Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Warriors Sign Moses Moody To Rookie Contract

August 5th, 2021 at 4:35pm CST by JD Shaw

The Warriors have signed swingman Moses Moody to his rookie scale contract, the team announced on social media today.

Moody, 19, averaged 16.8 points and 5.8 rebounds in 33.8 minutes per contest (32 games) as a freshman at the University of Arkansas last season.

Golden State picked Moody with the No. 14 pick in this year’s draft. The Warriors also held the No. 7 pick in the draft, choosing to select G League Ignite player Jonathan Kuminga.

The Warriors dealt with numerous injuries last season and finished with a 39-33 record. Having young pieces such as Kuminga and Moody will be imperative for the future, though the team remains focused on contending with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson,and other veterans in the present day.

Moody is set to earn $3.56MM next season and $17MM in total on his four-year rookie contract. As we previously relayed, the Warriors signed Kuminga to his rookie scale deal as well. It will pay him $5.46MM next season and $24.85MM in total.

George Hill Signs With Bucks

August 5th, 2021 at 4:32pm CST by Luke Adams

AUGUST 6: Hill’s deal with the Bucks is now official, according to the team (Twitter link).

AUGUST 5: Having cleared waivers, Hill is now on track to sign with the Bucks, according to Charania, who reports (via Twitter) that the guard will sign a two-year, $8MM contract with Milwaukee. That money will come out of the team’s mid-level exception.

Both years of the deal will be guaranteed, tweets Eric Nehm of The Athletic.

AUGUST 3: Veteran point guard George Hill, who was released on Tuesday by the Sixers, intends to rejoin the Bucks after he clears waivers later this week, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

While it’s still possible that Hill could be claimed on waivers by a team with cap room or a large trade exception, it’s unlikely that any club would want to guarantee his $10MM+ salary, so it’s a safe bet he’ll become a free agent.

Hill played for the Bucks in 2019/20, averaging 9.4 PPG and 3.1 APG with a league-high .460 3PT% in 59 games as the club’s third guard. However, he became expendable when his contract was needed for salary-matching purposes in the Jrue Holiday trade.

Hill, who was sent to Oklahoma City in that Holiday blockbuster, averaged 8.7 PPG and 2.4 APG on .482/.388/.800 shooting in 30 total contests (22.4 MPG) for the Thunder and Sixers this past season.

He didn’t make much of an impact in the postseason for Philadelphia, with just 4.7 PPG and 1.5 APG in 12 playoff games (17.1 MPG). The 76ers opted to waive him before his salary for 2021/22 became fully guaranteed.

The Bucks are now eyeing deals with two veterans who are currently on waivers. A report earlier on Tuesday indicated that Milwaukee is expected to sign Rodney Hood, who was cut today by Toronto.

Cameron Thomas Signs Rookie Contract With Nets

August 5th, 2021 at 3:04pm CST by Luke Adams

Cameron Thomas, the 27th overall pick in this year’s draft, has signed his rookie contract with the Nets, the team announced today in a press release.

While terms weren’t officially disclosed, we can project what Thomas will earn based on the NBA’s rookie scale. If he signed for the maximum allowable amount – as most first-rounders do – the 6’4″ guard will earn a first-year salary of $2.04MM and a four-year total of $10.46MM. The third and fourth years of the deal will be team options.

Thomas, who declared for the draft following his freshman season at LSU, was one of college basketball’s top scorers in 2020/21, averaging 23.0 points per contest in 29 games (34.0 MPG). Although the 19-year-old struggled a little with his shot from the floor (40.6%) and from beyond the three-point line (32.5%), his ability to get to the free throw line (7.6 attempts per game) and make his foul shots (88.2%) was a big plus.

Brooklyn entered draft night last Thursday with four picks and – somewhat surprisingly – kept all of them and agreed to acquire another, drafting five players in total. We should hear more in the coming days about the Nets finalizing deals with some of their other draftees.

Pacers Announce Three Signings

August 5th, 2021 at 2:41pm CST by Luke Adams

The Pacers have officially confirmed three previously-reported signings, announcing today in a press release that they’ve added Duane Washington, Terry Taylor, and Keifer Sykes to their roster. Washington received a two-way deal, while Taylor and Sykes are believed to have signed Exhibit 10 contracts.

Washington, a 6’3″ shooting guard, went undrafted last Thursday out of Ohio State. A second-generation NBA pro, Washington is the son of former journeyman shooting guard Duane Washington Sr. and the nephew of five-time Lakers champion point guard (and current Sparks coach) Derek Fisher. Our full story on his two-way deal is here.

Taylor, a 6’5″ wing, who worked out for more than half the teams in the NBA during the pre-draft process, had a big senior year in 2020/21 for Austin Peay, averaging 21.6 points and 11.1 rebounds in 27 games (37.0 MPG). The full story on his training camp agreement with Indiana is here.

An undrafted free agent out of Green Bay in 2015, Sykes has spent most of the last several seasons playing in international leagues. The 27-year-old point guard participated in this summer’s The Basketball Tournament and hit the game-winning three-point shot on Tuesday night to clinch the title and the $1MM prize for Boeheim’s Army (video link). Our story on his Exhibit 10 deal is here.

Indiana’s roster is now officially at 16 players, with deals for T.J. McConnell, Torrey Craig, and Isaiah Jackson still to be finalized and Cassius Stanley‘s contract situation still to be resolved (he’s a two-way RFA). Teams can carry up to 20 players in the offseason.

Kings Sign Davion Mitchell To Rookie Contract

August 5th, 2021 at 2:22pm CST by Luke Adams

The Kings have officially signed Davion Mitchell to his first NBA contract, the team announced today in a press release.

The Naismith Defensive Player of the Year in 2021, Mitchell helped lead the Baylor Bears to a national title in his junior season, averaging 14.0 PPG, 5.5 APG, and 1.9 SPG on .511/.447/.641 shooting in 30 games (33.0 MPG).

Sacramento made Mitchell the ninth overall pick in last Thursday’s draft, surprising observers who expected the team to opt for a wing or a big man. Mitchell will vie for minutes in a talented backcourt led by rising stars De’Aaron Fox and Tyrese Haliburton.

As our breakdown of first-round salaries shows, Mitchell will earn $4.6MM as a rookie, assuming he receives 120% of his rookie scale amount, as nearly every first-rounder does. His four-year deal will be worth just shy of $21MM.

Hawks Sign Lou Williams To One-Year Deal

August 5th, 2021 at 1:37pm CST by Luke Adams

AUGUST 6: The Hawks have officially signed Williams, according to a press release from the team.

AUGUST 5: After a successful late-season run with the Hawks in 2020/21, veteran guard Lou Williams has agreed to re-sign with the team on a one-year, $5MM deal, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter links).

Williams, a three-time winner of the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award, began the 2020/21 season with the Clippers, but was sent to Atlanta in a deadline deal involving Rajon Rondo when the Clips determined their backcourt needed more of a play-maker than a scorer.

Having spent the last three-and-a-half seasons in Los Angeles and having won two Sixth Man awards with the franchise, Williams was hit hard by the trade and admitted he contemplated retirement upon being sent to the Hawks. However, his arrival and his strong play in Atlanta helped push the team to the No. 5 seed in the East and the third round of the playoffs.

Williams averaged 10.0 PPG and 3.4 APG on .389/.444/.870 shooting in 24 regular season contests (21.0 MPG) for the Hawks, then put up 7.7 PPG and 2.2 APG on .455/.433/.963 shooting in 18 playoff games (15.4 MPG).

The Pacers, Bucks, and Heat were among the other teams linked to Williams during free agency, but a reunion with the Hawks was always viewed as a realistic possibility. While the 34-year-old won’t get the multiyear deal he’d reportedly been seeking, his $5MM salary will be nearly double the veteran’s minimum.

The Hawks had Williams’ Bird rights, so they won’t have to use cap room or a mid-level exception to re-sign him.

Ishmail Wainright Signs With Raptors

August 5th, 2021 at 9:36am CST by Luke Adams

AUGUST 7: The signing is official, the Raptors announced (via Twitter).

AUGUST 5: The Raptors have agreed to a two-year deal with free agent swingman Ishmail Wainright, agents Deirunas Visockas and Jim Tanner tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).

While the exact terms of the deal aren’t known, Blake Murphy of The Athletic says (via Twitter) it’ll include a partial guarantee, giving Wainright the opportunity to compete for a regular season roster spot. It seems likely to be worth the minimum.

Wainright, 26, went outdrafted out of Baylor in 2017 and has bounced around a handful of international leagues since then. In 2020/21, he played for Strasbourg in France, registering 11.7 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 2.5 APG, and 1.8 SPG on .485/.320/.726 shooting in 36 games (28.1 MPG). He’s considered a versatile defender on the wing, notes Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

A report in June stated that Wainright was eyeing a move to the NBA for 2021/22 and identified Toronto as the frontrunner to land him. Murphy reported on Wednesday (via Twitter) that Wainright would be on the Raptors’ Summer League roster in Las Vegas.

Wizards To Acquire Spencer Dinwiddie Via Sign-And-Trade

August 4th, 2021 at 11:56pm CST by Luke Adams

11:56pm: The Spurs are sending the draft rights to 2015 first-round pick Nikola Milutinov to the Nets in the five-team trade, according to Fred Katz of The Athletic (Twitter link). That will satisfy the “touching” requirements we outlined below and allow the deal to be officially completed once the moratorium ends on Friday.

Katz adds (via Twitter) that the Wizards have also agreed to trade one more second-round pick (Chicago’s 2023 selection) to the Lakers. Washington is giving up five second-round selections in the deal (three to the Lakers, one to the Spurs, and one to the Nets), as well as a second-round swap (to the Nets).

Finally, Katz reports that the third year of Dinwiddie’s contract will be partially guaranteed (Twitter link).

5:04pm: The Wizards and Spencer Dinwiddie are in agreement on a three-year, $62MM deal that will land the veteran point guard in Washington, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). The club will acquire Dinwiddie from the Nets via sign-and-trade.

That $62MM figure had been expected for Dinwiddie’s deal with the Wizards, since it’s the most the team could pay him by looping his sign-and-trade into the larger Russell Westbrook deal with the Lakers, notes Fred Katz of The Athletic (Twitter link).

According to Charania (Twitter link), the Nets will receive a second-round pick and a draft-pick swap from the Wizards in the sign-and-trade agreement. The move will also create an $11.5MM trade exception for Brooklyn.

Additionally, the Wizards will trade Chandler Hutchison and a second-round pick to the Spurs as part of the multi-team deal, Charania reports (via Twitter). Moving Hutchison’s $4MM+ salary will allow Washington to remain out of tax territory for now, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks.

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link) provides the details on the draft assets, reporting that the Wizards are sending a 2022 second-rounder to San Antonio and a 2024 second-rounder to Brooklyn, as well as a 2025 second-round pick swap to the Nets.

The 2022 second-round pick headed to San Antonio will be the most favorable of the Lakers’, Bulls’, and Pistons’ second-rounders, tweets Fred Katz of The Athletic.

That 2025 swap will give Brooklyn a chance to send Golden State’s second-rounder to Washington in exchange for the Wizards’ 2025 second-rounder, tweets Tim Bontemps of ESPN. The 2024 second-rounder will be the more favorable of the Wizards’ and Grizzlies’ selections, Bontemps adds.

In total, Wojnarowski tweets, the deal will include five teams: the Wizards, Nets, Spurs, Lakers, and Pacers. The Westbrook trade agreement and the Wizards’ deal for Aaron Holiday will become part of this larger deal once it’s officially completed after the moratorium lifts on Friday.

Here’s what the full trade should look like, based on the details reported to date:

Wizards to acquire Dinwiddie (via sign-and-trade), Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Montrezl Harrell, Holiday, and the draft rights to Isaiah Todd (No. 31 pick).
Lakers to acquire Westbrook, either the Wizards’ or the Grizzlies’ 2024 second-round pick (whichever is less favorable; from Wizards), and the Wizards’ 2028 second-round pick.
Nets to acquire either the Wizards’ or the Grizzlies’ 2024 second-round pick (whichever is more favorable; from Wizards) and the right to swap their the Warriors’ 2025 second-round pick for the Wizards’ 2025 second-round pick.
Spurs to acquire Hutchison and either the Bulls’, Lakers,’, or Pistons 2022 second-round pick (whichever is most favorable; from Wizards).
Pacers to acquire the draft rights to Isaiah Jackson (No. 22 pick).

As Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report points out (via Twitter), there will likely be at least one more piece involved between the Nets and Spurs in order to satisfy the rule that every team in a multi-team trade must “touch” two other teams in the deal. As reported so far, Brooklyn and San Antonio are each only receiving assets from (or sending an asset to) the Wizards. That last piece would likely be something minor, such as cash or the draft rights to a stashed player.

In Dinwiddie, the Wizards are getting a 28-year-old point guard who is coming off a lost season. He appeared in just three games before missing the rest of the 2020/21 campaign due to a partially torn ACL. However, Dinwiddie was reportedly cleared for all basketball activities in June and the expectation is that he’ll be good to go for the fall.

In his last full season, Dinwiddie averaged 20.6 PPG and 6.8 APG on .415/.308/.778 shooting in 64 games (31.2 MPG) for Brooklyn in 2019/20.

Word broke on Monday night that the Wizards and Dinwiddie were nearing an agreement, but the club didn’t have the cap space necessary to acquire him without getting the Nets’ cooperation in a sign-and-trade. Because Brooklyn didn’t want to take on any salary but wanted an asset or two for agreeing to play ball, it took all involved parties a couple days to work out the details of the deal that would get the point guard to D.C.

Sixers Re-Sign Danny Green

August 4th, 2021 at 11:25pm CST by Luke Adams

AUGUST 7: The Sixers have officially re-signed Green, the team announced today in a press release.

“Bringing Danny back was a top priority for our organization this offseason,” president of basketball operations Daryl Morey said in a statement. “He has proven to be an important leader on and off the floor, and he knows what it takes to win an NBA title as a three-time champion. We are very happy that he’ll continue to remain a crucial part of the 76ers.”

AUGUST 4: The Sixers have agreed to terms with veteran swingman Danny Green on a two-year deal that will bring him back to Philadelphia, according to his Inside The Green Room podcast co-host Harrison Sanford (Twitter link). A league source confirms the news to veteran NBA reporter Marc Stein (Twitter link).

Because the 76ers have Early Bird rights on Green, they won’t need to use their mid-level exception to complete the signing.

Agent Raymond Brothers tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link) that the 34-year-old’s new deal won’t include any options. However, a follow-up tweet from Sanford suggests the second year will be non-guaranteed, with a July 1, 2022 guarantee date.

According to Sanford (Twitter link), Green had discussions with the Nets, Celtics, Bucks, Bulls, and Warriors, among other teams, during free agency this week. He turned down a two-year offer from the Cavaliers, Sanford adds.

A 12-year NBA veteran who has won titles with three different teams, Green started all 69 games he played for Philadelphia in 2020/21, averaging 9.5 PPG, 3.8 RPG, and 1.3 SPG with a .412/.405/.775 shooting line in 28.0 MPG.

Green has long been a reliable three-and-D wing, having knocked down 40.1% of his career attempts from beyond the arc.

The Sixers waived George Hill this week and lost Dwight Howard to the Lakers, but have now lined up deals to bring back both Green and Furkan Korkmaz. The club also signed Andre Drummond to a minimum-salary contract on Wednesday and has agreed to a deal with forward Georges Niang.

Thunder Rescind Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk’s Qualifying Offer

August 4th, 2021 at 9:55pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Thunder have pulled their qualifying offer for Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, tweets Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. The third-year swingman will now be an unrestricted free agent.

The offer was valued at about $2.08MM and it covered just the upcoming season. By rescinding it, Oklahoma City no longer has the opportunity to match any offer that Mykhailiuk might receive in free agency.

The Thunder acquired Mykhailiuk in a March trade with the Pistons. He appeared in 30 games for OKC, starting nine, and averaged 10.3 points and 3.0 rebounds per night.