Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Blazers Exercise 2022/23 Option On Nassir Little

October 1st, 2021 at 1:07pm CST by Luke Adams

The Trail Blazers have picked up the fourth-year option on Nassir Little‘s rookie scale contract, a source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). The move locks in Little’s $4,171,548 salary for the 2022/23 season.

The 25th pick in the 2019 draft, Little has appeared in 48 games in each of his first two NBA seasons, but has played a limited role. In those 96 total NBA regular-season contests (12.6 MPG), the 21-year-old forward has averaged a modest 4.1 PPG and 2.5 RPG on .450/.302/.719 shooting.

A report last week indicated that Little has been turning heads this offseason and that team officials are intrigued by his development and his potential to contribute to the Blazers. We’ll have to wait for the games to begin to see whether that positive chatter is warranted, but it sounds as if Little should be given the opportunity to play a bigger role in 2021/22.

NBA clubs must make decisions by the end of October on the 2022/23 team options for players on rookie scale contracts. So far, only a handful of those options have been picked up, as our tracker shows, but most of them will likely be exercised in the coming weeks.

Spurs To Sign Nate Renfro To Exhibit 10 Deal

October 1st, 2021 at 11:47am CST by Luke Adams

The Spurs are signing free agent guard Nate Renfro to an Exhibit 10 contract, a source tells Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Renfro, who went undrafted in 2019 out of San Francisco, spent the 2019/20 season recovering from a torn ACL, then played for the Austin Spurs – San Antonio’s G League affiliate – during the 2021 NBAGL bubble season.

Although he didn’t provide much offense (4.4 PPG on .422/.150/.417 shooting), Renfro contributed in other ways, averaging 5.3 RPG, 3.8 APG, 1.9 BPG, and 1.4 SPG in 15 games (24.9 MPG). He subsequently suited up for the Spurs’ Summer League team in Las Vegas this August as well.

Based on the terms of Renfro’s deal, it sounds like he’ll likely just be on San Antonio’s 20-man roster briefly before returning to Austin for the 2021/22 season. The Exhibit 10 language in his contract would put him in line for a bonus worth up to $50K if he spends at least 60 days with the Spurs’ G League squad.

Since the Spurs have two openings on their 20-man roster, no corresponding move will be required to sign Renfro.

Sixers Sign, Waive Haywood Highsmith

September 30th, 2021 at 5:56pm CST by Rory Maher

In a procedural move, the Sixers signed and then waived Haywood Highsmith, tweets Derek Bodner of The Athletic. Bodner notes that Highsmith is expected to join the Sixers’ G League affiliate, the Delaware Blue Coats.

Highsmith, 24, is a 6’7″ wing who has seen action in five NBA games for the Sixers, playing a total of 40 minutes. He spent the 2018/19 and 2019/20 seasons with the Blue Coats, playing in 89 games with averages of 11.3 PPG, 6.8 RPG, and 2.6 APG in 29.5 MPG with a .423/.338/.679 shooting line. In a follow-up tweet, Bodner adds that Highsmith played in Germany last season for the Crailsheim Merlins.

As reported last month, Highsmith received an Exhibit 10 contract, which gives players a chance to earn up to a $50K bonus if they’re waived before the start of the regular season and spend at least 60 days with the team’s G League affiliate.

Lakers Sign Cameron Oliver To Exhibit 10 Contract

September 29th, 2021 at 7:41pm CST by Luke Adams

SEPTEMBER 29: The signing is official, the team announced (via Twitter).

SEPTEMBER 16: The Lakers are signing free agent forward Cameron Oliver to an Exhibit 10 deal, according to Jovan Buha of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Oliver, 25, has played primarily in the G League and overseas since going undrafted out of Nevada in 2017. However, he did sign with the Rockets at the end of the 2020/21 season, appearing in four games for the team down the stretch and averaging 10.8 PPG, 5.3 RPG, and 1.0 BPG on .576/.308/.636 shooting in 21.8 minutes per contest.

The Lakers are currently only carrying 13 players on guaranteed contracts, so Oliver could theoretically be a candidate to make the 15-man regular season roster. However, like fellow Exhibit 10 recipients Chaundee Brown and Mac McClung, Oliver seems more likely to end up playing for the South Bay Lakers, L.A.’s G League affiliate.

Oliver nearly averaged a double-double during his last stint in the G League, putting up 15.5 PPG, 9.2 RPG, and 2.2 BPG in 26 games (26.6 MPG) for the Delaware Blue Coats in 2018/19.

Pistons Add Jared Cunningham, Waive Deividas Sirvydis

September 29th, 2021 at 5:05pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Pistons have signed veteran shooting guard Jared Cunningham to a training camp contract and placed swingman Deividas Sirvydis on waivers, the team announced (via Twitter).

Cunningham, 30, last played in the NBA during the 2015/16 season when he appeared in a combined 44 games with the Cavaliers and Bucks. Since then, he has spent time overseas and in the G League, last playing for Bnei Herzliya in Israel.

Cleveland selected Cunningham with the 24th overall pick in the 2012 draft and shipped him to Dallas in a draft-night trade. He had brief stays with six NBA teams and holds a career scoring average of 2.3 PPG in 84 games.

Sirvydis, the 37th pick in the 2019 draft, just re-signed with Detroit on Tuesday after being waived in July. He saw limited action in 20 games last season and could be headed to the Pistons’ new G League affiliate, the Motor City Cruise.

Detroit’s roster remains at the training camp limit of 20 players.

Nuggets Sign Michael Porter Jr. To Five-Year Max Extension

September 29th, 2021 at 1:06pm CST by Luke Adams

SEPTEMBER 29: Porter’s extension is now official, the Nuggets announced today in a press release.

Meanwhile, more details have emerged on Porter’s fifth-year salary. Only $12MM of his $39.3MM salary for that season is guaranteed, sources tell Shams Charania and Sam Amick of The Athletic (Twitter link). It can become fully guaranteed based on All-Star, All-NBA, or All-Defensive honors, or MVP or Defensive Player of the Year awards.

According to Mike Singer of The Denver Post (Twitter link), one All-Star appearance for Porter would increase the fifth-year guarantee by $5MM, while two All-Star nods would fully guarantee that $39MM+ salary. There are several other potential triggers, Singer adds.

SEPTEMBER 27: The Nuggets and forward Michael Porter Jr. have reached an agreement on a five-year contract extension worth the maximum salary, agent Mark Bartelstein tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

The deal currently projects to be worth $172.5MM, based on the NBA’s projection of a $119MM salary cap for the 2022/23 season. However, the contract will include Rose Rule language, allowing Porter to potentially earn 30% of the cap in the first year of the extension (rather than 25% of the cap) if he makes an All-NBA team in 2021/22. In that scenario, the five-year contract would be worth a projected $207MM.

The fifth year of Porter’s contract will be partially guaranteed, according to Ryan McDonough of Audacy Sports, who reports (via Twitter) that MPJ’s fifth-year salary would become fully guaranteed if he meets certain “lofty” performance benchmarks.

The Nuggets’ investment signals how far the former 14th overall pick has come since missing his entire rookie season in 2018/19 due to a back injury. After playing a modest role in ’19/20, Porter became a key piece for Denver last season, averaging 19.0 PPG and 7.3 RPG with an impressive .542/.445/.791 shooting line in 61 games (31.3 MPG).

Porter still has plenty of room to improve on the defensive side of the ball, but the 23-year-old has displayed the potential to become one of the NBA’s very best scorers, so there was no chance the Nuggets would let him get away.

With extensions for Porter and Aaron Gordon completed this offseason, the Nuggets’ roster is getting very expensive. The newly-extended forwards won’t even be Denver’s highest-paid players — that honor belongs to veteran stars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, who are earning a combined $60MM+ in 2021/22.

As Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets, the Nuggets project to carry about $156MM in team salary for the ’22/23 campaign and are on track to be a taxpayer for the first time in over a decade. The team remains below the tax line for the ’21/22 season.

Porter’s deal is the fourth maximum-salary rookie scale extension to be finalized this offseason, with the Nuggets forward joining Luka Doncic, Trae Young, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. As our tracker shows, Robert Williams is the only player who has received a rookie scale extension below the max so far in 2021.

Bucks Sign Johnny O’Bryant To Camp Deal

September 28th, 2021 at 9:00pm CST by Luke Adams

9:00pm: The Bucks have officially signed O’Bryant, per RealGM’s transactions log.

11:29am: The Bucks are adding another player to their preseason roster, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that big man Johnny O’Bryant is rejoining the team on a training camp contract. He worked out for the club earlier in the offseason.

O’Bryant, 28, was selected 36th overall by Milwaukee in the 2014 draft and spent the first two seasons of his professional career with the Bucks. He later spent time with Denver and Charlotte, ultimately appearing in 147 NBA regular season games, averaging 3.5 PPG and 2.4 RPG in 11.5 minutes per contest.

O’Bryant has been out of the league since 2018, having spent the last several seasons playing for teams in Europe. He won an Israeli League championship with Maccabi Tel Aviv in 2019 and a Serbian Cup title with Crvena Zvezda in 2021. He also spent time with clubs in Russia and Turkey.

O’Bryant will get the opportunity to compete for a roster spot in Milwaukee, according to Charania. The team currently has 13 players on fully guaranteed contracts, so there could be a path to a spot on the regular season squad for the veteran. However, rookie Georgios Kalaitzakis has a partial guarantee, which probably gives him a leg up to be the 14th man, and the Bucks may not carry a 15th player at the start of the season due to tax concerns.

Marques Bolden, Malik Fitts Join Jazz For Training Camp

September 28th, 2021 at 8:05pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

8:04pm: The Jazz confirmed the additions of Bolden and Fitts in a press release.

4:57pm: The Jazz have agreed to add a tandem of frontcourt players, center Marques Bolden and power forward Malik Fitts, ahead of training camp, tweets Tony Jones of The Athletic (Twitter link). Though terms of the deals have yet to be divulged, they are most likely Exhibit 10 contracts, generally the standard practice of training camp agreements. This brings Utah’s total training camp tally to 20 players.

After going undrafted in 2020 out of Saint Mary’s, the 6’8″ Fitts joined the training camp roster of the Clippers ahead of the 2020/21 season. He suited up for Los Angeles’s NBA G League affiliate, the Agua Caliente Clippers, during the 2021 NBAGL “bubble” in Orlando. Fitts averaged 11.1 PPG, 4.0 RPG and 1.4 APG. He joined Los Angeles on a 10-day contract in the spring of 2021, appearing in just three games, averaging 3.7 MPG.

The 6’10” Bolden, meanwhile, went undrafted out of Duke in 2019. After playing for the Cavaliers’ Summer League club in 2019, he joined Cleveland’s training camp team before ultimately being waived. He then joined Cleveland’s NBA G League affiliate club, the Canton Charge (now the Cleveland Charge). He joined the Cavaliers on a 10-day deal and suited up for one game.

During the 2020/21 season, Bolden served as a two-way player for Cleveland, appearing in six games as a deep bench reserve. Cleveland waived him from its roster, but added him again to its G League affiliate later. Bolden averaged 9.2 PPG, 7.5 RPG and 2.1 BPG across 10 games for the Charge during the truncated 2020/21 G League “bubble” season.

Both players will be able to compete for roster spots with the Jazz. Utah has 13 players inked to fully guaranteed contracts, although one player, third-year swingman Miye Oni, is on a non-guaranteed deal until January and may have the edge in claiming an eventual roster spot. Both of the team’s two-way contract slots are currently occupied.

Lakers Sign Trevelin Queen To Training Camp Contract

September 28th, 2021 at 7:45pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Lakers have completed a partially-guaranteed training camp contract with guard Trevelin Queen, his agent Daniel Hazan informed Dave McMenamin of ESPN (via Twitter).

The 6’6″ guard went undrafted out of New Mexico State in 2020. He averaged 13.2 PPG, 5.2 RPG and 2.4 APG on a .471/.387/.814 shooting line during his final collegiate season in 2019/20. Queen was named to the All-WAC Second-Team that year.

Queen joined the Rockets on a training camp deal in 2020 after not being selected by an NBA club in the draft. He was ultimately cut ahead of the regular season and signed on with Houston’s NBAGL affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. In 15 games for the Vipers, Queen averaged 10.0 PPG, 2.3 RPG, 1.2 APG and 1.2 SPG.

The 24-year-old averaged 13.2 PPG and 2.0 SPG while connecting on 54% of his three-point attempts for Los Angeles’s Summer League club this year.

The addition of Queen brings L.A.’s training camp roster total to 18 players. Los Angeles has 13 players under guaranteed contracts, with guard Austin Reaves in position to become the team’s 14th man after inking a two-year contract earlier this week. Should Queen not make the opening night roster for the new-look Lakers, Los Angeles can get an extended look at his play on the team’s G League club, the South Bay Lakers.

Nuggets Sign Aaron Gordon To Four-Year Extension

September 28th, 2021 at 1:09pm CST by Luke Adams

SEPTEMBER 28: Nearly two weeks after agreeing to terms, the Nuggets and Gordon officially finalized their extension agreement on Monday, according to NBA.com’s transactions log.

SEPTEMBER 14: The Nuggets and forward Aaron Gordon have reached an agreement on a four-year extension, agent Calvin Andrews of Klutch Sports tells Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). According to Charania, the deal is worth $92MM and includes a fourth-year player option for 2025/26.

Mike Singer of The Denver Post reported in late August that the Nuggets and Gordon had mutual interest in an extension and would likely reach a deal soon. At that point, Singer anticipated a two- or three-year extension in the range of $20-21MM per year, but it sounds like Denver was willing to go higher to get the former fourth overall pick locked up long-term.

Gordon will earn a base salary of $16,409,091 in 2021/22 – the last year of his current contract – with an extra $1MM available in unlikely incentives. A veteran extension allows for a starting salary 20% higher than the player’s previous salary, and it looks like the Nuggets are going that route with Gordon — his maximum extension would have a base value of about $88.2MM over four years. Adding $1MM in annual unlikely incentives (for All-Star, All-NBA, and All-Defense nods) bumps the total up to the $92MM figure reported by Charania.

After spending the first six years of his career with the Magic, Gordon was part of a midseason trade in his seventh season, having been sent from the Magic to the Nuggets at the 2021 trade deadline. The athletic forward, who will turn 26 on Thursday, helped shore up Denver’s defense down the stretch, though his counting stats (10.2 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 2.2 APG on .500/.266/.705 shooting) in 25 games with the club were modest.

Now that Gordon will have a full offseason and training camp as a Nugget under his belt, the team will likely have higher expectations for him going forward. His new extension will make him an important part of a core that also includes Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Michael Porter Jr. Jokic is under contract through 2023, Murray is locked up through 2025, and Porter is entering a contract year, though he’s a good bet to sign an extension of his own before opening night.

Gordon’s new deal is the 15th contract extension – and the 10th veteran extension – of the NBA offseason. His contract will rank seventh out of this summer’s 10 veteran extensions in overall value, slotting in between Terry Rozier (four years, $96MM) and Marcus Smart (four years, $77MM).