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Nets Sign Kessler Edwards To Two-Way Deal

August 16th, 2021 at 4:04pm CST by Luke Adams

The Nets have officially signed rookie forward Kessler Edwards to a two-way contract, the team announced today in a press release.

Edwards, who turned 21 last Monday, averaged 17.2 PPG and 6.8 RPG on .491/.378/.876 shooting in 27 games (33.9 MPG) as a junior at Pepperdine in 2020/21. The Nets selected him with the 44th overall pick in the 2021 draft, one of five players the team picked on July 29.

Edwards has struggled a little in Summer League play, averaging just 5.7 PPG on 26.7% shooting, but will fill one of the Nets’ two-way contract slots to open the season. His two-way deal will allow him to be active for up to 50 regular season NBA games — he also figures to spend time with the Long Island Nets, Brooklyn’s G League affiliate.

The Nets’ other two second-round picks, Marcus Zegarowski (No. 49) and RaiQuan Gray (No. 59), remain unsigned. Brooklyn still has an open two-way slot, so one of those two rookies will likely end up joining Edwards on a two-way contract.

Pelicans Sign Herb Jones To Three-Year Deal

August 16th, 2021 at 3:34pm CST by Luke Adams

3:34pm: Jones’ deal with the Pelicans is now official, the team announced in a press release.

1:17pm: The Pelicans have reached an agreement to sign second-round pick Herb Jones to a three-year contract, according to Will Guillory of The Athletic (Twitter link). The third year of the deal will be a team option, Guillory reports.

Jones, 22, is a 6’8″ forward who spent all four years of his college career at Alabama. As a senior in 2020/21, he averaged 11.2 PPG, 6.6 RPG, and 3.3 APG on .446/.351/.713 shooting in 33 games (27.3 MPG). The No. 35 overall pick, who also contributed 1.7 SPG and 1.1 BPG, was named the SEC Player of the Year and SEC Defensive Player of the Year.

While the exact terms of Jones’ new deal aren’t yet known, two guaranteed years has been the standard for players drafted in his range. The Pelicans will use a small portion of their mid-level exception to complete the signing, so they could go a little higher than the rookie minimum if they so choose.

Once New Orleans officially signs Jones and free agent big man Willy Hernangomez, the team will have 15 players on standard contracts, with Josh Hart still a restricted free agent. If Hart were to re-sign with the Pels, Wenyen Gabriel (who is on a non-guaranteed deal) would likely be the odd man out.

Suns Sign JaVale McGee To One-Year Deal

August 16th, 2021 at 2:36pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

AUGUST 16: The Suns have officially signed McGee, the team announced today in a press release.

AUGUST 2: The Suns have agreed to a one-year contract with veteran center JaVale McGee, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link), who reports that the deal will be worth $5MM.

Perhaps the premier rim-rolling backup center in the NBA, McGee has made it a habit to know his role for some excellent playoff teams over the last several seasons. He has won two titles with the Warriors and one with the Lakers during his decorated career.

McGee, 33, will be fortifying the front line for a Phoenix club that struggled to defend the rim when starting center Deandre Ayton sat during a playoff run that saw the Suns get to within two wins of the franchise’s first-ever NBA title. After Ayton’s primary backup, Dario Saric, left the Suns’ NBA Finals series against the Bucks with an ACL tear, Phoenix had to get creative in trying to steady the ship whenever Ayton rested or got into foul trouble.

With Saric absent, deep-reserve big man Frank Kaminsky gave the club serviceable minutes erratically, but he is not nearly the defender McGee can be. Saric will likely miss most – if not all – of the 2021/22 season due to his injury, so adding a reliable backup who is a true center was a must this offseason.

The seven-foot journeyman most recently suited up for the Nuggets. Denver was swept out of the playoffs during a Western Conference semifinals series against McGee’s new club, the Suns.

McGee was first dealt from the Lakers to the Cavaliers during the 2020 offseason to make room for new L.A. roster additions. After 33 games with Cleveland during the 2020/21 season, he was shipped out to a better fit, a playoff-bound club in need of a backup center upgrade. In 46 total games last year, McGee averaged 7.3 PPG, 5.2 RPG, and 1.2 BPG, while shooting 51.1% from the field, in just 14.7 MPG.

Luke Adams contributed to this report.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Pelicans Re-Sign Willy Hernangomez To Three-Year Deal

August 16th, 2021 at 2:08pm CST by Luke Adams

AUGUST 16: The Pelicans have officially re-signed Hernangomez, the team announced today in a press release. The club also confirmed Didi Louzada‘s new deal, which was finalized last week.

“The passion Willy and Didi have for their teammates and our greater Pelicans community is reflected every day in their approach to the game,” Pelicans head of basketball operations David Griffin said in a statement. “Their joyful outlook, work ethic, attention to detail and desire to grow and evolve as professionals has been infectious and we look forward to continuing towards our goals together deep into the future.”

AUGUST 6: The Pelicans have agreed to a three-year deal with Willy Hernangomez that will keep the veteran big man in New Orleans, agents Jim Tanner and Guillermo Bermejo tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). The third year will be a team option, tweets Christian Clark of NOLA.com.

Hernangomez, 27, spent his first four NBA seasons in New York and Charlotte before joining the Pelicans as a free agent last November. In his first year with the team, he averaged 7.8 PPG, 7.1 RPG, and 1.1 APG in 47 games (18.0 MPG) and was the starting center in the season’s final weeks.

Most recently, Hernangomez represented Spain in the Tokyo Olympics, posting a double-double (10 points, 10 rebounds) in the team’s quarterfinal loss to Team USA earlier this week.

Hernangomez was on a minimum-salary contract last season and New Orleans only held his Non-Bird rights, so the team’s ability to offer a raise without using cap room or another exception (ie. the mid-level) was limited. We’ll have to wait for the financial terms on Hernangomez’s deal to get a sense of how the Pelicans are re-signing him.

Rockets Sign Usman Garuba To Rookie Contract

August 16th, 2021 at 12:59pm CST by Luke Adams

Spanish big man Usman Garuba has officially signed his rookie contract with the Rockets, according to NBA.com’s transactions log.

Garuba had been the last of this year’s 30 first-round picks who remained unsigned. The process was held up a little due to the fact that he was participating in the Tokyo Olympics and had to finalize a buyout agreement with Real Madrid, his team in Spain.

[RELATED: 2021 NBA Draft Pick Signings]

As a result of that team-friendly buyout, Garuba owes Real Madrid in excess of two million Euros, but will be able to pay it off in installments. He should more than make up that amount in the NBA based on the terms of his rookie deal. Assuming he signed for the standard 120% of the rookie scale, Garuba will earn $2.35MM as a rookie and $11.81MM over the course of four seasons.

Garuba, 19, had been a member of Real Madrid since 2017 and was a regular part of the team’s rotation in 2020/21. He was named the ACB Best Young Player and received the EuroLeague Rising Star award, then was one of four prospects selected by Houston in this first round of the 2021 draft.

The No. 23 overall pick, Garuba joins Jalen Green (No. 2), Alperen Sengun (No. 16), and Josh Christopher (No. 24) to make up the Rockets’ promising 2021 draft class.

Grizzlies Trade Bledsoe To Clippers For Beverley, Rondo, Oturu

August 16th, 2021 at 12:21pm CST by Luke Adams

AUGUST 16: The Grizzlies and Clippers have put out press releases officially announcing the trade.

AUGUST 15: The Grizzlies and Clippers have agree to a trade that will send veteran point guard Eric Bledsoe back to Los Angeles in exchange for Patrick Beverley, Rajon Rondo, and Daniel Oturu, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

Bledsoe, who began his NBA career with the Clippers back in 2010, was traded from New Orleans to Memphis earlier in the offseason as part of a salary-dump deal that also sent Steven Adams to the Grizzlies. A report at the time of the agreement indicated that Bledsoe was unlikely to remain in Memphis, though it was unclear if the plan was to trade him or buy him out.

This trade, a three-for-one swap, will help generate some roster flexibility for a Clippers team that had been carrying 16 players on fully guaranteed contracts. Los Angeles will now have 14 players on guaranteed deals, plus Yogi Ferrell on a non-guaranteed salary.

Swapping out Beverley ($14.32MM), Rondo ($8.25MM), and Oturu ($1.52MM) for Bledsoe ($18.13MM) will also save the Clippers some money on a tax bill that was projected to be worth $125MM. According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (via Twitter), that projection will dip to about $95MM.

The three outgoing players are all on expiring contracts, while Bledsoe is on a pseudo-expiring deal — his $19.38MM salary for 2022/23 is only partially guaranteed for $3.9MM. Because only Beverley and Oturu are required for salary-matching purposes, L.A. will generate a trade exception worth Rondo’s $8.25MM salary, Marks notes.

Although the Clippers will sacrifice a little depth in the trade, Bledsoe is a bounce-back candidate who could conceivably provide the club with some of the play-making and defense lost by moving Beverley and Rondo. Bledsoe had a down year with the Pelicans in 2020/21, but he averaged 5.5 assists per game during his time in Milwaukee from 2018-20 and earned All-Defensive nods in both seasons.

The Grizzlies, meanwhile, save a little 2022/23 money in the deal while taking on some extra salary for ’21/22. Memphis is now facing a roster crunch of its own, with 17 players on fully guaranteed contracts.

According to Wojnarowsi (Twitter link), the Grizzlies will be “open-minded” in weighing additional roster moves involving Beverley, Rondo, and/or Oturu and will likely consider flipping one or more of them in separate deals.

Memphis is already relatively deep at the point guard spot, with Tyus Jones backing up Ja Morant and De’Anthony Melton also capable of playing the position. As such, it’s hard to imagine both Beverley and Rondo starting the season with the club.

Because they’re on smaller expiring deals, Beverley and Rondo should be easier for the Grizzlies to move in subsequent trades than Bledsoe was. The move to turn one bigger contract into multiple smaller ones is somewhat reminiscent of a trade the team completed during the 2019 offseason, sending out Chandler Parsons‘ oversized expiring deal for Solomon Hill and Miles Plumlee, who were each earning about half of what Parsons was.

Udonis Haslem Re-Signs With Heat

August 15th, 2021 at 7:46pm CST by Luke Adams

AUGUST 15: The Heat have officially re-signed Haslem, the team announced today (via Twitter).

AUGUST 11: Veteran big man Udonis Haslem will return for another season with the Heat, according to Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel, who says that an official announcement from the team is expected soon. It will be Haslem’s 19th season with the franchise.

A regular rotation player in Miami when the team won championships in 2006, 2012, and 2013, Haslem hasn’t appeared in more than 16 games or logged more than 130 minutes in a single season since 2015/16.

In 2020/21, he played just once, earning a cameo during the final week of the regular season. He memorably earned an ejection for a dust-up with Dwight Howard just three minutes after checking into the game.

Despite the fact that he no longer sees much action for the Heat, Haslem is a well-respected locker room presence who essentially has a standing invitation to continue signing minimum-salary contracts with the club until he decides to retire.

That day hasn’t arrived yet. The 41-year-old will spend at least one more season in the NBA and, as Winderman points out, will become the 21st player in NBA history to play in 19 seasons as long as he appears in at least one game for the Heat in 2021/22.

Once Haslem officially signs his deal, the Heat will have 14 players on guaranteed contracts. Miami could perhaps use another guard or wing, but a 15th man would put team salary over the tax line, so it’s unclear if the club intends to fill that spot, tweets Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald.

The Heat do have a pair of open two-way slots, which will likely be filled by undrafted free agents who impress the team in Summer League and training camp.

Wizards Will Add Kyree Walker For Training Camp

August 15th, 2021 at 3:30pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Undrafted rookie small forward Kyree Walker is set to join the Wizards for the club’s training camp this season, reports Jordan Schultz of ESPN (Twitter link).

Specifics on the agreement are not yet available. However, it will most likely be an Exhibit 10 contract, generally the standard deal provided to camp invitees.

The 6’6″ swingman had committed to Arizona State before ultimately opting out of his college eligibility to train with Chameleon BX, a yearlong draft preparation program.

Walker joined Washington’s roster for this season’s Las Vegas Summer League. He has been placed in the league’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols and is set to miss the rest of the Summer League session this year, though he continues to test negative for the novel coronavirus, per Schultz.

Justin James Released By Kings

August 15th, 2021 at 2:06pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Kings small forward Justin James has been waived by Sacramento, per Jason Jones of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Jones notes that today marked the deadline for James’ $1.78MM salary for the 2021/22 season to become fully guaranteed. Sacramento won’t be on the hook for that money, while James will now hit the market as an unrestricted free agent, assuming he goes unclaimed on waivers.

James, 24, was selected by the Kings with the No. 40 pick in the 2019 draft out of Wyoming. James never quite carved out significant rotational time during his two seasons with the Kings. The 6’7″ wing holds NBA career averages of 3.2 PPG, 0.9 RPG, and 0.6 APG.

Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee reports that James was the odd man out in the club’s wing rotation. Elsewhere on the roster, the Kings did guarantee the next year for big man Damian Jones. They also partially guaranteed the deal for power forward Chimezie Metu.

Thunder Sign Aaron Wiggins To Two-Way Deal

August 15th, 2021 at 10:59am CST by Arthur Hill

AUGUST 15: The signing is official, the Thunder announced in a press release.

JULY 31: Aaron Wiggins has agreed to a two-way contract with the Thunder, tweets Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman. The 22-year-old was the 55th player selected in Thursday’s draft.

A 6’6″ swingman, Wiggins played three seasons at Maryland, averaging 14.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists as a junior. He declared for the draft in April while keeping his college eligibility and eventually made the decision to turn pro.

OKC’s other two-way slot remains open, Mussatto adds. Josh Hall and Jaylen Hoard ended last season as the Thunder’s two-way players.