International Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Former King Jack Cooley To Play In Italy

July 27th, 2018 at 12:03pm CST by Luke Adams

Veteran NBA big man Jack Cooley is headed overseas for the 2018/19 season, with Italian club Dinamo Sassari officially announcing a deal with Cooley. It’s a one-year contract, per Sportando.

The move represents a return to Europe for Cooley, who has previously played for teams in Turkey, Germany, and Spain. The former Notre Dame standout also has NBA stints with Utah and Sacramento, having spent the 2017/18 season on a two-way contract with the Kings. Cooley appeared in just seven games for the Kings, but was a key contributor for the Reno Bighorns, Sacramento’s G League affiliate, averaging 17.7 PPG and 9.7 RPG in 39 games.

The Kings opted not to tender a qualifying offer to Cooley last month, making him an unrestricted free agent. The 27-year-old appeared in five Summer League games in Las Vegas for the Suns, but will continue his playing career overseas rather than in the NBA.

Sacramento currently has both of its two-way contract slots open after filling them with Cooley and JaKarr Sampson last season.

Former Hawk Josh Magette To Play In Croatia

July 27th, 2018 at 8:51am CST by Luke Adams

After spending the 2017/18 season under contract with the Hawks, free agent point guard Josh Magette will head overseas for the 2018/19 campaign. According to agent Chris Patrick (Twitter link), Magette has signed a deal with Croatian team KK Cedevita.

Since going undrafted out of Alabama-Huntsville in 2012, Magette has spent time with teams in the Netherlands and Greece, and is a veteran of the G League, having appeared in 181 total NBAGL games. He caught on with the Hawks during the 2017 offseason, signing a two-way contract and spending the entire season with the club.

Magette played sparingly in 18 games for Atlanta, seeing much more action in 36 contests with the Erie BayHawks. While the 28-year-old struggled with his shot in G League action (.374 FG%, .300 3PT%), he averaged a double-double on the season, racking up 15.1 PPG and 10.1 APG.

The Hawks opted to go in a different direction with their two-way contract slots for 2018/19, declining to tender qualifying offers to Magette or Andrew White. Jaylen Adams currently occupies one of Atlanta’s two-way slots, while Alex Poythress is poised to take the other.

Jordan Mickey To Play In Russia

July 27th, 2018 at 8:18am CST by Arthur Hill

JULY 27: Mickey’s one-year deal with Khimki is official, the team announced today in a press release.

“Jordan has ambitions and big desire to play at the highest level,” head coach Georgios Bartzokas said in a statement. “I’m sure, we will help him also as well as he will help Khimki to achieve our goals. I wanted to sign him even last year but didn’t have a chance.”

JULY 25: Heat free agent Jordan Mickey appears headed to Russia, according to Nikos Varlas of EuroHoops. Mickey is reportedly close to a deal with Khimki Moscow Region.

The 24-year-old forward appeared in 23 games after signing with Miami prior to the start of last season, averaging 4.0 PPG in about 12 minutes per night. He was a second-round pick by the Celtics in 2015 and spent two seasons in Boston before being waived.

If Mickey finalizes a deal with Khimki, he will likely replace Thomas Robinson, who played five NBA seasons before heading overseas in 2017.

Jaylen Morris Signs Two-Way Deal With Bucks

July 27th, 2018 at 8:14am CST by Luke Adams

JULY 27: Morris has officially signed a two-way contract with the Bucks, per RealGM’s transactions log.

JULY 26: Less than a week after he finalized a deal with Italian team Fiat Torino, former Hawk Jaylen Morris may have decided against playing overseas. According to international basketball reporter David Pick (Twitter link), Morris is opting out of his contract with Fiat Torino and will sign a two-way deal with the Bucks.

Morris, who was waived a week ago by Atlanta in order to help the team clear cap room to complete its acquisition of Carmelo Anthony, quickly caught on with Larry Brown‘s team in Italy. However, reports at the time indicated that Morris’ new deal had an opt-out clause in case he received an NBA offer.

Assuming he makes things official with the Bucks, Morris would fill the team’s second two-way contract slot. Former Duke point guard Trevon Duval signed a two-way deal with the club earlier this week. Milwaukee also still has a two-way qualifying offer out to Xavier Munford, but deals with both Duval and Morris would seemingly eliminate Munford’s chances of returning to the Bucks on a two-way contract of his own.

After going undrafted out of Molloy in 2017, Morris appeared in 39 games for the Erie BayHawks in 2017/18, averaging 12.6 PPG, 4.7 RPG, and 2.4 APG for Atlanta’s G League affiliate. The Hawks called up Morris late in the season, inking him to a pair of 10-day deals, then a rest-of-season contract. The 6’5″ shooting guard played just six games for the NBA club.

Lamar Odom To Play In China?

July 26th, 2018 at 3:05pm CST by Luke Adams

Longtime NBA forward Lamar Odom announced today on Instagram that he’ll be returning to court this season. According to Odom, he’ll play for a team in China.

Odom’s announcement is short on specific details, so it remains to be seen which team he’ll play for, or even which league he’ll be in — the top clubs in China complete in the Chinese Basketball Association, while the National Basketball League is the country’s second-tier league.

Regardless, it would be great to see Odom continue his professional career in any league and with any team after he battled off-court issues – including entering rehab for substance abuse – for several years following his last stint in the NBA.

Odom, 38, entered the NBA in 1999 and spent time with the Clippers, Heat, Lakers, and Mavericks over the course of 14 seasons. He won two NBA championships with the Lakers and was named the league’s Sixth Man of the Year in 2011, but hasn’t appeared in an NBA game since 2013.

Speaking last summer to Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports, Odom gave no indication that he would attempt an NBA comeback, but didn’t close the door on playing in another league, such as the BIG3. It sounds like he’ll get that opportunity in China this season.

Al Jefferson Set To Play In China

July 26th, 2018 at 2:24pm CST by Luke Adams

2:24pm: Aldridge has confirmed that Jefferson will join the Xinjiang Flying Tigers in China (Twitter link).

12:00pm: Veteran NBA big man Al Jefferson is opting to play in China for the upcoming season, a source tells TNT’s David Aldridge (Twitter link). According to Aldridge, Jefferson had an opportunity to rejoin the Pacers after being waived by the team earlier this month, but was offered a “nice payday” overseas.

Shortly after releasing him, Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard revealed that Jefferson was mulling the possibility of playing international ball in 2018/19. While Aldridge’s report doesn’t specify which team Jefferson has lined up a deal with, a report earlier in July indicated that the big man was expected to sign with the Xinjiang Flying Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association.

Jefferson, 33, has averaged 15.7 PPG and 8.4 RPG over the course of a productive 14-year NBA career, but played a career-low 13.4 minutes per contest for Indiana last season, appearing in just 36 games. Although the veteran’s per-minute production was still strong, he wasn’t a major part of the Pacers’ plans going forward, and his $10MM salary for 2018/19 was only guaranteed for $4MM, making it an easy decision to cut him.

Assuming Jefferson finalizes a deal with a Chinese club and spends the 2018/19 campaign overseas, he could return stateside in the spring, since the CBA season ends before the NBA’s does. This past April, for instance, Ty Lawson returned from a stint with the Shandong Golden Stars and immediately signed with the Wizards, claiming a regular rotation role with Washington during the team’s brief playoff run.

Shane Larkin To Play In Turkey

July 26th, 2018 at 8:32am CST by Luke Adams

Free agent point guard Shane Larkin has elected to return overseas to continue his career, according to international basketball reporter David Pick, who tweets that Larkin has signed a one-year, $1.8MM offer from Anadolu Efes. The Turkish club has since confirmed the addition of Larkin (via Twitter).

Larkin, 25, spent last season with the Celtics, averaging 4.3 PPG and 1.8 APG in 54 games (14.4 MPG). While the former first-round pick didn’t have a major role in Boston, he did see regular minutes during the team’s first-round playoff series against the Bucks when both Kyrie Irving and Marcus Smart were sidelined with injuries.

This won’t be the first stint in Europe for Larkin, who has also spent time with the Mavericks, Knicks, and Nets in four NBA seasons. The former Miami Hurricane played in Spain with Baskonia during the 2016/17 season, earning a spot on the All-Spanish League Second Team that year.

With Irving, Smart, and Terry Rozier all set to return in Boston and Brad Wanamaker also joining the mix, the Celtics’ point guard depth chart was probably too crowded to justify a reunion with Larkin. Now that Larkin is headed overseas, the most notable point guards still on the free agent market include Mario Chalmers, Ty Lawson, Jameer Nelson, and Tyrone Wallace.

Southeast Notes: Howard, Wade, Hawks, Graham

July 25th, 2018 at 10:57pm CST by Arthur Hill

Expectations are rising for the Wizards after the addition of Dwight Howard, and team officials are happy to join in, writes Tyler Byrum of NBC Sports Washington. The Wizards were able to add Howard at a bargain price following his buyout with the Nets, giving him about $11MM over two years with a player option on the second season.

Howard joins a team that already has two All-Stars in John Wall and Bradley Beal, along with young talent in Otto Porter and Kelly Oubre. Washington fortified its bench, a weak spot in recent years, with offseason moves to pick up Austin Rivers, Jeff Green and Troy Brown.

“This is probably the deepest team that we’ve had and maybe the most talented,” said GM Ernie Grunfeld. “I think it is a very deep team with a lot of versatile players that could play multiple positions. We can put a lot of different lineups out there; we can go really big and we can go really small.”

There’s more from the Southeast Division:

Dwyane Wade has a two- to three-day window to accept a three-year, $25MM offer in China, tweets Ira Winderman of The Sun-Sentinel. The Zhejiang Golden Bulls will start looking at other foreign players if Wade doesn’t respond in that time frame. Wade, meanwhile is considered a strong bet to return to the Heat if he continues his NBA career.
Tonight’s agreements with Vince Carter and Daniel Hamilton will bring the Hawks to 15 guaranteed contracts once their signings become official, posts Bobby Marks on ESPN Now. Carter will receive a $2.4MM veteran’s minimum deal that will count $1.5MM toward the salary cap. Hamilton will receive a minimum contract worth $1.35MM. The Hawks used most of their $4.4MM room exception to sign Alex Len and have both two-way slots filled with Jaylen Adams and Alex Poythress.
Hornets rookie Devonte’ Graham apparently won’t need surgery on his injured right knee, according to Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer. A cartilage issue was discovered in the knee earlier this month, but specialists believe it will heal on its own. A team spokesman said Graham will resume basketball activity on a “conservative schedule.” He is expected to be ready for the start of training camp in September.

Southeast Notes: Wade, Winslow, Magic, Hawks

July 25th, 2018 at 1:58pm CST by Luke Adams

While word surfaced earlier this week that a team in the Chinese Basketball Association has offered Dwyane Wade a three-year contract worth $25MM, Rodney McGruder would like to see the future Hall-of-Famer stick with the Heat.

“I hope he stays with us,” McGruder said of his Heat teammate on Tuesday, per Manny Navarro of The Miami Herald. “That’s his personal decision, but I would love to have him back. … I’ve got a sense that he wants to play in the NBA [based off of] when he came back to play for us [at the February trade deadline] and the things that he showed in the playoffs.”

Although Wade hasn’t announced any decisions yet, international basketball reporter David Pick (Twitter link) is told that the rumblings linking Wade to China “aren’t as serious as advertised.”

According to Pick, the Zhejiang Golden Bulls – the club that reportedly made that $25MM offer to Wade – have secured another scorer for the upcoming season by agreeing to sign Marcus Denmon to a $1.2MM deal. A former Missouri standout, Denmon was a second-round pick in the 2012 draft but never appeared in an NBA regular season game.

Here’s more from around the Southeast:

Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel suggests that if the Heat can lock up Justise Winslow to a long-term extension similar to Josh Richardson‘s four-year, $42MM contract, they should try to do so. Otherwise, it might make sense to evaluate Winslow during the 2018/19 season rather than signing him to a rookie scale extension before October’s deadline. The former No. 10 pick would be eligible for restricted free agency in 2019 if he’s not extended this year.
The Magic completed a pair of trades within the last week, acquiring cash in both deals. According to Bobby Marks of ESPN.com (Twitter link), Orlando received $2MM from the Thunder and $1MM from the Grizzlies. In addition to the money they acquired, the two trades allowed the Magic to turn Rodney Purvis and the draft rights to 2015 second-rounder Tyler Harvey into Jarell Martin.
In order to officially complete the Carmelo Anthony trade today, the Hawks renounced their free agent rights to Malcolm Delaney (Early Bird) and last year’s two-way players Josh Magette and Andrew White (both Non-Bird), per RealGM’s transactions log.

Markel Brown, Jeff Withey To Play In Turkey

July 24th, 2018 at 1:00pm CST by Luke Adams

A pair of NBA veterans are headed to Turkey for the coming season. Michael Scotto of The Athletic reports (via Twitter) that free agent guard Markel Brown has agreed to a one-year deal with Darussafaka, while Tofas Bursa has announced a contract agreement with center Jeff Withey.

Brown, 26, signed a two-way contract with the Rockets in January after previously appearing in 113 games for the Nets. The former second-round pick appeared in only four games for Houston last season, but averaged 15.9 PPG and 5.0 RPG in nine games for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the G League. He was initially tendered a two-way qualifying offer, but had that QO rescinded earlier this month.

As Blake Murphy of Raptors Republic notes (via Twitter), the team that Brown is joining is the one from which potential Raptors two-way signee Jordan Loyd has been attempting to negotiate his release. It’s not clear if Darussafaka’s addition of Brown will open up a path for Loyd’s exit.

Meanwhile, we relayed word of Tofas Bursa’s interest in Withey over the weekend. A former second-round pick, Withey has appeared in over 200 total NBA regular season games for the Pelicans, Jazz, and Mavericks. His most recent NBA stint came in Dallas before the Mavs waived him last December.