Category: NBA Free Agency

NBA buyout market: 5 names to watch

The NBA buyout market is full of some very intriguing players. Who might be available?

The NBA trade deadline has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean teams are done making meaningful additions. Rosters could still change in a big way ahead of the playoffs thanks to the NBA buyout market. There’s a number of intriguing players who may negotiate contract buyouts with their current squads in the coming weeks. From there, they would be able to join any team with an open roster spot.

Whether it’s PJ Brown and the 2008 Celtics or Reggie Jackson and last year’s Clippers team, adding a player via the buyout market can make a major impact. Veteran players often look to jump ship to contenders as winter turns to spring and postseason comes into view. Expect the Lakers and Heat to be players here. Ditto the Sixers and Nets. Any team with a shot at a title will think long and hard about making a meaningful addition if it can.

Check out some of the names that could be on the move and headline the 2022 NBA buyout market:

Should the Boston Celtics target point guard Ricky Rubio in free agency this offseason?

A Forbes analyst believes he is the sort of player the Celtics need to get on their roster.

The Boston Celtics have been dealing with issues of consistency for more than a season now, and one of the theories regarding what needs to change to get some more consistent play on the floor is related to the makeup of the roster — namely the absence of a true, pass-first high-level point guard.

While most will agree Marcus Smart has been solid in that regard, some believe the Celtics would benefit from an upgrade at that position. One such analyst making that claim is Forbes SportsMoney’s Morten Jensen, who has a specific target in mind for Boston’s front office to pursue this offseason: injured veteran Cleveland Cavaliers floor general Ricky Rubio.

Rubio, who tore his ACL and ended his season recently, might seem like an odd choice of a target for the Celtics, but Jensen has his logic.

Evan Fournier among The Athletic’s top 20 free agents

The Celtics may have a hot commodity on their hands as free agency approaches this offseason.

The Boston Celtics have already began making changes to their roster early in the offseason.

Kemba Walker was traded to the Oklahoma City Thunder for a reunion with Al Horford and young big man Moses Brown.

But, the Celtics aren’t done yet.

Their biggest free agent of the summer is Evan Fournier, who the team acquired at the trade deadline this season.

John Hollinger of The Athletic listed Fournier as one of the top 20 free agents in the NBA according to his BORD$ formula (Big Ol’ Rating Dollars) which calculates the value of the player based on how many minutes they play and the quality of those minutes.

Following the trade of Walker, the Celtics brass reportedly feel better about their chances of resigning Fournier, according to Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe.

Fournier made $17M last season, who Hollinger had ranked No. 16 on his board.

In 42 games this season, Fournier averaged 17.1 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 3.4 assists. In 16 games with the Celtics, the Frenchman averaged 13.0, 3.3 rebounds, and 3.1 assists on 46.3% from downtown.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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Report: Former Celtics C Daniel Theis is on the radar of at least one NBA GM

Former Celtic Daniel Theis has impending free agency in 2021

A destination already filled with former Celtics could be looking to add another this offseason. Last season, the Charlotte Hornets had a glaring hole in the middle of their team with the lack of a truly imposing center. Bismack Biyombo and Cody Zeller acted as the temporary duct tape put on a more serious issue, but all year long the Hornets struggled to defend skilled centers.

After being dealt to Chicago earlier this season, Daniel Theis now has impending free agency looming. The Charlotte Observer’s Rick Bonnell reported yesterday that Theis is on Hornets GM Mitch Kupchak’s short list for centers to add this off-season:

Theis averaged 9.6 points per game and 5.5 rebounds per game with his time split between Boston and Chicago in the 2020-2021 season. If Theis heads to Charlotte, he would join a trio of former Celtics in Gordon Hayward, Brad Wanamaker, and Terry Rozier.

Ainge: ‘this next year will tell us more’ about Walker’s knee

Boston Celtics team president Danny Ainge is optimistic about Kemba Walker and the team’s ability to start the season with him recovering.

Boston Celtics team president Danny Ainge spoke to the press via remote press conference Tuesday morning hours after the team broke news that All-Star point guard Kemba Walker and second-year wing Romeo Langford will miss the start of the season as they recover from injury.

Ainge spoke about the decision-making guiding roster construction given the news, which has been to look for guys who “play off of Jaylen [Brown], Jayson [Tatum], Marcus [Smart] and Kemba, and guys who can take a bigger role when they’re resting or sitting on the bench.”

He also spoke on whether the team would try and add additional depth to shore up gaps in the roster to start the season.

Ainge noted the team has a nearly full roster with 16 guaranteed deals counting the two way players, and suggested the team was happy with the roster for the moment.

The Celtics chief also said that this will be “an opportunity for Marcus [Smart] to play some point guard for us” along with Tremont Waters and newly-signed guards Jeff Teague and Payton Pritchard.

The state of Walker’s knee was the elephant in the room behind those gaps in the rotation, and Ainge sounded positive when addressing it.

“I think this next year will tell us a lot more,” he suggested, noting Walker is “on a program, and seems to be in a very good, happy spot.”

“Maybe we didn’t do him justice by bringing him back too fast into the bubble, being hurt and finding some urgency to get him ready for the regular season. But we don’t want to make that mistake [again], even if it was a mistake at the time.”

“I don’t want to blame anybody, but it’s not a perfect science — it’s just guesswork,” he added.

With the New Yorker due to be re-evaluated in early January, it sounds as if Walker will miss at least the first two weeks of the season, and the Celtics have a plan to manage that absence, even if it stretches closer to February.

Ironically, the loss of Romeo Langford to the rotation may well be more of a challenge for Boston to adapt to.

But, with rookie Aaron Nesmith’s arrival, excellent play from Grant Williams to end last season and prospects like Carsen Edwards needing run at the NBA level to show growth, it seems like the club is prepared to weather an early appearance of the Hospital Celtics.

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Celtics formally announce Tristan Thompson, Jeff Teague signings

The Boston Celtics made it official with their two newest signings.

With their traded-player exception secured and the Gordon Hayward free agency saga behind them, the Boston Celtics were able to turn their attention to other important offseason matters, chief among them signing big man Tristan Thompson and point guard Jeff Teague.

The duo had been in a holding pattern while the Hayward situation was resolved, Thompson’s full mid-level exception deal fo about $9.3 million inaccessible until the Butler product was off the team’s books for certain.

The Celtics circulated a press release to the media regarding the signings being made official on Monday afternoon once that process had played itself out.

Noting the statistical production of each player, the release also noted that Thompson will wear his usual No. 13, while Teague will don jersey No. 55 as a Celtic.

The duo are clear upgrades over former Celtics Enes Kanter and Brad Wanamaker after the former was dealt to the Portland Trail Blazers and the latter signed a deal in free agency with the Golden State Warriors.

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Celtics secure record TPE for sign-and-trade of Hayward to Hornets

Boston can now absorb a max-level player in a trade, or several lesser deals.

The Boston Celtics have signed-and-traded veteran forward Gordon Hayward to the Charlotte Hornets along with two second-round picks in exchange for a future second-rounder according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.

The move is the resolution of the drama sparked by the Butler product opting to decamp from the Celtics to the Hornets this offseason. It will net the Celtics a massive traded-player exception worth the value of the first year of Hayward’s four-year, $120 million dollar deal.

ESPN’s Bobby Marks reports the exception generated by the Hayward deal will be for $27.9 million, the biggest traded-player exception created in the history of the NBA.

For Boston, the news is about as positive of a resolution as could be hoped for given the circumstances, given the Hornets were able to sign Hayward outright once they’d waived forward Nic Batum.

The move will create critical cap space for the Celtics to absorb salary from one or more players up to the dollar amount of Hayward’s first year salary with Charlotte.

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Report: Hornets waive Nic Batum, clear way to sign Gordon Hayward

The endgame for the Hayward saga with the Celtics is coming into view.

The Charlotte Hornets have officially waived forward Nic Batum according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, clearing a path for former Boston Celtics forward Gordon Hayward to sign the four-year, $120 million deal that lured him away from the Celtics in free agency.

Batum will likely be stretched as well, and with the move the endgame for Boston is likely to resolve whether it is able to extract a sign-and-trade in exchange for an asset of some kind in order to preserve important cap flexibility going forward.

A sign-and-trade would generate a massive traded-player exception the Celtics would then have a year to use to absorb the salary of one or more players into their cap space they would otherwise lose with Hayward departing outright.

No word yet on the status of that endeavor just yet, but expect a resolution very soon with news that veteran big man Tristan Thompson having made his way to the Celtics to sign his deal with the team and prepare for training camp.

Batum for his part reportedly plans to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers after clearing waivers.

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Celtics reportedly tried to deal Hayward, 3 firsts for Jrue Holiday

The Milwaukee Bucks would outbid everyone, however.

The Boston Celtics reportedly tendered a hefty offer to get their hands on former New Orleans Pelicans guard Jrue Holiday, according to Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer.

While the eldest Holiday in the league ultimately ended up with the Milwaukee Bucks after that team pushed all their chips in for the defensively-oriented combo guard, the offer the Celtics reportedly had was otherwise very competitive, according to Fischer.

Evidently, as were the offers tendered by several other competing teams around the NBA.

“The Boston Celtics offered Gordon Hayward plus their three first-round picks in last week’s draft, it is said,” suggests the Bleacher Report writer. “Atlanta is known to have discussed the No. 6 pick, Dewayne Dedmon and sharpshooting youngster Kevin Huerter. Denver and Dallas were also rumored as significant suitors.”

After news broke that Hayward’s new team, the Charlotte Hornets, and Boston have worked out a sign-and-trade circulating, it sounds as if we are very close to the end of this particular saga.

With its completion, we will have likely seen most of the big moves of the offseason along with several related moves like this one and the failed deal between the Celtics and the Pacers for Hayward’s services that never came to be.

Though still too early to judge the moves that did happen against the potential of such counterfactual possibilities, it’s still hard not to linger them.

Wondering how things might be different if these alternative directions — or Hayward’s first game as a Celtic — had worked out.

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Woj: Celtics, Hornets have worked on sign-and-trade, looking for 3rd team

The two teams seem to be getting closer to striking a deal as Charlotte searches for a home for Nic Batum.

The Boston Celtics and Charlotte Hornets have worked out a sign-and-trade for Gordon Hayward that would create a traded-player exception for the former Celtic, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

The ESPN insider noted the Hornets are on the hunt for a third team to take Nic Batum’s contract to avoid having to waive and stretch the veteran wing’s $27 million deal.

The two teams have been in a holding pattern since Hayward announced his $120 million deal with Charlotte and subsequent decampment from the Celtics last week, negotiating terms for the deal in the hopes of making the situation more palatable for both sides.

As for obvious targets for the Hornets, only the New York Knicks have the space to absorb Batum’s deal outright, and they are likely driving a hard bargain for any teams looking to dump salary as a result.

The Oklahoma City Thunder could conceivably fold the trade into existing deals yet to be finalized, but would also be asking for a premium to do so.

It seems more likely Charlotte will carry his deal another season before dumping it on less onerous terms, and the Celtics and Hornets will end up hammering out a deal apart from it.

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