Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Nets Exercise 2021/22 Option On Landry Shamet

December 21st, 2020 at 2:46pm CST by Luke Adams

The Nets have exercise the fourth-year option on Landry Shamet‘s rookie contract, the club announced today (via Twitter). The move locks in Shamet’s $3.77MM salary for the 2021/22 season.

Shamet, 23, has averaged 9.2 PPG on .420/.402/.828 shooting in his first two NBA seasons with the Sixers and Clippers. He was dealt from Los Angeles to Brooklyn in a three-team trade last month — the Nets also acquired Bruce Brown in that deal, sending Dzanan Musa and the No. 19 pick to Detroit.

Shamet will now become eligible for a rookie scale extension during the 2021 offseason. If he doesn’t sign a new deal at that point, he’d be on track to reach restricted free agency in the summer of 2022.

We’re keeping tabs on all the 2021/22 rookie scale team option decisions right here.

Pistons Exercise Sekou Doumbouya’s 2021/22 Option

December 21st, 2020 at 10:49am CST by Luke Adams

The Pistons have exercised their 2021/22 team option on Sekou Doumbouya‘s rookie contract, league sources tell Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press (Twitter link). The move guarantees the forward’s $3.6MM salary for the ’21/22 season.

Doumbouya, who will turn 20 on Wednesday, was the youngest player in the NBA last season after being selected 15th overall in the 2019 draft. He averaged 6.4 PPG and 3.1 RPG on .390/.286/.674 shooting in 38 games (19.8 MPG) as a rookie.

While Doumbouya’s contributions in 2019/20 were modest, he has flashed some promise during the preseason this month. Most notably, he racked up 23 points, five rebounds, and a pair of blocked shots in just 17 minutes of action against New York last Sunday.

As our tracker shows, Doumbouya’s rookie scale option was the only one left for the Pistons to pick up after they waived Zhaire Smith and Dzanan Musa. The deadline for teams to exercise those options is December 29.

Detroit’s next decision on Doumbouya will come a year from now, when the club will have to either exercise or decline his team option for 2022/23. Assuming that option is picked up, the Pistons forward will become eligible for a rookie scale extension during the 2022 offseason.

Lakers Sign Kyle Kuzma To Three-Year Extension

December 20th, 2020 at 4:46pm CST by Luke Adams

4:46pm: Kuzma has officially signed his extension with the Lakers, the team announced on social media (Twitter link).

3:56pm: The Lakers and forward Kyle Kuzma have agreed to terms on a three-year contract extension worth $40MM, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). The deal will include a third-year player option for the 2023/24 season, Wojnarowski reports.

Kuzma, 25, is the latest in a line of Lakers players that have agreed to lucrative new contracts this offseason. LeBron James and Anthony Davis signed maximum-salary deals that will keep them under team control through 2023 and 2024, respectively, while Kentavious Caldwell-Pope signed a contract similar to Kuzma’s, though the final year of KCP’s three-year, $39MM pact isn’t fully guaranteed.

Those multiyear commitments to other key players likely helped open the door for a rookie scale extension for Kuzma in advance of Monday’s deadline, since the Lakers no longer had to consider whether to try to carve out cap room during the next couple offseasons.

Kuzma, who averaged a career-high 18.7 PPG in 2018/19, played a reduced role last season following the arrival of Davis. His 12.8 PPG, 4.5 RPG, .436 FG%, and 25.0 MPG were all career-lows, as he struggled at times to establish a clear-cut role for the eventual champions.

However, the Lakers clearly still believe in the fourth-year forward, as exhibited by their willingness to lock in a deal that will guaranteed him $13MM+ per year once his current contract expires in 2021. Kuzma, the 27th overall pick in the 2017 draft, will earn $3.56MM in the final year of his rookie deal this season.

Kuzma is the fifth player to agree to a rookie scale extension so far this offseason, joining Jayson Tatum, Donovan Mitchell, Bam Adebayo, and De’Aaron Fox.

While Kuzma didn’t get a maximum-salary commitment like those stars, he becomes the first player to receive a player option on a non-max rookie extension, according to Wojnarowski (via Twitter). That option will allow Kuzma to enter the unrestricted free agent market at age 28 if he outperforms his new deal.

As Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (via Twitter), Kuzma won’t become ineligible to be traded this season as a result of his new extension. However, the poison pill provision would apply in a hypothetical deal, complicating salary matching and reducing the odds that he’ll be moved anytime soon.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Pistons Waive Dzanan Musa

December 20th, 2020 at 11:33am CST by Arthur Hill

11:33am: The move is official, tweets Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press.

8:16am: The Pistons will waive swingman Dzanan Musa, a source tells Rod Beard of The Detroit News.

Musa will still earn $2,002,800 for the season as Detroit had 16 players in camp with guaranteed contracts. His $3,615,054 team option for 2021/22 will be voided unless he’s claimed on waivers.

The move will bring the roster down to 15 players on standard contracts, although Detroit still has an open two-way slot.

Musa was acquired from the Nets last month in a three-team trade that also brought Rodney McGruder and the draft rights to Saddiq Bey, the 19th pick this year. Musa spent two years in Brooklyn and averaged 4.8 points and 2.2 rebounds in 40 games last season.

Watanabe Gets Two-Way Deal From Raptors; Watson Promoted To Main Roster

December 20th, 2020 at 11:06am CST by Arthur Hill

11:06am: Watson’s new contract is a two-year, minimum-salary deal with a $350K partial guarantee in year one, tweets Blake Murphy of The Athletic.

8:55am: The Raptors have converted Yuta Watanabe‘s camp contract to a two-way deal, according to NBA.com’s transactions page. Paul Watson, who joined the team on a two-way contract last season, has been promoted to the main roster.

Watanabe, 26, saw minimal playing time with the Grizzlies over the past two years, playing mostly in the G League. The small forward appeared in 33 total games for Memphis, and averaged 2.0 PPG in 18 games last season.

Watson, a 25-year-old shooting guard, played 10 NBA games in 2019/20. He signed with Toronto in January, one day after being waived by the Hawks.

Both players performed well during the Raptors’ three preseason games, sealing their spots on the regular season squad. Watanabe put up 14 points and 11 rebounds in 30 total minutes, while Watson had 11 points, five boards, and three blocked shots in 29 total minutes.

The Raptors’ roster, which includes 15 players on standard contracts and two – Watanabe and Jalen Harris – on two-way deals, is now set for the regular season.

Rudy Gobert Signs Five-Year Extension With Jazz

December 20th, 2020 at 11:00am CST by Arthur Hill

11:00am: Gobert’s extension is official, the Jazz announced in a press release.

“Rudy is such a special player,” new team owner Ryan Smith said in a statement. “He makes everyone on the court better. We couldn’t be more excited about his commitment to this team, to Utah, and most importantly, to keeping this unique culture together.”

9:13am: Rudy Gobert has reached an agreement on a five-year, $205MM extension with the Jazz, reports Tim MacMahon of ESPN. The final year of the deal will be a player option, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

“It means that they believe in me,” Gobert told MacMahon, confirming the agreement. “They believe in what we’ve been building over the years with this whole organization, with coach (Quin Snyder) and all the guys. For me, it’s an incredible blessing. It’s a very motivating feeling to know that we all share the same vision and we all share this goal for this state and for this franchise.”

The 28-year-old center was eligible to receive a super-max deal that would have been worth up to $228MM. He opted to take a little less so that Utah could have some financial flexibility to build the team around him and Donovan Mitchell, who also signed a five-year extension last month. There were reports of tension between Gobert and Mitchell after both players contracted COVID-19 in March, but they have now committed to a long-term future with the franchise.

Gobert’s new deal is the third-largest in NBA history, MacMahon notes. The only bigger contracts are the new $228MM super-max deal for Giannis Antetokounmpo and the five-year, $206.8MM super-max that the Thunder gave Russell Westbrook in 2017.

Gobert is currently in the final season of a four-year, $102MM arrangement, and Utah has some flexibility with the parameters of his new contract, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN. The Jazz could start the deal at $35.3MM for 2020/21, which is $4MM below 35% of the salary cap, with 8% raises each year. They could also opt to give him the full 35% at the beginning, which translates to a $39.3MM salary with 2.2% annual raises.

Gobert, who faced a Monday deadline to get a five-year extension finalized, has become one of the best centers in the league during his seven seasons in Utah. He won Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2017/18 and 2018/19 and has been an All-NBA selection in three of the past four years. The only thing missing from his resume is a long playoff run, which he believes the Jazz can accomplish soon.

“I want to win, and I feel like leaving this money on the table for the team just to be able to have better talent around me and Donovan was really important,” Gobert said. “I want to win, and I believe in this group and I believe in this organization, and I was willing to leave that money on the table for them.”

Gobert’s new contract is the latest in a long line of lucrative extensions signed since the new league year began last month. Only three players – Anthony Davis, Brandon Ingram, and Gordon Hayward – signed free agent contracts worth more than $100MM this offseason, but Gobert is the seventh player to finalize an extension worth $160MM or more, as our tracker shows.

The deal also takes another marquee free agent off the market for 2021. Antetokounmpo, LeBron James, and Paul George are among the other stars who will no longer reach free agency next summer after signing extensions this year.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Spurs Waive London Perrantes

December 20th, 2020 at 8:37am CST by Arthur Hill

The Spurs have waived point guard London Perrantes, according to NBA.com’s transactions page. San Antonio’s roster is now at 14, along with a pair of two-way players.

Perrantes, who signed with the team Saturday, was believed to have an Exhibit 10 contract, which makes him eligible for a bonus of up to $50K if he spends at least 60 days with the team’s G League affiliate. Perrantes finished last season with Capital City, which still owns his G League rights, so it appears the Austin Spurs would have to make a trade before he could join them.

Perrantes’ only NBA experience came during the 2017/18 season when he appeared in 14 games as a two-way player for the Cavaliers.

Grizzlies Waive Three Players, Set Regular Season Roster

December 19th, 2020 at 11:38pm CST by Luke Adams

The Grizzlies have made three roster cuts, announcing today in a press release that they waived forward Bennie Boatwright, along with guards Shaq Buchanan and Ahmad Caver.

Boatwright, Buchanan, and Caver each signed non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 contracts with the Grizzlies after playing last season for the Memphis Hustle in the G League. All three players are likely to rejoin the Hustle – the Grizzlies’ NBAGL affiliate – now that they’ve been waived, and should be in line for bonuses worth up to $50K apiece.

After today’s cuts, the Grizzlies’ roster is all set for the regular season. The team is carrying a full squad, with 15 players on fully guaranteed contracts and a pair on two-way deals.

Raptors Sign, Waive Breein Tyree, Tres Tinkle, Dewan Hernandez

December 19th, 2020 at 11:00pm CST by Luke Adams

The Raptors signed and waived guard Breein Tyree, forward Tres Tinkle, and big man Dewan Hernandez earlier today, according to Blake Murphy and Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Those moves were all made with an eye toward securing G League rights for the Raptors 905 and have no impact on Toronto’s regular season roster, Murphy confirms. The Raptors’ G League affiliate is expected to participate in the proposed NBAGL bubble, and it sounds like Tyree, Tinkle, and Hernandez will suit up for the team.

Tyree, who spent all four years of his college career at Mississippi, averaged 19.7 PPG, 3.7 RPG, and 2.5 APG on .427/.360/.822 shooting in 31 games (34.6 MPG) as a senior in 2019/20. He competed in training camp for a two-way deal with the Heat, but was released on Wednesday.

Tinkle, 24, averaged 18.5 PPG, 6.8 RPG, and 3.2 APG in 31 games (34.5 MPG) as a redshirt senior for Oregon State last season. He signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Lakers (and was subsequently waived) after going undrafted, but L.A.’s G League team isn’t expected to take part in the G League bubble, so joining the Raptors 905 will give Tinkle a chance to play — and to potentially earn a $50K bonus.

Hernandez, meanwhile, was drafted 59th overall by the Raptors in 2019 and spent his rookie season with the club, recording 14 points and 14 rebounds in 28 total minutes across six NBA games. The former University of Miami standout also appeared in nine G League games for the Raptors 905, averaging 13.4 PPG and 9.6 RPG. However, he was sidelined for much of the season by an ankle injury and was cut last month.

Wizards Sign, Waive Jordan Bell

December 19th, 2020 at 11:00pm CST by marksuleymanov

11:00pm: Bell has been released by the Wizards and figures to play for the club’s G League team in the proposed bubble, tweets Fred Katz of The Athletic.

9:25am: The Wizards have signed veteran big man Jordan Bell, according to RealGM’s official transactions log.

Bell, 25, was waived by the Lakers in late November after L.A. acquired him as part of the JaVale McGee trade to the Cavaliers.

It’s likely that Bell’s deal with Washington is an Exhibit 10 contract, which is a non-guaranteed one-year, minimum salary pact that allows a player to make a bonus of up to $50K if he is waived and remains on the franchise’s G League squad for at least 60 days.

The Capital City Go-Go (the Wizards’ NBAGL affiliate) claimed Bell off waivers in March, so the team holds his returning rights for the upcoming season. He’ll likely report there after being waived by Washington, assuming the Go-Go participate in the proposed G League bubble. The Wizards and Pelicans have reportedly discussed combining NBAGL teams for that event.

The Los Angeles native started his career with the Warriors during the 2017/18 season. Golden State won the NBA championship that season with Bell as a key reserve for the team, averaging 4.6 PPG and 3.6 RPG in 57 games (13 starts).

Bell appeared in 68 games for the Warriors the following season but has since bounced around the league. After signing with the Timberwolves in 2019, Bell was traded as part of the four-team, 12-player trade in February and subsequently released.