Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Bulls Waive Paul Zipser, Julyan Stone

July 14th, 2018 at 12:52pm CST by Luke Adams

As part of the series of transactions that saw them make their signing of Jabari Parker official, the Bulls have formally waived forward Paul Zipser and guard Julyan Stone, the team announced in a press release.

The moves were necessary in order to clear the cap room necessary to finalize Parker’s two-year, $40MM deal. Having already traded Jerian Grant, waived Sean Kilpatrick, and withdrawn David Nwaba‘s qualifying offer within the last week or so, Chicago was able to create about $20.6MM in cap space by cutting Zipser and Stone and renouncing their other cap holds and exceptions.

In addition to waiving Zipser and Stone, the team also had to renounce Noah Vonleh‘s cap hold of $10MM+ and give up its mid-level and trade exceptions. The Bulls had three trade exceptions available, the largest of which was worth nearly $9MM. The club will now only have access to the $4.449MM room exception.

Zipser ($1.545MM) and Stone ($1.656MM) each had non-guaranteed salaries for 2018/19, so the Bulls are no longer on the hook for any money for either player.

Zipser, 24, averaged 4.0 PPG and 2.4 RPG in 54 games (15.3 MPG) for the Bulls last season. He indicated in June that he didn’t expect the team to bring him back.

As for Stone, he was only included in last week’s three-way trade with the Hornets and Magic so that the Bulls technically received something in the deal — he was always expected to be released. The veteran guard had a very limited role for the Hornets last season, averaging just 0.8 PPG, 1.3 RPG, and 1.1 APG in 23 contests (7.6 MPG)

Jabari Parker Signs Two-Year Deal With Bulls

July 14th, 2018 at 12:43pm CST by marksuleymanov

12:43pm: The Bulls have officially announced their new deal with Parker, issuing a press release to confirm the signing. As detailed below, it’s a two-year, $40MM agreement, but it’s only guaranteed for the first year.

11:09am: The Bulls have agreed to a two-year, $40MM deal with Jabari Parker, who became an unrestricted free agent after the Bucks rescinded their qualifying offer, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. It was reported that the Bucks did not unilaterally withdraw their qualifying offer ahead of Friday’s deadline, but the team did so today with Parker’s consent.

Bucks general manager Jon Horst said to ESPN that the organization wasn’t going to match an offer sheet and decided to let Parker negotiate a deal as an unrestricted free agent.

“Jabari and I felt it was in the best interest of both he and the team to rescind our qualifying offer, making him an unrestricted free agent,” Horst said in a statement. “We appreciate everything Jabari has brought to our team and our community over the last four years and we wish him well.”

While Parker was reportedly interested in joining his hometown Bulls, earlier reports suggested he wanted to return to Milwaukee. Instead, Parker departs Milwaukee for a chance to prove he can stay healthy for a full season.

“I am extremely grateful to the Bucks and the incredible fans of Milwaukee for showing me so much love and encouragement,” Parker said in a statement. “Specifically, I’d like to thank Jon, Marc, Wes and Jamie for giving me my start in the NBA and supporting me throughout my career.”

Parker, 23, is a former second overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft who has shown flashes of his potential but has seen his career impacted by two ACL tears in his left knee.

After missing the start of the 2017/18 season, Parker returned to play in 31 games, averaging 12.6 PPG and 4.9 RPG in 24.0 minutes per contest. A year prior, Parker was in the midst of a career season, averaging 20.1 PPG and 6.2 RPG before tearing his ACL a second time. As Hoops Rumors wrote earlier this year, Parker is one of 97 NBA players to tear an ACL since 1970 and is one of nine players to do so twice.

With the troubled injury history, the second year of Parker’s new deal with the Bulls is a team option, Wojnarowski tweets. This lowers risk for the Bulls if Parker’s left knee fails to hold up and also gives him the option to pursue a long-term deal with Chicago if he can stay healthy and productive.

Since 2010, 33 players have torn their ACL and none of them have gone on to make an All-Star team after the injury. For Parker, this significant guarantee signals the chance to prove his left knee is capable of handling a full season and worth a more significant investment.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Warriors Sign Damion Lee To Two-Way Deal

July 14th, 2018 at 12:20pm CST by ChrisCrouse

JULY 14: The Warriors have officially signed Lee to a two-way contract, the team announced today in a press release.

JULY 10: Damion Lee has agreed to a two-way contract with Warriors, Chris Haynes of ESPN.com reports.

Lee, who will soon marry Stephen Curry‘s sister, Sydel, played in 15 games for the Hawks last season. The shooting guard received a pair of 10-day deals with the club late in the season before signing with Atlanta for the remainder of it.

The 25-year-old played the majority of last season for the Warriors’ G League affiliate. Lee spent parts of two seasons in the G League after not hearing his name called on draft night 2016. He split his collegiate career between Drexel University and the University of Louisville.

Warriors Sign Kendrick Nunn To Camp Deal

July 13th, 2018 at 10:00pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 13: Nunn has officially signed a contract with the Warriors, per RealGM’s transactions log. It’s a one-year deal.

JUNE 22: Undrafted free agent Kendrick Nunn will make the move from one Oakland to another, according to Ian Begley of ESPN.com, who reports (via Twitter) that Nunn has agreed to a partially guaranteed deal with the Warriors.

Nunn, who will join the defending champions in the Bay Area, spent the final season of his college career at Oakland University in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Averaging 37.9 minutes per contest, the 6’3″ guard racked up 25.9 PPG on .435/.394/.838 shooting, chipping in 4.7 RPG, 3.8 APG, and 1.5 SPG.

Nunn earned a spot on Jonathan Givony’s big board at ESPN.com, coming in as the 99th-ranked prospect in this year’s draft class.

While reporting on agreements reached at this time of year can be ambiguous, Begley’s note that Dunn will receive a partial guarantee suggests he’ll come to camp with the Warriors in the fall. The team will be able to finalize his signing after the new NBA league year begins in July.

Pelicans’ Draft Pick Tony Carr Headed To Italy

July 13th, 2018 at 9:16pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Pelicans second-round pick Tony Carr has agreed to a deal with Italy’s Fiat Torino, William Guillory of the New Orleans Times-Picayune relays. The news was first reported by Sportando.

Carr has been playing for the Pelicans’ summer-league team. He’ll be coached by longtime NBA and college coach Larry Brown, who took the job with the Italian club last month.

Brown is notoriously tough on point guards, so Carr will get plenty of guidance on how to be a floor leader for a professional team. He’s struggled in summer-league play, averaging 7.0 PPG and 3.8 APG.

The Pelicans will retain his rights and be able to sign him next summer, Guillory notes.

The 6’5” Penn State product, the 51st overall pick, averaged 19.6 PPG, 5.0 APG and 4.9 RPG as a sophomore last season before declaring for the draft.

New Orleans has three other point guards on the roster, Jrue Holiday, Elfrid Payton and Frank Jackson.

Jazz Sign Georges Niang To Multi-Year Deal

July 13th, 2018 at 8:47pm CST by Dana Gauruder

8:47pm: The signing is official, according to a Jazz press release.

8:10pm: It’s a three-year, $5MM contract with a first-year guarantee, according to Eric Woodyard of the Deseret News.

7:11pm: The Jazz have agreed to a multi-year deal with forward Georges Niang, Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports tweets.

Niang was a restricted free agent after Utah extended a qualifying offer late last month. He played on a two-way contract last season.

Niang received the two-way deal in January after playing for the Warriors’ G League team in Santa Cruz. He made nine brief appearances with Utah last season, averaging 1.0 PPG and 1.o RPG in 3.6 MPG.

The 6’8” Iowa State product saw action in 23 games with the Pacers the previous season.

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.