Marquese Chriss Signs Non-Guaranteed Deal With Blazers
10:00pm: The signing is official, per RealGM’s transactions log.
8:53pm: Marquese Chriss has agreed to a non-guaranteed contract with the Trail Blazers, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.
Chriss played in just two games last season with the Warriors before suffering a broken right fibula in practice that ended his season. The Spurs acquired Chriss and his expiring contract in late March, then waived him a few days later.
Chriss has fully recovered from the injury, according to Charania, and will compete for a roster spot. Chriss appeared in 59 games with Golden State in 2019/20, including 21 starts, and averaged 9.3 PPG and 6.2 RPG in 20.3 MPG. He’s entering his sixth NBA season.
Portland has 13 players on fully guaranteed contracts, with Dennis Smith Jr. and Chriss among those expected to come to training camp on non-guaranteed deals. The Blazers may keep their 15th roster spot open to start the regular season, since they’re slightly over the tax line.
Central Notes: Millsap, Bulls Offseason, Simmons, Ehambe
With Paul Millsap agreeing to join the Nets, the Bulls don’t have a lot of attractive free agent options to add to their frontcourt depth, K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago notes. Millsap strongly considered the Bulls but they now have to shift gears. They could bid for restricted free agent Jarred Vanderbilt, take a flier on D.J. Wilson or add an international player to fortify the power forward spot. They could also sign small forward James Ennis and use him in smaller lineups, Johnson adds. Otherwise, they may have to pursue a trade.
We have more from the Central Division:
- The Bulls improved their roster with their busy offseason but it’s fair to wonder whether all of those changes made sense as a whole, Zach Harper of The Athletic opines. While they have upgraded in the backcourt and the wing spots with the additions of Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso and DeMar DeRozan, their frontcourt options have thinned.
- Pursuing a trade for Ben Simmons doesn’t make sense for the Pistons, James Edwards of The Athletic contends. In a deal with the Sixers, Detroit would likely have to part with Jerami Grant and at least one of their top young players as well as draft picks, and adding Simmons’ contract would limit their flexibility to make other moves. It also wouldn’t help their issues regarding 3-point shooting, Edwards adds.
- Moses Ehambe is grateful he got the opportunity to be an assistant with the Pacers, though he was not retained in the aftermath of Nate Bjorkgren’s departure, Scott Agness of FieldhouseFiles writes. “This is where you want to be,” Ehambe said in the comprehensive interview. “Now it’s about staying.”
DeAndre Jordan Expected To Sign With Lakers
DeAndre Jordan is expected to sign with the Lakers once the Nets’ deal with the Pistons is completed and Detroit waives him, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets. Jordan will receive a veteran’s minimum contract of one year and $2.6MM from Los Angeles.
Brooklyn agreed to trade Jordan along with four second-round picks and $5.78MM in cash for Jahlil Okafor and Sekou Doumbouya. The Pistons are expected to buy out and waive Jordan, who has two years and nearly $20MM remaining on his contract.
Jordan is giving back $4MM to get out of his contract, Charania adds in another tweet.
How much Jordan, who fell out of Brooklyn’s rotation last season, would play with the Lakers is a major question mark. Los Angeles still has Marc Gasol on the roster and also signed Dwight Howard in free agency. Anthony Davis, naturally, will also see minutes at center. However, there’s been speculation that Gasol might not return to Los Angeles for the upcoming season.
The Lakers already have 13 players with guaranteed contracts and two others, Chaundee Brown and Mac McClung, on non-guaranteed deals.
Nets Sign LaMarcus Aldridge, Waive Alize Johnson
6:43pm: The Nets have officially signed Aldridge, according to a team press release.
4:19pm: The Nets are signing veteran power forward LaMarcus Aldridge and have waived Alize Johnson, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Brooklyn has officially announced the release of Johnson.
Aldridge will receive a veteran’s minimum contract worth $2.6MM for one year. That was all the Nets could offer due to salary cap constraints.
Aldridge retired last season due to an irregular heartbeat, but received medical clearance to resume his career on Thursday and Brooklyn was considered his likely destination. He played five games with the Nets before the condition forced him to temporarily end his career.
“I retired in April based on what I believed was the wisest precautionary decision for my personal health at the time, but further testing and evaluation by several top physicians has convinced the doctors, myself and the Nets that I’m fully cleared and able to return to the rigors of the NBA,” Aldridge said in a statement to ESPN. “I loved my brief time with Brooklyn and am excited to rejoin the team in pursuit of a championship.”
Aldridge, who also dealt with heart issues in 2017, started talking about a comeback last month. He averaged 13.7 points and 4.5 rebounds in 21 games last season with the Spurs as the team’s starting center. San Antonio opted to go with younger players and ultimately reached a buyout agreement, allowing him to sign with Brooklyn in late March. He was waived after announcing his retirement.
Johnson, 25, appeared in 18 games for Brooklyn in 2020/21, averaging 5.2 PPG and 5.0 RPG in just 10.5 minutes per contest.
Since he was on a three-year, minimum-salary contract, Johnson can’t be claimed off waivers using the minimum salary exception, but a team with a trade exception big enough to absorb his non-guaranteed $1.76MM salary could submit a claim. If he goes unclaimed, Johnson will become an unrestricted free agent on Sunday.
Brooklyn has been quite busy this week. The team reportedly reached an agreement with free agent forward Paul Millsap and has also agreed to trade DeAndre Jordan to the Pistons along with four second-round picks and $5.78MM in cash in exchange for Jahlil Okafor and Sekou Doumbouya.
After officially adding Millsap and Aldridge and completing their trade with Detroit, the Nets will have 16 players on guaranteed contracts and one (DeAndre’ Bembry) on a partially guaranteed deal, meaning more roster moves will be necessary to set the 15-man regular season roster next month.
Additionally, Brooklyn is carrying a two-way player (Kessler Edwards) and another (David Duke) on an Exhibit 10 deal. The club also has two unsigned second-round picks (RaiQuan Gray and Marcus Zegarowski).
Atlantic Notes: Dragic, Christian, Hernangomez, Jordan
The Raptors and Goran Dragic have not engaged in buyout talks, according to ESPN’s Jordan Schultz (Twitter link), who says a report stating the point guard is on track to sign with the Mavericks is inaccurate. Dragic, who was acquired in the sign-and-trade with Miami that sent Kyle Lowry to the Heat, still has trade value, which gives Toronto less incentive to explore a possible buyout.
We have more from the Atlantic Division:
- The Celtics have hired Jarell Christian as the head coach of their G League affiliate in Maine, according to HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto. Clevis Murray was the first to report that Christian was expected to fill that position (Twitter link). Christian, 35, has been in the Wizards’ organization since 2019. He spent one season as head coach of the Capital City Go-Go, Washington’s NBA G League affiliate, before becoming an assistant coach last season.
- The pending acquisition of Juan Hernangomez by the Celtics from the Grizzlies is a low-risk move, Jay King of The Athletic writes. Boston gave up two guards who probably wouldn’t have been in the rotation and the pick swap wasn’t a huge sweetener, King continues. Hernangomez could help them space the floor with his perimeter shooting and if he doesn’t pan out, his 2022/23 salary of $7.4MM can be cast off, since it’s not guaranteed.
- By trading DeAndre Jordan rather than waiving him and using the stretch provision over five years, the Nets made a wise financial move, as Bobby Marks of ESPN’s explains (Twitter link). The agreed-upon trade with the Pistons allows Brooklyn to avoid have dead money on the cap, which is essential for a luxury tax team. They also shed his salary over the next two seasons and acquired players on smaller contracts, which will reduce their tax liability in the short run.
Mavs Sign Jaquori McLaughlin To Two-Way Deal, Waive EJ Onu
SEPTEMBER 3: The signing is official, the Mavs announced today in a press release. Dallas also announced that it has waived EJ Onu, who had signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the team last month.
SEPTEMBER 1: The Mavericks will sign Jaquori McLaughlin to a two-way contract, tweets Tim MacMahon of ESPN.
After going undrafted out of UC Santa Barbara, the 23-year-old guard was expected to sign a training camp deal with the Warriors. McLaughlin played for Golden State during Summer League, averaging 16.9 points, 7.3 rebounds and 9.6 assists in five games, but accepted Dallas’ offer instead.
Once the signing becomes official, the Mavericks will have both two-way slots filled, with Eugene Omoruyi occupying the other one. The move will also push Dallas to the training camp limit of 20 players.
Heat Exercise Tyler Herro’s 2022/23 Option
The Heat have exercised their team option on guard Tyler Herro for the 2022/23 season, according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald (Twitter link).
Herro, who has a cap hit just above $4MM this season, will earn about $5.7MM on that ’22/23 option. Now that it has been picked up, the former Kentucky standout is on track to become eligible for a rookie scale extension in 2022 or restricted free agency in 2023.
The 13th overall pick in the 2019 draft, Herro had a big postseason in the Walt Disney World bubble as a rookie in 2020 and was viewed as a candidate for a breakout year in ’20/21. Although his numbers in 54 games were solid (15.1 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 3.4 APG), Herro’s three-point percentage dipped a little from his rookie year and he didn’t take a major step forward. Still, he’s only 21 years old and remains an important part of Miami’s rotation going forward.
Herro is the first player this offseason to have a rookie scale team option for 2022/23 exercised. While decisions on standard team options are typically due right before free agency begins, teams must make their decisions on rookie scale team options a year in advance. By October 31, clubs must either exercise or decline third-year options for first-round picks from 2020 and fourth-year options for 2019’s first-rounders.
Thunder Notes: Muscala, Offseason, Starting Five
As the Thunder‘s roster has undergone a teardown in recent years, one of the most surprising constants has been big man Mike Muscala, who has spent the last two seasons in Oklahoma City. On the surface, a veteran role player like Muscala seems like an odd fit for a team in the midst of a full-fledged rebuild, but he said during his end-of-season interview in May that his time with the franchise has helped him “a lot as a man and as a player.”
As Paris Lawson of OKCThunder.com writes, the Thunder appreciate Muscala’s dedication to the team and rewarded him this offseason with a two-year, $7MM deal that’s fully guaranteed for the 2021/22 season.
“I am tremendously grateful and very moved by the way he feels about the team and the organization,” executive VP of basketball operations Sam Presti said. “I think he really connects with the vision that we have for what we stand for and how we try to operate on a day-to-day basis. We’re not trying to be all things to all people, but there are going to be people that really thrive in this environment and enjoy it, and those are also the people that really help make it what it is.”
Here’s more on the Thunder:
- Zach Harper of The Athletic was underwhelmed by the Thunder’s offseason moves, giving the team a C-minus grade for the summer. Harper questioned the decision to draft Josh Giddey at No. 6 when prospects like Jonathan Kuminga, James Bouknight, and Davion Mitchell were still on the board.
- In his latest mailbag, Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman identifies Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luguentz Dort as the only Thunder players who are guaranteed to be in the starting five on opening night (health permitting). Mussatto also discussed Gabriel Deck‘s status and Isaiah Roby‘s potential, among other topics.
- In case you missed it, the Thunder have signed 2020 second-rounder Vit Krejci. Assuming Krejci received a guaranteed salary for 2021/22, Oklahoma City now has 13 players on guaranteed contracts, three on non-guaranteed deals, and a pair on two-way pacts, leaving two openings on the 20-man offseason roster.
29 Of NBA’s 30 Teams Have Made At Least One Offseason Trade
So far during the NBA’s 2021 offseason, a total of 32 trades have been made, including the not-yet-official deals between the Grizzlies/Celtics and Nets/Pistons that were reported earlier today. Of the league’s 30 teams, 29 have been involved in those deals — the Nuggets are the only team that hasn’t forayed into the trade market at least once since the regular season ended.
[RELATED: 2021 NBA Offseason Trades]
After today’s trade agreement, Memphis is the only club that has completed six deals during the 2021 offseason. The Grizzlies acquired some extra draft assets from New Orleans as a reward for taking on Eric Bledsoe and Steven Adams, moved up 10 spots in the draft to select Santi Aldama, sent Grayson Allen to Milwaukee, flipped Bledsoe to the Clippers for three players, then sent one of those three players (Patrick Beverley) to Minnesota in exchange for Juan Hernangomez and Jarrett Culver before flipping Hernangomez to Boston.
The Celtics, meanwhile, are one of just two other teams that has agreed to five trades so far this offseason. New president of basketball operations Brad Stevens has been busy in his first summer on the job, striking the first deal of the offseason when he sent Kemba Walker to Oklahoma City. The team also acquired Josh Richardson from Dallas, traded away Tristan Thompson in a three-team deal, created a trade exception by signing-and-trading Evan Fournier, and agreed today to acquire Hernangomez.
The Pelicans are the other club that has made five trades so far this summer. Three of New Orleans’ trades came as a result of selling off picks in the July 29 draft, but the other two were significant moves — the Pels landed Valanciunas and Devonte’ Graham (via sign-and-trade) in a three-team deal with Memphis and Charlotte, and acquired Tomas Satoransky and Garrett Temple in the sign-and-trade sending Lonzo Ball to Chicago.
Here are a few more details on this offseason’s 32 trades:
- The Bulls, Clippers, Knicks, and Thunder have each made four trades, with the Hornets, Nets, Pacers, Spurs, and Jazz completing three.
- The Pistons, Cavaliers, Rockets, Bucks, Timberwolves, and Trail Blazers have made two trades apiece, while 11 teams have been involved in just one trade.
- Three of this offeason’s 32 trades have been three-teamers, while one (the Russell Westbrook/Spencer Dinwiddie deal) included five teams. The other 28 deals were just two-team agreements.
- Nearly half of this summer’s trades (15 of 32) included at least one 2021 draft pick — either the pick itself was dealt before the draft started, or the rights to a player were traded after he was selected on July 29.
- Eight of this offseason’s deals included a free agent being signed-and-traded. One of those eight – the Bulls/Pelicans deal – featured multiple players being signed-and-traded, with Ball heading to Chicago and Temple going to New Orleans.
- Eight first-round picks from future drafts (ie. 2022 and beyond) changed hands this offseason in six different deals. However, all of those picks were fairly heavily protected — all of them had at least top-10 protection.
Thunder Sign Vit Krejci To Multiyear Deal
The Thunder have signed draft-and-stash prospect Vit Krejci to a multiyear deal, the team announced today in a press release.
A 6’7″ point guard from the Czech Republic, Krejci was selected by Washington with the 37th overall pick in the 2020 draft and was sent to Oklahoma City in a draft-night deal. After spending the last several seasons with Zaragoza in Spain, Krejci came stateside earlier this year to join the Oklahoma City Blue, the Thunder’s G League affiliate. He spent the season rehabbing an ACL injury and didn’t play at all for the Blue.
Prior to signing Krejci, the Thunder were carrying 12 players on fully guaranteed contracts, with Kenrich Williams, Gabriel Deck, and Charlie Brown on non-guaranteed deals. Williams is a safe bet to stick around, so Krejci will likely claim one of the last two spots on the 15-man regular season roster over either Brown or Deck.
The expectation is that Krejci will once again spend most of his time in the G League in 2021/22, according to Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman (Twitter link).
Details of the 21-year-old’s new contract aren’t yet known, but the Thunder could have used a portion of their mid-level exception to offer a three- or four-year deal with a starting salary above the rookie minimum.