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Cavaliers Re-Sign Emoni Bates To Two-Way Deal

August 20th, 2024 at 3:06pm CST by Luke Adams

Restricted free agent Emoni Bates is back under contract with the Cavaliers, according to the NBA’s official transaction log, which indicates that the forward has signed a two-way deal with Cleveland.

Bates became a restricted free agent when the Cavs issued him a two-way qualifying offer following his rookie season. In all likelihood, he simply accepted that QO, which is the equivalent of another one-year, two-way contract.

A former five-star recruit, Bates was selected 49th overall in the 2023 draft following a pair of up-and-down college seasons at Memphis and Eastern Michigan. The 20-year-old appeared in just 15 games for Cleveland as a rookie, averaging 2.7 points per game on 30.6% shooting in 8.9 minutes per night.

In 27 Showcase Cup and regular season G League games for the Cleveland Charge, Bates showed more promise, putting up 21.6 PPG and 5.7 RPG with a .414/.371/.814 shooting line. He was voted in as a participant in the NBAGL’s Up Next game at All-Star weekend in February.

The Cavaliers have now officially filled one of their two-way slots, with JT Thor reportedly set to fill another. Once Thor’s deal is official, Cleveland will have one more two-way contract to offer.

Bates had been one of just two restricted free agents who remained unsigned. His new deal leaves teammate Isaac Okoro as the only RFA still on the market.

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Two NBA Restricted Free Agents Remain Unsigned

August 18th, 2024 at 9:39am CST by Rory Maher

Seven weeks into the NBA’s 2024/25 league year, there are only two restricted free agents who have yet to reach agreements on new contracts, and both players ended last season as Cavaliers.

Here are the unsigned RFAs:

As our Luke Adams outlined last week, the Pistons are the only team in the NBA with cap room remaining, seemingly leaving little in the form of leverage for Okoro, who was the fifth overall pick of the 2020 draft. Detroit has about $10.2MM in space below the cap right now, and that figure could increase to almost $18MM if the team released big man Paul Reed, who is on a non-guaranteed deal.

Okoro makes some sense as a target for the Pistons, given his age (he’s 23), defensive pedigree, and familiarity with new head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, who coached him in Cleveland. But there haven’t been any hints that the Pistons are considering an offer sheet for Okoro, and they’d probably have to waive Reed to put together an offer strong enough to dissuade the Cavs from matching.

You could also make the argument that Okoro would be somewhat redundant on a roster featuring recent lottery picks Ausar Thompson and Ron Holland, a couple of forwards known for their defense and not their jump shots. Okoro converted a career-high 39.1% of his three-point tries in ’23/24, but he’s a reluctant shooter for a wing, only attempting 3.1 per contest in 27.3 MPG. Having two of those three players on the court at the same time would really cramp offensive spacing, which has been an issue for Detroit for several seasons.

The Pistons currently have Jaden Ivey, Simone Fontecchio, Tim Hardaway Jr., and Malik Beasley on the roster as well, players who figure to be vying for minutes at the two and three. Veteran Tobias Harris is another option at small forward, though he typically spends more time at power forward. Even if they really like Okoro, playing time certainly wouldn’t be handed to him.

The Cavs have reportedly discussed a sign-and-trade deal with the Nets involving Okoro and Dorian Finney-Smith, but it sounds like those talks didn’t get serious. A reunion with Cleveland still feels like the mostly likely outcome for Okoro, the question is more about what type of contract he might sign.

Given how much money Cleveland has committed in extensions this offseason for Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, plus Darius Garland‘s max contract, the team’s salary outlook for ’25/26 and beyond is looking quite expensive.

While the Cavs reportedly value Okoro both on and off the court, it makes sense that they would be reluctant to offer him a contract in the range of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception for multiple seasons. Still, even in a “worst case” scenario, Okoro could simply accept his $11.8MM qualifying offer and hit unrestricted free agency — perhaps opening more options — in 2025.

Bates’ situation is more straightforward. The Cavaliers have one two-way spot earmarked for JT Thor, but still have a pair of two-way openings. There’s an expectation that Bates, who spent his rookie season on a two-way deal with Cleveland, will return on another two-way contract.

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JT Thor Agrees To Two-Way Contract With Cavaliers

August 17th, 2024 at 11:39am CST by Tristan Tucker

Former Hornets forward JT Thor is signing a two-way contract with the Cavaliers, Shams Charania of The Athletic reports (Twitter link).

Thor, the 37th overall pick in the 2021 draft, spent the first three years of his career with the Hornets. He didn’t play a major role with Charlotte, but earned a handful of spot starts across his tenure with the franchise. He averaged 3.2 points and 2.1 rebounds in 165 games (11 starts; 12.2 MPG) with the Hornets from 2021-24.

The former Auburn standout earned some first-round buzz in the 2021 draft after a freshman season that saw him average 9.4 points, 5.0 rebounds, 1.4 blocks and 0.8 steals while stretching out to the three-point line as a 6’10” forward. At 21 years old, he still has some untapped potential.

Thor most recently impressed in the Olympics, playing for South Sudan’s national team. He averaged about seven points and five rebounds for South Sudan.

Thor is the first reported two-way signing for the Cavs, giving them two other spots they can choose to fill. They have a two-way qualifying offer out for Emoni Bates, who finished last season on a two-way contract with the team.

Pete Nance and Isaiah Mobley also finished the 2023/24 season on two-way deals with Cleveland but are both unrestricted free agents, free to sign with any team.

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Had Eye On Caboclo During Olympics

August 15th, 2024 at 1:41pm CST by Rory Maher
  • A source told Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com that the Cavaliers were scouting Bruno Caboclo while the veteran forward was competing in the Olympics with Team Brazil (YouTube link via The Wine and Gold Talk podcast). Fedor was careful to couch that reporting by stating that no deal was imminent and that he was just illustrating a point about Cleveland’s front office regularly keeping tabs on international players (hat tip to HoopsHype). Caboclo, a 28-year-old former first-round pick, spent last season with Partizan in Serbia and has said he plans to return to the EuroLeague club next season.
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And-Ones: K. Smith, Schedule, C. Brown, Burton, Duke & Rutgers

August 14th, 2024 at 11:02pm CST by Arthur Hill

Warner Bros. Discovery is suing the NBA after being excluded from the new broadcast rights package, but Kenny Smith isn’t worried about how that might affect what will likely be the final year of “Inside the NBA,” writes Greg Rajan of The Houston Chronicle. Smith, who has been with the network since his playing career ended in 1998, insists that nothing will change inside the studio.

“No, because we do our jobs,” he said. “Our job is to talk (about) the game and give insight and also give you insight about what’s going on behind the scenes with TNT. Like, ‘Hey, we’re not happy.’ That’s part of what makes us different. I don’t think any other network would allow or want their talent to talk about things like that. We’re going to do it, no matter what happens.

“But again, we’ve had a great run. If it continues, it’ll be great. But also, there are massive opportunities for the four of us — again, to create ownership opportunities to make sure our directors, producers, makeup, stats and audio people are still part of one of the greatest shows in sports TV history.”

Smith views the possible end of the network’s affiliation with the NBA as an opportunity for the show to reach out into other areas. He compares it to what Adam Sandler or Peyton and Eli Manning are doing with their companies, providing a chance to create a new brand in sports television.

There’s more from around the basketball world:

  • More details on the 2024/25 NBA schedule continue to leak out ahead of the official announcement at 3:00 pm ET on Thursday. The Nuggets will host the Thunder on October 24 in the season opener for both teams, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). It will be a matchup of the top two seeds in the West last season. After facing the Clippers October 23 in the first game at the new Inuit Dome, the Suns will stay in Los Angeles to take on the Lakers October 25 before hosting the Mavericks in their home opener a night later, tweets Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. The Kings will have two six-game road trips during the season, sources tell James Ham of Kings Beat (Twitter link). One in January will have them face the Nuggets, Knicks, Nets, Sixers, Thunder and Timberwolves, and another from March 29 to April 7 will feature games against the Magic, Pacers, Wizards, Hornets, Cavaliers and Pistons.
  • Former NBA players Charlie Brown Jr. and Deonte Burton will be among the players representing the G League United in a pair of September exhibition games, the league announced (Twitter links).
  • Duke and Rutgers will be the top destinations for NBA scouts when the college basketball season begins, observes Adam Zagoria of NJ.com. The Blue Devils have the projected No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft, Cooper Flagg, along with Khaman Maluach, a probable lottery selection who played for South Sudan in the Olympics. The Scarlet Knights’ Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper are also in contention for the top spot in next year’s draft.
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Cavs Notes: Roster, Okoro, Bates, Nance, Travers

August 10th, 2024 at 2:27pm CST by Luke Adams

The Cavaliers are still carrying just 10 players on standard guaranteed contracts for the 2024/25 season. However, the team doesn’t appear likely to make a series of roster additions before the regular season begins.

Craig Porter, who has a partially guaranteed salary, and Sam Merrill, who has a non-guaranteed deal, are penciled in as the 11th and 12th players on the 15-man regular season roster. And, as Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com explains, one of the other roster openings remains earmarked for restricted free agent Isaac Okoro. There hasn’t been any movement recently in negotiations with Okoro, per Fedor, with Cleveland having made its position clear to the forward’s camp.

If Okoro returns as the 13th man, the 14th spot on the roster would likely be reserved for a “cost-effective, playable, end-of-bench veteran,” according to Fedor, who suggests that the ideal target would be a player who could provide depth and locker room leadership, like Tristan Thompson did last season.

New Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson, who is serving as an assistant for the French national team, is expected to meet with members of Cleveland’s front office after the Olympics to discuss what he’s looking for with that 14th roster spot, as well as possible targets, Fedor writes.

As for the 15th spot, the plan is to leave it open to begin the regular season in order to save some money and maximize the team’s roster flexibility, Fedor concludes.

Here’s more on the Cavs:

  • Cleveland doesn’t yet have any players signed to two-way contracts for the coming season, but Fedor expects Emoni Bates to return in one of those slots. A two-way qualifying offer remains on the table for Bates, making him a restricted free agent. Pete Nance, who finished last season on a two-way contract and played a significant role on the Cavs’ Summer League team, is another strong candidate for a two-way deal, Fedor adds.
  • When draft-and-stash prospect Luke Travers left Melbourne United to pursue other professional opportunities, he made that decision in conjunction with the Cavs, sources tell Cleveland.com. However, the plan for Travers remains up in the air — having him sign a two-way contract is the most logical outcome, but it isn’t a certainty yet, says Fedor.
  • As Fedor observes, as long as the Cavs are carrying just 14 players on their standard roster instead of 15, their two-way players are limited to 90 total games (instead of 50 apiece), meaning Travers could spend plenty of time in the G League with the Cleveland Charge if he comes stateside on a two-way deal. That might be fine with him, but Fedor suggests that a deal in Europe – where he’d presumably have a bigger role than he would in the NBA – is another option that may still be in play for the 22-year-old Australian wing. The Cavs could also trade Travers’ NBA rights, though there’s no indication they’re pursuing that path.
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Luke Travers Departs Melbourne United, Pursuing NBA Opportunities

August 6th, 2024 at 9:26pm CST by Tristan Tucker

Forward Luke Travers, the No. 56 overall pick in the 2022 draft, was granted release from his contract with Melbourne United, Olgun Uluc of ESPN reports (Twitter link).

According to Uluc, the release was mutual so that Travers can “pursue NBA opportunities.” Travers’ rights are owned by the Cavaliers, so unless his rights are traded in the near future, the only contract he could sign would be with Cleveland.

The Cavaliers are in an interesting place, with first-round pick Jaylon Tyson representing their only offseason addition so far. They signed three players to extensions but have kept their roster flexibility as open as it can be. They have three standard contract spots open and are the only team to not have a player signed to a two-way contract for next season.

Their holdup in making moves is almost certainly tied to restricted free agent Isaac Okoro, who is the biggest domino left to fall in free agency. The Cavs have reportedly had talks about re-signing him and about possible sign-and-trade deals with other teams. Regardless, they seem to be in a holding pattern until that situation is resolved.

But if the team re-signs Okoro (or signs-and-trades him in a move that brings back just one player), they’d still have multiple open roster spots to fill. Of their own free agents, Marcus Morris and Emoni Bates seem the most likely to return.

Travers would be eligible to sign either a standard or two-way contract with the team. If they wanted to save some money, it would make sense to sign him to a deal that’s similar in structure to the one Gui Santos, picked one slot before Travers, received from Golden State last year.

Travers, 22, has spent three straight years with Cleveland’s summer league team. Across 15 total summer league appearances spanning 2022-24, he has averaged 7.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, 1.1 steals and 1.4 blocks. During his last season with Melbourne, he averaged 12.4 points and 7.6 rebounds across 36 games.

A 6’7″ forward, Travers would provide versatile youth and depth. If he signed, he would be the second-youngest player on the roster.

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Contract Details: Kennard, Fernando, Graham, Allen

August 5th, 2024 at 2:14pm CST by Luke Adams

Luke Kennard‘s new one-year contract with the Grizzlies, originally reported to be worth $11MM, actually has a base salary of just $9.25MM, Hoops Rumors has learned. Kennard can also earn an additional $1,387,500 in unlikely incentives, so his deal can max out at $10,637,500.

That disparity between the reported terms and the actual terms is important, given Memphis’ proximity to the luxury tax line. An $11MM cap hit would have put the Grizzlies over the luxury tax line by about $1MM, but because Kennard counts for just $9.25MM against the cap, the team’s salary is hovering right around $170MM, a little below the tax line ($170,814,000).

Kennard, Desmond Bane, and Brandon Clarke have unlikely contract incentives that could make Memphis a taxpayer if they’re earned. Given how close they are to the luxury tax line, I’d expect the Grizzlies to keep a close eye on each player’s progress toward his respective bonuses and make a minor cost-cutting move by February’s trade deadline if necessary — finishing the season just slightly above that tax threshold would cost the team a significant end-of-season payout that’s only available to non-taxpayers.

Here are more details on some recently signed contracts from around the NBA:

  • Bruno Fernando signed a one-year, minimum-salary deal with the Raptors. It’s non-guaranteed for the time being, but Fernando’s full $2,425,403 salary (and $2,087,519 cap hit) would become guaranteed if he remains under contract beyond the first day of the regular season, Hoops Rumors has learned.
  • Devonte’ Graham‘s one-year, non-guaranteed training camp contract with the Trail Blazers includes Exhibit 9 language, but not Exhibit 10 language, Hoops Rumors has learned. That suggests Graham probably isn’t planning to join the Rip City Remix (Portland’s G League team) as an affiliate player if he’s waived by the Blazers this fall.
  • Jarrett Allen‘s three-year, $90.72MM extension with the Cavaliers is a straightforward, fully guaranteed contract with no options on the final year and no trade kicker, Hoops Rumors has confirmed.
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Nets Notes: Fernandez, Bridges, Okoro, Training Staff

August 3rd, 2024 at 9:30pm CST by Arthur Hill

Jordi Fernandez spent 15 years working on NBA staffs and in the G League before the Nets gave him his first head coaching opportunity in April. In an interview with Marc J. Spears of Andscape, Fernandez speculates that his experience as head coach of the Canadian national team gave him an edge in Brooklyn’s hiring process.

“Everybody says that they value the G League experience, which I think was amazing,” he said. “And for me it was a big part of why I kept developing. But coaching Canada and qualifying for the Olympics, it was the last push to be a head coach in the NBA and I’ll always be thankful for the opportunity. But also thankful for these guys, how hard they play. They are the ones that qualified. They are the ones that got a medal, so I obviously benefited from it.”

The Olympic obligations have prevented Fernandez from concentrating full-time on his new job, but he tells Spears they haven’t been a major distraction. He says Nets officials have been “super supportive” about his Olympic duties, and he was able to monitor Summer League games and practices by watching film. He’ll be able to devote his full attention to the team once the medal round in Paris wraps up next weekend.

“I’ve been calling and texting the (Nets) players,” Fernandez said. “I talked to Dennis (Schröder). Talked to the young guys. I talked to (Trendon) Watford. We just we got him back on the team, which we were very happy about. It takes time to build relationships, but they’ve been responsive and they’ve been awesome.”

There’s more on the Nets:

  • Also in the interview, Fernandez addresses the fact that the team he expected to coach changed significantly when Brooklyn traded Mikal Bridges to the Knicks in June. Fernandez said he supports the deal, which brought back Bojan Bogdanovic, Mamadi Diakite, Shake Milton and a large collection of draft assets, signifying that the Nets are fully moving into a rebuilding stage. “It was one of the avenues that we’ve had in mind and how we wanted to do things,” Fernandez said. “Obviously, he’s an amazing player and have a lot of respect for him. Every good trade has to be a win-win. And this is one avenue that we were contemplating. I’m very excited because I know that we can build something more special.”
  • Despite speculation earlier this week, it doesn’t look like the Nets are in position to acquire Isaac Okoro from the Cavaliers, Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports said on the “Ball Don’t Lie” podcast (hat tip to Sports Illustrated). Cleveland was rumored to be considering a sign-and-trade deal involving Dorian Finney-Smith. “I don’t think those talks got really, really substantial to my understanding,” Fischer said. “I just don’t think it can even happen right now after the salary stuff has all shifted out.”
  • Jonathan Felipe, the Nets’ head trainer, and Les Gelis, director of sports medicine (injury management) and co-head of the performance team, won’t be returning for the upcoming season, according to NetsDaily (Twitter links).
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