Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Buycks Spurns NBA Offers To Play In Spain

July 25th, 2014 at 8:42am CST by Chuck Myron

Former Raptors point guard Dwight Buycks has signed with Valencia of Spain, the Spanish ACB league’s website announced (translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). It’s a one-year deal, as Euroleague.net reveals. The Lakers and Clippers extended non-guaranteed invitations to Buycks for preseason camp, according to David Pick of Eurobasket.com (Twitter link), and he was close to signing with the Nuggets before they instead came to terms with Erick Green, as Pick tells Hoops Rumors. The Suns were also reportedly interested in him.

The Relativity Sports client drew offers from multiple teams overseas, but Valencia bid highest among those clubs, Pick reports (All Twitter links). It’s likely he’s receiving guaranteed salary to play in Spain, which would explain why he’s passing up a shot at continuing his NBA career. Toronto waived him this past weekend rather than guarantee his NBA minimum salary for the coming season.

Buycks saw action in just 14 games this past season, his first official NBA experience. He averaged 3.1 points and 0.7 assists in 10.4 minutes per contest for Toronto.

Sixers Sign Pierre Jackson

July 24th, 2014 at 6:28pm CST by Chuck Myron

6:28pm: Jackson has announced his signing on his personal Instagram account (H/T Dwain Price of Fort Worth Star-Telegram via Twitter).

4:50pm: Jackson’s rookie minimum salary of $507,336 is guaranteed for $400K, Deeks tweets.

3:23pm: The Sixers have signed point guard Pierre Jackson to a partially guaranteed one-year deal, reports Mark Deeks of ShamSports (All Twitter links). It completes an unusual odyssey to an NBA contract for last year’s 42nd overall pick, who put on a dazzling performance in the D-League but failed to come to terms with the Pelicans, the team that held his NBA rights until trading them to Philadelphia last month.

Jackson, 22, averaged 29.1 points, 6.2 assists and 4.0 turnovers in 41.5 minutes per game for the D-League’s Idaho Stampede last season after he went unsigned through last summer. The numbers helped drive up his value, and once it became clear the Pelicans and agent Colin Bryant couldn’t agree on an NBA deal, New Orleans allowed Bryant to reach out to other teams to see if they’d be interested in trading for Jackson’s NBA rights. The Wizards, Cavs and Nuggets were among those who were reportedly in the mix, but Jackson fled to Turkey after no deal materialized, signing with European powerhouse Fenerbahce Ulker.

The overseas experiment didn’t go so well, as the 5’10” Jackson averaged just 4.3 points in 10.3 minutes for Fenerbahce. Jackson joined the Sixers for summer league after the trade, but he ruptured his achilles tendon, an injury that threatens to knock him out for the entire season. It’s therefore somewhat odd that the Sixers would sign him to a one-year deal. It’s conceivable that Jackson merely signed the required one-year tender that Philadelphia had to make to keep his draft rights, but the fact that the deal is partially guaranteed makes that a remote possibility, as Deeks notes.

Pelicans Sign Jimmer Fredette

July 24th, 2014 at 5:44pm CST by Alex Lee

JULY 24TH, 5:44pm: Fredette’s signing with New Orleans is official, per a team release.

JULY 18TH, 8:06am: Fredette will make the minimum salary, according to Reid’s full story.

JULY 17TH, 11:33pm: The Pelicans have reached agreement with Jimmer Fredette on a one-year deal, reports Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). New Orleans targeted shooting help after losing Anthony Morrow to the Thunder this past weekend, and moved quickly to add the sharpshooting Fredette, Stein adds (via Twitter). John Reid of the New Orleans Times-Picayune was the first to confirm Stein’s report (via Twitter). The financial terms of the deal are not yet known.

The 25-year-old was bought out by the Kings in Feburary approximately two-and-a-half years after Sacramento made him the 10th pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. Fredette, an Octagon Sports client, signed in early March with a Bulls team desperate for offense, though he only averaged seven minutes of burn in eight games once arriving in Chicago. There hasn’t been much buzz around the BYU product leading up to this news, however Panathinaikos of Greece reportedly expressed some interest a month ago.

Fredette will presumably compete for backcourt minutes with Austin Rivers, Russ Smith and John Salmons behind starters Jrue Holiday and the often-injured Eric Gordon. While he probably lacks the size and defensive ability to be an impact guard, Fredette has knocked down three pointers at a 40.1 percent clip for his career. He will likely assume that type of specialist role in New Orleans.

Pelicans Sign Patric Young

July 24th, 2014 at 5:42pm CST by Eddie Scarito

THURSDAY, 5:42pm: The signing has been officially announced by New Orleans in a team release.

SUNDAY, 8:38am: The Pelicans have signed rookie free agent Patric Young to a two-year deal, reports Adam Silverstein of OnlyGators.com. The signing was confirmed by Young via his Twitter account. In the tweet, Young wrote, “It’s a blessing to announce that I signed a contract with the New Orleans Pelicans. Thank you to everyone that supported me!!!” The terms of the deal were not disclosed but it is likely for the NBA rookie minimum. Young joins a crowded frontcourt in New Orleans that already features Anthony Davis, Ryan Anderson, Omer Asik, and Jeff Withey.

The 6’9″ power forward/center went undrafted out of Florida this year and impressed over the last two weeks in the Las Vegas Summer League, averaging 7.4 PPG and 8.0 RPG in five games.

In four seasons with the Gators, Young averaged 8.7 PPG, 5.7 RPG, and 1.1 BPG while playing 24.3 minutes per contest. His career slash line was .577/.000/.569.

Mavs Sign Jameer Nelson

July 24th, 2014 at 5:27pm CST by Alex Lee

5:27pm: The deal is official, as the Mavs announced in a team release.

3:50pm: Nelson has completed the paperwork on his deal, tweets Shams Charania of RealGM, so presumably all that’s left is for the Mavs to receive it and make an official announcement.

THURSDAY, 2:05pm: The deal will run two years and include a player option for the final season, tweets Marc Stein of ESPN.com.

TUESDAY, 11:04pm: Jameer Nelson will sign with the Mavericks on Thurday, sources tell Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports. As expected, Dallas will use their $2.732MM room exception on the veteran point guard, who has spent all 10 of his seasons in the NBA with the Magic before being waived by the team in June. While all signs have pointed towards the sides nearing a deal for a few days now, there were some conflicting reports that Nelson’s camp was speaking with other teams earlier today. The Pelicans, Nets and Pistons were also reported to have interest in the Saint Joseph’s product.

Nelson, a Steve Mountain client, averaged 12.1 points and 7 assists in 32 minutes per game last season on a rebuilding Magic team. As Spears notes, he is expected to compete with Raymond Felton and Devin Harris for the starting point guard position in Dallas, who has now added Nelson, Felton, Al-Farouq Aminu, Tyson Chandler and Chandler Parsons to a team that won 49 games last year. The team also expressed interest in free agent point guard Mo Williams, though this agreement makes that an unlikely possibility.

Now 32, Nelson will be joining a veteran-laden team in Dallas that might just have title aspirations next season despite striking out on all the big-time free agents they’ve reportedly coveted over the past few offseasons. After a handful of losing seasons in Orlando, joining a contender could inject life into Nelson, who earned his lone All-Star nod in 2009 for a Magic team en route to the NBA Finals. As Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News points out, the additions of Nelson and Aminu leave the Mavs with one roster spot remaining and only a minimum salary deal to offer for it.

Suns Waive Dionte Christmas

July 24th, 2014 at 3:48pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Suns have waived guard Dionte Christmas, the team announced (on Twitter). His non-guaranteed minimum salary was to have become fully guaranteed if Phoenix hadn’t waived him by the end of the month.

Christmas was a favorite of Suns GM Ryan McDonough, who’d worked with the 27-year-old when they were together with the Celtics. Phoenix signed to a deal that included a partial guarantee for last season even though the team had an abundance of other guaranteed deals, and the unbalanced Marcin Gortat trade helped create an opportunity for him to stick around for the regular season.

The former Temple Owl saw limited playing time this past season, the first in which he saw any regular season NBA action. He averaged 2.3 points in 6.4 minutes per game across 31 appearances.

Cavs Sign Andrew Wiggins

July 24th, 2014 at 3:01pm CST by Chuck Myron

The Cavaliers have signed No. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins, the team announced. The move triggers a 30-day period in which Cleveland can’t officially complete a trade involving him. The Timberwolves have demanded Wiggins be a part of any package involving Kevin Love, and while there are conflicting reports, many of them indicate Cleveland is willing to include him.

It’s a virtual certainty that Wiggins will receive a salary of slightly more than $5.5MM this season, as our table of salaries for 2014 first-round picks shows. That amount would help salaries match in a trade should the Cavs decide to pull one off after the 30 days are up. Still, the Cavs could have traded his rights immediately had they held off on signing him, using other players to help balance the salaries.

The 6’8″ swingman entered his freshman season at Kansas last year as far and away the top prospect for the 2014 NBA draft, but an underwhelming performance allowed others, including teammate Joel Embiid, to contend for the top spot. Embiid seemed the odds-on favorite until he broke his foot, and Wiggins prevailed over Jabari Parker of Duke, to whom the Cavs also reportedly gave strong consideration.

Wiggins averaged 17.1 points and 5.9 rebounds along with 34.1% three-point shooting in 32.8 minutes per game for Kansas this past season, earning consensus All-American honors. The 19-year-old chose agent Bill Duffy of BDA Sports as his representative.

Cavaliers Sign Joe Harris

July 24th, 2014 at 2:56pm CST by Ryan Raroque

THURSDAY, 2:56pm: The contract is official, the team announced.

TUESDAY, 7:20pm: The deal will reportedly be for $2.7MM over three seasons, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.

6:55pm: The Cavaliers will sign second-round pick Joe Harris to a three-year rookie deal, a source tells Shams Charania of RealGM.com (Twitter link). The deal will be guaranteed over two seasons with a team option in the third year, Charania adds. Since the arrangement stretches over three years, the Cavs will use cap space to complete the transaction, as neither the minimum-salary exception nor the room exception allows for a contract that long.

The small forward from the University of Virginia was the 38th best prospect in the rankings that Chad Ford of ESPN.com compiles but just 49th with Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress. He had a slightly reduced role this past season as a senior after notching 16.3 points per game in his junior year. He put up just 12.0 PPG this time around, but he maintained 40.0% three-point shooting, so he shapes up as a long-distance threat for Cleveland.

Harris spoke to Zach Links of Hoops Rumors prior to the draft, crediting Virginia coach and highly touted NBA coaching prospect Tony Bennett for helping him improve defensively.

Magic Sign Devyn Marble

July 24th, 2014 at 11:12am CST by Chuck Myron

11:12am: The deal is official, the Magic announced via press release.

10:59pm: The sides have an agreement in principle on a three-year deal that’s fully guaranteed for the first season, Robbins writes in his full story. Since it’s for three years, that means the Magic are indeed using cap space.

10:52am: The Magic are on track to sign No. 56 overall pick Devyn Marble as soon as later today, reports Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel (Twitter link). The rights to the former Iowa shooting guard went from Denver to Orlando as part of last month’s Arron Afflalo trade.

Marble, the son of former NBA player Roy Marble, showed steady improvement over his final three seasons with the Hawkeyes, averaging 17.0 points in 30.2 minutes per game with 34.9% three-point shooting as a senior. He aligned himself with another former NBA player when he chose B.J. Armstrong as his agent.

Orlando will likely use some of its ample cap space on what’s probably a deal for the minimum salary. It would be somewhat surprising if it were fully guaranteed, as such deals aren’t too common for late second-round picks. The Magic appear to be coming to a much quicker resolution with their second-rounder this year than they did last summer, when they didn’t officially have a contract with No. 51 overall pick Romero Osby until September 27th.

Suns Re-Sign P.J. Tucker

July 23rd, 2014 at 7:35pm CST by Alex Lee

JULY 23RD: The deal is official, the team announced. The Suns used cap space to complete the transaction.

7:22pm: The third year of Tucker’s deal includes about $3.8MM of non-guaranteed money, writes Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic. Coro also indicates that Tucker has yet to sign the contract.

JULY 10TH, 6:35pm: The Suns will re-sign restricted free agent P.J. Tucker to a three year deal worth $16.5MM, reports Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (via Twitter). Tucker met with Suns owner Robert Sarver and head coach Jeff Hornacek yesterday and it was believed that talks would spill over to today. The terms of the deal would allow Phoenix to utilize Tucker’s Early Bird Rights, their Mid-level exception or their available cap room to bring back the forward, though there have yet to be reports of which option they’ll choose.

The 29-year-old Texas product has carved out a nice role the past two seasons in Phoenix as a solid defender and a positive influence in the locker room. Tucker, who is represented by the Arete Sports Agency, averaged 9.4 points and 6.5 rebounds in 30.7 minutes per game last season for a Suns team that nearly made the playoffs. While Phoenix has been mentioned as suitors for some of the NBA’s top free agents, it has mostly been on the periphery. However, they’ve had a busy Thursday after reportedly hosting restricted free agent Isaiah Thomas and now locking up Tucker.

There was talk last week that several teams had inquired about the possibility of acquiring Tucker from Phoenix via sign and trade but they came away convinced that the Suns were determined to keep him. The Wizards and Raptors were specifically reported to have had interest.