Wesley Johnson Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Suns, Hornets, Wolves Complete Three-Team Trade

July 27th, 2012 at 7:40pm CST by Luke Adams

7:40pm: The amount of cash going to the Hornets from the Suns is about $1.15MM, tweets Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic.

12:16pm: The Suns, Hornets, and Timberwolves have officially completed a three-team trade that will send Robin Lopez to the Hornets and Wesley Johnson to the Suns, the teams announced today. Per a Hornets press release, the deal breaks down as follows:

Hornets acquire: Robin Lopez (from Suns), Hakim Warrick (from Suns), cash (from Suns)
Suns acquire: Wesley Johnson (from Timberwolves), Brad Miller (from Hornets), Jerome Dyson (from Hornets), 2013 first-round pick (from Timberwolves)
Timberwolves acquire: 2013 second-round pick (from Hornets), 2014 second-round pick (from Suns), 2016 second-round pick (from Hornets)

Lopez is the only player changing hands who was not previously under contract, so New Orleans receives him as part of a sign-and-trade. His contract is for three years and about $15.3MM, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports.

Dyson's contract is non-guaranteed, and Miller, who has a partially-guaranteed deal, is expected to retire, so Phoenix will likely waive both of those players in the near future. The first-round pick the Suns acquire from the T-Wolves will be either the Wolves' or Grizzlies' pick depending on those teams' performances. Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic has the details (via Twitter).

Two of the three picks the Timberwolves receive in the deal are ones they sent to the Hornets earlier this month. The 2013 second-rounder is Brooklyn's, the 2016 second-rounder is New Orleans', and the 2014 second-rounder is the Lakers, acquired by Phoenix in the Steve Nash trade.

Now that the trade is complete, Minnesota should have the cap space to finalize its signing of Andrei Kirilenko.

Timberwolves Targeting Andrei Kirilenko

July 25th, 2012 at 8:18am CST by Luke Adams

As we learned last night, having lost out on Nicolas Batum last week, the Timberwolves have shifted their focus to trying to land Russian forward Andrei Kirilenko. The T-Wolves have entered three-way trade talks with the Suns and Hornets in an effort to clear cap space. While that trade has yet to be finalized, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports that centerpiece Robin Lopez could be returning soon from a vacation to take a physical for the Hornets.

If the proposed deal goes through, the T-Wolves would be parting ways with former fourth overall pick Wesley Johnson and a future lottery-protected first-round pick. While the move is more about cap space for Minnesota, the team would also acquire a pair of second-round picks from the Hornets, according to Wojnarowski.

With the Timberwolves' deals for Greg Stiemsma, Alexey Shved and Brandon Roy yet to be finalized, it's unclear exactly how much cap space the team currently owns. Based on reported salaries for those three players, I'm guessing the team would have about $3-4MM left over after signing those deals. Removing Johnson's $4.29MM salary from the books as well would allow the T-Wolves to make a competitive offer for Kirilenko, who isn't interested in signing for the veteran's minimum in Brooklyn, according to Wojnarowski.

According to Jerry Zgoda of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Wolves are willing to pay as much as $9MM per season over two years for Kirilenko. While we're not sure if they can go quite that high in year one, any agreement would figure to be in that ballpark — Wojnarowski says Kirilenko is seeking a contract that would pay him "in the vicinity" of $8MM annually.

For his part, Kirilenko has said he wants to decide on his new team before the Olympics begin, so we should get some resolution on the 31-year-old's contract situation in the near future.

Grizzlies, Timberwolves Discussing Trade

July 17th, 2012 at 12:11pm CST by Luke Adams

TUESDAY, 12:11pm: The Grizzlies believe they have a verbal agreement to swap Dante Cunningham for Wayne Ellington, but the Timberwolves seem to be looking to include Cunningham in another deal before finalizing anything, reports Ronald Tillery of the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Tillery speculates that the T-Wolves are waiting for resolution on Nicolas Batum's offer sheet before making any other moves official.

"The shoe will drop this week or it won't get done," one source told Tillery, on the Grizzlies/Timberwolves trade talks.

Latest On Nicolas Batum

July 11th, 2012 at 10:51pm CST by Chuck Myron

10:51pm: If the Blazers and Wolves fail to work out a trade and the Wolves sign Batum to an offer sheet, the Wolves will have to make a series of moves to do so, given what's expected to be a $10MM first-year salary in Minnesota's offer to Batum, reports Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune.

The moves would include buying out Brad Miller and Martell Webster and using the amnesty clause to waive Darko Milicic, Zgoda says, adding the Wolves may also have to trade a player. Luke Ridnour, J.J. Barea and Wesley Johnson are possible trade candidates in that scenario. Ridnour or a draft pick could be headed to the Bulls in a deal that would send Kyle Korver to the Blazers.

6:33pm: Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com has Olshey's comments on the possibility of a sign-and-trade for Batum.

You don't close the door to anything in this league,” the Blazers GM said. "But, from what I can see, as far as what they can viably offer as of today, I would think Nicolas would have more value than what they can put in a sign-and-trade.”