Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

JaKarr Sampson Signs Two-Way Deal With Kings

July 29th, 2017 at 2:05pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Forward JaKarr Sampson has agreed to a two-way contract with the Kings, the team announced on its website.

The 6’9” Sampson, 24, has 147 NBA games on his resume but did not play in the league last season. He wore the Sixers uniform in 2014/15 and played for both the Sixers and Nuggets in 2015/16. He posted averages of 5.2 PPG and 2.4 RPG in 15.6 MPG during those two seasons.

Last season, Sampson was a G-League Western Conference All-Star for the Iowa Energy, averaging 15.1 PPG and 5.9 RPG in 47 games, including 22 starts.

Sampson made a favorable impression on the Kings’ Summer League team in Las Vegas, posting averages of 7.5 PPG, 5.3 RPG and 1.2 BPG in four appearances.

The Kings signed another forward, Jack Cooley, with their other two-way contract.

Thunder Sign First-Round Pick Terrance Ferguson

July 29th, 2017 at 12:42pm CST by ChrisCrouse

JULY 29th, 12:42 pm: Ferguson has signed the contract, Royce Young of ESPN.com tweets. FIBA clearance issues prevented him from signing earlier, Young adds.

JULY 27th, 8:55pm: The Thunder have agreed to a four-year deal with Terrance Ferguson, Shams Charania of The Vertical reports (Twitter feed). With Ferguson coming to an agreement with OKC, every first-round pick in the 2017 draft class is now under contract for the 2017/18 season.

The 19-year-old, who played for an Australian team last season, received clearance from FIBA to play in the NBA earlier today. Up until today, Ferguson was not eligible to sign an NBA deal because of the contractual conflict with his international club. He was also unable to play for the Thunder’s Summer League team because of the previously made agreement.

Ferguson, who was selected with the No. 21 overall pick in this offseason’s draft, is set to make roughly $10.33MM over the next four seasons assuming he signs for the standard 120% of the rookie scale.

Hornets Waive Briante Weber

July 28th, 2017 at 2:21pm CST by Luke Adams

The Hornets are waiving point guard Briante Weber, according to Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer (Twitter link). The team has issued a press release making the move official. If Weber goes unclaimed on waivers, he’ll become an unrestricted free agent.

Weber, 24, signed a pair of 10-day contracts with the Hornets after the All-Star break last season, then earned a rest-of-season deal from the team. In 13 games in Charlotte, Weber played limited minutes, averaging 3.8 PPG, 1.7 RPG, and 1.2 APG.

Weber’s contract with the Hornets included a non-guaranteed salary for 2017/18. While his minimum salary isn’t guaranteed yet, it would have become locked in if he had remained under contract through August 1, per Basketball Insiders. That explains the timing of the move for Charlotte — the club won’t be on the hook for that money.

The Hornets, who also lost Ramon Sessions this offseason, signed Michael Carter-Williams to be Kemba Walker‘s backup at the point, but remain on the lookout for a third point guard to join the backcourt mix. Norris Cole, Donald Sloan, and Demetrius Jackson were among the free agents to work out for the club earlier this week, and Bonnell indicates that a signing remains likely.

Nets Waive Archie Goodwin

July 28th, 2017 at 1:14pm CST by Luke Adams

The Nets have waived guard Archie Goodwin, the team announced today in a press release. Goodwin will become an unrestricted free agent on Sunday if and when he clears waivers.

Goodwin, who will turn 23 next month, has had trouble finding a permanent home since being waived by the Suns prior to the start of the 2016/17 season. A former first-round pick, Goodwin appeared in 150 games over the course of three seasons in Phoenix, but bounced around last year, spending some time with the Pelicans and Nets. He also appeared in 34 games for the G League’s Greensboro Swarm, averaging 17.0 PPG and 5.2 RPG for the club.

Goodwin’s minimum salary contract with the Nets for 2017/18 was non-guaranteed, per Basketball Insiders, so Brooklyn won’t be on the hook for any of his salary. For the Nets, the move creates a little extra cap room, though the club used most of its remaining space to accommodate its acquisition of Allen Crabbe earlier this week. If the Nets were to renounce Randy Foye‘s cap hold, they’d have about $5.1MM in cap room after releasing Goodwin.

The Nets have one more non-guaranteed contract on their books for ’17/18, but that deal belongs to Spencer Dinwiddie. Dinwiddie had a stronger audition with Brooklyn last season than Goodwin did, so I’d be surprised if the team cuts him.

Hawks’ Alpha Kaba To Play In France

July 28th, 2017 at 11:13am CST by Luke Adams

Hawks second-round center Alpha Kaba will spend the 2017/18 in France, having signed a three-year deal with ASVEL of the French Pro A League, writes Chris Vivlamore of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Kaba’s agent confirmed the contract agreement.

[RELATED: 2017 NBA Draft Pick Signings]

Kaba, 21, spent the last two seasons in Serbia playing for Mega Leks, and was the 60th overall pick in last month’s draft — Atlanta made him 2017’s “Mr. Irrelevant,” the last player drafted. New Hawks GM Travis Schlenk indicated earlier this month that he expected Kaba to return to Mega Leks or to play with another team overseas, so the big man’s deal with ASVEL doesn’t come as a surprise.

Spurs guard Tony Parker serves as president of ASVEL, and issued a statement announcing the team’s new deal with Kaba, as Vivlamore details. Parker’s translated statement reads as follows:

“It is a great satisfaction to have been able to sign Alpha, a young but already productive and promising interior that is part of a long-term project with us. The fact that he signed three years is a continuation of our desire to retain the players and to have a real identity to which our public and our partners can join. Alpha will be the last rookie of our offseason and will complete an ambitious and competitive workforce on our two major objectives: the French championship and the EuroCup.”

It’s not clear whether Kaba’s three-year deal includes NBA outs, but the Hawks don’t appear to be in any rush to bring the youngster stateside. Atlanta will retain his NBA rights going forward.

Arron Afflalo Signs One-Year Deal With Magic

July 27th, 2017 at 11:03am CST by Luke Adams

JULY 27, 11:03pm: The signing is official, according to a tweet from the team.

JULY 25, 4:10pm: The Magic have agreed to a one-year contract with free agent swingman Arron Afflalo, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). The deal will be worth the veteran’s minimum, per Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today (Twitter link). Once the signing is official, Orlando looks to be capped out.

Although the Magic front office is under new management now, with Jeff Weltman and John Hammond running the show, the move represents a reunion for the two sides — Afflalo previously played for the franchise from 2012 to 2014.

The 31-year-old journeyman has played for six different franchises in ten seasons. His career slash line is .451/.386/.825, with his best scoring season coming as a member of the Magic in 2013/14. That season, Afflalo scored 18.2 PPG, while shooting 45.9% from the field. The former UCLA Bruin started all 73 games in which he played during that campaign. Over the course of Afflalo’s career, he has averaged 11.3 PPG and has started 534 of his 709 games played.

On Sunday, it was reported that the Magic were “on course” to sign Marreese Speights to a minimum salary contract. The signing has not yet been made official.

Khem Birch Signs With Magic

July 27th, 2017 at 10:51am CST by Arthur Hill

The Magic have signed free agent center Khem Birch, the team announced on Twitter.

The 25-year-old spent last season with Olympiacos in Greece, averaging 7.3 points and 5.6 rebounds in 37 games.

Birch played collegiately at Pitt and UNLV and signed with the Heat after going undrafted in 2014. He spent the 2014/15 season with the Sioux Falls Skyforce in the G League and was named to the 2015 Futures All-Star team. He played in Turkey during the 2015/16 season.

The Montreal native is a member of the Canadian National Team.

Pistons To Sign Landry Nnoko

July 26th, 2017 at 9:12pm CST by Arthur Hill

Ex-Clemson big man Landry Nnoko has agreed to a partially guaranteed minimum deal with the Pistons, tweets Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype.

The 23-year-old Cameroon native played with Detroit’s summer league team in Orlando, averaging 2.0 points and 2.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in three games. He went undrafted out of Clemson in 2016 after averaging 8.1 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game in his senior season with the Tigers.

The 6’10” center spent last season with Pesaro in Italy.

John Wall Signs Four-Year Extension With Wizards

July 26th, 2017 at 5:07pm CST by Austin Kent

JULY 26, 5:07pm: The signing is official, according to the NBA’s transactions log.

JULY 21, 9pm: The Wizards have agreed to sign guard John Wall to a four-year, $170MM extension, David Aldridge of TNT tweets. The deal will include a fourth-year player option and trade kicker that ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski adds will be worth 15%.

The extension will take effect in 2019, at which point the All-Star’s current deal will expire. Wall signed a five-year max extension back in the summer of 2013 just prior to the NBA’s salary cap skyrocketing on the heels of a new TV deal.

As Zach Lowe of ESPN adds, one point worth noting is that this was a good time for Wall to lock in the extension. If he didn’t make an All-NBA team in 2017/18 as he did in 2016/17, Wall would miss out on being eligible for the designated veteran extension supermax. The new contract mechanism rewards the league’s superstars, opening them up to a higher tier compensation.

In 2016/17, Wall raised his game to a new level, playing a major role in the Wizards clawing their way back to contention in the Eastern Conference. The 26-year-old posted 23.7 points and 10.7 assists per game in 78 games.

Wall’s major contract extension puts the Wizards in a precarious financial position, although the money that they’ve committed is primarily tied up in their own core. Per Bobby Marks of ESPN, Washington has $126MM, $126MM, $108MM and $98MM locked up over the next four respective seasons.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Clippers Sign Second-Rounder Sindarius Thornwell

July 26th, 2017 at 4:20pm CST by Luke Adams

4:20pm: Thornwell will get a three-year, $3.8MM deal, according to Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders, who adds that the first two years are fully guaranteed (Twitter link).

The fact that it’s a three-year pact means that the Clips used their mid-level exception, leaving a very small portion of that MLE available. Assuming Thornwell signed for the minimum, the exact value of the deal over three years will be $3,812,377.

4:05pm: The Clippers have signed rookie shooting guard Sindarius Thornwell, the team announced today (via Twitter). Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but there’s no mention of it being a two-way contract, so Thornwell appears to have received a spot on the NBA roster.

[RELATED: 2017 NBA Draft Pick Signings]

The 48th overall pick in this year’s draft, Thornwell was the SEC Player of the Year in 2016/17 for South Carolina, averaging 21.4 PPG to go along with 7.2 RPG and 2.1 SPG. He also upped his shooting percentages to .445/.395/.830, all career-bests.

The Clippers entered this year’s draft without any picks, but used cash to buy a pair of second-rounders and inject some youth into their roster. In addition to trading for Thornwell’s rights, Los Angeles also drafted and signed Jawun Evans with the 39th overall pick.

Evans received a portion of the Clippers’ mid-level exception, as did Euroleague point guard Milos Teodosic, but the club still has about $1.6MM of that MLE left. It appears likely that L.A. will use another chunk of that MLE to finalize Thornwell’s deal — a report last week from The State indicated that the rookie guard would sign a three-year contract, which is more than he could get with the minimum salary exception.