Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Pelicans Sign Jarrod Uthoff To Non-Guaranteed Deal

November 30th, 2020 at 12:57pm CST by Luke Adams

DECEMBER 2: The Pelicans have officially signed Uthoff, according to RealGM’s transactions log.

NOVEMBER 30: The Pelicans are signing free agent forward Jarrod Uthoff to one-year contract, reports Will Guillory of The Athletic (Twitter link). The minimum-salary deal will be non-guaranteed, Guillory adds.

Uthoff, 27, has played for a handful of teams in the NBA and the G League since going undrafted in 2016, as well as spending a stint in Russia in 2018/19. Last season, he signed a 10-day contract with the Grizzlies in February and then joined the Wizards as a substitute player during the summer restart.

Although Uthoff only got into seven NBA games in 2019/20, he had a big year in the G League, averaging 19.0 PPG, 10.7 RPG, and 3.1 APG with a shooting line of .491/.367/.790 in 34 games (34.9 MPG) for the Memphis Hustle. He was named to the All-NBAGL First Team.

Uthoff is probably unlikely to make the Pelicans’ regular season roster, but the team doesn’t have a full 15-man squad of guaranteed salaries, so the door’s not entirely closed if he impresses during the preseason.

New Orleans has also officially announced its previously–reported deals with free agents Willy Hernangomez and Wenyen Gabriel.

Pelicans Sign Kira Lewis Jr. To Rookie Contract

November 30th, 2020 at 12:26pm CST by Luke Adams

The Pelicans have officially signed first-round pick Kira Lewis Jr. to his rookie contract, the team announced today in a press release.

A sophomore at Alabama in 2019/20, Lewis averaged a team-high 18.5 PPG to go along with 5.2 APG, 4.8 RPG, and 1.8 SPG in 31 games (37.6 MPG). After leaving the Crimson Tide to enter the draft pool, Lewis became a lottery pick, going 13th overall to New Orleans.

Lewis will join a solid group of Pelicans point guards that also includes Eric Bledsoe and Lonzo Ball. As the No. 13 pick, he’ll be in line for a four-year contract worth over $17MM, including a first-year salary of $3.64MM.

Nineteen of the 30 players drafted in the first round on November 18 have now signed their rookie contracts, as our tracker shows.

Pelicans Re-Sign Brandon Ingram To Five-Year Max Contract

November 30th, 2020 at 11:03am CST by Luke Adams

NOVEMBER 30: Ingram has officially signed his new max contract with the Pelicans, the team announced today (via Twitter).

NOVEMBER 24: The top restricted free agent of 2020 is officially off the board, as the Pelicans and forward Brandon Ingram have reached an agreement on a five-year, maximum-salary contract, agents Jeff Schwartz and Jordan Gertler tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). The deal will be worth $158.25MM over five seasons.

Ingram, who was ranked No. 2 on our list of 2020’s top free agents, figures to sign the biggest free agent contract of the ’20 offseason, unless Anthony Davis opts for a long-term deal with the Lakers.

After being traded from Los Angeles to New Orleans as part of the package for Davis in 2019, Ingram – who was coming off a blood clot issue that prematurely ended his 2018/19 season – turned down a “more modest” extension offer from the Pelicans, per Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

Ingram’s bet on himself paid off in a big way, as he morphed into the Pelicans’ go-to scorer in 2019/20, averaging 23.8 PPG, 6.1 RPG, and 4.2 APG with a .463/.391/851 shooting line in 62 games (33.9 MPG). The 23-year-old also made an All-Star team for the first time in his career, setting himself up for a maximum-salary deal with New Orleans.

Although Ingram and the Pelicans took a few days to formally reach an agreement, this outcome was always expected — New Orleans would have matched any offer sheet the 6’7″ forward signed, so it made sense for the two sides to negotiate directly and take their time to get something done.

Ingram, whose new contract will run through 2025, represents one of the cornerstone pieces in the Pelicans’ rebuild, alongside Zion Williamson. A young core that also includes Lonzo Ball, Jaxson Hayes, Kira Lewis Jr., and Nickeil Alexander-Walker will be complemented in 2020/21 by newly-acquired veterans Steven Adams and Eric Bledsoe, as well as sharpshooter J.J. Redick.

With Ingram back under contract, the Pelicans’ major offseason moves should be complete. The team has a tiny of bit of breathing room below the tax line and doesn’t plan to fill its 15th roster spot with another guaranteed contract for now, per Will Guillory of The Athletic.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Hornets Sign Vernon Carey Jr. To Four-Year Contract

November 30th, 2020 at 10:35am CST by Luke Adams

9:02pm: The signing is official, according to a team press release.

10:35am: Rookie center Vernon Carey Jr., the No. 32 pick in this year’s draft, is signing a four-year contract with the Hornets, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link).

While the exact value of Carey’s deal isn’t yet known, Marks says it will likely have the most guaranteed money of any contract signed by a 2020 second-round pick this fall. Charlotte will use a small portion of its remaining cap room to complete the signing.

In his first and only college season at Duke, Carey averaged 17.8 PPG, 8.8 RPG, and 1.6 BPG in 31 games (24.9 MPG). He shot 57.7% from the field and even made 38.1% of his tries from beyond the arc, albeit on just 21 three-point attempts.

Carey is one of four players selected by the Hornets in this year’s draft. LaMelo Ball, the team’s lone first-rounder, will soon sign a rookie scale contract. I’d expect a standard contract for No. 42 pick Nick Richards and a two-way deal for No. 56 selection Grant Riller, but we’ll have to wait to see what Charlotte has in mind.

Rockets Sign Gerald Green To One-Year Deal

November 30th, 2020 at 10:23am CST by Luke Adams

DECEMBER 1: The signing is official, according to a team press release.

NOVEMBER 30: The Rockets and Houston native Gerald Green have agreed to a one-year deal, reports ESPN’s Tim MacMahon of ESPN (Twitter link).

According to MacMahon, it’ll be a non-guaranteed contract worth the veteran’s minimum, with Houston giving Green a chance to earn a regular season roster spot. If he makes the team, he’ll earn $2.56MM while the Rockets will carry a cap hit of $1.62MM.

Green, who said last week that he hoped to re-sign with the Rockets, missed the entire 2019/20 season due to a broken foot. He began the ’19/20 campaign with Houston, but didn’t suit up for any games – having undergone foot surgery last October – before he was eventually traded and waived in February.

A July report indicated that Green has since recovered from that procedure and received medical clearance, but decided not to seek a new deal until 2020/21 for family reasons, including the expected birth of his child in August.

The Rockets currently only have nine players on fully guaranteed contracts, though DeMarcus Cousins, Bruno Caboclo, and Jae’Sean Tate are also strong candidates to make the team. That would leave three spots for Green, Chris Clemons, and Kenyon Martin Jr. However, if the hard-capped Rockets only carry 14 players to start the regular season, one of those players would presumably be the odd man out.

Heat Sign Max Strus

November 30th, 2020 at 10:13am CST by Luke Adams

The Heat have signed free agent wing Max Strus, the team announced today in a press release. The club’s roster is now at 19 players.

While terms of the deal weren’t disclosed in Miami’s announcement, it figures to be a non-guaranteed training camp contract. Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald tweets that Strus will compete with Paul Eboua, Breein Tyree, and possibly one more player to claim the Heat’s second two-way contract slot. Gabe Vincent currently occupies one of those two slots.

Strus, 24, spent last season on a two-way contract with the Bulls. The former DePaul standout appeared in 13 games for the Windy City Bulls in the G League and two contests for Chicago in the NBA before a torn ACL prematurely ended his season. He suffered that injury more than 11 months ago, so presumably, if Miami is comfortable signing him, he’ll be ready to go for training camp.

Suns Sign Johnathan Motley To Camp Deal

November 30th, 2020 at 8:27am CST by Luke Adams

The Suns have signed free agent big man Johnathan Motley to a one-year contract, per RealGM’s log of official NBA transactions. It’ll be a non-guaranteed camp contract, tweets Keith Smith of Yahoo Sports.

Motley, 25, has been on two-way contracts for the last three seasons, first with Dallas and then with the Clippers. Over the course of those three NBA seasons, he has averaged 4.9 PPG and 2.4 RPG in 46 appearances (8.1 MPG).

Motley has made a greater impact at the G League level, where he has been named to the All-NBAGL Second Team for three consecutive years. In 2019/20, he averaged 24.0 PPG, 7.9 RPG, and 2.8 APG on .518/.356/.753 shooting in 26 games (33.0 MPG) for the Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario.

The Suns still project to have three open roster spots after the signing of Motley, so they could extend more camp invites if they so choose.

Raptors Sign Jalen Harris To Two-Way Deal, Re-Sign Oshae Brissett

November 30th, 2020 at 8:04am CST by Luke Adams

The Raptors have officially filled out their training camp roster, having signed second-round pick Jalen Harris to a two-way contract and restricted free agent forward Oshae Brissett to a multiyear deal, per RealGM’s official log of NBA transactions.

Harris, who began his college career at Louisiana Tech, transferred to Nevada and had a huge year in 2019/20 as a junior, averaging 21.7 PPG, 6.5 RPG, and 3.9 APG with a .446/.362/.823 shooting line in 30 games (33.0 MPG). The 22-year-old guard declared for the draft and was selected by the Raptors with the 59th overall pick. He’ll occupy one of the team’s two-way slots, while Paul Watson holds the other.

As for Brissett, he appeared in 19 games for the Raptors on a two-way contract as a rookie last season, playing mostly garbage-time minutes. The former Syracuse standout averaged 1.9 PPG and 1.4 RPG in 7.1 minutes per contest. In 30 G League games for the Raptors 905, he bumped those numbers to 14.9 PPG and 6.6 RPG in 27.8 MPG.

Brissett received a two-way qualifying offer from Toronto, but the two sides ended up negotiating a new standard contract instead — it’ll probably be a two-year deal worth the minimum salary. He’ll likely get a small partial guarantee in year one and will compete in training camp for a regular season roster spot, tweets Blake Murphy of The Athletic.

Brissett’s competitors for the 15th roster spot will be Henry Ellenson, Yuta Watanabe, and Alize Johnson. Their deals, which were reported on Friday, are all official now too, per RealGM.

Wolves Sign Anthony Edwards, Jaden McDaniels, Tyler Cook

November 30th, 2020 at 7:30am CST by Luke Adams

The Timberwolves have officially signed two of their 2020 first-round picks, finalizing rookie contracts with former Georgia guard Anthony Edwards and former Washington forward Jaden McDaniels, according to RealGM’s transactions log.

Edwards, 19, became the No. 1 pick in the draft after averaging 19.1 PPG, 5.2 RPG, and 2.8 APG in 32 games in his first and only college season. Assuming he signed for 120% of his rookie scale amount, as nearly every first-round pick does, he’ll earn $9.76MM in 2020/21 and $44MM+ over the life of his four-year contract.

McDaniels, the younger brother of Hornets forward Jalen McDaniels, averaged 13.0 PPG, 5.8 RPG, and 2.1 APG in 31 games as a freshman at Washington before he declared for the draft. As the 28th overall pick, he projects to make $1.96MM as a rookie and $10MM+ over four years.

The Timberwolves’ other first-round pick, Leandro Bolmaro, is expected to remain with FC Barcelona in Spain for at least one more season, so he won’t sign his first NBA contract quite yet.

However, Minnesota did finalize one more signing, per RealGM’s transactions log, inking former Cavaliers Nuggets forward Tyler Cook to a training camp contract.

Undrafted out of Iowa in 2019, Cook spent time last season on a two-way contract and a pair of 10-day deals with Cleveland before joining Denver for the NBA restart as a substitute player. He only appeared in 13 total NBA games, but played more for the Canton Charge and OKC Blue in the G League, averaging 12.9 PPG and 5.7 RPG in 29 games (21.3 MPG).

Kings Sign Glenn Robinson III

November 29th, 2020 at 9:13pm CST by JD Shaw

DECEMBER 2: The signing is official, tweets Sean Cunningham of KXTV in Sacramento.

NOVEMBER 29: The Kings have reached an agreement with free agent forward Glenn Robinson III, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link). Robinson is signing a one-year, minimum-salary contract with a partial guarantee, reports Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee (Twitter link).

Robinson had attracted interest from a number of clubs before agreeing to terms with Sacramento, holding past experience with the Wolves, Sixers, Pacers, Pistons and Warriors in his career.

He averaged 11.7 points, 4.4 rebounds and 28.8 minutes with Golden State and Philadelphia last season, appearing in 38 games with the Warriors before being dealt to the Sixers. The 26-year-old was drafted with the No. 40 overall pick back in 2014.

The Kings have had a busy offseason to date, signing De’Aaron Fox to a five-year extension and declining to match Bogdan Bogdanovic‘s offer sheet with the Hawks. The team also signed free agent big men Hassan Whiteside and Frank Kaminsky.