Lamar Stevens Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Spurs Waive Lamar Stevens

July 17th, 2023 at 2:23pm CST by Rory Maher

The Spurs have waived forward Lamar Stevens, the team announced in a press release.

Stevens’ contract for 2023/24 was partially guaranteed at $400K. San Antonio is waiving him before his full $1.93MM salary becomes guaranteed today.

Stevens, who turned 26 last week, was sent to the Spurs by Cleveland as part of the Max Strus sign-and-trade. His contract for next season was previously non-guaranteed, but he received $400K as part of the deal to adhere to the NBA’s salary-matching rules.

The combo forward went undrafted in 2020 after four college seasons at Penn State, later signing a two-way deal with the Cavaliers. He was promoted to a multiyear standard contract in April 2021, the end of his rookie season.

Overall, Stevens averaged 5.3 PPG and 2.8 RPG on .467/.281/.710 shooting in three seasons with the Cavs (165 games, 16.0 MPG). He’s an energetic, athletic and physical player who is known as a tenacious defender, though he struggles with scoring efficiency.

The Spurs have a roster crunch, and evidently Stevens wasn’t part of their long-term plans, so they decided to release him. He’ll become an unrestricted free agent in a couple days if he clears waivers, but won’t be eligible to sign with Cleveland for a year after the team traded him.

Contract Details: Exum, Vezenkov, Stevens

July 14th, 2023 at 4:02pm CST by Luke Adams

Dante Exum‘s new deal with the Mavericks was initially reported to be a one-year, minimum-salary agreement, but the terms were adjusted between July 1 – when the two sides struck a deal – and today, when it was made official.

According to Tim MacMahon of ESPN (Twitter link), Exum ended up signing a two-year, $6.15MM contract that is non-guaranteed for the second season. It will be worth $3MM in 2023/24 and $3.15MM in ’24/25, with this year’s salary coming out of the Mavericks’ mid-level exception.

Giving Exum a portion of the MLE wouldn’t have been possible if the Mavericks’ offer sheet for Matisse Thybulle had been successful, since Thybulle would have received $10.5MM of the $12.4MM mid-level. Once Portland matched Dallas’ offer for Thybulle, the Mavs’ MLE fully freed up, allowing the team to renegotiate its deal with Exum.

It wouldn’t be surprising if the Mavs also use a chunk of the mid-level to complete their reported agreement with Seth Curry, who was initially expected to be signed using the bi-annual exception. Signing Curry with the MLE would preserve the BAE for 2024/25.

Here are a couple more contract-related notes from around the NBA:

Sasha Vezenkov‘s three-year contract with the Kings comes in just below $20MM, Hoops Rumors has learned — its exact value is $19,975,609, including a $6,341,464 starting salary in 2023/24. As Michael Scotto of HoopsHype tweets, the first two years of Vezenkov’s deal are guaranteed, while the third is a team option (worth $6,975,609).
As part of the trade that sent him from Cleveland to the Spurs, Lamar Stevens had his minimum salary partially guaranteed for $400K, tweets Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype. Stevens also had his salary guarantee deadline moved up from January 7 to July 17, so San Antonio will have to decide in the coming days whether or not to fully guarantee the forward’s 2023/24 cap hit.
In case you missed it, we passed along contract details on a few other recently reported deals on Thursday.

Cavs Acquire Max Strus In Three-Team Sign-And-Trade

July 6th, 2023 at 4:01pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 6: The trade is official, the Heat announced (via Twitter). As part of the deal, Miami will also swap second-round picks with the Spurs, with Miami receiving a 2027 selection and San Antonio receiving a 2026 pick. The Cavs are also sending cash to the Spurs.

JULY 1: The Cavaliers, Heat, and Spurs have agreed to a three-team deal that will land Max Strus in Cleveland via sign-and-trade, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). Agent Mark Bartelstein tells Wojnarowski that Strus has agreed to a four-year, $63MM contract with the Cavs.

Miami will acquire a second-round pick and will create a trade exception in the deal, while San Antonio will receive Cedi Osman, Lamar Stevens, and a second-round pick, according to Wojnarowski.

The second-rounder going to Miami is the Lakers’ 2026 pick, while the one headed to San Antonio is Cleveland’s 2030 selection, reports Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.

Strus had been repeatedly mentioned as a top target for the Cavs in the days and hours leading up to free agency. A report on Thursday indicated Cleveland hoped its $12.4MM mid-level exception would be enough to land the 27-year-old, but with rumors suggesting his market was above the MLE, a report on Friday suggested the Cavs were looking into three-team sign-and-trade scenarios.

Right before free agency opened, Marc Stein reported that a scenario in which the Cavs sign-and-trade for Strus and use their mid-level exception to add Georges Niang appeared “increasingly likely.” Sure enough, Cleveland is poised to add both players, having reached an agreement with Niang on Friday night.

A former undrafted free agent who had brief stints in Boston and Chicago early in his career, Strus blossomed into a reliable rotation player in Miami during the last two seasons. In 148 games since the start of 2021/22, he has averaged 11.1 points and 3.1 rebounds in 26.1 minutes per night, with a shooting line of .423/.376/.845. He moved ahead of Duncan Robinson in the Heat’s rotation during that time in large part due to his more stable presence on defense.

The Cavs had been on the lookout for a wing to complement starters Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Jarrett Allen, and Evan Mobley for the better part of the year. Strus should slot into that role nicely along with Caris LeVert, who also agreed to return to Cleveland.

In moving off Osman and Stevens in this trade, the Cavs should still be about $12.5MM below the luxury tax line with 10 players on the books, tweets Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype.

The Heat, who project to be a taxpayer in 2023/24, had been bracing for Strus’ departure, recognizing that they weren’t prepared to match his price on the open market. They reportedly didn’t want to take any salary back in a sign-and-trade and were able to achieve that goal. The traded player exception they generate as part of the transaction will be worth half of Strus’ first-year salary — based on the reported terms of his deal, that TPE should come in at about $7MM.

As for the Spurs, they entered the day with more leftover cap room than any other NBA team and will use a portion of it to add a second-round pick and two forwards who are on expiring contracts and who should be in the mix for rotation roles if they remain on San Antonio’s roster.

Osman, who will earn $6.7MM in 2023/24 before reaching unrestricted free agency, has been a rotation player in Cleveland for the last six seasons, averaging 9.7 PPG, 3.0 RPG, and 2.0 APG with a .353 3PT% in 404 games (23.6 MPG) during that time.

Stevens, a solid defensive wing who doesn’t provide much on offense, has a $1.93MM non-guaranteed salary — some or all of that money will become guaranteed as part of this deal in order to satisfy the NBA’s salary-matching rules.

The Spurs will still have approximately $23-26MM in cap space available.

Cavs Exercising Lamar Stevens’ 2023/24 Team Option

June 23rd, 2023 at 9:36am CST by Luke Adams

The Cavaliers are picking up their minimum-salary team option on forward Lamar Stevens for the 2023/24 season, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

The option will pay Stevens a $1,930,681 salary for next season, though he’s still not necessarily assured of that full amount. His salary will remain non-guaranteed until January 10 even after Cleveland exercises the option, so the club could go in a different direction later in the offseason – or early in the regular season – and avoid being on the hook for his entire cap hit.

Still, Stevens looks like a good value at that price, so it would be a surprise if he’s cut. The 6’6″ wing appeared in 62 games for the Cavs last season, starting 25 of them and averaging 18.1 minutes per night. He recorded 5.3 PPG and 3.3 RPG on .448/.316/.702 shooting and was one of the team’s most reliable perimeter defenders.

While most team option decisions are due on June 29, today is the deadline to make a call on Stevens, which is why it was reported early.

Stevens is now on track to reach unrestricted free agency in 2024, assuming he doesn’t sign an extension before then.

Draft Rumors: Cavs, Pacers, Jazz, Warriors, Suns, Bucks

June 16th, 2023 at 3:01pm CST by Luke Adams

The Cavaliers currently only hold a second-round pick (No. 49) in the 2023 NBA draft, but they’ve been exploring ways they might be able to move into the first round, reports Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. Sources tell Fedor that the Cavs have an “organizational desire” to trade up in the draft and have made calls to teams in the 20-30 range to determine what it would cost to move up.

As Fedor explains, there’s a belief that there will be some older prospects available in that range who might be ready to claim NBA rotation roles as rookies. Several of those players are wings, which would appeal to a Cleveland team that has been on the lookout for help at that spot for the last year. Fedor identifies UCLA’s Jaime Jaquez as one of several prospects who could intrigue the Cavaliers.

It may be tricky for the Cavaliers to put together a package capable of getting them into the first round, however. They dealt several future first-rounders away in last year’s Donovan Mitchell blockbuster and would probably only be able to offer second-rounders along with a player or two. Lamar Stevens, Cedi Osman, Dean Wade, and Ricky Rubio are among the Cavs players who could be moved, Fedor writes, but none of them are likely to have substantial value on the trade market.

Here are a few more draft-related rumors from around the league:

The Pacers and Jazz are among the teams with multiple first-round picks who are worth keeping an eye on as the draft nears, writes Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports. According to Fischer, rival teams continue to mention that Indiana is interest in packaging some combination of No. 26, No. 29, and No. 32 in order to move up. Utah has talked to teams about various trade scenarios involving the No. 9, No. 16, and No. 28 picks, Fischer adds.
Sources who spoke to Sam Vecenie of The Athletic believe the Warriors may be focused on landing an older, more experienced prospect at No. 19 after getting mixed results when investing in young lottery picks in recent years. Meanwhile, Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer has heard that Golden State have some interest in trading down from No. 19 or out of the draft entirely.
Sources around the NBA have named the Suns and Bucks – in addition to the Cavaliers – as teams interested in trading up into the late-20s or early-30s to draft an NBA-ready player, Vecenie writes for The Athletic. Phoenix and Milwaukee would have to move up even further than Cleveland — their second-round picks are at No. 52 and No. 58, respectively.

Central Notes: C. Jones, Dragic, Stevens, Pistons

March 7th, 2023 at 7:02am CST by Luke Adams

When they promoted him to their 15-man roster, the Bulls used a portion of their mid-level exception to sign Carlik Jones to a contract that covers two seasons beyond this one, Hoops Rumors has learned.

Jones’ rest-of-season salary ($357,717) is his minimum, but if the Bulls had relied on the minimum salary exception to convert Jones to a standard contract, they would only have been able to tack on one extra year. The mid-level exception allowed them to complete a three-year deal that includes a non-guaranteed minimum salary for 2024/25 ($2,092,344) in addition to a non-guaranteed minimum salary for ’23/24 ($1,927,896).

Jones will receive a partial guarantee of $250K on his 2023/24 salary if he remains under contract through the first day of the regular season this fall. The Bulls guard would have his full salary for next season guaranteed if he’s not waived on or before January 7, 2024.

Here’s more from around the Central:

Veteran point guard Goran Dragic officially signed with the Bucks on Saturday, but will have his debut with his new team delayed a little due to left knee soreness, writes Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (subscriber story). Once he’s cleared to play, Dragic won’t be expecting to get a certain amount of minutes per game. “I didn’t talk nothing about the role because I understand those guys are the main guys,” Dragic said, referring to his new teammates. “I’m here just to help. So, you know, I’m at that point of my career. I want to win, so I came here and whatever they want me to do I’m going to do it and hopefully we get that ring.”
Lamar Stevens‘ minutes haven’t been as consistent in recent weeks as they were when he was starting at small forward earlier in the season, but he played a critical role in the fourth quarter and overtime of the Cavaliers’ overtime win over Boston on Monday, per Kelsey Russo of The Athletic. Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said after the game that he “can’t say enough about how proud I am” of Stevens. The Cavs hold a minimum-salary team option on the 25-year-old for next season, which looks like a lock to be exercised.
Even though the Pistons have lost eight games in a row and 20 of their last 24, morale in the locker room remains high due to the team’s focus on development and growth, according to Mike Curtis of The Detroit News (subscription required). “I know our fans are probably frustrated — which I understand — but we’re in a growth mentality,” head coach Dwane Casey said. “Every day for us is a teaching (moment). Every film session, we hold guys accountable, but we’re positive. We’re teaching and I wish there was a magic wand that says, ‘These guys gotta grow up.’ It doesn’t happen in this league.”

Lamar Stevens Replacing Caris LeVert In Cavs’ Starting Lineup

November 18th, 2022 at 6:22pm CST by Rory Maher

Lamar Stevens is replacing Caris LeVert as the Cavaliers‘ starting small forward on Friday against the Hornets, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com, who hears from sources that the Cavs plan to use Stevens as a starter “for the foreseeable future.”

Stevens’ $1.8MM contract for 2022/23 is non-guaranteed and the Cavs hold a $1.9MM team option on the 25-year-old for ’23/24, while LeVert will be a free agent next summer.

Fedor writes that the move is being made in an effort to rediscover the team’s “lost defensive identity” amid a five-game losing streak. Stevens is a strong, tough and versatile defender, though he has offensive limitations — he has only made 25.3% of his career three-point attempts on low volume.

According to Fedor, forward Dean Wade would have been in contention for the starting small forward job, but he’s currently sidelined with right knee soreness. Friday marks his fourth straight missed game.

Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said prior to Friday’s game that Wade’s knee was infected and he’s currently taking antibiotics to treat it, per Kelsey Russo of The Athletic (Twitter link).

“Just kind of have to wait and let them set in and do their thing. He is progressing, but it’s not something you can control,” Bickerstaff said.

As Fedor notes, Stevens had only appeared in three of the Cavs’ first 12 games for a total of 23 minutes prior to starting in place of the injured Jarrett Allen the past couple games, but clearly Bickerstaff liked the energy Stevens brought. Allen will be back Friday, Fedor adds.

LeVert has mostly struggled since scoring a season-high 41 points against Boston on October 28, averaging just 10.3 points on .389/.281/.733 shooting over his past nine games (32.3 minutes), though he has chipped in 5.1 rebounds and 4.4 assists per night over that span. Moving him to the bench will allow him more on-ball opportunities and let him play his more natural position of shooting guard, Fedor notes.

Cleveland holds an 8-6 record entering Friday’s home game versus Charlotte.

Central Notes: Turner, Pacers, Hayes, Bogdanovic, Cavs

September 27th, 2022 at 10:01pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Pacers center Myles Turner addressed the trade rumors surrounding him, saying he’s “numb” to the chatter, Wilson Moore of the Indianapolis Star writes.

“This is the only time I will be addressing it this year; I want to make sure everyone knows that,” Turner said. “Yeah, elephant in the room. For me, this is my eighth season. I’ve been in trade rumors the past four or five years. It’s something that I know that I’m numb to. It’s something that it’s just whatever comes with this business. There are no hard feelings in this business. You have to take the emotions out of everything, and I’ve learned that at a young age, and I still hold true to that. My job is to come in here and help these young guys now, man.”

Turner’s expiring contract carries a cap hit of $18MM.

We have more info regarding the Central Division:

Pacers coach Rick Carlisle plans to use his bench extensively this season, according to Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files. He’s pondering a rotation of 10 or more players. “We’re going to use our depth as an advantage, we’re going to use it as something to drive our development internally every day,” he said.
Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard said next offseason will be pivotal during the franchise’s rebuild, he told Evan Sidery of Basketball News. “Look, we have three first-round picks it looks like next year,” he said. “We have close to $30 million in cap space. And we’ll be active to use that cap space to acquire more assets. That’s just natural, but I think it gives us the ability to pivot in a lot of different ways.”
Killian Hayes needs to improve his shooting to be in the Pistons’ long-term plans. He spent the offseason altering his shooting motion, according to James Edwards III of The Athletic. “I’m confident in my shot,” Hayes said. “I worked with different shooting coaches. We tweaked some things. I’m excited.” The former lottery pick has shot 37.4% from the field and 26.8% from long range during his first two NBA seasons.
Bojan Bogdanovic is officially a member of the Pistons and the veteran forward is thrilled with the direction of his new team, Mike Curtis of the Detroit News writes. “I kind of knew that I was going to be traded. I was just waiting to see where I’m going to end up,” Bogdanovic said. “Super excited to be here with this young group of guys and a coach that is really experienced. Everything is great so far.”
Cedi Osman, Dean Wade, Isaac Okoro, Caris LeVert, Lamar Stevens and Dylan Windler are all vying for the small forward starting job with the Cavaliers, Chris Fedor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer writes. “We’ve gone back and forth on that, I’ll be honest with you guys,” coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “But we’re gonna give it an opportunity and see exactly what works best and what is the most troublesome for defenses.”

Central Notes: Sexton, Osman, Windler, DeRozan, Ingles

July 30th, 2022 at 8:34am CST by Dana Gauruder

If the Cavaliers resolve their contractual differences with restricted free agent Collin Sexton, it will likely impact another player on a guaranteed contract, Chris Fedor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer writes in his latest mailbag. Adding Sexton would put the team one over the 15-man roster limit.

The Cavaliers would prefer not waive Lamar Stevens and Dean Wade, who are on non-guaranteed deals. Instead, the team would likely look to move either Cedi Osman and Dylan Windler, perhaps in a trade with an asset or two attached to a team like Indiana or San Antonio, who have cap space.

We have more from the Central Division:

DeMar DeRozan felt the Bulls weren’t “ready for adversity” last season when injuries piled up, he told Draymond Green on his podcast (hat tip to K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago). “We kind of fell apart. We lost ourselves obviously through health,” he said. “Regardless, I think I told one of the young guys after All-Star break, I said this is the moment when you see what teams are serious. He didn’t know what I meant by that. For us to hit the wall that we hit showed that we wasn’t ready for adversity.”
During the same podcast, DeRozan spoke of how criticism aimed at the Bulls for engineering a sign-and-trade with San Antonio fueled his highly productive season. He averaged a career-high 27.9 PPG. “My whole career has kind of been based off that (criticism). But I never let it bring me completely down. It knocked me down. But I got back up,” he said. “And for me, that moment of going to Chicago, I just told myself, ‘This is a new opportunity. I’m going to make the most out of it in every type of way.’”
The Bucks had plenty of other options with their taxpayer mid-level exception. So why did they choose Joe Ingles, who is recovering from a torn ACL? According to Eric Nehm of The Athletic, they felt Ingles was the most complete player available to them.

Cavs’ Stevens, Mavs’ Brown To Have Salaries Guaranteed

January 7th, 2022 at 11:16am CST by Luke Adams

Second-year forward Lamar Stevens will have his full-season salary guaranteed by the Cavaliers, sources tell our JD Shaw (Twitter link).

Players without fully guaranteed salaries will have their contracts for 2021/22 become guaranteed on January 10. However, today is decision day for their teams, since they must clear waivers before January 10 in order to avoid having their salaries become guaranteed. So Cleveland has decided not to waive Stevens today, ensuring he’ll receive his full $1,517,981 salary.

A former Penn State forward, Stevens signed with Cleveland as an undrafted free agent during the 2020 offseason. He had his two-way contract turned into a standard multiyear deal in April and is still on that same deal, which runs through 2023/24. It includes a non-guaranteed minimum salary in ’22/23 and a minimum-salary team option in ’23/24.

Stevens’ per-game averages this season – including 3.8 PPG and 2.0 RPG – are relatively modest, but he hasn’t played big minutes (12.8 MPG in 24 games). The 24-year-old a solid defender who is knocking down three-pointers at a higher rate this season (32.3%) than he did as a rookie (4-for-25) and is seeing more action lately with forwards Isaac Okoro and Cedi Osman sidelined.

Meanwhile, according to Tim MacMahon of ESPN (Twitter link), the Mavericks have decided to hang onto big man Moses Brown, another player whose salary isn’t fully guaranteed. The decision will lock in Brown’s $1,701,593 cap hit for the season.

Brown has played a very limited role in Dallas so far this season, averaging just 6.7 minutes per contest in 22 games. However, he has put up solid numbers on a per-minute basis, and apparently has showed the Mavs enough to warrant keeping his spot on the 15-man roster.