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Jerami Grant Signs Five-Year Deal With Trail Blazers

July 9th, 2023 at 7:05pm CST by Rory Maher

JULY 9: Grant has officially signed the contract, the team tweets.

JUNE 30: Jerami Grant is re-signing with the Trail Blazers, having agreed to a five-year, $160MM contract, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Grant reportedly turned down a four-year extension worth nearly $113MM from Portland during the 2022/23 league year. According to Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports, a primary reason the veteran forward decided to wait until free agency was to add the fifth year onto the end of the deal, significantly increasing its total value (Twitter link).

As Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype tweets, Portland projects to be $21MM below the luxury tax line when accounting for Grant’s new contract. The Blazers will still have the non-taxpayer mid-level exception (which starts at $12.4MM) and a $8.3MM trade exception at their disposal in an effort to build around star Damian Lillard, Gozlan adds.

Grant is in the middle of his prime and was one of the top free agents in the 2023 class. The 28-year-old combo forward averaged 20.5 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 2.4 APG, 0.8 SPG and 0.8 BPG on .475/.401/.813 shooting in 63 games last season (35.7 MPG).

While Grant is a talented two-way player who brings valued versatility, a five-year deal worth $32MM annually is obviously an enormous commitment — both in years and dollars — to a player who has never been an All-Star.

Grant is a developmental success story, slowly working his way up the ranks with the Sixers, Thunder and Nuggets before breaking out as a 20-point scorer with the Pistons, who traded him to Portland last summer. He entered the NBA with a poor jump shot, but has continued to improve his game year-over-year.

Grant is the third former second-round pick (39th overall in 2014) to land a nine-figure deal this summer, joining Draymond Green and Khris Middleton.

John Wall Schedules Private Workout In Hopes Of NBA Comeback

July 8th, 2023 at 11:00pm CST by Arthur Hill

John Wall will hold a private workout for several teams Sunday in Las Vegas, tweets Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report and TNT.

The 32-year-old point guard attempted a comeback with the Clippers last season after the Rockets elected to hold him out for all of 2021/22. However, he appeared in just 34 games, averaging 11.4 points, 2.7 rebounds and 5.2 assists per night, before being traded back to Houston at the deadline. The Rockets waived him three days later, and he has remained out of the league.

Wall was a five-time All-Star with the Wizards before Achilles and left heel injuries derailed his career. He hasn’t played in more than 41 games since the 2016/17 season, but he hopes to show teams that he’s still worthy of an NBA contract.

Former first-round picks Dion Waiters and Harry Giles III are also planning workouts in Las Vegas, Haynes adds (Twitter link). They’ll hold separate sessions on Monday for interested teams.

Waiters, 31, has been out of the NBA since the 2019/20 season, when he played 10 combined games for the Heat and Lakers. He attended a mini-camp with the Mavericks last summer, but wasn’t able to land a job.

Giles, 25, has been plagued by knee injuries since he was in high school. His last NBA action came with the Trail Blazers during the 2020/21 season, but he also spent time with the G League’s Agua Caliente Clippers before an injury ended his season in January of 2022.

Anthony Edwards Signs Five-Year Max Extension With Timberwolves

July 8th, 2023 at 8:06pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 8: The extension is official, the Wolves confirmed on Twitter (video link).

JULY 3: The Timberwolves and rising star Anthony Edwards have reached an agreement on a five-year, designated rookie extension that will pay him the maximum salary, agents Bill Duffy and Joe Branch tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).

Wojnarowski reports that the deal can be worth up to $260MM, though that would hinge on Edwards making an All-NBA team in 2024 and the salary cap rising by the maximum 10% for the 2024/25 league year. With a 10% cap increase and no All-NBA spot for Edwards, the five-year extension would be worth $217MM.

It will be a straight five-year contract with no player or team option, reports Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic (Twitter link).

“I’m humbled, appreciative and excited to remain in Minnesota as a part of this incredible Timberwolves organization,” Edwards said in a statement to Wojnarowski (Twitter link). “It’s amazing to see where hard work can take you.”

The No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 draft, Edwards has increased his scoring average and efficiency in each of his NBA seasons to date. He averaged 24.6 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.4 assists, and 1.6 steals with a .459/.369/.756 shooting line in 79 games (36.0 MPG) in 2022/23, earning his first All-Star nod.

Even though the Wolves also have Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert on maximum-salary contracts, there was a strong belief entering this offseason that Edwards, the player the franchise will likely build around for years to come, would get a max deal of his own. He looks poised to officially sign it as soon as he becomes eligible to do so later this week.

Edwards will play one more season on his rookie scale contract, which will pay him in $13.5MM in 2023/24, before he receives a massive raise. If the cap increases by 10% to $149.6MM in ’24/25 and Edwards makes an All-NBA team, he, Towns, and Gobert would earn a combined $141MM that season, and that number would only increase further in ’25/26.

While those three max deals – and a potential extension for Jaden McDaniels – figure to hamper the Timberwolves’ financial flexibility going forward, any eventual moves made to address that issue are more likely to involve Towns or Gobert than Edwards.

Edwards is the third 2020 first-rounder to agree to a “Rose Rule” rookie scale extension that can start at up to 30% of the cap instead of 25%. Tyrese Haliburton of the Pacers and LaMelo Ball of the Hornets will also reportedly sign those deals, while Desmond Bane of the Grizzlies is getting a rookie scale extension worth the standard 25% max.

Knicks Sign Donte DiVincenzo To Four-Year Deal

July 8th, 2023 at 7:48pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 8: The DiVincenzo signing is officially, the Knicks announced (via Twitter). “We are excited to add Donte to the Knicks family and view him as a perfect fit to the culture we continue to establish,” said team president Leon Rose. “Winning is in his DNA and he will provide us with versatility, three-point shooting and defensive tenacity.”

JULY 1: Donte DiVincenzo is headed to New York, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link), who hears from agent Jason Glushon that DiVincenzo has agreed to sign a four-year, $50MM contract with the Knicks. The deal won’t include any options, per Fred Katz of The Athletic (Twitter link).

The Knicks are over the cap, so they’ll sign DiVincenzo using the mid-level exception. The deal will reunite the former Villanova Wildcat with his college teammates Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart.

DiVincenzo became a free agent this week after deciding not to pick up a $4.7MM player option to remain in Golden State. The Warriors didn’t have the ability to make a competitive offer for him due to CBA restrictions, so he became one of the most popular mid-level targets on the open market.

The 26-year-old appeared in a career-high 72 games, including 36 starts, in 2022/23 after signing with the Warriors. He averaged 9.4 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.3 steals in 26.3 minutes per game. The 6’4″ guard, who made a career-best 39.7% of his 3-point attempts, also played in 13 postseason games this spring.

DiVincenzo will be another option on the wing for head coach Tom Thibodeau and the Knicks, who are finalizing a deal to trade Obi Toppin to Indiana. That move will help open up additional room below the luxury tax, allowing New York to give more of its mid-level to DiVincenzo.

According to Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link), after accounting for DiVincenzo, New York’s team salary projects to be about $4MM below the tax line with 14 players under contract. As a result of using the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, the Knicks will be hard-capped at the $172.3MM tax apron in 2023/24.

DiVincenzo was the No. 20 player on our list of 2023’s top 50 free agents.

NBA Reveals Dates, Groups For In-Season Tournament

July 8th, 2023 at 7:40pm CST by Arthur Hill

The NBA has announced the five-team groups that will used for the league’s first-ever in-season tournament, writes Tim Bontemps of ESPN. The unveiling took place Saturday during a special episode of ESPN’s “NBA Today” held at “NBA Con” in Las Vegas.

The groups were determined in a draw similar to what is used in soccer’s World Cup. There are six groups — three each from the Eastern Conference and Western Conference — and each conference was split into five pots based on last season’s standings. One team was randomly selected from each of the pots to determine the opening-round matchups.

The results are:

Group 1: Sixers, Cavaliers, Hawks, Pacers and Pistons.
Group 2: Bucks, Knicks, Heat, Wizards and Hornets.
Group 3: Celtics, Nets, Raptors, Bulls and Magic.
Group 4: Grizzlies, Suns, Lakers, Jazz and Trail Blazers.
Group 5: Nuggets, Clippers, Pelicans, Mavericks and Rockets.
Group 6: Kings, Warriors, Timberwolves, Thunder and Spurs.

The tournament will start with group play, which will match each team with the other four in its grouping. Those games will take place on Nov. 3, 10, 14, 17, 21, 24 and 28.

The winner of each group will advance to a knockout round, joined by the team with the best record in each conference among those who didn’t win a group. Quarterfinal games will be played Dec. 4 and 5, hosted by the higher-seeded teams. The four winners in that round will move on to T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas for the Dec. 7 semifinals and the Dec. 9 championship game.

Bontemps points out that all teams will play within their conference until the last game, which guarantees an East vs. West matchup, just like the NBA Finals.

“Everybody’s not going to buy in right away,” admitted Joe Dumars, the NBA’s executive vice president of basketball operations. “So that can’t be the goal that everybody’s going to buy in from day one. These things take time. And I think, as time goes on, I think you can build this up and people can really get into it.”

The championship trophy will be called the NBA Cup, and players will receive $500K each for winning it. Other prize money includes $200K for second place, $100K for losing in the semifinals and $50K for losing in the quarterfinals. The league opted not to provide other incentives, such as a guaranteed playoff spot, for the tournament winner.

We passed along more details on the in-season tournament right here.

Rockets Acquire Dillon Brooks In Five-Team Deal

July 8th, 2023 at 7:03pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 8: The complex five-team trade that sends Brooks to Houston has been finalized, the Rockets announced in a press release The breakdown of the deal, which combined several separate trade agreements, is as follows:

Rockets acquire Brooks (via sign-and-trade), the Clippers’ 2026 second-round pick, the Grizzlies’ 2027 second-round pick (from Clippers), and the draft rights to Alpha Kaba (from Hawks).
Hawks acquire Usman Garuba, TyTy Washington, the Timberwolves’ 2025 second-round pick (from Rockets), the Rockets’ 2028 second-round pick, and cash (from Thunder).
Grizzlies acquire Josh Christopher.
Thunder acquire Patty Mills, a 2024 second-round pick (from Rockets), the Rockets’ 2029 second-round pick, and the Rockets’ 2030 second-round pick.
Clippers acquire Kenyon Martin Jr.

In a separate deal, Oklahoma City will ship Mills to Atlanta in exchange for Garuba, Washington, Rudy Gay and a second-round pick.

6:04pm: The Rockets will acquire Brooks via sign-and-trade, generating a trade exception for the Grizzlies, Wojnarowski confirms (via Twitter).

Sources tell Kelly Iko of The Athletic (Twitter link) that Houston is trading Josh Christopher to Memphis. Although Iko doesn’t specify it will be part of a Brooks sign-and-trade, that seems logical.

The Grizzlies’ trade exception for Brooks would be $11.4MM due to base year compensation rules, notes Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype (Twitter link). If Christopher heads to Memphis in the deal, that TPE would shrink to $8.9MM, Gozlan adds.

5:20pm: The Rockets and Brooks have agreed to a four-year deal worth $80MM, agent Mike George tells Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).

The deal will have a descending structure, tweets Wojnarowski. It will be fully guaranteed, with no player or team option, per Kelly Iko of The Athletic (Twitter link).

As with VanVleet, Houston’s offer in order to secure a commitment ended up being for more years and more money than initially anticipated.

JULY 1, 4:35pm: The Rockets are close to reaching a contract agreement with unrestricted free agent Dillon Brooks, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

While Houston has the cap room necessary to sign Brooks outright, the team has been engaged in trade talks around the league, according to Charania, who says a sign-and-trade with the Grizzlies is a possibility if the Rockets reach a deal with the veteran forward.

Brooks was frequently linked to the Rockets in the days leading up to free agency. One report indicated that Houston was preparing to offer him a deal in the range of $14-16MM annually, while another stated the team had a meeting lined up for Friday or Saturday with the 27-year-old.

Brooks is a talented perimeter defender who earned All-Defensive Second Team honors this spring, but he has become an increasingly erratic shooter, making a career-worst 39.6% of his field goal attempts in 2022/23. His three-point percentage dipped to 32.1% on 5.6 attempts per game during the last two seasons after he converted 35.3% of 4.5 threes per game in his first four seasons, all with the Grizzlies.

On top of his offensive struggles, Brooks’ outsized personality and aggressive playing style have gotten him into trouble both on the court and in interviews off it. He received three one-game suspensions this season, once for an on-court altercation with Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell and twice for accumulating so many technical fouls.

Brooks ultimately wore out his welcome in Memphis, with a report after the season indicating that the Grizzlies didn’t plan to bring him back “under any circumstances.” His performance during the team’s first-round loss to the Lakers was reportedly considered to be a breaking point. Brooks referred to Lakers star LeBron James as “old” following Memphis’ Game 2 win, suggesting the NBA’s all-time leading scorer was well past his prime.

He was then ejected from Game 3 for hitting James in the groin, surrendered a pair of key baskets to LeBron in a Game 4 loss, and was eventually fined $25K for declining to speak to reporters after three games of the series (all losses). Offensively, Brooks shot just 31.2% from the field and 23.8% on three-pointers across six playoff games.

A change of scenery could benefit Brooks, and the Rockets have reportedly been prioritizing tough, defensive-minded veterans under new head coach Ime Udoka. Houston has reached an agreement with Fred VanVleet and was said to be aggressive in its pursuit of Defensive Player of the Year runner-up Brook Lopez, who ultimately decided to remain in Milwaukee.

Spurs Sign Gregg Popovich To New Five-Year Contract

July 8th, 2023 at 6:06pm CST by Arthur Hill

Gregg Popovich has signed a five-year contract to remain head coach of the Spurs, the team announced (via Twitter).

The new deal is worth $80MM, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, surpassing the record six-year, $78MM deal that Monty Williams got from the Pistons last month.

Popovich also serves as San Antonio’s president of basketball operations, and Wojnarowski notes that the contract doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be the team’s head coach for the next five seasons (Twitter link).

At 74, Popovich is already the oldest coach in NBA history, and the new deal will keep him on the sidelines until nearly his 80th birthday if he coaches through its entirety. It also ensures that he will have ample time to develop Victor Wembanyama, who is expected to be San Antonio’s next franchise player.

Popovich’s most recent contract expired at the end of last season, but the Spurs have been operating under the assumption that he was coming back. That became a near certainty after the team landed the top spot in the lottery and the chance to draft Wembanyama.

Popovich first joined the Spurs in 1988 as the lead assistant to Larry Brown. He left for the Warriors for a couple of seasons in the early 1990s, but returned to San Antonio in 1994 as general manager and vice president of basketball operations.

Early in the 1996-97 season, Popovich named himself head coach, a position he has held ever since. He has the most coaching victories in NBA history with 1,364 and has guided the Spurs to all five NBA titles in franchise history. He has also been named Coach of the Year three times and has served as head coach in four All-Star games.

Popovich has been active in international competitions as well, leading Team USA to the gold medal in the most recent Olympics.

Desmond Bane Signs Five-Year Max Extension With Grizzlies

July 8th, 2023 at 3:41pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

JULY 8: The Grizzlies have officially completed Bane’s extension, the team announced in a press release (via Twitter).

JUNE 30: The Grizzlies are signing shooting guard Desmond Bane to a five-season maximum rookie scale extension, agents Jim Tanner, Max Wiepking and Terrence Felder tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

While Wojnarowski says the deal will be worth $207MM, that amount is a projection, as the exact sum will be tied into the league’s salary cap.

Based on Woj’s wording in his reports on the new extensions for Bane and Pacers All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton, it sounds as if Bane’s deal will likely not include the Rose rule escalator, which would have allowed him to qualify for a starting salary worth up to 30% of the cap.

If that’s the case, Bane’s new deal will feature a starting salary worth 25% of the 2024/25 salary cap when it goes into effect next year.

As Damichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial tweets, Bane’s new agreement will now leapfrog All-Star Memphis point guard Ja Morant‘s contract as the priciest in team history. Morant agreed to his five-year, maximum-salary rookie scale extension exactly one year ago.

Bane has quickly outperformed his selection as the No. 30 pick out of TCU in the 2020 draft. Last season, the 25-year-old averaged a career-high 21.5 PPG on .479/.408/.883 shooting splits. He also chipped in 5.0 RPG, 4.4 APG and 1.0 SPG in his 58 healthy games with Memphis. Thanks to the strong play of Morant, Bane and Defensive Player of the Year Jaren Jackson Jr., the Grizzlies finished with the West’s second seed for the second straight season, this time with a 51-31 record.

Injuries to starting center Steven Adams and reserve big man Brandon Clarke greatly impeded Memphis’ frontcourt during its first-round playoff series against the seventh-seeded Lakers, and the Grizzlies fell in six games.

Suns Frontrunners To Sign Bol Bol

July 8th, 2023 at 2:39pm CST by Luke Adams

The Suns are the favorites to sign Bol Bol, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link), who says rival teams are expecting the free agent big man to land in Phoenix.

A former second-round pick, Bol hit waivers on Tuesday, with Orlando opting to move on from him before his salary for 2023/24 became guaranteed. He cleared waivers on Thursday and became a free agent, allowing him to join any team.

Bol’s unique skill set for his slender 7’2″ frame – including an ability to handle the ball – has long intrigued teams and fans, but he was limited to 53 games in Denver during his first three years in the NBA due to injuries. He enjoyed his best season in 2022/23, staying on the floor for 70 games and averaging 9.1 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks in 21.5 minutes per night.

While Bol’s overall numbers were solid, it was a tale of two seasons for the former second-round pick. He put up 11.9 PPG, 6.8 RPG, and 1.6 BPG with an impressive .584/.361/.740 shooting line in his first 41 appearances. In his final 29 games, his playing time and shooting efficiency dropped off, as he scored double-digit points just three times and had averages of 5.1 PPG, 4.3 RPG, and 0.7 BPG on .447/.098/.806 shooting.

Once Josh Okogie‘s deal is official, Phoenix will have 15 players on standard contracts, not counting Bol. However, Jordan Goodwin only has a small partial guarantee, while Ish Wainright is on a non-guaranteed deal, so the team has some roster flexibility. The club would only be able to offer Bol a minimum-salary contract.

The Suns’ interest in Bol was previously reported by both Marc Stein and John Gambadoro.

Draymond Green Re-Signs With Warriors On Four-Year Deal

July 8th, 2023 at 1:12pm CST by Rory Maher

JULY 8: The Warriors have officially re-signed Green, the team announced today in a press release (Twitter link).

JUNE 30: Draymond Green is re-signing with the only club he’s ever known, agreeing to a four-year, $100MM contract to remain with the Warriors, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

The final year of the deal will be a player option, Charania adds. Marc Stein reported shortly before free agency officially opened that $100MM to return to Golden State was looking likely for Green. He previously declined his $27,586,224 player option for 2023/24 in order to sign a long-term deal, which has come to fruition.

Green, 33, is one of the most accomplished players of the 2023 free agent class. The 2016/17 Defensive Player of the Year, Green is an eight-time All-Defensive Team member, four-time All-Star, and two-time All-NBA member.

More importantly, he’s a four-time NBA champion, spearheading Golden State’s defense during the team’s dynastic run over the better part of the past decade. You can easily make the case that he’s been the most impactful defensive player of his generation.

The forward/center is also an accomplished play-maker, holding a career average of 5.6 APG. In 73 games last season, he averaged 8.5 PPG, 7.2 RPG, 6.8 APG, 1.0 SPG and 0.8 BPG on .527/.305/.713 shooting in 31.5 MPG.

According to Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link), the Warriors will save $43MM toward the luxury tax in ’23/24 as part of the deal. Green will earn $22.3MM next season, with annual raises in subsequent seasons.