Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Pelicans Re-Sign Jrue Holiday To Five-Year Deal

July 6th, 2017 at 6:35pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 6: The Pelicans have officially re-signed Holiday, the team announced today in a press release.

JULY 1: The Pelicans have reached an agreement to re-sign point guard Jrue Holiday, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, who reports that the two sides have struck a five-year, $126MM deal. Wojnarowski adds that the value of the contract, which includes a fifth-year player option, could increase to approximately $150MM via incentives.

According to Wojnarowski, Holiday met with Pelicans officials with New Orleans late on Friday night in New Orleans, and while they didn’t make a deal immediately, the 27-year-old reached an agreement with the team just a few hours later. Holiday had been expected to meet with the Pacers and/or Knicks if he hadn’t agreed to re-sign with the Pelicans.

As Wojnarowski details, the Pelicans and Holiday developed a strong bond after the way the franchise helped the point guard deal with a family crisis last fall, when he missed the start of the 2016/17 season to care for his wife and newborn child. Head coach Alvin Gentry also has “tremendous trust” in Holiday’s ability to run New Orleans’ offfense, per Woj.

Re-signing Holiday was New Orleans’ top priority this offseason, particularly given the team’s salary cap situation. With more than $85MM in guaranteed salaries already on their books for 2017/18, the Pelicans weren’t in a position to create significant cap room to sign a replacement point guard if Holiday had decided to head elsewhere.

Because they held Holiday’s Bird rights, the Pelicans had the ability to go over the cap to lock him up, and now will have the mid-level ($8.4MM) and bi-annual ($3.3MM) exceptions available to add further reinforcements. They’ll also have a “big three” of Holiday, Anthony Davis, and DeMarcus Cousins for at least the next year, until Cousins’ contract expires in the summer of 2018.

Holiday, the 17th overall pick in 2009, arrived in New Orleans as a result of a draft-day trade in 2013. He has been reliable and productive over the last four years when he gets on the court, though he has been plagued by injuries too, having averaged just 52 games per season. In 2016/17, the UCLA product averaged 15.4 PPG and 7.3 APG.

It will be interesting to see whether the Pelicans express any interest in Justin Holiday this week. The Holiday brothers publicly stated earlier this year that they’d love the opportunity to play together, and Jrue’s older brother is also a free agent this summer.

Jrue Holiday was the No. 14 player on our list of this year’s top 50 free agents. He’s one of several point guards who has already struck an agreement since free agency opened less than eight hours ago. Stephen Curry, Jeff Teague, Patty Mills, and Shaun Livingston also have new deals in hand, leaving Kyle Lowry, George Hill, and Derrick Rose as the top point guards available.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Kings Sign First-Round Pick Justin Jackson

July 6th, 2017 at 5:54pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Kings have signed Justin Jackson to a rookie scale deal, according to NBA.com. Jackson will take home nearly $13.5MM over the next four years, assuming he signed for the standard 120% of the rookie scale.

Sacramento traded down from the No. 10 pick in order to select Jackson with the No. 15 selection as well as Harry Giles with the No. 20 overall selection. Outside of their draft night trade, the Kings also nabbed De’Aaron Fox with the No. 5 overall pick and Frank Mason III with the No. 34 overall pick.

Jackson spent three seasons at UNC where he helped lead the team to a national title last year. As a junior, he earned the ACC Player of the Year award in a season where he scored 18.3 points per game while pulling down 4.7 rebounds.

Clippers, Hawks, Nuggets Agree On Three-Way Deal

July 6th, 2017 at 5:13pm CST by Luke Adams

July 6: The trade is official, according to a Hawks team press release.

July 4: The Clippers, Hawks, and Nuggets are in agreement on a three-way deal that will send Danilo Gallinari to the Clippers in a sign-and-trade arrangement, reports Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The deal has been discussed extensively, and there was an expectation it would get done, but it hadn’t been formally agreed upon until now. It can be made official when the moratorium ends on Thursday.

Based on the terms reported, the trade is expected to look like this:

Clippers receive: Gallinari (sign-and-trade, three-year deal worth $65MM)
Hawks receive: Jamal Crawford, Diamond Stone, first-round pick from Clippers (Rockets’ 2018 first-rounder), cash.
Nuggets receive: Second-round pick from Hawks (it will be the Wizards’ 2019 second-rounder, tweets Vivlamore)

The key piece in the transaction is Gallinari, a free agent forward who turns 29 next month. He has had some trouble staying on the court in recent years, appearing in just 175 total games over the last four seasons, but he’s a versatile and effective scorer when he plays, averaging 18.2 PPG with a shooting line of .447/.389/.902 in 2016/17. The Clippers envision him sharing the frontcourt with Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan.

The Clippers didn’t have the cap room to sign Gallinari outright, and the Nuggets didn’t want to take back salary in a sign-and-trade since they’re preserving their space to finalize Paul Millsap‘s signing. That opened the door for the Hawks to enter the mix and nab a future first-round pick – along with a young prospect in Stone – for their willingness to take on Crawford’s contract.

While Crawford will land in Atlanta as part of this three-way deal, there’s a belief that he’ll seek a trade or buyout. A trade will be tricky to complete, and the Hawks would likely want Crawford to forgo a significant chunk of the $17MM+ in guaranteed money remaining on his deal in order to buy him out. If the two sides can work something out though, the Lakers, Warriors, Spurs, and Cavaliers are among Crawford’ possible landing spots.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Pacers Waive Rakeem Christmas

July 6th, 2017 at 5:03pm CST by Luke Adams

5:03pm: The Pacers have officially waived Christmas, per the NBA’s transactions log.

10:17am: In his full story on Christmas’ pending release, Agness clarifies that the forward’s salary would have become guaranteed if he remained under contract beyond July 6, which is why the team is making the move today.

10:03am: The Pacers plan to waive Rakeem Christmas before the end of the day on Thursday, league sources tell Scott Agness of Vigilant Sports (Twitter link).

Christmas, 25, made his NBA debut for the Pacers in 2015/16, then appeared in 29 regular season games for the team last season. Christmas saw limited minutes in those games, averaging 2.0 PPG and 1.9 RPG in 7.6 minutes per contest.

Christmas’ 2017/18 salary, worth the minimum, was reportedly only guaranteed for $50K, per Basketball Insiders, so the Pacers will clear most of it from their cap. The 6’9″ forward’s full salary was scheduled to become guaranteed on August 1.

The Pacers waived Monta Ellis on Wednesday, stretching his contract in order to create nearly $9MM in cap room for 2017/18. The team also renounced its free agent rights to Aaron Brooks, Lavoy Allen, and Jeff Teague, per RealGM’s transactions log.

Teague has a deal lined up with Minnesota, so that move isn’t a surprise, but there didn’t seem to be any pressing need to renounce Brooks or Allen. There also was no apparent rush to cut Christmas quite yet, so it’s possible the Pacers have a move or two up their sleeves with their newly-expanded cap room.

Spurs Sign First-Round Pick Derrick White

July 6th, 2017 at 4:15pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Spurs have signed Derrick White to a rookie scale deal, according to a team press release. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but if White signed for the standard 120% of the rookie scale, he’ll take home roughly $8.54MM over the next four seasons.

White was the No. 29 overall pick out of the University of Colorado. During his lone season with the school, he was named Pac-12 All-Conference First-Team, All-Defensive Team, and All-Tournament Team.

The guard played three seasons of Division II basketball for the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs prior to landing in the Pac-12. He’s that school’s all-time leader in career points and assists. White is currently playing for San Antonio’s summer league squad in Utah.

Suns Sign Second-Rounder Davon Reed

July 6th, 2017 at 3:48pm CST by Luke Adams

The Suns have made it official with one of their second-round picks, announcing today in a press release that they’ve signed rookie guard Davon Reed to his first NBA contract. Reed’s deal was reported by Tony Jones of The Salt Lake Tribune (Twitter link).

An ACC All-Defensive player for Miami in 2016/17, Reed averaged 14.9 PPG, 4.8 RPG, and 2.4 APG in his senior season, making 39.7% of his three-point attempts. Reed was one of three players selected in last month’s draft by the Suns, who also nabbed Josh Jackson with the fourth overall pick and selected Alec Peters at No. 54.

Terms of Reed’s new deal aren’t yet known. As the No. 32 overall pick, he won’t be subject to the NBA’s rookie scale. However, he’s still a good bet to earn more than the minimum — last year, before the NBA’s minimum salaries jumped, the Suns drafted Tyler Ulis with the 34th overall pick and signed him to a four-year, $4MM contract with two fully guaranteed years.

Pistons Sign Eric Moreland

July 6th, 2017 at 3:48pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Pistons have signed Eric Moreland, according to a team press release. Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press (Twitter link) reports that the arrangement is for three years and adds that the deal is not fully guaranteed.

Signing Moreland for three seasons means the team will have to use part of its mid-level exception to sign the big man. Detroit has already used part of their mid-level on Langston Galloway to a three-year, $21MM contract.

Moreland played for the Canton Charge last season and he averaged 12.8 points and 12.2 rebounds per contest. He was named an All-Star of the G-League as well as All-NBA G-League Third Team.

The big man last played in the NBA for the Kings during the 2015/16 campaign. During that season, he played in eight games, scoring just a point per contest.

Moreland was known as a defensive-minded big during his time in the collegiate ranks at Oregon State. He left the school as its all-time leader in blocks, but he was not selected during the 2014 draft.

Bucks Sign D.J. Wilson To Rookie Scale Deal

July 6th, 2017 at 3:37pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Bucks have signed D.J. Wilson to a rookie scale deal, according to the team’s website. Assuming Wilson signed for 120% of the rookie scale, he will make slightly under $12.2MM over the next four seasons.

Wilson was the No. 17 overall pick out of the University of Michigan. The 6’10” forward led the Wolverines with 5.3 rebounds per game during his junior season. He also had a team-high 57 blocks on the year.

The 21-year-old will play for Milwaukee’s Summer League team in Las Vegas. The team opens competition on Friday against the Cavs.

Raptors Sign Malcolm Miller To Two-Way Deal

July 6th, 2017 at 3:27pm CST by ChrisCrouse

The Raptors have signed Malcolm Miller to the franchise’s first two-way deal, Doug Smith of the Toronto Star tweets. As part of the new CBA, each team will get a pair of two-way contracts, so Toronto will have one more of these types of deals to hand out.

Players on two-way deals will spend most of their season in the G-League since they cannot spend more than 45 days with an NBA club, as our glossary page on two-way contracts shows.

Miller played four seasons at Holy Cross and spent the 2015/16 season playing for the Maine Red Claws, the affiliate of the Celtics. The 6’7″ combo forward spent last season playing abroad for Alba Berlin.

Bucks, Bronson Koenig Finalize Two-Way Contract

July 6th, 2017 at 3:24pm CST by Austin Kent

JULY 6: The Bucks and Koenig have finalized an agreement on a two-way contract, agent Keith Kreiter tells Jake Fischer of SI.com (Twitter link).

JUNE 23: The Bucks are expected to reach a deal with Wisconsin product Bronson Koenig, Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders tweets. The senior is the Badgers’ all-time three-point leader.

Per Sam Amico of AmicoHoops.net, the agreement will likely come in the form of a two-way deal, one of the new contractual mechanisms implemented by the latest collective bargaining agreement.

Until the signing is official, we won’t know exactly what the terms of the contract will be, so there exists the possibility that it’s simply for Summer League. But it sounds like Koenig will be with the Bucks for training camp.