Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Warriors Waive Shaun Livingston

July 10th, 2019 at 2:33pm CST by ChrisCrouse

JULY 10: The Warriors have issued a press release to announce that Livingston has officially been waived and thanking him for “immense contributions” to the franchise. Assuming he goes unclaimed, as expected, he’ll clear waivers on Friday.

JULY 9: The Warriors have waived veteran guard Shaun Livingston, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter). The move was a necessary one for the hard-capped Dubs, who needed to remove Livingston’s $7.7MM salary from their books before it became fully guaranteed.

Livingston had a $2MM partial guarantee, which the Warriors will stretch across three seasons at a rate of $666K per year. Golden State likely explored moving the 33-year-old in a trade to avoid eating that dead money, but would have had to attach an asset to him to find a taker.

According to Wojnarowski, Livingston is determined to continue his playing career after being cut by Golden State. He’ll clear waivers later this week and will likely be prioritizing contending teams as he seeks a new NBA home.

A member of the Warriors teams that have reached the NBA Finals in each of the last five years, Livingston played a regular rotation role in Golden State, averaging between 15.1 and 19.5 minutes per game in each season since 2014/15. He recorded 4.0 PPG, 1.8 APG, and 1.8 RPG in 64 games in 2018/19.

Here are a few more notes on the Warriors’ contracts and cap situation:

Second-round pick Eric Paschall received a three-year, guaranteed minimum-salary contract, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link). The Warriors used the mid-level exception to give him that third year.
The Warriors also used their mid-level exception to sign Willie Cauley-Stein, who got a two-year, $4.4MM deal with a second-year player option, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic. That contract is worth a little more than the minimum.
While the Warriors still have some MLE money leftover, they’re unlikely to be able to use it this year. According to Marks (Twitter link), after waiving and stretching Livingston, the team projects to be just $219K below the $138.9MM hard cap once all its moves are complete.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Luke Adams contributed to this post.

Mavs Re-Sign Maxi Kleber To Four-Year Deal

July 10th, 2019 at 12:48pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 10: The Mavericks have officially re-signed Kleber, per a team release.

The fact that Dallas has made this deal official signals that the club plans to function as an over-the-cap team, forfeiting potential cap room. That will allow Dallas to keep a trade exception worth about $12MM for a possible move down the road, as we detailed in a story earlier today.

JULY 1: The Mavericks have agreed to terms with restricted free agent forward Maxi Kleber, according to Marc Stein of The New York Times, who reports (via Twitter) that Kleber will sign a four-year, $35MM deal.

Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com (Twitter links) pegs the value at $33MM, but says it can be worth up to $35.9MM via incentives. The fourth year of Kleber’s new contract will be a team option, according to Stein (via Twitter).

Kleber, 27, has spent the last two seasons with the Mavericks after playing for teams in his home country of Germany for most of his professional career. In 2018/19, the 6’11” power forward was a regular part of Dallas’ rotation, averaging 6.8 PPG and 4.6 RPG with a .453/.353/.784 shooting line in 71 games (21.2 MPG).

Kleber’s raise won’t impact the Mavs’ ability to continue building their roster. Because he has a very modest cap hold of about $1.82MM, Dallas can keep that hold on its books to maximize its cap flexibility before going over the cap to sign him using his Early Bird rights.

This is the second four-year contract agreement of the day for the Mavs, who struck a similar deal with free agent guard Seth Curry.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Sixers Re-Sign Tobias Harris To Five-Year Deal

July 10th, 2019 at 12:32pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 10: The Sixers have officially re-signed Harris, according to NBA.com’s transactions log. The club has now exhausted its cap room for the summer.

JUNE 30: The Sixers and Tobias Harris have reached an agreement on a five-year deal that will pay the free agent forward $180MM, his agent (and father) Torrel Harris of Unique Sports Management tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). The contract won’t include a player option, Woj adds (via Twitter).

After making blockbuster mid-season trades for both Harris and Jimmy Butler during the 2018/19 campaign, the Sixers will only retain one of the two, with Butler reportedly headed for the Heat in a sign-and-trade.

However, in Harris, Philadelphia will be bringing back a forward who received All-Star consideration in 2018/19, as he averaged 20.0 PPG, 7.9 RPG, and 2.8 APG on .487/.397/.866 shooting in 82 games for the Clippers and Sixers.

He’ll return to a new-look Sixers team that will feature Josh Richardson and Al Horford. Richardson will reportedly be acquired from Miami via the Butler sign-and-trade, while Horford will sign a four-year contract with Philadelphia as a free agent.

If Harris had signed a maximum-salary deal, it would have been worth approximately $189.9MM, so his annual salaries will come in a little below the max. Still, it’s a significant investment for the Sixers, who already have Joel Embiid under contract on a max deal of his own and may soon sign Ben Simmons to a max extension.

Harris reportedly received interest from the Clippers, Jazz, Nets, and Mavericks, among others, in free agency.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Thunder Trade Paul George To Clippers

July 10th, 2019 at 12:07pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 10: Having announced the signing of Leonard earlier today, the Clippers have now officially confirmed their acquisition of George as well.

“Paul George is one of the greatest two-way players in our game,” president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank said in a statement. “He is both an elite scorer and a relentless defender whose versatility elevates any team. When you have the opportunity to acquire a contributor of his caliber, you do what it takes to bring him home. Paul is a native of the Los Angeles area and an ideal fit for the Clippers, thanks to his selflessness and drive. Following the lead of Steve Ballmer, we have plotted an aggressive course to build a championship contender, and acquiring Paul is a critical step.”

The Clippers are now over the cap, and all of the agreed-upon trades of the 2019 offseason (so far) have been officially completed.

JULY 6: In addition to landing No. 1 free agent Kawhi Leonard, the Clippers have reached a stunning trade agreement to acquire All-NBA forward Paul George from the Thunder, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

According to Wojnarowski (via Twitter), Oklahoma City will receive Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, and a “massive” haul of future draft picks in exchange for George.

That haul features four unprotected first-round picks, one protected first-rounder, and two pick swaps, Woj reports (via Twitter). The Thunder will receive the following selections, according to Marc Stein of The New York Times (via Twitter):

Heat’s 2021 unprotected first-round pick.
Clippers’ unprotected 2022 first-round pick.
Heat’s 2023 first round pick (top-14 protected).
The right to swap first-round picks with the Clippers in 2023.
Clippers’ unprotected 2024 first-round pick.
The right to swap first-round picks with the Clippers in 2025.
Clippers’ unprotected 2026 first-round pick.

The Clippers held the Heat’s unprotected 2021 first-round pick and will acquire Miami’s 2023 lottery-protected first-rounder as part of the four-team Jimmy Butler sign-and-trade deal. That will allow the Clips to keep their own 2020 and 2021 first-rounders and send out five total picks while satisfying both the Stepien rule (which prohibits teams from leaving themselves without a first-round pick in consecutive future seasons) and the “Seven Year Rule” (which doesn’t allow teams to trade first-rounders more than seven years in advance).

Those extra picks from the Heat pave the way the Clippers to make the biggest one-two punch of the free agent period, with their acquisition of George coming after Leonard had pushed PG13 to find a way to the Clippers, per Wojnarowski (Twitter links).

As Woj details, George approached the Thunder and requested a trade amidst Leonard’s recruiting efforts, leaving Oklahoma City to try to make the best out of a difficult situation. The Thunder did just that, as their haul from the Clippers will land them a veteran on an expiring $22MM contract who was a borderline All-Star in 2019 (Gallinari), one of the most impressive rookies of the 2018 class (Gilgeous-Alexander), and a bounty of future draft picks.

Still, despite securing a huge package for George, the Thunder may not be out of the weeds quite yet. Shams Charania of The Athletic reports (via Twitter) that rival teams have been aware in recent days not just of George’s discontent, but of Russell Westbrook‘s as well. It remains to be seen how Westbrook will feel about the departure of the All-Star teammate that he succeeded in keeping in OKC as a free agent a year ago, but with potential long-term cornerstone Gilgeous-Alexander in the mix at point guard, it wouldn’t be surprising if the former MVP ends up on the trade block as well.

It’s an abrupt change of direction for the Thunder, who expected as recently as last week to be building around Westbrook and George, according to Brett Dawson of The Athletic (Twitter link). As Dawson observes, even this week’s free agent agreements with veterans like Alec Burks and Mike Muscala suggest that Oklahoma City was looking to fortify its current core rather than blow it up. It will be fascinating to see what the team’s next move is.

For now though, the Clippers will steal the headlines, having delivered an incredible counter-punch to their Staples Center cohabitants after the Lakers reached a deal last month to acquire Anthony Davis.

The Clippers are giving up a ton to acquire George, but it’s unlikely that they would have gotten a commitment from Leonard without making the deal, according to Wojnarowski, who tweets that the Clippers recognized that they had to pull the trigger, lest they risk allowing the Lakers to steal Leonard and create a powerhouse.

In George, the Clippers will add a 29-year-old who is coming off his best season as a pro, averaging 28.0 PPG, 8.2 RPG, 4.1 APG, and a league-best 2.2 SPG in 77 games (36.9 MPG) for the Thunder. The six-time All-Star, who is recovering from undergoing procedures on his shoulders at season’s end, finished third in MVP voting in 2019.

He’ll team up with Leonard to lead a roster that also features Lou Williams, Patrick Beverley, Montrezl Harrell, Landry Shamet, Rodney McGruder, Maurice Harkless, Jerome Robinson, and potentially RFA Ivica Zubac.

It’ll be a homecoming for George, a Southern California native who grew up as a Clippers fan, as Fred Katz of The Athletic notes (via Twitter). George had a 15% trade bonus on his contract, which runs through 2020/21 with a 2021/22 player option, but because trade bonuses can’t push a player’s salary beyond his maximum, it’ll be voided, tweets ESPN’s Bobby Marks.

The Clippers will officially acquire George after signing Leonard using their cap room, since the club will be matching salaries as an over-the-cap team in the trade, Marks adds (via Twitter).

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Mavericks Sign Seth Curry To Four-Year Contract

July 10th, 2019 at 12:02pm CST by JD Shaw

JULY 10: The Mavericks have officially signed Curry, the club announced today in a press release.

As we detailed earlier today, Dallas could use either cap room or the mid-level exception for over-the-cap teams to sign Curry.

JULY 1: Free agent guard Seth Curry has agreed to a contract with the Mavericks, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

The agreement between the sides is a four-year deal worth $32MM, Marc Stein of the New York Times reports. Curry can officially sign his contract once the moratorium period ends on July 6.

Curry is coming off an impressive season with Portland, averaging 7.9 points in 18.9 minutes per game. He has been one of the NBA’s best three-point shooters in recent years, making 45.0% of his outside shots in 2018/19 to increase his career rate to 43.9%.

The terms of Curry’s deal will allow the Mavericks to remain flexible. If the team decides to make use of its cap room, Curry’s signing can be completed using space. If Dallas opts to stay over the cap and make use of its $21MM trade exception, Curry’s deal could fit into the mid-level exception.

The Mavericks remain interested in free agent Danny Green, Stein adds in a separate tweet, but Green is determined to wait on Kawhi Leonard‘s decision before making a choice on where to sign.

Luke Adams contributed to this post.

Sixers Sign Al Horford To Four-Year Deal

July 10th, 2019 at 11:23am CST by Luke Adams

JULY 10: The Sixers have made it official, announcing the signing of Horford today in a press release.

“We’re excited to welcome one of the NBA’s best frontcourt players in Al Horford to Philadelphia,” GM Elton Brand said in a statement. “He has built his reputation around hard work and a tradition of winning, which are the same qualities that have formed the foundation of the 76ers. Al’s playmaking, elite defensive talents and veteran leadership confirm why he is a crucial addition to our roster. We have gained a championship-level teammate that will not only complement our current makeup, but will help grow our young core as we strive for the highest level of success.”

JUNE 30: The Sixers have revealed themselves as Al Horford‘s mystery suitor, having reached an agreement with the free agent big man on a four-year, $109MM deal, agent Jason Glushon tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

According to Wojnarowski (via Twitter), Horford’s four-year pact will actually include $97MM in guaranteed money, with $12MM in bonuses linked to potential championships.

[UPDATE: New details on structure of Horford’s contract]

The Sixers’ deal with Horford is the latest big move in a day full of them for the team. J.J. Redick is headed to New Orleans, and Jimmy Butler is Miami-bound, but the 76ers agreed to re-sign Tobias Harris and will add Josh Richardson in the process of signing-and-trading Butler to the Heat. The club now projects to have a potential starting five made up of Harris, Richardson, Horford, Ben Simmons, and Joel Embiid.

Horford, 33, averaged 13.6 PPG, 6.7 RPG, and 4.2 APG on .535/.360/.821 shooting in 68 games (29.0 MPG) last season for the Celtics. However, his value extends beyond his numbers — he’s a strong defender who is capable of protecting the rim or switching onto perimeter players, and he keeps opposing defenses on their toes with his ability to pick and pop.

It will be interesting to see how Horford fits alongside Embiid in the Sixers’ frontcourt. While Horford is more of a center, he showed in Boston that he could play next to another center, as the C’s often used a Horford/Aron Baynes combination up front.

Horford had a player option for 2019/20 with the Celtics worth approximately $30MM, but decided to turn down that option in search of a longer-term deal. Rumors quickly began circulating about a four-year, $100MM+ deal for Horford, though it wasn’t clear which team was prepared to offer that sort of deal. The Mavericks, Kings, Pelicans, and Clippers were named as possible Horford suitors, but it was the Sixers that landed him.

According to Keith Smith of RealGM (via Twitter), Wojnarowski said during an appearance on ESPN that the Celtics – who managed to retain Horford’s Bird rights by agreeing to acquire Kemba Walker via sign-and-trade, were willing to go up to four years, but the gap in guaranteed money compared to Philadelphia’s offer was too significant.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Wizards Sign Isaiah Thomas

July 10th, 2019 at 11:12am CST by Dana Gauruder

JULY 10: The Wizards have officially signed Thomas, the team announced today in a press release.

“This is an ideal fit for both us and Isaiah” Wizards interim head of basketball operations Tommy Sheppard said in a statement. “He is eager to show he has regained the form that made him one of the most effective and unique players in the league and we can provide the opportunity to allow him to do so within the framework of our team concept. We value his leadership and experience.”

JULY 1: Isaiah Thomas has agreed to sign a one-year contract with the Wizards, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets. Thomas will receive the veteran’s minimum, Candace Buckner of the Washington Post tweets.

It’s the latest attempt by Thomas to resurrect his career after two lost seasons. He averaged a career-best 28.9 PPG in 2016/17 season with the Celtics but hasn’t been the same since hip surgery. He appeared in just 12 games with the Nuggets last season, averaging 8.1 PPG and 1.9 APG in 15.1 MPG.

He’s the second diminutive point man that has decided to join Washington next season. Ish Smith, formerly of the Pistons, reached a two-year deal with the Wizards. John Wall is expected to miss most of next season after rupturing his Achilles in February.

The team also agreed to move Tomas Satoransky, who played a lot of point guard in Wall’s absence, to the Bulls in a sign-and-trade.

Kawhi Leonard Signs With Clippers

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

JULY 10: Leonard has officially signed his contract with the Clippers, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link), who reports an interesting twist.

Kawhi’s new contract will actually be a three-year deal with a third-year player option, per Charania. That would give the star forward an opportunity to opt out and secure a higher maximum salary in 2021, when he’ll have 10 years of NBA experience.

As Charania notes (via Twitter), that also lines up Leonard’s deal with George’s — both players can opt out in ’21.

Leonard’s three-year, maximum-salary contract will be worth $103,137,300.

JULY 6: Reigning NBA Finals MVP and top 2019 free agent Kawhi Leonard has decided to sign with the Clippers, reports Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter). Leonard has informed the runner-up teams – the Raptors and Lakers – of his decision, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Although the Clippers had been rumored all year to be the top contender for Leonard, his decision still represents a shocking turn, as reports in recent weeks had increasingly pointed toward the Lakers or the defending-champion Raptors as more probable long-term homes for Kawhi while those Clippers rumors died down to some extent.

However, it will be the little brother in Los Angeles that makes the biggest splash of 2019’s free agent period, as the Clippers have also agreed to acquire Paul George in a trade with the Thunder. Leonard had been recruiting George to try to find a way to team up with him on the Clippers, according to Wojnarowski, who tweets that the two All-NBA forwards found a way to pull it off after George requested a trade from Oklahoma City.

Leonard’s agreement with the Clippers – which will be a four-year, maximum-salary deal worth just shy of $141MM, per Wojnarowski (Twitter link) – represents the culmination of a saga that began during the 2017/18 season, when Kawhi missed all but nine games for the Spurs due to a mysterious quad injury.

A disagreement between Spurs team doctors and Leonard’s camp about the extent of that injury led to the two-time Defensive Player of the Year losing trust in the franchise and making a trade request. Although Leonard was reportedly pushing for a deal that would send him home to Los Angeles, the Spurs instead traded him to Toronto in a blockbuster swap that featured DeMar DeRozan.

In his first and only season as a Raptor, Leonard led the team to a No. 2 seed in the East, then put together one of the all-time great postseason runs to help Toronto claim its first-ever NBA championship. Having averaged 26.6 PPG, 7.3 RPG, and 3.3 RPG in 60 regular season contests, Leonard boosted those marks to 30.5 PPG, 9.1 RPG, and 3.9 APG in 24 playoff games, posting a .490/.379/.884 shooting line against the Magic, Sixers, Bucks, and Warriors.

As Leonard weighed his free decision over the last week and took meetings with the three teams in the running for him, there was a sense that the Raptors and Lakers might have the most to offer the star forward. He had built a trust with the management team and training staff in Toronto, and the Raps had the ability to offer him a five-year contract, as well as the chance to defend a championship.

The Lakers, on the other hand, offered the opportunity to team with LeBron James and Anthony Davis — adding Leonard to that duo would have created arguably the NBA’s all-time best “Big Three” and made the Lakers the immediate frontrunners for the 2020 title.

The Clippers, meanwhile, had missed out on 2019’s other top free agents, leaving league observers to wonder if Leonard would still seriously consider them without a star to join him. However, Kawhi made it clear to the Clippers that he would commit to them if they could land George, tweets Wojnarowski.

The Clips paid a high price to do so, surrendering Danilo Gallinari, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, five first-round picks, and two first-round pick swaps, but considering it was also the price necessary to acquire Leonard, it makes sense that the organization was extremely willing to go all-in on PG13.

Leonard will now team up with George to lead a roster that also features Lou Williams, Patrick Beverley, Montrezl Harrell, Landry Shamet, Rodney McGruder, Maurice Harkless, Jerome Robinson, and potentially RFA Ivica Zubac.

With Leonard headed to the Clippers, the Lakers will pivot to using their $32MM in cap room on role players, having quickly reached a deal to sign Kawhi’s longtime teammate Danny Green.

As for the Raptors, they’re capped out with or without Leonard and Green, so their ability to add new talent will be limited. Still, without needing to account for new deals for those two players, they’ll have their full mid-level exception available and don’t project to be a taxpaying team in 2019/20.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Thunder Sign Mike Muscala

July 10th, 2019 at 10:26am CST by JD Shaw

JULY 10: The Thunder have officially signed Muscala, the team announced today in a press release.

As we relayed earlier this week, Oklahoma City gave Muscala the opportunity to reconsider his options after the team agreed to trade away Paul George. However, the big man decided to remain committed to OKC.

JUNE 30: The Thunder have agreed to a deal with free agent forward Mike Muscala, his agent, Sean Kennedy of Excel Sports Management, tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

Muscala, a 6’11” floor-spacer, is set to bring some much-needed shooting to Oklahoma City in the frontcourt next season. He split last year with Sixers and Lakers, averaging seven points per game on 35% shooting from behind-the-arc.

Oklahoma City also worked to secure a commitment with free agent center Nerlens Noel on Sunday, but Noel has since backed out of the agreement, according to Wojnarowski. It’s not clear if the team’s deal with Muscala will impacts its willingness to bring back Noel.

[UPDATE: Noel has reached a new agreement with the Thunder]

Muscala has made stops with Atlanta, Philly, Los Angeles, and now Oklahoma City across his six-year career.

Lakers Sign Devontae Cacok, Aric Holman

July 9th, 2019 at 8:41pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Lakers have signed rookie free agents Devontae Cacok and Aric Holman, according to a team press release. Both contracts are Exhibit 10 deals, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com (Twitter link).

Cacok went undrafted out of UNC Wilmington. Back in the 2016/17 season, the big man shot an NCAA-record 80.0% from the field. He posted a double-double (15.2 PPG, 12.3 RPG) in 33 games in 2018/19, his senior season.

Holman spent four years at Mississippi State and was also not drafted. The power forward blocked at least two shots in 61 of his 124 collegiate games, per the Lakers. He averaged 9.5 PPG, 6.2 RPG, and 1.6 BPG with a .473/.429/.701 shooting line in his senior year.

Cacok’s agreement with the Lakers was first reported by ESPN’s Jonathan Givony, while Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports broke word of Holman’s deal.