Thunder Sign Paul Watson To Two-Way Contract
After opening up one of their two-way contract slots by waiving Josh Hall, the Thunder have filled that opening by signing Paul Watson to a two-way deal, reports Kelsea O’Brien of BasketballNews.com (Twitter link).
Watson, 26, made his NBA debut with Atlanta, but spent most of the last two seasons with the Raptors, having signed a two-way contract with Toronto in January of 2020. The former Fresno State standout had that deal converted to a standard contract for the 2020/21 season, then was released last month before his ’21/22 salary became guaranteed.
During his time with Toronto, the 6’6″ swingman appeared in 35 games, averaging 4.1 PPG and 1.7 RPG on .475/.466/.706 shooting in 10.5 minutes per contest. He spent most of his time in 2019/20 with the Raptors 905 in the G League, putting up an impressive 19.0 PPG, 6.5 RPG, and 1.9 APG on .495/.423/.648 shooting in 30 NBAGL games (35.3 MPG).
Watson and Aaron Wiggins are now Oklahoma City’s two-way players. The team has 18 players under contract, including 13 on guaranteed salaries and three on non-guaranteed deals, leaving a pair of openings on the 20-man training camp roster.
Thunder Waive Josh Hall
The Thunder have waived two-way forward Josh Hall, the team announced in a press release today. Oklahoma City now has 17 players on its roster, including two-way player Aaron Wiggins.
Hall, 20, signed with the Thunder after going unselected in the 2020 NBA Draft. He appeared in 21 games with the team, averaging 4.1 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 16 minutes per contest.
Oklahoma City tendered Hall a qualifying offer to make him a restricted free agent last month. He ultimately signed the offer, returning to the team on a two-way deal that contained a $50K guarantee.
League rules allow teams to carry 20 players entering training camps, meaning the Thunder now have one two-way spot and two camp spots available to use. The team held the second-worst record in the Western Conference last year at 22-50.
NBA Is Willing To Consider Outdoor Games
After the success that Major League Baseball had with its “Field of Dreams” game last month, the NBA has engaged in discussions about holding an outdoor event, writes Dan Feldman of NBC Sports.
Evan Wasch, the league’s executive vice president of basketball strategy and analytics, discussed the possibility during a recent appearance on “The Crossover” podcast with Chris Mannix and Howard Beck.
“The biggest concern is the basketball one you highlight, that whether it’s blacktop and injury concerns or a wooden court outside with humidity concerns and moisture that can get on the court, being beholden to rain, all of those of things become a consideration,” Wasch said. “We’ve explored it, and we’ll continue to talk about it. Obviously, the ‘Field of Dreams’ game was incredibly successful. So, no surprise it has sparked some discussions, and it’s worth exploring. But the logistical challenges of a basketball game outside are just significantly more than a baseball game, which, of course, is already outside.”
Rucker Park in New York or Venice Beach in California could be potential sites, Feldman notes, especially if the games involve cross-city rivalries like the Knicks and Nets or Lakers and Clippers. He adds that that Suns played three outdoor preseason games at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in California a little more than a decade ago.
Limited room for paying customers would be an issue with any outdoor venue, but Feldman suggests that fans would be willing to accept higher ticket prices for such a rare experience. Working outdoor games into an already-set TV contract would also be a challenge, along with potential scheduling issues caused by bad weather.
Marc Gasol Reportedly Signing With Girona In Spain
Marc Gasol is expected to continue his career with Girona, a team based in Catalonia, Spain, according to a report from EuroHoops.
The Lakers traded the 36-year-old center on Friday to the Grizzlies, who released him so he could finish his career in his native country. He had expressed a desire to return to Spain so he could be closer to his family.
Gasol had been linked to Girona and Barcelona, the two teams he played for before coming to the NBA. However, Barcelona was considered unlikely because of its financial situation and lack of an open roster spot, according to EuroHoops.
Gasol, who owns the team in Girona, could make the signing official as early as Monday, reports the Spanish website L’Esportiu de Catalunya. He was named Spanish league MVP while playing for Girona in 2008 and could help boost the team, which is currently relegated to the league’s second division.
Gasol played 14 NBA seasons with the Grizzlies, Raptors and Lakers and earned three All-Star appearances. He started 42 of the 52 games he played for L.A. last season and averaged 5.0 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists per night.
Damyean Dotson Waived By Cavaliers
The Cavaliers have waived guard Damyean Dotson, Kelsey Russo of The Athletic tweets.
Dotson had a non-guaranteed $2MM salary. The four-year NBA veteran averaged 6.7 PPG, 2.0 RPG and 2.0 APG in 19.7 MPG last season for Cleveland. He saw action in 46 games, including seven starts.
Dotson spent his first three seasons with the Knicks. He has averaged 7.5 PPG and made 34.6% of his 3-point shots during his career.
The Cavs are adding guard Kevin Pangos who has been playing overseas since attending Gonzaga, on a contract with a first-year guarantee. That put Dotson’s roster spot in jeopardy.
By trimming Dotson’s salary, Cleveland will give itself more breathing room under the tax line, John Hollinger of The Athletic tweets.
Lakers Trade Marc Gasol, Second-Rounder, Cash To Grizzlies
4:57pm: The trade is official, according to a Grizzlies press release (Twitter link).
1:38pm: The Grizzlies remain active on the trade market, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, who reports (via Twitter) that Memphis has agreed to acquire Marc Gasol, a 2024 second-round pick, and cash from the Lakers in exchange for the draft rights to 2016 second-rounder Wang Zhelin.
The swap will send Gasol back to the team with whom he earned three All-Star berths and a Defensive Player of the Year award, but the reunion will be short-lived. As Wojnarowski explains, the Grizzlies and Gasol have already agreed that he’ll be waived in order to allow him to remain in Spain with his family.
Gasol told reporters following Spain’s elimination from the Olympics last month that he intended to continue his NBA career and play out the last year of his contract with Los Angeles. However, there had been increasing chatter in recent weeks that suggested the veteran center had played his last game as a Laker. As Kyle Goon of the Southern California News Group tweets, the “writing was on the wall” for Gasol following L.A.’s signing of DeAndre Jordan on Thursday.
It’s unclear if Gasol is set to retire as a player or if he simply won’t seek a new team right away after being released by the Grizzlies. Either way, the move will open up a roster spot for the Lakers and save them some money, even after accounting for the cash they send to Memphis in the deal.
Taking into account Gasol’s $2.69MM salary and the accompanying luxury-tax penalty, Wojnarowski estimates that L.A. will recoup about $10MM. The Lakers will have 13 players on guaranteed contracts once the deal is finalized, leaving two spots open on the 15-man roster, though the club may only fill one of them for the start of the regular season.
Los Angeles also gets the rights to Wang, the 57th pick in the 2016 draft. However, it looks like he was just included to make the deal legal — he seems unlikely to sign an NBA contract anytime soon.
As for the Grizzlies, this will be their seventh trade of the summer, including the Juan Hernangomez deal with Boston that’s not yet official. Like many of Memphis’ other trades, this one won’t move the needle much, but allows the team to acquire a minor asset in the form of a 2024 second-rounder. That pick will be the Lakers’ own and is unprotected, per Chris Herrington of The Daily Memphian (Twitter link).
Until that Hernangomez deal is done, the Grizzlies have an open spot on their 20-man offseason roster, so they’ll likely look to complete the acquisition of Gasol and then release him before finalizing their deal with Boston, in order to avoid having to cut anyone.
The Grizzlies can acquire Gasol without matching salaries because he was signed using the minimum salary exception last offseason and can be acquired using the same exception. The Lakers will create a small trade exception worth Gasol’s outgoing salary ($2.69MM).
Raptors Cleared To Return To Toronto For 2021/22
After spending the 2020/21 season playing their home games at Amalie Arena in Tampa due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Raptors will be returning home for the 2021/22 campaign.
The franchise’s preseason schedule, which was formally announced today, includes a pair of home games at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. A team spokesperson confirmed to The Canadian Press (link via Sportsnet.ca) that the Raptors have received government clearance to play at home this season.
The move had been expected due to the widespread availability of COVID-19 vaccines in both the United States and Canada, as well as the loosening of restrictions at the border. Other Toronto-based sports franchises, including the Toronto Blue Jays (MLB) and Toronto FC (MLS), had resumed hosting U.S. teams at their respective home fields in recent months.
It remains unclear how many fans will be permitted to attend NBA games in Toronto to start the season, according to The Canadian Press. The Raptors’ spokesperson said the club is optimistic about holding full-capacity events at Scotiabank Arena, but those discussions are presumably ongoing.
The team spokesperson also stated that anyone entering Scotiabank Arena as a spectator or media member will be required to show proof of their COVID-19 vaccination or proof of a medical exemption.
The Raptors’ first regular season home game will be on October 20 vs. Washington. It will be the first time the club has played a regular season game at Scotiabank Arena in nearly 20 months.
Saturday Is Deadline For Teams To Stretch 2021/22 Salaries
Saturday, September 11 is the last day that NBA teams can waive players and use the stretch provision to spread their 2021/22 cap hits across three seasons, as Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (via Twitter). The stretch provision allows teams to gain some short-term relief at the cost of reduced long-term flexibility.
[RELATED: Hoops Rumors Glossary: Stretch Provision]
In a normal NBA league year, the last day to stretch a player’s current salary would be August 31, but that deadline was pushed back by 11 days to account for the fact that free agency began at the start of August rather than the start of July.
After Saturday, a player who is released between September 12 and the end of the season can have his cap hit(s) in 2022/23 and future years stretched, assuming he’s owed guaranteed money beyond this season. But his ’21/22 cap charge will remain unchanged unless he reaches a buyout agreement with his team.
As Marks observes, this may end up being the first time since it was introduced in 2011 that not a single NBA team utilizes the stretch provision between the start of the league year and the late-summer deadline.
In every other recent offseason, at least three players have had their cap hits stretched after being waived (Twitter link via Marks). This year, teams like the Thunder (Kemba Walker) and Pistons (DeAndre Jordan), who waived players with pricey cap hits for the next two years, could have stretched out the dead money, but opted to keep those salaries confined to the next two seasons rather than spreading them across five years.
However, there are still some situations worth keeping an eye on in advance of Saturday’s deadline, especially for clubs over the luxury tax line.
For instance, we haven’t heard yet whether the Nets plan to stretch Jahlil Okafor‘s $2.13MM cap hit after cutting him on Thursday. Doing so would result in a projected $6.7MM in tax savings for Brooklyn in 2021/22, Marks tweets. However, the team will likely be well over the tax line for multiple years and may prefer to just eat Okafor’s dead money this season rather than having to account for $710K cap hits for three years.
Outside of Brooklyn, the NBA’s current projected taxpayers are the Warriors, Clippers, Bucks, Jazz, Lakers, Sixers, Celtics, and Trail Blazers. If any of those teams intends to waive a player who is owed guaranteed money for 2021/22, now might be the time to do it, in order to spread out that player’s cap hit and reduce this season’s tax bill.
Nets Officially Sign Paul Millsap
Over a week after agreeing to terms with him on a one-year, minimum-salary deal, the Nets have officially signed free agent big man Paul Millsap, as our JD Shaw tweets. The team has issued a press release confirming the signing.
A four-time All-Star, Millsap has seen his role reduced in recent years during his second decade in the NBA. He spent the last four seasons in Denver, averaging 9.0 PPG, 4.7 RPG, and 1.8 APG on .476/.343/.724 shooting in 56 games (20.8 MPG) in 2020/21. Most of those per-game averages were his lowest marks since 2007/08.
Still, Millsap remains a solid, reliable frontcourt option who can help stabilize a defense. The Nets likely won’t lean on him to play a major role, since they’ll have a few other options up front, including veterans Blake Griffin and LaMarcus Aldridge, and up-and-coming center Nicolas Claxton.
As we noted last week when Millsap first agreed to sign with Brooklyn, the 36-year-old received interest from a handful of other clubs, including the Warriors, Bulls, and Clippers, but ultimately decided that the Nets gave him his best chance to compete for a title.
The Nets now have 15 players on fully guaranteed contracts, plus DeAndre’ Bembry on a partial guarantee. David Duke (Exhibit 10) and Kessler Edwards (two-way) are also under contract, leaving two open spots on the club’s 20-man offseason roster. It’s possible that unsigned second-round picks Marcus Zegarowski and RaiQuan Gray could fill those openings, but Brooklyn’s plans for those rookies remains unclear.
Blazers Sign Patrick Patterson To Camp Deal
9:15pm: The deal is official, per RealGM’s transactions log.
4:11pm: The Trail Blazers have reached an agreement on a training camp deal for free agent forward Patrick Patterson, sources tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
Patterson, 32, spent the last two seasons with the Clippers, appearing in a total of 97 regular season games for the club. The veteran stretch four averaged 5.0 PPG and 2.3 RPG on .420/.377/.800 shooting in 14.0 minutes per contest for the team over those two years.
A report on Wednesday from Michael Scotto of HoopsHype suggested that Patterson was among the veteran forwards receiving interest from the Blazers. The team was also linked to Michael Beasley, James Ennis, and Isaiah Hartenstein — it’s unclear if the deal with Patterson rules out the possibility of those players being added to the roster, or if Portland is open to further opening up its training camp competition for a roster spot.
The Blazers currently have 13 players on guaranteed contracts, with Dennis Smith Jr., Marquese Chriss, and now Patterson set to attend camp on non-guaranteed deals. Portland must carry at least 14 players during the regular season, so at least one roster spot is very much available. However, that may be the only spot up for grabs — the Blazers could opt to keep the 15th roster spot open to start the season in order to reduce their projected luxury tax bill.