2023 July | Hoops Rumors

Anthony Edwards Signs Five-Year Max Extension With Timberwolves

July 8th, 2023 at 8:06pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 8: The extension is official, the Wolves confirmed on Twitter (video link).

JULY 3: The Timberwolves and rising star Anthony Edwards have reached an agreement on a five-year, designated rookie extension that will pay him the maximum salary, agents Bill Duffy and Joe Branch tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).

Wojnarowski reports that the deal can be worth up to $260MM, though that would hinge on Edwards making an All-NBA team in 2024 and the salary cap rising by the maximum 10% for the 2024/25 league year. With a 10% cap increase and no All-NBA spot for Edwards, the five-year extension would be worth $217MM.

It will be a straight five-year contract with no player or team option, reports Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic (Twitter link).

“I’m humbled, appreciative and excited to remain in Minnesota as a part of this incredible Timberwolves organization,” Edwards said in a statement to Wojnarowski (Twitter link). “It’s amazing to see where hard work can take you.”

The No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 draft, Edwards has increased his scoring average and efficiency in each of his NBA seasons to date. He averaged 24.6 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.4 assists, and 1.6 steals with a .459/.369/.756 shooting line in 79 games (36.0 MPG) in 2022/23, earning his first All-Star nod.

Even though the Wolves also have Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert on maximum-salary contracts, there was a strong belief entering this offseason that Edwards, the player the franchise will likely build around for years to come, would get a max deal of his own. He looks poised to officially sign it as soon as he becomes eligible to do so later this week.

Edwards will play one more season on his rookie scale contract, which will pay him in $13.5MM in 2023/24, before he receives a massive raise. If the cap increases by 10% to $149.6MM in ’24/25 and Edwards makes an All-NBA team, he, Towns, and Gobert would earn a combined $141MM that season, and that number would only increase further in ’25/26.

While those three max deals – and a potential extension for Jaden McDaniels – figure to hamper the Timberwolves’ financial flexibility going forward, any eventual moves made to address that issue are more likely to involve Towns or Gobert than Edwards.

Edwards is the third 2020 first-rounder to agree to a “Rose Rule” rookie scale extension that can start at up to 30% of the cap instead of 25%. Tyrese Haliburton of the Pacers and LaMelo Ball of the Hornets will also reportedly sign those deals, while Desmond Bane of the Grizzlies is getting a rookie scale extension worth the standard 25% max.

Knicks Sign Donte DiVincenzo To Four-Year Deal

July 8th, 2023 at 7:48pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 8: The DiVincenzo signing is officially, the Knicks announced (via Twitter). “We are excited to add Donte to the Knicks family and view him as a perfect fit to the culture we continue to establish,” said team president Leon Rose. “Winning is in his DNA and he will provide us with versatility, three-point shooting and defensive tenacity.”

JULY 1: Donte DiVincenzo is headed to New York, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link), who hears from agent Jason Glushon that DiVincenzo has agreed to sign a four-year, $50MM contract with the Knicks. The deal won’t include any options, per Fred Katz of The Athletic (Twitter link).

The Knicks are over the cap, so they’ll sign DiVincenzo using the mid-level exception. The deal will reunite the former Villanova Wildcat with his college teammates Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart.

DiVincenzo became a free agent this week after deciding not to pick up a $4.7MM player option to remain in Golden State. The Warriors didn’t have the ability to make a competitive offer for him due to CBA restrictions, so he became one of the most popular mid-level targets on the open market.

The 26-year-old appeared in a career-high 72 games, including 36 starts, in 2022/23 after signing with the Warriors. He averaged 9.4 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.3 steals in 26.3 minutes per game. The 6’4″ guard, who made a career-best 39.7% of his 3-point attempts, also played in 13 postseason games this spring.

DiVincenzo will be another option on the wing for head coach Tom Thibodeau and the Knicks, who are finalizing a deal to trade Obi Toppin to Indiana. That move will help open up additional room below the luxury tax, allowing New York to give more of its mid-level to DiVincenzo.

According to Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link), after accounting for DiVincenzo, New York’s team salary projects to be about $4MM below the tax line with 14 players under contract. As a result of using the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, the Knicks will be hard-capped at the $172.3MM tax apron in 2023/24.

DiVincenzo was the No. 20 player on our list of 2023’s top 50 free agents.

NBA Reveals Dates, Groups For In-Season Tournament

July 8th, 2023 at 7:40pm CST by Arthur Hill

The NBA has announced the five-team groups that will used for the league’s first-ever in-season tournament, writes Tim Bontemps of ESPN. The unveiling took place Saturday during a special episode of ESPN’s “NBA Today” held at “NBA Con” in Las Vegas.

The groups were determined in a draw similar to what is used in soccer’s World Cup. There are six groups — three each from the Eastern Conference and Western Conference — and each conference was split into five pots based on last season’s standings. One team was randomly selected from each of the pots to determine the opening-round matchups.

The results are:

Group 1: Sixers, Cavaliers, Hawks, Pacers and Pistons.
Group 2: Bucks, Knicks, Heat, Wizards and Hornets.
Group 3: Celtics, Nets, Raptors, Bulls and Magic.
Group 4: Grizzlies, Suns, Lakers, Jazz and Trail Blazers.
Group 5: Nuggets, Clippers, Pelicans, Mavericks and Rockets.
Group 6: Kings, Warriors, Timberwolves, Thunder and Spurs.

The tournament will start with group play, which will match each team with the other four in its grouping. Those games will take place on Nov. 3, 10, 14, 17, 21, 24 and 28.

The winner of each group will advance to a knockout round, joined by the team with the best record in each conference among those who didn’t win a group. Quarterfinal games will be played Dec. 4 and 5, hosted by the higher-seeded teams. The four winners in that round will move on to T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas for the Dec. 7 semifinals and the Dec. 9 championship game.

Bontemps points out that all teams will play within their conference until the last game, which guarantees an East vs. West matchup, just like the NBA Finals.

“Everybody’s not going to buy in right away,” admitted Joe Dumars, the NBA’s executive vice president of basketball operations. “So that can’t be the goal that everybody’s going to buy in from day one. These things take time. And I think, as time goes on, I think you can build this up and people can really get into it.”

The championship trophy will be called the NBA Cup, and players will receive $500K each for winning it. Other prize money includes $200K for second place, $100K for losing in the semifinals and $50K for losing in the quarterfinals. The league opted not to provide other incentives, such as a guaranteed playoff spot, for the tournament winner.

We passed along more details on the in-season tournament right here.

Rockets Acquire Dillon Brooks In Five-Team Deal

July 8th, 2023 at 7:03pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 8: The complex five-team trade that sends Brooks to Houston has been finalized, the Rockets announced in a press release The breakdown of the deal, which combined several separate trade agreements, is as follows:

Rockets acquire Brooks (via sign-and-trade), the Clippers’ 2026 second-round pick, the Grizzlies’ 2027 second-round pick (from Clippers), and the draft rights to Alpha Kaba (from Hawks).
Hawks acquire Usman Garuba, TyTy Washington, the Timberwolves’ 2025 second-round pick (from Rockets), the Rockets’ 2028 second-round pick, and cash (from Thunder).
Grizzlies acquire Josh Christopher.
Thunder acquire Patty Mills, a 2024 second-round pick (from Rockets), the Rockets’ 2029 second-round pick, and the Rockets’ 2030 second-round pick.
Clippers acquire Kenyon Martin Jr.

In a separate deal, Oklahoma City will ship Mills to Atlanta in exchange for Garuba, Washington, Rudy Gay and a second-round pick.

6:04pm: The Rockets will acquire Brooks via sign-and-trade, generating a trade exception for the Grizzlies, Wojnarowski confirms (via Twitter).

Sources tell Kelly Iko of The Athletic (Twitter link) that Houston is trading Josh Christopher to Memphis. Although Iko doesn’t specify it will be part of a Brooks sign-and-trade, that seems logical.

The Grizzlies’ trade exception for Brooks would be $11.4MM due to base year compensation rules, notes Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype (Twitter link). If Christopher heads to Memphis in the deal, that TPE would shrink to $8.9MM, Gozlan adds.

5:20pm: The Rockets and Brooks have agreed to a four-year deal worth $80MM, agent Mike George tells Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).

The deal will have a descending structure, tweets Wojnarowski. It will be fully guaranteed, with no player or team option, per Kelly Iko of The Athletic (Twitter link).

As with VanVleet, Houston’s offer in order to secure a commitment ended up being for more years and more money than initially anticipated.

JULY 1, 4:35pm: The Rockets are close to reaching a contract agreement with unrestricted free agent Dillon Brooks, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

While Houston has the cap room necessary to sign Brooks outright, the team has been engaged in trade talks around the league, according to Charania, who says a sign-and-trade with the Grizzlies is a possibility if the Rockets reach a deal with the veteran forward.

Brooks was frequently linked to the Rockets in the days leading up to free agency. One report indicated that Houston was preparing to offer him a deal in the range of $14-16MM annually, while another stated the team had a meeting lined up for Friday or Saturday with the 27-year-old.

Brooks is a talented perimeter defender who earned All-Defensive Second Team honors this spring, but he has become an increasingly erratic shooter, making a career-worst 39.6% of his field goal attempts in 2022/23. His three-point percentage dipped to 32.1% on 5.6 attempts per game during the last two seasons after he converted 35.3% of 4.5 threes per game in his first four seasons, all with the Grizzlies.

On top of his offensive struggles, Brooks’ outsized personality and aggressive playing style have gotten him into trouble both on the court and in interviews off it. He received three one-game suspensions this season, once for an on-court altercation with Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell and twice for accumulating so many technical fouls.

Brooks ultimately wore out his welcome in Memphis, with a report after the season indicating that the Grizzlies didn’t plan to bring him back “under any circumstances.” His performance during the team’s first-round loss to the Lakers was reportedly considered to be a breaking point. Brooks referred to Lakers star LeBron James as “old” following Memphis’ Game 2 win, suggesting the NBA’s all-time leading scorer was well past his prime.

He was then ejected from Game 3 for hitting James in the groin, surrendered a pair of key baskets to LeBron in a Game 4 loss, and was eventually fined $25K for declining to speak to reporters after three games of the series (all losses). Offensively, Brooks shot just 31.2% from the field and 23.8% on three-pointers across six playoff games.

A change of scenery could benefit Brooks, and the Rockets have reportedly been prioritizing tough, defensive-minded veterans under new head coach Ime Udoka. Houston has reached an agreement with Fred VanVleet and was said to be aggressive in its pursuit of Defensive Player of the Year runner-up Brook Lopez, who ultimately decided to remain in Milwaukee.

Spurs Sign Gregg Popovich To New Five-Year Contract

July 8th, 2023 at 6:06pm CST by Arthur Hill

Gregg Popovich has signed a five-year contract to remain head coach of the Spurs, the team announced (via Twitter).

The new deal is worth $80MM, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, surpassing the record six-year, $78MM deal that Monty Williams got from the Pistons last month.

Popovich also serves as San Antonio’s president of basketball operations, and Wojnarowski notes that the contract doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be the team’s head coach for the next five seasons (Twitter link).

At 74, Popovich is already the oldest coach in NBA history, and the new deal will keep him on the sidelines until nearly his 80th birthday if he coaches through its entirety. It also ensures that he will have ample time to develop Victor Wembanyama, who is expected to be San Antonio’s next franchise player.

Popovich’s most recent contract expired at the end of last season, but the Spurs have been operating under the assumption that he was coming back. That became a near certainty after the team landed the top spot in the lottery and the chance to draft Wembanyama.

Popovich first joined the Spurs in 1988 as the lead assistant to Larry Brown. He left for the Warriors for a couple of seasons in the early 1990s, but returned to San Antonio in 1994 as general manager and vice president of basketball operations.

Early in the 1996-97 season, Popovich named himself head coach, a position he has held ever since. He has the most coaching victories in NBA history with 1,364 and has guided the Spurs to all five NBA titles in franchise history. He has also been named Coach of the Year three times and has served as head coach in four All-Star games.

Popovich has been active in international competitions as well, leading Team USA to the gold medal in the most recent Olympics.

Cavaliers Notes: Mitchell, Roster Moves, Garland, Bates

July 8th, 2023 at 5:16pm CST by Arthur Hill

Friday marked the first day the Cavaliers were permitted to submit an extension offer to Donovan Mitchell, writes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. The All-Star guard has two years left on his current contract, along with a $37MM player option for 2025/26. President of basketball operations Koby Altman hopes to iron out a long-term agreement this summer and shut down rumors that the New York native has an eye on eventually joining the Knicks in free agency.

Altman said the front office will have “internal discussions” about the details of an extension that he hopes will appeal to Mitchell. He added that keeping a competitive roster around Mitchell is the best way to make him want to stay in Cleveland.

“He’s really, really happy here and he’ll tell you that,” Altman said. “All I can go off is Donovan’s actions and his intentions. He’s with us in Vegas right now. He’s super excited about the future. He’ll be at the game tonight. He’s been in Cleveland multiple times this offseason already. He’s worked out with guys, he’s bringing guys with him wherever he is. All you can go off are those actions and how genuine he talks about his experience in Cleveland. I think he sees the runway of the players around him and the youth around him. All I can go off is his actions and his intentions and they’ve all been really genuine.”

There’s more on the Cavaliers:

Altman told reporters that Mitchell helped with recruiting during free agency, Fedor relays. Cleveland was able to re-sign Caris LeVert, bring in Max Strus in a sign-and-trade and add Georges Niang and Ty Jerome, even though Fedor notes that they all had other options. “This is the team they wanted to come to,” Altman said. “They saw the fit. They saw the upside. They think that we can go a long way.”
Altman pledged to keep the core of last year’s team together and dismissed speculation that he was considering offers for Darius Garland, calling it “the most crazy rumor you’ve ever heard in your life,” Fedor adds.
The Cavs are hoping for gradual progress from second-round pick Emoni Bates, Fedor states in a separate Cleveland.com story. Bates, who was once considered the top high school prospect in the nation, is hoping to re-establish himself after struggling through two collegiate seasons. “There’s no expectation here,” Altman said. “Don’t have to come in here and shock the world. Really learn from this group and have fun again. If he blossoms into a rotational player down the road that can really help us space the floor and shoot, which I think is one of his best traits, that’d be great. But no expectation for him and certainly have patience and let him grow.”

2023/24 NBA Two-Way Contract Tracker

July 8th, 2023 at 4:33pm CST by Luke Adams

Two-way contracts allow NBA teams to carry three extra players in addition to the 15 on their regular season roster. These players generally bounce back and forth between the NBA and G League, but remain under team control and can’t be poached by rival franchises.

First introduced in 2017, two-way deals have undergone some rule changes in recent years, and the NBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement has updated them further. Here are some key points to remember:

Teams can now carry three players on two-way contracts, rather than two.
Two-way players are eligible to be active for up to 50 of their team’s 82 regular season games. If a team isn’t carrying a full 15-man roster, its two-way players can only be active for a combined 90 games.
Players on two-way contracts will earn $559,782 in 2023/24, half of the rookie minimum.

You can check out our glossary entry to learn more about two-way contracts.

NBA teams have begun to fill in their two-way slots for the 2023/24 league year, so we’ll track all those deals in the space below. Some two-way players from 2022/23 inked two-year contracts and remain under contract for this season, while others have been newly signed.

If a two-way signing has been reported by a trusted source but isn’t yet official, we’ll list it in italics and link to the report, updating the info as necessary. Players who are in the first year of two-way contracts that cover two years (the maximum length), will be noted with an asterisk (*) once that info is confirmed.

This tracker will continue to be updated throughout the 2023/24 league year, and can be found anytime in the “Hoops Rumors Features” menu on the right-hand sidebar of our desktop site, or in the “Features” menu on our mobile site.

Here are 2023/24’s two-way players:

Updated 4-23-24

Houston Rockets

Indiana Pacers

Los Angeles Clippers

Moussa Diabate, C
Jordan Miller, F *
Xavier Moon, G/F

Los Angeles Lakers

Colin Castleton, F/C
Skylar Mays, G
Harry Giles, C

Memphis Grizzlies

Scotty Pippen Jr., G *
Trey Jemison, C *
Jordan Goodwin, G

Miami Heat

Jamal Cain, F
Cole Swider, F
Alondes Williams, G

Milwaukee Bucks

TyTy Washington Jr., G
Ryan Rollins, G *
Jaylin Galloway, G/F *

Minnesota Timberwolves

Jaylen Clark, G *
Daishen Nix, G
Empty

New Orleans Pelicans

Dereon Seabron, G
Malcolm Hill, G/F *
Empty

New York Knicks

Oklahoma City Thunder

Keyontae Johnson, G/F
Olivier Sarr, C
Adam Flagler, G *

Orlando Magic

Philadelphia 76ers

Terquavion Smith, G
Empty
Empty

Phoenix Suns

Saben Lee, G
Udoka Azubuike, C
Ish Wainright, F

Portland Trail Blazers

Justin Minaya, F
Ibou Badji, C
Ashton Hagans, G

Sacramento Kings

Jalen Slawson, F
Jordan Ford, G
Mason Jones, G *

San Antonio Spurs

David Duke, G
Jamaree Bouyea, G *
RaiQuan Gray, F/C *

Toronto Raptors

D.J. Carton, G *
Mouhamadou Gueye, F *
Empty

Utah Jazz

Micah Potter, C
Johnny Juzang, G
Jason Preston, G *

Washington Wizards

Jules Bernard, G
Justin Champagnie, G/F *
Empty

Categories:
Hoops Rumors Originals

Kings Waive PJ Dozier

July 8th, 2023 at 3:52pm CST by Luke Adams

The Kings have waived guard PJ Dozier, the team announced today in a press release.

The move doesn’t come as a real surprise, given that Dozier played a limited role for Sacramento last season and would have had his $2.41MM salary for 2023/24 become guaranteed if he remained under contract beyond Monday, July 10. By cutting him today, the club won’t be on the hook for any of that money.

Dozier, 26, signed a pair of 10-day contracts with the Kings in January before reaching a rest-of-season deal with the team in February. He appeared in 16 games, averaging 1.4 points and 0.9 rebounds in just 4.9 minutes per night.

With Dozier off the roster, the Kings now have 13 players on standard contracts (once Sasha Vezenkov and Alex Len officially sign) and a pair on two-way deals, so they’re presumably not done making moves.

Desmond Bane Signs Five-Year Max Extension With Grizzlies

July 8th, 2023 at 3:41pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

JULY 8: The Grizzlies have officially completed Bane’s extension, the team announced in a press release (via Twitter).

JUNE 30: The Grizzlies are signing shooting guard Desmond Bane to a five-season maximum rookie scale extension, agents Jim Tanner, Max Wiepking and Terrence Felder tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

While Wojnarowski says the deal will be worth $207MM, that amount is a projection, as the exact sum will be tied into the league’s salary cap.

Based on Woj’s wording in his reports on the new extensions for Bane and Pacers All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton, it sounds as if Bane’s deal will likely not include the Rose rule escalator, which would have allowed him to qualify for a starting salary worth up to 30% of the cap.

If that’s the case, Bane’s new deal will feature a starting salary worth 25% of the 2024/25 salary cap when it goes into effect next year.

As Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial tweets, Bane’s new agreement will now leapfrog All-Star Memphis point guard Ja Morant‘s contract as the priciest in team history. Morant agreed to his five-year, maximum-salary rookie scale extension exactly one year ago.

Bane has quickly outperformed his selection as the No. 30 pick out of TCU in the 2020 draft. Last season, the 25-year-old averaged a career-high 21.5 PPG on .479/.408/.883 shooting splits. He also chipped in 5.0 RPG, 4.4 APG and 1.0 SPG in his 58 healthy games with Memphis. Thanks to the strong play of Morant, Bane and Defensive Player of the Year Jaren Jackson Jr., the Grizzlies finished with the West’s second seed for the second straight season, this time with a 51-31 record.

Injuries to starting center Steven Adams and reserve big man Brandon Clarke greatly impeded Memphis’ frontcourt during its first-round playoff series against the seventh-seeded Lakers, and the Grizzlies fell in six games.

Rockets’ Amen Thompson Sprains Ankle In Debut

July 8th, 2023 at 2:46pm CST by Rory Maher

JULY 8, 2:46pm: An MRI on Thompson’s ankle revealed that he has a Grade 2 sprain and will be sidelined for three or four weeks, per Marc J. Spears of Andscape (Twitter link). While we won’t see Thompson again in Summer League, there’s no reason to think he won’t be ready for training camp in September.

JULY 8, 5:39am: Although Thompson’s injury isn’t viewed as serious, he’ll undergo an MRI on Saturday and is very likely to be held out of action for the rest of Summer League, per Kelly Iko and Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

JULY 7: Scoot Henderson wasn’t the only top pick injured in his NBA Summer League debut. Unfortunately, Rockets guard Amen Thompson, who was selected directly after Henderson at fourth overall, appeared to suffer a lower left leg injury late in the same game (Twitter video link via ESPN).

Thompson was clearly in a lot of pain, but he was eventually able to gingerly walk off the court with assistance, tweets Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle.

A source tells ESPN’s Tim MacMahon that Thompson suffered a sprained ankle that isn’t considered serious (Twitter links). The 20-year-old said the team’s staff will determine whether or not he plays again in Summer League.

“It’s pretty sore,” Thompson said, per MacMahon.

Thompson showed flashes of tantalizing upside in his marquee matchup with Henderson, finishing with 16 points (on 6-of-13 shooting), five assists, four rebounds, four blocks and three steals in 28 minutes against the Trail Blazers. The Rockets wound up winning the game on a Jabari Smith buzzer-beater.

Month: November 2024

Atlanta Hawks

Boston Celtics

Brooklyn Nets

Charlotte Hornets

Chicago Bulls

Cleveland Cavaliers

Dallas Mavericks

Denver Nuggets

Detroit Pistons

Golden State Warriors