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Jazz Renegotiate, Extend Jordan Clarkson’s Contract

July 7th, 2023 at 5:56pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 7: Clarkson’s renegotiated and extended contract is now official, per the Jazz.

JULY 2: After picking up his 2023/24 option last week to remain in Utah, Jordan Clarkson will commit to the team for a couple more seasons, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Clarkson and the Jazz are finalizing a renegotiation and extension that will give him a raise in 2023/24 and will add two new years to his current contract, his agents at Klutch Sports tell Charania.

The deal will be worth $55MM, Charania adds. Based on the wording of his report, it’s unclear if that $55MM is all new money or if it includes Clarkson’s preexisting $14.3MM salary for 2023/24 — I’d assume the latter unless we hear otherwise, since agents leaking word of an agreement typically frame it in the most flattering light.

As we outlined on Saturday when Domantas Sabonis completed a similar deal with the Kings, contract renegotiations in the NBA are rare, since they can only be completed when a team has cap space and intends to increase a player’s salary rather than reducing it. Like Sacramento with Sabonis, Utah has the cap room necessary to give Clarkson’s current-year salary a bump and negotiate an extension off that new cap hit.

Interestingly, without a renegotiation, the maximum two-year extension Utah could give Clarkson would be worth about $41.5MM — when added to his current $14.3MM salary, that would also work out to just over $55MM.

By forgoing a traditional ascending extension structure and renegotiating his current-year salary to give him an immediate raise, the Jazz may end up paying the veteran guard the same amount of money overall while applying more of it to the 2023/24 cap in order to maximize future flexibility. An extension signed signed as part of a renegotiation can decline by as much as 40% in the first season.

Clarkson, 31, entered Utah’s starting lineup in 2022/23 after coming off the bench as a microwave scorer for most of his nine-year NBA career. In 61 games (32.6 MPG) in 2022/23, he averaged 20.8 points, 4.4 assists, and 4.0 rebounds with a shooting line of .444/.338/.816.

The Jazz, who are acquiring John Collins into their cap room in a trade with Atlanta, still projected to have nearly $15MM in cap room available after completing that deal, per Keith Smith of Spotrac (Twitter link). Whether or not they have more room to operate after the Clarkson renegotiation will depend on how much money they add to his 2023/24 salary, as well as the team’s plans for players on non-guaranteed contracts like Luka Samanic and Vernon Carey.

Clarkson is the third player to agree to renegotiate his contract in 2023, joining Sabonis and Pacers center Myles Turner. Prior to Turner, no player had renegotiated a deal since Robert Covington in 2017.

Jazz Waive Vernon Carey Jr.

July 7th, 2023 at 4:22pm CST by Rory Maher

The Jazz are waiving big man Vernon Carey Jr., reports Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link). The move is official, per NBA.com’s transactions log.

The 32nd overall pick of the 2020 draft after one college season at Duke, Carey spent his rookie season with the Hornets, who shipped him to the Wizards at the 2022 trade deadline. He has barely played at the NBA level over the past three seasons, appearing in 37 total games for 187 minutes, including 28 minutes over 11 games with Washington last season.

Carey did have a solid stint with Washington’s G League affiliate, the Capital City Go-Go, in 2022/23. He averaged 20.7 PPG 8.3 RPG, 1.9 APG, 0.9 SPG and 0.9 BPG in 14 regular season games (27.6 MPG).

The 22-year-old was waived by the Wizards at the beginning of March and signed a multiyear deal with the Jazz during the season’s final weekend. His minimum-salary contract for ’23/24 was non-guaranteed, so Utah won’t have any cap charge for releasing him.

Miles Bridges Signs Hornets’ Qualifying Offer

July 7th, 2023 at 3:17pm CST by Rory Maher

JULY 7: In a press release confirming that Bridges has signed his qualifying offer to return with the Hornets, president of basketball operations Mitch Kupchak and Bridges himself both put out statements.

“Throughout this process, we have taken a measured and serious approach,” Kupchak said. “Several factors played a part in our decision to bring Miles back, including the conclusion of the legal process, the results of the NBA’s investigation and Miles’ commitment to counseling and community service. Our five-year relationship with Miles has allowed for open and honest dialogue. He has shown remorse, indicated that he has learned from this situation and expressed that it will not happen again. We look forward to Miles rejoining our team.”

Bridges statement reads as follows:

“I sincerely apologize for the pain, embarrassment and disappointment that last year’s incident caused so many people. Time away from the game allowed me to reflect, immerse myself in therapy and prioritize becoming a better person – someone my family and peers can be proud of. I’m grateful to the Hornets and the NBA community for giving me a second chance – most people don’t ever get one and I understand those questioning whether I deserve one. I will do everything I can to earn back the trust and confidence of my teammates, coaches, the Hornets organization and staff, fans, and the Charlotte community. I’m ready to return to work and can’t wait to rejoin my Hornets teammates.”

JULY 2: Restricted free agent Miles Bridges hasn’t been receiving the types of contract offers he was hoping for from the Hornets, so has signed his $7,921,300 qualifying offer in order to become an unrestricted free agent next year, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter links).

As ESPN’s Bobby Marks tweets, signing the one-year qualifying offer would give Bridges the power to veto trades. However, if he were to approve a trade, the team that acquires him would lose his Bird rights.

Shams Charania of The Athletic hears (via Twitter) that a final contract offer was presented on Sunday before talks broke down, but he doesn’t clarify whether that offer came from Charlotte or Bridges’ camp — or perhaps both.

The 25-year-old forward sat out the entire 2022/23 season after facing a felony domestic violence charge. He agreed to a plea deal and was subsequently suspended by the NBA, who will require him to sit out the first 10 games of ’23/24.

Prior to that incident, Bridges was viewed as one of the top free agents of the 2022 class, having averaged 20.2 PPG, 7.0 RPG, and 3.8 APG on 49.1% shooting in 80 games (35.5 MPG) in ’21/22.

Leading into free agency, it was impossible to know exactly how the Hornets and the rest of the NBA would value the former lottery pick, who was selected 12th overall in the 2018 draft. As valuable as Bridges can be on the court, the repugnant behavior he was accused of away from it likely gave potential suitors pause about pursuing him to represent their franchise.

Clearly, the Hornets had the leverage in contract negotiations after Bridges missed the entire season, which made him ineligible to be signed-and-traded. None of the teams with cap room decided to pursue him, but maybe that will change in 2024 if he has a strong season without further legal trouble.

Bridges was No. 8 on our list of 2023’s top 50 free agents.

Knicks Trade Obi Toppin To Pacers

July 7th, 2023 at 2:32pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 7: The trade is official, the Knicks announced today in a press release (Twitter link). Toppin has been traded into the Pacers’ cap room in exchange for the two second-round picks described below.

JULY 6: The Knicks will receive either the Suns’ or Pacers’ 2028 second-round pick (whichever is least favorable) and either the Pacers’ or Wizards’ 2029 second-round pick (whichever is least favorable) for Toppin, reports Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star (Twitter link).

JULY 1: The Knicks and Pacers are finalizing a trade that will send forward Obi Toppin to Indiana, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).

According to Wojnarowski, the Knicks will acquire a pair of second-round picks in exchange for Toppin, who was the eighth overall pick in the 2020 draft.

Marc Stein and Ian Begley of SNY.tv reported prior to free agency that the Pacers were talking to the Knicks about Toppin and had emerged as the leading candidate to land him. It’s a logical fit, since Indiana has the cap room necessary to acquire the 25-year-old’s $6.8MM expiring contract without sending out any salary and has been in the market for another power forward.

While lottery pick Jarace Walker figures to see minutes for the Pacers as a rookie, Toppin should have an opportunity to play a bigger role in Indiana than he did in New York, where he spent the majority of his first three NBA seasons backing up Julius Randle.

In 139 games for the Knicks since the start of 2021/22, Toppin has averaged 8.2 PPG and 3.3 RPG on .491/.329/.772 shooting in 139 games (16.4 MPG). He’ll be eligible for a rookie scale extension this offseason, or restricted free agency in 2024 if he doesn’t sign a new deal before then.

It’s a somewhat disappointing outcome for the Knicks, whose lottery pick from three years ago will now turn into a pair of second-rounders. However, the move will help create some additional spending flexibility below the tax apron for the club, potentially opening up the full mid-level exception. It’ll also generate a $6.8MM trade exception and contribute a couple more draft assets to New York’s ever-growing stash.

Timberwolves Sign Jaylen Clark To Two-Way Contract

July 7th, 2023 at 2:23pm CST by Luke Adams

Former UCLA wing Jaylen Clark has officially signed his first NBA contract, having inked a two-way deal with the Timberwolves, according to NBA.com’s transaction log.

Clark had a big junior year for the Bruins in 2022/23, increasing his scoring average to 13.0 PPG while also contributing 6.0 RPG and 2.6 SPG in 30 contests (30.5 MPG). He was named to the All-Pac-12 team and was the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year.

Clark, who injured his Achilles earlier this year and underwent surgery after the season, isn’t expected to be ready for the start of his rookie year. However, Minnesota is optimistic about what he’ll be able to bring to the team once he’s healthy — after selecting him with the No. 53 pick last month, president of basketball operations Tim Connelly referred to Clark as “the best perimeter defender in the draft.”

Luka Garza holds one of the two-way contract slots for the Timberwolves, so they have one opening remaining. The best candidate to fill it is Matt Ryan, who is still a restricted free agent after receiving a two-way qualifying offer in June.

Of the 58 players selected in the 2023 draft, 38 have now officially signed NBA contracts, as our tracker shows.

Rockets Sign Fred VanVleet To Three-Year Contract

July 7th, 2023 at 1:10pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 7: The Rockets have officially signed VanVleet, the team announced today in a press release.

As previously noted, VanVleet’s three-year deal includes a third-year team option.

JUNE 30: Fred VanVleet is leaving Toronto, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter links), who hears from agents Rich Paul and Erika Ruiz that the free agent point guard will join the Rockets on a three-year, maximum-salary contract.

The No. 2 player on our list of 2023’s top 50 free agents, VanVleet is the first free agent to land a max deal this summer, Wojnarowski notes. The agreement will pay him a total of $128.5MM across three seasons, including a starting salary of $40.8MM in 2023/24, which will eat up a huge chunk of Houston’s cap room.

It’s a massive payday for VanVleet, who began his NBA career in 2016 as an undrafted free agent on a minimum-salary contract. Over the course of seven seasons in Toronto, he evolved from little-used reserve to key rotation member on a championship team to All-Star starting point guard.

The former Wichita State standout signed a four-year, $85MM contract during his last foray into free agency in 2020, but opted out of that deal after the third year in order to secure an even larger payday.

VanVleet is coming off a down season, having made a career-worst 34.2% of his three-point attempts in 2022/23 as his defense also took a step back. However, it appears the Rockets are willing to chalk up his struggles to nagging injuries and bad luck rather than assuming it’s the beginning of a downward trend. The 6’1″ guard has never been a great finisher around the rim, but he was a career 38.2% three-point shooter prior to last season and has been an asset on defense in the past.

The Rockets had more cap room (approximately $64MM) than any other team in the NBA entering free agency, putting them in position to aggressively pursue their preferred targets. While James Harden was mentioned earlier in the year as a candidate to return to Houston, VanVleet had clearly become the team’s top point guard target in the days leading up to free agency.

With the Raptors doing their best to bring back VanVleet, the Rockets apparently had to tack on an extra season to the two-year, maximum-salary offer they were said to be preparing for the 29-year-old in order to secure his commitment. Even with $40MM earmarked for VanVleet, Houston still has about $25MM in cap room available to continue making moves.

Meanwhile, it’s unclear how the Raptors intend to address their suddenly gaping hole at point guard. The club had spent the last year or two seeking a reliable backup for VanVleet and will now have to find a new starter too.

[UPDATE: Raptors to sign Dennis Schröder]

As Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets, Toronto could try to work out a sign-and-trade with Houston to generate a huge trade exception. However, there’s no reason for the Rockets to agree to that unless they’re incentivized to do so, so the Raptors would probably have to give up a second-round pick or two to make it happen.

Cavaliers Sign Emoni Bates To Two-Way Deal

July 7th, 2023 at 1:02pm CST by Luke Adams

The Cavaliers have officially signed second-round pick Emoni Bates to a two-way contract, the team announced today in a press release.

A former consensus five-star recruit and one of the top high school prospects in the country, Bates saw his stock slip when he averaged 9.7 points per game on .386/.329/.646 shooting as a freshman at Memphis in 2021/22, then was arrested on gun charges in September 2022.

Bates ultimately had his felony charge reduced to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to 18 months of probation. The 6’10” forward had a bounce-back season on the court in 2022/23 after transferring to Eastern Michigan, putting up 19.2 PPG on .405/.330/.782 shooting in 30 games (33.8 MPG). He declared for the draft as an early entrant following his sophomore year and was selected 49th overall by Cleveland.

While he’s no longer viewed as a future NBA star, the former High School Player of the Year still has intriguing upside. He’ll likely begin his professional career by seeing plenty of action for the Cleveland Charge, the Cavaliers’ G League affiliate, as a rookie.

The Cavaliers, who also confirmed the signings of Isaiah Mobley and Craig Porter to two-way deals, have become the second NBA team to fill all three two-way slots, joining the Lakers. The new Collective Bargaining Agreement allows clubs to carry up to three players on two-way contracts instead of just two.

Rockets Sign Jeff Green To Two-Year Contract

July 7th, 2023 at 12:07pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 7: The Rockets have officially signed Green, the team announced today in a press release.

As we relayed in a separate story, the terms of Green’s deal have reportedly been amended — it’s now a two-year, $16MM contract, with a non-guaranteed second year. He was signed into Houston’s cap room.

JULY 1: The Rockets and free agent forward Jeff Green have agreed to a one-year, $6MM contract, league sources tell Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).

Green, who will turn 37 in August, is entering his 16th NBA season, but showed with the Nuggets in 2022/23 that he still has a little left in the tank. He averaged 7.8 points and 2.6 rebounds in 19.5 minutes per game across 56 appearances.

Green’s three-point percentage dipped to 28.8% last season, but he has a career 33.7% rate and can defend multiple frontcourt positions. He played rotation minutes during Denver’s championship run, appearing in all 20 playoff games and averaging 17.2 minutes per night.

The Nuggets were open to a reunion with Green, but not at the salary he’s getting from Houston, tweets Mike Singer of The Denver Post.

It has been a busy day for the Rockets, who have agreed to a series of moves that will eat up most of their cap room, including a free agent deal with Jock Landale, a sign-and-trade for Dillon Brooks, and a trade for Patty Mills, who will be rerouted as part of the Brooks sign-and-trade. Depending on how Houston structures its transactions, Green could either be signed into cap space or the room exception.

The Rockets likely envision Green as a player who can be a leader in the locker room and provide some veteran savvy on the court.

Kings Renegotiate, Extend Domantas Sabonis’ Contract

July 7th, 2023 at 11:23am CST by Luke Adams

JULY 7: The Kings have officially renegotiated and extended Sabonis’ contract, the team confirmed in a press release.

JULY 1: The Kings are renegotiating Domantas Sabonis‘ 2023/24 salary and signing him to a long-term contract extension, agents Greg Lawrence and Jason Ranne tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Sacramento will use $8.6MM in cap room to give Sabonis a raise on this year’s salary – from $22MM to $30.6MM – and will tack on four new years to his expiring contract. According to Wojnarowski, the deal will be worth $217MM over five total seasons, including $195MM in new money.

There won’t be any team or player options in the new contract, tweets Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee.

After being acquired in a blockbuster trade involving Tyrese Haliburton at the 2022 deadline, Sabonis thrived in his first full season in Sacramento, averaging 19.1 points, 7.3 assists, and a league-leading 12.3 rebounds in 34.6 minutes per game across 79 contests despite sustaining an avulsion fracture to his thumb in December.

In addition to earning the third All-Star nod of his career, the 27-year-old made an All-NBA squad for the first time, claiming the center spot on the Third Team. Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox led the Kings to a 48-win season and their first playoff berth since 2006.

Contract renegotiations are rare in the NBA and can only be completed when a team has cap space and intends to increase a player’s salary rather than reducing it. The Kings created additional spending flexibility on draft night by agreeing to send Richaun Holmes to Dallas in a salary-dump trade.

There was some speculation that Sacramento may be preparing to make a run at a top-tier free agent with that extra cap space, but Sacramento has instead focused on its own players, extending Harrison Barnes earlier in the week and agreeing to new deals with Trey Lyles and now Sabonis.

The Kings’ one notable deal with a player who wasn’t on the 2022/23 roster is a three-year, $20MM commitment to EuroLeague MVP Sasha Vezenkov. Vezenkov, who is expected to slot into Sacramento’s room exception, wasn’t technically a free agent since the club held his draft rights.

As Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (via Twitter), without a renegotiated 2023/24 salary, Sabonis would have been eligible for a maximum-salary extension of $138MM over four years. That may not have been enough to prevent him from testing the market in 2024, since he would’ve been eligible for a significantly higher salary – and an extra year – at that point.

Interestingly, the only other NBA player to get a renegotiation and extension since 2017 is Sabonis’ former frontcourt partner in Indiana, Myles Turner, Marks observes (via Twitter). Jazz guard Jordan Clarkson is also expected to join that group.

Pacers Trade Chris Duarte To Kings

July 6th, 2023 at 8:15pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 6, 8:15pm: The Pacers and Kings have officially completed the trade sending Duarte to Sacramento. The Kings put out a press release confirming the move.

JULY 6, 2:43pm: The Pacers and Kings are in agreement on their Duarte trade, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link), who reports that the deal is expected to be finalized today.

Indiana will receive Dallas’ 2028 second-round pick and Sacramento’s own 2030 second-rounder, reports Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star (Twitter link).

JUNE 30, 9:41am: The Kings and Pacers are nearing an agreement on a trade that will send wing Chris Duarte to Sacramento, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). According to Charania, Indiana would receive draft compensation in the deal.

Duarte, 26, was the 13th overall pick in the 2021 draft out of Oregon. He had a promising rookie season in 2021/22, averaging 13.1 PPG with a .369 3PT% in 55 games (28.0 MPG), but took a step back in his second year in the NBA.

The 6’6″ swingman battled injuries that limited him to 46 games in 2022/23 and his numbers dipped to 7.9 PPG with a .316 3PT%. The emergence of rookie Bennedict Mathurin and the addition of another former lottery pick, Aaron Nesmith, resulted in Duarte playing a diminished role (19.5 MPG) even when he was available.

The Kings appear willing to bet that Duarte can recapture his rookie former and will take on his $4.1MM guaranteed salary for 2023/24. They’ll have to make a decision by October 31 on his $5.9MM option for the ’24/25 season. If that option is picked up, Duarte would become extension-eligible during the 2024 offseason.

The Pacers also reportedly discussed Duarte in their trade talks with the Hawks about De’Andre Hunter.