Pat Spencer

Contract Details: Bitim, Evbuomwan, Funk, Spencer, Hagans, Goodwin

Onuralp Bitim‘s new standard contract with the Bulls covers two seasons beyond this one, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link). The three-year deal is guaranteed for the rest of this season but is non-guaranteed in years two and three, Scotto notes.

The Bulls used $500K of their mid-level exception to give Bitim a rest-of-season salary worth more than the rookie minimum, Hoops Rumors has learned. And while the Turkish wing isn’t owed any guaranteed money beyond this season, he can earn a partial guarantee worth $350K if he’s still under contract by the start of the 2024/25 regular season.

Here are more details on a few contracts recently signed around the NBA:

  • Like fellow signee Buddy Boeheim, Tosan Evbuomwan agreed to a two-year two-way contract with the Pistons, tweets Keith Smith of Spotrac. Both players received partial guarantees for 2024/25, but those guarantees are very modest (projected to be worth approximately $78K) and won’t count against the cap, so they don’t necessarily assure either player of starting next season on Detroit’s 18-man roster.
  • Andrew Funk‘s two-way contract with the Bulls and Pat Spencer‘s two-way deal with the Warriors each run through the 2024/25 season as well, according to Smith and Scotto (Twitter links).
  • Conversely, the two-way contracts that Ashton Hagans signed with the Trail Blazers and Jordan Goodwin signed with the Grizzlies are both just rest-of-season deals, Hoops Rumors has learned. As a result, Hagans and Goodwin will be eligible for restricted free agency this summer.

Warriors Sign Pat Spencer To Two-Way Contract

February 22: Spencer’s two-way deal is official, per the Warriors (Twitter link).


February 21: The Warriors will fill their newly opened two-way slot by signing guard Pat Spencer to a two-way contract, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Spencer was a star lacrosse player at Loyola from 2016-19 before using his final year of NCAA eligibility to play basketball at Northwestern in 2019/20. He went undrafted, but played professionally with the Hamburg Towers in Germany and in the Capital City Go-Go in the G League before catching on with the Warriors on an Exhibit 10 contract in 2022.

The 27-year-old has spent the past two seasons playing for the Santa Cruz Warriors, Golden State’s G League affiliate, and has become a reliable shooting threat as a regular rotation player for the team this season.

Spencer has averaged 12.3 points in 23.2 minutes per game across 27 NBAGL appearances in 2023/24, while shooting 51.2% from the field (42.7% on three-pointers) and 82.4% from the free throw line. He has also contributed 4.8 rebounds and 3.9 assists per contest.

Golden State is opening up a two-way slot by promoting Lester Quinones to the standard 15-man roster, so Spencer will fill that open spot, joining Usman Garuba and Jerome Robinson as the team’s two-way players.

Depending on exactly when Spencer officially signs with the Warriors, he’ll be eligible to be active for up to 15 or 16 of the club’s remaining games, though I’d expect him to continue to spend most of his time with Santa Cruz.

Warriors Convert Ty Jerome, Anthony Lamb To Two-Way Contracts

The Warriors have made a series of roster moves in advance of the regular season deadline, announcing that they’ve converted guard Ty Jerome and swingman Anthony Lamb to two-way contracts while waiving guards Jerome Robinson and Pat Spencer (Twitter links).

All four players were in training camp on Exhibit 10 contracts, which can be converted to two-way deals or can make a player eligible for a bonus worth up to $50K if he spends at least 60 days with the team’s G League affiliate. Robinson and Spencer look like candidates to take the latter route and join the Santa Cruz Warriors if they clear waivers.

The 24th pick in the 2019 draft, Jerome spent his rookie season with the Suns before being sent to the Thunder as part of the Chris Paul trade. The 6’5″ guard, who helped Virginia win an NCAA championship in 2018/19, spent the last two seasons with Oklahoma City, averaging 8.6 PPG, 2.1 RPG and 2.6 RPG on .410/.353/.790 shooting in 81 total games with the Thunder (19.6 MPG). He was traded to Houston last month and was subsequently waived by the Rockets.

Lamb went undrafted out of Vermont in 2020 and signed a two-way contract with the Rockets during the ’20/21 season, appearing in 24 games (17.3 MPG) while averaging 5.5 PPG and 2.9 RPG on .390/.324/.857 shooting. He spent most of last season in the G League with Houston’s affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, averaging 17.3 PPG, 8.2 RPG, 4.8 APG and 1.3 BPG on .466/.390/.757 shooting in 31 regular season games (34.4 MPG).

Jerome and Lamb will provide depth in the Warriors’ backcourt and are eligible to play in up to 50 regular season games on their two-way deals. They’ll earn $508,891 apiece this season.

While it’s possible Golden State will sign-and-waive more players on Saturday, the team’s roster looks fairly set for the regular season. The Warriors will keep the 15th spot on their standard roster open to start the year, tweets Anthony Slater of The Athletic.

Pacific Notes: James, Spencer, Kings, Jones

As the Lakers regroup from a miserable 2021/22 season, Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer wonders if aging superstar forward LeBron James would benefit from taking a page out of Kevin Durant‘s book and requesting a trade away from Los Angeles on his current expiring deal.

O’Connor writes that, if the Lakers are unable to trade for James’s old running mate Kyrie Irving, the team could consider trying to trade for Pacers veterans Myles Turner and Buddy Hield or Jazz guards Patrick Beverley and Jordan Clarkson. O’Connor opines that James should wait to sign an extension with Los Angeles until next summer, after seeing what moves Los Angeles makes to try to return to title contention.

Later, O’Connor reviews potential landing destinations for James should he (hypothetically) demand to be traded, including the Suns, the Knicks, the Trail Blazers, and a few familiar locales.

There’s more from the Pacific Division:

  • In an interview with Connor Letourneau of the San Francisco Chronicle, Warriors training camp invitee Pat Spencer discussed his decision to move on from a decorated four-year lacrosse career at Loyola University Maryland. The 6’3″ guard subsequently played a season of NCAA basketball as a graduate-transfer student at Northwestern for the 2019/20 season. Following his tenure as a Wildcat, Spencer played in Germany and with the Wizards’ NBAGL affiliate the Capital City Go-Go. “I can’t really articulate what I love so much about basketball,” Spencer said. “It’s always been my first love, with lacrosse a close second.”
  • Sleep Train Arena, the former home court of the Kings for 28 seasons, is being demolished to make way for a new 730,000-square foot hospital, plus 3,000 new residences, a theater, shops and trails, per Ryan Lillis of the Sacramento Bee. Sacramento moved to the newly-constructed Golden 1 Center in 2016, as a condition of the club’s sale to majority owner Vivek Ranadive in 2013.
  • The specter of a possible Suns trade for Kevin Durant could linger through the start of the regular season. Greg Moore of the Arizona Republic thinks Phoenix president James Jones should determine a definitive deadline when he will stop considering a trade for Durant, to avoid having that uncertainty linger for several more months.

Warriors Sign Pat Spencer To Exhibit 10 Deal

The Warriors have signed free agent guard Pat Spencer to an Exhibit 10 contract, agents Luke Glass and Keith Glass tell our JD Shaw (Twitter link).

Spencer, 26, finished his college career at Northwestern in 2019/20 and joined the Capital City Go-Go, the Wizards’ G League affiliate, last season. He appeared in 15 regular season games and nine Showcase Cup contests for the Go-Go, playing a limited role off the bench.

Spencer suited up for Washington’s Summer League team in Las Vegas earlier this month, averaging 6.5 PPG, 4.0 APG, and 3.8 RPG in four games (13.1 MPG).

While Spencer will occupy a spot on the Warriors’ 20-man offseason roster, he’s probably a long shot to make the regular season squad. The most likely outcome for Spencer is that he’s waived before the regular season begins and subsequently joins Golden State’s G League team, the Santa Cruz Warriors, as an affiliate player. In that scenario, he’d receive a $50K bonus if he spends at least 60 days with Santa Cruz.

Exhibit 10 contracts can also be converted into two-way deals before the regular season begins, though both of the Warriors’ two-way slots are currently filled.

Summer League Commitments: Wolves, Warriors, Wizards, Magic

Kevon Harris has accepted a summer league invite from the Timberwolves, his agent Billy Davis of Family of Athletes told Hoops Rumors. Harris, a 6’6″ guard, averaged 14.9 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.5 steals per game for the Raptors’ G League affiliate this season, shooting 49% from the floor and 39% from deep.

Harris went unselected in the 2020 NBA draft after spending four collegiate seasons at Stephen F. Austin. This will be the first summer league stint of his career. The event will be held from July 7-17 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

There’s more summer league news to report:

  • Richmond’s Jacob Gilyard has agreed to play summer league with the Warriors, a league source told Hoops Rumors. Gilyard, a 5’9″ point guard, averaged 13.3 points and 5.4 assists per game last season. He went undrafted on Thursday.
  • The Wizards are bringing guard Pat Spencer to their Las Vegas Summer League entry, agents Keith Glass and Luke Glass said. Spencer, 25, played for the team’s G League affiliate this season, averaging 7.5 points. Originally a lacrosse star at Loyola University Maryland, Spencer didn’t play organized basketball between 2016 and 2019. He left the school as the NCAA all-time leader in assists and second in points, then transitioned back to basketball.
  • Jared Wilson-Frame has committed to play with the Magic during summer league, agent Billy Davis told Hoops Rumors. Wilson-Frame averaged 16.4 points per game with the Jazz’s G League affiliate this season, shooting 41% from three-point range.