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Pacific Notes: Oubre, Dedmon, Lydon, Kawhi

July 18th, 2019 at 1:28pm CST by Luke Adams

As the last restricted free agent on the market this summer, Kelly Oubre may have preferred to resolve his free agency situation a little sooner. However, as Gina Mizell of The Athletic relays, Oubre – who didn’t have to wait until the fall to get a new deal like other RFAs have in recent years – had no complaints about the process after signing a new two-year, $30MM contract with the Suns.

“It was a little prolonged due to the things of the business,” Oubre said. “I was blessed enough to be able to watch it happen. Everything works out for people who put the right energy into the world. So I can’t really complain. It’s been a great two weeks.”

The Suns, meanwhile, made Oubre a priority this offseason due to the way he approaches the game, as general manager James Jones told reporters, including Mizell, this week.

“When you watch the games, you watch effort,” Jones said. “You watch the competitiveness. You watch the passion. That’s who you are. (Oubre) was consistent every game, every day. … Those are the foundational characteristics and traits that you look for in players when you talk about building a core, building a foundation.”

Here’s more from around the Pacific:

Dewayne Dedmon‘s ability to shoot three-pointers and run the floor could help maximize the Kings‘ run-and-gun offense in 2019/20, writes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. For his part, Dedmon is looking forward to fitting into Sacramento’s system. “I had my free agency meeting with my agent and he broke everything down, talked about the teams and whatever, and Sac came with the best offer,” Dedmon said. “Best fit, best offer, everything was good, and it’s somewhere I can call home for the next three years, hopefully.”
Tyler Lydon‘s new two-year, minimum-salary contract with the Kings is only partially guaranteed for $50K in year one, tweets Jeff Siegel of Early Bird Rights. Given how little salary protection he has, the former first-round pick isn’t necessarily a lock to earn a regular season roster spot for Sacramento in 2019/10.
Nearly two weeks after Kawhi Leonard announced that he’d be joining the Clippers, Michael Lee of The Athletic looks back at the way Leonard wielded his power during the free agent process and the ripple effect the decision had on the Raptors, Lakers, and Thunder, among other teams.

Suns Sign Frank Kaminsky To Two-Year Deal

July 17th, 2019 at 6:15pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 17: The signing is official, the Suns announced on Twitter.

JULY 1: The Suns and free agent big man Frank Kaminsky have reached an agreement on a two-year deal worth approximately $10MM, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Phoenix is expected to complete the signing using the team’s $4.8MM room exception after using up all of its cap space to sign Ricky Rubio to a three-year, $51MM contract.

Kaminsky, the ninth overall pick in the 2015 draft, was the subject of trade and buyout speculation earlier this year as he fell out of the Hornets’ rotation for several weeks. The 26-year-old ultimately earned a more regular role in the second half, but had a down year in Charlotte, averaging 8.6 PPG and 3.5 RPG in 47 games (16.1 MPG).

Kaminsky didn’t receive a qualifying offer from the Hornets, so he entered the market as an unrestricted free agent. Despite a somewhat disappointing stint in Charlotte, he still has some upside as a stretch big man.

The Suns, whose Ryan Anderson experiment failed last season, have now lined up deals for two bigs who can knock down three-pointers. In addition to agreeing to sign Kaminsky, they’ll also acquire Dario Saric in a trade with the Timberwolves once the July moratorium ends.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Cheick Diallo To Sign With Suns

July 17th, 2019 at 4:49pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Suns have reached a two-year deal with Cheick Diallo, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Phoenix holds a team option on the second season, according to Michael Scotto of The Athletic (Twitter link).

The 22-year-old power forward spent the past three seasons in New Orleans. He has been a steady rotation player during the last two years and averaged 6.0 points and 5.2 rebounds in 64 games this season.

Phoenix could only offer Diallo a veteran’s minimum deal, which will pay about $1.7MM and $1.8MM over the next two years, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link). The Suns now have 15 players under contract, not counting their two-way deals.

Nets Sign David Nwaba

July 17th, 2019 at 12:12pm CST by Arthur Hill

JULY 17: The Nets have officially signed Nwaba, the team confirmed today in a press release.

JULY 14: David Nwaba has agreed to a two-year contract with the Nets, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. The deal includes a team option for the second season, according to Michael Scotto of The Athletic, who adds that the Pacers, Kings, Rockets and Suns all had interest in Nwaba (Twitter link).

It’ll be a minimum-salary deal for Nwaba, who will make approximately $1.7MM for the upcoming season and $1.8MM in 2020/21 with a July 7 deadline for the option decision, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN. The Nets now have 15 players with guaranteed contracts.

Brooklyn will be the fourth stop in four years for the 26-year-old shooting guard, who spent his first three seasons with the Lakers, Bulls and Cavaliers. He appeared in 51 games for Cleveland this year, averaging 6.5 points in about 19 minutes per night.

The Cavs opted last month not to tender a $1.9MM qualifying offer to Nwaba, making him an unrestricted free agent. Even so, Cleveland had expressed some interest in bringing him back.

The addition of Nwaba continues an impressive summer for Brooklyn, which hit the free agent jackpot by signing Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and DeAndre Jordan.

Suns Re-Sign Kelly Oubre To Two-Year Deal

July 16th, 2019 at 1:27pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 16: The Suns have officially re-signed Oubre, the team announced today in a press release.

JULY 11: The Suns have reached an agreement with restricted free agent forward Kelly Oubre, agent Nima Namakian of BDA Sports tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

Oubre, who had been the last unsigned RFA on the market, will sign a two-year, $30MM contract, per Wojnarowski. According to Michael Scotto of The Athletic (Twitter link), it’s a fully guaranteed deal with no options. It also has a descending structure, with a $15.7MM first-year salary, tweets John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7.

Oubre, 23, was selected 15th overall in the 2015 draft and spent the first three and a half years of his NBA career in Washington. The Wizards, who didn’t appear committed to paying him in free agency this summer, attempted to trade Oubre to Memphis in a three-team trade for Trevor Ariza last December, then pivoted when that deal fell through and sent him directly to Phoenix in a package for Ariza a few days later.

In 40 games (12 starts) with the Suns, Oubre posted some of the best numbers of his career, averaging 16.9 PPG, 4.9 RPG, and 1.4 SPG with a .453 FG% in 29.5 minutes per contest. All of those marks would have been career highs.

As they completed their offseason roster moves, the Suns made it a priority to keep Oubre’s cap hold on their books in order to retain his Bird Rights and go over the cap to re-sign him, sending Josh Jackson, De’Anthony Melton, and a pair of second-round picks to Memphis in a trade to shed salary and avoid losing the former Wizard.

While Oubre may have been hoping for a longer-term commitment, his new two-year contract will give the young forward some financial security and allow him to return to the open market as an unrestricted free agent when he’s just 25 years old, Wojnarowski observes (via Twitter).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Jimmer Fredette Signs With Panathinaikos

July 15th, 2019 at 8:15am CST by clarkcrum

JULY 15: Fredette has officially signed with Panathinaikos, the Greek team announced today in a press release. Fredette published an Instagram post confirming his move to Greece and thanking fans for their support.

JULY 10: According to Nikos Varlas of Eurohoops, sharpshooting guard Jimmer Fredette has reached a two-year deal with Panathinaikos of the Greek Basket League and EuroLeague.

As Varlas notes, this will be the first European team Fredette plays for in his professional career. He also played in China from 2016 to 2019, becoming somewhat of a Chinese sensation before signing a two-year contract with the Suns back in March. The second year had a team option, which Phoenix declined back in June.

After his option was declined, Fredette briefly played with the Warriors’ summer league team, but left the team early so as not to get injured while he contemplated his overseas options in response to several foreign teams contacting his representatives about his availability.

A six-year NBA veteran, Fredette holds career averages of 6.0 points, 1.0 rebounds, and 1.4 assists in 13.3 minutes per game after being drafted No. 10 overall in the 2011 NBA Draft. His best season was probably as a rookie, when he averaged a career-high 7.6 PPG and 18.6 MPG.

Suns Quietly Make Constructive Moves During Offseason

July 14th, 2019 at 6:59pm CST by JD Shaw

The Suns quietly made some constructive roster moves this offseason, Greg Moore of the Arizona Republic writes. Phoenix was able to sign free agent point guard Ricky Rubio, re-sign forward Kelly Oubre Jr. and draft the likes of Cameron Johnson and Ty Jerome.

Trade Details: Napier, Graham, Warriors, Pacers, More

July 10th, 2019 at 4:59pm CST by Luke Adams

Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders has provided some additional details on one of the most interesting trade sequences of the offseason, filling in the blanks on the deals that sent Shabazz Napier and Treveon Graham from Brooklyn to Golden State to Minnesota.

As previously outlined by cap guru Albert Nahmad (Twitter link), in order to match salaries in their sign-and-trade deal for Kevin Durant ($38,199,000), the Nets had to send out $30,479,200 in salaries of their own, but D’Angelo Russell‘s maximum salary was only worth $27,285,000.

Brooklyn included Napier’s ($1,845,301) and Graham’s ($1,645,357) non-guaranteed contracts to make up that $3,194,200 difference, but had to partially guarantee those salaries in order for them to count for salary-matching purposes. According to Pincus (via Twitter), the Nets did so by giving each player a guarantee worth $1,597,100.

The hard-capped Warriors, who only took on the duo in order to acquire Russell, didn’t want those contracts on their books, so they flipped them to the Timberwolves in a separate trade. According to Pincus (via Twitter), Golden State paid $3.6MM in cash to Minnesota in that deal, more than enough to cover both players’ full salaries and make it worth the Wolves’ while (Napier’s and Graham’s combined salaries total $3.5MM for 2019/20).

[RELATED: 2019 NBA Offseason Trades]

Interestingly, teams are limited to sending out a total of $5,617,000 in cash in trades during the 2019/20 league year, and the Warriors have now sent out $3.6MM to Minnesota and $2MM to Memphis (in the Andre Iguodala deal). In other words, Golden State won’t have the ability to send out additional cash later in the season in another trade.

Here are more details on recent trades:

In the three-way trade that landed them T.J. Warren from Phoenix and three future second-round picks from Miami, the Pacers sent $1.1MM in cash to the Suns, per Pincus (Twitter link).
The Clippers sent $110K to the Heat in the four-team Jimmy Butler sign-and-trade deal, says Pincus (Twitter link). That small amount of cash – the minimum allowable in a trade – was the only outgoing piece for the Clips in a swap that landed them Maurice Harkless, the Heat’s lottery-protected 2023 first-round pick (later included in the Paul George package), and the draft rights to 2017 second-rounder Mathias Lessort.
In addition to getting $1.1MM from the Wizards in their three-team Anthony Davis trade, the Pelicans also received $1MM in cash from the Lakers, tweets Pincus. Pincus also notes that Washington used its trade exception from February’s Markieff Morris trade to take on Bonga’s $1.42MM salary. That exception was originally worth $8.6MM and was also used to acquire Davis Bertans ($7MM), so it has essentially been all used up.

Suns Sign Point Guard Ricky Rubio

July 8th, 2019 at 9:33pm CST by ChrisCrouse

JULY 8, 9:33pm: The Suns have officially signed Rubio, according to a team press release.

JUNE 30, 5:37pm: In a shocking development, the Suns have stolen presumed Pacers target Ricky Rubio. Phoenix will sign him to a three-year, $51MM deal, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.

Multiple reports this week indicated that Rubio was expected to join the Pacers once free agency began, with one story calling it a “virtual done deal.” Indiana saw point guard Darren Collison retire and it left them extremely thin at the position. However, the team was able to add Malcolm Brogdon via sign-and-trade.

As for the Suns, they haven’t had stability at the point guard spot since they traded Eric Bledsoe away. Rubio and newcomer Dario Saric, who came to the team in a draft night trade, will add veteran presence to a team looking to make the postseason.

A former fifth overall pick, Rubio averaged 12.7 PPG, 6.1 APG, and 3.6 RPG in 68 games (27.9 MPG) for the Jazz last season. He’s not a great shooter, but Phoenix will lean on him for his play-making, passing, and defense.

The Suns will need to make an additional roster move to fit Rubio in under the cap, if they plan to keep Kelly Oubre‘s cap hold on their books, notes ESPN’s Bobby Marks.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Suns Waive Kyle Korver

July 8th, 2019 at 5:09pm CST by Luke Adams

After being traded from the Jazz to the Grizzlies to the Suns, Kyle Korver has now been placed on waivers by Phoenix, according to NBA.com’s log of official transactions.

The move was expected, since only $3.44MM of Korver’s $7.5MM salary for 2019/20 was guaranteed. The Suns needed to open up extra cap room to sign Ricky Rubio to his three-year, $51MM contract, and releasing Korver helps pave the way.

Korver is now on track to clear waivers and become an unrestricted free agent on Wednesday evening. When he first reported that Korver would be cut, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski identified the Lakers, Bucks, and Sixers as the probable frontrunners to sign the veteran sharpshooter once he reaches the open market.

Korver averaged 8.6 PPG on .416/.397/.822 shooting in 70 games (19.1 MPG) last season for the Cavaliers and Jazz. A June report indicated that the 38-year-old – who is a career 42.9% three-point shooter – is expected to play for at least one more year.