Los Angeles Lakers Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Trade Details: Napier, Graham, Warriors, Pacers, More

July 10th, 2019 at 4:59pm CST by Luke Adams

Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders has provided some additional details on one of the most interesting trade sequences of the offseason, filling in the blanks on the deals that sent Shabazz Napier and Treveon Graham from Brooklyn to Golden State to Minnesota.

As previously outlined by cap guru Albert Nahmad (Twitter link), in order to match salaries in their sign-and-trade deal for Kevin Durant ($38,199,000), the Nets had to send out $30,479,200 in salaries of their own, but D’Angelo Russell‘s maximum salary was only worth $27,285,000.

Brooklyn included Napier’s ($1,845,301) and Graham’s ($1,645,357) non-guaranteed contracts to make up that $3,194,200 difference, but had to partially guarantee those salaries in order for them to count for salary-matching purposes. According to Pincus (via Twitter), the Nets did so by giving each player a guarantee worth $1,597,100.

The hard-capped Warriors, who only took on the duo in order to acquire Russell, didn’t want those contracts on their books, so they flipped them to the Timberwolves in a separate trade. According to Pincus (via Twitter), Golden State paid $3.6MM in cash to Minnesota in that deal, more than enough to cover both players’ full salaries and make it worth the Wolves’ while (Napier’s and Graham’s combined salaries total $3.5MM for 2019/20).

[RELATED: 2019 NBA Offseason Trades]

Interestingly, teams are limited to sending out a total of $5,617,000 in cash in trades during the 2019/20 league year, and the Warriors have now sent out $3.6MM to Minnesota and $2MM to Memphis (in the Andre Iguodala deal). In other words, Golden State won’t have the ability to send out additional cash later in the season in another trade.

Here are more details on recent trades:

In the three-way trade that landed them T.J. Warren from Phoenix and three future second-round picks from Miami, the Pacers sent $1.1MM in cash to the Suns, per Pincus (Twitter link).
The Clippers sent $110K to the Heat in the four-team Jimmy Butler sign-and-trade deal, says Pincus (Twitter link). That small amount of cash – the minimum allowable in a trade – was the only outgoing piece for the Clips in a swap that landed them Maurice Harkless, the Heat’s lottery-protected 2023 first-round pick (later included in the Paul George package), and the draft rights to 2017 second-rounder Mathias Lessort.
In addition to getting $1.1MM from the Wizards in their three-team Anthony Davis trade, the Pelicans also received $1MM in cash from the Lakers, tweets Pincus. Pincus also notes that Washington used its trade exception from February’s Markieff Morris trade to take on Bonga’s $1.42MM salary. That exception was originally worth $8.6MM and was also used to acquire Davis Bertans ($7MM), so it has essentially been all used up.

Vogel Attended Workouts For Speights, Stephenson

July 10th, 2019 at 3:23pm CST by Luke Adams

Lakers head coach Frank Vogel was among those in attendance at workouts for NBA veterans Marreese Speights and Lance Stephenson in Las Vegas today, according to Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype (Twitter links).

Contract Details For Quinn Cook

July 10th, 2019 at 2:08pm CST by Luke Adams

The second season of the Lakers‘ two-year, $6MM deal with Quinn Cook is only partially guaranteed for $1MM, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link). It would become fully guaranteed if Cook stays on the roster through June 29, 2020.

Kawhi Leonard Signs With Clippers

July 10th, 2019 at 10:42am CST by Luke Adams

JULY 10: Leonard has officially signed his contract with the Clippers, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link), who reports an interesting twist.

Kawhi’s new contract will actually be a three-year deal with a third-year player option, per Charania. That would give the star forward an opportunity to opt out and secure a higher maximum salary in 2021, when he’ll have 10 years of NBA experience.

As Charania notes (via Twitter), that also lines up Leonard’s deal with George’s — both players can opt out in ’21.

Leonard’s three-year, maximum-salary contract will be worth $103,137,300.

JULY 6: Reigning NBA Finals MVP and top 2019 free agent Kawhi Leonard has decided to sign with the Clippers, reports Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter). Leonard has informed the runner-up teams – the Raptors and Lakers – of his decision, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Although the Clippers had been rumored all year to be the top contender for Leonard, his decision still represents a shocking turn, as reports in recent weeks had increasingly pointed toward the Lakers or the defending-champion Raptors as more probable long-term homes for Kawhi while those Clippers rumors died down to some extent.

However, it will be the little brother in Los Angeles that makes the biggest splash of 2019’s free agent period, as the Clippers have also agreed to acquire Paul George in a trade with the Thunder. Leonard had been recruiting George to try to find a way to team up with him on the Clippers, according to Wojnarowski, who tweets that the two All-NBA forwards found a way to pull it off after George requested a trade from Oklahoma City.

Leonard’s agreement with the Clippers – which will be a four-year, maximum-salary deal worth just shy of $141MM, per Wojnarowski (Twitter link) – represents the culmination of a saga that began during the 2017/18 season, when Kawhi missed all but nine games for the Spurs due to a mysterious quad injury.

A disagreement between Spurs team doctors and Leonard’s camp about the extent of that injury led to the two-time Defensive Player of the Year losing trust in the franchise and making a trade request. Although Leonard was reportedly pushing for a deal that would send him home to Los Angeles, the Spurs instead traded him to Toronto in a blockbuster swap that featured DeMar DeRozan.

In his first and only season as a Raptor, Leonard led the team to a No. 2 seed in the East, then put together one of the all-time great postseason runs to help Toronto claim its first-ever NBA championship. Having averaged 26.6 PPG, 7.3 RPG, and 3.3 RPG in 60 regular season contests, Leonard boosted those marks to 30.5 PPG, 9.1 RPG, and 3.9 APG in 24 playoff games, posting a .490/.379/.884 shooting line against the Magic, Sixers, Bucks, and Warriors.

As Leonard weighed his free decision over the last week and took meetings with the three teams in the running for him, there was a sense that the Raptors and Lakers might have the most to offer the star forward. He had built a trust with the management team and training staff in Toronto, and the Raps had the ability to offer him a five-year contract, as well as the chance to defend a championship.

The Lakers, on the other hand, offered the opportunity to team with LeBron James and Anthony Davis — adding Leonard to that duo would have created arguably the NBA’s all-time best “Big Three” and made the Lakers the immediate frontrunners for the 2020 title.

The Clippers, meanwhile, had missed out on 2019’s other top free agents, leaving league observers to wonder if Leonard would still seriously consider them without a star to join him. However, Kawhi made it clear to the Clippers that he would commit to them if they could land George, tweets Wojnarowski.

The Clips paid a high price to do so, surrendering Danilo Gallinari, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, five first-round picks, and two first-round pick swaps, but considering it was also the price necessary to acquire Leonard, it makes sense that the organization was extremely willing to go all-in on PG13.

Leonard will now team up with George to lead a roster that also features Lou Williams, Patrick Beverley, Montrezl Harrell, Landry Shamet, Rodney McGruder, Maurice Harkless, Jerome Robinson, and potentially RFA Ivica Zubac.

With Leonard headed to the Clippers, the Lakers will pivot to using their $32MM in cap room on role players, having quickly reached a deal to sign Kawhi’s longtime teammate Danny Green.

As for the Raptors, they’re capped out with or without Leonard and Green, so their ability to add new talent will be limited. Still, without needing to account for new deals for those two players, they’ll have their full mid-level exception available and don’t project to be a taxpaying team in 2019/20.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Raptors Rumors: Kawhi, Lowry, Gasol, Ibaka, Green

July 10th, 2019 at 9:52am CST by Luke Adams

The Raptors were confident entering free agency about their chances to re-sign NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard, but that confidence began to waver after they met with Leonard and his uncle Dennis Robertson in Toronto last Wednesday, sources tell Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca.

According to Lewenberg, Leonard and his camp asked for a lot from the Raptors during that meeting — “things players don’t generally ask for in standard contract negotiations,” writes Lewenberg. One of Lewenberg’s sources describes those requests as “unreasonable,” suggesting that Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri wouldn’t have been able to meet them all even if he’d wanted to.

The requests caused the Raptors to question whether Leonard was seriously considering them at all, according to Lewenberg. A belief that Kawhi was eyeing the Clippers all along prompted the Raptors to not get too invested in potential trade discussions with the Thunder. Lewenberg suggests that those preliminary talks included Paul George, but not Russell Westbrook, and didn’t even reach the team’s highest-ranking executives.

Within his own look at the Leonard situation, Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca conveys many of the same sentiments that Lewenberg did. According to Grange, as Leonard’s requests became more difficult to meet and communication became less constant, it became more clear that the Raptors weren’t his top priority, as one person close to the talks described it.

Grange adds that the Raptors’ contact with the Thunder in the hours leading up to Leonard’s announcement “may have been somewhat exaggerated.” Toronto tapped out fairly early once it was evident OKC was using talks with the Raptors as leverage.

Here’s more on the Raptors:

One Clippers official who spoke to Grange was relieved that his team was still able to land Kawhi after the success he enjoyed in Toronto in 2018/19: “The Raptors did everything right. We saw the parade, saw those pictures and figured that was it. We were done.”
Speaking to reporters, including Ryan Wolstat of The Toronto Sun, Ujiri suggested on Tuesday that he’s not exactly reeling from losing Leonard: “I think we got a great deal out of this. We won a championship, so we’re happy. And, honestly, it’s on to the next. This is the NBA and this is how it works. You can’t hide under the table and cry. Honestly, I’ve lost no sleep, I’m not disappointed. It’s on to what’s next. I’m telling Raptors fans and everybody, don’t lose one day of sleep, one second of sleep. We’re going to be just fine. We’re going to be alright.”
Don’t expect the next steps for the Raptors to involve an immediate tear-down. Sources tell Lewenberg that the team has no intention of moving veterans on expiring contracts – such as Kyle Lowry, Marc Gasol, and Serge Ibaka – before the season. Of course, it’s possible that stance could change by the trade deadline if the Raps don’t have a great first half.
While there was a belief that Danny Green would lean toward re-signing with the Raptors and trying to defend their title if Leonard returned, that may not have been the case after all. According to Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News (via Twitter), Green told the Mavericks that he wouldn’t be returning to Toronto, and his choice came down to the Lakers vs. the Mavs.

Lakers Sign Devontae Cacok, Aric Holman

July 9th, 2019 at 8:41pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Lakers have signed rookie free agents Devontae Cacok and Aric Holman, according to a team press release. Both contracts are Exhibit 10 deals, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com (Twitter link).

Cacok went undrafted out of UNC Wilmington. Back in the 2016/17 season, the big man shot an NCAA-record 80.0% from the field. He posted a double-double (15.2 PPG, 12.3 RPG) in 33 games in 2018/19, his senior season.

Holman spent four years at Mississippi State and was also not drafted. The power forward blocked at least two shots in 61 of his 124 collegiate games, per the Lakers. He averaged 9.5 PPG, 6.2 RPG, and 1.6 BPG with a .473/.429/.701 shooting line in his senior year.

Cacok’s agreement with the Lakers was first reported by ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, while Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports broke word of Holman’s deal.

Free Agent Notes: Ellis, Green, Speights

July 9th, 2019 at 6:15pm CST by ChrisCrouse

Representatives from nearly half of the league’s teams were in attendance for a workout that included former NBA stars Amar’e Stoudemire and Monta Ellis, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports tweets.

The Lakers, Clippers, Warriors, Knicks, Thunder, Bucks, Pistons, Kings, Nuggets, Blazers, Magic, Hawks, Wolves and Wizards were all in attendance. Haynes adds that 15 international teams from Europe and Asia also had representatives in Las Vegas for the workout.

Here’s more from around the league:

The Spurs, Nuggets, and Knicks were all interested in JaMychal Green before the forward re-signed with the Clippers, Jovan Buha of The Athletic writes. Those teams were offering him a more lucrative offer than the one he signed with Los Angeles. The Clippers put on a “full-court press” to retain Green, Buha adds, and the 29-year-old ended up inking a two-year deal worth slightly under $10MM.
Green has the ability to be a free agent next summer, having secured a player option as part of his deal with the Clippers. Buha (in the same piece) speculates that Green could have commanded a deal in the $10MM+ range this offseason and that the forward should have the opportunity for a similar contract next summer.
Mo Speights, who played in China last season, is working out for teams in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated tweets. Speights last played in the NBA for the Magic during the 2017/18 season.

Terrence Ross Says He Received Interest From Lakers

July 9th, 2019 at 1:26pm CST by Luke Adams

As John Denton of OrlandoMagic.com details, Ross said he received either serious interest or a contract offer from the Lakers, Jazz, Mavericks, Pacers, and Kings while he was a free agent. Like teammate Nikola Vucevic though, Ross preferred to stick with the Magic.

Lakers Sign Avery Bradley

July 8th, 2019 at 11:09pm CST by Luke Adams

11:09pm: The Lakers have officially signed Bradley, the team announced tonight (via Twitter).

12:00pm: Once he clears waivers later today after being released by the Grizzlies, veteran guard Avery Bradley intends to sign a two-year, $9.7MM contract with the Lakers, agent Bill Duffy tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

Los Angeles still has its full $4.8MM room exception available, so Bradley will slot into that exception now that the club has used all of its cap room. The second year of his new deal will be a player option, Wojnarowski notes.

Bradley, 28, has bounced around the league since spending the first seven seasons of his NBA career in Boston. The Celtics traded him to the Pistons during the 2017 offseason, but he was subsequently flipped to the Clippers and then the Grizzlies.

Despite the constant movement, Bradley finished strong in 2018/19, averaging 16.1 PPG, 4.0 APG, and 3.1 RPG with a .463/.384/.920 shooting line in 14 games (31.6 MPG) for Memphis. The combo guard is also considered a strong perimeter defender.

However, his $12.96MM salary for 2019/20 was only partially guaranteed for $2MM, and the rebuilding Grizzlies decided to create some extra cap flexibility by releasing him on Saturday and avoiding that guarantee. As cap guru Albert Nahmad observes (via Twitter), Memphis will also get to set off $1.66MM of that $2MM as a result of Bradley’s new deal with Los Angeles.

Bradley will slot into a Lakers backcourt that features Rajon Rondo and Quinn Cook at the point, with Danny Green, Troy Daniels, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope among those who could see time at the two. Alex Caruso will also be in the mix.

By my count, the Lakers now have 13 players lined up for their regular-season roster, plus unsigned second-rounder Talen Horton-Tucker, who figures to occupy one of the final two roster spots. If the club adds a 15th man via free agency, he’ll have to sign a minimum-salary contract. Zach Norvell Jr. and a second two-way player will also factor into the equation.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Suns Waive Kyle Korver

July 8th, 2019 at 5:09pm CST by Luke Adams

After being traded from the Jazz to the Grizzlies to the Suns, Kyle Korver has now been placed on waivers by Phoenix, according to NBA.com’s log of official transactions.

The move was expected, since only $3.44MM of Korver’s $7.5MM salary for 2019/20 was guaranteed. The Suns needed to open up extra cap room to sign Ricky Rubio to his three-year, $51MM contract, and releasing Korver helps pave the way.

Korver is now on track to clear waivers and become an unrestricted free agent on Wednesday evening. When he first reported that Korver would be cut, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski identified the Lakers, Bucks, and Sixers as the probable frontrunners to sign the veteran sharpshooter once he reaches the open market.

Korver averaged 8.6 PPG on .416/.397/.822 shooting in 70 games (19.1 MPG) last season for the Cavaliers and Jazz. A June report indicated that the 38-year-old – who is a career 42.9% three-point shooter – is expected to play for at least one more year.