San Antonio Spurs | SAN ANTONIO SPURS TICKETS

NBA free-agent winners and losers so far

1 of 9 | Share

NBA free-agent winners and losers so far

The NBA free agency news has been coming fast and furious since July 1 and it figures to stay that way until teams can start making signings official on Wednesday. Here’s a look at some of the winners and losers through Saturday:

Winner, Heat: Ray Allen, the league’s all-time leader in 3-point field goals, is leaving Boston to join the NBA champions. Allen, who rejected a two-year, $12 million offer from the Celtics to take a two-year, $6.3 million deal from the Heat, will be Miami’s 12th player under contract, and the Heat aren’t done. Veteran forward Rashard Lewis will visit Heat headquarters today and has given indications that he would not necessarily be opposed to accepting a $1.3 million minimum contract from Miami. The Heat can add players only to minimum contracts because their $3.1 million exception is going to Allen. (Lynne Sladky / Associated Press)

Winner, Nets: Whether or not they ever add Dwight Howard, they were able to keep All-Star point guard Deron Williams for the move to Brooklyn. (Mel Evans / Associated Press)

Winner, Nets: Whether or not they ever add Dwight Howard, they were able to attract All-Star shooting guard Joe Johnson for the move to Brooklyn. (Rich Addicks / Associated Press)

Winner, Jeremy Lin: Back in December, the Houston Rockets waived a no-name guard making around $700,000 in his second year in the league. Last week, the Rockets helped make him a rich man with a four-year, $28.8 million offer the Knicks are sure to match once they are able to this week. If the calculator is working properly, that’s a pay raise of better than 1,000 percent. (Seth Wenig / Associated Press)

Winner, Elton Brand: Now that the Philadelphia 76ers have waived him, he has a shot at catching on with a title contender. Brand may not become a legitimate 20-10 threat at power forward again like he was in his years with Chicago and the Clippers, but he was as steady and durable as any Sixer the past two seasons. (Jesse D. Garrabrant / NBAE via Getty Images)

Winner, George Hill: The popular former Spurs guard agreed to a five-year deal to stay with his hometown Indiana Pacers. Terms haven’t been disclosed. Without him, the Spurs wouldn’t have obtained Kawhi Leonard in the 2011 draft-day deal, so it’s good to see one of the NBA’s good guys get rewarded. (Michael Conroy / Associated Press)

Loser, Mavericks: After winning the NBA title, they traded Tyson Chandler to the Knicks and started dreaming of the day they would sign Deron Williams and Dwight Howard. Well, Howard decided to stay in Orlando for at least another year before demanding a trade to Brooklyn or elsewhere, and Williams will be a Brooklyn Net after all. Jason Kidd is off to the Knicks. Jason Terry is off to Boston. It looks like Dirk Nowitzki will be playing with Shawn Marion, Roddy Beaubois and three draft picks next season. (Eric Gay / Associated Press)

Loser, Rockets: It will be a surprise if the Knicks don’t match their offer to Jeremy Lin. It looks like they will lose Goran Dragic, whose presence forced them to waive Lin, to the Suns. And Houston will trade Kyle Lowry to the Raptors. That leaves Courtney Fortson and Scott Machado on the roster, so you would assume GM Daryl Morey has his eye on someone else. But they do have first-round draft picks Royce White (from left), Terrence Jones and Jeremy Lamb. (Pat Sullivan / Associated Press)

Loser, Steve Nash: Less than a week after saying he could never see himself putting on a Lakers uniform, Nash asked for and got a trade to the Lakers. Really, it’s the Spurs he could never play for, since they have eliminated him from the playoffs six times. (Ross D. Franklin / Associated Press)

WINNERS

Heat: Ray Allen, the league’s all-time leader in 3-point field goals, is leaving Boston to join the NBA champions. Allen, who rejected a two-year, $12 million offer from the Celtics to take a two-year, $6.3 million deal from the Heat, will be Miami’s 12th player under contract, and the Heat aren’t done.

Veteran forward Rashard Lewis will visit Heat headquarters today and has given indications that he would not necessarily be opposed to accepting a $1.3 million minimum contract from Miami.

The Heat can add players only to minimum contracts because their $3.1 million exception is going to Allen.

Nets: Whether or not they ever add Dwight Howard, they were able to keep All-Star point guard Deron Williams and attract All-Star shooting guard Joe Johnson for the move to Brooklyn.

Jeremy Lin: Back in December, the Houston Rockets waived a no-name guard making around $700,000 in his second year in the league. Last week, the Rockets helped make him a rich man with a four-year, $28.8 million offer the Knicks are sure to match once they are able to this week.

If the calculator is working properly, that’s a pay raise of better than 1,000 percent.

Elton Brand: Now that the Philadelphia 76ers have waived him, he has a shot at catching on with a title contender.

Brand may not become a legitimate 20-10 threat at power forward again like he was in his years with Chicago and the Clippers, but he was as steady and durable as any Sixer the past two seasons.

George Hill: The popular former Spurs guard agreed to a five-year deal to stay with his hometown Indiana Pacers. Terms haven’t been disclosed. Without him, the Spurs wouldn’t have obtained Kawhi Leonard in the 2011 draft-day deal, so it’s good to see one of the NBA’s good guys get rewarded.

LOSERS

Mavericks: After winning the NBA title, they traded Tyson Chandler to the Knicks and started dreaming of the day they would sign Williams and Howard.

Well, Howard decided to stay in Orlando for at least another year before demanding a trade to Brooklyn or elsewhere, and Williams will be a Brooklyn Net after all.

Jason Kidd is off to the Knicks. Jason Terry is off to Boston.

It looks like Dirk Nowitzki will be playing with Shawn Marion, Roddy Beaubois and three draft picks next season.

Rockets: It will be a surprise if the Knicks don’t match their offer to Lin. It looks like they will lose Goran Dragic, whose presence forced them to waive Lin, to the Suns. And Houston will trade Kyle Lowry to the Raptors.

That leaves Courtney Fortson and Scott Machado on the roster, so you would assume GM Daryl Morey has his eye on someone else.

Steve Nash: Less than a week after saying he could never see himself putting on a Lakers uniform, Nash asked for and got a trade to the Lakers.

Really, it’s the Spurs he could never play for, since they have eliminated him from the playoffs six times.

The Associated Press, Houston Chronicle and Miami Herald contributed to this report.

Payday coming for free agent Green

Eleven months ago, Spurs guard Danny Green was on a flight to Slovenia, staring out the window across a vast ocean and toward an unknown future.

He had agreed to spend the NBA lockout overseas, playing for a modest paycheck and some much-needed experience. He did not know if there would be a job waiting for him when he returned stateside.

“It was kind of a difficult situation,” Green said.

Green couldn’t help but flash back to that flight this week, in the early hours of free agency.

After establishing himself as a bona fide NBA player in 2011-12, starting 38 games at shooting guard for a Spurs team that made the Western Conference finals, the 25-year-old Green has earned a pay raise — in San Antonio or elsewhere.

The Spurs have extended Green a $2.7 million qualifying offer, more than triple the pro-rated $854,389 he earned last season, giving the team the right to match any offer sheet he signs on or after July 11.

For the first time in his four NBA offseasons, however, Green can exert a modicum of control over his future.

“It’s the exact opposite position from where I was a year ago,” said Green, who was waived three times in two seasons after becoming Cleveland’s second-round pick in 2009.

“Instead of my agent calling teams, trying to get them interested, teams are calling me. It’s a better position to be in.”

Utah is one team that expressed interest Sunday, the first full day of free agency. Green expects there will be others.

For the Spurs, who ended with the best record in the Western Conference last season at 50-16, the crux of this offseason is to bring back as many pieces as possible, rather than recruit major reinforcements from outside.

Tim Duncan, the Spurs’ 36-year-old pace-setting power forward, is the team’s first free-agent priority.

A notch below are Green, forward Boris Diaw and backup point guard Patrick Mills.

After spending his first two seasons bouncing between Cleveland, San Antonio and the Development League, and beginning 2011-12 as a non-guaranteed training camp invitee, the light went on for Green last season.

He is set to cash in after averaging 9.1 points and 3.5 rebounds and shooting 43.6 percent from 3-point range during his first season as an NBA regular.

Green was the only Spurs player to appear in all 66 games during the regular season and averaged 10.3 points in the first two rounds of the playoffs against Utah and the L.A. Clippers.

The Spurs have shown interest in bringing Green back, despite an 8-for-31 shooting slump against Oklahoma City in the conference finals.

Green says more is at stake for him than just the number of figures on his next paycheck.

“A lot of young guys are just looking for the money,” said Green, who won a national championship at North Carolina in 2009. “For me, it’s a balance of the money, the team, the fit. I’ve been in a winning organization my whole life. I want to continue to be on a winning team.”

Though Green is determined to explore other options during the free-agency process, he says he would like to return to the Spurs.

“I really do like San Antonio,” Green said. “Hopefully, they have faith in me and will do what they need to do to bring me back.”

The Spurs have made an offer. Green’s future, for the first time, is in his own hands.

jmcdonald@express-news.net

Twitter: @JMcDonald_SAEN

NBA free-agent winners and losers so far

1 of 9 | Share

NBA free-agent winners and losers so far

Winner, Nets: Whether or not they ever add Dwight Howard, they were able to keep All-Star point guard Deron Williams for the move to Brooklyn. (Mel Evans / Associated Press)

Winner, Nets: Whether or not they ever add Dwight Howard, they were able to attract All-Star shooting guard Joe Johnson for the move to Brooklyn. (Rich Addicks / Associated Press)