Rawle Alkins Signs Two-Way Deal With Bulls
JULY 25: The Bulls have officially signed Alkins to a two-way contract, the team announced today in a press release.
JULY 22: The Bulls have agreed to a two-way deal with undrafted guard Rawle Alkins, tweets Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports. The Arizona product spent the past few weeks with the Raptors‘ Summer League team.
Toronto liked Alkins’ summer performance where he averaged 9.0 PPG, 4.7 RPG and 2.0 APG. The Raptors offered Alkins a camp invitation but he chose the deal with the higher guaranteed money, per TSN’s Josh Lewenberg.
As a two-way player, Alkins will spend most of his time with the Bulls’ G League affiliate, the Windy City Bulls. However, he is permitted to spend up to 45 days with the NBA team. The Bulls have the option to convert Alkins’ deal into a standard NBA deal if they choose.
In his sophomore season with the Wildcats, Alkins averaged 13.1 PPG, 4.8 RPG, and 2.5 APG. Entering the 2018 NBA Draft, Alkins was ranked as the 49th-best prospect on Jonathan Givony’s top-100 list at ESPN.com.
Pistons Sign Second-Rounder Khyri Thomas
The Pistons have signed second-round pick Khyri Thomas to his first NBA contract, according to the league’s official transactions log.
A shooting guard out of Creighton, Thomas projects has three-and-D potential at the NBA level. He averaged 15.1 PPG, 4.4 RPG, and 2.8 APG with a .538/.411/.788 shooting line during his final college season, then was selected 38th overall on draft night. The Pistons acquired the pick from the Sixers, sending two future second-rounders to Philadelphia for the right to draft Thomas.
While terms of the contract agreement aren’t yet known, Detroit still has a good chunk of its mid-level exception available and could use it to give Thomas a three- or four-year contract. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him receive a deal similar to the one signed by Bruce Brown, who was selected 42nd overall by the Pistons. Brown got a three-year, minimum-salary contract with two years guaranteed.
Assuming Thomas gets a guaranteed salary for 2018/19, that would give the Pistons 15 players on guaranteed NBA contracts. The team projects to be just slightly below the $123.73MM tax line, and would be hard-capped at $129.82MM if Thomas gets part of the mid-level.
Thomas had been the highest 2018 draft pick who remain unsigned. The top 42 picks are now locked up, as our tracker shows.
Southeast Notes: Wade, Winslow, Magic, Hawks
While word surfaced earlier this week that a team in the Chinese Basketball Association has offered Dwyane Wade a three-year contract worth $25MM, Rodney McGruder would like to see the future Hall-of-Famer stick with the Heat.
“I hope he stays with us,” McGruder said of his Heat teammate on Tuesday, per Manny Navarro of The Miami Herald. “That’s his personal decision, but I would love to have him back. … I’ve got a sense that he wants to play in the NBA [based off of] when he came back to play for us [at the February trade deadline] and the things that he showed in the playoffs.”
Although Wade hasn’t announced any decisions yet, international basketball reporter David Pick (Twitter link) is told that the rumblings linking Wade to China “aren’t as serious as advertised.”
According to Pick, the Zhejiang Golden Bulls – the club that reportedly made that $25MM offer to Wade – have secured another scorer for the upcoming season by agreeing to sign Marcus Denmon to a $1.2MM deal. A former Missouri standout, Denmon was a second-round pick in the 2012 draft but never appeared in an NBA regular season game.
Here’s more from around the Southeast:
- Ira Winderman of The South Florida Sun Sentinel suggests that if the Heat can lock up Justise Winslow to a long-term extension similar to Josh Richardson‘s four-year, $42MM contract, they should try to do so. Otherwise, it might make sense to evaluate Winslow during the 2018/19 season rather than signing him to a rookie scale extension before October’s deadline. The former No. 10 pick would be eligible for restricted free agency in 2019 if he’s not extended this year.
- The Magic completed a pair of trades within the last week, acquiring cash in both deals. According to Bobby Marks of ESPN.com (Twitter link), Orlando received $2MM from the Thunder and $1MM from the Grizzlies. In addition to the money they acquired, the two trades allowed the Magic to turn Rodney Purvis and the draft rights to 2015 second-rounder Tyler Harvey into Jarell Martin.
- In order to officially complete the Carmelo Anthony trade today, the Hawks renounced their free agent rights to Malcolm Delaney (Early Bird) and last year’s two-way players Josh Magette and Andrew White (both Non-Bird), per RealGM’s transactions log.
Nuggets Sign Monte Morris To Three-Year Deal
JULY 25: The Nuggets have officially signed Morris, the team announced today in a press release.
JULY 19: The Nuggets have reached an agreement with Monte Morris on a three-year contract worth $4.8MM, with the first two seasons guaranteed, reports Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). Morris had been on a two-way contract with Denver, but his new deal will be a standard contract that moves him to the team’s 15-man roster.
Morris, the 51st overall pick in the 2017 draft, only appeared in three NBA games during his rookie season. However, he had a strong season for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the G League, averaging 17.8 PPG, 6.5 APG, 4.5 RPG, and 1.8 SPG in 37 contests.
The 6’2″ guard also played well for the Nuggets in Summer League action this month, posting a team-high 17.5 PPG on 50% shooting in four games in Las Vegas. He also chipped in 6.3 APG and 3.3 RPG.
Morris will fill out the roster for the Nuggets, who now have 15 players on NBA contracts. He figures to slot in as the team’s third point guard behind Jamal Murray and Isaiah Thomas. As long as both Murray and Thomas are healthy, Morris may not have much of a role in Denver’s rotation, so more G League stints are possible.
A three-year, minimum-salary contract would have been worth about $4.66MM for Morris. Based on Charania’s report, he’ll receive slightly more than that, so Denver will likely use Morris’ Non-Bird rights to complete the signing.
Thunder Notes: Schroder, Nader, Hall, Hervey
Six days after initially reaching an agreement with the Hawks and Sixers, the Thunder have officially completed the trade that sends Carmelo Anthony and a future first-round pick to Atlanta, with Oklahoma City acquiring Dennis Schroder and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot.
As we detailed in our story on the trade, the move will create a traded player exception for the Thunder worth about $10.88MM and will also go a long way toward reducing the club’s projected tax bill. Oklahoma City’s salary remains well over the tax line, but the team’s projected tax penalties now work out to about $88.75MM rather than $150MM+. Taking into account their $148.74MM in player salaries, the Thunder are looking at a total roster cost of about $237.5MM for now.
Here’s more out of OKC:
- Berry Tramel of The Oklahoman explores whether Schroder makes sense in the old Reggie Jackson role on the Thunder’s roster, while Erik Horne of The Oklahoman examines the on-court fit of OKC’s newest guard and wonders whether the franchise can help rebuild the 24-year-old’s image.
- In another article for The Oklahoman, Tramel praises the work that GM Sam Presti has done in turning another seemingly unmovable contract into a useful asset. While Tramel’s argument is fair, I’d push back on his assertion that Schroder will be a better fit than Anthony from a chemistry perspective, given the whispers we heard about the point guard in Atlanta. The impact on team chemistry is yet to be determined, in my opinion, as are the long-term financial benefits of swapping Anthony’s $27.93MM expiring contract for Schroder’s $15.5MM annual salary over three years.
- In a piece focusing on newly-acquired wing Abdel Nader, Brett Dawson of The Oklahoman notes that 2018 second-rounders Devon Hall and Kevin Hervey appears “less likely” to be on the club’s regular-season roster. The Thunder still have two open roster slots (one 15-man, one two-way), but there’s no guarantee they’ll fill both of them, and 45th overall pick Hamidou Diallo would likely take priority.
How Non-Guaranteed Contract Rules Have Affected Recent Trades
As we detailed at length back in March, the NBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement made some changes to the trade rules related to non-guaranteed contracts.
Under the NBA’s old CBA, which was in effect through the 2016/17 season, a player’s full salary (not including unlikely incentives) was used for trade purposes, whether or not it was guaranteed. If a player had a $10MM salary with a partial guarantee of $1MM, his outgoing salary in a trade was the same as it would have been for a player who had a fully guaranteed $10MM contract.
[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: Traded Player Exception]
That’s no longer the case under the league’s new CBA, however. While contracts signed under the old agreement still operate by the old rules, contracts signed after July 1, 2017 are subject to the rules of the current CBA. And under the current CBA, only the guaranteed portion of a player’s contract counts for outgoing salary purposes in a trade, limiting the appeal of non-guaranteed salaries as trade chips.
In the example above, the player with a $10MM salary and a $1MM guarantee would now only count for $1MM for outgoing salary purposes in a trade, but the team acquiring him would still have to consider him a $10MM player.
These new rules have perhaps put a damper on the trade market for players on non-guaranteed contracts this offseason, but there have still been a handful of moves involving those players. Here’s a breakdown of this month’s trades that have featured a non-guaranteed salary, and how the new rules impacted each deal:
Bulls acquire Julyan Stone ($1,656,092 non-guaranteed salary) from Hornets in three-team trade
The Hornets also sent Timofey Mozgov to the Magic for Bismack Biyombo in this deal, and Mozgov’s salary was large enough to match Biyombo’s. As such, it didn’t matter from Charlotte’s perspective that Stone counted as $0 for outgoing salary purposes.
Stone’s inclusion in the trade allowed Chicago to acquire an incoming piece without taking on any guaranteed salary. If Stone hadn’t been a part of the deal, the Bulls would have to receive a draft pick or the NBA rights to a draft-and-stash player just to ensure that they were getting something in the deal. Chicago waived Stone shortly after acquiring him.
Thunder acquire Rodney Purvis ($1,378,242 non-guaranteed salary) from Magic
Purvis was swapped for Dakari Johnson in this deal and both players were on two-year minimum salary contracts. That meant that each team could acquire its incoming player using the minimum salary exception without having to worry about matching salaries.
Under the old rules, each club would have created a $1,378,242 traded player exception in the deal — that’s the amount of Purvis’ 2018/19 salary as well as Johnson’s. Under the new rules, however, only the Thunder could create such an exception, since Johnson’s salary was guaranteed. Purvis counted as $0 for Orlando’s outgoing salary purposes, so the Magic were unable to create a TPE as a result of the swap.
Thunder acquire Abdel Nader ($450,000 of $1,378,242 salary guaranteed) from the Celtics in exchange for Rodney Purvis ($1,378,242 non-guaranteed salary)
This is the most interesting deal of the three. Although Nader is technically earning the minimum salary, his deal runs longer than two years, meaning the Thunder couldn’t use the minimum salary exception to acquire him. They also couldn’t match salaries using Purvis, since he counted as a $0 outgoing salary.
So how did the Thunder acquire Nader? Using that traded player exception they’d just created in their deal with the Magic. Because Johnson and Nader had equal $1,378,242 salaries, Oklahoma City used up the entire trade exception just three days after it was created, making it the rare TPE to be used in full.
Meanwhile, the Celtics acquired Purvis using the minimum salary exception, but were only able to create a $450K trade exception for Nader — that’s the amount of his partial guarantee, so that was his outgoing-salary amount from Boston’s perspective.
Note: Richaun Holmes and Isaiah Whitehead, both on non-guaranteed contracts, were also involved in trades this month, but they were signed under the old CBA. As such, their contracts operated under the old rules.
Anthony To Hawks, Schroder To Thunder In Three-Team Trade
JULY 25: The three-team trade involving the Thunder, Hawks, and Sixers is now official, according to a series of press releases.
The deal took several days to finalize because the clubs had to complete a few other roster moves first, including Philadelphia signing Jonah Bolden earlier today.
Upon being released by the Hawks, Anthony intends to sign with the Rockets.
JULY 19: The Thunder and Hawks have agreed to a trade that will send Carmelo Anthony and a protected 2022 first-round pick to Atlanta, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter). According to Wojnarowski, Oklahoma City will receive Dennis Schroder in the deal. Royce Young of ESPN adds (via Twitter) that the 2022 first-rounder will have 1-14 protection, and will turn into two second-rounders if it doesn’t convey in ’22.
The Sixers will also be involved in the trade, according to Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, who tweets that Philadelphia will acquire Mike Muscala from Atlanta and will send Justin Anderson to the Hawks. The 76ers will also deal Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot to Oklahoma City, Vivlamore adds (via Twitter).
Upon acquiring him, the Hawks will waive Anthony, Wojnarowski adds. That will free up the veteran forward to join whatever a new team when he clears waivers, and the Rockets remain the strong frontrunners to land him.
We heard rumblings earlier this week about discussions between the Hawks and Thunder involving Anthony, Schroder, and Muscala, so it seems those two teams were able to find common ground, with the Sixers entering the mix as well. Here’s how the deal looks for each of the three teams involved:
Oklahoma City Thunder:
It has been nearly two weeks since word broke that the Thunder intended to part ways with Anthony, but the team resisted waiving him outright. Doing so would have reduced his $27.93MM cap charge to just $9.31MM, significantly reducing the club’s luxury-tax bill for 2018/19, but it would have added dead-money cap hits worth $9.31MM for the next two years as well.
By trading Anthony and a future protected pick and taking back Schroder and Luwawu-Cabarrot, the Thunder will reduce their 2018/19 team salary and projected tax bill substantially while also adding a productive point guard in Schroder. The 24-year-old, who averaged 19.4 PPG and 6.2 APG last season, figures to assume a role similar to the one Reggie Jackson previously had in Oklahoma City.
According to Wojnarowski (via Twitter), Thunder GM Sam Presti and coach Billy Donovan were granted permission to speak to Schroder before the deal was agreed upon, and both Presti and Donovan are “enthusiastic” about the fit. Oklahoma City had been seeking more speed and another ball-handler, Woj notes.
Still, there’s a reason Schroder was available. There are on-court questions about his shooting and defense, and off-court concerns about his character and his legal issues. Schroder was arrested on a misdemeanor battery charge last September, with Georgia officials recommending in March that he be prosecuted for felony aggravated battery. He’ll face discipline from his team and/or the league when that case is resolved, but the Thunder appear to be banking him avoiding a more serious sentence.
As for the specific tax figures, by my count, the Thunder will now have a team salary of about $148.74MM with a projected tax bill just over $88.75MM. Prior to the deal, those numbers sat at about $160.97MM and $157.75MM, respectively. While Oklahoma City’s tax outlook for 2018/19 has improved, the Thunder will have to be wary about increased penalties in future seasons after adding Schroder’s $15.5MM annual salary through 2020/21. They’ll likely deal with that when the time comes though.
It’s worth noting that a lengthy suspension without pay for Schroder could further reduce the Thunder’s team salary and tax hit in 2018/19. A suspension would also reduce the likelihood of the point guard earning the $2MM in unlikely incentives included in his contract, though not all of those bonuses are tied to individual performance, as ESPN’s Bobby Marks notes.
Finally, the Thunder will create a traded player exception worth $10,883,189 in the deal. They’ll have a year to use it.
Atlanta Hawks:
The Hawks had been determined to move Schroder for much of the offseason, and drafting Trae Young and acquiring Jeremy Lin made Atlanta’s former starting point guard even more expendable. Despite his solid production, Schroder had a slew of on- and off-court question marks, as detailed above, and he was drafted and extended by Atlanta’s previous front office — general manager Travis Schlenk never seemed particularly attached to him.
By moving Schroder ($15.5MM) and Muscala ($5MM) for Anthony ($27.93MM) and Anderson ($2.52MM), the Hawks take advantage of their remaining cap room — they’re able to take back significantly more salary than they sent out as a result of that space.
Atlanta won’t get any real immediate help out of the deal, but the club will create future cap flexibility by clearing Schroder’s three remaining years from its books — both Anthony and Anderson are on expiring deals, and Carmelo will be waived shortly. According to Wojnarowski (via Twitter), he’ll get his full $27.93MM salary from the Hawks. That was certainly agreed upon prior to the completion of the deal, since Anthony had a no-trade clause and could’ve vetoed the move if he thought Atlanta would ask him to give back money in a buyout.
The Hawks will also acquire a 2022 first-round pick, which they’ll receive as long as Oklahoma City is a playoff team in ’22 — otherwise, it will become two second-rounders. The Stepien rule, which prevents teams from trading consecutive future first-rounders, meant that the Thunder would have had a hard time dealing an earlier first-round pick, since they’d already sent their top-20 protected 2020 first-rounder to Orlando.
Philadelphia 76ers:
While the Sixers’ involvement in this deal may seem extraneous, it’s a nice bit of business for Philadelphia. In Muscala, the team will acquire a big man capable of knocking down outside shots — he’s a career 37.8% three-point shooter and made a career-best 1.2 threes per game in 2017/18.
The Sixers thought they’d acquired a player who fit that role earlier in the offseason when they reached an agreement to sign Nemanja Bjelica, but Bjelica backed out of his deal with the team, leaving Philadelphia seeking a replacement. Muscala is a solid fallback plan, and is on an expiring contract, meaning he won’t compromise the team’s future cap flexibility.
In order to acquire Muscala, the Sixers only had to surrender Anderson and Luwawu-Cabarrot, a pair of players who seemed unlikely to have regular rotation roles for the team in 2018/19. The move will also help the 76ers clear out a roster logjam, as the team had 16 players under contract and was still believed to be considering bringing over draft-and-stash prospect Jonah Bolden. Following the deal, the Sixers are back down to 15 players on NBA contracts, not including Bolden or 2018 second-rounder Shake Milton.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
DeMar DeRozan Discusses Trade, Ujiri, Raptors
Outside of some cryptic – and not-so-cryptic – social media posts, DeMar DeRozan had been relatively quiet over the last week since word broke that he’d be traded from the Raptors to the Spurs. However, various reports, along with those social media posts, suggested that DeRozan wasn’t thrilled with the deal, which caught him by surprise.
ESPN’s Chris Haynes caught up with the longtime Toronto star to discuss the deal and to address the perception that DeRozan had been told he wouldn’t be traded. The conversation is a good one, and is worth checking out in full for a number of interesting stories and comments from DeRozan, who talked about his place in Raptors history, his expectations for playing under Gregg Popovich, and how friends like Kyle Lowry and Drake reacted to the deal.
Here are a few of the other highlights from DeRozan’s conversation with Haynes:
On Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri saying of the previous iteration of the Raptors, “We kept giving them a chance and giving them a chance. At some point, we have to do something different”:
“I mean, when you say ‘them,’ that’s kind of frustrating. Like, who is ‘them’? You put the blame on just me and (Dwane) Casey? Because obviously we are the only two who had to suffer from the loss that we had in the Cleveland series.
“But it’s only one team that we lost to in the postseason — and that team went to the Finals every single year. With an opportunity approaching itself, my mindset and the rest of my teammates’ mindset was the only guy who was in the way of making that happen (LeBron James) leaves. Now we got a great opportunity to do something that we haven’t been able to do.
“At the end of the day, I gave everything I had to that team. And it showed, it showed in the progress we made as a team and me as an individual. So when you put that out there saying ‘gave them chances’ and ‘I have to do something’… It’s B.S. to me.”
On how he felt he was treated by Ujiri and the organization:
“I felt like I wasn’t treated with what I sacrificed for nine years, with the respect that I thought I deserved. By just giving me the say so of letting me know something’s going on or it’s a chance. That’s all I wanted. That’s all I wanted. I’m not saying, ‘You don’t have to trade me’ or … just let me know something is going on because I sacrificed everything. Just let me know. That’s all I asked. Everybody know I’m the most low-maintenance person in the world. Just let me know, so I can prepare myself for whatever my next chapter is, and I didn’t get that.”
On whether DeRozan had asked the team if he’d be traded:
“I asked, ‘Was I going to be traded? Was there anything going on, if it was a chance I’d be traded?’ And on multiple occasions it was, ‘No, it was nothing.’ If it is, then let the agent know or me know.”
On talking to Spurs forward Rudy Gay shortly after finding out about the trade:
“I was upset. And I called him, like, ‘Man, dude’s just traded me.’ Rudy was like ‘What? To who?’ And I was like ‘To y’all.’ He started laughing. He said ‘Look, I don’t mean to lie, but I got my boy back. You gon’ be aight, man. don’t worry about it.’ I was like, ‘Man, I shouldn’t have called you. I should have waited until it came out and you called me.’ It was cool to be able to call somebody that’s close in my life that’s on the Spurs too. So he made it easy.”
Sixers Sign Jonah Bolden To Four-Year Deal
JULY 25: The Sixers have officially signed Bolden, the team announced today in a press release.
“We have been following Jonah Bolden for a while and are very excited to bring him into our program as a young, up-and-coming prospect,” head coach Brett Brown said in a statement. “He experienced positive growth and development last season at Maccabi Tel Aviv, a team led by Neven Spahija, who is a friend of our program and an excellent coach. Jonah’s style of play is that of a modern-day player and we’re thrilled to grow our team with him.”
JULY 20: The Sixers have reached a contract agreement with 2017 second-round pick Jonah Bolden, and will sign him to a four-year, $7MM deal, tweets Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports. The final two years of Bolden’s contract will be non-guaranteed, reports Derek Bodner of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Before finalizing an agreement with Bolden, the 76ers reached a deal to trade Richaun Holmes to the Suns, clearing a path for Bolden in more ways than one.
Bolden will replace Holmes as the 15th man on Philadelphia’s roster, and the trade of Holmes opened up the cap room necessary for the Sixers to complete Bolden’s signing. Without that cap space, the team could only have offered up to two years using either the room exception or the minimum salary exception.
The 36th overall pick in 2017, Bolden remained overseas for one more year, spending the 2017/18 campaign with Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel. He averaged 6.9 PPG and 5.5 RPG in 29 EuroLeague games, along with 7.6 PPG and 6.6 RPG in 26 Israeli League contests.
Despite playing international ball last year as a draft-and-stash prospect, Bolden has long been expected to join the Sixers for the 2018/19 season. Even after the dismissal of president of basketball operations Bryan Colangelo, who drafted Bolden, the 22-year-old said earlier this month that he planned on joining the NBA club.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Latest On Kawhi Leonard
While the blockbuster trade between the Spurs and Raptors was formally announced nearly a week ago, the move is now officially official, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, who reports that Kawhi Leonard has passed his physical with Toronto. Danny Green and DeMar DeRozan also passed their respective physicals, Windhorst adds.
As we saw last summer when the Celtics and Cavaliers made their Kyrie Irving/Isaiah Thomas mega-deal, a problem with a player’s physical can prevent a trade from becoming official even after the teams have sent out press releases announcing the move.
In the case of the C’s and Cavs, Cleveland’s concern about Thomas’ health dragged out the process for another week and resulted in the Cavs receiving an extra draft pick in the swap. There will be no such adjustments to this year’s trade between the Raptors and Spurs.
Meanwhile, Leonard won’t attend Team USA’s non-mandatory mini-camp in Las Vegas this week, according to ESPN’s Chris Haynes, who tweets that the star forward will instead use the time to prepare for the transition to his new NBA team.
Leonard’s decision doesn’t come as a surprise. Prior to last week’s trade, reports indicated that he was considering attending the mini-camp to show prospective suitors that he was healthy, but now that he has been traded, that incentive to show up has faded. Considering Leonard missed all but nine games with an injury last season, it makes sense for him to sit out the session.
Stars like LeBron James and Stephen Curry also don’t plan on attending this week’s mini-camp, though DeRozan is expected to be present, per Sam Amick of USA Today (Twitter link). Of course, Team USA and Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich will also be there and will get a first-hand look at his newly-acquired All-Star.