Isaiah Whitehead Signs With Russian Team
AUGUST 6: Whitehead’s deal is now official, according to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando.
AUGUST 3: Former Nets point guard Isaiah Whitehead will spend the 2018/19 season in Russia, according to Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype (Twitter link), who hears from sources that Whitehead has signed a one-year, $1.1MM contract with Lokomotiv Kuban.
As Kennedy details, Whitehead – released by the Nuggets last month – hopes to have a strong season as a lead guard for the Russian club and show he’s fully healthy in 2018/19 before attempting to return to the NBA a year from now.
Whitehead, 23, was selected by the Nets with the 42nd overall pick in the 2016 draft and spent two seasons with the team, appearing in 89 overall games. The former Seton Hall standout was a regular part of Brooklyn’s rotation in his rookie season, but saw his playing time cut back in 2017/18 as he spent more time with the Long Island Nets in the G League. Whitehead averaged 22.3 PPG, 3.8 RPG, and 3.5 APG in 30 games for the Nets’ NBAGL affiliate.
The Brooklyn native was included in the trade last month that saw Kenneth Faried, Darrell Arthur, and a pair of draft picks head from the Nuggets to the Nets. Whitehead was sent to Denver as part of that swap, but only because his non-guaranteed contract allowed the Nuggets to avoid taking on any salary — Denver waived him a few days later, making him an unrestricted free agent.
As our 2018 free agent tracker shows, Whitehead is far from the first NBA free agent to take his talents overseas this summer. Al Jefferson, Shane Larkin, Marreese Speights, and Joffrey Lauvergne are among the others moving to international leagues.
Grizzlies In Limbo Between Contention And Rebuild
The Grizzlies are an interesting franchise to keep an eye on moving forward this season and beyond, as they are somewhat in a state of limbo – not quite rebuilding but not close to being a serious contender either – writes Mark Giannotto of The Commercial Appeal.
To be sure, Memphis had a relatively nice offseason. They drafted a potential future franchise cornerstone in Jaren Jackson, they signed Kyle Anderson to the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception, and traded for veteran guard Garrett Temple. By midseason, all three could possibly join Mike Conley and Marc Gasol in the Grizzlies’ starting lineup.
Yet, as Conley says, because of the new pieces learning to fit in and difficulty of the Western Conference, it may turn out to be an “awkward” year in Memphis.
“This season, expectations are still try to be that playoff team, that team that comes out and really makes it tough on everybody. But it is an awkward year with so many teams getting so much better [with] different acquisitions they made in the offseason.”
In addition to adding Jackson, Anderson, and Temple, the Grizzlies also traded away relative disappointments Ben McLemore, Deyonta Davis and Jarell Martin, while adding rookie Jevon Carter, a potential throwback-type player to the Grit ‘N’ Grind era.
Ultimately, it’s probably still going to be difficult for Memphis to make the playoffs in the West, even assuming a 22-win improvement from last year that would see Memphis literally double the amount of victories from a season ago. As such, a rebuild is probably closer to fruition than title contention.
As Giannotto notes, only seven players (not including Gasol’s player option) are signed beyond this season, and only rookie Dillon Brooks had a meaningful role on last year’s team. Accordingly, one would think that most teams would begin rebuilding this season. Only time will tell if the Grizzlies choosing to do otherwise was the right call.
Atlantic Notes: Knox, Sixers, Vegas Odds
Former Knicks guard Charlie Ward, a Florida State football teammate of the father of rookie Kevin Knox in the early ’90s, believes New York’s 2018 first round pick has the mentality to become the Knicks’ next superstar, reports Marc Berman of the New York Post.
“I’m grateful he’s a Knick,” Ward said. “I think he has the right mentality to be successful in New York. He seems to have a mature approach and great understanding of where he is in his development. The kid is well-balanced, with an inner confidence and swagger to him while having a quiet demeanor — which you need, especially being in New York.”
Ward, who now coaches high school basketball in Tallahassee, reiterated that in order to succeed in New York City, one must not only be mentally tough and hard-working, but also unassuming and humble.
“That’s the kind of superstar you want — a guy who will go about his business, not going to be talking much, but learning the ropes on how to get better each day. New York is a tough place to play, but you have to have thick skin. He’s willing to listen and be coached. His whole mentality and attitude is one that will help him become a superstar in the league at some point.”
In order to become that superstar, Knox will likely need to help lead the Knicks to the playoffs eventually. The Knicks haven’t made the playoffs for five straight seasons and have only won a single playoff series since 2001.
There’s more from the Atlantic Division:
- The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook has set its initial win totals for NBA teams during the 2018/19 regular season. The Atlantic Division looks like this: Celtics – 57.5; Raptors/Sixers – 54.5; Nets – 32.5; Knicks – 29.5.
- Despite still not have a general manager, the Sixers have made some changes in their scouting department, reports Keith Pompey of The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Sixers recently hired J. R. Holden as an international scout and are making a push to hire a female scout in the near future.
- As we relayed last night, the Nets are cautiously optimistic that the injury suffered by forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson in a Chinese charity game hosted by former teammate Jeremy Lin is not serious.
Trevor Booker Nearing Deal With Chinese Team?
Free agent forward Trevor Booker is getting close to reaching an agreement with the Shanxi Brave Dragons of the Chinese Basketball Association, league sources tell Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype (Twitter link).
Booker, 30, began the 2017/18 campaign with the Nets but was traded to Philadelphia in the deal that send Jahlil Okafor and Nik Stauskas to Brooklyn. When the Sixers signed Ersan Ilyasova later in the season, Booker became expendable and was released. After clearing waivers, he signed with Indiana and finished the season with the Pacers. For the year, he averaged 6.3 PPG, 4.7 RPG, and 1.2 APG in 68 total games (17.0 MPG).
The Jazz, Pelicans, Timberwolves, Rockets, Knicks, and Spurs were linked to Booker early in free agency, and the Cavaliers were also said to have interest in the veteran forward later in July. However, five weeks into the 2018 free agent period, no NBA deal has materialized for the former first-round pick out of Clemson.
If Booker finalizes a deal with the Shanxi Brave Dragons, he’ll be the latest name on a growing list of NBA veterans who have played for the club. Brandon Jennings, Luis Scola, Stephon Marbury, and Samuel Dalembert are among the players who have spent time with Shanxi.
Booker would also become the third noteworthy – and longtime – NBA big man to make the move to the Chinese Basketball Association this offseason. Al Jefferson and Marreese Speights have reportedly agreed to deals with CBA clubs this summer too.
Nuggets, Thunder Hold Largest Trade Exceptions
Within the last month and a half, several of the most sizable traded player exceptions from around the NBA have expired. The Clippers‘ $7MM+ exception from last year’s Chris Paul deal expired in June, a pair of big Raptors TPEs went unused a couple weeks later, and the Trail Blazers saw their $13MM exception from last summer’s Allen Crabbe trade expire late in July.
None of these developments were particularly surprising. Traded player exceptions, even bigger ones, often go unused. That’s especially true for teams like Toronto and Portland, whose team salaries are over the tax line. For those clubs, taking on a salary using a traded player exception would cost exponentially more due to tax penalties.
Still, those bigger trade exceptions can occasionally come in handy and are worth keeping an eye on. For instance, the Cavaliers have a $5.8MM trade exception created in last August’s Kyrie Irving deal that would have expired if it hadn’t been used within the next few weeks. The Cavs are taking advantage of it by using it to finalize the acquisition of Sam Dekker without sending out any salary in return.
That Cleveland traded player exception had been the seventh-most valuable TPE around the NBA. Here are the top five, all of which could be used to acquire a player earning at least $7MM in 2018/19:
- Denver Nuggets: $13,764,045 (Expires 7/15/2019)
- Denver Nuggets: $12,800,562 (Expires 7/8/2019)
- Oklahoma City Thunder: $10,883,189 (Expires 7/25/2019)
- Charlotte Hornets: $7,819,725 (Expires 7/6/2019)
- Detroit Pistons: $7,000,000 (Expires 1/29/2019)
Check out our tracker for the full list of available traded player exceptions. For more information on exactly how trade exceptions work, be sure to check out our glossary entry on the subject.
Hoops Rumors Commenting Policy
We strongly encourage commenting at Hoops Rumors, but we do have basic rules of civility. Comments of this nature are not allowed at Hoops Rumors:
- Attacks or insults toward other commenters, the post author, journalists, players, or agents.
- Inappropriate language, including swearing and related censor bypass attempts, lewdness, insults, and crude terms for body parts, bodily functions, and physical acts. In essence, we don’t want any language that parents would not want their kids to see.
- Juvenile comments or extensive use of text message-type spelling.
- Writing comments in all or mostly caps.
- Spam-type links or self-promotion.
- Comments about how you’re sick of this topic or it’s not newsworthy.
- Inappropriate avatars or images.
- Anything else we deem bad for business.
If you see comments that fit the above criteria, please flag them and/or contact us. Bans may be handed out liberally by our moderators, without second chances. Remaining civil is not that difficult, and most commenters have no problems doing so, nor with helping rein each other in. We are grateful for long-time commenters and readers, though this policy applies equally regardless of tenure.
This policy is always available at the bottom of the site, and will be re-posted monthly.
Cavaliers Waive Okaro White
The Cavaliers have waived Okaro White to avoid guaranteeing half of his 2018/19 salary, according to Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com.
White, who signed a multiyear contract with the Cavs during the final week of the 2017/18 season, had a non-guaranteed salary for the coming year. However, $772,476 of that $1,544,951 salary would have become guaranteed if he had remained under contract through August 5. That essentially made today decision day for the Cavs — according to Vardon, the team asked White if he’d considering pushing his guarantee date back to the start of the regular season, but he declined.
Formerly a member of the Heat, White has appeared in 41 NBA games over the last two seasons for Miami, averaging 2.9 PPG and 2.3 RPG in 13.4 minutes per contest.
The Florida State alum, who missed a good chunk of the 2017/18 campaign with a broken foot, talked earlier this month about how he’s still working to mentally get over that injury. If another team is confident that he’s fully healthy, White could get another shot on a training camp invite or a two-way deal.
The Cavaliers have already lined up a replacement for White on their roster, as they’re in the process of finalizing a deal to acquire Sam Dekker from the Clippers.
Hawks’ Kevin Huerter Cleared For On-Court Work
Hawks rookie Kevin Huerter, who continues to recover from surgery on his right hand, is no longer wearing a cast and has been 100% cleared to participate in on-court basketball activities, writes Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
It’s an important step for Huerter, who reportedly underwent a procedure to repair torn ligaments in his right hand shortly before the draft. At the time, it wasn’t clear how the surgery would impact Huerter’s draft stock, but the former Maryland sharpshooter ultimately wasn’t negatively impacted by the injury, having been buoyed by a strong showing at the draft combine several weeks earlier.
Huerter, who entered the draft after averaging 14.8 PPG on .503/.417/.758 shooting in 2017/18, was the 19th overall pick in June, the second of three first-rounders for Atlanta. He signed his rookie contract last month and will earn a first-year salary of $2.25MM.
While Huerter probably wouldn’t be at 100% if the season started today, he still has plenty of time to work his way back to full health before training camps begin. It sounds like he’ll be ready to go when the 2018/19 campaign gets underway in October.
Weekly Mailbag: 7/30/18 – 8/5/18
We have an opportunity for you to hit us up with your questions in this, our weekly mailbag feature. Have a question regarding player movement, the salary cap or the NBA draft? Drop us a line at HoopsRumorsMailbag@Gmail.com.
What do you think are the chances that Kyrie Irving and his good buddy Jimmy Butler will bolt their teams and play together in New York or another team next season? — Greg Dizon
Elite players finding ways to team up has been the trend in the NBA for several years, and there are reasons to suspect Irving and Butler are plotting a way to form the next version of a superteam. Both are entering option years, so they can become free agents in what is shaping up to be a loaded class in 2019. It’s easy to picture them with a healthy Kristaps Porzingis as the leaders of a rebuilt Knicks team that would become an instant contender. If the Timberwolves falter this season, it’s also possible that the Celtics could try to make a deal for Butler before the deadline as an incentive for Irving to stay in Boston. The odds seem good that Butler and Irving will become teammates, almost certainly in the East as teams try to fill the power vacuum left by the departure of LeBron James.
Analyzing A Potential Rockets-Heat Trade
The Rockets have reportedly talked to Miami as they seek another perimeter defender, and salary cap expert Albert Nahmad believes James Johnson would be a better fit in Houston than Tyler Johnson (Twitter link).
James Johnson’s .308 shooting percentage from 3-point range prevents him from being a perfect replacement for Trevor Ariza, but his physical brand of defense and his ability to guard several positions could be just what the Rockets need, Nahmad suggests. He also describes James Johnson, who averaged a career-best 12.8 and 10.8 PPG during his two seasons with Miami, as “a sneaky good offense creator in short bursts.”
ESPN’s Zach Lowe recently reported that the Rockets have reached out to several teams about adding a wing player and are willing to offer Ryan Anderson and their 2019 first-round pick to the Hawks in exchange for Kent Bazemore. He also said there have been conversations between Houston and Miami, suggesting that the same package could be available for Tyler Johnson.
Nahmad doesn’t see that as a deal the Heat would accept because they would be taking on money by adding Anderson and Houston’s draft pick isn’t likely to be high enough to make it worthwhile (Twitter link). The offer sheet that the Heat matched in 2016 for the fourth-year guard begins to balloon in the upcoming season, with a salary of $19,245,370 in each of the next two years. That’s still a little cheaper than Anderson, who has two seasons and nearly $41.7MM left on his current deal.
Houston’s offer wouldn’t be enough to get Miami to part with James Johnson either, Nahmad tweets, and the Heat would have to include something else in the deal to make salaries match because his salary is only $14.65MM. Miami would like to get rid of Dion Waiters‘ contract, which will pay him more than $36MM over the next three seasons, but the Rockets are already into luxury tax territory and aren’t likely to take on that much extra money.
Nahmad notes that the expected signings of free agent Carmelo Anthony and second-round pick De’Anthony Melton will give Houston 14 players under contract with a base salary around $135MM and another $19MM in tax payments. Clint Capela‘s new contract has $2MM in potential bonuses that could push that figure even higher (Twitter link).