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Isaiah Thomas Among FAs Working Out With Kings

August 20th, 2024 at 9:01am CST by Luke Adams

Veteran guard Isaiah Thomas is one of several free agents who are in Sacramento this week to engage in some “competitive workouts” with Kings players, according to Sean Cunningham of FOX 40 Sacramento (Twitter link).

Sources tell Cunningham that center Tony Bradley and wings Juan Toscano-Anderson and Lonnie Walker are among the others who will be involved.

It’s unclear whether Kings management is seriously considering making any roster additions based on those workouts, but it certainly couldn’t hurt for those free agents to perform well in the sessions as they seek new contracts.

Thomas, who began his career in Sacramento in 2011, finished the 2023/24 season with the Suns, but hasn’t been a regular rotation player in the NBA for many years, having dealt with a series of injuries since his last full season in 2016/17. The two-time All-Star has bounced around the league since then, spending time with the Cavaliers, Lakers, Nuggets, Wizards, Pelicans, Lakers, Mavericks, Hornets, and Suns.

Bradley, a former first-round pick, spent last season in the G League, while Toscano-Anderson was in the NBAGL for most of the year, though he did appear in 11 games for the Kings while on a pair of short-term contracts in December and January.

Of the four players mentioned by Cunningham, Walker has the strongest case for a spot on an NBA roster this fall. He has averaged 11.2 points per game in 244 contests over the past four seasons with the Spurs, Lakers, and Nets. In 2023/24, the 25-year-old shooting guard recorded 9.7 PPG on .423/.384/.763 shooting in 58 appearances (17.4 MPG) off the bench for Brooklyn.

Sacramento is currently carrying 12 players on fully guaranteed contracts for 2024/25, with Orlando Robinson on a partially guaranteed deal and Keon Ellis on a non-guaranteed salary. The Kings may open the season with just 14 players on their standard roster due to their close proximity to the luxury tax.

Usman Garuba Officially Signs With Real Madrid

August 20th, 2024 at 7:33am CST by Luke Adams

Former NBA first-round pick Usman Garuba has joined Real Madrid on a three-year contract, the Spanish team announced today in a press release.

The move had long been expected. Reporting back in May indicated that Garuba was expected to sign with Real Madrid this offseason, but he responded by saying he had yet to make a decision. In mid-July, Spanish reporter Carlos Sanchez Blas (Twitter links) said that the free agent forward/center had a long-term deal in place with Madrid, and that time Garuba didn’t deny it, so we’ve just been awaiting formal confirmation from the team.

The 23rd overall pick in the 2021 draft, Garuba was born and raised in Madrid and was under contract with his hometown team from 2017-21, so this represents a reunion for the two sides. He played in the NBA for three seasons from 2021-24, appearing in 99 games across two seasons in Houston before being traded to Atlanta and then to Oklahoma City during the 2023 offseason.

After he was waived by the Thunder, Garuba caught on with the Warriors, spending most of the 2023/24 season on a two-way contract before being promoted to Golden State’s standard roster ahead of the team’s regular season finale. He played in just six regular season contests for the Warriors.

Garuba’s overall contributions across 105 NBA outings (three starts) have been modest. He averaged 2.6 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 0.8 assists in 11.7 minutes per night, making 46.7% of his shots from the floor (including 36.3% of his three-pointers). The big man also played a limited role for Spain in this year’s Olympics, averaging 13.4 MPG off the bench for the national team.

The 22-year-old figures to see more significant action in Madrid, where he’ll team up with fellow newcomer Serge Ibaka in the club’s new-look frontcourt that will reportedly no longer feature Guerschon Yabusele.

Real Madrid is coming off a season in which they went 28-6 in Spanish League (ACB) play and 27-7 against EuroLeague competition. Madrid won the ACB title and nearly achieved the feat in the EuroLeague as well, but fell to Panathinaikos in the championship game.

Udoka Azubuike Signs With Montenegrin Team

August 19th, 2024 at 5:30pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Free agent center Udoka Azubuike has signed on with Montenegrin club KK Buducnost Voli, the team has announced in a press statement.

The 6’10” big man was initially drafted by the Jazz in 2020, following an All-American career at Kansas. Utah selected him with the No. 27 overall pick.

Azubuike never made a consistent, long-term impact in either of his two NBA stops, in part due to health issues. He has yet to play more than 36 games in a single season. Across 84 contests (10 starts) in four years, he has averaged a scant 3.0 points and 2.8 rebounds in just 8.6 minutes per night.

Following three years split between the Jazz and their NBAGL affiliate, the Salt Lake City Stars, Azubuike inked a two-way deal with a starry Suns club for 2023/24. Last year, he appeared in just 16 games for Phoenix, averaging 7.1 minutes per contest.

Clearly, the NBA market for his services has proven somewhat finite this summer. Given that he’s still all of 24, an impressive international showing could help bolster his value stateside once again, and he might eventually be able to earn his next opportunity here that way.

Partizan Belgrade Confirms Additions Of Pokusevski, Other Former NBAers

August 19th, 2024 at 2:41pm CST by Luke Adams

The Serbian club KK Partizan, which is based in Belgrade and competes in the EuroLeague, held an event on Monday to formally introduce its roster for the 2024/25 season, according to Eurohoops.

Partizan’s squad features several players with NBA experience, including guards Frank Ntilikina and Gabriel Lundberg, whose deals were previously announced.

On Monday, the team also confirmed several signings which had been reported earlier in the summer but hadn’t yet been officially confirmed, such as Aleksej Pokusevski, Sterling Brown, Isaac Bonga, Duane Washington, and Brandon Davies.

Pokusevksi is perhaps the most notable name in the group. The 22-year-old forward was the 17th overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft and spent most of the past four seasons with the Thunder before being waived in February. He finished the season in Charlotte, averaging 7.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 1.7 assists in 19.2 minutes per game across 18 outings down the stretch for the Hornets.

Brown has 268 NBA regular season appearances under his belt, while Bonga has 143, Washington has 79, and Davies has 78. However, none of the four played in the league in 2023/24.

As Eurohoops notes, former NBA guard Carlik Jones will also play for KK Partizan this season, but wasn’t at Monday’s event — his flight was delayed, according to a report from Mozzart Sport, which indicates that Jones will be at the team’s first practice of the season this week.

Former NBA first-rounder Bruno Caboclo is also under contract with Partizan, but wasn’t in attendance on Monday and isn’t a lock to return to the club. He has reportedly received an offer from Hapoel Tel Aviv, a team in Israel.

Sixers To Sign Guerschon Yabusele To One-Year Deal

August 18th, 2024 at 11:33am CST by Rory Maher

11:33am: Yabusele has agreed to a one-year deal with Philadelphia, reports Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (via Twitter). It will be minimum-salary contract, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). Yabusele has two years of NBA experience, so his salary for 2024/25 will be $2,087,519.

11:06am: The Sixers and Guerschon Yabusele are in “serious talks” about a contract that would bring the French forward stateside, league sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic.

The news is pretty surprising, given that Yabusele’s buyout clause with Real Madrid is valued at $2.5MM — multiple NBA teams viewed that figure as “prohibitive,” according to Marc Stein (Substack link). However, Charania says Yabusele is working to resolve his situation with the Spanish powerhouse.

As our Luke Adams outlined a couple days ago, NBA teams are only permitted to pay up to $850K this season for an international player’s buyout without that money counting toward their cap. According to Charania, the remaining $1.65MM is what’s being discussed between Yabusele and Real Madrid.

The 16th overall pick in the 2016 draft, Yabusele spent a year as a draft-and-stash prospect in China, then played for the Celtics for two seasons from 2017-19. He appeared in 74 games, including five starts. He averaged 2.3 points and 1.4 rebounds in 7.1 minutes per contest.

The 28-year-old has become a star in Europe over the past several seasons, the past three of which came with Real Madrid. He was one of the top players at the Olympics in Paris, averaging 14 points per game and earning second-team honors while helping France capture the silver medal.

Shortly after France lost to the United States in the gold-medal game, Yabusele indicated he was eager to return to the NBA, and now a deal appears imminent.

Hawks, Clippers Interested In Aleksa Avramovic

August 17th, 2024 at 5:17pm CST by Arthur Hill

Aleksa Avramovic, one of the stars of the Serbian Olympic team, has received interest from the Hawks and Clippers, according to BasketNews, relaying a report from Ozon Press, a Serbian newspaper.

Avramovic, who was named Best Defensive Player in the Paris Games, has an out clause in his contract with CSKA Moscow that permits him to sign with an NBA team. However, the clause will expire Tuesday, so time is limited to get a deal completed.

Avramovic has a buyout fee in his CSKA contract that an NBA team could contribute up to $850K to help cover. Neither Atlanta nor L.A. has made a formal offer so far, according to Mozzart Sport.

Avramovic is currently preparing to travel to Moscow for the start of training camp on August 26, BasketNews adds. He’s expected to continue his career in Russia if he doesn’t sign with an NBA team.

The 29-year-old point guard averaged 10.5 points, 2.5 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.7 steals in six games as Serbia captured the bronze medal in Paris. He averaged 3.4 steals per 40 minutes in the tournament and had four against Germany in the third-place game.

The Hawks and Clippers currently have 15 players on standard contracts, so either team would have to part with guaranteed money before the start of the season to add Avramovic to the roster.

Bulls Sign Kenneth Lofton Jr. To Exhibit 10 Contract

August 17th, 2024 at 11:50am CST by Luke Adams

AUGUST 17: Lofton’s deal with the Bulls is official, according to RealGM’s transaction log. It’s an Exhibit 10 contract, Hoops Rumors has confirmed.

AUGUST 16: Free agent forward Kenneth Lofton Jr. has agreed to a one-year contract with the Bulls, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

While Charania doesn’t provide any other details on the deal, he says Lofton will have the opportunity in training camp to compete for a spot on Chicago’s regular season roster. That suggests it’ll be a non-guaranteed minimum-salary contract.

Lofton, who turned 22 on Wednesday, began his professional career with the Grizzlies in 2022 after going undrafted out of Louisiana Tech. The bulky 6’6″ forward spent most of his rookie year on a two-way contract with Memphis, appearing in 24 NBA games.

After being converted to a standard contract in April 2023, Lofton began the 2023/24 season on the Grizzlies’ 15-man roster, but was waived in December when Ja Morant was activated from the suspended list. He spent a couple months on a two-way deal with Philadelphia, then was waived again in March and signed a rest-of-season contract with the Jazz, who cut him last month before his ’24/25 salary became partially guaranteed.

Although Lofton didn’t play much at the NBA level in ’23/24, he finished the year strong in Utah, averaging 13.8 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 4.8 assists in 22.8 minutes per game across four April outings for the Jazz. He also had a big year in the G League, earning All-NBAGL First Team honors after putting up 25.1 PPG, 9.5 RPG, 4.4 APG, and 1.6 BPG in 19 regular season games (30.1 MPG) for the Delaware Blue Coats and the Salt Lake City Stars.

The Bulls currently have 14 players on guaranteed standard contracts, with Onuralp Bitim on a non-guaranteed deal, so if Lofton impresses in camp, he could become the team’s 15th man. Chicago also has a two-way spot available, though Lofton would only be eligible to have his contract converted to a two-way deal if it includes Exhibit 10 language.

JT Thor Agrees To Two-Way Contract With Cavaliers

August 17th, 2024 at 11:39am CST by Tristan Tucker

Former Hornets forward JT Thor is signing a two-way contract with the Cavaliers, Shams Charania of The Athletic reports (Twitter link).

Thor, the 37th overall pick in the 2021 draft, spent the first three years of his career with the Hornets. He didn’t play a major role with Charlotte, but earned a handful of spot starts across his tenure with the franchise. He averaged 3.2 points and 2.1 rebounds in 165 games (11 starts; 12.2 MPG) with the Hornets from 2021-24.

The former Auburn standout earned some first-round buzz in the 2021 draft after a freshman season that saw him average 9.4 points, 5.0 rebounds, 1.4 blocks and 0.8 steals while stretching out to the three-point line as a 6’10” forward. At 21 years old, he still has some untapped potential.

Thor most recently impressed in the Olympics, playing for South Sudan’s national team. He averaged about seven points and five rebounds for South Sudan.

Thor is the first reported two-way signing for the Cavs, giving them two other spots they can choose to fill. They have a two-way qualifying offer out for Emoni Bates, who finished last season on a two-way contract with the team.

Pete Nance and Isaiah Mobley also finished the 2023/24 season on two-way deals with Cleveland but are both unrestricted free agents, free to sign with any team.

Damian Lillard: ‘I’m Not A Player That’s Breaking Down’

August 16th, 2024 at 9:13pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Perennial All-Star Damian Lillard insists he’s still the same player that carved out a Hall of Fame career in Portland despite a disappointing first season with the Bucks.

“I’m not a player that’s breaking down,” Lillard told Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in a subscriber-only story. “I live a clean, good, healthy life, so I can do it. I can do the same (expletive) I did two, three years ago. I can do it right now.”

The uncertainty surrounding Lillard was the biggest story of last offseason. Lillard was expected to be traded to his preferred destination, Miami. Instead, the Trail Blazers dealt him to Milwaukee.

After averaging a career-best 32.2 points per game in 2022/23, his scoring output dropped to 24.3 PPG in his first season with the Bucks. That was to be expected, considering he was teaming up with another superstar in Giannis Antetokounmpo but his shooting percentage was just 42.4%, including 35.4% on 3-point tries, well below his career averages.

“I think when the trade happened everybody was like, ‘Well, Milwaukee’s gonna win it,’ and I think when it didn’t always look the way they wanted it to look or thought it was gonna look, and I wasn’t looking how I looked in Portland, it was like, oh, what’s going on with Dame? Why is Dame not doing this?” he said. “But when for a greater part of the season I was still averaging about 26 points. Like, if you really think about that – what standard do y’all hold me to if I’m scoring 26 points and averaging seven assists and I’m not feeling great? I’m going through a lot of stuff. That’s just the truth.”

Injuries took a toll. During various points of the season, Liullard was dealing with calf, ankle, groin, adductor and Achilles issues. He was also going through a divorce and had to deal with playing and living in a new city after the trade finally came to fruition.

“There was a lot of change, a lot of stress, you know?” he said. “I think now, having an opportunity to get myself in order and kind of start pushing forward to next season.”

The oddsmakers peg the Bucks fourth among Eastern Conference teams heading into 2024/25, behind the defending champion Celtics, Sixers and Knicks. That’s just fine by Lillard as he continues to chase his first ring.

“The fact that we’re there and we’re under the radar is perfect because they’re gonna think nothing of us and then they’re gonna be like…You gotta face the truth, eventually. That’s how that usually works,” he said.

Knicks To Guarantee Jericho Sims’ Full Salary

August 16th, 2024 at 7:33pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Knicks center Jericho Sims will have his $2,092,344 salary fully guaranteed for the upcoming season, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype reports (Twitter link).

Friday represented the deadline for the Knicks to decide whether to fully guarantee the contract. Sims, who had a partial guarantee of $1,302,359, would have had to be waived today if New York wanted to avoid being on the hook for the rest of his salary.

Sims, a 2021 second-round pick, has appeared in 138 games during his first three NBA seasons, including 32 starts. Last season, he saw action in 45 regular-season games, including 11 starts. He averaged 2.0 points and 3.3 rebounds in 13.0 minutes per contest.

Sims projects as the Knicks’ third-string center behind starter Mitchell Robinson and primary backup Precious Achiuwa. The team lost Isaiah Hartenstein to Oklahoma City in free agency.

Sims should come into training camp in better shape than the past two years. He underwent thumb surgery two summers ago, followed by shoulder surgery last offseason.