Rockets Sign Jermaine Samuels To Two-Way Contract
1:30pm: Samuels’ two-way contract is official, according to NBA.com’s transaction log.
8:30am: The Rockets have reached a contract agreement with free agent forward Jermaine Samuels, according to Shams Charania and Kelly Iko of The Athletic (Twitter link), who report that Samuels is signing a two-way deal with the club.
Samuels, 24, went undrafted out of Villanova in 2022 and spent his first professional season with the Pacers’ G League affiliate, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. In 32 regular season NBAGL games, he averaged an impressive 18.3 points and 9.2 rebounds per game, making 66.6% of his shots from the floor.
Samuels’ strong G League play didn’t earn him an NBA call-up as a rookie, but he was invited to play for the Rockets’ Summer League team in Las Vegas last month and performed well, averaging 11.3 PPG, 5.0 RPG, and 3.3 APG in six appearances (27.3 MPG).
Reporting at the start of the Vegas Summer League indicated that Samuels had impressed team officials in practices and had emerged as a candidate for a two-way deal for the Rockets.
Trevor Hudgins and Darius Days are currently on two-way contracts for Houston, so Samuels will fill the team’s third and final two-way slot. Since two-way deals only feature small partial guarantees and don’t count against the cap at all, the Rockets could still make changes before opening night, but for now the team will have no available two-way spots after officially signing Samuels.
Sengun To Play In Pre-Olympic Qualifier
Rockets center Alperen Sengun will play for the Turkish national team in the pre-Olympic qualifying tournament in Istanbul from Aug. 12-20, Sportando relays, via a Fanatik report.
- The Rockets added Joshua Obiesie to their camp roster. Get the details here.
And-Ones: D. Rivers, M. Jackson, Bahamas, Shooting Tech, Contracts
After letting go of Jeff Van Gundy last month, ESPN/ABC has also laid off fellow analyst Mark Jackson, sources tell Andrew Marchand of The New York Post. Jackson confirmed the news in an interview with Peter Vecsey, Marchand adds (via Twitter).
As Marchand writes, the new top NBA broadcast team at ESPN/ABC will be comprised of longtime play-by-play announcer Mike Breen, former Sixers head coach Doc Rivers, and Doris Burke, who is being promoted. The hiring of Rivers and promotion of Burke aren’t yet official, but they are “quickly moving in that direction,” according to Marchand.
Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald confirms Marchand’s reporting (via Twitter).
Here’s more from around the basketball world:
- The Suns‘ Deandre Ayton and Eric Gordon, Pacers wing Buddy Hield, and Hornets big man Kai Jones are on the 2024 Olympic qualifying roster for the Bahamas, per Marc J. Spears of Andscape. The Bahamian national team will play its qualifying games in Argentina from August 14-20. “I’m excited to be back playing for Team Bahamas and to see how much the program has grown,” Ayton told Spears. “Can’t wait to play with my guys. It’s truly a special experience to compete with teammates – who are from where you’re from – with Bahamas on your chest.”
- Tim MacMahon of ESPN details how Breakaway Data — a startup focused on the biomechanics of shooting — has partnered with Overtime Elite and Las Vegas Summer League to provide detailed breakdowns of each player’s shot. “I thought it was very informative,” Overtime Elite product Amen Thompson, drafted fourth overall by the Rockets, told ESPN. “Not everything works for everybody, but that [data] can’t really be a bad thing. It can only help to get as much information as possible. I felt like that’s what it gave us.”
- Which players have inked the most lucrative contracts in NBA history? Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype provides the list. Jaylen Brown‘s new super-max extension with the Celtics is the current largest deal ever, Gozlan notes.
Southwest Notes: Eason, Doncic, Hardaway, K. Johnson
Rockets‘ free agent addition Dillon Brooks recently said he’s looking forward to teaming up with Tari Eason, and Eason tells Kelly Iko of The Athletic that the feeling is mutual. Eason gained a reputation as a tough, aggressive defender during his rookie season, and he wants to build on that with help from Brooks.
“He’s one of the best defenders around and I can learn so many things from him,” Eason said. “There are so many other things to defense besides just guarding your man. There are so many things I can get better at in defense. Just being able to be paired with him and his skill, his approach and how he sees things from a defensive standpoint. I’ll be able to pick his brain, learn and become a better defender.”
Eason quickly earned a rotation spot last season as a rookie on one of the worst teams in the league. Houston is expecting to be much better after signing Brooks and three other veteran free agents, and new coach Ime Udoka has emphasized to Eason that defense will be important for him to keep getting regular minutes.
“Just be vocal. Be in the right spots, things like that,” Eason said of Udoka’s message. “As far as my defensive approach, they want me to be locked in. We have an older team now so for me to be on the floor, I have to be one of the best defenders on the floor at all times. So just really being homed in on defense, that’s the biggest thing. Being able to knock down a consistent shot and play defense.”
There’s more from the Southwest Division:
- The Mavericks likely have two more seasons to show Luka Doncic that they can build a contender around him before they have to worry about him leaving, Tim Cato of The Athletic writes in a mailbag column. Doncic can opt out of his current deal in 2026, and although Cato is skeptical that the Slovenian star would ask for a trade before then, he acknowledges that the organization is operating under a “Doomsday Clock.” Cato also points out that Dallas has amassed a wealth of young talent, draft assets and tradable contracts to bid for the next big star that becomes available.
- Cato believes it’s probably a coin flip on whether the Mavericks will trade Tim Hardaway Jr. before training camp, but he says it should become more likely as the season wears on. He points out that the acquisition of Seth Curry makes Hardaway more expendable, and the team needs to find minutes for second-year guard Jaden Hardy.
- Keldon Johnson has established himself as a starter with the Spurs, but the addition of No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama may push him into a sixth-man role, per Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News. “I just want to win,” Johnson said. “Whatever I got to do to win, I am looking forward to that, so we’ll see how it goes.”
Players Who Signed July 1 Are Now Eligible To Be Traded
The peak of the NBA’s transactions season has calmed down after an active start to July, but a few more players have become eligible to be traded on the final day of the month, notes Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link).
The 30-day trade restriction window has expired for draft picks who signed their contracts on July 1, along with six players who inked two-way contracts on that date.
The designation won’t matter for those at the very top of the draft, as the Spurs and Trail Blazers obviously won’t consider trading Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson, respectively. However, it could come into play for a few others, especially if more big-name players are on the move as the summer winds down.
In addition to those top-three picks, first-rounders who signed on July 1 are the Magic’s Anthony Black and Jett Howard, the Pacers‘ Jarace Walker and Ben Sheppard, the Trail Blazers‘ Kris Murray and the Heat’s Jaime Jaquez. The No. 18 pick out of UCLA, Jaquez has been mentioned as a potential asset in a trade to bring Damian Lillard to Miami.
Two-way players who signed on July 1, according to NBA.com’s transactions log, are the Sixers‘ Terquavion Smith and Ricky Council, the Heat‘s Dru Smith and Jamaree Bouyea, the Trail Blazers‘ Ibou Badji and the Rockets‘ Trevor Hudgins.
Most veteran free agents who signed this summer won’t become eligible to be traded by their teams until December 15 or January 15, depending on their circumstances. Those signings didn’t become official until July 6 or later because of the NBA’s summer moratorium.
Warriors Hiring Chuck Hayes Away From Rockets
The Warriors will hire longtime Rockets player and front office member Chuck Hayes as their new director of basketball operations, according to Danielle Lerner of The Houston Chronicle.
Hayes, 40, joined Houston’s management team six years ago as a pro player personnel scout and worked his way up to assistant director of player personnel. He told Lerner that his position with Golden State will involve some college and professional scouting but will also “enhance my responsibilities with free agency and some trade strategy.”
Hayes is originally from San Leandro, California, so the new job will bring him close to home.
The 6’6″ forward signed with the Rockets after going undrafted out of Kentucky in 2005 and spent his first six NBA seasons with the team. He also played for the Kings and Raptors before rejoining Houston for two games in his final season. Hayes averaged 3.7 points and 5.0 rebounds in 644 career games.
How New CBA Has Impacted Summer Roster Moves
The restrictions placed on teams above the second tax apron in the NBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement didn’t dissuade the Suns from further increasing their payroll in both the short and long term by acquiring Bradley Beal and his four-year, maximum-salary contract. However, the effects of the new CBA were felt by several of the league’s other top spenders, as ESPN’s Bobby Marks, Kevin Pelton, and Tim Bontemps outline in an Insider-only story.
Bontemps points out that the Clippers‘ decision to waive Eric Gordon before his 2023/24 cap hit became guaranteed saved the club $100MM+ in salary and tax penalties. Gordon ended up signing with the rival Suns, which wasn’t an ideal outcome for L.A.
The Celtics, meanwhile, were in position to keep Grant Williams at a fairly reasonable rate, but opted to sign-and-trade him to Dallas rather than bring him back on a four-year deal worth around $14MM per year.
The Warriors reduced their future financial commitments by trading Jordan Poole and his lucrative new four-year extension in a deal for Chris Paul, who is on a pseudo-expiring contract (his 2024/25 salary is non-guaranteed).
As Bontemps writes, forcing high-payroll teams to make difficult decisions on role players was exactly what the NBA intended when it introduced a more punitive second tax apron in the new CBA. Even the Suns, Bontemps notes, were impacted a little by those new rules, given that they opted to fill out their roster with minimum-salary players rather than using their Early Bird rights to re-sign some of their own free agents, like Torrey Craig and Jock Landale.
Here are a few more ways the new Collective Bargaining Agreement has influenced roster moves around the league this summer, per ESPN’s trio:
- The new CBA requires teams to spend at least to the minimum salary floor (90% of the cap) before the regular season begins — if they don’t, they’ll forfeit a portion of their share of the end-of-season luxury tax payments (50% in 2023/24; the entire amount in future seasons). As a result, all eight teams that operated under the cap in July have already reached the minimum floor, as Bontemps and Marks observe. Free agents across the board didn’t necessarily reap the benefits of that change, since several teams used their cap room in other ways (trades, renegotiations, etc.), but Bruce Brown was one beneficiary, Pelton writes. The Pacers were able to get Brown on a short-term contract (two years with a second-year team option) by making him their highest-paid player ($22MM) for 2023/24.
- The new second-round pick exception looks like a win for both teams and players. According to Marks, this year’s second-round picks have received a total of $47.1MM in guaranteed money so far, up from $36.4MM in 2022. And because the second-round exception requires a team option in either the third or fourth year, there’s no longer a risk for teams of losing a second-rounder to unrestricted free agency (the way the Mavericks lost Jalen Brunson).
- The Kings and Thunder took advantage of the fact that the room exception for under-the-cap teams was upgraded to allow for a third year (instead of just two) and a much higher starting salary (it got a 30% bump, separate from its year-to-year increase). In past seasons, Sacramento and Oklahoma City wouldn’t have been able to sign Sasha Vezenkov and Vasilije Micic to three-year contracts worth between $6-8MM per year without using cap room (or the mid-level exception for over-the-cap teams) to do so. This year, they were able to use that cap space in other ways.
- The Cavaliers and Rockets took advantage of more lenient salary-matching rules for non-taxpaying teams to give Max Strus and Dillon Brooks bigger starting salaries than they previously would have been eligible for based on the outgoing salaries involved in those sign-and-trade deals.
- Hawks guard Dejounte Murray and Kings center Domantas Sabonis were the first two players who took advantage of the fact that veterans signing extensions can now receive a first-year raise up to 40% instead of 20%. It’s possible neither player would have agreed to an extension this offseason without that rule tweak. Knicks forward Josh Hart could be the next player to benefit from that change, according to Marks.
Spurs Considered Lucrative Offer Sheet For Austin Reaves
Lakers guard Austin Reaves revealed in a recent interview that the Spurs and Rockets were among his potential options in free agency before he reached a deal to remain in Los Angeles.
Michael Scotto of HoopsHype has since provided more details on those what-if scenarios, citing league sources who say San Antonio considered an offer sheet for Reaves that would have been worth $21MM per season.
However, according to Scotto, the Spurs were concerned that the Lakers would simply match their offer sheet and that they might miss out on other opportunities to use their cap room while they awaited L.A.’s decision. The Lakers wouldn’t have had to officially match an offer sheet for Reaves until the end of the day on July 7 and could have tied up San Antonio’s space in the meantime.
As for the Rockets, they were “closely monitoring” Reaves and were prepared to put together a lucrative offer sheet if they had failed to land top target Fred VanVleet, sources tell Scotto. When VanVleet agreed to a three-year, maximum-salary deal with Houston, the team didn’t see the need to spend big on another backcourt player.
Reaves’ restricted free agency was an uncommon case, since he had accumulated just two years of NBA experience and was therefore subject to the Gilbert Arenas provision.
Although the Lakers could only offer Reaves about $53.8MM over four years using his Early Bird rights, the Arenas provision allowed a rival team with cap room to give him a bigger, back-loaded offer sheet worth up to nearly $102MM over four years — the Lakers would have had the right to match any offer sheet despite not being able to offer Reaves that much money directly.
Ultimately, no rival suitors decided to aggressively pursue Reaves, allowing the Lakers to bring him back on his maximum Early Bird deal, worth $53.8MM across four seasons. Following a breakout season in which he averaged 13.0 points, 3.4 assists, and 3.0 rebounds in 28.8 minutes per game with an excellent .529/.398/.864 shooting line, the 25-year-old may turn out to be a bargain at that price.
Whitmore 'Displayed A Lot Of Different Stuff'
- Cam Whitmore was named the Las Vegas Summer League MVP and the Rockets’ summer coach, Ben Sullivan, said the raw talent of the No. 20 pick in the draft “jumps off the page.” Sullivan spoke to The Athletic’s Kelly Iko about the Rockets’ Summer League experience. “He’s finishing around the rim, able to cut and score, shooting 3s and pull-ups and getting to the basket,” Sullivan said. “He displayed a lot of different stuff. And I really, I really like it, and he’s just so young, like he’s 19 years old. He’s going to have to grow in all areas of his game — his defense, his offense, understanding of concepts, what we’re trying to execute as a team, spacing.”
Sixers Notes: Longabardi, Karl, Reed, Harden, Whitmore
The Sixers are hiring Mike Longabardi as head coach of their G League affiliate in Delaware, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweets.
Longabardi has been an NBA assistant since 2003. He spent last season with the Hawks.
Longabardi will replace Coby Karl, who is expected to join Nick Nurse‘s staff in Philadelphia, Kyle Neubeck of The Philly Voice tweets.
We have more on the Sixers:
- Center Paul Reed weighed in on James Harden‘ trade request, saying he hopes the disgruntled guard remains with the Sixers, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes. “James Harden, that’s like my big brother, one of the coolest vets I know,” he said. “I hope he comes back. But I understand business is business. And sometimes you got to do what you got to do. But like I said, that’s like my big brother. I hope he comes back.” Reed stayed with Philadelphia this summer when the Sixers matched Utah’s three-year offer sheet.
- President of basketball operations Daryl Morey hinted on a radio appearance that he tried to swing a trade on draft night for Cam Whitmore, Sean Barnard of Philly Sports Network relays (Twitter link). “There was another prominent player who fell in this year’s draft that we were trying to move up for,” Morey said in a wide-ranging interview on The Anthony Gargano Show. “I couldn’t understand why they were falling because I’ve seen him play live multiple times here in town.” Whitmore, a Villanova product who was selected by the Rockets at No. 20, was named MVP of the Las Vegas Summer League.
- In case you missed it, Harden weighed in on Damian Lillard‘s trade request. Get the details here.