Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Nuggets Re-Sign Mason Plumlee

September 20th, 2017 at 11:34am CST by Arthur Hill

SEPTEMBER 20: The Nuggets have officially re-signed Plumlee, issuing a press release today to announce the deal.

SEPTEMBER 18: The Nuggets have reached a three-year deal with restricted free agent Mason Plumlee valued at $41MM, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Agent Mark Bartelstein tells Wojnarowski that the two sides struck an agreement late Sunday night.

Plumlee came to Denver in a trade with Portland at last year’s deadline, with the Nuggets giving up Jusuf Nurkic and a first-round pick for Plumlee and a second-rounder. The 27-year-old center was used mainly in a reserve role behind Nikola Jokic and averaged 9.1 points and 6.4 rebounds over 27 games.

Plumlee confirmed the signing in a “Letter to Nuggets Fans” posted on his website, saying he is looking forward to the upcoming season. “I meant what I said when I was traded here last year,” he wrote. “This is an exciting, talented young team with a bunch of high character guys and I’ve always admired the loyalty and dedication of Nuggets fans. With some of the big additions this summer and another year of experience for the young guns, I believe this team can compete with anyone in the league.”

Plumlee, who made a little more than $2.3MM last season, got a deal similar to the four-year, $56MM extension the Hornets gave Cody Zeller last fall, notes ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link). The signing pushes Denver’s salary total to $103.2MM, which ranks 20th in the league (Twitter link).

At this point in the offseason, given the lack of cap room available around the NBA, it’s a strong deal for Plumlee, and reflects the value the Nuggets place on him, even with Jokic and Paul Millsap penciled in as the starters up front.

With Plumlee under contract, the only restricted free agents left on the market are Nikola Mirotic of Chicago, Alex Len of Phoenix and JaMychal Green of Memphis.

The Nuggets’ next priority, Wojnarowski adds, will be reaching an extension with Gary Harris before the October 16 deadline.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Bucks Sign Brandon Rush

September 19th, 2017 at 6:53pm CST by Arthur Hill

SEPTEMBER 19: The signing is official, according to Matt Velazquez of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Twitter link).

SEPTEMBER 18: Free agent swingman Brandon Rush has agreed to a contract with the Bucks, according to a tweet from his agency, Priority Sports.

Contract terms weren’t revealed, but Milwaukee has luxury tax concerns that suggest it will be a minimum deal. After waiving and stretching Spencer Hawes right before the August 31 deadline, the Bucks had a team salary of $115.3MM, less than $4MM away from the tax line. They had room for two minimum-salary contracts, one of which is expected to go toward re-signing Jason Terry.

Milwaukee was revealed this morning as the latest team to join the race for Rush, who spent last season with the Timberwolves. The Mavericks, Heat and Pacers all expressed interest in Rush earlier in free agency.

The Bucks will be the fifth team for the nine-year veteran, who started his career in Indiana. He had two terms of duty in Golden State and a brief stop in Utah before signing with Minnesota last summer. The 32-year-old appeared in 47 games for the Wolves, starting 33, and averaged 4.2 points per night.

Lakers Sign Andrew Bogut To One-Year Deal

September 19th, 2017 at 6:45pm CST by Luke Adams

SEPTEMBER 19: The signing is official, Bill Oram of the Southern California News Group relays on Twitter.

SEPTEMBER 18: The Lakers have reached an agreement with free agent center Andrew Bogut, agent David Bauman tells Shams Charania of The Vertical. According to Charania, Bogut will sign a one-year contract with Los Angeles. David Aldridge of TNT adds (via Twitter) that the deal will be worth the veteran minimum, while ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne tweets that it’ll be partially guaranteed.

Bogut, who will turn 33 in November, began last season with the Mavericks, appearing in 26 games (21 starts) for Dallas before being traded to the Sixers in a deadline deal. He was subsequently bought out by Philadelphia and joined the Cavaliers as a free agent, but fractured his tibia in his first game with his new team, ending his season.

Bauman suggested last week that a CT scan on Bogut’s tibia showed “complete healing,” with a radiology report showing that the center’s leg is “solidly united.” With a medical green light, Bogut was expected to find a new NBA home quickly, and ultimately landed with the Lakers, who will add him to a promising frontcourt that already features Brook Lopez, Julius Randle, Larry Nance Jr., Ivica Zubac, and rookies Kyle Kuzma and Thomas Bryant.

Even if he’s fully healthy heading into the 2017/18 season, Bogut likely won’t make a major on-court impact at this point in his career — since the start of the 2012/13 season, he has been a role player, averaging 5.9 PPG in 23.5 minutes per contest. Still, he has provided reliable rim protecting and rebounding, chipping in 1.6 BPG and 8.2 RPG during that stretch, so he could have some value in L.A.’s rotation.

According to Aldridge (via Twitter), the Timberwolves made a “major pitch” to Bogut, and the Celtics and Cavaliers were in the mix too. However, the former first overall pick liked L.A.’s “vibe,” not to mention the opportunity to reunite with head coach Luke Walton, who played a part in recruiting the ex-Warrior (Twitter link). While Boston was frequently linked to Bogut during his free agency, Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe (Twitter link) suspects the Celtics didn’t push overly hard to land him.

The Lakers entered the day with 19 players under contract, so their roster will be at the 20-man offseason maximum when they finalize their agreement with Bogut.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Heat Exercise 2018/19 Option On Justise Winslow

September 19th, 2017 at 11:14am CST by Luke Adams

The Heat have exercised their fourth-year team option on Justise Winslow, the club announced today in a press release. Winslow’s status for the coming season won’t be affected by the move, but it will guarantee his salary for the 2018/19 season.

Winslow, the 10th overall pick in the 2015 draft, missed nearly all of his second NBA season in 2016/17 due to a shoulder injury. After playing in 78 games in his rookie year, Winslow appeared in just 18 last season, averaging 10.9 PPG, 5.2 RPG, and 3.7 APG. He looks good to go for the 2017/18 campaign, however, and is expected to battle for the starting small forward job in the preseason.

By exercising their final team option on Winslow, the Heat ensure that he’ll count for $3,448,926 against the cap in 2018/19. The move will also make Winslow eligible for an extension during the 2018 offseason. If he and the Heat don’t strike a deal at that time, the 21-year-old would be on track to reach restricted free agency in 2019.

Decisions on 2018/19 rookie scale team options are due by the end of October, so we should start hearing about more of those moves in the coming weeks. You can follow along with those team option decisions right here.

Bucks Re-Sign Jason Terry

September 18th, 2017 at 8:49pm CST by Austin Kent

SEPTEMBER 18: The Bucks have officially re-signed Terry, the team announced today in a press release. Terry’s new deal will give him the ability to veto trades during the 2017/18 season.

SEPTEMBER 15: The Bucks are signing Jason Terry to a one-year, $2.3M deal, Shams Charania of The Vertical tweets. It’s a guaranteed minimum salary deal for Terry, who will earn $2,328,652 despite only counting for about $1.471MM against Milwaukee’s cap.

Now on the verge of his 19th professional campaign, Terry brings his considerable wealth of knowledge (not to mention his respectable stroke from beyond the arc) back to the young Bucks roster. The veteran, who is celebrating his 40th birthday today, logged 18.4 minutes per game in 74 contests with Milwaukee last season.

The decision to bring back Terry for a second year with the club will increase Milwaukee’s guaranteed contract total up to 14 players, although it’s not clear what sort of on-court role he’ll actually see in 2017/18.

The Bucks watched Malcolm Brogdon blossom into a Rookie of the Year at the point last year, backed up by the ever-scrappy Matthew Dellavedova. Similarly, at the two, they’ve already re-signed Tony Snell (at over $9M this year) and may look to integrate third-year man Rashad Vaughn.

The logjam in the backcourt, however, likely had little bearing on the guard’s free agency either way. Considering that Milwaukee has officially arrived on the scene as an upstart playoff contender, simply having someone with Terry’s experience swinging towels on the sidelines will likely pay off in the end.

Trail Blazers Sign Anthony Morrow

September 18th, 2017 at 8:31pm CST by Luke Adams

SEPTEMBER 18: The Blazers have issued a press release formally announcing their deal with Morrow.

SEPTEMBER 15: The Trail Blazers have reached an agreement to sign free agent shooting guard Anthony Morrow, agent Wallace Prather tells Shams Charania of The Vertical (Twitter link). According to Charania, Morrow will receive a one-year, non-guaranteed deal from Portland.

Morrow, who will celebrate his 32nd birthday later this month, began the 2016/17 campaign with the Thunder, but finished the season with the Bulls after being included in the trade that sent Doug McDermott and Taj Gibson to Oklahoma City. In 49 total games, the Georgia Tech alum averaged a very modest 5.5 PPG with a disappointing .389/.308/.919 shooting line.

While Morrow wasn’t particularly effective last season, with his FG% and 3PT% both representing career lows, he has historically been a much better shooter — he entered last season having made 42.5% of his career three-point attempts. In 2012/13, Morrow had a similarly subpar showing as he split time between the Hawks and Mavericks, but he played well for the Pelicans the following season, so there’s a precedent for him bouncing back from a down year.

Still, Morrow won’t be a lock to make Portland’s roster out of training camp. The Blazers have 14 players on guaranteed contracts and are into luxury-tax territory, meaning the team may not want to carry a 15th player to start the season. Even if the Blazers do open the year with 15 players, Morrow could face competition for that final spot from younger guards like Archie Goodwin and Isaiah Briscoe, though he’d probably enter camp as the favorite.

Heat Sign Erik McCree

September 18th, 2017 at 6:50pm CST by Luke Adams

The Heat have moved one step closer to filling up their training camp roster, announcing today in a press release that they’ve signed forward Erik McCree to a contract. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but it figures to be a short-term deal that’s mostly – or fully – non-guaranteed.

After starting his college career at Murray State, McCree transferred to Louisiana Tech and has spent the last three years at the school. The 6’8″ forward averaged 17.7 PPG and 8.9 RPG in his senior year, with a respectable shooting line of .476/.362/.770. He went undrafted in June.

With the addition of McCree to their roster, the Heat now have 19 players under contract, including 13 on guaranteed salaries. Rodney McGruder and Okaro White – who don’t yet have fully guaranteed contracts – have the inside track on the team’s final two regular season roster spots, so McCree looks like a good bet to land with the Sioux Falls Skyforce, Miami’s G League team, as an affiliate player.

Heat Sign Josh Richardson To Four-Year Extension

September 18th, 2017 at 1:23pm CST by Luke Adams

SEPTEMBER 18, 1:23pm: The signing is official, the team announced on its website.

SEPTEMBER 13, 5pm: The Heat are finalizing a four-year contract extension with Josh Richardson, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link), who reports that the deal will be worth $42MM. While Richardson was a second-round pick in 2015 and wasn’t eligible for a rookie scale extension this offseason, the league’s new CBA made him eligible for a veteran extension until opening night.

According to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald (Twitter link), Richardson’s agents met with Heat president Pat Riley about two weeks ago and the team expressed a willingness to give Richardson the maximum offer. Under the terms of the CBA, that max amount would mean a starting salary of 120% of the estimated annual salary.

Richardson’s new deal will go into effect for the 2018/19 season and would run through 2022 if he plays out the entire contract. However, the final year of the extension, for the 2021/22 campaign, is a player option, according to Jackson, who provides a year-by-year breakdown of the pact (Twitter links).

Richardson’s cap for 2017/18 won’t be impacted by the new deal — he remains on track to earn the minimum $1,471,382 this season. However, as ESPN’s Bobby Marks (ESPN Now link) details, the Heat now project to sit roughly $5.5MM below the tax with $117.5MM on the books for 2018/19. That figure could increase to approximately $119.6MM if Dion Waiters and Kelly Olynyk hit games-played bonuses in their respective contracts, according to Marks.

Richardson broke out as a rookie, evidenced by his 46.1% mark from behind the arc. He slumped as a sophomore though, in part because of ankle injuries. In 105 career games with the franchise to date, the shooting guard has scored 8.4 points per game and nearly averaged a steal per contest.

Sources tell Jackson that Richardson will be given the opportunity to compete with Justise Winslow and Rodney McGruder for the Heat’s starting small forward job this fall.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Timberwolves Sign Melo Trimble

September 18th, 2017 at 1:07pm CST by Luke Adams

SEPTEMBER 18, 1:07pm: The deal is official, according to a tweet from the team.

AUGUST 1, 3:07pm: The Timberwolves and former Maryland point guard Melo Trimble have reached an agreement on a contract, league sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). Wojnarowski reports that Trimble will receive a partially guaranteed deal from Minnesota.

Trimble is coming off a 2016/17 campaign in which he averaged 16.8 PPG, 3.7 APG, and 3.6 RPG for the Terrapins. The 6’3″ guard was a junior last season, but elected to forgo his remaining NCAA eligibility by entering the draft a year early. He ranked 84th on DraftExpress’ big board, and went undrafted.

A June report from ESPN indicated that Trimble had agreed to a free agent deal with the Sixers. However, the 22-year-old’s agreement with Philadelphia only applied to the Summer League — the two sides didn’t have a deal in place to bring him to training camp with the 76ers. Trimble appeared in three Summer League games in Las Vegas for the Sixers, averaging 10.3 PPG.

The Timberwolves no longer have any cap room or exceptions available, so Trimble will get a minimum salary contract. If he doesn’t make the team’s regular season roster, he’s probably a good bet to eventually join the Iowa Wolves, Minnesota’s new G League team, as an affiliate player.

Timberwolves Sign Amile Jefferson

September 18th, 2017 at 1:04pm CST by Luke Adams

SEPTEMBER 18, 1:04pm: The deal is official, according to a tweet from the team.

AUGUST 31, 11:50am: The Timberwolves have reached an agreement to add former Duke forward Amile Jefferson to their roster, reports Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders (via Twitter). According to Scotto, Jefferson will get a one-year, partially guaranteed contract from Minnesota.

Jefferson, 24, won an NCAA championship with Duke in 2015, then spent two more years with the program. In 2016/17, the 6’9″ forward averaged 10.9 PPG, 8.4 RPG, and 1.9 BPG for the Blue Devils.

After going undrafted in June, Jefferson caught on with the Timberwolves for Summer League play, and appeared in five games for the club in Las Vegas. However, he only averaged 11.0 minutes per contest in those games, so his production was limited.

The Timberwolves only have 11 players on guaranteed contracts, but remain in the market for at least three veteran free agents — two wings and a point guard. As such, Jefferson is unlikely to earn a spot on the club’s regular season roster, and is a better bet to start the season with the Iowa Wolves, Minnesota’s new G League affiliate.