Transactions Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Thunder Sign Dakari Johnson To Two-Year Deal

July 22nd, 2017 at 1:00am CST by ChrisCrouse

JULY 22: The Thunder have made the signing of Johnson official via a press release.

JULY 20: The Thunder have signed Dakari Johnson to a two-year deal, sources tell Shams Charania of The Vertical (Twitter link). Charania adds that Johnson’s salary will be guaranteed.

Johnson has played for the Oklahoma City Blue, the Thunder’s G-League affiliate, in each of the past two seasons. During the 2016/17 campaign, he averaged 18.5 points and 7.9 rebounds while shooting 55.6% from the field.

The center spent two seasons in the collegiate ranks at the University of Kentucky where he saw just 15.2 minutes per contest. He entered the 2015 draft and was selected by the Thunder with the No. 48 overall pick.

Dewayne Dedmon Signs With Hawks

July 21st, 2017 at 4:55pm CST by marksuleymanov

July 21: The Hawks have made their contract with Dedmon official, the team announced via press release on its website.

July 11: Free agent Dewayne Dedmon has agreed to a two-year, $14MM deal with the Hawks, according to Shams Charania of The Vertical. Dedmon’s deal includes a player option in the second year.

Dedmon, who turns 28 next month, hit free agency after opting out of the second year of his original two-year pact with the Spurs. As it turns out, Dedmon’s decision paid off as he was set to make just $3.028MM in 2017/18 under his player option. Now, he gets a significant raise and security for two seasons.

Strong play for the Spurs last season allowed Dedmon to opt out and pursue a larger deal. In 76 games (37 starts), Dedmon posted totals of 5.1 PPG and 6.5 RPG in 17.5 minutes per game. Now, the 7’0″ center will provide the Hawks with valuable rim protection and defense next season.

Atlanta general manager Travis Schlenk promised his team would seek help at center earlier this week, and if those comments stand, the team is not done adding.

“We’ll sign a third point guard. We are deciding to we get a veteran guy or do we get a young guy that we think has upside,” Schlenk said. “Do we bring in a couple guys and let them battle it out? We are going to sign a power forward for sure. We’ll sign a center for sure. Probably sign three more big guys so we end up with six.”

Dedmon figures to split time with Mike Muscala, who the Hawks signed last week. With Howard shipped out to the Hornets and Millsap heading to Denver, the Hawks will continue to scour the market for size and skill vacated by those departures.

The departures of Dwight Howard, Paul Millsap, and Tim Hardaway Jr. have created the cap space for the Hawks to pursue Dedmon and other free agents.

Thunder Agree To Deal With Yannis Morin

July 21st, 2017 at 4:52pm CST by Austin Kent

The Thunder have agreed to a deal with 23-year-old international center Yannis Morin, Erik Horne of the Oklahoman writes, confirming a report previously relayed by Sportando.

The French big man played with Oklahoma City’s summer league team and will join the franchise for training camp on a non-guaranteed deal. In five games in the Orlando league, he averaged 2.2 points and 4.0 rebounds per game for OKC.

Morin has previously played in France’s Pro A and Pro B leagues.

Hawks Re-Sign Ersan Ilyasova

July 21st, 2017 at 3:52pm CST by Luke Adams

July 21: The Hawks have officially re-signed Ilyasova, the team announced via a press release on its website.

July 12: The Hawks have reached an agreement to bring back free agent power forward Ersan Ilyasova, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical (Twitter link). According to Charania, Ilyasova will sign a one-year deal worth $6MM to return to Atlanta.

Few players have bounced around the NBA more in the last two years than Ilyasova, who has appeared in multiple regular season games for the Pistons, Magic, Thunder, Sixers, and Hawks since the 2015/16 season began. Last season, he was traded from Oklahoma City to Philadelphia early on, then flipped to Atlanta prior to the trade deadline.

Although he hasn’t found a permanent NBA home since leaving Milwaukee in 2015, Ilyasova continues to be an effective stretch four. For his career, the 6’10” big man has averaged 11.0 PPG and 5.9 RPG, converting 36.6% of his three-point attempts.

The Hawks renounced Ilyasova last week in the process of creating cap space, but they still have plenty of room to bring him back without using any form of Bird rights. Their deal with Ilyasova is the third move the Hawks have made to address their lack of frontcourt depth in recent days. The team also agreed to bring back Mike Muscala, and struck a deal with Dewayne Dedmon.

Nick Collison Re-Signs With Thunder, Will Retire In 2018

July 21st, 2017 at 2:40pm CST by Luke Adams

JULY 21st, 2:40pm: The signing is official, Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe tweets.

JULY 14th, 11:31am: The Thunder and Nick Collison have reached an agreement on a one-year contract, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical (Twitter link). According to Charania, the one-year deal will “end” Collison’s long NBA career with the franchise, so it sounds like he’ll retire at the end of the 2017/18 season.

Collison, who will turn 37 in October, has appeared in 895 total regular season games for Seattle and Oklahoma City, but has an extremely limited role at this stage of his career. In 2016/17, he played just 128 total minutes in 20 games for the Thunder, averaging 1.7 PPG and 1.6 RPG. In what figures to be his final season, he’ll serve more as a veteran mentor on the bench than as a key on-court contributor for the club.

While terms of the deal weren’t reported, the Thunder have used their taxpayer mid-level exception, and won’t use their bi-annual exception to avoid becoming hard-capped. So Collison will be in line for a one-year, minimum salary contract.

That deal will pay Collison about $2.329MM, but will only count for $1.471MM for OKC’s team salary and tax purposes. Our story on this year’s minimum salaries explains the details on those numbers.

Nets Sign Guard Yakuba Ouattara To Two-Way Contract

July 21st, 2017 at 1:23pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Nets have signed guard Yakuba Ouattara to a two-way contract, according to a team press release.

The 6’3” Ouattara played for AS Monaco Basketball in the French LNB Pro A League last season. He appeared in 32 games and averaged 11.8 PPG and 3.3 RPG in 23.9 MPG. Ouattara is a prolific 3-point shooter, as he shot 40% from long range and 51.4% overall.

Ouattara, 25, is a Ghana native but a member of the French national team. He has spent his entire professional career, which began in 2012, in France.

Teams are allowed to dole out a pair of two-way contracts per season and the Nets reportedly gave their other two-way deal to forward Jacob Wiley.

Grizzlies Sign Second-Rounder Dillon Brooks

July 21st, 2017 at 12:00pm CST by Luke Adams

The Grizzlies have signed second-round pick Dillon Brooks to his first NBA contract, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical (via Twitter). According to Charania, Brooks will get a three-year deal with two guaranteed seasons.

[RELATED: 2017 NBA Draft Pick Signings]

A 6’7″ small forward, Brooks averaged 16.0 points and 3.3 rebounds per game in his final season for the Oregon Ducks, declaring for the draft following his junior year.

Brooks was one of two prospects acquired on draft night by the Grizzlies, who sent a future second-round pick to the Rockets in exchange for the No. 45 selection, which they used on Brooks. Memphis also traded a future second-rounder for the No. 35 pick and nabbed Ivan Rabb.

The Grizzlies don’t have any cap room available, but still have a portion of their mid-level exception free, allowing the club to do a three-year deal for Brooks. Memphis used most of its MLE to sign Ben McLemore and Rade Zagorac, but should still have a small amount of that exception left after locking up Brooks.

Nuggets Sign Monte Morris To Two-Way Contract

July 21st, 2017 at 10:48am CST by Luke Adams

The Nuggets have signed second-round pick Monte Morris to a two-way contract, the team announced today in a press release. It’s the second two-way deal for Denver — the club confirmed earlier this week that forward Torrey Craig received the other one.

Morris, 22, played his college ball at Iowa State, averaging 16.4 PPG, 6.2 APG, and 4.8 RPG in his senior year. The young point guard was selected 51st overall in the 2017 NBA draft last month, so he’ll become the highest pick so far to agree to a two-way contract rather than an NBA deal.

Two-way contracts are a new addition to the NBA’s latest Collective Bargaining Agreement, so it has been interesting to see how teams have been using them for second-round picks in particular. So far, the four players drafted between Nos. 51 and 54 have all reportedly agreed to two-way deals.

For more information on how two-way contracts work, be sure to check out our FAQ.

Sixers’ Jonah Bolden To Play In Israel

July 21st, 2017 at 8:48am CST by Luke Adams

As expected, Sixers second-round pick Jonah Bolden will spend at least one more season overseas before joining his new NBA team. Bolden has signed a three-year contract with Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv, the team confirmed today in a press release. The deal will include NBA opt-outs.

[RELATED: 2017 NBA Draft Pick Signings]

Bolden, 21, already has some international experience. In 2016, the 6’10” power forward opted to forgo his remaining two years of college eligibility, but made the decision in July, a month after the NBA draft. Instead of spending the 2016/17 season at UCLA, he headed to Serbia and played for FMP Beograd.

Bolden was a key contributor for his Serbian club, averaging a team-high 12.1 PPG and 6.7 RPG in 15 Serbian League games. He also averaged 12.9 PPG and 7.2 RPG in 25 ABA League contests, and showed an ability to hit outside shots, making over 40% of his overall three-point attempts.

The Sixers made a big splash in this year’s draft by trading for the No. 1 overall pick and nabbing Markelle Fultz, but the team also had three more picks — Anzejs Pasecniks (No. 25), Bolden (No. 36), and Mathias Lessort (No. 50). All three of those players are expected to play ball overseas for at least one more season.

Mavericks Waive Nicolas Brussino

July 20th, 2017 at 4:18pm CST by ChrisCrouse

4:18 PM: Dallas has waived Brussino, according to a team press release.

2:57 PM: Nicolas Brussino‘s 2017/18 salary will become guaranteed if he’s on the Mavericks’ roster past today and Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News reports that the team does not plan on having that happen. Dallas will likely waive the swingman before tonight’s deadline. He was set to make slightly over $1.31MM next season and nearly $1.55MM the following year.

Brussino may head to Europe to play basketball during the 2017/18 campaign with Sekfo mentioning that multiple clubs in Spain have expressed interest in the wing. The 24-year-old has international experience, playing six seasons professionally in Argentina.

Brussino saw 9.6 minutes per game in his lone NBA season for the Mavericks this past year. He scored just 2.8 points per game while shooting 36.9% from the field.