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Tobias Harris Signs Two-Year Deal With Pistons

July 1st, 2024 at 9:21am CST by Arthur Hill

JULY 8: Harris has officially signed his contract with the Pistons, per the NBA’s transaction log.

JULY 1: The Pistons have reached a two-year, $52MM agreement with free agent forward Tobias Harris, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). There are no options on either side, according to James L. Edwards III of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Harris, 31, ranked 16th on our list of the top 50 free agents this summer. He can play either forward spot and will bring much-needed shooting to Detroit, along with a veteran presence for a young locker room.

Harris was a reliable scorer and valuable all-around player during his five-plus years in Philadelphia. He averaged 17.2 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.1 assists this season with a shooting line of .487/.353/.878.

The move marks a return to Detroit for Harris, who played for the Pistons from February of 2016 to January of 2018. He was well-traveled before landing with the Sixers, being drafted by the Charlotte Bobcats in 2011 and spending time with four other franchises in his first eight years in the league.

This is the first signing for a Detroit team that headed into free agency with more than $58MM in cap room, and it’s the first major roster addition under new head of basketball operations Trajan Langdon.

The Pistons project to have roughly $26.5MM remaining, estimates Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype (via Twitter), factoring in a cap hold for Simone Fontecchio. They hold Early Bird rights on the 28-year-old small forward and can offer him a new deal worth up to $58MM over four years.

Langdon appeared on the verge of making another significant move on Sunday night, as the Pistons reportedly neared a max extension with Cade Cunningham, the top pick in the 2021 draft.

Jalen Smith Signs Three-Year Contract With Bulls

July 1st, 2024 at 8:31am CST by Arthur Hill

JULY 8: The signing is official, according to a team press release.

JULY 1: Free agent center Jalen Smith will join the Bulls on a three-year, $27MM contract, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

Smith became an unrestricted free agent on Friday by declining his $5.42MM player option for next season. The 24-year-old, who ranked 44th on our list of the top 50 free agents, winds up with a nice raise and a longer deal in Chicago.

Smith is expected to be the Bulls‘ new backup center after Andre Drummond agreed to terms with Philadelphia on Sunday night. With no available cap space, Chicago will likely sign Smith with a portion of its $12.8MM non-taxpayer mid-level exception. Whether they use the MLE or acquire him via sign-and-trade, the Bulls will be hard-capped at the first tax apron of $178,132,000.

After being selected by Phoenix with the 10th pick in the 2020 draft, Smith was sent to Indiana at the 2022 trade deadline. He became a valuable backup in two-and-a-half years with the Pacers and played rotation minutes as the team reached the Eastern Conference Finals.

He averaged 9.9 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 61 games this season while shooting 59.2% from the floor and 42.4% from three-point range.

The addition of Smith is one of several recent moves the Bulls have made to create a younger, more athletic roster and become less reliant on veterans. They traded for Josh Giddey last week and agreed to terms on a new five-year deal with free agent Patrick Williams over the weekend.

Aaron Wiggins Signs Five-Year Deal With Thunder

July 1st, 2024 at 8:21am CST by Arthur Hill

JULY 7: Wiggins has officially signed the contract, Joel Lorenzi of Oklahoma Sports tweets.

JULY 1: Aaron Wiggins will return to the Thunder on a five-year, $47MM contract, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

The 25-year-old shooting guard became a restricted free agent on Saturday after Oklahoma City declined his $1.989MM option for next season and tendered him a qualifying offer.

That move was a prelude to a long-term deal. Wiggins has become a valuable rotation member during his three years with the team, and the Thunder wanted to lock him down for the future.

The No. 39 player on our list of this summer’s top 50 free agents, Wiggins appeared in 78 games last season, making four starts and averaging 6.9 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 15.7 minutes per night. He also posted .562/.492/.789 shooting splits as OKC tied for the best record in the West at 57-25.

Wiggins was selected with the 55th pick in the 2021 draft after three seasons at Maryland. He turned out to be a bargain on his original four-year, $6.4MM deal, so the team decided to reward him and make sure he’s part of what appears to be a very bright future in Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma City also agreed to re-sign Isaiah Joe to a long-term deal after declining his option on Saturday. The Thunder will be able to keep both Wiggins’ and Joe’s modest cap holds on their books while using up their cap room, then go over the cap to re-sign them.

Thunder Sign Isaiah Joe To Four-Year Contract

July 1st, 2024 at 8:14am CST by Luke Adams

JULY 7: The deal is now official, per a team press statement.

JULY 1: The Thunder and swingman Isaiah Joe have agreed to terms on a new four-year contract, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that the deal will be worth $48MM.

Joe has spent the past two seasons in Oklahoma City after being waived by the Sixers in 2022. During that time, he has been one of the Thunder’s most reliable shooters off the bench, averaging 8.8 points per game with a .412 3PT% in 151 outings (11 starts; 18.8 MPG).

The Thunder held an extremely team-friendly option on Joe for the 2024/25 season. However, the club opted to decline that $2.165MM option in order to sign the sharpshooter to a longer-term contract.

While Oklahoma City could have exercised the option and then negotiated an extension with Joe, turning down the option – which technically allowed him to become an unrestricted free agent – ensured that he’ll receive a raise in ’24/25 and won’t compromise the Thunder’s offseason cap room. They can keep his minimum-salary cap hold on the books until they’ve used all that room, then go over the cap using his Early Bird rights to officially re-sign him to his new deal.

The maximum amount the Thunder could have given Joe on an Early Bird contract was about $58.2MM over four years, so this deal will come in a little lower than that.

The Thunder took a similar route with another rotation player, Aaron Wiggins, declining his minimum-salary team option for 2024/25, making him a restricted free agent, and agreeing to terms with him on a new five-year, $47MM deal.

Joe was the No. 23 free agent on our top-50 list.

Checking In On Where Things Stand In NBA Free Agency

July 1st, 2024 at 7:41am CST by Luke Adams

The first official day of NBA free agency on June 30 was certainly busy, but it wasn’t quite as hectic as usual. There are a few factors believed to be playing a part in the slower pace, including:

The new exclusive negotiating window open to team between the end of the NBA Finals and June 30 allowed several free agents to reach deals with their own teams ahead of the official start of free agency. Pascal Siakam (Pacers), OG Anunoby (Knicks), Immanuel Quickley (Raptors), and Nic Claxton (Nets) were among the notable players to line up massive paydays prior to June 30.
The NBA has made cracking down on tampering a priority, threatening significant penalties not just to teams but to agents who make free agent deals too early. That may be why it took an hour after free agency opened on Sunday evening to get our first report of a player switching teams (Andre Drummond to Philadelphia).
Teams are navigating a challenging new Collective Bargaining Agreement that has more ways than ever for a club to become hard-capped, ranging from sending out cash in a trade (hard-capped at the second apron) to using a trade exception generated before the offseason began (hard-capped at the first apron).
As teams grapple with those CBA changes, the salary cap increase for 2024/25 was just 3.36%, giving high-salary teams less wiggle room following increases of 10% in both 2022 and 2023.

While we didn’t get quite as much action on day one as expected, there were still a good deal of notable headlines, including Paul George‘s decision to leave the Clippers for the Sixers. George’s move prompted L.A. to put out a lengthy statement explaining why the star forward wouldn’t be back, which is – if not an entirely unprecedented move – a rarity.

Besides agreeing to terms with George, Philadelphia also reached deals with Andre Drummond, Kelly Oubre, and Eric Gordon during the early part of free agency, taking advantage of the fact that it’s one of the few contending teams with cap room this offseason.

The other Eastern Conference playoff team with cap room, the Magic, made one of the day’s biggest moves by agreeing to terms on a three-year deal with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, adding a talented three-and-D wing with championship experience to a young roster that struggled to make outside shots last season.

While they lost George, the Clippers did reach a new two-year deal with James Harden and are bringing in at least two outside free agents, striking agreements with swingman Derrick Jones and guard Kevin Porter.

Jones’ free agency was a curious one, since he agreed to terms with the Clippers just a couple hours after the Mavericks agreed to sign Naji Marshall to a pretty similar deal. Dallas head of basketball operations Nico Harrison referred last month to re-signing Jones as the team’s “priority 1A and 1B,” and while his 11th-hour agent change complicated his free agency to some extent, it was still surprising to see him leave Dallas for a contract they seemingly could’ve afforded. We’ll see if more details on those negotiations surface in the coming days.

Elsewhere in free agency, the Celtics made deals to bring back a pair of reserve centers in Luke Kornet and Neemias Queta; the Heat reached a two-year agreement with Kevin Love; the Wizards lined up a new starting center by agreeing to a three-year contract with Jonas Valanciunas; and the Suns replaced outgoing reserve center Drew Eubanks by making a deal with veteran big man Mason Plumlee.

One of the day’s most interesting developments occurred on the Chris Paul front, where the Warriors decided to waive the veteran point guard after not finding a suitable trade for his expiring $30MM non-guaranteed contract. Paul had only been on waivers for a few hours when word broke that he had reached an agreement to sign with the Spurs upon reaching free agency. Within the last few years, Paul has helped young teams in both Oklahoma City and Phoenix exceed expectations. His impact on Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs will be a fun storyline to follow in 2024/25.

Restricted free agents Max Christie (Lakers) and Obi Toppin (Pacers) each reached four-year deals with their own teams on Sunday afternoon before free agency officially began, while the Pistons appear on track to keep Cade Cunningham out of 2025 restricted free agency by signing him to a lucrative new five-year extension. That deal’s not done yet, but it sounds like it’ll cross the finish line soon.

As our list of free agents shows, there are still plenty of intriguing names out there. While LeBron James is considered highly likely to return to the Lakers and Tyrese Maxey is a lock to stick with the Sixers, the futures of other top-15 free agents like DeMar DeRozan, Miles Bridges, Isaiah Hartenstein, and Klay Thompson remain less certain.

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Hoops Rumors Originals

Sixers Re-Sign Kelly Oubre On Two-Year Contract

July 1st, 2024 at 12:51am CST by Luke Adams

JULY 7: The signing is official, according to a team press release.

“Kelly was one of our most important contributors last season, bringing physicality, energy, and toughness to the table on a nightly basis,” top executive Daryl Morey said. “We’re excited to have him back and believe he’ll play a key role in our pursuit of a championship.”

JULY 1: Kelly Oubre is returning to Philadelphia, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, who reports (via Twitter) that the free agent forward is in agreement with the Sixers on a new two-year, $16.3MM deal. The contract will include a second-year player option, Wojnarowski adds.

After averaging 20.3 points per game with the Hornets in 2022/23, Oubre accepted a one-year, minimum-salary contract with Philadelphia last summer and played a significant role for the club this past season, averaging 15.4 PPG, 5.0 RPG, and 1.5 APG in 68 games.

An athletic, versatile defender with good size, Oubre made 52 starts and averaged 30.2 minutes per night, logging more total minutes in ’23/24 than any Sixer besides Tyrese Maxey and Tobias Harris. He came in at No. 31 on our list of this year’s top 50 free agents.

The terms of Oubre’s new deal suggest he’ll be re-signed using Philadelphia’s room exception once the team has used up its cap space. As we outlined earlier, based on the $140.59MM salary cap for 2024/25, that exception for cap-room teams will start at just under $8MM and can be worth up to about $16.37MM over two years.

The 76ers have had a busy first day in free agency, reaching contract agreements with Andre Drummond (two years, $10MM), and Eric Gordon (veteran’s minimum) in addition to Oubre. Philadelphia is also the strong frontrunner to land star forward Paul George after the Clippers issued a statement on Sunday announcing that George will be signing with a new team.

Clippers Sign Derrick Jones To Three-Year Deal

June 30th, 2024 at 11:01pm CST by Rory Maher

JULY 9: The Clippers have officially signed Jones, per the NBA’s transaction log.

JUNE 30: The Clippers are signing free agent forward Derrick Jones to a three-year, $30MM contract, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Sources tell Kelly Iko of The Athletic that the agreement is fully guaranteed with no player or team option. Jones will also receive a 5% trade kicker, Iko adds (via Twitter).

It’s possible that Jones could be acquired in a sign-and-trade, but if not, Los Angeles will use most of its non-taxpayer mid-level exception to complete the deal. Either scenario will hard cap the Clips at the first tax apron, which is set at $178.1MM.

After playing a fairly modest role off the bench with Chicago from 2021-23, the high-flying Jones was one of the NBA’s best bargains last season while on a minimum-salary contract with the Mavericks. He started 66 of his 76 regular games with Dallas in 2023/24, averaging 8.3 PPG and 3.3 RPG on .483/.343/.713 shooting.

Jones was a key role player as the Mavs advanced to the NBA Finals, averaging 9.1 PPG, 3.5 RPG and 1.0 BPG on .481/.369/.733 shooting in 22 postseason contests (29.4 MPG). He was frequently tasked with defending opposing teams’ top scorers.

A former undrafted free agent who played one year of college ball at UNLV, Jones has made previous stops with Phoenix, Miami and Portland in addition to Chicago and Dallas. The 27-year-old won the dunk contest back in 2020.

Jones’ free agency was supposed to be complicated by the fact that he recently changed agents, but evidently that didn’t stop him or his representatives from working out a deal with the Clips. The Mavericks reached a three-year, $27MM deal with free agent wing Naji Marshall before Jones’ deal with L.A. was reported.

Ironically, while Marshall was reportedly a fallback option in case Jones left Dallas, Jones himself is a consolation prize of sorts for the Clippers, who are losing Paul George. The nine-time All-Star is expected to sign a four-year max contract with the Sixers.

Magic Guaranteeing Caleb Houstan’s 2024/25 Salary

June 30th, 2024 at 11:00pm CST by Luke Adams

The Magic are guaranteeing Caleb Houstan‘s $2.02MM salary for the 2024/25 season, according to Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel (subscription required).

Houstan’s contract included a salary guarantee deadline of June 30, meaning Orlando had to waive him on Sunday in order to avoid locking in his minimum salary. However, the decision to guarantee that money was long expected and had been accounted for in the club’s cap room projections for the summer, Beede writes.

Houston, 21, was the 32nd overall pick in the 2022 draft. He has played a modest role off Orlando’s bench in his first two NBA seasons, averaging 4.1 points and 1.7 rebounds in 14.8 minutes per game across 110 total regular season appearances (17 starts).

The 6’8″ forward shoots almost exclusively from beyond the arc – he attempted 193 three-pointers and just 13 two-pointers in 2023/24 – and bumped his three-point percentage to 37.3% on 3.3 attempts per game in his second NBA season.

Houstan’s contract includes a $2.19MM team option for the 2025/26 season.

Four other players besides Houstan had June 30 salary guarantee dates in their contracts, as our tracker shows. Chris Paul (Warriors) and Troy Brown (Pistons) were waived prior to the deadline, while Alex Caruso (Thunder) was assured of his full guaranteed following the trade to Oklahoma City. There has been no specific reporting on Jaden Hardy‘s guarantee, but it’s safe to assume the Mavericks will lock in the $2.02MM salary for the promising young guard.

[Update: Michael Scotto of HoopsHype has confirmed (via Twitter) that Hardy’s salary for 2024/25 is now guaranteed.]

Western Notes: Edey, Canada, Spurs, Castle, Clippers

June 30th, 2024 at 10:45pm CST by Rory Maher

The Grizzlies selected back-to-back college Player of the Year Zach Edey with the No. 9 pick in the 2024 draft. The 7’4″ center, who is from Toronto, was on the preliminary roster for the Canadian national team, but he decided to withdraw from consideration for the 12-man roster ahead of the team’s training camp as it prepares for the Olympics in Paris next month, tweets Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca. Edey will be prioritizing his development with Memphis ahead of his rookie NBA season.

“Representing Canada in the Olympics remains a lifelong dream of mine, but for now, I look forward to being the team’s biggest fan from this side of the Atlantic,” Edey said as part of a larger statement (Twitter link via Grange).

Here are a few more notes from around the Western Conference:

The Spurs intend to sign future Hall of Famer Chris Paul to a one-year, $11MM+ contract once he clears waivers. That one-year agreement isn’t a coincidence, according to Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News, who hears the team is prioritizing short-term contracts to maximize financial flexibility for the 2025 offseason (Twitter link). The list of free agents for next year can be found here. Of course, it’s possible the Spurs may be more focused on trade possibilities in 2025 than free agency, as they control several future first-round picks.
Spurs No. 4 overall pick Stephon Castle is thrilled to team up with reigning Rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama, writes Andrew Lopez of ESPN. “Just the thought of playing with him, of course it circulates in your mind, but it really doesn’t feel real until it becomes reality,” Castle said. “So I mean, just to know that that’s going to be my future teammate now, I’m just really excited for what our future looks like.” Castle won a championship with UConn in his lone collegiate season.
With Mason Plumlee heading to Phoenix and Daniel Theis, Moussa Diabate and Kai Jones all unrestricted free agents, the Clippers are looking for a new backup big man, per Law Murray of The Athletic. The Clips expect to work out a new deal with Jones and there’s a chance Diabate could be back too, Murray says, but neither player has a proven track record in the NBA.

NBA Minimum Salaries For 2024/25

June 30th, 2024 at 10:02pm CST by Luke Adams

An NBA team that has spent all its cap space and doesn’t have any of its mid-level or bi-annual exception available still always has the ability to sign a player to a minimum-salary contract, unless that club is right up against its hard cap.

Teams with cap room or with access to the non-taxpayer mid-level exception will have a little more flexibility to sign players to longer-term minimum-salary contracts. However, teams without cap room and without any other exceptions on hand can still use the minimum salary exception to add as many players as roster limits and the hard cap allow, for contracts of up to two years.

Undrafted free agents and second-round picks are often recipients of minimum-salary contracts, but there are plenty of veterans who end up settling for the minimum too. Because a player’s minimum salary is determined by how much NBA experience he has, many veterans will earn more than twice as much money as a rookie will in 2024/25 on a minimum-salary contract.

Listed below are 2024/25’s minimum salary figures, sorted by years of NBA experience. If a player spent any time on an NBA club’s active regular season roster in a given season, he earned one year of experience. So any player with zero years of experience has not yet made his NBA debut.

These figures represent approximately a 3.36% increase on last season’s minimum salaries, since that’s the amount of the NBA’s salary cap increase for 2024/25.

Here’s the full breakdown:

Years of Experience	Salary
0	$1,157,153
1	$1,862,265
2	$2,087,519
3	$2,162,606
4	$2,237,691
5	$2,425,403
6	$2,613,120
7	$2,800,834
8	$2,988,550
9	$3,003,427
10+	$3,303,771

Because the NBA doesn’t want teams to avoid signing veteran players in favor of cheaper, younger players, the league reimburses clubs who sign veterans with three or more years of experience to one-year, minimum-salary contracts. Those deals will only count against the cap – and against a team’s bank balance – for $2,087,519, the minimum salary for a player with two years of experience.

For instance, Eric Gordon, who has 16 seasons of NBA experience, will reportedly sign a one-year, minimum-salary contract with the Sixers, who will only be charged $2,087,519 for Gordon’s contract. He’ll earn $3,303,771, but the NBA will make up the difference. This only applies to one-year contracts, not to multiyear deals.

If a player signs a minimum-salary contract after the regular season begins, he’ll earn a prorated portion of the amount listed above.

Those figures listed above also only apply to players who are signing new contracts in 2024/25. Players who are in the second, third, or fourth year of a minimum-salary deal will be earning a slightly different predetermined amount.

For example, Warriors big man Trayce Jackson-Davis – who signed a minimum-salary contract last offseason and now has one year of NBA experience – will earn a $1,891,857 salary in the second year of his contract, more than the $1,862,265 he would receive if he were signing a new minimum deal this fall. That’s because his second-year salary is based on a 5% raise over last season’s minimum salary for a player with one year of experience, whereas the cap rose by just 3.36%.

Here’s what multiyear minimum-salary contracts signed in 2024/25 will look like:

Experience	2024/25	2025/26	2026/27	2027/28
0	$1,157,153	$1,955,377	$2,296,271	$2,486,995
1	$1,862,265	$2,191,897	$2,378,864	$2,573,347
2	$2,087,519	$2,270,735	$2,461,462	$2,789,215
3	$2,162,606	$2,349,578	$2,667,944	$3,005,085
4	$2,237,691	$2,546,675	$2,874,429	$3,220,959
5	$2,425,403	$2,743,776	$3,080,918	$3,436,836
6	$2,613,120	$2,940,876	$3,287,406	$3,453,941
7	$2,800,834	$3,137,977	$3,303,770	$3,799,338
8	$2,988,550	$3,153,598	$3,634,150	$3,799,338
9	$3,003,427	$3,468,960	$3,634,150	$3,799,338
10+	$3,303,771	$3,468,960	$3,634,150	$3,799,338

Technically, a minimum-salary contract could cover five years for a player with full Bird rights, but in actuality, that never happens.

While some second-round picks and undrafted free agents will sign three- or four-year minimum-salary contracts, a minimum deal exceeding two years is rare for a player with more than a year or two of NBA experience under his belt.