Shelvin Mack Signs Two-Year Deal With Magic
JULY 9, 12:22: The deal is official, according to a tweet from the Magic.
JULY 7, 6:51pm: The Magic are finalizing a deal with free agent guard Shelvin Mack, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets. The two-year pact is said to be worth $12MM, at an even $6MM per year (according to Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune).
In 55 games for the Jazz last season, Mack posted 7.8 points per game, a far cry from the 12.7 he put up in ten extra minutes the year prior.
Over the course of a six-year career, Mack has established himself as a solid backup guard capable of playing both the one and the two. In Orlando he’ll fit in well behind Elfrid Payton, perhaps sharing spot starter duties with D.J. Augustin.
The move could signal that C.J. Watson, the team’s other point guard option, could be waived in the coming days. Watson’s deal isn’t guaranteed for 2017/18 if Orlando waives him prior to July 10, as is laid out in our official NBA Salary Guarantee Dates list.
Sixers Notes: Fultz, Redick, Johnson, Korkmaz
Rookie point guard Markelle Fultz has been diagnosed with a sprained left ankle after being helped off the court in Saturday’s summer league game, tweets Marc J. Spears of ESPN.com. Fultz will be held out of today’s contest and may not play again during summer league. “We will treat him accordingly and be as cautious as we can, making sure he is healthy,” Sixers summer league coach Lloyd Pierce told ESPN Saturday night. “We will know [more] once we get some treatment on him. I haven’t heard anything [more].” Phliadelphia has experienced terrible injury luck with high draft picks in recent years as Ben Simmons missed all of last season and Joel Embiid has played just 31 games in three years. “I’m a little bit punch-drunk with the injuries that we’ve had with our first players selected over the years,” said head coach Brett Brown.
There’s more news out of Philadelphia:
- The Sixers officially added two veteran leaders Saturday with the signings of J.J. Redick and Amir Johnson, relays Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. “I think I can speak for Amir as well,” Redick said. “We are in the second phase of our career. We’ve been through enough now and have enough wisdom that we can be an effective elder.” The new additions will have important roles on the court as well. Redick, who averaged 15.8 points per game and shot 44% from 3-point range during his four years with the Clippers, is expected to provide a boost to the team’s outside shooting. Johnson will be counted on to solidify the interior defense.
- Furkan Korkmaz is getting his first taste of NBA play in the summer league, writes Benjamin Mehic of The Deseret News. The Sixers believe the 19-year-old Turkish guard, who signed with the team this week, has the talent to eventually become an important contributor. “I think the thing people should zoom in on is how he moves,” said assistant coach Billy Lange. “If you watch his fluidity, his pace, skill and feel for the game, you can see the package. The results will come. The guy just flew across the country. Hopefully he gets more comfortable so we can get him in our gym and get back to work.”
- The Sixers are also high on Jonah Bolden, a second-round pick from 2016, Mehic adds. Being groomed as a stretch four, Bolden spent last season in Serbia trying to improve as a shooter.
- Embiid was fined $10,000 by the league on Saturday for “using inappropriate language on social media,” tweets Jessica Camerato of CSNPhilly. Embiid’s message was directed at Lonzo Ball‘s father, LaVar.
Nets Notes: Carroll, Free Agents, Aldrich, Draft Pick
Brooklyn GM Sean Marks got Raptors president Masai Ujiri to sweeten the deal involving DeMarre Carroll as they talked during Saturday’s games at the Las Vegas Summer League, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Toronto’s original offer involved just Carroll and a first-round pick, but Marks was able to convince Ujiri to send along a second-rounder and take back the $3MM contract of Justin Hamilton.
The deal provides needed cap relief for the Raptors, while giving the Nets a replacement for Otto Porter after the Wizards announced their intention to match Brooklyn’s four-year, $106.5MM offer sheet. The trade may not be finalized before Thursday while the Nets wait for the Wizards to conduct Porter’s physical and report the results to the league.
There’s more today out of Brooklyn:
- With nearly $17MM left in cap space along with a $4.3MM room exception, the Nets will move on to other targets in free agency, Lewis adds. They were believed to be interested in Pistons’ guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, but the Carroll trade prevents them from making a max offer. Caldwell-Pope turned down $80MM over five years from Detroit, but his options may be limited now as fewer teams have cap room to work with. Other possibilities for Brooklyn are C.J. Miles, Dewayne Dedmon, Nikola Mirotic or another restricted free agent in JaMychal Green. Coach Kenny Atkinson sees the value in having an older player around. “I do think [Marks and I] both agree that we don’t want to go in with a totally young roster,” he said. “We do need that veteran support. If it’s the right position where somebody can help us, it’s definitely something [to consider].”
- Saturday’s deal may end the Timberwolves’ hopes of getting the Nets to take on Cole Aldrich’s salary, Lewis notes in the same piece. Minnesota wants to unload Aldrich, who will make $7.3MM in the upcoming season and nearly $6.9MM in 2018/19, to create enough cap room to sign Miles. However, Marks wouldn’t agree to the deal unless the Wolves threw in Oklahoma City’s 2018 first-rounder.
- The second-rounder the Nets will receive in the Carroll deal will probably be the lower of the Magic or Lakers picks, according to a tweet from NetsDaily. Brooklyn already has the rights to the Pacers’ 2018 second-rounder if Indiana misses the playoffs.
Luis Scola Signs With Chinese Team
Veteran forward Luis Scola will play in China next season, according to a tweet from Sportando. The 37-year-old has signed a contract with the Shanxi Brave Dragons in the Chinese Basketball Association.
A 10-year NBA veteran, Scola played 36 games for the Nets last season, averaging 5.1 points and 3.9 rebounds in about 13 minutes per night. He was waived by Brooklyn on February 27th.
An Argentinian star and a veteran of international basketball, Scola was part of the gold-medal winners at the 2004 Summer Olympics. He also played for the Rockets, Suns, Pacers and Raptors.
Knicks Talking To David Griffin About GM Role
The Knicks have begun preliminary talks with David Griffin about becoming the team’s next GM, according to Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN.com.
The former Cavaliers GM had dinner with team executive Steve Mills on Friday and is expected to meet with owner James Dolan soon. If the Knicks hire Griffin, he will take over day-to-day basketball operations, with Mills moving into the president’s role that was formerly held by Phil Jackson.
However, the Knicks are reportedly opposed to letting Griffin bring in the front office staff he had in Cleveland. New York has an entrenched staff that has been in place for years, and the team is reluctant to make widespread changes, according to the ESPN authors. Sources tell them that Griffin may not accept the job if it means working with an inherited front office.
Griffin had a successful track record in Cleveland, where he served as GM for three years and constructed a championship roster. He was let go at the end of June after his contract expired.
The Knicks are hoping to revamp their roster and are concentrating on players 25 and younger. Their latest move, signing Tim Hardaway Jr. for $71MM over four years, was orchestrated by Mills, according to Wojnarowski and Shelburne.
Bulls Pull Qualifying Offer For Joffrey Lauvergne
The Bulls have rescinded their qualifying offer to Joffrey Lauvergne, tweets Shams Charania of The Vertical. The move makes him an unrestricted free agent, and Charania notes that several teams are already expressing interest.
The qualifying offer was $2,137,149 and Lauvergne had a $3,248,466 cap hold, so Chicago frees up a little bit of money by letting him go.
The Bulls acquired the third-year center/forward from Oklahoma City in a trade at the February deadline. He played 20 games with Chicago, averaging 4.5 points and 3.4 rebounds in about 12 minutes per night.
Lauvergne was selected by Memphis with the 55th pick in 2013 and was traded to Denver on draft night. He spent two years with the Nuggets before being dealt to the Thunder in 2016. He earned a little more than $1.7MM last season.
Hoops Rumors Originals: 7/1/17 – 7/8/17
Every week, the Hoops Rumors writing team compiles original content to complement our news feed. Here are some of our favorite segments and features from the past seven days:
- Here are our daily recaps from this week’s hectic opening of the free agency period:
- Click here to learn about our Free Agent Tracker and find the FA tracker itself.
- Luke Adams compiled a list of the 2017 NBA Draft Pick Signings to date.
- Adams broke down what the end of the July moratorium means.
- Here were the top free agents still available as of July 5. Many of the players on the list have since found NBA homes, but you can check out our up-to-date list of free agents right here.
- Adams generously offered his Thursday to answer our readers’ questions on free agency, trades, and more. Check out the chat transcript.
- Check out our free Trade Rumors app available for IOS and Android.
- Here are the questions we asked you in our Polls and Community Shootarounds this week:
- Which team will sign Gordon Hayward? More than 43 percent of nearly 4,000 voters correctly predicted the Celtics.
- How would you assess the Lakers‘ future? Will this season mark the beginning of the next Lakers dynasty or will it simply be yet another rebuilding year?
- Where should Kentavious Caldwell-Pope end up in free agency and what kind of contract should he receive?
Wizards Match Offer Sheet For Otto Porter
The Wizards announced they will match the Nets’ four-year, $106.5MM offer to Otto Porter, tweets Candace Buckner of The Washington Post. Porter still has to pass a physical before the move becomes official, notes David Aldridge of TNT (Twitter link).
Washington had until 11pm Central to decide on the offer sheet, so the Wizards beat the deadline by about two hours. They had vowed to match any offer, even as Porter was negotiating with other teams.
The new contract will make Porter the team’s highest-paid player next season with a $24.8MM salary, Buckner notes. It also pushes Washington above the luxury tax line for the first time ever.
The Wizards have $126.5MM in salary committed for the upcoming season with 13 guaranteed contracts and two non-guaranteed, along with an $11.4MM tax bill, posts Bobby Marks on ESPN Now.
The Nets’ offer to Porter includes a 15% trade kicker and a player option for the fourth year, along with a provision stating that Porter will receive half of his annual salary by October 1st of each year.
By matching, Washington brings backs a key piece of last season’s roster, as Porter appeared in 80 games, all as a starter, and averaged 13.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per night. He has been with the franchise since being taken with the third pick in the 2013 draft and has been a regular starter for the past two seasons.
For the Nets, it’s the latest in a string of misses in restricted free agency. Over the past 12 months, Brooklyn has submitted offer sheets to Allen Crabbe, Tyler Johnson, Donatas Motiejunas and Porter, and all were matched by their current teams.
Tonight’s decision won’t free up the Nets’ cap room right away. Porter has two days to undergo the team physical, then the Wizards have two more days to report the results to the league. So it’s possible that Brooklyn’s cap situation will not be resolved before Wednesday. Brooklyn will have $28.3MM once the process is complete, Marks posts.
Bucks Sign Jalen Moore As Two-Way Player
The Bucks have signed Jalen Moore to a two-way contract, the team announced on its website.
A 6’8″ forward out of Utah State, Moore was a second team All-Mountain West selection after averaging 17.0 points and 5.5 rebounds during his senior season. He was a 38.3 shooter from 3-point range during his four years with the Aggies.
Under the new collective bargaining agreement, teams can have two-way players on their roster at any time, in addition to their regular 15-man roster. Moore will spend most of the season with Milwaukee’s new G League affiliate, the Wisconsin Herd, and will be limited to 45 days with the Bucks from the time G League training camp opens until the end of the Herd’s season.
Moore is currently playing for the Bucks’ entry in the Las Vegas Summer League.
On Thursday, Milwaukee signed Bronson Koenig of Wisconsin as its other two-way player.
Cavaliers Notes: Crawford, Osman, Lue, Green
The Cavaliers weren’t able to get into a bidding war for Jamal Crawford because they need to keep enough money to sign Cedi Osman, writes Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. Cleveland is well over the cap for the upcoming season and wasn’t willing to give Crawford its entire $5.192MM taxpayer mid-level exception. The Cavs will need at least $816K to sign Osman, who has a $1MM buyout with his Turkish team. Crawford will reportedly sign a two-year, $8.9MM deal with the Timberwolves once he clears waivers. Vardon wrote on Friday that the Cavaliers were the favorites to land Crawford, but the Osman negotiations apparently changed that situation.
There’s more news out of Cleveland:
- Coach Tyronn Lue stayed out of negotiations involving former GM David Griffin and front office recruit Chauncey Billups, Vardon writes in a separate piece. “You know how it affects me, he gave me my job,” was Lue’s only response to a question about Griffin at Friday’s summer league game. It was Griffin’s decision to fire David Blatt and replace him with Lue midway through the 2015/16 championship season. A few months after that title, Griffin rewarded Lue with a five-year, $35MM contract. Griffin could have been replaced by Billups, a close friend of Lue, but he turned down a below-market offer reported at $2MM per year. “Any time you get the chance to advance, be the president and GM, it’s always something great,” Lue said. “I know it’s something he always wanted to do. But I just kind of stayed out of the situation because I was so close to Griff, so close to Chauncey, so I didn’t want anything to do with it.”
- The Cavs don’t seem worried about Jeff Green‘s drop in production last season, writes Marla Ridenour of The Akron Beacon Journal. They signed the 10-year veteran to a one-year, $2.3MM contract on Friday, with ESPN reporting that LeBron James had “active conversations” with Green before the deal was reached. Green has been with four teams in the past three seasons, and averaged just 9.2 points and 3.1 rebounds with the Magic last year, the lowest figures of his career in both categories.
- Cleveland is limited is what it can offer, but Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com put together a list of seven free agents who might be willing to take a little less to join a team that has been to three straight finals. He names Thabo Sefolosha, Tony Allen, Gerald Henderson, Luc Mbah a Moute, C.J. Miles, Rodney Stuckey and Dewayne Dedmon.