Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Marquese Chriss Signs Non-Guaranteed Deal With Blazers

September 3rd, 2021 at 10:00pm CST by Dana Gauruder

10:00pm: The signing is official, per RealGM’s transactions log.

8:53pm: Marquese Chriss has agreed to a non-guaranteed contract with the Trail Blazers, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.

Chriss played in just two games last season with the Warriors before suffering a broken right fibula in practice that ended his season. The Spurs acquired Chriss and his expiring contract in late March, then waived him a few days later.

Chriss has fully recovered from the injury, according to Charania, and will compete for a roster spot. Chriss appeared in 59 games with Golden State in 2019/20, including 21 starts, and averaged 9.3 PPG and 6.2 RPG in 20.3 MPG. He’s entering his sixth NBA season.

Portland has 13 players on fully guaranteed contracts, with Dennis Smith Jr. and Chriss among those expected to come to training camp on non-guaranteed deals. The Blazers may keep their 15th roster spot open to start the regular season, since they’re slightly over the tax line.

DeAndre Jordan Expected To Sign With Lakers

September 3rd, 2021 at 6:46pm CST by Dana Gauruder

DeAndre Jordan is expected to sign with the Lakers once the Nets’ deal with the Pistons is completed and Detroit waives him, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets. Jordan will receive a veteran’s minimum contract of one year and $2.6MM from Los Angeles.

Brooklyn agreed to trade Jordan along with four second-round picks and $5.78MM in cash for Jahlil Okafor and Sekou Doumbouya. The Pistons are expected to buy out and waive Jordan, who has two years and nearly $20MM remaining on his contract.

Jordan is giving back $4MM to get out of his contract, Charania adds in another tweet.

How much Jordan, who fell out of Brooklyn’s rotation last season, would play with the Lakers is a major question mark. Los Angeles still has Marc Gasol on the roster and also signed Dwight Howard in free agency. Anthony Davis, naturally, will also see minutes at center. However, there’s been speculation that Gasol might not return to Los Angeles for the upcoming season.

The Lakers already have 13 players with guaranteed contracts and two others, Chaundee Brown and Mac McClung, on non-guaranteed deals.

Nets Sign LaMarcus Aldridge, Waive Alize Johnson

September 3rd, 2021 at 6:43pm CST by Dana Gauruder

6:43pm: The Nets have officially signed Aldridge, according to a team press release.

4:19pm: The Nets are signing veteran power forward LaMarcus Aldridge and have waived Alize Johnson, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Brooklyn has officially announced the release of Johnson.

Aldridge will receive a veteran’s minimum contract worth $2.6MM for one year. That was all the Nets could offer due to salary cap constraints.

Aldridge retired last season due to an irregular heartbeat, but received medical clearance to resume his career on Thursday and Brooklyn was considered his likely destination. He played five games with the Nets before the condition forced him to temporarily end his career.

“I retired in April based on what I believed was the wisest precautionary decision for my personal health at the time, but further testing and evaluation by several top physicians has convinced the doctors, myself and the Nets that I’m fully cleared and able to return to the rigors of the NBA,” Aldridge said in a statement to ESPN. “I loved my brief time with Brooklyn and am excited to rejoin the team in pursuit of a championship.”

Aldridge, who also dealt with heart issues in 2017, started talking about a comeback last month. He averaged 13.7 points and 4.5 rebounds in 21 games last season with the Spurs as the team’s starting center. San Antonio opted to go with younger players and ultimately reached a buyout agreement, allowing him to sign with Brooklyn in late March. He was waived after announcing his retirement.

Johnson, 25, appeared in 18 games for Brooklyn in 2020/21, averaging 5.2 PPG and 5.0 RPG in just 10.5 minutes per contest.

Since he was on a three-year, minimum-salary contract, Johnson can’t be claimed off waivers using the minimum salary exception, but a team with a trade exception big enough to absorb his non-guaranteed $1.76MM salary could submit a claim. If he goes unclaimed, Johnson will become an unrestricted free agent on Sunday.

Brooklyn has been quite busy this week. The team reportedly reached an agreement with free agent forward Paul Millsap and has also agreed to trade DeAndre Jordan to the Pistons along with four second-round picks and $5.78MM in cash in exchange for Jahlil Okafor and Sekou Doumbouya.

After officially adding Millsap and Aldridge and completing their trade with Detroit, the Nets will have 16 players on guaranteed contracts and one (DeAndre’ Bembry) on a partially guaranteed deal, meaning more roster moves will be necessary to set the 15-man regular season roster next month.

Additionally, Brooklyn is carrying a two-way player (Kessler Edwards) and another (David Duke) on an Exhibit 10 deal. The club also has two unsigned second-round picks (RaiQuan Gray and Marcus Zegarowski).

Mavs Sign Jaquori McLaughlin To Two-Way Deal, Waive EJ Onu

September 3rd, 2021 at 4:34pm CST by Arthur Hill

SEPTEMBER 3: The signing is official, the Mavs announced today in a press release. Dallas also announced that it has waived EJ Onu, who had signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the team last month.

SEPTEMBER 1: The Mavericks will sign Jaquori McLaughlin to a two-way contract, tweets Tim MacMahon of ESPN.

After going undrafted out of UC Santa Barbara, the 23-year-old guard was expected to sign a training camp deal with the Warriors. McLaughlin played for Golden State during Summer League, averaging 16.9 points, 7.3 rebounds and 9.6 assists in five games, but accepted Dallas’ offer instead.

Once the signing becomes official, the Mavericks will have both two-way slots filled, with Eugene Omoruyi occupying the other one. The move will also push Dallas to the training camp limit of 20 players.

Heat Exercise Tyler Herro’s 2022/23 Option

September 3rd, 2021 at 2:34pm CST by Luke Adams

The Heat have exercised their team option on guard Tyler Herro for the 2022/23 season, according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald (Twitter link).

Herro, who has a cap hit just above $4MM this season, will earn about $5.7MM on that ’22/23 option. Now that it has been picked up, the former Kentucky standout is on track to become eligible for a rookie scale extension in 2022 or restricted free agency in 2023.

The 13th overall pick in the 2019 draft, Herro had a big postseason in the Walt Disney World bubble as a rookie in 2020 and was viewed as a candidate for a breakout year in ’20/21. Although his numbers in 54 games were solid (15.1 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 3.4 APG), Herro’s three-point percentage dipped a little from his rookie year and he didn’t take a major step forward. Still, he’s only 21 years old and remains an important part of Miami’s rotation going forward.

Herro is the first player this offseason to have a rookie scale team option for 2022/23 exercised. While decisions on standard team options are typically due right before free agency begins, teams must make their decisions on rookie scale team options a year in advance. By October 31, clubs must either exercise or decline third-year options for first-round picks from 2020 and fourth-year options for 2019’s first-rounders.

Thunder Sign Vit Krejci To Multiyear Deal

September 3rd, 2021 at 10:09am CST by Luke Adams

The Thunder have signed draft-and-stash prospect Vit Krejci to a multiyear deal, the team announced today in a press release.

A 6’7″ point guard from the Czech Republic, Krejci was selected by Washington with the 37th overall pick in the 2020 draft and was sent to Oklahoma City in a draft-night deal. After spending the last several seasons with Zaragoza in Spain, Krejci came stateside earlier this year to join the Oklahoma City Blue, the Thunder’s G League affiliate. He spent the season rehabbing an ACL injury and didn’t play at all for the Blue.

Prior to signing Krejci, the Thunder were carrying 12 players on fully guaranteed contracts, with Kenrich Williams, Gabriel Deck, and Charlie Brown on non-guaranteed deals. Williams is a safe bet to stick around, so Krejci will likely claim one of the last two spots on the 15-man regular season roster over either Brown or Deck.

The expectation is that Krejci will once again spend most of his time in the G League in 2021/22, according to Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman (Twitter link).

Details of the 21-year-old’s new contract aren’t yet known, but the Thunder could have used a portion of their mid-level exception to offer a three- or four-year deal with a starting salary above the rookie minimum.

Clippers Sign George King To Exhibit 10 Deal

September 3rd, 2021 at 8:30am CST by Luke Adams

The Clippers have signed free agent forward George King to an Exhibit 10 contract, his agents at SLASH Sports tell Law Murray of The Athletic (Twitter link).

King, who played for Portland in Summer League last month, was the 59th overall pick in the 2018 draft out of Colorado. He spent his rookie season with Phoenix on a two-way contract, but appeared in just one NBA game and has been out of the league for the last two years.

King played in Italy and Poland during the 2019/20 season, then spent the ’20/21 campaign in Germany with the Niners Chemnitz. Now, the 27-year-old is on track to attend training camp with the Clippers.

Earning a regular season spot in L.A. is probably a long shot for King, as the Clippers have 14 players on guaranteed contracts, plus Yogi Ferrell on a non-guaranteed deal. However, King’s Exhibit 10 deal could put him in line for a $50K bonus if he ends up joining the club’s G League affiliate, the Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario. He may also be a candidate to have his Exhibit 10 contract converted to a two-way deal.

Cavaliers Sign Tacko Fall To Non-Guaranteed Deal

September 2nd, 2021 at 1:53pm CST by Eli Cohen

SEPTEMBER 2: The Cavs have made the signing official, per RealGM’s transactions log.

AUGUST 31: The Cavaliers have come to an agreement with free agent center Tacko Fall, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.

The deal is for one year and is non-guaranteed. The 7’5″ center spent two seasons with the Celtics, averaging 2.7 PPG, 2.6 RPG and 0.9 BPG in just 26 games total. He became something of a cult hero in Boston, with the fans and his teammates alike.

The Cavaliers have 14 roster spots currently taken, albeit just 10 on fully guaranteed deals, so it’s likely this deal is a training camp try-out.

The Cavaliers have no shortage of big men, especially after the sign-and-trade for Lauri Markkanen, but Fall could be a solid insurance policy, given the injury concerns between Markkanen and Kevin Love.

Trail Blazers Sign Dennis Smith Jr. To Camp Deal

September 2nd, 2021 at 1:19pm CST by Luke Adams

Former lottery pick Dennis Smith Jr. has signed a contract with the Trail Blazers to attend training camp, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter). While Wojnarowski doesn’t provide specifics on Smith’s contract details, it sounds like it’ll be a non-guaranteed one-year deal, giving him a chance to compete for a roster spot.

The ninth overall pick in the 2017 draft, Smith began his career in Dallas and had a promising rookie season for the Mavericks, averaging 15.2 PPG and 5.2 APG as the team’s starting point guard. However, he struggled with his shooting efficiency and was traded to New York in his second season in the deal that sent Kristaps Porzingis to Dallas.

Smith never really found his footing with the Knicks and was eventually dealt to the Pistons in February of this year after spending two seasons in New York. Detroit opted not to issue a qualifying offer to DSJ at season’s end, so he became an unrestricted free agent and took a month to find a new home.

In 179 total NBA games, Smith has averaged 11.8 PPG and 4.4 APG on .400/.316/.652 shooting in 25.2 minutes per contest.

The Trail Blazers currently only have 13 players on guaranteed contracts and will have to carry at least 14 during the regular season, so there’s a path to a roster spot for Smith. However, I’d expect Portland to invite a few more players to camp to compete for that 14th spot. The team, which is now over the tax line, may begin the season with its 15th spot open to avoid paying an extra salary.

Marcus Garrett Signs Two-Way Deal With Heat

September 2nd, 2021 at 11:12am CST by Arthur Hill

11:12am: Garrett’s signing is official, the team announced in a press release.

8:01am: The Heat will sign Kansas guard Marcus Garrett to a two-way contract, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The deal was confirmed by his agent, Mike George of One Legacy Sports Management.

Garrett had been expected to sign an Exhibit 10 contract with Miami shortly after the draft, but the deal was delayed while he changed agents. Now that his new agency is in place, the team opted to have Garrett fill one of its two-way slots.

The 22-year-old played for the Heat during Summer League, averaging 8.8 points and 4.6 rebounds in five games in Las Vegas and Sacramento. He also showed off his defensive skills with 2.8 steals per night.

Once the signing is complete, Miami will have 16 players under contract heading into camp, with rumored deals still looming for Javonte Smart, Micah Potter and RJ Nembhard. The Heat are planning an open competition for the other two-way opening.