Boston Celtics Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Knicks Acquire Evan Fournier From Celtics Via Sign-And-Trade

August 17th, 2021 at 9:36am CST by Luke Adams

The Knicks‘ have turned their free agent agreement with swingman Evan Fournier into a sign-and-trade deal with the Celtics, announcing today in a press release that they’ve officially acquired Fournier and two future second-round picks from Boston in exchange for cash. Fournier received a four-year deal that includes a fourth-year team option and can reportedly be worth up to $78MM.

Turning the transaction into a sign-and-trade will allow the Celtics to create a traded player exception worth Fournier’s first-year salary. That new trade exception will be worth $17.1MM, tweets Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe.

The Knicks, meanwhile, had the cap room necessary to sign Fournier outright, but will pick up some extra draft assets due to their willingness to work with Boston on a sign-and-trade agreement.

According to Himmelsbach (Twitter link), one of the two second-round picks the Knicks are receiving is heavily (top-55) protected — it’s the Hornets’ 2022 second-rounder. The other pick will be a 2023 second-rounder that originally belonged to Oklahoma City, Washington, Miami, or Dallas.

It’s a similar move to the one the Celtics made last fall when Gordon Hayward left for Charlotte in free agency — the Hornets acquired a pair of second-rounders in that deal, while Boston created a $28.5MM trade exception.

Fournier, who had spent six seasons in Orlando entering the 2020/21 season, was traded from the Magic to the Celtics in a midseason deal that used the Hayward trade exception. He dealt with a handful of health issues over the course of the season, but had a solid overall year when he was available, averaging 17.1 PPG, 3.4 APG, and 3.0 RPG on .457/.413/.788 shooting in 42 total games (30.0 MPG) for Orlando and Boston.

The Celtics explored re-signing Fournier, but recognized they’d face competition on the open market and pivoted to acquiring Josh Richardson (using the rest of the Hayward TPE) to address the wing position. The Knicks ultimately outbid Boston to land Fournier.

“We identified Evan as a key addition as we entered free agency and are ecstatic that he’s joining us,” Knicks president Leon Rose said in a statement. “He’s a great teammate, a fierce competitor, and a perfect complement to our returning players. He wants to be a part of what we are building here, and we are happy to have him join our family.”

The Knicks have now officially completed their deals with Fournier, Nerlens Noel, and Kemba Walker. The team still has to announce a few other signings, including Derrick Rose, Alec Burks, and Taj Gibson.

Yam Madar Expected To Play In Germany If Celtics Don't Sign Him

August 16th, 2021 at 8:22am CST by Luke Adams

If the Celtics opt not to sign 2020 second-rounder Yam Madar for the 2021/22 season, the expectation is that he’ll play for Ratiopharm Ulm in Germany, according to reports out of Israel (hat tip to Sportando). Madar remains a candidate to come stateside, but Boston already has 15 players on fully guaranteed contracts (plus Jabari Parker on a non-guaranteed deal) for ’21/22, so it may be another year before the Israeli guard signs his first NBA contract.

Celtics Notes: Edwards, Langford, Hauser, Thomas

August 15th, 2021 at 10:53am CST by Arthur Hill

As he prepares for his third NBA season, Celtics guard Carsen Edwards hopes to move into a more defined role, writes Jared Weiss of The Athletic. Edwards has played a combined 68 games in his first two years and saw just 276 minutes last season. An opportunity for additional playing time seemed to arise after Kemba Walker was traded, but that closed when Boston signed Dennis Schröder.

“I feel like, me just being a young player in the league and stuff, I feel like narrowing down on one thing is good,” Edwards said. “I want to improve on everything at the same time, but I’m mostly just working on my pace, shooting it consistently and just being comfortable with the ball.”

Edwards spent the start of the offseason working with a skills trainer, focusing on the sets the Celtics run and breaking down how to attack different defenses. He hopes to carve out a role as a bench scorer this season and give Boston an incentive to pick up his option for 2022/23.

“I think it’s just comfort, man,” Edwards said. “I feel like at times, just being able to slow down for me, just getting repetitions. I feel like just shooting and working out and stuff like that. Training is never the same as being in a game. So just whatever experience I can get just to be comfortable, just being at ease and be able to shoot it and not feel rushed, I think is a big, important part for me.”

There’s more on the Celtics:

Romeo Langford, another young guard hoping to increase his playing time, is trying to make the most of his Summer League opportunity, notes Souichi Terada of MassLive. A lottery pick in 2019, Langford was limited to 18 games last season because of injuries. “He’s a very good player who plays the right way,” coach Joe Mazzulla said. “There are times when he’s passive maybe, but regardless of whether it’s Summer League or a league game he’s going to be in the right spot and make the right read. He’s going to be a physical defender on and off the ball and it’s something he has to continue to work on.”
Sam Hauser said the Celtics only gave him 10 minutes to decide on their offer of a two-way contract after he wasn’t selected on draft night, per Brian Robb of MassLive. Hauser, who officially signed the deal on Friday, believes he made the right choice. “They said I had a really good workout,” he said of Celtics management. “They said they weren’t sure if I was in their range or not in the draft. But I ended up here so sort of a blessing in disguise, I guess. So. I’m happy with the fit. And I’m glad to be in Boston.”
Free agent guard Isaiah Thomas mentioned the Celtics this week as one of four NBA teams that have expressed interest in him, relays Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub.

Atlantic Notes: Noel, Robinson, Bonga, Begarin

August 14th, 2021 at 1:59pm CST by Eli Cohen

Nerlens Noel had several suitors in free agency, but wanted to return to the Knicks to continue building on the progress from last year, writes Marc Berman of The New York Post.

“There were other opportunities but I want to build on that and get this team to the next level,” Noel said. “Guys like Julius (Randle), RJ (Barrett), Derrick (Rose), we had pieces that can really come together. And I’m really confident we can be better.”

Berman also writes that Noel’s three-year, $27.2MM deal presents the Knicks with questions regarding young center Mitchell Robinson, who was one of the more productive young defensive centers in the league before injuries derailed his 2020/21 season. Robinson is eligible for a contract extension, but there has yet to be any indication whether the two sides will be able to get a deal done.

We have more news from around the Atlantic Division:

In the same piece, Berman writes that Robinson has been in Las Vegas, working out with Knicks staffers as he continues to progress from his broken foot. In a tweet, Robinson writes: “I look big asf them weights doing me some good and form looking great thanks Knicks staff.”
Isaac Bonga‘s deal with the Raptors includes a $200K guarantee, tweets Blake Murphy of The Athletic. The deal is presumed to be a training camp try-out, but the guarantee offers hope that Bonga may be able to stick. If so, the versatile wing could find himself in an ideal developmental situation with a team known for helping young players grow.
The Celtics’ 45th pick, Juhann Begarin, is ready to come over from France, writes Jay King of The Athletic, but team president Brad Stevens has other ideas. “Brad told me I would play in France for one more year,” Begarin said. “I think I’m ready to play with (the Celtics), and I knew summer league was an opportunity to show them I’m ready. I just asked him to play and show I can play with them.”

Celtics Sign Dennis Schröder To One-Year Deal

August 13th, 2021 at 5:40pm CST by Luke Adams

AUGUST 13: The Celtics have officially signed Schroder, according to a team press release.

“We are really excited to welcome Dennis and his family to Boston,” president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said in a statement. “Dennis is a high-level player and competitor, who has consistently impacted winning with his play on both ends of the court.”

AUGUST 10: The Celtics and free agent point guard Dennis Schröder are in agreement on a one-year contract, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). According to Wojnarowski (via Twitter), the deal will be worth the $5.89MM taxpayer mid-level exception.

Schröder has officially confirmed in an Instagram story that he’s joining the Celtics.

“This is one of the best franchises in NBA history and it will be a honour to put on the green and white and do what I love!” Schröder wrote. “I’m going out there every night and leaving it all on the floor for the city!! Who’s ready?!”

We first heard last week that the Celtics and Schröder were engaged in contract discussions, with a report earlier today indicating the team had offered him a one-year, $5.9MM deal.

Today’s report suggested Schröder was seeking a second-year player option and the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception (worth about $9.5MM), but the C’s wanted to maintain cap flexibility in 2022 and avoid hard-capping themselves this season. It appears Schröder relented.

Schröder had an up-and-down season for the Lakers in 2020/21 after being acquired from the Thunder last fall. His scoring average dipped to 15.4 PPG, his lowest mark since 2015/16, and his shooting numbers (.437 FG%, .335 3PT%) also fell off a little following a career year in Oklahoma City.

The 27-year-old struggled in the Lakers’ first-round playoff loss to Phoenix, putting up just 14.3 PPG and 2.8 APG on .400/.308/.846 shooting in six games (32.7 MPG), though he was coming off a case of COVID-19 near the end of the regular season.

Despite Schröder’s inconsistent play in Los Angeles, the extent to which his market collapsed is still surprising. He reportedly turned down a four-year extension offer worth in excess of $80MM during the season. When the Lakers agreed to trade for Russell Westbrook, it closed one door for Schröder, and the teams seeking a point guard in free agency didn’t have the German atop their lists of targets.

As a result, the Celtics – who traded away starting point guard Kemba Walker in June – will get a bargain for the 2021/22 season, while Schröder will look to rebuild his value in Boston before re-entering the free agent market in 2022.

As Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston notes (via Twitter), if the Celtics remain committed to not using more than the taxpayer portion of their mid-level exception, they’ll be limited to one- or two-year minimum-salary deals for any other signings, including draft-and-stash prospect Yam Madar.

Largest Trade Exceptions Created This Offseason

August 13th, 2021 at 3:09pm CST by Luke Adams

A total of 26 trades have been completed to so far during the 2021 NBA offseason, and many of those deals generated at least one “traded player exception.”

As we explain in our glossary, a traded player exception allows a team to take on salary in a trade without sending out any salary in return. The amount of the exception plus $100K is the amount of salary the team is permitted to take back without salary-matching – either in a single deal or in multiple trades – for one year.

For instance, a team with a $10MM trade exception could acquire a player earning $4MM and a player earning $6.1MM without having to worry about sending out any outgoing salary.

One of the biggest trade exceptions ever created – the Thunder‘s $27.5MM TPE from last November’s Steven Adams trade – expired last week without being used, but Oklahoma City still has a pair of sizeable exceptions to work with, as our tracker shows. The team could also create upwards of $30MM in cap space by renouncing all its exceptions, including the mid-level and bi-annual.

While the Thunder have some big traded player exceptions, they aren’t one of the teams that created sizable new TPEs in offseason deals this year. Here are the largest new trade exceptions generated this summer:

New Orleans Pelicans: $17,073,171 (Steven Adams)
Brooklyn Nets: $11,454,048 (Spencer Dinwiddie)
Dallas Mavericks: $10,865,952 (Josh Richardson)
Boston Celtics: $9,720,900 (Tristan Thompson)
- Note: It’s unclear whether the Celtics absorbed Bruno Fernando‘s salary ($1,782,621) using the Thompson exception or their Kemba Walker trade exception ($6,879,100). We’re assuming for now that Fernando slotted into the Walker exception, reducing its value to $5,096,479. However, if he went into the Thompson TPE, its value would be reduced to $7,938,279.
Utah Jazz: $7,475,379 (Derrick Favors)
- Note: There was an expectation that the Jazz would slot Eric Paschall‘s salary ($1,782,621) into one of two trade exceptions that were set to expire on August 6. However, it appears the deal wasn’t completed until August 7 for logistical reasons, meaning the Favors TPE (originally $9,258,000) would’ve had to be used.
Indiana Pacers: $7,333,333 (Doug McDermott)
Chicago Bulls: $5,000,000 (Daniel Theis)

For a second straight year, a team generated the largest trade exception of the offseason by trading Adams. This time around, it was the Pelicans, who cleverly folded separate trade agreements with the Grizzlies and Hornets into one three-team deal, sending Wesley Iwundu to Charlotte to ensure that Adams’ salary wouldn’t be required for matching purposes.

The Pelicans and Mavericks are the two best candidates on this list to make use of their newly-created exceptions at some point. The larger the exception is, the easier it is to find a use for, and those are two of the three biggest in this group.

The other big TPE belongs to the Nets, but they’re already way over the tax line and will be reluctant to take on more salary unless they have a really good reason to do so. That’s probably true of most of the other teams on this list too — the Celtics and Jazz in particular have to be conscious of luxury-tax concerns as they mull the possibility of taking on additional salary. New Orleans and Dallas have more wiggle room, while the Pacers and Bulls are somewhere in between.

The full list of available trade exceptions can be found here.

Salary information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post.

Clippers, Spurs Among Teams Facing Potential Roster Crunch

August 13th, 2021 at 10:19am CST by Luke Adams

NBA teams are permitted to carry up to 20 players during the offseason, so no clubs have been forced to cut anyone to make room for new additions so far this summer. However, once the regular season begins in October, teams must trim their rosters to 15 players (not counting two-way contracts), and there are already a handful of clubs that may face some difficult decision to get down to that number.

Of course, there’s plenty of time for these teams to figure out how their regular season rosters will look and make the necessary trades or cuts. It’s only mid-August after all.

Still, we wanted to check in on these teams to preview some of the decisions they may be facing in the coming weeks and months.

Let’s dive in…

Los Angeles Clippers:

After officially completing their new deal with Kawhi Leonard on Thursday, the Clippers now have 15 players on guaranteed contracts, and Nicolas Batum will become the 16th once he officially finalizes his new contract with the team.

Yogi Ferrell remains under contract on a non-guaranteed salary, but it’s hard to see how he’ll fit on the regular season roster, since the club would have to remove two players on guaranteed salaries in order to keep him.

Perhaps the Clippers, who are facing a projected $125MM tax bill in 2021/22, will make a surprise trade involving a veteran on an expiring contract in order to cut costs, but it’s hard at this point to imagine the team salary-dumping a player like Patrick Beverley, Serge Ibaka, or Rajon Rondo.

This year’s second-round picks, Jason Preston and Brandon Boston, signed deals with two guaranteed seasons and should be safe, but last year’s second-rounder – Daniel Oturu – is on an expiring $1.52MM deal and could be at risk of losing his roster spot following a quiet rookie season.

San Antonio Spurs:

The Spurs are currently at 14 players on guaranteed contracts and one (Drew Eubanks) with a small partial guarantee of $500K. Their offseason moves aren’t all done though — Bryn Forbes and Jock Landale have yet to sign their contracts, and second-rounder Joe Wieskamp is unsigned too.

We don’t know the exact salary details for Forbes and Landale. However, Forbes seems like a safe bet for a full guarantee. It’s possible Landale’s deal won’t be guaranteed, which would make him and Eubanks potential odd men out. The Spurs also have an open two-way slot, which perhaps they’d like to use on Wieskamp.

If San Antonio wants to carry at least one of Eubanks, Landale, and Wieskamp on its 15-man regular season roster, Al-Farouq Aminu would be the most logical odd man out. Injuries have limited him to just 41 games over the last two seasons, he’s on an expiring contract, and he was included in the DeMar DeRozan sign-and-trade for salary-matching purposes.

Detroit Pistons:

It was a little surprising when the Pistons brought back Rodney McGruder on a guaranteed minimum-salary deal just a few days after waiving him. McGruder is Detroit’s 15th guaranteed contract, and the team has yet to sign restricted free agent Hamidou Diallo or second-round picks Luka Garza and Balsa Koprivica.

The Pistons are reportedly using one of their two-way contract slots on undrafted rookie Chris Smith, but that leaves one for Koprivica or Garza. Jahlil Okafor, who is on expiring $2.13MM contract, is probably the most expendable of the 15 players on guaranteed deals.

But even if, say, Koprivica fills a two-way slot and Diallo replaces Okafor on the 15-man roster, one more move would be necessary to accommodate Garza. Perhaps Detroit can stash Koprivica in the G League or an international league and use that second two-way spot on Garza.

New York Knicks:

The Knicks are carrying just 10 players on fully guaranteed contracts for the time being, but they still need to officially complete deals for Evan Fournier, Alec Burks, Derrick Rose, and Taj Gibson. That’ll bring the total to 14.

The team is also carrying Luca Vildoza on a non-guaranteed deal, has reached an agreement to sign Dwayne Bacon, and has No. 34 overall pick Rokas Jokubaitis talking about wanting to make this year’s roster.

We don’t know the full details on Bacon’s contract yet, but if it’s not fully guaranteed, he could end up battling Vildoza for the final spot on the 15-man squad, with Jokubaitis returning to Europe for at least one more year.

A few other situations worth noting:

The Celtics will have 15 fully guaranteed contracts once Dennis Schröder and Enes Kanter officially sign, making Jabari Parker (non-guaranteed) the odd man out unless a player like Kris Dunn or Bruno Fernando is traded.
The Nets have 13 players on guaranteed contracts, with DeAndre’ Bembry on a partial guarantee and Alize Johnson on a non-guaranteed deal. Second-round picks Kessler Edwards, Marcus Zegarowski, and RaiQuan Gray are all unsigned, as is two-way RFA Reggie Perry. Two of those players will likely end up on two-way deals and one of the second-rounders probably replaces Johnson on the 15-man roster. However, there’s not really a path to Edwards, Zegarowski, and Gray all claiming standard contracts or two-way deals unless one of Bembry or Perry is cut loose.
The Warriors have 13 players on fully guaranteed deals, meaning not all three of Damion Lee, Mychal Mulder, and Gary Payton II (all non-guaranteed) will make the team. Mulder and Payton may end up fighting for the 15th spot.
If the Pelicans sign RFA Josh Hart and second-round pick Herb Jones to guaranteed contracts, they’ll have 15 of them, making Wenyen Gabriel (non-guaranteed) the likely odd man out.
The Sixers have 13 players on guaranteed contracts, with Paul Reed and Anthony Tolliver on non-guaranteed deals and second-round picks Charles Bassey and Filip Petrusev unsigned. Bassey figures to get a 15-man spot, since both of the team’s two-way slots are full, and I’d be surprised if Reed goes anywhere. That might mean Tolliver is waived, with Petrusev remaining overseas.
The Kings will have 14 players on guaranteed contracts once Alex Len officially signs, leaving Chimezie Metu (partially guaranteed) and Justin James (non-guaranteed) battling for the 15th spot.

What Schröder Brings To Celtics

August 13th, 2021 at 9:05am CST by Luke Adams

Dennis Schröder may not be a perfect on-court fit for the Celtics, but he’ll bring an element of speed and an ability to get to the rim that the team’s other point guards don’t have, and it’s hard to argue with the value of a one-year, $5.9MM deal, says Jay King of The Athletic.

Atlantic Notes: Green, Young, Marks, Noel

August 12th, 2021 at 6:38pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Danny Green, who re-signed with the Sixers on a two-year deal, said most of his other suitors in free agency offered less money or would have needed to work out a sign-and-trade with Philadelphia, according to Rich Hofmann of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Ex-teammates Dwight Howard (Lakers) and George Hill (Bucks) tried to recruit Green to the teams they signed with this summer, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer tweets. However, Tobias Harris and Joel Embiid were also in frequent contact with the veteran guard, urging him to stick with the Sixers, Kyle Neubeck of The Philly Voice tweets.

We have more from the Atlantic Division:

Former Celtics assistant Jamie Young is joining Doc Rivers’ staff with the Sixers, Derek Bodner of The Athletic tweets. Young spent 21 years with Boston.
While Nets general manager Sean Marks says he’s mostly done tweaking the team’s roster this offseason, he reserved the right to make more moves, Brian Lewis of The New York Post writes. “We’ve got to continue to tinker with the roster, and just see what happens,” he said. “We’ve seen in the past where other teams make cuts, and so forth, and we’re able to adjust because of that. So I don’t want to say that the roster’s complete: Maybe it’s 90 percent complete, 99 percent complete.”
Nerlens Noel‘s three-year contract with the Knicks includes $4MM in total incentives. Among those potential incentives is a $750K bonus each time he makes First or Second Team All-Defense, Ian Begley of SNY.TV reports.

Isaiah Thomas On Lakers’ Radar

August 11th, 2021 at 1:47pm CST by Luke Adams

The Lakers still have multiple roster spots available after overhauling their roster around LeBron James and Anthony Davis this offseason, and according to veteran NBA reporter Marc Stein, free agent guard Isaiah Thomas is among the players the team is considering to fill one of those openings.

As Stein explains, it’s far from a lock that the Lakers will sign Thomas, but he’s among the targets the team is keeping its eye on in the search for “additional backcourt punch.”

Thomas generated some buzz on social media over the weekend by racking up 81 points in a Pro-Am game in Seattle. However, he has struggled to make an impact at the NBA level in recent years.

Thomas has appeared in 55 total games since the start of the 2018/19 season for the Nuggets, Wizards, and Pelicans, averaging 11.1 PPG and 3.2 APG on .393/.381/.771 shooting in 21.0 minutes per contest during that time. While those numbers aren’t bad, they haven’t been enough to make up for his below-average defense and earn him a full-season rotation role.

Stein – who reported last week that the Celtics have also mulled the idea of a reunion with Thomas – says the Lakers don’t view Thomas’ failed stint alongside James with the 2017/18 Cavaliers as a deterrent, but will still have to decide how best to use their final roster spots.

Currently, Los Angeles has 12 players on guaranteed contracts, plus Joel Ayayi and Austin Reaves on two-way deals.