2014 NBA Draft Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Bulls Notes: Mirotic, Gasol

July 18th, 2014 at 10:03pm CST by Cray Allred

With the addition of Pau Gasol and the return of Derrick Rose this year, the Bulls will hope to ascend from the middle of the playoff pack toward the number one seed, where they finished during Rose’s last two full, healthy seasons. Here’s the latest from Chicago:

Nikola Mirotic‘s contract with the Bulls is for three years, $16.6MM plus incentives, tweets Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com. The initial report had the contract exceeding $17MM, so the incentives could be for $500,000 or more, although that’s just my speculation.
We already knew the Bulls had received an offer of a top-10 pick for the rights to Mirotic before the 2014 draft, but Chicago GM Gar Forman told ESPN 1000’s “Waddle and Silvy Show” that the team received two such offers for the forward (transcription via Nick Friedell of ESPNChicago.com).
Gasol told reporters including Friedell and Jon Greenberg of ESPNChicago.com that Joakim Noah and Rose helped pitch Chicago to him, and that he turned down more lucrative offers to sign with his new team. “I turned down bigger offers, and I prioritized being on a championship-caliber team and being in a position where I can hopefully put that team over the top with my game,” said Gasol, noting that “how humble [Noah and Rose] are, being able to not have big egos, makes things a lot easier. Their passion and hunger, as well; they’re hungry to win. I want to be a part of a hungry team that will do whatever it takes.”

Heat Sign Shabazz Napier

July 18th, 2014 at 7:40pm CST by Cray Allred

The Heat have signed rookie Shabazz Napier, Miami announced in a team release.

“Shabazz is a proven winner and one of the most mature college players that I have ever met,” said president Pat Riley. “Not only did he help lead UConn to two NCAA Championships, but he also knows exactly what he needs to do to make an impact at the NBA level. I believe the experience he had during the Summer League is going to payoff in leaps and bounds when training camp begins.”

Miami traded for Napier on draft night, moving up two spots to select the point guard. At the time, the deal was rumored to be influenced by LeBron James, who believed the UConn senior was the best point guard in the draft. The Heat had reportedly considered moving on from one or both of Mario Chalmers and Norris Cole earlier this offseason, but Chalmers has re-signed and Cole’s contract is less in danger of being dealt for cap space since the team has executed their Plan B following James’ decision to return to Cleveland. It appears Napier will have to work to earn backcourt minutes for a team still angling to contend in the Eastern Conference.

Terms of the deal were unannounced, but it’s likely that Napier received 120% of the $1,032,200 rookie scale slot for the 24th pick. As Charlie Adams noted in the Hoops Rumors Prospect Profile for the Huskie guard, Napier will need to use his scoring abilities and quickness to offset some of the defensive limitations he will likely experience as a result of his 6’1″ size.

Pelicans Sign Russ Smith

July 15th, 2014 at 12:29pm CST by Chuck Myron

JULY 15TH: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.

JULY 9TH: The Pelicans have agreed to sign former Louisville point guard Russ Smith, the 47th overall pick in this year’s draft, to a guaranteed contract, as Louisville coach Rick Pitino told reporters, including Jeff Greer of The Courier-Journal (Twitter link). The length of the contract and the amount of guaranteed money aren’t immediately clear. The Pelicans acquired the rights to Smith in a draft-night trade that sent the rights to last year’s second-rounder Pierre Jackson to Philadelphia.

Smith was a consensus All-American this past season as a senior for the Cardinals, averaging 18.2 points and 4.6 assists in 29.3 minutes per game. He also shot 38.7% from behind the three-point line. That percentage along with his assists average were significant increases from 2012/13, when he helped lead Louisville to the national championship.

The 6’1″ 23-year-old appears to be the first 2014 second-round pick who’s agreed to a deal, as our list of 2014 Draft Pick signings shows.

Lakers Sign Julius Randle

July 13th, 2014 at 3:47pm CST by Zachary Links

3:47pm: The signing is official, the team announced.

3:09pm: The Lakers have signed top pick Julius Randle, according to Bill Oram of the Orange Country Register (on Twitter). He’ll likely receive more than $2.997MM this season, as our chart of salaries for 2014 first-round picks shows.

The Lakers got a bit of good news earlier this month when they learned that Randle won’t require surgery on his right foot. The big man, who was once in consideration for the No. 1 pick, could prove to be a tremendous value for the Lakers, who selected him at No. 7.

In his one year at Kentucky, Randle averaged 15.0 PPG and 10.4 RPG with 0.8 blocks per contest in 30.8 minutes a game.

Clippers Sign C.J. Wilcox

July 12th, 2014 at 9:21pm CST by Chuck Myron

9:21pm: The Clippers officially announced the signing in a team release (H/T Brad Turner of the Los Angeles Times).

12:07am: The Clippers have signed No. 28 overall pick C.J. Wilcox to his rookie scale contract, tweets Dan Woike of the Orange County Register. He’ll receive more than $1.1MM next season if he signs for the standard 120% of the scale amount, as our table of salaries for 2014 first-round picks shows, though 120% of scale isn’t a given for players picked near the end of the first round.

The 6’5″ shooting guard was No. 35 in Chad Ford’s ESPN.com rankings and No. 38 with Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress, so it was a mild surprise to see him sneak into the first round. He improved steadily in four seasons at the University of Washington, averaging 18.3 points with 39.1% three-point shooting in 34.9 minutes per game as a senior this year.

Wilcox is set to compete for minutes with Reggie Bullock, who was last year’s first-round pick for the Clippers, in a crowded situation on the wing, where the team also has J.J. Redick, Jamal Crawford, Matt Barnes and Jared Dudley all under contract for 2014/15.

Spurs Sign Kyle Anderson

July 12th, 2014 at 11:55am CST by Cray Allred

Kyle Anderson has signed with the Spurs, the team announced in a press release. The 30th pick from the 2014 draft is in line for a $1,093,680 salary, assuming the team pays the fully allowed 120% of his rookie-scale wages. It is standard for teams to pay that amount, but not assured for players at the end of the first round like Anderson.

The UCLA product will likely come off San Antonio’s bench as a reserve point guard, but Anderson’s impressive size will provide the Spurs some flexibility on where the team can play him, as Hoops Rumors’ Eddie Scarito mentioned in Anderson’s prospect profile. Hoops Rumors’ Alex Lee projected that Anderson would be taken 26th overall in the final version of his mock draft, suggesting San Antonio got good value from the 30th pick.

Anderson joins the reigning NBA champions and will learn from perhaps the game’s best coaching staff, led by head coach Gregg Popovich. It might take some seasoning before Anderson is ready to get regular playing time, but he couldn’t ask for a better group to learn from.

Bogdan Bogdanovic Signs To Play In Turkey

July 11th, 2014 at 10:14pm CST by Chuck Myron

10:14pm: Bogdanovic’s NBA escape clause for the summer of 2016 involves a buyout of 1 million euros, according to Nikos Varlas of Eurohoops.net. That’s the equivalent of more than $1.36MM at today’s exchange rate.

11:08am: Suns first-round pick Bogdan Bogdanovic has officially signed with Fenerbahce Ulker of Turkey, the team announced on Twitter (hat tip to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). NTV Spor’s Ismail Senol originally reported the deal (Twitter link; translation via Carchia), which runs four years. It’s worth $4.6MM, according to Croatia’s Sportske Novosti (hat tip to Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic). The 21-year-old shooting guard, who was the 27th overall pick last month, won’t have a chance to get out of the contract and join the NBA for two years, as David Pick of Eurobasket.com reported earlier.

The Suns and Bogdanovic agreed in writing earlier this week that he wouldn’t sign an NBA contract this year, so his $930,500 cap hit was removed from Phoenix’s books. The Suns also drafted T.J. Warren 14th overall, Tyler Ennis 18th overall, and Alec Brown 50th overall this year, and there was little chance from the beginning that all of them would play for the team as rookies in 2014/15.

Bogdanovic played with Serbia’s KK Partizan last season and averaged 14.9 points and 3.7 assists in 30.2 minutes per game. If he doesn’t come to the NBA in 2016, he’ll no longer be bound by the rookie scale, so if he continues to develop, he might be in line for much more than NBA rookies are accustomed to, as Bulls prospect Nikola Mirotic seemingly will be. Bogdanovic is not to be confused with Nets draft-and-stash prospect Bojan Bogdanovic.

Jazz Sign Rodney Hood

July 11th, 2014 at 6:42pm CST by Chuck Myron

6:42pm: The signing is official, the team has announced.

1:20pm: The Jazz have signed No. 23 overall pick Rodney Hood, as Hood reveals on his verified Twitter account. He’ll likely receive slightly more than $1.29MM this coming season, as our chart of salaries for 2014 first-round picks shows.

The 6’8″ former Duke Blue Devil touted his versatility and readiness to play when he spoke to Zach Links of Hoops Rumors before the draft. He averaged 16.1 points per game with 42.0% three-point shooting this past season in his lone year at the school after transferring from Mississippi State.

The Jazz took Hood at the back end of the range into which Eddie Scarito of Hoops Rumors thought he would fall when he examined the 21-year-old’s prospect profile. That sets Utah up with the potential for strong value from the pick. The Jazz also have the rights to No. 5 overall pick Dante Exum, who remains unsigned but will likely ink soon.

Jazz Sign Dante Exum

July 11th, 2014 at 6:40pm CST by Eddie Scarito

6:40pm: The signing is official, the team has announced.

5:20pm: The Jazz have signed the No. 5 overall pick Dante Exum, reports Jody Genessy of the Deseret News (Twitter link). He’ll likely receive slightly more than $3,615,000 this coming season, as our chart of salaries for 2014 first-round picks shows, and confirmed by Gennesy via a second tweet. Exum joins No. 23 overall pick Rodney Hood, who signed earlier today, in Utah.

Exum will most likely begin his career as a shooting guard, but may eventually shift over to the point guard position, especially if last year’s first rounder, Trey Burke is unable to develop into an effective starter.

Jusuf Nurkic To Join Nuggets This Season?

July 10th, 2014 at 7:49am CST by Chuck Myron

THURSDAY, 7:49am: KK Cedevita has announced Nurkic’s depature from the club (on Twitter; hat tip to Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). Cedevita agreed to allow his buyout to be spread over two seasons, so the Nuggets will pick up $650K and Nurkic will pick up the remaining $135K of this season’s tab, according to David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter links). The most Denver could pay without the money coming out of Nurkic’s NBA rookie scale contract would be $600K, so it would seem Nurkic may actually wind up paying $285K this season, assuming Pick’s figures are correct.

WEDNESDAY, 9:23am: Nurkic has decided to leave KK Cedevita in Croatia, and he’s working on a way to pay his buyout, which is the equivalent of $1.77MM, Pick tweets.

SATURDAY, 1:14pm: Contradicting previous reports, Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post hears that Nurkic’s buyout will not be an issue, and the first-round selection will join the Nuggets this season (Twitter link). Denver continues work on getting Nurkic over for summer league, but they’ve had little luck thus far, Demspey reveals in another tweet.

THURSDAY, 8:42am: Pick’s latest tweet indicates the buyout is worth 1.3 million euros, the equivalent of more than $1.774MM, seemingly making it even tougher for Nurkic and the Nuggets to reach a deal. He could only make less than $1.763MM on a rookie-scale contract with Denver next season, as our table of salaries for first-round picks shows.

7:37am: Nurkic is unlikely to sign with the Nuggets for next season, but the main hangup involves his buyout from KK Cedevita, his club in Croatia, tweets David Pick of Eurobasket.com. The buyout would cost the equivalent of more than $1.36MM, according to Pick, which exceeds the $600K Excluded International Player Payment Amount. That means the difference would come out of Nurkic’s paycheck from the Nuggets were he to sign with the team this year.

JULY 2ND, 5:00pm: The Nuggets are insisting that No. 16 overall pick Jusuf Nurkic play in the NBA summer league if they’re to sign him this summer, but the center wants to spend the summer playing for his native Bosnia instead, Dejan Maksimovic of Nezavisne.com reports (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia).

Nurkic rocketed up draft boards in the weeks leading up to the June draft and even had some buzz of being a late lottery pick. While he’s not fully polished, many believe that Nurkic could blossom into one of the top big men to come out of this draft. The Nuggets liked Nurkic enough to trade the No. 11 pick (Doug McDermott) to Chicago for Nurkic (No. 16) and Gary Harris (No. 19).