Pau Gasol Signs With Trail Blazers
JULY 25: The Trail Blazers have officially signed Gasol, the team announced today in a press release.
“Pau is a future Hall of Famer that brings invaluable championship experience and an elite skill set and basketball IQ to our roster,” Blazers president of basketball operations Neil Olshey said in a statement.
JULY 24: Pau Gasol has agreed to a one-year contract with the Trail Blazers, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets. He’ll receive the veteran’s minimum of $2.6MM, Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets.
The veteran big man finished last season with the Bucks, who let him go as an unrestricted free agent. Gasol underwent surgery in May to repair a navicular stress fracture in his left foot. He’s expected to make a full recovery in advance of training camp.
After being bought out and waived by the Spurs and arriving in Milwaukee in early March, the six-time All-Star appeared in just three games, averaging 1.3 PPG and 3.3 RPG in 10.0 minutes per contest. Gasol turned 39 this month but was determined to continue his career for at least another season.
Gasol provides insurance with Jusuf Nurkic recovering from a serious leg injury suffered in late March. Hassan Whiteside was acquired from the Heat this offseason to start in his place. Zach Collins can also swing over to the “five” spot.
Portland now has 14 players with guaranteed contracts.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Shelvin Mack Signs With Olimpia Milano
JULY 25: Mack has officially signed a two-year contract with Olimpia Milano, the team announced today in a press release.
Emiliano Carchia of Sportando first reported earlier today that Mack had reached an agreement in principle to join the Italian club. Carchia also noted that James was expected to be bought out.
JULY 24: Shelvin Mack, who played for both the Grizzlies and Hornets last season, is drawing interest from Olimpia Milano, according to Alessandro Maggi of Sportando. Mack could replace former NBA point guard Mike James, even though James is still under contract with the Italian team.
Mack signed with Memphis last summer and appeared in 53 games, averaging 7.9 points per night, before being traded to the Hawks in February. Atlanta waived him immediately and he was claimed by Charlotte, but saw limited playing time in just four games.
The 29-year-old also spent time with the Wizards, Sixers, Jazz and Magic in an eight-year NBA career.
Sam Presti Discusses Thunder Offseason, Future
In an editorial published in The Oklahoman, Thunder head of basketball operations Sam Presti addressed the team’s fans directly in discussing the franchise’s summer roster overhaul. In the last month, Oklahoma City has traded away reliable starter Jerami Grant, MVP finalist Paul George, and franchise cornerstone Russell Westbrook.
“This summer, the story of the Oklahoma City Thunder is transitioning to a new phase. Over the last few weeks, we have parted ways with foundational players — people who have represented our city to the world, who have sacrificed for us and flourished on our behalf,” Presti wrote. “Although this has been painful, I also believe that — given the circumstances — it was necessary. In saying goodbye to the past, we have begun to chart our future. The next great Thunder team is out there somewhere, but it will take time to seize and discipline to ultimately sustain.”
Within his editorial, Presti spoke about the team’s goal of building sustainable, long-term success, suggesting that the front office will need to resist taking shortcuts and accept any criticism that comes its way during the rebuilding process.
Presti cautioned that the rebuild will take some time and that “things will inevitably get harder from here,” but said the Thunder will be “fearless, focused, and relentless in seeking opportunities to improve our long-term position.”
Interestingly, Presti also explored the challenges of building a championship contender while not having the advantages that come with playing in a major market like Los Angeles or New York.
“Despite our city’s rapid rise and growth, Oklahoma City remains the second-smallest market in the NBA,” Presti wrote. “While this brings many benefits, it also poses strategic challenges. Given the way the league’s system is designed, small market teams operate with significant disadvantages. There is no reason to pretend otherwise.
“This in no way means we cannot be extraordinarily successful — we, and several other small to mid-market teams, are our own best examples of the ability to overcome these realities. It simply means we must be thinking differently, optimistically, finding our advantages by other means.”
The Thunder have earned a spot in the postseason in nine of the last 10 seasons, making it to the Finals once during the stretch and to the Western Conference Finals three more times. However, the team is considered more likely to land in the lottery than to make the playoffs in 2019/20.
Greg Monroe To Play In Germany
JULY 25: Monroe has officially signed with Bayern Munich, the team confirmed today in a press release.
JULY 24: Earlier this afternoon, FC Bayern Munich Basketball teased a “big” signing announcement for tomorrow, and Emiliano Carchia of Sportando is now reporting that the team is planning to announce the signing of NBA veteran big man Greg Monroe.
Monroe, 29, appears to be prioritizing playing time and perhaps financial gain with the move to Europe, which makes sense given the nine-year veteran’s recent struggles to carve out a niche in the ever-growing small ball atmosphere of today’s NBA.
The seventh overall pick in the 2010 draft, Monroe was named NBA All-Rookie Second Team for his efforts during the 2010/11 season. For his career, he holds averages of 13.2 PPG, 8.3 RPG, and 2.1 APG, but has become a journeyman of sorts over the past couple of seasons.
Monroe will join fellow former first-round pick Josh Huestis on Bayern Munich’s 2019/20 roster, where the club will look to three-peat as Basketball Bundesliga champions this upcoming season.
Johnathan Motley Signs Two-Way Deal With Clippers
After declining to issue him a qualifying offer last month, the Clippers have decided to bring back big man Johnathan Motley on another two-way contract, reports Jovan Buha of The Athletic.
Motley spent the entirety of last season on a two-way contract with the Clippers after being acquired in an offseason trade from Dallas, but spent most of his time with the team’s G League affiliate, the Agua Caliente Clippers of Ontario, where he was named All-NBAGL Second Team.
In 22 games with the Clippers, Motley averaged a respectable 4.6 PPG and 2.3 RPG while playing 7.1 minutes per contest. As a rookie, he actually started the last four games of the season for the Mavs, averaging 16.3 points and 7.8 rebounds per game in those four starts.
The 24-year-old Baylor product will join rookie Amir Coffey as the Clippers’ two-way players for the 2019/20 season, meaning last season’s G League Rookie of the Year Angel Delgado appears to be the odd man out barring a promotion to a standard contract on the 15-man roster.
Cameron Payne Signs With Raptors
JULY 24: Payne’s deal with Toronto is now official, tweets JD Shaw of Hoops Rumors.
JULY 17: The Raptors have reached an agreement with Cameron Payne, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who reports (via Twitter) that the free agent point guard is signing a two-year contract with Toronto.
Payne’s new deal won’t be fully guaranteed. According to Charania (via Twitter), the former lottery pick will get a partial guarantee in year one and will have an opportunity to compete for a reserve point guard spot with the Raptors.
Payne, who turns 25 next month, was the 14th overall pick in the 2015 draft. However, he has bounced around the league since then, having spent time with the Thunder, Bulls, and Cavaliers in his first four NBA seasons.
In 153 total regular season games, the former Murray State standout has averaged 6.0 PPG and 2.5 APG with a .397/.331/.775 shooting line. He did have a strong Summer League showing in Las Vegas this month though, recording 20.0 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 4.0 APG, and 2.7 SPG while shooting 51.4% from the floor in three games for Dallas.
Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet figure to handle point guard duties for the Raptors in 2019/20, but after trading Delon Wright at last season’s deadline and not re-signing Jeremy Lin in free agency, the team doesn’t have a ton of depth at the position. That lack of depth – and a partially guaranteed contract – should give Payne the upper hand in earning one of Toronto’s last few roster spots.
Nuggets Sign Jamal Murray To Five-Year Extension
JULY 24: The extension is official, per a release (via e-mail and Twitter) from the team.
JUNE 30: The Nuggets have agreed to terms with guard Jamal Murray on a five-year, maximum-salary contract extension, agent Mike George tells Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). The extension will take effect to start the 2020/21 league year.
While the exact value of that extension is not yet known, it would be worth $169.65MM based on the NBA’s current cap projection of $117MM for ’20/21, starting at $29.25MM in year one and increasing all the way up to $38.61MM by year five.
Murray, 22, has emerged as a foundational piece for the Nuggets since being selected with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2016 draft. In 2018/19, he established new career highs in PPG (18.2), APG (4.8), and RPG (4.2) over the course of 75 games (32.6 MPG). He and fellow franchise cornerstone Nikola Jokic helped lead Denver to a No. 2 seed in the Western Conference and came within one game of appearing in the conference finals.
While Denver clearly wanted to lock up a budding young star early, extending Murray now rather than waiting until the 2020 restricted free agent period will limit the team’s financial flexibility next season. Murray would have had a cap hold of approximately $13.3MM as a restricted free agent. Now that he has been extended, his new cap hit (projected to be $29MM+) will hit the books right away, eating into the Nuggets’ potential cap room.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Pacific Notes: Kerr/Davis, Rubio, Harding, Vogel
As if the Pacific Division wasn’t already exciting enough after a summer that saw Kevin Durant leave and Anthony Davis, Paul George, and 2019 NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard arrive to join LeBron James and Stephen Curry, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr added some fuel to the divisional fire today when he criticized Davis’ public trade demand out of New Orleans.
Appearing on NBC Sports’ Warriors Insider Podcast (h/t to ESPN), Kerr said there is a troubling trend in the NBA right now wherein players who are healthy and still have a couple of years left on their deal (e.g. Davis) publicly request a trade. Kerr said that situations like that are both a “real problem” and “bad for the league.”
“I’m talking more about the Anthony Davis situation… where a guy is perfectly healthy and has a couple years left on his deal and says, ‘I want to leave.’ That’s a real problem that the league has to address and that the players have to be careful with.”
“When you sign on that dotted line, you owe your effort and your play to that team, to that city, to the fans… (and) if you sign the contract, then you should be bound to that contract… (Now) If you come to an agreement with the team that, ‘Hey, it’s probably best for us to part ways,’ that’s one thing, (b)ut the Davis stuff was really kind of groundbreaking — and hopefully not a trend, because it’s bad for the league.”
There’s more out of the Pacific Division this evening:
- The Suns have been searching for a point guard to help lead them back up from the bottom of the Western Conference standings for years now, and the three qualities that veteran Ricky Rubio possesses that makes Phoenix think he’s the guy are playmaking, defense, and leadership, writes Cody Cunningham of Suns.com.
- Lindsey Harding, recently hired as an assistant coach for the Kings under head coach Luke Walton, says that fear of the unknown is more of a factor than a lack of respect for women coaches when it comes to the absence of a female head coach in the NBA today (per Ramona Shelburne of ESPN).
- New Lakers head coach Frank Vogel plans to incorporate a similar style of play incorporated by Walton, telling Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated that he will continue preaching pace, attacking the basket, and shooting a lot of free throws. But more importantly, Vogel’s goal will be to put shooters at all four positions around James, including center, a la Brook Lopez surrounding Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee.
Zylan Cheatham Signs Two-Way Deal With Pelicans
JULY 24, 3:24pm: The Cheatham signing is official, according to a team press release.
JUNE 21, 12:59am: The Pelicans are signing Arizona State forward Zylan Cheatham to a two-way contract, tweets Alex Kennedy of Hoops Hype, and will pick up a couple more undrafted free agents as well.
Aubrey Dawkins of Central Florida has agreed to an Exhibit 10 deal, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link), and Javon Bess of St. Louis will sign with New Orleans as well, relays Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Cheatham averaged 12.1 points and 10.3 rebounds per game in his first season with the Sun Devils after two years at San Diego State. ESPN’s Jonathan Givony lists him as the fifth-best available player after the draft.
Dawkins is best known for his outstanding performance against Duke and his new teammate, Zion Williamson, in the NCAA Tournament. Dawkins poured in 32 points as the Knights lost at the buzzer in the second round.
Bess is an older prospect at 23, but he is coming off a strong senior season with the Billikens, averaging 15.3 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.
Pelicans Sign Josh Gray To Two-Way Deal
JULY 24, 3:22pm: It’s official, according to a team press release.
JULY 19, 12:57pm: Free agent point guard Josh Gray has agreed to sign a two-way contract with the Pelicans, agent EJ Kusnyer tells Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
[RELATED: 2019/20 NBA Two-Way Contract Tracker]
A former LSU standout, Gray went undrafted in 2016 and spent his first two professional seasons with the Northern Arizona Suns in the G League, averaging 16.2 PPG, 5.4 APG, 4.2 RPG, and 1.9 SPG in 95 total contests (29.3 MPG).
His play in the G League earned Gray a brief audition at the NBA level, as Phoenix signed him to a pair of 10-day contracts during the 2017/18 season. However, he appeared in just five games during that stretch, and then spent the 2018/19 campaign playing in South Korea.
Gray returned stateside to play for the Nets’ Summer League team in Las Vegas this month, averaging 9.8 PPG, 3.2 RPG, and 2.2 APG in six games (22.7 MPG) for the club.
Gray will occupy one of New Orleans’ two-way contract slots to start the season, with Arizona State forward Zylan Cheatham claiming the other. The Pelicans reportedly reached an agreement after the draft to ink Cheatham to a two-way deal, though it’s not yet official.