Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Grizzlies Sign Jaren Jackson Jr. To Four-Year Extension

October 18th, 2021 at 1:55pm CST by Luke Adams

1:55pm: Jackson’s extension is now official, per NBA.com’s transactions log. According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link), the deal has a first-year salary of $28.9MM and declines annually from there. Marks also confirms that it’ll include prior injury exclusion (Exhibit 3) language related to Jackson’s left knee.

12:41pm: There will be injury protections in the deal, sources tell Joe Vardon of The Athletic. According to Vardon, if Jackson gets hurt again, the Grizzlies would have the ability to save some or all of the money they’d owe him.

We’ll have to wait for the specific details, but typically, that sort of contract language applies to a reoccurrence of a similar prior injury. For instance, the agreement might make Jackson’s future salaries non-guaranteed if he has more health issues related to his left knee.

Joel Embiid‘s rookie scale extension with Philadelphia had language along those lines. But again, we’ll have to wait for more specifics on Jackson’s deal.

10:40am: The Grizzlies and power forward Jaren Jackson Jr. have reached an agreement on a rookie scale extension, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Agent Austin Brown of CAA Basketball tells Wojnarowski that Jackson is signing a four-year, $105MM extension with the team. It will go into effect in 2022/23.

Jackson, 22, was the fourth overall pick in the 2018 draft and started 113 of the 115 games he played for Memphis in his first two NBA seasons. In 2019/20, he averaged 17.4 PPG, 4.6 RPG, and 1.6 BPG on .469/.394/.747 shooting in 57 contests (28.5 MPG).

However, Jackson was sidelined for the majority of the ’20/21 campaign while recovering from surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee. He returned late in the season for just 11 games and didn’t quite look like he was back up to full speed, averaging 14.4 PPG on a modest .424/.283/.833 shooting line.

Despite coming off a season nearly entirely lost to injury, Jackson remains a key part of the Grizzlies’ long-term plans, along with guard Ja Morant, who will be up for a rookie scale extension of his own in 2022.

As Wojnarowski writes, Memphis views Jackson as one of the more versatile and dynamic young bigs in the NBA. The team chose to lock him up now rather than risk paying an even higher price in restricted free agency a year from now.

Wojnarowski’s report doesn’t indicate that Jackson’s $105MM deal is fully guaranteed, so we’ll have to wait to see if that number is buoyed by incentives or whether the agreement includes some non-guaranteed money or injury language. Still, it’s a nice payday for a player who has only appeared in 126 total regular season games.

Jackson’s new deal puts this year’s crop of rookie scale extensions over the $1 billion mark, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link). That figure includes massive, maximum-salary extensions for Luka Doncic, Trae Young, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Michael Porter Jr., along with contracts ranging from $50-90MM for Mikal Bridges, Robert Williams, and Wendell Carter Jr.

The deadline to complete rookie scale extensions is at 5:00pm CT today, so more deals could still get done in the coming hours. We listed all the eligible players in an earlier story.

Suns Sign Mikal Bridges To Four-Year Extension

October 18th, 2021 at 1:50pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

OCTOBER 18: The Suns have officially completed Bridges’ extension, the team announced today in a press release.

OCTOBER 17: The Suns have reached a deal to sign swingman Mikal Bridges to a four-year, $90MM rookie contract extension, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, who says the deal will be fully guaranteed. Bridges’ agents at Excel Sports Management, Sam Goldfeder and Jordan Gertler, informed Woj of the news.

Bridges, the tenth overall pick in the 2018 draft out of Villanova (where he won NCAA titles in 2016 and 2018), proved to be a crucial two-way contributor on a Phoenix club that broke through for its first NBA Finals appearance in 28 years during the 2020/21 season.

The 6’6″ small forward enjoyed a career year in 2020/21, averaging 13.5 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 2.1 APG, 1.1 SPG and 0.9 BPG for Phoenix, while appearing in all 72 games during the truncated season. Bridges posted an excellent shooting line of .543/.425/.840 and emerged as one of the league’s best young defenders.

Retaining Bridges, who still has All-Star upside, on a deal that will pay him $22.5MM annually through the 2025/26 season is a massive victory for Suns general manager James Jones.

Bridges’ teammate Deandre Ayton, Phoenix’s starting center selected in the same draft class out of Arizona, has yet to reach terms on his own rookie contract extension agreement with the club. The deadline for teams to reach rookie contract extensions is tomorrow at 5 p.m. CT.

Woj notes that the Suns are still having conversations about a possible extension for Ayton ahead of tomorrow’s deadline, in addition to newly-added reserve shooting guard Landry Shamet, the No. 26 selection in 2018 out of Wichita State.

“He is the player who buys into a culture as well as sets a culture,” Goldfelder said of his client.

“Mikal has worked tirelessly to bring winning basketball back to the Phoenix Suns,” Gertler said. “This is the culmination of his hard work.”

Lakers Sign Jay Huff To Two-Way Contract

October 18th, 2021 at 1:18pm CST by Luke Adams

The Lakers have signed rookie free agent big man Jay Huff to a two-way contract, the team announced today in a press release.

A 7’1″ forward/center, Huff spent his college career at Virginia and was a full-time starter for the first time as a senior in 2020/21. He averaged 13.0 PPG, 7.1 RPG, and 2.6 BPG with a stellar .585/.387/.837 shooting line in 25 games (27.0 MPG). Huff, who won a national title in 2019, made the All-ACC Second Team and the ACC All-Defensive Team in 2021.

After going undrafted in July, Huff caught on with the Wizards, signing an Exhibit 10 deal with the team in August and playing for Washington in both the Las Vegas Summer League and the preseason. He was cut last week, with the Wizards probably hoping he’d play for the Capital City Go-Go, their G League affiliate. Instead, Huff has caught on with another NBA team.

Huff is the fourth player the Lakers have signed to a two-way contract already since the new league year began in August. The team initially inked Austin Reaves and Joel Ayayi to two-way deals, but later promoted Reaves to the standard roster and released Ayayi. Sekou Doumbouya took Reaves’ two-way slot and now Huff has replaced Ayayi.

The Lakers still have an open spot on their 15-man roster.

Spurs Waive Al-Farouq Aminu

October 18th, 2021 at 12:30pm CST by Luke Adams

12:30pm: The Spurs have officially waived Aminu, per a team press release.

12:12pm: The Spurs are waiving veteran forward Al-Farouq Aminu, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

San Antonio had been carrying 16 players on guaranteed contracts, so cutting Aminu will ensure the team gets down to 15 for the start of the regular season. The Spurs will be on the hook for Aminu’s $10,183,800 salary, which will remain on their cap for the 2021/22 season.

Aminu, who signed a three-year, $29MM+ deal with Orlando in 2019, battled injuries throughout the contract, appearing in just 35 games for the Magic before he was sent to Chicago in the Nikola Vucevic trade at the 2021 deadline. He played in six games for the Bulls down the stretch, then was flipped to the Spurs in the DeMar DeRozan sign-and-trade this offseason.

A strong, versatile defender when healthy, Aminu was a starter in New Orleans and Portland earlier in his career, but was only traded to the Spurs for salary-matching purposes and wasn’t considered a keeper for the club. There was a little uncertainty about whether he’d be a victim of the preseason roster crunch, since his $10MM expiring deal could’ve been useful in a midseason trade, but it seems the Spurs decided it made more sense to release him than one of their younger players.

San Antonio also waived Luka Samanic last week in order to get down to 15 players on standard contracts for the regular season. The team does have an open two-way contract slot.

Celtics Sign Brodric Thomas To Two-Way Deal

October 18th, 2021 at 11:29am CST by Luke Adams

11:29am: The Celtics have officially signed Thomas to a two-way contract, the team announced today in a press release.

8:02am: The Celtics are filling one of the open spots on their 17-man roster by signing guard Brodric Thomas to a two-way contract, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter).

Thomas, 24, began his rookie season in 2020/21 with the Rockets after going undrafted out of Truman. He had his Exhibit 10 contract with Houston converted to a two-way pact at the end of the preseason, then appeared in four games with the Rockets before being waived in February. Thomas caught on with Cleveland on a new two-way deal less than two weeks later and finished the season with the Cavaliers.

In 32 total games for his two teams, Thomas averaged 3.9 PPG and 1.7 RPG on .361/.271/.674 shooting in 12.5 minutes per contest. He put up better numbers in the G League, with 18.5 PPG, 7.3 RPG, and 3.5 APG on .447/.413/.571 shooting in 14 games (33.6 MPG) for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers and Canton Charge.

Thomas re-signed with the Cavs on another two-way deal this offseason, but was released last week.

Once Thomas officially joins the team, the Celtics will have 16 players under contract — Thomas and Sam Hauser on two-way pacts, plus 14 players on standard deals. It doesn’t appear the team will fill its final roster spot to start the regular season.

Wizards Claim Two-Way Player Joel Ayayi Off Waivers

October 17th, 2021 at 4:20pm CST by JD Shaw

The Wizards have claimed two-way player Joel Ayayi off waivers from the Lakers, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Ayayi was one of four players released by Los Angeles on Friday.

Ayayi, a 6’5″ guard, went unselected in the NBA draft this past summer. The 21-year-old spent three seasons at Gonzaga before declaring for the draft, holding per-game averages of 12 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.7 assists during his junior year.

The move brings Washington’s roster to 17 players ahead of the campaign. Ayayi will be the team’s second two-way player, joining Cassius Winston.

The Wizards open the season with a road contest against the Raptors on Wednesday. Washington is coming off an offseason in which it retooled its roster, adding Spencer Dinwiddie, Kyle Kuzma, Montrezl Harrell, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, among others.

Celtics Waive Jabari Parker

October 17th, 2021 at 3:34pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

3:34pm: The Celtics have officially waived Parker, according to the team (Twitter link).

1:39pm: The Celtics are set to waive veteran forward Jabari Parker ahead of the 2021/22 regular NBA season, writes Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe.

Parker signed a multiyear deal with Boston last season, but his salary for ’21/22 was only partially guaranteed for $100K. By moving on from Parker, the Celtics will open up a spot on their regular 15-man roster. The team also still has an open two-way contract slot.

Jared Weiss of The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that Boston, which projects to be a taxpayer this season, intends to keep its 15th roster spot open for the time being.

After being selected with the second draft pick out of Duke by the Bucks in 2014, Parker showed plenty of promise as a versatile scorer before being felled by two ACL tears, the first during his 2014/15 rookie season with Milwaukee and the second during the 2016/17 season.

Since being made a free agent by the Bucks in 2018, Parker has logged time with his hometown Bulls, then the Wizards, Hawks, and Kings before joining the Celtics during the spring of 2021. He appeared in just 10 games with the Celtics last year, averaging 6.4 PPG and 3.6 RPG across 13.8 MPG with Boston.

The 6’8″ power forward, 26, will hope to catch on with his seventh NBA club for an eighth NBA season.

Wizards Pick Up Options On Hachimura, Avdija

October 17th, 2021 at 1:29pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Wizards have picked up their 2022/23 rookie scale contract options on forwards Rui Hachimura and Deni Avdija, per Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington (Twitter link).

Selected with consecutive ninth overall picks in the 2019 and 2020 drafts, respectively, Hachimura and Avdija are among the intriguing lottery picks with which Washington hopes to construct its supportive core around All-Star Bradley Beal and $54MM point guard Spencer Dinwiddie.

A 2019/20 All-Rookie Second Teamer, Hachimura holds averages of 13.7 PPG and 5.8 RPG across two years of NBA action. Avdija averaged 6.3 PPG and 4.9 RPG during his 2020/21 rookie season.

Hachimura, currently entering his third season in the NBA, will be eligible for a contract extension in 2022, while Avdija would be extension-eligible in 2023 if the Wizards exercise his 2023/24 team option next year.

Clippers Sign, Waive Nate Darling

October 16th, 2021 at 8:57pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Clippers have signed and waived former Hornets guard Nate Darling, per NBA.com’s transactions log. Once he clears waivers, Darling appears headed to L.A’s G League affiliate, the Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario.

Darling, 23, spent last season as a two-way player in Charlotte. He only got into seven NBA games, but he averaged 8.9 points and 2.2 assists in 13 games in the G League bubble in Orlando.

Darling signed with the Hornets after going undrafted out of Delaware last year. He played four seasons for the Fightin’ Blue Hens and earned Colonial Athletic Association first-team honors as a senior.

Rockets Sign, Waive Christian Vital

October 16th, 2021 at 8:21pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Rockets have signed and waived former Connecticut point guard Christian Vital, according to NBA.com’s transactions log. He will likely wind up with the team’s G League affiliate in Rio Grande Valley after clearing waivers.

Vital, 24, signed to play in Germany last year after going undrafted. However, his contract was later terminated and he wound up in the G League bubble with the Memphis Hustle. He was briefly in training camp with the Grizzlies last December, also on a sign-and-waive arrangement.

Vital received first-team honors in the American Athletic Conference as a senior in 2020, averaging 16.4 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 2.5 steals per game.