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Unrestricted free agent swingman DeQuan Jones won’t return to the Orlando Magic for the 2013-14 season.
The Magic told him after their final summer league game this afternoon that they don’t intend to re-sign him. Team officials parted ways with Jones on good terms, and the team will consider other ways to use his roster spot.
Reported by Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel (Blog)
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The Dallas Mavericks continued to stack the deck in their backcourt Friday when they agreed to terms with Monta Ellis on a three-year contract worth close to $30 million.
Ellis becomes the fifth guard the Mavs have signed this off-season, joining Jose Calderon, Devin Harris, Gal Mekel and Ricky Ledo. They selected Shane Larkin in the first round of last month’s draft.
After losing out on Dwight Howard and Andrew Bynum, Ellis is an ideal Plan C for the Mavs. He’s elusive, has a quick jumper and should allow the Mavs to play a more uptempo style.
Reported by Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram
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With the acquisitions of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Jason Terry finally made official Friday, Brooklyn Nets coach Jason Kidd wasted no time setting his team’s next target on the defending champion Miami Heat.
“They’re the blueprint, they’re the champs, they won it twice in a row, [and] they could have won it three times in a row,” Kidd said Friday. “They put that team together to try to win championships, and they’ve had a lot of success. So if you want to compete with them, you’ve got to have the horses. And I think we have that.”
Kidd spoke for the first time Friday about those high profile additions to the Nets’ roster after the league finally cleared the trade that sent Garnett, Pierce, Terry and D.J. White to Brooklyn, with the Boston Celtics receiving Gerald Wallace, MarShon Brooks, Kris Humphries, Keith Bogans, Kris Joseph and first-round draft picks in 2014, 2016 and 2018. The Celtics also have the right to swap first-round picks with the Nets in 2017.
The deal was agreed to June 27, but was held up due to the league moratorium on player movement, as well as minor contract stipulations.
— Reported by Michael Wallace of ESPN.com
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The Golden State Warriors have confirmed the deal struck earlier this week with free agent Marreese Speights.
The announcement Friday gives Golden State another versatile power forward off the bench whom they hope can fill the void left by Carl Landry, who agreed to a four-year, $26 million contract with the Sacramento Kings last Saturday…
Speights’ deal is for three years and about $11 million. The third year is a team option.
Reported by the Associated Press
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Kobe Bryant told ESPNLosAngeles.com on Wednesday that he fully intends to retire as a Laker someday and doesn’t believe there will be any problem securing an extension for as long as he can play at an elite level.
There have yet to be any discussions between Bryant’s camp and the Lakers about an extension, he said, so neither side has any idea yet what type of salary he will command. Bryant is currently the highest-paid player in the league at $30.5 million this season.
“As a businessman the goal is always to not take a pay cut,” Bryant said. “But …”
Reported by Ramona Shelburne of ESPN Los Angeles
For now, the prospects of paying a big luxury-tax bill next year is not enough to dissuade the Miami Heat from its plan to keep the its current championship core intact.
Heat president Pat Riley said Friday that the team does not currently plan to use its one-time amnesty option as a way of lightening its looming tax load, with the team’s focus instead being on simply finding ways to get better.
“Right now, we’re not using amnesty, no,” Riley said.
Amnesty would allow the Heat to essentially cut one player and pay whatever is left on his contract, but without that salary counting against the team’s cap space or add to future luxury-tax bills. Miami is currently in line to pay more than $30 million in tax for the coming season, though could shave off at least one-quarter of that by parting with someone like Joel Anthony or Mike Miller.
Reported by the Associated Press
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The Brooklyn Nets have signed free agent forward Andrei Kirilenko, Nets General Manager Billy King announced today.
According to ESPN.com, “The Nets will use their taxpayer mini midlevel exception to bring Kirilenko aboard. It’s a two-year contract with a player option for the second year, a source said. Kirilenko will make $3.1 million in the first year of the deal. Kirilenko, 32, signed a two-year contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves worth $20 million last offseason, but opted out of the final year worth $10 million to become a free agent again this summer.”
“It gives me great pleasure to welcome Andrei to the Nets,” said Nets Principal Owner Mikhail Prokhorov. “He is a true talent with tremendous versatility. As a fellow countryman, I am especially proud that the best Russian player in the history of the NBA will be wearing a Nets jersey.”
“We are very pleased to add Andrei to our roster,” said King. “He is a proven NBA veteran with a unique skill set, and his addition provides our team with increased frontcourt flexibility.”
In an 11-year NBA career with the Utah Jazz and Minnesota Timberwolves, the 2004 NBA All-Star owns averages of 12.4 points, 5.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.9 blocks and 1.4 steals. Last season, his lone with the Timberwolves, the Russian native averaged 12.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.0 blocks. The 6’9’’ Kirilenko is a three-time All-Defensive selection (First Team in 2005-06; Second Team in 2003-04 and 2004-05) and was selected Player of the Week twice during the 2003-04 campaign. Kirilenko led the NBA in blocks per game (3.3) in 2004-05 and in total blocks in 2005-06 (220), and currently ranks 24th in NBA history in blocks per game (1.9), fifth among active players. Voted First Team All-Rookie in 2001-02 as a 20-year-old, he went on to appear in the playoffs in six of his first nine seasons, averaging 10.1 points, 4.2 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.9 blocks and 1.2 steals in 45 games (36 starts).
Selected by Utah with the 24th pick in the 1999 NBA Draft, Kirilenko did not join the Jazz until the 2001-02 season. Prior to coming to the NBA, he became the youngest player to appear in the Russian Superleague as a 17-year-old with Spartak St. Petersburg during the 1997-98 season. Kirilenko spent the next three years with CSKA Moscow, where he led CSKA to the Superleague Championship and was selected an All-Star in his first season before winning the Russian League MVP in 2000. Kirilenko decided to leave the NBA and play domestically in 2011-12, returning to CSKA and leading his team to the Euroleague Final while garnering Euroleague MVP, All-Euroleague First Team and Euroleague Defensive Player of the Year accolades.
Born in Izhevsk, Kirilenko has represented his country at the 2000, 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games, winning a bronze medal in 2012 in London and being honored as his country’s flag bearer in 2008 in Beijing. He has also been a member of five Russian EuroBasket entries, highlighted by his 2007 campaign that saw Russia win the gold medal and culminating with his selection as MVP of the tournament.
In Brooklyn, Kirilenko reunites with point guard Deron Williams. The two were teammates with the Jazz for five-and-a-half seasons in Utah between 2005-06 and 2010-11, before Williams was acquired midseason by the Nets. In 2006-07, the duo led the Jazz to a Western Conference Finals appearance.
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The Los Angeles Lakers have signed free agent center Chris Kaman, it was announced today by General Manager Mitch Kupchak.
Kaman, a 10-year NBA veteran out of Central Michigan University, has averaged 11.8 points, 8.0 rebounds and 1.38 blocks in 606 career games (510 starts) with the Los Angeles Clippers, New Orleans Pelicans and Dallas Mavericks.
“We’re pleased to be able to add a big man of Chris’ caliber to the roster for the upcoming season,” said Kupchak. “He’s a versatile center who defends well, goes hard to the glass and can score both in the paint and from mid-range while also being a high character guy and solid locker room presence.”
Originally selected by the Clippers with the sixth overall pick in the 2003 NBA Draft, the 7-foot, 265-pound center has scored better than 10 points per game in each of his last eight NBA seasons and is one of only 13 players since entering the league to record at least 7,000 points, 4,000 rebounds and 800 blocked shots.
Named to the 2010 Western Conference All-Star team in a season in which he ranked 25th among league leaders in scoring, 14th in rebounding and 23rd in blocked shots, Kaman, a dual citizen of the United States and Germany, was also a member of the German National Team that competed at Eurobasket 2011 and the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Appearing in 66 games (52 starts) with the Mavericks last season, Kaman averaged 10.5 points and 5.6 rebounds in a career-low 20.7 minutes while shooting above .500 from the field (.507) for the third time in his career.
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The Wizards don’t have much time to wait for Jan Vesely, a 6-11 lottery pick entering this third season and has contributed little.
It all starts with the NBA summer league in Las Vegas, with the Wizards opening play Saturday vs. the Golden State Warriors (CSN, 4 p.m. ET; replay, 7).
Vesely averaged 2.5 points and 2.4 rebounds last season when the Wizards won just 29 games. He has yet to showcase any sort of versatility outside the paint even though he was referred to as a swingman when the Wizards drafted him sixth overall in 2011.
Reported by J. Michael of CSN Washington
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The Minnesota Timberwolves today announced the team has signed free agent guard/forward Corey Brewer.
“We are excited to bring Corey Brewer back to the Timberwolves,” said Flip Saunders, Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations. “Corey is a quality defender and has improved his all-around game during his six years in the NBA. We believe he will fit our system really well and we look forward to watching him in a Wolves uniform again. ”
In 2012-13, Brewer, 27, averaged 12.1 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.4 steals in 82 games for Denver. He tallied 20+ points 11 times, including a career-high 29 points in a win vs. Philadelphia on March 21. In six playoff games with the Nuggets, Brewer averaged 10.8 points and 1.8 rebounds.
Brewer was drafted by the Timberwolves in the first round (7th overall) of the 2007 NBA Draft. In his six seasons in the NBA with Minnesota (2007-11), Dallas (2011) and Denver (2011-13), Brewer has averaged 9.5 points, 3.1 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.3 steals in 386 games (168 starts). In his rookie season with the Wolves in 2005-06, Brewer appeared in 79 games and averaged 5.8 points and a career-high 3.7 rebounds. He only played in 15 games in 2008-09 due to a knee injury. Brewer came back in 2009-10 to have one of his best seasons, averaging a career-high 13.0 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists. He was traded by the Wolves to New York on Feb. 22, 2011 as part of a three-team trade. He was waived by the Knicks and signed with Dallas on March 3 for the remainder of the season. Dallas traded Brewer to Denver prior to the 2011-12 season.
Brewer will wear uniform No. 13 with the Wolves.