Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Jazz Sign Juwan Morgan, Waive Stanton Kidd

November 21st, 2019 at 1:46pm CST by Luke Adams

The Jazz have made a change to the back of their 15-man roster, waiving forward Stanton Kidd and signing forward Juwan Morgan to fill the newly-opener roster spot, tweets Tony Jones of The Athletic. NBA.com’s log of transactions confirms Utah has officially signed Morgan.

Morgan, an undrafted rookie out of Indiana, was a full-time starter as a senior in 2018/19, averaging 15.5 PPG, 8.2 RPG, and 1.5 BPG in 35 games (29.9 MPG). He signed with the Jazz for Summer League and for training camp, but was waived before the regular season begin, joining the Salt Lake City Stars, Utah’s NBAGL affiliate. He got off to a strong start in the G League, recording 15.6 PPG, 8.0 RPG, 1.8 SPG, and 1.8 BPG on 71.8% shooting in five games and earning a call-up.

As for Kidd, the 27-year-old earned a regular season roster spot in Utah out of camp, but saw limited action for the team in the first month of 2019/20, logging 15 total minutes in four games. He didn’t score a single point during those appearances.

A league source tells Jeff Rabjohns of Peegs.com that Morgan’s deal is a multiyear contract, though it’s almost certainly a non-guaranteed, minimum-salary pact. Kidd’s minimum-salary contract was partially guaranteed for $250K, so Utah will remain on the hook for that amount.

Trail Blazers Waive Pau Gasol

November 20th, 2019 at 6:12pm CST by Luke Adams

6:12pm: The move is official, the Trail Blazers announced on Twitter.

3:50pm: The Trail Blazers have released veteran big man Pau Gasol, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Gasol himself announced the news on Instagram, suggesting he’ll now be able to “focus all my energy on my rehabilitation.”

As Wojnarowski notes, Gasol underwent surgery on his left foot in the spring and has remained sidelined this fall as he attempts to rehab that injury. According to Woj, Gasol and the Blazers are working on a potential coaching role for the 39-year-old as he remains in Portland for rehab purposes.

Hopefully Gasol can get back to 100%, since it would be unfortunate to see him forced into retirement for health reasons. At age 39, the odds may be against a comeback, but even if he doesn’t play in another NBA game, he has a Hall of Fame résumé, including four All-NBA nods, two championships, and three Olympic medals.

Portland is now back down to 14 players after signing Carmelo Anthony as its 15th man on Tuesday. The Blazers may keep that final roster spot open for now in order to avoid tacking more money onto their projected tax bill. However, the opening could come in handy if the team wants to add more frontcourt depth as Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins continue to recover from injuries of their own.

Interestingly, while Gasol was believed to be on a guaranteed minimum-salary contract, Wojnarowski says the Blazers “had protections” on that one-year deal. ESPN’s Bobby Marks tweets that the agreement included an Exhibit 3 clause for a “prior injury exclusion.” That clause protected the Blazers in the event that Gasol’s left ankle and foot continued to cause problems, though it’s unclear exactly how much the team will save.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Trail Blazers Officially Sign Carmelo Anthony

November 19th, 2019 at 10:18am CST by Luke Adams

The Trail Blazers have officially signed Carmelo Anthony to his one-year, non-guaranteed, minimum-salary contract, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, who notes that Anthony passed his physical and will wear No. 00 in Portland (Twitter links).

“Carmelo is an established star in this league that will provide a respected presence in our locker room and a skill set at a position of need on the floor,” Blazers president of basketball operations Neil Olshey said in a statement formally announcing the signing.

Anthony and the Blazers first reached an agreement last Thursday, but took several days to finalize the deal as the veteran forward took his physical and targeted Tuesday for his potential Portland debut. The Blazers will play in New Orleans tonight before finishing their road trip with stops in Milwaukee (Thursday), Cleveland (Saturday), and Chicago (next Monday).

Anthony, who hasn’t played in an NBA game in over a year, will look to help turn things around for the 5-9 Blazers, who currently rank 12th in the Western Conference after being blown out by the Rockets, Carmelo’s old team, on Monday night. While there’s skepticism that the 35-year-old will help improve Portland’s ailing defense, he can at least give the club some frontcourt scoring, which new forwards like Kent Bazemore, Mario Hezonja, and Anthony Tolliver have struggled to consistently provide.

Because four weeks of the NBA regular season have already passed, Anthony will earn a prorated portion of the veteran’s minimum. If he remains under contract through January 7 and has his salary for 2019/20 fully guaranteed, he’ll earn a total of $2,159,029. His cap hit on Portland’s books will be $1,364,204, though he’ll ultimately cost the team more than that due to added tax penalties.

No corresponding roster move was necessary for the Blazers, since they’d been carrying just 14 players on standard contracts, one below the NBA’s maximum.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Rockets Release Forward Ryan Anderson

November 18th, 2019 at 2:04pm CST by Dana Gauruder

2:04pm: The Rockets have officially waived Anderson, the team’s PR department tweets.

12:30pm: The Rockets will waive forward/center Ryan Anderson, Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reports.

It’s an uninspiring and swift end to Anderson’s second stint with the franchise. He signed a partially guaranteed contract after being waived by Miami under the stretch provision. Anderson received a $500K guarantee on his $2,564,753 salary when he made the opening night roster.

Anderson is still collecting on the four-year, $80MM deal that Houston gave him in the summer of 2016. He spent two years with the team before being traded to Phoenix last August in a salary dump. The Suns shipped him to Miami in February and he was waived in July.

Anderson played just 14 minutes this season and remained glued to the bench despite the team being shorthanded last week due to injuries, including a concussion suffered by starting center Clint Capela.

Trail Blazers To Sign Carmelo Anthony

November 15th, 2019 at 6:07pm CST by Clark Crum

NOVEMBER 15: Anthony still needs to pass his physical and won’t make his Blazers debut until at least Tuesday, Wojnarowski tweets.

NOVEMBER 14: The Trail Blazers have agreed to a non-guaranteed deal with free agent forward Carmelo Anthony, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Woj adds that Anthony, once signed, will join the Blazers on the team’s upcoming six-game road trip, and that the team hopes to have him fill the void at power forward created by the loss of Zach Collins (Twitter link).

Portland, off to a 4-8 start, has been one of the bigger disappointments of the first few weeks of this NBA season. As such, it comes as no surprise that the team would take a flyer on Anthony, 35, as the 10-time NBA All-Star looks to reinvent himself as a role player after being out of the league for the last 12 months.

Interestingly, however, the Trail Blazers suggested earlier this month that signing a 15th man was not a priority for them and that they’d opt instead to rely on depth and positional versatility. Of course, at that time, Portland was only 3-4, so the club’s top decision-makers may have changed their minds after going 1-4 over the last five games.

According to Woj (link), Blazers’ GM Neil Olshey and Anthony’s agent, Leon Rose, had stayed in contact on Carmelo since the preseason, with conversations picking up over the past couple days. Olshey and head coach Terry Stotts talked directly with Anthony before reaching today’s agreement.

It will be interesting to see how Anthony meshes with the Blazers’ backcourt pairing of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. According to Chris Haynes of ESPN, Lillard was notified of the potential signing last night and made it clear that he’s always been supportive of bringing Anthony into the fold in Portland.

Jason Quick of The Athletic, who has covered the Blazers for the past 20 seasons, seems skeptical of the fit, opining that the team’s biggest deficiency at this point seems to be on the defensive end of the floor (i.e. – not Anthony’s strength). However, given the team’s poor start, Quick also appears to concede that the signing is worth a shot.

As Bobby Marks of ESPN notes, Anthony will earn $14,490 per day while a member of the Blazers, which mean he’s signing for the league minimum salary for a veteran with 10+ years of NBA experience. The Blazers only have 14 players on their roster currently, so no corresponding move will have to made, but the team will see its luxury tax bill grow with the signing.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Nets Sign Iman Shumpert

November 13th, 2019 at 3:50pm CST by Chris Crouse

3:50pm: The Nets have officially signed Shumpert, the team announced today in a press release. His minimum-salary contract will pay him about $13.1K per day as long as he remains on the roster.

2:24pm: The Nets are bringing in free agent swingman Iman Shumpert, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com tweets. No corresponding roster move will be necessary, as Brooklyn has the ability to carry a 16th man until Wilson Chandler returns from suspension.

The news of Shumpert signing coincides with Stadium’s Shams Charania reporting that Caris LeVert is expected to miss several weeks because of feared ligament damage in his thumb. LeVert, who recently signed a three-year, $52MM extension, has missed 79 games because of injury since coming into the league.

Shumpert’s deal will give him the opportunity to once again be teammates with Kyrie Irving after the two vets won a title in Cleveland together. As NetsDaily relays, Irving lobbied for the team to sign Shumpert over the summer.

As we explained earlier this month, players serving longer-term suspensions can be moved to the suspended list after five games, at which point a team is eligible to add an extra player to its roster. Chandler will be eligible to return from his 25-game ban on December 15, so Brooklyn will have to make a roster move at that time, releasing Shumpert or trading or waiving of its other players to get back down to 15 players on standard contracts.

Magic Sign B.J. Johnson To Two-Way Contract

November 4th, 2019 at 3:41pm CST by Luke Adams

After promoting Amile Jefferson to their standard roster on Friday, the Magic have filled their newly-opened two-way slot by signing B.J. Johnson to a two-way contract, the team announced today in a press release.

An undrafted guard of La Salle, Johnson was with the Magic for training camp and the preseason in 2018, then spent most of his rookie year playing for the Lakeland Magic, Orlando’s G League affiliate. He averaged 15.4 PPG, 5.0 RPG, and 1.4 SPG with a shooting line of .476/.444/.841 in 39 NBAGL games.

Johnson also had brief NBA auditions in 2018/19 with the Hawks, who signed him to a pair of 10-day contracts in March, and the Kings, who signed him for the final week of the regular season. The 23-year-old appeared in seven total regular season games for the two clubs, with Sacramento waiving him in July. He then signed another Exhibit 10 contract with Orlando in September and spent the preseason with the organization in preparation for reporting back to Lakeland this fall.

While Johnson still figures to spend most of his time with Lakeland this season, his two-way deal will give him more of an opportunity to shuttle back and forth between the NBA and G League as needed. He’ll be eligible to spend up to 42 days in the NBA until the NBAGL season ends in March.

The Magic now have 14 players on standard contracts and two on two-way contracts, leaving just one open spot on their roster.

Amile Jefferson Signs Two-Year Contract With Magic

November 1st, 2019 at 4:47pm CST by Luke Adams

4:47pm: The signing is official, according to a team press release.

1:37pm: The Magic have agreed to sign big man Amile Jefferson to a two-year contract, agent Michael Tellem tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). Jefferson had been on a two-way deal with Orlando.

A former undrafted free agent out of Duke, Jefferson spent much of the 2017/18 season on a two-way contract with the Timberwolves, though he didn’t appear in an NBA game for the team. He was on a two-way deal with the Magic for the entire 2018/19 campaign, playing limited minutes in 12 games at the NBA level, before signing another two-way pact for ’19/20.

Although Jefferson hasn’t seen much action in the NBA, he has thrived in the G League, with averages of 17.9 PPG, 12.1 RPG, and 2.9 PG in 81 total games (34.1 MPG) for the Iowa Wolves and Lakeland Magic. He was named to the All-NBAGL Third Team last spring.

The Magic had been carrying just 13 players on their standard roster to open the regular season. NBA rules require teams to dip below 14 players for up to two weeks at a time, so Orlando had to add a player by early next week. Jefferson will be the club’s 14th man once his new deal becomes official.

While Wojnarowski didn’t offer additional details on Jefferson’s two-year contract, I’d expected a non-guaranteed, minimum-salary deal to give the Magic some flexibility.

Kings Won’t Pick Up 2020/21 Options On Giles, Swanigan

October 31st, 2019 at 5:14pm CST by Luke Adams

The Kings are declining two of their four rookie scale options for the 2020/21 season, a league source tells James Ham of NBC Sports California (Twitter link). According to Ham, Sacramento won’t be picking up the fourth-year options for Harry Giles ($3,976,510) or Caleb Swanigan ($3,665,787).

As expected, Sacramento has exercised its fourth-year option on De’Aaron Fox ($8,099,627) and its third-year option on Marvin Bagley III ($8,963,640). Those were procedural moves and were never in doubt. However, the decisions on Giles and Swanigan are a little more interesting.

Giles, the 20th overall pick in the 2017 draft, has been plagued by knee issues since entering the league. Injuries cost him his entire rookie year and limited him to 58 games (14.1 MPG) in 2018/19. He has also yet to play this season as he battles knee pain.

Given his upside, I still though Sacramento would likely exercise Giles’ 2020/21 option. However, it appears the club decided the risk outweighed the reward when it came to guaranteeing nearly $4MM for the big man.

The Kings’ option decision on Swanigan is less surprising. The former Purdue power forward has averaged just 2.1 PPG and 2.4 RPG in 51 career regular season contests with Portland and Sacramento, having never developed into a reliable rotation player.

Giles and Swanigan, two of just four players around the NBA who have had their rookie scale options turned down, will both become unrestricted free agents in 2020 as a result of today’s decisions. At that time, Sacramento won’t be able to offer them a starting salary worth more than the value of their declined options.

Meanwhile, Fox will become extension-eligible next July, while Bagley has one more option on his rookie scale contract for the 2021/22 season.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Warriors Pick Up 2020/21 Options On Spellman, Evans

October 31st, 2019 at 2:43pm CST by Luke Adams

2:43pm: The Warriors have officially exercised their options on both Spellman and Evans, the team confirmed (via Twitter).

8:50am: The Warriors have exercised their 2020/21 rookie scale option on Omari Spellman, reports Logan Murdock of NBC Sports Bay Area (via Twitter). In addition to picking up Spellman’s third-year option, the team will do the same for Jacob Evans‘ third-year option, sources tell Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Spellman, 22, had a promising rookie season for Atlanta in 2018/19, averaging 5.9 PPG and 4.2 RPG with a .344 3PT% in 46 games (17.5 MPG). However, the Hawks determined he wasn’t in their long-term plans and sent him to Golden State in an offseason trade for Damian Jones and a future second-round pick.

Because Spellman was the No. 30 overall pick in the 2018 draft, his option for 2020/21 will have a cap charge of just $1,988,280, the lowest of any 2018 first-rounder. Evans, who was the No. 28 pick in the same draft, will count for $2,017,320 against the cap in ’20/21 with his option exercised.

Evans struggled in his rookie year, averaging just 1.3 PPG on 34.0% shooting in 30 games (6.8 MPG). His option was hardly a lock to be picked up, but the 22-year-old looked a little better in the early going this season, scoring 18 points in 43 total minutes and making 4-of-8 three-pointers. He’s currently sidelined with a left adductor strain and isn’t due to be re-evaluated for about three more weeks, per Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link).