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Hornets Sign Kelly Oubre To Two-Year Deal

August 7th, 2021 at 11:36am CST by Luke Adams

AUGUST 7: Oubre and the Hornets have now finalized a two-year, $25MM contract, agent Torrel Harris tells Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Charlotte announced the signing in a press release.

It appears Oubre’s starting salary will come in slightly lower than initially expected after Charlotte took on Wesley Iwundu in a trade with New Orleans.

The deal won’t feature any options, per Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link). However, Rod Boone of SI.com (Twitter link) says the second year will be partially guaranteed and Anthony Slater of The Athletic provides the specifics, tweeting that $5MM of Oubre’s $12.6MM salary for 2022/23 will be guaranteed.

AUGUST 5: The Hornets and free agent wing Kelly Oubre are in agreement on a two-year deal that will be worth $26MM+, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

David Aldridge of The Athletic reported earlier on Thursday that the Hornets and Oubre had engaged in discussions, while Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports was first to report that the two sides were finalizing a multiyear deal expected to exceed $12MM per year.

Charlotte, one of the only NBA teams that still had the cap room necessary to make an offer worth more than the full mid-level exception ($9.5MM), had also reportedly been mulling an offer sheet for Lauri Markkanen. However, the Hornets’ agreement with Oubre will eat up most – if not all – of their remaining cap room, presumably taking an aggressive bid for the Bulls‘ restricted free agent forward off the table.

Oubre, 25, has spent time with the Wizards, Suns, and Warriors since entering the league as the 15th overall pick in the 2015 draft. In 2020/21, he averaged 15.4 PPG and 6.0 RPG on .439/.316/.695 shooting in 55 games (30.7 MPG) for Golden State.

While Oubre possesses good size and athleticism for a three-and-D wing, his three-point shot has been inconsistent over the course of his career (32.6%).

Charlotte will be hoping to get the 2019/20 version of Oubre, who averaged 18.7 PPG with a .352 3PT% for the Suns. The former Kansas Jayhawk will join a talented group of Hornets forwards that includes Gordon Hayward, Miles Bridges, and P.J. Washington.

Since the Hornets have the ability to sign Oubre outright using their cap room and his new contract will only be for two years, it won’t be a sign-and-trade deal involving the Warriors.

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Hornets Waive Caleb Martin

August 7th, 2021 at 10:57am CST by Dana Gauruder

The Hornets have waived shooting guard Caleb Martin, according to a team press release.

Martin had a $1,782,621 salary for next season that was due to guarantee on August 15. By releasing him now, Charlotte won’t carry any dead on its cap for him in 2021/22.

Martin averaged 5.0 PPG, 2.7 RPG and 1.3 APG in 15.4 MPG while seeing action in 53 games. Martin, who went undrafted in 2019, appeared in 71 games the last two seasons.

The move clears some additional cap space for Charlotte to officially sign Kelly Oubre Jr., who agreed to a two-year deal on Friday.

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Jimmy Butler Signs Max-Salary Extension With Heat

August 7th, 2021 at 9:38am CST by Dana Gauruder

AUGUST 7: Butler has officially signed the extension, according to a team press release.

“Jimmy is the anchor and face of our franchise along with Bam (Adebayo) and Kyle (Lowry),” Heat president Pat Riley said in a statement. “With Jimmy, we get an All-NBA player, an All-NBA Defensive player, tough as nails and a complete player across the board. He’s very deserving of this contract as he continually puts himself at the top of the league at his position. Having him in the HEAT organization has been a great, great coup for us.”

AUGUST 6: The Heat and Butler are in formal agreement on a new four-year extension, reports Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel.

The extension will include a player option for the 2025/26 season, according to Winderman, who says the deal is worth a projected $184MM.

AUGUST 2: Jimmy Butler is expected to sign a four-year max extension with the Heat, Jon Krawczynski and Shams Charania of The Athletic report (Twitter link).

Butler can officially sign the extension on Friday. Based on the projected 2022/23 salary cap, the extension will be worth approximately $186.6MM.

The acquisition of Butler in a sign-and-trade with Philadelphia in 2019 propelled the club to the 2020 Finals and he’s looked upon as the leader of a team built on toughness and defense.

There was growing optimism that Butler and the franchise would agree to an extension and that has apparently come to fruition. Butler’s extension is part of a frenzy of planned moves designed to get Miami back to the Finals next season, according to Marc Stein of Substack.

Miami is also acquiring veteran point guard Kyle Lowry and re-signing sharpshooting wing Duncan Robinson.

Injuried limited Butler to 52 regular season games this past season but he still put up big numbers — 21.5 PPG, 6.9 RPG, a career-high 7.1 APG and 2.1 SPG.

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Pelicans Officially Acquire Valanciunas, Graham In Three-Team Trade

August 7th, 2021 at 9:28am CST by Luke Adams

The Pelicans have officially announced a pair of previously–reported trades, having combined their acquisitions of center Jonas Valanciunas and point guard Devonte’ Graham into a single transaction involving both the Grizzlies and Hornets. Memphis and Charlotte have put out press releases as well.

The details of the three-team deal are as follows:

  • To Pelicans:
    • Valanciunas (from Grizzlies)
    • Graham (sign-and-trade; from Hornets)
    • The draft rights to Trey Murphy (No. 17 pick; from Grizzlies)
    • The draft rights to Brandon Boston (No. 51 pick; from Grizzlies)
      • Note: Boston will be rerouted to the Clippers in a subsequent trade.
  • To Grizzlies:
    • Eric Bledsoe (from Pelicans)
    • Steven Adams (from Pelicans)
    • The draft rights to Ziaire Williams (No. 10 pick; from Pelicans)
    • The draft rights to Jared Butler (No. 40 pick; from Pelicans)
      • Note: Butler will be rerouted to the Jazz in a subsequent trade.
    • The Lakers’ 2022 first-round pick (top-10 protected; from Pelicans)
  • To Hornets:
    • Wesley Iwundu (from Pelicans)
    • The Pelicans’ 2022 first-round pick (top-14 protected; from Pelicans)
      • Note: If the Pelicans’ 2022 first-rounder falls in the top 14, the Hornets will instead receive New Orleans’ 2022 and 2024 second-round picks, per Rod Boone of SI.com.
    • Cash (from Pelicans)
    • The draft rights to Tyler Harvey (from Grizzlies)

The details of the three-team trade essentially line up with what was previously reported, with two new pieces added — Iwundu going from New Orleans to Charlotte and Harvey’s draft rights going from Memphis to Charlotte. Harvey was presumably only included to ensure that the Grizzlies and Hornets were “touching,” since otherwise Memphis would only have been exchanging assets with the Pelicans.

Looping their sign-and-trade acquisition of Graham into the trade suggests the Pelicans will operate over the cap, using Bledsoe’s and Adams’ outgoing salaries in order to match both Valanciunas and Graham instead of signing Graham into cap space.

As Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (via Twitter), it also allows New Orleans to generate a $17MM+ trade exception in the deal. Only Bledsoe’s and Iwundu’s outgoing salaries are needed for matching purposes to take on Valanciunas and Graham, meaning the Pelicans’ new TPE is worth Adams’ salary ($17,073,171).

Graham reportedly signed a four-year, $47MM contract with the Pelicans as part of the trade. He and Tomas Satoransky appear set to play the majority of the minutes at point guard in New Orleans, barring further roster changes. The team is sending Lonzo Ball to Chicago in a separate sign-and-trade deal.

Graham made just 37.7% of his field goal attempts in 2020/21, but his three-point mark was a very respectable 37.5%. In addition to his ability to make threes, Graham is an above-average play-maker (6.5 APG over the last two seasons) and a respectable defender.

Swapping out Adams for Valanciunas should allow the Pelicans to improve their frontcourt spacing. Valanciunas isn’t exactly a long-distance marksman, but has a solid mid-range game and will shoot the occasional three-pointer, which should create more room for Zion Williamson to operate. The former No. 5 overall pick averaged an impressive 17.1 PPG and 12.5 RPG with a .592/.368/.773 shooting line in 62 games (28.3 MPG) this past season.

From the Grizzlies’ perspective, the deal was a way to improve their draft assets in both 2021 and 2022 as a result of their willingness to take on Adams’ and Bledsoe’s pricey contracts. The team moved up from No. 17 to No. 10 to snag Williams, and later flipped the No. 40 pick (Butler) to Utah in a separate trade to move up to No. 30 for Santi Aldama.

[RELATED: 2021 NBA Offseason Trades]

The Hornets, meanwhile, decided to move on from Graham and got a protected first-round pick from New Orleans in exchange for waiving their right to match an offer sheet for the restricted free agent. Iwundu’s guaranteed $1.82MM salary for 2021/22 will eat up a small amount of Charlotte’s cap room, but the team will still have enough flexibility to complete its signing of Kelly Oubre to a two-year deal in the range of $12-13MM per year.

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Nets Sign Day’Ron Sharpe To Rookie Contract

August 6th, 2021 at 9:25pm CST by Luke Adams

The Nets have signed first-round pick Day’Ron Sharpe to his first NBA contract, the team announced on Friday in a press release.

The Suns drafted Sharpe with the No. 29 pick last week on behalf of the Nets, who had agreed on draft day to acquire that pick along with Jevon Carter in exchange for Landry Shamet. The trade couldn’t become official until today, and Brooklyn didn’t waste any time in locking up Sharpe to his rookie contract.

Sharpe, who declared for the draft after a single season at North Carolina, averaged 9.5 PPG and 7.6 RPG in 29 games (19.2 MPG) for the Tar Heels. The 6’11” center is one of five prospects selected by the Nets in this year’s draft and is the second one to officially sign with the club, joining fellow first-rounder Cameron Thomas.

As our breakdown of this year’s rookie scale salaries shows, Sharpe is on track to earn just over $2MM in his first NBA season is he receives the maximum allowable 120% of the rookie scale.

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Five-Team Russell Westbrook, Spencer Dinwiddie Trade Now Official

August 6th, 2021 at 8:08pm CST by Luke Adams

The five-team trade involving the Lakers, Wizards, Nets, Spurs, and Pacers, headlined by Russell Westbrook (to Los Angeles) and Spencer Dinwiddie (to Washington) is now official, according to press releases from multiple clubs.

The deal began as a two-team trade sending Westbrook from the Wizards to the Lakers, an agreement that was completed around the start of the draft last Thursday. Later that night, the Wizards and Pacers agreed to a deal sending Aaron Holiday that would be folded into the Westbrook blockbuster.

Subsequently, during free agency, the Wizards and Dinwiddie wanted to find a way to get the point guard to D.C. and ultimately convinced the Nets to accommodate a sign-and-trade. The Spurs entered the mix late to accommodate Washington’s salary-dump of Chandler Hutchison.

Here’s the full breakdown of the deal, based on reports to date:

  • To Lakers:
    • Russell Westbrook (from Wizards)
    • The Bulls’ 2023 second-round pick (from Wizards)
    • Either the Wizards’ or Grizzlies’ 2024 second-round pick (whichever is least favorable; from Wizards)
    • The Wizards’ 2028 second-round pick (from Wizards)
  • To Wizards:
  • To Nets:
    • Either the Wizards’ or the Grizzlies’ 2024 second-round pick (whichever is most favorable; from Wizards)
    • The right to swap the Warriors’ 2025 second-round pick for the Wizards’ 2025 second-round pick (from Wizards)
    • The draft rights to Nikola Milutinov (from Spurs)
  • To Spurs:
    • Chandler Hutchison (from Wizards)
    • Either the Bulls’, the Lakers’, or the Pistons 2022 second-round pick (whichever is most favorable; from Wizards)
  • To Pacers:

The Nets also generated the most significant trade exception of any team in the deal — it’ll be worth about $11.5MM.

While it was a fairly minor move for Brooklyn, San Antonio, and Indiana, the deal will significantly reshape the Lakers’ and Wizards’ rosters for the 2021/22 season. Los Angeles consolidated its depth, acquiring a star player who wanted to team up with LeBron James and Anthony Davis, then filled out its roster in free agency.

The Wizards, meanwhile, traded one star for several depth pieces and managed to replace their old point guard with one who will earn less than half of Westbrook’s salary for the next couple seasons. The deal should increase the club’s cap flexibility while fortifying its bench.

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Clippers Sign Keon Johnson To Rookie Contract

August 6th, 2021 at 7:16pm CST by Luke Adams

The Clippers have officially signed first-round pick Keon Johnson to his rookie contract, the team announced today.

[RELATED: 2021 NBA Draft Pick Signings]

Johnson was the No. 21 pick in last Thursday’s draft and was technically selected by the Knicks on behalf of the Clippers. New York and Los Angeles agreed to a draft-night deal that saw the Clips give up a future second-round pick to move up from No. 25 to No. 21 to secure Johnson.

A 6’5″ wing, Johnson spent a single season at Tennessee, averaging 11.3 PPG, 3.5 RPG, and 2.5 APG on .449/.271/.703 shooting in 27 games (25.5 MPG).

Back in April, when he declared for the draft, he was listed as the No. 6 prospect on ESPN’s big board and was viewed as a probable lottery pick. However, he remains very raw, especially on the offensive end, and slipped a little as teams in the middle of the first round opted for safer picks.

Unless he signs for less than 120% of his rookie scale amount, which is unlikely, Johnson will earn $2.55MM in 2021/22, as our breakdown of rookie scale salaries shows.

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Mike Conley Returns To Jazz On Three-Year Contract

August 6th, 2021 at 7:03pm CST by Dana Gauruder

AUGUST 6: Conley’s deal with the Jazz is now official, the team announced in a press release. General manager Justin Zanik said in a statement that the team is “excited” to bring Conley back and that he has made a “profound impact both on and off the court” during his time in Utah.

The team also officially announced its new deals with Rudy Gay and Hassan Whiteside.

AUGUST 2: The Jazz have reached an agreement with free agent point guard Mike Conley on a three-year contract, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.

According to Charania, the deal is worth $68MM. Agents Steve Heumann and Jess Holtz of CAA Basketball told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski the contract is worth $72.5MM (Twitter link), suggesting that it could include incentives or bonuses.

A report surfaced over the weekend that Jazz were on track to lock up the veteran on a three-year deal. Bringing him back was Utah’s top offseason priority.

As a team with luxury tax concerns, the Jazz needed to shed salary to improve that situation and retain Conley. Utah made a deal to dump a contract last week, having traded Derrick Favors to Oklahoma City.

Conley, 33, struggled in his first year in Utah in 2019/20, but the longtime Grizzlies guard turned things around this past season, averaging 16.2 PPG, 6.0 APG, and 3.5 RPG with a .444/.412/.852 shooting line in 51 games (29.4 MPG). He earned his first All-Star appearance in his 14th NBA season.

Conley was forced to miss games during the postseason due to a hamstring injury, which led to a disappointing finish for a team that had the league’s best regular season record.

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Knicks Sign Second-Rounder McBride

August 6th, 2021 at 6:56pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Knicks have officially signed second-round pick Miles McBride, the team’s PR department tweets.

McBride, the 36th overall pick, was acquired in a draft-night trade with the Thunder. The 6’2” guard averaged 15.9 PPG, 4.8 APG and 1.9 SPG in 29 games last season with West Virginia. He also made 41.4% of his 3-point attempts. McBride played two seasons with the Mountaineers.

Terms were not disclosed, but the team has ample cap room to sign McBride to a contract that covers three or four seasons. McBride is currently on the Knicks’ summer league squad.

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Thunder Sign Shai Gilgeous-Alexander To Five-Year Max Extension

August 6th, 2021 at 6:21pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

AUGUST 6: The Thunder have officially signed Gilgeous-Alexander to his extension, the team announced today in a press release.

“We are excited to have Shai representing our organization for many years to come and couldn’t be happier for him and his family,” Thunder GM Sam Presti said in a statement. “He is a tremendous basketball player, but is also a leader that infuses optimism, confidence and collaboration into all of his interactions professionally and personally. We are looking forward to watching his individual growth and the collective development of our team as we continue on our path toward sustainable success in Oklahoma City.”

AUGUST 2: The Thunder and guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander have agreed to a five-year, $172MM maximum rookie contract extension, agent Thaddeus Foucher informs Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (via Twitter).

Gilgeous-Alexander will still be on his rookie contract for one final season, and is set to make $5,495,532 in 2021/22. His new deal will kick in for the 2022/23 season. The new contract’s precise value will be contingent on exactly where the 2022/23 season cap lands.

As of this writing, Gilgeous-Alexander is expected to earn $29.75MM, based on the new $119MM salary cap projection for the 2022/23 season, as Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (Twitter link). SGA would net $39.27MM during the final year of the deal, in 2026/27.

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN writes (via Twitter) that the contract will include a 30% “escalator clause” that could increase the $172MM base of the deal into a $207MM agreement, provided Gilgeous-Alexander is voted onto one of the three All-NBA teams in 2022. Woj adds that there are no early termination options for either side in the new extension.

The 6’6″ combo guard was selected with No. 11 pick in the 2018 draft out of Kentucky and enjoyed an All-Rookie Second Team-caliber debut NBA season with the Clippers. He was the key element in a pick-heavy trade that sent All-Star forward Paul George to Los Angeles, and has since proved his mettle in two seasons with Oklahoma City.

Gilgeous-Alexander, 23, missed most of the 2020/21 season’s second half with a plantar fasciitis injury. When he was healthy, he produced at a high level. The 6’6″ 23-year-old averaged 23.7 PPG, 5.9 APG, and 4.7 RPG in 35 games last year. He posted a solid slash line of .508/.418/.808.

An excellent scorer with room to grow on defense, Gilgeous-Alexander has future All-Star potential. The Thunder were wise to lock him in to a long-term deal, even though the team appears more interested in asset accrual over winning in the short term.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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