Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Pistons Waive Center Dewayne Dedmon

November 24th, 2020 at 4:33pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Pistons have waived recently-acquired center Dewayne Dedmon, James Edwards III of The Athletic tweets.

Detroit officially acquired Dedmon from the Hawks on Friday and sent out wings Tony Snell and Khyri Thomas in the deal. However, the Pistons had no intention of keeping Dedmon, who has a $13.3MM guaranteed contract in 2020/21.

Dedmon also had a $13.3MM salary for ’21/22 but it was only guaranteed for $1MM. Detroit is expected to use the stretch provision to distribute the cap hit over five seasons. Dedmon would only count $2.9MM per season against the Pistons’ cap if his salary is stretched.

Dedmon, 31, appeared in a combined 44 games with the Kings and Hawks last season. He’s averaged 6.4 PPG and 6.0 RPG in 18.3 MPG over 394 career games.

Rockets, Pistons Complete Christian Wood Sign-And-Trade

November 24th, 2020 at 3:59pm CST by Luke Adams

3:59pm: Bobby Marks of ESPN has the new protections on the Pistons’ first-round pick being sent to Houston in the deal. According to Marks (Twitter link), it’s top-16 protected in 2021 and 2022, top-18 in ’23 and ’24, top-13 in ’25, top-11 in ’26, and top-nine in ’27. If it still hasn’t changed hands by that point, the Rockets will get a 2027 second-round pick.

3:38pm: The Pistons and Rockets each issued press releases today to formally announce that free agent big man Christian Wood has officially been sent to Houston in a sign-and-trade deal.

The move combines Wood’s deal with the Trevor Ariza trade the two teams originally agreed to last week. The end result is as follows:

Pistons acquire Ariza, the draft rights to Isaiah Stewart (the No. 16 pick in the draft), cash ($4.6MM), and a future Rockets second-round pick.
Rockets acquire Wood (via sign-and-trade), the Pistons’ 2021 first-round pick (heavily protected) and the Lakers’ 2021 second-round pick.

The Pistons’ and Rockets’ official announcements offer even fewer specifics than outlined above, so we’ll have to wait for clarification on the last few aspects of the deal, such as the future second-rounder going to Detroit and the protections on the first-round pick going to Houston.

That Pistons first-rounder was initially expected to be top-16 protected for four years, but Detroit reportedly increased the protections a little further when the team agreed to accommodate Wood’s sign-and-trade. The Rockets were unable to offer Wood his three-year, $41MM deal without the Pistons’ cooperation.

Now that this deal is complete, Ariza can be traded for the third time of the offseason. The veteran forward has already been sent from Portland to Houston to Detroit and will now be rerouted to Oklahoma City as part of a three-team trade involving the Pistons, Thunder, and Mavericks.

Meanwhile, the Rockets officially add one of the top free agents of this year’s class. Wood had a breakout year in 2019/20, though his full-season stats (13.1 PPG, 6.3 RPG) don’t tell the full story — after he entered the starting lineup following the Pistons’ Andre Drummond trade, he recorded 22.8 PPG, 9.9 RPG, and 2.0 APG over his final 13 games.

Wood will join a Rockets squad that no longer seems intent on continuing the micro-ball experiment that they attempted last season after trading Clint Capela to Atlanta. Houston has also reached a deal to sign DeMarcus Cousins.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Donovan Mitchell Signs Max Extension With Jazz

November 24th, 2020 at 3:22pm CST by Arthur Hill

NOVEMBER 24: The Jazz have officially signed Mitchell to his new five-year extension, per the NBA’s transactions log. According to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link), the deal features a 15% trade kicker.

NOVEMBER 22: Jazz star Donovan Mitchell will sign a maximum rookie scale extension, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The deal will cover five seasons, starting in 2021/22, and will include a fifth-year player option for the ’25/26 season, reports ESPN’s Bobby Marks (via Twitter).

Mitchell will be guaranteed 25% of the salary cap, which would make the total value of the deal around $163MM over five years. That figure could rise to 30% if he meets All-NBA criteria for the upcoming season, which would put the contract in the neighborhood of $195MM. Those projections rely on an annual 3% increase in the cap, so the actual value could vary.

Mitchell will earn about $5.2MM in 2020/21, the last year of his rookie contract, before the extension officially begins a year from now.

The 13th overall pick in the 2017 draft, Mitchell has become a star in Utah during his three NBA seasons and is coming off his first All-Star appearance. He averaged a career-best 24.0 points per game last season and followed that with a historic playoff performance, scoring 36.3 PPG in the seven-game loss to the Nuggets.

He has improved his averages in several key statistical categories – including points and assists per game, as well as three-point percentage – in each of his three professional seasons and is still just 24 years old.

Utah has gotten most of its offseason business out of the way during the first 48 hours of the free agency period, having agreed to re-sign Jordan Clarkson and reaching a deal to bring back Derrick Favors using their mid-level exception.

Having locked up Mitchell, the Jazz are expected to focus on a new contract for center Rudy Gobert, who is also eligible for an extension. Gobert will reach unrestricted free agency in 2021 if the two sides don’t agree to a new deal before then.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Pelicans Sign Steven Adams To Extension

November 24th, 2020 at 3:12pm CST by Luke Adams

NOVEMBER 24: Now that the trade sending him to New Orleans has been completed, the Pelicans have officially announced their extension agreement with Adams.

NOVEMBER 23: As part of the trade that will send center Steven Adams from Oklahoma City to New Orleans, the Pelicans are signing Adams to a two-year contract extension worth $35MM, sources tell Zach Lowe and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter links). The deal, which will run through 2022/23, will be fully guaranteed, per the ESPN duo.

Teams are permitted to extend players as part of trades, though those deals are limited to three total years, including the ones remaining on the player’s current contract. Since Adams is on an expiring contract, the Pelicans are able to tack on two new years. Worth $17.5MM annually, the extension will represent a dip from the big man’s current $27.5MM salary.

As we relayed earlier tonight, the Pelicans reportedly pursued Adams during the 2019 offseason. Their willingness to surrender a first-round pick for him and sign him to an extension are two more signs that he’s a player they value significantly.

In 2019/20, Adams averaged 10.9 PPG, 9.3 RPG, and 2.3 APG in 63 games (26.7 MPG) as Oklahoma City’s starting center, helping to anchor the team’s defense. He’ll presumably take on a similar role in New Orleans, playing alongside Zion Williamson in the Pelicans’ starting five.

Adams is now on track to reach unrestricted free agency at age 30 in 2023.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Hawks Sign Onyeka Okongwu, Announce Two-Way Players

November 24th, 2020 at 2:51pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Hawks signed first-round pick Onyeka Okongwu and filled both two-way slots, the team announced on its website.

Forward/center Nathan Knight and guard Skylar Mays will both get two-way deals. We shared news of Knight’s expected signing last week, while the contract with Mays is new. They will be limited to 50 NBA games on their two-way contracts and will play in the G League if that season is held.

Knight played four seasons at William & Mary, averaging 20.7 points and 10.5 rebounds per game as a senior. Mays was the starting point guard at LSU for the past four years and was a first-team All-SEC selection after averaging 16.7 PPG, 5.0 RPG and 3.2 APG in his senior season.

Okungwu was the sixth overall selection in last week’s draft after an outstanding freshman year at USC. Terms of the signing weren’t announced, but he is eligible to receive up to 120% of the rookie scale, which would be $5,813,640.

Celtics Sign Aaron Nesmith, Payton Pritchard To Rookie Contracts

November 24th, 2020 at 2:46pm CST by Luke Adams

The Celtics have officially signed their two 2020 first-round picks, Vanderbilt’s Aaron Nesmith and Oregon’s Payton Pritchard, to rookie scale contracts, the team announced today in a press release.

After playing a part-time role as a freshman, Nesmith was in the midst of a breakout sophomore year in 2019/20 before a stress fracture in his right foot brought his season to an early end in January. In 14 games (35.7 MPG), he averaged 23.0 PPG and 4.9 RPG with an impressive .512/.522/.825 shooting line. He said today that his foot is 100% healthy and that he’ll be ready for camp, tweets Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe.

As for Pritchard, he tested the draft waters in 2019 before returning to the Ducks for his senior season, which was the best of his college career. He averaged 20.5 PPG, 5.5 APG, and 4.3 RPG, while shooting 41.5% on three-pointers in 31 games (36.6 MPG) in 2019/20.

Nesmith, the No. 14 pick, projects to earn $16.5MM on his four-year contract, assuming he signs for the full allowable 120% of the rookie scale. The No. 26 pick, Pritchard will make $10.45MM on his four-year rookie deal.

Nuggets Sign Greg Whittington To Two-Way Deal

November 24th, 2020 at 2:26pm CST by JD Shaw

2:26pm: Whittington’s two-way deal is now official, per a press release from the Nuggets.

2:02pm: The Nuggets are signing free agent forward Greg Whittington to a two-way contract, agent Jerry Dianis told Hoops Rumors. Denver finalized the agreement with Whittington on Tuesday, making him the second two-way player on the team’s roster, alongside Markus Howard.

Whittington, a versatile 6’9″ forward, spent the past two seasons playing overseas in Turkey and Israel. He averaged 12.4 points and 4.9 rebounds per game in 14 EuroCup contests with Galatasaray last season, shooting 52.8% from behind the arc.

Prior to reaching an agreement with the Nuggets, Whittington turned down multiple offers from interested NBA and EuroLeague teams, his agent said.

“We chose this team because it was abundantly obvious that Greg has an immediate pathway to playing time for a championship-caliber team,” Dianis explained, “and that gives him the chance to significantly increase his future value.”

Denver lost forwards Jerami Grant (Pistons), Torrey Craig (Bucks), and Keita Bates-Diop (Spurs) this month, creating an appealing fit for Whittington on the team. The 27-year-old, who can play and defend multiple positions, is expected to provide frontcourt depth for a club that reached the Western Conference Finals this past season.

Two-way rules have been tweaked for 2020/21, allowing players to be activated for 50 of their teams’ 72 games, rather than being limited to 45 days spent in total. In addition, players will receive flat salaries of $449K, rather than receive a salary based on how many NBA days they played. Denver is one of two NBA teams without a G League affiliate — the other being Portland.

Whittington went undrafted back in 2015 after spending two seasons at Georgetown. He later joined the Heat for Summer League, attended training camp in the fall, and helped the team’s G League affiliate win a championship that season. In addition to Turkey, he’s also made stops in Australia, Sioux Falls, Japan and Israel.

We first reported on Saturday that the Nuggets were the favorites to sign Whittington.

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.