Heat Sign Gerald Green
8:56pm: The signing is official, the Heat announced. “We are fortunate to be able sign a proven veteran like Gerald,” said team president Pat Riley. “He is a dynamic talent who possesses great athleticism, and has the ability to shoot from distance and spread the floor. He’ll be a perfect complement to our team.”
8:28am: It’ll be a minimum-salary contract, reports Ken Berger of CBSSports.com (Twitter link). The Mavericks had been interested before their deal with DeAndre Jordan fell apart, Berger adds.
8:02am: The Heat will sign Gerald Green to a one-year deal, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (on Twitter). Miami has its $3.376MM taxpayer’s mid-level exception at its disposal if Green is getting more than the minimum.
Green departs from the Suns, which is no shock after agent Kevin Bradbury took coach Jeff Hornacek to task this past spring in response to Hornacek’s criticism of Green’s defense. The swingman nonetheless seemed open to a return. The Clippers had interest and expressed that to Green’s camp, but with DeAndre Jordan coming back and Paul Pierce in the fold, L.A. has only the minimum to spend. Green seemed likely to pursue a deal approaching $5MM a year, though he’s unable to get quite that much from the Heat.
The Heat will still meet today with Marcus Thornton, who also ended last season with the Suns, in spite of their agreement with Green, reports Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald (Twitter link). Still, it’s tough to see Miami signing both, Jackson tweets, particularly since the Heat are already short on roster space, as Jason Lieser of the Palm Beach Post notes (on Twitter).
Jazz Sign Raul Neto
8:47pm: The deal is for three years and $2.8MM, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports tweets.
THURSDAY, 8:18pm: The Jazz have officially signed Neto to a multiyear contract, the team announced. The exact length and amount of the agreement were not released.
TUESDAY, 11:04am: Jazz draft-and-stash prospect Raul Neto isn’t expected to return to Murcia of Spain and will instead sign with Utah, his coach told David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link). It’s unclear if the Jazz and the 23-year-old have agreed to terms, but Neto traveled to Utah this weekend and he and the team were to discuss their future, as Jody Genessy of the Deseret News details, and he was already wearing team gear as of last night, Genessy tweets.
The 6’1″ Neto is speedy, with a high basketball IQ, but his outside shooting is poor, according to Pick (Twitter link). The native of Brazil nailed just 20.5% of his three-pointers this past season in Spain, and he averaged 8.9 points, 3.9 assists and 2.7 turnovers in 22.4 minutes per game.
The Jazz originally acquired his rights via trade in 2013, the day after the Hawks drafted him 47th overall. His contract with Murcia was to run though 2017, but it would appear as though the deal includes NBA out clauses. It’s unclear how much cost, if any, would be involved in a buyout from the Spanish team.
Utah has plenty of cap flexibility, even if the wake of its two-year, $4.5MM deal with Joe Ingles. The Jazz entered July with only about $49MM in guaranteed salary. They’ve also reportedly been in talks with draft-and-stash center Tibor Pleiss.
Celtics Re-Sign Jonas Jerebko
JULY 9TH, 8:01pm: The signing is official, the team announced.
3:48pm: Year two is non-guaranteed, as Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald hears (Twitter link).
JULY 1ST, 2:49pm: The Celtics will re-sign Jonas Jerebko, reports Sam Amick of USA Today (Twitter link). It’ll be a two-year, $10MM deal, Amick hears. A source earlier today told Sean Deveney of The Sporting News that Boston was making a strong push to retain the former Piston who came over in a midseason trade (on Twitter).
Boston can use the Bill Duffy’s client’s Bird rights to make the deal official. He’ll join Amir Johnson, with whom the Celtics have also reportedly struck a deal, in the Celtics frontcourt.
Celtics Sign Amir Johnson
JULY 9TH, 7:58pm: The signing is official, the Celtics announced. Since it’s not a sign-and-trade, and the amount is too large to fit within the mid-level exception, that means Boston is using cap space and has lost its long list of trade exceptions, including one worth $12,909,090 left over from the Rajon Rondo trade.
3:47pm: The second year is non-guaranteed, according to Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald (Twitter link).
JULY 1ST, 2:36pm: The Celtics and Amir Johnson have agreed to a deal, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter links). It’ll be worth $24MM over two years, a fairly significant outlay. The incumbent Raptors, as well as the Knicks, Celtics, Mavericks, Pacers, Lakers and Spurs also expressed interest in the Kevin Bradbury client, as Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com reported earlier (on Twitter).
Chris Mannix of SI.com reported Tuesday that Boston was expected to show interest. Johnson said in 2013 that he wanted to play for Toronto the rest of his career, but declining numbers this past season seemed to make that proposition less likely.
Hawks Sign Edy Tavares To Multiyear Deal
JULY 9TH, 5:28pm: The deal is official, the Hawks announced in a press release. “We followed Edy closely the past two seasons with Gran Canaria and are excited to officially have Edy as a member of our team. We would like to thank the coaches and executives of Gran Canaria as they played a significant role in Edy’s development and we look forward to continuing his improvement in our player development program,” coach/executive Mike Budenholzer said.
JULY 2ND, 10:26am: The Hawks will sign draft-and-stash center Edy Tavares, also known as Walter Tavares, a source told Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). It’s a multiyear arrangement, Spears adds. Atlanta drafted him 43rd overall last year, but he remained overseas with Spain’s Gran Canaria for the 2014/15 season. He pulled an about-face after agreeing to a $3MM offer from Turkey’s Fenerbahce to take half that amount to play for the Hawks, according to David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter links).
Tavares, who stands 7’3″, averaged 8.2 points and 7.9 rebounds in 22.1 minutes per game for Gran Canaria this past season. The numbers weren’t impressive, but he did enough to earn an All-Euroleague First Team selection.
The precise terms of his deal are unclear, so it’s not certain whether the Hawks will use cap room or an exception to sign Tavares.
Thunder Sign Kyle Singler
JULY 9TH, 5:21pm: The deal is official, the team announced. “Kyle Singler has consistently demonstrated a selfless, hard-working and committed approach that we are always working towards for the identity of Oklahoma City Thunder Basketball,” said GM Sam Presti. “His size, shooting, willingness to accept various roles and solid fundamental base will help us continue to build the overall depth of our team.”
JULY 1ST, 3:22pm: The Thunder and Kyle Singler have agreed to a deal worth nearly $25MM over five years, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). The fifth year is a team option, Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman relays (on Twitter).
Singler appeared in 26 games for the Thunder after being acquired by the Pistons at midseason, averaging 8.7 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 0.7 assists in 17.5 minutes per contest. His career numbers through 244 games are 8.12 PPG, 3.4 RPG, and 1.0 APG. His career slash line is .424/.378/.688.
Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports wrote earlier this week that Oklahoma City was expected to re-sign the Greg Lawrence client. That wasn’t a surprise, given the mutual interest between the sides as this summer’s restricted free agency approached for the former 33rd overall pick.
Nets Rescind Qualifying Offer To Mirza Teletovic
The Nets have withdrawn their more than $4.21MM qualifying offer to Mirza Teletovic, the team announced (hat tip to Tim Bontemps of the New York Post). He’s now an unrestricted free agent, as Brooklyn has forfeited its right to match offers for him. The move is somewhat surprising, since GM Billy King said this morning that the sides had been in talks and that he was hopeful that the client of Jeff Schwartz and Mike Lindeman would sign, as Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork.com passed along (Twitter link).
They can still strike a deal, but the Nets can’t stop him from joining another NBA team. King had said this spring that he would let the market dictate the terms of the forward’s next contract. Teletovic, who’s expressed a desire to return, has received plenty of interest from overseas, but it doesn’t appear as though other NBA teams are biting just yet. Still, Grantland’s Zach Lowe, as he did in April, mentions the Spurs in connection to him (Twitter link), though it’s not clear in either case whether that’s simply an educated guess or if San Antonio indeed has interest.
The Nets are poised to once more exceed the tax threshold, set at $84.74MM for this season, though King said today that the team will probably make moves designed to bring the team under that line or at least lessen the amount by which it is over, notes Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News (on Twitter). Drawing a hard line on Teletovic, who could have simply accepted his qualifying offer, falls in line with that philosophy.
We’re just getting started…follow us on Twitter to be in the know on all the latest NBA rumors!
Lakers Sign Lou Williams
THURSDAY, 3:45pm: The signing is official, the Lakers announced.
SUNDAY, 3:28pm: The Lakers and Lou Williams have agreed to a deal, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). It’ll be a three-year, $21MM arrangement, Wojnarowski adds.
There was said to be mutual interest between Williams and the Heat, but ultimately he’ll be heading west to Los Angeles. The Knicks reportedly reached out to Williams earlier this month and the new client of Wallace Prather was apparently expected to hear from New York and Sacramento, as well as the Nets. The Heat were hot on his heels, but they were limited to the $3.376MM taxpayer’s mid-level exception to get him and we now know that was well short of market value since he’ll earn an average annual value of $7MM per season.
Last season, Williams averaged 15.5 PPG, 2.1 APG, and 1.9 RPG in 25.2 minutes per contest on his way to being recognized as the league’s top bench player. Williams finally looked back to his normal self in 2014/15 for the first time since tearing his right ACL in January 2013. He was a strong fit for the Raptors despite the presence of fellow guards Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, affirming GM Masai Ujiri‘s decision to absorb Williams’ salary in a swap with the Hawks just before the 2013/14 season officially ended last June. The 28-year-old earned $5.45MM last season and he’ll see a healthy pay bump with his new Lakers deal.
Nets Sign Willie Reed
The Nets have signed free agent combo forward Willie Reed, the team announced via press release. Shams Charania of RealGM first reported the deal, which is for one year. It’s partially guaranteed for $500K, according to TNT’s David Aldridge (on Twitter). Neither report indicates a salary, but since Brooklyn’s taxpayer’s mid-level appears to have been used up on deals for Wayne Ellington and Shane Larkin, Reed is almost certainly getting the minimum salary.
Assuming so, Reed’s contract is worth $947,276, the two-year veteran’s minimum, even though he’s yet to appear in an NBA regular season game. That’s because he was on the roster for the Grizzlies during the 2012/13 regular season, and the Kings carried him in the 2013/14 season. The Nets had him during preseason last fall, but they cut him before the start of the regular season.
Reed earned his way back to Brooklyn with a strong showing on the Heat’s summer league team, as he averaged 13.5 points and 7.8 rebounds in 25.8 minutes per game across his first four contests. The 25-year-old, who went undrafted out of St. Louis in 2011, will now play for the Nets summer league team.
Spurs Acquire Ray McCallum
3:27pm: The deal is official, the Kings and Spurs announced via press releases. Sacramento will receive a 2016 second round pick in return for the guard.
10:01am: The Spurs and Kings have agreed to a deal that sends Ray McCallum to San Antonio and a future second-round pick to Sacramento, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). McCallum is making the minimum, but he’s on a three-year deal, so the Spurs can’t take on his salary without using cap space or a trade exception unless they end up sending salary to the Kings when the deal is finalized. That doesn’t appear to be happening, and the Spurs don’t have any trade exceptions. San Antonio is poised to go under the cap to sign LaMarcus Aldridge and others, so the use of cap space seems most likely for this McCallum deal.
The point guard, whose salary is non-guaranteed, ostensibly replaces free agent Cory Joseph, who’s agreed to join the Raptors, as Stein notes. McCallum is set for restricted free agency a year from now, but he at least provides temporary depth. The 24-year-old started 30 games for the Kings last season.
Sacramento has agreed to sign Rajon Rondo, and Darren Collison‘s still on the roster, so McCallum wouldn’t have been in line to do that again this year. The Kings picked the former Detroit Mercy standout 36th overall in 2013.