- Warriors center James Wiseman isn’t expected to play in Friday’s game, but the team plans to use him at some point during Las Vegas Summer League, tweets Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Wiseman, who missed the entire season due to right knee issues, participated in a 5-on-5 scrimmage Tuesday. Jonathan Kuminga joined the team today and is also expected to see some game action (Twitter link).
JULY 5: Quinones’ two-way deal with the Warriors is now official, the team announced (via Twitter).
JUNE 23: The Warriors are adding Memphis guard Lester Quinones on a two-way contract, Shams Charania of Stadium tweets.
Quinones averaged 10 PPG, 3.5 RPG, 1.3 APG and 1.2 SPG during his junior season. He shot 44.9% from the field and 38.9% on 3-point attempts.
Golden State had guards Chris Chiozza and Quinndary Weatherspoon on two-way deals at the end of the season, but Chiozza is no longer eligible for a two-way contract and there’s no guarantee Weatherspoon will be back.
Warriors center James Wiseman remains on track to play in the Las Vegas Summer League, Anthony Slater of The Athletic tweets. Wiseman played 5-on-5 full contact on Sunday for the first time since he had a setback in his right knee rehab late in the regular season. The No. 2 pick of the 2020 draft missed all of last season.
We have more from the Western Conference:
- Gabriel Lundberg is not on the Suns’ summer league roster and he could be on the move, Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic tweets. Lundberg, who signed a two-way contract with Phoenix in March and appeared in four regular season games, has a possible deal overseas, Rankin hears. Lundberg left CSKA Moscow after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
- Tyler Dorsey had a private workout with the Mavericks on Sunday, Krysten Peek of Yahoo Sports tweets. Dorsey appeared in a combined 104 regular season games for Atlanta and Memphis from 2017-19. He played for Olympiacos (Greece) last season and was the team’s second-leading scorer.
- Will the Knicks be penalized for tampering after securing a commitment from Mavericks free agent guard Jalen Brunson? Fred Katz and Tim Cato of The Athletic tackle that subject, with Katz hearing that there’s an expectation around the league that the Knicks will get charged with tampering, unless they work out a sign-and-trade with Dallas. Katz notes that New York started dumping salary on draft night and continued to do so amid reports prior to the start of free agency that Brunson was going to the Knicks.
A total of 13 traded player exceptions created during the 2021 NBA offseason are set to expire this month if they go unused.
A trade exception is an NBA salary cap exception that can be generated when a team trades a player away. It allows that team to acquire a certain amount of salary without sending out any in return for one year after the exception was created. The club is permitted to trade for a player earning the amount of the exception, plus $100K.
[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: Traded Player Exception]
For instance, the Trail Blazers are set to use their $20,864,198 trade exception, created in February’s CJ McCollum trade, to acquire Jerami Grant, who is earning $20,955,000 in 2022/23. Grant narrowly fits into that TPE after accounting for the $100K in wiggle room.
Most trade exceptions expire without being used, but teams can sometimes find a use for them — especially the bigger ones like Portland’s. So it’s worth keeping tabs on which ones are still available.
Here are the 13 exceptions set to expire this month:
- Boston Celtics: $17,142,857 (expires 7/18)
- Los Angeles Clippers: $8,250,000 (expires 7/18)
- Indiana Pacers: $7,333,333 (expires 7/7)
- New Orleans Pelicans: $6,382,262 (expires 7/7)
- Chicago Bulls: $5,000,000 (expires 7/7)
- Memphis Grizzlies: $4,054,695 (expires 7/7)
- Brooklyn Nets: $3,246,530 (expires 7/6)
- Toronto Raptors: $3,070,052 (expires 7/6)
- Atlanta Hawks: $1,782,621 (expires 7/7)
- Golden State Warriors: $1,782,621 (expires 7/7)
- Milwaukee Bucks: $1,517,981 (expires 7/7)
- Boston Celtics: $1,440,549 (expires 7/7)
- Brooklyn Nets: $118,342 (expires 7/6)
The Celtics’ $17MM exception, created in last year’s Evan Fournier sign-and-trade, is the most noteworthy one here, but it appears unlikely to be used. Boston reached a deal last week to acquire Malcolm Brogdon without having to use the exception, and now appears to be a long shot to strike another major trade agreement.
The third exception on this list, the Pacers’ $7.3MM TPE, will disappear if Indiana decides to operate under the cap. The team would have to renounce the exception in order to actually make use of its cap room.
While it’s possible some of the other exceptions on this list will be used before they expire, they won’t accommodate any of the deals that have been agreed upon to date.
The full list of outstanding trade exceptions can be found right here.
With nearly three months until training camps get underway, the Nets have time on their side and are in no rush to complete trades involving Kevin Durant and/or Kyrie Irving, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski said during a Sunday appearance on SportsCenter (video link).
As Wojnarowski explains, the Suns and Heat – believed to be Durant’s preferred landing spots – “don’t really have the ability to do one-on-one deals” with Brooklyn and give the Nets the pieces they want, so three- or four-team scenarios will have to be explored.
“The market is still taking shape,” Wojnarowski said. “I think it’s incumbent on some of the other teams to be creative and start bringing to Brooklyn ideas, going out and seeing if they can get players (and) picks that would put the kind of package it would take to get Kevin Durant.”
As for Irving, Wojnarowski described the point guard’s trade market as “slow-moving.”
“The Lakers have yet, I’m told, to be aggressive in trying to put a deal together to get him from Brooklyn,” Wojnarowski said. “That may come, that may evolve with time, but so far right now there’s no traction really on deals with either Irving or Kevin Durant. They’ll develop over time.”
Here are a few more rumors related to Durant and other top NBA trade candidates:
- The Warriors‘ stars aren’t pushing the front office to acquire Durant, but would welcome such a deal if it happened, writes Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic. Still, Thompson, citing multiple sources within the Warriors’ organization, stresses that a reunion with Durant is “highly unlikely.” Marc J. Spears of ESPN previously reported that Golden State had interest in the two-time Finals MVP.
- While the Mavericks are rumored to have some level of interest in Cavaliers restricted free agent guard Collin Sexton, Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com doesn’t view Dallas a likely landing spot. As Fedor explains on the Wine and Gold Podcast (hat tip to HoopsHype), the Mavs don’t have cap space and the Cavs aren’t attracted to the pieces Dallas could offer in a sign-and-trade. Acquiring a player via sign-and-trade would also hard-cap the Mavs, who project to be above the tax apron this season.
- Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype considers possible destinations for Donovan Mitchell in the event that the Jazz are willing to make him available, while John Hollinger of The Athletic proposes five hypothetical trade packages for Durant.
The Warriors are among the teams with interest in Nets superstar Kevin Durant, sources tell ESPN’s Marc J. Spears (Twitter link). As Spears notes, more than half the teams in the league are said to be interested in Durant, so it comes as no surprise that Golden State is among them.
Still, there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical about the idea of the Warriors emerging as a legitimate suitor for Durant. Appearing on ESPN Radio (Twitter audio link) Spears proposed a package that would include Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Poole, Jonathan Kuminga, and James Wiseman, but the Nets wouldn’t be permitted to acquire Wiggins without trading Ben Simmons, and there has been no indication they intend to move Simmons, especially given that they’d have to sell him for pennies on the dollar at this point.
Without Wiggins included, either Klay Thompson or Draymond Green would be required for salary-matching purposes, and it’s difficult to envision the Warriors breaking up their long-term championship core to reunite with Durant, who chose to leave the organization as a free agent three years ago. Earlier this week, Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report cited sources with knowledge of the situation who indicated Golden State is the only team that is not “a tangible option” for Durant.
As we wait for further developments on the Durant front, we also have a few notes to pass along on him and his Nets teammate – and fellow trade candidate – Kyrie Irving:
- League personnel who spoke to Brian Lewis of The New York Post said that the Nets are “adamant” about getting All-Star caliber talent back in any Durant deal, and aren’t in any rush to make a move. League sources tell Lewis that nothing is close to getting done at this point.
- Appearing on The Rally on Bally Sports (Twitter video link) on Saturday, Shams Charania of The Athletic suggested the Sixers are among the teams to watch for Irving. It’s very hard to imagine Philadelphia making a serious play for Kyrie — it would require either parting with James Harden or moving Tobias Harris in order to reunite Irving with Harden, whose trade request out of Brooklyn was said to be motivated in part by Kyrie’s vaccination decision.
- For what it’s worth, Nick Wright of FS1 (Twitter link) reports that there “no appetite” for Irving in Philadelphia and the Sixers haven’t engaged in any trade talks for him. According to Lewis, the 76ers are keeping an eye on Irving and have briefly spoke to the Nets, but he hears from a source that “nothing happened there.”
- Charania also identified the Mavericks as a possible suitor for Irving, but Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News is unconvinced of that, writing that Kyrie is “the acquisition of a desperate team.” Towsend doesn’t believe Dallas is that desperate.
- The Lakers remain the most likely trade partner for Irving. According to Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter video link), there has been some optimism from the Lakers’ side that they’re gaining momentum toward making a deal with the Nets.
- In his latest Substack article, Marc Stein says he believes Irving is destined to end up with the Lakers. As Stein writes, he has heard “repeated rumbles” that LeBron James is pushing for the team to acquire Irving, and it’s “impossible to ignore the growing expectation leaguewide” that Kyrie will land in L.A..
- Gui Santos, a second-round pick by the Warriors, also had an impressive Summer League debut, notes Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area. The 21-year-old swingman out of Brazil had 23 points, six rebounds and three steals. “Before the game, I was nervous because it’s a different game here,” Santos said. “I’m playing outside of my country and my family is not here. But when I started to play, I gained confidence. Catching the ball and making the plays, I started to feel better.” Golden State will likely keep Santos overseas for another year or two, but that decision hasn’t been finalized.
New Kings head coach Mike Brown will add one of his Warriors associates to his coaching staff, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. Leandro Barbosa, who served as a player development coach with Golden State, will become an assistant to Brown in Sacramento.
Barbosa, 39, spent time with five teams during a 14-year NBA career that ended in 2017, and then played two overseas seasons after that. He also had extensive international experience with the Brazilian national team.
Barbosa’s coaching career began when the Warriors hired him in September of 2020.
Before they reached an agreement to send Rudy Gobert to Minnesota on Friday, the Jazz asked the Raptors about the possibility of acquiring forward OG Anunoby and swingman Gary Trent Jr., league sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.
Toronto was linked to Gobert repeatedly during the first half of the offseason. Still, as great as the three-time Defensive Player of the Year is, it was never clear how badly the Raptors wanted to break up their core to acquire a big man who didn’t fit the versatile, switchable, and positionless brand of basketball the team has adopted. Whether the Raptors balked at Utah’s asking price or the Jazz simply preferred Minnesota’s offer, Gobert is off the table for Toronto.
Here’s more from Scotto:
- The Celtics, Bucks, Nets, and Bulls are among the teams that expressed interest in Chris Boucher before he agreed to re-sign with the Raptors, while forward Thaddeus Young – who is also returning to Toronto – drew interest from the Celtics and Pacers, according to Scotto.
- The Nets made it a priority this offseason to land a wing defender capable of guarding multiple positions, which was why they agreed to trade for Royce O’Neale even as news of Kevin Durant‘s trade request was breaking. As Scotto explains, the Nets and Jazz previously explored a deal involving O’Neale and Joe Harris prior to the in-season trade deadline.
- In addition to receiving interest from teams willing to give him the full taxpayer mid-level exception, Donte DiVincenzo also received an offer from a team with cap space that would’ve exceeded the two-year, $9.3MM contract he’s signing with the Warriors, says Scotto. The second-year player option Golden State gave him and DiVincenzo’s belief that the Warriors give him the best opportunity to play for a contender were factors in his decision to accept less money, Scotto adds.
After landing John Wall, the Clippers have one opening on their 15-man roster. There’s no rush to fill it, Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times writes. While they could use a backup center, the team is more interested in staying flexible rather than quickly adding a player. The team is already looking at a $143MM tax bill for next season and another signing would add to that.
We have more from the Western Conference:
- Donte DiVincenzo was believed to have offers for the full taxpayer mid-level exception of $6.479MM. However, he chose the Warriors’ offer of two years and $9.3MM with a player option. The option was key to his decision to take a $4.5MM salary next season, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic. He has a chance to join a championship team and pump up his value. If he does that, he can re-enter the free-agency market. If he doesn’t, he’s protected with a second-year player option worth $4.8MM.
- Nuggets GM Calvin Booth is carrying out his stated agenda of improving the team’s defense, Mike Singer of the Denver Post notes. By trading for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, agreeing to sign free agent Bruce Brown, re-signing Davon Reed and drafting Christian Braun and Peyton Watson, Booth targeted players who could switch on defense, disrupt passing lanes, play bigger than their height and stay on the floor in the postseason.
- Malik Monk has been friends with De’Aaron Fox since high school. That played a role in his decision to ditch the Lakers and agree to a two-year, $19MM contract with the Kings, Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee reports.