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29 Of 30 NBA Teams Made Trades In 2017 Offseason

October 3rd, 2017 at 11:43am CST by Luke Adams

The 2017 NBA offseason didn’t feature any stars like LeBron James or Kevin Durant signing with new teams in free agency, but it was still one of the most eventful summers in recent memory. Trades played a big part in the offseason excitement, with NBA teams completing a total of 39 swaps since the 2016/17 season ended.

Not all of those deals were blockbusters. The Rockets, for instance, made several moves that saw them pay cash to acquire players on non-guaranteed salaries in the hopes of flipping them in later trades — most of those players were ultimately waived.

Still, there was no shortage of big-name players on the move. Five Eastern Conference All-Stars changed teams in trades, with Kyrie Irving and Isaiah Thomas involved in the same deal, and Paul George, Jimmy Butler, and Carmelo Anthony all being sent to new homes in the West.

With opening night just two weeks away, 29 of 30 NBA teams have completed at least one trade this offseason, leaving the Spurs as the only club not to make a deal. Of those 29 teams that made a trade, most completed more than one — the Cavaliers, Heat, Suns, Warriors, and Wizards each finalized just one deal apiece, while the league’s 24 other teams made multiple trades.

Here’s the breakdown of the teams that made the most trades this offseason:

Houston Rockets (8): Houston’s total was artificially inflated by those aforementioned deals involving non-guaranteed contracts. Six of their eight trades saw the Rockets trade cash or a draft pick for a player with a non-guaranteed salary. The team did complete one massive deal though, acquiring Chris Paul from the Clippers.
Los Angeles Clippers (5): The CP3 swap was the Clippers’ biggest move, but it was hardly their only trade. The team also acquired Danilo Gallinari in a sign-and-trade and acquire multiple second-round picks on draft night.
Philadelphia 76ers (5): Most of the Sixers’ trades were draft-night deals, though the biggest one happened a few days earlier, when Philadelphia acquired the first overall pick from Boston in order to snag Markelle Fultz.
Atlanta Hawks (4): The rebuilding Hawks made a handful of trades with an eye toward the future, including taking on Jamal Crawford‘s contract to land a first-round pick, and getting rid of Dwight Howard and his $23MM+ annual salary.
New Orleans Pelicans (4): The Pelicans essentially completed a pair of salary dumps when they traded Tim Frazier to Washington and Quincy Pondexter to Chicago, since the pick acquired for Frazier was later sold. The team’s most notable deal came on draft night, when New Orleans traded up to No. 31 to select Frank Jackson.

The other NBA teams that made the most trades this offseason are as follows

Boston Celtics (3)
Brooklyn Nets (3)
Chicago Bulls (3)
Dallas Mavericks (3)
Indiana Pacers (3)
Memphis Grizzlies (3)
Orlando Magic (3)
Portland Trail Blazers (3)
Toronto Raptors (3)
Utah Jazz (3)
Charlotte Hornets (2)
Denver Nuggets (2)
Detroit Pistons (2)
Los Angeles Lakers (2)
Milwaukee Bucks (2)
Minnesota Timberwolves (2)
New York Knicks (2)
Oklahoma City Thunder (2)
Sacramento Kings (2)

Note: The Magic sending the Raptors a draft pick for the right to hire Jeff Weltman and the Knicks sending a pick to the Kings for the right to hire Scott Perry are both considered trades for our purposes.

Rookie Cam Oliver Undergoes Hand Surgery

October 2nd, 2017 at 7:10pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer had a feeling last spring that Chris Paul wanted to move on, he told Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times in a Q&A session. Ballmer’s feelings were confirmed shortly after the season but he didn’t get a final decision from Paul until a phone conversation while Ballmer was vacationing in the Greek Isles. Ballmer has stayed in touch with Paul since he was traded to the Rockets but doesn’t believe the team is necessarily worse off without the All-Star point guard, he told Turner. “Chris is an awesome player. But we’re such a different team,” he said. “We are younger. We are more athletic than we were. We are longer than we were. … But we’re different and we’ll see whether we’re different good or not.”

Rockets rookie forward Cameron Oliver underwent surgery to repair a fractured right hand, the team tweets. Oliver, who went undrafted out of Nevada, will be re-evaluated in approximately 4-6 weeks, the team adds. Oliver signed a two-year minimum contract that includes a $300K guarantee.

Bobby Brown Talks About Recruiting Chris Paul

October 2nd, 2017 at 11:43am CST by Luke Adams

While James Harden and Trevor Ariza helped to recruit Chris Paul to Houston back in June, Bobby Brown‘s role in selling Paul on the Rockets shouldn’t be overlooked, as David Yapkowitz of Basketball Insiders outlines.

“That’s one of my good friends. We played together in New Orleans and we built a bond from then,” Brown said of his new Rockets teammate. “The basketball world is so small, once you build a bond with somebody that’s real cool and has a great personality, it’s almost like a no-brainer.”

Carmelo Anthony Confirms He Thought He’d Be Traded To Rockets

September 28th, 2017 at 10:51am CST by Luke Adams

Carmelo Anthony‘s no-trade clause gave him the power to approve a deal to specific teams, and for most of the offseason, the only team on his wish list was the Rockets. In an appearance on SiriusXM NBA Radio (link via Ian Begley of ESPN), Anthony confirms that he believed earlier in the summer that a trade to Houston was all but finalized.

“A deal was done with Houston early, then for some reason – whatever happened behind the scenes – it didn’t go through, it fell through,” Anthony said. “Then we had to really start paying attention and thinking about other options.”

According to Carmelo, another deal – one that would have sent him to the Cavaliers – nearly got done on draft night, back when Phil Jackson was still running the Knicks (link via Begley). That proposed trade would have landed both Anthony and Paul George in Cleveland, Carmelo said today.

Based on various reports, it sounds like the Knicks and Rockets came closest to a deal right before New York hired Scott Perry as the team’s new general manager in July. At that point, the Knicks put trade talks on hold as Perry got acclimated to his new job and assessed the Anthony situation himself. Ultimately, the Knicks and Rockets never found common ground after that, and Anthony admits he had been preparing last week to show up for Media Day as a Knick.

“Me and my team sat down on Friday night and were like, ‘Man, we best prepare for going back to Media Day on Monday and training camp that week,'” Anthony said. “And then we got the call that said, ‘Would you open it up to OKC?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, at this point, yeah.’

“I don’t think it would have been beneficial for me to come back to Media Day after everything that was going on in the offseason,” Anthony continued. “For me to have to deal with that it would have been unfair for the organization, the Knicks, to have to deal with that. It would have been too much noise, too many questions to answer and I don’t think either party wanted to deal with that.”

While Anthony seems happy to have landed in Oklahoma City, it will be interesting to see whether the trade – and the non-trade to Houston – will have an impact on the Western Conference playoff picture next spring. The Thunder and Rockets faced each other in the postseason in 2017, and if they do so again next year, Anthony would be squaring off against the team he was all but certain he’d join.

Rockets Sign George De Paula

September 27th, 2017 at 11:33am CST by Luke Adams

The Rockets have officially signed Brazilian guard George de Paula to their roster, the team announced today (via Twitter). The move brings Houston’s roster count back up to 20 players after the club parted ways with Shawn Long on Tuesday.

De Paula, 21, went undrafted in June and caught on with the Rockets’ Summer League team in July. ESPN’s Chris Haynes (Twitter link) first reported his agreement with the club.

While details of the agreement aren’t known, the newly-signed guard figures to receive little to no guaranteed money to join the Rockets for camp. De Paula is a good bet to ultimately land with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, Houston’s G League team, as an affiliate player.

Rockets Waive Shawn Long

September 26th, 2017 at 4:00pm CST by Luke Adams

The Rockets have formally waived big man Shawn Long, the team announced today (via Twitter). Long will clear waivers and become an unrestricted free agent on Thursday, assuming no other NBA team places a claim on him.

An undrafted free agent out of Louisiana-Lafayette, Long appeared in 18 games for the Sixers in his rookie season, and was productive in limited minutes. The 6’9″ center averaged 8.2 PPG and 4.7 RPG in just 13.0 minutes per contest. He was even better in the G League, averaging a double-double (20.2 PPG, 11.1 RPG) in 39 games for the Delaware 87ers.

Despite his solid rookie year, Long wasn’t viewed as part of Philadelphia’s long-term plans, and was sent to Houston in a June trade when the Rockets were collecting non-guaranteed salaries with an eye toward including them in a bigger deal.

Ultimately, the Rockets never found a use for Long in a trade, and are now waiving him before they’re committed to paying any of his 2017/18 salary — the 24-year-old would have seen his non-guaranteed contract become partially guaranteed for $50K if he had remained under contract beyond today.

Houston now has 19 players on its training camp roster.

Tucker Has Hamstring Issue

September 25th, 2017 at 10:38pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Rockets were never close to acquiring Carmelo Anthony before he was traded to the Thunder, according to a Houston Chronicle report. GM Daryl Morey said he wasn’t disappointed that he failed to work out something with the Knicks, the report adds. “We were involved in rumors in a situation he was very interested in coming here,” he said. “We had some interest if we could maybe work it out, but never did.”
Small forward P.J. Tucker will miss some of training camp because of a hamstring injury, according to another Chronicle report. Tucker suffered the injury during a recent workout but it’s not considered a major issue, the report adds. Tucker signed a four-year contract with the Rockets as a free agent this summer.

Morey Bullish On Rockets; Anderson Happy Not To Be Dealt

September 25th, 2017 at 3:58pm CST by Luke Adams

While some NBA observers have concerns about how Chris Paul and James Harden will mesh in Houston, Rockets president of basketball operations Daryl Morey isn’t worried, suggesting today that the club is “100% certain” it will work (Twitter link via Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle).
Ryan Anderson was able to breathe a sigh of relief this weekend when New York sent Carmelo Anthony to a team besides the Rockets. Speaking today to reporters, including Jonathan Feigen of The Houston Chronicle (Twitter links), Anderson said he talked frequently to the Rockets’ brass and believed there was a “low probability” of being dealt, which he appreciated, since he and his family “love” Houston.

Rockets Re-Sign Bobby Brown

September 25th, 2017 at 12:07pm CST by Luke Adams

SEPTEMBER 25: More than two months after agreeing to terms with Brown, the Rockets have officially confirmed his new deal in a press release that announces the club’s 20-man training camp roster.

JULY 20: The Rockets have reached an agreement with free agent guard Bobby Brown, according to international basketball journalist David Pick (Twitter link). Brown confirmed to Alykhan Bijani of ESPN 97.5 Houston (Twitter link) that he’s re-signing with the club.

Brown, 32, returned to the NBA last year for the first time since the 2009/10 season, joining the Rockets after spending several years playing in Europe and Asia. Although he was a standout scorer during most of his international stops, Brown didn’t play much for Houston in 2016/17, appearing in 25 regular season games and seeing just 123 total minutes of action. He also played limited minutes in five postseason contests.

While Brown didn’t make much of an impact on the court, it sounds like he has played a key role off it for the Rockets. The California native was said to be one of the key players involved in the recruitment of Chris Paul to Houston, along with James Harden and Trevor Ariza.

Brown’s contract with the Rockets expired in June, and he didn’t receive a qualifying offer from the club to make him a restricted free agent, so his efforts to get Paul to Houston looked a little unusual. It makes sense that the club would be willing to bring him back on a minimum salary contract — it remains to be seen whether he’ll get a full or partial guarantee on his deal, however.

Cavaliers Notes: James, Anthony, Cousins, Wade

September 24th, 2017 at 4:02pm CST by Arthur Hill

Don’t expect a firm answer from LeBron James tomorrow when Media Day questions turn to his future, writes Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com. Monday will mark the first time the Cavaliers star has spoken to reporters since Game 5 of the NBA Finals and the first time since rumors emerged that he has plans to join the Lakers as a free agent next July. LeBron will probably tell the media that he hasn’t made up his mind, which Vardon believes is true.

The talk about LeBron’s next decision will overshadow other issues surrounding the team heading into training camp, such as the condition of Isaiah Thomas‘ hip, the new personnel on hand, the chances of Dwyane Wade coming aboard after a buyout from the Bulls and whether the organization plans to keep or trade the unprotected first-rounder it got from Brooklyn. But Cavaliers fans had better get used to it because LeBron’s future is going to eclipse everything all season.

There’s more news out of Cleveland:

The Knicks were demanding a first-round pick from the Cavaliers in exchange for Carmelo Anthony, Vardon writes in a separate story. Anthony included Cleveland among the three teams he was willing to waive his no-trade clause to join, but the Cavs felt the price was too high.
The Cavaliers are listening to offers for the Brooklyn pick, but it’s unlikely a deal will involve either of the Pelicans’ big men, according to Sam Amico of Amicohoops. Rumors have been circulating about DeMarcus Cousins, who will be a free agent next summer, but Amico says the teams haven’t discussed a Cousins trade and the Cavs may not even be interested. Also, Amico hears that New Orleans won’t trade Anthony Davis under any circumstances.
Amico believes Wade is headed to Cleveland, possibly before the season begins. He and the Bulls are ready to part ways, and Amico sees no reason why the buyout should be a lengthy process. He passes along a few other roster details in the same piece, stating that it’s unlikely that Kay Felder or Edy Tavares earns a spot, although both could wind up with the team’s G League affiliate in Canton; most scouts like Ante Zizic, who was acquired in the Kyrie Irving trade, more than Cedi Osman; and the Cavs and Rockets “were at the one-yard line, ready to punch it in” on an Iman Shumpert trade this summer.