Newsstand Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Timberwolves Sign T.J. Warren To 10-Day Contract

March 6th, 2024 at 1:05pm CST by Tristan Tucker

MARCH 6: Warren has officially signed his 10-day deal with the Timberwolves, according to a press release from the team. It will run through next Friday, March 15, covering Minnesota’s next four games.

MARCH 2: The Timberwolves are going to sign forward T.J. Warren to a 10-day contract, pending a physical exam early this week, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania (Twitter link). Warren hasn’t played in a game this season but according to Charania, the Wolves have monitored him throughout the year.

Minnesota has been targeting wing depth, per The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski (Twitter link), which is why the team landed on Warren. Majority owner Glen Taylor told Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News and Skor North (Twitter video link) earlier this week that a small forward was the Wolves’ greatest area of need.

Warren has averaged 14.6 points and 4.0 rebounds per game for his career while shooting 50.6% from the floor and 35.4% from beyond the arc. He had a strong start to his career after being drafted with the 14th overall pick in 2014, averaging 15.5 points per night in his first seven seasons.

The N.C. State alum was a major part of the Pacers’ 2019/20 playoff squad, averaging 19.8 PPG. That year featured a memorable stretch for Warren, who averaged 31.0 points and shot 52.4% from three in the 2020 NBA bubble, including a 53-point outing.

However, a foot injury limited Warren to just four games over the following two seasons, derailing his career. He signed with the Nets ahead of ’22/23 before being traded to Phoenix at the deadline. In 42 games between Brooklyn and Phoenix last season, Warren averaged 7.5 points.

Justin Jackson‘s 10-day deal expires tomorrow, so the Wolves are presumably replacing Jackson with Warren. Minnesota will still have an open standard roster spot once Jackson’s deal expires and Warren’s deal is finalized, though the team doesn’t have a ton of breathing room below the luxury tax line and may prefer to delay signing anyone to a rest-of-season contract.

Patty Mills Signs With Heat

March 6th, 2024 at 11:55am CST by Luke Adams

MARCH 6: The Heat have officially signed Mills and waived Smith, the team announced today in a press release.

MARCH 5: Free agent point guard Patty Mills plans to sign with the Heat, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). It will be a rest-of-season deal, adds Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press (Twitter link).

A 15-year NBA veteran, Mills was traded three times during the 2023 offseason, from the Nets to the Rockets to the Thunder to the Hawks. Atlanta envisioned him as a player who could provide reliable veteran depth behind Trae Young and Dejounte Murray in the backcourt, but Mills didn’t end up playing much for his new club, averaging 2.7 points and 1.1 rebounds in 10.6 minutes per game across 19 appearances.

The Hawks opted to waive Mills last Thursday in order to open up a spot on the roster to promote two-way player Trent Forrest. The 35-year-old cleared waivers over the weekend and didn’t immediately catch on with a new team, but has reached an agreement a few days later with a veteran Heat club that appears playoff-bound.

Although Mills’ production has dropped off in the past couple years, his NBA résumé includes 95 postseason contests and a championship (in 2014 with San Antonio). He’s also not far removed from being a productive regular contributor — he averaged 11.4 PPG with a .400 3PT% across 81 games for the Nets in 2021/22.

Mills will join a Heat backcourt that has been impacted by injuries over the course of the season but features several intriguing options when everyone’s healthy, including Tyler Herro, Terry Rozier, Josh Richardson, and Delon Wright. The move will provide some insurance in the event that Richardson’s absence due to a shoulder injury extends into the spring, tweets Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel.

According to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald (Twitter link), guard Dru Smith, who is out for the season due to a torn ACL, will be waived to make room on the 15-man roster for Mills.

Mills will earn $18,370 per day on his prorated minimum-salary deal with the Heat. His exact salary will depend on when he officially signs, but if the deal were to be finalized before the end of the day on Tuesday, he’d make $753,186 and Miami would take on a cap hit of $475,908.

Trae Young Discusses Trade Rumors, Future With Hawks

March 6th, 2024 at 10:05am CST by Luke Adams

Speaking to Taylor Rooks of Bleacher Report in the latest episode of her podcast (YouTube link), Hawks guard Trae Young said that he’s not bothered by the fact that his name has popped up in trade rumors in the weeks since last month’s deadline.

“Some of the best players ever have been traded,” Young said. “So who am I to be here mad or feeling unwanted or feeling a certain way?”

It’s worth noting that those recent rumors haven’t stemmed from sources within the Hawks, but from rival executives who came away from their pre-deadline conversations with Atlanta believing that the club will explore trading Young this offseason.

It was Dejounte Murray, rather than Young, who was the subject of frequent trade rumors in the days and weeks leading up to the deadline, but the Hawks opted not to make a move involving Murray, whose contract extends a year beyond Young’s and is far less lucrative. Young is owed $89MM over the next two years, with a $49MM player option for 2025/26, while Murray will make $82.6MM over the next three seasons and holds a $31.5MM player option for ’26/27.

Although there’s a sense that it may just be a matter of time before the club breaks up its star backcourt duo, Young told Rooks that he has no desire to leave Atlanta. Asked whether he believes he’ll still be a Hawk next season, he replied, “Hopefully,” before going on to link his NBA home with his decision on where to play college basketball.

“I could have went to Kentucky, I could have went to Kansas, but I chose to be different and went to Oklahoma to try to win a championship,” Young said. “I wanted to go there to win for my hometown, be different.

“They’ve never won a championship in Atlanta. Me getting drafted there felt like it was a match made in heaven. Like, this is something I wanna do. I can defeat the odds here too. So for me, my whole vision was to always be here. My whole goal is to win here. Win championships, bring people here with me and build this championship here and dynasty here.

“But who knows? It’s year six now and who knows? (But) for me, I want that.”

Young is currently on the mend after undergoing surgery to repair a tear of the radial collateral ligament (RCL) in the fifth finger of his left hand. An All-Star this season for the third time in his career, he was averaging 26.4 points and a career-high 10.8 assists this season in 51 games (36.5 MPG) prior to the injury, with a shooting line of .426/.371/.856.

With Young unavailable for the time being, the Hawks continue to battle for a spot in the play-in tournament. Atlanta is currently 10th in the East at 27-34, two games behind the No. 9 Bulls and 2.5 games ahead of the No. 11 Nets.

Pistons Sign Taj Gibson To 10-Day Deal

March 6th, 2024 at 10:01am CST by Luke Adams

10:01am: Gibson’s 10-day contract is now official, the Pistons confirmed in a press release (Twitter link). It will run through next Friday, March 15.

8:42am: The Pistons are set to sign veteran big man Taj Gibson to a 10-day contract, agent Mark Bartelstein tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

Gibson, 38, spent a portion of this season with the Knicks, having signed a non-guaranteed contract with the team in December.

He was waived on January 7 before his full salary could become guaranteed, then returned to New York on a pair of 10-day deals in January and February. However, the club opted not to bring him back on a rest-of-season contract when the second of those deals expired.

At this point in his career, Gibson is most valued more for his veteran leadership and presence in the locker room, which is presumably why the Pistons want to add him to their young roster. However, he did appear in 16 games for the Knicks this season, averaging 1.0 PPG and 1.8 RPG in 10.3 MPG.

The Pistons recently opened up a pair of roster spots by waiving Mike Muscala and Shake Milton, so they’re only carrying 13 players on standard contracts. Even after signing Gibson, they’ll still have an opening on their 15-man roster.

Gibson will earn $183,704 over the course of his 10 days with Detroit, while the club carries a cap hit of $116,075.

Assuming the deal is finalized on Wednesday or Thursday, he’ll be under contract for the Pistons’ next five games before the team would have to decide whether to re-sign him or let him go.

Jakob Poeltl Undergoes Finger Surgery

March 6th, 2024 at 7:52am CST by Luke Adams

Raptors center Jakob Poeltl has undergone surgery to repair a ligament tear in the fifth finger of his left hand, the team announced late on Tuesday night in a press release. The injury occurred in the second quarter of Sunday’s victory over Charlotte.

The Raptors didn’t provide any sort of recovery timeline for Poeltl, simply stating that his status will be updated as appropriate.

Any type of finger surgery typically results in a multi-week absence, and while the big man could end up being healthy enough to play before the end of the season, Toronto is falling out of the postseason race and may simply decide to shut him down.

After getting blown out at home by the Pelicans on Tuesday, the Raptors are 4.5 games back of the No. 10 seed in the East. They’re also missing Scottie Barnes, who underwent a hand surgery of his own earlier this week and might not be back before the end of the regular season.

Poeltl, who was acquired from San Antonio by the Raptors at the 2023 trade deadline, signed a four-year, $78MM contract with the club during the offseason. In his first season back with the Toronto team that originally drafted him in 2016, the 28-year-old averaged 11.1 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 2.5 assists in 26.4 minutes per game across 50 appearances (all starts).

The Raptors traded for another veteran center – Kelly Olynyk – at this season’s deadline and extended him this week, but that deal shouldn’t have a real impact on Poeltl’s future in Toronto, since the two big men have different skill sets. While Olynyk excels at stretching the floor, Poeltl serves as a pick-and-roll partner for the team’s guards and is more of a rim protector on defense.

Isaiah Thomas To Join Jazz’s G League Team, Hopes For NBA Return

March 5th, 2024 at 4:19pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Former All-Star guard Isaiah Thomas is joining the Salt Lake City Stars, the Jazz’s NBA G League affiliate, in the hopes of eventually getting an NBA offer, The Athletic’s Shams Charania reports (Twitter link).

In a December interview, Thomas confirmed that he was looking for another NBA opportunity.

“I’m still trying to play the game of basketball. I want to get back to the NBA,” he said at the time. “So, I’m still working out and staying ready.”

Thomas held workouts last summer for NBA teams during the Las Vegas Summer League last July, hoping to catch someone’s attention. He signed 10-day hardship deals with the Mavericks and Lakers during the 2021/22 season before catching on with the Hornets for the remainder of that campaign. He appeared in a total of 22 games that season, but wasn’t in the league in ’22/23.

Thomas’ career peaked when he averaged 28.9 points and 5.9 assists per game for the Celtics during the 2016/17 season. His career was sidetracked by a right hip injury. He has also played for Sacramento, Phoenix, Cleveland, Denver, Washington and New Orleans.

In 550 regular season games, Thomas has averaged 17.7 points and 4.8 assists in 28.3 minutes per night. A late second-round pick in 2011, he turned 35 last month.

Andrew Wiggins Reports Back To Warriors

March 5th, 2024 at 3:01pm CST by Luke Adams

Veteran forward Andrew Wiggins has rejoined the Warriors after missing the past four games due to family matter, according to Kendra Andrews of ESPN, who tweeted a video of Wiggins at practice.

Shams Charania and Anthony Slater of The Athletic first reported that Wiggins was flying into the Bay Area and reporting to the team on Tuesday after tending to a personal family matter.

Golden State is back in action on Wednesday at home vs. the Bucks, and Wiggins is expected to be active for that game, head coach Steve Kerr said today (Twitter link via Andrews). He’ll likely be reinserted into the starting lineup, though he may be on a minutes restriction.

Moses Moody played well as a starting forward in Wiggins’ absence, but he’s in danger of falling out of the club’s crowded rotation again with the former No. 1 overall pick set to return. Moody averaged 12.0 points and 4.0 rebounds on .500/.400/.500 shooting in his four starts, three of which were Warriors wins. The one loss was an ugly one — the Dubs were blown out by 52 points on Sunday in Boston.

Wiggins missed the final 25 games of the 2022/23 season due to personal reasons, returning just before the postseason began.

Rockets’ Tari Eason Undergoes Season-Ending Leg Surgery

March 5th, 2024 at 11:32am CST by Luke Adams

MARCH 5: Eason underwent surgery to treat a benign growth on his lower leg, the Rockets announced today in a press release. According to the team, the procedure “involved excising and bone grafting the lesion along with inserting an intramedullary rod in his tibia to help accelerate healing.”

As expected, Eason’s projected recovery time is four months.

MARCH 3: Tari Eason‘s second NBA season will come to an early end, according to Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle, who reports that the Rockets forward will undergo surgery to treat a growth on his left leg. The procedure will take place on Monday and will sideline him for the next four months, per head coach Ime Udoka.

“He had obviously been going through some things through the year and had a benign growth on the shin bone, the tibia I think,” Udoka said. “Took that blow early in the season. Flared up. He played through it with some pain. Never had a chance of fracturing. It was a pain tolerance thing. Once the pain got too high, he shut it down.

“We thought rest and rehab, he could get over it that way, but every time he ramped up, the pain came right back. After seeing all the specialists and decision makers, came to the decision that it’s best to have surgery Monday. He’ll be ready for the start of the season. A little bone graft put in there and he’ll be ready in four months.”

The 17th overall pick in the 2022 draft, Eason was a model of health in his rookie year, appearing in all 82 games in 2022/23. He showed promise by averaging 9.3 points and 6.0 rebounds in 21.5 minutes per night, posting a shooting line of .448/.343/.752 and flashing significant defensive upside.

Eason was on track to be a key part of Houston’s wing rotation this season, but he was limited to just 22 appearances due to his health issues, which began when Pacers big man Jalen Smith fell on his leg in a preseason game. He hasn’t suited up for Houston since January 1.

Eason will be entering the third season of his four-year rookie contract in 2024/25 and is locked in on a cap hit of approximately $3.7MM. The Rockets will have until October 31 to exercise his $5.7MM fourth-year option for ’25/26. Assuming that option is picked up, which is a safe bet, the former LSU standout will become eligible for a rookie scale extension during the 2025 offseason.

Hornets Hire Jeff Peterson As New Head Of Basketball Operations

March 5th, 2024 at 8:36am CST by Arthur Hill

MARCH 5: The Hornets have officially announced in a press release that Peterson has been hired as the club’s executive vice president of basketball operations. The team confirmed that he’ll be the primary basketball decision-maker in addition to leading the front office’s day-to-day operations.

“We’re excited to have Jeff join the Charlotte Hornets as the new leader of our basketball operations,” co-owners Schnall and Gabe Plotkin said in a statement. “He shares our vision, our values and our goal of becoming the premier franchise in the NBA.

“Jeff is a rising star in our league who is known for his player evaluation, his communication skills and his ability to develop strong relationships. His experience of having worked with multiple organizations and different general managers will be a great benefit to us. We look forward to working with Jeff as we continue to build our team and we want to welcome him to Charlotte.”

FEBRUARY 29: Nets executive Jeff Peterson will become the Hornets‘ new head of basketball operations, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

The report is confirmed by Rod Boone of The Charlotte Observer (Twitter link), who states that rumors regarding Peterson potentially coming to Charlotte began last summer.

Peterson, 35, worked under Hornets co-owner Rick Schnall in Atlanta early in his career, Wojnarowski notes. Schnall was a minority owner with the Hawks when Peterson started as an intern and worked his way up to assistant general manager within f0ur years.

Peterson also established a strong relationship with Charlotte coach Steve Clifford, who served as a coaching consultant for Brooklyn during the 2021/22 season, Wojnarowski adds.

Sources tell Wojnarowski that the Hornets talked to roughly a dozen candidates before deciding on Peterson. He has been with the Nets since 2019, which is when he became an assistant GM under Sean Marks.

Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link) points out that the Hornets already have some assets in place for their rebuilding project as Peterson takes over. LaMelo Ball and Brandon Miller appear to be long-term foundational pieces, and Charlotte will have a high lottery pick in this year’s draft, along with Houston’s second-round selection, which is likely to fall in the top 40.

Shake Milton Signs With Knicks

March 5th, 2024 at 8:28am CST by Arthur Hill

MARCH 5: The Knicks have officially signed Milton, the team announced today in a press release.

MARCH 2: Shake Milton plans to join the Knicks after clearing waivers, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).

Multiple contenders were reportedly interested in the 27-year-old shooting guard, who reached a buyout agreement with the Pistons on Friday night, allowing him to appear in the playoffs with another team.

New York will be the third team of the season for Milton, who signed with Minnesota last summer and was shipped to Detroit at the trade deadline. He appeared in just four games for the Pistons and didn’t appear to be in the team’s long-range plans with a non-guaranteed $5MM contract for next season.

The Knicks contacted the Wolves about Milton prior to the deadline, tweets Ian Begley of SNY.

Averaging 4.9 points, 1.6 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 42 combined games this season, Milton will provide another wing scoring threat for New York, which is dealing with injuries throughout its roster. He will compete for playing time with two other former Pistons, Bojan Bogdanovic and Alec Burks, who were both acquired in a trade with Detroit last month.

Milton should clear waivers Monday, tweets Steve Popper of Newsday. The Knicks have two roster spots available, with a third opening over night when DaQuan Jeffries‘ 10-day contract expires, so they can add Milton without a corresponding move.