Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Nuggets Trade Faried, Arthur, Picks To Nets

July 13th, 2018 at 8:42pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 13, 8:42pm: The trade is official, according to a Nets press release.

JULY 12, 5:18pm: The Nuggets have found a team willing to take on their unwanted contracts, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who reports that Denver is sending Kenneth Faried, Darrell Arthur, a protected 2019 first-round pick, and a 2020 second-round pick to the Nets in exchange for Isaiah Whitehead.

It’s a salary-dump deal for the Nuggets, who intend to waive Whitehead after acquiring him, Wojnarowski adds. Whitehead’s salary guarantee deadline was recently pushed back, so his $1.54MM salary for 2018/19 remains non-guaranteed — Denver won’t be on the hook for it.

Having reached a deal with Isaiah Thomas earlier in the night, the Nuggets were poised to have 16 players on guaranteed NBA contracts and were well into luxury-tax territory. Their deal with the Nets will solve both issues, reducing their roster count to 14 players after Whitehead’s release and getting their total team salary below the tax threshold.

Bobby Marks of ESPN.com has the full details, noting that the Nuggets should be about $8.7MM below the tax line after the trade, giving the team room to use the rest of its mid-level exception to fill the last spot on its roster, if it so chooses. So far, Denver has committed $2MM of its MLE to Torrey Craig and is believed to have used about another $1MM on Jarred Vanderbilt.

As Marks observes, trading Faried, Darrell Arthur, and Wilson Chandler (to Philadelphia) projects to save the Nuggets approximately $90MM in salary and tax payments. The team gave up a first-round pick and two second-rounders in those two deals.

The Nuggets have also created three sizable traded player exceptions to work with — those TPEs are equivalent to the salaries for Faried ($13.76MM), Chandler ($12.8MM), and Arthur minus Whitehead ($5.92MM)

Meanwhile, from the Nets’ perspective, they’ll rent their cap room in order to add a pair of draft assets. The big prize is the 2019 first-rounder, which is top-12 protected, according to Wojnarowski (via Twitter).

Coming into the day, Brooklyn didn’t have the cap room necessary to absorb both Faried and Arthur, but the club created that space by trading Jeremy Lin to the Hawks in another deal. It’s not clear whether Faried and/or Arthur are in the Nets’ plans for 2018/19 or if they’ll become buyout candidates.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Mavs Sign Kostas Antetokounmpo To Two-Way Deal

July 13th, 2018 at 7:46pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Mavericks have signed second-round draft pick Kostas Antetokounmpo to a two-way contract, Marc Stein of the New York Times tweets.

The brother of Giannis Antetokounmpo was the No. 60 selection in the draft. The Mavericks acquired his draft rights, along with the rights to Raymond Spalding, from the Sixers in exchange for the draft rights to Shake Milton.

Kostas is a 6’11” power forward who will get a chance to develop his game in the G League.

The younger brother, who turns 21 in November, played college ball at Dayton. In his lone season with the Flyers, he averaged 5.2 PPG and 2.9 RPG in 15.1 MPG.

Raptors Rescind Qualifying Offer To Malcolm Miller

July 13th, 2018 at 7:26pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Raptors have withdrawn their qualifying offer to forward Malcolm Miller, making him an unrestricted free agent, according to RealGM.

The 6’7” Miller played on a two-way contract with Toronto last season. He appeared in 15 games, including four starts, and averaged 2.5 PPG in 8.4 MPG.

A summer-league injury may have played into the Raptors’ decision. Miller suffered a dislocated shoulder in Las Vegas.

Miller, 25, went undrafted in 2015 after playing college ball at Holy Cross.

Wayne Ellington Re-Signs With Heat

July 13th, 2018 at 6:53pm CST by Arthur Hill

JULY 13, 6:53pm: The signing is official, according to a team press release.

JULY 12, 8:35pm: Free agent guard Wayne Ellington will re-sign with the Heat, according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald.

Ellington will receive $6.27MM for one year, the same amount he made in 2017/18. Negotiations lasted almost two weeks because the organization didn’t want to go too far into luxury tax territory, Jackson adds.

The Heat will officially become a taxpaying team, according to Bobby Marks on ESPN Now. As Marks details, a total team salary of $127MM puts Miami over the tax threshold by $3.2MM and gives the club a projected tax bill of $4.9MM so far.

With 12 guaranteed contracts on their books so far for the upcoming season, the Heat still have their $5.3MM taxpayer mid-level exception available. Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem are candidates to return and fill a couple of the club’s open roster slots.

The Heat will continue to try to trim salary, with Hassan Whiteside and Tyler Johnson among the players being made available in trade, a rival executive tells Jackson. Ellington isn’t a trade candidate, but for what it’s worth, he’ll be able to veto any deal this season because of the one-year Bird rights restriction.

Ellington, 30, has been a deadly shooter off the bench in his two seasons with the Heat. He averaged a career-best 11.2 PPG during the 2017/18 season, sinking 227 3-pointers and shooting 39% from long distance.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Mavericks Waive Swingman Jalen Jones

July 13th, 2018 at 4:38pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Mavericks have waived swingman Jalen Jones, Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports tweets.

Jones, who was on a two-way contract, appeared in 12 games for Dallas last season. He averaged 5.8 PPG and 2.9 RPG in 13.5 MPG.

The 6’7” Jones also played four games for the Pelicans last season. Dallas claimed him in January after New Orleans cut him loose. He made history as the first player on a two-way contract getting claimed off waivers.

The Texas A&M product went undrafted out of college.

Dallas opens up a two-way slot by the transaction. Its other two-way slot currently belongs to forward Johnathan Motley.

Check out all the two-way contracts for every club here.

Nets Trade Jeremy Lin To Hawks

July 13th, 2018 at 2:10pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 13: The trade is now official, according to a pair of press releases issued by the Nets and Hawks. Atlanta receives Lin, Brooklyn’s 2025 second-round pick, and the right to swap 2023 second-rounders with the Nets in exchange for Cordinier and a heavily-protected 2020 second-rounder, as detailed below.

JULY 12: The Nets have agreed to a trade that will send Jeremy Lin to the Hawks, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The deal will allow Brooklyn to clear the cap space necessary to take on a pair of expiring contracts from the Nuggets in another deal.

According to Wojnarowski, the Nets will receive Portland 2020’s second-round pick (top-55 protected) and the rights to 2016 draft-and-stash second-rounder Isaia Cordinier in the trade.

In addition to Lin, the Hawks will acquire a 2025 second-round pick and the right to swap picks with the Nets in 2023, Woj adds. His report doesn’t mention anything about first-round picks, so we’ll assume for now that the ’23 pick swap applies to second-rounders.

For the Hawks, adding Lin will mean further bolstering a point guard depth chart that already features leading scorer Dennis Schroder and fifth overall pick Trae Young. Schroder has been frequently cited as a potential trade candidate and Young’s performance in Summer League action has been up and down, so Lin could provide some added stability at the position. His presence also could expedite a Schroder trade, as Wojnarowski reports.

Of course, it may be premature to pencil in Lin for 25-30 minutes per game for the upcoming season, since he’s coming off a major knee injury. The veteran point guard admitted recently that he has yet to play 5-on-5 ball, but fully expects to be ready for training camp. The Hawks plan to keep him, tweets David Aldridge of TNT.

As we detailed earlier today, the Hawks had upwards of $18MM in cap room available, with the flexibility to increase that number to nearly $24MM by renouncing free agents and waiving non-guaranteed players. No additional moves will be required in order to absorb Lin’s $12.5MM expiring contract using their current cap space.

As ESPN’s Bobby Marks notes (via Twitter), Lin also had a 10% trade kicker, so if he doesn’t waive it as part of the deal, the Nets would pay that $1.25MM bonus and the 29-year-old’s cap hit would increase to $13.75MM.

General manager Travis Schlenk had said that the Hawks didn’t expect to pursue major free agents, noting that the team’s “free agency is going to be trades.” The acquisition of Lin reflects that plan, though it’s still a somewhat surprising move. Given where the Hawks are in their rebuilding process, it would have made more sense to me if Atlanta had used its cap room to take on the Nuggets’ unwanted contracts and acquired a pair of picks in the process.

That’s exactly what the Nets will do with their newly-created cap room after moving Lin. As we detail in a separate story, shedding Lin’s salary will allow Brooklyn to take on Kenneth Faried and Darrell Arthur from Denver. The Nets will receive a first-round pick and a second-round pick from the Nuggets for their troubles.

Meanwhile, the Nets should still have plenty of depth in their backcourt heading into the 2018/19 season, with Spencer Dinwiddie and D’Angelo Russell capable of handling point guard duties.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Jazz Sign Jairus Lyles To Exhibit 10 Contract

July 12th, 2018 at 8:06pm CST by Arthur Hill

8:06pm: Lyles has an Exhibit 10 contract, according to Jones (Twitter link). He can make between $5K and $50K if he is waived by the Jazz, is assigned to the team’s G League affiliate and spends at least 60 days there.

JULY 12, 6:57pm: The Jazz have signed UMBC guard Jairus Lyles, the team announced on its website. Terms of the deal were not released, so it’s not clear if Lyles will receive any guaranteed money.

It’s not a two-way contract, tweets Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune, who suggests it’s a path to get Lyles to the organization’s G League affiliate.

The 23-year-old is playing for Utah’s team in the Las Vegas Summer League, posting 11 points, four rebounds and four assists in his only appearance. He also played in two games in the Utah Jazz Summer League.

Lyles gained national prominence after his UMBC team upset top-seeded Virginia in this year’s NCAA Tournament. He put up a 20.2/5.5/3.5 line in 33 games with the Retrievers.

Bulls Rescind QO For David Nwaba

July 12th, 2018 at 7:31pm CST by Arthur Hill

The Bulls have rescinded their qualifying offer for David Nwaba, tweets Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports. The second-year guard will now be an unrestricted free agent.

Nwaba was productive in his lone season with the Bulls, starting 21 of 70 games and averaging 7.9 points and 4.7 rebounds per night. Chicago claimed him off waivers last summer after he spent his rookie season with the Lakers.

The unrestricted status should improve the offers for Nwaba, who has reportedly already received a “barrage” of interest from around the league. Nwaba ranks 42nd on our list of the Top 50 Free Agents of 2018.

Friday is the deadline for teams to rescind qualifying offers for NBA and two-way restricted free agents. Any QOs kept active after tomorrow cannot be withdrawn for the remainder of the summer without the player’s consent.

Nets Sign Dzanan Musa To Rookie Contract

July 12th, 2018 at 2:50pm CST by Luke Adams

Nets first-round pick Dzanan Musa has officially signed his first NBA contract, according to tweets from agent Misko Raznatovic and Musa himself. Musa was the last of 2018’s first-rounders who had yet to sign his rookie deal, so all 30 of those players are now under contract.

Musa, a 6’9″ Bosnian wing, declared as an early entrant for this year’s draft after spending the last three seasons with KK Cedevita in Croatia. Musa’s squad won the Croatian League championship in each of those three years, and the youngster was named the EuroCup Rising Star in 2018, an honor previously earned by the likes of Kristaps Porzingis, Jonas Valanciunas, and Donatas Motiejunas.

The Nets won’t be counting on Musa, one of the youngest players in this year’s draft class, to make an immediate impact, but his size and scoring ability make him an intriguing prospect.

Musa, the 29th overall pick, figures to earn about $1.63MM in his rookie season, while his four-year deal with Brooklyn will be worth approximately $9.16MM in total. It includes two guaranteed seasons, with team options in years three and four.

With Musa locked up, the Nets figure to shift their focus to making things official with second-rounder Rodions Kurucs. The club reportedly agreed to terms with him on a four-year deal shortly after the draft — Emiliano Carchia of Sportando reported today that Brooklyn also finalized a $750K buyout agreement with Barcelona, Kurucs’ old team.

Bulls Waive Sean Kilpatrick

July 12th, 2018 at 1:10pm CST by Luke Adams

The Bulls have waived veteran guard Sean Kilpatrick, the team announced today (via Twitter). The club now has 14 players under contract, not counting restricted free agents David Nwaba or Ryan Arcidiacono.

Kilpatrick, 28, had an eventful 2017/18 campaign. After starting the season with the Nets, he was waived by Brooklyn and signed a two-way contract with the Bucks. Milwaukee converted his two-way deal to a standard NBA contract in January, then waived him in March. Kilpatrick subsequently inked a pair of 10-day contracts with the Clippers before finally joining the Bulls on a multiyear contract.

In 52 total games with four teams last season, Kilpatrick averaged 6.3 PPG and 1.7 RPG in 12.3 minutes per contest. He was at his best in Chicago, posting 15.4 PPG on .439/.396/.813 shooting in nine games with the Bulls, but it seems that wasn’t enough to earn him a roster spot for 2018/19.

Kilpatrick’s $2MM+ salary for 2018/19 was non-guaranteed, so Chicago won’t be on the hook for any of it. However, the Bulls – who were under the salary floor for 2017/18 when they signed him – paid the well-traveled guard a generous $2.16MM salary for nine games last season.

With Kilpatrick no longer on their books, the Bulls can create up to nearly $16MM in cap space for 2018/19 by renouncing various exceptions and Noah Vonleh’s cap hold. That figure could increase to approximately $19MM if the club waives its other non-guaranteed players (Julyan Stone and Paul Zipser), even with Nwaba’s qualifying offer still on the cap.