Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Pistons Acquire Jerami Grant In Sign-And-Trade With Nuggets

November 22nd, 2020 at 8:13pm CST by Luke Adams

NOVEMBER 22: The Pistons have officially announced the acquisition of Grant. Interestingly, the team’s press release states that it’s a sign-and-trade, with Grant and the draft rights to Nikola Radicevic being sent to Detroit, while Denver receives cash considerations.

The move will allow the Nuggets to create a traded player exception worth about $9.5MM.

NOVEMBER 20: The Pistons are signing veteran free agent Jerami Grant to a three-year contract worth $60MM, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). The move will reunite Grant with new Pistons GM Troy Weaver, who worked in Oklahoma City’s front office during the forward’s stint with the team.

Grant, 26, was acquired by the Nuggets during the 2019 offseason from the Thunder in exchange for a first-round pick. He came off the bench for most of the season in Denver, averaging 12.0 PPG and 3.5 RPG with a shooting line of .478/.389/.750 in 71 games (26.6 MPG). He entered the team’s starting lineup in the playoffs due to Will Barton‘s absence and played a key role in Denver’s run to the Western Finals.

Grant’s size, defensive versatility, and ability to knock down outside shots made him a popular free agent this fall, though it’s still a bit surprising that the rebuilding Pistons were the team to land him. Detroit entered this week with cap room but have made a series of moves eating into that cap room and will have re-open some of it to complete the Grant signing.

The Nuggets, meanwhile, will be on the lookout for frontcourt players after two of their key free agents – Grant and Mason Plumlee – agreed to deals with Detroit tonight. According to Denver-area reporter T.J. McBride (Twitter link), the Nuggets offered to match Grant’s three-year, $60MM offer from the Pistons, but he chose Detroit because he wants a bigger role.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Wizards Sign Robin Lopez

November 22nd, 2020 at 8:07pm CST by JD Shaw

NOVEMBER 22: Lopez’s deal is now official, per a press release from the Wizards. It’s worth $7.3MM for one year, tweets Fred Katz of The Athletic.

NOVEMBER 20: The Wizards have agreed to a deal with free agent center Robin Lopez, marking their second transaction in free agency thus far, according to Yahoo Sports’ Keith Smith (Twitter link).

The agreement is a one-year deal, Smith adds (via Twitter). The exact value isn’t clear, but it’ll be worth less than the full mid-level exception of $9.258MM, fitting into that MLE.

Lopez, 32, joins the Wizards after spending one season with the Bucks. He averaged 5.4 points, 2.4 rebounds and 14.5 minutes per game, seeing the least amount of playing time since the first few seasons of his career.

Lopez has played over 800 NBA games, making past stops with Phoenix, New Orleans, Portland, New York and Chicago. He’s expected to provide depth at center behind Thomas Bryant as the Wizards look to make a playoff push this season.

Washington had been searching for a defensive-minded back-up center, with Lopez holding 12 years of past NBA experience. The team also agreed to a five-year, $80MM deal with forward Davis Bertans on Friday.

Williams, Gray, Cheatham Being Signed-And-Traded To Thunder In Adams Trade

November 22nd, 2020 at 7:28pm CST by Luke Adams

Kenrich Williams, Josh Gray, and Zylan Cheatham will be dealt from the Pelicans to the Thunder as part of the massive multi-team trade that will send Jrue Holiday to Milwaukee and Steven Adams to New Orleans, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (via Twitter).

The Pelicans needed to send out a little more salary in order to accommodate the incoming contracts of Adams ($27.5MM) and Eric Bledsoe ($16.9MM). Because Williams, Gray, and Cheatham were free agents, they’ll have to be signed-and-traded to be included in the deal.

Sign-and-trade contracts must run for at least three seasons, with a fully guaranteed first year, so being included in the trade will work out well for Williams, Gray, and Cheatham, as Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (via Twitter). They would have been hard-pressed to find fully guaranteed minimum-salary contracts on the open market.

Darius Miller – who is also being sent to Oklahoma City from New Orleans – is another big winner in the swap, as he’ll have his $7MM salary guaranteed for salary-matching purposes.

With all of those players being included in the deal, Adams will no longer be required to waive his trade kicker, worth about $2MM, tweets Marks. That’ll bump the veteran center’s cap hit to about $29.6MM.

As reported by Charania, the blockbuster Holiday/Adams deal currently looks like this:

Bucks to acquire Holiday and the draft rights to Sam Merrill (No. 60 pick; from Pelicans).
Pelicans to acquire Adams, 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 to acquire George Hill, Miller, Williams, Gray, Cheatham, 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 to acquire the draft rights to RJ Hampton (No. 24 pick; from Bucks).

It’s not clear if that’s what the trade will look like in its final form or if more pieces will be added before it becomes official.

The Bucks are taking the protections off the 2022 first-round pick they previously sent to the Cavaliers, and Cleveland is getting an extra second-round pick for Milwaukee for accommodating that change, which frees up the future first-rounders to be sent to New Orleans. That pick going to the Cavs will be Indiana’s 2025 second-rounder, per John Hollinger of The Athletic.

The Bucks/Cavaliers aspect of the deal could be completed separately, as cap expert Albert Nahmad tweets. But if it gets rolled into this trade, it would mean a fifth team joining the fray once it becomes official.

Knicks, Austin Rivers Agree To Three-Year Deal

November 22nd, 2020 at 7:15pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

7:15pm: The second and third years of Rivers’ new deal will be non-guaranteed, sources tell Ian Begley of SNY.tv (Twitter link).

6:23pm: Following up on his initial report, Wojnarowski says (via Twitter) that Rivers will actually get a three-year deal from the Knicks. It’ll be worth $10MM, Woj adds.

5:08pm: The Knicks have agreed to add free agent combo guard Austin Rivers to their rotation on a one-year deal, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic (via Twitter) observes that this brings New York to 15 total roster spots, including another new addition, center Ed Davis.

Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau has long been a fan of Rivers, according to Frank Isola of ESPN (Twitter link). Selected by the Pelicans with the 10th pick out of Duke in 2012, the 6’3″ Rivers has developed into a solid reserve scoring guard.

He also had stops with the Clippers and Wizards, before turning in memorable performances on competitive Rockets teams during parts of the last two seasons. In 68 games for the Rockets last season, Rivers added 8.8 PPG, 2.6 RPG, and 1.7 APG. He had a respectable shooting line of .421/.356/.703.

According to Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News (Twitter link), Rivers is one of eight players with ties to either CAA or the University of Kentucky added by new Knicks GM Leon Rose via draft, trade or free agency.

Chris Boucher Re-Signs With Raptors

November 22nd, 2020 at 7:10pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

NOVEMBER 25: The Raptors have officially re-signed Boucher, according to a press release from the team.

NOVEMBER 22: After the top two incumbent Raptors big men opted to head West in separate signings with each of the Los Angeles clubs this weekend, Toronto will retain reserve center/power forward Chris Boucher, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). Wojnarowski notes that the agreement is for a two-year, $13.5MM contract.

The second year of Boucher’s deal is non-guaranteed, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (via Twitter). This makes sense given the Raptors’ focus on preserving 2021 cap room. The 2021 free agent class looks to be stacked with high-quality All-Star targets. Along these lines, only the first year of newly-signed center Aron Baynes‘s contract is guaranteed. Scotto also mentions that six NBA clubs were interested in adding Boucher this offseason.

The 6’9″ Boucher, a 27-year-old restricted free agent, will be counted on by Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri and head coach Nick Nurse to shore up the middle behind Baynes, the presumed starter.

Boucher enjoyed a career year during 2019/20, finally cementing a steady rotation spot during his third NBA season. He more than doubled his previous-best minutes tally, averaging 13.2 MPG across 62 NBA games as the Raptors’ third option at center. He notched averages of 6.6 PPG (double his prior career high), 4.5 RPG, and 1.0 BPG.

Boucher also flashed some promise from long range during his two seasons in Toronto. His current career mark is 32.1% from deep on 1.7 attempts per game, below-average for the league but solid numbers for a big man.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Raptors Sign Aron Baynes To Two-Year Deal

November 22nd, 2020 at 6:49pm CST by Luke Adams

NOVEMBER 25: The Raptors have officially signed Baynes, according to the NBA’s transactions log. Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca has reported that the second year of the big man’s deal will technically be non-guaranteed rather than a team option.

NOVEMBER 22: Having lost Marc Gasol to the Lakers and Serge Ibaka in a signing with the Clippers, the Raptors have moved quickly to reach an agreement to sign free agent center Aron Baynes to a two-year, $14.3MM contract, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

The second year of Baynes’s contract will be a team option, allowing the Raptors to preserve their 2021 cap flexibility, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN. Toronto will use a chunk of its mid-level exception to complete the signing.

Though the 33-year-old Baynes may lack the passing acumen or career accolades of the 35-year-old Gasol or the defense of the 31-year-old Ibaka, Baynes is more mobile than the former and has developed into a solid outside shooting threat in his own right. During his 2019/20 season with the Suns, Baynes connected on 35.1% of his 4.3 three-pointers per game, significant career highs as he took pains to modernize his game.

During his lone season in Phoenix, the 6’10” Baynes also set new career-best benchmarks in points and assistants, averaging 11.5 PPG and 1.6 APG in a career-most 22.2 MPG. He also averaged a solid 5.6 RPG. Baynes began his career with the Spurs, with whom he won a title as a deep bench contributor in 2014. He also had two-year stops with the Pistons and Celtics.

Baynes looks to slot in as the Raptors’ starting center, replacing Gasol. In a separate deal today, Toronto is also set to re-sign center/power forward Chris Boucher, who emerged as a consistent rotation option behind Gasol and Ibaka. Boucher may now become Baynes’s primary backup as he continues to develop.

Alex Kirschenbaum contributed to this report.

Wolves Pull QO For Kelan Martin

November 22nd, 2020 at 5:57pm CST by Luke Adams

The Timberwolves have rescinded their two-way qualifying offer for wing Kelan Martin, reports Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic (Twitter link). The move makes him an unrestricted free agent.

Martin emerged as a rotation player in Minnesota last season, averaging 6.4 PPG and 3.1 RPG in 31 games (16.0 MPG), though he struggled with his shot (.392 FG%, .260 FT%).

Although the Wolves liked him enough to initially make him a restricted free agent, there likely wouldn’t have been enough minutes to go around for him next season, given the team’s wing depth, tweets Krawczynski.

The Wolves still have a qualifying offer out to their other two-way free agent, Jordan McLaughlin.

Rockets To Sign Jae’Sean Tate To Three-Year Deal

November 22nd, 2020 at 5:34pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Rockets have agreed to sign rookie swingman Jae’Sean Tate to a three-year deal, Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reports.

John Hollinger of The Athletic notes (Twitter link) that the agreement is for a bit more than the league minimum, and that the Rockets used a portion of their non-taxpayer mid-level exception to ink Tate to the deal.

The 6’4″ Tate, a four-year OSU alum, played under new Rockets assistant coach Will Weaver on the Sydney Kings of the Australian NBL for the 2019/20 season. He averaged 16.2 PPG and 5.8 RPG, while shooting 37.3% from long range on 1.8 attempts. He also shot a stellar 65.8% from the floor. Tate received first-team All-NBL honors for the season.

Tate averaged 11.7 PPG, 6.2 RPG, and 2.9 APG in four seasons with the Buckeyes, from 2014-18. He went undrafted in 2018. We previously relayed news of Houston’s interest in adding Tate earlier this offseason.

Jazz Ship Tony Bradley, Saben Lee To Pistons

November 22nd, 2020 at 4:27pm CST by Dana Gauruder

NOVEMBER 22: The Jazz have officially announced their deal with the Pistons, confirming in a press release that they received cash from the Pistons in exchange for Bradley and the rights to No. 38 pick Saben Lee. Detroit has already agreed to flip Bradley to Philadelphia in a separate deal.

NOVEMBER 18: The Jazz have agreed to trade center Tony Bradley and the No. 38 pick to the Pistons for cash considerations, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter links).

Bradley, 22, appeared in 58 regular-season games last season, averaging 4.9 PPG and 4.6 RPG in 11.4 MPG. Bradley will be entering his fourth season after spending most of his first two seasons in the G League.

Bradley has a $3.54MM guaranteed contract for the upcoming season and could be a restricted free agent if Detroit extends a $5.277MM qualifying offer next offseason.

Utah’s motivation for the trade was to open more cap room and increase roster flexibility, ESPN’s Bobby Marks tweets. The Jazz have made re-signing unrestricted free agent guard Jordan Clarkson a top priority.

[UPDATE: Jazz, Jordan Clarkson agree to four-year deal]

Detroit has been arguably the busiest team this week, with new GM Troy Weaver completely reshaping the roster by acquiring assets and adding young players. The Pistons made three first-round selections, via their own lottery pick and a pair of draft-night trades.

Wolves Sign Juan Hernangomez To Three-Year Deal

November 22nd, 2020 at 3:56pm CST by Luke Adams

NOV. 28: The Timberwolves have made the deal official, per a press release on Saturday.

NOV. 22: After striking a deal with Malik Beasley on Friday, the Timberwolves are now finalizing an agreement with their other key restricted free agent, Juan Hernangomez.

According to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link), Hernangomez will sign a three-year, $21MM contract to remain in Minnesota. The deal will include a third-year team option, per Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic (Twitter link).

The 15th overall pick in the 2016 draft, Hernangomez spent the first three-and-a-half years of his career in Denver. Although he was a solid part of the Nuggets’ rotation in 2018/19, the 25-year-old saw his minutes cut back in ’19/20 after the team added Jerami Grant. With not enough minutes to go around for Hernangomez and Beasley, they were sent to the Timberwolves at the deadline.

With an increased role, Hernangomez elevated his game after being traded from Denver to Minnesota, averaging 12.9 PPG with a .420 3PT% in 14 contests as the Timberwolves’ starting power forward. That strong finish helped him earn a nice multiyear commitment from the Wolves in free agency.

It’s been an eventful week so far in Minnesota, where the Timberwolves drafted Anthony Edwards with the No. 1 overall pick on Wednesday, agreed to reacquire Ricky Rubio in a trade with the Thunder, and now have secured commitments from their top two free agents.

While most of the top players on the free agent market are now off the board, the Wolves do still have their exceptions available and could make an additional move or two.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.