hill today. The team was able to add a replacement for Hill by acquiring Ricky Rubio last week, but replacing Hayward’s production will be much more difficult.
Still, now that they no longer need to accommodate a max deal for Hayward, the Jazz have some options. According to Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link), Utah has scheduled a meeting with Wizards RFA Otto Porter. However, Utah currently doesn’t have the cap space for a max offer for Porter, and moving contracts to open up that room would be risky, since the Wizards could match any offer.
Meanwhile, the Heat have a chunk of available cap room that they can now use on other players as well. Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald reports (via Twitter) that Bartelstein, who also reps Miami free agent forward James Johnson, is “working on something” for Johnson and will talk with Pat Riley tonight.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
The Wizards have officially matched the offer sheet which was extended to Otto Porter by the Brooklyn Nets, according to the team’s website. The team did not disclose the details of the contract, but it’ll be a four-year, $106.5MM deal, according to a previous report. 
“After two years at Georgetown and four years with the Wizards here in Washington, D.C., I’m excited to be staying home,” said Porter. “I want our great fans to know that I will continue to work hard to improve my game in all areas and I hope to make an even bigger contribution to the Wizards’ success in the future.”
Porter had a career year during the 2016/17 season. He shot 43.4% from long-range, a figure which ranked fourth in the league.
“Otto has developed into a vital part of our young core, which is why we made it clear that our priority was to keep him here to maintain continuity and build on the success of this group heading into next season and beyond,” team president Ernie Grunfeld said. “His versatility, basketball IQ and three-point shooting combine to make him a great fit for us on the floor while his character and work in the community show why we’re so pleased to have him as a cornerstone of our franchise.”
The deal will reportedly include a 15% trade kicker and a player option for the fourth season. The former No.3 overall pick will also receive half of his salary by October 1st of each year, which is the maximum allowed. Porter is now the team’s highest-paid player.
The Wizards have signed undrafted rookie Devin Robinson to a two-way contract, according to Candace Buckner of The Washington Post. The club has now filled both of the openings for two-way players on its roster.
Robinson, a 6’8″ forward out of Florida, averaged 11.1 PPG and 6.1 RPG with a .524/.391/.723 shooting line in his junior year in 2016/17. An early entrant in the 2017 draft, Robinson was viewed as a top-50 prospect by DraftExpress, but wasn’t one of the 60 players to come off the board on draft night, making him an unrestricted free agent.
The Wizards previously signed Pittsburgh alum Michael Young to a two-way deal, so they’re now at their limit for two-way players. Both Young and Robinson have been playing for Washington’s Summer League squad in Las Vegas.
For details on what two-way contracts are, how they work, and how much they pay, be sure to check out our breakdown from earlier this year.
July 12, 4:10pm: The signing is official, according to NBA.com.
JULY 2, 11:38am: The Wizards have added some more outside shooting to their roster, according to Shams Charania of The Vertical (via Twitter). League sources tell Charania that Washington has reached an agreement with veteran free agent Jodie Meeks, who will sign a two-year, $7MM contract.
Meeks has seen his last two seasons derailed by injuries, having appeared in just 39 total games for the Pistons and Magic since the start of the 2015/16 campaign. However, he was an effective outside threat for Orlando when he suited up last year, averaging 9.1 PPG on 40.9% three-point shooting.
According to Tim Bontemps of The Washington Post (Twitter link), the Wizards will sign Meeks using their bi-annual exception. The BAE can be used for deals worth up to $6,744,500 over two years, so that makes sense. However, using that exception would limit the Wizards to a hard cap of $125.266MM for the 2017/18 league year.
Washington has about $94MM in guaranteed salaries on its books prior to adding Meeks or re-signing Otto Porter, so if the team intends to match a max offer for Porter, that hard cap could become a problem. If the Wizards instead opt to use a portion of their taxpayer mid-level exception to complete the Meeks signing, the team wouldn’t be subject to a hard cap.
The addition of Meeks probably doesn’t bode well for Bojan Bogdanovic‘s return to the Wizards. Meeks figures to fill a similar role in Washington, and Bogdanovic will likely be able to land a better offer from another club, with the Wizards focusing on Porter.
Since the offseason began, the Wizards have now traded for Tim Frazier and committed to sign Meeks in an effort to bolster one of the NBA’s lowest-scoring benches.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Wizards star point guard John Wall is making no apologies for his aggressive recruitment of Paul George during free agency, writes Candace Buckner of The Washington Post. Many observers took Wall’s comments as a slight against the team’s current small forward Otto Porter, but Wall explained his comments in a different way:
“Otto’s going to be a great player for us, a great role player for a lot of teams. There’s a difference between a role player and a superstar. It’s a big difference. There’s a lot teams that will make a lot of trades for a superstar. Look at Kevin Love getting traded for Andrew Wiggins, you never know who that player going to turn out to be.”
Buckner also points out that Wall is not in a rush regarding his own extension. Last season Wall qualified for the designated player exception after making the All-NBA third team. Wall maintained that he’s devoted to the city of Washington and plans to carefully consider whether he wishes to remain a Wizard in the long term. An extension could keep Wall in the District for the next six years.
Here’s what else you should know from the Southeast division:
- Former Heat star Chris Bosh penned an open letter to the city of Miami, thanking its residents for the past seven years of support. The 33-year-old power forward credited Miamians for showing him “how to stay strong and push through in the toughest moments,” which has “made [him] a better man, the person [he is] today.” In the letter, Bosh did not broach the topics of his current health or his future plans.
- Hawks big man Mike Muscala viewed his return to Atlanta as a “no-brainer,” writes Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Last week, Muscala agreed to a two-year, $10MM contract to remain with the Hawks.
- Heat president Pat Riley opined on various Heat players, with his comments about Wayne Ellington particularly effusive: “It would have killed me to see him go. He committed himself unlike anybody else. And just like James Johnson and Dion [Waiters], changed everything about how he played…And he’s so in, so committed, and he can see what did for himself with our help, and how it improved his game. He’s one of the best catch-and-shoot players in the league.” Riley goes on to mention that the team has Early Bird Rights on Ellington and credits the player’s loss of 20 pounds with yielding many benefits on the court. Ellington’s $6.3MM contract was guaranteed on Friday.
JULY 10th, 10:48pm: Bogdanovic has officially signed with the team, according to a Pacers press release.
JULY 7th, 1:48pm: The Pacers have agreed to sign Bojan Bogdanovic to a two-year, $21MM contract with a partial guarantee in year two, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter links). The news comes right on the heels of a report that the Wizards pulled Bogdanovic’s qualifying offer, making him an unrestricted free agent.
Bogdanovic, 28, enjoyed the best season of his NBA career in 2016/17, starting 54 games for the Nets before being sent to the Wizards at the trade deadline. For the season, the 6’8″ swingman averaged 13.7 PPG and 3.4 RPG, with a .445/.367/.893 shooting line. He also chipped in 8.8 PPG and 4.3 RPG in 13 playoff games for Washington.
After receiving a qualifying offer from the Wizards, Bogdanovic entered July as a restricted free agent. However, Washington’s priority was to retain Otto Porter, and the team is now poised to match an offer sheet for Porter from the Nets. That put Bogdanovic out of the Wizards’ price range, particularly after the club agreed to sign a lower-cost replacement in Jodie Meeks.
Reports earlier in free agency pegged Bogdanovic’s asking price at $16MM per year over three or four seasons, which might have been attainable last summer, but was never realistic in this year’s market. The Pacers will get him at a $10.5MM annual salary, and will have an out for the second year if things don’t work out in Indiana in 2017/18. The new-look Pacers likely envision Bogdanovic as a replacement for C.J. Miles, who remains on the free agent market.
The Pacers will use cap room to sign Bogdanovic, and won’t have a whole lot of space left after also having signed Darren Collison to a deal that looks similar to Bogdanovic’s. Based on my rough calculations, Indiana’s team salary will be at around $94MM after officially adding Bogdanovic.
Finally, it’s worth noting that Bojan Bogdanovic is not the same player as Bogdan Bogdanovic, who has agreed to a three-year deal with the Kings.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
JULY 10th, 5:58pm: The signing is official, according to a team press release.
JULY 4th, 12:26pm: The Kings will sign Zach Randolph to a two-year, $24MM deal, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com. Both seasons are fully guaranteed, according to David Aldridge of TNT (Twitter link).
Randolph, who will turn 36 later this month, spent the past eight years in Memphis. His role with the Grizzlies was diminished this season as he lost his starting job and saw his playing time reduced to about 24 minutes per night.
The Cavaliers had also been linked to Randolph and were reported to be greatly interested in adding the bruising power forward. However, Cleveland is well over the cap and couldn’t have offered nearly as much as Sacramento did.
Today’s signings of Randolph and George Hill leave the Kings with $25.3MM in cap space, posts Bobby Marks on ESPN Now. That will be cut further by the upcoming addition of Bogdan Bogdanovic, who is expected to get $27MM over three years. That doesn’t leave enough for a reported max offer to Otto Porter, so the Kings may have decided to move in a different direction.
In addition to what he provides on the court, Randolph can serve as a mentor to the Kings’ young big men, Willie Cauley-Stein, Georgios Papagiannis and Skal Labissiere. For Memphis, it’s the latest move away from their grit-and-grind tradition as veteran guard Tony Allen is also considered unlikely to return.
Sacramento will be the fifth franchise for Randolph, a 16-year veteran who started his career with the Trail Blazers and had brief stints with the Knicks and Clippers.
The Wizards announced they will match the Nets’ four-year, $106.5MM offer to Otto Porter, tweets Candace Buckner of The Washington Post. Porter still has to pass a physical before the move becomes official, notes David Aldridge of TNT (Twitter link).
Washington had until 11pm Central to decide on the offer sheet, so the Wizards beat the deadline by about two hours. They had vowed to match any offer, even as Porter was negotiating with other teams.
The new contract will make Porter the team’s highest-paid player next season with a $24.8MM salary, Buckner notes. It also pushes Washington above the luxury tax line for the first time ever.
The Wizards have $126.5MM in salary committed for the upcoming season with 13 guaranteed contracts and two non-guaranteed, along with an $11.4MM tax bill, posts Bobby Marks on ESPN Now.
The Nets’ offer to Porter includes a 15% trade kicker and a player option for the fourth year, along with a provision stating that Porter will receive half of his annual salary by October 1st of each year.
By matching, Washington brings backs a key piece of last season’s roster, as Porter appeared in 80 games, all as a starter, and averaged 13.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per night. He has been with the franchise since being taken with the third pick in the 2013 draft and has been a regular starter for the past two seasons.
For the Nets, it’s the latest in a string of misses in restricted free agency. Over the past 12 months, Brooklyn has submitted offer sheets to Allen Crabbe, Tyler Johnson, Donatas Motiejunas and Porter, and all were matched by their current teams.
Tonight’s decision won’t free up the Nets’ cap room right away. Porter has two days to undergo the team physical, then the Wizards have two more days to report the results to the league. So it’s possible that Brooklyn’s cap situation will not be resolved before Wednesday. Brooklyn will have $28.3MM once the process is complete, Marks posts.
JULY 8, 1:25pm: Mike Scott has officially signed a 1-year, $1.7MM deal with the Wizards, tweets Candace Buckner of the Washington Post.
JULY 4, 8:51am: Free agent forward Mike Scott has reached a veterans minimum agreement with the Wizards, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com.
The five-year veteran is coming off an injury-plagued season that limited him to just 18 games. He missed the start of the year after having surgery on his left knee and didn’t take the court until mid-December. He put up career-worst numbers with 2.5 points and 1.5 rebounds in limited playing time and was traded to Phoenix at the February deadline. The Suns waived him the following day.
Scott, who will turn 29 this month, is the latest addition to the Wizards’ bench. They reached a deal with Jodie Meeks on Sunday, and Candace Buckner of The Washington Post speculates that the 15-man roster will be more or less set if Otto Porter re-signs.
The agreement with Scott puts the Wizards right on the edge of the cap, with $98.8MM in guaranteed contracts, Bobby Marks posts on ESPN Now. A max deal with Porter would move Washington $7.2MM over the tax line, creating a penalty of $11.4MM.