Lakers Sign Jordan Clarkson
8:36pm: It is still unknown whether Clarkson’s contract is fully, partially, or non-guaranteed, but the total deal is for two years at the minimum salary, tweets Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders.
4:26pm: The Lakers have signed rookie Jordan Clarkson, according to a team release. Clarkson was the 46th pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, acquired by Los Angeles from the Wizards on draft night.
Terms of the deal weren’t announced, but it is presumably for the minimum, considering the Lakers are above the cap and have no exceptions to use. The 6’5″ guard averaged 15.8 PPG, 1.2 APG and 5.0 RPG for the Lakers in Summer League, with a slash line of .424/.421/.882 after putting up 17.5 PPG, 3.4 APG, and 3.8 RPG with a .501./281./831 slash line in his junior season with Missouri.
Clarkson’s path to minutes in Los Angeles will be affected by Steve Nash‘s health and how coach Byron Scott determines to use his roster. Scott was open to using Clarkson as a ball-handler when interviewed by Mike Trudell of Lakers.com. Jeremy Lin, Nash, and Kobe Bryant stand as the guards ahead of Clarkson on the roster, with a handful of guard/forward wing players established in front of him as well.
Joel Przybilla Retires
Center Joel Przybilla has retired, reports Charley Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press (Twitter link). The veteran of 13 NBA seasons last played in the NBA with the Bucks in 2012/13, and he didn’t wind up with an NBA deal last season in spite of his optimism in the spring of 2013 that he would find one.
The 7’1″ Przybilla started most of his nearly 600 NBA games, though he never averaged more than 6.4 points per contest. He was instead well-regarded for his work on the boards, having led the league during the 2008/09 season in total rebound percentage, a measure of the percentage of rebounds a player grabbed while on the floor, according to Basketball-Reference. He was also a rim-protecting presence, as he averaged 1.4 blocks in just 19.8 minutes per contest over the course of his career.
Przybilla was a 1998 McDonald’s All-American who attended the University of Minnesota before the Rockets picked him ninth overall in the 2000 draft. Houston promptly traded his rights to the Bucks, the team that will go down as the one with which he both made his debut and played his final game. He also appeared with the Hawks, Blazers and Bobcats. The BDA Sports Management client walks away from the game having earned more than $44.7MM in the NBA, as his Basketball-Reference page shows.
Cavs Officially Acquire Kevin Love
The Cavaliers have officially acquired Kevin Love in a three-team deal that’s the blockbuster trade of the summer, the Wolves announced. The Wolves receive Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett from Cleveland and Thaddeus Young from the Sixers as part of the deal, while Philadelphia comes away with Luc Mbah a Moute and Alexey Shved from Minnesota and the Heat’s 2015 first-round pick from Cleveland. The agreement has reportedly been in place for weeks, but the inclusion of Wiggins kept it from becoming official until today. That’s because Wiggins, this year’s No. 1 overall draft pick, couldn’t be traded within 30 days after the Cavs signed him to his rookie scale contract on July 24th.
Love is the only asset going Cleveland’s way in the deal, but the Second-Team All-NBA power forward is the centerpiece of the trade. He joins LeBron James as the marquee additions for Cleveland in a landmark offseason, one that’s left them the favorites to win the Eastern Conference championship after four straight seasons outside the playoffs. Love is expected to opt out of his contract next summer after making more than $15.7MM this season, but the Cavs will have his Bird Rights and are heavy favorites to re-sign him, just as they are with James, who also possesses a player option for 2015/16. Love’s ability to hit free agency in 2015 helped precipitate the trade, as he’s made it clear that he had no intention of staying with Minnesota beyond the coming season.
The Warriors, Bulls, Celtics, Nuggets, Lakers, Kings, Knicks, Rockets, Wizards and Suns have all been linked to Love in various reports at one point or another since mid-May, when the Wolves ramped up their efforts to trade him. It appeared even before James decided to sign with Cleveland that Love would like to join the Cavs if it meant he could play with James, and James reportedly reached out to Love to reciprocate his interest in becoming teammates. The Warriors appeared to come closest to beating out Cleveland for Love, but Golden State’s unwillingness to include Klay Thompson left the sides at a stalemate, particularly once the Cavs relented to Minnesota’s insistence that Wiggins be part of any deal that would ship Love to Cleveland.
Still, others made strong pushes, including the Celtics, particularly in the wake of Love’s weekend visit to Boston around the beginning of June, but the Wolves showed disinterest in dealing with the C’s. The Suns reportedly made a call Friday to see if Minnesota would send Love their way in a sign-and-trade arrangement involving Eric Bledsoe, but the Wolves were unmoved.
Wiggins is the marquee attraction for Minnesota, and he joins Chris Webber as the only No. 1 overall picks since the merger to change teams before playing a single regular season game for the franchises that drafted them. Wiggins had a somewhat disappointing season at Kansas after having been the consensus favorite a year ago to become the top pick, creating doubt that lingered almost until the draft began about whether he, fellow Jayhawk Joel Embiid, or Jabari Parker would go No. 1 overall. Still, Wiggins possesses superstar potential, some of which he put on display in the summer league last month, when he showed off his athleticism as part of Cleveland’s squad.
There were conflicting reports about whether Bennett would join Wiggins in heading to Minnesota or be rerouted to Philadelphia, but it became clear on Thursday that Bennett would become a Timberwolf. Bennett’s performance as a rookie was thoroughly underwhelming and he’ll have a tough time living up to having been the No. 1 overall pick in 2013. Still, there’s hope that he can become a key component on a winning team after having been widely projected as a mid-lottery selection before the Cavs surprisingly took him with the top pick.
The Wolves have reportedly been enamored with Young for a while, and they’ll have a chance to plug him into the starting lineup as Love’s replacement at power forward for at least one season. Young, like Love, can opt out of his contract and become a free agent next summer, but he probably wouldn’t draw nearly as many suitors, and he’s never expressed unwillingness to play in Minnesota. Young will make more than $9.4MM this season, and if he opts in, he’ll receive almost $10MM in 2015/16.
The Sixers, having shed other well-paid veterans in an aggressive rebuilding effort over the past 15 months or so, had reportedly sought a future first-round pick for Young in advance of the trade deadline in February, so this deal facilitates that apparent desire. The Heat’s 2015 first-round pick that’s coming from the Cavs is protected for the top 10 picks the next two years, but it would become unprotected for 2017, according to RealGM. In a coincidental twist, the Heat originally traded that pick to Cleveland in the sign-and-trade that brought LeBron to Miami in 2010.
Philadelphia also reaps Mbah a Moute, who’s already close with Embiid, whom the Sixers drafted third overall in June. Mbah a Moute has mentored Embiid, a fellow native of Cameroon. Mbah a Moute is on the books at nearly $4.4MM for the upcoming season, but he, like Shved, who’ll make nearly $3.3MM, is on an expiring contract, ensuring the Sixers won’t be stuck with their salaries past next summer. That wouldn’t have been the case with Young, who might have opted in.
The Wolves had sought to unload Mbah a Moute, Shved, as well as J.J. Barea, all of whom are on fairly player-friendly deals. Minnesota can create a trade exception worth $4,644,503 as part of the transaction, with the figure equivalent to the difference between Love’s salary and the combined salaries of Wiggins and Bennett. The trade appears to leave the Wolves with a haul that’s about as impressive as possible for a team that’s surrendering the only established superstar in the deal, and most Hoops Rumors readers gave the team high marks for the package it’s receiving.
The move drops Cleveland’s roster count by one, to 17, while the Sixers net one more player to reach a total of 15. Still, Philadelphia is carrying only seven players on fully guaranteed contracts, fewer than every other team in the league. Minnesota remains at 15 players, all of whom have fully guaranteed deals, meaning the Wolves are no closer to creating an opening for second-round pick Glenn Robinson III, as they’ve hoped to do, or finding a spot for Dante Cunningham, with whom talks have picked up.
Photo courtesy USA Today Sports Images. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports originally reported that Cleveland and Minnesota had an agreement in principle. Mark Perner of the Philadelphia Daily News wrote of the Sixers’ involvement in the swap and Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune nailed down the final structure of the trade. Wojnarowski also noted Minnesota’s interest in unloading Mbah a Moute, Shved and Barea. Ken Berger of CBSSports.com, Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter links), Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun (Twitter links), Dan Barreiro of KFAN Sports Radio (Twitter link) and Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press (Twitter link) provided additional detail.
Cavs To Acquire Kevin Love
AUGUST 23RD, 12:40pm: The teams have completed their trade call with the league, according to Wojnarowski (Twitter link), so an official announcement is expected to come shortly.
10:28am: A source close to Stein says the teams will make it one three-way swap rather than two separate trades, as long as there aren’t any last-minute changes (Twitter link).
AUGUST 22ND, 8:48am: The latest dispatch from Marc Stein of ESPN.com indicates that the arrangement could turn out to be two separate deals after all, and Wojnarowski appears to suggest the same in his story. Sam Amick of USA Today casts it as one three-team swap, however, which puts him in accordance with Zgoda’s report from late Thursday. In any case, it appears clear that Love will end up in Cleveland, Wiggins, Bennett and Young will head to Minnesota, and Mbah a Moute, Shved and the Heat’s 2015 first-round pick are destined for Philadelphia.
11:08pm: The three-team deal will be finalized on Saturday, the day the 30-day restriction on trading Wiggins expires, Zgoda reports. Zgoda confirms the previously-reported specifics of the deal and adds that the Wolves will also receive a trade exception believed to be worth at least $4 million. The deal will be announced on Saturday after the completion of a call with the league office.
3:08pm: It’ll go down as a three-team deal, rather than one separate transaction involving Love and another involving Young, as Dan Barreiro of KFAN Sports Radio and Krawczynski both expect (Twitter link). Based on the most recent reports, that wound send Love to the Cavs, while the Wolves would get Young, Wiggins and Bennett, with the Sixers set to receive Mbah a Moute, Shved, and the 2015 first-round draft pick that Cleveland had acquired from the Heat.
2:40pm: The Wolves are in line to send Mbah a Moute and Shved to the Sixers, according to Zgoda (Twitter link). The Star Tribune scribe wrote a few weeks ago that the Wolves wanted to send Barea to Philadelphia, but Zgoda clarifies today that Barea isn’t part of the arrangement. Zgoda also speculated earlier this month that Shabazz Muhammad could be a part of the deal, but it’s “highly unlikely” that Muhammad will be involved, Wolfson tweets.
12:09pm: Three sources tell Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun that Young will go to the Wolves but Bennett won’t be heading to the Sixers, advancing the earlier reports (Twitter links).
12:00pm: The belief around the league is that Young will wind up with Minnesota, according to Wolfson (Twitter link).
AUGUST 21ST, 8:46am: Sixers GM Sam Hinkie wants to acquire the first-rounder that the Cavs are shipping out in the deal, Zgoda tweets. Zgoda wrote a few weeks ago that the Wolves hoped to send that pick, likely the Heat’s 2015 first-round selection as we noted below, to Philly as part of a package for Young, so it seems a fair bet that the pick winds up with the Sixers.
AUGUST 20TH: Zgoda casts doubt on the notion that Bennett will end up with the Sixers as part of the deal (Twitter link). That would suggest that Bennett isn’t heading to Philadelphia any time soon as part of a separate transaction, as I explained.
AUGUST 8TH: 2:22pm: Young says the Sixers haven’t given him or agent Jim Tanner any notification that he’ll be traded, as Lynam writes in her full piece.
10:54am: Young tells Dei Lynam of CSNPhilly.com that, “I have not been traded,” though that could be a matter of semantics, as no trade is yet official (Twitter link).
9:16am: Fellow Daily News scribe Bob Cooney seconds the news that Young is headed to Minnesota and Bennett will go to Philadelphia, but he suggests the move will take place as a separate transaction (Twitter link). Still, it would make more sense if it were part of the Love trade, since the salaries in a standalone Young-Bennett swap wouldn’t meet the NBA’s salary-matching requirements.
FRIDAY, 8:08am: The Sixers will indeed be a part of the deal, as they’ll acquire Bennett from the Cavs and send Young to the Wolves, a source tells Mark Perner of the Philadelphia Daily News. Bennett will give Philadelphia three of the top 11 picks from the 2013 draft, joining Nerlens Noel and reigning Rookie of the Year Michael Carter-Williams. Young figures to slide in as Love’s replacement at power forward in Minnesota, though he has the chance to opt out and hit free agency in 2015, just like Love.
THURSDAY, 2:58pm: John Lucas III, whom the Cavs acquired from the Jazz last month, isn’t a part of the Love trade as it stands, but there’s a decent chance Cleveland will send him out in the deal with the Wolves, tweets USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt.
12:51pm: The potential that a third team becomes involved still exists, according to Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press (Twitter link). Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune suggested earlier today that the possibility remained in play. The Wolves continue to work with the Sixers, Krawczynski also tweets, and Zgoda outlined what Minnesota would want to accomplish in a arrangement that would net them Thaddeus Young, as we passed along.
12:35pm: The protected 2015 first-rounder going to Minnesota will likely be the Heat’s pick, Wojnarowski tweets. Miami owes that selection to the Cavs from the LeBron James sign-and-trade in 2010, according to RealGM.
11:56am: There’s no agreement regarding a new max deal for Love, reports Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. Berger hears from two sources who suggest that Love will wait to see what James does with his ability to hit free agency next summer.
8:26am: The Wolves and Cavs have reached an agreement in principle on a deal that will send Kevin Love to the Cavs for Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett and a protected 2015 first-round pick, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. Cleveland is doing the deal with a firm commitment from Love that he will opt out of his contract next summer and re-sign with the team for the max, Wojnarowski adds. Surprisingly, there’s no third team involved, in spite of a string of rumors indicating that the Wolves were high on acquiring Thaddeus Young from the Sixers. The swap can’t become official until August 23rd, the first day following the 30-day period in which the Cavs are barred from trading Wiggins after signing him to his rookie scale contract.
The teams had agreed to the precise terms weeks ago, but the Cavs and Wolves are staying silent until they can formalize the trade, sources tell Wojnarowski. The Cavs feared the Bulls would instead trade for Love and block the path to the Eastern Conference title, and that helped prompt Cleveland to close on the deal, Wojnarowski hears. That’s in spite of Chicago’s last formal offer having come before the draft in June, according to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune (Twitter link). That conflicts with a report from late July that indicated that the Bulls had offered Taj Gibson, Nikola Mirotic and Doug McDermott. Chicago stayed in contact with the Wolves, but the Bulls understood that when the Cavs made Wiggins available, it would have required them to make too strong an offer to compete, Johnson adds (on Twitter).
Cavs officials were also cognizant that it would be difficult for them to clear the cap space necessary to sign Love as a free agent next summer without his Bird rights, according to Wojnarowski. The trade will allow Cleveland to have those Bird rights, which will let the team exceed the cap to re-sign him.
The Wolves had sought to unload some of their player-friendly contracts in a Love trade, and they still hold out hope of parting with J.J. Barea, Luc Mbah a Moute and Alexey Shved in subsequent moves, according to Wojnarowski. Minnesota is also still trying to acquire Young from the Sixers, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities, but it’s unclear if the efforts are related at this point.
The agreement ends more than two months of intense Love-related rumors after Love made it clear to the Wolves that he would hit free agency next summer and Minnesota began to seriously consider trades. The Bulls and Warriors appeared at the top of Love’s list of preferred destinations at that point. Golden State remained a prime contender for weeks, but their decision against including Klay Thompson in a deal appears to have scuttled any chance Love would end up in the Bay Area. Love made a high-profile visit to Boston around the first of June, but Minnesota wasn’t interested in any assets the Celtics had to offer.
Love reportedly made Cleveland his top choice following the return of LeBron James to the Cavs, and even before the four-time MVP left Miami, Love indicated that he would be 100% on board with joining the Cavs if James were also on the team. James reportedly reached out to Love to tell him he’d like for them to play together in Cleveland and appeared to signal to Cavs management that he wanted them to trade for the All-Star power forward. James conspicuously left Wiggins’ name out of the essay he co-authored with Lee Jenkins of SI.com when he announced his decision to return to Cleveland.
The addition of Love, a 25-year-old three-time All-Star, puts the Cavs squarely in the title race this season. Just as the trade can’t be finalized until August 23rd, Love’s commitment to sign a five-year max contract with the team next summer can’t be official until next July, so much of the arrangement relies on everyone involved keeping their word. James can opt out of his deal with the Cavs and hit free agency next summer, too, so there are few concrete certainties. Still, it appears the Cavs are well-positioned for the future even as they relinquish consecutive No. 1 overall draft selections in Wiggins and Bennett. Wiggins, in particular, makes parting with Love easier to swallow for Minnesota, and his vast potential means there’s a decent chance the Wolves will ultimately emerge with a better return for having traded a superstar than any other team to have done so.
The Nuggets, Suns, Lakers, Rockets, Kings, Knicks, and Wizards were among the other teams connected to Love throughout the process, but the Cavs had emerged as clear front-runners in recent weeks. Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com suggested in a radio appearance a few days ago that Cleveland and Minnesota had a handshake agreement in place. The vast majority of Hoops Rumors readers who voted in our poll even before Windhorst’s comments believed Love would be with the Cavaliers by the start of the season.
Photo courtesy USA Today Sports Images.
Cavs Sign Dwight Powell
The Cavaliers have signed second-round draft pick Dwight Powell, the team has officially announced. The 6’11 forward out of Stanford was selected by the Hornets with the No. 45 overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft. Powell was then traded along Brendan Haywood to the Cavs for Scotty Hopson.
Powell played four seasons for Stanford, and appeared in 136 games, averaging 10.8 PPG and 6.3 RPG, while playing 26.2 minutes a night. He was a two-time First Team All-Pac 12 selection during his college career. Last season he averaged 14.0 PPG, 6.9 RPG, and 3.1 APG.
During this year’s Las Vegas Summer League, Powell played in three games, and averaged 5.0 PPG and 3.7 RPG, while logging 11.3 minutes per night.
Hawks Re-Sign Shelvin Mack
AUGUST 22ND: The Hawks have finally formalized the deal, making an official announcement via press release.
JULY 25TH: The Hawks and Shelvin Mack have struck agreement on a three-year, $7.3MM deal, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The contract will include a team option on the final season, Wojnarowski adds.
Mack had been one of five remaining unrestricted free agents across the league, but as I noted earlier this week, the market for the 24-year-old combo guard appeared quiet. He’d said in May that he would like to return to Atlanta, but hadn’t been heard from since.
It looks like Atlanta will use some of its ample cap space to complete the deal and bring back a significant contributor from last season’s playoff team. Mack averaged 7.5 points and 3.7 assists in 20.4 minutes per game during the regular season, and upped his scoring to 8.1 PPG in just 16.9 MPG during the postseason. It was the 2011 34th overall pick’s best season to date after he bounced around to three teams in his first two years in the league.
Mack played point guard behind Jeff Teague last season, and while he’s also seen time at two-guard in the NBA, the move to re-sign Mack poses questions about point guard Dennis Schröder, whom the Hawks drafted 17th overall in 2013.
Hornets Sign P.J. Hairston
The Hornets have signed 26th overall pick P.J. Hairston, the team announced via press release. Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer reported the signing minutes before the team’s announcement (Twitter link). Hairston was one of two remaining unsigned first-round picks Thursday when I looked at the 2014 draftees who’d yet to strike a deal with their respective NBA teams. He’s likely to receive close to $1.15MM this season, as our chart of salaries for 2014 first-round picks shows.
Hairston had intially chosen an agent who wasn’t union-certified, and that appeared to be at the root of the delay as he went unsigned for almost two months following the draft. Charlotte acquired his rights on draft night in the trade with the Heat that also gave the Hornets the rights to 55th overall pick Semaj Christon, who’s yet to come to terms with the club. No. 9 pick Noah Vonleh, the other 2014 draftee whose rights belong to Charlotte, signed with the team last month. The signing gives Charlotte 14 guaranteed deals plus a pact with the undrafted Justin Cobbs that’s presumably non-guaranteed.
It’s quite possible that Hairston will go down as a steal, since he seemed destined to end up as a lottery pick had the University of North Carolina not decided to part ways with the shooting guard over NCAA-eligibility concerns. Hairston spent much of last season in the D-League with the Texas Legends, and he became the first former D-League player selected in the first round of the NBA draft.
Chad Ford of ESPN.com ranked Hairston as the 18th-best draft prospect in spite of his D-League detour, while Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress had him 20th, furthering the notion that the Hornets have a chance to make out well with the 26th pick. Our Alex Lee was also high on the 6’5″ 21-year-old, projecting him as the 16th pick in the final version of his Hoops Rumors Mock Draft.
Tim Frazier To Join Celtics For Camp
WEDNESDAY, 8:46pm: Although the team has yet to announce it, Frazier signed a contract with Boston today according to the RealGM transaction log. Frazier signed along with Rodney McGruder and Christian Watford, who reportedly accepted one-year contracts that are also likely to be of the non-guaranteed variety.
TUESDAY, 8:36am: Undrafted point guard Tim Frazier has a deal with the Celtics for training camp, according to the official Twitter account of Penn State basketball (hat tip to ESPNBoston.com). The precise terms aren’t immediately clear, but it’s likely a non-guaranteed summer contract that will give the former Nittany Lion at least an outside shot of making the opening-night roster.
Frazier was a lightly regarded prospect heading into the draft, as neither Chad Ford of ESPN.com nor Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress had him within their top 100 prospects. Still, he worked out for the Celtics and Wolves, and he showed a flair for rebounding that belied his 6’1″ height last month during summer league, when he averaged 4.0 boards in 18.0 minutes per game for the Sixers.
It’ll be tough for Frazier to make the Celtics out of training camp even if he plays well, since Boston is already carrying 18 other players, as our roster counts show. That includes 14 guys on guaranteed deals as well as Evan Turner, whose contract is also likely to be fully guaranteed. Still, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Celtics envision hanging on to Frazier’s D-League rights, giving him the chance to spend his first season in pro ball with Boston’s affiliate.
Celtics Sign McGruder, Watford
SEPTEMBER 29TH: The deals are official, the team announced via press release.
AUGUST 20TH: The Celtics have signed Rodney McGruder and Christian Watford to one-year deals, reports Mark Deeks of ShamSports. The team hasn’t announced the signings, but they are reflected on RealGM’s transaction log. The two players were added along with Tim Frazier, who is a training camp invite. It’s very likely that both McGruder and Watford are joining Boston on non-guaranteed summer contracts to compete for a roster spot.
Both McGruder and Watford went undrafted in 2013, and both spent last year playing overseas. McGruder spent time with the Thunder for training camp last summer, but was cut from the roster prior to the season. Boston has 14 guaranteed contracts on the books for 2014/15, and this will bring their total roster count, including non-guaranteed deals, up to the summer maximum of 20. However, the team also has a deal with Evan Turner that’s yet to become official, meaning they will have to waive or trade one of the 20 players under contract before formally signing him.
McGruder is a shooting guard who averaged 11.7 PPG and 4.8 RPG at Kansas State. Watford, a power forward, averaged 12.3 PPG and 5.9 RPG in four years at Indiana. Deeks places their odds of making the team as “not remotely likely” in a separate tweet.
Jazz Sign Jack Cooley
The Jazz have signed Jack Cooley, according to a team release. While terms of the deal weren’t announced, Jody Genessy of Deseret News reports that Cooley is a camp addition, adding that it’s very likely the deal is non-guaranteed (on Twitter).
The Jazz only have 12 players on guaranteed contracts for the 2014/15 season, so Cooley will have a better shot than many at this time of year of making an NBA team. Last year, Cooley chose to play in Turkey rather than accept one of several camp invitations. Cooley reportedly had mini-camp workouts with the Spurs, Nets, Cavaliers, and Jazz this summer.
The 6’9″ power forward went undrafted following his senior year at Notre Dame in 2013, but immediately performed well in summer league action. During his time overseas, the big man averaged 12.6 points and 6.9 rebounds in 22.9 minutes per game.