Five Key Stories: 7/14/18 – 7/21/18
If you missed any of this week’s biggest free agent signings, don’t worry because we’ve got it covered with our Week in Review. Listed below are some of the most noteworthy signings and other stories from the last seven days.
The Raptors traded All-Star DeMar DeRozan and center Jakob Poeltl to the Spurs in exchange for perennial MVP-candidate Kawhi Leonard and sharpshooter Danny Green. The Spurs will also receive a the Raptors’ 2019 first-round pick, protected for picks 1-20. If the selection doesn’t change hands in 2019, the Spurs will instead obtain a pair of second-round picks from the Raptors. Also, because DeRozan’s salary is able to absorb both Leonard and Green’s salary per CBA rules, Toronto will create a modest trade exception equivalent to Poeltl’s $2.95MM salary. Neither DeRozan nor Leonard seemed pleased with the deal, as Leonard reportedly prefers to play in Los Angeles, while DeRozan feel betrayed by the Raptors’ front office.
The Thunder, Hawks, and Sixers have agreed to a three-way trade trade that will send Carmelo Anthony and the Thunder’s protected 2022 first-round pick to Atlanta, Dennis Schroder to Oklahoma City, and Mike Muscala to Philadelphia. The 2022 first-rounder going to the Hawks will have 1-14 protection, and will turn into two second-rounders if it doesn’t convey in 2022. The Sixers will also send Justin Anderson to the Hawks and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot to the Thunder. Anthony will be waived by the Hawks upon completion of the trade and is widely expected to sign with the Rockets.
Restricted free agent guard Marcus Smart has signed a four-year, $52MM deal to remain with the Celtics. The $52MM figure mirrors the amount of money that was on the table during extension negotiations in the fall. The signing of Smart takes the Celtics into the luxury tax, which may have been the reason for the negotiations dragging on so long, leading to reported frustration from Smart and his camp.
The Bulls and free agent forward Jabari Parker reached an agreement on a two-year, $40MM deal after the Bucks rescinded Parker’s qualifying offer. The Bucks did not unilaterally withdraw their QO to Parker before the deadline, but did so afterward with the consent of Parker so that he could freely negotiate with his hometown team. Parker’s salary is only guaranteed for the 2018/19 season, with the Bulls holding a $20MM team option in 2019/20.
After reaching a verbal agreement with the Sixers on a one-year, $4.5MM deal, free agent forward Nemanja Bjelica chose to back-out of the deal, instead opting to sign a three-year, $20.5MM agreement with the Kings. Bjelica cited family issues for reneging on the Sixers, saying he wanted a multiple-year deal if he was going to relocate his family from Minneapolis and stay in the U.S. The Kings were able to give him two guaranteed years as opposed to one, with his new deal in Sacramento having a non-guaranteed salary in year three.
Here are 10 more notable NBA headlines from the last week:
- The Kings were able to convince another free agent, Yogi Ferrell, to renege on a previously agreed-to contract, signing Ferrell to a two-year, $6.2MM deal after he originally agreed to a deal worth $5.3MM over the same amount of time with the Mavericks.
- The Kings also traded guard Garrett Temple to the Grizzlies in exchange for Ben McLemore, Deyonta Davis, a 2021 second-round pick, and cash.
- The Suns and Nets have swapped veterans Jared Dudley and Darrell Arthur, with the Nets also acquiring a protected 2021 second-round pick for taking on additional salary.
- The Sixers traded big man Richaun Holmes to the Suns in return for $1MM in cash.
- The Nets signed free-agent guard Shabazz Napier to a two-year, $3.8MM contract with a second-year team option.
- The Trail Blazers waived former first-round pick, center Georgios Papagiannis, who has since signed with Panathinaikos.
- Dirk Nowitzki will return for a 21st season in Dallas, signing a one-year, $5MM contract with the Mavericks.
- Nuggets’ rookie first-rounder Michael Porter Jr. underwent a second back surgery, but plans to be ready for the 2018/19 season.
- The Nuggets and reserve guard Monte Morris have reached an agreement on a three-year, $4.8MM deal.
- Free-agent forward Dante Cunningham has signed a one-year deal with the Spurs.
Julyan Stone Signs Deal With Reyer Venezia
After being traded from the Hornets to the Bulls and then waived in order to make room for the Jabari Parker signing, Julyan Stone is heading back to Italy, having signed a contract with his former club, Reyer Venezia, per Sportando (Twitter link).
Stone, 29, went undrafted in 2011 before signing a two-year deal with the Nuggets. He signed a one-year contract with the Raptors for the 2013/14 season and then spent several seasons overseas before coming back to the NBA in 2017, signing a two-year contract with the Hornets.
During his four-season NBA career, Stone has only averaged 1.1 points in 7.2 minutes per game, but has appeared in 70 total contests. He will look to help Reyer reclaim the Lega Basket Serie A title after helping them win the championship in 2017.
Hawks Waive Antonius Cleveland
The Hawks have waived Antonius Cleveland, per Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Cleveland, 24, saw action in four games with the Hawks last season, averaging 3.3 points and 1.0 rebounds in 10.4 minutes per game. He was signed to a multi-year contract in March after signing consecutive 10-day contracts earlier in the season.
As Vivlamore noted previously, the Hawks essentially had to waive Cleveland in order to open up the cap room necessary to acquire Carmelo Anthony from the Thunder and Justin Anderson from the Sixers.
Adding both Anthony and Anderson to the Hawks’ will increase the team’s total salary to approximately $102.8MM, about $1MM over the cap. Per CBA rules, this is not permitted, as the Hawks are using cap space to complete the trade. Waiving Cleveland lowers Atlanta’s total salary – with Anthony and Anderson – to $101.4MM, safely within the 2018/19 salary cap of $101.869MM.
Cleveland’s 2018/19 salary was fully non-guaranteed, so the Hawks will not be on the hook for any of his salary.
Celtics Trade Abdel Nader To Thunder
JULY 23: The Celtics have traded Nader to the Thunder rather than waiving him. Our full story on the deal is here.
JULY 21: The Celtics are waiving swingman Abdel Nader, league sources tell Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports. Nader was chosen by Boston with the 58th overall pick in the 2016 NBA draft and spent a season with the Maine Red Claws, the Celtics’ G League affiliate, before signing an NBA contract with the Celtics last summer.
The Celtics will not be on the hook for Nader’s full 2018/19 salary, as his contract did not become fully guaranteed until August 1. He reportedly had a partial guarantee worth $450K.
The move will leave the Celtics with 14 fully-guaranteed contracts and a team salary of $125.85MM, about $2.07MM north of the tax line. Because the Celtics are in tax territory, they may be looking to enter the 2018/19 season with only 14 players on their roster, a la the Warriors. However, the C’s still have their full $5.3MM taxpayer mid-level exception to spend on a 15th player should they so choose.
Nader, 24, averaged 3.0 points and 1.5 rebounds per game in 48 contests (one start) with the Celtics in 2017/18, his lone NBA season.
Michael Porter Jr. Undergoes Second Back Surgery
JULY 19, 1:30pm: Porter’s surgery involved the lumbar spine, and there is no timetable for him to start playing again, tweets Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated.
JULY 18, 9:46pm: Per Steve Aschburner of NBA.com, Nuggets rookie forward Michael Porter Jr., who was recently selected by Denver with the No. 14 overall selection in the 2018 NBA Draft, had a second surgery on his back last week.
Porter, 19, who ultimately slid to the Nuggets on draft night due to worries about his ongoing back issues, first underwent back surgery in November of last year, which limited him to just three games during his freshman season at Missouri.
The latest procedure, according to Porter’s camp, has led to a greater understanding of Porter’s herniated-disks condition, thereby boosting he and his team’s confidence that he will be able to move on from the injury more quickly and begin his NBA career without having to sit out the 2018-19 season.
Per Aschburner, a spokesperson for the Nuggets declined to speak when reached for comment but did indicate that an update on Porter’s health from the team’s medical staff would be forthcoming.
As we relayed at the beginning of the month, Porter has already signed his rookie scale contract with the Nuggets, which will see him earn a salary of just over $2.41MM in his rookie season.
Lakers Sign Joel Berry
The Lakers have signed point guard Joel Berry, the team officially announced today. Terms of the deal have not yet been released.
Berry, 23, went undrafted in the 2018 NBA Draft after spending four seasons at North Carolina. He was named the Most Outstanding Player of the 2017 NCAA Final Four as a junior after leading North Carolina to a National Championship.
As a senior last season, Berry earned First Team All-ACC honors after averaging 17.1 points in 33.1 minutes per game. He was a member of the Lakers’ 2o18 NBA Summer League squad, but failed to see any game action after suffering an ankle injury.
Rockets Looking To Sign Isaiah Hartenstein?
According to a report from Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle, the Rockets are working toward signing 2017 second-round pick Isaiah Hartenstein to an NBA deal with hopes they will reach an agreement by the end of the week.
Hartenstein, 20, had a strong showing for the Rockets during this year’s NBA Summer League after the 7-foot center played for the Rockets’ G League affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, last season.
Before being selected No. 43 overall in last year’s draft, Hartenstein played with Lithuanian club Zalgiris Kaunas, where he helped lead the team to a seventh straight Lithuanian Basketball Club title.
With the Vipers, Hartenstein averaged 9.5 points and 6.6 rebounds in 18.7 minutes per game, making 57.1 percent of his shots. He averaged 10.3 points and eight rebounds per game during this year’s Summer League.
Hartenstein’s signing could mean the end of center Zhou Qi‘s time with the Rockets. Both big men Nene and Chinanu Onuaku have fully-guaranteed salaries for the upcoming 2018/19 campaign, while Qi has no guaranteed money on his contract that runs through 2021.
Northwest Notes: Noel, Thomas, Favors, Blazers
Five years removed from being drafted No. 6 overall in the 2013 NBA Draft, newly-acquired Thunder big man Nerlens Noel is looking to rehabilitate both his game and reputation in Oklahoma City, writes Brett Dawson of The Oklahoman.
A one-and-done talent at college powerhouse Kentucky, Noel is aware of the rumors surrounding his game – that he’s a talented but unwilling to work – but he’s ready to come out this season and turn things around.
The Thunder are ready for that too, which is why head coach Billy Donovan and All-Stars Russell Westbrook and Paul George all made recruiting pitches to Noel on the first night of free agency.
“I’m excited about having him,” Donovan said. “He’s early in his career, and I know his career probably hasn’t evolved into what he’d hoped when he was a rookie. But he’s still very young, and he’s still got a lot of time to continue to get better.”
Noel has yet to have much of any success at the NBA level so far. He sat out his first season in Philadelphia recovering from injury and then saw his playing time dwindle after the Sixers drafted up-and-coming star Joel Embiid. But now that Noel feels he has a new home where winning is a priority, he is ready to prove his worth.
“You want to be in a situation where you’re wanted on a team that really wants to win,” Noel said. “That means the utmost to me, and that’s what my game is. I don’t think playing on teams that are really headed in the other direction complements me as well or makes me look as good as I might want to.”
There’s more from the Northwest Division:
- Armed with deep motivation after having his career curtailed by injury, Nuggets point guard Isaiah Thomas is eager to play for a team who wanted him, reports Christopher Dempsey of Nuggets.com. Thomas, who played for head coach Mike Malone in Sacramento during his breakout season in 2013-14, credits Malone’s trust in him as a key to his continued success.
- Per Aaron Falk of UtahJazz.com, Jazz forward Derrick Favors is looking for an increased role on offense next season. During his free agent meeting with Utah’s front office, the two parties spoke about getting Favors more cuts to the basket and playing out of pick-and-roll or dribble-handoffs more often.
- The Trail Blazers have made a couple of minor roster moves in the past day or so, deciding to retain guard Wade Baldwin and part ways with center Georgios Papagiannis.
Raptors Notes: Ujiri, Leonard, DeRozan, VanVleet
By trading away franchise cornerstone DeMar DeRozan, Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri demonstrated his belief that Toronto’s roster, as constructed pre-Kawhi Leonard, wasn’t going to get the job done against the Celtics or the rest of the Eastern Conference, reports Chris Mannix of Yahoo Sports.
But now that Leonard is a Raptor, the obvious question becomes, for how long? The Lakers, like most everyone else who follows or reports on the NBA, believe they will land Leonard next summer. Yet, the brass in L.A. felt the same way last summer when they saw Paul George, who publicly voiced his desire to play in Hollywood, be traded to the Thunder only to re-sign with Oklahoma City earlier this month without so much as a second look at the Lakers.
Per Mannix, however, this feels different. The Raptors don’t have an MVP sidekick to pair with Leonard like the Thunder have in Russell Westbrook, and as Chris Haynes of ESPN blunty tweeted earlier today, Leonard has “no desire” to play in Toronto. But then again, Toronto is not an undesirable city, it plays host to one of the most rabid fan bases in all of professional sports, and Ujiri will have an entire year to sell Leonard on a future in Canada.
Ultimately Ujiri, who another front office executive tagged as “really impressive” and a “tremendous asset,” chose to roll the dice on an MVP-caliber player knowing that there were risks attached. It remains to be seen, at least until next summer, whether Ujiri’s gamble will payoff.
There’s more from The North:
- In a subsequent tweet from Haynes, the ESPN scribe mentions how players around the NBA have not failed to notice that the Raptors have yet to make a statement thanking DeRozan for his contributions over a nine-year period with the franchise.
- In another article for Yahoo Sports, Michael Lee opines that the DeRozan/Leonard trade is unique because both of the marquee players involved are furious with the deal. For his part, DeRozan is particularly hurt because he claims to have been told by the Raptors just recently that he wouldn’t be traded out of Toronto. And after former franchise stars like Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter, and Chris Bosh bolted, it seems cruel for a player like DeRozan, who actually wanted to stay in Toronto, to be sent packing without his approval.
- In other Raptors‘ news, re-signed guard Fred VanVleet sat down with Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype for a wide-ranging interview detailing everything from his free agency experience this summer and last season’s breakout performance to his thoughts on former coach Dwane Casey and new head coach Nick Nurse.
Latest On Nemanja Bjelica
Earlier today, we relayed the somewhat surprising news that despite agreeing on a one-year, $4.449MM deal with the Sixers earlier this month, free agent Nemanja Bjelica will not sign a contract with Philadelphia or any other NBA team this summer, opting instead to return to Europe for the 2018/19 season.
Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic has more details on why Bjelica chose to return to Europe, writing that the decision ultimately came down to what the 30-year-old Serbian forward believes is in the best interest of his family.
“I’m thankful for Philly for the opportunity, but I will always do what is the best for my family,” Bjelica said. “It’s not about coach or the Philly organization. Brett Brown, he’s a great guy and a great coach. The most important thing for me is family and some kind of stability.”
Bjelica and his wife have a school-age daughter and an infant son, and Bjelica did not want to uproot his family from their home in Minneapolis for the past three seasons to live in Philadelphia for the next eight months before potentially having to move again if he wasn’t able to re-sign with Sixers next summer.
It’s certainly possible, based on Krawczynski’s story, that Bjelica would have been willing and open to remain stateside if he were given a multi-year deal, but unfortunately, the free agent market this summer was largely limited to one-year contracts, with teams determined to keep as much cap flexibility as possible for next summer, when players like Kawhi Leonard, Klay Thompson, Jimmy Butler, and Kyrie Irving are all potentially free agents.
Bjelica, who was named the EuroLeague MVP in 2015, returns to Europe with NBA career averages of 6.1 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.3 assists per game in 192 contests.