This morning’s headlines:

• Rockets, Harden all smiles after agreeing to record-setting deal
• Wizards were always prepared for Porter max deal
• Financial factors lead to Raptors dumping Carroll
• Jazz still trying to make sense of Hayward departure

No. 1: Rockets, Harden all smiles after agreeing to record-setting deal — James Harden is all smiles these days. The Houston Rockets gave him 228 million reasons to smile about his future, agreeing to a record extension with the face of the franchise that stretches into the next decade. Both sides expressed their appreciation for the deal, as Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reports and explains what could come next in a blockbuster summer for the Rockets:

The face of the Rockets’ franchise has 228 million reasons to smile. The Rockets share the feeling.

With James Harden the center of all Rockets’ hopes and plans, they made sure Saturday that will not change any time in the foreseeable future, signing him to the richest contract extension in NBA history.

[…]

“Since he arrived in Houston, James has exhibited the incredible work ethic, desire to win, and passion to be the best that has made him one of the most unique and talented superstars in the history of the game,” Rockets owner Leslie Alexander said in a statement. “Additionally, the commitment he has shown to our organization, the city of Houston, and Rockets fans all over the world makes him a perfect leader in our pursuit of another championship. I’m very happy for James, his mother Monja, and their family on this exciting day.”

The Rockets had made signing Harden to a contract extension for a second consecutive season a key to their planned recruiting pitches to free agents.

Before they had that chance, the Rockets traded for Chris Paul when, after talks with Harden, Paul told the Clippers he would sign with the Rockets as a free agent. That did not change the team’s plans with the player Alexander had said “was by far the Most Valuable Player.”

Harden, who had been involved in the Rockets’ free-agent planning and efforts, from his conversations with Paul to his pitch to P.J. Tucker, never hesitated to accept the latest offer, according to a person familiar with the talks, with only logistics and scheduling determining when he would sign.

“Houston is home for me,” Harden said in a statement. “Mr. Alexander has shown he is fully committed to winning and my teammates and I are going to keep putting in the work to get better and compete for the title.”

The deal will keep Harden with the Rockets through the 2022-23 season when he is 33 years old. It could also influence the Rockets’ next move.

With the Knicks securing free-agent forward Tim Hardaway Jr. with a four-year, $71 million offer sheet the Hawks on Saturday declined to match, ESPN reported the Knicks have no plans to play Hardaway and forward Carmelo Anthony together and could intensify talks with the Rockets about sending Anthony to Houston.

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No. 2: Wizards were always prepared for Porter max deal — The suspense was absent from the start in Otto Porter’s free agent summer. The Washington Wizards made sure of it by letting everyone know, Porter and any suitors he might have, that they would match any offer to their restricted free agent small forward. The Brooklyn Nets provided the parameters of a deal that any paying attention knew would be matched. Candace Buckner of The Washington Post details the Wizards’ plan that was in place from the start:

In the early morning hours of July 1, the Washington Wizards placed their summer free agency plans into one important phone call from team President Ernie Grunfeld. On the other end was the team’s homegrown small forward Otto Porter Jr., his father, and his agent, David Falk.

The conversation was filled with praises and pledges Porter certainly had heard during his career in Washington: his attributes as an athletic wing who doesn’t dominate the ball and meshes perfectly with the franchise’s two cornerstone players, and how he’s a big piece to the Wizards’ future.

Grunfeld shared the love. Otto Porter Sr. had questions. Then came the offer. It wasn’t the figure the Porter contingent was seeking, nor the monetary reward Porter had been rumored to receive since he began showing vast improvement in his fourth season.

Porter later received a coveted max contract offer from two other teams. On Saturday, a week after the midnight conference call, the Wizards are expected to match his offer sheet from the Brooklyn Nets, which would make him the team’s third player extended on a max contract, joining John Wall and Bradley Beal. The only difference: Unlike with the other two stars, the Wizards waited until the market deemed Porter to be a max player.

Make no mistake, the Wizards always planned to keep Porter. Even when the two sides did not agree to an extension on Porter’s rookie-scale contract before the Oct. 31 deadline, which made him a free agent after the season, Grunfeld still broadcast the team’s desires to sign Porter to a long-term deal when the time came. In 2015, Falk told the Boston Herald in reference to Jared Sullinger that he has “never done a contract extension for a rookie who didn’t make the max since 1996.” So if Falk wanted a max for Porter in October, then that explains why no agreement on an extension was reached.

Still, the Wizards took a measured approach, making decisions that proved they wanted Porter but also holding off until a max contract became inevitable.

Porter’s health, carefully managed since 2014, played a part in this wait-and-see game.

Since coming out of Georgetown as the third overall pick in the 2013 draft, Porter has dealt with hip issues. Before the start of his rookie season, Porter strained his right hamstring then his right hip flexor and sat as an inactive player for the first 18 games of the season. Porter appeared in just 37 games, and though that 2013-14 season stands as the only year in which he has missed significant time, the hip continues to be a nagging pain.

By late January, Porter began a routine of riding a stationary bicycle instead of sitting on the bench to keep the hip loose when the second-unit entered the game; he suggested this regimen might continue throughout his career.

While Porter’s hip was a concern, the Wizards did not deem it to be more serious than Beal’s previous stress fractures. In spite of Beal’s injury history, the team did not balk in giving him a five-year, $128 million deal at the start of free agency last year. Once Porter started a career-best 80 games and finished the year as the most efficient scorer in the NBA by certain metrics, he appeared to be less of an investment risk than Beal would have been a year earlier.

By February, the Wizards had prepared for what the market might dictate for Porter.

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No. 3: Financial factors lead to Raptors dumping Carroll — One summer’s free agent prize is another summer’s free agent casualty. Welcome to DeMarre Carroll’s world after the Toronto Raptors reportedly traded their starting small forward to Brooklyn in a move spurred by financial reasons that could not be ignored by Raptors boss Masai Ujiri. Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun explains:

Only a few days ago, Masai Ujiri said his Toronto Raptors had ways to avoid the luxury tax and they’d utilize one of them “as time goes (on), whether it’s now, or later in the season.”

Well, now it is.

Early Sunday morning, Ujiri and Brooklyn Nets counterpart (and one-time Raptor) Sean Marks agreed on a salary dump that will send DeMarre Carroll to rebuilding Brooklyn, along with Toronto’s 2018 first-round pick (lottery protected per USA Today) and the least favourable second-round pick from Orlando or the Los Angeles Lakers (acquired when Jeff Weltman became Magic president earlier this summer).

The Raptors also received centre Justin Hamilton, a former D-League standout, but it’s unclear if he fits into the team’s plans.

The move was made to shed the $14.8 million U.S. and $15.4 million remaining on Carroll’s four-year deal. Hamilton is owed only $3 million. The Raptors need to sign promising swingman Norman Powell to a large new contract next summer and are trying to free up room to use the mid-level exception to improve the team now.

Further cap-clearing moves could follow, since the team has depth at point guard and Cory Joseph only has a year remaining on his contract (assuming he opts-out in 2018, which is widely expected). Joseph could be moved for a wing player, since Carroll had started at small forward since being signed from the Hawks.

Carroll was supposed to finally solve Toronto’s long-standing hole at small forward, but he never regained the form he flashed in Utah and Atlanta, due to injuries he never seemed to recover from.

Ujiri continues to work at reshaping the roster while keeping finances at a reasonable level, considering the caliber of the team. Before the deal, only two teams had higher total payrolls.

“We’re very comfortable. We’ll figure it out as it goes,” Ujiri had said earlier this week of being able to get off of the luxury tax.

“We’ve got many ways to get around it.”

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No. 4: Jazz still trying to make sense of Hayward departure — They have to move on, they have no choice. But that doesn’t mean the folks in Salt Lake City are over Gordon Hayward choosing Boston over the hometown Jazz in free agency. The sting of seeing a homegrown talent bolt for the Celtics requires more details, which are provided aplenty by Tony Jones and Aaron Falk of the Salt Lake Tribune:

The Jazz contingent that arrived in San Diego on Monday consisted of team owners Gail and Greg Miller, president Steve Starks, Lindsey, Snyder and assistant coach Johnnie Bryant, who had been a frequent offseason visitor to the Hayward home.

The banter was friendly as Hayward gave the group a tour of the sprawling house. A sandwich spread then was put out for lunch, and the two sides dived into the Jazz’s formal presentation, which lasted two hours, according sources.

The essence of the pitch: Stay with the Jazz and play with Gobert. The Jazz showed Hayward statistical evidence that not only was Gobert the best center in the league, but also he is a better player than anyone on the Celtics’ roster. Stay with us, the Jazz pitched, and we’ll build a potential 60-win team capable of contending for a championship, even in the loaded Western Conference.

The Jazz also appealed to Hayward’s emotions. They talked about the growth the team and player had enjoyed together. And with a team that faces several salary cap decisions in the coming years, they made it clear the organization would be willing to bump past the NBA salary cap and pay the luxury tax — something the team never before has done — to keep their core group together long-term. The Jazz, sources say, offered Hayward not only a max contract, but also the ability to structure the contract any way he wanted.

After the formal presentation, the Jazz sprung a surprise on Hayward, when teammates Gobert, Ingles, Hood and newcomer Rubio — who had flown in from Spain just for the occasion — walked through the door. They then ushered the All-Star into his backyard for another lengthy session to make their personal pitches to him.

By all accounts, Hayward was happy to see his friends.

The Millers were engaged and resolute throughout the meeting, according to sources. When it ended, Gail Miller asked Hayward straight up: “Will you stay with us? You know how important you are to our organization.”

Hayward said he had a lot to think about and wanted to take the night to process his thoughts. The Jazz group offered to stay overnight in San Diego and return to visit Tuesday, but Hayward begged off, telling them he and his wife were wiped out from the previous three days. The two sides, Hayward said, could talk again Tuesday. As they left San Diego, the Jazz attendees felt good about their prospects. They didn’t feel like it was a slam-dunk, but they were confident in their presentation and had a good vibe about the way things were moving.

While the San Diego meeting was going on, the Jazz Summer League was getting underway at the Huntsman Center. The first game featured the Boston Celtics against the Philadelphia 76ers. Both Ainge and Celtics coach Brad Stevens were in attendance a few rows behind the Boston bench.

Around the time the second half of the Sixers-Celtics game was beginning, word circulated on social media that the Jazz’s meeting with Hayward was over. And a buzz spread through the arena as Ainge spent most of the second half not in his chair watching the game but in a tunnel underneath the seats on his phone.

While there were reports circulating that Hayward would not make an announcement on his future until perhaps Wednesday, most observers figured that Tuesday would bring the big news. It would be a night of nervous sleep for the Jazz officials and the team’s fans. And for some, maybe no sleep at all.

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SOME RANDOM HEADLINES: Tom Thibodeau believes veteran sixth man Jamal Crawford is an excellent fit for the revamped Timberwolves … Phil Jackson seems to be enjoying the unemployed life just fine, as evidenced in a lakeside tweet he shared with the world … Hawks are hoping they snagged a diamond in Stone … In Cleveland they are trying to make sense of LeBron’s future on the seventh birthday of The Decision, good luck … Relax (Joel Embiid and others), it’s just an ankle sprain for Sixers post guard of the future and No. 1 overall pick Markelle Fultz …