Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Kings Sign Lottery Pick Haliburton

November 27th, 2020 at 4:55pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Kings have signed their lottery pick, guard Tyrese Haliburton, according to a team press release.

Haliburton was the 12th overall pick in the draft. Assuming he received 120% of the rookie scale for his draft slot, as virtually all first-rounders do, Haliburton will make $17,878,995 over the next four seasons. His first-year salary will be $3,831,840.

Haliburton was one of the top point guards in the draft, though he could often play in two-point looks with the Kings. As a sophomore at Iowa State, he averaged 15.2 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 6.5 APG and 2.5 SPG and 36.7 MPG in 22 games before a wrist injury ended his season.

“We are thrilled to have drafted Tyrese and excited to welcome him to the Kings family,” GM Monte McNair said. “He is an incredibly talented athlete whose shooting, creative passing and ball handling skills combined with his ability to defend either guard position will be a valuable addition to our backcourt. Tyrese also has an engaging personality and is just the type of high character individual who fits the future of what we are building in Sacramento.”

Mavs Sign Tyrell Terry To Four-Year Deal

November 27th, 2020 at 4:14pm CST by Dana Gauruder

DECEMBER 1: The Mavericks have made it official with Terry, the team announced today (via Twitter).

NOVEMBER 27: The Mavericks are expected to give a four-year contract to rookie guard Tyrell Terry, Tim MacMahon of ESPN tweets.

MacMahon anticipates a pact similar to the four-year, $6.1MM contract that Dallas handed Jalen Brunson prior to his rookie year in 2018.

Terry was the first pick in the second round of this month’s draft. Terry averaged 14.6 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 3.2 APG and 1.4 SPG in his lone year with Stanford.

Dallas is signing small forward Tyler Bey, who was taken five picks after Terry, to a two-way contract.

Spurs Sign Second-Rounder Tre Jones To Three-Year Deal

November 27th, 2020 at 3:18pm CST by Luke Adams

6:05pm: The Spurs have officially announced the signing in a press release.

3:18pm: The Spurs have signed former Duke guard Tre Jones to a three-year contract, agent Kevin Bradbury tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). Terms of the deal aren’t known, but Jones figures to get at least one fully guaranteed season, if not more.

As a sophomore in 2019/20, Jones averaged 16.2 PPG, 6.4 APG and 1.8 SPG in 29 games for the Blue Devils. He was named ACC Player of the Year and declared for the 2020 draft in the spring. San Antonio used the No. 41 pick last Wednesday to select him.

With Jones under contract, San Antonio now have 15 players on traditional contracts, notes ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link). While the Spurs are over the tax line, they can slip below if they waive Tyler Zeller‘s non-guaranteed contract, Marks adds.

The Spurs will use a small portion of their mid-level exception to sign Jones.

Magic Announce Five Free Agent Signings

November 27th, 2020 at 2:53pm CST by Luke Adams

The Magic have officially announced five free agent signings ahead of the start of training camps next week. Here are the five newly-added players to Orlando’s roster:

Devin Cannady, G
Robert Franks, F
Jordan Bone, G — two-way contract (previously reported)
Karim Mane, G — two-way contract (previously reported)
Jon Teske, C (previously reported)

Bone and Mane project to fill the Magic’s two-way contract slots to start the season — you can read more about them and Teske in our previous stories on their contract agreements.

Cannady, who went undrafted out of Princeton in 2019, signed with Brooklyn last October, but was only on the roster for three days, allowing the Nets to claim his G League rights. He spent his rookie season with the Long Islands Nets, averaging 14.5 PPG, 4.0 RPG, and 2.6 APG in 39 NBAGL games (30.9 MPG).

As for Franks, he also went undrafted last year – out of Washington State – and spent the season in the G League. The 23-year-old power forward started the 2019/20 campaign on a two-way contract with the Hornets, but never got into an NBA game and was waived in January. He put up 17.3 PPG and 6.5 RPG in 36 G League contests for the Greensboro Swarm and Stockton Kings.

Cannady, Franks, and Teske likely won’t make Orlando’s regular season roster, but appear poised to spending training camp with the club.

Warriors Sign James Wiseman To Rookie Contract

November 27th, 2020 at 2:38pm CST by Luke Adams

The Warriors have officially signed No. 2 overall pick James Wiseman to his first NBA contract, the team announced today in a press release.

While that No. 2 pick was the subject of trade rumors for months, the Warriors ultimately hung onto it and selected the top center in this year’s draft class. He’ll receive a $8.73MM salary in his rookie season and will have a four-year contract worth nearly $40MM in total, assuming he receives the maximum allowable 120% of the rookie scale.

Scouts and college basketball fans only got a brief look at Wiseman during his three-game career at Memphis. After being embroiled in an eligibility battle with the NCAA, the 7’1″ big man left school in December to focus on preparing for the NBA. He was dominant in his brief time with the Tigers, averaging 19.7 points, 10.7 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game.

The Warriors also confirmed in today’s announcement that they’ve signed second-round pick Nico Mannion to a two-way deal, as was expected.

Raptors Signing Henry Ellenson, Yuta Watanabe, Alize Johnson

November 27th, 2020 at 11:49am CST by Luke Adams

The Raptors will be adding big man Henry Ellenson, forward Yuta Watanabe, and forward Alize Johnson to their training camp roster, according to Blake Murphy of The Athletic (via Twitter).

As Murphy outlines, Ellenson will sign a two-year, minimum-salary contract with a $50K partial guarantee on year one. Details aren’t provided for Watanabe’s deal or Johnson’s, but the safe bet would be a pair of Exhibit 10 contracts, which are essentially non-guaranteed one-year deals.

All three players will have an uphill battle to earn a spot on the regular season roster, though the 15th spot could be up for grabs if the Raptors don’t sign second-round pick Jalen Harris to a standard contract, promote two-way player Paul Watson, or retain two-way RFA Oshae Brissett.

The 18th overall pick in the 2016 draft, Ellenson has bounced around from Detroit to New York to Brooklyn since entering the league, appearing in just 81 total games over four seasons. The former Marquette standout, who is still just 23 years old, started last season on a two-way contract with the Nets but was waived in January.

Watanabe, one of just two Japanese-born players currently in the league, spent the last two seasons on a two-way contract with the Grizzlies. The 26-year-old didn’t see much playing time at the NBA level, but was solid in the G League, averaging 17.2 PPG and 6.0 RPG on .546/.364/.816 shooting in 22 games for the Memphis Hustle in 2019/20.

Johnson was the 50th overall pick in the 2018 draft and has spent his first two professional seasons under contract with the Pacers. The 24-year-old logged just 182 total minutes in 31 games at the NBA level over those two years, but posted big numbers for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in the G League, with 19.5 PPG, 13.4 RPG, and 3.7 APG on .514/.363/.699 shooting in 50 career NBAGL contests. The Pacers didn’t tender him a qualifying offer last week, so he entered the market as an unrestricted free agent.

The moves will take the Raptors’ unofficial roster count to 19, not including Brissett.

Knicks Add Austin Rivers Via Sign-And-Trade

November 27th, 2020 at 11:11am CST by Luke Adams

The Knicks have officially completed their addition of Austin Rivers in a sign-and-trade deal with the Rockets rather than signing him outright, announcing the move today in a press release.

The move also sends the draft rights of three players – guard Sergio Llull, forward Tadija Dragicevic, and forward Axel Hervelle – to New York. In exchange, the Rockets receive the draft rights to guard Issuf Sanon and create a modest trade exception.

Rivers had agreed over the weekend to sign a three-year, $10MM deal with the Knicks. The final two years of his new contract are non-guaranteed, which is permitted under sign-and-trade rules.

The inclusion of Llull in this deal is the most interesting new piece of information. The Rockets have long attempted to get the Spanish guard, who was selected 34th overall in the 2009 draft, to come stateside and play in the NBA, but he has preferred to remain in his home country with Real Madrid — he has played for the EuroLeague club since 2007.

At age 33, Llull seems increasingly unlikely to ever make the move to the NBA. That’s even more true of Dragicevic and Hervelle, who were drafted in 2008 and 2005, respectively, and are in their mid-30s now. However, their rights could be useful as filler in future trades.

Sanon, who has played for Slovenian and Ukrainian teams since being drafted in 2018, is still a candidate to eventually sign an NBA contract. He was the 44th overall pick two years ago and is still just 21 years old.

Of course, the only player of immediate importance in the deal is Rivers, who will add some veteran experience to the Knicks’ backcourt in 2020/21. He averaged 8.8 PPG and 2.6 RPG on .421/.356/.703 shooting in 68 games (23.4 MPG) for the Rockets last season.

New York will technically be hard-capped as a result of acquiring a player via sign-and-trade. The team remains far below the cap for the time being though, so it’s fair to assume that $138.93MM hard cap won’t become an issue in 2020/21.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Warriors To Sign Nico Mannion To Two-Way Deal

November 27th, 2020 at 10:51am CST by Luke Adams

Second-round pick Nico Mannion will be signing a two-way contract with the Warriors, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Mannion, who started 32 games for Arizona as a freshman last season, averaged 14.0 PPG, 5.3 APG, and 1.2 SPG with a .392/.327/.797 shooting line before declaring for the 2020 draft.

He was widely viewed as a potential first-round pick, but slipped down to No. 48, where the Warriors nabbed him. Executives around the NBA were surprised to see Mannion fall so far, according to a report last week.

Undrafted wing Dwayne Sutton is said to be the favorite to earn Golden State’s other two-way contract. The Warriors’ other second-round selection, No. 51 pick Justinian Jessup, is expected to spend season in Australia, where he’s already a member of the Illawara Hawks.

Mavericks Re-Sign J.J. Barea

November 27th, 2020 at 9:25am CST by Dana Gauruder

DECEMBER 1: The signing is official, according to the team’s PR department (Twitter link).

NOVEMBER 27: Shams Charania of The Athletic confirms (via Twitter) that Barea’s new guaranteed one-year deal will be worth the veteran’s minimum. He’ll earn $2.56MM, with a cap hit of $1.62MM.

NOVEMBER 22: Barea will get a guaranteed contract from the Mavs, per Towsend (Twitter link). Considering he’s coming off a one-year, minimum-salary deal, it’s a safe bet that Barea will sign the same contract this time around.

NOVEMBER 21: The Mavericks are planning to re-sign veteran guard J.J. Barea, Brad Townsend of the Dallas Morning News tweets.

Barea, 36, has seen his role diminish and he’s also dealt with some injuries over the past two seasons but he remains a fan favorite. He appeared in 29 regular-season games last season, including six starts, and averaged 7.7 PPG and 3.9 APG in 15.5 MPG.

Dallas agreed to a three-year deal with another free agent guard, Trey Burke, so Barea would many serve as insurance in case of backcourt injuries. It also has Jalen Brunson as a point guard option behind star Luka Doncic.

Dallas has agreed to trade another guard, Delon Wright, in a three-team swap and Townsend speculates the Mavs might make more backcourt moves to clear a logjam. Barea has been on Dallas’ roster since the 2014/15 season.

Nets Re-Sign Tyler Johnson

November 27th, 2020 at 8:17am CST by Luke Adams

After joining the Nets for the NBA’s summer restart in Orlando, guard Tyler Johnson has signed a new contract to return to Brooklyn, the team announced today in a press release. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Johnson, 28, was sent from Miami to Phoenix at the 2019 trade deadline and appeared in 44 total games for the Suns, including 31 in 2019/20. Formerly a solid rotation player with the Heat, Johnson had a down year in Phoenix and was released following the trade deadline.

The Fresno State alum bounced back nicely as a member of the Nets, having signed as a substitute player when a number of Brooklyn players pulled out of the restart. Johnson averaged 12.0 PPG, 3.0 APG, and 3.0 RPG on .405/.389/1.000 shooting in eight seeding games (24.3 MPG), then added 13.8 PPG on .457/.393/1.000 shooting in the club’s four playoff contests.

If Johnson makes the Nets’ regular season roster as the team’s 15th man, he’ll add extra depth to an impressive group of ball-handlers that already includes point guards Kyrie Irving, Spencer Dinwiddie, and Bruce Brown, as well as Kevin Durant and Caris LeVert.