Kings Sign Harry Giles To Rookie Contract
The Kings have officially signed 2017 first-round pick Harry Giles to his first NBA contract, according to the league’s transactions log. Sacramento has not yet issued a formal announcement on Giles’ deal, and may be waiting for fellow first-rounders De’Aaron Fox and Justin Jackson to sign on the dotted line as well.
Giles, the 20th overall pick in this year’s draft, was viewed a probable lottery pick based on talent alone, but his history of knee problems made him a risky pick. The Kings, who traded down from No. 10 to grab the 15th and 20th overall picks, had already made two selections in Fox and Jackson before drafting Giles, so he was a worthwhile gamble for the franchise.
Giles’ rookie deal with Sacramento figures to be worth $1.859MM in year one, and $10.622MM over four years, as our chart of this year’s rookie scale salaries shows.
Less than one third of 2017’s first-rounders remain unsigned.
NBA’s July Moratorium Ends Today
The NBA’s July moratorium will end on Thursday at 11:00 am central time, allowing teams to conduct official business beginning today. The July moratorium is the period from July 1 to July 6 when teams are permitted to agree to trades and free agent contracts, but can’t yet formally finalize them.
[RELATED: 2017 NBA Free Agent Tracker]
There are a number of types of deals that can be finalized during the moratorium, as we’ve seen this week. Teams can sign first-round picks to their rookie contracts, two-way contracts can be made official, and players signing minimum salary contracts can also finalize those deals. Restricted free agents are also permitted to sign offer sheets during the moratorium, though only one player – Otto Porter – has agreed to an offer sheet this week, and he hasn’t yet made it official with the Nets.
Although the end of the moratorium signals the beginning of official business for many teams, those teams aren’t obligated to immediately finalize deals reached during the moratorium. For instance, if the Celtics still haven’t found a taker for Jae Crowder, Avery Bradley, or Marcus Smart by 11:00 am CT today, it’s not as if their deal with Gordon Hayward will fall apart — Boston can take as much time as it needs to get its cap in order before making Hayward’s deal official, though I’m sure the team won’t want to drag out the process too long.
In some cases, trades that were agreed to in June before the new league year began still need to be officially finalized too. The Thunder‘s acquisition of Paul George from the Pacers is the most notable outstanding trade. However, a pair of draft-day deals involving the Sixers still need to be made official as well.
Philadelphia sold the 39th and 46th overall selections, but the team had reached its limit for cash received during the 2016/17 league year, so the Clippers and Bucks, respectively, agreed to postpone those deals until 2017/18, when the Sixers’ cash-received limit for the year will reset to $5.1MM.
[RELATED: 2017 NBA Offseason Trades]
Once the moratorium lifts, we’ll be updating our stories of contract and trade agreements to reflect when they become official. For top headlines from the last week, like the deals for Hayward, Paul Millsap, Blake Griffin, and other big-name free agents, we’ll bump those stories to the top of the site so you don’t miss news of them becoming official. However, since we don’t want to bury new news amidst confirmation of old news, our stories on smaller deals won’t be moved to the top of our feed unless there are new developments or details.
Timberwolves Sign Justin Patton To Rookie Deal
The Timberwolves have officially signed first-round pick Justin Patton to his rookie contract, the team announced in a press release. The move was made official earlier this week.
Patton, the 16th overall pick in this year’s draft, was part of a trade that sent Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn, and the No. 7 pick (Lauri Markkanen) to Chicago. Patton arrived in Minnesota along with Jimmy Butler as part of that blockbuster deal.
Unfortunately, Patton’s pro career didn’t get off to a great start. The former Creighton center won’t be participating in Summer League with the club, having suffered a foot fracture during a workout, the Wolves announced on Tuesday. Patton underwent surgery to repair a broken fifth metatarsal in his left foot and will be sidelined indefinitely, per the team.
As our breakdown of this year’s rookie scale salaries shows, Patton’s four-year deal with Minnesota will be worth about $12.81MM, with a first-year salary just shy of $2.25MM.
Eastern Rumors: Ellington, Haslem, Smart, Hawks
The belief among Heat players is that Wayne Ellington will be back with the team next season, tweets Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. Ellington is a candidate to be released within the next 48 hours or so, since his $6.27MM salary for 2017/18 – currently non-guaranteed – will become fully guaranteed if he remains under contract.
Even if the Heat ultimately decide that they need to waive Ellington to create some extra cap room for another move, that doesn’t necessarily rule out his return — the team could eventually re-sign him to a deal worth the $4.3MM room exception, if he’s open to accepting a pay cut.
Here’s more from around the Eastern Conference:
- Reynolds provides another Heat-related tidbit, tweeting that Udonis Haslem is on the Cavaliers‘ radar. Haslem, who has spent his entire career in Miami, wants to stay with the Heat, and that looks like the most probable outcome. But a conversation between Haslem and the Cavs is likely, per Reynolds.
- On Wednesday, an ESPN report indicated that the Celtics had called the Knicks about Marcus Smart, but New York’s level of interest in Smart was unclear. Following up on that story, Marc Berman of The New York Post reports that the Knicks do indeed have interest in Smart and are considering trade options as a way of filling part or all of their remaining cap space.
- Italian forward Nicolo Melli received a contract offer from the Hawks, according to international basketball journalist David Pick (Twitter link). However, Pick reports that Melli has turned down that offer and will sign a multiyear pact with Fenerbahce in Turkey. Per Sportando (Twitter link), Melli’s new deal isn’t done yet, but will be within a few days.
- The Raptors are the latest team to line up a deal to add a sponsored patch to their jersey, according to TSN’s Rick Westhead, who reports that Toronto has signed a three-year agreement with insurance company Sun Life Financial. The deal will pay Raptors ownership more than $5MM annually, sources tell Westhead. The list of NBA clubs that have agreed to jersey sponsorship deals can be found here.
JaVale McGee To Meet With Kings
Free agent center JaVale McGee continues to look for a new home and has lined up a meeting with the Kings for Thursday, according to Chris Haynes of ESPN.com (Twitter link).
Sacramento has already been active during the free agent period, striking deals to sign George Hill and Zach Randolph. However, the Kings still have some cap room left over, creating the flexibility to outbid rival suitors for McGee if they so choose.
The Kings’ frontcourt currently includes Randolph, Willie Cauley-Stein, Georgios Papagiannis, Kosta Koufos, Skal Labissiere, and – when he gets healthy – Harry Giles. There’s no shortage of options there, but many are young, developing players, so if McGee were to sign in Sacramento, he’d likely have an opportunity to take on a bigger role than he had in Golden State.
A nine-year NBA veteran, McGee played a career-low 9.6 minutes per game for the Warriors last year, but his per-minute production skyrocketed in Golden State. The veteran center averaged a career-high 23.0 points per 36 minutes, and his .652 FG% was also easily the best of his career.
McGee has received interest so far from the Warriors and Clippers, so it appears he’s a good bet to stay out west.
Cavs Offered Chauncey Billups Below-Market Deal
The Cavaliers were unable to reach an agreement with Chauncey Billups to make the former point guard their new president of basketball operations and Marc J. Spears and Chris Haynes of ESPN.com report that a deal never consummated in part because the team gave Billups a low-ball offer.
Cleveland reportedly initially offered Billups an annual salary of $1.5MM. League sources tell the pair of ESPN scribes that $4MM is viewed as the typical starting point in negotiations for that type of role. The Cavs eventually raised the offer to $2MM per season, though it wasn’t enough to entice the 40-year-old. Koby Altman, who is the Cavs’ assistant GM, is currently in charge of team president responsibilities.
Billups has no prior experience on the management side, but he is considered around the league as a “future front-office star.” He recently said that he intends to pursue a front office role at some point in the future.
Knicks Not Expected To Make Any Win-Now Moves
Nearly every team within the Atlantic Division has been busy this offseason by either adding key pieces or retaining their own stars. The Knicks may be the division’s lone exception and a league source tells Adam Zagoria of FanRag that the team isn’t expected to make any moves with the short-term in mind.
“[They are] building around K.P.,” one league source tells Zagoria. “Cleaning up all of Phil’s win-now mistakes.”
The source added that the franchise is “trying to build the right way, not with over-the-hill, oft-injured players that fit an antiquated and unproductive system.” New York added several veterans last offseason with the hope of making the playoffs while running the triangle offense during the 2016/17 campaign.
This offseason, the team appears to be targeting players who are not past their primes. New York was interested in Dion Waiters before the shooting guard re-signed with the Heat and it reportedly reached out to Jonathan Simmons about bringing the small forward to the Big Apple.
The Knicks remain hopeful that it can deal Carmelo Anthony and if a deal materializes, it could signal that the team will tank during the upcoming campaign. However, a source tells Zagoria that we won’t see a dramatic tank project akin to Philadelphia’s scheme with Sam Hinkie. “It looks like a rebuild,” a second league source tells Zagoria. “I do not think that they need to tank because they are not going to be very good anyway.”
Jazz Sign Tony Bradley To Rookie Contract
Shortly after announcing that Donovan Mitchell has signed his rookie contract, the Jazz announced that they’ve also locked up their other 2017 first-round pick. According to a press release from the club, former UNC center Tony Bradley is officially under contract.
Utah clearly had its eye on Bradley on draft night, having traded the 30th and 42nd overall picks to the Lakers in order to move up to two spots and nab the 19-year-old big man with the No. 28 overall selection.
Bradley, who figures to be brought along slowly by the Jazz, will get a four-year deal worth a total of nearly $8.6MM, and will have a modest $1.415MM cap hit in year one. Our chart breaking down this year’s rookie scale has the full details on his annual salaries.
Teams are securing their first-round picks to contracts quickly this year, since cap holds for those first-rounders now count for 120% of the rookie scale instead of 100%, as they did under the old CBA. That leaves little incentive for clubs to wait to sign their first-rounders to 120% contracts.
Eighteen of 30 first-round picks from 2017’s draft have already signed NBA contracts.
Pacers Sign Edmond Sumner
The Pacers have signed Edmond Sumner, according to the team’s website. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but Scott Agness of Vigilant Sports hears (Twitter link) that the deal will be for two seasons and it will be the team’s first ever two-way contract.
Each team is allowed to sign two players to two-way deals, as our Two-Way Contracts Glossary page shows. Players under these contracts will spend most of their time in the G-League since they are only allowed to be with their NBA club for at most 45 days.
The Pelicans selected Sumner with the No. 52 overall selection in the 2017 draft before shipping his rights to Indiana for cash considerations. The Pacers came out of the draft with three prospects, having selected T.J. Leaf and Ike Anigbogu with its two original selections.
Sumner played three seasons for Xavier, scoring 14.3 points per game in his final season with the school. He added 4.8 assists and 1.2 steals per contest during his junior season.
Celtics Shopping Crowder, Smart, Bradley
In an effort to clear the cap room necessary to sign Gordon Hayward to his agreed-upon maximum salary contract, the Celtics have been discussing trades involving Jae Crowder, Marcus Smart, and Avery Bradley, sources tell Ramona Shelburne and Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. According to the ESPN duo, Boston has discussed “trade concepts” involving those players with at least six teams.
[RELATED: Gordon Hayward to sign with Celtics]
Based on the NBA’s previous salary cap projections, it appeared the Celtics would have enough cap flexibility to move a smaller contract, such as Terry Rozier‘s, in order to create maximum salary room. However, when the cap came in lower than expected, at about $99MM, it all but guaranteed that Boston would have to move one of Crowder, Smart, or Bradley to make a max deal work.
Smart and Bradley are each entering contract years, so Crowder would likely be the most valuable trade chip of the three players. Crowder is under contract for the next three years for a total of about $22MM, making him a bargain. He’s also part of a growing logjam at small forward in Boston, with Hayward joining recent top-three picks Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.
According to Jake Fischer of SI.com (Twitter link), the Celtics offered Crowder to late-lottery teams leading up to June’s draft, hoping to acquire a pick and a young player. If the team wasn’t able to land that sort of package then, it’s even less likely now, given Boston’s reduced leverage, but Crowder should still have solid value.
Per Ian Begley of ESPN.com, the Celtics reached out to the Knicks today about Smart, but New York’s level of interest is unclear.
In addition to making a trade, the Celtics will likely have to renounce all their free agents and perhaps part with Jordan Mickey and Demetrius Jackson to make room for Hayward.