Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Hornets Waive Smith, Give Chealey Two-Way Deal

October 13th, 2018 at 12:02pm CST by Luke Adams

The Hornets set up their regular season roster today by completing a pair of transactions. According to a press release from the team, Charlotte has waived Zach Smith and converted Joe Chealey‘s Exhibit 10 contract into a two-way deal.

It’s good news for Chealey, who will stick with the Hornets after going undrafted out of the College of Charleston. The 6’4″ guard averaged 18.0 PPG, 4.6 RPG and 3.6 APG as a senior and led the program to the NCAA Tournament. Now, he’ll be one of Charlotte’s two-way players, alongside J.P. Macura.

As for Smith, the rookie forward is a candidate to play for the Greensboro Swarm, assuming he goes unclaimed on waivers on Monday.

The Hornets are now carrying 16 players, including 14 on standard contracts. If they don’t make any additional moves by Monday, they’ll enter the regular season with an open spot on their roster.

Jazz Waive Isaac Haas

October 13th, 2018 at 11:50am CST by Luke Adams

The Jazz have made a minor roster move, announcing today in a press release that center Isaac Haas has been waived. The transactions leaves Utah with 19 players on its roster, so more cuts will be necessary before Monday.

Haas, an undrafted rookie out of Purdue, joined the Jazz for Summer League play in July, then inked a camp contract with the team in August. His non-guaranteed contract won’t count against the club’s salary cap.

Haas will be a candidate to join the Salt Lake City Stars, Utah’s G League affiliate, after he clears waivers, assuming another NBA team doesn’t claim him.

Utah still has 17 players on standard NBA contracts and must reduce that number to 15 by Monday. Jairus Lyles and Isaiah Cousins are the probable casualties of the roster crunch.

Hawks Cut Thomas Robinson, R.J. Hunter, C.J. Anderson

October 13th, 2018 at 9:58am CST by Luke Adams

The Hawks have trimmed their preseason roster by three, waiving Thomas Robinson, R.J. Hunter, and C.J. Anderson, according to Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Twitter link). Atlanta’s roster is now at the regular season limit of 17 players, including two on two-way contracts.

Robinson, the fifth overall pick in the 2012 draft, has appeared in 313 career regular season games, but didn’t play in the NBA last season and was always a long shot to make the Hawks’ regular season roster, since the team is already carrying 15 players on guaranteed contracts. Hunter is also a former first-round pick who has struggled to find an NBA home.

Anderson, meanwhile, went undrafted out of the University of Massachusetts after averaging 10.6 PPG, 5.2 APG, and 5.0 RPG with a .414/.400/.813 shooting line as a senior in 2017/18. If he clears waivers, the Hawks would hold his G League rights as an affiliate player, so he may end up with the Erie BayHawks.

Magic Waive Braian Angola-Rodas

October 13th, 2018 at 9:24am CST by Luke Adams

The Magic have reduced their roster count to the regular season limit, waiving camp invitee Braian Angola-Rodas, according to Josh Robbins of The Orlando Sentinel (via Twitter). The team confirmed the move with an announcement of its own (via Twitter). Orlando now has 15 players on standard NBA contracts and two more on two-way deals.

Angola-Rodas, who began his college career at North Idaho State before transferring to Florida State, went undrafted this year and caught on with the Magic for Summer League and then training camp. The 6’6″ shooting guard averaged 12.5 PPG, 3.9 RPG, and 3.0 APG in his senior year for the Seminoles, knocking down 1.8 threes per game at a 37.6% rate.

Because he was on a non-guaranteed contract, Angola-Rodas won’t leave a cap hit on Orlando’s books. He’s on track to join the team’s G League affiliate, the Lakeland Magic, for the start of the 2018/19 season, per Robbins.

Heat Sign Justise Winslow To Three-Year Extension

October 13th, 2018 at 7:44am CST by Dana Gauruder

OCTOBER 13: Winslow’s extension is official, per RealGM’s NBA transactions log.

OCTOBER 12: Heat forward Justise Winslow has agreed to a three-year, $39MM extension, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets. The agency representing Winslow, Roc Nation, hammered out the deal with Heat president Pat Riley a few days before Monday’s rookie scale extension deadline.

The extension includes a third-year team option, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.

The Sun Sentinel reported on Tuesday that the two parties were close to an extension agreement.

The agreement greatly reduces the possibility of Winslow being included in a potential trade with the Timberwolves for Jimmy Butler, as CBA rules would complicate his value for salary-matching purposes.

With Devin Booker and Karl-Anthony Towns having already signed new deals, Winslow becomes the third player from the 2015 rookie class to secure an extension. There are still 2o players eligible for a rookie scale extension this year. If those players don’t sign new contracts by next Monday, they’ll be on track to become restricted free agents during the summer of 2019.

Winslow, the 10th overall pick in the 2015 draft, has not quite developed as quickly as the franchise hoped, though he showed some improvement last season. The extension will be well worth it if he effectively holds down a rotation spot during the life of the contract.

Winslow’s contract adds more guaranteed money to already hefty payroll. The Heat will now have approximately $133MM in salary commitments (including player options) for the 2019/20 season. They’ll have to make some moves to avoid paying luxury tax penalties following that season.

Winslow shot 38% from long range last season but only posted modest overall numbers, averaging 7.8 PPG, 5.4 RPG, and 2.2 APG in 68 games (24.7 MPG). However, Winslow has the ability to defend multiple positions and averaged 1.6 steals last season.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Nuggets Waive Donald Sloan, Xavier Silas

October 12th, 2018 at 11:17pm CST by Dana Gauruder

11:17pm: The Nuggets have confirmed Sloan’s release and also announced that they’ve waived Xavier Silas too (Twitter link). The moves reduce Denver’s roster to 15 players on standard contracts and a pair on two-way deals, so the club is at the regular season roster limit.

8:51pm: The Nuggets have waived guard Donald Sloan, Hoops Rumors’ JD Shaw tweets.

The move reduces Denver’s camp roster to 18 players. It waived forward Emanuel Terry earlier this week.

Sloan, 30, has played more than 200 regular season games over the course of his career, but hasn’t appeared in an NBA regular-season contest since 2015/16, when he saw action in 61 games for the Nets.

Last season, he averaged 18.8 PPG, 5.5 APG, and 4.2 RPG in 24 games (34.6 MPG) for the Texas Legends, Dallas’ G League affiliate, before heading to China for a third stint with the Guangdong Southern Tigers.

Nets Sign Gordon, Waive Creek

October 12th, 2018 at 9:51pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Nets have signed forward Drew Gordon and waived forward Mitch Creek, Michael Scotto of The Athletic tweets.

The older brother of Magic star Aaron Gordon, Drew Gordon went undrafted out of New Mexico in 2012. He has bounced around various professional leagues since that point, primarily playing overseas. In addition to a brief stint with the Sixers during the 2014/15 season, the 6’9″ power forward has also spent time with clubs in Serbia, Italy, Turkey, France, Lithuania, and Russia.

Gordon will be making up for lost time. He was expected to sign with Brooklyn prior to camp but that deal didn’t come to fruition.

Most recently, Gordon played for Zenit St. Petersburg during the 2017/18 season. The 28-year-old recorded 11.1 PPG and 6.7 RPG in 21 VTB League games, along with 12.4 PPG and 7.0 RPG in 17 EuroCup contests.

Creek has spent most of his professional career with the Adelaide 36ers in Australia before signing with the Nets in August. In 31 games in Australia last season, Creek averaged 14.8 PPG, 6.0 RPG, and 2.5 APG. He was named to the All-NBL Second Team. He also played for the Mavericks’ summer league team, recording 6.8 PPG and 5.2 RPG in five games in Las Vegas.

Rockets Sign Bond, Waive Gentile

October 12th, 2018 at 9:12pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Rockets signed guard Tim Bond and he’ll join their G League affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, Mark Berman of KRIV tweets.

The 6’6” Bond played all four of his college seasons with Eastern Michigan, where he averaged 8.6 PPG and 3.0 APG. He averaged 9.2 PPG, 4.9 RPG and 3.5 APG during his senior year.

In order to open up a spot for Bond, the Rockets have waived guard Alessandro Gentile, according to NBA.com’s transactions log.

It’s unclear when Houston signed Gentile, since he wasn’t listed on the 20-man training camp roster. Gentile had been recovering from right hand surgery after suffering the injury in May.

Gentile, a 6’7″ wing, has played overseas since being selected with the 53rd overall pick in the 2014 draft.

Clippers Sign Jamel Artis

October 12th, 2018 at 6:21pm CST by clarkcrum

OCTOBER 12th, 6:21pm: The signing is official, the team’s PR department tweets.

OCTOBER 10th, 9:19pm: According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the Clippers are signing recently-waived swingman Jamel Artis to a partially-guaranteed deal. As Charania notes, Artis was in training camp with Kings up until this past weekend.

The timing seems interesting, considering a report from earlier today that the club is actually seeking out trades to get rid of players, but it’s unlikely that the Clippers plan to keep Artis, with the 25-year-old more likely to end up with the Clippers’ G League affiliate, the Agua Caliente Clippers.

Artis, who spent the 2017-18 campaign on a two-way contract with the Magic, averaged 5.1 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.2 assists across 18.6 minutes per game last season.

Mavericks Re-Sign Ding Yanyuhang

October 12th, 2018 at 6:15pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Mavericks have re-signed Ding Yanyuhang, a formality to place him on the team’s G League affiliate, the Texas Legends, Tim McMahon of ESPN tweets.

He was waived on Wednesday after missing most of the preseason because of tendinitis in his knee.

The 6’6” Ding has spent the last seven seasons playing professionally for China’s Shandong Golden Stars. In 45 games for Shandong last season, he averaged 26.0 PPG, 5.2 RPG, 3.2 APG and 1.6 SPG and earned his second consecutive Chinese Basketball Association Domestic MVP award.

Ding played on the Mavericks’ summer-league team last year.