Raptors Sign Juancho Hernangomez To One-Year Deal
JULY 28: The Raptors have officially signed Hernangomez, the team announced today in a press release.
JULY 26: Free agent forward Juancho Hernangomez is finalizing a one-year agreement with the Raptors, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter).
Hernangomez has been on the open market since being waived by the Jazz on June 30. Utah released him before his $7.3MM salary for the 2022/23 season became guaranteed. While terms of the veteran’s new deal with Toronto aren’t yet known, it’s a safe bet it’ll be worth less than that — I’d expect a minimum-salary contract.
Hernangomez, 26, has flashed the ability to contribute as a stretch four over the course of his six NBA seasons, but didn’t stay in one place for long during the 2021/22 league year. He was traded from Minnesota to Memphis last August, then to Boston in September, to San Antonio in January, and to Utah in February.
In total, Hernangomez averaged 3.3 PPG and 2.5 RPG in 40 games (11.1 MPG) for three teams last season, posting a shooting line of .415/.348/.559. He’s perhaps most recognizable to many NBA fans for starring as Bo Cruz in the Netflix film Hustle.
The Raptors currently have 18 players under contract, with second-rounder Christian Koloko and Hernangomez likely to fill out the team’s 20-man offseason roster.
It’s possible that Hernangomez – like D.J. Wilson, Dalano Banton, Armoni Brooks, and Justin Champagnie – will get a partially guaranteed contract and will have to earn for a spot on the 15-man regular season roster.
Cassius Winston Joins Bayern Munich
JULY 28: Bayern Munich has officially announced its deal with Winston, confirming the move in a press release. Winston said in a statement that former Wizards teammate Greg Monroe, who played for the German club in 2019/20, “spoke highly” of the organization.
JULY 27: Free agent point guard Cassius Winston is on track to sign a contract with Bayern Munich, according to Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com.
Winston became an unrestricted free agent this summer after spending the last two seasons on two-way contracts with the Wizards. The 53th overall pick in the 2020 draft out of Michigan State, Winston appeared in just 29 total contests with Washington across two seasons, averaging 1.9 PPG and 0.7 APG in 4.7 minutes per game.
Winston saw more action for the Capital City Go-Go, the Wizards’ G League affiliate, though he wasn’t a starter for the team in 2021/22. In 21 regular season appearances off the bench for the Go-Go, the 24-year-old averaged 12.8 PPG and 4.8 APG on .458/.384/.889 shooting in 18.6 MPG.
The Wizards could’ve made Winston a restricted free agent by issuing him a qualifying offer, but opted not to do so. Now, he’ll head overseas to join a German team that signed another NBA/G League veteran (Freddie Gillespie) earlier this week. Bayern Munich competes in the EuroLeague in addition to Germany’s top league (Basketball Bundesliga).
International Notes: Powell, Nicholson, Pangos, Ojeleye
Free agent guard Myles Powell and forward Andrew Nicholson are joining the Bay Area Dragons of the new East Asia Super League, according to an announcement from the league (Twitter link). The Dragons are a Hong Kong team, but are temporarily based in Manila in the Philippines due to COVID-19 restrictions in Hong Kong.
The new East Asian league is recruiting some noteworthy U.S. players with significant financial commitments. According to Adam Zagoria of NJ.com, Powell’s deal is worth seven figures. The former Seton Hall guard, who finished 2021/22 on a two-way contract with the Sixers, intends to return stateside when the EASL season ends in February.
“I’ll be back in six months, so the plan is to go over there, make some money, and then I’ll be back in February and hopefully join an NBA team before the playoffs,” Powell told Zagoria. “That’s around the time NBA call-ups start anyway.”
While Powell played in the NBA last season, Nicholson hasn’t suited up for an NBA team since 2017. He appeared in 285 total regular season contests from 2012-17 for Orlando, Washington, and Brooklyn.
Here are a few more notes from around the international basketball world:
- Kevin Pangos‘ deal with Olimpia Milano, first reported in April, is now official, the Italian club announced today in a press release. It’s a two-year contract for Pangos, who appeared in 24 games for the Cavaliers last season before being bought out in February.
- After Orazio Cauchi of BasketNews.com reported that Virtus Bologna is eyeing veteran NBA forward Semi Ojeleye as a possible target, Emiliano Carchia of Sportando tweets that the Italian club has had discussions with Ojeleye. The 27-year-old appeared in 30 total games last season for the Bucks and Clippers before being waived by L.A. in March.
- We passed along items on a handful of other non-NBA signings today, including Aron Baynes returning to Australia and Cassius Winston reportedly heading to Germany. You can check out our international page for all our latest updates on overseas transactions involving former NBA players.
Lakers Sign Jay Huff To Exhibit 10 Contract
The Lakers have officially signed big man Jay Huff to an Exhibit 10 contract, the team announced today (via Twitter).
Huff, who went undrafted out of Virginia in 2021, spent the first couple months of his rookie season on a two-way contract with the Lakers and appeared in four NBA games before being waived. The 7’1″ center continued to play for the South Bay Lakers in the G League after being released by the NBA team, averaging 15.7 PPG, 6.1 RPG, and 2.5 BPG in 28 regular season NBAGL games, all starts (25.9 MPG).
Huff suited up for the Lakers’ Summer League teams in San Francisco and Las Vegas this summer and played well, averaging 10.5 PPG, 4.8 RPG, and 3.0 BPG in four appearances (18.4 MPG).
The Lakers now have 19 players under contract. Of those, 12 have guaranteed deals, two (Austin Reaves and Wenyen Gabriel) have standard non-guaranteed contracts, and two (Cole Swider and Scotty Pippen Jr.) are on two-way deals. Huff joins Fabian White and Javante McCoy as the players on Exhibit 10 pacts.
Aron Baynes To Sign With Brisbane Bullets
Veteran center Aron Baynes will make his return to basketball with the Brisbane Bullets in Australia’s National Basketball League, agent Daniel Moldovan tells Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
According to Windhorst, Baynes will sign a two-year contract that includes an NBA out. The 35-year-old also had offers on the table from teams in Europe and China, per Windhorst, but those offers wouldn’t have given him the opportunity to opt out and return to the NBA, which is his ultimate goal.
Baynes, who has nine NBA seasons under his belt, last played in the league in 2020/21, appearing in 53 games (31 starts) for the Raptors. He represented Australia in the Tokyo Olympics later that year, but suffered a major spinal cord injury after a freak fall that left him hospitalized in Japan and Australia for two months. We described that incident and Baynes’ recovery in more detail back in January.
Baynes, who was initially unable to walk following his spinal cord injury, has been engaged in a long, difficult rehabilitation process for much of 2022. He reportedly worked out for NBA teams in Las Vegas earlier this month while the Summer League was taking place.
NBA clubs figure to continue monitoring Baynes as he suits up for the Bullets in Brisbane later this year.
Jacob Gilyard Expected To Sign Exhibit 10 Deal With Grizzlies
Rookie free agent guard Jacob Gilyard is expected to sign an Exhibit 10 contract with the Grizzlies, agents Keith Glass and Luke Glass tell ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link).
Gilyard, who went undrafted last month, spent his entire five-year college career at Richmond, averaging 13.3 PPG, 5.4 APG, 3.5 RPG, and 2.9 SPG on .395/.360/.860 shooting in 37 games (38.5 MPG) in 2021/22.
Gilyard earned All-Atlantic 10 honors in four of his five college seasons, was named the A-10 Defensive Player of the Year in 2020, and became the all-time NCAA Division I leader in steals over the course of an impressive college career.
The 24-year-old suited up for the Warriors’ Summer League team at the California Classic earlier this month and then played for the Timberwolves in Las Vegas. He struggled with his shot, making just 5-of-18 field goal attempts (2-of-13 threes) across six games at the two events, but it appears the Grizzlies view him as a promising developmental project.
Memphis is facing a roster crunch and has already filled both its two-way contract slots, so Gilyard doesn’t have a clear path to a spot on the 17-man regular season roster. However, an Exhibit 10 deal would put him in line for a $50K bonus if he’s waived before the season and becomes an affiliate player for the Memphis Hustle, the Grizzlies’ G League affiliate.
Clippers Waive Jay Scrubb
The Clippers have waived shooting guard Jay Scrubb, the team officially announced today. Scrubb will become an unrestricted free agent on Friday if he goes unclaimed on waivers.
The 55th overall pick in the 2020 draft, Scrubb spent his first two professional seasons in Los Angeles with the Clippers, appearing in a total of 22 NBA games during that time. His 2021/22 season came to an early end when he went under the knife in February, undergoing surgery to repair the plantar plate in his right foot.
Although he didn’t receive a qualifying offer from the Clippers when his two-way deal expired in June, Scrubb was re-signed to an Exhibit 10 contract. However, he spent less than three weeks back under contract with the team before being waived today.
If Scrubb doesn’t find a new home between now and the start of the season, he’ll be eligible to become an affiliate player for the Ontario Clippers, L.A.’s G League team. If he spends at least 60 days on Ontario’s roster, he’d receive a bonus of $50K.
The Clippers now have 17 players under contract.
Warriors Rumors: Green, Wiggins, Poole, Thompson
Signing all of Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Poole, and Klay Thompson to lucrative contract extensions that lock them up long-term probably isn’t financially viable for the Warriors, according to Anthony Slater and Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic.
As Slater and Thompson outline, extending Green, Wiggins, and Poole to deals that are worth a combined $90MM or so in 2023/24 would result in that season’s roster costing a projected $550MM+ when accounting for team salary and luxury tax penalties. Joe Lacob and Warriors ownership spent a record $362MM on the roster this past season, but Lacob has suggested that even $400MM+ may be too step a price for the organization to stomach, per The Athletic’s duo.
Removing even one of those three hypothetical extensions (worth approximately $27-30MM) from the Warriors’ books for 2023/24 would result in the projected cost of the roster decreasing by more than $200MM, due primarily to the tax savings, according to Slater and Thompson.
In other words, unless they can negotiate some very team-friendly deals, the Warriors may soon face a major decision on which one of their core players they’re most comfortable moving on from.
Here’s more from Slater and Thompson:
- Draymond Green believes he has earned a four-year, maximum extension from the Warriors, sources tell The Athletic. Such a deal would begin in 2023/24 and would be worth about $138.7MM. However, there are no indications that Golden State plans to put that offer on the table for Green this offseason, even though he can reach unrestricted free agency next year if he turns down his ’23/24 player option.
- Green wants to remain with the Warriors, but his contract situation will be worth keeping an eye on, according to Slater and Thompson, who suggest the former Defensive Player of the Year could be willing to explore other options to get the kind of contract he wants. Sources also tell The Athletic that Stephen Curry wouldn’t be happy if the club lost Green for financial reasons.
- Andrew Wiggins may be the best candidate on the Warriors’ roster to sign an extension this offseason, but the club would want any deal to start well below Wiggins’ maximum, per Slater and Thompson. The duo believes Golden State would be interested in a contract starting in the $27MM range. Wiggins will earn $33.6MM in 2022/23 and is coming off his best season as a pro, so he’ll likely be seeking more than that.
- New deals for Anfernee Simons (four years, $100MM) and Jalen Brunson (four years, $104MM) figure to be reference points for Jordan Poole and the Warriors as they explore an extension, Slater and Thompson observe.
- Klay Thompson still has two guaranteed years left on his contract, so he’s probably the least likely of these four Warriors to sign an extension this year, according to Slater and Thompson, who say there’s no sense that Thompson is “clamoring” for a new deal.
Thunder Hiring Chip Engelland As Assistant Coach
The Thunder are hiring longtime Spurs assistant coach Chip Engelland as an assistant on Mark Daigneault‘s staff, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
Engelland has spent the last 17 years in San Antonio under Gregg Popovich after beginning his coaching career as a shooting consultant with the Pistons (1999-2000) and a player development coach with the Nuggets (2003-05).
As Wojnarowski writes, Engelland is widely viewed as the NBA’s top shooting coach and is thought to have had a significant impact on players like Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard during his time with the Spurs. He has a preexisting relationship with Thunder head of basketball operations Sam Presti, who previously worked in San Antonio’s front office.
Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report tweeted earlier this month that Engelland was leaving the Spurs “at the conclusion of his contract” — while Fischer’s report didn’t make it clear, it sounds as if Engelland’s contract expired this offseason, clearing a path for him to accept a new position in Oklahoma City.
The Spurs and Engelland, who has long been one of the NBA’s highest-paid assistants, couldn’t agree to terms on a new deal, Wojnarowski explains.
In his new role, Engelland will have the opportunity to work with a promising young Thunder core that includes Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Josh Giddey, Chet Holmgren, Luguentz Dort, Jalen Williams, and Ousmane Dieng, among others.
2022/23 Non-Guaranteed Contracts By Team
As the NBA regular season approaches and teams reduce their rosters from the 20-player offseason limit to the 15-man regular season max, the best way to determine which players will survive preseason cuts is to consider their contracts. Players with guaranteed salaries for 2022/23 are far more likely to earn spots on 15-man rosters than players whose contracts aren’t fully guaranteed.
Keeping that in mind, we’re using the space below to keep tabs on the players on each NBA team who don’t have fully guaranteed contracts. The players listed here have non-guaranteed salaries, partially guaranteed salaries, or Exhibit 9 or Exhibit 10 contracts, which essentially function like non-guaranteed deals.
Unless otherwise noted, these players are on minimum-salary contracts. Some players on this list have partial guarantees, which we’ve also mentioned below.
Not all of these players will be waived before the regular season begins, so we’ll maintain this list for the next several months, up until January 10, 2023. That’s the day that all players still under contract will have their salaries fully guaranteed for the rest of the 2022/23 season.
Only players who have formally signed contracts are listed below, so if a player has reportedly reached an agreement with a team on a non-guaranteed deal, we’ll add him to our list when that deal becomes official.
Without further ado, here’s the full list of players without fully guaranteed salaries for 2022/23, broken down by team:
Updated 1-10-23 (1:22pm CT)
Atlanta Hawks
- None
Boston Celtics
- None
Brooklyn Nets
- None
Charlotte Hornets
- None
Chicago Bulls
- None
Cleveland Cavaliers
- None
Dallas Mavericks
- None
Denver Nuggets
- None
Detroit Pistons
- None
Golden State Warriors
- None
Houston Rockets
- None
Indiana Pacers
- None
Los Angeles Clippers
- None
Los Angeles Lakers
- None
Memphis Grizzlies
- None
Miami Heat
- None
Milwaukee Bucks
- None
Minnesota Timberwolves
- None
New Orleans Pelicans
- None
New York Knicks
- None
Oklahoma City Thunder
- None
Orlando Magic
- None
Philadelphia 76ers
- None
Phoenix Suns
- None
Portland Trail Blazers
- None
Sacramento Kings
- None
San Antonio Spurs
- None
Toronto Raptors
- None
Utah Jazz
- None
Washington Wizards
- None