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Eastern Notes: Valanciunas, Raptors, Pistons, Langdon

July 23rd, 2024 at 3:00pm CST by Luke Adams

Veteran center Jonas Valanciunas signed a three-year contract with the Wizards worth in excess of $30MM earlier this month, but the hosts of ESPN’s Hoop Collective podcast aren’t expecting the big man to play out that entire deal in D.C. (YouTube link; hat tip to HoopsHype). In fact, Brian Windhorst and Tim Bontemps suggested they wouldn’t be surprised if Valanciunas is playing elsewhere before the 2024/25 season is over.

“Do we think Jonas Valanciunas will be on offer from the Wizards midway through the season?” Windhorst said. “I wouldn’t rule out Jonas Valanciunas eventually ending up a Laker this year, that’s all I’m going to say.”

“100%,” Bontemps replied. “Or somewhere else besides Washington.”

While Valanciunas figures to slot in as the Wizards’ starting center this fall, the team remains firmly in a rebuilding stage, so if it can get draft assets in exchange for the 32-year-old at next year’s trade deadline, it wouldn’t be shocking to see him on the move in early 2025.

As Windhorst alluded to, Valanciunas was one of the players who was reportedly on LeBron James‘ wish list of “impact” free agents this summer and will likely be more attainable on the trade market that some of the other names on that list (such as James Harden, Klay Thompson, or DeMar DeRozan). So if Valanciunas is available, the Lakers are certainly among the teams who might kick the tires.

Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:

  • Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca explains how the Raptors made good use of their leverage in their standoff with Sasha Vezenkov and details how their buyout agreement with Vezenkov creates newfound financial flexibility for the team. While Toronto now has about $11.3MM in wiggle room below the luxury tax line, the club may opt to maintain that flexibility in case trade opportunities arise in the fall or during the season, Murphy writes.
  • In a mailbag for The Athletic, James L. Edwards III considers whether the Pistons still have moves to make this offseason, suggesting that he wouldn’t be surprised if the team explores the idea of signing one of the notable guards or wings left on the free agent market, such as Tyus Jones, Markelle Fultz, or Reggie Bullock. Edwards also weighs the odds of a Jaden Ivey trade, noting that significant minutes could be harder than ever to come by for the former lottery pick if Detroit is committed to playing Malik Beasley and Tim Hardaway Jr. regularly.
  • Keith Langlois of Pistons.com shares his early impressions of the Pistons‘ new president of basketball operations, exploring what Trajan Langdon‘s moves during his first two months on the job say about his roster-building approach. As Langlois writes, Langdon’s decisions have made it clear he’s not necessarily looking to get Detroit back to the playoffs as quickly as possible.
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Checking In On Two-Way Contract Slots Around NBA

July 23rd, 2024 at 1:57pm CST by Luke Adams

NBA teams are each permitted to carry up to three players on two-way contracts, which means at any given time there could be a maximum of 90 players on two-way deals around the league.

[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: Two-Way Contract]

Of course, while it’s common for the NBA-wide total to hover at or near 90 for much of the regular season, we’re only 23 days into the 2024/25 league year, so many teams have yet to fill all of their two-way slots.

Still, some clubs haven’t wasted much time in signing players to two-way contracts. At the moment, as our tracker shows, 62 of the 90 slots around the league are occupied and two more are spoken for — Spencer Jones has reportedly agreed to a deal with Denver and Jack McVeigh is reportedly signing with Houston.

We’re still about three months away from the 2024/25 regular season tipping off, and since two-way deals don’t affect a team’s cap situation, it won’t be a surprise if many teams rotate players in and out of those roster spots up until the season begins (and after that). But for the time being, there are just 26 open two-way slots across the league. Here’s the breakdown:

Teams with multiple open two-way slots

  • Brooklyn Nets (2)
  • Cleveland Cavaliers (3)
  • Indiana Pacers (3)
  • Los Angeles Clippers (2)
  • New York Knicks (2)
  • Orlando Magic (2)
  • San Antonio Spurs (2)

Some of these spots may already be spoken for. For instance, the Cavaliers (Emoni Bates), Pacers (Oscar Tshiebwe and Quenton Jackson) and Knicks (Jacob Toppin) still have two-way qualifying offers on the table to restricted free agents. If those players eventually accept those offers, they’ll be back with their respective clubs on new two-way contracts.

Some of these clubs – including the Pacers with Tristen Newton and Enrique Freeman, the Knicks with Kevin McCullar, and the Spurs with Harrison Ingram – also have second-round picks from this year’s draft who look like logical candidates for two-way spots.

Still, with multiple openings, many of these teams are in position to identify Summer League standouts whom they want to bring to training camp. They could offer them two-way deals or could try to sign several players to Exhibit 10 contracts and create an open competition for two-way spots this fall.

Teams with one open two-way slot

  • Atlanta Hawks
  • Boston Celtics
  • Charlotte Hornets
  • Dallas Mavericks
  • Detroit Pistons
  • New Orleans Pelicans
  • Phoenix Suns
  • Portland Trail Blazers
  • Utah Jazz
  • Washington Wizards

As with some of the teams above, there are a few cases here where there’s one obvious candidate to fill these two-way openings. It would make sense, for example, for the Celtics to sign No. 54 overall pick Anton Watson to a two-way deal.

That’s not the case for all of these openings though, so agents whose clients are seeking an 18-man roster spot will likely reach out to these clubs to see how they intend to use their third two-way contract slot.

Teams with no two-way openings

  • Chicago Bulls
  • Denver Nuggets
  • Golden State Warriors
  • Houston Rockets
  • Los Angeles Lakers
  • Memphis Grizzlies
  • Miami Heat
  • Milwaukee Bucks
  • Minnesota Timberwolves
  • Oklahoma City Thunder
  • Philadelphia 76ers
  • Sacramento Kings
  • Toronto Raptors

In theory, these 13 teams are good to go for training camp. In actuality, I could see half of them making two-way changes by the start of October. The Heat, for instance, had some non-roster players on their Summer League team outperform their two-way players and have some decisions to make on which three players they want to bring to camp on two-way deals.

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Contract Details: Mobley, K. Johnson, Bona, Matkovic

July 23rd, 2024 at 12:01pm CST by Luke Adams

The five-year, maximum-salary contract extension that Evan Mobley signed with the Cavaliers features multiple levels of Rose Rule incentives, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said during the last episode of The Hoop Collective podcast (YouTube link).

According to Windhorst, Mobley’s deal will begin at 27% of the 2025/26 cap if he makes the All-NBA Third Team next season. If he makes the All-NBA First or Second Team or wins Defensive Player of the Year, the starting salary in the extension would be 30% of the ’25/26 cap.

Assuming Mobley isn’t named Defensive Player of the Year and doesn’t make an All-NBA team, his deal would begin at the standard max for a player with four years of NBA experience (25% of the cap).

Here are more details on a few contracts recently signed around the NBA:

  • Keon Johnson‘s two-year, minimum-salary deal with the Nets is partially guaranteed for $250K in 2024/25, Hoops Rumors has learned. That partial guarantee will increase to $700K if Johnson remains under contract through the first day of the regular season. The second year is a team option that would be partially guaranteed for $271,614 if it’s exercised.
  • The four-year contract that No. 41 overall pick Adem Bona signed with the Sixers is worth the minimum across all four seasons and is only fully guaranteed in year one, Hoops Rumors has learned. Bona’s second-year salary of $1,955,377 is just 50% guaranteed, while his third- and fourth-year salaries are non-guaranteed. The fourth year is also a team option.
  • Karlo Matkovic‘s three-year contract with the Pelicans is worth $5.65MM and is fully guaranteed for the first two seasons, with a third-year team option, tweets Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. The terms reported by Scotto suggest that New Orleans used the second-round exception to give Matkovic a salary a little above the rookie minimum in 2024/25, with minimum salaries in years two and three.
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Suns Hiring Brent Barry As Assistant Coach

July 23rd, 2024 at 10:59am CST by Luke Adams

Brent Barry is moving from a front office role in San Antonio to Phoenix’s bench for the 2024/25 season, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link), who reports that the Suns are hiring Barry as an assistant coach.

A former NBA sharpshooter who played in the league from 1995-2009, Barry made 40.5% of his career three-point attempts and won a pair of championships with the Spurs in 2005 and 2007.

Following his retirement as a player, Barry initially transitioned into the media space, serving as an analyst with TNT from 2016-18.

He was hired by San Antonio in 2018 as the team’s vice president of basketball operations and has spent the last six seasons with the organization. In addition to his VP role, he was the general manager of the Austin Spurs from 2022-24. However, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype reported last month that Barry was expected to move on from the club this offseason.

Barry’s move to the sidelines doesn’t come out of nowhere. He previously interviewed for the Trail Blazers’ head coaching job in 2021 — that position ultimately went to Chauncey Billups.

Barry represents the latest addition to a new-look Suns coaching staff under head coach Mike Budenholzer, who was a longtime Spurs assistant earlier in his career and overlapped with Barry in San Antonio from 2004-08. David Fizdale, Chad Forcier, Mike Hopkins, Chaisson Allen, and Vince Legarza are among Budenholzer’s other assistants.

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Reggie Jackson To Join Sixers After Being Waived By Hornets

July 23rd, 2024 at 9:33am CST by Luke Adams

The Hornets are waiving veteran point guard Reggie Jackson, league sources tell Roderick Boone of The Charlotte Observer. Boone had previously reported that the move was expected, and it’s now official, per NBA.com’s transaction log.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link), Jackson intends to sign with the Sixers once he clears waivers.

Prior to Wojnarowski’s report, Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer had tweeted that the 76ers would have interest in Jackson, who played with Paul George in Los Angeles from 2020-23.

A 13-year NBA veteran, Jackson spent the 2023/24 season in Denver, backing up Jamal Murray at the point. He averaged 10.2 points, 3.8 assists, and 1.9 rebounds in 22.2 minutes per game, posting a .431/.359/.806 shooting line in 82 outings (23 starts).

Jackson exercised a $5.25MM player option in June, but the Nuggets wanted to go in a different direction with their backup point guard spot and traded the 34-year-old to Charlotte along with multiple second-round picks in a salary-dump deal. Denver is poised to sign Russell Westbrook to fill the backcourt hole created by that deal.

The Hornets, meanwhile, made their trade with Denver in order to acquire those future second-round picks rather than Jackson, who wasn’t in their plans for 2024/25. It’s the second time in the last two years that Charlotte has traded for Jackson and waived him shortly thereafter — it also happened in February 2023, when the Clippers sent him to the Hornets in a deal for Mason Plumlee. Jackson was cut three few days later and caught on with Denver on the buyout market at that time.

Waiving Jackson will create an opening on Charlotte’s 15-man roster, leaving the team with 13 players on fully guaranteed contracts and one (Taj Gibson) on a partially guaranteed deal.

The Sixers, meanwhile, figure to bring Jackson aboard on a minimum-salary contract, since that’s all they can offer to free agents after having used up their cap space and their room exception. The veteran guard will be the 13th man on Philadelphia’s standard roster, providing additional depth in a backcourt that includes rising star Tyrese Maxey, veterans Kyle Lowry and Eric Gordon, and rookie Jared McCain.

A minimum deal for Jackson will pay him about $3.3MM while counting against the 76ers’ cap for just $2.09MM.

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Serbia, Greece Set 12-Man Rosters For Olympics

July 23rd, 2024 at 9:10am CST by Luke Adams

Two more nations have set their 12-man rosters for the upcoming Olympic games in Paris, with Serbia and Greece both officially announcing their squads (Twitter links).

The Serbian roster is headlined by three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic and includes a few more NBA players beyond the Nuggets center. Hawks guard Bogdan Bogdanovic, Hornets guard Vasilije Micic, and Heat forward Nikola Jovic will also represent Serbia in Paris.

Jovic’s inclusion is particularly notable, since there was some uncertainty earlier this month about whether he’d be healthy enough to play. He injured his ankle during an offseason workout in Miami in June, but has apparently received medical clearance for the Olympics.

Nikola Milutinov, Ognjen Dobric, Vanja Marinkovic, Marko Guduric, Filip Petrusev, Aleksa Avramovic, Dejan Davidovac, and Uros Plavsic round out Serbia’s roster. Former NBA first-round pick Aleksej Pokusevski, who finished last season with the Hornets, isn’t among the final 12.

Meanwhile, Greece has also confirmed its Olympic roster, which will be led by another former NBA MVP, Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo. Giannis is the only Antetokounmpo suiting up for Greece in France at this year’s event, since his brothers Thanasis Antetokounmpo and Kostas Antetokounmpo are both dealing with injuries.

While Giannis is the only active NBA player on the Greek roster, a few others have previously played in the league, including Nick Calathes, Georgios Papagiannis, and Kostas Papanikolaou. Former Stephen F. Austin standout Thomas Walkup also signed an NBA contract back in 2016, though he never appeared in a regular season game.

Dinos Mitoglou, Giannoulis Larentzakis, Vassilis Charalampopoulos, Nikos Chougkaz, Dimitris Moraitis, Panagiotis Kalaitzakis, and Vassilis Toliopoulos make up the rest of Greece’s roster.

Serbia’s first pool-play game of the Olympics will take place on Sunday vs. Team USA, while Greece’s Olympic schedule will tip off a day earlier, with a Saturday showdown vs. Canada.

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Mavs Second-Rounder Melvin Ajinca Signs With ASVEL

July 23rd, 2024 at 8:11am CST by Luke Adams

Melvin Ajinca, who was selected with the No. 51 overall pick in last month’s draft, won’t be immediately joining the Mavericks. The 6’8″ forward has signed a one-year contract with ASVEL Basket, according to an announcement from the French team.

A native of France, Ajinca has spent the last several years playing in his home country, including the past two seasons with Saint-Quentin. The club played in LNB Pro B (France’s second-tier league) in 2022/23, then earned a promotion to LNB Elite (the top league in the country) for the ’23/24 season.

In 28 games for Saint-Quentin last season, Ajinca averaged 9.3 points and 3.3 rebounds in 24.6 minutes per contest. The 20-year-old struggled to score efficiently, however, making just 37.5% of his shot attempts from the floor, including 30.9% of his three-pointers. That trend continued this month at the Las Vegas Summer League, where he made just 13-of-44 (29.5%) shot attempts across five games for the Mavs and went 5-of-25 (20.0%) from beyond the arc.

Dallas traded up during the second round of last month’s draft in order to nab Ajinca. The Mavs sent the No. 58 pick and $1MM in cash – along with the draft rights to Petteri Koponen – to the Knicks in exchange for the No. 51 pick, which they used on Ajinca.

There was never likely to be room on the Mavs’ 15-man roster for Ajinca though. Dallas currently has 13 players on guaranteed contracts, with Spencer Dinwiddie set to sign a one-year deal and Markieff Morris widely expected to return to fill out the roster.

Ajinca looked like a possible two-way candidate, but now that he’ll remain overseas for at least one more season, the Mavs will have the flexibility to fill that third two-way slot with another player. Alex Fudge and Brandon Williams are currently on two-way contracts with the club, leaving one opening.

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Russell Westbrook Gave Up $1.7MM In Buyout Agreement With Jazz

July 23rd, 2024 at 7:01am CST by Luke Adams

As part of a buyout agreement with the Jazz, veteran guard Russell Westbrook gave up exactly $1.7MM, according to Keith Smith of Spotrac (Twitter link). Utah waived Westbrook on Saturday.

The buyout reduces Westbrook’s cap hit on Utah’s books from $4,027,525 to $2,327,525, giving the team a little extra salary cap flexibility. No team currently has more cap space than the Jazz, who still have about $33MM in available room.

The Jazz also reportedly received $4.3MM in cash from the Clippers in their trade for Westbrook, so despite being on the hook for about $2.33MM of the guard’s salary, they’ll come out nearly $2MM ahead from a financial perspective.

Westbrook will also come out ahead, since he’s reportedly on track to sign a minimum-salary contract with the Nuggets. That deal with Denver will pay him $3,303,771, increasing his total earnings for the 2024/25 season to $5,631,296, exceeding what he would have made if he had remained on his original $4.03MM contract.

As for the Clippers, they presumably could’ve reached a similar buyout agreement with Westbrook, but trading him to Utah allowed them to give Kris Dunn a more lucrative contract than they otherwise would’ve been able to. Using Westbrook’s $4MM+ outgoing salary for matching purposes, L.A. acquired Dunn via sign-and-trade, giving him a starting salary of $5,168,000 on his new three-year deal.

Westbrook is on track to serve as Jamal Murray‘s primary backup and play a significant role in Denver this season. Nikola Jokic reportedly advocated for the addition of the former MVP.

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Pelicans Sign Antonio Reeves To Three-Year Deal

July 23rd, 2024 at 4:13am CST by Dana Gauruder

JULY 23: Reeves’ deal is official, according to the NBA’s transaction log.

JULY 22: The Pelicans and second-round pick Antonio Reeves have agreed on a three-year, $5.41MM contract, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype tweets. The third year is a team option.

New Orleans likely used the second-round pick exception to sign Reeves at the minimum-salary level. A three-year rookie minimum deal this season is worth $5,408,801.

Reeves averaged 11.8 points, 2.4 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.0 steals per game in five appearances for the Pelicans’ Summer League team in Las Vegas.

Reeves was the No. 47 overall pick and was dealt by Orlando to New Orleans in a draft-night trade. The Magic acquired second-round pick swaps in 2030 and 2031 in the deal.

Adding Reeves puts the Pelicans at 14 standard contracts if Matt Ryan, whose deal becomes guaranteed on opening night, is included in that total, Christian Clark of the New Orleans Times-Picayune tweets.

A Chicago native who spent his first three college seasons at Illinois State, Reeves transferred to Kentucky in 2022 and spent his final two seasons with the Wildcats.

Reeves could emerge as an offensive spark-plug. The 6’4″ guard had a very efficient offensive season in 2023/24, averaging 20.2 points and 4.2 rebounds on .512/.447/.863 shooting in 33 games (31.4 MPG).

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