Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Warriors To Acquire Buddy Hield In Sign-And-Trade With Sixers

July 4th, 2024 at 1:55pm CST by Rory Maher

1:55pm: The Hield acquisition will indeed be part of a five-team mega-trade involving Golden State, Dallas, Charlotte, Minnesota and Philadelphia, sources tell Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link).

1:19pm: The Warriors are acquiring Buddy Hield in a sign-and-trade with the Sixers, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium (Twitter link).

Golden State will be sending Philadelphia a 2031 second-round pick (via Dallas) as part of the transaction, sources tell Charania (Twitter link).

The second-rounder being sent to the 76ers is being acquired as part of the Klay Thompson sign-and-trade with the Mavs. That suggests the series of moves could still be folded together into one multi-team mega-deal.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link), Hield will receive a four-year contract that will pay him a guaranteed $18MM over the first two seasons. The deal will reportedly feature an additional $3MM in guaranteed money, with a fourth-year player option that’s not fully guaranteed. It will start at $8.7MM in year one, per The Athletic, which suggests the total value will be over $37MM, assuming 5% annual raises.

Charania reported on Tuesday night that the Warriors were pursuing Hield, and now a sign-and-trade agreement has come to fruition.

In 2023/24, Hield appeared in a league-high 84 regular season games, exceeding the typical 82-game limit as a result of a midseason trade that sent him from Indiana to Philadelphia. He averaged 12.1 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 2.8 assists in 25.7 minutes per game for the Pacers and Sixers, with a .386 3PT%.

Hield, 31, has never been known for his defense, but he’s a top-tier floor spacer, with a career mark of 40.0% from long distance (on high volume). He ranked No. 24 on our list of 2024’s top 50 free agents.

The Warriors have been very busy this offseason, agreeing to sign De’Anthony Melton to a one-year deal and to acquire both Kyle Anderson and Hield in the wake of Thompson’s departure.

Hield is currently competing for his home country, the Bahamas, in an Olympic qualifying tournament in Spain. If the team wins the tournament (it has already advanced to the semifinal), the Bahamas would advance to the 2024 Olympics in Paris, which begin at the end of July.

Cap expert Yossi Gozlan projects the Warriors, who are hard-capped at the first tax apron, to be right near that salary threshold ($178.1MM) with 14 players under contract (Twitter link).

The Sixers won’t create a trade exception as part of the transaction, since they’re operating under the cap.

Knicks Sign First-Rounder Dadiet For Less Than Standard Rookie Scale Amount

July 4th, 2024 at 1:42pm CST by Luke Adams

1:42pm: Katz provides some additional details on Dadiet’s contract, tweeting that only the first year will be at 80% of the rookie scale amount, with years two through four jumping to 120%.

All told then, Dadiet’s deal will be worth $13,012,968 (instead of $13,917,008) over four years.

12:33pm: The Knicks have finalized a buyout with Ratiopharm Ulm, Pacome Dadiet‘s team in Germany, clearing the way for them to sign their first-round pick to his rookie scale contract, reports Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).

Interestingly, according to Fred Katz of The Athletic (Twitter link), the Knicks have signed Dadiet to a contract that will be worth 80% of the standard rookie scale amount for the No. 25 pick, instead of the usual 120%. That’s the minimum allowed for a first-round pick.

As our breakdown of rookie scale salaries shows, a “maximum” rookie scale contract for Dadiet would’ve started at $2,712,120. However, 80% of his rookie scale amount will work out to a first-year salary of $1,808,080. As Katz notes, that’ll give the team about $904K in extra spending flexibility below its second-apron hard cap for 2024/25.

An NBA team is permitted to pay up to $850K to a player’s international team as part of a buyout agreement in 2024/25 without that amount counting against its cap. The NBA club would be permitted to pay more than that, but any amount above $850K would count against the player’s cap hit. For instance, a $1MM buyout for a player who will earn a $2MM salary would result in a $2,150,000 cap hit.

League sources tell Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter link) that the Knicks, not coincidentally, paid exactly $850K to Ratiopharm Ulm, meaning Dadiet’s cap hit will be equivalent to his salary and won’t include any portion of his buyout.

This is likely an arrangement the Knicks discussed with Dadiet and his representatives before selecting him rather than springing a lower offer on him after drafting him.

The 18-year-old French wing averaged 6.4 points and 1.6 rebounds in 14.9 minutes per game across 18 EuroCup appearances for Ulm last season.

Raptors Signing Jamal Shead To Three-Year Deal

July 4th, 2024 at 1:34pm CST by Luke Adams

The Raptors are signing second-round pick Jamal Shead to a three-year, $6.11MM contract, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). That’s the maximum amount permitted under the second-round pick exception for a three-year deal.

Shead, who turned 22 in June, spent all four of his college seasons at the University of Houston, serving as the Cougars’ starting point guard for the past three seasons. In 2023/24, he averaged 12.9 points, 6.3 assists, 3.7 rebounds, and 2.2 steals in 31.1 minutes per game (37 contests).

Shead’s shooting line last season was a modest .409/.309/.779, which is about in line with his career college numbers. However, he’s considered a strong defender, having won this year’s Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year award.

The Raptors selected Shead using the No. 45 pick they acquired in their trade with the Kings last week.

Reporting on draft night indicated that Shead received interest from more than a dozen teams hoping to sign him to a two-way contract, but was assured of getting a guaranteed salary from Toronto. His contract – which begins at $1.86MM – will be guaranteed for the first two seasons, per Charania, with a third-year team option. It’s the same deal that fellow second-rounder Jonathan Mogbo is signing with the Raptors.

Heat Sign Alec Burks To One-Year Deal

July 4th, 2024 at 1:11pm CST by Luke Adams

July 4: Burks’ minimum-salary contract is now official, the Heat announced in a press release.

July 3: The Heat have agreed to terms on a one-year contract with free agent guard Alec Burks, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). It’ll be a minimum-salary deal, confirms Anthony Chiang of The Miami Herald (Twitter link).

Burks, who will turn 33 later this month, is a 13-year veteran who has played for seven teams since entering the NBA in 2011, including both the Pistons and the Knicks in 2023/24.

The former 12th overall pick had a solid first half in Detroit, averaging 12.6 points per game with a .401 3PT% for the league’s worst teams. However, he struggled after being sent to New York in a deadline deal, scoring just 6.5 PPG and making 30.1% of his three-pointers in 23 regular season games down the stretch.

Burks has a solid track record as a scorer and shooter (.383 career 3PT%) and finished the year strong this spring, reclaiming a spot in a banged-up Knicks’ rotation during the Eastern Conference semifinals. In New York’s last five playoff games vs. the Pacers, he averaged 17.8 PPG on .510/.429/.844 shooting.

There should be minutes available in Miami for Burks, who will be tasked with helping to fill the holes created in the rotation if Caleb Martin and Haywood Highsmith don’t return to the team.

Burks projects to be the 13th player on a standard guaranteed contract with the Heat. That total doesn’t include Orlando Robinson, whose 2024/25 salary is non-guaranteed and whose hold on a 15-man roster spot appears tenuous.

Lakers Sign Blake Hinson, Armel Traore To Two-Way Deals

July 4th, 2024 at 1:01pm CST by Dana Gauruder

July 4: The two-way contracts for Hinson and Traore are official, per NBA.com’s transactions log. Hinson received a two-year deal, tweets Michael Scotto of HoopsHype.

June 27: The Lakers have reached two-way contract agreements with Pittsburgh’s Blake Hinson and French forward Armel Traore, Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium reports (Twitter links). Both players went undrafted.

Hinson, a 6’8” wing, played two seasons with the Panthers after a two-season stay at Ole Miss. He also spent some time at Iowa State but didn’t play there.

Hinson, 24, put up impressive stats in his senior year, averaging 18.5 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. He shot 45.4% from the field and 42.1% on three-point attempts. The three-point shooting came at a high volume — he averaged 7.9 attempts per game.

Traore, 21, played for Ada Blois in the LNB Pro A league last season. He averaged 10.8 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.5 assists. He posted 16 points, six rebounds, two steals and a block in a game against the G League Ignite last summer. Traore profiles as a potential three-and-D wing.

Sixers Sign Justin Edwards To Two-Way Contract

July 4th, 2024 at 12:54pm CST by Rory Maher

July 4: Edwards’ two-way deal is now official, the Sixers announced in a press release.

June 27: The Sixers are signing Kentucky wing Justin Edwards to a two-way contract, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

A former top high school recruit, Philadelphia native Edwards had an uneven freshman season for the Wildcats, averaging 8.8 PPG, 3.4 RPG and 0.9 SPG on .486/.365/.776 shooting in 32 games, including 30 starts (21.4 MPG).

Edwards was the top undrafted player on the open market following the 2024 draft, according to ESPN’s best available list. He had a second-round grade from ESPN draft expert Jonathan Givony (No. 39).

Blazers’ Donovan Clingan Signs Rookie Scale Contract

July 4th, 2024 at 12:32pm CST by Rory Maher

Center Donovan Clingan, the No. 7 overall pick of last month’s draft, has officially signed his rookie scale contract, the Trail Blazers announced in a press release.

Assuming he signed for 120% of the rookie scale, which most first-rounders do, Clingan will earn $6,836,400 in 2024/25 and $31,085,018 over the next four seasons if his team options for years three and four are exercised.

Clingan, 20, is a native of Bristol, Connecticut. He won back-to-back national championships with UConn in his two college seasons. He averaged 13.0 PPG, 7.4 RPG and 2.5 BPG in 35 games last season for the Huskies (22.5 MPG).

Knicks, Nets Expanding Bridges Trade To Include Milton, Diakite, Bates-Diop

July 4th, 2024 at 11:18am CST by Rory Maher

The Knicks intend to sign-and-trade Shake Milton to the Nets as part of the blockbuster trade that will send Mikal Bridges from Brooklyn to New York, Shams Charania of The Athletic reports (via Twitter). Milton will receive a three-year, $9MM contract, but only the first season is guaranteed.

New York will also be including Mamadi Diakite in the trade, league sources tell Fred Katz of The Athletic (Twitter link). The Knicks have been looking for ways to add salary to the original framework to avoid being hard-capped at the first tax apron ($178.1MM), Katz notes. By aggregating salaries, the Knicks will instead be hard-capped at the second apron ($188.9MM).

The Nets will be sending the Knicks Keita Bates-Diop as part of the expanded deal, per Charania.

As cap expert Yossi Gozlan explains (Twitter links), the Knicks can give Milton a $3.1MM salary for 2024/25 using his Non-Bird rights. They will also be partially guaranteeing Diakite’s contract, which is currently non-guaranteed, to make the math work to get to at least $23.3MM in outgoing salary (the equivalent of Bridges’ 2024/25 cap hit). Sending out less outgoing salary than Bridges’ incoming figure would’ve hard-capped New York at the first apron.

Teams aren’t permitted to aggregate two or more minimum-salary contracts in a trade for matching purposes during the offseason. Diakite is on a minimum deal, but Milton will be earning 20% above his minimum salary, allowing the Knicks to avoid that trade restriction.

The Knicks will not have to account for Bates-Diop’s incoming salary for matching purposes because he fits into the minimum-salary exception.

After the trade, Gozlan projects the Knicks to have approximately $172MM in salary committed to 11 players. That means they’ll be about $16.9MM below the second apron, giving the team the financial flexibility to use the taxpayer mid-level exception and potentially re-sign Precious Achiuwa, who is an unrestricted free agent.

Here’s a rundown of the full trade, at least what has been reported thus far:

Knicks to acquire Mikal Bridges, Keita Bates-Diop and a 2026 second-round pick.
Nets to acquire Bojan Bogdanovic, Shake Milton (sign-and-trade), Mamadi Diakite, the Knicks’ 2025 first-round pick, the Bucks’ 2025 first-round pick (top-four protected), the Knicks’ 2027 first-round pick, the Knicks’ 2029 first-round pick, the Knicks’ 2031 first-round pick, the right to swap a 2028 first-round pick for the Knicks’ 2028 first-round pick, and the Nets’ 2025 second-round pick.

According to Gozlan, the Nets will create a $23.3MM trade exception (Bridges’ salary) if they absorb Bodganovic’s salary into an existing TPE worth $20.3MM (Twitter link). Using an exception from a previous season hard-caps a team at the first apron, but so does acquiring a player via sign-and-trade (Milton), so it seems safe to assume Brooklyn will use that preexisting TPE on Bogdanovic.

Milton, 27, was a productive bench player for Philadelphia for several seasons before signing with Minnesota last summer. The Wolves traded him to the Pistons before the February deadline, and he was subsequently waived, later signing a rest-of-season deal with the Knicks in early March as a free agent. He only appeared in four regular season games with New York.

Diakite, also 27, has bounced around the NBA over the course of his four seasons, suiting up for the Bucks, Thunder, Cavaliers, Spurs and Knicks on a variety of different contracts.

Bates-Diop, 28, has played for the Wolves, Nuggets, Spurs, Suns and Nets over the course of his seven years in the NBA. He exercised his player option for ’24/25 last month.

Second-Round Pick Mogbo Agrees To Three-Year Deal With Raptors

July 4th, 2024 at 8:50am CST by Dana Gauruder

The Raptors have agreed to a three-year, $6.11MM contract with forward Jonathan Mogbo, Michael Scotto of HoopsHype reports (Twitter link).

It’s the maximum amount allowed under the current CBA’s second-round exception, as our breakdown shows. Mogbo will earn about $1.86MM as a rookie, which is equivalent to this year’s minimum salary for a player who already has one year of NBA experience. The third year will be a team option.

Mogbo played last season with San Francisco, averaging 14.2 points, 10.2 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.8 blocks. With the draft split into two rounds last month, Mogbo was the first pick of the second round.

Toronto resisted offers for the pick because they liked Mogbo’s versatility. He’s also a childhood friend of franchise player Scottie Barnes.

Under the previous CBA, over-the-cap teams would have needed to use a chunk of their mid-level exception to give a second-round pick like Mogbo a third year, as we outline in our glossary entry on the second-round pick exception.

Bulls Re-Sign Adama Sanogo To Two-Way Deal

July 3rd, 2024 at 10:30pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 6: Sanogo has officially signed his two-way contract with the Bulls, per a team press release.

JULY 3: After spending the 2023/24 season on a two-way contract with the Bulls, forward/center Adama Sanogo has agreed to return to Chicago on a new two-way deal, reports Chris Haynes of TNT and Bleacher Report (Twitter link).

Sanogo, who won a national championship with UConn in 2023, declared for the draft as an early entrant that spring. While he wasn’t selected on draft night, he quickly caught on with the Bulls, signing a two-way contract last July.

Sanogo appeared in just nine games at the NBA level as a rookie, but he was productive in his limited action, racking up 36 points and 36 rebounds in 66 total minutes. He also played well in the G League, averaging a double-double (20.4 points, 12.0 rebounds) in just 29.2 minutes per game across 45 total appearances for the Windy City Bulls. He earned a spot on both the NBAGL All-Rookie Team and the All-NBAGL Third Team.

The Bulls issued a qualifying offer to Sanogo last week, making him a restricted free agent. That QO was equivalent to another one-year, two-way contract, so the 22-year-old will likely just accept that offer.

Once Sanogo officially signs, Chicago will have two of its three two-way slots filled, with Andrew Funk‘s deal from February having carried over for a second season.