Cavs Sign Mo Williams
FRIDAY, 11:39am: The deal is official, the team announced.
“We’re very excited to welcome Mo back to Cleveland and we feel he will be a great fit with our team,” GM David Griffin said. “Mo is a proven, high-caliber playmaker and his ability to space the floor at either guard position will be essential for us.”
MONDAY, 8:40am: Point guard Mo Williams has reached an agreement with the Cavaliers, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports tweets. It’s a two-year, $4.3MM contract that includes a player option, league sources told Wojnarowski. Williams had also considered offers from the Spurs, Mavericks and Pelicans, Wojnarowski adds in a separate tweet. (Twitter links).
Williams, who played for the Hornets during the second half of last season, will provide insurance behind Kyrie Irving. The agreement will not deter the Cavaliers from trying to re-sign Matthew Dellavedova, Marc Stein of ESPN.com tweets.
A report last week indicated a deal between the Grizzlies and Williams was close but it was later denied. The Cavs had their $3.376MM taxpayer’s mid-level to spend. They will have $1.3MM of it left over, Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com tweets.
The 32-year-old Williams, who began last season with the Timberwolves, gives Cleveland scoring punch off the bench and could also start if Irving’s kneecap injury does not heal in time for the start of the regular season. Williams averaged 17.2 points and 6.0 assists in 27 games with the Hornets.
2015 Offseason Trades
A major part of the craziness of NBA player movement during the summer involves trades, and the 2015 offseason has certainly been no exception. Our Free Agent Tracker runs down the signings that have taken place this summer, but it doesn’t cover trades, so that’s where this post comes in. As we did with last year’s offseason trades and the in-season swaps from 2014/15, we’ll be keeping track of all of the trades from this summer as they become official, updating this post with each transaction.
You can see the full picture of the movement across the NBA landscape this summer using this post, the free agent tracker and our list of the 2015 draft pick signings. For up-to-the-minute news on trades as well as other roster moves as the offseason continues, download our free iOS or Android app or follow our transactions-only feeds via RSS and Twitter.
Trades are listed here in reverse chronological order, with the latest on top. So, if a player has been traded multiple times (as often happens with draft picks), the first team listed as having acquired him is the one that ended up with him. For more details on each trade, click the date above it. Note that this list only includes trade agreements that have become official, so agreed-upon deals, like the David Lee swap and the Sixers/Kings trade, won’t be included until they’re finalized.
- The Warriors get Jason Thompson.
- The Sixers get Gerald Wallace, cash, and the right to swap the less favorable of Miami’s 2016 first-round pick and Oklahoma City’s 2016 first-round pick with Golden State’s 2016 first-round pick.
- The Trail Blazers get Brendan Haywood, Mike Miller, the more favorable of the Lakers’ 2019 second-round pick and Minnesota’s 2019 second-round pick, and Cleveland’s 2020 second-round pick.
- The Cavaliers get $75K cash.
- The Magic get Shabazz Napier and cash.
- The Heat get Orlando’s 2016 second-round pick (top-55 protected).
- The Celtics get David Lee.
- The Warriors get Gerald Wallace and Chris Babb.
- The Celtics get Zoran Dragic, Miami’s 2020 second-round pick and $1.5MM cash.
- The Heat get Boston’s 2019 second-round pick (top-55 protected).
- The Pacers get the rights to Rakeem Christmas.
- The Cavaliers get the Lakers’ 2019 second-round pick.
- The Rockets get Ty Lawson and a 2017 second-round pick.
- The Nuggets get Kostas Papanikolaou, Pablo Prigioni, Joey Dorsey, Nick Johnson, Houston’s 2016 first-round pick (lottery protected) and $440K cash.
- The Trail Blazers get Maurice Harkless.
- The Magic get Portland’s 2020 second-round pick (top-55 protected).
- The Celtics get Perry Jones III, Detroit’s 2019 second-round pick and $1.5MM cash.
- The Thunder get Boston’s 2018 second-round pick (top-55 protected).
- The Pistons get Steve Blake.
- The Nets get Quincy Miller.
- The Pacers get Chase Budinger.
- The Timberwolves get Damjan Rudez.
- The Sixers get Jason Thompson, Carl Landry, Nik Stauskas, Sacramento’s 2018 first-round pick (top-1o protected) and the right to swap first-round picks in 2016 and 2017.
- The Kings get the rights to Arturas Gudaitis and the rights to Luka Mitrovic.
- The Mavericks get Zaza Pachulia.
- The Bucks get Dallas’ 2018 second-round pick (top-55 protected).
- The Lakers get Roy Hibbert.
- The Pacers get the Lakers’ 2019 second-round pick.
- The Wizards get Jared Dudley.
- The Bucks get Washington’s 2020 second-round pick (top-55 protected).
- The Spurs get Ray McCallum.
- The Kings get San Antonio’s 2016 second-round pick.
- The Knicks get Kyle O’Quinn (sign-and-trade).
- The Magic get the right to swap 2019 second-round picks and cash.
- The Pistons get Marcus Morris, Reggie Bullock and Danny Granger.
- The Suns get Detroit’s 2020 second-round pick.
- The Hawks get Tiago Splitter.
- The Spurs get the rights to Georgios Printezis and Atlanta’s 2017 second-round pick (top-55 protected).
- The Raptors get Luke Ridnour and $250K cash.
- The Thunder get the rights to Tomislav Zubcic.
- The Clippers get 2015 No. 56 pick (Branden Dawson).
- The Pelicans get $630K cash.
- The Trail Blazers get No. 54 pick (Daniel Diez).
- The Jazz get cash.
- The Suns get Jon Leuer.
- The Grizzlies get 2015 No. 44 pick (Andrew Harrison).
- The Trail Blazers get Mason Plumlee and 2015 No. 41 pick (Pat Connaughton).
- The Nets get Steve Blake and 2015 No. 23 pick (Rondae Hollis-Jefferson).
- The Knicks get 2015 No. 35 pick (Guillermo Hernangomez).
- The Sixers get New York’s 2020 second-round pick, New York’s 2021 second-round pick, and cash.
- The Hawks get Tim Hardaway Jr.
- The Knicks get 2015 No. 19 pick (Jerian Grant).
- The Nets get 2015 pick No. 39 (Juan Vaulet).
- The Hornets get Brooklyn’s 2019 second-round pick, the less favorable of Brooklyn’s and Cleveland’s 2018 second-round picks, and $880K cash.
- The Timberwolves get 2015 pick No. 24 (Tyus Jones).
- The Cavaliers get 2015 pick No. 31 (Cedi Osman), 2015 pick No. 36 (Rakeem Christmas) and Minnesota’s 2019 second-round pick.
- The Wizards get 2015 pick No. 15 (Kelly Oubre).
- The Hawks get 2015 pick No. 19 (Jerian Grant), Washington’s 2016 second-round pick and Washington’s 2019 second-round pick.
- The Bucks get Greivis Vasquez.
- The Raptors get the Clippers’ 2017 first-round pick (lottery protected) and 2015 pick No. 46 (Norman Powell).
- The Hornets get Jeremy Lamb.
- The Thunder get Luke Ridnour and Charlotte’s 2016 second-round pick (bottom-five protected).
- The Grizzlies get Matt Barnes.
- The Hornets get Luke Ridnour.
- The Hornets get Nicolas Batum.
- The Trail Blazers get Noah Vonleh and Gerald Henderson.
- The Grizzlies get Luke Ridnour.
- The Magic get the rights to Janis Timma.
- The Clippers get Lance Stephenson.
- The Hornets get Matt Barnes and Spencer Hawes.
- The Pistons get Ersan Ilyasova.
- The Bucks get Caron Butler and Shawne Williams.
Trade archives:
Northwest Rumors: Kanter, Aldridge, Matthews
Thunder GM Sam Presti said shortly before receiving official notice of Portland’s max offer sheet to Enes Kanter that he intended to match any offer for him and had planned in advance for the sort of offer sheet to which the Trail Blazers signed the big man, as Presti told The Oklahoman’s Anthony Slater. Presti added that Kanter, during a meeting with the Thunder on Tuesday, had expressed a desire to remain in Oklahoma City. The Thunder have until Sunday to follow through and exercise their right to pull their prize trade deadline acquisition back to OKC. Here’s more from around the Northwest Division:
- Other teams simply weren’t interested in doing sign-and-trades for LaMarcus Aldridge and Wesley Matthews, according to Blazers GM Neil Olshey, as Mike Tokito of The Oregonian relays (on Twitter). Aldridge and Matthews have officially signed outright with the Spurs and Mavericks, respectively.
- Olshey also said that an extension for Meyers Leonard was a subject of discussion but made it clear that he wants the former lottery pick around for the long term, Tokito tweets. It’s unclear if the Blazers are having internal conversations about an extension or have begun talks with Leonard’s reps at the Creative Artists Agency. The sides have until October 31st to sign a rookie scale extension or Leonard will be set for restricted free agency next summer.
- The Blazers renounced their Non-Bird rights to Alonzo Gee, among other players who’ve since signed elsewhere or have already retired, notes Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link).
- The Jazz have arranged to pay the maximum $625K toward the buyout of draft-and-stash prospect Tibor Pleiss from his contract with Barcelona of Spain, as José Ignacio Huguet of Mundo Deportivo reports (translation via Rick Saldaña; hat tip to Aaron Falk of The Salt Lake Tribune). Pleiss traveled to Utah and engaged in contract talks with the Jazz, though his trip ended before a deal could be struck, notes Jody Genessy of the Deseret News (Twitter link). Still, Pleiss and the Jazz maintain mutual interest, according to Genessy (on Twitter).
Southeast Notes: Dragic, White, Hawks
All five Southeast Division teams made official moves Thursday. Check out our transactions log for a full recap of the first day following the July Moratorium. Here’s more from around the division:
- Goran Dragic never spoke with other teams during his free agency, tweets Jason Lieser of The Palm Beach Post. Dragic wanted to remain in Miami and believes in team president Pat Riley and coach Erik Spoelstra, Lieser adds, and he was willing to give the Heat a discount to make it happen. “I could get more [money], but it doesn’t matter,” Dragic said, as Lieser relays (Twitter links). “The most important thing is that I’m happy, and I’m happy to be here and surrounded with all the coaches and all the players. I don’t want to be miserable on the court.”
- The Wizards could receive an outside shooting boost this season from Aaron White, whom the team selected with the No. 49 overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft, writes Ben Standig of CSNWashington.com. Speaking about being drafted by Washington, White said, “I love this fit for me. Their style fits in my style. It should be a good match.“
- The Hawks renounced their rights to Elton Brand and John Jenkins to clear cap space Thursday for their flurry of official moves, tweets Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. They also renounced DeMarre Carroll and Pero Antic, who’ve signed elsewhere, and Gustavo Ayon, whose rights they’d retained even though he signed a multiyear deal overseas this past September.
Eddie Scarito contributed to this post.
Wizards Sign Kelly Oubre
11:59pm: The Wizards have yet to make an official announcement, but the RealGM transactions log indicates that the signing has taken place.
4:55pm: The Wizards have reached an agreement with Kelly Oubre on a rookie-scale contract, Shams Charania of RealGM reports (Twitter link). Washington acquired the rights to Oubre in a draft night trade with the Hawks.
The 19-year-old swingman out of Kansas will likely earn close to $1.920MM this season, the first of his four-year rookie scale contract, assuming he signed for the standard 120% of the rookie scale, as our table of likely salaries for first-round picks shows. Oubre would then be in line to make $2,006,640 in 2016/17, $2,093,040 the following season, and $3,208,630 in the final year.
Oubre appeared in 36 games as a freshman for the Jayhawks, averaging 9.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 1.1 steals, with a slash line of .444/.358/.718.
Western Notes: Aldridge, Chandler, Booker
Blazers executive Neil Olshey said the team found out LaMarcus Aldridge was signing with the Spurs after his second meeting with San Antonio on July 3rd, Mike Tokito of The Oregonian writes. Olshey also took offense to the suggestion that he and the Blazers were trying to hide Aldridge’s pending departure from fans and the media, calling it “patently false,” Tokito adds. “More than anything, what was the upside to lying? What? What did we buy? Five days of peace? I can guarantee you there was no peace,” Olshey said. “What was our motivation to lie for 96 hours? It wasn’t like there was some big season ticket holder push during that 96 hours. There wasn’t some sponsorship that was up, it wasn’t that we were recruiting some other free agents that were only going to come if LaMarcus was going to be here.”
Here’s more out of the Western Conference:
- Olshey also fielded questions regarding whether or not the team considered trading Aldridge last season, Tokito tweets. The GM relayed that it would have been extremely difficult to trade Aldridge in final year of his contract, and that teams wouldn’t be willing to deal for the forward without knowing if he’d re-sign with them, Tokito adds.
- The Mavericks have expressed interest in former Wizards big man Kevin Seraphin, Michael Scotto of SheridanHoops reports (Twitter link).
- The Suns are thrilled with their signing of center Tyson Chandler to a free agent deal, Matt Petersen of NBA.com writes. “The first thing I think of when I think of Tyson Chandler is a winner and winning,” GM Ryan McDonough said. “His teams in New York won a lot. His teams in Dallas won a lot, including a championship. The World Championship [with USA Basketball] in Istanbul when I was there five years ago won the gold. He’s always won everywhere he’s gone.”
- The Blazers have promoted Jim Moran to assistant coach to replace the recently fired Kim Hughes, Joe Freeman of The Oregonian tweets.
- The Jazz are likely to keep Trevor Booker on the roster for next season, Tony Jones of The Salt Lake Tribune relays (on Twitter). Only $250k of the $4,775,000 Booker is set to earn in 2015/16 is guaranteed.
Raptors Seek Extensions With Valanciunas, Ross
The Raptors will work to sign Jonas Valanciunas and Terrence Ross to rookie scale extensions before the October 31st deadline to do so, reports Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun (Twitter link). The team sees it as a matter of paying now versus paying later, but that they’re willing to pay at all beyond this coming season, the last on the contracts for both, is noteworthy, particularly for Ross. Toronto earlier today signed DeMarre Carroll to a four-year, $60MM contract, further crowding the team’s wing positions, where DeMar DeRozan occupies the starting two guard spot.
Toronto reportedly listened to trade offers for Ross this past season and apparently gave thought to trading Valanciunas, too. Ross suffered a regression this past season, his third since becoming the eighth overall pick in 2012, averaging fewer points and minutes per game than he did in his sophomore campaign. His three-point shooting percentage also dipped. Valanciunas saw his playing time decrease slightly, too, but he still upped his scoring average, an efficiency shown in his 20.6 PER.
Eric Koreen of the National Post suggested this spring that it was likely that Toronto would explore an extension for Valanciunas, and indeed it appears that’s what GM Masai Ujiri intends to do with the Leon Rose client. Ujiri affirmed his commitment to the big man at the end of this past season, calling him “a huge part of our team” going forward, and the organization seemed to pin the slow development of the former No. 5 overall pick on the team’s staff of assistant coaches, which has since undergone changes.
The early read on DeRozan is that he’ll probably opt out next summer, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe recently wrote, so an extension for Ross, an Aaron Mintz client, would provide insurance in case DeRozan bolts. Ross and Valanciunas would be set for restricted free agency a year from now if the Raptors don’t sign them to extensions.
Atlantic Notes: Celtics, Hackett, Nets
The Celtics‘ primary goal this season will be to make he franchise as attractive as possible to free agents hitting the market during next Summer, A. Sherrod Blakely of CSNNE.com writes. With the team expected to have approximately $40MM to spend on free agents in 2016, the team has to develop its young core enough to convince big names like Kevin Durant that they can win in Beantown, Blakely adds.
Here’s more out of the Atlantic Division:
- Euro guard Daniel Hackett will work out for the Knicks in Las Vegas, David Pick of Eurobasket relays (Twitter links). Hackett, who is also on the radar of the Mavs and Rockets, was offered a contract by the Greek club Olympiacos, but the 27-year-old wants to explore his NBA opportunities before heading back overseas, Pick adds.
- Nets GM Billy King‘s first two calls when the free agent signing period began were to Shane Larkin and Thomas Robinson, Rod Boone of Newsday tweets. Both players officially signed with Brooklyn today.
- When King was asked if he expected Deron Williams and Joe Johnson to remain on the Nets‘ roster, he responded, “at this point, yes,” Boone tweets. King also indicated that the reports of the team trying to deal Johnson have been exaggerated, Boone adds.
- The Knicks are still in contact with the representatives for Alexey Shved, Cole Aldrich and Louis Amundson, Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com tweets.
- The Nets will still look to add another big man to the roster, King indicated, but the team wants to get as close to, if not under, the luxury tax line as it can, Mike Mazzeo of ESPN.com relays (via Twitter).
Heat Sign Gerald Green
8:56pm: The signing is official, the Heat announced. “We are fortunate to be able sign a proven veteran like Gerald,” said team president Pat Riley. “He is a dynamic talent who possesses great athleticism, and has the ability to shoot from distance and spread the floor. He’ll be a perfect complement to our team.”
8:28am: It’ll be a minimum-salary contract, reports Ken Berger of CBSSports.com (Twitter link). The Mavericks had been interested before their deal with DeAndre Jordan fell apart, Berger adds.
8:02am: The Heat will sign Gerald Green to a one-year deal, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (on Twitter). Miami has its $3.376MM taxpayer’s mid-level exception at its disposal if Green is getting more than the minimum.
Green departs from the Suns, which is no shock after agent Kevin Bradbury took coach Jeff Hornacek to task this past spring in response to Hornacek’s criticism of Green’s defense. The swingman nonetheless seemed open to a return. The Clippers had interest and expressed that to Green’s camp, but with DeAndre Jordan coming back and Paul Pierce in the fold, L.A. has only the minimum to spend. Green seemed likely to pursue a deal approaching $5MM a year, though he’s unable to get quite that much from the Heat.
The Heat will still meet today with Marcus Thornton, who also ended last season with the Suns, in spite of their agreement with Green, reports Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald (Twitter link). Still, it’s tough to see Miami signing both, Jackson tweets, particularly since the Heat are already short on roster space, as Jason Lieser of the Palm Beach Post notes (on Twitter).
Jazz Sign Raul Neto
8:47pm: The deal is for three years and $2.8MM, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports tweets.
THURSDAY, 8:18pm: The Jazz have officially signed Neto to a multiyear contract, the team announced. The exact length and amount of the agreement were not released.
TUESDAY, 11:04am: Jazz draft-and-stash prospect Raul Neto isn’t expected to return to Murcia of Spain and will instead sign with Utah, his coach told David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). It’s unclear if the Jazz and the 23-year-old have agreed to terms, but Neto traveled to Utah this weekend and he and the team were to discuss their future, as Jody Genessy of the Deseret News details, and he was already wearing team gear as of last night, Genessy tweets.
The 6’1″ Neto is speedy, with a high basketball IQ, but his outside shooting is poor, according to Pick (Twitter link). The native of Brazil nailed just 20.5% of his three-pointers this past season in Spain, and he averaged 8.9 points, 3.9 assists and 2.7 turnovers in 22.4 minutes per game.
The Jazz originally acquired his rights via trade in 2013, the day after the Hawks drafted him 47th overall. His contract with Murcia was to run though 2017, but it would appear as though the deal includes NBA out clauses. It’s unclear how much cost, if any, would be involved in a buyout from the Spanish team.
Utah has plenty of cap flexibility, even if the wake of its two-year, $4.5MM deal with Joe Ingles. The Jazz entered July with only about $49MM in guaranteed salary. They’ve also reportedly been in talks with draft-and-stash center Tibor Pleiss.