Official NBA Free Agency Thread: Non Spurs Related

Kings Outbid Clippers For Udrih

The Kings found a way to keep Beno Udrih in Sacramento despite competition from the Clippers, according to ESPN.com's Chad Ford.

Udrih and the Kings have verbally agreed to terms on a five-year contract worth the full mid-level exception, according to a source.

"I am so happy and honored to be returning to the Kings," Udrih told ESPN.com. "They took a chance on me and believed in me. I can't wait to get back to my teammates and the city that has become home to me."

Mike Dunleavy flew to New York at midnight on Monday night to speak with Udrih, but in the end he decided to remain with Sacramento.


http://realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/ ... for_udrih/

Holly Crap that is a lot of money for Beno. Has Geoffe Petrie lost his mind?

Source: Celtics make offers to Posey, Maggette
Marc J. Spears, Globe Staff July 1, 2008 05:11 PM

The Celtics have made contract offers to two forwards: Their own free agent, James Posey, and Clippers free agent Corey Maggette, sources told the Boston Globe. The most the Celtics could offer is the mid-level exception (about $5.8 million), and it's doubtful that they could sign both players. The terms of the offers were not disclosed.

Posey averaged 7.4 points and 4.4 rebounds in 2007-08 and was a NBA Sixth Man of the Year candidate in his first season with Boston. The two-time NBA champion was a strong leader for the Celtics and opted out of the second year of a two-year deal on Monday to become an unrestricted free agent. Maggette averaged 22.1 points and 5.6 rebounds last season for the Clippers and played for Celtics coach Doc Rivers in Orlando during the 1999-2000 season.

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball ... ke_of.html

Davis verbally agrees to go to Clippers, leave Warriors

Baron Davis shocked the Warriors by opting out of his contract on Monday. Imagine their surprise now.
NBA front-office sources told ESPN.com's Marc Stein that the guard reached a verbal agreement with the Clippers on Tuesday night and will sign a new multiyear contract with Los Angeles after the leaguewide moratorium on signings and trades is lifted July 9.

Davis was in line to make $17.8 million in the last year of his deal with the Warriors, but after telling the team that he wanted to stay, opted out at the last minute.

Forward Elton Brand also opted out of his contract with the Clippers on Monday, and speculation quickly began that the team would try to keep Brand and sign Davis. This scenario is only possible if the Clippers renounce the rights of Corey Maggette and Brand takes a slight pay cut.

Maggette opted out of his deal on Monday as well.

Davis averaged 21.8 points, 7.6 assists and 4.7 rebounds last season for a Warriors team that won 48 games but did not make the playoffs.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3470016

with the Clippers focused on Davis, the Spurs should take this opportunity to offer Maggette a contract offer with the MLE, probably all he can get now, unless he goes to a bad team

I guess we will see if Maggette wants to hop on the bandwagon with a couple of other All-Star wings, try and fit in with another contender, or just go to another crappy team for a paycheck.

Davis to Clippers is good for us - means we have a better chance of landing Magette

Mavericks Agree To Deal With Gerald Green

According to a source, the Dallas Mavericks have reached an agreement with high flyer Gerald Green, the Dallas Morning News is reporting.

It is believed that the deal will be for one year.

http://realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/ ... ald_green/

Paul agrees to four-year, $68 million deal

Chris Paul completed his contract negotiations with the New Orleans Hornets on Thursday, agreeing to a four-year extension worth $68 million, said Paul’s agent, Lance Young. The final season of the contract is at Paul’s option.

Paul, who met with Hornets officials on Wednesday, is expected to sign the contract Thursday evening.

The Hornets offered Paul a five-year extension worth approximately $87 million, the maximum allowed, but the All-Star point guard opted for a shorter contract – an approach LeBron James and Dwyane Wade previously took when they signed extensions to their rookie contracts. Paul will now have the ability to become a free agent in the summer of 2012, giving him leverage to ensure the Hornets commit to maintaining a championship-contending team.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=a ... &type=lgns

Arenas agrees to deal

Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas has informed Wizards team president Ernie Grunfeld he will agree to a six-year deal worth $111 million, in his words, giving back roughly $16 million of the max, $127 million deal the team offered him Tuesday morning.

"This is in line with what I've been saying the whole time," Arenas said Thursday evening in a telephone conversation from China. "You see players take max deals and they financially bind their teams. I don't wanna be one of those players and three years down the road your team is strapped and can't do anything about it."

Arenas said Grunfeld is going over the numbers to figure out how exactly the money will be dispersed over the six years and then he will officially come to terms with the team Tuesday when free agents are permitted to sign with teams.

"It's a relief," Arenas said. "It was a burden at the same time. You're whole city is depending on you, wondering if you're going to make the right decision. I'm a franchise player and sometimes franchise players need to make franchise decisions."

http://washingtontimes.com/weblogs/outl ... rees-deal/

Im glad arenas is staying witht he Wizards,,,,,,,,,,

The Los Angeles Clippers will have to wait at least one more day -- and maybe longer -- to know for sure that they'll be able to unveil their dream pairing of Baron Davis and Elton Brand next season.

Elton Brand

Brand

That's because the Golden State Warriors have responded to losing Davis to the Clippers by giving Brand a lucrative alternative to consider, urging him to relocate to Northern California by taking their five-year contract offer worth an estimated $90 million.

Strong indications persist that Brand will stay in L.A., largely because he explained his decision to opt out of the final year of his previous contract Monday by saying he was trying to give the Clippers some financial flexibility to strengthen the team around him. But Brand is apparently still considering Golden State's rich proposal.

It was initially expected that Brand might verbally commit to re-signing with the Clippers on Wednesday, one day after Davis told the Clippers he was accepting their five-year offer worth an estimated $65 million to go back home to Los Angeles. Brand instead flew to Washington to consult face-to-face with agent David Falk while Golden State was poised to give him a deal possibly $20 million richer than what the Clippers can offer.

Sources close to the situation told ESPN.com on Wednesday night that the most likely scenario remains Brand re-signing with L.A. and ultimately teaming with Davis no matter what the Warriors present. One source said that Brand, during negotiations on a contract extension in June, specifically told Clippers management that Davis was the player he hoped they'd pursue if he became available in free agency.

Yet sources also said late Wednesday that the magnitude of Golden State's offer forced Brand to give it a serious look and has Clippers officials privately concerned that their fantasy scenario could collapse, with no decision from Brand guaranteed before the July 4 holiday.

The saga began Monday when Brand unexpectedly walked away from next season's $16.4 million salary to become an unrestricted free agent. Brand immediately announced that his "intention is to stay" with the Clippers. Falk told ESPN.com that they wanted to "afford the Clippers roster flexibility over the next nine days" to solidify the team around Brand and eventually sign a contract -- presumably with a slight pay cut -- that would enable Brand to "finish his career with the Clippers."

Brand's decision to opt out, coupled with a similar move by high-scoring swingman Corey Maggette, suddenly created a scenario where L.A. could have more than $25 million for next season to split on Brand and Davis, provided that Brand was willing to re-sign at a discount. Davis quickly gave a verbal commitment to the Clippers when his own decision to opt out Monday -- forfeiting next season's $17.8 million with the Warriors -- failed to bring Golden State back to the negotiating table.

Baron Davis

Davis

ESPN.com reported early Wednesday morning that the Warriors responded to Davis' decision to opt out by making a lucrative offer to Brand -- after a similarly lucrative offer to Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas -- as opposed to resuming talks with Davis. The sides were far apart on negotiations for a contract extension leading into free agency.

"I'm sure a lot of people were surprised yesterday when Baron opted out, but it was done with the idea that the Warriors would come back with something else," Davis' agent Todd Ramasar told ESPN.com on Tuesday. "We still expected a discussion for Baron to remain a Warrior.

"He had a great run with the Warriors. That had become home for him. ... [But] this is about having the best team in place, especially at this point in his career. Baron just wants to win. He has a chance to do something special with the Clippers and come back home."

Free agents and teams were allowed to reach verbal agreements on new contracts as of 12:01 a.m. Tuesday morning, but no signings or trades can be finalized before July 9. That's when the NBA will lift its annual moratorium on roster moves which is needed to compute the salary cap for the following season.

Davis' promise to sign with the Clippers makes him by far the most marquee free-agent signing in the club's quarter-century in Los Angeles under the stewardship of owner Donald Sterling. The closest thing to a big-name free agent signed away from another team in the Sterling era is Cuttino Mobley, lured from Sacramento to Hollywood by a five-year deal worth $42 million in 2005.

There are a number of reasons Brand likely won't leave the Clippers. He has a longstanding friendship with Davis, Golden State's young roster now lacks a proven point guard and Falk said Monday that Brand has been inspired to make the talent around him a top priority given what happened in Boston this season with Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.

It was not immediately known whether the Clippers will be able to manufacture another move or two that enables them to increase their offer to Brand while keeping Davis at his established figures.

"He's sort of the face of that team and he wants to try to get it back to where they were a couple years ago when they almost got to the conference finals," Falk said Monday, adding that Brand became a free agent with the intent to "maximize his opportunity to be on a serious contender."

If this off-season has proved anything to the Mavericks, it's that there is never a shortage of players who can fill out a roster.

On Monday, they had seven players under contract. Today, they have 11, with more on the way.

The latest, apparently, is J.J. Barea. Word out of Puerto Rico is that he will sign a three-year contract Wednesday, when the moratorium on trades and signings is lifted.

The deal is worth less than $5 million, according to reports out of Barea's homeland.

NBA sources indicated the deal is not done but is close.

With that, the last bit of business for the Mavericks is to wait and see which free-agent swingman might fall through the high-dollar cracks and into their lap for a minimum salary.

Sign-and-trade scenarios also are possible. And they still have interest in re-signing free agents Devean George and Antoine Wright.

Tyronn Lue and Jamaal Magloire are not expected to be back.

The good news for the Mavericks is that small forwards and shooting guards are plentiful in this free-agent market.

A few names that make sense for the Mavericks are Matt Barnes, Maurice Evans, Bonzi Wells, Flip Murray and, for those with a sense of nostalgia, Michael Finley, although a reunion between Finley and his former team is unlikely.

Most likely, the available free agents are going to wait as long as they can to try to pry away big dollars from teams that still have their mid-level exception. The Mavericks have committed their exception to DeSagana Diop.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent ... b85ca.html

NEW YORK -- Chris Duhon has reached a verbal agreement with the New York Knicks on a two-year contract, Duhon's agent said.

Chris Duhon

Duhon

"The chance for Chris to be a starter was too much to pass up," Duhon's agent, Kevin Bradbury, told 1050 ESPN New York's Andrew Marchand.

Duhon had also been talking with the Orlando Magic. Bradbury said the Magic never offered Duhon a contract.

Bradbury said the Knicks have made it clear that Duhon could start, which could mean that Stephon Marbury's days with the Knicks are numbered. Marbury is in the final year of his contract.

The agreement was initially reported by The Sporting News.

"I am just excited, I am ready to get to work for the Knicks," said Duhon, according to the Sporting News. "It's a big stage, playing in New York. It's something every player in the NBA wants."

Duhon played the last four seasons with the Chicago Bulls. He averaged 5.8 points and 4 assists per game last season. He has averaged 6.9 points and 4.5 assists per game in his career.

The Orlando Sentinel reported Thursday that the Magic expected to offer Duhon a three-year deal worth up to $10 million.

"Chris could have shopped himself around more, but in the end, he wanted a fit where he felt comfortable and he knew what kind of opportunity he would be getting," Bradbury said. "He wasn't worried about trying to find more money on the market or anything like that. He wanted the right situation, and this just felt like the right situation."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3473845