2017 July | Hoops Rumors

Cavs To Name Koby Altman General Manager

July 21st, 2017 at 5:53pm CST by Austin Kent

5:53pm: There’s more out of Cleveland’s front office. Per Jason Lloyd of The Athletic, the Cavs have parted ways with cap expert Tony Leotti and are expected to name Mike Gansey their new assistant general manager. Gansey was previously the GM of Cleveland’s G League affiliate.

4:08pm: The Cavaliers will be promoting Koby Altman to general manager, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets. After extensive talks, the decision to promote the current assistant general manager is “imminent.”

Earlier this month we speculated that such a move could be in the cards considering that Altman had met with Dan Gilbert to discuss the future of the franchise’s front office.

Already this summer, Cleveland has parted ways with David Griffin and seen an interest in appointing Chauncey Billups to the position fizzle. Throughout the process, Altman has performed the duties of general manager, no small task considering the offseason that has unfolded.

The news of Altman’s impending promotion comes in the midst of commotion that star point guard Kyrie Irving has requested a trade out of Cleveland. Legitimizing Altman’s role as the chief negotiator in such circumstances could help the organization maximize its return.

Central Division: Rose, Bucks, Tolliver

July 21st, 2017 at 5:48pm CST by Austin Kent

Don’t expect Derrick Rose to make his decision this weekend, contrary to previous reports suggesting that he would. Per Chris Haynes of ESPN, Rose will have a face-to-face meeting with the Cavaliers before ultimately making a decision next week.

After a decent if unspectacular lone season in New York, Rose has narrowed down a list of possible suitors to the Lakers and Cavs. His involvement with the latter could be impacted by recent revelations that starting point guard Kyrie Irving has requested a trade out of Cleveland.

While the parties are said to be engaged in a deal for the veteran’s minimum, the guard could see his role increase substantially if Irving gets his wish and is promptly moved.

There’s more from the Central Division:

Consider Pacers swingman Lance Stephenson among those “heartbroken” that Paul George and the franchise have parted ways. The pair remain friends, Scott Agness of Vigilant Sports writes.
Among those interviewing for positions in Jon Horst‘s front office with the Bucks is Knicks Director of Pro Player Personnel Mark Hughes, Ian Begley of ESPN writes. Hughes has played a large role in New York’s draft decisions over the course of the past decade.
The decision to bring Anthony Tolliver back aboard will pay off for the Pistons in veteran leadership, Rod Beard of the Detroit News writes. “He’s one of the highest-character guys in the NBA. What he will do in terms of leadership is important to our team, but it’s important that he’s a guy who can go out and play,” head coach Stan Van Gundy said.
The Pistons‘ chief goal this offseason was to improve their three-point shooting and Keith Langlois of the team’s official website writes that they’ve added a number of players that can help in that regard.

Dewayne Dedmon Signs With Hawks

July 21st, 2017 at 4:55pm CST by marksuleymanov

July 21: The Hawks have made their contract with Dedmon official, the team announced via press release on its website.

July 11: Free agent Dewayne Dedmon has agreed to a two-year, $14MM deal with the Hawks, according to Shams Charania of The Vertical. Dedmon’s deal includes a player option in the second year.

Dedmon, who turns 28 next month, hit free agency after opting out of the second year of his original two-year pact with the Spurs. As it turns out, Dedmon’s decision paid off as he was set to make just $3.028MM in 2017/18 under his player option. Now, he gets a significant raise and security for two seasons.

Strong play for the Spurs last season allowed Dedmon to opt out and pursue a larger deal. In 76 games (37 starts), Dedmon posted totals of 5.1 PPG and 6.5 RPG in 17.5 minutes per game. Now, the 7’0″ center will provide the Hawks with valuable rim protection and defense next season.

Atlanta general manager Travis Schlenk promised his team would seek help at center earlier this week, and if those comments stand, the team is not done adding.

“We’ll sign a third point guard. We are deciding to we get a veteran guy or do we get a young guy that we think has upside,” Schlenk said. “Do we bring in a couple guys and let them battle it out? We are going to sign a power forward for sure. We’ll sign a center for sure. Probably sign three more big guys so we end up with six.”

Dedmon figures to split time with Mike Muscala, who the Hawks signed last week. With Howard shipped out to the Hornets and Millsap heading to Denver, the Hawks will continue to scour the market for size and skill vacated by those departures.

The departures of Dwight Howard, Paul Millsap, and Tim Hardaway Jr. have created the cap space for the Hawks to pursue Dedmon and other free agents.

Thunder Agree To Deal With Yannis Morin

July 21st, 2017 at 4:52pm CST by Austin Kent

The Thunder have agreed to a deal with 23-year-old international center Yannis Morin, Erik Horne of the Oklahoman writes, confirming a report previously relayed by Sportando.

The French big man played with Oklahoma City’s summer league team and will join the franchise for training camp on a non-guaranteed deal. In five games in the Orlando league, he averaged 2.2 points and 4.0 rebounds per game for OKC.

Morin has previously played in France’s Pro A and Pro B leagues.

Hawks Re-Sign Ersan Ilyasova

July 21st, 2017 at 3:52pm CST by Luke Adams

July 21: The Hawks have officially re-signed Ilyasova, the team announced via a press release on its website.

July 12: The Hawks have reached an agreement to bring back free agent power forward Ersan Ilyasova, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical (Twitter link). According to Charania, Ilyasova will sign a one-year deal worth $6MM to return to Atlanta.

Few players have bounced around the NBA more in the last two years than Ilyasova, who has appeared in multiple regular season games for the Pistons, Magic, Thunder, Sixers, and Hawks since the 2015/16 season began. Last season, he was traded from Oklahoma City to Philadelphia early on, then flipped to Atlanta prior to the trade deadline.

Although he hasn’t found a permanent NBA home since leaving Milwaukee in 2015, Ilyasova continues to be an effective stretch four. For his career, the 6’10” big man has averaged 11.0 PPG and 5.9 RPG, converting 36.6% of his three-point attempts.

The Hawks renounced Ilyasova last week in the process of creating cap space, but they still have plenty of room to bring him back without using any form of Bird rights. Their deal with Ilyasova is the third move the Hawks have made to address their lack of frontcourt depth in recent days. The team also agreed to bring back Mike Muscala, and struck a deal with Dewayne Dedmon.

Nick Collison Re-Signs With Thunder, Will Retire In 2018

July 21st, 2017 at 2:40pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 21st, 2:40pm: The signing is official, Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe tweets.

JULY 14th, 11:31am: The Thunder and Nick Collison have reached an agreement on a one-year contract, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical (Twitter link). According to Charania, the one-year deal will “end” Collison’s long NBA career with the franchise, so it sounds like he’ll retire at the end of the 2017/18 season.

Collison, who will turn 37 in October, has appeared in 895 total regular season games for Seattle and Oklahoma City, but has an extremely limited role at this stage of his career. In 2016/17, he played just 128 total minutes in 20 games for the Thunder, averaging 1.7 PPG and 1.6 RPG. In what figures to be his final season, he’ll serve more as a veteran mentor on the bench than as a key on-court contributor for the club.

While terms of the deal weren’t reported, the Thunder have used their taxpayer mid-level exception, and won’t use their bi-annual exception to avoid becoming hard-capped. So Collison will be in line for a one-year, minimum salary contract.

That deal will pay Collison about $2.329MM, but will only count for $1.471MM for OKC’s team salary and tax purposes. Our story on this year’s minimum salaries explains the details on those numbers.

Yao Ming Won’t Consider Buying Rockets

July 21st, 2017 at 2:20pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Yao Ming can be crossed off the list of potential buyers for the Rockets franchise. Yao issued a statement via the Xinhua news agency that was relayed by the Houston Chronicle’s Jonathan Feigen stating he would have “no time to consider” joining a group interested in purchasing the team. The Rockets’ Hall of Fame center was named the president of the Chinese Basketball League in February and was elected this week to be Chairman of the Board for the company that runs the league.

Houston owner Leslie Alexander announced on Monday that the team was up for sale, a surprising development for one of the Western Conference’s top teams. Feigen tweeted earlier this week that the Rockets would prefer the timeline for a sale to be “sooner rather than later.”

Feigen also reported this week that GM Daryl Morey and the Rockets‘ management team is not attempting to put together a group to buy the franchise.

Another Hall of Fame center, Dikembe Mutombo, is trying to put together a group to buy the team. The purchase price is expected to approach or exceed the $2 billion that Steve Ballmer paid for the Clippers.

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Nets Sign Guard Yakuba Ouattara To Two-Way Contract

July 21st, 2017 at 1:23pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Nets have signed guard Yakuba Ouattara to a two-way contract, according to a team press release.

The 6’3” Ouattara played for AS Monaco Basketball in the French LNB Pro A League last season. He appeared in 32 games and averaged 11.8 PPG and 3.3 RPG in 23.9 MPG. Ouattara is a prolific 3-point shooter, as he shot 40% from long range and 51.4% overall.

Ouattara, 25, is a Ghana native but a member of the French national team. He has spent his entire professional career, which began in 2012, in France.

Teams are allowed to dole out a pair of two-way contracts per season and the Nets reportedly gave their other two-way deal to forward Jacob Wiley.

Grizzlies Sign Second-Rounder Dillon Brooks

July 21st, 2017 at 12:00pm CST by Luke Adams

The Grizzlies have signed second-round pick Dillon Brooks to his first NBA contract, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical (via Twitter). According to Charania, Brooks will get a three-year deal with two guaranteed seasons.

[RELATED: 2017 NBA Draft Pick Signings]

A 6’7″ small forward, Brooks averaged 16.0 points and 3.3 rebounds per game in his final season for the Oregon Ducks, declaring for the draft following his junior year.

Brooks was one of two prospects acquired on draft night by the Grizzlies, who sent a future second-round pick to the Rockets in exchange for the No. 45 selection, which they used on Brooks. Memphis also traded a future second-rounder for the No. 35 pick and nabbed Ivan Rabb.

The Grizzlies don’t have any cap room available, but still have a portion of their mid-level exception free, allowing the club to do a three-year deal for Brooks. Memphis used most of its MLE to sign Ben McLemore and Rade Zagorac, but should still have a small amount of that exception left after locking up Brooks.

Nuggets Sign Monte Morris To Two-Way Contract

July 21st, 2017 at 10:48am CST by Luke Adams

The Nuggets have signed second-round pick Monte Morris to a two-way contract, the team announced today in a press release. It’s the second two-way deal for Denver — the club confirmed earlier this week that forward Torrey Craig received the other one.

Morris, 22, played his college ball at Iowa State, averaging 16.4 PPG, 6.2 APG, and 4.8 RPG in his senior year. The young point guard was selected 51st overall in the 2017 NBA draft last month, so he’ll become the highest pick so far to agree to a two-way contract rather than an NBA deal.

Two-way contracts are a new addition to the NBA’s latest Collective Bargaining Agreement, so it has been interesting to see how teams have been using them for second-round picks in particular. So far, the four players drafted between Nos. 51 and 54 have all reportedly agreed to two-way deals.

For more information on how two-way contracts work, be sure to check out our FAQ.

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