Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Haywood Highsmith Signs Second 10-Day Deal With Heat

February 26th, 2022 at 3:33pm CST by Dana Gauruder

FEBRUARY 26: The Heat have officially signed Highsmith to a second 10-day contract, the team announced (Twitter link).

FEBRUARY 25: Forward Haywood Highsmith will sign another 10-day contract with the Heat, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets.

Highsmith signed his first standard 10-day contract on February 15. That contract was extended by one day due to the All-Star break and will expire after tonight’s game against the Knicks.

The Heat will not be able to offer Highsmith another 10-day after the next one expires.

Highsmith had an earlier 10-day stint with Miami under the hardship exception in late December and early January. Prior to Friday’s game, he had appeared in six games with Miami this season, averaging 3.7 PPG in 11.8 MPG.

Highsmith had a brief stint with the Sixers in 2018/19, appearing in five games for the club on a two-way contract. The 25-year-old also spent the 2020/21 season in Germany, but has otherwise played mostly for the Delaware Blue Coats, Philadelphia’s G League affiliate, since going pro in ’18. He has appeared in 17 games with the Blue Coats this season, averaging 13.6 PPG on 39% shooting from three-point range.

Tomas Satoransky Bought Out By Spurs, Looks To Join Wizards

February 26th, 2022 at 12:37pm CST by Dana Gauruder

12:37pm: The Spurs have officially waived Satoransky, the team announced in a press release. He’ll clear waivers on Monday, at which point he’ll be free to sign with Washington.

11:19am: Veteran guard Tomas Satoransky is preparing to sign with the Wizards after agreeing to a contract buyout with the Spurs, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets.

Satoransky is in the final year of a three-year, $30MM contract and it’s safe to say he’ll clear waivers.

Satoransky appeared in 32 games with New Orleans and one game with San Antonio this season. He was involved in two deadline deals — he was traded from the Pelicans to the Trail Blazers in the CJ McCollum blockbuster, then was shipped to the Spurs in a three-team swap.

Satoransky played his first three seasons in the league (2016-19) with Washington. With Bradley Beal out for the season and Spencer Dinwiddie having been traded to Dallas in the Kristaps Porzingis deal, Satoransky should jump right into the Wizards’ rotation.

The Spurs previously bought out another player they acquired at the trade deadline, Goran Dragic. As a result, they’ll have two open spots on their 15-man roster once they officially waive Satoransky — they’ll have two weeks to go back to the NBA-mandated minimum of 14 players.

Mavs Sign Moses Wright To Two-Way Contract

February 25th, 2022 at 6:11pm CST by Dana Gauruder

FEBRUARY 25: The signing is official, the team tweets.

FEBRUARY 24: The Mavericks are signing rookie forward Moses Wright to a two-way contract, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.

Dallas had a two-way opening and won’t have to make a corresponding move.

Wright has been playing for the G League’s Agua Caliente Clippers. He played one game for the NBA Clippers on a 10-day deal in December under the hardship exception before he was placed in protocols.

He has averaged 17.6 PPG, 8.8 RPG, 1.9 APG and 1.9 BPG in 17 G League starts.

Wright spent all four years of his college career at Georgia Tech and averaged 17.4 PPG, 8.0 RPG, 2.3 APG, 1.6 BPG, and 1.5 SPG with a .532/.414/.658 shooting line in 25 games (35.3 MPG) as a senior. He was named the ACC Player of the Year and made the ACC’s All-Defensive team but went undrafted.

Nuggets Sign DeMarcus Cousins For Rest Of Season

February 25th, 2022 at 5:00pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

FEBRUARY 25: Cousins has been signed for the remainder of the season, according to a team press release.

FEBRUARY 22: The Nuggets intend to sign center DeMarcus Cousins to a rest-of-season contract, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). The plan is for the deal to be officially completed on Friday, tweets Mike Singer of The Denver Post.

Cousins has spent most of the last month with the Nuggets, first on a hardship 10-day deal, then on two standard 10-day pacts. Because a player can’t sign more than two standard 10-day contracts with the same team in a season, Denver has to commit to Cousins for the rest of the season in order to keep him on the roster.

The 6’10”, 270-pound veteran, a four-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA player while with the Kings and Pelicans, saw his career fortunes take a turn after he ruptured his left Achilles with New Orleans in 2018. Cousins then sustained a torn quad in the spring of 2019 and tore his ACL while with the Lakers ahead of the 2019/20 NBA season. Since recovering from those injuries, he has become a role player for various clubs, including both the Rockets and Clippers during the 2020/21 season.

This season, Cousins first joined the Bucks, a club looking to compensate for the size it lost when starting center Brook Lopez was forced to sit with a back injury that ultimately led to surgery. The 31-year-old Cousins played a total of 17 games with Milwaukee, and to date has appeared in eight games for the Nuggets as a reserve behind reigning MVP Nikola Jokic, reuniting with former Kings head coach Michael Malone.

In 25 games total this year between the Bucks and Nuggets, Cousins holds averages of 8.1 PPG and 5.9 RPG, while shooting 41.4% from the floor and 77.6% from the free-throw line. Granted, these are far cries from his career numbers (19.9 PPG, 10.4 RPG and 3.1 APG on .459/.330/.737 shooting), but it’s nice that Cousins appears to have adjusted to his new role on two title contenders.

Harrison Wind of DNVR Sports notes (via Twitter) that the Nuggets have been undefeated in their games played with Cousins this year.

Jevon Carter Signs With Bucks

February 24th, 2022 at 5:33pm CST by Luke Adams

FEBRUARY 24: The Bucks have officially signed Carter, according to a team press release.

FEBRUARY 22: Fourth-year guard Jevon Carter intends to sign with the Bucks after he clears waivers, agents Mark Bartelstein and Reggie Brown of Priority Sports tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).

The Bucks were said to be seriously pursuing Goran Dragic in order to add some depth to their backcourt. Having missed out on the 35-year-old, they’ll instead sign the player who was released to make room for Dragic in Brooklyn. The Nets officially announced earlier today that they’ve waived Carter.

Carter, 26, began his NBA career in Memphis in 2018 and had a couple promising seasons in Phoenix from 2019-21, averaging 4.5 PPG and 1.8 RPG on .418/.397/.789 shooting and playing solid defense in 118 games (14.1 MPG) for the Suns.

He was traded to Brooklyn during the offseason in a deal that sent Landry Shamet to the Suns, but struggled with the Nets. His shooting percentage dipped to 33.3% and he wasn’t a consistent part of the rotation after the first month of the season.

While Wojnarowski’s report says Carter will clear waivers on Wednesday, it looks like it’ll actually happen on Thursday, unless the Nets cut him a day before they officially announced the move. As we observed on Monday, Milwaukee needs to make a roster addition on or before Thursday in order to get back to the league-mandated 14-player minimum — it appears Carter will be the team’s new 14th man.

The Nets will remain on the hook for Carter’s $3.9MM guaranteed salary for 2022/23 after he clears waivers and signs with the Bucks.

Sixers Sign Willie Cauley-Stein To 10-Day Deal

February 24th, 2022 at 12:24pm CST by Luke Adams

February 24: Philadelphia has officially signed Cauley-Stein to a 10-day deal, the team announced.

February 22: The Sixers are expected to sign free agent center Willie Cauley-Stein to a 10-day contract, according to John Clark of NBC Sports Philadelphia (Twitter link). The team has an open spot on its 15-man roster, so no corresponding move will be required to finalize the signing.

Cauley-Stein, 28, began the season with the Mavericks, averaging 1.9 PPG and 2.1 RPG in 18 games (9.8 MPG) for the club. The veteran big man played his last game for Dallas on November 27 and was unavailable for several weeks after that for personal reasons before eventually being waived on January 15.

The Sixers had to include Andre Drummond in their blockbuster deadline-day trade that netted them James Harden, so there’s been a sense that they’ll use their 15th roster spot sooner or later to add another backup center.

If Cauley-Stein plays well for Philadelphia, it’s possible he’ll earn a longer look from the club. He had a solid season in 2020/21 as the Mavs’ primary backup center, recording 5.3 PPG and 4.5 RPG on 63.2% shooting in 53 games (17.1 MPG).

Cauley-Stein will earn $120,083 over the course of his 10-day deal, with the Sixers taking on a $95,930 cap hit.

Malik Fitts, Kelan Martin Sign 10-Day Deals With Celtics

February 23rd, 2022 at 11:41am CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

FEBRUARY 23: The Celtics have officially signed Fitts and Martin to 10-day contracts, the team announced today in a press release.

FEBRUARY 22: Forwards Malik Fitts and Kelan Martin are set to sign 10-day deals with the Celtics, per Shams Charania of The Athletic (via Twitter).

Fitts, a 6’8″ second-year power forward out of Saint Mary’s, had a two-way deal with the Jazz earlier this season, but was waived by Utah in January after fracturing his right wrist. He signed an NBA G League contract prior to the news of his joining the Celtics.

Across seven contests with the Jazz this season, Fitts averaged 5.0 MPG. In seven games with the Agua Caliente Clippers of the NBAGL this season, Fitts averaged 15.1 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 2.0 APG, 1.0 BPG and 1.0 SPG, on shooting splits of .396/.267/.846.

The 6’5″ Martin, 26, was most recently with the Pacers, but Indiana waived him in January before his contract for the rest of the 2021/22 season could become guaranteed, as Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files observes (via Twitter).

Through 27 games with Indiana this year, the third-year small forward out of Butler holds averages of 6.3 PPG and 2.0 RPG while making 41.7% of his takes from the floor and 69.2% of his looks from the charity stripe.

The duo will join a revamped Boston roster hoping to make a push up the Eastern Conference standings following an active trade deadline. As we noted earlier this week, the C’s had to make two roster additions this week in order to get back up to the NBA-mandated minimum of 14 players.

The Celtics, who won nine of their last ten games heading into the All-Star break, are currently the sixth seed in the East with a 34-26 record. The team is now just 4.5 games behind the top-seeded Heat and Bulls.

Blazers Sign Drew Eubanks To 10-Day, Brandon Williams To Two-Way

February 22nd, 2022 at 5:10pm CST by Rory Maher

FEBRUARY 22: The Trail Blazers have issued a press release officially announcing the additions of Eubanks (10-day) and Williams (two-way).

FEBRUARY 21: The Trail Blazers are signing center Drew Eubanks to a 10-day contract and are also signing Brandon Williams to a two-year, two-way deal, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reports (Twitter links).

Eubanks’ 10-day contract will come via hardship exception due to multiple players being injured for an extended time period, as Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (via Twitter). That means the Blazers, who have a full 15-man roster, won’t have to waive anyone to complete the signing.

Eubanks has ties to Oregon, having spent three seasons with Oregon State in college. He went undrafted in 2018, but caught on with the Spurs. He was on a two-way contract his first couple seasons before signing a guaranteed deal in 2020, which ran through the end of this season.

Eubanks was waived by the Raptors on February 10 after being acquired in the deal that sent Thaddeus Young to Toronto. He’s been productive in limited minutes during his four-year career. Through 49 games this season, he averaged 4.7 PPG and 4.0 RPG in just 12.1 MPG.

After promoting Trendon Watford to a standard contract earlier today, Portland had an open two-way spot, which it is using to sign Williams. He made a brief NBA cameo earlier this season with the Blazers after signing a 10-day hardship deal at the end of December, appearing in two games for a total of 12 minutes.

A former Arizona Wildcat, Williams has mostly been playing for the Westchester Knicks of the G League this season. Through 22 games with Westchester, he’s averaging 22.3 PPG, 4.0 RPG, and 6.1 APG on .451/.349/.848 shooting.

Nets Sign Goran Dragic, Waive Jevon Carter

February 22nd, 2022 at 10:24am CST by Luke Adams

FEBRUARY 22: The Nets have officially signed Dragic and waived Carter, the team announced in a press release.

Dragic’s rest-of-season contract will pay him $728,742 and will have a cap hit of $460,463. Since Brooklyn is well over the tax line, the club’s end-of-season tax bill will further increase as a result of the signing.

FEBRUARY 21: After being bought out by the Spurs last week, point guard Goran Dragic has made a decision on his next team, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that Dragic will sign with the Nets.

Dragic, who was traded from Toronto to San Antonio at this month’s deadline, had reportedly been considering a handful of suitors, including the Bucks, Warriors, Bulls, Lakers, and Clippers.

Dallas, where Dragic would’ve had the opportunity to team up with fellow Slovenian Luka Doncic, had also been considered a potential landing spot earlier in the season. However, the Mavericks weren’t said to be in the mix for him following his buyout, having acquired another point guard (Spencer Dinwiddie) at the trade deadline.

In Brooklyn, Dragic should get the opportunity to share point guard duties with Patty Mills. Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons, of course, will be in the mix as well, but Irving is ineligible for home games as long as New York City’s vaccine mandate remains in place and it’s unclear when Simmons will make his Nets debut.

The move to Brooklyn will also give Dragic an opportunity to reunite with head coach Steve Nash, who played in Phoenix when Dragic first entered the NBA as a Sun. Marc Stein reported on Sunday that Nash was very involved in the process of recruiting his former teammate.

Dragic averaged 13.4 PPG, 4.4 APG, and 3.4 RPG on .432/.373/.828 shooting in 50 games (26.7 MPG) for the Heat in 2020/21. However, he appeared in just five games for the Raptors this season after being sent to Toronto as part of the Kyle Lowry sign-and-trade. He hasn’t played since November, having taken a personal leave of absence from the Raptors up until he was traded to San Antonio.

The Nets have a full 15-man roster and will have to waive a player in order to officially sign Dragic. That player will be guard Jevon Carter, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). The team will have the option of stretching Carter’s guaranteed $3.925MM salary for 2022/23 across three seasons. His current $3.65MM salary will remain on the ’21/22 cap.

Brooklyn used its full mid-level exception to sign Mills in the offseason and doesn’t have its bi-annual exception available, so Dragic will sign a minimum-salary contract with the club. The exact value of his deal will depend on when he officially signs, but the 35-year-old will earn $15,182 per day.

Thunder Sign Olivier Sarr To Two-Way Contract

February 21st, 2022 at 8:23pm CST by Rory Maher

The Thunder have signed Olivier Sarr to a two-way deal, the team announced in a press release. He previously spent time with the team via two 10-day hardship contracts. He appeared in two games with the Thunder for a total of 14 minutes, averaging 2 points and 2.5 rebounds.

Sarr, who just turned 23 on Sunday, spent four years in college — three with Wake Forest and then his senior season with Kentucky. He went undrafted this past summer after averaging 10.8 points and 5.2 rebounds with the Wildcats.

Sarr has spent the majority of the season with the Thunder’s G League affiliate, the Oklahoma City Blue. Through 23 games with the Blue, he’s averaged 7.7 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 15.7 minutes per contest.

Both of Oklahoma City’s two-way slots are now filled. The team had one available after promoting Aaron Wiggins to its 15-man roster earlier in the month.