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Grizzlies, Suns Swap Kyle Korver, Josh Jackson In Multi-Player Trade

July 7th, 2019 at 12:05pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 7: The trade is official, the Suns announced in a press release.

JULY 3: The Grizzlies and Suns have agreed to a trade that will send newly-acquired Memphis sharpshooter Kyle Korver to Phoenix along with Jevon Carter, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter). According to Wojnarowski, the Grizzlies will receive Josh Jackson, De’Anthony Melton, a 2020 second-round pick, and a conditional 2021 second-round pick in the deal.

That 2021 Suns second-rounder will only change hands if it falls between 31-35, tweets Chris Herrington of The Daily Memphian. Brooklyn will receive it if it lands between 36-60.

Because Korver is part of the Mike Conley trade with Utah that hasn’t yet been completed, this deal can’t be made official until after the one is finalized. Once both deals are done, the Grizzlies will pick up a former No. 4 overall pick (Jackson), as well as a second-rounder from last year’s draft (Melton), along with at least one future second-round pick.

In two NBA seasons, Jackson has been inconsistent for the Suns, averaging 12.3 PPG and 4.5 RPG but shooting just .415/.294/.650 in 156 total contests (25.3 MPG). He has also faced questions about his maturity and off-court behavior.

However, he’s still just 22 years old, so the Grizzlies will get the opportunity to see if they can continue to develop him and help him reach his ceiling. They’ll also have to decide by the end of October whether to pick up $8.9MM option for 2020/21 — at this point, I’d be surprised if they do.

Melton, the 46th overall pick in 2018’s draft, is another intriguing roll of the dice for Memphis, one the team has long had its eye on, per Wojnarowski (Twitter link). The former USC Trojan is considered a strong defender, and started 31 games for the Suns in his rookie season, averaging 5.0 PPG, 3.2 APG, 2.7 RPG, and 1.4 SPG in 50 total contests.

As for the Suns’ side, the move looks like it’s primarily designed to clear the cap room necessary to complete their other reported moves this week, including Ricky Rubio‘s three-year, $51MM deal. They’ll also be able to retain Kelly Oubre‘s cap hold, and will presumably see if Carter can earn some minutes in their backcourt rotation.

According to Wojnarowski (via Twitter), Korver is expected to be bought out by Phoenix before his $7.5MM salary for 2019/20 becomes fully guaranteed. Korver’s deal is only partially guaranteed for $3.44MM as long as he doesn’t remain under contract through July 7.

If and when Korver clears waivers, the Lakers, Bucks, and Sixers will be the frontrunners to sign him, says Wojnarowski.

As cap expert Albert Nahmad observes (via Twitter), the Grizzlies will be able to use trade exceptions to absorb Jackson’s and Melton’s contracts, generating two new trade exceptions worth $3.44MM (Korver’s partial guarantee) and $1.42MM (Carter’s salary).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Pacific Notes: Leonard, George, Caruso, Kings

July 7th, 2019 at 9:35am CST by Arthur Hill

Kawhi Leonard and Paul George may have permanently altered the perception of the two teams in Los Angeles, writes Arash Markazi of The Los Angeles Times. At one time, Leonard and George were both considered to be future Lakers. They were two stars who grew up in the L.A. area and wanted to leave their smaller-market teams for the comforts of home. That’s where they wound up, but they’re both Clippers.

Markazi recounts the history of the two franchises and how unbalanced the rivalry has been since the Clippers moved west. The Lakers had the stars, the famous fans and the titles, with 33 playoff appearances, 16 trips to the Finals and 10 championships from 1976 to 2011. Over that same time, the Clippers had just three winning seasons and made the playoffs four times.

The “Lob City” years and the purchase of the team by Steve Ballmer helped changed the balance of power as the Lakers fell onto hard times. Now with George and Leonard together on one side of Staples Center and LeBron James and Anthony Davis roaming the other, there finally appears to be a real rivalry.

There’s more from the Pacific Division:

The Lakers will sign Alex Caruso with part of their $4.8MM room exception, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN. A full day of signings on Saturday plus the Davis trade left the team a little more than $1MM below the salary cap, and Marks believes that money may be used to give second-round pick Talen Horton-Tucker a contract longer than two years. Dudley, Daniels and Rajon Rondo will all sign veteran’s minimum deals, Marks adds (Twitter link).
The Warriors had “significant interest” in Caruso before he opted to return to the Lakers, tweets Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.
The Lakers risk another “reality show” season with their flurry of signings in the wake of losing out on Leonard, observes Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports. L.A.’s front office was heavily criticized last summer for not surrounding James with more shooters, and although they improved in that area this year with Danny Green, Jared Dudley, Troy Daniels and Quinn Cook, only Green has proven to be a reliable two-way player. Goodwill is also concerned about the lack of young talent, with Kyle Kuzma left as the only prominent player with a chance to improve.
The Kings continue to move toward GM Vlade Divac‘s vision of a faster and deeper team with this year’s free agent signings, notes Jason Jones of The Athletic. Sacramento added veteran help for its young core by re-signing Harrison Barnes and adding Dewayne Dedmon, Trevor Ariza, Cory Joseph and Richaun Holmes.

Lakers Officially Acquire Anthony Davis In Three-Team Trade

July 6th, 2019 at 9:54pm CST by Luke Adams

The Lakers, Pelicans, and Wizards have officially completed the three-team trade that makes Anthony Davis a Laker. All three teams issued press releases tonight to announce the deal. The structure of the trade is as follows:

Lakers acquire Anthony Davis.
Pelicans acquire Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, the draft rights to De’Andre Hunter (No. 4 pick), the Lakers’ 2021 first-round pick (9-30 protected; unprotected in 2022), the Lakers’ 2024 first-round pick (unprotected), the right to swap 2023 first-round picks with the Lakers, and cash ($1.1MM; from Wizards).
- Note: The Pelicans will also have the option to defer the 2024 first-round pick to 2025.
Wizards acquire Moritz Wagner, Isaac Bonga, Jemerrio Jones, and the Lakers’ 2022 second-round pick.

The long-awaited deal was held up slightly today as the Lakers officially finalized a series of signings using their cap room. In order to maximize its cap space, the club had to sign free agents first before acquiring Davis. Danny Green, DeMarcus Cousins, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Quinn Cook, and JaVale McGee all signed their contracts with the Lakers since the July moratorium ended this afternoon.

The Pelicans, meanwhile, will now flip the rights to Hunter to the Hawks in a separate deal, putting the No. 4 pick on track to join his new team for Summer League action. Once the deal is done, Atlanta will also be able to complete its trade with the Sixers involving Bruno Fernando and Jordan Bone, then Philadelphia will be able to flip Bone to the Pistons.

For more details on one of the summer’s biggest trades, be sure to check out our previous stories on the Lakers/Pelicans aspect of the deal, as well as the Lakers/Wizards part of the swap.

Lakers Announce Multiple Signings

July 6th, 2019 at 8:42pm CST by Arthur Hill

After a flurry of moves today, the Lakers have made five of them official, tweets Bill Oram of The Athletic.

The team announced the re-signing of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and JaVale McGee, along with the free agent additions of DeMarcus Cousins, Quinn Cook and Danny Green.

Still to come are the signings of Rajon Rondo, Troy Daniels, Jared Dudley and Alex Caruso, along with confirmation of the mega-deal that will bring Anthony Davis from the Pelicans.

Lakers Re-Sign Alex Caruso

July 6th, 2019 at 6:06pm CST by Arthur Hill

JULY 7: Caruso’s new deal with the Lakers has been finalized, according to NBA.com’s official transactions log.

JULY 6: Free agent guard Alex Caruso will return to the Lakers on a two-year, $5.5MM contract, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

The second-year guard became a restricted free agent when L.A. extended a qualifying offer last week. However, his rights may cause complications in the Anthony Davis trade, according to Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link), who speculates that the Lakers may be using their room exception or cap space in the new deal with Caruso.

The 25-year-old first came to L.A. as a two-way player in 2017. He has played a combined 62 games in two seasons and contributed 9.2 PPG in 25 contests this year.

Pincus believes the Lakers may have exhausted all of their cap room with the signings of Caruso, Danny Green, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, DeMarcus Cousins, Quinn Cook, Jared Dudley and JaVale McGee, with just the $4.8MM room exception available. If they’re using that exception to add McGee and have included unlikely incentives in some of their new contracts, they could have up to $7.7MM remaining.

Lakers To Sign DeMarcus Cousins

July 6th, 2019 at 2:53pm CST by Luke Adams

2:53pm: Wojnarowski passes along an update on Cousins’ salary figure, tweeting that the deal will actually be worth $3.5MM rather than the minimum. So the Lakers will need to use cap space or the room exception for the signing.

2:22pm: Schwartz tells ESPN that Cousins’ deal will be worth just $2.3MM. That sounds like a veteran’s minimum contract, as the big man’s minimum salary this year will be $2,331,593.

1:38pm: The Lakers have reached a deal with perhaps the most notable free agent left on the market, as agent Jeff Schwartz tells Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link) that DeMarcus Cousins will sign a one-year contract with the Lakers.

Cousins, a two-time All-NBA Second Team center, had to deal with a limited market this summer after a season in which he spent the first half recovering from an Achilles tear, then missed most of the postseason due to a torn quad.

Appearing in 30 regular season games for the Warriors, Cousins still put up impressive per-minute numbers, averaging 16.3 PPG, 8.2 RPG, 3.6 APG, 1.5 BPG, and 1.3 SPG in 25.7 minutes per contest. However, he struggled on defense and didn’t have his old explosiveness.

Still, the Lakers won’t have to pay huge money to roll the dice on Cousins for one year. While we don’t yet know what the 28-year-old’s new contract will be worth, the club is believed to have used up more than two-thirds of its projected $32MM in cap room on reported deals for Danny Green, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, and Quinn Cook.

In Los Angeles, Cousins will team up once again with his old Pelicans teammate Anthony Davis. According to Wojnarowski (via Twitter), the Heat were among the teams with interest in Cousins, but a handful of Lakers players – including AD – helped sell him on joining the Lakers.

Cousins’ and Davis’ relationship in New Orleans was solid, according to David Aldridge of The Athletic, who tweets that AD’s pitch to Cousins was short and to the point: “Let’s win it all.”

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Lakers Re-Sign Rajon Rondo

July 6th, 2019 at 1:58pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 8: The Lakers have officially re-signed Rondo, the team announced today in a press release.

JULY 6: After agreeing to terms on new deals for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and JaVale McGee, the Lakers have struck an agreement to bring back another one of their veteran free agents.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne (via Twitter), Los Angeles will re-sign point guard Rajon Rondo to a two-year deal. Tania Ganguli of The Los Angeles Times reports (via Twitter) that Rondo will earn the veteran’s minimum on his new contract.

Rondo, 33, is now on track to play for the same team for a second consecutive year for the first time since his days as a Celtic. Since being traded from Boston to Dallas during the 2014/15 season, Rondo has played for the Mavericks, Kings, Bulls, Pelicans, and Lakers.

In his first season as a Laker in 2018/19, the four-time All-Star’s impact was limited by an early-season suspension and then injury issues. He averaged 9.2 PPG, 8.0 APG, 5.3 RPG, and 1.2 SPG with a .405/.359/.639 shooting line in 46 games (29.8 MPG).

In sticking with the Lakers, Rondo will not only rejoin teammates from last season, such as LeBron James and Kyle Kuzma — he’ll also reunite with former Pelicans teammates Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins. All three players spent the 2017/18 season in New Orleans playing together.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Kawhi Leonard Fallout: Clippers, Lakers, Raptors

July 6th, 2019 at 10:55am CST by Luke Adams

After reaching deals late on Friday night to add Kawhi Leonard and Paul George to their roster, the Clippers are the new favorites to win the 2019 NBA title, according to the oddsmakers at BetOnline.ag. Unlike in recent years – when Golden State was the overwhelming frontrunner – the Clippers are only currently a slight favorite over the Lakers and Bucks, but it’s still a remarkable turnaround for a team that looked 24 hours ago as if it might strike out entirely in free agency.

The acquisitions of Leonard and George show how far the Clippers have come this decade, according to Jovan Buha of The Athletic, who says the organization has “arrived” as a premier destination for star players.

Meanwhile, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports tweets that Leonard and his camp found it “comical” that every report this week claiming to have identified Kawhi’s likely destination mentioned the Raptors or Lakers, but never the Clippers. While it’s not clear if the Clippers were always his No. 1 choice, Leonard reportedly worked hard this week to try to get George to join him in Los Angeles, as we detail in our round-up of PG13-related items.

Here are several more Kawh-related notes related to the two suitors that missed out on Leonard:

Lakers:

As of about two hours before Leonard chose the Clippers on Friday night, his camp was asking the Lakers to delay the Anthony Davis trade until late Saturday or Sunday, according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, who tweets that no specific reason was given.
If Leonard had signed with the Lakers, he would have had to do so before the Davis trade was formally completed in order to maximize his earnings, since the AD deal would’ve cut into the Lakers’ cap room. So it’s possible he was leaving a Plan B available if the Clippers were unable to acquire George — for what it’s worth, the Clippers reportedly believed Kawhi would join the Lakers if they didn’t trade for PG13.
It didn’t help the Lakers’ cause that a ton of specific details about Magic Johnson‘s meeting with Leonard leaked to the media, tweets Cris Carter of Fox Sports 1. I doubt that was a deciding factor for Leonard and his camp, but Carter is plugged-in with Kawhi’s group, so if he’s hearing it, it seems likely to be coming from them.
Losing the waiting game for Leonard was a worst-case scenario for the Lakers, who missed out on a handful of potential targets during the first week of free agency as they pursued Kawhi, writes Bill Oram of The Athletic. The team has since pivoted by reaching deals with Danny Green, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, JaVale McGee, and Quinn Cook.

Raptors:

Leonard told his Raptors teammates via text message that he was leaving just as the news was breaking late on Friday night, according to Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca (Twitter link).
Losing Leonard – and starting shooting guard Danny Green – sets the Raptors on a new path, according to Blake Murphy of The Athletic, who explores what’s next for the franchise. While there will be calls to blow things up, Murphy suggests that the current Raptors should still be a playoff team, adding that Toronto may be reluctant to take on unwanted multiyear contracts in any trades, given how much money will come off its cap in 2020.
Chris Mannix of SI.com (Twitter link) speculates that the Raptors will explore potential trades of their veterans on expiring contracts – such as Kyle Lowry, Marc Gasol, and Serge Ibaka – as they look ahead to building around young players like Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet.
Eric Koreen of The Athletic acknowledges that Masai Ujiri will likely gauge the value of his veterans on the trade market, but agrees with Murphy that the Raptors are more likely to keep their roster more or less intact in a transition year.

Paul George Trade Roundup: Kawhi, Davis, Trade Request, Durant

July 6th, 2019 at 10:31am CST by marksuleymanov

In a shocking move early Saturday morning, the Thunder agreed to trade one of their two superstars, Paul George, to the Clippers. The move facilitated the Clippers pairing George with Kawhi Leonard, who agreed to a four-year pact with the organization earlier in the morning.

The landscape of the league has been altered with the Clippers and their crosscourt rival Lakers expected to dominate headlines this forthcoming season. The process that led to the Clippers becoming one of the NBA’s powerhouses included a lot of moving parts, a lot of communication and a heavily involved Leonard.

Before George to L.A. became a possibility, Leonard had reached out to Kevin Durant about the possibility of the duo teaming up with the Clippers, per ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne. Leonard told Durant he “admired him, and had tremendous respect for him as a competitor,” according to Shelburne. While Durant appreciated the recruitment from Leonard, he was already set on pairing with Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan in Brooklyn.

Therefore, the process moved on and Leonard set his sights on pairing with another superstar: Paul George.

Here are some more tidbits on George being traded to the Clippers:

In Shelburne’s report, she noted that Leonard’s camp attempted to delay the consummation of the Anthony Davis to the Lakers trade until “as late as Sunday.” No reason was provided to the Lakers, only that the request be honored if the organization wanted to stay in the running for his services. We had relayed that Leonard’s free agency decision was holding up a series of moves, the Davis trade being one of them.
Shelburne also noted that Leonard, who is known for his quiet demeanor both on and off the court, took an active, engaging role during free agency. “For a quiet guy, he’s a hell of a recruiter,” one source told her. Sam Amick of The Athletic heard a similar account of Leonard’s activity during free agency: “Kawhi recruited the hell out of him,” one source told Amick. “He did a number on Paul.”
The Thunder organization was blindsided by George’s trade request, ESPN’s Royce Young writes. It was just one year ago when George decided to forego free agency and re-sign with OKC on a long-term pact. The Palmdale, California, native had long been rumored to want to play for his hometown Lakers; now he will return home but will suit up for the Clippers.
With George gone, the Thunder secured quite the haul their now-former superstar. While OKC had planned to compete next season, led by George and Russell Westbrook, the focus is now on a rebuild. Brett Dawson of The Athletic examined how and why the trade went down and which directions are available to the Thunder. Whether it’s dealing Westbrook and going full rebuild or trying to build a roster more suited toward their MVP’s style, OKC has a lot of decisions to make.

Lakers, Quinn Cook Agree To Two-Year Deal

July 6th, 2019 at 8:51am CST by Luke Adams

The Lakers have reached an agreement to sign guard Quinn Cook to a two-year, $6MM contract, reports Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Cook became an unrestricted free agent earlier this week when the Warriors withdrew his qualifying offer.

Cook, 26, was a solid contributor off the bench for the Warriors in 2018/19, averaging 6.9 PPG, 2.1 RPG, and 1.6 APG with a .465/.405/.769 shooting line in 74 games (14.3 MPG).

However, the Dubs had little flexibility to bring back all their free agents and rotation players as a result of the D’Angelo Russell sign-and-trade deal that will hard-cap team salary at $138.9MM. Cook was one of the odd men out in Golden State, along with Andre Iguodala, Jordan Bell, and likely DeMarcus Cousins and Shaun Livingston too.

Since missing out on Kawhi Leonard, the Lakers have committed a significant chunk of their $32MM in cap room to deals for Danny Green and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. The team also agreed to terms with JaVale McGee and appears likely to slot him into its room exception, so Cook will probably be signed using cap space as well.

Cook is the first point guard the Lakers have added this offseason to a roster that will be led by LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and Kyle Kuzma. The club also reached minimum-salary deals with swingman Troy Daniels and forward Jared Dudley.

Cook is close with James and is also friends with Davis, having played with him briefly in New Orleans in 2017, tweets Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.