Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Kevon Harris To Sign With Lakers

November 24th, 2020 at 12:09pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Lakers will sign shooting guard Kevon Harris, tweets Ben Stinar of Forbes. No details were given on the deal, which was confirmed by his agent, Billy Davis. It’s likely a training camp contract, although the team does have a two-way slot still available.

Harris, 23, averaged 17.5 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.5 steals per game in his senior season at Stephen F. Austin. He was named Southland Conference Player of the Year.

Harris will face long odds to earn a spot on the Lakers’ roster, but he should be a candidate for their G League affiliate if that league is able to operate this season.

Blazers Sign Second-Round Pick CJ Elleby

November 24th, 2020 at 12:03pm CST by Dana Gauruder

NOVEMBER 24: Elleby’s deal will be fully guaranteed, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link).

NOVEMBER 22: The Trail Blazers have signed second-round draft pick CJ Elleby. according to a team press release.

It’s a two-year minimum deal, according to The Athletic’s Jason Quick (Twitter link). He’ll receive $898,310 next season and $1,517,981 in 2021/22.

The 6’6” Elleby was taken with the 46th overall pick. Elleby, 20, spent two years at Washington State, where he averaged 16.6 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 2.4 APG and 1.4 SPG in 32.1 MPG. Elleby, the first player to be drafted from the school since 2011, was an All-Pac-12 First Team selection last season.

Axel Toupane Will Get Exhibit 10 Deal With Warriors

November 24th, 2020 at 10:53am CST by Arthur Hill

The Warriors will sign French forward Axel Toupane to an Exhibit 10 contract, tweets Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Toupane will receive an invitation to training camp, with the possibility of earning a bonus if he joins the team’s G League affiliate.

The 28-year-old has previous NBA experience, signing with the Nuggets late in the 2015/16 season. He appeared in 21 games for Denver, averaging 3.6 points and 1.5 rebounds per night, but was waived before the next season began. He had brief stays with the Bucks and Pelicans in 2016/17, getting into two games with each team.

Toupane has played overseas since leaving the NBA and was most recently with SIG Strasbourg in France. He has also played for the French national team.

Nuggets Promote Bol Bol To Standard Roster

November 24th, 2020 at 10:32am CST by Luke Adams

4:22pm: The Nuggets have officially announced that they’ve signed Bol to a standard NBA contract.

10:32am: The Nuggets and young center Bol Bol have agreed to a two-year deal worth $4.2MM, his agents at CAA Sports tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Bol, who spent his rookie season in 2019/20 on a two-way contract, will be promoted to Denver’s standard roster as part of the agreement.

Bol, once considered a probable 2019 lottery pick, dropped to No. 44 in last year’s draft due to health concerns. The 21-year-old was limited to seven NBA appearances and eight G League games as a rookie.

However, Bol has flashed intriguing potential as a 7’2″ center who can knock down shots from beyond the arc, and the Nuggets are excited about his development, tweets Charania. In his eight games for the Windy City Bulls last season, he averaged 12.0 PPG, 5.5 RPG, and 2.1 BPG with a .364 3PT% in 19.3 minutes per contest.

Even with Mason Plumlee out of the picture for the Nuggets in 2020/21, Bol will have to compete to earn a regular role in the rotation. Isaiah Hartenstein, Paul Millsap, and Zeke Nnaji are also candidates for minutes at the five behind Nikola Jokic.

Bol will fill the roster spot previously occupied by Keita Bates-Diop, who was waived before his salary for 2020/21 became guaranteed. Mike Singer of The Denver Post previously reported that the Nuggets would promote Bol to the standard roster.

After committing most of its mid-level exception to JaMychal Green, Denver will likely use the remaining portion of that MLE to complete the Bol signing.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Lakers Sign Marc Gasol To Two-Year Deal

November 24th, 2020 at 10:14am CST by Luke Adams

NOVEMBER 24: Gasol has signed his contract, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that it’s a straight two-year, minimum-salary deal, with no player or team option on year two.

Gasol will earn about $2.56MM in 2020/21 and $2.69MM in ’21/22.

NOVEMBER 22: The Lakers have reached an agreement to sign free agent center Marc Gasol, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). Adrian Wojnarowski and Zach Lowe of ESPN, who first reported that the two sides were finalizing a deal, say it’ll be a two-year pact (Twitter links).

A former Defensive Player of the Year and three-time All-Star, Gasol has seen his numbers fall off significantly during the last year-and-a-half in Toronto. He averaged just 7.5 PPG and 6.3 RPG in 44 games (26.4 MPG) in 2019/20.

However, while he’s no longer as prolific a scorer as he was during his days with the Grizzlies, Gasol can still knock down three-pointers (38.5% in ’19/20) and facilitate an offense from the top of the key. He also remains a very effective defender, which will be important in Los Angeles. Montrezl Harrell, the Lakers’ other big frontcourt free agent addition, is far more effective on offense than on defense.

It appears likely that Gasol will get a minimum-salary deal from the Lakers, who are up against a hard cap. The team agreed to trade JaVale McGee to the Cavaliers, but will have to take back some salary in that deal. Plus, giving Gasol more than the minimum would require the Raptors to accommodate a sign-and-trade agreement.

Because the Lakers are offering a two-year contract, the first-year cap hit will be about $2.56MM instead of $1.62MM. The NBA partially reimburses teams for one-year minimum-salary veteran contracts, but not for two-year deals.

After completing this series of roster moves and filling out their roster with minimum-salary signings, the Lakers project to be about $1.3MM below the hard cap, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN.

Gasol was drafted by L.A. way back in 2007 but was traded to Memphis in a package for his brother Pau Gasol and never appeared in a game for the Lakers. Thirteen years later, he’ll finally suit up for the franchise.

Meanwhile, the Raptors – having lost both Gasol and Serge Ibaka in free agency – have pivoted by securing a commitment from free agent center Aron Baynes. The team is also re-signing RFA big man Chris Boucher.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Four-Team Jrue Holiday, Steven Adams Trade Officially Complete

November 24th, 2020 at 9:15am CST by Luke Adams

The Pelicans, Thunder, Bucks, and Nuggets have officially completed the four-team trade that will send Jrue Holiday to Milwaukee and Steven Adams to New Orleans, the Pelicans announced today in a press release.

In total, the mega-deal involves 10 players, five draft picks, and two future pick swaps. The trade breaks down as follows:

Bucks acquire Holiday and the draft rights to Sam Merrill (No. 60 pick; from Pelicans).
Pelicans acquire Adams, Eric Bledsoe, the Bucks’ 2025 first-round pick (unprotected), the Bucks’ 2027 first-round pick (unprotected), and the right to swap first-round picks with the Bucks in 2024 and 2026.
Thunder acquire George Hill, Darius Miller, Kenrich Williams (sign-and-trade), Josh Gray (sign-and-trade), Zylan Cheatham (sign-and-trade), the Nuggets’ 2023 first-round pick (top-14 protected), the Wizards’ 2023 second-round pick (from Pelicans), and the Hornets’ 2024 second-round pick (from Pelicans).
Nuggets acquire the draft rights to RJ Hampton (No. 24 pick; from Bucks).

The deal began when the Bucks and Pelicans reached an agreement on a trade sending Holiday to Milwaukee last week. From there, the Thunder got involved when New Orleans agreed to flip Hill to Oklahoma City in a trade for Adams.

A draft-night deal between the Nuggets and Pelicans that involved the Nuggets’ 2023 first-rounder and the Bucks’ No. 24 pick (sent to New Orleans as part of the original Holiday agreement) was folded in to make it a four-team trade when the Pels agreed to flip Denver’s ’23 pick to OKC as part of the Adams package.

As cap expert Albert Nahmad has pointed out (via Twitter), it’s an intricate, complex transaction that had to make use of a slew of CBA rules. The Pelicans, who are signing Adams to a two-year extension as part of the trade, needed to sign-and-trade Williams, Gray, and Cheatham to Oklahoma City and guarantee most or all of Miller’s $7MM salary in order to abide by salary-matching rules.

Meanwhile, Adams gets a trade bonus worth a little over $2MM as part of the deal, while the Thunder create the largest trade exception in NBA history, worth $27.5MM, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link).

Unfortunately, as Nahmad observes (via Twitter), Oklahoma City will likely have to use that massive TPE immediately to accommodate the acquisition of Al Horford. Still, as John Hollinger of The Athletic writes, the Thunder should come out of their series of transactions with a handful of usable trade exceptions, including one worth $15.4MM.

A full breakdown of this offseason’s trades – including the ones not yet made official – can be found right here.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Bucks Sign Second-Round Pick Jordan Nwora

November 24th, 2020 at 8:30am CST by Luke Adams

The Bucks have officially signed second-round pick Jordan Nwora to his first NBA contract, according to the league’s transactions log.

Jake Weingarten of Stock Risers reports (via Twitter) that Nwora signed a two-year, fully guaranteed contract. It figures to be worth the minimum, meaning he’d earn $898K in year one and $1.52MM in year two.

[RELATED: 2020 NBA Draft Pick Signings]

A two-time All-ACC player for Louisville, Nwora averaged 18.0 PPG and 7.7 RPG in 31 games (33.1 MPG) in 2019/20, with a solid shooting line of .440/.402/.813. He declared for the draft as an early entrant following his junior season and was selected by Milwaukee with the No. 45 overall pick.

The Bucks, who were prioritizing second-rounders this season in order to fill out the back of their roster with inexpensive rookie minimum salaries, acquired the No. 45 pick from Orlando for a pair of future second-rounders. Milwaukee is also acquiring the No. 60 pick (Sam Merrill) from the Pelicans as part of the Jrue Holiday blockbuster.

Knicks’ Jared Harper Signs Two-Way Qualifying Offer

November 24th, 2020 at 8:03am CST by Luke Adams

Jared Harper is officially back with the Knicks on a two-way contract, according to the NBA’s transactions log. Keith Smith of Yahoo Sports confirms (via Twitter) that Harper signed his two-way qualifying offer from the team.

Harper, 23, signed a two-way contract with Phoenix last July after going undrafted out of Auburn. The 5’11” point guard logged just eight total minutes in three NBA games for the Suns, but had a strong season for the Northern Arizona Suns, Phoenix’s G League affiliate.

In 34 NBAGL games (28.9 MPG), Harper averaged 20.2 PPG, 5.5 APG, 2.6 RPG, and 1.1 SPG with a shooting line of .413/.362/.787.

The Suns released Harper before the NBA restarted its season in July and the Knicks claimed him off waivers, retaining the right to make him a restricted free agent with a two-way qualifying offer. Now Harper appears set to fill one of the team’s two-way contract slots, alongside Theo Pinson.

Jordan Bone Agrees To Two-Way Deal With Magic

November 23rd, 2020 at 6:08pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Second-year point guard Jordan Bone has agreed to a two-way contract with the Magic, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.

Bone played on a similar contract with the Pistons after being drafted in the second round in 2019 but spent much of the season in the G League. He appeared in 10 games with Detroit but only averaged 5.3 MPG in those outings.

The Pistons, under new GM Troy Weaver, decided not to extend a qualifying offer to Bone. That made the former Tennessee star an unrestricted free agent.

Orlando is also reportedly using its other two-way slot on another point guard, Karim Mane.

Suns Waive Elie Okobo

November 23rd, 2020 at 5:39pm CST by Luke Adams

The Suns have waived backup guard Elie Okobo, according to John Hollinger of The Athletic (Twitter link).

The 31st overall pick in the 2018 draft, Okobo spent two years in Phoenix, appearing in a total of 108 games. He averaged 4.8 PPG and 2.2 APG in 15.5 minutes per contest during those two seasons.

Okobo became expendable as a result of Cameron Payne‘s strong play during the summer restart and the Suns’ offseason backcourt overhaul. Chris Paul, E’Twaun Moore, and Langston Galloway are joining Devin Booker and Payne.

Okobo’s $1.66MM salary for the 2020/21 season would have become guaranteed if he remained under contract through this Thursday. By waiving him, the Suns won’t be on the hook for any of that money. Okobo, meanwhile, will become an unrestricted free agent if he goes unclaimed.