Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Celtics Sign Amile Jefferson To Exhibit 10 Deal

December 5th, 2020 at 9:05am CST by marksuleymanov

The Celtics have signed former Duke big man Amile Jefferson to an Exhibit 10 contract, according to Jay King of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Jefferson, 27, spent five seasons with the Blue Devils, including being team captain for three of them. The Philadelphia native helped lead Duke to the 2015 National Championship.

A right foot fracture in 2015/16 limited Jefferson to just nine games and he was granted medical redshirt approval by the ACC to return for a fifth season. Jefferson’s fifth season at Duke included being teammates with now Celtics All-Star Jayson Tatum.

Jefferson has spent parts of the last two seasons suiting up for the Magic, appearing in 30 games and averaging 1.4 PPG and 1.5 RPG for Orlando. He also had a stint in the G League with the Timberwolves’ G League affiliate Iowa Wolves.

Jefferson’s Exhibit 10 contract 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.

Lakers Re-Sign Quinn Cook

December 4th, 2020 at 6:13pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Lakers have re-signed guard Quinn Cook after waiving him last month, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.

Cook received a $1MM partial guarantee on his original $3MM contract before he was waived, a move which created more cap room for the Lakers to sign free agents. He didn’t get claimed and ultimately decided to return to the defending champions.

Cook will receive the veteran’s minimum with an additional cap hit of $1.6MM, Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report tweets. He’ll get a salary of $1,737,145, which added to the previous guarantee is nearly as much as he would have received without going on waivers.

Cook, who signed with Los Angeles as a free agent during the 2019 offseason after two years in Golden State, didn’t have a major role for the Lakers last season. He averaged 5.1 PPG, 1.2 RPG, and 1.1 APG in 44 regular season games (11.5 MPG) and then logged only 24 total minutes during the team’s postseason run.

Kings Pick Up Bagley’s Fourth-Year Option

December 4th, 2020 at 5:47pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Kings have picked up the fourth-year option on Marvin Bagley III‘s contract, Jason Jones of The Athletic tweets.

Bagley, who has an $8.96MM salary during the upcoming season, will make approximately $11.3MM in the 2021/22 season. He’ll be a restricted free agent in the summer of ’22 if the team extends a $14,762,309 qualifying offer.

Bagley, the second overall pick of the 2018 draft. is coming off an injury-plagued season in which he appeared in just 13 games. Bagley averaged 14.2 PPG and 7.5 RPG in 25.7 MPG. Bagley missed the restart due to a right foot injury and also missed time during last season due to left foot and thumb ailments.

He saw action in 62 games as a rookie, averaging 14.9 PPG and 7.6 RPG in 25.3 MPG. However, Bagley has yet to solidify a starting role, which pales in comparison to the blazing starts that two of the three players taken right after him, Luka Doncic and Trae Young, have enjoyed in their young careers.

B.J. Johnson Signs With Heat

December 4th, 2020 at 4:30pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Swingman B.J. Johnson has signed a contract with the Heat, according to a team press release.

It’s believed to be an Exhibit 10 contract. Johnson will compete with several other players for Miami’s remaining two-way contract, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald tweets. Point guard Gabe Vincent has already signed a two-way deal. The Heat now have a full 20-man camp roster.

Miami’s latest transaction comes as a surprise. Johnson was reported to be signing with the Suns, so either there was never an agreement in place with Phoenix or that deal fell through.

Johnson, 24, was on a two-way contract with Magic last season but entered unrestricted free agency after he did not receive a qualifying offer last month. He appeared in just 10 games for Orlando, averaging 8.3 MPG.

He also appeared in 28 games (all starts) with the Magic’s G League team, Lakeland, and averaged 22.9 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 2.1 APG, 2.1 SPG and 35.9 MPG while shooting 42.3% from 3-point range. The 6’7″ wing went undrafted out of La Salle in 2018.

In his rookie year, Johnson spent time with the Hawks, Kings and Magic.

Kings Sign Jahmi’us Ramsey To Three-Year Deal

December 4th, 2020 at 12:05pm CST by Luke Adams

12:05pm: The Kings have officially signed Ramsey, they announced in a press release.

10:27am: One of the last unsigned players from the 2020 draft, rookie guard Jahmi’us Ramsey has reached an agreement with the Kings on a three-year deal that includes two guaranteed seasons, sources tell Jason Jones of The Athletic (Twitter link). Because it exceeds two years, the contract will be completed using a portion of Sacramento’s mid-level exception.

As a Texas Tech freshman in 2019/20, Ramsey averaged 15.0 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 2.2 APG, and 1.3 SPG in 27 games (31.2 MPG), making an impressive 42.6% of his attempts from outside the three-point line. He left the Red Raiders in the spring to enter the NBA draft.

The terms of Ramsey’s deal are interesting, since the No. 43 overall pick looked like he might be a candidate to fill the Kings’ second two-way contract slot. Instead, he’ll become the 14th Sacramento player with a guaranteed salary for 2020/21.

The Kings can carry up to 15 players on their regular season squad – not counting two-way contracts – so the team isn’t facing a major roster crunch. Still, Glenn Robinson III, Frank Kaminsky, and Chimezie Metu have all joined the team on non-guaranteed deals, and it looks like there will only be one roster spot up for grabs for that trio unless Sacramento trades or cuts a player with a guaranteed salary.

Thunder Add Melvin Frazier Jr., Waive Antonius Cleveland

December 3rd, 2020 at 8:02pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Thunder are adjusting their backcourt depth, essentially exchanging one 6’5″ shooting guard for another. The club has signed Melvin Frazier Jr. and waived Antonius Cleveland, per Keith Smith of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter).

Frazier was drafted by the Magic with the No. 35 pick out of Tulane in the 2018 NBA draft, but appeared in just 29 games across two seasons with Orlando, averaging 5.9 MPG.

In two seasons with the Magic’s G League affiliate, the Lakeland Magic, Frazier played 41 games (all starts), averaging a solid slash line of 15.5 PPG/5.8 APG/1.9 SPG/1.9 APG, while shooting 48.7% from the field. The club declined his $1.66MM player option for 2020/21 earlier in this offseason.

Oklahoma City had just added Cleveland to a one-year, non-guaranteed contract to join the club’s training camp roster. Cleveland was a two-way player for the Mavericks for the 2019/20 season, and saw limited NBA action in 11 games with Dallas.

In 36 games for the Mavericks’ G League affiliate, the Texas Legends, Cleveland averaged 14.4 PPG, 7.3 RPG, and 1.6 SPG. After going undrafted out of Southeast Missouri State in 2017, Cleveland split the 2017/18 season between the Hawks and Mavericks. He spent the 2018/19 season with Golden State’s G League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors.

The Thunder are among the teams that figure to turn over their back-end roster spots in the coming days and weeks with an aim toward securing players’ G League rights and/or ensuring that they receive $50K bonuses if they play in the G League.

Lakers Re-Sign Anthony Davis To Five-Year Max Contract

December 3rd, 2020 at 6:38pm CST by Luke Adams

6:38pm: The Lakers have officially re-signed Davis to his new five-year max deal, the team announced in a press release.

“In the Orlando bubble, Anthony Davis proved he is one of the game’s most complete and dominant two-way players,” general manager Rob Pelinka said in a statement. “Now, Lakers fans get to watch AD continue to grow and lead our franchise for years to come. This is truly a blessed moment for Lakers Nation.”

6:44am: The Lakers are finalizing a five-year, maximum-salary contract with star big man Anthony Davis, Rich Paul of Klutch Sports tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The deal could be signed as soon as today, Woj notes.

Davis’ new five-year contract will have an overall value of approximately $189.9MM. As our breakdown of maximum salaries for 2020/21 shows, AD will earn $32.74MM this season and will receive 8% raises, increasing the value to $43.22MM by year five. According to Wojnarowski, the deal will include an early termination option prior to that fifth year, giving the seven-time All-Star the chance to opt out in 2024.

Davis entered free agency as the No. 1 player on the market and was always expected to re-sign with the defending champion Lakers on a new max contract. However, there was an expectation that he’d take his time to consider all his options in terms of the length and structure of that deal.

Most league observers believed Davis would opt for a shorter-term contract that would allow him to re-enter free agency in 2022, when he has 10 years of NBA experience under his belt and qualifies for a starting salary worth 35% of the salary cap instead of 30%. As Wojnarowski writes, the former No. 1 overall pick did consider several short-term contract scenarios as well as long-term options.

Ultimately, as Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets, Davis opted for long-term security and the largest possible chunk of guaranteed money he was eligible to receive at this point. He’ll still only be 31 years old in 2024 when he can re-enter free agency, so he should be in good position to sign a new max deal – starting at 35% of the cap – at that point.

Davis’ contract agreement comes on the heels of LeBron James reaching a deal with the Lakers to extend his contract through 2023. A report in the wake of that news indicated that James and Davis were making their contract decisions independent of one another, and the terms of AD’s new deal offer further confirmation of that. Rather than having one or both of their superstars reach free agency in 2021, the Lakers now have James locked up through ’23 and Davis under contract through at least ’24.

In his first year as a Laker following his trade from New Orleans, Davis showed in 2019/20 why Los Angeles was willing to give up a massive haul of players and picks to acquire him. He averaged 26.1 PPG, 9.3 RPG, 3.2 APG, and 2.3 BPG in 62 regular season games (34.4 MPG), finishing sixth in Most Valuable Player voting. He was also the anchor of the Lakers’ defense and was the runner-up in the Defensive Player of the Year vote.

Having appeared in just 13 playoff games in his seven seasons prior to 2020, Davis came up big for L.A. during the team’s championship run, recording 27.7 PPG, 9.7 RPG, and 3.5 APG with an impressive .571/.383/.832 shooting line in 21 postseason contests.

With Davis officially off the board, all 50 of our top free agents of 2020 have now reached contract agreements with NBA teams.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Lakers Sign LeBron James To Contract Extension

December 3rd, 2020 at 6:08pm CST by Luke Adams

DECEMBER 3: The Lakers have officially announced James’s contract extension in a press release.

“LeBron James is a transcendent basketball player, and human being,” GM Rob Pelinka said in a statement. “LeBron put his trust in the Lakers in 2018, and now this contract extension paves the way for LeBron to further solidify his legacy as an all-time Lakers great. We could not be more honored by this commitment.”

DECEMBER 2: The Lakers and LeBron James have agreed to terms on a two-year, maximum-salary contract extension, agent Rich Paul of Klutch Sports tells Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports confirms (via Twitter) that an extension agreement is in place and that it will run through 2023. That means the new deal has essentially replaced LeBron’s 2021/22 player option with a guaranteed season and tacked one extra year onto his contract.

James, who has a $39,219,566 salary for 2020/21, can receive a 5% raise on that figure for the first year of his extension, which would result in a ’21/22 salary of $41,180,544, notes ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link). He can then receive an 8% raise for year two, which means a ’22/23 salary of $44,479,988. The end result would be a two-year extension worth about $85.66MM.

Assuming James prioritized maximizing his future earnings, his extension won’t include a player option for 2022/23.

As cap expert Albert Nahmad explains (via Twitter), the extension can only have included a new player option if LeBron technically picked up his existing ’21/22 option (worth $41,002,274) as part of the deal, which would limit the amount of his raise for ’22/23. CBA rules prohibit him from declining that option and then signing an extension that includes fewer than two guaranteed seasons.

Either way, LeBron will no longer be eligible to opt out in 2021, taking one huge name off next year’s free agent market. It’s not clear whether James’ extension will influence what Anthony Davis‘s next contract looks like — ESPN’s Brian Windhorst says the Lakers’ two superstars are making their decisions independent of one another.

As Charania (Twitter link) and others have noted, LeBron’s son Bronny James is scheduled to graduate high school in 2023. If the NBA and NBPA have agreed to scrap the one-and-done rule by that point, it could open the door for Bronny to enter the 2023 draft and team up with LeBron during the ’23/24 season.

The elder James will turn 36 years old later this month, but has shown no signs of slowing down yet. In 2019/20, he averaged 25.3 PPG and 7.8 RPG to go along with a league-high 10.2 APG in 67 games (34.6 MPG). He earned First Team All-NBA honors, finished second in MVP voting, led the Lakers to a championship, and won his fourth NBA Finals MVP award.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Sixers’ Tyrese Maxey Signs Rookie Contract

December 3rd, 2020 at 12:18pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Sixers have signed first-round pick Tyrese Maxey, the team announced in a press release. A 6’3″ guard out of Kentucky, Maxey was the 21st overall selection in last month’s draft.

Terms of the deal were not released, but as a first-round pick Maxey is eligible to earn up to 120% of the rookie scale, which would be $2,478,840 for the upcoming season.

Maxey played one season for the Wildcats, earning a spot on the All-SEC Second Team and the SEC All-Freshman Team. He averaged 14.0 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.2 assists in 31 games.

Now that Maxey is officially under contract, there are no outstanding rookie deals still to be completed for 2020 first-round picks. Twenty-nine of those 30 players have signed their first NBA contracts, with the 30th player – Leandro Bolmaro – remaining in Barcelona for the 2020/21 season.

Wolves Sign Ade Murkey To Exhibit 10 Deal

December 3rd, 2020 at 8:43am CST by Luke Adams

University of Denver guard Ade Murkey has signed a one-year deal with the Timberwolves, according to RealGM’s log of official NBA transactions.

Bryan Kalbrosky of HoopsHype first reported early in free agency that Murkey would be joining the Wolves for training camp. He received an Exhibit 10 contract, per Kalbrosky. That will make the 22-year-old a good candidate to join the Iowa Wolves, Minnesota’s G League affiliate, if and when he’s cut by the NBA squad.

Murkey, who spent his full four-year college career with Denver, averaged 18.6 points and 6.3 rebounds per game in 2019/20 while making 40% of his attempts from three-point range. It was a major breakout performance for the young shooting guard, who had recorded just 7.8 PPG in his first three college seasons.

Minnesota now officially has 17 players under contract. The team also reportedly has a deal in place with free agent forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, and guard Jordan McLaughlin remains a restricted free agent. If the Wolves finalize the signing of Hollis-Jefferson and bring back McLaughlin, they’d still have one opening on their 20-man camp roster.