Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Hornets Sign Kobi Simmons To Camp Deal

September 16th, 2019 at 2:41pm CST by Luke Adams

SEPTEMBER 16: The Hornets have signed Simmons to their training camp roster, the club confirmed today in a press release.

Charlotte’s G League affiliate, the Greensboro Swarm, acquired Simmons’ NBAGL rights last week, so if the point guard doesn’t earn a regular season NBA roster spot, he’ll likely end up playing for the Swarm.

SEPTEMBER 3: The Hornets and free agent point guard Kobi Simmons have reached an agreement on a one-year contract, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Although Charania doesn’t go into detail on the terms of Simmons’ deal, he notes that the 22-year-old will get a chance to compete for a regular season roster spot in training camp, so it figures to be a non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 pact.

Simmons, who went undrafted out of Arizona in 2017, spent his first professional season on a two-way contract with the Grizzlies. He appeared in 32 NBA games for the club in his rookie year, averaging 6.1 PPG, 2.1 APG, and 1.6 RPG in 20.1 minutes per contest.

After being waived by Memphis last August, Simmons spent most of the 2018/19 season with the Canton Charge, Cleveland’s G League affiliate. He recorded 17.2 PPG, 3.5 APG, and 3.7 RPG in 35 NBAGL games, making one brief NBA appearance for the Cavaliers after signing a 10-day contract with the club in January.

Once they officially sign Simmons, the Hornets will have 20 players under contract. Only 13 of Charlotte’s players have guaranteed salaries for 2019/20, so there will be one or two roster spots up for grabs. Simmons figures to compete with fellow camp invitees Joe Chealey, Caleb Martin, Josh Perkins, and Thomas Welsh — Chealey and Perkins, both point guards, may represent his direct competition.

Magic Exercise 2020/21 Options On Fultz, Isaac, Bamba

September 16th, 2019 at 2:14pm CST by Luke Adams

The Magic have exercised their rookie scale team options for the 2020/21 season on a trio of young players, the team announced today in a press release. Orlando picked up its fourth-year options on Markelle Fultz and Jonathan Isaac, along with its third-year option on Mohamed Bamba.

The decisions on Isaac and Bamba don’t come as a surprise. Isaac had a promising sophomore season, averaging 9.6 PPG, 5.5 RPG, and 1.3 BPG while playing a key part in Orlando’s second-half defensive surge. His cap hit for the 2020/21 season will be $7,362,566.

Bamba, meanwhile, didn’t get a chance to play much in his rookie season after being selected sixth overall in the 2018 draft, as a tibia fracture sidelined him for most of the second half. However, third-year options are rarely turned down and Bamba’s $5,969,040 cap charge for ’20/21 is a very reasonable price as the Magic continue to see what they have in the young center.

The most notable decision here is the one on Fultz, whose fourth-year option is much pricier ($12,288,697) since he was the No. 1 overall pick in 2017. The young point guard still hasn’t appeared in a single game for the Magic since being acquired in a deadline deal last February. However, exercising his option signals that the team likes the progress he has made in his recovery from thoracic outlet syndrome.

Fultz is now the only Magic point guard under contract beyond this season. D.J. Augustin is in the final year of his contract, while Michael Carter-Williams is on a one-year deal.

In total, the option decisions increase the Magic’s projected 2020/21 team salary by over $25MM, reducing the team’s chances of creating any cap room next summer. Orlando now has more than $101MM in guaranteed money on its books for ’20/21, which doesn’t include Evan Fournier‘s $17.15MM player option. The cap is projected to come in at $116MM.

Teams have until October 31 to exercise rookie scale team options for 2020/21. Our tracker can be found right here.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Bulls Sign Justin Simon To Exhibit 10 Deal

September 15th, 2019 at 8:05am CST by Luke Adams

SEPTEMBER 15: The signing is official, according to the Real GM Transactions Log.

SEPTEMBER 12: Undrafted rookie free agent Justin Simon will sign an Exhibit 10 contract with the Bulls today, league sources tell Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog.com. Once it’s official, the signing will increase Chicago’s roster count to 17 players.

Simon, who declared for the 2019 draft as an early entrant following his junior year at St. John’s, averaged 10.4 PPG, 5.1 RPG, and 3.2 APG in 34 games (32.9 MPG) last season. The 6’5″ shooting guard struggled from beyond the arc, making just 28.9% of his attempts, but provided plenty of value on the other end of the court, earning Big East Defensive Player of the Year honors.

After going undrafted in June, Simon joined the Bulls for Summer League play and impressed the team in Las Vegas by averaging 6.8 PPG and 4.0 RPG with a .516 FG% in five games (21.0 MPG). He worked out for the Heat last month, but will head to training camp with Chicago.

With 14 players on guaranteed contracts and Shaquille Harrison also expected to make the regular season roster, the Bulls project to have a full 15-man squad. According to Zagoria, Simon will likely end up with the team’s G League affiliate, the Windy City Bulls.

Spurs Sign Jeff Ledbetter To Exhibit 10 Deal

September 12th, 2019 at 5:32pm CST by clarkcrum

Approximately three weeks after originally offering him a contract, the Spurs have signed guard Jeff Ledbetter to an Exhibit 10 deal, reports Nicola Lupo of Sportando.

Ledbetter, 31, is an Idaho product primarily known for his marksmanship from long range. He has spent the last three seasons with the Spurs’ G League affiliate, the Austin Spurs, but did leave the team early last season to play in Mexico.

In 101 career NBAGL games, Ledbetter has posted a respectable stat line of 11.0 PPG, 2.6 RPG, and 3.2 APG. He figures to become an affiliate player in Austin for the fourth straight season.

With Ledbetter under contract, the Spurs now have 20 players on their offseason roster, including two-way players Drew Eubanks and Quinndary Weatherspoon.

Blazers Sign Troy Caupain, London Perrantes To Exhibit 10 Deals

September 12th, 2019 at 12:17pm CST by Luke Adams

The Trail Blazers have officially added two players to their training camp roster, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who reports (via Twitter) that Troy Caupain and London Perrantes have signed Exhibit 10 contracts with the club.

Caupain, 23, has spent his first two professional seasons playing for the Lakeland Magic, Orlando’s G League affiliate. The 6’4″ guard was on a G League contract in his rookie season and on a two-way deal with Orlando last season, appearing in four contests at the NBA level. In 99 career NBAGL games, he has recorded 16.0 PPG, 6.7 RPG, and 5.4 APG on .457/.367/.812 shooting.

As for Perrantes, the 24-year-old point guard appeared in 14 games with the Cavaliers and 35 with the Canton Charge during the 2017/18 season while on a two-way contract with Cleveland. The former Virginia standout spent last season playing in France, first for Limoges CSP and then for Cholet Basket.

Because they don’t have a G League affiliate of their own, the Blazers’ options for camp invitees are limited. While they can sign Exhibit 10 contracts, those players won’t be eligible to receive $50K bonuses if they spent the 2019/20 in the NBAGL. Still, Portland does have an open two-way contract slot available alongside Jaylen Hoard, so one of the club’s Exhibit 10 players could end up filling that opening.

With Caupain and Perrantes under contract, the Blazers now have 18 players on their offseason roster, including 14 on guaranteed contracts, Hoard on a two-way deal, and Moses Brown also on an Exhibit 10.

Heat Exercise 2020/21 Option On Bam Adebayo

September 11th, 2019 at 2:52pm CST by Luke Adams

The Heat have exercised their team option on the fourth year of Bam Adebayo‘s rookie contract, the team formally announced today in a press release.

Adebayo’s salary for the coming season had already been guaranteed, but this decision ensures that he’s now officially locked up for 2020/21 season as well. His cap hit for ’20/21 will be $5,115,492, per Basketball Insiders.

Adebayo, 22, appeared in all 82 games for Miami last season, averaging 8.9 PPG, 7.3 RPG, and 2.2 APG in 23.3 minutes per contest. The young center, who took part in Team USA’s training camp last month, is poised to assume a larger role for the Heat this season following the trade that sent Hassan Whiteside to Portland. Meyers Leonard and Kelly Olynyk will be among the other players in the mix at the five.

Now that his fourth-year option has been picked up, Adebayo will be eligible to sign a rookie scale extension during the 2020 offseason. If he doesn’t reach an agreement with the Heat before the ’20/21 season begins, he’d be on track to reach restricted free agency in the summer of 2021.

All teams with decisions to make on rookie scale options for the ’20/21 season must finalize those moves by October 31. Adebayo’s is the first to be formally exercised, but many will follow in the coming weeks. Our tracker can be found right here.

Knicks Officially Sign Four Undrafted Rookies

September 11th, 2019 at 9:34am CST by Luke Adams

The Knicks have officially signed four players who previously reached contract agreements with the team, according to RealGM’s transactions log. All four players are believed to have received non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 deals.

Here are the players who have now officially joined the Knicks:

Amir Hinton, G, Shaw (reported in June)
V.J. King, G/F, Louisville (reported in June)
Lamar Peters, G, Mississippi State (reported in August)
Kenny Wooten, F, Oregon (reported in July)

Word of New York’s deals with Hinton and King broke shortly after the draft concluded in June. The Knicks also struck a tentative agreement on a two-way contract for Kris Wilkes at that time, but it fell through for health reasons. Hinton, a former Division II standout, and King both went undrafted this year.

Like Hinton and King, Peters and Wooten are rookies who went undrafted after declaring as early entrants in the spring. Both players were members of the Knicks’ Summer League team in Las Vegas in July, with Wooten’s 2.5 blocks per game in just 13.3 MPG turning heads. Peters struggled with his shot (2-for-17 from the floor), but still apparently showed enough to earn a deal with New York.

The Knicks now have a full 20-man roster, including 15 players on guaranteed contracts and one (Kadeem Allen) on a two-way contract. One of the players from this new group could end up in that second two-way slot, but most of them are good bets to eventually land with the Westchester Knicks, New York’s G League affiliate.

Warriors Sign Juan Toscano-Anderson To Exhibit 10 Deal

September 10th, 2019 at 9:42am CST by Luke Adams

The Warriors have signed free agent forward Juan Toscano-Anderson to an Exhibit 10 contract, according to agent Misko Raznatovic (Twitter link). RealGM’s transactions log confirms that the deal has been officially completed.

Toscano-Anderson, 26, played his college ball at Marquette before going undrafted in 2015. He has spent most of his professional career with teams in his home country of Mexico, but joined Golden State’s G League affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors, for the 2018/19 season.

In 44 games (16 starts) with Santa Cruz, Toscano-Anderson averaged 7.0 PPG, 6.8 RPG, and 2.1 APG with a .438/.341/.590 shooting line in 23.8 minutes per contest. At the conclusion of the NBAGL season, he rejoined Fuerza Regia in Mexico for the LNBP playoffs. He also participated in the G League Elite Camp this spring, then played for Golden State’s Summer League squad in Las Vegas.

His new deal with the Warriors indicates that Toscano-Anderson may return to Santa Cruz for the 2019/20 campaign. If he spends two months with the G League squad, he’d be eligible to earn a bonus of up to $50K as a result of his Exhibit 10 deal with Golden State.

Bulls Release Guard Antonio Blakeney

September 9th, 2019 at 4:50pm CST by marksuleymanov

SEPTEMBER 9, 4:50pm: The Bulls have officially released Blakeney, according to a team press release. He gave up $100K in the buyout agreement, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks.

SEPTEMBER 7, 11:32am: The Bulls are set to release guard Antonio Blakeney, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). According to Charania (via Twitter), the two sides reached an agreement on a buyout.

After Chicago re-signed Shaquille Harrison earlier this offseason, there was an expectation that Blakeney would be released, notes K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune (Twitter link). Unlike Blakeney, Harrison doesn’t yet have a fully guaranteed contract, but it sounds like he’s being penciled in as the team’s 15th man.

Blakeney, 22, has suited up for the Bulls the past two seasons. In a career high 57 games last season, the New York native averaged 7.3 PPG while shooting nearly 40% from beyond the arc.

By cutting the LSU product, the Bulls have brought the total of fully guaranteed contracts on the roster to 14, with Harrison and his partial guarantee also in the mix.

Trail Blazers Sign Moses Brown To Camp Deal

September 9th, 2019 at 12:19pm CST by Luke Adams

The Trail Blazers have signed undrafted UCLA center Moses Brown to a training camp contract, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter). The move increases Portland’s offseason roster count to 16 players.

Brown, who will turn 20 next month, declared for the 2019 draft as an early entrant after spending just one season playing for the Bruins. In his freshman year, Brown averaged 9.7 PPG and 8.3 RPG in 32 games (23.4 MPG).

While Brown isn’t much of a shooter – he didn’t attempt a three-pointer and made just 35.2% of his free throws – he flashed impressive rim-protecting upside, with 1.9 blocks per game. He caught on with the Rockets for Summer League play, but saw just two minutes of action for the team in Las Vegas.

The Trail Blazers typically don’t load up their offseason roster with many camp invitees on non-guaranteed contracts, since they don’t have a G League affiliate of their own to send those players once the regular season begins. Still, the club has one two-way contract slot available, so Brown could be a candidate to fill that opening alongside fellow rookie Jaylen Hoard.