- Al Horford and rookie Theo Maledon will join the Thunder once they complete coronavirus protocols, Brandon Rahbar of the Daily Thunder tweets. Horford and Maledon were officially acquired from the Sixers on Monday. “Theo, for a young player, he has a lot of experience and has a certain maturity about him,” new head coach Mark Daigneault said. “Al, we’re very fortunate that he’s here and to have a player of his caliber.”
The Thunder have officially signed undrafted rookie Josh Hall to his two-way contract, agent Nathan Conley tells JD Shaw of Hoops Rumors (Twitter link). Hall’s agreement with the club was reported shortly after the draft last month.
Ranked by ESPN as the No. 5 prospect among those who went undrafted, Hall has “considerable potential” as both a shooter and ball-handler, according to Mike Schmitz’s scouting report. A 6’9″ forward, Hall had been on track to play college ball at North Carolina State after a year at Moravian Prep, but opted to go pro and enter the draft instead.
The Thunder opened up a pair of spots on their 20-man training camp roster by completing their Al Horford trade earlier today, so it appears that Hall slid into one of those openings.
The signing increases Oklahoma City’s roster count to 19 players, with reported deals for Theo Maledon, Chasson Randle and Moses Brown (two-way contract) still to come. The club will have to make at least two cuts to finalize those moves.
Nearly three weeks after first agreeing to terms, the Sixers were finally able to complete their six-player trade with the Thunder today, acquiring Danny Green, Terrance Ferguson, and Vincent Poirier in the deal.
According to Derek Bodner of The Athletic (Twitter link), one minor aspect of the deal was previously unreported, as the 76ers sent $2MM in cash to Oklahoma City to complete the move. That amount will count toward the $5.617MM limit that Philadelphia can sent out in trades over the course of the 2020/21 league year.
Here’s more out of Philadelphia:
- Tyrese Maxey and Mike Scott received clearance to participate in non-contact drills today and are expected to join the team’s group workouts on Wednesday, tweets Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Maxey and Scott had to clear the NBA’s coronavirus protocols after registering positive tests.
- Addressing the James Harden trade rumors connecting the Sixers to the Rockets star, head coach Doc Rivers said he’s making it clear to his players that those rumors aren’t coming from Philadelphia’s side (Twitter link via Pompey). “You know, as long as you don’t hear them from us, you should be very comfortable,” Rivers said. “We like our team, man. I tell you, that team I just watched out there (at practice) is really special.”
- Rivers’ comments were in response to a report that said Harden has indicated to Houston that he’d be open to a trade to Philadelphia. In an Insider-only story, ESPN’s Bobby Marks explores which teams could realistically make a play for Harden, noting that any 76ers offer would almost certainly have to start with Ben Simmons.
The Sixers and Thunder have officially finalized a trade agreement that was reached prior to the draft last month, formally announcing today that Al Horford has been sent to Oklahoma City.
Along with Horford, the Thunder also acquired the draft rights to No. 34 pick Theo Maledon, the draft rights to 2014 second-round pick Vasilije Micic, and the Sixers’ 2025 first-round pick (top-six protected).
The 76ers, meanwhile, add veteran shooting guard Danny Green, fourth-year wing Terrance Ferguson, and French big man Vincent Poirier in the swap.
As cap expert Albert Nahmad (Twitter link) and others have explained, the two teams decided to wait until today to finalize the trade because trade restrictions have now lifted on Green and Poirier, who were moved in separate deals last month and couldn’t have their salaries aggregated in a second trade until December 8.
Oklahoma City could have completed the trade without aggregating Green’s and Poirier’s salaries to match Horford’s $27.5MM cap hit, but it would have required the team to use its recently-created $27.5MM traded player exception. The Thunder will now be able to hang onto that exception – created in the Steven Adams deal – to use later this season or early in the 2021 offseason.
Poirier wasn’t initially reported as being part of the trade, but his inclusion was required for salary-matching purposes, since the Thunder didn’t use their TPE. Philadelphia can slide his $2.62MM salary into the $2.66MM trade exception created in last month’s Josh Richardson deal, allowing the Sixers to generate a new $8.1MM TPE in today’s transaction.
It’s not clear whether the Thunder intend to hang onto Horford for the entire 2020/21 season, since the team’s primary motive for the deal was acquiring the future first-round pick, Maledon, and Micic. It’s possible Oklahoma City will take a similar approach to Horford that it did to Chris Paul a year ago, hoping that he can increase his future trade value with a solid season. For now, his pricey multiyear contract will make him difficult to flip.
As for the Sixers, they saved some short- and long-term money in the deal and added at least one rotation player. Green, who has won titles in each of the last two years, will give the club another solid outside shooter — he has made 40.0% of his career attempts from beyond the arc.
Ferguson, meanwhile, took a step back in 2019/20 but had a promising ’18/19 season at age 20 (6.9 PPG with a .366 3PT%) and should compete for minutes on the wing. It’s unclear whether or not Poirier is part of the club’s plans. He may compete with non-guaranteed players like Ryan Broekhoff and Justin Anderson for the final spot on the regular season roster.
All of the NBA trades agreed upon this offseason have now been officially completed, as our tracker shows.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Timberwolves head coach Ryan Saunders said today that the team hopes to add another point guard to its depth chart behind D’Angelo Russell and Ricky Rubio, tweets Jon Krawczysnki of The Athletic.
While Saunders didn’t explicitly name him as the player the Wolves want to bring aboard, restricted free agent Jordan McLaughlin is the most obvious candidate for that role, Krawczynski notes. McLaughlin, who was on a two-way contract with Minnesota last season, is the only RFA who has yet to secure a new deal for 2020/21.
The qualifying offer McLaughlin received from the Wolves last month is for another two-way deal, but he and the team are likely trying to negotiate a standard contract that would give him a spot on Minnesota’s 15-man roster for the regular season.
Here’s more from around the Northwest:
- Frank Jackson‘s two-year, minimum-salary contract with the Thunder has a partial guarantee worth $250K for 2020/21, tweets Keith Smith of Yahoo Sports. The second year of Jackson’s new deal is non-guaranteed.
- Several reports leading up to the 2020 draft linked Aleksej Pokusevski to the Thunder, but the Serbian forward was still surprised to be drafted by Oklahoma City at No. 17, per Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman. “Before the draft we didn’t have any contacts,” Pokusevski said. “I didn’t talk to anyone. I was shocked that I was chosen at No. 17 and drafted to OKC. I was shocked. I didn’t know that it was going to happen, and I was very happy about it.”
- Jazz forward Joe Ingles is looking forward to playing with center Derrick Favors again, writes Aaron Falk of UtahJazz.com. “He’s obviously a guy I feel super comfortable playing with,” Ingles said of Favors, noting that the two veterans played a lot of minutes together during the big man’s previous stint in Utah.
- Jazz forward Bojan Bogdanovic (wrist) practiced in full this week and looks to be on track to play in the team’s regular season opener, says Tony Jones of The Athletic.
Former Trail Blazers forward Jaylen Hoard had a brief stint on the Thunder‘s training camp roster, but has since been released. While photos tweeted by the Thunder on Sunday showed Hoard participating in camp, the NBA’s official transactions log indicates that the team waived him on Sunday.
Hoard, 21, signed a two-way contract with Portland in July 2019 after going undrafted out of Wake Forest. He spent the entire 2019/20 season with the club, though he didn’t see much action at the NBA level, logging just 103 minutes in 13 games.
The Blazers don’t have their own G League affiliate, so Hoard spent time as a rookie with the Texas Legends. He averaged 16.2 PPG, 6.9 RPG, and 1.8 APG in 24 games (27.6 MPG) for Dallas’ NBAGL affiliate.
The Thunder have been turning over the spots at the back of their 20-man roster during the last week, having also released Antonius Cleveland and Melvin Frazier shortly after signing them. The moves are presumably being made with G League rights and/or Exhibit 10 bonuses in mind.
A report from French outlet L’Equipe first indicated last week that Hoard would sign an Exhibit 10 deal with the Thunder. Interestingly, that L’Equipe report also suggested that big man Vincent Poirier will be heading to the Sixers in the still-not-official deal involving Al Horford, Danny Green, and Terrance Ferguson.
Poirier’s inclusion in that deal has been speculated by cap expert Albert Nahmad, among others, since his contract is a perfect fit for salary-matching purposes and would allow the Thunder to keep their recently-created $27.5MM trade exception. The trade will likely be completed this week once the salary aggregation restrictions on Green and Poirier lift.
New Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault has indicated that two Oklahoma City players did not practice today due to positive COVID-19 test results, according to Joe Mussatto of the Oklahoman.
Mussatto goes on to note that the identity of those players was not divulged by Daigneault, in keeping with NBA guidelines surrounding coronavirus testing. About 11-15 players suited up today for the club’s initial training camp team practice.
That tally did not include oft-traded veteran small forward Trevor Ariza, who remains away from the team indefinitely as he attends to a family situation, Mussatto reports in a separate piece.
Ariza is focused on the same family matters that prompted him to opt out of the NBA’s Orlando restart with the Trail Blazers this summer, according to Mussatto, who adds that the Thunder were aware of Ariza’s family conflict when they traded for him.
Shooting guard Melvin Frazier Jr. has been waived by the Thunder, according to the NBA’s official transactions log.
The Thunder signed Frazier earlier this week. Initially drafted by the Magic in the second round of the 2018 draft out of Tulane, Frazier played just 29 games for Orlando over the past two seasons.
Frazier got significantly more run with the Magic’s G League affiliate, the Lakeland Magic. Frazier played 41 games (all starts) for Lakeland, with a competitive slash line of 15.5 PPG/5.8 RPG/1.9 SPG/1.9 APG. The 24-year-old will now look to continue his basketball career beyond Oklahoma City.
Frazier’s brief stint on Oklahoma City’s roster signals that the club may have been looking to secure his G League rights.
- Darius Miller expects to be fully recovered from his Achilles injury by the start of the season, Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman writes. “I’m feeling pretty good,” Miller said. “Unfortunately with COVID I haven’t had a chance to play a lot, but the team’s working with me, and they’ve got me going at a pretty good pace.” Miller, who was on the Pelicans‘ roster, missed all of last season due to the injury. He was dealt to the Thunder in the four-team deal that sent Steven Adams to New Orleans.
The Thunder are adjusting their backcourt depth, essentially exchanging one 6’5″ shooting guard for another. The club has signed Melvin Frazier Jr. and waived Antonius Cleveland, per Keith Smith of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter).
Frazier was drafted by the Magic with the No. 35 pick out of Tulane in the 2018 NBA draft, but appeared in just 29 games across two seasons with Orlando, averaging 5.9 MPG.
In two seasons with the Magic’s G League affiliate, the Lakeland Magic, Frazier played 41 games (all starts), averaging a solid slash line of 15.5 PPG/5.8 APG/1.9 SPG/1.9 APG, while shooting 48.7% from the field. The club declined his $1.66MM player option for 2020/21 earlier in this offseason.
Oklahoma City had just added Cleveland to a one-year, non-guaranteed contract to join the club’s training camp roster. Cleveland was a two-way player for the Mavericks for the 2019/20 season, and saw limited NBA action in 11 games with Dallas.
In 36 games for the Mavericks’ G League affiliate, the Texas Legends, Cleveland averaged 14.4 PPG, 7.3 RPG, and 1.6 SPG. After going undrafted out of Southeast Missouri State in 2017, Cleveland split the 2017/18 season between the Hawks and Mavericks. He spent the 2018/19 season with Golden State’s G League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors.
The Thunder are among the teams that figure to turn over their back-end roster spots in the coming days and weeks with an aim toward securing players’ G League rights and/or ensuring that they receive $50K bonuses if they play in the G League.