Transactions

Sixers Sign James McAdoo To Two-Way Deal

AUGUST 30: The Sixers have made it official, announcing in a press release that they’ve signed McAdoo to the first two-way contract in franchise history.

AUGUST 26: The Sixers have agreed to a two-way deal with two-time NBA champion James McAdoo, as first reported by Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders (Twitter Link). Tandem, McAdoo’s agency confirmed the signing.

McAdoo, 25, appeared in a career-high 52 games (two starts) with the Warriors last season but posted just 2.8 PPG and 1.8 RPG in just below nine minutes per game. The former North Carolina product went undrafted in the 2014 NBA Draft but latched on with Golden State in the summer league that season. Since then, McAdoo has bounced around between the NBA and the G-League and been a piece of the bench for a powerhouse Warriors team.

The two-way deal will enable Philadelphia to rotate McAdoo around the NBA and G-League but uncertain health surrounding Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons may allow him to secure playing time.

Jared Cunningham To Play In Germany

Former first-round pick Jared Cunningham is headed to Germany for the 2017/18 season, as Emiliano Carchia of Sportando details. Cunningham has signed a one-year contract with Bayern Munich, the team confirmed (via Twitter).

Cunningham, 26, was the 24th overall pick in the 2012 draft, but had trouble sticking with an NBA team. From 2012 to 2016, the former Oregon State shooting guard played in just 84 total regular season contests, but spent time with six NBA teams, appearing in games for the Mavericks, Hawks, Kings, Clippers, Cavaliers, and Bucks.

Althought Cunningham failed to make an impact in the NBA, his G League averages (17.2 PPG, 3.7 APG, 3.2 RPG in 69 games) were solid, and he posted big numbers for Jiangsu Tongxi in Chinese League play last season (34.0 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 2.2 APG in 31 games).

Cunningham will join a growing list of former NBA players who will play overseas in 2017/18, as we detailed earlier this month.

Wizards Sign Donald Sloan To One-Year Deal

AUGUST 29: The Wizards have finalized their deal with Sloan, officially signing him to a one-year contract, according to RealGM’s transactions log.

AUGUST 17: The Wizards have reached agreement on a one-year deal with free agent guard Donald Sloan, tweets Shams Charania of The Vertical.

The 29-year-old played in China last season for the second time in his career. His last NBA experience was in 2015/16, when he played 61 games for the Nets, starting 33.

Sloan has been a journeyman since signing with the Hawks in 2011 after going undrafted out of Texas A&M. He played just five games for Atlanta and three for New Orleans during his rookie year and finished the season with Cleveland. He later returned to New Orleans, then spent two seasons in Indiana.

A 6’3″ combo guard, Sloan is averaging 5.5 points and 3.0 assists per game through his NBA career.

The Wizards now have 19 players under contract, one short of the maximum, with camp a little more than a month away.

Celtics Sign Ex-Hoya L.J. Peak

AUGUST 29: The Celtics have officially signed Peak, per RealGM’s log of NBA transactions.

AUGUST 28: The Celtics and rookie swingman L.J. Peak have agreed to a partially guaranteed contract, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets. The former Georgetown forward will likely be ticketed to Boston’s G-League affiliate, the Maine Red Claws, Wojnarowski adds.

Undoubtedly, Peak would have to be make a huge impression during training camp to nab a spot on Boston’s opening-night roster. Boston now has 19 players on the roster — 14 with guaranteed deals, three more with partial guarantees and a couple of two-way contracts, as Bobby Marks of ESPN.com notes (Twitter link).

The 6’5” Peak played three seasons with the Hoyas. He averaged 16.3 PPG, 3.8 RPG and 3.5 APG last season as a junior, then went undrafted as an early entrant. He played for the Rockets’ summer-league team and averaged 7.3 PPG in 13.7 MPG in four appearances while making half of his 3-point attempts.

Celtics Sign Andrew White

AUGUST 29: The Celtics formally signed White on Monday, according to RealGM’s official NBA transactions log.

AUGUST 17: Syracuse guard Andrew White has signed a partially guaranteed one-year contract with the Celtics, tweets Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. He is probably ticketed for Boston’s G League affiliate in Maine, Himmelsbach adds.

The signing was confirmed to Mike Waters of Syracuse.com by White’s agent, Adie von Gontard.

At 6’7″, White was the leading scorer for the Orange last season at 17.4 points per game, while setting a school record for 3-pointers with 112. He played for the Cavaliers during summer league.

 

Sasha Vujacic Reaches Deal With Italian Team

After spending the last two seasons with the Knicks, veteran guard Sasha Vujacic is set to head back overseas. Italian team Fiat Torino announced today (Italian link) that it has reached an agreement to sign Vujacic.

International basketball reporter David Pick, who classifies the contract as an offer sheet, indicates (via Twitter) that it’s worth $350K. According to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando, the agreement includes an NBA buyout clause that must be exercised by September 17. Vujacic will presumably be locked in with Fiat Torino for the 2017/18 season if that buyout clause goes unused.

For Vujacic, the move to Italy will represent a homecoming of sorts — the Slovenian shooting guard began his professional career with Italian club Snaidero Udine back in 2001, spending his first three seasons with the team. He eventually made the leap to the NBA in 2004, spending several years with the Lakers before being traded to the Nets in 2010.

Since 2010, Vujacic has gone back and forth between the NBA and international leagues, spending time with the Nets, Clippers, and Knicks in addition to playing for teams in Turkey, Italy, and Spain. In 10 total NBA seasons, the 33-year-old has appeared in 581 games, averaged 5.3 PPG, 1.9 RPG, and 1.3 APG, while shooting 36.7% on three-pointers. Vujacic struggled through one of his worst seasons as a pro last year in New York, shooting just 30.9% from the floor for the Knicks.

Jazz Draftee Nigel Williams-Goss To Play In Serbia

Jazz second-round pick Nigel Williams-Goss will begin his professional career overseas. Serbian team KK Partizan Belgrade announced in a press release that it has signed the rookie guard to a two-year contract (English link via Sportando).

With 15 players already on guaranteed contracts, the Jazz didn’t have room on their regular-season NBA roster for Williams-Goss, who was the 55th overall pick in this year’s draft. Many players drafted in that neighborhood have agreed to two-way contracts with their new NBA clubs, and Williams-Goss was said to be a candidate for a two-way opening in Utah. However, it appears either he or the Jazz decided to go in another direction.

[RELATED: 2017 NBA Draft Pick Signings]

According to international basketball reporter David Pick (via Twitter), KK Partizan will pay Williams-Goss $130K, which is a significantly higher salary than he would have earned on a standard G League contract — if he had signed a two-way deal, the base value would have been $75K, though he could have exceeded that figure with NBA call-ups. Williams-Goss’ new contract in Serbia will include a $500K buyout for the 2018 offseason if the Jazz want to bring him stateside at that point, according to Pick.

Williams-Goss, who left Gonzaga after his junior year, was a key contributor for a squad that appeared in the Final Four for the first time this spring, falling to UNC in the championship game. The young point guard averaged 16.8 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 4.7 APG, and 1.7 SPG in 2016/17 for the Zags.

Forward Ben Bentil Signs With French Team

Forward Ben Bentil has signed overseas with Champagne Chalons-Reims, Chris Reichert of The Step Back tweets via a press release from the French club.

Bentil had a brief stay in the NBA last season. The 6’9” Bentil appeared in three games with the Mavericks after signing a 10-day contract in February, but didn’t score a point in 10 minutes of action. He wasn’t offered another 10-day deal.

The Pistons brought him in for a June mini-camp but didn’t sign him.

Bentil played a couple of months in China last season before rejoining the G-League’s Fort Wayne Mad Ants. He played 22 games for the Pacers’ affiliate last season, averaging 12.1 PPG and 4.5 RPG.

Bentil was an early entrant to the 2016 draft, exiting Providence after his sophomore season. He was drafted in the second round with the 51st overall pick by the Celtics. Bentil received a partially guaranteed contract but was cut during training camp. The Pacers briefly picked him up in October and gave him $50K before waiving him.

Nerlens Noel Signs Qualifying Offer, Returning to Mavs

Nerlens Noel has signed a one-year, $4.2MM qualifying offer to return to the Mavericks, Chris Haynes of ESPN tweets. Having failed to find a long-term off he liked in restricted free agency, the big man is now on track to become an unrestricted free agent in 2018.Nerlens Noel vertical

On Wednesday, it was reported that Noel turned down a Mavs offer in the range of $17.5MM per year. Haynes suggests that Noel’s reported $17MM+ offer was non-existent in any form, but Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets that, according to sources, the RFA did turn down a four-year, $70MM offer made on July 1. Tim McMahon of ESPN clarifies (link via Twitter) that Noel asked the Mavs for a max contract and then the four-year offer was pulled soon thereafter.

Noel appeared in 22 games for the Mavs after being traded from the 76ers, starting 12 of them and playing 22.0 MPG. In his three-season NBA career, the Kentucky product is averaging 10.0 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 1.6 SPG, and 1.5 BPG. Although he’s mainly known for his defensive prowess, Noel’s career FG% is 51.1%.

While Noel accepting a one-year deal worth $4.188MM is somewhat surprising, there simply weren’t many teams left with cap room this year that could have given him a realistic offer sheet — currently, no club has more cap room than the Sixers, who weren’t about to make a bid to bring back the former lottery pick.

Earlier this week, on August 21, Noel switched agents from Happy Walters to Rich Paul. Paul didn’t have much to do for Noel this summer, but he’ll be tasked with negotiating the young center’s next deal in 2018.

Noel will have more freedom when he reaches the open market next season, though he won’t necessarily be guaranteed a massive payday — cap space isn’t expected to be quite as abundant around the NBA in 2018 as it has been the last two summers.

Having accepted his qualifying offer, Noel now must consent to any trade if the Mavs look to deal him this year. If he agrees to be traded, he would surrender his Bird rights, as Bobby Marks of ESPN notes (link via Twitter).

With today’s signing, Noel becomes the first restricted free agent to sign a qualifying offer since 2015 when Norris Cole and Matthew Dellavedova both did so. Greg Monroe is the most notable restricted free agent to sign a qualifying offer in recent years, having done so in 2014. Four 2017 RFAs now remain unsigned: Mason Plumlee (Nuggets), Nikola Mirotic (Bulls), JaMychal Green (Grizzlies), and Alex Len (Suns).

Luke Adams contributed to this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Clippers Sign Marshall Plumlee

AUGUST 25: Plumlee’s deal with the Clippers is now official, per RealGM’s NBA transactions log. It’s a one-year pact.

AUGUST 19: Marshall Plumlee has agreed to join the Clippers on a partially guaranteed contract, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

The 25-year-old center has brief NBA experience, playing 21 games with the Knicks last season and averaging 1.9 points and 2.4 rebounds in about 8 minutes per night. Undrafted out of Duke in 2016, he signed with New York as a free agent and spent most of the year in the G League.

The Knicks decided to waive him in July to create cap room to sign Tim Hardaway Jr. Plumlee received the $100K that was guaranteed on his contract for next season. New York considered trying to bring him back earlier this month, but Plumlee has opted for L.A.

The signing brings the Clippers up to 18 players in camp, with 14 having guaranteed contracts. Plumlee will try to earn a roster spot as a third center behind DeAndre Jordan and Willie Reed.