Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Sam Hauser Signs Four-Year Extension With Celtics

July 23rd, 2024 at 3:42pm CST by Arthur Hill

JULY 23: The Celtics have officially signed Hauser to his extension, the team confirmed in a press release.

“You can count on Sam. He comes to work every single day with the right mindset and attitude,” president of basketball operations Brad Stevens said in a statement. “His shooting gets most of the attention – but his feel for the game, defensive versatility, and his consistency as a teammate have allowed him to impact our team in the biggest of moments. We are excited Sam has decided to extend his contract with the Celtics.”

JULY 21: The Celtics have reached an agreement with Sam Hauser on a four-year, $45MM contract extension, agent Jason Glushon tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

It’s a significant raise for the 26-year-old forward, who will make a little more than $2MM for the upcoming season. Boston picked up its team option on Hauser’s contract in late June with the intention of signing him to an extension.

There are no options in the final year so the deal is fully guaranteed, a league source tells Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe (Twitter link).

Hauser is coming off a career-best season in which he played an important role off the bench in the Celtics’ run to an NBA title. He appeared in 79 games, making 13 starts and averaging 9.0 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.0 assists per night, with a .446/.424/.895 shooting line.

Hauser has become one of the NBA’s top three-point shooters since joining the Celtics on a two-way deal after going undrafted out of Virginia in 2021. He spent most of his first season in the G League, then signed a standard contract in the summer of 2022.

Hauser’s extension is the third of the summer for Boston, which also reached long-term deals with Jayson Tatum and Derrick White. In addition, the team has signed Jaylen Brown, Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis to extensions within the past year.

In a full story on the extension, Wojnarowski notes that the Celtics now have a projected $225MM payroll for the 2025/26 season, which would result in a $210MM tax penalty and create the largest combined salary/tax bill in league history. They are also in position to exceed the second apron for each of the next two seasons, which will prevent them from being able to trade their first-round picks for 2032 and 2033.

The franchise could be in new hands by then, as the majority ownership group announced earlier this month that it plans to sell its shares in the team.

Reggie Jackson To Join Sixers After Being Waived By Hornets

July 23rd, 2024 at 9:33am CST by Luke Adams

The Hornets are waiving veteran point guard Reggie Jackson, league sources tell Roderick Boone of The Charlotte Observer. Boone had previously reported that the move was expected, and it’s now official, per NBA.com’s transaction log.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link), Jackson intends to sign with the Sixers once he clears waivers.

Prior to Wojnarowski’s report, Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer had tweeted that the 76ers would have interest in Jackson, who played with Paul George in Los Angeles from 2020-23.

A 13-year NBA veteran, Jackson spent the 2023/24 season in Denver, backing up Jamal Murray at the point. He averaged 10.2 points, 3.8 assists, and 1.9 rebounds in 22.2 minutes per game, posting a .431/.359/.806 shooting line in 82 outings (23 starts).

Jackson exercised a $5.25MM player option in June, but the Nuggets wanted to go in a different direction with their backup point guard spot and traded the 34-year-old to Charlotte along with multiple second-round picks in a salary-dump deal. Denver is poised to sign Russell Westbrook to fill the backcourt hole created by that deal.

The Hornets, meanwhile, made their trade with Denver in order to acquire those future second-round picks rather than Jackson, who wasn’t in their plans for 2024/25. It’s the second time in the last two years that Charlotte has traded for Jackson and waived him shortly thereafter — it also happened in February 2023, when the Clippers sent him to the Hornets in a deal for Mason Plumlee. Jackson was cut three few days later and caught on with Denver on the buyout market at that time.

Waiving Jackson will create an opening on Charlotte’s 15-man roster, leaving the team with 13 players on fully guaranteed contracts and one (Taj Gibson) on a partially guaranteed deal.

The Sixers, meanwhile, figure to bring Jackson aboard on a minimum-salary contract, since that’s all they can offer to free agents after having used up their cap space and their room exception. The veteran guard will be the 13th man on Philadelphia’s standard roster, providing additional depth in a backcourt that includes rising star Tyrese Maxey, veterans Kyle Lowry and Eric Gordon, and rookie Jared McCain.

A minimum deal for Jackson will pay him about $3.3MM while counting against the 76ers’ cap for just $2.09MM.

Pelicans Sign Antonio Reeves To Three-Year Deal

July 23rd, 2024 at 4:13am CST by Dana Gauruder

JULY 23: Reeves’ deal is official, according to the NBA’s transaction log.

JULY 22: The Pelicans and second-round pick Antonio Reeves have agreed on a three-year, $5.41MM contract, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype tweets. The third year is a team option.

New Orleans likely used the second-round pick exception to sign Reeves at the minimum-salary level. A three-year rookie minimum deal this season is worth $5,408,801.

Reeves averaged 11.8 points, 2.4 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.0 steals per game in five appearances for the Pelicans’ Summer League team in Las Vegas.

Reeves was the No. 47 overall pick and was dealt by Orlando to New Orleans in a draft-night trade. The Magic acquired second-round pick swaps in 2030 and 2031 in the deal.

Adding Reeves puts the Pelicans at 14 standard contracts if Matt Ryan, whose deal becomes guaranteed on opening night, is included in that total, Christian Clark of the New Orleans Times-Picayune tweets.

A Chicago native who spent his first three college seasons at Illinois State, Reeves transferred to Kentucky in 2022 and spent his final two seasons with the Wildcats.

Reeves could emerge as an offensive spark-plug. The 6’4″ guard had a very efficient offensive season in 2023/24, averaging 20.2 points and 4.2 rebounds on .512/.447/.863 shooting in 33 games (31.4 MPG).

Cavaliers Sign Evan Mobley To Five-Year Max Extension

July 22nd, 2024 at 6:22pm CST by Arthur Hill

JULY 22: The signing is official, the team announced in a press release.

“We are thrilled to sign Evan to a long-term extension, solidifying his place as a cornerstone of our franchise,” team president Koby Altman said. “Evan has quickly established himself as one of the premier defensive players in the league, and we’ve only scratched the surface of his overall potential. Since drafting him, he only knows winning basketball and has proven to be pivotal to our team’s success. His exceptional work ethic, versatility, and commitment to excellence both on and off the court truly embody what it means to be a Cleveland Cavalier.

“We believe Evan’s best basketball is still ahead of him, and we couldn’t be more excited to continue building something special together for many years to come.”

JULY 20: Evan Mobley has agreed to a five-year, maximum-salary rookie scale extension with the Cavaliers, agents Joe Smith and Thad Foucher of Wasserman Basketball tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). The deal includes $224MM in guaranteed money and contains Rose rule language that gives it the potential to be worth up to $269MM, Wojnarowski adds.

The extension will begin with a projected $38,661,750 salary for the 2025/26 season, according to Yossi Gozlan (Twitter link). Mobley’s salary will increase to $41,754,690, $44,847,630, $47,940,570 and $51,033,510 over the following four years while his percentage of the cap declines from 25% at the start to 22.5% in 2029/30.

Gozlan notes that the Cavaliers project to be over the tax threshold for 2025/26, but aren’t currently in danger of crossing into second apron territory.

Mobley has become one of the franchise cornerstones in Cleveland since being selected with the third pick in the 2021 draft. Although injuries limited him to 50 games last season, he scored 15.7 PPG and set career highs by averaging 9.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists while shooting 58% from the field and 37.3% from three-point range.

Mobley will earn $11.2MM for the upcoming season in the final year of his rookie deal.

It’s the second significant signing of the summer for the Cavs, who inked Donovan Mitchell to a three-year extension earlier this month. Cleveland now has about $125MM committed to Mobley, Mitchell and Darius Garland for the 2025/26 season, notes Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link).

Mobley becomes the fourth member of the 2021 draft class to receive a max extension, following Toronto’s Scottie Barnes, Detroit’s Cade Cunningham and Orlando’s Franz Wagner. Teams can sign their 2021 first-round picks to extensions until the day before the start of the regular season. The full list of players eligible for rookie scale deals can be found here.

Sixers Sign Jeff Dowtin To Two-Way Contract

July 22nd, 2024 at 2:37pm CST by Dana Gauruder

JULY 22: The signing is official, according to a press release from the Sixers.

JULY 21: The Sixers are bringing back Jeff Dowtin on a two-way contract, The Athletic’s Shams Charania tweets.

Dowtin finished last season with Philadelphia but the Sixers declined their 2024/25 option on the reserve point guard in order to open up as much cap space as possible.

Dowtin started off the 2023/24 season with Philadelphia’s NBAGL team, the Delaware Blue Coats, before inking a two-way deal with the Sixers. In April, that contract was converted to a standard agreement for the rest of the season, with a second-year team option.

Dowtin appeared in 12 regular season games for the Sixers, averaging 4.3 points and 2.3 assists in 11.8 minutes per contest. In 20 G League games, he averaged 19.0 PPG and 5.3 APG in 32.4 MPG.

Overall, Dowtin has played in 46 NBA games during his career.

After going undrafted out of Rhode Island in 2020, Dowtin spent the 2020/21 season with the Lakeland Magic, Orlando’s G League affiliate. The 6’3″ point guard has since logged time with the Warriors, Bucks, and Raptors, often on either 10-day contracts or two-way deals that have seen him split his time with each team’s G League affiliate club.

Philadelphia already has wing Justin Edwards on a two-way deal and reportedly will also add forward David Jones on a similar contract. Dowtin would fill the third two-way slot.

Sandro Mamukelashvili Returns To Spurs On One-Year Deal

July 22nd, 2024 at 2:35pm CST by Dana Gauruder

JULY 22: The Spurs have officially re-signed Mamukelashvili, the team confirmed today in a press release.

JULY 16: Sandro Mamukelashvili is re-signing with the Spurs on a one-year, $2.2MM deal, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets. That’s equivalent to Mamukelashvili’s minimum salary for 2024/25.

The Spurs pulled their $2.7MM qualifying offer to Mamukelashvili last week, making him a free agent. However, the two parties had interest in working out a new agreement.

Mamukelashvili, a 2021 second-round pick, signed a one-year, minimum-salary deal with the Spurs last July after becoming a free agent. He played one-and-a-half seasons with Milwaukee before joining San Antonio during the 2022/23 season.

Last season, Mamukelashvili appeared in 46 games (5 starts) and averaged 4.1 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 9.8 minutes. He received extended playing time in April and averaging 11.6 points, 9.7 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 26.1 minutes over seven games.

The 25-year-old, who attended Seton Hall, joins the mix of players competing for playing time at power forward and center. His return gives San Antonio 14 players on the regular roster, one shy of the maximum for the regular season.

Raptors Buy Out Sasha Vezenkov, Waive Javon Freeman-Liberty

July 22nd, 2024 at 2:27pm CST by Luke Adams

The Raptors have cut a pair of players from their offseason roster, announcing today that forward Sasha Vezenkov and guard Javon Freeman-Liberty have been placed on waivers.

Vezenkov is the more notable name of the two. The 2023 EuroLeague MVP signed a three-year contract with the Kings last summer, but had an underwhelming NBA rookie season, logging just 12.2 minutes per game in 42 appearances off the bench. He averaged 5.4 points and 2.3 rebounds per game with a shooting line of .440/.375/.800.

Vezenkov, who will turn 29 next month, was traded from Sacramento to Toronto in June along with Davion Mitchell in a deal that created additional cap flexibility for the Kings.

Around the time of that trade, reports surfaced indicating that the 6’8″ forward had reached a lucrative long-term agreement to return to Olympiacos, his former team in Greece. However, he remained under contract with the Raptors on a deal that included a guaranteed $6,658,536 salary for 2024/25 (plus a team option for ’25/26).

The Raptors’ release of Vezenkov creates a path for him to rejoin Olympiacos once he clears waivers and also generates significant cap savings for the team. According to Blake Murphy of Sportsnet.ca (Twitter link), Vezenkov gave up his entire $6,658,536 salary for ’24/25 in a buyout agreement in order to facilitate his exit, leaving no dead money on Toronto’s books.

As for Freeman-Liberty, the former DePaul standout spent most of last season on a two-way contract with the Raptors before being promoted to the standard roster on March 1. He appeared in 22 games at the NBA level as a rookie, averaging 7.0 PPG, 3.2 RPG, and 1.8 APG in 18.3 MPG.

Freeman-Liberty’s minimum-salary contract for 2024/25 contained only a small partial guarantee, which would have increased from $100K to $150K if he had remained on the roster through July 23. Toronto will carry $100K in dead money after waiving the 24-year-old.

The Raptors now have 14 players on standard guaranteed contracts and about $11MM in breathing room below the luxury tax line, according to Murphy (Twitter link). Toronto’s newfound financial flexibility gives the front office the ability to spend more than the veteran’s minimum to fill the 15th roster spot or potentially to take on unwanted salary in a trade.

Sixers Officially Sign David Jones To Two-Way Contract

July 22nd, 2024 at 1:11pm CST by Luke Adams

As expected, the Sixers have signed undrafted rookie free agent David Jones to a two-way contract, according to a press release from the team.

Jones, a 6’6″ wing, had a highly productive junior campaign for Memphis in 2023/24, averaging 21.8 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 2.2 steals per game on .459/.380/.797 shooting in 32 contests (32.3 MPG). A native of the Dominican Republic, Jones had previous collegiate stops at DePaul and St. John’s before transferring to the Tigers.

Jones’ agreement with Philadelphia was reported shortly after the second round of the draft concluded on June 27. He subsequently suited up for the Sixers’ Summer League teams in both Salt Lake City and Las Vegas, averaging 9.1 PPG, 5.6 RPG, and 1.6 SPG in seven games (18.2 MPG). He had his best performance of the month on Sunday vs. Boston, racking up 23 points, eight rebounds, and three blocked shots.

The 76ers have now officially filled two of their two-way slots, adding Jones and fellow rookie free agent Justin Edwards after they went undrafted. The third slot will reportedly be taken by three-year veteran Jeff Dowtin, who agreed to a two-way deal with Philadelphia on Sunday.

Mavericks, Spencer Dinwiddie Agree To One-Year Deal

July 22nd, 2024 at 12:08pm CST by Luke Adams

Veteran point guard Spencer Dinwiddie is returning to Dallas, having agreed to a one-year contract with the Mavericks, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Dinwiddie, 31, was previously a Maverick from 2022-23 for almost exactly one year. He was traded from Washington to Dallas at the trade deadline in February 2022 as part of the return for Kristaps Porzingis, then was sent to Brooklyn at the 2023 deadline as part of the package for Kyrie Irving.

Dinwiddie played well during his first stint in Dallas, averaging 17.1 points, 4.9 assists, and 3.1 rebounds in 32.3 minutes per game across 76 outings (60 starts). He posted a shooting line of .466/.404/.788 during that time — those field goal and three-point percentages are well above his career marks.

The veteran guard was less effective in 2023/24 across 76 appearances (52 starts) for the Nets and Lakers, posting averages of 10.5 PPG, 4.7 APG, and 2.7 RPG in 28.3 MPG while shooting .392/.337/.805.

The hope is that a return to Dallas will help fuel a bounce-back season for Dinwiddie, who still has a home in Texas and whose partner is from the state, according to Brian Lewis of The New York Post (Twitter link). As Lewis observes, the move also reunites Dinwiddie with Irving — the two guards played together in Brooklyn from 2019-21.

The Mavericks’ interest in Dinwiddie was reported earlier this month by Michael Scotto of HoopsHype and was reiterated over the weekend by Marc Stein.

The terms of the Mavs’ agreement with Dinwiddie have yet to be reported. While Dallas could technically offer more than the veteran’s minimum using the mid-level or bi-annual exception, the team doesn’t have a ton of wiggle room below the first tax apron, so a minimum-salary deal seems more likely.

Assuming Dinwiddie’s salary is fully guaranteed, he’d be the 14th Maverick on a guaranteed contract for 2024/25. A.J. Lawson, the 15th man, has a non-guaranteed deal and would need to be waived in order to make room for the club to re-sign veteran forward Markieff Morris, whose return is considered likely.

Spurs Add Minix, Warriors Sign Rowe On Camp Deals

July 21st, 2024 at 8:50pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Spurs have signed undrafted Morehead State forward Riley Minix to a training camp contract and the Warriors have also added Jackson Rowe on a camp deal, according to Keith Smith of Spotrac (Twitter links).

Minix, 23, appeared in 35 games last season as a senior, averaging 20.9 points, 9.7 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.0 blocks in 33.8 minutes per game. Minix ranked among the top 20 in Division I in scoring. He appeared in three games with the Spurs’ Summer League team.

Rowe, 27, played regularly last season for Golden State’s NBA G League team, the Santa Cruz Warriors. He averaged 13.8 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.4 steals per contest. He appeared in six Summer League games this month for the Warriors.

It seems safe to assume both players were added on Exhibit 10 deals.

An Exhibit 10 contract is a non-guaranteed minimum-salary deal that doesn’t count against a team’s cap unless the player makes the regular season roster. It can be converted to a two-way contract before the season begins or the player can earn a bonus of up to $77.5K if he’s waived and then spends at least 60 days with his team’s G League affiliate.