Knicks Waive Shannon Brown
The Knicks have waived Shannon Brown, the team announced (via Twitter). His non-guaranteed contract for the minimum salary was to have become fully guaranteed if the Knicks hadn’t waived him by the end of August 1st.
The move is somewhat surprising, given Brown’s ties to Knicks team president Phil Jackson, who was Brown’s coach when they were together with the Lakers. New York gave Brown his deal this past March soon after hiring Jackson, though Brown initially joined the club on a pair of 10-day contracts that predated Jackson’s arrival.
Brown, 28, averaged just 2.1 points and 7.8 minutes per game in 19 appearances for the Knicks this year, having seen only slightly more playing time in a 10-game stint with the Spurs earlier in the season. He had a much larger role the previous two seasons with the Suns, including a career-high 11.0 points per game in 2011/12, but Phoenix sent him to Washington in the Marcin Gortat trade, and the Wizards promptly waived him to get down to 15 players before opening night. The eight-year veteran spent the first three months of the season without an NBA deal.
Wolves Re-Sign Robbie Hummel
WEDNESDAY, 3:23pm: The deal is official, the team announced.
MONDAY, 8:28pm: Robbie Hummel has re-signed with the Wolves, according to his reps at Priority Sports (on Twitter). It’s a fully-guaranteed one-year, $900K pact, according to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN (on Twitter).
The Wolves declined to extend Hummel a qualifying offer of $1.016MM at the end of June, but less than a month later they’ve agreed to a deal that pays just ~$100K less. Last season, the 25-year-old averaged 3.4 PPG and 2.5 RPG in 12.4 minutes per contest across 53 games (five starts).
The swingman was taken with the No. 58 pick in the 2012 draft, signed with a Spanish team later that summer, and circled back to the T’Wolves prior to the 2013/14 season.
Lakers Sign Ed Davis
JULY 23RD: The deal is official, the team announced on its website, as it introduced Davis to the media today.
“Ed is a versatile, young frontcourt player who, if he continues to work hard, will be a valuable contributor,” Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak said in the team’s statement. “We look forward to him furthering his development with the Lakers and are excited by what we think he can offer our team.”
JULY 16TH: The Lakers and Ed Davis have agreed on a two-year, $2MM deal, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. The second year of the contract will feature a player option, Wojnarowski adds (Twitter links).
Davis spent the 2013/14 campaign with the Grizzlies, where he averaged 15.2 minutes per contest over the course of 63 games. While his nightly marks of 5.7 PPG and 4.1 RPG don’t jump off the page as particularly noteworthy, Davis was quietly able to post a respectable 15.9 PER. The big man won’t necessarily fill the void created by Pau Gasol‘s departure to Chicago, but he could definitely prove to be a low-cost, efficient signing for the Lakers.
The official terms of the contract haven’t been released yet, but Davis’ salary for the upcoming season will likely be $981,084, the minimum a player of his experience can make. Otherwise, Los Angeles will need to dip into the room exception if they want to be able to ink the Landmark Sports client.
Davis’ signing will add even more youth to the Lakers’ power forward slot, which had already been set to feature promising rookie Julius Randle. Davis, who mostly played the four last season, will have a good chance to see some serious minutes on the floor for Los Angeles in 2014/15.
Hornets Sign Brian Roberts
JULY 23RD: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.
JULY 13TH: The Hornets are set to sign Brian Roberts to a two-year, $5.5MM+ deal, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.
Late last week, Wojnarowski reported that Roberts was No. 1 on Charlotte’s wish list as they searched for a backup to point guard Kemba Walker. The Pistons and Grizzlies were also said to have had interest.
In two seasons with New Orleans, Roberts has averaged 8.2 PPG and 3.0 APG in 19.9 minutes per contest while shooting 37.2% from the outside. The former University of Dayton standout has a slightly below-average PER of 14.0 for his NBA career.
Mavs Void Contract With Rashard Lewis
The Mavericks have nullified their contract with Rashard Lewis after a right knee injury requiring surgery was discovered during his team physical, a source tells Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). Lewis had signed a one-year deal for the minimum salary this past weekend, but today’s move puts him back in free agency immediately. He doesn’t need to pass through waivers. Mavs president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson, in a statement from the team, stopped short of confirming that the Mavs had voided the contract, but he seemed to hint that the 34-year-old sharpshooting power forward was no longer with the organization.
“It came to our attention during Rashard Lewis’s physical that he is in need of a medical procedure on his right knee,” Nelson said. “We wish him all the best for a speedy recovery and continued success in his remarkable career.”
The Mavs aren’t on the hook for any salary to the client of Dutt Sports Services Inc., even though his contract appeared to be fully guaranteed, but it’s possible that the players association will file a grievance, as is often the case when teams move to nullify contracts with players. It’s not clear how long it will take for Lewis to recover and return to action. The move won’t create any more cap flexibility for Dallas, since the team is already essentially capped out and it appeared the Mavs used the minimum-salary exception on their deal with Lewis.
Nets Sign Markel Brown
WEDNESDAY, 9:49pm: The deal is official, the team announced via press release. It’s a multiyear contract, the Nets revealed in their statement.
TUESDAY, 7:27pm: The Nets will sign Markel Brown, league sources tell Tim Bontemps of the New York Post (via Twitter). Brown was selected 44th overall by the Timberwolves last month before Brooklyn acquired his draft rights via trade.
It was somewhat of surprise that the Oklahoma State shooting guard went so highly in last month’s draft, since Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress ranked him as the 55th best prospect and Chad Ford of ESPN.com had him down at No. 61. He averaged 17.2 points and 5.3 rebounds in 35.3 minutes per game this past season as part of a backcourt tandem with point guard Marcus Smart, this year’s sixth overall pick.
Brown will face stiff competition to make the Nets opening night roster, especially if his deal isn’t fully guaranteed for this coming season. Brooklyn agreed to a deal No. 60 pick Cory Jefferson earlier tonight and also possesses the rights to Xavier Thames, the 59th overall selection. The Nets signed highly touted European draft-and-stash prospect Bojan Bogdanovic this afternoon, so it’s shaping up as a battle between this year’s second-rounders, camp invitee Michael Jenkins and any players the club adds from here for no more than two open roster spots.
Cavs Acquire Three In Swap With Jazz
7:21pm: The Cavaliers have officially announced the deal, per a team press release.
7:16pm: Out of the three players heading to Cleveland, Minnesota actually had some interest in Murphy after he was waived by the Bulls last season, tweets Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune.
7:03pm: The pick that Utah will receive in the deal will be a 2015 second rounder from Cleveland, tweets Aaron Falk of the Salt Lake Tribune.
6:21pm: According to one Cavs source, Cleveland likes Lucas, Thomas, and Murphy and doesn’t necessarily view them as stepping stones to a bigger deal, tweets Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal.
6:00pm: The Jazz are expected to trade the non-guaranteed contracts of John Lucas III, Malcolm Thomas, and Erik Murphy to the Cavaliers for Carrick Felix, a future second rounder, and $1MM, a source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. Felix’s contract is guaranteed for $816K in 2014/15, whereas Lucas III, Thomas, and Murphy combined for roughly $3.3MM in non-guaranteed deals for the upcoming season. Wojnarowski adds that Cleveland had been looking to make this type of deal recently in order to help facilitate a trade for Timberwolves star Kevin Love (Twitter links).
Minnesota has been determined to unload Kevin Martin and J.J. Barea in a deal involving Love, says Wojnarowski, who also notes that the Cavs would have to find a third team in order to make it work. Nonetheless, whether Lucas, Thomas, and Murphy’s contracts are used to bring the former UCLA big man to Ohio or are included in a separate trade, this deal at the very least has given Cleveland some “buying power” (Twitter links).
Bulls Sign Aaron Brooks
The Bulls have signed point guard Aaron Brooks, the team announced on its website. Marc Stein of ESPN.com reported a few days ago that the sides were close to a deal, not long after Aggrey Sam of CSNChicago.com indentified mutual interest. It’ll have to be a minimum-salary arrangement, since the Bulls are capped out and already spent their room exception on Kirk Hinrich, and K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune wrote last week that it would be for the minimum.
The Creative Artists Agency client split last season between the Rockets and Nuggets, turning in a strong performance for an injury-ravaged Denver team down the stretch. He averaged 11.9 points. 5.2 assists and 2.3 turnovers in 29.0 minutes per game over 29 appearances.
Brooks, 29, will vie with Kirk Hinrich to become the primary backup to Derrick Rose, with former Bulls point guard D.J. Augustin having signed with the Pistons for three years and $6MM. The six-year veteran Brooks started all 82 games for the Rockets in 2009/10, so he gives the Bulls a trusty insurance policy at a low cost should Rose once more be injured.
Bulls Sign Doug McDermott
The Bulls have signed No. 11 overall pick Doug McDermott, the team announced via press release. The sharpshooting forward from Creighton will likely receive a salary of nearly $2.278MM this season, as our table of salaries for 2014 first-round picks shows.
Chicago acquired the rights to McDermott on draft night in a trade with the Nuggets. McDermott was a consensus All-American during each of his final three seasons with the Blue Jays, and he averaged 26.7 points and 7.0 rebounds with 44.9% three-point shooting from behind the arc this past season. His defense is a concern, but his ability to stretch the floor with his shot certainly isn’t, as Cray Allred of Hoops Rumors examined when he compiled McDermott’s Prospect Profile.
The timing of the announcement is somewhat curious, since McDermott’s name surfaced in a report earlier today as a player the Wolves are high on as the Bulls make another run at trading for Kevin Love. The Bulls will have to wait 30 days to trade McDermott after having signed him, but they could have traded his rights immediately had they held off on officially coming to terms.
Nets Sign Bojan Bogdanovic
The Nets have signed draft-and-stash prospect Bojan Bogdanovic, the team announced via press release. It’s a three-year, $10.1MM deal, a source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link), so it’s likely the team is signing him for the full value of the taxpayer’s mid-level exception. That’s the framework that Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN.com outlined when it appeared, as Tim Bontemps of the New York Post reported, that the sides were close to a deal. Youngmisuk also said the deal would include a player option, though it’s not entirely clear if that’s indeed a part of the arrangement.
Bogdanovic has spent the past three seasons playing for Fenerbahce Ulker in Turkey after he became the 31st overall pick of the 2011 draft. The Nets acquired his rights on draft night, and struck a deal to sign him a year ago. Complications regarding his buyout from Fenerbahce caused that agreement to come apart, but this time, the Nets were able to make it official.
The 25-year-old Bogdanovic averaged 13.4 points and 35.0% three-point shooting this past season in Turkey. He’s not to be confused with Bogdan Bogdanovic, whom the Suns drafted 27th overall in June, and who signed with the same Turkish team earlier this month.