San Antonio Spurs Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Nemanja Dangubic Signs With Serbian Team

July 31st, 2014 at 8:06am CST by Charlie Adams

THURSDAY, 8:06am: The deal is official, the team announced (translation via Carchia). It’s a three-year deal with options that will allow him to jump to the NBA after each season.

WEDNESDAY, 10:55pm: Nemanja Dangubic has chosen to sign with Serbian club KK Crvena Zvezda, reports Emilano Carchia of Sportando. The 54th overall pick in this year’s draft was leaning toward remaining overseas, and he’s reportedly made up his mind and is poised to stick around in Europe for at least one more season.

The Spurs acquired Dangubic’s rights from the Sixers after Philly picked him in the second round, and San Antonio will retain the right to sign the guard until he chooses to come stateside. There wouldn’t be much room in the club’s backcourt for Dangubic if he chose to come over this season anyway, so the move is largely unsurprising.

At just 21-years-old, Dangubic will benefit from the additional playing time he’ll find in the Euroleague next season. He’s the latest in a long line of San Antonio’s “draft-and-stash” players.

Western Notes: Rubio, Nash, Thompson

July 28th, 2014 at 8:47pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The Wolves are willing to give Ricky Rubio an extension similar to the four-year, $44MM extension Stephen Curry signed with the Warriors two years ago, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities. Rubio and agent Dan Fegan are asking for the max over five seasons. We took a look at Rubio and other extension candidates earlier today.

Nemanja Dangubic Likely To Remain In Serbia

July 28th, 2014 at 9:48am CST by Chuck Myron

Spurs second-round draftee Nemanja Dangubic is close to signing with Serbian club KK Crvena Zvezda, the website Novosti.rs reports (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). KK Partizan, another Serbian team, is also pursuing him, but the 54th overall pick from this year’s draft is leaning toward Crvena Zvezda, according to the Novosti.rs report.

The Spurs acquired the rights to Dangubic, a 6’8″ shooting guard, in a draft-night trade with the Sixers. Dangubic, 21, would be the latest in a long line of Spurs “draft-and-stash” players from overseas. It’s no surprise the team isn’t bringing him aboard for this season, given the difficulty that Dangubic would face in finding playing time on a team that’s poised to return nearly everyone from last year’s championship roster.

Dangubic spent the last two years with KK Mega Vizura, another Serbian franchise. He averaged 10.3 points and 3.6 rebounds in 26.2 minutes per game this past season.

And-Ones: Jefferson, Spurs, Sterling

July 21st, 2014 at 9:56pm CST by Zachary Links

One year after joining the Hornets (née Bobcats) as a free agent, Al Jefferson is happy with the moves the club has made this summer, writes Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. “We just need to continue to build off of what we what we did last year,” Jefferson said. “We know that if we play defense and focus on defense, we will have a chance to win. That’s one of the things that I did last year that I’ve never done before, just really buying in to the defensive end. I believe us finishing sixth in the NBA in defense was the reason why we had the success we had. We just have to continue to build off that.” More from around the NBA..

The Spurs didn’t just win the championship, they won the offseason too, writes J.A. Adande of ESPN.com. The Spurs didn’t make the most eye-grabbing move of the summer – the Cavs, of course, grabbed that honor – but they did retain four key components of their title run: Tim Duncan, coach Gregg Popovich, Patrick Mills, and Boris Diaw.
Embattled Clippers owner Donald Sterling met with Steve Ballmer and Shelly Sterling, sources tell Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com. No settlement was reached, but the two men had what a source described as a “friendly” conversation about the pending sale. This was the first face-to-face meeting between the two men since the sale, which Sterling continues to fight in court.
A couple of NBA scouts told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter) that they’d love to see URI rising sophomore E.C. Matthews at the Adidas Nations camp. Matthews averaged 14.2 PPG, 4.2 RPG, and 2.3 APG in 32.5 minutes per contest last season under coach Dan Hurley.

Spurs Re-Sign Matt Bonner

July 21st, 2014 at 11:50am CST by Zachary Links

JULY 21ST: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.

JULY 13TH: 4:40pm: It’s a one-year deal for the veteran’s minimum, tweets Shams Charania of RealGM.

4:17pm: Matt Bonner sent a text to Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News (on Twitter) saying, “I’m coming back.” Presumably, this means that Bonner has re-signed with the defending world champions.

There has been mutual interest in a reunion between the Spurs and Bonner and little talk of another team making a run at the forward. The Red Rocket has spent the last eight seasons with the Spurs, averaging 5.9 PPG and 3.2 RPG in silver and black. Last season, Bonner averaged 3.2 PPG and 2.1 RPG in 11.3 minutes per contest, the least amount of playing time he’s seen in his NBA career.

International Notes: Bertans, Hamilton, Babbitt

July 19th, 2014 at 9:30am CST by Cray Allred

Davis Bertans has signed a three-year contract worth just under €2MM with Spanish team Baskonia, tweets Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. The deal has an NBA-out clause in each season that the Spurs, who own Bertans’ rights and have eyed the Latvian for the near future, could pay for without it counting against the cap, presuming it is at or below the $600,000 maximum allowed. Here’s more from around the world:

Ryan Richards, the Spurs 2010 second-round draft pick, has signed with an Austrian club, the Zepter Vienna team website announced (transcription via Trapani).
Russian team Lokomotiv Kuban is looking to add Justin Hamilton and Milan Macvan next season, reports Enea Trapani of Sportando. Hamilton has a non-guaranteed salary that the Heat can fully waive prior to August 1st, and partially waive before December 1st. Macvan was drafted by the Cavs in 2011, and has been cool to Cleveland’s interest in bringing him to the NBA.
Spanish team Unicaja Malaga has offered Luke Babbitt a $980,000 contract if the Pelicans don’t retain him, notes Trapani in a separate report. That amount is nearly identical to Babbitt’s fully non-guaranteed salary in New Orleans, which becomes partially guaranteed at $100,000 if the Pelicans don’t waive him before July 22nd.

Arnovitz On Lockout, Rockets, Suns, LeBron

July 17th, 2014 at 10:34pm CST by Alex Lee

While members of June’s coveted draft class have yet to wow executives in the NBA summer leagues, it hasn’t curbed the chatter among the league’s decision-makers in Las Vegas, writes ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz. Arnovitz provides a plethora of big-picture issues being regularly discussed in the desert. Let’s round them up here:

Between the hefty prices that NBA franchises have fetched this offseason and a new television deal for the league on the horizon, insiders have been “downright giddy” in Vegas this week. Soaring revenues have resulted in teams investing in technology and analytics, though there is a growing fear that the NBA could be headed for another lockout in 2017.
Speaking of lockouts, the CBA negotiated during the last one has successfully limited the lengths of contracts in the NBA while simultaneously making it more difficult to plan for the long term, according to some executives. By limiting risk, shorter contracts have flooded the marketplace with bidders, in turn driving up the prices on free agents.
The reactions to the Rockets‘ offseason have been mixed, according to Arnovitz. On one hand, GM Daryl Morey has essentially traded Chandler Parsons, Omer Asik, Jeremy Lin and first and second round draft picks for Trevor Ariza, a first round pick and a trade exception. On the other hand, Morey has landed two max players in two years while maintaining the cap space to add another. However, there is sentiment that Morey’s analytics-based approach might eventually discourage future targets from coming to Houston.
The Spurs are still undoubtedly the model franchise of the NBA, though there is a buzz about what the Suns are building in Phoenix. Citing several insiders, Arnovitz writes that the Suns are adding assets while simultaneously producing an exciting product for their fans.
LeBron James‘ return to Cleveland hasn’t evoked nearly as much gossip among league insiders as his departure did, but one general manager expressed appreciation for the Cavaliers‘ star “carrying” the NBA right now from a business standpoint.
The analytics movement continues to devalue the mid-range game, resulting in widespread approval of Channing Frye‘s four-year, $32MM deal with the Magic and even some support for the three-year, $19.5MM deal that Jodie Meeks signed with the Pistons.

Mavs Re-Sign Devin Harris

July 17th, 2014 at 6:35pm CST by Charlie Adams

JULY 17TH, 6:35pm: The deal is official, the Mavericks announced via a team release.

JULY 5TH, 8:50pm: Dwain Price of The Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Twitter link) is reporting that Harris’ deal is the same as the 3-year, $12MM that Patty Mills received from the Spurs.

2:16pm: A source tells Jody Genessy of the Deseret News (on Twitter) that the deal is actually four years in length and worth $16MM.

1:42pm: Harris’ deal will be worth roughly $9MM over three seasons, hears Tim McMahon of ESPNDallas.com (Twitter link).

1:15pm: The Mavericks and Devin Harris are finalizing a three-year deal, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (via Twitter). Re-signing Harris became the team’s top priority after they traded Jose Calderon to the Knicks, Stein mentions.

Harris joined the Mavs on a one-year, minimum salary pact last season and performed well for Dallas coming off the bench. He averaged 7.9 points and 4.5 assists in 20.5 minutes per contest. Although those numbers are a far cry from the figures he was able to put up in his All-Star 2008/09 campaign, he proved himself as a still-capable contributor.

Stein doesn’t mention how much the contract will be worth, but it’s likely more than the minimum Harris agreed to last season. Of course, no deal can become official until July 10, when the league-wide moratorium on signings and trades expires.

Rockets To Re-Sign Troy Daniels

July 16th, 2014 at 7:44pm CST by Eddie Scarito

WEDNESDAY, 7:44pm: Daniels’ contract is for the minimum, totaling $1,763,758 over the two years, per the updated Rockets salary sheet by Mark Deeks of ShamSports.com.

TUESDAY, 6:46pm: It’s for a total of $2MM over two years, writes Jenny Dial Creech of the Houston Chronicle.

MONDAY, 5:41pm: The Rockets have reached an agreement to re-sign restricted free agent guard Troy Daniels, reports Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter link). The contract is for two years and is fully guaranteed, reports Charania. Financial terms of the were not disclosed. Daniels had also received interest from the Mavericks, Spurs, Grizzlies, and Pelicans.

Houston had turned down their team option on Daniels, and instead extended him a qualifying offer. Daniels was originally scheduled to make the one-year veteran’s minimum of $816,482 on the option next season.

The Rockets had signed Daniels shortly after the trade deadline, cutting Ronnie Brewer to make room. He only appeared in five regular season games, but lit up the D-League, putting up 21.9 PPG and shooting 40.1% from behind the arc. Daniels then emerged as a key rotation player in the playoffs, averaging 7.8 PPG and nailing an impressive 53.3% of his three-pointers in the final four games of Houston’s first-round loss to the Blazers.

Contract Details: Wade, Deng, Diaw

July 16th, 2014 at 3:47pm CST by Chuck Myron

It took a while, but we finally found out the precise value of the discount that Carmelo Anthony gave the Knicks this afternoon. We’ll have to wait even longer to know whether the more than $5MM in savings that ‘Melo afforded his team will have a worthwhile effect on New York’s ability to squeeze more talent onto its roster, but he’s not the only name free agent taking a cut rate this summer.

Dwyane Wade gave up more than $41.8MM over two seasons when he opted out of his deal this June, and while he isn’t recouping all of that on his new two-year contract with Miami, he nonetheless received a rare no-trade clause for his trouble, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com. He’ll make $15MM for this coming season and the salary in his player option year would be $16.125MM as part of his latest deal with the Heat, reports Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
Fellow Heat signee Luol Deng will make $9.71MM for this coming season, and his player option for 2015/16 will be worth $10.15MM, according to Windhorst (on Twitter).
Boris Diaw‘s contract with the Spurs is for four years and $28MM, with only $17.5MM of it guaranteed, Stein reveals (Twitter link). The original report indicated it was a three-year, $22.5MM deal.